Domestic Kate

January came and went in a whirlwind! It's really hard for me to believe that it is actually February. I'm really excited to settle back in at home and get back into the regular routine. I'm actually looking forward to regular things like....laundry and cleaning! I told Tom that that's all it takes for me to appreciate and look forward to housework....a vacation! So, looks like I'll just have to take a mandatory vacation each month. Haha! Wouldn't that be nice? The beginning of January consisted of setting aside Christmas decorations and gifts and getting prepared for our little man to turn one! And turn one he did! We had such a great time celebrating with family and friends that have been there from the beginning, watching our little peanut grow up right along with us. We had a "golf" birthday party theme for Hans and held the party at Tom's golf course. It was a freezing cold day but we had a blast with everyone at the party! We made ma...

Yep, it's January. That means that my precious little guy is almost ONE year old! As all mothers say, I truly can't believe how fast this year has gone by. Tom and I have been looking back at photo's from Day 1 of little man's life and he was just so darn cute and tiny! He's gotten even cuter as the year has gone by, but not so tiny any more! Forgive me for not updating the blog as often as I'd like to...we've been busy over here working on some projects and often preparing for the big O-N-E birthday party! We're doing a golf theme and we're able to have it at Tom's golf course. We're keeping the budget low and, so far, have been super excited at what we've been able to make with things at home and at the golf course. This week, I'm going to attempt to make a (practice) cake that is a ball shape. If it all turns out well, I'll be making Hans' birthday cake as the shape of a golf ball. If it turns out to be a disaster...

At first glance, it may seem like my sweet nephew with the striped hat isn't on our sleigh ride.... but after looking again, {and Tom's photoshop skillz} you can see that he is indeed on our sleigh ride!! Can you find him?!

Tom got me a gift card to Anthropolgie and I was able to browse the store earlier this week while Hans was napping. I love gift cards because I like to take several trips to the store and know I have money to spend there, but still take my time looking through things. I like to really stretch those suckers out rather than spending it all in one shot. While I was there this week, I found this adorable set of children's dishes. They are china but they are safe for the microwave and dishwasher. I love how the animals stick out from the dishes. I would have loved these as a kid! I know they are easily breakable but I'm looking forward to making a "special" lunch for Hans one day using these dishes. I'll probably wait until he is around preschool age. Right now, we're working on using a plastic children's plate without slamming it on the floor. =-)

...and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go!!! We truly had a "vintage christmas" this year as we all headed back to my Grandma's house. All of my siblings and nieces and nephews were able to go as well making this a very special time!! Because the size of our family has more than doubled since we were little kids, we are no longer able to sleep snuggly at Grandma's house and were fortunate enough to be able to stay at a cozy little hotel in town. It felt like we should be waking up to a mountain range out back and with the off and on snow fall throughout the weekend, it really felt like a Christmas in the old movies {for lack of a better description}. There were too many places I wanted to stop along the way from our hotel to my grandma's house. I could take pictures of every old building in this town! To say I'm sentimental would be an understatement. Although, this building holds no significance to my family. I just liked the green gar...