Father's Day 2014

This was Klaas's first Father's Day since Elliot's birth. (Last year, we found out a few weeks before Father's Day that I was pregnant, so his present was his DSLR, to capture all of our favorite baby moments - and more.) This year so far he's already bought a new lens and a new laptop because his desktop computer was starting to fail on us, so we decided we'd spent enough already. Still, I felt weird not having anything for him on Father's Day, so I baked his favorite cookies.

We also made this for my dad, who's a massive comic book enthusiast.

Mother's Day 2014

We celebrated our very own Mother's Day as a family for the first time last Sunday.

Klaas woke up early and went out to get me a wonderful bouquet.

A few days later, more flowers started opening up. Like this:

Seeing as it was their first Mother's Day as a grandmother, Elliot made a little something for both my mom and Klaas's mom.


Let me tell you, it's not easy getting a baby to unclench its tiny fists to make a handprint!

I loved finally having a reason to be celebrated myself on Mother's Day. Elliot's my world and Klaas is my rock who made it happen... I can't imagine my life without the two of them.

Celebrations

Come the end of November, we have quite a few things to celebate around here. Last week Klaas turned 26. I knew he really wanted a tripod for his camera, but seeing as it was a little bit over our budget and I really wanted to get him footed pajamas (he's been jealous of mine for years), my mom and I decided that she and my dad would get him the tripod as a birthday gift, while I gave him the pajamas. He didn't want me taking a picture of him actually wearing them, but I did manage to take this crappy iPhone picture when it was first delivered three days before his actual birthday.

Anyway, I suck when it comes to keeping presents a secret, so I caved and gave him the pajamas 3 days early. It's a good thing we have stuff to do on the weekends, because otherwise Klaas wouldn't find a reason to get dressed anymore... And now our evenings on the couch look a little something like this:

Oh and I wanted to make him a birthday cake as well, so I went to my parents' house the day before and made the cake with my mom. We failed horribly (the cake actually ended up being too light and the frosting was too heavy) but the flavors were right on!

Yesterday was also our sixth anniversary! We didn't do anything special since Klaas had his photography class, but we'll make up for it next week when we celebrate our first wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe we've been married for almost a year. A lot has happened since then...

Resolutions for 2013

New Year's Eve in my family is pretty traditional. We always go to my grandmother's house for dinner and start the new year together, as a family. This year was no different, except for one thing: I decided to make cookies. I called my grandma and asked if that was okay, because she always makes dessert herself, and she said it was fine. Decision-making, however, is not my best feat, so I ended up making four different batches of cookies and taking them all with me. It was also really fun because I got to try out our mixer. It was a present from my parents for New Year's.

Before. Do you like the pretty pretty color of my mixer?

During

The result

 

From top to bottom, I made: ranger cookies (here), peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (here, but I use 7 tbsp of peanut butter and 1 1/2 cup of light brown sugar instead of 1 cup brown and 1/2 cup regular. I also think 1 1/2 cup of chocolate chips is waaay too much -- I use 1/2 cup), cream cheese cookies (here) and fat fluffy snickerdoodles (here). As you can tell from the last three links, I really like the How Sweet It Is website. It's got such good recipes and I've loved every single one I've tried out so far. As for my New Year's Eve cookies, everyone seemed to have a different favorite, so it was a good thing I made four different recipes.

One of the presents I got on New Year's Eve was decorated with a small glittery branch (and no, I can't describe it any better), so I experimented with it a little. I don't like Twilight, but I like how precious and sparkly the vampires in it are.

I would make one hell of a sexy vampire.

 

Now for a slightly more serious subject: resolutions. I hear the trick is to keep them simple and manageable and to not make more than five. I made three and in my opinion they're simple enough to keep, as long as I do my very best.
1. Find more cookie recipes and keep baking my ass off.
2. Blog more. I've been thinking that once or twice a week should not be entirely impossible, so I'll try and stick to that.
3. Be the best wife I can possibly be. How I will achieve this is my business. Well, and Klaas's. :-)

Did you make any resolutions for the new year?