Baby Girl's First Easter Photos

We will be celebrating our first Easter this year with our sweet baby girl.

I wanted to take a few pictures with her first Easter basket like I did with our son.  And we also took her to see the Easter bunny (which our almost 3 year old wanted nothing to do with the scary bunny!).

It was so cute to see her sit up like a big girl for these photos (propped up on pillows!).  She wasn't quite tiny enough for the whole baby sleeping in a basket but not old enough to be sitting up on her own.  It was a little bit of a challenge to get a couple good pictures but I am happy with the few that we got.  Poor girl!  She was a good sport!

Here little face is too much!  Such joy this little doll is to our family (and to my dressing up a baby needs!).  Happy first Easter sweet girl.

Brother And Sister Easter Baskets

One of my favorite aspects of parenting so far has been the Easter baskets.  At Christmas time we have mis-matched stockings and come Halloween I am okay with a semi-homemade costume.  But Easter.  There is something about the personalized Easter basket that I am pretty obsessed about.

It would be embarrassing for you to know just how much time I have spent picking out the fabric pattern and color and style of embroidered name.  Then to try to have them sort of match for photos.  It is pretty ridiculous.  But like I said - I am obsessed. 

The baskets are from Pottery Barn Kids.  I chose the Natural Sabrina baskets in large.  They do change some of their liner patterns every year so our son's is no longer available.

For our almost three year old I picked up some garden tools, felt vegetables, alphabet cards, and Easter window clings from the Target dollar section.  I found Peter and Flopsy stuffed animals at TJ-Maxx for each of the kids.  And then I ordered a Berenstain Bears book, elephant hand puppet (we have a pig one that he loves), mini non-spilling bubbles, and a wooden doctor kit.

For baby girl I finally settled on a pink gingham basket with bright pink lettering after finding a blog that showed this same basket (see...I told you...some heavy research here!).  I didn't want anything too ruffly and yet all pink is still pretty girly.  But it has a timelessness to it that I like.  

I also got her the same garden tools for when she gets bigger, the Flopsy stuffed animal, Peter Rabbit board book, and Target dollar section carrots that I just thought would be cute in the basket.  The big stuffed bunny is from Pottery Barn Kids that we already had in her nursery.  And we got her a Virginia personalized rattle from Bannor Toys (our son has a California one).  I also tucked in some bunny ears that we had.  And truly she won't be playing with any of these things any time soon but it was special for me to put this first Easter basket together.

It really is a bit of a dream to spoil little ones on special holidays.  We will plan to go to church early and come home to these baskets and a low key day at home.  I am very much looking forward to it!

Happy Easter!

Healthier Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Treat - No Refined Sugars And Gluten Free

Over the past six months or so we have made some diet changes in our home due to health issues my husband has had.  For the most part we have cut out all refined sugars and gluten.  We are not overly strict about it - we try to be flexible on weekends and when eating out.  But for the most part, at home, we try to stick to it.  Meaning I threw out or gave away almost all of my sugars, flour, and foods with gluten.  It was easier to just not have it in the house and change how we all ate. 

We have found a few dessert recipes that fit into this way of eating that are actually quite good.  It took some hunting but I am really happy with our little collection of go to recipes that allow us to still have treats and recipes to go to for special occasions.  This peanut butter rice krispies recipe is one of my personal favorites

Healthier Peanut Butter Rice Krispies Treat

2 cups rice krispies cereal
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup peanut butter (we use homemade peanut butter in the Vitamix)

Melt peanut butter and maple syrup in the microwave - 30 seconds at a time until melted.  Mix with rice krispies cereal.  Pour into a lined baking pan and refrigerate until hardened.  Keep stored in refrigerator.