Most of the time my kids mocktails are cold drinks, but on days like today when it’s 21 degrees out I just have to pull out this cheery White Chocolate mocktail.  I love how festive it is, but it can also just be a nice winter drink too by changing the color of the sprinkles. Maybe even white for a snowy day.  It’s the perfect drink for when you are doing your last minute online shopping. It’s like a hot chocolate, only it’s made with melted white chocolate instead of instant cocoa powder.  The best part about white chocolate as opposed …

As a new mom, most of my life and the world around me revolves around our toddler, who doesn’t stop moving, and the baby who never sleeps.  Recently we’ve been spending so much time trying to make the Christmas season special for Annie and Ace, with the Christmas light drive throughs, the Santa breakfasts, the Christmas tree finding and decorating, the Hot White Chocolate mocktails, and the present buying and wrapping.  We are one week out from Christmas and I just realized I haven’t really even thought about my own Christmas list.  Luckily, I wasn’t starting from scratch as this …

It’s this time of year that you never know when someone will stop by for a quick hello.  Once the house is cleaned up and ready, I like to prepare a homemade dessert.  Simplicity is the key, which is why I love this Apple Crisp Dessert. It’s so simple, easy to make and delicious — just the right amount of tangy and sweet.  It’s a great excuse to pull out the KitchenAid mixer.  Plus, this apple crisp reminds me of my mom.  She used to bake this when I was growing up. Now it’s such a sweet reminder of childhood …

My house is never cleaner than when I find out someone is coming to visit.  Given enough time, I tackle all of the usual tasks like dusting and vacuuming at least twice, in addition to many less common tasks like dusting the fans, washing the baseboards, breaking down the boxes in the basement, planting new flowers in the garden, reupholstering furniture and maybe even refinishing the bathtub.  That’s nothing…you should see me when I’m nesting!  When notice is short, I resort to speed cleaning.   I actually like it when people come to visit because of the extra motivation. The house …

This was the second year I’ve hosted Thanksgiving in our house.  Last year it was just my in-laws.  This year my mom was able to join us from Colorado, so I really wanted everything to be perfect.  So I planned out the day so I could focus on the cooking, while setting up fun activities for Annie with my mom and husband.  Everybody wins.  We started the day watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Then we pulled out this fun sensory bin that I put together the day before. What is a Sensory Bin? A sensory bin is an interactive …

I’ve made it through two months blogging, but honestly November is an example of how I don’t want to run this blog.  My posts were scattered and inconsistent, and did not follow along with my established content calendar. Moving forward I hope to be more predictable and consistent. At the risk of making excuses, personally the month kinda just got away from me.  I was off to a good start at the beginning of the month with several new posts.  Then I got a text from one of Annie’s daycares letting us know that one of the other kids tested …

Our two-year-old used to be such a good eater. She would eat anything we gave her in the purée stage. Even after that she stayed a pretty good eater for a while. But for the last six months or so she’s grown more and more picky. I’m always looking for creative ways to get her some protein and honestly some calories. So we tried these peanut butter m&m oat balls that I upgraded to create a fun seasonal version. She loves them!  I love that they are easy to make and are flexible. You can do M&Ms or raisins, or …

I can’t believe Annie is two years old!  It seems like we brought her home yesterday.  The past two years with her have been wonderful and surprising and I just really feel blessed to be her mom, and Ace’s too of course.  I recently shared the birth story from Ace’s birth, and in honor of Annie’s 2nd birthday I thought I’d share a little throwback with her birth story especially since it was so different from our experience with Ace. Easy Pregnancy Our pregnancy with Annie was great.  I only had mild morning sickness for a short period of time.  …

This blog has been on my mind for a long time so to see it live is very exciting.  I first had the idea of launching the blog when Annie was born. The idea of going back to work was hard to fathom and the reality felt even worse. So, I started brainstorming options. When Covid hit, I started writing, bought the domain name and started working on the site. But a full-time day job with a baby at home made it hard to focus on it at first. So, it sat inactive for months.  When we had Ace, my …

Prepping all the things the kids needed to pack for daycare was a lot more expensive and time consuming than I had expected.  Annie and Ace are at different enough ages that even at the same school they have different lists of needs.  Add to that a second daycare for Annie, which is a different style and again needed a different list of supplies.  So, here’s an outline of everything each kid took to the first day of daycare. Time to Pack for Daycare Ace – Infant Room 1. Full Sleeve of Size 2 Diapers // 2. 2 Packs Baby …