Monday Morning Pick Me Up

It's a Monday. Once again. This week has snow in the forecast every single day for us & polar vortex like temperatures (y'all remember that?). In any case, I'm sure we could all use a little something to get us going this Monday morning!

This toy. I saw a similar one at Home Goods recently & made sure to store it in my memory for Theo (maybe next Christmas...). It looks like a multitude of injuries, but oh so fun. 

Taylor Swift has a new song for 'Fifty Shades Darker.'

This was about a week ago, but still worth the watch!

2016 Haters Guide to Williams & Sonoma. If you've ever shopped there you'll know a $25 gift card is  the perfect gift for your worst enemies.

The 'Hamilton Mixtape'.

Moscow mule recipe.

Pantone color of the year. And if you're not sold on it some decorative ideas that may change your mind.

Happy Monday to you all!

Making Our List & Checking It Twice

It's time for all things Christmas! We wait for this time of year with so much anticipation & then it is gone in the blink of an eye. It often feels so overwhelming to fit in all the holiday magic before it's over, but we've found that creating a list can help us cram in all that jolly goodness!

(this has become a tradition of sorts...)

Here's our checklist:

Get a Christmas tree (check!)

Drink hot cocoa with buttloads of marshmallows.

Bake! Lots of baking.

Send out Christmas cards.

Watch Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, The Santa Claus & all the cheesy Hallmark movies.

Have a Christmas themed breakfast.

Go visit Santa Claus (oh. my. gawd. I can't wait)

Have a Christmas music dance party (already had a few...)

Do a Christmas craft (snowflakes, gingerbread house... the possibilities are endless).

Make peanut butter pinecones for all the sweet woodland creatures (I sound so creepy).

Have a picnic under the Christmas tree lights.

Make orange & clove stovetop potpourri.

Read The Night Before Christmas (and all the other adorable Christmas books we plan to buy).

Cuddle up by the fireplace.

Drive around & look at all the pretty Christmas lights.

Make snowman pizza (because why the hell not?)

This list will just continue to get better as Theo gets older. We are so excited to create traditions with him. One thing we really want to show Theo around this season (and really everyday) is to give. We have always loved doing random acts of kindness whether they be small or large & each year we find a cause to donate to. This year we are donating to a local organization that provides gifts to children who suffer from traumatic experiences such as domestic violence, trafficking & mental illness. 

Here are a few we have donated to in recent years:

OXFAM 

Operation Christmas Child

WWF

Books for Africa

Charity Water

Also, this website has a ranking of thousands of charities! Any gifts made today will be triple matched!

Happy Giving Tuesday! :)

Cold Season Essentials

I feel like it's time to start our winter weather cold arsenal. Now that we have Theo I am even more interested in preventing any sort of illness in our home. Besides some minor sniffles, I was able to escape a serious illness or even a real cold last year (and I even had a depleted immune system due to being pregnant... just sayin'). I would absolutely recommend doing your own research for ways to prevent illness in your own home. I simply thought I would share what has worked for my family the last few years.

Astragalus. This is an herbal supplement I have taken for a while now. It works to boost your immune system & helps to fight disease. I whole heartedly believe this works to boost the immune system & would highly recommend it. (This is the brand we have used). Unfortunately, I avoided taking it last year due to my pregnancy & I won't be using it this year because of breastfeeding. It is said to be safe to use, but there just isn't enough research for me to feel comfortable.

Vitamin D. This is my new alternative to astragalus. It supports immune health & helps with mood disorders (SAD in our case). Last Winter Nate & I had a really hard time adjusting to the gloominess in our new new city. It is far less sunny in Western New York in the Winter than any other place we have lived. So, we jumped on the bandwagon & decided to test it out this year. I also recently read a study that suggests Vitamin D cuts the risk of contracting a cold in half! 

Essential oil diffusion. This is a new one for us. I still have so much to learn about essential oils, but from what I've read so far there are so many benefits! I started using them last year when I could no longer take my herbal supplement. I decided on lemon, orange, lavender & eucalyptus to begin with. I diffuse the lemon, orange & eucalyptus throughout the day because of their air purifying qualities, plus they make our home smell so fresh! We use the lavender at night for its calming properties & it worked wonders on our nasal passages anytime we had the sniffles! It also really seems to calm Theo & help him sleep throughout the night.

Disinfect. I can't suggest this enough. I disinfect every surface & door knob each time we clean throughout the whole year, but during the cold and flu season I do it multiple times throughout the week. Since Nate is in the medical profession our chances sort of increase of contracting a cold with all the possible germs he could bring home. We also have hand sanitizer in the nursery, our cars & the stroller so that we always have it on hand!

Fruit juice/fruit. This might sound a little silly, but for as long as I can remember I have had a glass of juice at breakfast. I quite literally can't start my day without it (and of course coffee). I also try to eat as much fruit as I can even though it is increasingly more difficult in the winter months.

Exercise. We do this year round, but we make it more of a priority in the cold months because it is so much harder to be motivated to get up & out! It helps that we have a dog who loves the outdoors, but it is so important to get exercise in even if it's something small. Plus, fresh air can work wonders! 

We also do tea, multivitamins & good ol' chicken noodle soup :) Feel free to share any tricks you have up your sleeve in preventing nasty colds.

Stay healthy!

Apple Cheddar Soup

We went apple picking a couple of weeks ago. It was a lot of fun & we picked a ton of different varieties that have all been delicious. We've made applesauce, breads, used them on salads, given buttloads away & were still swimming in a mound of them. We've been on the hunt for clever ways to use them up!

Naturally, now that it is soup season, we made an apple cheddar soup. I will whole heartedly own up to the fact that Nate is a far better cook than I am, but I can make a mean soup. This soup was really easy to make & we paired it with a rosemary and olive oil bread.

This soup was on the sweet side, so after the fact we added some red pepper to give it a little kick.

Apple Cheddar Soup

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 tbsp. butter

2 medium baking potatoes & 1 large sweet potato

2 cups apple cider

1 tsp. thyme

1/3 tsp. salt

Dash of cayenne pepper

2 medium apples

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp. all purpose flour

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Fresh apple slices for garnish

In a large saucepan cook onion in butter over a medium heat until tender. Stir in potatoes, cider, thyme, salt & cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Simmer, covered for 15 minutes. Add chopped apples, simmer, covered for 5 minutes or until potatoes are tender. In a small bowl, combine milk & flour; stir into soup. Cook & stir until bubbling. Slowly add cheese, whisking until the cheese is melted. Garnish with apple slices. Makes about 4 to 6 servings. We doubled the recipe.

Enjoy! :)

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Friday I'm in Love

Another weekend is here! It's a rainy one for us, and I'm not mad at it. It's going to be a cold & cozy couple of days which is something we haven't had in a while. We may even use our fireplace for the first time this season! :)

I plan on making this in the near future since we still have so many apples from apple picking.

Emma Stone's 73 questions. Her Britney impression is on point.

Theo is obviously too young for these activities, but they look like fun! I plan on doing a tummy time painting session with him soon.

I have never bought anything from Patagonia, but this makes me want to.

I don't think I could quite pull this off like she does, but I really dig it all the same.

Happy weekend! :)

Fall Filled Weekend

We had a festive Fall weekend around here! The weather was absolutely beautiful on Friday, so we made a trip to the pumpkin patch in the morning & grabbed all our carving pumpkins. Theo seemed to enjoy it (as much as an almost 3 month old can). We saw alpacas, goats, sheep & chickens and even a teepee made of thousands of corn husks.

Saturday was rainy & filled with a ton of college football & couch snuggles. Sunday was the epitome of a fall day with a cool breeze & slightly overcast skies, so we made the first pot of chili for the season! We also started the Netflix series "Stranger Things." It couldn't be more perfect for the month of October with it's creepiness! I would highly recommend it. It sort of reminds us of The Goonies, meets Steven Spielberg.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! :)

Friday I'm In Love

Hello weekend!

It's the first weekend of Fall & I've got pumpkins on the brain! We are going tonight to get all the green & white pumpkins we can possibly fit into the car. Which won't be many since there will be a baby & a dog along for the ride.


image via Pinterest

Jimmy Kimmel's mean tweets

This mask is beyond creepy, but absolutely perfect for Halloween.

Jimmy Fallon's #FallSongs

If you dig heartwarming, "gee why didn't I think of this" kind of things, then this Instagram account is the perfect one for you to follow.

McDonald's has pumpkin spice french fries??? Whatttt? No, thank you.


Happy, pumpkin spice everything filled weekend! :)