A Case of the Mondays

I know it's Tuesday, but we had such a fun Monday that my "case of the Mondays" has set in today.

Theo's name did not make the list, but we've been told his name is "sooo hipster." There are a handful of names included that I really love though! 

Oscar nominations! I don't know about you, but we always try to watch all of the films up for best picture. We have managed to watch "La La Land" & absolutely adored it. The soundtrack has been on repeat & I would watch it a million more times.

This pub looks so neat! You can have a drink & do good!

This is long, but well worth the read. 

On the menu this week. Today would have been perfect with the snow falling outside.

"Let's Make America Kind Again..."

Happy Tuesday! :)

6 months of Theo

It's been a while since I've written a post & I thought what better way to get back at it than to do an update on Theo!

It's been another month with our sweet guy. He is 6 months old already & we can't quite believe it. Time really is just passing us by far too quickly. He is such a mover & a shaker. He shakes on his own like it's nobody's business, but his actual mobility is all up to us. He is becoming more interactive each day & we are loving the stage he is at right now. He smiles with such ease at things that genuinely make him happy & squeals in delight whenever he's excited. He loves to be held, but also loves his own space. We're positive bath time is his favorite time since he is able to be naked! He greets us with the sweetest, twinkle eyed smile each morning & is always excited to get the day started!

Age: 6 months

Stats: 20 lbs (we will know for sure at his checkup in a couple days). 

Wearing 6-12 month clothes. 

Has 2 teeth with a couple more on the way.

Favorite foods: Butternut squash, bananas, apples, yogurt & surprisingly, prunes. We also gave him his first taste of peanut butter & he loved it!

Favorite Things: He LOVES to eat. Enjoys his jumper with his monkey friends. Love, love, loves to sit up & have us stand him up. I swear he will be a much happier little guy once he can move on his own (although he is the happiest kid I've ever met). He loves anything that has a simple face (Curious George) & truly enjoys watching football with his Daddy. He also thinks it's hilarious when we chew our food.

Least Favorite Things: Green beans, getting dressed & anything that even remotely confines him.

Milestones: Giggles soooo much! Rolls over both ways & sits up unassisted, but still has moments of wobbliness. He has attempted to crawl by smashing his head into the ground & lifting his hiney into the air. He also finally takes a bottle (so when we want to go on dates we have no worries)!

Happy, happy, happy 1/2 birthday Theo Thomas! We can't wait to continue watching you grow!

Happenings

I haven't been very good at consistently writing out things we've been up to lately. A tiny little human clearly takes priority, but I would like to occasionally document things for my own memories sake. I figured I would post every so often things we're making, reading, doing etc.

Reading: Children's books & tons of them. Our favorites right now are The Cat at Night, Pout Pout Fish, The Wonderful Things You Will Be, The Mitten & Goodnight Goon (even though this is a Halloween book we love reading it). Books on our reading list (whenever we find the time...) Two by Two & The Girls for me. North Water & The Underground Railroad for Nate.

Making: Once a week, I try to make a meal we've never tried. The last one was a Moroccan pulled pork over rice & this week I'm making skillet chicken with pasta. Both recipes are from here.

Eating: All the sweet seasonal treats! Peppermint stick ice cream, ginger bread cookies & these Pfeffernusse cookies from Trader Joe's. They're addicting.

Drinking: A ton of coffee. We love Trader Joe's coffee. It is the one thing we splurge on. Their Guatemalan coffee is by far our favorite. We've also been trying all the seasonal beer. We really enjoyed Flying Bison's 'Blizzard Bock' & Harpoon Brewery 'Winter Warmer.'

Listening: Holiday music. You only get to listen for so many days out of the year! But other than that we've been listening to a lot of the new Kings of Leon & The SteelDrivers.

Watching: We basically binged Stranger Things. We really loved it. Most recently we watched West World and thoroughly enjoyed that as well.  Now that we are finished with both of those we are cramming in all the Christmas movies & holiday baking shows!

Doing: At the beginning of November we took Theo to his first Penn State game! He was a champ. He cried a few times very briefly, but you didn't even know it with all the cheering going on! We recently saw The Trans Siberian Orchestra for the first time! It was my wedding anniversary gift from Nate. We really, really enjoyed it! Totally put us in the holiday spirit. We took Theo & Joe to see Santa Claus. Each of them were really great! The Santa's were a whole other story...

Wanting: Hats. Give me all the hats. I manage to fit a shower in each day, but actually getting to do my hair is a rarity. Thankfully the cold temperatures make my hat wearing adventures seem normal.



Happy Wednesday! :)

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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