holidays with the family, dinner nights, & being a toddler mom

After a week of holiday celebrations, family staying at the house, everyone getting sick, and now my house needing a massive cleanup, I’m exhausted. Instead of using the time while my son is at school to clean, I’ve decided to just hop on the blog and get my weekly recap post up (oh, and I did a little Cyber Monday shopping!) Hopefully, he’ll be in a cleaning mood when he gets home. If he sees me cleaning or cooking, he almost always wants to join in.

Can you believe it’s already December? Is time flying by for anyone else? I don’t know what it is, but ever since becoming a parent, time just doesn’t make sense. I blink, and it’s gone. I know Thanksgiving was later this year, so maybe that’s why it feels so crazy to jump from Thanksgiving to Christmas overnight. I mean, didn’t Halloween just happen? Anyways, let’s get caught up on what we’ve been up to this week!  On Wednesday morning, I made some yummy oat pancakes with eggs, bananas, oat milk, and cinnamon. This Arrowhead oat pancake mix is pretty good! My son has been on a pancake mix, so I made a bunch of them to store in the refrigerator for breakfast.

I had my go-to blueberry oats with oat milk, maple syrup, and cinnamon that morning—such a warm start to the day with these freezing temps. I should start adding protein powder to it again. It will be more filling that way. 

I noticed my son felt a little warm when he woke up. He had slept much longer than usual and started coughing a bit. As the morning went on, his symptoms worsened—he developed a fever, a bad cough, and was so lethargic.

I let his teachers know he wouldn’t be coming to school for the rest of the week, and apparently more than half of his class were out sick, too. I guess ’tis the season! It’s always so heartbreaking when little ones aren’t feeling well.

Later in the day, he fell asleep in my bed while watching a show—something that’s very unlike my normally energetic toddler. I decided to let him sleep as long as he needed to rest and recover.Luckily, he was feeling a little better the next day, though he still had a nasty cough and runny nose. Since this kid absolutely hates naps but will crash in the car if he’s super tired, I decided to give it a shot. I grabbed a decaf oat milk latte and drove around my favorite neighborhood for about an hour—and it worked! He slept a solid hour, which was exactly what he needed. I just wanted him to get some rest and fight off this bug. My mom was with me, so we drove around enjoying the perfect overcast day with bright fall trees. For dinner, we did air fried potatoes and grilled chicken breast.

The next day, we made a Costco and Trader Joe’s run to stock up on things for Thanksgiving with the family. Afterward, I grabbed my son a kid’s smoothie at Green Juice Brothers and a gluten-free vegan chocolate chip cookie (to share with mom!)The Honeybear Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies are so good! I love that they’re both gluten-free and vegan. I spent the rest of the day steam cleaning the carpets in the house, and getting ready for all the guests to arrive.
For dinner, I had roasted butternut squash (I’m on a serious butternut squash kick lately!) paired with Siete chips, ground turkey taco meat, and lettuce. To top it all off, I drizzled some Primal honey mustard dressing—it was so good!On Tuesday morning, the week of Thanksgiving, we woke up early to get more shopping and cooking done! We also made some yummy chocolate chip cookies to kick off the holiday festivities. You can now find this cookie recipe on my blog!

After baking, we headed out on a long walk! Of course, I let him take one of the mini cookies he baked with him. I also scooped some starter into little containers to bring to a neighbor, along with a printout of my recipe. Honestly, this could be a cute Christmas gift idea!We headed out to the front to do more chalk art on the driveway. Our previous artwork had washed away with the rain, so it was time to make some new creations.


Despite the vote leaning toward keeping the trim boards white, I vetoed that idea and went straight for Accessible Beige—and I’m so happy with my decision! We’re not done yet since it was a lot of painting, but what we’ve done so far, I absolutely love!We’re about halfway done! I’ll take more photos when we finish, and we’re also planning to add more wall woodwork in some areas of the dining room.

On Sunday, I met Becca for an oat milk latte before we headed to see Wicked. Gosh, it was so good—I cried so many times during the show!!

When I got home, I made an egg white cauliflower and Parmesan crust pizza with cashew cheese, tomato basil sauce, and pepperoni. It was amazing! I need to go back to Trader Joes to pick up more ingredients and make it again. On Monday night, we made some of my son’s favorite energy balls! They’re made with organic peanut butter, pure organic maple syrup, dark chocolate chips, sea salt, and oats. We all love eating them in this house—they’re so easy to make! You just wet the oats, add in all the ingredients, and give them a taste test to see if they need any extra ingredients.
We keep them in a ziplock bag in the fridge or freezer.

Kyle’s mom flew in on Monday night! We were so excited to see her 🙂 I made a quick and easy dinner since they got stuck in rush hour traffic, and I’m sure they were so hungry!

I roasted butternut squash with olive oil and sea salt, then blended it up with chicken broth, black pepper, and thick coconut cream to make a sauce. I boiled some brown rice pasta and air-fried honey mustard chicken. It was one of those random meals that turned out SO GOOD!!!We loved this meal so much we made it again and had it the next night. 
My brother and his girlfriend flew in on Tuesday afternoon! He went straight to uncle duties. 

That night after I put my son to bed, we headed to Whitakers for the most delicious sushi. They have a great gluten-free menu. The next morning, my brother and I headed to my parents’ house to brine the turkey and store it in their fridge since they had the space for the 22-pound turkey I bought. After brining, we headed out for a long day of frisbee golf!
We always go frisbee golfing with my brother when he’s in town. It’s one of his favorite things to do, and if I knew anyone in town who liked to play, I think I’d go more often. I actually really, really love it—and I’m not too bad at it! I think my years of playing softball help with the distance throwing. I was actually shocked at how many pars I got! One of my favorite moments was when my mom got her frisbee stuck between the shed and the fence—it was so funny! You have to play where you land! Haha!
I woke up bright and early (after barely sleeping the night before!) to get started on Thanksgiving! I shared all the photos from our celebration in a separate blog since there were so many. We had the best dinner and the best time!!After lounging around doing nothing on Friday, I finally showered and got dressed for a date night with my husband. Since my mother-in-law was there to watch our son, we thought we’d take advantage of it! We haven’t gone on a date since Italy, so it was much-needed! She even surprised us by successfully putting him to bed, which is rare since he demands only me at night! We may need her here more often! We had dinner at Drift on Lake Wylie! I had a Caesar salad and wagyu tartare. 

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning for our annual photos with Santa at Cabelas photos! They turned out so good this year! After, we headed to the Southpark mall to shop around and visit the Lego store. I didn’t think this kid was going to be able to move on from his love for Halloween, but now he’s all into Christmas—especially the Grinch and the Nutcrackers! We all headed to Restoration Hardware for lunch! I had their grilled chicken Caesar salad with an oat milk cappuccino, and my son had fruit, some of my chicken, and French fries. Their food is so good!You can’t go to Restoration Hardware without ordering the chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream! I was sad I didn’t get to have any of the cookies, but I did get a few bites of the ice cream!
If anyone knows where Restoration Hardware gets their coffee beans, please share with me! It’s seriously THE BEST coffee I’ve ever had. I neeeeeed to know!
We spent Sunday putting up the Christmas lights before the Eagles football game. Kyle’s mom flew out, and we definitely missed her! I went with all colored lights since they’re so nostalgic for me, and I know my son loved them! He kept saying, “Wow, wow, wow, wow!”

I hope you all have the best week! We’re now diving into all the Christmas content. My son and I are making dye-free, sugar-free cut-out cookies this week, so I’ll make sure to share that one soon! xo

Questions for you!

1. Did you have a good Thanksgiving?
2. Did you do any black Friday shopping?
3. What are you looking forward to most in Decemeber?