Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake

My family was in town for Isaiah's birthday. He not-so-subtly hinted that he wished someone would make him a chocolate Guinness cake for his birthday. So I took it upon myself to bake him a birthday cake. I had used this recipe from Epicurious before, and it proved itself delectable yet again.  I used the Irish Cream buttercream frosting and the Jameson whiskey gnache from my carbomb cupcakes, and shaved some chocolate one top of the finished product.  I need to work on my frosting skills, but it wasn't too shabby.  Between the cake and the frosting, I used almost two pounds of butter.  Yes, two pounds.  Meaning eight sticks, meaning four cups. Of butter.  The cake was moist, rich, dense, and not overly sweet. 

Everyone loved it.  So much, in fact, that my mother-in-law requested that I make it again the next week for her birthday.

It Looked a Lot Like Christmas

Actually, it still does look a bit like Christmas.  Now that the 12 days of Christmas are over, I think it's about time to take down the decorations.  They were pretty while they lasted.

11 Months

My baby is going to be a one-year-old in less than a month?  No way.  To be fair, she really isn't much of a baby any more.  In fact, she's full of all sorts of toddler style attitude and mischief. But she's still my baby girl.

We all got dressed up and went to a Christmas party a few weeks ago.  Elaina didn't seem to care that some random guy in a funny red and white suit wanted to hold her.  It looks like she just wanted to drive her imaginary sled.  Or maybe she was giving two fist pumps of approval.

My brother Daniel's band was the live entertainment for the party, and after they finished their set, there was some mingling music.  We remembered to get some footage of Elaina in her fancy outfit enjoying the tunes.

This kid likes to dance to all sorts of music.  I think she loves music as much as her big sister.  If she hears a rythm or melody, she starts grooving, and sometimes she tries to sing along.


This small little person has a lot of attitude.  She definitely will let you know if she is displeased.  We've been working on having her sign "please," instead of just grunting and whining, and it does work sometimes.  Buuuut, sometimes she's just a little grumpy pants.

She can be a really sweet and affectionate baby when she wants to be.  One of her favorite games is sharing her pacifier.  She thinks it's especially fun when we play along.

Elaina is officially talking.  I'm having trouble deciding what her first real word was, but I think I will settle on "tree."  She had said "mama" and "dada" many times, but really only ever with prompting.  She loves our pretty Christmas tree, all lit up with lights.  "Tse," she'll whisper, pointing her chubby finger at anything with foliage or lights.

She also started saying "uh oh," which is pretty adorable.


She still uses a few signs, and waves hello and goodbye.  She loves it when her daddy gets home from work.  She'll start squealing with delight and rocking back and forth, while frantically waving hello.  It's pretty sweet to see how much she loves her family. 

Elaina is becoming a picky eater.  She'll refuse cut up pieces of a sandwich, but be perfectly content to take bites of the same sandwich... with all two of her teeth.  She actually does surprisingly well with biting and chewing.  We gave her pieces of grilled chicken last night, and she gobbled them down. She's refusing almost all pureed baby foods in favor of real food; she loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, anything salty, and especially, chocolate cake.

Her daddy has taken to calling her "Bah-bahsh."  I think it has something to do with the little talking noises that she was making a few months ago.  I find myself calling her "'Laina," or "Lainy," a lot of the time, and sometimes we tag on other endearing names, making it "Lainy Pants," or "Lainy Bear."

The poor little thing had a fever on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so she was not very interested in all of the festivities.  So she just snuggled with all of her wonderful grandparents and aunts and uncles, and we opened a lot of her presents for her.

She perked up the next day, and seemed to enjoy interrupting her sister's new games, and did her best to taste test all of the new toys and books.

She's growing and changing and learning every day. My little Lainy Pants.  Or Lainy Without Pants.

Merry Christmas!

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings to you this holiday season! We hope you're staying warm, and enjoying lots of good food and time with family and friends.

Our lives have been full and wonderful this year. On February 1^st, Elaina Halcyon Blakey was born at home weighing 7 lbs, 14 oz, and measuring 20 ½ inches long. Chloë adjusted amazingly well to her role as big sister, and is very loving and kind. Sometimes we have to remind her not to smother Elaina with hugs and kisses.

Elaina has grown and changed tremendously in the last 10 months. She is stubborn and affectionate, loud and silly, and just the right amount of chubby. She flails her arms and sticks her tongue out when she gets excited. She signs “more” and “please,” says “mama” and “dada,” speed crawls, climbs stairs, and walks along furniture. She uses her two teeth to gnaw on crackers and baby mash. She likes to cuddle when she's sleepy, and loves playing with her big sister.

Chloë turned 2 in June, and is such an energetic joy. She is my constant companion, and talks a lot. She loves music of all kinds, and enjoys singing and making up songs and melodies, and spins and dances frequently. She likes to “read” books, draw, and wear my shoes. Her favorite foods are beans, and chocolate. She still has a quarter-sized hemangioma behind her right ear, but it hasn't changed much in the last year and doesn't give her any trouble.

Bryan started his seventh year as a web developer at EMSI, and continues to love his work. His company sold to CareerBuilder this year, which should be good for the future growth and sustainability of the company. Last year CareerBuilder was ranked in the Top 10 Best Tech Companies to work for, in between Apple and Google.

I continue to love my work as a stay-at-home mom and wife. I let my nursing license expire since I plan on continuing with my current career for another decade or two. I joined our church's choir now that I'm not working evenings as a nurse, and have loved having music a regular part of my life again.

We drove to Seattle in March to visit friends and watch my brother Samuel in a rugby game. We flew to Iowa in June to visit family, drove to Oregon for a wedding and vacation in July, and spent some time at my parent's farm in Bonners Ferry in August. We usually spend every Sunday at Bryan's parent's house, enjoying lots of food, rest, and fellowship. Besides that, we have been spending time in our cozy home, enjoying the good and simple things in life. November marked our six year wedding anniversary. God has blessed us richly, and we are very thankful for all He has given us.

Merry Christmas from the Blakeys:
Bryan, Bess, Chloë, and Elaina

Snowboarding

We drove the three hours to Sandpoint late on Thursday night, and crashed at my sister Katie's house.  My brother Samuel had come along for the trip, and we got up early on Friday morning, and geared up for spending a day in the cold snow.We drove up the windy switchback road leading to Schweitzer Mountain Resort, hauled our belongings into the lodge, and set up camp.  Between the four adults, we took turns sitting in the lodge with Chloë and Elaina, entertaining them as well as we could.

Bryan took Chloë outside for a while to play in the snow, while I stayed in the lodge with Elaina while she napped.  It's a good thing we had the trusty old iPhone with us, and got a few pictures.

Chloë is a little bit obsessed with eating snow every chance she gets.  But Bryan did manage to get her to take a break long enough to make her first snow angel.

Then Samuel and Katie stayed in the lodge for a while and Bryan and I got to do a few runs together! It was the first time I'd been snowboarding in two years, and only my second time in four years, so I was just a little bit excited. 

I sure do love this man.  It's fun thinking back to the first couple of times we went snowboarding together: poor college students who saved our pennies to buy lift tickets, and then did our best trying to impress each other with our mad snowboarding skills.

It was quite nostalgic being back on the mountain where I learned to snowboard.  15 years ago (wow, really?) my family would go up to Schweitzer with a homeschoolers' group.  I think we paid a meager $17 per person for rental gear, a lift ticket, and an hour-long lesson. Dad would camp out in the lodge and wait for us to come in for a cocoa break, cold and tired, but happy. 

This time I was the one packing the cocoa (and coffee and bourbon) and sandwiches, as well as diapers and a play pen.

After lunch, Bryan and I took both of the girls out to play in the snow.

All packed up at the end of the day, waiting for the rest of the people we came with.

It was a great trip. My neck is still surprisingly sore.

Thanksgiving

My family was all together for Thanksgiving this year.  It was wonderful having everyone around, helping prep food, or clean, or assist with the babies. 

Dad called dibs on doing appetizers this year, and he made some killer smoked salmon spread.  Chloë loved it.

AJ joined us for the fun, and the men folk got busy peeling potatoes.

Our attempt at a family photo.  I guess it will have to do.  It's a rare occasion that we all are in the same room together, and rarer still when we all look halfway decent.

Dinner at my parent's house! Besides AJ, we had Sorelle and Sean join us.

Elaina really enjoyed her first Thanksgiving.

Samuel sculpted a face with his mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Then we all crammed into our basement for our Thanksgiving Tradition: watching The Fugitive.

It's really not a comedy, but apparently these four thought something was hilarious.

The day after was the Oregon State vs. Oregon football game.  We were all decked out in our Beaver gear, so we tried to get a quick photo.  Not much luck.