The title of this post pretty much sums up my life lately! Lots of baking and lots of love in our little family. It’s currently Monday afternoon as I (start to) type up this post. Mordecai and Dakota gave me a beautiful gift today: they’re napping at the same time! Sadie is riding bikes around the neighborhood with her friends and I’m sitting on the front porch enjoying a crisp ginger ale and a sunny summer day!

Am I ignoring a load of laundry right now? Yep. Should I use my free time to take a shower by myself? Probably. But I want to blog, so here I am! How about some pictures and thoughts from life lately?

How cute are Sadie and Mordecai riding in Mordecai’s dump truck?! They spend hours together in that thing and it’s so cute. It has a shovel attached to the side and it actually dumps dirt. They do some major “work” around the yard 😂

The picture below is adorable… and then you have the dogs dive bombing each other in the background haha.

I am loving my new toy. What is it? A pizzelle maker! I have been making pizzelles and stroopwafels like crazy lately! I love that I don’t have to turn the oven on, either. Dakota likes to sit in her bumbo and watch me work. Soon enough she will be able to enjoy some goodies 🙃

Have you ever had a stroopwafel? They’re caramel-filled Dutch waffle cookies. They’re meant to sit on a mug of hot coffee. The steam from the coffee warms the caramel inside and it’s a perfect afternoon or post-meal coffee treat.

I used this recipe. I always trust King Arthur recipes, especially because I like to weigh ingredients when I bake and they give grams, ounces, etc. in their recipes. I really enjoyed making the homemade caramel sauce, too. I put a few teaspoons of it between two cookies and ta-da, stroopwafels!

Hello from Dakota on a stroller walk!

Want to see baby Sadie and Dakota in the same outfit?

Sadie is in the top photo and Dakota is in the bottom photo! They definitely look alike, but I think Dakota looks more like Mordecai! It’s such a trip to see her in Sadie’s clothes. It feels like a time capsule back to 2018 every time I change her 🥹

Here’s a peek at what I see every morning at 5:00 am.

Little miss Dakota still wakes up to eat a few times in the night and always ends up in bed with us. I’m pretty sure I’ve been getting headaches lately from sleeping so wonky as I’m curled around her haha. She sure is precious, though 😍

Welp, I pumped milk and then we tried two different types of bottles (Walmart brand and Nuk) with no luck with Dakota taking them. I probably shouldn’t have waited until she was almost six months to introduce a bottle, lol.

I made a cheesecake this weekend! I have a bunch of ideas for flavor combinations. This one was a black-bottom cheesecake and I’ll share the recipe very soon.

Dakota and her cousin, Gideon, hung out in the church nursery on Sunday!

They were straight up lounging on those boppy pillows!

You can see Sadie wearing that same outfit in 2019 in this post!

Aaaand here’s Sadie and her cousin Caroline at church!

Jimmy and I teach their class and it’s really fun! I actually learn a lot as I study and prepare the lessons, too. Right now, we’re learning about all the kings (Josiah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and more) and it’s really interesting! Lots of life lessons.

Mordecai *adores* his big cousin, Lawson. He really looks up to him! We often coax Mordecai to do things by saying things like “Lawson uses the potty!” and “Lawson wears shoes!” haha.

The boys were so proud of their Sonic the Hedgehog shirts! I loved playing Sonic growing up, so it’s fun to see it make a comeback these days. Also, I can’t describe what a blessing it is to raise kids at the same time and same age as my sister. It’s so incredibly special 🫶

Sadie bug! Can’t believe she’s going to be seven-years-old next month. Howwwww!

I’ll end the photos for this post with some twice baked potatoes! Another recipe that’s coming soon 🥔

Other notes and thoughts:

• This week is a busy one for us! A wedding rehearsal for Decky, I’ll be baking twelve dozen cupcakes, we’re attending a wedding, and we have my nephew’s birthday party. All good and fun things but also a lot!
• Dakota is living the teething life and enjoys chewing on these.
• I did a bunch of meal prep this morning: roasted sweet potatoes, twice baked potatoes, roasted cauliflower, and hot pepper chicken. It’s always nice to have a few things in the fridge that we can grab and heat up on busy evenings!
• I’m reading about five different books at the moments: The Love Haters (it’s just okay, but growing on me!), Raising a Sensory Smart Child (fascinating!), Cover Him (encouraging marriage book!), The Relaxed Woman (super interesting!) and Ecclesiastes.
• I made a batch of what I like to call “everything” cookies because I just add random things to the dough. Today I added dried cranberries, mini chocolate chips, and shredded coconut. I wish I had some salty pretzels to add, though. Next time!

Have you baked, cooked, or ate anything fun/new lately?