9.30.2015

CURRENTLY...


 
 (from this past weekend when I went out to dinner with my girlfriend Angela)


 Wearing...this striped tunic & vest on repeat. I bought the tunic in cream as well - it's such a good deal (and on sale for $14 right now) and is long enough to wear with leggings!


 (candy corn lil' pumpkin sleeper is from Children's Place, mickey mouse sleeper/hat from Target, and the pumpkin and skeleton onesie are from Walmart!)


 Looking forward to...Camden's first Halloween! I keep finding more and more cute Halloween related items that somehow by the time I'm done shopping end up in my cart and are purchased. We are so excited to see him in his little costume! Speaking of costume, he currently has 3 because his mom is a little indecisive (and ordered one several months ago not knowing if it would fit or not!)

 Laughing...because one of Cam's main motivations to pull himself up/stand up is reaching for the remote control! He is definitely his fathers son! Look at that tongue-he's focused people... 


Loving...(1) that we got a treadmill for our basement!! Our neighbor was actually selling theirs for a steal of a price and they hardly ever used it so it's in great condition. Now that the weather will be getting cooler, I'm excited about being able to hop right on it whenever I want (especially during nap times or after Cam's in bed!) and not have to make the drive to my gym. 

(2) that my thyroid levels seem to better. Overall, I'm feeling much better than I did before but I won't know for sure what my levels are until I have them checked again which will be in about a month or so. 

(3) Pump Rules is starting back up in a month. This totally counts...  

(4-I swear this is the last one) Heading to Boston in a few weeks! Lots of fun things planned with our family and we get to spend a day/one night with my girlfriend Erica-it's going to be so much fun!

Not enjoying...not being able to sleep! Seriously is it not the worst? We got a new memory foam mattress recently and we've tried SO hard to like it, but I just don't think it's going to work out for us. Mattress shopping is so hard I feel like...do any of you have a type of mattress/brand that you LOVE?! Please share if so!

 Planning...fall family pictures! We booked a session a while back (with the same photographer who did our newborn photos) so I'm currently trying to figure out what all of us will wear before the pictures next week!  



Recommending...that you girls try this It Cosmetics powder and this CC cream. I like to switch up my makeup every so often and my girlfriend uses this brand and I fell in love with both of them! 

 

And last but not least...really.not.wanting this boy to get any older! 9 months forever please (slightly kidding but a little bit serious..you know what I mean? ;))

Happy hump day! 

(PS: finishing up my traveling with a baby post so stay tuned...) 

9.28.2015

Fall Scarves: The Ones Worth Buying

Fall Scarves

from L to R: One / Two / Three / Four / Five (my fav from last year!) / Six / Seven (love this one) / Eight- currently sold out, but this one is almost identical!

Hi friends! Hope you had a great weekend!

This week the weather is supposed to cool down a bit (it's still been getting into the upper 70's-low 80's here during the day) so it's the perfect time to add scarves back into your wardrobe!

I've found so many cute scarves online the past few weeks so I thought I would round up the best of the best! Even the hit plaid blanket one from last year is back in stock and you have TWO different places you can buy it! I don't want to admit how much I wore this scarf last summer and winter! If you missed your chance to get it then, now is the time before it's sold out again!!

I picked up this grey/blue scarf from Forever21 yesterday during a solo shopping trip (which was seriously dangerous for my wallet since I didn't have to rush through stores, ha!) that I love (also comes in the camel color that I included above) and I cannot wait to wear it. Only $12 and they are offering free shipping right now! I also bought this hat that goes perfectly with it.

Which scarf are you currently crushing on? Or do you kinda sorta want them all to magically appear in your closet like I do?!


9.24.2015

Baby's First Vacation


Ah, finally! I'm officially all caught up after being on vacation. You know how that goes...it takes some time to get back into the swing of all things life (bills/laundry/clean house/back to normal baby schedule, etc) again!

In just a weeks time we created countless new memories with Camden that I will never ever forget! The whole week and our time in Florida just completely exceeded my expectations. If I'm being honest, I had my doubts about what vacation/traveling would look like with a baby. Would it even feel like vacation? Would we get a chance to relax at all? How would he adjust to a new sleeping environment? Will he go crazy on the plane or have a huge blowout? (the second one did happen on the way home, ha) Well, I can tell you it was so much more than any other vacation we've taken. More meaning better...more meaning more rewarding...more meaning more fun and fuller hearts.

Was it more work than traveling just us two? Of course, but the extra effort (and things!) was so worth it because it meant that he got to be there with us and we got to love on him all week and see him experience new firsts with us! I can't describe how nice it was to all be together with only one focus, which was to enjoy ourselves. Yes please.  


We lucked out on the flight on the way to Florida because we were able to bring his car seat on with us (if the flight isn't full they will let you-I highly recommend doing this if your baby does well in a car seat! you can also buy a ticket for your baby to be able to do this), so we had the whole row to ourselves and he napped for a lot of the flight and was pretty content playing with toys for the second half. We never even had to take him out once-easy peasy! 

We had great weather for most of our trip, except it did rain one day but we decided to escape to the outlets at that point so it definitely wasn't awful by any means! Camden adapted way better we than expected - he went down for naps & bedtime very easily (no help from us!) and slept until 7:30ish every morning. He did have his own room which I'm sure really helped because he's so used to that. I think the age he is now is a great time to travel because he's old enough where he can handle a shorter nap here and there (and going a little longer between eating), and at the same time he's not walking yet so he's not completely all over the place. Does that make sense?! I did a lot of researching about traveling with a baby before going, so while I'm certainly not an expert myself yet we did learn a lot and got some great tips along the way so I might do a whole post about it! Anyone interested?

Anyway, I could probably talk all day about our trip but to sum it up our days were mainly spent by the beach or at the pool...pretty low-key and exactly how we intended to spend them! Camden LOVED the beach...he would crack up and smile so big when the waves would hit him! And we bought him this little airplane float from Publix for the pool that he really seemed to enjoy. We loved to walk the beach in the mornings with Cam in our Ergo wrap (saw lots of dolphins in the mornings!) and we went out to eat almost every night because calories do.not. count on vacation? 
 
 
Somehow we still managed to stick to his normal schedule - for the most part. For the times we went out to dinner, we would just eat early and make sure we would be back by 7ish for bedtime. If we were enjoying ourselves though and he was content, we didn't rush back by any means though! It was worth it for us to call it a night early for many reasons...it gave me and Billy time in the evenings to relax together, we were normally pretty tired anyways from being out in the sun all day, and the most important being that it ensured we had a happy baby who was not overtired from lack of sleep! 


I also managed to sneak away to treat myself to a relaxing mani/pedi, to go shopping, and to lay out at the pool! There were a few times that Billy wanted to get some work done on his computer while Cam was napping, so he stayed back and I was able to get soak up some vitamin D at the pool. I wasn't about to complain about that...nope! 


I can't forget to mention along with seeing dolphins for the first time, Camden got to see a black bear. A FREAKING HUGE BLACK BEAR. AS IN, NOT STUFFED. AS IN REAL. Yup. Happened. One morning we decided to go to this sanctuary to go on a 2 mile nature walk and as we got out of our car in the parking lot there was the bear eating out of trash cans about 100 ft away. 

There were workers around that warned us right away and mentioned how the bear hangs out around there often. It was really cool and slightly terrifying all in the same moment! ;)


Our flight on the way home they were expecting to be close to full so we couldn't bring our car seat on (we just checked it at the gate with our stroller-we bought a big bag to protect it off Amazon), but Cam still did pretty good thanks to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes I downloaded on my iPad and toys to keep him entertained. We did get the whole row to ourselves again so that was a plus. Cam isn't a lap baby in the sense that he will just sit there quietly and not want to move around...no, he wants to crawl up and down the aisles and try to fly the plane. Not kidding. So, yes, it was a little bit more challenging trying to keep him entertained, but he did great for the most part! We could've done without the dirty diaper at the end though! I couldn't even get up to change him since it was during the landing so you can imagine how that was. :)

I actually have a few more pictures from this trip that I haven't shared here for the sake of complete overkill (some family ones on my good camera) that I'm really excited to frame in Cam's room, and I plan to make a Shutterfly book with all of these ones! 

We're already looking forward to our next trip with our little man...Boston! And in a few short weeks! 
How was your first vacation with a little one? Was it easier or harder than you expected?! Share with me!

9.23.2015

Cinnamon and Pumpkin Spice Apple Chips


Hi friends! Long time no chat! Happy First Day Of Fall...who's excited about this?!

Although I feel like it approached way too quickly, now that we're back from our vacation I think I'm officially ready to embrace everything fall. It's kind of hard not to when you look out your window and the leaves are changing colors and you feel the cool brisk in the mornings! I admit I've been loving the weather since we've been home...it's too beautiful out!

While I'm still working on finishing our vacation recap, I thought I would reshare one of my favorite go-to fall recipes. However, I'm not sure if it can really be classified as a recipe because it's so simple! 

Apple chips are perfect for this time of year...delicious, too! So it's time you stop paying for them in the store and make your own...here's how you can do it:


Cinnamon and Pumpkin Spice Apple Chips:

Some tips to get those perfectly crispy apple chips...

+Slice (and core) your apples very thin! Thinner than some of mine pictured below. ;) The thicker they are, the more mushy they will be. Not mushy in a terrible way, but just not as crispy as you want these to be.
+Use parchment paper to cover the baking sheets for easy clean up and no sticking.
+More isn't necessarily more when seasoning these apples. I sprinkled cinnamon on just one side of half of my apples, and sprinkled pumpkin pie spice on the other half of the apples. I didn't do both sides (but you can if you want!) and I accidentally sprinkled a little too much on some of the apples that I wished I wouldn't have. Aka: you still want to taste the apples, too! ;)
+Bake at a low temperature in the oven (200-225 degrees) for one hour on one side, flip, then bake for another hour on the other side.


Eat 'em all up!

And THANK YOU guys for bearing with me since I've been MIA lately! I have so many upcoming posts planned for the blog that I'm excited about! And of course, I should have our first family vacation recap up tomorrow. xo

9.11.2015

Five Things You Must Know About


or that I'm going to tell you about anyways...

Who's jumping for joy (or for your favorite coffee) that it's Friday? I know I am!

ONE

This weekend equals...

 Our first family trip, Camden's first flight, his first trip to the beach, and I'm sure many more firsts in the next week! We will be in the Sunshine State for 7 days, yipee! Truthfully, I can't wait to travel with our little man! But pray for us for the flight, would ya? that's really the only part I'm nervous about! I hope to blog a few times next week while we are there, but you can follow our trip via instagram or my snapchat!

TWO

On my snapchat last week I posted about how we've been making salsa in our Blendtec and that I would share the recipe! It's so super easy and delicious! It makes me never want to buy store bought salsa again...here's the recipe:



+3-4 large tomatoes
+1 small jalapeno, chopped
+1 cup cilantro
+1/4 cup onion
+1 clove garlic
+juice of one lime
+salt and pepper to taste

Put the tomatoes in the blender first then throw in everything else and blend! Don't blend too long if you like your salsa chunky-all it takes is a couple seconds! YUMMY!!

THREE

I made Camden these baby banana oatmeal bites! They are perfect for breakfast and are freezer friendly. You just need a few ingredients and pop them into a mini muffin pan - easy peasy, which I need more of in my life! ;) He lovesss them!

and just because it's funny...that face, ha! 
 

FOUR 

I fell in love with this dress (less than $20!) from F21 the other day. It reminds me of the casual sweatshirt/tunic that everyone, including myself, bought from Target last winter but is a dress. I LOVE IT! And heads up-it's back in stock online (I bought a medium) 



FIVE

I just got these these amazing sunglasses in the mail that are a dupe for these $600 Dior ones! I will say the Dior pair is obviously gorgeous but for a pair that looks THAT similar and coming in at a whopping $13, I'll take the knockoffs! I love the silver on silver look, and that if I lose them (because seriously? WHERE are all my sunglasses?!) I won't be too upset about it!


PS: We finished the detox I mentioned last week! About halfway thru I ended up promising Billy we could do 7 days, instead of 10, if he stuck with it with me and we did that! Woohoo! He was getting sick of the protein powder taste after 5 days (and so was I at times-after that many smoothies you could still taste the protein powder over the fruits we used), and we were definitely craving more food by that point so I'm glad we just did the 7! 


Have a great weekend loves! 

And don't forget to cheer for Ohio State!

I mean it...

DO IT! ;)


K, that's all. xo!

9.10.2015

CJK: 8 Months Old



Today is such a bittersweet day. Not only is Cam officially 8 months old, but it's also my Mom's birthday. Deep in my heart I like to think that my Mom played a role in that Camden was born on the 10th of the month, just like she was. I think it's kinda special they share that! This day is actually harder for me than the past few years and I think it's because now I know what it's like to be a parent and how hard it must've been for her to have to leave me. It makes me cry thinking about it. She's very missed..I know Camden would've loved her. 

Let's get to the happy moments! 

If I could sum up the past month in two words, it would be exciting and busy! The first couple weeks Cam learned to crawl, there was no stopping him. He is across the room in what feels like a split second...just all over the place! We joke about timing it because he is seriously so fast. We learned a lot more about his personality this past month - he is very determined, strong, smart (he picks things up so quickly), and is a great eater! He doesn't hesitate at all when trying new foods, he loves it! He's eating 2-3 "meals" per day now along with his bottles and so far he's ate anything I've put in front of him. Recently I started offering little finger foods to him (cheerios, cut up fruit, puffs, banana oatmeal bites, waffles, etc.) and he perfected the pincer grasp in no time. He doesn't like it if I try to help him-he just wants to do it himself, ha. He's also a HUGE fan of sippy cups/water...he gets really excited when I place a cup in front of him and does not like when I take it away!


In terms of his schedule now, he's down to 2 naps per day (morning and mid afternoon) which makes the day flow so much smoother. He's still in bed by 7:30pm every night and will sleep until whenever we come in to wake him up, normally. It's nice because on the weekends he will let us sleep in a little bit longer (amen!) Everything is going so well right now...he's just the sweetest little boy who makes our life so much better. There are no amount of words that could adequately explain how much we adore him!

MILESTONES/FAVORITE MOMENTS:
-two very big changes this month! He is now off his reflux medicine and the ENT said he believes he's officially grown out of his LM! (loud breathing) We may still hear it from time to time, but it's mainly a thing of the past now. thank the Lord!
-has two teeth! (lower middle ones)
-says mama, dada, and baba
-learned to pull up and stand in his crib! I about had a heart attack when I saw it on the monitor! His crib is now lowered to the very bottom as he was trying to crawl out of it and got very close-he is seriously so strong.
-can go from crawling/laying down to a sitting position on his own!
-hands me a toy when I ask him "can I have that?" he just started doing this and it's so cute.
-had his first "boys" weekend with Daddy
-sitting in the big kid part of the stroller 
-gives kisses when prompted (although yesterday he leaned in to give me one without me asking!)
-he's in mainly all 9 month clothes. he's gotten so big this past month.
-new foods he's tried this month: grapes, brown rice, cheese, quinoa, spinach, pasta, cheerios, blueberries, black beans, yogurt, puffs, peaches, waffles, and so on...this boy takes after his mama and loves to eat. :)

LOVES:
-being surprised! he loves playing peek-a-boo or when we hide around corners in our house and then "find" him
-being on the move in his walker
-any toy that isn't really a baby toy: curtains, vents, sliding glass doors, the TV remote, cords, you know-a lot of dangerous things (of course!)
-getting into the highchair to be fed (he loves drinking water out of a sippy cup and when it's time to eat!)
-crawling (he will do it on his knees a couple times but mainly it's on his belly-he just started doing it more on his knees the past few days. video below!)
-sleeping on his belly with his cute butt up in the air
-his banana toothbrush
-swim lessons every week and is doing great in the water-he did his first underwater dip the other week!
-reading books
-climbing on pillows...he thinks it's hysterical! cracks up when doing it




DISLIKES:
-laying on his back (diaper changes and getting him dressed nowadays takes for-ev-er!)
-bibs! he pulls them off almost immediately

-being rocked to sleep because...#bigboynow :( this one was hard for me to come to terms with! he just doesn't seem interested anymore and wiggles all around until I lay him in his crib. On the bright side of this, he falls asleep all on his own which is so nice. We just lay him in his crib and he's usually asleep within a few minutes or rolls around for a bit then is out! :)
-teething (he makes the saddest little face when they're bothering him-we've had luck with the hyland's teething tablets..they are all natural and really help him!)

favorite videos this month:

dada!



PS: Sorry for being MIA lately-I've had a lot of time home with Camden and we leave for our very first family vacation this weekend!! I'm so excited to take Camden to the beach and for him to see one of our favorite places! Thank you for sticking around even though my posting schedule has been off lately!! xo

9.03.2015

Colorado Travel Recap: Vail, Breck, Lake Dillon, St. Mary's Glacier


Ohhhh, hey there big beautiful mountains that make me semi depressed about living in flat Ohio. At least we have lakes here? We've got that goin' for us!

Time for round 2...

After exploring Denver, we woke up early and headed to Vail. Actually, that is a fat lie. We did not wake up early...we were hungover from our night out (#oldladiescanthang) but we did make it there and we did a hike so that counts for something. On the way, we stopped and hiked St. Mary's Glacier. It's more of a beginners hike (which ended up being good for the hangover situation, ha) but was still a great workout and has stunning views!

See what I mean? 

People were hiking to the very top of that glacier and cliff jumping into the water! I'll have to add that to my list for the next visit. ;)

After the hike it was a short drive to Vail and Vail was pretty much love at first sight for me. Walking around in Vail feels like you're in a painting, as weird as that is to say. It's just so charming! We stayed at Lodge Tower, which completely exceeded my expectations. The view from our room looking over all of Vail Village was on point! 

Vail Village was literally a 30 second walk from our hotel, so our time spent in Vail was just exploring, lots of shopping, and eating yummy food! I would go back in a heartbeat for just a relaxing long weekend trip. How could you not enjoy a town that looks like this? 






And I miss it already.

When in Vail, we enjoyed lunch/beers at Red Lion (live music!), coffee in the morning from Loaded Joe's, cupcakes from Mountain Cupcakes, and a yummy dinner at Tavern. All delicious! Complete with girl talk, many laughs, and losing my favorite Ray Bans somewhere in the village...


The two stops we made on our way back to Denver were to Breckenridge and Lake Dillon. We weren't planning on stopping at Breckenridge, but we had more time than we thought so we said what the heck, let's do it! And I'm so glad we did. We were only here very briefly, but it was nice to be able to see it. We shopped and took a gondola ride!




That picture from the gondola ride actually doesn't do the beauty much justice, if you can believe it. It was even more breathtaking in person!

Lake Dillon was on our way out and is a must-stop type of place. They have a little beach area that you can lay out, have a picnic, and do a lot of fun water activities like kayaking, paddleboarding, boating, etc! The views around the lake are STUNNING...





(I had to get that cute doggy in the pic!)

(this is not the top I was originally wearing-I bought this top in breckenridge and got cold so just threw it over top my other one)


We all loved it here. Great place to spend an afternoon!

Before we made it back to Denver, we stopped at Tommy Knocker Brewery in Idaho Springs for lunch. The atmosphere was really cool (food was good too-I had pork green chili for the first time, which I guess is a really popular thing in CO?), and we even got to try some pumpkin beer as they just added it to the menu for the fall season! 

Thank you CO for beautiful weather, an excellent stay, and convincing me that sometime in my lifetime I need to live by the mountains. Oh, and thank you to my cutie cousin Natasha for hosting an amazing girls trip that we will never forget! Anddd that's a wrap!

*If you're traveling to Denver (or any of these other areas we visited), feel free to email me for rec's or tips! As always, thanks so much to those who gave me suggestions as you played a role in making my trip so good! :)