Adorable kids clothing

While I was bored taking a lunch break I started browsing around and stumbled across this adorable kids clothing website that is totally reasonably priced as well.  My little nugget is 16m now and we have worn through most of our summer clothes and a lot of our generous hand me downs.  I'm super excited to start shopping for the fall!  She is a little young for most of these, but I will totally keep this site in mind for the future!  Here are some of the things I am looking at for Nolyn.  Here is the website where you can purchase all of this!  Cotton on

Camo pants

Every fashion blog you read and every magazine you see camo is the craz for this fall.  Of course all the camo I rocked back in college I have disposed of, so I decided to cave and purchase some.  There are a few boutiques around me that are selling some great items, and I decided to go with a pair of pants to start off.  I bought these bad boys from Gap, but here are some other awesome things I am loving right now.  Oh and PS Gap has a 35% off sale that ends TODAY!

These two items above can be found at Lavendar Boutique!  You can purchase them online here 

Best healthy on the go snacks

Let's be honest.  I love to snack, but I have been working hard to find healthy snack alternatives so I don't feel as guilty afterwards.  I have a problem when eating that once I start I have to finish all of what's in front of me.  It's what we like to call mindless eating.  When running errands or while I'm out and about I like to keep snacks in my bag to fight the temptation to go through a drive through and eat junk.  Here are some of my favorite healthy snacks that I like to take with me.

Here are some more great options!

New favorite dress

Even though the summer is winding down I am still making some summertime dress purchases especially since so many of them are on sale now!  I have been doing a lot more filming with my job, and have been trying to find some fun new outfits with colorful prints to add to my wardrobe since it looks good on camera.  The other day when I was in Target I did my usual browsing in the clothing section (I can never get out of there without something in my hands) and stumbled across this dress.  I am in love!  It is super cute and can be worn casually, or dress it up.  I loved it so much that I went back and bought it in pink as well.  Adam and I had a dinner last night that I wore it to, and put a waist belt.  To top it off, in stores it's on sale right now for $12.48.  Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Here is the link to this dress-

Rosemary quinoa with tomato and cucumber

Recently my awesome sister in law as a gift bought us a gift card to this local vegan organic food company in Charlotte called Nourished where you can pick out various meal plans for the week.  This definitely helped kickstart our healthy eating even more and gave me some ideas for new recipes that I wouldn't normally tryout.  One of the things we got was this incredible quinoa salad which made me want to test out eating it a little more.  While I did say that we are trying to cut our carbs out, quinoa is a similar to a grain, but not quite in the grass family.  It also contains a good amount of protein and amino acids which many vegetarians substitute for a protein.

I've been trying hard to branch out and create new things and recently bought some boxed quinoa with rosemary which is super easy and fast to cook.  The box made about four servings so we got two meals out of it and also fed our baby girl some as well.  I diced up cucumbers and tomato's as well and mixed those in and it was the perfect light summer lunch.

I am a pretty big eater so this wasn't quite enough for an entire meal for me so I also had a side of cottage cheese :)

All you need is a tomato, cucumber and box of flavored quinoa.

Happy healthy eating!  Enjoy!

Healthy Alternatives- Cucumber sammy'

As some of you know, my husband was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer which many of you can imagine rocked our world over night.  While Adam has been super strong through this entire thing, we have become very pro-active in continuing our healthy lifestyle.  A friend of Adam's had informed him that cancer cells feed on carbs and refined sugar, so we are trying to be extra good about eliminating it as much as we can.  I won't lie, we have our cheat moments when we like to crush a large pizza.

I know a lot of people are trying to cut carbs out of their lives as much as they can too, so I figured I would share some recent things that have been on the menu.

Today's lunch:

Cucumber sammy's!

All you need is a cucumber, tomato, turkey bacon, turkey, cheese.  Basically all your favorite sandwich items, just substitute the bread for cucumbers.  Today I made us two different kinds:

1) Cucumber, bacon, tomato and veganaise

2) Cucumber, turkey, cheese, mustard and veganaise

Balsamic would be a good flavor burst if you don't like mayo or mustard.  Next time I'm going to throw some avocado on there as well!  Happy eating!

New obsession this week-Apple Cider Vinegar

How have I never heard about this?!  I went to the Home Economist store today after doing some extensive skin curing research and wanted to take the all natural route since pretty much nothing is working these days.  After asking the people who worked there about some products that I can't even pronounce, I got into a deep convo with a girl that worked there who had similar problems as me (scaring after breaking out).  She recommended a great microdermabrasion scrub called derma- e and then told me about APPLE CIDER VINEGAR?!  Say what?!

For only $5 bucks I figured I had nothing to loose (other than $5 bucks). So I made then purchase and then came home and started doing research and found out that this stuff is the deal!  I'm totally a sucker for when I hear about famous people using the products since they always look incredible and Scarlett Johansson uses it and swears by it!  So now I figure after a few weeks I am surely going to look like her (kidding).  Anyways, I'm only a few days into it, but will keep you posted on results.

You may be wondering what it's for and what are the benefits?  Here are some facts/uses-

-Natural face astringent without harsh chemicals and balances your skin's pH levels
-It can remove stains from teeth
-Help with weight loss/management
-detoxifies body


Give it a shot!  Could wind up with good results :)

Here is the kind that I bought-

MARCH WALKING SCHEDULE

Hey mama's!  Hope your March is off to a great start!  I am hoping some warm weather is around the corner and is here to stay for awhile.  I don't know about you, but I am OVER this weather!  It's so unmotivating!  Since it looks like some decent weather is coming our way this weekend, I figured it would be a great opportunity to start our walking group!  Since it's still chilly in the mornings, if it's okay I figured we could possibly do some afternoons to start off with and then move it around as we go.  Here are dates for the next two weeks:

MARCH 9: 1:00pm Jetton Park Cornelius, NC (meet in back parking by the lake/sand)
MARCH 11: 3:00pm Jetton Park Cornelius, NC
MARCH 13: 3:00pm Jetton ROAD-Great hills for our booty! :) (Park at Wellsfargo on corner)
MARCH 18: 3:00pm Robbins Park Cornelius, NC 17738 W Catawba Ave, Cornelius, NC 28031(park right by the giant tree playhouse)
MARCH 20: 3:00pm Jetton Park Cornelius, NC
MARCH 23: 10:00am Jetton Park Cornelius, NC

Please feel free to let me know if these dates/times work.  I am open to changing things up, but figured afternoon is better for now since the weather is still cold in the morning.  If that doesn't bother yall I can switch to mornings! 

Brilliant-Sippy cup suction strap

I love/hate when I come across such simple ideas that I could have created myself if I had just thought a little bit harder.  Adam and I are still waiting to come up with our million dollar idea.  Stay tuned on that lol!  Anyways, my mother-in-law purchased one of these sippy cup suction straps and it has been awesome!  Nolyn this past week especially has learned to drop and throw things that are in her hands and her sippy cup is probably her favorite.  While it is adorable to teach them to say "uh-oh" and while mama is cleaning the floor on a daily basis from the spills, this is a PERFECT solution.  They are super inexpensive and just brilliant in my opinion :)

 It's the little things that make me happy!

Awesome Lake Norman Photographer

Adam and I are so blessed to have such great family and friends in our lives.  Right after we had Nolyn, our friend Ashley Wise also did a photo session with us for our newborn pictures... Yes, we did two different newborn photo shoots!  That's the beauty of photography though!  We had two photo shoots with Nolyn a few days apart and the pictures are so different from each other and we are beyond happy with both.  Let's face it, when it comes to newborn pics of our babies we are going to be in love with them. 

Ashley Wise lives in the Charlotte area and is great with babies and has a really good eye for newborn photo shoots.  It was fun watching her set everything up because she was so comfortable posing Nolyn in such cute positions and she stayed fast asleep the entire time (with the exception of pooping on her white blanket).  Here are some of my favorites from our shoot with Ashley.  Shoot me a message if you would like her contact info to schedule a shoot!

Must have-The City Mini Stroller

Why do there have to be so many decisions and brands to choose from when it comes to babies?! 

Tommee Tippee vs Dr. Browns
Johnson and Johnson vs Aveeno
Huggies vs Pampers
Similac vs Enfamil
Graco vs Chicco

The list goes on and on.  I don't know about y'all, but I hate to do research!  I am all about word of mouth and learning about other peoples opinions that I trust... yes I am lazy.  When it came to deciding on a stroller and learning about all the options and brands, once again I listened to a friend who has a similar active lifestyle so I assumed she picked the right one.  Well, needless to say, sometimes what works for our friends isn't always going to work for us.  One day when my hubby and I were in Babies r us roaming around right after we had our baby girl, we stumbled across this awesome looking stroller.  It was extremely light weight, really easy to wheel around, and folded up tighter than any other stroller we had seen.  Taking all those factors into consideration we knew right away that this was the stroller for us.  We are always on the go and need to pack things up quick.  Introducing the City Mini.  It is all of the following:

-Affordable- Babies r us has them on sale often and use coupons!
-SUPER light weight
-Easiest to fold up
-Safe and supportive
-Great for jogging and walking

This is the exact one that I have.  I go running with it ALL the time!  It's so easy to maneuver and I love it.

Crystal Stokes Photography

You want to talk about amazing photography?!  My husbands cousin's wife (yes I know that may be hard to figure out lol) lives in the Charlotte area and is a incredible photographer.  She has such a great vision and is really good at capturing the real moments.  She is not into posing and cheese, her style of photography is lifestyle and effortless.  Be sure to check out Crystal Stokes Photography!  She has captured some of the most significant moments of my life including my wedding day and our baby girl's newborn pics.  Our wedding was actually the first one she ever shot and totally blew us away! Here are a few of my favorites!

IcyWakes Surf Shop Boat Show

Two weekends ago I had an awesome opportunity to hang out with the IcyWakes Surf Shop clan at the Charlotte boat show.  If you live up in the Lake Norman area, you have most likely purchased some sort of swimsuit or lake gear from their awesome shop!  If you haven't, be sure to check it out!  They carry everything from sunglasses, shoes, swim coverups, swimsuits, wake boards and more.  The store has brands including:

-Hurley
-Ripcurl
-Billabong
-Element
-Sanuk
-Von Zipper
-Roxy
-Oneill
-RVCA

I can't thank them enough for the gear they hooked me up with!  You can find this all at IcyWakes Surf Shop now!

Gestational Diabetes Meals

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had gestational diabetes while I was pregnant which was such a heart break initially.  I was so embarrassed and felt like there was something that I did to cause this (I did eat about a pack of sour patch kids every few days).  I always considered myself a "healthy" eater who likes to practice the burn it to earn it philosophy. 

Once I got over the disappointment, I knew the only thing to do was take care of myself the best that I possibly could because it was so important for our baby.  Once I met with a nutritionist, I was actually surprised by the things that I learned!  While I thought I was a healthy eater, there were many changes that I needed to make.  I had to start looking a lot closer at the food labels and put a lot more thought and planning into my meals.  For those who are familiar with gestational diabetes you know that your body has a harder time breaking down sugar.  It is really important for you to have a good balance of protein, carbs and dietary fiber in your meals.  Unfortunately, sugar is something that you REALLY need to keep out of your diet.  This includes a lot of fruits especially in the morning.

I won't lie, this was something really hard to battle especially for someone who has a sweet tooth like mine!  Here are some of the meals/things I ate (and still do) I really enjoyed that helped out cut down on sugar and keep my levels on target.

The bonus about having gestational diabetes is that it really helped me avoid cravings!

Breakfast:
-100 Calorie bread rounds  whole wheat kind with natural peanut butter and sunflower seeds.  This is AMAZING!  I still eat this everyday and two hard boiled egg whites.
-100 calorie bread rounds, scrambled egg and cheese
-Scrambled eggs, turkey bacon
-Egg whites and Canadian bacon
-Old fashioned oatmeal with vanilla almond milk, cinnamon and almond slivers
*If drinking coffee use sugar free sweetner or even better use almond milk!  Regular milk is really high in sugar!
*Be sure to avoid fruit, cereal, OJ, yogurt(also high in sugar)

Snacks:
-Cheese stick and apple
-Lite and fit yogurt with cottage cheese- This is a good balance of protein and this brand of yogurt is lower in sugar.
-Kashi trail mix bars. Low sugar and low carb
-Nuts these are my fav and are great to pack when on the go.  You can find these anywhere.
-Cucumber/carrots and hummus
-Edamame 
-Avocado, broccoli and balsamic dressing
-Handful of animal crackers
-100 calorie popcorn
-Handful of pretzles
-Cheese and triscuits
-Oh Yeah! Bars
-Pure protein bars 

Lunch/dinner:
-Turkey sandwich with with 100 calorie bread and cheese
-Turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado (BLTA) sammy
-Spinach salad with chicken and veggies
-Slice of pizza with chicken, add protein
-Lean chicken and veggies
-Whole wheat pasta, lean ground turkey and pasta sauce
-Sweet potato with cinnamon
-Chili (lean meat and lots of beans are great protein)
-Lean burger with cheese

Dessert: Nobody is perfect, but I did find that my favorite dessert that I didn't feel quite as guilty about were the Skinny cow chocolates.  I also would eat the Kashi bars because they have some sweetness to them! 
 
Have any questions or want more suggestions?  email me!  mamasonthego@gmail.com