January Foodie Penpals: reveal day!

Happy January 31st, friends!  You know what that means...it's foodie penpal reveal day!  Foodie penpals is a program that was started by Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean!  If you haven't yet, check her out!!

This month, I was sent a package from Chris & Amy over at A Couple in the Kitchen!  Their blog is full {& I do mean FULL} of delicious looking recipes!  When you have a minute, stop over & check them out!

On to the goods!!  They sent me a fabulous package!

Bread...um, probably one of my biggest weaknesses.  Seriously, it's one of my favorite things to eat.  Unfortunately, I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to make the bread yet.  But, this weekend, I'm making a big pot of Chili & will be making this bread to go along side my Chili!  I have a feeling I'll be consuming more bread than Chili :)

To go with the bread, they sent 4 freakin' amazing oils from O'Live a Little.  I checked their website out and pretty much want to try everything!  

The oils included:

Cinnamon Balsamic Vinegar

Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar

Tunisian Organic EVOO

Rosemary Infused Olive Oil

I tried the Vinegar's yet, but if they're half as good as the EVOO & Rosemary Infused Olive Oil, then I'll be a happy lady!  I wll say, that the vinegar's smell amazing!  I'm looking forward to trying them!

Thanks again to Chris & Amy for their awesome package!  

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Jealous and want to join??  Here's how:

What is the program all about?

- On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email.  It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal & get their mailing address & any other information you might need such as allergy or dietary restrictions.

- You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail.  On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!

- The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats.  The spending limit is $15.  The box must also include something written.  This can be anything from a note explaining what's in the box, to a fun recipe...use your imagination; the possibilities are endless!

- You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size & how fragile they are.  *Don't forget about flat rate boxes!*

-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers.  If you're a reader & you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received.  If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for the month.

- Foodie Penpals is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian residents will be paired with other Canadian residents ONLY.  We've determined things might get too slow & backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from the US to Canada & vice versa. 

If you are interested in participating for FEBRUARY, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form & to read the terms & conditions.

You must submit your information by February 4th as pairings will be emailed on February 5th.

weekly foodie & exercise challenges!!

Hi All,

Can you believe we're almost one month into the new year?  Seriously, time flies!  In honor of the new year, I wanted to feature something new on the blog.  Nothing fancy or crazy & really more for me, but if you'd like to join in {who doesn't love a friendly little challenge?} even better!  

I'm really excited because I'm going to start to feature a weekly foodie or exercise challenge each & every Friday!  It's my hope that these weekly challenges will help me eat healthier, exercise more & feel better about what I'm eating & what I'm feeding my family.  Now that I have a little one that's able to eat, well, pretty much anything she wants, I feel it's really important for me to make better food choices.  Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't eat crappy food all the time {or even that often, really}, but I know there areas where I can improve.  And, I figured, healthy eating & exercise kind of go "hand-in-hand" so I will be including exercise challenges into the mix, too!  

Here are the details:

Each Friday I will blog about a new weekly challenge.  Then once or twice throughout the week, I'll document how I'm doing.  I'll include pictures, recipes, challenges I face(d) & everything else in between!  I think it will be a great way to eat healthier, move more & it will hopefully force allow me to blog more often!  Of course, I'll still post about my super, adorable, sweet baby girl & our everyday happenings, but I feel that this will be a good way to keep me in check with how I'm doing with my own personal food & exercise goals. 

Here's a taste of some of the challenges you can expect to see in the coming weeks:

• Water, water, WATER! 
• Just say NO: sweets & treats! 
• Goodbye processed foods! 
• Stair Challenge! 
• Get out & walk! 

Okay, I think you get my drift :)  

What kinds of challenges would YOU like to see?  

Look forward to the first challenge coming up THIS Friday!! 

Happy Monday!

Weekly Snapshots

Christmas

Happy 2013....a little late, I know!  Since we're talking about things in the past, I figured this would be the prefect time to talk about our Christmas!  

Though this wasn't Dafney's first Christmas, it was a really special one.  It was so much fun to watch her interact with everyone, open gifts & pretty much be the center-of-attention :)  


We started the morning out with a trip to my Sister-In-Law's for brunch with Dafney's Aunt & Uncle and Grandma & Grandpa Mack (who made the trip all the way from Georgia!).  This was only the second time her G&G Mack had seen her, so it was so much fun to see them with her!  We enjoyed some delicious food, had fun opening gifts & enjoyed each other's company...truly a perfect way to start out such a wonderful day ♥♥

Afterwards, we went to my parents house to spend the afternoon with my parents & sister & her husband.  Again, we had delicious food, opened gifts & just had a good time with each other!  It was a long day for Dafney, but she did such a great job!  We're truly blessed that we were able to spend time with both of our families!  

I can't believe how much Dafney has grown & changed in a year!

A Trip Down Memory Lane: Dafney's 1st birthday

Hi All - it's been FAR TOO LONG since my last post, but I hope to be back to normal posts {fingers crossed}!  I have so much to catch up on, I don't even know where to begin {sigh}.

Let's start with Dafney's first birthday!  It was such a special day.  I can't believe she's already a year old.  We have watched her grow, learn & turn into this amazing little girl.  She's funny, {a little} sassy, sweet & so stinking cute {um, I might be biased}!  On her actual birthday, my parents came over & we just ate dinner & paid extra attention to the sweet birthday girl.  

We let Dafney open a few of her gifts, which was so much fun to watch.  She actually was quite interested in opening her first gift.  After that, she just wanted to play with her new toy & didn't care about her other gifts!  The Hubs & I got her a walker type toy & she even took her very first steps with the toy on her very first birthday!  Totally amazing!  

That Saturday, we had our immediate family over to celebrate Dafney's birthday!  I may have been a little spastic about the whole thing {can you blame a mama for wanting her baby's first party to be perfect?!}, but it turned out amazing!  I made some brunch food: fruit, mini Monkey Bread's, ham & egg cups, mini-muffins & of course, cupcakes!  After we ate, we let Dafney open her gifts; let's just say our baby is one lucky little girl!  She received so many amazing gifts ♥

After the gifts, we could tell she was starting to meltdown, so we did birthday cake.  We lit a candle, sang "Happy Birthday" & let her dive right into that little cupcake!  At first she wasn't so sure, but within about 5 seconds, she realized how sugary tasty the treat was & dug right in!  It was completely adorable & so much fun to see!  

While she was eating her cupcake, she had a total meltdown & we knew it was time to clean her up & let her nap.  She went down for almost 3 hours!  Party animal!!

It was truly an amazing time...like the day she was born, it was a day I will never forget!  

Dafney's ONE Year Stats:

Weight - 16.5 lbs {she's one tiny little girl}
Height - 28.5 inches
Clothes - mostly 9 months, she can wear some 12 month shirts
Her new "tricks" - She say's "Uh-Oh" all the time.  She's walking really well with a little help.