Cassidy has sure loved having grandparents around to dote on her day and night.  Each smile, giggle, and new achievement has been praised and exclaimed over.  I’m not sure what we are going to do with our little girl when she has to get used to just have boring ol’ Daddy and Mommy around.  I must say that I love seeing people, especially Cassidy’s grandparents, loving on my precious girl and enjoying her sweet personality.  And it doesn’t hurt that on a few early mornings, David and I have been able to deliver Cassidy to her Gramma and Grampa so we could get a few more minutes of sleep.

We’ve been taking plenty of pictures to document each fun memory.

Chatting about driftwood, tide pools, and sweet nothings while taking a break from the wind at the coast.

Cassidy’s first time swimming was a hit.  So far her favorite pool pastime is splashing.

I had to add this picture because- well, seriously… it’s just hilarious.  Like grandfather, like granddaughter.

Well, we are well over due for some posts since a lot has been happening.  Since a pictures says 1,000 words, we’ll start things off with some pictures of us hanging out in the backyard here in Oregon, taking advantage of some good lighting.

Here’s a slideshow of the pictorial gems we got when we tried to get a passport photo of Cassidy.  In the end the friendly post office passport lady rejected our best effort, so we ended up having to pay for the passport photo anyway, but at least we tried, right?

After looking at all these pictures we could only say, “Oh, Cassidy.”

Well, we are at it again.  The sorting happened.  The packing happened.  And now we are moved out of our sweet little apartment in TN and on the road again.  The first leg of our epic “3 corners of the country” tour found us heading out of the lovely spring weather, warming temps, and white blossoming trees and traveling north to Wisconsin.  This week the weather has been more cold, more wet, and more dreary than our whole winter in Tennessee, but I am fighting the urge to mope and trying to remember Wisconsin also produces delightfully warm and sun soaked summers and deliciously crisp and golden autumns.  Unfortunately we will be long gone before the Wisconsin weather shapes up.  For now we are looking outside at the misty weather and reminding ourselves that April showers bring May flowers.

So, we’re in Wisconsin.  Despite the rain and chill, we’ve found plenty to keep ourselves busy with, while trying to keep it easy enough so we don’t overload ourselves.  There has been family and friends to visit, sorting and storing of belongings to deal with, paperwork for visas to figure out, and list of assorted tasks to accomplish… not to mention Cassidy.  Our little girl is quite mobile enough to keep us on our toes at all times and tire us out before the day is done.  She has the cutest smile and the sweetest little developing personality, though, so what’s a little fatigue at the end of the day, right?

Cassidy the helper girl

Packed and ready to go!

What a good little traveler!

So, we’ve been gone for a little while.  I would apologize, but life has been rushing by, and I’m sure you understand.  A lot has been happening.  Too much to really talk about here and now.  I will try to update here a little more regularly again, but until I get my thoughts gathered about me, I’ll leave you with a quiche post.  This quiche post really has nothing to do with anything except that I discovered a quiche recipe that is both pretty easy and completely delicious.  And I discovered that I have a husband who really would follow through with his declaration that he could eat quiche everyday.  We have eaten A LOT of this quiche this winter.

*On a side note: This quiche is by no means a light dish.  I’m talking bacon, eggs, and evaporated milk.  So let’s just dispel any of those thoughts right away. There will be a place and time for healthy eating, but bacon will soon be a thing of our past, so for now we are going a little hog wild to get it all our of our systems.

I now give to you… “Vegetable Quiche”  -which is the official name of this recipe, but since I add bacon I suppose I should change the name.  Maybe later.  For now we’ll call it Vegetable Quiche and feel healthier for it.

Bacon is the beginning of all good things, right?  So let’s start by frying up a little bacon.

While the bacon is frying up, chop about a 1/4 cup of green pepper…

And a 1/4 cup of onion.

Now the recipe I use calls for the onion and pepper to be fried until tender in some oil.  I find it easier and tastier (although much more unhealthy) to just use the leftover bacon grease to fry the veggies in.  My reasons for using the bacon grease are as follows, 1. it is just easier to use grease that is already in the pan than cleaning the grease out and putting oil in, and 2. For some reason I feel like I’m in “Little House on the Prairie” when I’m using bacon grease in food.  Doesn’t it just sound so ‘home on the range’?

Now comes the dairy.

In a bowl, stir together a half can of cream of mushroom soup, a half can of evaporated milk, and 3 eggs- along with a tablespoon of flour.

Next up comes a little layering.  In a deep-dish pie shell, layer the torn bacon and  some mushrooms.

The name of the game is to make this quiche easy, so I’m using canned mushrooms (which we typically keep on hand because David and I are both mushroom fiends).  Using a frozen pie shell is pretty much the reason I don’t mind making this quiche so much.  If I had to make dough, roll it out, and try to get it into the pie dish, quiche would probably be a once-a-year thing.

Ok, so the bacon and mushrooms are in the bottom of the pie shell, now we are going to sprinkle a cup of shredded cheese on top of that.

Finally, we stir the sauteed peppers and onions into the egg/milk/soup mixture and pour it over everything else in the shell.

Pop the whole thing in the oven at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.

While the quiche is cooking, take some time to play with the adorable baby.  This step is of the utmost importance.  We can’t take for granted these precious baby days.  At the time of this picture, Cass was getting so close to crawling for real, and she is just the smiley-est and giggle-iest baby you could ever meet.

Ding!   -goes the timer (which David sets for me because I can’t be bothered to figure out how to set the timer myself).

Dinner is served.  It’s one of those comfort foods that is just perfect for a chilly evening (since we rarely eat these kinds of breakfast foods for breakfast)

One afternoon free from obligations

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sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures

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my favorite little girl and my best big guy 

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a wonderful, memory-filled walk in the park together

  *Life is rough when Mommy won’t let you eat grass and then doesn’t seem bothered by your heartbreak

  *All better now.

Early into the New Year brought the first of our little family’s birthdays.  Daddy (David) turned the big 3-0.  I would say that he is old and starting to fall apart while I’m still young and spry, but in truth a big night for both of us is grabbing a cup of something hot to drink, watching a few of our favorite tv shows, and being in bed before midnight.  I don’t know if the addition of Cassidy into our family has eased the transition into ‘old age’, but his reaction to the big day was, “I feel thirty.”

In honor of David, we went out for a sushi lunch. David said to someone that going out for sushi is a rare treat.  I replied, “Rare?  It’s raw.”  David didn’t think it was as funny as I know you will (and as funny as I know myself to be).  Cassidy reveled in a chance to get out of the house and hand out smiles to anyone who would look her way.  After our meal, we drove around the busy downtown in a bunch of traffic and freezing rain to get some Starbucks – because even though it was David’s birthday, he knows how much I love me some Starbucks. 

I also made a cake for David’s birthday.  It didn’t really turn out as light and fluffy as I would have hoped.  And the cake decoration.  Don’t get me started on that.  Definitely left a lot to be desired, but it was raining and David had the car at work, so I had to make do with what we had in the house, so coconut and a tea light it was.  Oh well, David knows that my lame cake making skills are not a good reflection of my love for him.

Don’t let your eyes linger too long on the cake, but get a load of my dashing old-man husband

 All in all, Cassidy and I had a great time celebrating the most wonderful Daddy and husband (and we hope he had a great time being celebrated).

My two favorite people.  Bundled and ready for a walk in the brisk evening air.

I realize that I am biased when it comes to this vision of beauty, but take a look at those eyes.  My heart is taken with this girl forever.

Our Christmas and New Years were special times this year.  We were excited to be able to spend the holidays with some family on each side (my parents and brother, and David’s grandmother and aunt and uncle).  Since David and I both spent our childhoods in the Southern Hemisphere, a sunny and warm Florida Christmas felt like home. 

The most exciting part of the holidays this year was being able to enjoy and document Cassidy’s first Christmas.  The poor girl had a cold, but she still gave a lot of smiles and giggles through her sniffles and coughing.  She even did better at unwrapping her presents than I’d thought she would.  And she really enjoyed having a few new toys to play with.  I think what Cassidy enjoyed the most about the holidays, though, was having loving grandparents, a great grandma , and aunts and uncles to dote on her. 

  One of the nicest things about a Florida Christmas is that the weather is still perfect for walks to the park, trips to the beach, and kayaking with the manatees.  David and I were also able to leave Cassidy with her Nana and Papa and Uncle Kyle one night so that we could celebrate our 2^nd anniversary with dinner and a movie.  It was one of the first times David and I have gotten out without Cassidy, and she didn’t make us regret it.  Apparently she was a good little girl for her grandparents and David and I certainly had a good time out (even if we did break the ‘don’t talk about your kids when you are on a date’ rule).

It was harder to leave family than normal this time.  As we drove away, David and I were reminded that we are soon approaching a longer goodbye that will take us further away.  Those goodbyes are and will always be hard, but it’s part of the life that we’ve chosen and fully believe is what we are supposed to be doing.  Until then, and even then, we’ll try to cherish every moment we can have with the people we love.

*On a side note: Cassidy tried a pickle for the first time.  We were ready with camera and video in hand to document her funny faces.  Instead of making the sour faces we were expecting, she dug right in and enjoyed practicing her chompers on that pickle.

So, how did Christmasy-ness make its way into our household this year, you ask?  Well this year we piled into the car and drove around looking for a tree that wouldn’t break the bank and also wouldn’t overpower our poor tiny vaccum cleaner with shed needles.  Our search took us to a *quaint* little store called Deal$ where we purchased our 4 foot “beauty”.  Since we’d left most of our Christmas decorations in storage, I set my hands and crochet hook to work to make some snowflake and pompom ornaments.  Pintrest-worthy, they are not, but there is definitely a sense of satisfaction that comes from putting some effort towards bringing a little Christmas cheer into our home. -And Cassidy’s “First Christmas” ornament makes the tree complete.

The best Christmas decoration for our home this year is a chubby little baby- who at one point may have been wrapped in a bow and strung with lights.  She may be a little young to understand Christmas or be excited about the holidays, but David and I are having fun making memories of Cassidy’s first Christmas.

Gathering almost every ounce of inspiriation and motivation this year, I decided to make our own Christmas cards.  As with most projects, it took longer than I’d thought it would and poor Cassidy found herself forced to play on the floor alone a lot.  But when all’s said and done, it was a fun project- and we did have a great subject for the picture on the cards too.

How you decorate for Christmas in your home?