Lately (And Not So Lately)

Here I am again, giving an update featuring lots of different events. Here goes nothing.

Little Brown

Here he is decorating Christmas sugar cookies, which means he was eating the frosting but not so much the cookies.

He also turned 3! I can't believe how grown up he looks in these pictures.

Last, we spent the last week potty training him. It went much better than expected, and he knows how to stay dry (though #2 is still a struggle...). We're so happy he's learning new things!

Little Blue

She (and brother) met Santa around Christmas.

I took this selfie with her. It's apparent she looks nothing like me, but she is one beautiful little girl!

She had her first swing ride a couple weeks ago. She loved it!

She's almost one! Ahhh, where did the time go? She's crawling everywhere, pulling herself up on everything, and loves to explore. She also might be allergic to dairy. We're keeping an eye on it and hoping she's either not actually allergic or that she'll grow out of it.

Blue

He loves to eat all the treats, even if that means participating in my last-minute decision to make Christmas sugar cookies.

We visited him at work one day and got this fun picture. Little Brown sure loves his daddy!

Brown

I take almost every photo around these parts, so there aren't many pictures of me. When they pop up, they're usually silly, like this selfie from a bridal shower last week.

Mostly, I cook and bake (and take care of the kids and clean, but that's not necessarily as fun). Here's some things I've made in the past few months:

Cherry pie, lattice-top style.

Ciabatta.

My self-made birthday cake: chocolate cake with raspberry cream cheese filling and covered with a chocolate ganache.

Traditional French Christmas yule log cake.

Cherry pie, again. This time with stars!

My mom's birthday cake: chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.

All this baking has reminded me what a pain from-scratch cakes can be at high altitude. I've been having all kinds of problems with collapsing cupcakes and cake layers, so I read up on ways to remedy the problem. Hopefully I can figure it out, because it's so depressing to see your beautiful cake collapse into a dense, dry, disappointing mess.

Christmas

I took this picture of our tree Christmas morning and found it pretty. So here it is, randomly ending this hodgepodge post. May you find beauty in every day!