These two...

I had SUCH fun with them on our little weekend trip. They are just the silliest, funniest, sweetest, most beautiful and best things ever! They are so ridiculously cute together too and bring me such immense joy. I absolutely love spending time with them and couldn't ask for anything more. I am one blessed girl.

Relax

This week was a busy one for Lovebug and I! We were gone much of every day except Friday, which was so nice to stay at home, recover, get some much-needed housework done, relax a bit, and just play. Above is a little bouquet of flowers I gathered from our herb garden. It smelled divine! I kept it in our kitchen for awhile and loved getting a whiff of it every time I walked by. It was so very relaxing.

Our vegetable garden is looking quite sad right now. The 100+ weather we've been having is definitely taking a toll on it and its complete end is near. :( Oh well. It provided us with some yummy veggies for many months and I think overall it did pretty good. I took some pictures last month when it was still doing well that I want to share with you soon. We have some big plans for it and our herb garden for the spring! I cannot wait!

How was your week? I'm so excited it's the weekend. I have three half soccer games today before the season starts which I'm pumped`about! Have a great one.

Our active weekend

I wrote this last week but lost my connection and couldn't get it posted. ANYWAY, I've decided to go ahead and post it because if I added in lots of housework/projects and some homemade veg sushi on Sunday, this last weekend included pretty much all of the below again too - HA!

This last weekend was an active one with most of it spent outside which I just love! There was some really fun tennis and swimming on Friday evening. Gardening, basketball, rollerblading, and park playing on Saturday. Then Sunday there was alot of hiking and creeking for the August family birthday party! So FUN! Yes it's hot here (very hot) but as long as you have a pool, creek, or any body of water to cool off in, it's bearable. :) These shots are from all different parts of our most enjoyable family weekend...






I already can't wait for the weekend with my lil' family all together again...Hope you all have wonderful weeks!

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. :)

Cakesicles

The day of Halloween we hosted my family's monthly party to celebrate November birthdays. We had a great time and many of us wore costumes which was fun! Prior to the party I asked my sweet niece what she wanted to eat at her celebration and she said "popsicles". Well it's not quite popsicle weather so I searched around and decided to make "cakesicles" using these pans. They were really cute and some of them actually held up! I used this recipe for the cake and this one for the icing with the usual minor adjustments to both (sucanat, coconut oil, and almond milk).

We tried my chocolate chip cookies in them too and I think those would have help up even better on the stick except I didn't watch those carefully enough and they burnt. Yeah, the cakesicles bake super fast so watch them closely! I really want to perfect these though and be able to ice both sides because they were SO yummy and enjoyable. We sprinkled chopped up almonds on some and the sprinkled-looking ones actually have chia seeds (which are incredible!) on them so there was an added bit of healthy goodness :). They did actually look like sprinkles and added the same bit of crunchiness which was nice. Anyway, the birthday girl and boy were very pleased!

The rest of the day was spent cleaning up and then we went on a nice walk and saw the local kiddos in some interesting costumes :). We did have some come to the door too but not as many as usual for whatever reason. It really was a great weekend though...

Hope you all had a great one as well!

Pumpkin Patch Weekend

Our weekend was so lovely! How was yours? We did the pumpkin patch thing with some grandparents on Saturday. It was so much fun and Lovebug thoroughly enjoyed herself! Although she liked the pumpkins, I would have to say the highlights for her were ALL the children, a "train" ride, and definitely a little area where she gathered dirt and rocks :). I got up early and baked some pumpkin donuts which turned out really yummy, but not very pretty. I'll give the recipe another go and try to make them more visually appealing and then share it with you all. That evening we did a little family photo shoot at a beautiful nearby park area and had a blast running around afterwards. I'll share some of my favorite shots later on. Well, it certainly is feeling and looking like fall around here and we're doing our best to enjoy it!




Today, we're off to take my sweet Grandma a birthday lunch...carrot soup and pumpkin bread - YUM! Have a wonderful day!

A fall weekend

Last weekend (yes, LAST weekend...I'm catching up) truly felt like a fall one. It was pretty cool out and we had to bundle up, leaves were falling, and it was just lovely. I had a 10K race on Saturday and actually thought it felt "cold" that morning but it went really well once I got warmed up. After a quick trip on the way home to a new-to-us natural cafe/bakery, the rest of the day was spent hanging out all cozy in our nest which was truly delightful.


The weekend also included our first batch of hot apple cider which certainly makes fall feel here! I love me a cup of warm cider on a cool day.


We made the cider and the below yummy carrot spice cake for my family's final gathering at our longtime house (the "Compound" as we call it). Not everyone made it unfortunately (there's alot of us:), but those of us that did, had a wonderful time.


Being the photographers that my sisters and I are (BTW, I'm so happy the 3 of us are reunited in the same country/area for now!), there were LOTS of pictures taken, but the most persistent photographer was by far this little gal...




She was moving all over the place in different positions and spots. It was hilarious! Hmmmmm, wonder where she's seen that?! She has become quite the photographer and makes all kinds of things her "camera", including this old kitchen timer of my mom's :). She now has a couple vintage Fisher Price ones I won on Ebay last week, which makes her seem more official when she's snapping away!


I'm so pleased fall is here...I really love summer but it's certainly a nice change. I'm incredibly excited by ALL that is going on in my head for the upcoming holidays, Lovebug's 2nd birthday, and for our nest! I'm so looking forward to the things we have planned! I feel like I need to give an official goodbye to my beloved summer though...more on that to come.

SO does it look and feel like fall yet where you are?

Our Water Day

Did you have a good weekend? We sure did! It was nice, restful, and yet productive too. Yesterday was particularly enjoyable and was kind of a big water day in the backyard.

We started here in the little pool. It's the only non-PVC one I could find, plus it fits all of us and has a canopy. I wanted to provide a link to it since it's non-PVC but they don't have it anymore apparently - darn it! Anyway, it doesn't look the coolest but it works really well and provides a good amount of enjoyment and cooling off for Lovebug (and mommy/daddy too)!


Then we moved here to the galvanized "pool", which really became the dumping area for all of the rocks, dirt, and whatnot Lovebug started to gather...and where to wash off her ever-dirty hands.


After that, we moved to the sprinkler which was super fun for all of us. Lovebug especially loved cupping it and letting the water erupt out as I'm showing her here...


By this point we were all very hungry, so we gathered up some leftovers and had a picnic lunch in the backyard (with lots of water), which was so fun until we became under ant attack. By the way, those are bracelets she put on her ankles in the morning and then wore all day...so cute! :)


Then after lunch, Lovebug and her daddy were so sweet to make us some dessert. Dirt + water = mud pies...YUM!


It was so much fun! The day ended with a long bath for Lovebug which is a very rare treat as we always do showers. So, it certainly was quite the water day...

SO, what did you do??? Hope you have a good one today!

Bowlful of kale

How was your weekend? We had an enjoyable one, although we weren't home much of it. It involved alot of fun with family and lots of outdoor time with the weather around here being so darn nice. We even ate a birthday meal outside in the shade, which was quite enjoyable. My two Loves accompanied me to the park for my long run Sunday morning and Lovebug had a blast walking, running, and playing in the dirt. That girl loves rocks! She loves finding them, collecting them, organizing them, and holding them in her hands. She loves getting dirty too and ANYTHING outside - anything.

Yesterday was another really great day. It was the perfect combination of playing, learning, and productivity. Lovebug fell asleep nursing in the maya wrap or "ling" as she calls it while I was doing some things in the kitchen. So precious. No matter how much of a little girl she is looking and acting like, she's still my sweet baby and loves being worn. I love it too because we get to snuggle and be so close to each other :) while I do random things. Plus, she gets to be in on the action and see everything I'm doing, which we talk about and discuss. Wearing her is SO much easier than holding her and makes things "doable" that wouldn't be otherwise. Even though there are days when for whatever reason I forget about them, slings/wraps/carriers are a true lifesaver and I don't know what we would do without them.

Anyway, I was able to get Lovebug on the bed to finish her nap and when she woke up she was quite hungry. Her Daddy had set aside some steamed kale the night before from the pasta dish he made us, and she just devoured a big bowlful of it. I am so proud of my little vegan! We love kale around our nest and put it in alot of different dishes, but it's just as great on it's own too. So nutritious and yummy! Tell me, how do you like your kale?...or do you even like it?

Well, have a wonderful day...OH and happy September (which I still cannot believe)!

A weekend of parties

Our weekend was pretty delightful as it was full of birthday parties and wonderful family time. We hosted one of the parties and had some outdoor activities planned. It was rainy though so we stayed inside, but everyone just chatted and played which was still really fun. The birthday and mini pennant banners I made for this party showed up again in a new way.


I love these little colored beeswax candles from here...they're so cute! Of course, a party isn't a party without the tablecloth getting dirtied up a bit with the yummiest chocolate cake ever from here :).


Some of the colorful doilies from this Antique Weekend found their way into the decor too...along with some soy tealights and glass cup vases.


For one of the birthday boys I decided to make another pencil case like this one but I started it the morning of the party, which is not terribly unusual for me unfortunately. :) My sewing machine kept acting up and I was getting really frustrated because we had to leave for the party soon. SO we now have a new rule in our house that presents (since we try to mostly give handmade ones) have to be finished at least two days before they are to be given. Otherwise, the projects are not to even be attempted. It's a good rule, and honestly it's going to be really difficult for me, but I'm going to do my best to follow it. I just get too frazzled under the time constraints when I (or the sewing machine:) mess up and it takes alot of the fun out of the whole process. The pencil case did end up really cute though and the birthday boy liked it alot, which made it all better :). So do any of you have a similar rule you've made for yourselves?


By the way, thank you for all of the sweet comments on Lovebug and her fall! She's doing great and it's healing well. And to the anonymous commenter, YES we are actually filling the darn sunken living room in! It's been on our to do list for quite some time now. That Lovebug incident moved it up to the top for sure and will hopefully be done ASAP! Thank you for offering that idea though.


Well, we need to pack up soon and head out to a friend's to celebrate yet another birthday! :) Have a great day.

4th...

Our 4th of July included watermelon, wiffle ball, peach cobbler, and fireworks, amonst other things....OH and some water play for Lovebug. The metal tub bought the day before at a local feed store was quite a good purchase and she had a blast playing and cooling off in the water.


It was a great day spent with family, although it did seem really long and we were all pretty tuckered out come late afternoon. Somehow we mustered up the energy to go watch our city's fireworks display, but Lovebug could have cared less. She was not impressed at all! So we quickly left, and without a mosquito bite thank goodness. When we came home, our neighbors did their annual little display in the street and she LOVED that. Maybe because it was so close and she could see and hear them so much better. I don't know, but she loved it and was upset when they were over!


I just feel so blessed today - to have my little family and have had such a great fun-filled holiday weekend! There were quite a few highlights but a couple stand out currently, with one of them being the pizza my Love made last night. It was hands down the best pizza I've ever had...seriously. I have begged him to please write down what he can remember of the ingredients before he forgets because it was SO incredible. I cannot wait until the leftovers tonight for dinner, followed by some leftover peach cobbler too! :) Another highlight was finding and then listening to a mixed cd :) my Love made for me about 9 years ago! We had such a good time listening to the songs he chose to put on there...such wonderful memories!


We actually got a little rain yesterday which cooled things off a bit and the morning air actually feels pretty darn nice. When we woke up it was only 82 in the house which isn't bad at all compared to what it has been lately. I know it's going to be a wonderful day! Well, I hope everyone had an incredible holiday and I wish you an even more incredible week!

Little Milestones

How was your weekend? Ours was lovely, productive, and had a few little milestones for us. The first one being the removal of two gates that were keeping Lovebug from the living room (it's sunken with concrete flooring). I HATED having them and really hated keeping her from a room in the house, but we had one incident when she first started walking that scared us pretty bad so they were necessary for awhile. But after 9 months of walking experience, she's got it down :) plus she does really well with steps so we thought she was ready...and so far, so good. She has recently become such a climber and was trying to climb the gates too, which further spurred on the gate removal. She was unbelievably happy when my Love took them down and I so wish I had a picture of her face :).

Afterwards, the house automatically felt bigger for whatever reason which I wasn't expecting. There was alot of rearranging and Lovebug-proofing that had to be done so that took awhile. But it was SO worth it! She loves going up and down the step and just LOVES being in there! There will probably at some point be a fall but we did put rugs down all along the step to hopefully help minimize any pain. Anyway, it's a wonderful little milestone...


Our other one of sorts was my Love and I celebrated 9 years of being together! 9 years ago this past weekend we went on our first date and we've been together ever since. :) We celebrated by going to a local Mexican restaurant which is what we did on our first date too. It was a simple but long dinner and we just chatted about our first date, the last 9 years, and all the MANY MANY ones ahead of us. It has been such a blast and only continues to gets more and more fun! I love you my Love.

Another milestone we tackled this last weekend was that we finally hung something up in the back of the house! We are still in the process of finishing the remodeling of the back, but it's mostly done (minus the bathrooms) and we just haven't hung anything, not wanting to put any nails in our white walls :). Well, for our upcoming 5th wedding anniversary we had this incredible artist paint a masterpiece for us. We just fell in love with her work and had our eye on one particular painting but it sold unfortunately, so instead she created a custom one just for us which worked out even better! Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE and ADORE Etsy?! I seriously do! Anyway, that's a peek of the painting up above...oh how I love it!

So it was indeed a good weekend. Here's to a wonderful rest of the (short) week!

Good feeling

You know what's a good feeling?...When you think you're out of chocolate chips because your bulk jar is empty, but then find a bag of them in your pantry that has never been emptied! Yea! Now I get to make some dark chocolate chip cookies for my Love and I to enjoy over what is going to be a fun family-filled but foul weather weekend. That spring is such a tease! I only wish I had some fresh mint to add to the dough, but some extract will do.


Another good feeling was watching my baby brother last night thrive on the stage and feeling so very proud of him. Gosh I just wanted to jump up there though as I do miss being under those lights!

Alright, have a wonderful weekend full of lots and lots of good feelings!

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!

The weekend

I'm SO glad it's the weekend! Hope you have a relaxing and fun one!!!

Changing Leaves

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. Ours was pretty quiet with our traditional dinner of polenta pesto-stuffed acorn squash and spiced apple cider. So delicious! Occasionally it was interrupted by the sounds of cute little trick-or-treaters coming up the driveway. We didn't think we were going to have any, but then they finally arrived and our FruitaBu flats were gone pretty fast with just a handful of groups.


Even though it was still in the 80's this last weekend, we could finally see very noticeable changes in the trees around us, as there was a greater variety of colors and more brown leaves had fallen to the ground. It was a nice relaxing weekend...one of those where you really slow down, notice, and enjoy the little things. Every weekend or gosh, every day, should be like that. It is something we at least strive for here at Our Green Nest...


Today is an important day. I felt so blessed to be able to cast my vote for whom I see fit. Such a rush of excitement came over me as Lovebug and I sat down in the booth, and then a rush of pride as we got up and walked out. Hope each one of you got to experience those same feelings today as well!

Some Weekend Loves

Some things I am loving from this last weekend...

This creamy outfit her Daddy dressed Lovebug in yesterday! I'm adoring Baby Legs right now because they keep her legs warm without having to wear pants. Skirts and dresses are much preferable on Lovebug because pants are annoying (and bulky with CD's) and she doesn't love getting her dipes changed right now, so they make the whole process much quicker. They have some organic ones (their wool ones as modeled by Lovebug are so soft!) and they're cute!


My wonderful Gramma and family gathered to celebrate 80 years of her life!

The new album from Ray...this guy is good. No, he's great! He's one of my all-time favorites and this new album is beautiful. Same gorgeous music but some new sounds and instruments in there. I love me some banjo and steel guitar.

These pumpkin spice cookies from Rachel that I vegan-ed up along with a maple syrup icing inspired by Jessica. They don't look nearly as delicious as they are!


The cold front that came in last night. It felt absolutely beautiful out on my long evening run, and paired with Ray's new album playing in my ears, it was downright fun!

This cool website where those of us with no TV can watch the occasional show FREE as a special treat. Aren't Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin just genius together in this show? And gosh, why did Arrested Development ever get canceled? And aren't Holly and Michael perfect for each other?

These two. They are so sweet and funny together, and I love them more than anything.


Lentils, kale, and veggies together in a delicious winter soup my Love made.

The new deodorant, lotion, and soaps made yesterday. For the deodorant, I took the Angry Chicken's recipe and made it my own with lavender and peppermint EO's. The lotion is delicious which I posted about awhile back, but this time I added just peppermint EO and it smells divine - I could almost eat it!

Hope each of you have lots you are loving as well (please share!). Mondays are tough because I miss the weekend, but they're also a fresh start to another week which I also really enjoy. Lots to do - have a good one!