Life Lately + Bake Off Bake Along Week 9

The closer I get to my due date (3 weeks!), the harder it’s been for me to blog. I was sure that I would be super productive during this supposed “nesting” phase, and I figured that would include blogging. So far, I’m definitely not that productive–my version of “nesting” mostly includes a lot of baking and laundry and buying too many baby clothes.

Here’s more of life lately!

// An old friend and her sister threw me a wonderful baby shower! Since we’ve been living all over the place, and are living in Montana temporarily, I did not expect a baby shower at all. It was so amazing–and our little babe got totally spoiled.

We all decorated onesies and people got quite creative…

and I put on normal clothes and took off my glasses for the occasion (although I couldn’t mask the fact that I’m puffing like a marshmallow, am about the size of the moon, and always look tired nowadays).

// I’ve been hanging out with my parents’ dogs, as usual! Their little faces always cheer me up.

// I celebrated Halloween–my first in the United States for a long time!–by wearing a shirt with a pumpkin, passing out candy to cute littles, and carving a pumpkin!

// The day after Halloween, winter officially arrived with about a foot of snow! Since we didn’t get much snow these past few years in Europe, E and I are loving this weather. Although it does make driving more interesting.

// We’ve been slowly getting ready for the baby. I feel like we’ll never truly be ready, which is stressful, but part of that is because we have no idea what we’re doing. And, can you ever really be ready for such a huge life change?

Although I am thoroughly sick of being pregnant, I’m also pretty nervous about the next part. E and I are trying to soak up all the just-the-two-of-us time we can! Can any other pregnant ladies or moms out there relate to the sadness I feel saying goodbye to this just-the-two-of-us life?? Not to say I’m totally unhappy–the baby is on track and looking good still, and that makes me over the moon!

// I joined Amanda for the Bake Off Bake Along with choux buns (cream puffs in American-ese).

I made these Caramel Apple Cream Puffs (it was Halloween when I made them, so they needed to be somewhat on theme and appropriately autumnal!), and they were very delicious.

However, as it was my first foray into choux buns, I was mostly proud of the buns themselves! You just never know how these things will turn out in high altitude.

But they puffed so beautifully.

The recipe calls for this caramel sauce, and at first I was hesitant. They already were plenty sweet with just the apples and the cream filling, and I was worried the caramel sauce would make them sickly.

However, it was Halloween, and in the United States, that means sugar and decadence so eventually I ended up covering them in the caramel. It didn’t make them sickly–just more delicious, as salted caramel sauce is wont to do–but it did make them a bit harder to eat.