Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

our christmas card this year: 

(no spectacular announcements like last years)

May the true meaning of Christmas fill your hearts and homes.

Love, Maria

a christmas tradition

I'll share our special Christmas tradition in a moment, 

but let me begin by introducing the Worlds Best Babysitter Ever!!

World, meet Christmas Tree (he keeps Adam busy for ages) :

'hello!'

only kid friendly ornaments on the tree this year!

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Now, for our Christmas tradition:

Every Christmas since Micha's been born, we've made a little memento ornament for the Christmas tree, and it's become a precious tradition (last years ornament)I hope to keep alive for many years to come.

 This year we attempted to make Cinnamon Applesauce ornaments, using (as the name says) cinnamon and applesauce in equal quantities (I used half a cup of each) to make a dough and than baking the shapes in the oven for a while to harden them.

As per usual with Pinterest ideas it looked a whole lot easier online than it was in real life. 

The dough came together quite well, but it was super sticky, and it was hard to roll out. 

I finally ended up rolling it out between two pieces of baking paper. 

Cutting out shapes wasn't too easy either, to be precise: the cutting wasn't that hard, but moving the cut out shapes from the table to the baking tray was a bit tricky.

look at that concentration!

Micha and I made little hearts and two gingerbread men (one for Micha and one for Adam), and they turned out pretty cute. 

After they had hardend up in the oven I decorated the gingerbread men ornaments with a bit of white paint in a piping bag to resemble icing.

They did seem a little fragile, so we ended up making some back up ornaments in case the cinnamon ones break:

this one is Adam's , it says '1st Christmas'.
I dipped his little fingers in paint and pressed them onto the ornament

Micha painted and 'glitterized' his ornament all by himself

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Even though it was all a bit messy and tricky, it smelled heavenly and we had fun!

And we held onto our own little family tradition!

Score!

Love, Maria

Do you have any fun Christmas traditions? Do tell!

life lately + Adam 5 months

 - brothers enjoying each other. 

Adams face lights up whenever he sees Micha and Micha is mostly so sweet and gentle with Adam. Already Adam loves it when Micha is acting silly, 

I can only imagine how much fun these two will have once Adam gets older

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- saying goodbye to a beautiful and sunny fall. 

I'll miss the pretty views from my livingroom window.

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- this funny monkey is growing up.  

 We said goodbye to his soother last week. 

I was kind of dreading the moment but we felt it was time. 

So we made a little party out of it with balloons and his favorite food and then let him throw his soother in the garbage. We told him he could pick out a toy the next day. 

There were a few rough nights (especially the first), but things are going a lot better again and there's no searching for soothers in the middle of the night anymore!

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- this cutie pie is now a five-month-old! 

 After a pretty rough week about a week ago, things are settling down again. 

He seems older and even rolled over for the first time. 

I'm able to put him down for his nap awake and he falls asleep by himself, which is so great!

He's a smiley, happy, giggly baby and we all love him like crazy!

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This week I'm going to decorate the house for Christmas 

and on Saturday we're putting up the Christmas tree! 

So excited!

Love, Maria

Thank goodness he's cute!

I should be going to bed instead of writing this little post. 

Adam has been kicking my butt the last few days, and I'm pretty exhausted.

I don't know what it is, teeth (already?), gas, or just a fussy phase? 

Whatever it is, I'm over it! I can't wait for him to be over it too!

I know he will, I know thát much, as a second time mom. 

With Micha I would always panic if his mood changed, 

and I would be so scared he would stay fussy forever. 

But, luckily, every hard stage comes to an end eventually, 

that is, until the next one comes around the corner (haha, life with a baby is so much fun).

It is pretty hard though, to see the big picture when you're in the thick of sleepless nights, fussy days, and toddler tantrums and all the frustration that comes with that. 

Every now and then I just need to take a deep breath and remind myself that 'this too shall pass'.

And, lucky for him: he's cute! So we used one of his nap strikes to do a little photo shoot. 

(Can't stay frustrated with such a cutie for long, right?)

Love, Maria

Our October in pictures

Wow, how is it November already?

October flew by so fast, it was such a busy, full month.

I think there were about eight birthdays (family and friends), 

there was fall vacation, 

a family get-together 

and beautiful fall weather as well.

As you can imagine I haven't spent much time behind my computer blogging.

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So, let's get caught up! 

I could've chosen to split up all the photos for separate posts, but I'm lazy so I'm sharing them all at once!

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Our October in photo's:

The first weekend of B's fall vacation we met up with some friends at a nearby forest for a hike and we ended up finding the cutest little orchard with pear and apple trees. 

 

 

Micha and his best buddy in the whole wide world, Ben.

Trying to get at the pears at the top of the tree

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 During B's vacation we went on lots of walks through town, Micha loved all the 'leaf mountains'.

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On the last weekend of fall vacation we visited my sister and her family and they took us to a fun playground with water and rafts and all kinds of cool stuff. 

Not only Micha enjoyed his time there! ;)

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On the last weekend of October we had a family get-together for my dads 62nd birthday.

It was a full house (five of my parents seven children with their families were there, we missed you Alice and Ian!) but we had so much fun with each other!

 

It was freezing cold out, but a few crazies (including the birthday boy) went for a swim

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 This cute little dude turned four months in October

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And, finally, this tiger. 

We don't really celebrate Halloween in Holland (it's slowly gaining in popularity), but I just couldn't leave this tiger onesie at the store when I saw it. 

So on Halloween I had a little tiger following me around all day. 

And all day people were fawning over him. 

I don't blame them, look at him: 

Hope your October was fun as well!

Love, Maria

Ginger-Squash Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Like a good little blogger in Fall I'm sharing something pumpkin-y today. 

Squash, pumpkin, it's the same right? Pota (ay) to, pota (ah) to..

The other day I bought a butternut squash and after a week of it sitting in my kitchen window sill, and still not knowing what to do with it, I decided to check what Pinterest would do. (WWPD, we should make thát into a bracelet) 

I stumbled across this recipe. And I'm glad I did, wow, what a great recipe and what a delicious cake! Butternut Squash, two kinds of ginger (fresh and dry) ánd for good measure a white chocolate frosting. Yum.

I could type out the recipe and share it on my blog, but I only subbed the Hazelnuts for Cashews(allergies) and left the rest of the recipe as is. So I'll leave the instructions to the original poster. Find it here.

I only remembered to take pictures after we'd (read: mostly me) eaten half of the cake, and during making the photos I might have eaten some more...

(note: the photos aren't the best, our computer crashed and now I'm using an old laptop without any editing software. Grrr...)

Enjoy!!

Love, Maria

Let's go for a train ride!

Last weekend the weather was beautiful and we thought we might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

Micha being the typical boy toddler that he is, has developed a fascination for trains and so the idea of going for a train ride popped into our heads.

There's a beautiful little city not far from the city we live in, it takes about twenty minutes to get there by train, the perfect amount of time for M. 

Not to long, but long enough for him to have a fun train experience.

It was a hit! We left in the morning and Micha loved every minute of the train ride! 

The town was beautiful, Adam slept in the carrier and hung out a bit in the stroller and we enjoyed a real Dutch lunch of 'Pannekoeken' (thin, crepe-like pancakes). 

After an hour or two we hopped back on the train and were back in time for the boys afternoon naps.

It was the most perfect little adventure for a Saturday morning!

Our little adventure in pictures:

an almost successful family selfie 

boys and their cars

Enjoying his 'pannekoek'

Love, Maria