I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy today’s roundup of Friday favs, Things I’m Loving Friday style!
Things I’m Loving Friday
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Family Photos
Last night I received an email from Kelly of Grace Hill Photography with a link to our family photos! Considering the fact that I waited until the morning of the photos to plan our outfits and the timing of the pictures was less than ideal for our kids from a nap time perspective, I love how they turned out. They’re clearly a testament to Kelly’s incredible talent and I am so excited to have these beautiful photos to help us remember our boys at these fun and crazy ages. If you’re local, I cannot recommend Kelly enough! We booked a mini session with her and I am blown away by the quantity and quality of the images she was able to capture in such a short amount of time. She made all of us feel relaxed and was absolutely wonderful with the boys!
(Cropped Hoodie: BP / Joggers: Free People / Sherpa Slides: Old Navy / Beanie: Universal Thread via Target but from last year // Picture credit goes to Ryder man!)
Oh happy day! My Black Friday order from Old Navy arrived earlier this week and, other than the gifts I ordered for family members, I was most excited to receive the Sherpa Mule Clogs and Sherpa Slides I couldn’t resist when they were on super sale. I ordered them almost exclusively to wear to and from school drop offs with the kids now that temperatures are dropping. (The sherpa clogs looked so much like these clogs from Madewell I’ve been eyeing so I was psyched to find a less expensive version. The Old Navy clogs are sold out in a bunch of sizes but these sherpa clogs from Gap look almost identical and the price point is still good!) I’m a sucker for sherpa anything this time of year and the clogs and slides are everything I hoped they would be — warm and cozy and easy to slip on and off when I’m flying out the door!
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Return of Fisbee
I know the whole Elf on the Shelf thing is polarizing but we are big fans in our house. I think a big part of the reason we enjoy it so much is the fact that we keep it suuuper low key and the boys still get SO excited. Chase has so much fun writing our elf, Fisbee, letters and loves drawing him pictures every single day. We typically stick to just moving the elf overnight but if we want to spice things up a bit, I turn to a group text I have with my friends for inspiration and also swear by Googling “Elf on the Shelf toilet paper” for the EASIEST ideas out there that take almost no time. We will occasionally have Fisbee surprise the boys with something like new Christmas pajamas or re-purposed holiday toys I stashed away from the prior year that they forgot about since last Christmas and it’s just a fun way for our family to add to the holiday magic! If any fellow Elf on the Shelf fans out there have elf antics you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about anything you’ve done that your kids have loved in the past!
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Instant Pot Fajita Bowls
Last night’s dinner was so easy and so delicious that I knew I had to share it with you guys today! I whipped up fajita bowls that came together easily thanks to the Instant Pot. I combined 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs with 1 pound of frozen sliced bell peppers, 1 sliced onion, 1 3/4 tablespoons fajita seasoning (I used Fajita Magic) and 1 cup reduced sodium chicken broth in the Instant Pot and cooked it on high pressure for 9 minutes before shredding the chicken and dumping everything in a colander to drain off the broth. I then served the chicken over brown rice with black beans and avocado and it was so good! We often do some variation of salsa chicken in the crock pot so this was a nice way to change things up a bit!
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November 2021 Top Ten
Top 10 Blog Posts
- Gift Guide for Kids
- Gift Guide for Her
- Gift Guide for Babies and Toddlers
- Stroller Wagons, Discovery Place and Holiday Happenings
- Winning Cornbread Recipe
- Instant Pot Butternut Squash Chicken Curry
- The Transition from 2 to 3 Kids: Q&A
- My Simple Skincare Routine
- Oreo Peppermint Ice Cream Dessert
- 12 Best Baby Toys for the First Year: One Toy for Every Month
Top 10 Best Sellers
- Our Place Always Pan (A Black Friday deal that proved too good to resist!)
- Laura Mercier Caviar Eyeshadow Stick (One of my favorite beauty finds of the year. Gorgeously creamy and makes my eyes look more awake without the harsh line of eyeliner.)
- Sam Edelman Combat Boots (I was on the fence with the whole combat boot trend but once I ordered this pair and realized they go with basically everything, I am ALL IN!)
- Daily Page Notepad (Perfect for daily organization. I love mine!)
- Black Bodysuit (Love for this bodysuit is still going strong and for good reason! It’s a budget-friendly find that is so flattering and pairs well with many different looks.)
- Tineco S3 Wet/Dry Vacuum (Worth its weight in gold. I use it multiple times a day and it’s been a game-changer for keeping our hardwood floors clean.)
- Mealtime Magic Mia Doll (A gift guide fav! Mia eats magnetic food and is a less messy version of Baby Alive my niece and a bunch of Chase’s friends love.)
- VOLO Microfiber Hair Towel (Soft and gentle on your hair and the plush microfiber material makes it incredibly absorbent. It dramatically reduces drying time by 50 percent and reduces frizz and breakage. I LOVE mine!)
- Crayola Color Chemistry Lab (Another gift guide hit and filled with easy experiments our boys love.)
- Electric Lighter (So simple but so awesome and it makes a great stocking stuffer.)
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Friday Flashbacks
Peppermint Icebox Cake (A favorite holiday recipe made with homemade peppermint candy whipped cream and Oreos!)
Holiday Cheesepuff Casserole (Our family’s Christmas morning breakfast!)
Question of the Day
What is one thing making you smile today?
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Are you worried about Covid at great wolf??
I was wondering the same thing! Be safe!
Hi Kate!! This was absolutely at the top of our minds before we decided to go. We knew we’d keep our family masked as much as possible (outside of the waterpark which ended up being really easy to socially distance) and eat our meals in our room and since we’ve been to GWL before, we had a pretty good idea of our ability to opt for activities that wouldn’t have us in large groups. We primarily did MagiQuest (an activity you complete on your own that keeps you moving), the water park, gem mining (we were the only ones) and the arcade first thing in the morning when we were one of maybe 4 families in the whole arcade and we never were anywhere near each other. We felt safe the whole time but I know everyone has different thresholds for what feels okay for them and their families right now.
Your family pictures are fantastic! Thanks for sharing them.
<3 thank you!!!
Your family photos look great! It’s hard enough to get adults all looking good in photos, so I can’t even imagine what it took adding three kiddos into the mix.
Thanks so much, Marie!
Absolutely beautiful photos! She did a great job. Y’all are one good looking family! We always have struggled with getting good ones with our boys. Sometimes getting ANY with them! They don’t enjoy it 😂
Oh yeah I’d never classify family photos as a particularly enjoyable experience — haha!! Thankfully the length of the session (20 min!) + our photographer made it as good as it could’ve been for our family. <3 And thank you for your sweet words about the photos!!
Thanks for answering this question! I was curious too. Just a thought – I’d love to see you acknowledge this more in your blog posts. I have a toddler Rhett’s age (named Julie actually 🙂 and still have a lot of anxiety surrounding the pandemic and feel this immense responsibility to keep her as safe as possible until she is eligible for a vaccine. It is a bit disheartening to see bloggers going about their normal lives and normal activities as if it isn’t even a thought for them.