Pugs in the Sun!

While I was driving home from New Orleans yesterday, John went out to our field with the pugs. He took some pretty sweet pictures! This camera we bought at Christmas is paying off!

Handsome pugs by yellow flowers!

Towering Chester!

Pug Shots!

Here are some cute Pug Shots! These little guys can be so photogenic!

These two pictures are in a field by our house where we take them most days. This particular day, instead of chasing the ball they opted to sit in the sun panting. Soon this field will be off limits. There is a lot of construction in the area and we will miss this field which is one of few places where we can frolic leash-less (or just sit in the sun, sometimes moving can be so hard)!


Below is one of my new favorites! John captured this one. The boys often times lay in our laundry basket. They don't seem to mind it when I neglect to fold the laundry for several days! In fact, they downright enjoy basking in the many smells of mom and dad! Just look at those lips!

Back by Popular (Melanie Wendler) Demand

I am back in the saddle again. After a month of mom visiting my computer went out on commission and it took another month to get John to fix it! It is fixed now so I re-enter the blogosphere once again. Welcome back, me! Here are a few pictures to catch up. Believe it or not, while my mom was here I got zero pictures of her/us! John was in Costa Rica and he had the camera (for obvious reasons).

Here is a picture of Pavan and I with the Chocolate Hazelnut Pie I made for his birthday. It was pretty good, but a little too rich for me. I really liked the toasted hazelnuts though!

While mom was visiting she wanted to get a picture of "my family" for her to hang on her wall. So, our roommate Nikhil took a few photos of us and here are two of my favorites. Also notable is my new haircut which I love very much! I don't know if I will ever change it! I am sure I will get tired of it someday, but for now I just LOVE IT! It is so easy to style for work because I just have to blow dry it!


I just love this picture! We are trying to get Chester to come and sit in the right spot and he keeps being noncompliant. He is such a sweet little guy, sometimes I just don't know if he knows what's going on! But, I love him!

Talk to everyone later! Hope to be posting again soon since la computadora is functional!

Lemon Curd Cake - better than it sounds!

Observe the most recent baking creation! It was delightfully full of lemon I singlehandedly zested and juiced 8 lemons for the cake, filling, and frosting! It took about 5 hours, from start to finish but it was really fun! The results were, shall I say delicious? Don't let the name of the cake get in your way. Yes, curd rhymes with turd. I know everyone is thinking it. But, grow up people! (HA!) The cake is nowhere close to turd material and it deserves a chance!!!

We have had a large surplus of photos since the Christmas camera came around. Above is me pretending to decorate the cake. Below you will find . . . I don't know what you would call that look!
Here is the final slice. While I was at work one day John and Nikhil (our roommate) took a bunch of photos of the final slice and then promptly ate it.
Pictures of those who enjoyed the cake before . . .

. . . and after!

Can you say, Yum?!

In an attempt to focus my energies away from stress and anxiety (from my new job) I have taken to baking. I have always loved baking but have limited myself to cookies, bread, and an occasional cake. Over a year ago, a friend of mine started eating desserts together once every week. By restraining ourself from sweets during the week we would reward ourselves with something extreme and delicious! It has been a useful tactic for me, but I am not always successful at restraining during the week! Anyway, when my friend left me high and dry by moving to Portland (not to mention jealous of her new environment) I continued the "dessert club" with some more friends. We have made some delicious desserts in the last several months and it is so much fun to get together and chat while eating something so yummy! I bought myself a Martha Stewart baking book for Christmas and this past weekend I made a Devil's Food Cake with Mint Chocolate Ganache. It was so much fun! I even put John to work making the chocolate mint leaves for garnish. I knew someone with the steady hands of a surgeon would be good at that and I was right! I think they are the most fun part of the cake (but not fun to make, which is why I enlisted John!) In addition to the mint chocolate leaves, John is the famous photographer responsible for the cake pictures! He got a new camera for Christmas and has really been jazzed about taking pictures of everything possible! Enjoy! Someday I will transcribe the lengthy recipe for those who want it!

Rapid Road trip to Pensacola Florida!

Over this last weekend (when it was John's birthday) we drove to Pensacola Florida to visit John's friend Lance. Lance's uncle has a ritzy high rise condo on the beach and he let us stay in it for free and for fun! Here is the view from our room! It was so pretty, but I would be a nervous wreck living there. The strip that all these houses are on is only about one mile wide and as you can see, at sea level - so beautiful until you imagine a hurricane coming through! AHHHH!

Observe below the levitating ears and hair! It was really windy while we were there, but not cold at all. It looks like it would have been cold because the sky is kind of gray, but are you can see I was only wearing a very light sweater!

Chester looks larger than life in this one...

I don't like this one very much, but John insists that it is super awesome.

The sand was so white. When I looked out from our balcony it looked like snow in places! It was really pretty. I would love to visit in the warmer summer months.....not that it was even close to cold, but too cold to swim that's for sure! As a matter of fact....the sand was so pure and white that even Charlie decided it was worthy of eating. For those of you who do not know, Chester has taken to eating sand and drinking sea water on a regular basis. However, Charlie has never practiced this habit.....until he met Pensacola's white sandy beaches. As you can see in the picture below he is guilty as charged. Just look at the guilt on his face!
On our way out of town we had brunch with Lance and his Dad. It was good to get to know people so close to John. He has a lot of memories in Pensacola and I got a little sneak peak! It was worth the overnight 8 1/2 hour drive (after working 12) in order to get there! You're only young once!

Merry Christmas trip to Pendleton!

Merry Christmas everyone! John and I returned from a week of fun and excitement with our families! I must warn you all that there are many pictures to view since we got a fancy new camera for ourselves for Christmas! Hope everyone is having a Happy Happy Holiday!

The pugs got another taste of snow when we went up to the cabin! They had a lot of fun and I couldn't resist putting these neck-warmers on them. I think that the pink suits Charlie quite well! On this trip we have made an effort to get more pictures of us together since we currently have very few! So here is us with our kids sitting on the couch warming up! The snow up at the cabin was perfect for snowballs and snowmen so John and Tim began making snowmen immediately! John made a snow-bear and Tim made a funny looking cartoon snowman! I think they had fun playing together! hehehe!

We got our "redneck" on by driving out to the country and shooting milkjugs filled with water. Here are some good pictures of us sharpshooters! Watch out everyone!

I had to live up the part a little more by putting this handsome bright orange cap on. We wouldn't want someone to shoot me on accident it was a safety precaution...yeah. Here I am acting the part of some kind of crazy war hungry lady holding some kind of a gun which my father referred to as a "mini 17" (I have no idea what that means but it was fun to shoot and I can count myself all the deafer for not wearing the earmuffs while rampaging).

Charlie stopped for a photo shoot here on this giant gravel pile.

Chester wrecked his motorcycle and wanted proof that he had one so he demanded that John take a picture of him next to it.

Here is the small crew we had for our Christmas dinner. Not quite like the good old days, but not too bad considering where everyone has to travel from! If you ask me, we are a pretty good-looking bunch!

Here is us with that sweet "little girl" Amelia Wendler (my brother's daughter). I am here with my cousin Bree and my sister-in-law Melanie.

We had a really great time with everyone! Thanks to everyone for being such a great family! We both love you all so much!