2016: A year of delicous recipes, adventure, and randomness!

I feel like the past year just flew by and now we are nearing the 8th anniversary of this little blog.  It has become my happy place where I can share recipes or crafts that I have tried, but it has also (slowly) become a place where I can share my heart.  As I was glancing through the past 12 months, I got really excited about the direction in which this blog is going. So, I thought I would share some of last year's highlights. Apparently a lot happened!  Here's a quick flashback of the past year:

January:

I started the year, by sharing my heart about the time I started saying no and then started sharing some of my favorite recipes that my family found on Pinterest and really enjoyed.

February:

In February, we changed up our family room a bit with a new couch and rug and discovered quite the mess underneath.  We got real honest about that mess!  We also celebrated Weston's fifth birthday with an airplane party that was so much fun! I also started the month off by talking about why we are called to create.  It was such a fun and busy month!

March:

I'm not sure what happened in March, but I wrote a bit and I even got up the nerve to try a batch of macarons.  They didn't come out right (no feet), but they were delicious. I think that the business of January and February slowed down a bit and so did I.   I did find time to make a special pie in honor of pi day!  It was delicious!

April:

As Spring came around, baseball began and so did after school practices.  We adjusted ourselves to the new schedule and loved it!  I shared our living room makeover and gave some history behind the house!

May:

The school year business started to die down and it became clear that popsicles were our favorite treat to enjoy outside.  I shared a couple of recipes and I realize that as I type this, I really can't wait to start making more!

We also took some time to for an adventure to Yosemite before it got too busy and we wanted to see the Falls at their fullest.  It was beautiful and the perfect day trip!

June:

June was a crazy full, with school ending and our summer adventure starting, but I was able to fit is some fun ideas and strategies to make flying/traveling with kids a success.  I also shared some delicious Dairy free and lactose free alternatives when dealing with dairy and soy allergies.  Oh, and there was cake involved, too.  Can't leave that out.  It's chocolate, which sounds amazing as I type this!

July:

July settled in with swim lessons and family gatherings.  I also started sharing about our grand adventure through Wyoming and South Dakota (with a few other states thrown in there).  Once we got home, I started baking and cooking.  I fell in love with the new Bake from Scratch magazine and this sugared jam cake!

August:

Things changed a bit once school started and I experienced a whole knew phase of life with both kiddos in school.  Other than that, not too much happened as I adjusted to the quiet of the house and managing my time without Weston at home during the day.

September:

 I found a delicious recipe for cinnamon chocolate chip pancakes and shared how I make pancakes easy on busy mornings with my favorite pan!  This pan has been a lifesaver for me since Ethan started school, and even more so with both boys in school.  I'm kind of sad that Crate and Barrel doesn't sell them, but I've heard you can still find them on amazon or wilton's website.

October:

Technically Ethan turned 8 in September, but it didn't make it to the blog until October.  We celebrated him with a fun soccer party and my husband got super into it by turning the backyard into a soccer field.  It was a fun evening of delicious food, family, and friends, and lots of soccer!

November:

My birthday month brought me one year closer to 40 and some delicious recipes.  My favorite one was these Banana Chocolate Espresso Muffins!  These were delicious and they gave me the perfect excuse to buy some espresso powder I had been eyeing for months!  I celebrated my birthday by getting pampered and hanging out the my family.   I also wrote 37 things about myself because it sounded like fun! I got to share about my love of street tacos and my problem with finishing projects.

December:

And finally, the last month of the year!  We survived the busy and the quiet of the Christmas season.  I even found time to throw a cookie exchange with some fellow moms from school and our neighborhood.  That was only the start of the insane amount of Christmas baking that happened in my kitchen.

And with that, the year was over!  It was a great year with challenges and adventure.  It wasn't perfect, things didn't always work out the way I thought they should, but it was a good year.  I grew as a baker (I made a lot of bread and had an almost successful batch of macarons!).  I stepped out of my comfort zone and grew in my relationship with God.  I am excited for 2017.