Weekend Rewinds

Fall is here and thankfully, weekends have been going by slower than usual. They are still over within a blink of an eye. However, lately I have felt so relaxed and refreshed and ready to conquer the next week. I have appreciated the fall-ish weather for Texas. I will take the 85 degree temperature and attempt to throw on a scarf and boots! I am so ready for San Antonio to hit those really chilly nights.  

Some Highlights from our Fall weekends. 

1) Finally purchasing pumpkins! We got our pumpkins last weekend before Halloween.  I am OBSESSED with Fairytale Pumpkins and I loved the baby white ones I found.  We did not carve any pumpkins. I have found that just leaving them as is makes them last SOOOO much longer. 

Hannah and Bleu with our Pumpkins on the porch.

2) BAKING! I have been baking so much lately and I love it. It distresses me, even though I make a total mess in the kitchen. I love the smell of a house when you walk in and something has been baking. Last weekend I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and this weekend I made Hollands grandmas recipe for Banana Bread. YUM.

3) Coffee with mom. Last Friday I had coffee and a lemon bar with my mom at our favorite stops, Local Coffee and Bird Bakery.  It had been one of "those" days and it was so nice to just sit and vent for bit, eat a lemon bar and move on.  My mom got both of us coffee mugs with a "B" on it. She told me it can stand for Bruns but it also can stand for Beautiful. I love her, she always knows the right things to say. 

4) Gardening: Holland and I officially started our Fall Garden a few weekends ago.  We have our herbs in the garden still but we planted Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, cabbage and mixed greens.  Everything is growing very nicely. It is nice to have new plants in the beds to tend to.

So, you see that space in the front of the bed that looks empty? That is where we planted our romaine seeds that look like this now.

5) Last but not least- getting woken up on sleep in days by these two adorable faces.

This is my side of the bed and as you can see it is VERY narrow. It is hilarious to watch Bleu turn around.  They both know their momma wakes up way before their dad does! 

SNUGGLY TIME! 

When I die, I want to come back as one of my dogs :)

Two weeks until Thanksgiving Break! Whoop!

CALIFORNIA FINDLAY WEDDING!

Last weekend we traveled to California for my cousin, Michelle's wedding. I do not think it could have been a more perfect place, time and EVERYTHING in between to get married. The first thing I yelled to her the day of the wedding was "ITS A BEAUTIFUL DAY TO GET MARRIED!"

Her and James(her new husband!) worked so hard to make this day special not only for themselves, but for their guests. James' parents cooked the delicious food for the event and from the moment we arrived James and Michelle were non stop hard at work. They were hanging lights, directing people where to set up certain things all up until the hour of the wedding.  I could feel so much love and dedication that James and Michelle had towards one another. Their friends also showed this same love and enthusiasm for the marriage of their two friends. I was SO excited to help set up and be there to celebrate one of the most important days of anyones life.  Congrats to James and Michelle Findlay!  I had way too many pictures to post them all on the blog. So here is a Findlay Wedding Video 

                                                 

Unexpected Halloween

Let me start off by saying, I LOVE FRIDAYS. However, I am sure MANY of you understand that after a long week, sometimes all you want to do on a Friday is put on you pajamas and sit on a couch and watch all the shows you missed. With the cold weather last night Holland and I decided to be adventurous 25 year olds.  Instead of putting on pajamas and watching shows we were going to go to a movie. Believe me, these days that is adventurous for us. We have both been so busy, tired and just overwhelmed.  Going to a movie sounded like a mini vacation.

On our way to the movies we got into contact with our friends, Jon and Sarah. Sarah said there was a Halloween cover band show playing and that maybe we could get dinner and we could decide if we wanted to go. Immediately my brain was like "YES, lets go be social!!!" We arrived at Jon's house and my brain was so fried that it literally took me 5-7 minutes to realize what the show really meant. "HALLOWEEN COVER BAND SHOW". It never crossed my mind in these moments since the phone call that 1) People will probably be wearing costumes. 2) Oh wow.... Holland and I don't even have costumes......3) We are going to be THOSE PEOPLE that look like they just aren't fun and don't dress up...... I walked up to Holland after seeing clearly Jon and Sarah has their costumes ready and I said "I don't know if we should go..... we don't have any costumes.... sadly Holland agreed and we really became ashamed that the Halloween weekend had creeped up on us without us knowing.  We were on the fence on if we should go or not. Sarah, Jon and his mom were pulling out costumes out of this magical closet with really the best costumes EVER. Holland had a lightbulb moment and remembered he had a lederhosen that I got him for his birthday last year and then Sarah's eyes got all big and she said "JONS MOM HAS A GERMAN GIRL OUTFIT!!!"

With a little tweaks and a quick swing back by our house we were on our way to celebrate Halloween weekend.

Jon and Holland being friendly and sharing a drink. 

Sarah the Snail!! Loved her DIY costume!

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 It was the most unplanned thing we have done in a while and I am very glad we did. We got to go see some other peoples great costumes and we got to listen to cover bands that sang songs from the movie Labrynth!!  I hope every one has a very fun and safe Halloween Weekend! :)

Super Bryce is 4!!!

I seriously cannot believe how much this boy has grown up over the past four years! Holland and I are so lucky to have seen Bryce go from a tiny baby to a handsome young man. It really doesn't feel like over four years ago Hollands sister called and told me she was having a boy. Shortly after we were making the nursery sky blue and painting all kinds of farm animals on the walls. It sure has been fun to watch Bryce experience and fall in love with so many things like chop-choo trains, dinosaurs, space and now SUPERHEROES!!!                     

Holland and I went shopping with his mom before heading to Pflugerville to celebrate Bryce's birthday this past weekend and ever since Bryce and his sister Raya were babies, I am the crazy aunt that buys them clothes instead of toys.  Not because I don't want to be fun, but because I know his parents, Allison and Kevin will appreciate not having as many toys in the house and clothes are essential! Plus, let's face it I love to shop for clothes! Even if it is not for myself :)  So at Target after we had made our picks of outfits we went down the toy aisle. 

me: Oh, look Holland its a Thor hammer! That is pretty cool. 

H mom: Yea Bryce really wants one, but I told him his mom said no. 

Holland:(Grabs the Thor hammer immediately) "Then I am getting it for him!"

We then decided that it made no sense whatsoever to get the Thor hammer without the awesome Thor costume and Bryce was ELATED. Allison, not so much. She has already stated that we will get our payback whenever we have kids....but look at how AWESOME HE LOOKS!!

Bryce's Birthday cake! 

Bryce SO excited about his Thor hammer. Jumbo-obviously very excited to make Bryce happy, even if it makes his sister upset!

Thor made holland fall down and go boom in the bounce house. 

Oma with all the kids in the bounce house. 

Bryce's Birthday was filled with tons of friends from school, soccer team and also family. It was fun to see all the kids and adults get involved with the superhero theme.

                                             Everyone was very excited about cake time!

MMMMM the cake is so good!

Seriously, how handsome is he?!

Bryce testing out his spider web gift on his dad. 

Look at that smile!

 After friends left, Bryce gave us a costume show with all his costumes. He did say that he was going to be Thor for Halloween though! I love his spiderman pose!

Time flies when you are having fun.  I know Allison and Kevin both feel that way.  SO much has happened in the past four years and I Love that when Allison went to the grocery store she bought a "3" candle instead of a "4". I know she is holding on to these years like precious gold!  Life is all about the experience and making memories to last a lifetime and that was for sure done this weekend at the Bailey house.  WHOO HOOO on first birthday party at the house! Thanks for having us to celebrate Bryce's special day :)

Baby pictures of Bryce, Just for Fun! :)

Always in our Hearts

Yesterday was National Day of Remembrance.  My mom, sister and I met up with the Trillo family to remember David Trillo. David was a father, a son, a brother and a dear friend to many who walked across his path. Unfortunately his life was taken far too soon a little over a year ago on July 9, 2011. Even though time has passed, I can still see the pain in his families eyes. I agree with what one of the speakers said last night-"there will never be closure". There can never be closure when a loved one of yours is violently and carelessly taken away from you.

                                                                      News Story: Here


Yesterday evening as we were driving to meet the Trillos for the memorial, I was feeling exhausted and stressed with work and just everyday life.  However, once I got there and saw the Trillo's and my stress and worries immediately lifted off my shoulders and I felt lighter. However, my heart was heavy because I could still see the pain in Davids families' eyes.  I saw his brother, Bobby get interviewed and relive the moment when he last talked to his brother. I saw painful tears stream down his face and my mom held his mother while she sobbed after looking at David's picture on the slideshow of all the people who had been murdered.  During a prayer I heard what I thought was a woman crying behind me. Literally sobbing into her hands. Only to turn around when my sister offered tissues to see that it was a little boy probably around 8 or 9 years old.

 You think you have it hard until you get a big slap of reality in the face. I am lucky that no one in my family has been taken away from me either by accident, natural causes, cancer, murder etc.  Hearing Davids mom talk about how at any moment, any time of day she can just think of a memory of her son and break down and cry just reminded me of how precious life is.  Every day we have to walk this earth and be with our loved ones is truly a treasure that we can often take for granted.  I have so many memorable memories with David and I know everyone in his family does as well.  This evening was dedicated to celebrating those good times and help Davids memory live on through our memories, hearts and voices.

Bobby Trillo, Alexandria Trillo, Violet Trillo, My sister, my mom and I at memorial. 

It is a strange feeling to know someone who has died who is close to the same age as us. I often feel like our youth makes us feel untouchable. Nothing can stop us from the life we are living but it is certainly not true. I have held hands with friends and cried at funerals that I feel should not have happened yet.   We have all questioned what we could have done differently,we question how we can live our life differently for the memory of the ones we have lost.

No one can ever take those precious memories away that we all have of David.  My heart will always go out to the Trillo family and anyones family who has ever had to go through such heart ache and pain.  Thank you to Bobby, Violet and Alexandria for letting us share in your dedication and tribute to David last night. We are always here for you.

Lemon-Coconut Tofu Squares

A few weeks ago Hollands co workers (Rob) car broke down and Holland helped him tow it back up to his house in New Braunfels so it could get fixed.   To thank Holland, Rob's wife made him a "goodie bag" full of AMAZING THINGS! She gave us roasted almonds and cashews, some flower tea and these literally to-do-for Lemon-Cocunut Tofu Squares.

I have been a fan of lemon cupcakes and bars for a while, but these babies took it to a whole other level. This past Friday after work I got an iced coffee(to energize myself to be social that evening) and then I went and got a lemon bar from the bakery across the street from the coffee shop. Don't get me wrong, it was a delicious lemon bar but it just reminded me how amazing the other one was.

Ironically and Luckily, we met up with Rob and his family for lunch this weekend and I got to ask her where on earth she got the recipe from. She told me she got it from Whole Living and within an hour of lunch I was researching and making a grocery list for everything I needed.

This is VERY easy to make. You do need a lemon zester and a food processor.

Recipe Here

Holland and I are really enjoying this beautiful weather. I am hoping it stays like this but it is probably unlikely.  We hope that everyone has a glorious week.

Hannah and Bleu enjoying the sun. 

VitaMix!!

I am obsessed with our new machine that my parents got us.... A VITAMIX MACHINE!!

COSTCO has a special going on right now and they are 150 dollars cheaper there vs. online.  When my mom first told me how much they were and that she wanted to get us one, I told her she was cuckoo. However, I was sold at the demonstration when he made smoothies, ice cream and tortilla soup in a matter of 15 minutes. You can make SOOOO many things with this and it chopped and grinds EVERYTHING. I am in love. I am hoping to get many more vegetables and nutrients into our diet with this crazy loud powerful blender!

This morning I made us Banana, blueberry and orange smoothies. I love the color that it became after being chopped and grinded to tasty bits. It tasted awesome. It sounded like our house was a Jamba Juice headquarters with how loud it got but it was just doing its job!

Thanks to Holland, all of our glasses are beer glasses from some sort of beer event. :)

Banana Blueberry Orange Smoothie:
* 3/4 cup water
*1/2 peeled medium orange
*1 banana
*1/2 cup frozen blueberries
*1/2 cup ice


While eating our breakfast, Holland and I made our first home made from scratch Hummus. This one is  Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. OH MY GOODNESS. It made so much. We spent probably around 4 bucks for the ingredients(probably because we had so much of the essential condiments like sesame seeds, garlic and ground cumin) but we usually buy packages that are about 1/3 portion from what we made for around $3.50 each.

You like that big old swipe down the middle from our tasting? haha

I am sure you could make this recipe with another type of food processor  so here it is straight from the Vitamix recipe book. 

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus:

* 6 ounces roasted red peppers

*1/2 cup water

*2 tablespoons of olive oil

*1/2 cup Tahini Paste( grounded sesame seeds)

*2 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice

*2 garlic cloves peeled

*3 cups canned garbanzo beans, drained

*1 teaspoon cumin powder

*1 teaspoon salt

*1/2 teaspoon pepper

Mix all ingredients together in order listed. add water to mixture to keep mixture flowing freely through blades. 

Yields: 4 cups. 

I am very grateful to have had this Holiday off from work. I got to get a large amount of errands done around the house and I have planned some yummy meals for the week! 

I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. I am gearing up for a long/short week ahead. The shorter weeks always feel longer to me but again, I am grateful for the extra day!