What's Up Wednesday

Good morning and happy What's Up Wednesday! We have been very busy lately so I am excited to fill you in on the many things going on around our house. Let's get started!

What We're Eating This Week: After a weekend of eating delicious but not so healthy food, we are trying to be as healthy as possible. We are having green smoothies for breakfast, salads for lunch, and healthy dinners whenever possible. My absolute favorite smoothie is our peanut butter banana smoothie... there is a full cup of spinach in there and you cannot even taste it. I'll try to post the recipe later this week if I can. We also made Andrea's Southwest Bowls last week and are hooked! 

Weekend Highlights

Good morning friends and happy Monday! This past weekend we were fortunate enough to get to visit Devin's parents in Wilmington and spend some wonderful quality family time together. We visited the beach, went for a boat ride, relaxed, and ate some delicious food. Does it get much better than that?? Here are a few pictures from our weekend:

We left Charlotte on Friday afternoon and began what is typically a 3.5 hour drive door to door. I say "typically" though because when making a car ride with a potty training 2 year old, a 3.5 hour trip easily became closer to 4.5 hours. That being said, it was 4.5 hours without a potty accident, so I will count that as a win! 

Friday Favorites-- August Goals

Good morning friends and happy Friday! Today we are headed to visit Devin's family in Wilmington for the weekend which may be our last beach trip of the summer- bummer! It is crazy to think that school will be starting back up for me in two and a half weeks. What?! This summer flew by! In the meantime we will be over here trying to soak up every last little bit of summer with our girl since it'll be our last summer with just her.

I'm sure I've mentioned this a time or two over the past few weeks, but I have gone into crazy nesting mode and am trying to get all my ducks in a row before this baby comes. I remember very well those newborn baby days where you are overwhelmingly exhausted and busy caring for a newborn. I would like to have as much prepared in advance as possible! That being said, I have already knocked out all of my monthly goals for July and am now looking forward to August to see what else we can get accomplished.

Here is a quick glance at July:

Pregnancy Fitness-- 3rd Trimester

Good morning! It hit me the other morning that I have not done an updated post about how I am trying to stay healthy throughout this pregnancy. I am now 32 weeks pregnant and this baby will be here before we know it! 

Weekend Highlights

Good morning and happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Ours was the first weekend we've had in awhile that wasn't crazy busy with scheduled activities, so we had a decent chunk of time to relax and get stuff done around the house. It was SO nice! 

On Friday we hosted a going away party for a friend. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to someone we love but also so wonderful to get to spend more time with her before she did. I wrote a post about what all I do to prep for hosting a party last Friday, which you can read here. One of the food items I prepped was a charcuterie board, which I took a picture of here before I put it all together:

Friday Favorites-- Entertaining Tips

Good morning friends! Tonight we are hosting another party in our backyard and it dawned on me that we host parties a LOT and I have never written a post about my hosting tips. I'm sure none of these are anything too new, but sometimes it helps to see everything all written down in one place. (Just a heads up, all of these pictures are taken from Pinterest. I obviously don't have pictures of a party we have yet to throw 😉).

Tonight's party is a going away party for our friend who is moving. We will be spending our time outside in the backyard, and it is a more laid back/casual party. Here are my tips for prepping for a party:

Bumpdate Week 31

Good morning! It's time for another Bumpdate! 

This was at 28 weeks.

Motivation Monday-- Organizing Your Week With a Planner

Good Morning friends and Happy Monday! 

Friday Favorites-- Books I'm Reading-- June Edition

Good morning friends and Happy Friday!! We have big plans this weekend to begin with potty training... wish us luck! We also are going to be doing as much nursery prep as possible. Hopefully we can get a lot of it done! 

We will also be celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary- woohoo! I can't believe we have been married for 6 years already, I know it is a cliche but it honestly has flown by. Life is pretty great when spent with your best friend, huh?

In the meantime, today I am finally getting around to sharing the books I read last month. I read 3 really great books and am excited to share them with you!

The Tattooist of Auschwitz-- Ladies, this book was one of the most moving books I have read in a long time. It was such an incredible story that I often kept thinking "this has to be fiction, there is no way these people actually survived" but it was TRUE. The author, Heather Morris, interviewed the two main characters for years before writing this book and you can tell the amount of thought and dedication that went into telling their story. It was beautiful to see how the characters' love for each other is what helped them to survive. I cannot recommend this book enough! I give it an A+.

The Summer Wives-- Beatriz Williams does it again! She is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. If you love a novel that takes place in a different time, has romance and a little mystery to it, this book it right up your alley. It's almost like the literary version of a soap opera.. but in a good way! I think Beatriz Williams does such a good job of developing her characters and making them relatable, no matter how different from them you might be. You can always understand each character and why they are the way they are/why they act the way they act. I give it an A.

At Home With Madame Chic-- I initially read this book years ago but stumbled across Jennifer Scott on Instagram this month and thought "I want to read that again!". This is a cute little book about an American girl who studied abroad in Paris for a semester and the tips she learned about how to keep a "chic" home from her host family. It doesn't hurt that her host family was aristocratic and lived in a very swanky apartment in an equally swanky district in Paris. I like her tips on how to find the "chic" moments in our lives here in America. We may not have a view of the Eiffel Tower out our windows, but we can easily do some things around the house to make it feel a little more elegant and romantic without it even costing a cent. I don't take every single one of her tips quite so seriously, I think I'm a little more laid back than the author, but it is still a nice and easy read about how to make life at home feel more special. I give it an A. 

Have any of you read these books? I'd love to know your thoughts! Or any other books you'd recommend! Have a great weekend!

Linking up today with Erika for Friday Favorites.

Monthly Goals-- June 2019

Hi there! I am a little behind the curve in getting around to my monthly goals post seeing as it is already the 10th-- oops! But better late than never right?? Before we begin with the month of July, let's look at how June went:

Hilton Head Family Reunion 2019

Good morning and happy Monday! We just got back from our annual family reunion in Hilton Head Island, SC and we had a BLAST! I love all the quality family time we are able to get in and how much fun we all have together. Unfortunately I don't have nearly enough pictures, but the reason for that is because we were having too much fun to remember to stop and take pictures! Here are the few pictures I do have:

Our Trip to Steamboat Springs Part 2

Good morning and Happy Friday! Today I am wrapping up our trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. If you missed the first part of our trip, click here to read all about it. 

As I had said in the last post, we didn't do something major every single day, so I want to share with you some of the other fun things we did do while we were out there. I also want to share with you some of the places we ate at because they were delicious and I know I love a good restaurant recommendation when I visit new places.

As far as activities go:

One morning Devin and I decided to hike the ski mountain. We were huffing and puffing and climbed what felt like to the top, only to realize we were nowhere even close to the top. 

Our Trip to Steamboat Springs Part 1

Good morning and happy almost 4th of July! I hope you all have some wonderful, fun plans with your family and friends to celebrate the 4th. It has always been one of my favorite holidays-- who can disagree with a holiday based around food, fireworks, and spending time outside?? Definitely not me! 

Before we begin I wanted to announce that the winner of the giveaway is Tanya W!! Tanya I will email you this morning so you can choose between a $50 Amazon gift card or a $50 Nordstrom gift card! Congratulations!

Today I am FINALLY getting around to my Colorado post, sorry it has taken me so long! We were in Colorado for a total of 11 days, but we didn't do anything "major" or "extraordinary" every single day because some of our days were just spent relaxing. I will share the highlights of our trip with you rather than a play-by-play since some of our days were more relaxation focused. 

What I've Been Priming

Hello and good morning from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina! We are here for our annual family reunion beach trip and I am loving spending some good time with family on the beach. Also, as selfish as it sounds, I am loving other people playing with my child while I chill and read a book. I know all you other moms understand!!

Today's post is my monthly Amazon Prime update and holy cow it has been another month of crazy purchasing! Get comfy ladies, my shopaholic tendencies are about to become veeeerrrryyy apparent. FYI I will announce the winner of last week's giveaway on Wednesday's post so come back!!

First thing I purchased this month has been this dress in both navy and green: