Our weekend trip

We're back from our little weekend trip and had such a blast! We went to Glen Rose after some quick antiquing in Granbury, where I found some adorable vintage children's books. It was alot of fun to have my siblings (with spouses, kids, girlfriends, etc.) all there at some point during the weekend! We were all there on Saturday, which was a fun-filled active day.


The accommodations ended up being pretty disappointing but the surroundings sure were pretty! I love rivers and we spent much of Saturday in the Paluxy which was really enjoyable (except where the water was uber warm). There was hiking, picnicking, dinousaur track finding, lounging by the river, and yes, much swimming!


It was so wonderful to be outside most of the weekend, even if it was pretty darn hot. We all took turns cooking delicious meals and we ended Saturday with a too-dark game of ultimate frisbee. Such SUCH fun! Lovebug LOVED being around her cousins and aunts/uncles. She is so blessed to have such wonderful ones!


After we arrived home and unpacked, we took a long (really long) family nap on our bed. We were TIRED!! Then we capped the weekend off with a late family dinner of leftover biscuits, cashew gravy, tempeh, breakfast potatoes, and fruit. Breakfast for dinner is always a fun treat, don't you think?! We laughed and talked about our favorite parts of the trip. Then we cleaned up the kitchen, showered, and all quickly fell asleep again in our bed...


The end. :)

Six years ago...

We celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary this last weekend. Our little family started the day playing some tennis followed by swimming. What fun it was to think back to how we started our day six years ago - surrounded by our family and friends becoming husband and wife. It was such a beautiful serene morning on our favorite Texas beach!

Later in the day on our anniversary my Love and I went out on a little date. It had been almost a year since our last one! We snuck in a yummy veggie sushi dinner to see "Eclipse" and had so much fun! We hadn't been to the movie theater since right before Lovebug was born so it was pretty bizarre. We hurried home right after the movie though to see our little gal who we missed so much! :)

Throughout the day we'd say "six years ago right now..." and fill in with what we remembered. It's so neat to reminisce about that incredible morning/day of ours and I cannot wait to share more and more of it with Lovebug as she gets older. Anyway, I always say this but I cannot believe it's been six years...more than that though, we also just celebrated 10 years of being together which is even harder to believe. A whole decade together - WOW, what fun! And SO much more fun to come.

Happy anniversay my Love! You are my soulmate and the one I will aways love, forever and ever. For me, God made thee. Truly. Thank you so much for being you, the absolute best partner imaginable. You drive me wild in every way! I love you!

OH and of course, props to our amazing photographer, Michelle Young of Endearing Studios...she's amazing, just the nicest person, AND she's a new mommy! :) Thanks Michelle.

This weekend we're heading out on a little trip...have a great one!

Hello.

Is anyone still reading this?? I've gotten some sweet comments and emails from some folks out there (tu!) so I know at least a few people are still checking the ole' blog. It's been FOUR months since I've posted (wow!) and things have been busy, really busy...and good, really good. So much has happened and I'd love to share some of it with you all, but we'll see. I don't want to overwhelm myself by trying to catch up, but rather, just start from here and maybe, just maybe, I can share some of the things from the last few months with you at some point.

Right now, we are enjoying as much time outside as possible at very strategic parts of the day mind you...it is already hot here, very hot. It is definitely summer in Texas! Things would be more bearable if it wasn't for those darn mosquitoes. Anyway, we are working on lots of projects around our nest...organizing, cleaning out, giving away, selling, gardening, etc. etc. Things are feeling great around here, really really great. And we have lots of exciting things planned for the summer (and fall)...

We've also been enjoying a good amount of veggies from our front yard garden, which has been so fun! We all love going out there and seeing what is ready to be picked on a daily basis (the shot above is Lovebug showing off a recent day's bounty). I'll post some pics of our garden soon. It's just so rewarding to plan and make dishes/meals out of what we are growing right outside our front door.

Well I really hope to make time for blogging as I sure do miss it...I have tried my best to keep up with what's been going on with all of you even during my blog's inactivity.

If anyone else is still reading this, let me know. I'd love to hear from you! Be back soon hopefully...

Summer in Texas

It's been just ridiculously hot as of late here...and yes, we live in Texas and yes, we should expect that, but still. I am a summer gal and love the season, even with the scorching sun and often uncomfortably hot temperatures. But still...it's SO hot...even in the shade!

Our goal was to make it to July without turning on the A/C. Well, we didn't quite make it and turned it on 2 weeks ago for my birthday. So we missed our goal by 3 weeks unfortunately! I was diappointed, but our dinners were becoming a bit unpleasant since our dining room is the hottest room in the house for whatever reason :(. My Love and I can handle it, but seeing Lovebug with a little sweat mustache at dinner was too much and my birthday served as a good excuse too :).

It hasn't been that bad though with what we typically do, which is open the windows at night to let the "cool" fresh air in and close them once we wake up to keep it in. Of course, minimal clothing is helpful too, as is little to no oven and stove use. I didn't feel bad the first week because the A/C didn't flip on until around 5 PM (we have it set at 84 during the day and 83 during the really hot late afternoon/evening time). Then the second week it started to come on around 4ish, which was OK. But yesterday it flipped on at NOON, because it was our first official 100-degree day! Wow...so it's definitely summer in Texas now!

I have so many things on my list for this season and cannot wait to get more of them started and done with. The thing I am MOST excited about though is our upcoming trip to the beach. It will be our first vacation with just the three of us and it could not come soon enough! Do you have any summer trips or projects planned?

Well, have a great Wednesday! I guess we'll see what time our A/C flips on today...

How our nest does it...

So I've talked about WHY our nest does 100% organic, but HOW do we do it exactly?

Well, first of all, let's talk about our budget. For 2 adults and 1 breastfeeding/solid eating toddler, we spend an average of $100 a week on 100% organic groceries. Probably about $50 of that is spent on fresh vegetables and fruit. Lately, Lovebug has been eating alot more vegetables, so sometimes it's $125, but most of the time it's right at or around $100.

This amount does not include supplements or personal care products, as we get those from other sources. It also does not include any cleaning or laundry products since we make all of them with supplies mostly from Mountain Rose Herbs. Since we cloth diaper/wipe, this amount also does not include those, which saves us quite a bit of money. Further, that amount does not include any cooking/baking oils, herbs, spices, salt, pepper, and so forth, because we also get them all from Mountain Rose Herbs in bulk.

We do our weekly shopping at Central Market but make a monthly trip or so to Whole Foods as well. From April - November, we go to the local farmer's market every Saturday morning where we stand in the long line at the ONE organic stand. At any of these places, if they don't have it organic, we don't buy it. It's really that simple. Even if that means changing things up that we had intended on doing, we go in another direction or find an organic substitute that will work.

Things that help us buy 100% organic 100% of the time:

-My Love keeps great track of what we are spending. As he is the "top chef" around our nest, he also does our grocery shopping. Sometimes Lovebug and I tag along especially when it's farmer's market season, but alot of times, it's just my Love heading to the store early Saturday morning with the list we carefully made together. He has his ipod and listens to music while he tallys up things as they go into the basket. Somtimes he put things back if we're going to go over what we had intended and sometimes he calls me to say "do we want this or that this week?"...And we make that decision based upon what we really need. We never ever take anything away that is for Lovebug though as her health is our top priority!

-Simply, we don't overbuy. Probably most anyone that would come over to our nest and look in our refrigerator or pantry would probably think both are pretty bare, but to us, they're completely full. We just don't overbuy and keep to our list, which helps tremendously. Actually, come Saturday our refrigerator does look pretty empty! :)

-We buy in bulk. As mentioned above, about every month we load up on organic agave, maple syrup, and other things from Whole Foods. Also every month, I generally take a trip to another grocery store, Market Street, to load up on organic nuts and chocolate chips because they have the best prices on those. Then, every couple of months, we load up on LOTS of beans, lentils and such from Whole Foods. Buying in bulk truly helps! Plus, you're using less packaging (especially if you re-use your own bags).

-We keep our paper products to an absolute minimum at our nest and this helps our budget a great deal. So that means no TP (except for guests), no paper towels, no napkins, no paper plates, no diapers, and so forth. These things can quickly add up...

-As mentioned above, from April to November we go to the local farmer's market every Saturday morning to load up on organic vegetables. This helps our budget a TON because we can go and spend $35 on veggies with the same amount normally costing us $50 at Central Market! Find your local farmer's market here.

-Since we eat by far mostly vegan (with the very rare local eggs and fish we catch), our organic protein sources are much cheaper than meat-eaters. Organic beans cost a great deal less per pound than organic chicken or beef, so that's something to consider. Even if you can't go vegan, vegetarian, or pescetarian, then consider at least making more of your meals meat/chicken free per week than not. You'll end up saving money for sure!

-We drink a ton of water and don't buy bottled beverages hardly ever. We don't buy soda and I know this is kind of crazy to most people, but we just don't drink the stuff. We also don't buy bottled water, but instead have our reusable bottles that we re-fill. This saves us quite a bit! We do buy a carton of orange juice every week that we partake of a little bit every day, but a treat is when we can get an organic beer for my Love and a GT's Kombucha for me! :)

-We don't buy packaged foods - no cookies, crackers, cake mixes, boxed dinners, and so forth. That stuff can easily add up in more ways than one, so we just don't buy them. Plus, fresh is just best...

-This may seem minute, but we compost and recycle like crazy. Thus we don't buy trash bags but once a year. We only put out trash maybe once a month if that, so this is something little but a small money saver.

-We are still breastfeeding and practice baby-led eating/weaning. This also might seem minute, but it has saved us money for sure. However, financial savings is by far NOT the reason we have done either of these things, but rather, an added benefit. We have never done baby food, cereal, formula, bottle-feeding, and so forth, but instead have only breastfed and started to offer cut up fresh vegetables to Lovebug around 10 months once she started to show interest. She has always fed herself and decides how much/little she wants to eat. Her vegetable intake continues to increase although her breastfeeding really hasn't decreased much :), but we have definitely noticed a small difference ($15-25) here and there certain weeks in our grocery bill due to this and know it will only increase from here.

SO these are some things that came to mind in how we save and are able to keep to the 100% organic diet. However, we also have to do away with other things (like cable, etc.) to maintain it. There are certainly ways that we can improve though:

-We would love to get where we always make all of our breads. I make them here and there and always make our pizza dough and baked goods, but would love to make all of our tortillas, and sandwich and pita bread as well. Currently for these things, we buy Ezekial 4:9 which is sprouted and very delicious.

-Currently we buy a big thing of purified water every week, but really hope in the near future to install a whole house water filtration system so we don't have to do this. We had Eco Water Texas come out not long ago and test our water - eewwwww! Disgusting what's in it!! Really. I highly recommend getting your water tested and not drinking tap water!

So, maybe some of this will help a few of you. It IS really hard, especially with today's economy to stay within budget and make things work...but I truly believe if it's a priority, everyone's diet can be 100% or at least mainly organic.

The above is what currently works for our nest, but I would love to hear any tips of how you make it work for you and your families as well, so please share!

Oh and the photo is a little box I've been working on by making use of all of the organic produce stickers we go through :)...

Our own little "Australia"

This past weekend was a marathon of cooking, baking, and cleaning, but as usual, we were able to keep it fun despite all the busyness. We had a group of old friends from college over and it was so delightful seeing each and every one of them and catching up on what is going on in their lives. Lovebug absolutely adored meeting and playing with each of them, which was so fun to see. Hooray for lovely spring weather in Texas where you can actually eat outdoors BEFORE it's incredibly too hot and the mean mosquitos take over! Seriously. That cannot be overstated. It was incredibly enjoyable and I look forward to many more meals outside this spring under our trees and lanterns!

While cooking and baking, we were able to watch Australia which we just loved. Have you seen it? We haven't seen a movie at the theater in forever so I'm sure you all have seen it already, but if you haven't, go check it out. It's so epic and beautiful, and man oh man am I such a sensitive gal since becoming a mama. Anything that revolves little kids, I just tear up and that precious Nullah made me tear up quite a bit! Anyway, I highly recommend it even though it is quite long.

I found the dinner party and charity ball scenes in the film very inspiring. Each of them were full of beautifully hanging things - lanterns, light strings, and so forth. I tend to be a big fan of anything hanging really :), but these particular scenes were gorgeous. Last week before seeing the film, I had bought the above lanterns at Crate and Barrel for the party. I originally found them quite awhile ago here but was pleased when I could get the same ones at my local C&B (especially with the gift card I had:). They are solar powered with a white LED light inside and provide just the right amount of glow. We have left them up in the backyard and it's lovely that they just come on once it gets dark after absorbing the sun's rays during the day. Anyway, after seeing Australia I have big plans for a future event involving many more lanterns and other pretty hanging things. :) I can't wait! Of course, now it's raining cats and dogs here so we'll see how the lanterns actually hold up outside, but so far so good.

Well, spring is definitely in the air with leaves blooming and green popping up everywhere you look. Isn't it lovely? I hope wherever you are, you are enjoying all the first signs of spring as well and are soaking it all in outdoors as much as possible!

Today

We woke up to ice and snow...not anything crazy, but this is Texas, so we freak out over the littlest bit of it! As soon as the sun came up, it all started to quickly melt but I was able to get some shots first.


Today is CPSIA Blogging Day and I couldn't NOT post on it because it's an issue I feel very strongly about. To catch up any of you who aren't aware, as of February 10th (National Bankruptcy Day as it has been dubbed) any product that is meant to be used, worn, read, etc. by anyone under the age of 12 is going to have to go through strict third party testing. Here, here, and here are my other posts about it for easy reference.

So you're not a crafter or don't care about buying handmade and you think you're not going to be affected by this? You're wrong! If you ever plan on buying anything for someone under the age of 12, then you ARE going to be affected. The CPSIA does not just affect clothing and toys, but books, school supplies, furniture for kids, sport equipment, and on and on. Here is a really great list that shows how this affects everyone from environmentalists to secondhand shoppers to entrepreneurs. We should all care about this and do what we can!

There has been a really great three part series on it at Forbes for further reading. Here is part one, two, and three. At the core of CPSIA is something good as we all want to protect our children and keep them from harmful things. But not in this way...and not what the CPSIA is going to do. The crap made in China is scary and shouldn't be bought in the first place for MANY reasons, but it is OUR economy that is going to suffer DEEPLY from this if it continues as is and SO many small businesses are going to cease to exist.


Although I don't care too greatly about how this is going to affect the big-box stores that are going to suffer because 1.) it won't be much, 2.) we don't shop there, and 3.) it's the crap they sell that initiated this whole thing. However, I do deeply care about the environmental aspect of all of this in regards to what they are going to have to do after February 10th. Here is a quote from National Bankruptcy Day in relation to an economic impact study that was recently done between December 31, 2008 and January 10, 2009:

The cut to the chase summary shows over 70 million dollars worth of inventory must be destroyed on February 10, 2009 (National Bankruptcy Day) and of those enterprises that expect to survive the fall-out (61% will not), over 40 million dollars in lost product sales are anticipated.

Isn't that crazy? How is it going to be "destroyed"? Are they just going to inundate our landfills even more with all of it? How are the harmful ingredients/materials that the products are made of going to be contained or is all that lead (and goodness knows what else) just going to end up in our waterways??? Are they going to recycle what can be recycled? Lots of questions and not many answers.

Supposedly there is alot of misinformation going around regarding all of this, and there are MANY aspects that are very unclear and confusing. What also is unclear is how exactly the law is going to be enforced as the CPSC only has about 100 investigators...so we'll see. Supposedly, Congress has denied a second hearing on it and have no intention of changing the law. BUT we should still continue to do what we can! Here is a great "kit" at Etsy that lists out all of the different things you can do with links, petitions, addresses, and sample verbiage. Some of the same stuff is available at Handmade Toy Alliance as well.


Again, at the heart of CPSIA is something really good as we of course want our children protected and there should absolutely be restrictions placed on lead and phthalates and so on! It was just so poorly conceived and hurriedly put together, and although it's not surprising, it's very disheartening. I still cannot imagine our life without being able to buy secondhand things for Lovebug at thrift stores or organic handmade things from my beloved Etsy.

Well, stay warm my friends...

Crazy

Hope your weekend was enjoyable! Ours really was as we had incredible weather for much of it, and then a cold front came through and I'm staring at icicles in my trees right now. Crazy Texas weather. Glad we got out and enjoyed ourselves though while we could! Wow, our girl loves to be outside. She gets so excited and can't wait to get down and explore. It makes our hearts happy that she loves it as much as we do!


Today, I wanted to bring your attention back to CPSIA that I blogged about here and here before the holidays. I know pretty much everyone is aware of this by now, but just wanted to try to get the word out a bit more. It's devastating if it remains as is and we need to do ALL we can to save handmade things for our children to enjoy! I don't even want to think about the future of things if I cannot have my Etsy with all of its amazing handmade toys and clothes! Seriously, my life wouldn't be the same. Well, that's a little crazy...but seriously, it would be very upsetting to me. Here is ALOT of info with the different ways to get involved and act, and here is the Handmade Toy Alliance page again as well.


PLEASE do what you can to make the CPSIA less crazy!!!

I'm working on it...

Sorry I've been absent...wasn't intended, just had lots on my to-do list to work on and blogging kept getting moved down it. I actually had a post (Lovebug update) that I was working on last Friday, but dang Blogger kept not saving it...it was so frustrating. I was going to try to finish it today but have too many other things to do, but I'll do so next week if Blogger will cooperate with me. Some recycling posts on the horizon as well that I'm working on - narrowing down what I want to touch on.


Things have been busy because we head out for a small trip tomorrow...it's our semi-annual trip to Texas Antique Weekend. YEA, we're so excited! We love to rummage around all the tents and find cool things for our nest, and just admire everything else. I can't wait to hit up all our faves and see what they have this season and how they're displaying everything! If you're in Texas or nearby and have never been, you should consider it! There really is a little of something for everyone - we like modern industrial type stuff the most and there's even a bit of that. We normally have a serious long list but this time it's short and kind of vague which should be fun, so who knows what we'll end up with. This will be Lovebug's first real trip there (she's been twice before inside of mama:) so we'll see how that goes...it's going to be a HOT one but hopefully the mornings will be cool(er). I'll share some pics once we get back!

Oh and the photo displays Lovebug doing something she's been doing TONS of lately - lying back on stuff - nursing pillow, the floor, mama, dada, the wall, and anything else. She just leans back and chills - it's quite adorable, but I'm kind of biased. I really should take that lesson from her (amongst others) and do it more - just lay back and chill! I'll work on that...just not today :).

OH and to everyone who has commented and wants the bread recipe, it's coming soon...and I'm really trying to get better about responding to comments - I promise I'm working on it too :)!!!

Have a wonderful weekend! Alright, gotta run and work on stuff...

Homemade bread and cider

Well HELLO! It's been downright incredible feeling here this week thus far and we are thoroughly enjoying it. It's been in the mid 50's when we wake up which means our house is blissfully cool and requires socks and a light sweater for a couple hours in the morning, which is a very welcome change! We've been gathering leaves and acorns on walks setting them aside for some fall decor, which will go up once I can bear to take down all our summer remnants. The weather makes me want to bake more for whatever reason, so today I made some whole wheat Italian herb bread especially for my Love, whose been craving it ever since my amazing Mom made it a couple months ago. The bread with a little bit of fall apple cider is perfect! I truly do feel fall in the air and I hope it's here to stay (but this is Texas so it might be 100 degrees next week - who knows!). Hope everyone is enjoying some cooler fall weather though!

Enjoying it while we can!

Yesterday, we were blessed with some somewhat cooler weather (it was in the 70's!) and it was highly enjoyable. When it came time to go on our almost daily walk, it felt so strange actually putting clothes on my girl! Found some pants and a hoodie that fit her and off we went.


All the beautiful trees swayed in the wind, leaves blew across us on the street, a cool breeze went across our faces, and it was WONDERFUL. We got home and even baked some pumpkin cranberry bread (thanks for the recipe Emily!) to help fulfill our fall cravings. Lovebug wasn't in a baking mood however so it was done by mama as quickly as possible, and thankfully, it's an easy recipe. The house was delightfully naturally cool all day and we had to wear socks - craziness! We even went on a second walk in the evening to further enjoy the fall-like weather. Last night was one of those nights we actually needed our duvet pulled up over the three of us :)...and this morning I was yearning for a long sleeve shirt when I first started out on my run. So hopefully today will be more of the same!!!


HOWEVER...it may feel like fall, it kind of looks like fall, and our pumpkin cranberry bread makes it taste like fall...but us Texans know it's only a tease as it's not quite fall YET! But we'll enjoy it while we can and be mindful that it's a reminder of things to come in the near future...Alright, off to enjoy the weather with my babe - Have a beautiful one!

I'm BACK!

Well, we're back and it feels good and I'm still catching up with stuff. The trip was wonderful, went by fast, and we had a great time but it's always so nice to come home. It was our first big trip with Lovebug...vacations with babies/kids are quite a bit of work aren't they? :) Not to say we didn't have some relaxing and lots of fun (because we certainly did!), but it's alot of work with a little one, especially in an unfamiliar place. Thank goodness my Love, my incredible partner in this parenting gig, was there 24/7...but now he's back to work (away from home) and it's just Lovebug and me :(, but at least we're back in a familiar place - our green nest that we love oh so much! And I'm BACK to the blog world - YEA! It has been fun catching up on what everyone's been up to...so glad you liked Matt's video! I thought it was pretty inspiring.

Alright onto the photos..let's see here...the above shot I took on a walk one morning. I know most people don't think much of the Texas coast, but we think it's beautiful - in such a Texas way :). We've been blessed to see some gorgeous beaches in Florida, Mexico, and even Italy, but we always come back to this one in our great state!

Lil' Love really enjoyed the water and the sand! She only tried to eat it the first day...


She would have just crawled up and down that beach if we would have let her!


and she didn't seem frightened by the water at all (definitely needs a life vest on next year:)...


Daddy and Lovebug gazing out at the ocean - so sweet!


The mandatory sister pic (love you sissies!)...with Lovebug, who is wearing a Mexican dress that was mine when I was little - thanks Mom for saving it!


Some precious nursing and bonding time between me and my babe on the beach one morning - wonderful memories that I won't ever forget!


Lil' Love really did enjoy it and it was so much fun to introduce her to it all, which we tried to only do in the morning or evening, because of the sun and HOT Texas weather...

Let's see, she also loved practicing her yoga on the beach, especially downward dogs...


and really enjoyed going on walks worn by Daddy or Mommy!


The traditional last night family pic, which was taken after a yummy dinner on the harbor...


My two favorite people in the whole world...and the most beautiful I've ever laid my eyes on!


Began with a sunrise above so let's end with a sunset - a pretty one over the bay at that!


That's it my friends - until next post...

Four years ago...

Four years ago I married my best friend...after four incredible years of courtship, we were married in front of 60 of our closest friends and family in a sunrise ceremony on our favorite Texas beach...followed by a yummy brunch reception. It was beautiful, intimate, laid-back, simple, and oh so perfect. I think back to that day all the time and just smile...



My dear sweet husband, every day since that glorious one four years ago my love for you has truly grown stronger and deeper...I learn something new about you every day and continue to have more fun than I ever imagined! Thank you for being you, my love, and happy belated anniversary!



As I was reminiscing recently, I went in search of our wedding photographer, Michelle Young, whom we met in Florida (long story) but she was incredible! Her business has grown quite alot since she did our wedding and her work is still gorgeous! Thank you Michelle for giving us such beautiful shots of that most special day. So if you ever need a cool photographer, she's your gal, and she travels all around!

Organic Tour...and a good baking substitution

On Saturday morning we went on an interesting farm/garden tour with some friends and the local organic society...it was neat to see how a different green family lives and all that they're trying to do. I think it took my Love back to his college horticulture classes...and Lovebug loved it as she adores being outside. It was a gorgeous Texas (hot:) summer morning with a very blue sky and lots of pretty green all around us!


Sidenote...this last weekend's waffle making ritual was going great until I realized we only had (1) Tablespoon of baking powder left (and we normally double the recipe posted below for the week) - uh oh!...so I googled a substitution for baking powder and came up with this: (1/4) tsp of baking soda and (1/3) cup molasses = (1) tsp of baking powder.


So we did (3/4) tsp baking soda and (1) cup molasses for the (1) T of baking powder needed to finish the waffles and only about (1.5) cups of rice milk (maybe play that by ear after add the molasses and everything else)...and they turned out GREAT! Darker than usual obviously because of the color of molasses but really yummy (gingerbready) - AND they had the added health benefits of blackstrap molasses - incredible amounts of iron, copper, manganese, potassium, and magnesium.

SO we might always make that substitution from now on - just a little FYI if anyone wants to try that in the waffles...Can't wait to try it in something else now too! Anybody have any other healthy vegan baking subs that they'd like to share? We already do the flaxseed mixture for eggs, sucanat for sugar/brown sugar, and coconut oil or applesauce for butter/oil...but I'd love to hear any others!! Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend.

Back Home

Gosh I really need to be better about posting more regularly...sorry! WELL last week we got back from a wonderful road trip into the Hill Country of our great state. It was so beautiful - the hills, the trees, the rivers...Just gorgeous! and so interesting to see a whole other part of Texas. The trip was for a lovely family wedding - congrats R & D - we're so happy for you! We made a vacation out of it and spent some incredibly enjoyable time with family. We rented a house on the Sabinal River with a breathtaking view all around us...It was our first trip with our little one and she did wonderfully - just perfect in fact - she loved "playing" with her cousins and enjoying the great outdoors. Here are some of our fave pics from the trip:

Cute house we rented with family...
The beautiful Sabinal River...
Our front porch and driveway views...


Mommy & baby kisses...
Don't know what this is but it was pretty...
Sweet Daddy and Lovebug time by the river...
Our precious babe...


The reception at the city park...
At the Sabinal River - everyone was jumping in, which Lovebug loved watching...
Shots of the gorgeous Frio River at Garner State Park...



Our fam in the Frio - Lovebug was so taken with the flowing water we couldn't get her to look up:)...
My Love and his dad swinging into the Frio...

Outside Mother's Day dinner at the only open restaurant in Utopia - a cute lil' Texas cafe!
The Medina River which was so beautiful...
Heading home...
It was a wonderful trip...it allowed us to do something we're always trying to do more of, which is get out and explore more of our state as there's always something else to see and do!