Baby Peach Turns Two

730 days. 24 months. 2 years. That's how long you've been stealing my heart.

You don't like getting your picture taken and always ask to see the baby on the screen instead.

You love to spin around and around in circles and fall to the ground laughing.

You love to read books and you will ask me to read the same book ten times a day for a week before moving on to another favorite.

You get upset when your motorcycle and 4wheeler don't go fast enough because the battery is dying. Because you would ride them all day long if you could. In the yard or in the house, you love to ride.

You love to play outside. In the mud. In the sand. In the rain.

You are cautious and careful one minute, and fearless and crazy the next.

You think that you're so funny when you walk out of a room backwards while saying "bye bye".

You think that you're so innocent when you do something that you know you aren't supposed to and follow it with an "oh no".

You have an obsession with the Under Armour logo.

You are obsessed with gas stations. I don't know how or why it started, but you love them and insist on letting us know every time we pass one while telling it bye bye and getting upset that we didn't stop.

You love monkeys and laugh every time you see them.

You like to help me clean and put things away where they belong. 

You are very independent when you want to be. But when you get around a crowd you insist on being held until you get warmed up.

You can't let daddy drive a tractor without you sitting in his lap. And you love to sit there and work all day long.

You love to play and scatter your toys all over the house. But you are also a great big helper and do a great job cleaning up your messes.

You have an obsession with butterflies and your face lights up every time you see one.

You love to sleep in. Just like your momma.

You have the funniest little happy dance and I can only hope that you got a sense of rhythm from me and not your daddy.

You love to ride over train tracks and say "bump bump bump".

You like for things to be in their place and get upset whenever they don't fit together how you want.

You love to say "bye bye" to everyone and everything. 

You're learning to love "our dog" even when she licks your whole face and makes you mad because she doesn't want to play tug with her rope.

You love to push things. Anything and everything. Everywhere.

You love to wander and explore and I hope you never lose that sense of wonder and adventure.

You could eat crackers all. day. long.

You've started singing your own little songs and it's just about the sweetest thing that I have ever heard.

You love to throw things in the trashcan and to point them out everywhere we go.

Your memory is better than mine.

You bring me to my knees crying, laughing, exhausted, and thankful.

You are the greatest thing that I have ever done and our adventure has only just begun.

Happy 2nd birthday, little one! I love you and love you.

And love you and love you.

And love you and love you.

Outdoor Sectional DIY

Some projects take much longer to finish than anticipated. Like ten months longer. But when they are finally completed you're so glad you made them and can check it off the to do list with an accomplished smile.

At least that's how it was with our outdoor sectional. The actual build itself wasn't very difficult and we had it done in a weekend. Then it sat for a few months before I got around to staining it. Then I couldn't find cushions so it sat for a couple of seasons before I decided to make some of my own. So here we are, eleven months after the project began and it is finally done!

The plans for the sectional are from Ana White and we adapted the measurements to fit our space. I used Behr Transparent Weather Proofing All-In-One Wood Finish in Cedar Naturaltone for the stain. And after searching all over the internet for a cushion pattern I ended up following this YouTube video tutorial which was relatively easy to follow considering I'm a novice at the sewing machine. I chose an outdoor fabric and used velcro on the closure so that the cushion covers can be easily taken off and washed.

I learned two very useful tidbits about myself during the sewing phase of this project:
One - I cannot cut in a straight line to save my life
and
Two - I forget numbers as soon as they come into my head. Seriously I do not even know how many times I had to measure and re-measure and then still measured wrong.
And while my measurement mistakes delayed the process because I had to order more fabric (which was, thankfully, super on sale at the time!), I was able to make lemonade out of those lemons and used the extra fabric I now had to make pillows.

So while this project took way longer than I had wanted, it's done and I love it. Now I'm wanting to build a table/ottoman to match. Any bets on how long that one takes?

Blessings,
the Crunchy Peach

Vegan Carrot Cake

Happy Easter, y'all! We had such a great weekend, taking advantage of the holiday and the fact that Mr Peach was off work we had some fun family time.

We had Easter lunch with my family and being the only plant based eater among them meant bringing along a dish or two of my own to make sure I'd have something to eat (*wink*). Usually I'm content enough just having a meal and skipping on dessert, but this was a holiday and I did not want to be the only one missing out on some sweet Easter treat.

Vegan baking can be a bit challenging. A lot of times I'm able to use a non-vegan recipe and substitute with non-dairy milk and butters, but sometimes the ratios just aren't quite even and things end up tasting a bit off. And vegan dessert recipes can often times be a little more complicated than I'm willing to take on.

So I was definitely excited when I tried out this carrot cake recipe from Love and Lemons last year. I've made it a few times now and it's turned out super yummy each time. It was the perfect sweet treat to my Easter day (and the left overs the day after). The original recipe also includes the icing, but I was being a bit lazy this weekend and opted for store bought (check your labels, a lot of popular icing brands are dairy free!).

Vegan Carrot Cake

Original recipe from loveandlemons.com

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup non-dairy milk (I've used both soy and almond and each tasted fine)
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
2 cups grated carrots
1/4 cup walnuts

Directions:

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together applesauce, milk, vanilla, sugar and coconut oil.
Mix the dry ingredients into the wet then fold in the carrots until combined.
Bake in a greased 9x13in pan at 350 for 30-40 minutes.
Cool completely before frosting then sprinkle with walnuts and enjoy!

Blessings,

the crunchy peach

Toddler Approved Spinach Muffins

Note to self: when baking, always wear an apron. Because you are clumsy and will inevitably splatter green batter all over one of your favorite white shirts.

Getting a toddler to eat is so easy. If you're serving them carbs and fruit that is. Veggies on the other hand can be a bit more tricky. So you have to be a little tricky sometimes to get them to eat their greens without them realizing it.

My little Peach loves bananas and muffins. So this recipe is essentially a banana muffin recipe, only it's full of spinach and made without any dairy.

I like to make a large batch and keep them in the freezer. Then in the morning I just nuke one or two in the microwave and breakfast is served.

Ingredients

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup non dairy milk (I use soy)
6 oz fresh spinach
2 ripe bananas
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Combine dry ingredients.

Place applesauce, milk, and spinach in a blender and blend on high for 30 seconds. Add in spinach, bananas and vanilla and blend on low another 30 seconds.

Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix by hand until thoroughly combined.

Pour into muffin tin (makes about 16) and bake at 350 for 18 minutes.

Allow to cool completely on a rack then store in an airtight container.

Blessings,

the Crunchy Peach