We did it! Baby girl made her way into this world 9 days late (with a little bit of helpful nudging of an induction on our end) and within 3 weeks, we had packed our bags, visited family in Idaho for Thanksgiving and flown to Germany! Whew! Yeah, sometimes I find myself bent over my hands and knees, just out of habit. No I'm just kidding, but life has felt like a nonstop marathon the last couple of months.


 This is our village. Obernheim-Kirchanarnbach. If you look in the far far right  corner of this image, the white house on the hill closest to the edge of the frame is ours. :) The view is beautiful, our neighbors (the ones we've met so far) are fantastic and our house is really coming together; we couldn't be happier.


 Alexa is getting so big! Today I had to remove all of her three month clothing. Above she is four days old and below she is two and a half months!









We didn't have any furniture or house decorations during Christmas, so our house was looking very sad and bare, then three days before Christmas, Scott walks in the the saddest looking Charlie brown tree I've ever seen. He picked it up for free from a pile of leftover misfits on base. We ladened it with small gifts to each other, Christmas cards from family and my fuzzy pink socks for makeshift stockings. It was comical and completely perfect to complete our memorable and first family Christmas.

(I forgot to take a close picture of it, but) We did have one REAL Christmas ornament on the tree! It was the one Chloe, my sweet niece, made and gave to us before we left. Thank you Chloe!

A Christmas present from Grandma Maryanne. Thank you! Alexa and I need to start making sugar cookies real soon with these bad boys!

Alexa's first Christmas '14 from Tanae Sorenson on Vimeo.

In the Air Force, there is usually something on base called an Airman's Attic. It's essentially a Goodwill or DI where anyone can donate and everyone under an E5 are allotted a certain amount of free things every month. It was a huge lifesaver when we first moved here. Our stuff took a little over a month to travel across the country so it was super helpful having somewhere to grab cooking and living essentials. However, it's also been super awesome for collecting baby gear and clothes! People move around so much in the military that almost everything we've gotten looks brand new! I even found a few of my favorite pair of maternity shorts there for free!
I really appreciate that people volunteer their time to make a resource like this available! So awesome! The Keesler AFB Airman Attic is open every Monday, Wednesday, and down Friday, so if you're new here and need a few things to get by, definitely check it out! There really are a lot of resources in the Air Force to help out families and new members. It's been a huge blessing!

Me (feeling awesome and strong I suppose) after cycling about 2 months ago.

 I felt pumped in cycling today and when a VERY pregnant woman looks like she is having too much fun at the gym, I think it makes some gym goers and class instructors... a little nervous. I truly forget how big I look to everyone so after class I went home and made this video. I had no intention of sharing it, but I cannot stop laughing! This is the first time I've ever seen what I look like doing yoga pregnant and I don't know why, but I find it extremely hysterical! I guess I can see how I might make other people at the gym nervous, but truly, I never push myself harder than I can handle. I make sure to be really in tune with my body in every workout that I do and honestly, I feel great!



I do three main workouts every week. Walking, cycling, and yoga. Walking is fun, easy, and relaxing, cycling is where I can get "hardcore" and really whip up a sweat and yoga is simply my life-savor! There's no way to word it without it sounding corny, so here it goes; yoga has changed my life! The old me thought yoga was just some hoop-plah workout for women to have an excuse to buy and show off their stretchy pants. So I resisted (what I considered) "the girly form of exercise trend" until my sister opened up her own yoga studio at Renew You a few years back. Even when I gave in and started going, I never in a million years pictured myself being the yogi type. I was the athletic girl. Who as a result of her athleticism, had lousy balance, grandma knees and hips, and couldn't touch her toes even after 30 minutes of stretching? Basically I was an in-denial train wreck.

I've been doing yoga for almost 2 years now and I can't believe the changes! I can honestly say that I've never felt better, even being pregnant! Now don't get me wrong, I still get aches, pains, and cravings just like any other preggo woman out there, but I'm convinced yoga has made adjusting to this new body of mine easier, graceful even. Alright, small yoga rant complete. Enjoy my spur of the moment video! Hopefully it makes someone out there chuckle besides, well, me.

So I have this list of goals and pursuits (You can check them out on my In This Life page) and one of them I'm actively working on right now is learning how to cook, and more importantly, learning how to love cooking. I don't know if I'll ever be able to completely check off the last one, but I figure I've spent 24 years learning to dislike it, so why not just retrain myself? After a few months I can tell that this is definitely going to be a process, (perhaps an additional 24 year process?) regardless I'm proud to say that I'm enjoying cooking and meal planning more than I ever have! I've even discovered that I have a particular knack and joy for baking. So, to keep things fun and to lesson feelings of boredom and frustration in the kitchen, I've decided to find a scrumptious new recipe to cook every 1-2 weeks. This week was chocolate zucchini bread. Zucchini bread has been pretty cheap and plentiful the last few weeks so it seemed like the perfect time to try it out!  

The results turned out pretty stellar! Scott (and the sister missionaries who came over today) loved it! I must admit, the recipe did not turn out as quite as chocolatey as I fantasized, (what can I say, I'm pregnant!) so next time I think I'll use regular sized chocolate chips, but it definitely did the job of curbing my chocolate cravings! Not to mention. It. Is. SUPER MOIST!

I got the recipe from a cookbook my Mom gave me called, "Our Best Bites". You can check out their chocolate zucchini bread recipe here at their site, or I've also posted it below. Enjoy! 

And if your like me, good luck on your own "learning to love cooking" adventures!




Chocolate Zucchini Bread {makes 2 loaves}

2 C flour
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t baking soda
6 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 C canola oil
1 C sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
1/2 C sour cream
3 C grated zucchini
3/4 C mini chocolate chips

Topping:
2 T brown sugar
2 T white sugar
1/2 t cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans and set aside.
2. Mix topping ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Place flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
4. With a stand or hand mixer beat oil, white sugar, brown sugar, and eggs until combined and slightly fluffy, 1-2 minutes.
5. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix until combined.
Gently stir in the grated zucchini.
6. Take a spoonful of the flour mixture and stir in with the chocolate chips (that will help keep them evenly distributed.) If you only have regular chocolate chips, or a chocolate bar, just give it a chop so it’s the size of mini chocolate chips.
7. Divide the batter between the two pans. and sprinkle topping over each. 
8. Bake in your preheated 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes. I set my timer for 45 minutes and then keep an eye on it for the remainder. 

When it’s done a toothpick or skewer should come out without goopy batter on it and the top will be gorgeous and cracked with sugar.