Mac N Cheese and Menu

Happy Halloweeeeeen!!  I hope your day is SPOOKY!

I do think Becky knows everything.  According to Molly Anne, she knows how to make some mac n cheese.  Well they only have it on occasion because the rest of the time, Becky is fixing them all organic, all vegetable, all fruit, all healthy all the time!  But I had to ask her how she makes it and yall, it's SO EASY.  And doesn't require all.the.stuff. 

First, who uses the wooden spoon trick so it doesn't overflow?  

Literally, macaroni and shredded cheddar.  Mac n cheese = done.  No powder that you don't know what is in it, no milk, none of that.  

We've been doing super easy meals on Sunday.  Kevin had some leftover tiny pizza crusts so we each made our own on Sunday night.  Molly Anne and I shared mine.  Olive oil and garlic instead of marinara, leeks, spinach, mushrooms, banana peppers.

Sunday night - pizzas above
Monday night - quiche with pineapple slices on the side
Tuesday night - chili - it's our Halloween tradition
Wednesday night - leftovers
Thursday night - spaghetti with leftover sauce from the freezer

Very simple and boring but sounds good for this chillier weather!

Halloween Festivities

Good morning!  It's a chilly morning in Charlotte!  I got to my office super early and went across the street to my dermatology appointment.  Got all good news, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go get checked if you don't already.  It's so important.  I go about every 4-6 months given my family history!  

I'm kind of back tracking to the end of last week in this little recap.  I love this picture of Mills looking at Molly Anne. 

Last week before I took her to Becky's on Thursday.  She was so excited to show Ms. Becky her wand from Frozen on Ice!

We met our friends at the playground that afternoon.  She is so into running as fast as she can these days.  

She did the same thing with Ava on Friday afternoon at our driveway cocktail hour!  She also learned some cheer moves...check the two of them out - too cute!

I was up in the middle of the night and found Mills laying his head on the baseboard so I put a pillow down there for him.  SRGR - spoiled rotten golden retriever!

Soccer on Saturday morning!

Then we walked/ran and Molly Anne kept saying, "I want you to go faster Mama!  Bunny says faster!"  Yeah, I hear ya sista!

Saturday afternoon was the Halloween party at our new neighborhood.  The parade couldn't have been cuter!  Elsa is on the far right ha!

A duck and Elsa!  

Molly Anne was running wild all over the clubhouse and I look over and this sweet 8th grader was being soooo patient and fun with Molly Anne.  He didn't know I was watching but he was helping her do the game "bowling with ghosts" aka toilet paper.  He was giving her high fives and just being so kind.  SO cute.  I wish I knew his Mama to tell her how amazing he was!  

She had fun on the dance floor!

Sunday morning we got the mail from Saturday and she got TWO cards from her Nannie and Poppa!  They both included some special money for her piggy bank.  I think this was the first time she understood the whole piggy bank concept and that was cool!  She loved carrying around the cards the rest of the day! 

We really didn't do much on Sunday other than a few errands and lots of chill time.  Tomorrow I have a couple random meals and our menu for the week...well the first few days.  That's as far as I've gotten.  Ha!

Pumpkin Patch 2017

On Wednesday morning, a few of my friends and I took our annual trip to Hunter Farm with our little girlfriends!  

We love love love going there because they have take you on a tractor ride to see the animals.  For an extra special treat, "Uncle Mike" was even driving the tractor! 

Ohhhhhh just like big bunny!  She gave him a hug!

Just for fun...this was in 2015....

This was in 2016....

And this was in 2017!  Wow, they've all grown up and we have had many new little girl additions!  Still no boys in this little group - isn't that funny?!!  

That evening when I asked Molly Anne what her favorite part of the farm was, she said, "Uncle Mike!"  I said, "yes it was fun seeing him wasn't it?!"  And she said, "yes, he ride me on the tractor!"

It was SOOO cute!  Love these sweet girlfriends of mine!

House Updates - Granite and Porch Ceilings

Last Saturday we went to a granite place that we really like and were there to tag exact pieces we wanted to use in our house!  

We chose this white carrara for our master bath.  We tagged two slabs because we may end up needing both depending on what else we use it for in our house (fireplace etc).  

So if you follow me on Instagram, you likely saw the big Mont Blanc vs Shadow Storm debate for our kitchen.  This is the deal - we need FOUR slabs which is a lot and Mont Blanc is hard to come by at all.  It has always been our first choice.  Shadow Storm has always been our 2nd favorite and they had four slabs of that which we liked so we went ahead and reserved those.  But now I need to look at other places to see if they have any Mont Blanc that we have to have or if we will go with Shadow Storm that Kevin and I may even like slightly better than Mont Blanc at this point!  

Feel free to let me know your favorite in the comments!  They will go on top of white cabinets.  

And the stain for the porch ceiling - these samples are leaning against the brick that it'll be up against and we will have a gray slate floor.  So which do you choose - dark or light ceiling?

As always, thank you for your thoughts and opinions!  It's fun building a house...most of the time! ;)

A Random Wednesday

I've kind of been in a blogging rut lately.  It's a mixture of reasons why but mainly because I'm too busy and have a block of what to even write!  Everyone is busy, I get it.  I just have too much on my plate right now.  I HOPE in January after we move into this new house, I'll be a new person.  We'll see.  

1.  Christmas gifts - has anyone else's list gotten completely out of control?  I feel like I buy gifts for everyone we know, which I love love love to do but it just seems excessive?  Also, this truly may be the year of gift cards.  I usually spend a lot of time and effort thinking of the perfect gift for people but this year, everyone may be getting gift cards.  Sorry in advance! ;)

2.  Speaking of Christmas gifts, I need to start buying them now so we can spread them out financially over the next few months.  We have a hefty December coming up with the house so if I can start buying gifts now, I think that may be helpful.  

3.  I'm not traveling this week and let me tell you how glorious it is.  I have had so much to get done and it's been helpful to be here.

4.  The car that Kevin got me last week is amazing but we may not end up keeping it.  I took it to the dealership on Monday and it had a couple things wrong that we don't love.  It just wasn't in the condition he thought it would be in based on what the online company had disclosed on their website.  In other news, Carvana was amazing to work with otherwise!  I test drove two other cars yesterday and loved one so we'll see if one of those works out, or I may just get my original car back.  Kevin loves the car dealing game and I don't!  

5.  This week for the house we are working on finalizing granite and the porch ceiling stain color.  I'll post about this tomorrow.  

A Few New Molly Anne Items

The most questions I get from my little blog are - "where did you get this that Molly Anne is wearing?  Where did you get this that Molly Anne is playing with?"  So I thought I'd share a few new things that our little queenie has gotten recently for her Fall wardrobe! 

Her navy shirt and leggings are from Lilly!  They don't have the shirt right now but here are the leggings in some other patterns.  Her headband is from Bella Bliss, made by Wee Ones - this is the Amazon link.  This came in the mail yesterday and she refused to take it off.  It is SO cute!  

I needed some Fall shoes for her and she just has loved her Mini Melissa's this summer and wouldn't wear anything else.  So of course I went right back to Mini Melissa for the Fall.  You can get them here or here.  (I've bought them from both places in different sizes ha!)

I basically couldn't contain myself and HAD to get her this adorable shirt!  I also got her an adorable dress from Bella Bliss but it doesn't ship until mid November.  

Ohhhh and THE slippers.  I saw these in the PBK store and I couldn't stop thinking about them so I ordered them that night when I got home.  They were supposed to be a Christmas gift but I instantly gave them to her when I opened the package!  Ahhhh!  She LOVES them though and has them on constantly when she's at home!  Here's the link.  They're on sale with free shipping!  Also, there isn't a size chart online so you may have to call a store because there is a size chart on the tag which of course I threw away.  MA wears a size 6 shoe so I got her the S!  

That's all I've got for now!  

A Busy Weekend

We had a super busy weekend!

Friday night - Pumpkin Party at Sarah's

Saturday morning - Soccer and Granite Selections

Saturday afternoon - Greensboro, NC for an engagement party

Sunday morning - Lauren's Baby Shower

Here are some pictures from all of the fun events!

Pumpkin Party - Caroline and Molly Anne matching!

Sarah had pumpkins for the children to paint, the bounce house set up and tons of toys and food!  Basically, the perfect night!

Girlfriend loves a wagon ride.  I've had a bunch of people ask me what wagon we have and it is this one.  She has loved it since she was like 6 or 7 months old.  She begs to go on a wagon ride almost every afternoon!  

Saturday morning was soccer where she scored a goal many times so she was so excited!  After soccer we went to two granite places to pick out exact slabs we want for our kitchen and master bath.  

After nap time, Kevin took Molly Anne to his parents and when he got back, Brad and Shauna came over and we all rode to Greensboro together for Rob and Erin's Engagement Party!  It was a big time for sure...maybe too much fun! ;)  1618 Seafood Grille is where it was and it was the perfect place.  They had the best food and the atmosphere was awesome!  Oh, and the margaritas...

These boys grew up together!

And the three of us have the best time together too!  I wore this dress (except mine is crew neck from last year) and these shoes - so comfy for the drive but dressy enough for the party!

When we got home that night super late, Mills was just peaking into Molly Anne's room like where is she?  He looked so sad!  

I grabbed Molly Anne on Sunday morning and we played played played until I went to a beautiful Baby Shower for Lauren!  By the looks of our house, she and Kevin played played played as well for awhile before her nap!  Haha!  

We are just so excited for baby Reagan to join our friends group of babies!  

It was a wonderful shower and full of love for our favorite new Mama!

You likely recognize a lot of these faces from blogging!  I wore this dress - my fav Lilly dress I own right now!

After Molly Anne woke up from her long nap, we went over to the new house to check things out then went to dinner.

This morning our girl was bright eyed and ready for her Monday, with Big Bunny by her side! 

I left them like this to go to work while Kevin held down the fort!

Hope everyone has a good week!