Carriage Ride

One of the fun things that happens in downtown Spokane around the holidays is that there are free horse drawn carriage rides. STCU sponsors it and all you have to do is wait in line and then they'll take you around the block and give you candy canes and coupons for hot cocoa. It was a bit of a let down as the ride didn't go by the park, but it was still something to do. Probably won't do it again until Charlie is old enough to understand anything thats going around. 

This gentleman was entertaining the crowd with tricks, made the wait go fast.

Because why not?

Baby's First Christmas

Technically we celebrated on Christmas Eve, but who really cares. All of Andy's family got together and we had a delicious dinner with Corve (no idea how to spell that but its a potato and pork sausage) and then we all opened presents. Charlie wasn't really into the whole opening presents thing but he was just having a grand old time walking back and forth and playing with the hundreds of toys scattered around the house. I hope everyone else had a  merry Christmas too.

 This baby and those overalls

 Presents!

The MAC

Sorry for the week of nothing but we've had family in town and we've been doing nothing but hang out with them. I realize that editing photos and putting them on here doesn't take a TON of time, but still. It's time that I didn't want to spend. These pictures are not from when family was here though, this is when we went to The MAC when they  had a free day sponsored by STCU. We have been wanting to go for a while, but honestly I wasn't sure if it would be worth the money. So a free day was great! It was pretty fun to walk around, it especially gave us something to do while it was freezing outside. The traveling exhibit was about modern architecture and it was fascinating, reminded me a lot of IKEA though, for sure. I would recommend browsing through sometime. Also the cafe is pretty great too.

Line got to try on some vintage clothes in the Campbell Mansion. She was thrilled as you can see :)

Christmas Tree Elegance

For the past few years we have gone down to the Davenport Hotel and looked at the Christmas Trees that are dressed up and raffled off for the Spokane Symphony. We usually buy about five tickets and have no hope of winning because we are both unlucky and never win anything. But we just realized that in order to claim the tree you have to be there when they pull your name! So we could have won these amazing trees but we never have gone to listen. I'm debating whether I want to go this year or not, because let's be honest, am I really going to win? Probably not. But there is always a chance...

Unfortunately the lighting sucked pretty bad so there weren't many pictures. But the kiddos were being pretty adorable.

Winter Activities

Winter is here and has been here for the past few weeks and I'm already scrambling for ideas of things to do. Not that there is nothing to do here, but most of it requires spending money and that is just something that we don't have a ton of at this point in time. Mostly we stay inside and watch movies and it gets kind of old and fast.
So what do we do? We make our kids take baths together and take pictures. What else is there to do?

Charlie was not a huge fan the first time we tried this but he did better the second time. Perfect.

Maggie is a cheeseball and I love it.

A Christmas Tree for Us

Christmas trees are the best. We have started a tradition of going up to Greenbluff and cutting down our tree. We did it last year and decided to try a new place this year. We went to Huckaba farms and it was definitely the cheapest around and it was clear by the entrance. But, you know what? It doesn't matter when you get a giant tree for half the cost of the place next door. The gentleman who ran the place was very sweet, just might have been a little loopy. But what's wrong with that?

Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving went by so fast! I can't believe it is already December! I know everyone has been saying that, but man, it just went by so fast! We celebrated our Thanksgiving by making Lefse in the morning after watching the parade. Then we went home and napped Charlie for the big shebang of a dinner. And was it a big shebang of a dinner. Yum. 

I made the Lefse and Gifta this year and they were absolutely delicious. They are traditional foods that my family made every year. Lefse is a Norwegian food that is basically a potato based tortilla. Gifta is something that I was always told was Norwegian, but come to find out we don't know where it came from. But we eat it all the same. I didn't snap any photos of this before it was eaten, but it's pretty delicious.

Our Lefse making station

As soon as Ben came over with a plate of food the children all flocked over. It was adorable.

Lefse

4-6 potatoes, peeled and boiled until soft

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups flour

1. Drain potatoes and mash them with the butter and salt.
2. Cool for 1-2 hours in refrigerator.
3. In a stand up mixer, mix the potatoes with cream and flour until dough forms.
4. On a heavily floured surface, roll out (about) 1/4 cup balls into thin circles. 
5. Bake on a hot griddle or frying pans until bubbles form, then flip and bake another 30 seconds (or until brown spots show).
6. Place finished lefse between a folded dish towel in a plastic bag, this keeps the lefse warm and moist.
7. Serve with butter and brown sugar.

Gifta

1 can wholeberry cranberry

1 pint heavy whipping cream

6 oz. gingersnaps, crushed

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Whip the cream. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla towards the end (this is very sweet so you can put a smaller amount of sugar in).
2. In a glass dish layer 1/3 of the cranberry, bread crumbs, and whipped cream. Repeat 2 more times.
3. Chill in the refrigerator before serving.

Warm Fire

So far today I have been in the kitchen baking and about nothing else. And you know what? I really quite enjoy it, a little too much actually. But I cannot wait for Charlie to be old enough to help! I hope he likes it. I'm sure he will, who doesn't like baking cookies? Anyways, these pictures were from a few nights ago at Liz's house. Charlie and Line were very fascinated by the fire, Maggie was still just fascinated with mom. Oh well.

Charlie was also fascinated by his reflection in the TV. 

Early Morning Pancakes & Skype

On Saturday morning we were invited over to Ben & Becca's for some delicious pancakes with whipped cream and raspberry syrup. Then we Skyped with my parents as they just got back to the states a few days ago. It is always a good time to be able to chat and catch up, especially when Line is trying to show off her dinosaurs and baby dolls. It makes it much more fun. It turned out to be a great day of just relaxing and doing a whole bunch of nothing. The best of days.

Maggie likes to interact with people on Skype.

Maggie has a fascination with cups. We put Charlie & Maggie both in this play high chair and it was quite entertaining.

Chicken Melts

These chicken melts are freakin' delicious. They are my new favorite thing. Seriously. The only thing is you have to have a precooked chicken but if you have chicken the night before then you're golden. The recipe is only slightly adapted from this RealSimple recipe. I sure do love RealSimple and the soup to go along with it is delicious as well. But we decided to make it for lunch.

Chicken Melts with a Maple-Mustard Sauce

4 slices of bread (any kind but we used whole wheat)
1 roasted chicken breast, shredded
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
slices of red onion
6 slices of cheddar cheese
spinach

1. Set oven broil and prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix the mustard and maple together and spread evenly on the bread slices.
3. Then place the shredded chicken, onion, and cheddar on the bread.
4. Place in oven and remove when the cheese has melted, about 3-5 minutes. 
5. Remove from oven and place spinach on top of cheddar and enjoy!

Breakfast

I sure do love this little boy. He's been teething still and has had a cold the past few days and it hasn't been the most enjoyable time but he is now crawling instead of pulling himself around. Which is awesome. Plus he pulls himself up onto everything he can and tries to pull down anything he can. It makes for a fun day!

Look at those chubby grubby hands? Don't you just love them?

Playtime with the Cousins

We had Line and Maggie over for an hour or two the other day and it was very fun to watch Charlie stare at them :) Line loves to play store and buy just about everything in our house and then she turned into our banker and gave Andy a pretty great investment deal. Maggie is at a great age where she is pretending to talk on the phone and also she just found her belly button. Awesome. I'm so glad that we live so close to these two.

 Loves this hat.

 Talking on her carrot phone.

Line decided that the house was a much better as a bank.

Weekend Reading

I finally gave in and read the Hunger Games. Now, I'm not much of a reader, my family is, except me. My siblings read Harry Potter and The Hunger Games when they were popular but my sister would just tell me about what happens and then I would watch the movies. It worked out really great. Lately though I've been really enjoying reading. Andy and I just finished The Count of Monte Cristo (which I highly recommend to anyone). On Thursday I found a copy of The Hunger Games for $1 at a used book store and decided to start reading it. Well I ended up reading all three by the end of Sunday. They are good. So now it is back to cleaning the house I guess.

 This little guy has two top teeth that just popped through.

Baby Friends

This play date happened about two weeks ago and we've since seen Andrew again, but these pictures were just too adorable not to post. They are only a month apart and I absolutely love seeing them play together! Andrew is always trying to grab Charlie's hair. Charlie is just trying to avoid any other contact but failing pretty badly since Andrew is already crawling!

Aren't they just the cutest?