Inquisitive Lucy

She's just starting to figure out how to pull herself up, but with a little help from me she'll happily stand and survey her domain for a few minutes!

The parents come to visit

Shortly after Grandma Sunny's visit, we got to host my parents for a few days before they took me back to Moscow! The weather wasn't as nice as it had been in weeks prior, but we still got outside a bit. Here's a paparazzi shot of Papa and Lucy enjoying the warmth.



And a close-up. Check out Lu's thighs. Epic.



Papa and Lucy share an inside joke:




My parents being fish-and-chips lovers, we naturally had to go out to Steelhead Brewery for dinner. We sat inside this time, and my mom noticed this sign hanging on the wall.

The Royal Troon golf club is located in my mom's home county of Ayrshire, Scotland! What a coincidence.

My parents got to worship with us on Sunday, here's a picture of little Lu in her Sunday best:

Papa and Lu hanging out on the couch after church:

On one of the days when it wasn't raining (wasn't sunny either, but you take what you can get), we walked around the University of Oregon campus. There was some sort of street fair going on. Lucy had a blast, particularly when Joel held her in this position. I think she thought she was walking:

There were so many neat buildings on campus. Here we are outside of the Museum of Art:

It actually had a quote from Proverbs engraved above the entryway! Lovely architecture.

I'm so glad we were able to show them around Eugene a bit. Maybe next time they come it will actually be sunny!

Channeling the Bayou

We've been on some whirlwind vacations these past two weeks, but instead of posting pictures of those I'm going to go the easy route and post a recipe first!

Lucy and I watched the Princess and the Frog yesterday and all that New Orleans jazz had me in the mood for some Cajun Cooking.

So I found this recipe on the Pioneer Woman for Cajun Chicken Pasta and, trust me, it was INCREDIBLE. I was tempted to lick my plate afterwards. I have a big container of Tony Cachere's creole seasoning and only one recipe that uses it, so I'm thrilled to have another excuse to pull out those yummy cajun spices. I used more of the seasoning than she suggested, but hey, we like our food spicy.

I was too enraptured by the dish to even bother taking a picture so here's one from Pioneer Woman's blog. And here's a link to the recipe. You have to try it!

6-Month Check-Up

Yesterday Lucy had her 6-Month check-up (even though she's 6 1/2 months now) and she's just as healthy as can be, praise God! Here are the stats:

* 27 1/4 inches long

* 87th percentile for height

* 18.2 pounds

* 79th percentile for weight

Steelhead Brewery

Grandma Sunny (Joel's mom) came for a visit on Thursday to see Lucy (okay and probably to see us too, but really, who are we kidding? Lucy's the star). We had a great time showing her around Eugene and catching up and playing with Lucy. We walked around downtown Eugene, strolled through Hendrix park, visited 5th Street Market and the Sweet Life, and did some shopping. On Saturday we decided to try out a Brewery, and opted for the Steelhead Brewery right in downtown Eugene

We all ordered fish and chips, and all three of us agreed it was the BEST fish and chips we had ever had! It had an incredible batter on the outside and really tasty halibut inside. Plus they have great beer, Sunny and I both tried a wheat beer with orange infusion and it was incredible. Yum!

Lucy didn't try the fish and chips but she said her paci tasted the best it's had in months.

She also sampled a little bit of dad's sunglasses

When it was raining or Lucy was napping we hung out in our apartment and chatted.

And here's a gratuitous bath picture I snapped of our little cutie while Sunny was here.

We really wished Grandpa Howard could have come too, but he's working hard in Phoenix. We're all looking forward to seeing him in July though, Lucy's got a lot of kisses stored up for you!

Easter Pictures

We had an incredibly relaxing and fun time in Moscow for Easter this year, I'm so glad Joel was able to get the time off to visit home!

We went to the Ryan's house for Easter:

Here are my parents all spiffied up for church:

Dad decided he should teach Lucy how to use an I-Phone:

We also spent time with the Williams' and Points':

Les and Lu having a narcissistic moment. Only joking. I think they were comparing eye colors?:

We went mini-golfing (sorry for the horrible light, forgot to change the settings on my camera!)

And Brian taught Lucy Adele a thing or two about the game (I'm not sure how much she picked up, though):

Lucy 1 and Lucy 2 became fast friends on the trip:

We also played several games of Ticket to Ride with my parents and watched some Bones episodes with them. And we went over to the Church's for a fun evening of games and fellowship, although I forgot to bring my camera that time! I'm impressed at how much we were able to fit into four days. It was so nice to be back in Moscow for a bit, and to get to share Easter with our family!

My best friend

Okay maybe this isn't my best friend EVER, but it's pretty close. I don't know how I survived three years of marriage without my dutch oven. I think I use it at least once a week, if not twice.



Where else can you take this (yes those are chipotle peppers on top, yum!):



And then six hours in the oven come up with this:

Which then gets shredded into this:

And served up like this (sorry this pic is rotated for some reason blogger insisted on rotating it every time I tried to upload it):

Delicious! And I submit that if I had made it in a slow-cooker it wouldn't have tasted nearly as good. Although I have no good argument for why that would be except for that my slow-cooker burns all my big cuts of meats. So that was our dinner last night, and it took maybe 15 minutes of my time to prep. The recipe is called Spicy Dr. Pepper shredded pork and is on my new favorite food blog here.

Oh, and Whiskey wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter. She likes Lucy's plastic eggs almost as much as Lu does.