A Few Shots of Around Here

These are from back when I was small....




So far it has been a great weekend (and it is only halfway!) I got to host a fun baby shower for one of the girls in my small group and help get excited about welcoming her little boy in the next few months. Mark and I went out to dinner for sushi in Park City and little peanut cooperatively slept the whole time. Baby K is a pumpkin and will be having an extended photo shoot later today (which I of course will post), and I have the best choc. chip cookie recipe. And I'm going to go to yoga this am and the climbing gym later today. Sweet.
Yup.
The Best.
Here it is if anyone is interested:

2 sticks butter (8oz) softened (I always use salted butter when I bake, but the recipe calls for unsalted)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup sugar in the raw (turbinado sugar)
1 and 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 and 1/2 cup flour, all purpose
1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 oz cholcolate cut into small chunks--they say 1/2 inch, but I typically like my cholcolate chunks smaller than that. They also say use the best quality you can--I usually by 3 giradelli chocolate bars that you find in the baking isle, usually 2x semi-sweet and 1x bitter sweet.
seasalt (I had to especially buy the kind with the big crystals especially for this recipe "coarse" sea salt)

Preheat to 350
Cream butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light 4-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times during the process. Continue mixing while adding the eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is incorporated before adding the next. Add vanilla.
in separate bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt. mix with wisk. with machine on low, slowly add all flour but just a little bit. Then add chocolate and remaining small bit of flour all together. Stir with spatula just until all is combined.

Then scoop and place on cookie sheet. No need to really press dough down. Since I usually can't get the salt crystals to stick on the top if I just sprinkle them one, I will usually put a little salt in the palm of my non-dominent hand and push the top of my cookie ball into it.

Bake at 350 x about 12 minutes. Do not overbake.

And here is a preview of the little pumpkin:

Both Sides Now...

As of yesterday, we now have a bi-directional roller...front to back, back to front...
Big day in the Parrett house! We're going to have to start thinking about baby proofing and maybe expanding her play mat so she can roll around a bit more.

This weekend coming up should be fun :-) I'm off and don't have to be on call (woohoo!) and get to host a baby shower for one of the lovely ladies in our small group. She is having a little boy and we are doing a fun fall themed shower..be on the look out for more pictures of this. I went to target (with mark) and got some cute little boy stuff!

We also introduced Kyla to formula cause she is eating me out of house and home! The good news is she didn't even seem to blink an eye at the formula and now seems equally as happy with formula or breast milk. I had talked to various friends to find out what type people were happy with and settled on an organic one called "Earth's Best." Kyla, as I said, seems that she couldn't care less. All the worry about starting it to find out that she is totally satisfied with either!! That's just one more reason why she is my favorite baby. I think the build-up to starting formula was way more than the actual event. She just sat quietly and drank away like she always does; and now that she can drink it, it takes a bit of pressure off of me to feel like if I miss one time to pump at work she will not have enough to eat!

I started a new rotation (Gynecology oncology) and am loving it. There's lots of surgery, time for teaching, and interesting things about it. The hours have also been less brutal and there have been two mornings this week where I have actually gotten to see both Mark and Kyla-what a good treat!

Anyways, that's the brief update from me..oh, and it snowed!
Happy Friday!!

More laughing baby... volume is really soft but you can turn it up

Kyla Laughs!


She's getting better each day :-)

Love My Daddy

So I want to make a post that gives a lot of credit to my hubby. My job is what I might call "restrictive..." as evidenced by my utter lack of posts these past few weeks.
Now, don't get me wrong, I truly do love what I do and knew pretty dang well what going into it would look like for me and Mark.
However...I didn't necessarily factor in completely how it might look with a little peanut added. We have been blessed beyond measure in the form of little Kyla and she is just such a happy little girl. Here's where all the shout-out goes to Mark.
Before we had Kyla he was a bit green when it came to kiddos, not a ton of babysitting, more just figuring it might make sense when the little one was his own.
Well, love, not only have you made it make sense you have made it look easy. Kyla LOVES her daddy. He wakes her up in the morning, feeds her, gets her ready for the day, baths her and just generally loves on her.
It is fairly often that I come home from work and the guitar is out, Mark playing to Kyla and seeing if he can get her to chime in well he sings.
It is such a wonderful and lovely blessing to have a little girl be so loved by her dad.
Mark-you are an awesome husband and are already just about the best dad little Kyla could ever want...

I'm so proud of you both :-)

Kyla loves this toy!
~Dad