Happy Easter!!

I took about a million pictures today but I'll spare you. Here are just a few of my favorites :)

He makes me laugh :) He's clearly annoyed that I'm taking pictures and distracting him from his 5 Easter baskets.

I just love him. He is so sweet :)

Jordan was hell-bent that we dye eggs at the crack of dawn this morning before he went into work....Which is all well and good but I think he's so excited for Baby to be older than he is, he kinda thought he'd be a part of it so he brought in his highchair and kept trying to get him to watch when he'd dye one. A just wanted to eat Cheerios I hid in some plastic eggs haha Poor Jordan :) Next year!

Well, the adults had fun anyway <3

XOXO

Vegas, Baby!!

Along with our trip to Alabama, we were home about 3 1/2 days before Jordan and I headed off to Vegas! We had been planning this trip FOREVER so I was soooo ready for it when the time finally came. My parents came to take care of Babykins and off we went for 4 glorious days.

The first day was SO hard being away from our kiddo but after we got into the swing of things of sleeping in, staying out late, and relaxing A LOT, it got a lot easier to get over lol (oops!)

It was so nice to be able to focus on each other for a few days.

I think the Hubby appreciated it most of all. I tend to be obsessed with our little one and give him LOTS of attention and I think Jordan misses the days when all that attention was directed at him haha! 

My stomach was not behaving most of the trip so I really can't talk much about great food or drinks we had however, we had saved our last night (Saturday) for the ultimate date night, non-Vegas style. We went out to dinner and I was soooo excited because my stomach was finally being good and we had one of the best meals of my LIFE!! No joke. Phil's Italian Steakhouse in the Treasure Island Hotel (where we stayed). This is like a best-kept secret that I'm now exploding. I was nervous when we walked in because it was completely empty! Granted we were there at like 5:30pm but still. We couldn't get a single reservation at N9NE regardless of the time so you get what I mean. BEST MEAL EVER!! I had a caprese salad and the petite filet with a baked potato. I'm not a steak girl by any means but wow. I'd eat that every day if I could. Topped off with an awesome glass of Pinot Grigio and this girl was a happy camper to say the least!

After that, we went to the Palms movie theatre and saw 21 Jump Street - HILARIOUS. Loved it! I was laughing out loud so freaking much! We finished the night at my favorite bar in all of Vegas that I'm not going to repeat because it's not overly well-known and that's one of the many reasons I love it :) Needless to say, we spent our last night in Vegas well. The rest of the time, we did a lot of lounging, people watching, and spent a lot of money at the craps table (we thought we were complete badasses for some reason).

This is what we look like after a few car bombs :)

XOXO

Fight Against ALS

A big part of our trip to Alabama was spending time with Jordan's grandfather who is suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Before his diagnosis, I really didn't know much about it. ALS is a disease where the motor neurons that control our muscle function die: slowly the individual is unable to move sections of their body. While their brain functions normally, they may not be able to speak any longer or help themselves around until eventually, they are completely paralyzed. This is VERY difficult for him and for our family as I can easily say that it is one of the worst diseases I've ever witnessed (and I've seen some pretty terrible ones). It's absolutely heart-breaking but we are SO happy we got to spend so much time with him and he got to spend so much time with his great-grandson :) We just absolutely love him to death and continually pray for a cure to help him.

If you're interested in finding out more about, I encourage you to research it or to read about it here ~ http://www.alsa.org/about-als/. Jordan's grandpa, despite his limitations, is very involved in the ALS community to help find a cure; if not for him, for those after him fighting this same disease. 

If you're interested in the helping him support the cause to find a cure, it would mean so much to us to get people involved or to donate. Any amount helps. If you do donate or if this hits home for you, please contact me and let me know who you are so I can thank you. It would mean so much to us to know other people are out there helping fight this terrible disease. 

Please go here to donate: http://www.alsa.org/donate/

Or here to help fight against ALS: http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/

XOXO

Vacation

Hey Boys and Girls, :)

I haven't been blogging really over the last few weeks because the hubby, baby, and I have been all over the place! Baby and I spent a week up at my parents house while my hubby was working like a mad man at work. We got back to the OC and two days later, the 3 of us were boarding a plane to Alabama! Jordan's family lives there and we haven't gotten to visit since our move out here so it was SO great being back. We really had been missing everyone!

There's never a dull moment when we visit! Our first day there, Baby had gotten a really nasty diaper rash that spread FAST so off we went to the ER (it wasn't serious but it was the easiest with insurance) to get it taken care of. Along with medicine, their biggest suggestion was we let him be naked as much as possible so this is how he spent a lot of his time. He peed about 5 times in their house and pooped once on their kitchen floor. My MIL thought it was hysterical but I was absolutely MORTIFIED!! In retrospect, it was pretty hilarious :)

A big highlight of our trip was getting to see one of my absolute besties and her entire family. I miss them SO much and it's been almost a year since we've seen them! We met up at Zoo Atlanta. :)

Boat time with Neela <3

We got him some serious tiger slippers from the zoo that he thought were pretty awesome :)

XOXO

Easy 2nd-Day Hair

Ok so I'm not going to pretend like this is super novel or complicated...but I just wanted to share a cute hair-style I did while we were on vacation. We were visiting the hubby's family and let me just say, they are early risers and we are...not so much. Therefore, I was trying to come up with ways to get ready faster while I was there so they weren't always waiting for me. This is a cute little thing I did really quick with 2nd-day-hair and my hubby actually noticed it was different than normal and complimented it so I thought I'd pass it along :)

Pretty basic: French braid starting right at the top hairline. When you get to where your hair is roughly half up, hold in place and set with bobby-pins. I ran my straightener through the bottom a few times to fix the squiggles where I slept and that was it! 10 minutes tops! 

XOXO

Gluten-Free

Well, I don't know how many of you out there are struggling with stomach issues like I am but since getting pregnant, my stomach has never been the same. I have been battling nausea and upset stomachs for nearly two years now and finally made my way to a GI doctor recently. While I tested negative for Celiac's, a gluten-free diet has really helped me. It's THE WORST DIET EVEEERRRRR.

But for those of you who are thinking about going with this diet for nutrition reasons or to save yourself from stomach pain, I'm going to try to pave the way a little for you as some other bloggers have done the same for me! I'll be posting new foods and gluten-free brands that I love or hate and different menu items at restaurants.

So far, here's what I've got:

Top left: Trader Joe's GF Chocolate Chip Cookies; 

Bottom left: Udi's GF breads; 

Right: Redbridge GF Sorghum Beer

These are 3 fantastic products that have saved me. I hate to give away my CC Cookie secret but honestly, these are so freaking good, I'd demolish them whether I was GF or not! I buy them in bulk because I pound one of these bags in a matter of a day or two. They are THAT good. 

Udi's is a brand that makes gluten free breads. I was really hesitant to try them as bread made without wheat-flour did not sound appealing. I bought their multigrain bread, bagels, and hamburger buns. So far, I've only tried the bread but wow is it good!! I am a carb-o-holic with the majority of that being breads so I consider myself quite the connoisseur...this stuff will not disappoint! 

Finally, we have the Redbridge gluten-free beer made by (I believe) Anheuser-Busch. My husband picked some of this up for me at Bev-Mo before our trip to Vegas (I'm not big on hard alcohol and was dreading not being able to have a beer). It was not bad at all! It tasted like a good amber beer. Nothing too light but not too heavy and quite honestly, I never would have guessed it was GF! There are a few brands out there that have tried the GF thing and have failed so I was pleasantly surprised by this one!

Another big challenge of this diet is eating out. Holy moly what a pain in the butt! Here is a short list of things I've ordered and really loved at various restaurants (keep in mind, this list is currently short as I've only been on this diet a few weeks and was on vacation for the majority of that time but I'll keep posting my finds):

Islands: Baja Chicken Tacos (with corn tortillas substituted) - SO GOOD. I actually crave these randomly now

In-n-Out: Hamburger (and fries! Yay!) protein style - Thank God we don't have to give up on our In-n-Out! All this is is a regular burger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun. It's not nearly as good as a regular burger but it definitely satisfies and gets the job done!

Chipotle: Chicken burrito bowl (burrito without the flour tortilla)- now don't hold me to this that this isn't entirely gluten free as I've never asked but I'm only assuming as there's nothing obvious in it and this is one of the few foods I can eat a TON of and not feel like garbage. 

Outback Steakhouse: Grilled Chicken on the Barbie (with baked potato instead of veggies) - I'm not a big Outback fan but my dad and hubby are so this is the best thing I've had. It's a little plain but the BBQ sauce (I get it on the side) is really, really good so it definitely makes it a good meal. Add a salad (sans croutons) and it's a pretty healthy meal!

Macaroni Grill : Pollo Caprese (with gluten-free penne - go MG for offering this!) and a Caprese salad - the salad is especially good!

Another benefit because so many consumers are now on the gluten-free diet, most of these places offer gluten-free menus on their website. 

I also highly, HIGHLY recommend shopping at Trader Joe's. They offer a large amount of items that are gluten-free (including the cookies mentioned above and this is also where I found Udi's breads...as well as some really great frozen tamales I'm obsessed with- pictured below).

They take pride in the fact that they can service those of us on this diet - you can even print out a list of every item in the store that is GF! Check out the site here ~ http://www.traderjoes.com/lists/no-gluten.asp

Feel free to email me or comment if you have places and items you want to add!

XOXO

Bunny Slippers

Happy Easter!

In honor, I made these little slippers! They're ready to order for $25 a pair ~

Baby Gladiators

For those of you who may or may not know, a friend of mine is opening a new store in Julian, CA (San Diego area) in a few weeks called Apple Blossom and has asked me to be a part of it by selling some of my knits and other things I've made. I'm SO excited to really start sharing my love of cute baby hand knits with a bigger community!

Anyway, I've been working on some new things to bring to the store and I just finished up these little babies today. I'm SO excited about them!

Baby Gladiator Sandals 

Hope you love them as much as I do!

XOXOX