Helpful Tips For Baking Chocolate Cupcakes

After a few failed attempts over the years of making cupcakes, I have come to know a few tricks for success.

• Use room temperature ingredients. Believe it or not, using butter, eggs, egg whites, and milk all at room temperature yields you a smoother, better-incorporated cake batter and thus better cupcakes.

• Do not over-bake. Moist chocolate cupcakes come with just the right amount of time in the oven. Start checking for doneness after 10 minutes and then go from there. Every oven is different (some run hotter than others) so be sure you are checking your cupcakes for doneness every few minutes once you’re getting close to them being completely baked.

• Cool completely before frosting. Frosting is primarily made up of butter and the butter will melt if your cupcakes are not cooled completely. Be patient, you can do this!

Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder Versus All the Others

I have found the best cocoa that will give you the best chocolatey flavor is Dutch Process Cocoa Powder. Regular unsweetened cocoa powder is a little more acidic while Dutch processed is neutral. This just has to do with the way the cocoa beans are processed. While both kinds of cocoa powder will definitely work in this recipe, I like the Dutch-Process best. Ghirardelli has a great Dutch-Process Cocoa Powder that I’ve been using and it is fabulous. I would highly recommend it.

How To Make Chocolate Cupcakes

Ordinary pantry staples come together to create these chocolate cupcakes! For full recipe details and ingredient measurements, see the printable recipe card down below.

Preheat Oven + Prep Muffin Tins

Preheat oven. Line 32 muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

Make the Batter

In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together to combine. Set aside. In a liquid measuring cup, stir buttermilk, vanilla and instant coffee granules (if using) together. Set aside.

In a separate large bowl, mix oil and sugar together until combined. Mix in eggs and egg white, one at a time, until mixture becomes lighter in color, about 90 seconds.

Alternate adding in flour mixture with milk mixture, starting and ending with flour. Scrape the sides and mix again to ensure a smooth batter.

Bake and Cool

Using an ice cream scoop, fill muffin tins 2/3 of the way full with batter.

Bake in the lower 2/3 of the oven. Cupcakes will be done when a toothpick comes out clean or mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. Cool a couple of minutes in pans before trying to remove and transfer to cooling racks. Cool completely before frosting.

How to Make Vanilla Frosting

In a large bowl, measure and add butter, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir with beaters on low (or paddle attachment on stand mixer) to mix and break up the butter. It will still be very powdery and dry. Slowly add in the heavy cream. Once you notice the frosting start to come together stop adding the cream. You may need to add more than the amount listed. This is also normal. Increase mixer speed to medium to get rid of any lumps and create a smooth frosting. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl and mix again to ensure a completely smooth frosting.

Vanilla frosting will be done when it can hold its shape, but you can easily move a butter knife through it. If it’s too thick, add more cream and mix. If you’ve added too much cream and the frosting is too soft, add more powdered sugar. If you notice there are a lot of air bubbles in your frosting, use a large wooden spoon to beat a lot of the air out of the frosting by hand.

A Note About Heavy Cream

You can substitute milk for heavy cream in the frosting recipe. Start with half the amount and slowly add more in as needed until it reaches the desired consistency.

Make Ahead

The best thing about making this chocolate cupcake recipe (and really any baked cake) is they store beautifully if you make them ahead! Here are a few storage options:

Storing Cupcakes at Room Temperature

Once your cupcakes have been baked and cooled, put them in an airtight container and store at room temperature overnight. Prepare the frosting then cover and store in the fridge overnight as well. When you are ready to assemble and decorate, set the frosting out at room temperature to soften for about 30-45 minutes. Give it a quick mix to loosen it up in your mixer for about a minute, then frost away! (You may have to add a splash of heavy cream or milk to bring it back to life.)

Freezing Cupcakes

Yes, you can freeze even frosted cupcakes! Avoid adding any decorations or sprinkles until ready to serve. Use a container that is airtight, and big enough to not smoosh the tops of the cupcakes. Place them in the freezer for 2 hours. This time will allow the frosting to freeze. At this point, pull them out and quickly wrap each cupcake individually in plastic wrap and place back into the airtight container. Doing so will help retain the shape and moisture in the cupcake. Cupcakes will stay fresh in the freezer for about 1 month.

To Thaw: Remove from freezer, and gently unwrap plastic wrap from each cupcake. Place back in the airtight container with the lid on and allow to thaw at room temperature for a couple hours before serving.

More Cupcake Recipes to Try!

• Carrot Cake Cupcakes
• Vanilla Cupcakes
• Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
• Vegan Cupcakes
• Oreo Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

The printable recipe card is below. Be sure to save/print/bookmark or share this recipe! Have a great day, friends!

Print

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

These Chocolate Cupcakes with easy Vanilla Frosting are a fabulous dessert, special occasion treat or birthday surprise. Made with simple pantry ingredients, you will fall in love with this recipe.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword chocolate cupcake recipe, chocolate cupcakes, vanilla frosting

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 32 cupcakes

Calories 252kcal

Author Lauren’s Latest

Ingredients

For the Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
• ¾ cup  dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules, such as Folgers optional
• ¾ cup vegetable oil or canola oil
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg white

For the Vanilla Frosting:

• 1 cup butter softened
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup heavy cream* or more, as needed (see notes about substituting milk below)

Instructions

For the Chocolate Cupcakes:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 32 muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together to combine. Set aside. In a liquid measuring cup, stir buttermilk, vanilla and instant coffee granules (if using) together. Set aside.
• In a separate large bowl, mix oil and sugar together until combined. Mix in eggs and egg white, one at a time, until mixture becomes lighter in color, about 90 seconds.
• Alternate adding in flour mixture with milk mixture, starting and ending with flour. Scrape the sides and mix again to ensure a smooth batter.
• Using an ice cream scoop, fill tins 2/3 of the way full with batter.

  Bake 15-22 minutes in the lower 2/3 of the oven. Cupcakes will be done when a toothpick comes out clean or mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. Cool 5-10 minutes in pans before trying to remove and transfer to cooling racks. Cool completely before frosting.

For the Vanilla Frosting:

• In a large bowl, measure and add butter, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir with beaters on low (or paddle attachment on stand mixer) to mix and break up the butter. It will still be very powdery and dry. Slowly add in the heavy cream. Once you notice the frosting start to come together stop adding the cream. You may need to add more than the amount listed. This is also normal. Increase mixer speed to medium to get rid of any lumps and create a smooth frosting. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl and mix again to ensure a completely smooth frosting.
• Vanilla frosting will be done when it can hold its shape, but you can easily move a butter knife through it. If it's too thick, add more cream and mix. If you've added too much cream and the frosting is too soft, add more powdered sugar. If you notice there are a lot of air bubbles in your frosting, use a large wooden spoon to beat a lot of the air out of the frosting by hand.

Notes

*You can substitute milk for heavy cream in the frosting recipe. Start with half the amount and slowly add more in as needed until it reaches the desired consistency.

Nutrition

Calories: 252kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 30mg | Sodium: 177mg | Potassium: 102mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 247IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting appeared first on Lauren's Latest.

Happy happy birthday to my favorite daughter!!

We now have a teenager! Brooke is 13 and we are not mad about it! This girl is such a delight. She is kind, quiet, hilarious, so smart (4.0 gpa!), loves volleyball and her friends, asks to babysit to earn money, plays with her brothers and is typically always agreeable. She is logical like her momma so if we explain what the rules are and why, she doesn’t give us a hard time. (She rarely gives us a hard time anyways.)

Yesterday, Gordon asked her what wisdom or advice she would give her younger brothers and after thinking about it for a while, she said ‘don’t worry about what other people think of you. Their opinions really don’t matter.’

The world is a better place because of you, Brooke, and we are so thrilled you came first. Happy Birthday baby girl!

The post Happy Birthday Brooke! appeared first on Lauren's Latest.

Welp, I’ve been waiting MONTHS for this moment and I can’t believe its finally here! Friends, our kitchen remodel is finally done and we have a drop dead gorgeous kitchen. (Can you hear the angels singing?) I think most of you have been watching this whole remodel process unfold on my instagram stories and I’m just so glad that it’s done and I don’t have to keep updating you on what the heck has been happening because *it’s done*! Scroll to see all the before and after photos, but probably more importantly all the resource links at the bottom of the post. Hallelujah!

Cabinets

We were originally going to use Ikea cabinets, but after going back and forth on what we were willing and not willing to do, we opted for a local cabinet maker who made all our cabinets custom and I’m so glad we did! They turned out better than we could have hoped and everything fits perfectly. The custom range hood came out better than I could have hoped and I just LOVE the finished product. We would 100% recommend Mike’s Custom Cabinets (in a small town called Cornelius) here in Oregon.

Our cabinets that are around the edges of the kitchen are white, but the island cabinet color is called “Slate Tile” by Shermin Williams. It’s so pretty and I love the color we chose.

Our cabinet pulls are from Pottery Barn, from the Mercer Line.

• Blue Island Paint Color: Shermin Williams Slate Tile
• Drawer Handles: Mercer Bin Pulls in Matte Black by Pottery Barn
• Cabinet Pulls: Mercer Cabinet Knobs in 1 1/4″ in Matte Black by Pottery Barn

Counters & Backsplash

We ended up choosing a white quartz for our counters and backsplash. It is called Calcutta Clara and we love the look of it! Our general contractor for the project used a local company called MSI for stone work. While we LOVE the finished product, we would not recommend using MSI. It took them six visits to get everything right. They measured our counters and backsplash incorrectly from the beginning and had to remove and replace a section of counter, plus the entire backsplash. This was the biggest headache of the entire experience. A 2 month project turned into a 5 month project because of their errors. It was extremely frustrating to say the least. While our contractor still swears by them, I cannot in good conscience recommend them. But we do love our counters, once they finally got it right. So, there’s that.

Appliances

I partnered with ZLINE to give us our gorgeous range, hood insert, microwave drawer, dishwasher, sink and faucet. We bought our Pro Series Frigidaire column fridge and column freezer outright from a local appliance vendor, but they are available across the country.

Since our appliances were installed about 6 weeks before the kitchen was considered ‘complete’, I’ve had lots of time to test everything again and again and I am loving everything I chose. The fridge is great and SO big (I really do love all the space!) and the range is simple but works beautifully and looks stunning.

• 33″ Fridge and Freezer columns by Frigidaire-these are two separate appliances that get put together. Yes, it’s 66 big and dreamy inches all together!
• 36″ ZLINE 6 Burner Dual Fuel Gas Range– this thing is a beauty! Plus the focal point of our entire kitchen. Show stopper!
• 34″ ZLINE Hood Insert– I never knew I could love a hood insert more than this! I’ve never had one before, but I love that it looks super custom on the outside, but so simple (and functional) on the inside.
• 24″ ZLINE Stainless Steel Dishwasher– simple and gets the job done. A pretty basic dishwasher with not a lot of bells and whistles, but it’s been great so far!
• ZLINE undermount stainless steel sink– I love the depth of this one-basin sink, but also that it comes with a utility rack that holds dishes about an inch above the bottom of the sink. It’s a really smart design.
• ZLINE Dali Pull Down Kitchen Faucet– I love this thing! I love how it looks, I love how functional it is and it stays shiny!
• 24″ ZLINE Built-In Microwave Drawer– omg, this is the best thing ever. I love having a microwave that is low enough to clean easily, but that has a lock button that keeps it closed so my toddler won’t break it. Smartest thing ever.

Floating Shelves

I have gotten SO MANY QUESTIONS about where I bought the floating shelves between the hood and the counter cabinet! Believe it or not, Gordon built those! We had some leftover butcher block in our garage that he cut to size and then used these brackets (from Amazon) to mount them to the wall. You just have to drill two or three holes in the back of the wood, depending on how many brackets you’re using and match it up to the back of the wood. It was a relatively quick process and they turned out so well!

Lighting

We had can lights in our kitchen before the remodel started (which we have completely kept!) But we did switch out our old island lighting for these larger black lights from Home Depot. I had been going back and forth on a few different shapes of light fixtures, but when I saw these, they were perfect. The black lights over the natural wood shelves are actually meant for bathroom vanities, but clearly I didn’t care. I loved the shape, size and the style of them, and once they arrived I DIED when I pulled them out of the box.

• Vega LED Bath Bar Light– Wall Mounted Lights over the shelves; we got the small size which is 23″ in length.
• Black Metal Pendant Lights– a pretty great price for large lights like these.

Flooring

I ended up purchasing Luxury Plank Vinyl Flooring from Cali Floors in color Seaboard Oak. We put this not just in the kitchen but across the entire first floor and I’m so glad we did! While at first it seems like it was too dark, it has since grown on me and I’ve certainly come around to them. The look and feel is phenomenal and I’m converted to plank vinyl. This stuff is legit.

Paint Colors

I painted the kitchen two different colors: Sea Salt by Shermin Williams (the walls above the shelves) and Fleur de Sel by Shermin Williams (the color in the rest of the kitchen and whole bottom floor). They are both cooler tones that work well with everything we remodeled.

The post Our New Kitchen appeared first on Lauren's Latest.

So excited to be sharing with you our new and improved pantry! With our kitchen remodel removing the small pantry we had in our kitchen, we knew we were going to have to redo the storage closet under the stairs to be our new pantry. Originally, it had carpet and wire shelving that was broken and falling off the wall. It was a bit of a mess going into things and it wasn’t very functional AT ALL. We have that rubbermaid wire shelving in nearly every closet in this house and I hate it.

So, once we decided to actually bite the bullet and replace all the floors on the first level of our home, we knew the pantry would be another side project. So, after the floors were installed (and I got sick of searching for food through five different bins in our dining room), I painted the new pantry, Gordon got the shelves built, I did a quick white wash on them and we got everything installed. It feels SO GOOD to have a place for everything! I love how functional it is now and how much more we can store in there with two extra shelves! It was certainly worth the work.

About the Built-In Shelves

Gordon first found the studs in the wall and marked them with a pencil. Then we decided where we wanted the shelves to land and measured them out on the wall horizontally with a level. Then he installed the smaller pieces of wood that the shelves would be supported by. We also used these black shelf brackets from Amazon for extra stability. He then cut the 12-inch boards custom for each level and that’s all she wrote! Took him a few hours over the course of two days because we have kids. He absolutely could have gotten this done in an afternoon if he didn’t have a million interruptions.

Items Used For Organization

I got the bulk of my organizational bins from the Container Store…one of my favorite places. I love being organized and having a place for everything. New York engrained a minimalist mentality in me and I would rather throw something our or give it away rather than find a new space for it. When you’re in a small apartment, it’s extremely challenging finding space for anything! So, I got really good at organizing and just throwing stuff out. The main items I used for organizing my new pantry include:

• Large wicker baskets– I love using these for extra bags of cereal (like the big ones from costco) and bags of crackers or chips.
• Open Front Wooden Storage Bins-Good for separating things out and keeping things looking cohesive. These also stack on top of each other which is GREAT.
• OXO Cereal Storage Containers– because we buy cereal in bulk, these make a lot of sense for our family.
• Roller Bins for Dry Goods– I use these for my flour, sugar and rice. They are actually meant for dog food, but work perfectly for a pantry! They are food grade and air tight. Wash them well with bleach before adding any food.
• Lazy Susans– for easier access to all my vinegars, oils and baking supplies
• OXO Pop Top storage containers– I only ended up using a few of these and returned a bunch. Mainly because I don’t see myself emptying different seeds or bars or all the things I buy into their own separate container. I’d rather have a bunch of small containers in an open storage bin. I did use a few larger ones for already opened pasta and some granola bars. But that’s it. I returned all the small ones.

Anyways, that’s it! Let me know if you have any questions about our pantry, whether its before or after and we will try our best to get you answers Have a great day!

The post New & Improved Pantry! appeared first on Lauren's Latest.

A Christmas Edition of This Week at the Brennans’!

I am slowly taking more and more photos, getting back in the groove of documenting our lives….slash looking at my husband’s phone and stealing all the photos he took. Ha! I love looking back on these posts to see what we were up to when. It’s certainly been a nice and quiet holiday for us.

A couple of Sunday’s ago, we were able to travel to Hood River to have a holiday family dinner with Gordon’s family. He is the youngest of eight kids and six of them (including us) still live in Oregon which is a nice treat, especially around the holidays. My kids got to hang out with their cousins and play with their favorite dog, Coconut (who makes me think we could handle a dog because he is the sweetest, smallest, hypoallergenic parti yorkie ever.) Gordon might kill me if I came home with a dog, but my kids would call he a hero of epic proportions. ANYWAYS, we had a Mexican feast. My mother in law made my Carnitas and I made my mango salsa, but with pineapple and mexican street corn guacamole. It was delightful. After dinner, we played Cards Against Humanity (family edition) and swapped gifts for a white elephant.

A few weeks before Christmas, we hosted a Pie Party. What is a pie party, you ask? It’s basically a pie competition. Everyone coming brings a pie, everyone tastes all the pies and then we vote on our favorites. We had different categories for some different winners, but the overall winner was a peanut butter fudge pie. I made my key lime pie.

A few days after the pie party, I hosted a Lauren’s Latest Work Christmas Party. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but I have 4 people locally that I hire to help me keep up with the load that this business is. I try to spend as much time as I can with my kids and give minimal time to this business of mine which means I give any responsibilities I can to others. They work hard, so I wanted to have a little celebration. Lots of yummy food eaten and a fun time had by all.

Then the next night, Gordon and I went to his work Christmas party. (It was a busy week full of parties!) He works for a pretty small security consulting firm and it has been such a great fit for him. He works with really great guys and they sing his praises constantly, which is so nice to hear.

I actually sent out Christmas cards this year! AND they arrived before Christmas…except the ones that got sent to Canada. I don’t actually know if they showed up yet. Haha! I actually designed the card through Canva AND got it printed through them, too. They were so fast and the printing quality was amazing. I paid about $100 for 100 cards and envelops on the nicest paper they had and rushed the order. It was a steal. I will probably order cards from them every year now. They are amazing!

The days leading up to Christmas, Brooke helped me make our traditional Christmas wreath. It’s the Christmas breakfast I grew up eating and its one of the only traditions we have. It takes several days to make and is labor intensive, so we only make it once a year. It’s so delicious though! You forget just how good it is until you have it again and then are reminded. (It’s like homemade croissant dough that is filled with an almond flavored filling and braided into a wreath.)

I was also working overtime, trying to post as many holiday recipes as I had planned. It was a lot and thankfully we had Porter scheduled to go to daycare a few days the week before Christmas so I could buckle down and get my work done. Then after the 23rd, I was mostly unavailable online because I wanted it to feel like a true holiday, just focusing on my family.

Once my ‘vacation’ started, I baked our favorite Sugar Cookies with Eddie and had a few friends come over to decorate. These are also things I don’t make frequently that you forget just how good they are! If you haven’t tried this recipe yet, I’d highly recommend it.

Gordon had several days off between Christmas and New Years which was such a nice treat! I don’t even remember the last time he didn’t have to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Probably back when we were in Idaho in 2016. So we celebrated Christmas alone, ate more than ever, slept, watched movies, played lots of games together and just sat by the fire. I was telling Gordon the other day that it’s been such a treat to just be together. The break and lack of responsibilities has been so wonderful.

Once Christmas came, I was able to take a big sigh of relief and enjoy the day. Big gifts included basketball hoop for Blake, a big fort building kit for Eddie and a tool set for Porter, safety glasses included. Brooke asked for a bunch of little things, like art supplies, makeup and exercise clothes, so that is what she got! I got Gordon a new wallet, a few Office based items like a Dwight Schrute bobble head and lots of chocolate. Scroll down for my favorite gift. Yes, it was a mug. It was a relaxing day that ended with us playing cards all together. Uno and The Oregon Trail.

Right after Christmas, we got snow! Say what?! And not just a pitiful half inch. We got a good dumping that lasted a few days. It was almost perfect timing My boys were thrilled…except for Porter. I took him out and he was very concerned. Nothing a little hot chocolate couldn’t fix. But look how pretty all that snow looks outside my beautiful kitchen window?

Speaking of kitchen, here is an overdue kitchen update: we have counters and cabinets! Yay! Our appliances are all hooked up but still no backsplash. The company who is supposed to install them have come four separate times and haven’t been able to get the job done. But then the fifth time they came, they INSTALLED THE WRONG BACKSPLASH. Can you believe that? Our luck is just terrible. So the backsplash will allegedly get installed tomorrow, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Once the backsplash is there, we can add in floating shelves on either side and get that wall completely done. We have to also get holes drilled for some popup outlets in the counter tops, get some trim added to the doorway into the dining room and the window and have the ceiling patched. Gordon still needs to install the hood insert and add the trim kit for the fridge, but all minor things. It feels like a billion loose ends, but at least I’m not cooking in my laundry room anymore. Hallelujah.

A few days after Christmas is my birthday and man oh man was it a rough day. It started with me taking Porter to urgent care. He wasn’t feeling well, but the most concerning thing was his breathing. He was using a lot of accessory muscles to breathe and it seemed not normal. Definitely Darth Vader breathing. So, I called the pediatrician and they couldn’t see him soon enough, so I went to Urgent Care. After a quick visit there, they sent me to the Emergency Room. They thought he needed a breathing treatment which they couldn’t offer. So off we went to the ER.

We waited about 45 minutes in the waiting room before going into triage and then into a room. Naturally, they tested him for covid and it was negative. But then it became a bit of a puzzler. They sent in a respiratory therapist and she wasn’t was favorite human. She tried clearing out his nose and giving him a breathing treatment, but it kind of backfired because he screamed and cried for a full hour afterwards, making him even more stuffed up. Then I got the idea to ask for juice or crackers or really anything to see if that would keep him from crying. It worked and he finally calmed down enough for them to check him out again and check in with the pediatrician to see what else they could try. Anyways, for whatever reason, they hesitantly sent us home because he perked up with food even though his pulse was high and his breathing wasn’t resolved. I was given a list of things to do at home and then another list of “if these things happen, bring him back to the hospital”. Soooo, that was fun and stressful. After two days, he certainly was on the mend, but those two days while he was fighting this virus was rough. So, it wasn’t the best birthday, but Gordon did order me sushi when we got home, so that was a plus.

New Years was uneventful and we went to bed early and school started up a few days after that. So, while I love Christmas and the holidays in general, I love getting back into the swing of things with our regular schedule.

Here’s What’s Happening in the Next Few Weeks

Apparently our kitchen will get finished FINALLY. Again, I’ll believe it when I see it.

We are scheduling some work to be done on the beach house! Going from one remodel to the next, I tell ya. This one will be done by us, almost entirely, except for some exterior work (gutters, some deck work, replacing the front porch steps and replacing some siding with hardy board). We will all of the interior work. We also do have to do some work on the foundation which is scheduled to be completed over the next few days, but the previous owner paid for all of those upfront before we closed on the house, which is really so nice that we don’t have to pay for that because its quite pricey. We are hoping to have everything done by October so we can rent it out when we’re not there. We’ll see. That timeline can be flexible, if need be.

I’m taking my middle boys to get their first covid shots! I know the vaccine isn’t a quick fix, but its one level of protection I can at least give them to help.

I am canceling a trip Gordon and I have been planning for months to London and Paris. We thought by April/May 2022, things would be somewhat back to normal, but we just aren’t sure if international travel is worth the risk, incase we happen to get covid. So we are hoping to go somewhere domestically. I wanted a trip for just us, but we may end up taking the whole family…..somewhere. Ha! Maybe we’ll drive to Northern California or something. I don’t know where we’ll land, but we know Hawaii worked wonders for us, so we’re wanting warm and sunny.

Anyways, that’s it for now! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

The post This Week at the Brennans’ appeared first on Lauren's Latest.

Kids

While I tried to be as unisex as possible when it came to kid gifts, I do trend a little more towards boy since I have three of them after all. Wheee! Also, don’t tell my boys about some of these items Santa is bringing.

• Magna Tiles– a classic gift that my kids have been playing with for years and years. I’ve tried the cheaper knock off version and feel like the quality isn’t quite as good as the original.
• Dino Building Toy Set– My Eddie loves little projects that involve power tools and these dinosaurs can get taken apart and put back together again and again. I got this for Ed for Christmas.
• Personalized Name Puzzles– If you’ve been around this past year, you’ll know I bought all my boys name puzzles because they were just so darn cute! This is a fun one that includes animals, too!
• Kids Name Crayons– Another personalized, yet useful, gift. I think this is the cutest idea.
• Play Tunnel– picked up one of these for Porter this year! I remember my little brother getting one of these for Christmas and us trying to convince him to crawl through.
• Wooden Balance Beam-Ok, I loved this idea when I saw it! Great for all my boys and something to keep them occupied that doesn’t involve looking at a screen. You can change the boards around to create different levels and shapes on the ground.
• Coding Robot Kit– Got this for Blake! I hope he loves it. It looks super cool. Building a robot, then using coding (very simple coding) to control it!
• Boogie Boards-I have continually bought these year after year since Brooke and Blake were little! A great, quiet toy I can throw in my purse or have in the church bag. If you know, you know. These are great!
• Kiddie Chef Knives– I’ve been touting these year after year. I love involving my kids in the kitchen, helping to cut fruits and veggies. While Blake is at the age to be able to start handling a real knife, I don’t trust Eddie with one yet. Enter these great knives!
• Bouncy House– I originally bought our bounce house when we were living in NYC and I needed something fun for my kids to do when it was raining outside. A friend suggested a bounce house (because she had one herself) and it’s been the BEST purchase!
• Micro Mini Scooter– THE BEST brand of scooter, especially if you have kids who play hard. I didn’t want to spend my money on an expensive scooter, but after buying the cheapest ones and having them break after a few months of city living and using them daily, it was obvious why EVERY KID had the micro scooters. They are really high quality and last!

Teen

I may have leaned more towards more girly items, but I do have an *almost* teenager that is a girl. Go figure. Lots of fun items on this list I’m probably more excited abut than Brooke will be. Ha!

• Cards Against Humanity (Family Edition)– I love the idea of cards against humanity, but can be a little inappropriate, even for me. But the family version is great! An awesome game my almost teenager plays with her friends. Bought this for Brooke this year.
• Temporary Tattoo Markers-My daughter is so artsy and creative that I thought this was a great idea! She draws on herself with pen all the time anyways, so why not make things interesting?
• Body Pillow– After stealing our larger lumbar pillow from our bed, Gordon and I thought it was about time we invested in an actual body pillow for Brooke. (Hiding this inconspicuously isn’t very easy with nosey little ones, PS)
• Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza-a game we’ve owned for a few years that is conceptually very simple but really fun to play.
• Mini Letter Light Board-Great for boys and girls, maybe more so for girls. Are your teen girls also into interior design as much as mine is?
• Photo String Lights– Brooke saved up and bought these with her own money and they are really cute.
• Light Strips– Also an item Brooke loves and bought with her own babysitting money.
• FujiFilm Instax Mini– I bought this for Brooke when she was 9 but she didn’t really use or love it until this year. The photos she takes and hangs up in her room are so cute and creative!
• FujiFilm Instax Smartphone Printer– print photos from your smartphone with this little gem. If you have a teen with a phone, this is a great option.

For Him

If my husband wants something for himself during the year, he will typically just go out and buy it, making it way more difficult to buy for him. But here are a few tried and true items that I know Gordon loves.

• Herschel Toiletry Kit-I feel like this is a good all-purpose item that always goes over well.
• Yeti Stackable Mug– I love the yeti brand because they truly make a good product. We own a ton of yeti items. These are great! They keep cold drinks cold and hot drinks hot. Brooke made tea in this and she couldn’t drink it for 6 hours because it was still ‘too hot’.
• Die Hard Christmas Book– Probably one of the funniest books out there. A rhyming version of the die hard story with lots of pictures.
• Slim Bi-Fold Leather Wallet– I am getting this for Gordon this year, so don’t mention it to him if you see him. This one is a slim bifold with a magnetic closure.
• Blender Bottle– My husband makes protein drinks every day and we can always use more of these. Truly.
• Classic Raybans-I love how these look on my husband, so this is more of an expensive present that he always appreciates.
• Jimmy Choo Man Cologne– I’ve been touting this cologne for years (ever since I was pregnant with Eddie!) and it’s my favorite. Seriously, give this one a try. HE GOOD.

For Her

• ILIA stick blush– If you like that dewy look, this is the blush for you! I’ve been wearing it for the past 6 months and I’m in love with it. I use the color “at last”.
• YETI Rambler with Straw-Again with the yetis. I can’t stop buying them, but they truly are the best! These are amazing because they come with the straw…works wonders if you happen to love cold diet coke. Just saying.
• Staub Cast Iron Dutch Oven-If you buy a good dutch oven, it will last for years! Staub is one of the best brands out there and yes I bought myself the 5 1/2 quart for Christmas in white.
• Olaplex Hair Oil– The holy grail of hair oil. This has worked extremely well on my hair, keeping it look healthy.
• Funny Doormat– you will understand if you click the link. Yes, I bought this and its outside right now.
• My Favorite High Waisted Jeggings– the best $20 you’ll spend! So comfy and cute! I got the light denim blue.
• Braun Laser Hair Remover– This has been a game changer for me this year! I suffer from Keratosis Pilaris (red bumpy skin) on my thighs and arms. Removing the hair with the laser has made my skin so much more soft, smooth and bonus! Hair free. Yes, I still have a few patches of hair that grow here and there, but for the most part I am nearly hair free. As long as you have dark enough hair and you are consistent, it should also work for you.
• Anthropologie Vanilla Perfume-my go-to vanilla. Smells so good!
• Highlighting Pencil Duo– An easy way to add highlight around your eyes. I was gifted this from a friend and fell in love!

White Elephant Gifts

• Potty Putter Toilet Game– more of a gag gift that always goes over well for white elephant!
• Crap Taxidermy Book– probably the best coffee table book. So hilarious!
• Bearded Santa Masks-if you’re going to wear a mask, why not be festive!
• Bob Ross Chia Pet-I love a good chia pet. This one is hilarious to me.
• Beer Belly Fanny Pack-you’re welcome.
• Chuck Norris Wall Calendar– For funsies just because my husband thinks Chuck Norris jokes are hilarious, which they are.

The post Holiday Gift Guides appeared first on Lauren's Latest.

Here’s what happened this past week:

Well, first things first. Our kitchen is certainly coming along! We got our kitchen cabinets installed, we got our quartz counters and we just recently got our huge folding window, too! It’s so hard to see things inch along so slowly, but we jumped ahead leaps and bounds these past two weeks! There obviously is more work to do, but while it is slow it is steady and for that I’m thankful. I am in love with the shape of the hood. It’s a little hard to see, but it tapers up to the ceiling and is so pretty!! I can’t wait until its all completely done!

I don’t have any pictures of our kitchen with the new window just yet because it was a very recent install and the whole process was a bit of an ordeal, but you’ll have to trust me that she’s in and she’s beautiful!!

The last big step in this kitchen remodel saga is installing our flooring over the entire first floor of the house, plus a few smaller jobs like two cabinets getting installed on the counters, paint, minor electrical and plumbing. Oh and the backsplash. We’re getting closer, step by step!

For Thanksgiving, we were supposed to go to our beach house to enjoy the few days we had off, but Eddie, Brooke and I got a stomach bug and were feeling awful! Some of us threw up a couple times, some of us had diarrhea and we all had very upset stomachs for the days leading up to Thanksgiving. So, I pulled the plug on that trip and we stayed home instead. I happened to have a turkey in my freezer and last minute (Wednesday afternoon) I decided to cook it. I defrosted it in a brine overnight and since we have no oven, we smoked it out back in our smoker. I tell ya, where there’s a will, there’s a way! All our sides were cooked in the toaster oven or pressure cooker and I bought a lot of premade food to keep my work minimal. It still was a bit challenging all things considered but not impossible! It was a tasty meal and we certainly had lots to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving morning, Gordon played football for a turkey bowl with some friends. I told him to not be a hero and take it easy since he recently busted his knee. “Don’t die” were my exact words. Anyways, he got home and was so sore. He has been taking it easy and not really working out these past three months to make sure his knee was healing as quickly as possible. So, I guess you could say he wasn’t conditioned for it. Was quite the rude awakening for his whole body. Ha! But it was good for him to test out his knee and see just where his limits are now. He is getting back into the swing of things and is working out more regularly, so yay for him!

Porter is very slowly getting used to daycare. As a mama’s boy through and through, its so hard for him to make that adjustment, but he is getting there! I get daily photos and updates and he is doing better and better each time he goes! It makes my mama heart so happy. This past weekend, he couldn’t stop talking about Miss Julie and the crackers and peanut butter and trucks at daycare. He even was practicing saying “mama comes back” a bunch because I tell him that mama will always come back every time I drop him off. So, I’m thinking this week will be his best one yet!

On Saturday, I decided to try an Advanced Treadmill Bootcamp Class through my peloton app and just about died. Holy.Moly. It was so hard! Lots of running up steep hills and sprints paired with shoulder presses, deadlifts and ab exercises. I was certainly feeling it yesterday and even into today! I’m trying to ease myself back into running and I thought a bootcamp class would be good. Joke’s on me.

Here’s What’s Coming Up This Next Week:

We are getting our flooring installed! FINALLY!! It’s going to take a few days because it’s a big job, but once the floors are in, we can install the appliances and I can finally get a working stove again! Praise! We are also getting our backsplash installed and paint is getting slapped back on the walls. We are trying to schedule a time with the cabinet company to come back to install the last few cabinets on the counters so we can unpack our dishes. Here’s to hoping that happens this week.

Our enormous fridge and freezer are getting delivered and installed on Saturday! Eek! The floors better be done by then or else we are in serious trouble. Ha! The floors are in the process of getting installed as I type this, so I think we should be good to go.

We are hoping by Friday to have floors so we can bring all our furniture back downstairs since it’s been upstairs for almost two months. I tell ya, everything is hinging on these darn floors! Fingers crossed these installers work like the wind.

I am working on quite a few posts for the blog, including a gift guide that I am almost done! Hoping to post that soon. Be on the lookout for that

Have a great week, friends! I’m hoping by Christmas I’ll have my whole house back to myself. Can you even imagine? We are counting the days.

The post This Week at the Brennans’ appeared first on Lauren's Latest.

A nice big huge recap! I’ve been so busy trying to keep up with everything that I’ve seriously slacked on probably one of my favorite things to do: This Week at the Brennans’. I love looking back through the archives to see what we did when. It’s certainly a busy time for our family right now, but I’m hoping to prioritize this again. Here we gooooo:

June

As my kids were finishing school, I made the decision to stop posting to social media, especially instagram stories, for the entire summer. I didn’t want to feel tethered to my phone and actually be present with my kids. The stats were also starting to weigh on me and effect me and my mental health negatively. I thought it was best to cut it out completely for a time and I’m so grateful I did! I was able to enjoy the time off and really feel refreshed and ready to come back.

Aunt Shayna and Uncle Tony came to visit! Like I mentioned in my last post, we welcomed my sister and her family in our home in Oregon. They drove here from Arizona and enjoyed the much cooler weather! My brother-in-law is originally from Oregon and has really fond memories of this beautiful state, so they were so happy to hear that we moved back. Excuses to come visit! Since we are only an hour from the coast, they took full advantage of the proximity and went nearly every day! Gordon had to work the week they were here, so it was mostly just me and the kids with them, hanging out and having fun.

Shayna, my older sister, and I haven’t seen each other since November 2019 when I went to Arizona for Thanksgiving when Porter was just two months old. Gordon was scheduled to work the whole Thanksgiving weekend (what else was new in New York…lol!) so I took my four little ones and we went to Arizona. It was so enjoyable and such a fun visit. Lots of extra hands to help take care of little ones and hold a baby so I could rest and cook a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Fast forward to now, you forget how much you love and miss someone until you’re able to see them. Man oh man was it so good for my soul to have a full house with people you just love so much.

A lot of our kids line up in age, so it was so fun for everyone to have someone to play with. Porter is obviously the youngest and is a big time mama’s boy, but he came to LOVE my sister, his Aunty. I think it helps that we look similar. Initially, he was hesitant, but she won him over day by day. And funnily enough, some of Shayna’s kids thought I was her a few times, too. So fun!

While they were here, we wanted to channel our Grandma Ernhofer and make some of her recipes. Well, we were pretty darn ambitious and decided to make some strudel…homemade fillings and dough. Considering we have few memories of this recipe and the actual recipe card says things like “stir until it’s ready” or “a little less than 1/2 cup”, yeah, it gets a little tricky. We called our Aunt back in Canada to get a little guidance, but it was only until we made the recipe that we had even more questions. Ha! Overall, it turned out better than expected. We certainly tried and we were really happy with our results, but know exactly what we need to change the next time we make it.

One evening right before our visitors left, the parents were able to go out for dinner and grab a little treat. Copper River is our tried and true restaurant we always go to for date night, so we brought them there and after that even though we were truly so stuffed, we finally *finally* tried Crumbl. It smelled so good there that it convinced me to get a whole dozen. Ha! Man oh man are the cookies over the top delicious. I made the mistake of looking up the nutrition. Learn from my foolish mistake. Don’t bother looking at the nutrition. Lol!

July

Brooke somehow convinced me to let her get a bunny! She is a holland lop doe named Daisy. While I am currently morally against all animals, I knew Brooke would be a responsible animal owner. Plus, a bunny isn’t too big of a commitment like a dog or cat and much cuter than a goldfish. So we came up with a deal: she pays for half of everything we needed for a bunny (cage, food, etc..) plus half the cost of the actual bunny. Once we got Daisy home, Brooke would be responsible for earning all the money needed for the food. So far, so good! She is a really sweet little bunny. Porter even starts every morning running into Brooke’s room to say good morning to Daisy! So cute.

Gordon and I were able to take Brooke to the Portland, Oregon temple for our church. Once kids in our church turn 12, they are able to participate in worship services in the temple, as long as they meet certain criteria-spiritually. It really was so lovely to go with her and Gordon. I truly do love this little family of mine.

We also had a fun block party with friends for the 4th of July. Since it fell on a Sunday, we went to church in our red, white and blue. It’s still a little weird for me to be patriotic when I’m still Canadian (at least I feel weird about it) but I am grateful to be able to live where I live. The freedoms we enjoy here and in Canada are truly incredible.

August

At the beginning of the month, I was able to go with Brooke and a group of teenage girls to a girl’s camp for our church. I was the cook for all 25 people and I must say, it was such fun! It was so nice to do something I love uninterrupted without kids at my legs, asking to be picked up every few minutes. It also helped that we were in a beautiful, secluded campground.

We were able to go camping at the Oregon coast with all of Gordon’s siblings (there are 8 kids in his family all together!) so it was really so nice being able to be all together again. So many cousins, Aunts and Uncles to play with. It’s been YEARS. We stayed at Cape Lookout which is the tradition for the Brennan family, and we stayed all together nearly a week!

I looked up what the weather was going to be and packed accordingly. Well, to my surprise, it was about 20 degrees cooler than what I had planned for. I double checked my app and I was looking at Oceanside California, not Oceanside Oregon! Ahh! I froze nearly the entire time. I tried to spend all my time by the fire or in my sleeping bag. We got new, super comfy and warm sleeping bags plus a new tent and used them a lot! It was really so fun, besides feeling cold all the time (the worst feeling!)

By the end of August, knowing I was going to be ‘back to work’, I knew I had to seriously reexamine my blog and what it was actually worth. Yes, it earns money, but is my time best spent this way? What would I rather be doing? What do I enjoy doing? By the time September was rolling around, I knew I had to get rid of my meal plan service and scale back the work I was doing. Not only to free up some mental space, but to also make room and time for my kids. They need a full time Mom right now and me working on a blog as much as I am isn’t cutting it.

It actually took me a long time (at least 4 months) of going back and forth with this decision and what exactly would I do and what wouldn’t I do when it came to the blog. I still am working out some of those details of what it all will mean or look like. But I know I can’t spend as much time on the blog as I previously once did. I know the money doesn’t matter to me like it once used to. And I know that I’ll be 100% present with my kids until Porter goes to school. I still will blog and still will post recipes, but with what capacity? I’m not sure yet.

September

My kids went back to school! WHAT!! Real life school! Brooke started 7th grade, Blake is in 3rd and Eddie is in Kindergarten. What a mind trip. These kiddos of mine are truly just flying through their lives. I have to keep reminding myself that these are the good old days that I will look back on. Really trying hard to enjoy it!

All our kids love school and have fantastic teachers. Brooke is sailing through all her classes with straight A’s and Blake and Eddie are at the top of their respective classes as well. I’m so grateful for this tender mercy. Some school years were definitely more challenging for me than others, so I’m glad that so far so good for my kids. I’m sure we’ll get there, though.

We celebrated Porter’s birthday which is a little ridiculous because I have a hard time believing he is two already. Doesn’t it just seem like he was just born? We certainly enjoyed lots of chocolate cake and ice cream. Yum yum.

Brooke was also able to sign up for volleyball in her school and be on the volleyball team. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday she had games and then after school practices on Tuesday and Thursday. Her team went the whole season undefeated!! Yay! Plus we are trying to find her an actual volleyball team that won’t eat up too much of her social or family life. Easier said then done.

Blake and Eddie played Soccer for September and October which made for a busy week. One boy had practice Monday and Wednesday, the other had practice Tuesday and Thursday. Both had games on Saturday, sometimes multiple games! It was really exhausting. Gordon was also one of the coaches for Blake’s team, so he was gone a good chunk of the time as well. Eddie gets distracted easily and isn’t always aware of where the soccer ball is. He also will sometimes pretend to be sonic the hedgehog and make sound effects while he plays. It’s the funniest thing to watch. He is mostly just dazed and happy to be alive, running and galloping up and down the field.

Blake is a really good soccer player and enjoys playing midfield and defense. His team has only lost 2 games out of 14 (I think?!) and he has scored a couple of goals and been the assist quite a bit, too. I usually always take Eddie to his soccer games and Gordon takes Blake to his, but occasionally I was able to watch Blake play and it’s such a delight.

At some point, Gordon was playing sports and fell, injuring his knee pretty badly. We were thinking he was going to need surgery but after getting an X-ray, an MRI and talking with an Orthopedic surgeon, he is in the clear! It’s going to take about 3 months for his knee to fully heal, but it will heal with time and patience and thankfully no surgery! That man has to start realizing his body isn’t 18 anymore! Getting older sometimes sucks. But all things considered, we’re pretty thankful. He’s not on crutches anymore and can walk normally. He can’t kneel very well, but is able to sit and stand as normal.

Our kitchen remodel FINALLY started the end of September. Hallelujah! It was super fun trying to clear out our whole bottom floor with a husband on crutches, but sweet friends came to the rescue and helped us so much! It took a while to get our cabinet install scheduled because our cabinet makers are really busy. Buuuut, we got a date on the calendar and things were gutted pretty darn quickly! Yay!

Also in September, we started touring (and trying to buy!!) some beach houses at the coast. Since Brooke was a baby, before we ever could afford a first house, we were dreaming of being able to get a vacation home in Oceanside, Netarts or a nearby coastal home. After getting into bidding wars on the first two homes, we found a small fixer upper in Pacific City. Gordon and I were able to go for a long weekend just us and we fell in love with it! It has features that other coastal cities don’t have, like a river, the ocean, restaurants and some smaller shops. Plus we felt like we got a great deal. Another reason I need to pull back on the blog. We have another house to renovate! Yes we are crazy.

October

Since our whole bottom floor is basically unusable, I’ve gotten pretty good as using my make-shift kitchen in the laundry room! I figured since it had a big sink, it made the most sense to set up shop there. Things take twice as long to cook, but at least we’re working it out. I know I feel terrible after eating too much takeout and I certainly didn’t want to go that route. But, we’re making due and making good use of all of Costco’s ready made meals.

Eddie came home off the bus one day with a fever, feeling cold and tired My immediate thought was “oh no, its probably covid”. He was so tired, he couldn’t even walk the 0.1 mile home from the bus stop! I put him in the stroller and had Porter walk home. Once we were home, I laid him on the couch in his room, got him medicine and a blanket, then went to get a covid test. By the time I got back to him, he was dead asleep. I swabbed his nose while he was sleeping (didn’t even wake up!! Howwwwww) and it was immediately positive. So we had to quarantine for 10 days and any work on our house and the kitchen remodel had to be halted. Gordon and I really hesitated to tell the construction workers because we knew it would push EVERYTHING back by an undisclosed amount of time. But we were good citizens and told everyone and quarantined.

Thankfully, Eddie was the only one to test positive and everyone else was fine. I was worried about Porter especially, but he never tested positive even though he had the sniffles. Lots of prayers and good thoughts were sent our way, so thank you so much for that!

While we were in quarantine, I had the bright idea to try to potty train Porter since we were stuck inside anyways. Ha! Ya’ll, I lasted 6 hours. Then I was over it. Can I hire a subcontractor to do this for me? Pretty please? Ugh. Not my favorite thing. I know eventually we’ll get around to it, but for the time being, I’m just going to keep on buying those diapers.

We got out of quarantine just in time for Halloween and my kids had such a great time with their friends! We were able to go with some neighbors and have an enjoyable, sugar-filled holiday. Porter was Captain America, Eddie was a Fireman, Blake was a Dinosaur and Brooke was a frog. For the trunk or treat the day before, we went as Target employees!

November

Even though we’re only a few days into one of my favorite months of the year, the work has commenced again on the kitchen, everyone is healthy and back to school, Porter is at Daycare 2-3 days per week and we closed on that beach house! WHAAATT!!?? Never a dull moment.

Later this week, we’re going to take our kids to go see it, get some measurements for some things and take some pictures to hopefully share soon! It’s not much to look at right now, but it will be soon! We are going to write out our list of the priorities of everything that needs to happen at that property in order to get it just how we’d like. To say we are excited is an understatement. We’re excited to spend most of our summers at the beach, enjoying the mild coastal weather. We might even go for Christmas or New Years! I think eventually we will rent it out, but not until it’s just how we’d like it. We’re excited to share progress once we have progress to share

Anyways, that is the latest and greatest of everything happening at our house. Thank you so much for sticking around and supporting my family. We love and appreciate you!

The post This Week at the Brennans’ appeared first on Lauren's Latest.

Porter has been reminding me so much of Blake as a two year old because Blake was a huge talker early on. Porter can repeat just about anything and has caught onto things that are funny. Will readily say “what da heck” at anything happening to get a laugh out of his siblings. Can say mama, dada, Brooke (book), Blake (bake) and Eddie. Knows lots of animals and their accompanying sounds, body parts and where they’re located and can count to 16. Says please (peas) and thank you (tank you) appropriately and truly turns heads because of his blonde and curly hair.

He has a really good memory and knows and understands routines. When we do something out of order, he will let us know! He reminds us frequently that we need to say a prayer (pway-oh) before our meals. Before bed, he knows to sing wheels on the bus. Has a hard time with anyone else putting him to bed other than mom.

He is a big time mama’s boy! I’ve never had a kid quite like Porter who prefers mama over dada this bad. Sometimes its endearing but most of the time its exhausting. This is mainly apparent when I am leaving to go somewhere. He eventually calms down but man it is heartbreaking.

Really likes oranges, carrots, yogurt, crackers (cheez-its and ritz), pasta of any kind, chicken sausages, pancakes, cereal, applesauce, peanut butter sandwiches, raisins, dates. Will sometimes eat bell peppers and cucumbers when he sees other people eating them. His mood will dictate whether or not he eats a meal 99% of the time. If he gets put into his high chair before he is ready, he will not eat a thing. But if he gets his way and sits at the island on a stool next to his brothers or standing at a normal chair at the dining table, he will eat. 

We are trying to balance independence and staying safe. When we go check the mail, we try to remind him to look both ways for cars and he does! In a parking lot, he wants to walk on his own but I tell him he either holds my hand or I have to hold him. He says “no” every time, so I pick him up and immediately he’s saying “hand! hand!” So I put him down and he holds my hand. Works every time In the actual store, he refuses to sit in the cart and just wants to grab everything off the shelves and put it into the cart which is cute but not helpful in the least. Its challenging going grocery shopping with him.

Sleeps with his blue blanket and pacifier. The blanket used to be Eddie’s and it starting to fall apart, but the fraying section is his favorite part to snuggle with, so we assume once its completely fallen apart, we’ll get rid of it. (They blue blankets are discontinued by the store that makes them, but I do have a white version of the same blanket that we try to switch out, but he doesn’t like it.) Will rarely wake up in the night, but when he does, I just cuddle him in my bed for 10 minutes to calm him down, then lay him back in bed and he goes right to sleep.

Wants to be just like his brothers and has recently started strongly disliking the stroller. But only if his brothers are around. If he’s on his own, he does just fine. I go on longer 1-1.5 hour walk/runs and he does just fine with a few toys and snacks. But he does eventually hit a breaking point and will start screaming his little heart out saying “all done!” and “down!”

While the screaming is a constant struggle, the more he talks, the less he screams. So we encourage as much communication as possible. 

Loves playing in the water (wawa). Whether its in a bucket in the backyard or having a bath, he loves it all. Also loves brushing his teeth, though he does more toothpaste eating than actual brushing.

Nearly every morning he wants to go say good morning to Daisy (day day), Brooke’s bunny, and feed her carrots or kale which we let him do.

Likes to go on walks pushing his train toy or scooter. Doesn’t ride his scooter, but likes to push it. We got him a balance bike for his birthday and wants nothing to do with it. 

Overall, he is a happy, healthy, super smart kid who just needs his mama.  We love you so so much, Porty-bug!

The post Happy Birthday, Porter! appeared first on Lauren's Latest.

Let me start with the biggest things first:

Gordon got a job! He felt that familiar nudge maybe three months ago to start looking and so he started applying. The process was frustrating and for me as a wife, was hard to see my husband go through. Lots of rejection and lots of people wondering why on earth he would leave such a prestigious position in New York City. After interviewing several times, he was offered a position with a local security company as a Security Operations Manager that seems to be a perfect fit. He started a few weeks ago, right before we finished homeschooling which timing seemed pretty serendipitous, to say the least. It just reaffirmed our decision to walk away from the secret service and city living. For us, it was the right decision.

I’m quitting Instagram. Well, technically Instagram stories. Social media in general eats up so much of my time, just trying to notify everyone about my new recipes or recipes for the next holiday or fill in the blank here. Since Gordon went back to work, I’m home with the kids for the summer and I’d like to actually enjoy my summer and not have to worry about getting out my phone. So I stopped doing instastories and hired a girl to help me with everything else on social media. I’m hoping this will help refocus my priorities and help me not care so much about the stats and numbers and make it become more enjoyable (like it used to be back in the day.)

Porter got a hair cut! I was hoping to keep it long until he turned at least two but Gordon found the clippers and gave him a big cut. I couldn’t watch (hahahaha!) I know it makes sense to have it short because he was starting to become annoyed by it and with summer practically here, he’ll be cooler, but but but…it was so cute!! I know it’s just hair and it’ll grow back but he looks like a little man now and I don’t know how I feel about it.

We finished our year of homeschool! I think this statement needs about a million more exclamation points. It was real touch and go by the end but we made it and I think it was really good for our kids, especially math, to solidify these concepts. We are hoping school will be in person 100% of the time by September but Oregon schools are still up in the air…who knows what’s going to happen. I know Eddie is so excited to start kindergarten and Brooke is anxious to get to middle school. Blake is such a social little guy, that he thrives at school, so here’s to hoping they all will find their way back.

Blake started (and finished) a season of soccer. He loves all sports so it was no surprise that he loved it and was sad to see it end. He and Eddie will be doing soccer this fall. I wanted them to do swim lessons over the summer, but there are no pools offering this anywhere yet. But I’m still looking!

Blake got baptized into our church! It was strange and small and sweet. This pandemic has been all sorts of crazy but being able to share that experience with more family via zoom was pretty darn special. Even having musical numbers from cousins in Arizona and a special talk from Grandma Ernhofer in Canada. It was lovely.

Gordon got called into the bishopric in our church congregation. That’s been an interesting adjustment for our family as there’s a time commitment involved, but it allows our family to be in a position to serve others which we most definitely want to teach our children about.

I recently started seeing a trainer at an actual gym. Most of you probably know that I’ve been counting macros for the past 15 months and have been able to lose 25 pounds. While that is awesome and I’m truly so proud of myself, I got to a point where I was at a bit of a stand still and I couldn’t really get the progress I wanted (lower my body fat while increasing muscle mass.) I do think I could have gotten to where I’d want to be, but just at a slower pace. Since I know I do so much better when I’m accountable to someone, a trainer made sense. So I’ve been seeing him for a month and already lowered my body fat my 2.5% and gained 2 pounds of muscle. I’m seeing progress and that progress is fueling me forward!! I’ve never had this kind of motivation for getting into shape because I’d keep having babies (or keep taking hormones trying to have babies) but knowing that my baby shop is closed makes me so happy. I’m not going to lose any progress because of a pregnancy and that is even more motivation to keep going. I’ll probably get a ton of questions about what I’m doing and honestly, I just lift heavy 4 days per week, do minimal cardio (maybe 30 minutes 4-5 days a week?) and eat a macro-friendly diet. It’s all about the food fortunately…or unfortunately. Haha! You can sign up for all my macro friendly recipes here if you’re interested.

Gordon and I have gotten vaccinated! We had the opportunity to get our covid shots and we jumped at the chance. We are thrilled that other family members (especially our parents) are able to get theirs as well. We were supposed to attend some family reunions in 2020, but that never happened. So we are very much looking forward to being reunited with all our family members again in a safe way.

Gordon bought a truck. We knew with him going back to work, we’d need a second vehicle and I told him to pick whatever he wanted. (In retrospect, maybe I should have told him to get a small Honda…haha!) He chose a Dodge Ram and ya know, it suits him. He’s always wanted a truck and so I’m grateful he was able to get one.

We got a fire pit for the backyard and a trampoline! Slowly, we are turning this house into what we’ve always imagined. In previous homes, we didn’t put in any effort to how they looked and we felt it. The older I get, the more I realize that your surroundings can change the way you feel. So we are working on creating a home that is comfortable and welcoming.

We wanted to redo our kitchen this summer but with lots of items on back order, it looks like it’ll be closer to September or October. We were going to do a lot of it ourselves but after it taking almost four months to finish our living room built ins, Gordon was adamant we do nothing ourselves So it looks like we’ll get rid of the corner windows and move them to one wall, remove all the cabinets, replace all the flooring on the first floor and install brand new everything. We already met with the cabinet maker and ordered our appliances. Things are coming together albeit very very slowly.

Here’s what is coming up this next week:

We will be going camping quite a bit this summer! Camping and being outside is our jam, so I’m excited to head outdoors and do something we haven’t done in a long while. I’m even considering doing a bunch of camping recipes because I love cooking outdoors. It’s my jam. Do you all go camping, too?

I’m excited to do a lemonade stand with my kids. Blake wants to earn money for a basketball hoop and I just want to make yummy treats for fun, not because I have to for work.

My sister and her family are coming to visit us here in Oregon! They will get here tomorrow and will stay a little over a week. We are so excited!

Brooke saved up her money and bought herself a bunny! It’s a baby bunny that isn’t available for pickup quite yet, but it’s they sweetest little doe Holland lop. We’ll be bringing her home soon.

The post This Week at the Brennans’ appeared first on Lauren's Latest.