Five on Friday

{one}

Since we are headed out of town Thankgiving week and won't be back until Sunday, I decided to start getting most of my Christmas decor out of the way. I normally do it the day after Thanksgiving and I really want to come home to an already decorated house! I am doing pink and gold this year...that way it won't clash with my already pink and yellow living room. I think it's starting to look great! We will add the family ornaments to the tree as a family one night with hot chocolate and Christmas music. We may wait until we get back from Myrtle Beach to do that.

{two}

Tomorrow is Jake's and my 7-year wedding anniversary! We were going to go see Dumb & Dumber To, but his dad will be watching the kids and I feel bad about trying to do dinner AND a movie. His dad works crazy hours all week, so I didn't want to keep him too late. We plan on checking out a local restaurant and bar we haven't been to yet. Can't wait for a long overdue date night with my husband!

Our Wedding - Nov 2007

Our Reception - May 2008

{three}

Tanner started his new school on Monday and so far so good. He's been getting dropped off from the bus right in front of our house {no more throwing the other two into the car to pick him up!} and then he starts in on his homework and for the most part has been a lot easier about just getting it done. He actually has to go next week on Monday and Tuesday, whereas his former district has the whole week off. Can I say I'm sort of glad because I'll be able to get more done around the house before we head out of town? I'd just be boring him anyway. #mommystruggles

{four}

Christmas is fast-approaching and I'm really trying to nail down my plans for the kids' gifts. Farrah is so hard because she mostly has everything she needs from birth, so I'm trying to plan some toys for maybe the next year or two ahead. I got this giraffe in EUC from a friend for $4.00 this week. It's $56 at Amazon! I think she'll love it when she's old enough to ride it. I'm sort of obsessed with giraffes for her...she's got Sophie, and I'm planning on painting some giraffe art for her nursery!

{via}

As for the boys, they definitely need new bikes this year and we are also getting them Lego Batman 3 for the Playstation 4 {much to my chagrin, this one is my husband's doing}.

Do you have any great ideas {besides Legos!} for 9yo and 4yo boys, and a 7mo girl?

{five}

And that's all she wrote.

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Monday Musings

I'm just going to put it out there...I don't have much going on today...we spent our weekend making a quick trip to Atlanta to see Hubby's grandma who had flown in from Illinois for his aunt's graduation for her Doctorate. She had never met our youngest son, so it was important for us to go. Surprisingly, the kids were pretty good for the car trips there and back.

Anyway....

Now that I'm out of the first trimester, my carb cravings have subsided a bit. I put on 10 lbs in the first trimester! Not sure how much of that I can attribute to bloat, but seriously...that has had me down in the dumps about this pregnancy. I've got two trimesters to go and I haven't even hit the biggest weight gain time. I'm hoping my body is just knowing what it needs and it just evens out in the end...hoping I'll still be close to what I was at the end of my 1st and 2nd pregnancies. Good news is that my weight has stayed the same for the last 3-4 weeks, so maybe the gain is tapering off for right now. I just seriously couldn't believe the scale even after all the gym sessions I'd put in and healthy choices I had been trying to make.

Now that carb cravings are not as much of an issue, it's easier to stick to my meal plan. For breakfast, I love to make a berry protein smoothie. Here's the recipe for you - as it's great for you pregnant or not {and it's been able to stave off my pregnancy hunger until well into mid-morning, when I then have something like string cheese to hold me over until lunch time}:

{via}

3/4 c. skim milk

1 small banana

1 scoop whey or soy protein

1 tsp. chia seeds {I use Trader Joe's}

1/3 c./ea of blueberries, blackberries & raspberries

1-2 tbsp. nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt

Blend until smooth & enjoy!

Speaking of recipes...my new job has me getting off work a half hour later than my previous job, and of course the traffic getting home is heinous...plus, thanks to DST being over...it's full-on dark by the time I get to my kids at their daycare around 6-6:15. So let's just say getting dinner on the table the last few weeks has been a challenge. If I am not fully prepared with something...the poor little guys have been stuck with Mac-n-Cheese or chicken nuggets. They'll get veggies on the side and all, but still, it's just not my idea of a well-rounded, unprocessed meal. So I've been searching high and low for some great healthy, easy Crockpot meals to have ready to go when we walk in the door. Last night, I prepped all the ingredients for this lovely dish. {All I had to do this AM was put it in the Crockpot and turn it on.}

{via}

I made it a bit healthier by substituting the bacon with turkey bacon, the Ranch mix with the low sodium version, the cream of potato with the 98% fat-free version and the cream cheese with the fat-free version. This just looked so yummy...I can't wait to indulge when I get home. It just seemed like a great fall meal too...and I bet the boys will just gobble it up. I doubled the recipe to fill our large Crockpot, so there will be leftovers for lunches {or dinner in a pinch!}

If y'all have any good sources for easy, healthy Crockpot meals, holla at yo' girl!

As for the rest of the week, I don't have much planned other than starting to pull out and go through Christmas decor. We will be out of town over Thanksgiving when I normally put up the tree, so I will probably make plans to get a lot of the decorating done this coming weekend. We also have our 6th wedding anniversary on Friday - Nana & Papa are taking the kids, so we are thinking of going downtown for a nice dinner...there are a few new places I've been dying to try so I'll see what I can manage for reservations!

Have a great week!

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Monday Musings

How was y'all's Thanksgiving weekend? I tell you, it was soooo nice having four days off from work. Thanksgiving/My 5th Anniversary was a great day. I started out on a good foot by doing the Turkey Day 5K downtown. It was a great day for running, however, a bit cold waiting for the race to start! Before heading back home, I had a post-race beer {gotta love free booze!}

Our Thanksgiving dinner was very quaint since it was just the four of us this year. We cooked a turkey and a few of our other favorite Thanksgiving dishes and had a nice family meal. {Due to the cold, we didn't make it out to Breach Inlet for a beach picnic as I had originally hoped.} Here's my sweet boys enjoying their feast:

And yes, that is turkey he is holding {he gets just as excited for Thanksgiving as his daddy does}:

After dinner, hubby surprised me with my anniversary gift:

It was the Chance Chanel perfume...

I'm loving the fragrance. It's nice to wear a new scent every once in a while.

On Friday, I put up the Christmas decorations and that night we passed around the eggnog, turned up some Christmas music and decorated our Christmas tree.

On Sunday, we went to church and then that afternoon we headed to the cobblestone streets of downtown Charleston to have a long overdue family photo session. {Christmas cards need to be made soon!} I can't wait to get the portrait CD back later this week to show y'all how they turned out!

Have a great week!

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Happy Thanksgiving & An Anniversary

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you...I hope you are able to be surrounded by loved ones.

I think it's important to stop and be thankful every day. It shouldn't have to wait to be said until this one day each year.

Food for thought: Try to start each day on a high note by being thankful you were given the breath to breathe another day...end it on a good note by praying to God and being thankful for the blessings you have. You may also notice you naturally become a happier person. A thankful heart is a happy heart.

This is the last post in my Thankful series...and seeing as how it is Thanksgiving and also my husband's and my 5th wedding anniversary, I am dedicating this thankful post to my loving husband.

I am thankful for Jake, the love we share, the family we've built and the life we have together. We are far from perfect; we have ups and downs, but we always make it through in the end and that is what a real marriage is all about.

It was 5 years ago, on Thanksgiving of that year, that we exchanged our vows:

We had a quaint little private ceremony at Breach Inlet on Sullivan's Island.

Six months later, we had a reception with family and friends.

Thank you, my sweet husband, for five amazing years...looking forward to many more. You are the most wonderfully perfect man for me. Happy Anniversary, I love you. ♥

I hope y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with loved ones and good food. It is just Jake, the boys and me this year, I am running the Turkey Day 5K downtown and then, since it's our 5th anniversary, we plan on making some small portions of our fave Thanksgiving foods and heading out to Breach Inlet on Sullivan's Island where we were married to have a family picnic. Hoping it goes as planned!

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