Soccer season wrapped up a couple weeks ago and I was so relieved.  I mean, it’s fun and all, but I got tired of our Saturday mornings being tied up with games.

And then school wrapped up.  I officially have a Kindergartner now (what??).

In the midst of all our fun play dates and activities, we were reminded of how short life can be.  A guy I grew up with tragically passed away so we headed to our home town for the visitation and funeral.  The upside to that was being able to spend some time with our friends that we rarely see and Aspen had a blast.  She was right at home in the country.

Last weekend, Aspen and I had the privilege of taking a little trip down to Galveston with friends to spend a day at the beach.  We did the same thing last summer, so I guess you could say it’s our annual tradition.  The kids picked up where they left off and had a blast together.

Last year, Aspen had fun playing in the sand but wasn’t a big fan of the water.  But this year, she ran right into the water and enjoyed jumping the waves.

It’s fun to watch our kids play together.  Here’s a comparison picture of them from last year to this year.

We hope to continue this tradition so that our kids will grow up knowing each other despite not living in the same town.  So that’s my Aspen update for ya.  She’s a busy, spoiled little girl

I took her to the doctor and luckily enough, she broke out while we were in the office.  That never happens!  The doctor immediately knew that it was a virus causing her body to act up.  So Aspen was given some allergy meds to calm her body down and she has been fine ever since.  Now if I can just kick the allergies that are giving me fits this week.

Anyways, we started off the weekend like normal- with a soccer game.  And Aspen played great!

We had just gotten cleaned up after lunch when Aspen had a brilliant idea, “I want to go to a hotel and swim.”  I’m always up for a hotel stay so it was a no-brainer for me, but luckily Brad agreed   The Hilton Anatole was big, beautiful and had a fun vacation-y feel to it.  You know how Aspen can’t resist water, she had to dip her hands in the reflecting pool in the lobby.

We wasted no time getting to the pool after we got our room.  Aspen immediately jumped in and started playing with another little girl.  I was sitting on the edge of the pool, just thinking about how perfect everything was, when I noticed that Aspen was broken out in hives.  Red, raised hives from head to toe!  Fortunately, we were very close to Children’s Medical and rushed over to it.  Short version- she was fine, but definitely allergic to something in the hotel or the pool.  Here she is at the hospital waiting to be discharged.

We got her a cheeseburger on our way back to the hotel and she ate it in her very own room.  Yes folks, we got a hook up!  We’ve always heard stories of people getting upgrades at hotels but it’s never happened to us, so we were beyond excited.

It was late and Aspen was pooped, but we decided to risk going downstairs to a restaurant so that Brad and I could have a nice dinner.  It was worth it because Aspen fell asleep and we were able to enjoy a quiet meal.

After dinner, we put Aspen to bed and rented a movie.  The hotel package we purchased included a snack pack, so we called for it and were pleasantly surprised when it came.

Our room had a nice view of downtown and we were greeted in the morning by a beautiful sunrise.

It worked out perfectly that we got the sunrise and Aspen’s room was as dark as a cave.  She slept late which gave us a quiet, relaxing morning to drink coffee in bed and watch Friends.  It was awesome.  We headed back to the pool for a second chance at swimming….

….but it was cut short with Aspen starting to break out again.  We were so sad, but knew we needed to leave and get her out of the environment that wasn’t agreeing with her body.

My sister, Libby, hosted a family cookout at her new house and we had a great time.  Emily has more pictures from the day on her blog.  Here is my nephew, Carter, playing and singing for my Grandmother.

It was a great weekend, despite the scary trip to the Emergency Room, and I absolutely got the pampering I had wished for.

I put a couple pictures of her up, her soccer trophy, a plant, and her Aspen, Co hat.  I also hung up the L-O-V-E art that Katy and I made for our first nursery 5 years ago.

Oh, and that’s Brad’s childhood dresser that we inherited recently.  Aspen’s room wasn’t the only space in our house getting attention though.  Remember when I got my grandparents’ buffet?  Well, my sister, Libby, has the matching dining table and recently moved into a new home that has the space for the set to be together.  So we took the buffet to her house and reunited the furniture.  They hugged and kissed, and look great together again.  But that left me with an empty wall and a bunch of stuff to find a new home.  The chalk board that was sitting on top of the buffet went to Aspen’s room, which I think is fitting.

I dispersed all the other stuff that was in the buffet into different closets and cabinets throughout the house.  So back to the empty wall.  I just put a chair, ottoman, and small table and made it a reading nook.  I really should call it “Mamo’s corner” since my mom is the only one that ever uses that chair and lamp to read.

That tiny shelf used to be in Aspen’s room and was just sitting in her closet staring at me, so I threw it on the wall and put some pictures on it.

At first I thought we might need another piece of furniture to fill up the space, but I actually like it being pretty bare.  I’m becoming more minimalist by the day.  And since I stole the lamp that was on the bar (I don’t know why I still call it a “bar” when it’s nothing of the sort), I filled it’s spot with…..you guessed it- pictures!

I feel like we are constantly playing the furniture shuffle game and re-arranging.  I guess it keeps life interesting.

Every Saturday morning is spent on the soccer fields.  Aspen has done really well this season and has even scored a goal!  Brad enjoys coaching and I enjoy watching him coach.

Last weekend, I wasn’t feeling good so I spent some time resting in bed.  When I got up to see what Brad and Aspen were up to, I was surprised to see a new flower bed.

They dug everything up, put a brick border down, and planted some new plants.  This doesn’t really explain why I’ve been busy, but they sure worked hard on it

Brad’s mom is our resident landscaper/gardener and has really helped us beautify the yard.  I will show more pictures and give more details in another post.

It seems that we have a birthday party to attend every weekend, and last weekend was no different.  First we went to an adorably-themed Lemonade Stand party at the park.  Aspen and Evan had a blast swinging round and round in the tire swing together.

I actually thought I broke my pinky when I was pushing them and it got stuck in one of the links and got bent backwards.  Yeah, that hurt.  Then we went to a Pirate party and played all kinds of fun treasure games.

Oh, and then Katy had her baby.  Here is Brad and Aspen meeting Nora for the first time.

I’ll save all the close up pics for Katy to show off herself, but I thought this one is hilarious.  The room was packed with admirers when Nora got her first bath.

Yep, we all adore her.

So other than that, I’ve been doing a lot of babysitting, hanging out with friends, and digging for worms with Aspen.  All very important stuff so I’m sure you can understand why I’ve been MIA.

One day while sitting out on the back porch swing, I got a hankering for a cold dessert. I had seen a recipe for some healthy cookies that promised to taste like cookie dough so I adapted it to my taste and froze them. Here’s how it went down.

Toss into the blender:
Oats, peanut butter, shredded coconut, chia seed, almond milk, coconut oil, mini chocolate chips, agave nectar, and I had about a tablespoon of leftover cream cheese that I decided to use up (but not necessary).

In case you’re like “what are chia seeds?”, here you go. These are some power packed little seeds and I eat them in my oatmeal everyday.

Once you dump all your ingredients into the blender, blend away. It should look like a nasty mess.

Take your nasty mess and roll it into little cookies and set on something nonstick.

Put in fridge or freezer for awhile to harden and enjoy! They taste like eating a guilty pleasure but really aren’t that bad for you. If you wanted to make them even healthier, just leave out the cream cheese and maybe use vegan chocolate chips and almond butter instead of pb.

You may recall, last May when Kyle’s parents came and helped us build flower beds all the way around the house. Since then they have remained flowerless because… well, it costs money to buy plants and our plant budget was pretty far down on the list of needs.

Finally, two weekends ago when Kyle’s parents were visiting us, he and his dad planted eight little bushes!

I snapped this pic and sent it to Mel because I thought Aspen would appreciate the pet Kyle found for Daisy.

While Kyle worked hard…

Nora and I cheered him on from the swing with some sparkling water.

Thanks to Kyle and Lonnie’s hard work we now have lovely flower beds.

As much as I love having pretty bushes in the backyard now, nothing can compete with my new vacuum cleaner!! I am way too in love with this machine and I don’t care who knows it. I’ll shout it from the roof tops because this new vacuum has transformed my house cleaning routine. With a push of a button I can switch from carpet to hard floors and a push of another button I can dust my fans, behind my washer and dryer and even the toaster. Yes you read that right. I murdered those toast crumbs and never looked back. Booyah dust and crumbies. They never even saw it coming.

Finally, we made a little update to our entry way by adding this chair. It has been in our bedroom, but to make room for Nora’s pack n’ play, we had to relocate it and it landed in this spot. The idea was to have it here temporarily, but we love how cozy it makes our entry that it may have found a new home.

We are basically just waiting around for our tiny little lady to arrive now.

Since it was in our immediate viewing area, being right next to the tv, I wanted to spruce it up a tad without having to paint the whole shelf.  So I ordered some contact shelf paper off Amazon that had the look I had in my head.

I look the two upper shelves out, gave it a quick wipe down, and put the paper up in two strips.  Yep, it was that easy and took me about 10 minutes.  Voila!

Cute, right?

It was really easy to make and turned out great. I’m always looking for new ways to make veggies fresh and interesting so in case you are too, here is what I did.

First I threw about a cup of frozen corn with EVOO in a hot skillet. While that cooked, I chopped half a shallot and a green bell pepper. Then I added the shallot and bell pepper with cumin, salt and pepper.

Next I chopped up half of a zuchini and added that with a bit of mince garlic, more EVOO and a small pad of butter. Then I let it cook just a few more minutes on low to let everything mix nicely but took it off the heat before the veggies got too soft.

It was done in about 10 minutes and ready to be a nice healthy side dish to my meal. I served it with pasta salad, butter beans, a plain sweet potato and fruit salad of apple, little cuties and strawberries.

That’s a pretty standard meal at our house, but just in case you’re wondering if we eat “normal” American food, here is a pic of my breakfast on my birthday. Sugar covered sugar, chocolate sprinkle covered sugar and two extra sugar holes for good measure. Oh and chocolate milk. That big lump in the pic is Nora photo bombing.

Kyle plans our mini vacays by picking the hotel, restaurants and stores we will go to and I just have to show up with my tooth brush. I love it! We left Saturday morning and went to some cool stores off Greenville and enjoyed browsing a hipster art store. We came across an awesome women’s boutique, Milk & Honey, that I loved and plan to return to when I’m not pregnant. Think Anthropology but at least half the price!

After some window shopping we headed downtown for lunch. Here is Kyle patiently waiting for me while I waited in line for the bathroom at Klyde Warren Park. We had never been there and it would be such a fun place to go with a picnic, blanket to sit on and some shorts because it was warm! Since it’s surrounded by large buildings the park doesn’t have much of a breeze and though they have little tables everywhere not one was open. Soooo after a few minutes of standing in a non moving food truck line and sweating, we marched ourselves down to a little mexican food place.

Senor Bean! The place was empty because it was 2pm by then, the service was great and the food was even better. Good call Kyle on ditching the park scene! We were wishing we had one of these places out in the burbs because their queso was top notch and so were the veggie fajitas.

After our yummy late lunch we checked in at our hotel, The Lumen, near SMU. Kyle and I are big believers in being at a hotel the maximum amount of time. If we’re spending money to be there, we’re gonna be there!

Mel was asking about the pool so this pic is for her.

After a much needed nap for me, we ventured out to North Park for a little shopping. Here we are in their garden area where beautiful tulips were blooming everywhere!

I took Melody’s shoe advice from last week’s blog very seriously and bought some sandals at F21 for $8.80.

We stayed at the mall as long and my body cooperated. If I started out the day walking at a rate of 2mph, I was dragging it in at about 0.4mph by the end of the day. Thankfully, Kyle had a great dinner place in mind and we enjoyed a very late dinner in a nice restaurant.

By Sunday we were tired and ready to head home (after we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel of course!). It was a fun weekend getting to enjoy each other and celebrating our sweet 7 yrs of married life and looking forward to our next chapter.