Peanut Butter Caramel Shortbread Bars

I made some Peanut Butter Caramel Shortbread Bars to munch on when our friends from Colorado Springs visited us last weekend. They encompassed pretty much everything I love.

Recipe here.

Hippity Hop

Sometimes I forget about experiencing new things with my second child because my first child has been able to do them for so long.

Last Easter, Nash wasn't even walking yet. And now, he can run full speed. I wasn't even thinking about how hunting for eggs would be a whole new experience for him.

I picked up on his excitement quickly when my friend hosted a pre-Easter egg hunt for some children in our neighborhood today.

While Blake and the other children were running around filling up their buckets to the brim...

...Nash plopped himself down on the grass with his handful of plastic eggs and carefully inspected the contents one by one.

I think he'll get the swing of it by this weekend now that he knows what lies within.

My Morning View

For the last four years, this has been my view from our kitchen window every single morning:

The tree changes with the seasons, but the way the light captures and warms the branches as the sun rises over the mountains always makes me want to lasso in the beauty with the help of my camera. Of course, I can't do justice to that slanting morning light.

It makes me pause every day and soak in an instant of beauty while I'm rinsing dishes.

Even though the tree is technically in our next door neighbor's yard, I like to claim it as our own.

The spring blooms make it that much more breathtaking.

It doesn't hurt that "my tree" is in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains either.

Broken

Our boys sure know how to love the guts out of their beloved loveys.

We never let Blake take his ratty nie-night out of the house, but we are a little more lenient with Nash.

It helps that a soft yellow chick is more normal-looking than a beat up bumper pad, but we mostly just can't resist Nash's puppy dog eyes.

His nie-night has fared well over the last two years, but we are beginning to see the signs of premature aging.

The stuffing has completely come out of the little chick's nose, leaving a gaping hole. I'm sure that the rest of the nose is soon to follow.

Nash has been walking around our house for a week now, clutching on to his lovey and repeating like a broken record, "Nie-night broken. Nie-night broken."

All of the lamenting over the tattered nie-night isn't quite enough for him to give it up yet though.

He loves that thing more than life itself.

The Sock Bun

I have to admit, I kind-of love the high sock bun. It is so easy and fast on mornings where there just isn't time for hair.

And, as an added bonus, it produces wavy curls the next day that I hardly have to touch up at all.

But I about died laughing when our four year old drew a picture of me and my sock bun piled sky high above my head.

Thanks, Blake, for giving me a little reality check.