Fab Find & Giveaway

I always appreciate it when my friends share their fabulous finds - so here is mine.

Stacked Wine

Four individual, plastic glasses of wine. Each glass has a plastic cover - in case you don't finish or want to keep it covered while at the beach, concert or wherever. The "Bottle" of wine was $14.95 plus shipping and totally worth it. We bought a bottle of Merlot and Pinot - the wine isn't bad either. 

You can only buy Stacked Wine online if you live in California, but if you go to the website, they'll direct to you another vendor that ships to all states - that is what I did, no issues. 

Here is my adorable glass of wine at our tailgate party in Hersey Park. 

Cute right? 

Ok - onto the giveaway. I mentioned yesterday that once we reached 100 fans, I'd host a giveaway. And seeing so many of you liked the new header I designed, I figured I should give a custom header away.

ENTER TO WIN A NEW CUSTOM BLOG HEADER 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck, Friends! Can't wait to get started on a new header for one of you! 

Football Sunday

It's Football Sunday - and that means we need some tasty football food.

And seeing the New England Patriots are playing the Buffalo Bills, it only made sense to make a buffalo chicken dip, right?

Oh, and did you all notice anything different? Yes, my new header. I created it on Friday and once I started - I just couldn't stop. I'm in love with it. So fun!

And once this little blog hits 100 fans - I'm going to give away a header to one of my readers. So if you are reading and not "following" - go ahead and do so now that we can get this give-a-way going!

Thanks, friends! Happy Sunday.

There was this one day...

...when clearly I didn't care about the mess.

It was 4:30 in the afternoon - which is normally witching hour around these parts. We I'm prepping dinner and my sweet, little IV is running around - in what lately, is a t-shirt and diaper, only because he wouldn't lay long enough for me to put his pants back on. And there is the constant sound of "mama mama mama mama" - and me, responding "yeah, buddy?"

Well, I happened to have prepared an easy low-prep dinner {we don't use the word easy in our house...my Husband likes to refer to IV as "easy" to people...not the case} and had the time to pull out a quick toddler project.

Finger Painting! Yaaaaay, Mama! {insert sarcasm here}

And yes, there was a nice card stock, paintable paper on the floor as well - but clearly that wasn't nearly as fun to paint compared to the tile floor. 

Oh, and the best part of finger painting? Getting to run around all nakey after! 

And one more thing - if you know me and follow my roll on IG, you've seen this insanely adorable photo - but for those that haven't...here is IV dancing it out to No Doubt on Ellen after finishing his masterpiece. 

My body...after a baby.

I'm going to be honest...after having IV, my body seemed to bounced back. I was a breastfeeding and pumping machine which really helped. I didn't do anything to lose weight. My Dad brought me medium ice coffees - extra cream, extra sugar EVERY. SINGLE. DAY...oh, and with that, a double chocolate frosted, chocolate sprinkles donut...sometimes two.

After about 6 weeks I was just 4 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight. I didn't do much over the last year to lose those 4 pounds. I didn't really care and those 4 pounds didn't bother me. 

But...

My body wasn't the same. 

Things were different. My hips felt wider and skin a little looser. And we won't even discuss my belly button - that thing will never be the same. 

So when I decided to help my Husband lose some weight - everything changed. 

My body became stronger each day and I started toning up.

I have lost a total of 8 pounds since starting the 30 day shred with my Husband. Being below my pre-pregnancy weight isn't what I'm happy about - being stronger and healthier is what makes me happy. 

Clean eating and the 30 Day Shred just make me feel better. Physically, mentally and emotionally. 

So here you have it: two pics my Husband snapped last night after our workout:

We will continue to live a healthy lifestyle of eating clean and working out. I will say though - that I don't want to lose anymore weight or get too "big"...I know that sounds crazy. 

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes | The recipe

I feel like I keep saying this - but I'm pumpkin spice obsessed.

I did a little baking during IV's afternoon nap...which overall these, didn't take very long to prepare. And they are amazingly delicious.

Pumpkin Cupcakes (no frosting)
Servings: 24 • Serving Size: 1 cupcake • Calories: 84.2 

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Frosting
Servings: 24 • Serving Size: 1 cupcake • Calories: 121.1 

Ingredients:

• 18.25 oz Betty Crocker Golden Vanilla Super Moist Cake Mix
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup canned 100% pure pumpkin
• 1 cup water

For the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 8 oz Philadelphia 1/3 fat cream cheese 
• 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin (canned)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 5 tbsp packed brown sugar (I probably added about 3 and thought it tasted fine)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake wrappers.

Combine cake mix and pumpkin spice in a large bowl. Add pumpkin puree and water, mix about 2 minutes.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

For the frosting, combine the cream cheese, pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and brown sugar until smooth.

This recipe said it would make 24, but this made me 18...I may have overfilled my liners. 

*I found this recipe via Skinny Taste

Enjoy!

17 Months Old

My sweet IV turned 17 months yesterday. I really don't know where the time is going - but it's going fast. I swear he grew just over the weekend while me and Stew were out of town.

He loves birds, airplanes, cars, tractors, trucks, helicopters, and kitties. Yes, kitties. But really he loves all animals.

He is napping once a day around 11:30 and sleeps until about 2:30 or 3pm. I am loving this new schedule because it gives me a good stretch of time to get some work done.

He still loves fruits of all kinds - especially pineapple. Loves milk and the occasional (baby) juice.

He weighs 27 lbs and is solid. He's in 12-18 month clothes.

His vocabulary is unreal. He is saying new words every day. His signing is a lifesaver for when he can't tell us (vocally) what he wants. Some of his every day words are: doggie, mama, dada, car, tractor, bird, ball, owl, apple, keys, Elmo, eat, ta-uuu (thank you) and vodka. Yes, I think he says vodka a lot. Weird. 

We have recently started potty training. Not anything we are going crazy with, but I read that if you had a potty around and occasionally introduced him - it helps. Well, the first night after his bath we asked him to sit on his new potty. And bam...he went potty. Every night before we we sit on it and he goes...I'll leave it at that for those that could care less about this subject.

And lastly, he amazing. He's so fun, so smart and such a sweet boy. Can't get enough of him.

Love you sweet boy!

Chia Banana Pudding/Smoothie

I'm constantly on the hunt for new recipes - and I found this via My Healthy Dish

I love chia.

I don't {love} bananas...I tolerate them.

But this is AMAZING! 

I did attempt to take pictures of all the ingredients, but IV was way too interested in the vanilla extract bottle.

{photo credit: www.mardlemade.com}

*Just a note: This recipe makes 2 servings, so when I made mine - I just split this in 1/2 and it came out perfect. 

On a completely different note: Happy 3 Year Anniversary to our sweet friends from PA -  we are going to visit this weekend! So psyched.