Welcome to Heidi's blog......Tales of life in Portland with my baby, Hank.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Our baby shower

Two weekends ago our amazing friends and family threw us a wonderful baby shower to celebrate the arrival of lil' Hank.  Our wonderful friend Amanda was gracious enough to host it at her house (a really cool ranch complete with pink appliances and a huge backyard).  It was a group effort, with our friends and family making a ton of super yummy food, getting an amazing cake, planning some fun games and of course giving us a ton of presents.

Thank you to the best friends and family we could hope for!!!

Our friends got us this lemon cake with hand-painted Richard Scarry detail

Everyone hard at work playing a game
Julian and I opening presents - metal patches for the denim wipe holder

One of my favorite gifts - Edith (J's mom) made this Chicago Bear

Our nephew James wants in on the action


Me, Julian, James and my sister, Emily

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

What a weekend!

Last weekend was pretty crazy, but we got so much done, it was awesome.  Last Friday night Julian picked me up right from work and we went and bought a new car.  We'd done lots of research and test drove a few other cars already, so we pretty much had it narrowed down to a new Subaru Forester.  We needed another car since our 1994 Toyota Tercel is on its last legs (rebuilt engine last year and it just blew a fuel injector a few weeks ago).  Plus we really needed a 4 door vehicle with little Hank on the way.  We went to Wentworth Subaru (nice and close in) and got it done.  Didn't get to eat dinner until after 9pm but it was so worth it. 

Saturday morning we went to Target to buy some baby stuff that we still needed (I'll be putting a post dedicated to our awesome baby shower very soon, complete with pics!).  Then we went to our friend's (Owen & Sheila) baby shower in the Couv.  Boy did we get lost.  Julian had the directions not-exactly-right (being nice) so we got to really test out our new car as we tried to find their house (and eventually needed Owen's guidance on the phone).  Their shower was great and little Oliver is so adorable (even cuter because he was asleep the entire time!).  Later we had some of my family over to dinner and I made a baked ziti, steamed broccoli and garlic bread.  Boy was I tired that night! 

Sunday we had an all-day childbirth class at Adventist.  I was glad the weather sucked since we were stuck inside all day.  The class was great - very informative.  But it was a bit overwhelming and scary.  I guess I really do have to get Hank out somehow and it's going to be happening soon!  I'm now just 7 weeks away!  I just have to keep telling myself that my labor will be easier since I've stayed so active (I hope that's true!) and that women do it all the time - so it couldn't be that horrible.  Not only do they do it all the time, they do it multiple times! 

That night we went straight to the new house that we bought to rent to my Mom.  The purchase finally closed last Friday (hence why we ran out and bought a car that very night).  We got the keys Sunday and went to check out the house - the sellers left it in great shape, very clean.  So next up will be to start moving my Mom in.  We'll get the kitchen/dining room/mud room flooring done to replace worn and peeling linoleum hopefully sometime before she's fully moved in.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

On safari........

Our friends Tim & Theresa invited us over to their fabulous house last Friday night.  We'd been trying to figure out a time to get together for quite a while, and we'd never been over to their house before, so we were pretty excited to finally have something come together.  Tim and Theresa also collect taxidermy, but we had no idea how crazy their collection was!  It was so extensive, and they've only been collecting for about 5 years - that's the really amazing part (because this is a collection that looks like it took a lifetime to amass).  Here are some pictures from our night.  We started with a tour of their home (and various collections, which also include a bathroom filled with vintage medical instruments).  You could spend hours here just looking around, and you'd have lots of company staring at you!


Tim & Theresa's real life cat, Bailey, with no longer alive friend.

Tim and Theresa







Julian, Heidi, Theresa & Tim at dinner (Country Bill's).

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

This week in the kitchen & on the patio

I just thought I'd post some pics of different dishes and baked goods that I/we made this week.  If anyone wants a recipe just post a comment and let me know.
Pumpkin pancakes (my 1st real from scratch pancakes) - OMG, so good!

This was dinner, rosemary potatoes, eggs, pumpkin pancakes & veggie sausage
     
Orange cream cheese muffins

Malted sandwich cookies

Lemony penne w/parmesan, fresh green beans & pistachios

Orzo w/baked shrimp, feta & dill
Some of my family came over on Saturday night to take advantage of the beautiful night and hang on our patio.
Scarlett feeding Doritos to the dogs (Matt and Christian supervising)

Scarlett w/Todd aka "Daddy".  She's making up for kicking Daddy in the jewels earlier.

My beautiful sisters, Emily (left) and Anne  (right)

Scarlett making her newest cute face