In a season of exhaustion, motherhood, back-burnered dreams, brain fog, autoimmune issues and more - its hard to thrive in this space as I once did. I have let that come between me and the written word and it's felt lonely. 

I miss being here. I miss all of you. And for the love of all things that are good and therapeutic, I miss writing. 

Praying that I can find space to weave meaningful words between the recipes and the photo posts. 

Thank you for still being here, I've loved this journey with you and pray to see it continue for many years to come. 

​If you've been following the blog for a while or know me personally in any capacity you know I love to celebrate life's moments.

Big. Small. All the in between, I believe all of our moments, especially those with our little ones, deserves to be celebrated in a big way.

Lexi Kate turned six months old today! She is rolling both ways, can wave hello, babbles to us, deep belly laughs, blows raspberries, loves playing with her toys, ADORES her brother if he does ANYTHING, loves sleep WAY more than Grey did, can sit up unassisted, can clap, can get real mad and sassy if she wants to change what she's doing, still doesn't love the car and went on her first vacation last week to Lake Pleasant in our new RV. 

And she's become one of the greatest lights in our life and helps fill our home with so, so much love. 

When Grey turned six months, I was so anxious to celebrate his birthday that I started a tradition to celebrate his half-birthday. That post on his first 1/2 birthday can be found here. Our tradition is to make cupcakes and take photos to commemorate the day.

It's such a fun tradition and I wanted to continue it for our little princess. 

This past six months have been such an amazing blessing with our sweet girl. We still can't believe God blessed us with our darling son and our precious daughter. It's easy to celebrate these little people every day. 

We adore you Lexi Kate. We will always celebrate you sweet girl, moments big and small. 
​
To snag the recipe for the pink champagne cupcakes we whipped up for the occasion, click here.

Tell us below if you have any fun traditions celebrating your little ones 1/2 birthdays! 

Lucky for us busy moms, Smart & Final has launched their own Sun Harvest baby food brand this month that is organic, clean, GMO-free and made simply from fruits and vegetables. That's it!

Available in an array of delicious flavors and only $0.99 per ounce serving, the packaging is also BPA-free, which you know is a huge must for us and most mamas. ​

You can choose from Mixed Vegetables, Pear, Apple Mango, Pear & Banana, Carrot, Apple, Banana and Strawberry and Sweet Potato, giving your little one a diverse selection of fruits and vegetables to please their budding palate. Which you know I am a huge fan of. Diversity in a child's diet, from a very early age, helps them to like an array of vegetables and fruits as they grow. 

For store locations and information on Sun Harvest, as well as other products offered at Smart & Final, you can visit their website here. 

• Frankincense
  Applied to both my head as well as the head of the baby right after birth as an anointing oil. Highly healing. 
• Trauma Life
  For the crown of my head and my feet for immediately after birth. Great to inhale as well. 
• Lavender
  On feet for relaxation and post-birth sleep. 
• Gentle Baby
  Over me to bond with baby. And for my abdominal area after birth. 
• Claraderm Spray
  I use this post-birth on the vaginal area for a natural alternative to store brand sprays that can be filled with chemicals. 
• ​Peppermint
  If you're having a hard time urinating after birth, put a few drops of this in your toilet bowl. You could alternatively use eucalyptus over the bladder area. 
• ​En-R-Gee
• Hemorrhoid Relief Blend
  Combine the following oils with 4 drops of carrier oil and apply topically to the area. One drop peppermint, two drops helichrysum, 2 drops geranium and 2 drops cypress. Repeat as needed for comfort and healing. 
• Rose
  Rose is HIGHLY healing. Inhale daily or wear as perfume to combat PPD or PPA. Frankincense also works. 
• Joy
  Inhale daily or wear as perfume to combat PPD or PPA. I will be doing a blend of Joy and Rose in diffusers and as my perfume as I struggled with Grey for the first few months. 
• Thyromin
  To regulate thyroid and post-partum moods. 
• Present Time
  To stay present in each moment. 

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Bookmark this post to help you prep your prenatal, labor and postnatal care oil bag. 

I will be doing Instagram stories along my way as well so you can see how I'm using them, how I'm preparing them for the hospital and how I'm setting them up with my at-home care station for when baby girl is here. You can follow along at http://www.instagram.com/noshandnurture.  ​

My sweet boy.

Raising you has been the most beautiful, exciting, adventurous, tiring (haha), God-filled adventure of our lives. You are the most amazing little man I would  have ever hoped to know and I get to be your mom. 

You are modest. 
You always have to have a shirt and shorts or pants on at all times. Even when we are home and I tell you it's totally cool if kids chill in no shirt. You won't have it. And I find that charming and totally opposite of toddler life. You prefer buttoned, nice clothes to sporty attire and you love picking out your own outfits everyday now. Something I both super love but makes me a little sad at the same time. 

You are funny.
You are the prankster, you love making us laugh. You want to learn jokes just to tell them to us. You make silly faces, and dance around and are just the cutest little goofball. 

You are smart.
You blow me away with the concepts you continue to grasp. You've been a little smart cookie since infancy, but as you grow, it becomes more apparent to your dad and I and those around you just how special your little brain is. I am beyond thrilled to be your teacher and can't wait to see everything you become. 

For my GF/DF White Cake Recipe CLICK HERE.

For my Oat Flour Belgian Waffle recipe CLICK HERE.

For Paleo/Grain-Free Belgian Waffles CLICK HERE. 

And now my sweet little man is three and a half, and in true blog tradition of him hitting these milestones, an open letter to my little man along with some photos of my darling. For the full lemon cupcake recipe we enjoyed while celebrating this occasion, you can find the full recipe post here. 

My Grey, 
​
You are three and a half and I can't begin to tell you how MUCH I love and adore you. You. You are smarter than any child I've ever been blessed enough to know. You know all of your letters. Can count to 20. You LOVE to make people laugh and I swear you could act on television. This year you did just that as my co-star of our new show and you light up any room you enter.

You are compassionate and loving. You are thoughtful and care so much for me and your family. You have the biggest crush on your little friend Nora and think the world of your cousins Jillian and Jordan. 

You do SO well in preschool at home with me. You LOVE science and animals and don't care so much for art or drawing. Though I ADORE your little people that look like potatoes. You love when I read you to sleep and your favorite books and movies are superhero anything (preferably Spider-Man or Iron Man), Star Wars, Disney movies, Daniel Tiger and our joint newfound love of Peppa Pig. 

You are loving our new home, though you tell me your homesick for your old house sometimes. You grew in such HUGE ways once we moved in. You potty trained yourself, started sleeping in your own bed (half the night, but its a HUGE improvement, you weaned at three and stopped napping completely). That last one I wasn't crazy about, haha, but its just another way that shows me you are not my little baby anymore. You LOVE being outside, you are such a nature kid just like your dad and I love seeing you and the freedom you feel when you're playing on our new land. 

You are my kid, no longer my baby, my kid. My sweet, adorable, darling, amazing, awe-inspiring kid who makes me want to be better every day. ​

I will celebrate you as many times and on as many days as we can, because there is nothing in this life that is worth celebrating more than you. 

Love, 
​Mommy

Grey chose vanilla and lemon cupcakes this year because he "looooooves lemon".

For more photos of his adorable Disney themed lemon treat, click here for a fullwww.noshandnurture.com/sweets/gluten-free-lemon-cupcakes recipe post on how to make your own vanilla lemon cupcakes that are allergen friendly right at home. 

As the school year begins, and we prepare to move into our newly renovated modern farmhouse, #PimentalRanch, I am setting up all the easy solutions for our days to run smoothly. I call these solutions my daily rhythms. 

One of them, even though we home school, or maybe especially because we home school, is having our meals prepped and ready to grab at mealtime. Having them prepped for the day or week ahead, helps me keep the meals on our school table nutritious and balanced. 

As a nutritionist mama to a kiddo that loves veggies, (praise! Hoping all my littles share this love, haha), I love having vegan mealtime options. Your family needn't sacrifice taste or texture when opting for vegan entrees in a school lunch. You can parent young ones while leading a plant based life. Gardein offers a large selection of products to choose from for variety throughout the week.

Our favorites this week have been the Sweet and Sour Porkless Bites and the Seven-Grain Crispy Tenders that we picked up at Sprouts. I'm sharing a list of options below to accompany each entree for a well-rounded meal for your kids or yourself. 

Good for the body and the planet, it's choices we can feel good about. With a wide-variety of the products on a path to Non-GMO verified, Gardein doesn't use any artificial colors or flavors. This is HUGE on my mama radar - artificial coloring and flavor can cause so many problems in our bodies, that we want to protect our kids bodies from being exposed to things we can prevent. 

For those of you with soy or gluten sensitive kiddos, the ones shown wouldn't be an option but they do offer gluten-free varieties!. For those who can enjoy these ingredients, these are a great option - good for little growing bodies. 

To make well-rounded meals every day of the week, bookmark this list to check out some of our favorite sides to accompany the Gardein entrees. Easy to pack into lunch boxes, these are healthful hits with kids and adults alike.

To accompany the Gardein Seven-Grain Crispy Tenders

• Fresh Berries
• Vegan Macaroni
• Corn Chips
• Grapes (cut in half for safe eating)
• Avocado Slices
• Apple
• Salad
• Pasta Salad

To accompany the Gardein Sweet and Sour Porkless Bites

• Edamame
• Rice
• Quinoa
• Carrot Sticks
• Celery
• Pineapple 
• Snap Peas 
• Orange Slices

​To make it easy to implement plant-based lunches and go meatless at mealtime, you can find a "Buy 2 Get One Free" coupon below you can use at Sprouts. Click on the Sprouts Digital Coupon link to be taken to the coupon.  ​

What are some of your favorite plant based back-to-school lunch options? Share them in the comments below! 

#gardeinmeatlessmeats #lovesprouts

​This past weekend we had the BEST time throwing a Lion Guard themed playdate birthday party in celebration of our sweet Grey turning THREE years old. THREE. Seriously mamas, where does time go? I know everyone says that - but, man.  

Disney graciously provided what we needed for our festivities in support of their #NowMoreThanEver campaign with Disney World and they blessed us with the BEST party, along with their party sponsor partners Michael Angelos foods, Pillow Pet, Jakks Pacific Toys and Popped Passion.

​Below I share all the magical details of the day, tips for throwing your own Disney playdate party and bring you up to date on what exciting things Disneyworld has in store for 2019! 

Grey had recently gotten into watching the Lion Guard adventures so he was thrilled to see all of the decor. For a play date party you can keep it simple with plates, napkins and cups to have on hand for bite size snacks, a few party games and decor to liven up the play or party space. We added a few jungle elements to really bring the Lion Guard vision to life, as well as some large stuffed Lion King and Lion Guard stuffed animals we picked up to join in on the fun. 

PLAYDATE TIP #1: Choose a theme that your little one will get excited about! Disney has SO many options that you can find at your local retailers or online. 

To see all of the items Disney sent, you can watch our unboxing on my http://www.instagram.com/noshandnurture profile under my DISNEY highlight on my profile. 

One of our Disney playdate sponsors, Jakks Toys gifted Grey the sweetest Ariel mermaid doll that has not left his side and provided a princess dress to his very best friend. Pillow Pets sent a Mickey Mouse pillow pet that will be PERFECT for all of our drives to Disneyland. Michael Angelo's supplied delicious Italian fare and Popped Passion gave the cutest, most unique addition to our dessert bar - a popcorn cake covered in candy and sprinkles, every kids dream! 

In addition to our Disney partners, the lovely bakers at Let's Kiss and Cake Up! and Moffas Muffin Tops out of Peoria, AZ supplied the most amazing cake and cookies for the party. 

PLAYDATE TIP #2: KEEP FOOD SIMPLE. A COUPLE DESSERT OPTIONS AND ONE OR TWO MEAL SELECTIONS SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT FOR A LUNCH TIME PLAYDATE. 

We invited eight of Grey's best little friends to celebrate this joyous day with us. As it was a playdate party geared towards preschool aged little ones we aimed for simple activities that they would love but that was stress free on the parents - you can keep it simple! 

I purchased Lion King color books and packs of crayons and made a coloring station. Disney provided Lion King masks for the kids to wear and I picked up some extra princess crowns for the girls who wanted to play Disney Princesses. 

PLAYDATE TIP #3: MAX THE ACTIVITIES AT AROUND 3. TODDLERS WILL HAVE FUN JUST PLAYING WITH ONE ANOTHER AND TAKING IN THE SIGHTS AND THE FOOD. COLORING PAGES, A GAME AND A FEW TOYS WILL BE ALL THE ENTERTAINMENT YOU NEED. 

Disney provided a couple of printable games as well as a "Pin the Badge on the Lion Guard", as well as a pinata. All in all, plenty of things to keep three year olds busy in between lunch and dessert. 

Besides the opening of Galaxy's Edge in Disneyworld August 29th, you can visit the Walt Disney World website to see all of what's going on in the park this year. And while you're on the website, allow yourself to explore and dream a little. Maybe plan a trip for you and your family.

We will be visiting Disneyland in August and are headed to Disneyworld in the fall/winter season. We just can't get enough Disney. 

All in all, the day was a HUGE success and keeping it simple was key. Thank again to Disney and all of the sponsors for all of the magic.  

Leave your favorite Disney memory below and tell me what you're most looking forward to seeing this year or next! 

​I've been wanting to graduate Grey out of his first infant bible and I was blessed by Front Gate Media to recieve a complimentary The Tiny Truths Illustrated Bible and I FELL IN LOOOOOOVE. It is true to the bible, presented in a way that engages children. It allows children to discover WHO God is, who WE are to Him and what we were made for. 

I love that it's larger format than his previous small bibles and the illustrations are adorable and helps bring each story to life so well. 

I can't wait to see him dig into each story as he grows and I would love for one of you lovely readers win one for your little one!