baking

Currently: July 2018

Somehow another month has arrived. Welcome, July! Do you have any exciting plans for this month? We will be doing lots of preparing for our little gal by working on her room (we have it painted!), taking childbirth education classes, having a baby shower, and attending appointments.

Along with that, we also have work, birthday celebrations for loved ones, and all sorts of fun stuff. It’s going to be a good month! Here’s what’s currently going on in my life 🙂

Current book I’m finishing up the book of Genesis and also reading What Falls from the Sky by Esther Emery. It’s a memoir type book about how the author went a year without the internet and found herself more connected with God. I’m finding it absolutely fascinating.

What Falls From the Sky by Ester Emery book

Current confession I totally want to go to the movie theater and see Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. I just love kids movies, and we partially named Mavis after the main character in that movie!

Current experiment I ordered our groceries online from Walmart. We’re picking them up today and I’m super curious to see how the experience goes.

Current baked good Blueberry muffin cookies. They taste like the top of a blueberry muffin (aka the best part!).

Blueberry muffin cookies

Current beauty product This moisturizer. I like that it can be used day, night, or as a mask. Pretty versatile!

Current obsession Home organization. I think I’m nesting, haha. I just bought this organizer and can’t believe the difference it has made in freeing up space in our closet.

Current excitement Jimmy told me to pick out a new kitchen faucet for our anniversary! Our old one was a little leaky, and he knew I had been dreaming of out one with a pull down sprayer. We ended up finding this one at a great price on Amazon and he installed it this week. I have a thoughtful, skilled husband!

Matte black kitchen faucet with pull down sprayer

Current procrastination Calling our vet to schedule Mavis’ spaying procedure. I know I need to just get it done because it reduces her risk of cancer later in life, I’m not ready for an “oops” litter of puppies, and don’t feel like going through the “in heat” experience again in six months, lol.

Current goal To catch up on blog reading. I feel like summer is such a busy time, but I just love knowing what’s going on in my blog friends lives. Hoping to get a jump on that this week!

Current blessing A great week of Vacation Bible School at our church. Hannah and I headed up the kitchen this year, which is always nerve-wracking because we’re feeding somewhere around 60 to 70 people each night. It takes a lot of preparation, but it’s always worth it and a lot of fun to serve in this way.

Vacation Bible School Cake and girls serving food

Current need This sign. It’s too funny and some days I feel like taking it seriously 😉

Current app FreePrints. I am just loving this app! You can upload and print 4×6 photos for free and have them shipped to you. The only fee is for shipping. It makes scrapbooking a lot easier when I can upload and print photos right from my phone and get them in the mail a few days later.

Current food Swiss chard from our garden. It was the first thing we harvested this year!

Swiss Chard from vegetable garden in red strainer

Tell me something current in your life!

Celebrating Our Boys

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Now that it’s Wednesday as I finally type up this post, I’m here to discuss ours 🙂

Jimmy turned 28 on Saturday! My sister’s husband, Josh, turned 21 on Friday, so Hannah and I hosted a cookout at her house for our birthday boys.

Guys in matching outfit

Yes, they planned to wear the same outfit, LOL.

The preparations started on Friday with some baking! I made cherry cheesecake and red velvet cupcakes, as requested by Jimmy and Josh. On Saturday morning, I took Jimmy’s truck to the car wash as a little birthday treat since he loves having a clean vehicle.

Red velvet cupcakes with rosettes

Funny story about the cupcakes… we got to Hannah and Josh’s house and someone set the cupcakes on a grill, which was then moved, and the cupcakes fell off the grill! Thankfully, they were in my handy dandy cupcake containers and survived the fall. They just ended up looking a little ugly 😉

For the frosting, I combined vanilla buttercream and cream cheese frosting and Jimmy literally said it was the best frosting he ever had. Too funny, because I only did that due to the fact that I didn’t have enough cream cheese to make a full batch of cream cheese frosting!

Birthday boys with cupcakes and cheesecake

The party was such a fun time! We had our families over and grilled chicken, burgers, and hot dogs. We talked, relaxed, the boys opened gifts, and we played kan jam.

Oh, and no get together with our families is complete without dogs, right? We had four dogs at Hannah’s house, and to say Mavis was tuckered out by the end of the day would be a total understatement.

Girls holding golden retriever and cocker spanielGroup selfie

It was so nice to have our families together for the afternoon. Hannah’s in-laws, my father-in-law and his wife, and my parents go to our church, so we all see each other every week, but there’s nothing like sitting down to a meal together and just hanging out, you know?

Also, can you see how adorably Hannah and Josh’s house is decorated in some of these pictures? Hannah has done such a wonderful job with that. I think I need her to give me some pointers because Jimmy and I have been in our house almost four years and we still have some bare walls 😉

Family against brick wallGuys and golden retriever and cocker spanielCouple smiling against brick wallGirls cutting onionsYoung couple against brick wallGuys at a cookout

It was a great day and I hope our boys went to bed Saturday night feeling loved, happy, and appreciated for the amazing men they are!

The rest of the weekend was just as lovely as Saturday. Sunday was spent at church and Monday was our big garden planting day! I will be back to detail that exciting endeavor soon 🙂