Hart Christmas pics

Some pictures of our Hart reunion, the only time each year that all of us are at home. Most of these pics are Kaley's....she was more on top of the photo taking then me...enjoy!

It's a....GIRL!

We found out before Christmas that this little troublemaker is a girl (not at all surprising to me, who has known for some time). But all the same it is confirmed in the medical world. We are having a daughter. Crazy. Without further ado, here is our beautiful little girl, in profile.

We are now undertaking the serious task of coming up with a name....no small feat indeed. Well I'll have more pictures and updates regarding the holidays whenever that happens. No promises. Just wanted to get this cute picture of our little girl up there.

Beach/Thanksgiving 2011 Photos

Baby, Baby: Week 17

So my baby is now a whopping 17 weeks along. Pretty exciting times. We just got back from a very restful and fun time in Florida getting pampered by all the Taylors. Rye loves spending time with his Gramma, Grampa and especially "Cay-ub" aka Caleb and his other cousins, Samantha and Autumn. A bit of a letdown being home. For both of us. Especially since within 1 hour of arriving home, I succumbed to what unfortunately seems to be a prolonged stomach bug. Uggg...you'd think I'd already met my nausea quota for the next 5 years....

In other news the baby seems to be doing well. We haven't had an ultrasound in a while, hopefully the next one will be a confirmation of what I now am convinced of, that this little bundle of joy is a little baby girl. Honestly, I will be completely shocked if it is a boy. I'll spare you multiple reasons I'm convinced of this (TMI) but I'm pretty darn sure. Course, now that I've said that, it will end up being a boy! ;) Either way will be fine with me, honestly.

Well, this is about as close as it gets to a "belly shot". Ugg, never been a fan of those things. Here's me and my boys (as well as the unseen, girl?) at the beach over Thanksgiving. Admittedly it really looks like I'm sticking my belly out, quite possible, or maybe I was just trying to balance Rye...who knows, but it is a belly shot, so I figure it's appropriate. ;)

chocolate chip cookie

i got this recipe off a blog, and it's moving and i don't know if i'll be able to find this again, and don't want to lose it. yum,

this is just copied and pasted....

It's the "not so secret" secret recipe from Jacque Torres, and I'm sure many of you have read about this or already tried this at home. I've been making this recipe countless times, and have found that the following tips make this cookie absolutely perfect:

- Don't substitute the pastry and bread flours w. AP flour. I really believe that the combination of the pastry and bread flours give the cookie a nice slightly crunchy exterior giving way to a really tender middle.

- Hand chopped chocolate chunks, NOT premade chips - I will purchase a hunk of the best bittersweet chocolate that I can afford and hand cut them into chunks. The easiest method to chop a block of chocolate: nuke the block at 50% power for a few seconds, no more. It softens the chocolate just enough. Then take a large kitchen knife and chop away! Your effort will be rewarded with really nice ribbons of melted chocolate throughout the cookie.

- Chill the cookie dough at least 24 hours (I let my dough sit anywhere from 2-3 days) before baking. This is not for taste reasons that were recently written about in an article from NY Times (god forbid we're aging cookie dough...let's leave that for wine and cheese). IMHO, refrigeration makes a difference with the look and texture. I think the dough sets in a way so when you bake the cookies, you end up with the lovely wrinkles and folds as the balls of dough spread and bake.Until I encounter another recipe that will move mountains, I think have finally found my perfect chocolate chip cookie!

I would love to hear about your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, so do share! :)

Jacques Torres' Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Makes twenty-six 5-inch cookies or 8 1/2 dozen 1 1/4-inch cookies

Ingredients
1 pound unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour
3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Reduce speed to low and add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until well combined.
- Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
- Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and about 15 minutes for smaller cookies.
- Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Our 1st turns 2 on the 22nd!

Our good friends Rich and Heather (check them out here) took pictures at the party, which I'm sure will be amazing, but to hold you over, here's a quick collage of pics from Rye's car party.

He had a great time with all this friends and some family there to push him around on the cars, i mean, help him celebrate. ;) We opened presents back at the house later, which turned out to be a good idea since once he opened his cars, there was no distracting him for the next couple hours.

More pics to come, but happy 2nd birthday to our best buddy, Rye!

big like daddy