Our new favorite cookies are gluten-free, are vegan (so long as vegan chocolate chips are used) and have no "bad fats" or refined sugar. They don't have honey or maple syrup either! They're an oatmeal base with mashed bananas and apple sauce and of course, chocolate chips. And I love them! It's a good thing they're so "healthy" because everytime I make them, I can't stop eating them! Conor says that he likes them even better than the butter and sugar cookies I used to make. That's kind of a big deal. 

Recently I had the girls help me make a batch. I'm typically a control freak about food and the kitchen and I don't care for help (except from my Mom), but I did my best to let go and step out of my comfort zone (do I sound crazy?). And I had to tell my girls many times to stop licking the spoons and tasting the batter. When Greta had a turn mashing bananas, she took a big taste of the banana and when I told her to stop tasting, she spit the banana back into the bowl. I still baked them up, but we definitely did not take any to our neighbors! 

The hardest thing about these cookies, is having ripe enough bananas lying around to make them with! 

You can find the recipe for these Oatmeal Banana Chip Cookies here. I bake them for 20 minutes at 375°F. If you make them, I'd love to hear what you think!

I'm really, really excited about this shirt. 

I have a hard time buying button-downs. They're usually a little bit short for my liking and they often fit my bust area weird. The Archer Shirt from Grainline Studio is perfection. It has a boyfriend-esque fit and does not have darts. I feel really good in this shirt and I love the fit.

Jen did a thorough sew-along on her blog which helped me to confidently and successfully make my shirt. She has a few nifty tricks that I would've never come up with on my own.

I sewed up this view A Archer in a size 0, which was perfect for fit. I lengthened it by a whopping 2.5". And when I finished it, I wished I had lengthened the sleeves. They're a tad short, hence them being rolled up in the pictures. I lengthened them by 3/4" for my second shirt. I used Anna Marie Horner Field Study voile which I absolutely love. 

I want to make a dozen more of these shirts!

I love taking photos of my girls. It makes me really happy. Recently, I was printing photos and saw that's it's been a long time since I've taken a proper photo of them together. I grabbed the soonest opportunity. Holly is finally cooperating with photos (most of the time) and I love the photos I took of her. And Greta is hit or miss. Taking pictures of children is like a box of chocolates... 

I like Holly and Greta's room. It's far from perfect and all the furniture but the glider are cheap, but I like it. It's not super stylish, but it works for us. I haven't photographed all of the spaces we've lived in, and I want to be better at that. This space needed to be photographed because at some point in the near future, It's going to be different. Holly will need a bigger bed (she's so tall!) and Greta will need to upgrade from a crib. We recently had a stay-at-home day and I had the opportunity to tidy up and take photos. And I took it! 

Some notes: I love our glider. I have spent so much time in that chair. Every night we have a cuddle before bed and of course there's lots of other cuddles inbetween. I bought ours second hand. I also love the gallery wall. I love looking at it and thinking about my girls. The girls love their frame with the photos of them and their grandparents. I think it's important to be reminded of the 4 people who love them most (after their parents) especially since we don't see them very often. The artwork is definitely a favorite. Holly has noticed the art more recently and she likes to talk about it. Little things like, "I like the giraffes." One of the pictures is a drawing Greta did on a scrap of paper and gave to Holly. Holly was so thirlled with it that she wanted in on her wall. It's been there for months now. The jar for jewelry and hair accessories is the best idea I've ever had in my life. It has saved us so much untidiness! 

Conor is great at playing with the girls. Anything that involves building, he's game. One recent Sunday, he built a 14 foot duplo bridge with the girls. And Holly built a "die bed" for Snow White. How pleasant. 

The bridge was quite impressive and I just love seeing my family play together. Makes me happy!

Conor has a new bucket list item: build a mile long bridge from duplo/legos. Ha!