Pinterest Success: Best Ever Super Easy Salsa...and GO SEAHAWKS!

Happy Hump Day!

Let me start by saying....GO SEAHAWKS!!!!!  What a game!!!  Let me show you my little family's Seahawk pride:

Sunday's breakfast-Puyallup Fair Scones and Seahawk colored fruit!

Leif's first taste of kiwis...not a huge fan.  And not a fan of scones either!  Probably the texture...

Our little Richard Sherman :)

We were able to fit one of Leif's old Seahawk onesies on Miles

We did a jersey change at half time from Sherman to Wilson and that was the ticket!  This is after the game, rolling around on the floor happy

The game was in a sense, stupefying; hubs and I were just in shock at the end trying to figure out what happened!  It was crazy.  I read an article where this gal who was at the game totally canceled her flight to Arizona for the Super Bowl because she thought they were going to lose.  I hope she is kicking herself for that.  We're so excited!

Okay, so after breakfast and when Leif went down for a nap, I tried making "Best Ever Super Easy Salsa".  Here is the pin:

And here is the website

And here are my photos:

We dumped two cans of the fire-roasted tomatoes in and started cutting up the rest of the ingredients

Hubs wanted to help, so he measured out the roasted red peppers

I think all of the ingredients came from Trader Joe's!

Go Ninja Go Ninja Go!

Finished product.  And these Organic Blue Corn Tortilla Chips are AMAZING.

So here are my modifications:

1. The recipe calls for one small can of green chiles; well, Trader Joe's being amazing, the fire-roasted tomato cans came with green chiles!
2. I tested the salsa after it was blended and added more cilantro, about three more sprigs.  I love cilantro.
3. I used four cloves of garlic, not three
4. I added half more of jalapeño for a little more kick
5. I used all of the lime for the juice
6. I added a few more shakes of salt
7. All these additions were because I felt the red pepper made the salsa a little more sweet

We ate so much salsa on Sunday it was ridiculous.  AND we still have half a big bowl of it left!  This was a great pin, successful indeed; but I wouldn't say it was super easy, just because it required a lot of chopping so that it would fit the blender (and shucking jalapeños takes some skill if your hubs can't stand hot stuff)...

Pinterest Success: Spritz Butter Cookies Recipe

So this is better late than never, as my Pinterest Success I'm sharing today was for Christmas time.  Whoops.

You can have Spritz Butter Cookies any time of the year, right???

Here is the pin:

And here is the website

I actually blame these cookies for making me gain that extra five pounds over the break.  Well, doesn't help I also ate a plate-full of cake balls from Leif's first birthday.

Back to my success pin.

I failed to take a photo of the awesome Spritz Cookie Maker that my MIL got for me as a wedding present, but here's what it looks like:

Haha, this photo came from another blog, where her cookies look way better than mine...

And here is my step-by-step process in photos:

Perhaps the easiest cookie dough to make

Love my Kitchen Aid Mixer

I was put on baby duty because hubs enjoyed the cookie maker more than me!

Decorated cookies!

Om nom nom

These cookies immediately went into my stomach new cookie jar which I'm obsessed with, just because it reminds me of Coltrane...

And there you have it!  My MIL also makes these cookies, which I enjoyed immensely while back in Washington.  I see this as definitely a new Christmas tradition!

Gymboree, Welcome Asher!

Hello all-

Quick update on life, er, Leif.

We had a nice weekend with the Seahawks winning and all...but we also had an amazing time at Leif's first Gymboree class!  We did a free trial on Sunday just to check it out, but we were hooked.

When we first got there-look at that face!  He was super excited.

The class was on the last day of "slides"-Leif was a pro at climbing and loved sliding down.

Towards the end of class they bring out a big parachute, do a few things and then had bubble time!  We've blown bubbles around him at home before, but these were small and a lot more.

Happy baby!

There were just a few more toddlers in the class, and the baby behind him in the last picture kept taking away the balls that Leif would grab...but Leif was cool with it.  I think I didn't stop smiling the whole class.  I signed him up right away!  Yay Gymboree!

What else...

First, quick photo of bath time last night...

Doesn't he look older in this photo?!  Ah he's growing up!

AND-

Welcome to the world Asher Orin Barnes!  My nephew arrived early this morning!

My brother is silly.

We all had a pool on when he was going to arrive-his due date was the 19th of this month, and Amy thought he was going to come sooner...so my family all placed a $2 bet on when he'd come out.  I bet the 9th, so I lost-but Avery bet the 15th, and since it has to be before or on the date, he won!  Good looking baby, right?!  I wish we lived closer just so Leif could hang out with his cousins.  Maybe one day...

Pinterest Success: Lollipop Tree

Happy New Year!

Here is a quick Pinterest success that I created back in the spring but it is still living on strong since Dum Dums are cheap and not everyone takes one...

Here's the pin:

Here is the website

As you can see, it is fairly easy to recreate and looks pretty awesome.  I grabbed one of those foam balls from Michael's, had a little candy container at work and put it all together.

It looks small, but it's quite large on my desk!  I have one department assistant who takes one every time he works, and a handful of students will grab one, but they aren't as popular as other candy.  I'm sure if I worked in an elementary school they would be gone in a heart beat.  Definitely a success!

Catching Up

Sunday, December 28

My friend Sara was trying to host a Mary Kay party and we didn't really plan accordingly...it was supposed to be at 2pm on Sunday but of course that was when the Seahawk game was on!  Most of her friends were out of town or watching the game, so we ended up having an impromptu MK party at the in-laws and it was just Sara, Missy and Ann/Nana.  But it worked out-I had a lot of fun still!  These are all what we call "Dash-Out-The-Door" looks, only Sara has eyeliner on.

Sara hung out for a little longer afterwards and then Josh came over later for the Seahawks game!

Leif likes honorary Uncle Josh!

Oh, and it was cute-Leif was carrying around Eeyore in his mouth for a while...

Seahawks won which was awesome, we had lots of good food, played lots of game with Josh, and I can't remember if bath time was the night before or that night, but enjoy these bath photos.  Leif loves baths.

Monday, December 29

Last full day in Washington...ran a Target errand to return a few things, got together with my good friend Hattye for lunch, hung out at home, then met up with my folks in Factoria Square for dinner.  Afterwards we stopped by a bowling alley to see some of Pop Pop's friends, and Leif was very intrigued by bowling!

Hanging out at home-Bella liked Leif's lion puppet

Pa picked out a place called "Ooba Tooba", a Mexican place.  Pretty decent food!

Bowling Alley shenanigans

Tuesday, December 30

Woke up around 4:30am to get to the airport...the lines were crazy to check-in for our flight, but the security line was easy (no coats to take off, no shoes, no removal of liquid bags...what IS this place?!)...flight was smooth-Leif slept most of it, and after retrieving our car and picking up Miles, we were home.

My ONE year old is so awesome!

Let's see...New Year's was uneventful-just cleaned up the house.  We tried making it to midnight-Leif's nap schedule was all wonky, so he went down early, woke up around 10:30pm, hung out until 11:30pm and then fell asleep at midnight.  Hubs didn't make it-he fell asleep on the couch around the time Leif woke up!

January 1 was nice-we ended up taking a hike at Sage Ranch Park, literally a three minute drive from our house.

So the park borders the Santa Susana Field Laboratory...from wikipedia: a complex of industrial research and development facilities located on a 2,668-acre portion of the Southern California Simi Hills in Simi Valley, California, used mainly for the testing and development of liquid-propellant rocket engines for the United States space program from 1949 to 2006.

There was a "small nuclear meltdown" in the 1950s...crazy, right?!  And we live so close to it.  If we start to mutate, you know why.

What else...

January 3: Aunt Missy got us a membership to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, so we decided to take a trip down.  Unfortunately our dryer was broken and they could only come that afternoon, so we had to make it a very quick trip.  Leif enjoyed it!

January 4: Grabbed lunch in Burbank and found that Leif loves pita and hummus.  Then had a successful trip to IKEA and a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon.

January 5: Leif had his one-year checkup that morning...

Happy baby.  He did such a great job-three shots and the nurse poked his arm to get his blood, but couldn't find his vein.  No tears from this kid!

When I got to work, they were doing a simulation school shooting to train police and firefighters.  Hard to tell from this photo, but there are mannequins all over the ground and they had big guns.

And yes, I'm back at work.  Campus is quiet which allows me a little free time here and there to update the blog!  And I'm all caught up.  :)