What a sweet little girl. She just made really desperate for my own little one to arrive.

Here is this little one again. A sweetie playing in the evening sun.

Introducing our Baby!

(above) is the profile view
(bellow) is the "face shot"

If you look right in the center of the image you can distinguish the mouth and nose. The head is tipped back so the eyes are shadowed.

The ultra sound technician said that we had a very photogenic baby – all I can say to that is
"Get used to it kid!"

We didn’t find out the gender though Myles had a moment of weakness and confessed that all of a sudden he would really like to know. The technician offered to write it down in an envelope for us to take home and think about but I declined.

So there you have it!

This is a common scene around our house these days.

Myles hard at work! Here he is painting our linen closet door. He has been in full swing home improvement mode for that last month as we gear up for baby. So far he has completed one of our three bedrooms and started torn out everything on the 2nd. The Nursery will be last and its a little bit difficult for me to having to wait to set up the crib.

I will post more photos of the bed rooms as they are completed.

This is a sneak preview for Julie –

even though Henry spent most of the session running from the camera I did manage to get a couple of good shots of these cuties.

Spanish Style White Bean and Sausage Soup

INGREDIENTS

• 3 andouille sausage links
• 8 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 8 ounces dry great Northern beans
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 pinch crushed saffron threads
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
• 12 ounces kale, stems removed and leaves coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a large skillet. Add sausages, and
   cook over medium heat for 7 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan,
   dice, and set aside.
2. In a large pot, combine the chicken stock and dry beans. Bring to a
   boil, then reduce the heat to low. Add the bay leaf and a pinch of
   salt. Simmer, partially covered, for 2 hours. Discard bay leaf. Remove
   1/2 cup of the stock to a small bowl. Stir in saffron, and set aside to
   soak.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage,
   and brown for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan, and reduce the heat
   to low. Add the onion, and cook for about 5 minutes, then stir in the
   garlic and cook for another minute. Mix in the red bell pepper and
   paprika. Cook for a few minutes before adding the mixture to the soup
   pot along with the sausage.
4. Bring the soup to a low boil, and stir in the kale and saffron water. Simmer for 10
   minutes, until kale is tender. Serve hot.

Big Soft Ginger Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons white sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour,
   ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until
   light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses.
   Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape
   dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2
   tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an
   ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool
   on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool
   completely. Store in an airtight container.

Two recipes from allrecipes.com that I tried this weekend both were delicious so I thought that I would share. I didn’t actually use andouille sausage I just used some sausage that my Aunt Faye gave to me when she was cleaning out her freezer in preparation for her and my uncle’s 9 month teaching job in China.

enjoy!

I am still recovering from last weekend. Myles and I baby sat all three girls for the weekend while Sam and Chanda went to lake Chelan to celebrate their anniversary. Both Megan and Ally are in soccer this fall and both girls had their first games on Saturday. Myles took Megan to her game – I had a photo shoot so I missed it, but while Myles was at the Huskie v. Boise State game with his Dad I got to watch Ally play. This girl is all about soccer! She played goalie for a long time and she did a really great job – only let one goal by. Its actually pretty funny watching 6 and 7 year olds play soccer because they are still not horribly coordinated and every once in a while one of them will trip over the ball. They jsut get up and keep going. I have to say I am really proud of Ally, she did a great job.

I made the story board with the templates that I won from Renee Okenfull check them out
http://reneeoakenfull.typepad.com/extras/2007/09/the-storyboards.html

Here are a couple of the little stinker.
I was trying to get her to wear the sunglasses but she wasn’t interested. She likes to look at the photo on the LCD now.

Baby B is doing well now and kicking up a storm! I thought I was done with morning sickness but this morning I had to throw up out the car window while Myles was driving to work. I begged him to take the car through the car wash but thinks that car washes are bad for the cars paint and that its going to rain any way (don’t you think vomit stuck to the side of your car is also bad for the paint?)…. We have our first ultrasound on the 26th and I hope to be able to post the video here.

Also If you haven’t already noticed I added a subscribe function to my blog. Enter you email address and you will receive an email notification when I update my blog. 

This is Matheus (pronounced Muh-TAY-us) I think its the coolest name.  What a little card – not shy at all. He is the only kid I have ever met that didn’t want to take a picture with my camera. When I offered to let him be the photographer he just said "no thank you." Yesterday was his first day of kindergarten – since Matheus already speaks English and Japanese and can read Japanese I don’t think he is going to have any problems in school.

This is so cool

I have never posed any photos from this session and these boys were little gentlemen.