Good morning! I hope you guys had a fun and festive Halloween weekend! Our weekend included both a Halloween celebration and an anniversary celebration, so it was a good one all around.
Celebrating 5 Years
On Friday, Ryan and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary with a date night out! Initially we figured we’d probably just stay in and keep things low key, but we both felt the itch to do something a little special and decided to head to Restaurant X in Davidson for an early dinner with Chase.
I love that picture of Ryan and Chase! Chase looks like such a happy little ham. I, on the other hand, got Stone Cold Baby Face…
Followed by some sweet grins!
Restaurant X was the first restaurant we visited when we drove to the Charlotte area when Ryan interviewed for his new job. We revisited the restaurant on our anniversary last year, so it’s becoming somewhat of a tradition to head to there to celebrate!
We made sure to pack a bottle and WubbaNub for Chase just in case he got a little fussy (and we went super early to avoid crowds) and Chase ended up sleeping through all but the last 10 minutes of our date. It felt like a treat for us to have a meal together where both of us could eat with two hands. It’s the little things!
Our date night began with his and hers drinks – beer for Ryan, wine for me – before we ordered shrimp spring rolls to share for an appetizer.
They were deliciously crunchy and I ended up taking charge of that plate! The rest of our meal was equally delicious and I happily dug into an ahi tuna soba noodle dish that tasted wonderful.
Before heading home for the night, we swung by a custard shop that caught our eye. Ryan and I both share an intense love for ice cream, soft serve and custard so we knew we had to give Whit’s Frozen Custard a try.
We split a cup of the cookie monster custard which was a creamy vanilla base swirled with Oreos, cookie dough and a chocolate ribbon. Heaven in a cup! (FYI for locals, Whit’s is selling frozen pumpkin custard pies for only $9 for Thanksgiving! Ryan and I immediately ordered one to pick up over the holidays when we were there.)
When we made it home, it was time to exchange gifts! I got Ryan five small gifts – one for each year of marriage – though his main gift fell under the “wood” theme associated with five year wedding anniversaries. (We try to stick to the traditional theme gifts for our anniversary presents, but still keep things rather small-scale.)
I had a map of Lake Norman framed in a wood frame for Ryan and gave it to him with a little note explaining that the map is more than just a map. It represents our home, a place I love so much because of him and the life we have created here together.
Ryan’s gift started out on such a sweet note (literally)… He had a mini replica of our wedding cake created by a local bakery!
I was so surprised and the cake was not only incredibly thoughtful, but also incredibly delicious! We love red velvet cake with buttercream icing (rather than the traditional cream cheese icing) and the recreation of our wedding cake tasted fantastic, though I think we both ate a little too much and ended up in a bit of a sugar coma that night!
The “wood” gifts he gave me included two wood wick candles (they smell heavenly) and a ridiculously cute wooden truck toy with Chase’s name on it. For a last-minute anniversary celebration, it ended up being a good one!
Halloween
On Halloween morning, Ryan headed off to the gym for an early workout while I hung out with Chase and ate breakfast before it was my turn to hit up Burn Boot Camp for a Saturday sweat session. The workout was a team cardio workout and once I was done with my workout, I swung by the grocery store to pick up our food for the week. I made it home around 10:30 a.m. and did a little bit of food prep for the week ahead before we headed out for a family walk with Sadie. (Stay tuned for a food prep post soon!)
Call us super lame but the only real plans on our agenda for Halloween included a trip to Verizon for a new phone for me. For the past two weeks, my phone has been on its last leg. I wasn’t receiving texts or incoming calls and only a small portion of my texts and outgoing calls would make it through. It was incredibly frustrating and since I was due for a new phone anyway, I picked out the newest rose gold iPhone 6S at the store and instantly fell in love.
I was worried it would feel too huge (I joked to Ryan that I’m now carrying an iPad around with me…), but I am already a fan. I love the bigger screen and the fact that I can actually communicate with the outside world again is a definite plus! I missed some important updates from friends this week and felt so disconnected, so it is great to feel back in the loop.
Before driving home, we popped into Waterbean Coffee for a quick mid-afternoon pick-me-up and ordered lattes to go to fuel us for an evening of Halloween fun. We had a ton of candy ready for trick-or-treaters and assumed we’d see lots of cute kids dressed up in costumes in our neighborhood. Well, we ended up getting ZERO trick-or-treaters! I was so bummed. What the heck!?
We still had fun with our party of four (can’t forget Sadie!) and dressed Chase up as an adorable lil’ pumpkin before curling up on the couch to watch Hocus Pocus.
I owe a big thank you to my mom for making Chase’s costume! She actually gave us three costumes for Chase during our mountain vacation (a duck costume I saw at TJMaxx with her when she was here, a bumble bee costume that used to belong to a doll my sister had and the pumpkin costume) and Ryan and I both agreed the pumpkin costume was too cute not to use! Plus, I loved the homemade feel!
And now that I’ve shown you some of Chase’s happy (or at least calm) Halloween pictures, here are a few pics I’ll call “Halloween: Real Life.” Chase tolerated his costume pretty well (and even ended up napping in it!) but he definitely reached capacity after a couple of pictures and the tears flowed. Sad lil’ pumpkin.
I’m sorry, buddy!
He was a trooper and I told him his reward for tolerating his costume will be some Reese’s peanut butter cups that will be coming his way via the Mommy Breast Express soon.
I hope you guys had a great Halloween! I’m already excited for next year’s festivities when we will have a little toddler on our hands! (Oh my gosh time needs to sloooow down.) Enjoy your Monday!
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Hi Julie!! Sounds like an awesome weekend!! Chase looks adorable in his costume – your mom is so thoughtful and a great sewer, might I add!
We had my parents visiting from AZ and it was wonderful! For Halloween, our cul de sac has a party and all the kids go trick or treating. Our neighborhood was pretty full of trick or treaters, which was great!!
Hope you have a wonderful week!
Congrats on 5 years! What a fun weekend with your little family! Where is your black and teal top from? 🙂
Hey Rachel! It was actually in my latest Le Tote delivery, but the brand is Kensie!
Ah thank you! I found it on Amazon! What size did you receive? Thanks Julie!
Sounds like you guys had an awesome time for celebrating 5 years Julie! Extra awesome that Chase slept through most of dinner – that is quite the accomplishment and I’m sure it was so nice to get to enjoy that peaceful time together!
I’m loving Chase’s pumpkin costume – my 1-year-old daughter was a flamingo and I was pretty much dying over how cute she looked haha! They are so fun to dress up when they are little!
You guys have great wedding cake taste – we also had red velvet cake with buttercream frosting for our wedding cake. There is seriously nothing more delicious! It should be illegal to have a wedding cake WITHOUT buttercream frosting, heh!
Cheers to a great Monday! 🙂
Christina
Agreed!! Buttercream can’t be beat!
Adorable little family! You and Ryan should have dressed up. You’d be a cute Cinderella! I have dark hair and we dressed up as Prince Charming and Snow White with Daughters dressed up as little Snow Whites. So fun!!
How fun! I love your plaid scarf so much! Do you mind sharing where it’s from?
J.Crew Factory Store! I got it online during the Black Friday sale last year. They have AWESOME sales after Thanksgiving — I think it was around $10?
Love his costume and that teal shirt! Where is that from?
We had a Tinkerbell who loved “flying” from house to house and a little one year old “dragon” who loved “picking”out his own candy. I love how much more joy my munchkins add to holiday celebrations.
oh my gosh, he is painfully cute! Beautiful family 🙂
We had Jack sit out with us while we gave out candy, and it was hard to imagine that next year we’ll have a toddler on our hands (who we can take around to collect candy for us.) Crazy!
Happy Anniversary! You and Ryan inspire me with how thoughtful your gifts are! I selfishly love giving gifts an your are always so personal and lovely.
That is so amazing that your Mom made Chase’s costume! My grandmother made all of our costumes growing up an they were phenomenal! Even when I was little I would feel a little sad that I’d never be able to re-create that for my kids as neither my mother nor I share my grandmother’s gift haha.
Can;t even take the cuteness of the pumpkin costume! So, so cute. And what a fun, low-key anniversary celebration!!
Chase is the cutest pumpkin!! You had so much to celebrate this weekend! Glad you enjoyed it all!
omg those pictures are so cute!! thats a great idea for a mini wedding cake replica!
I love when bloggers show pictures of their babies crying because it seem more realistic. When I see just happy smiley pictures I start to think my baby is the only one that cries (which I know isn’t true). Also I loved the comment about the Mommy Breast Express!
I always love yours and Ryan’s gifts to each other! The recreation of your wedding cake is so cute (and I’m sure delicious!)
Glad you all had a successful dinner out! 🙂 I am sure that is such a treat!
What a great weekend! So glad you guys got to go out!!
I got the 6plus too and love it! Pinterest is awesome on it.
You and Ryan are just adorable. What a thoughtful idea to replicate your wedding cake. EEK! Happy Anniversary, and your first Halloween looked awesome!
Looks like you had a great weekend! You and I are phone twins ? I picked up my phone a week ago Friday. Going back to an apple from a droid took me a little time, but I love it!
What a cute family! I love all the “real life” pictures…glad you’re not trying to make everything look perfect! Happy anniversary 🙂
william was a pumpkin for his first halloween too! it’s a must!! happy five years to you guys!! glad you had a great weekend! 🙂 🙂
Happy Anniversary!! Chase was super cute in his Halloween costume.
Quick question– how do you get the waves/curls in your hair? It always looks so great!
thanks!! I wrap my hair around the outside of a curling iron (you could also use a wand) and then hairspray the heck out of it before brushing out the waves for a softer look. 🙂
Your anniversary celebration was adorable and your gifts to each other were so thoughtful. Love all your pictures, as usual, and I love that you included a few crying shots. That’s just how photo shoots with babies tend to go, and they’re still totally cute 🙂
Our halloween was a let down, too! The hubbs and I went to a neighboring town for a fun-filled day of dog parks with our pup and fat tire bike shopping. Well, we spent a little longer in the bike shop (which was dog friendly – LOVE when that works out) and it rained…ALL DAY! So we stopped for some Chinese food on the way home, and waited for the rain to stop and the trick or treaters to come knocking. Neither happened. SUCH a bummer!!!!!
Chase is such an adorable little pumpkin! Those 5 years have been good to you all 🙂
O gosh! The cutest little pumpkin <3
Sounds like a great weekend! 🙂 happy anniversary!
Kim
http://trendkeeper.me .. Happy shopping!
We didn’t get any trick or treaters either! Which, was to be expected because last year we got our first 2 in many many years. But we were so hopeful. I think it’s because despite living in a nice track, we don’t have any street lights or sidewalks. & the majority of our neighbors are older. But, we too watched Hocus Pocus 🙂
Hi Julie! What a nice weekend, and again, happy anniversary. First of all, I had a similar ahi tuna and noodle salad for dinner out this weekend, and my husband keeps raving about it. Second of all, I also go the large rose gold iPhone 6S this weekend! It’s so big, but I’m slowly getting used to it. I needed the upgrade too:) Happy Monday, lady!
Looks like you had an amazing weekend – I love that you do the traditional wedding anniversary gifts. I think I am going to do that too once my fiancé and I get married.
ps – Chase is the cutest little pumpkin I have seen this Halloween season!
Chase’s Halloween costume is too cute! By the way I ordered the K’tan wrap! Can’t wait to use it 🙂
hope you love it!!! we use it almost daily in our house!
I got the 6 plus when it came out and I’ve loved it ever since. I’m also due for an upgrade in a week or two so I’ll go grab the 6S plus and I can’t wait!
Congrats on your anniversary! Chase is super cute as a pumpkin,
Breastfeeding question- do you pump and dump after you have a glass of wine or does it not transfer to your breast milk? I always hear mixed reviews and was too afraid to have anything while I was breastfeeding.
Most lactation consultants these days say to not pump and dump (huge waste of precious milk) but to wait at least an hour after a glass of wine to breastfeed, as the wine is more fully absorbed into the body and won’t be concentrated in the milk.
I don’t pump and dump but just wait for at least an hour after I drink one drink to breastfeed Chase. I am actually still a little nervous/uneasy about it, too, but found a lot of great info related to drinking/breast feeding here: http://kellymom.com/
What a sweet and special weekend you guys had together! Enjoyed hearing all about it and seeing the great pictures. So cute! You and Ryan always seem pretty darn happy but may I say that I have never seen you two look happier than since you became parents of that sweet little boy.!
Oh my gosh, I love Chase in the pumpkin costume and that it’s made with love by your mom. Happy 5 years! You gys had a great little celebration. After a crazy busy Halloween weekend on our end, I’m a bit jealous of your Hocus Pocus night on the couch. Thank goodness for Daylight Savings Time! 🙂
Ahh it is such a small world! I didn’t know Whits had expanded to different states, it started where I’m from Granville, Ohio and I grew up eating weekly flavors everyday of summer! It really is the best frozen custard!
This was such a fun post! lol lol on “stone cold baby face”. Ha ha! So funny and cute all at the same time. We too had way less trick or treaters than normal (which is so odd, since our neighborhood is jammed with kids, and the weather here was really mild!) Some of my friends reported the same. Did a Saturday Halloween mean everybody went to big parties and events instead? Hmm. I do not know.
Happy 5th Anniversary! Congrats! I’ve read your blog since it was pretty new and it’s fun to see your journey to now. Seems like just a little while ago that I was reading all your wedding posts. Fun! Love that wedding cake replica – and I feel the SAME about buttercream on red velvet vs. cream cheese! (Butter cream is my kryptonite.)
Happy Monday, and thanks for the great post as always. 🙂
My goodness you had a busy weekend! I cannot believe that you have been married for five years and now have a baby. When I first discovered your blog, I remember you being a newlywed! Crazy how quickly time passes. Your celebration of your love sounds delightful as well. Cookie monster custard? Sign me up for that on all occasions. I think it was so thoughtful of Ryan to recreate your wedding cake! Very creative! This was all last-minute? This is better than when I plan things out!
I have the exact same phone and got mine Thursday. I absolutley LOVE it too!
Happy Anniversary! Chase just keeps getting cuter 🙂
Question: how do you create your nice hair waves? I have very fine hair too, so I’m curious as to how you get this look. I’ll be performing in several concerts at the end of Nov., and your style would be a great option! 🙂
Sounds like a great weekend! Happy anniversary to you and Ryan! Chase looked adorable in his pumpkin costume!
Gahhhh – he’s just adorable. Saw your picture on Instagram, too (@semisweettooth) and definitely went all out with the annoying, heart-eyed smiley face on that one, ha.
Great gifts, too! We stay relatively traditional with our gifts, as well, but I’m loving the re-creation of the cake. I seriously can’t believe it has been FIVE years! Congrats, Fagan clan!
Oh my GOSH! Whit’s!!! We personally know the founders/owners as we are from Granville, OH where the first Whit’s opened up shop! Ha! We’ve been eating Whit’s for 12 years now! Wow! Can’t believe they have expanded all the way to NC!! It’s super cool to see you and Ryan literally eating a “taste of my home!” ha! Thanks for all your adorable posts, Julie!
What a cute little pumpkin! How sweet of chase to allow you guys a dinner date! 🙂
Will you be doing a post about breastfeeding? I had noticed you gave him bottles in a picture from your vacation and as a new mom, I would love your insight!
Congrats on 5 years!! Can I just say that you guys always have the most thoughtful and creative gift ideas:) I love it! Your Mom did a great job on Chase’s pumpkins costume…so cute:)
This sounds like such a lovely weekend. Happy Wedding Anniversary, my husband and I have our first one this weekend 🙂
Congrats again! I’m glad you guys got to go out and enjoy dinner for your anniversary! Chase is such a ham! His costume and the pictures of him are adorable. I miss seeing Sadie pictures too! I hope she is getting along with the little one!
Such a thoughtful gifts from both of you!
Cute little pumpkin! We didn’t have many trick or treaters so we had lots of leftover candy. I love the movie Hocus Pocus!