baking

I feel like a lot has happened since I last blogged! First of all, my father-in-law’s wedding was great! Fred and Kim tied the knot in a small, intimate ceremony with family and it was beautiful. Jimmy and I are so incredibly happy for them!

I am happy to report that the cake and cupcakes turned out well and were enjoyed by all! I started all the preparations on Thursday morning and hardly thought about anything else until the wedding was over on Saturday night.

It was definitely an intense few days, but so worth it to see the happy couple enjoy their Harley Davidson-themed cake! If anyone is interested, I can do a separate post on the cake and cupcake details.

Fred and Kim are now off on their honeymoon in the Outer Banks, which is such a lovely place to honeymoon. I may be a bit biased, though 😉

Other things of note include how incredibly blessed and thankful I have been feeling lately. Do you guys know P from Will Study For Food? If not, I’d recommend checking out her blog. She makes me want to live in California and is totally rocking the whole PhD thing!

P sent me the sweetest package of baby clothes last week. Thank you so, so much, P! Jimmy and I absolutely love the little sleepers and were ohhing and ahhing over how cute they are.

Also, my mom and sister both gave me early Mother’s Day gifts, which was so unexpected and thoughtful. Hannah gave me a few adorable mom-themed Origami Owl charms for my locket and my mom gave me the Magnolia Table cookbook and a mom mug!

Lastly, I mentioned in the post before this that Jimmy and I had our anatomy scan last week. We are so excited to share that baby is healthy and doing great! We also found out baby’s gender, which I will share in my next post.

Maybe I’ll do a little pregnancy update since we’ve hit the halfway point?! Long story short: we are feeling blessed, loved, and excited! God is good.

Alright, I am off to get my Monday started. I was hardly on my computer last week due to the busyness of pet sitting, unexpectedly needing to buy a new washing machine, cake baking, and wedding celebrating! It was quite an exciting week and I’m hoping to catch up around the house and blog world this week 🙂

Pittsburgh has been getting some warmer weather and sunshine lately! So much so that we mowed our lawn twice this week and it was warm enough for Mavis and I to take a little adventure to a creek near our house.

This was her first experience with a body of water and she was definitely curious, but not super into it. Lola enjoys water, so I wish she had been with us to show Mavis how fun it is, but I’m not confident taking two dogs by the water with an almost 20 week baby bump, lol.

The warmer weather has me dreaming of gardening, too. Jimmy and I were back and forth on starting a garden this year since our baby is due in September and we have done like zero things to prepare for his or her arrival, but we figured we’ll just make the garden smaller this year and if it gets neglected, then oh well. We love gardening too much to give it up 🙂

I’ve been having fun in the kitchen lately! I think my favorite way to cook and bake is to see what we have on hand and then improvise and create meals or treats out of those items.

I realized we had some of the classic tabbouleh ingredients on had yesterday, so I improvised off of this recipe and our little side dish turned out wonderfully!

I had also bought a container of cocoa powder and was in the mood for cookies, so I made these chocolate drop cookies and highly recommend the recipe. It’s simple and they definitely hit the spot.

Other ways I’ve been creative in the kitchen lately include whipping up my favorite homemade baked beans and adding some extra spices, making a strawberries and cream oatmeal creation, and cooking cereal bars with marshmallow fluff, vanilla Chex, and Mr. Goodbars.

Alright, I better get going. I’m having my mother-in-law, mom, and sister over this evening and need to clean up our house a bit! I got the kitchen all cleaned from the aforementioned cooking and baking, but the rest has been a bit neglected 😉

Living My Full Life

Wedding Celebration and Cake!

Adventuring and Getting Creative in the Kitchen

Do you like to get creative with cooking and baking?