Our Weekend ♡

We had such a fun, full weekend!

Saturday we went to a USF football game and staff Tailgate which was fun. We didn't do a whole lot as we got there late but we did see some of the game- enough to see USF score two touchdowns and have an awesome play! Afterwards, we dropped Andrew off at Granny's and went home to relax and play video games and have glasses out on the tables and eat junk food and all that other stuff we try not to do when the little one is around haha

Sunday we went to the Straz Center because Jesse had purchased Broadway tour tickets through his work so we were able to see A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. It was soooo good!!!

Then Monday we finally got to the pumpkin Patch. It ended up being pretty warm and munchkin is definitely going into those terrible threes but we still had a lot of fun, picked out a nice big pumpkin and are still snacking on the huge bag of kettle corn we purchased. Yum!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! TTFN ♡

DIY Pumpkin Spice Latte

...because I cannot get enough of all things pumpkin!

I found this at FoodNetwork.com and it looks SO simple and delicious, I may try it with decaff coffee just to see if it's as good so I can drink them more often, hehe :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons pure pumpkin puree
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, plus more for sprinkling
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup hot espresso or strong brewed coffee
• Sweetened whipped cream, for serving

Combine the milk, pumpkin puree, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla in a medium microwave safe bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and vent with a small hole. Microwave until the milk is hot, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk vigorously until the milk mixture is foamy, about 30 seconds.

Pour the espresso or coffee into a large mug and add the foamed milk. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice.

Because random posts are fun

...and also I have been stumped as to what to post for days. I think I am too excited about this month to think about much else, haha!

SO y'all get a post of randomness today.

IT'S OCTOBER!!!!! My favorite month with my favorite holiday! The candles are being burnt every day, we had pumpkin french toast for breakfast this morning, and the Autumn/Halloween decor is in full swing!

We have a very full and fun weekend planned which we will be sharing on Monday, then next weekend Jesse's mother is coming to visit and we have some other family members coming over for lunch, hoping to have a dinner date, some more dancing and then of course Halloween!!

I am finding all these fun new recipes to try with pumpkin or just autumn-inspired and really enjoying testing them out! These are oldies but goodies... I've made White Chicken Chili and Stuffed Peppers this week, and going to try to make Chicken Risotto this week or next. Also very excited to make Mushroom Risotto one of these days!

Here is the Stuffed Peppers recipe if you are interested:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Coat 3 halved bell peppers in Olive Oil and stick them in the oven for 20-25 minutes

Also have on hand Taco seasoning, Shredded Cheddar Cheese, Onion, White Rice, Hamburger, Black Beans, Corn and Salsa

Cook 1 cup rice

Brown 1/2 lb hamburger 

Saute one cup onions

Add in 1/2 cup corn, 1 cup black beans and the 2 cups cooked white rice. Continue to cook

Add in around 1/2 pkg of Taco Seasoning, the meat and 16 ounces salsa

Spoon into your cooked peppers and stick in the oven for 20 minutes

You can take out the peppers at 15 minutes, add cheese and bake another 5 minutes if you wish

Enjoy! They are soooo yummy!

Also, I don't know about any of you other mamas out there, but figuring out what to feed your little one is hard sometimes! It's that whole second guessing yourself thing I guess. You have to go by what your pediatrician says, of course. Ours said to try foods that myself or Jesse don't like first so he gets used to those. So his first foods were:

Broccoli - he didn't like this at first but the creamier the better and he likes them better now!

Spinach - this usually needs a pinch of salt (recommended by the doc) but he's always done well with it!

Carrots - Favorite. Food. Ever.

Beets - this one was a bit iffy at first, but he's come to like them.

Avocado - no likey. Even with salt! :-/ We're going to try again this time mixing it with some carrot.

Tomato - it ends up kinda like a sauce but he likes it so whatever!

Yellow Squash - we *think* he is allergic to this.

Yesterday we tried mashed banana and he wasn't a huge fan. Hmmm. We will have to try it again later.

Today he had Japanese Sweet Potato and looooooved it!

Basically, we were told at first to wait a few days between new foods since he had an allergy to Strawberries early on. We've started cutting back time between foods since he has only had a few in the past 3 months and just keeping a close eye on his skin.

We're hoping to pretty quickly here start just puree-ing whatever we are eating for dinner (within reason) for the little man. For example: White Chicken Chili - pull out some beans and Chicken (leaving out the corn, chilis, etc) and puree those. On Pasta night he gets Tomatoes (until he gets chompers and can handle some well cooked noodles anyways!). On stuffed pepper night he can have some pepper and black beans mashed up (without the seasoning, onions, meat, etc).

For his veggies we buy all-organic, wash them well, peel the outsides if needed, chop them up, steam them until they are soft and then toss them in the food processor with water until they are creamy.

Shopping! I am horribly addicted to online shopping. It's a problem. It's fall and even though this crazy place doesn't have fall colors, I am determined to pretend it is fall!

Gray nails are apparently big this season and I'm in love with this color. Seeing as I can never have enough nail polish colors, I may have to purchase it.

This is SO the leggings season. I have a pair but I really want a fun pair. Plus some cropped yoga pants!

Also, these shoes have been on my mind for days.

P.s. My friend Nicole introduced me to these, how awesome is that?? I love that fabric for shorts but hate that they are so loose, so this to me is perfection! :)

Remember, do your shopping through Ebates and save up a bit for the Holiday season! :)

Lastly, little man is recovering from last Thursday very well! We stopped giving him paid meds Monday morning to see when he would need them next and not once has he needed them since! We also took off the bandage on Sunday and he is healing great! He can go back in the walker and pool this weekend and has his follow-up appointment on the 14th :)

Well that's about all for now. I promise to have a better post coming soon! TTFN! <3

New things I'm loving~

The last 39 hours have been c-r-a-z-y. Seriously. I picked up a transcription job for the evening and wasn't feeling it even before I started. I had been tired all day so I decided to drink a "Natural" energy drink. Bad idea. I mean it was delicious and really genuinely woke me up but what I did not anticipate was how proactive I would want to be. I ended up contacting several companies about affiliation and found a few new sites but took me a few hours to settle enough to really delve into the tape.

7am rolls around and I am finally done, my eyes starting to feel like they are coated in velvet they are so tired. Well, I laid down just past 7, slept for around 30 minutes, woke up around 8 to Andrew fussing, fell asleep again after hubby got home for about 20 minutes and then Andrew was up for the day. And I swear I tried to nap when he did but I think I was past the point of exhaustion -- you know that feeling? When you are so tired you can't fall asleep? Yeah it sucks. So here we are 39 since my last decent sleep and I am somehow still going. 

This evening we even got our crap together, and went shopping! We hit up Michaels (Pssst they have a great sale on this week! AND I got three glitter pumpkins half off plus a candle half off (they have 3 large candles for $10) and spent less than $10!) Seriously if there are any other autumn obsessed persons out there, CHECK THIS OUT. It is like my crack. I have more coupons from this last visit burning a hole in my purse :-S

Stopped by our beloved Whole Foods Market for some broccoli/ spinach to make baby food, plus some other essentials to get us through the week. I am determined to try some Autumn- inspired beer there next week!

We definitely stopped by the liquor store for some Vodka beer for the beach this weekend... sure felt classy holding a 1.75 in one hand and my eight month old in the other. Hey we're from Minnesota, we got this. ;-P

And of course what trip is complete without Target? Earlier today I decided to use this awesome website Ebates to look into buying some diapers for the little man... turns out they were on sale! So I used my RedCard (I highly recommend-- even if it's just the debit card like ours is... I shudder to think how in debt we would be if we had credit there) and got an additional 5% off PLUS free shipping. AND I got some cash back through Ebates as well. Score, score, double score.

Also, have you heard about the Cartwheel thing at Target? I just was introduced to it today so I don't know much about it but it looks interesting. Check it out and see what you think!

Zulily - I have heard of and seen this before but never cared enough to get through the initial "sign-up" at the beginning but oh. my. goodness. They have such cute stuff! I am going to be styling the little man like a total prep and they had the cutest three piece set (Jeans, button up and puffy vest) for less than $20!

Okay and last but not least, I am very, VERY excited to say I am advertising Amazon.com! You will probably have noticed the extra ads around for them... haha. But seriously. I shop on Amazon probably once a week at the least. It is a strange week that goes by without me at least putting something in my cart and then occasionally talking myself out of it. We have been very slowly collecting all the seasons of FRIENDS (just ordered Season 9 of 10 this week) and we literally have it budgeted into  our 'Entertainment' fund.

SO....

Shop at Amazon.com!

:)

P.s. for those of you with Netflix, try a free trial of Amazon Prime! I used to looooove Netflix but started getting annoyed with it and then they raised the prices.... Prime is one lump payment per year but cheaper than Netflix if you use it a decent amount. I really loved it and hope to get it again one of these days when we have some extra moolah laying around :)

ALSO.... Halloween is just around the corner!! I am beyond words excited!!! Last year we had a few trick-or-treaters and WAY too much candy (we split the candy up into sandwich bags and smuggled it into the movie theater hehe). This year since I am not pregnant I am wondering about dressing up.... don't know what to do/ be but it'd be fun to go out with the hubby that weekend too-- the first year we were together on Halloween he wasn't 21 yet so we didn't get to do much. The second year we went and had a blast, third year we went on the wrong day and it was booooring and last year we stayed in due to the uncomfortable preggo lady.

Andrew will be....*drumroll please* a MONKEY! I am sooooo excited to see his little face in that suit. Don't worry you will get ridiculous amounts of pictures plastered all over here and FB :)

Alright well that's it for now I think. I'm going to go attempt to pass out for a few hours. Happy weekend!

OH and p.s. if you are on facebook, you should go "like" my page... :)

TTFN <3

Our weekend in pictures!

We had a fairly busy weekend! Jesse had to work so on Saturday, my mother and I decided to go shopping!

We hit up Target (where I snagged my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season), Old Navy, Michael's and Macy's.

I got two tops at Old Navy... this and

Please ignore the messy bathroom haha

I got a coupon the last time we shopped there so even though my purchase was over $30, I spent less than $20- yay! The tops are super cozy and they actually have jeans long enough for my legs (I have a 36 inch inseam)!

Got a few more decor items at Michaels... they have 50% off autumn garlands, muahaha. Got some yummy smelling candles too!

That being said, immediately upon returning home (before hubby woke up) I went-a decorating! I think we're done until October when the Halloween stuff comes out- yay! Halloween is my favorite holiday EVER!

Coffee Table

Andrew's Room

Our bedroom door

Dining table

Our little ledge

The one little window in the living room

Half wall

Halloween lights

Pumpkin Spice, Apple Cider and Autumn Walk candles-- YUM

Our "Mantle"

Macy's is having an awesome 40% off sale PLUS 25% off most baby items. I got two adorable outfits for Andrew as Christmas presents and my mom got him a whole bunch of onesies.

We left the house at 9:45am, got back home at about 3pm. Andrew had maybe slept about 30 minutes total and was two hours overdue for a bottle. But the whole time we were out he made one fussy noise that lasted about a second. He is an amazing little man and we are soooo lucky it's ridiculous!

The rest of the evening we just were couch potatoes. Andrew has officially conquered the getting-the-pacifier-back-into-his-mouth thing. So much so I had to take his paci out of his crib cuz he just automatically reaches for it.

Sorry it is sideways :-S

Sunday morning was rough for the little guy but we managed to cuddle a bunch, he calmed down long enough to watch America's Next Top Model with me (haha) and while he was fussing playing in his walker, I created a play area. You know how TeePees are all the rage for kids right now? Well we don't have much space, but I noticed we had left the swing up in the corner (Andrew doesn't like it too much anymore and anyways probably already is too heavy for it) and thought "hmmmmm". I used some packaging tape, a cozy blanket from Target, a few extra blankets for padding and the base of the swing. Voila! 

He likes it!!! :-D

Later that day we woke daddy up so we could go to the ZOO!!!

And then after arriving home I totally failed at making pizza rolls. I used a dough mix I've never used before which was wayyyyy too liquidy to roll up and then I put toppings on right away rather than baking the crust first. We ended up having pancakes and eating the toppings off the pizza haha....

Now the weekend transcription is done, the house is clean....ish and it is time for a few Zs before the little man wakes me up.

TTFN! <3