what's for dinner tonight {homemade hamburger buns}.

oh my yum.

i told you i'm on a bread baking kick this year.  i absolutely love making homemade bread and all variations of bread or bread-like things. one of my best friends told me she made homemade hamburger buns and ever since then i've been dying to try.  and then i found this recipe on pinterest.  it was a sign.  must.make.now.

yesterday, nick&i celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary.  our fav meal when we were dating was cheeseburgers and fries.  i always joke with him because i don't think i ever ordered that at a restaurant before dating him.  i remember on one of our first dates i said something about being anemic a few years back and he told me "you need some red meat" and promptly took me out for a hamburger and fries at like eleven o'clock at night.  i think it was then that he had my heart ;)

ever since, burgers on the grill is one of our favorite meals.  especially if we can get our hands on hormone-free, grass fed beef.  seriously, it makes all the difference in the world.  nick also makes a killer blue cheese turkey burger.  delish.

so we decided to have cheeseburgers and tater tots for our anniversary dinner on the deck after the girls were in bed.  yes, i said tater tots.  that kind of makes me feel like we're second graders eating lunch in the school cafeteria, but it's one of our favorite sides on a lazy not-wanting-to-cook-type-of-night.  accompanied by frank sinatra and a large glass of wine (yes, large) for me and a pbr for nick, that's pretty much the perfect dining experience.  i decided to kick it up a notch by making these homemade buns.  like i said: oh my yum.  now i think i'll be making these every time we make burgers.  or pulled pork sandwiches.  or any sandwiches.  or just to eat fresh out of the oven.

i could be in trouble.

homemade hamburger buns

* 1 c. lukewarm water
* 2 T. butter, softened
* 1 egg
* 3 1/2 c. flour (i used white for this recipe... sometimes you just need some white bread)
* 1/4 c. sugar
* 1 1/4 t. salt
* 1 T. instant yeast

topping:
3 T. melted butter

(i chose to do the butter topping for a richer, golden brown finish... but you could also use an egg wash (1 egg beaten with a bit of water) for a darker/shinier finish, or sprinkling of sesame seeds)

- put all ingredients into a breadmaker and turn onto "dough" setting, allowing the ingredients to mix, knead and rise.
- gently deflate dough, and empty onto floured surface.  using a knife, section dough into eight pieces.
- form each piece of dough into a ball and gently flatten until about 3 inches in diameter.
- place on a greased cookie sheet and cover to rise until doubled in bulk; after about an hour they should be beautiful and puffy.
- brush buns with half of the melted butter.  bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
- brush buns with remaining butter to give a rich, satiny finish.  allow to cool.
- when ready, cut buns lengthwise with a serated knife.

my girls loved these just out of the oven for their dinner, or cut and toasted with cheese for an open face sandwich.  many uses for these delish little morsels.  you'll get stuck making them forever, they're just THAT good.

you're welcome.

our wedding.

almost five years ago, i married a pretty awesome guy.

one of my hopes for this blog is for it to be a documentary of our family's life.  i want it to be a precious gift to our girls someday... for them to look back and read what i've written to them, or about them, or about their daddy and our lives together.  i've written about our story before (to read, click here) , but i've never posted before about our wedding day.  being the sentimental gal that i am, here are a few photos (okay, it's total picture overload) capturing our special day.

the wedding site
we got married at the lucerne inn; a beautiful historic inn tucked in the mountains, overlooking a lake.  when i was a little girl, i always loved driving by it because i thought it was a "castle".  my grampy's father was a caretaker of the inn during the winter months when my grandfather was a little boy.  he tells many stories about ice skating on the lake and running about the inns endless hallways.

the invitations
i have a thing for pretty paper... my sister found this scrapbook paper for me and handmade all of our invitations.  they were beautiful and so special!  i also used this paper for the centerpieces and other decor.

worship music
music is so important to both nick&i and we are so blessed to have some very talented friends!  these are a few of them that sang before and during our ceremony.  "your love is extravagant" and "praise to the lord, the almighty" were a few of our selections.

my handsome groom
seriously.  so handsome.  nick wore a khaki suit and white shirt/tie.  i married one good looking guy.

heritage of prayer
it was really important to us to involve our families; we had a time in the ceremony where our fathers came up and prayed over us.  this was one of my favorite parts of our wedding, and this is a very treasured photo.  love it so much.

reception centerpieces
we had a few different centerpieces for the reception tables... these are vases filled with branches.

head table
we lined the head table with empty vases for the bridesmaids to place their boquets in.

the bride
i wore this veil that i bought for thirty dollars on ebay!  and drop earrings i bought at a jewelry discount store.  i purchased my dress (originally $1200) for four hundred bucks at a trunk show in dallas.  bam.  i'm all about a good deal.

sunset rock
our photographer was incredible, and took us for a quick ride across the street and up to this rock that overlooked the inn and surrounding mountains and lake.  we've gone up to this rock a couple of times since.  some of my favorite wedding photos! 

flower girl & ring bearer
our nephew, wyatt was our handsome little ring bearer; i love these pictures of him!  he wore chocolate brown pants from old navy, a white button up shirt and white converse sneakers.  when nick&i were engaged, a seminary professor of mine and his wife so graciously offered for me to live with them in the months leading up to our wedding.  i was very close with their family and asked their daughter, jill, to be our flower girl.  i found a simple white dress (i think it may have been a first communion dress) for her, and ordered a chocolate brown sash.  she wore simple ballet slippers for shoes that we found at payless.

our reception
we honestly had a blast at our wedding.  don't listen to anyone that tells you that you won't have fun at your wedding or reception!  this was my dad doing his ever popular fist pump move... such great memories... so fun!

reception centerpieces
another variation of table centerpieces; square vases filled with river rocks and water with pink gerbera daisies.

reception site
our reception was on the lawn of the inn under a large white tent light with twinkle lights and white paper lanterns.  it was pretty, casual and seriously the most fun i've ever had.  if i could pick any day to live again, it would be our wedding day hands down.  for many reasons, but our reception was just a ball.

reception
again... more dancing... we have awesome friends :)

father/daughter dance
my dad and i danced to "my girl" by the temptations.  that song will always be so special to me; we had a thing for the movie "father of the bride" (which features the song) because of the scene where the father and daughter shoot hoops in the driveway.  so special.  love my dad so so much; very blessed to have been his girl.

mother/son dance
when nick was growing up, he remembers listening to country music with his mom and siblings; specifically dolly parton.  so he chose to dance to "i will always love you" sung by none other than dolly herself.  this was such a sweet moment, and i really love this picture :)

down the aisle
i had pictured this moment a thousand times in my head and it was still incredibly surreal.  my bridesmaids and i walked down the aisle to "glory in the highest" by chris tomlin.  i will be forever grateful for the fact that my dad was able to walk me to hand me off to nick.  i had picked out a point in the song where the music crescendoed, and that was when i wanted to begin walking down.  i'll never forget my dad was so excited that he kept trying to step out too soon i had to hold him back and keep telling him to wait.  so sweet.

boutineer
nick's boutineer was a simple cymbidium orchid with a few green berries sprinkled in.   

bridesmaids boquets
i wanted simple flowers for our wedding; no use in spending lots of money on something that will last for a few hours!  but i love fresh flowers, so i wanted them to be pretty.  obviously.  i absolutely love gerbera daisies, so it was a perfect fit.  each bridesmaid carried a boquet of three light pink gerbera daisies.

cake
i absolutely loved our cake.  i wanted something super simple; we came up with this design... three layer pink cake with white frosting detail and chocolate brown ribbon topped with a silver "c".  the top layer had stripes, the second layer dots and the third layer a scalloped detail.

aisle decorations
again, super simple: light pink gerbera daisies and a few branches tied around chair ends with tulle.

matron of honor boquet
my sister was my matron of honor, which was the easiest decision for the whole day!  a no-brainah.  she held a bigger group of coral colored gerbera daisies.  loved these against her chocolate brown dress!

first dance
we danced our first dance to "at last" by etta james.  i love this picture :)

ceremony
we wanted our ceremony to be casual and personal... we had three different pastors that knew us well involved in the officiating.  there were definitely some laughs!

wedding party
we have the best friends in the whole world.  seriously.  most of our wedding party flew up from texas or other parts of the country (chicago, michigan, kentucky...) to be with us on our big day.  so special.  the girls wore chocolate brown strapless dresses from jcrew and chocolate brown ballet flats from the gap.  the guys wore khakis and white button up shirts from old navy and leather flip flops from the gap.  aren't they awesome?!  yes.  this photo captures them all perfectly.

bride boquet
my boquet was made of light pink peonies, hot pink roses, cymbidium orchids and some green berries.

husband and wife
we walked out to "l-o-v-e" by nat king cole.  perfect ending. 

there may be a few things that i would do differently if we were to get married now.  i would definitely be more hands on; planning from half way across the country, my mom ended up doing most of it.  i knew a few things that i for sure wanted (after all, i was a bridesmaid ten times before i got married... no joke... i had seen a lot of weddings!) but i honestly was so anxious to get married and start our lives together that i didn't care about a lot of the details.  which i'm thankful for now.  we had a beautiful wedding, but our focus was on our marriage.  a wedding lasts a few hours, but a marriage lasts a lifetime.

so.  if we got married now, i'd ditch the chocolate brown and go with a bright color like a pretty coral.  i'd probably do peonies, ranunculas or billy buttons for flowers.  and i'd fully enter into crafting/antiquing mode and do a lot of the decor differently, consulting pinterest along the way.

but, does any of that matter?  nope.  i would marry my husband a million times over no matter what we had for flowers, or what the color scheme of our wedding was.

this day was and will always be the most happiest day of my entire life.

what's for your sweet tooth {flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies}.

i've been on a cookie kick lately.

i never had much of a sweet tooth until i got pregnant with bella.  that girl must've been sugar in my womb because ever since she left it, i crave sweets.

i saw this recipe on a blog the other day and i knew immediately i had to try it.  we had all the ingredients in our cupboard, and it was a rainy outside.  our day pretty much begged for some cookie baking.  this recipe is super easy and bella loved helping (and eating chocolate chips as we baked).

there is no butter, white sugar or flour in these babies, so even though it was ten o'clock in the morning when we pulled the trays of freshly baked cookies out of the oven, i felt completely justified in giving one to each of my girls.

yum.

enjoy!

flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

* 2/3 c. quick oats
* 1 t. baking soda
* 1 c. creamy peanut butter
* 2/3 c. brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/2 t. vanilla
* 2/3 c. chocolate chips

- combine oats and baking soda, set aside.
- in a large bowl, combine peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth; about three minutes.
- mix in dry ingredients.  gradually fold in chocolate chips.
- scoop cookie dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  gently flatten with the back of a spoon.
- bake at 350 for 9-11 minutes, just until the edges begin to turn golden brown.  cookies may seem a bit underdone, but they will continue to cook as they cool.  makes 16-20 cookies.

* note: these are best fresh outta the oven.  i'm a stickler about eating warm cookies; i love to pop our leftover cookies the next day in the microwave for a few seconds before i eat them.  these are best warmed in a toaster oven--or real oven--to get that golden brown goodness back.  yum.
(that's if you have any leftover)

i've got sunshine on a cloudy day...

it's been a long week.

rain has been pouring down almost nonstop since monday.  no sunshine.  no playing outside.  no trips to the park.  pajamas, fort-building, tv watching, story reading, bread baking and toys alllllllll over my floors.  i've had a hard time this week.  the weather has really bummed me out and there have been several things that have happened in the news that have been hard for my heart to take.  i've felt cooped up and just blah.  by last night i was lamenting to nick: "these floors!"  "these toys!"

and i don't like being like that.

tonight was a blessing.  it's still pouring outside, but my heart got pulled out of it's hum-drummness.  and i'm glad.

we made waffles and bacon for dinner.  while the batter was being pressed in the hot iron, and bacon was sizzling on the stove, we danced.  all four of us.  dancing in the kitchen.  laughing, twirling, singing... i want to burn those images, those sounds in my mind so that i never forget them.

after dinner, and wiping the sticky-maple-syrup-fingers of two tired girls, we let them play for a bit before starting the bedtime routine.  after getting them changed, they climbed up in daddy's lap and read stories as he rocked... again, moments i never want to forget.  i took a picture for good measure:

when the story was over, i picked up bella.  she wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist and squeezed tight.  i laid with her in her bed and sang a song, read a book and prayed.  she kept asking me to lay down with her "just a few more minutes", so i did, until it was time for the light to be turned out.

i stood in her doorway for just a bit longer, telling her how much i loved her, looking at her in the dark, memorizing how she looked all snuggled in her cozy bed in a sea of stuffed animals.  and then she said it.  that little voice that made my whole week feel totally and utterly full until bursting: "mama, we have fun together.  baking cookies, and watching dora...we have so much fun, mom."

tears filled my eyes.  "you're right, baby girl.  we do."  after i kissed her one last time, i closed the door and immediately went to find nick so i could tell him, through tears, what she had said.

my sweet girls,
i try with all my might to make memories for you and do special things with you that you will always remember.  i want our home to always be a place that is full of sunshine, even on the cloudiest of days.  i want it to be somewhere you truly love being; full of laughter, joy and a safe haven for you where you will know you will ALWAYS be loved.  

and i pray that we will have fun together.  

always, always.  it's so important to have fun.  to laugh, to dance, to play.  let's do that forever, okay?  even--and especially--when it's rainy.  

love you to the moon and back (and back and back),
mama 

home tour {our kitchen}.

our kitchen is one of my favorite rooms of our house.  it's bright and cheerful and has lots of color.  and, nostalgia.  y'all know me and my nostalgia.

as i've written about before, my husband and i bought my grandparents old house a year ago.  it is just oozing with childhood memories for me, and the kitchen is probably the biggest room of sentimentality.  my grandmother loved to cook.  she was always in the kitchen working on a big family dinner, making breakfast for my sister and i, or baking some goodies to deliver to neighbors and friends.  it was super important to me to keep some of that nostalgia in our kitchen.  my girls helping me cook in this space makes four generations of women that have busied themselves in this kitchen.  now, that just makes my heart so happy.

my decorating style is vintage-eclectic.  i try to downplay it a bit in the main living areas of the house, because i want it to be an enjoyable environment for my husband too :)  however, since i am in the kitchen so much of the time, i figured i could kind of make that space my own.

we painted the walls a pretty yellow (buttercream, by better homes&gardens) and little by little i added some decor i liked.  still, no amount of beauty could avert the eye from our camp-ish, pine cabinets.  they darkened the whole kitchen and i was just itching to paint them!  since nick&i both work at schools, we decided our april vacation week, we would go to town on our cabinets.  and go to town we did.

here's a quick before:

and the after:

i am in love.  seriously.  i can't believe what a difference a coat of white paint can make.  sure, our counter tops are dingy and we have appliances from the 1980s, but i just love my "new" kitchen!  the cabinet makeover immediately brightened up the whole room.

we used sherwin williams paint and primer; including a special kind of primer that allowed us to not have to sand.  bonus.  snowbound was the color we chose; two coats of primer, two coats of paint, and we allowed the cabinets to cure for 4-5 days before re-attaching them.

and now for a little tour... sorry, total picture overload but i wanted to capture the details.

view from the entryway

view from the dining room

glass canisters; flour, coffee & tea

my kitchen gallery wall

vintage shelf 

mason jar with flowers, and these sweet little apple/pear salt&pepper shakers i eyed for a while at my favorite antique store that my sister surprised me with at christmas; aren't they so cute?!

katie daisy print with tiny teapot and old fashioned creamer

vintage hankie bunting

vignette with pretty plates, vintage hankies, katie daisy print and a rolling pin/muffin tin that belonged to my grandmother

stove

"my cup runneth over" personalized china platter; great words to be reminded of as i cook 

i absolutely love my kitchen window looking out over our backyard

a friend sent me this willow tree figurine after i lost my dad; it symbolizes my sister and i with our dad, but also represents nick&the girls which makes me love it even more

i bought this brass container at a yard sale, spray-painted it white and filled it with artificial succulents

ranunculas from my plants and an antique creamer that serves as storage for our medicine spoons and droppers

chicken wire basket filled with fruit

i have a thing for mint green, so when i saw this breadbox at my favorite antique store, it was a must-buy

we saved the original brass handles... they have a twig-like look to them, which i really love

i apologize for the picture overload!  i really love my kitchen.  even on a rainy day, i can walk into it and feel sunshine.  i look forward to all of the meals and memories i will make with my girls in this very room.  recipes that i'll pass down, traditions that will be established and many, many special times ahead.