Oh Hi!

Moving right along!! I’m hoping to get caught up by New Year’s Day- can we do it?! If you see a bunch of grammatical/spelling errors or sentences that just don’t make sense- no you didn’t! 😜

The morning of November 28th Quinn read a bunch of books with Grammy. Then we all got ready to go visit my Grandma Violet!

It was so good to see her! She’s turning 100 in March so we are planning her party- cannot wait! It was another resident’s birthday that day and Tripp was having a ball hitting one of the balloons. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard him giggle so much. I wish I had recorded it!

After visiting our Grandma, we stopped by to spend time with my brother’s family. Kate and Quinn made ornaments together ☺️.

November 29th was a chill day.

Maggie also came by to visit! Quinn was, of course, elated to see her.

It ended up being an unintentional PJ day too. My mom set up Candyland and played that with Quinn several times. She’s at the perfect age for it & it’s a very nostalgic game for me!

That evening we threw a surprise party for Kevin! He recently bought his own dental practice. Halston helped get him out of the house and also went to pick up Swenson’s (one of his favorites near here).

We got to work getting up the decorations!

I found these little succulent teeth shaped holders on Amazon that I thought were adorable! I was thinking Kevin may even want to use them for his office. I didn’t have actual succulents to put in them so we improvised with a few toothbrushes and cotton balls.

He was definitely surprised! It was so fun.

Fast food and champagne for the win!

My mom and Pete also surprised us with matching pajamas for the kids. It was so cute and you can imagine how excited Quinn was!

Moose was one happy camper with his Aunt and Uncle.

November 30th Quinn built a crib out of magnatiles for herself, haha! I love her creativity.

And we finally completed November! Time to jump into December 🙂

December 1st we did our first Advent calendar item!

It was a candle representing Jesus as the light and hope of the world. I did not follow the instructions very well, but it turned out well enough lol!

More crafts!

That evening we had homemade turkey burgers, sweet potato fries and green beans.

December 3rd we had a play date at a friend’s house. This is kind of a cool story. So back when I was in the thick of postpartum I’d hired a woman named Amy for a few days to help to be a free hand (this was before Maggie was able to start). Well, she had happened to also have a baby and showed up I think 13 days postpartum? I couldn’t believe it, she is actually superwoman. Anyway, she was an instant friend and she has a daughter that’s only about 7 months younger than Quinn too. Her son is 3 months younger than Tripp. They came by for a playdate once and then on the 3rd we went to their house. I forget that we met through Care.com sometimes since she’s just one of those people that I feel like I’ve known for years. Very grateful for new mom friends I’ve met this year.

Anyway, while there we had The Farmer’s Rail. It was my first time having it and it was great!!! I had a berry salad with chicken & it was the perfect lunch.

Tripp definitely wanted more finger foods starting around this time so I made a zucchini fritter for him.

That evening Quinn covered Moose in our cleaning towels. He is such a trooper. When he stood up we said he reminded us of a donkey from Jesus’s time. Hah!

December 4th we played a lot of the morning with a Lovevery kit and then did a Young, Wilde and Friedman one too.

That afternoon I made a cauliflower fried rice with tofu and pineapple. This was so good & easy! I believe the recipe was from the Feeding Littles cookbook.

December 5th I got my Spotify wrapped- The Jesus People podcast was my top. I love this podcast and highly recommend it- it’s stories of the ways Jesus has worked in people’s lives. It has really deepened my faith & has transformed the way I approach prayer too.

December 6th I reinforced some baby proofing in our kitchen. Some of our cabinets had lost their locks, and Tripp was determined to open every single one haha.

My mom and Pete also got a new puppy that I had to share!! Her name is Stella- I cannot with those paws 🥹. Moose and Captain have a new Aunt! Haha!

That day Quinn and I wanted to play in the snow but I realized she’d outgrown her boots from last year! We had to makeshift some boots with ziplock bags and rubber bands over her shoes. It worked well enough haha!

That evening I had a major Christmas fail. I googled Christmas events going on near us that evening and it came up that downtown was having a tree lighting at City Hall. There were promises of reindeer, Santa, crafts and food trucks! I thought “oh this is perfect!”.

We dashed dinner from Farmer’s Rail since I was low on groceries (and I told DJ he had to try it) and then we booked it over. We were barely going to make it! When parking we noticed there weren’t that many cars which seemed odd, but we figured there was just a closer parking garage that was full. When walking there we passed a Santa in a storefront waving hello, and barely stopped to say hi as we didn’t want to miss the tree lighting and there was another Santa there anyway!

Well. We got there. City hall sure was pretty, but there was not a soul in sight! We were so confused. After quickly going to the direct website we learned the events had happened a week prior! 🫠

The Google Ai (Gemini?) may have failed me but this was not bound to break our spirits! Quinn handled the disappointment like a champ.

As we were walking back to the car, there was a sweater crawl going on and someone was dressed as the Grinch. She was sooo excited to see the Grinch I don’t think she cared one bit about the rest falling through! We stopped by the ice skating rink to see people skate for a minute then it was getting bitter cold so we headed out.

We went to Target to kill a bit more time. Quinn picked out her gift to Tripp for Christmas (an adorable little dino crinkle teether).

The next day was not a fail! We met up with our family for a lovely Christmas brunch at Gigi and Grandpa’s country club.

These brunches are such a treat. And we were trialing Tripp on dairy so I didn’t have to be quite as cautious about the food which was so nice! Everything was very tasty, but I think the waffles were a stand out!

There was an adorable area to write letters to Santa. Quinn requested a muffin stuffy and Socks and Muffiin characters to add to her dollhouse sized collection. (Socks is the name of a character, not actual socks lol!).

Then we met Santa again! He was in a much better mood than when we met him at the mall ;). Quinn was actually pretty thrilled this time around too!

Tripp is slowly but surely getting better with his separation anxiety! He had a great time standing with Gigi by the window touching the cold glass.

December 7th we spent some time on the magnetic chalkboard.

I also finally got around to taking Tripp’s 9 month photo!

We had vegan burgers and Lima beans that night. Quinn asked if I could make her cheese in the shape of a heart!

December 9th this little dude spun off all the toilet paper. It’s a rite of passage, so I let him do it. Look at that mischievous grin!

We also have an elf on the shelf named Chippy along with a Shepherd on the Search looking for Jesus. My Aunt Terry found/sent the Shepherd, and I think it’s the coolest thing- it came with a regular book and a sticker book too! Anyway, the two got up to all kinds of antics together.

That evening I made a sundried chicken over pasta.

December 10th we met with Amy and her kids at the library! The kids were loving the Paw Patrol books.

We then went to the grocery store. Quinn picked out these beautiful flowers this time 🥰.

Up to this point, Tripp’s naps have all been in the carrier. Since they were so frequent and generally short I figured there was no use in getting frustrated over trying to transfer him for a 20/30 minute nap. But now that he’s dropped to two, they are a bit longer and it’s pretty easy to transfer him too. This has opened a little time for me and Quinn to have together during the day. It’s so needed! It doesn’t always go exactly as planned but, for example, that day we did a Young Wilde and Friedman kit together and I was able to be fully present and engaged. We had so much fun!

That day Quinn also decided she wanted to make a donation bag. She went through our house putting things in that were mostly Tripp’s 🤣. And a lot of clothes that certainly still fit. I let her do her thing knowing I’d sneakily put everything back later. Well DJ thought it was actual trash since it was in a diaper trash bag and stuck it in the laundry room to be taken out. Thankfully I spotted it before all that very much still needed clothing and currently played with toys ended up in a landfill!

Quinn drew this beautiful night scene on her drawing board that day. I love seeing her creativity and artistic side blossom!

That week I noticed when Tripp’s hair parted a certain way it reminded me of Dwight Schrute. I decided I just had to dress him like Dwight, especially before we get his haircut! (The to-do list I had that was a mile long was certainly not prioritized in this moment).

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica!

The evening of December 12th I made pot roast with white rice.

That week I wrapped a lot of presents in the evening after the kids went down. I was watching the show All Her Fault on Peacock. It was a well done show that I was thinking about when I wasn’t watching it. It was hard to watch as it has to do with a missing child- but the twists and turns, etc. are shocking. I also think it depicts the trying aspects of balancing career/motherhood well too. A great thriller if you need a recommendation!

My mom flew in on December 13th! She came in town to watch Tripp while we went to a wedding. I jokingly threw it out to her that she’s welcome to come back to help and she didn’t even blink and booked a flight. ❤️ Our original plan was Gigi was going to be with Quinn at our house and my mom was going to be at a family’s friend close to the venue in case Tripp became inconsolable/refused to eat or drink. However, there was a massive snowstorm that night so everyone ended up staying put at our house. Tripp actually did well! He ate quite a bit, refused the bottle but hey, eating a bunch was a win! They put the breastmilk in his oatmeal so he still got it that way. My mom did end up getting him down for the night by putting on the carrier and walking on the treadmill the way I often do with him. It went even better than I expected!

Onto the wedding!!! This was for my dear friend Rachel. She loves Christmas & it was the most gorgeous winter/Christmas wedding ever.

We got there a bit early. While I pumped DJ ran across the street to a coffee shop called Speakeasy. You guys this is some of the best coffee I’ve had – it was unreal good. If you’re in the North Canton area you MUST stop here!

The venue was so beautiful.

Look at this fun cake!!

It was a lovely night, celebrating Rachel and Anthony, catching up with some people I haven’t seen in over a decade and spending that one on one time with DJ ❤️. I am so grateful to my mom and Gigi for holding down the fort so well too!

More Christmas posts to come soon! 🙂

P.S. this post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I might earn a small commission if you make a purchase. Please know I’ll only ever share products I truly stand by and use! 🫶🏻

Hey friends!! I hope you had a lovely Christmas! Here we are in November Part Three!

My mom and Pete arrived on November 23rd. We all wanted Indian, so we tried a new place, The Spice Delight, and oh it was delightful!!

Every time my mom visits she brings Quinn a little soap duck. This one was a nurse ☺️.

My mom and Pete also have been world travelers this year. They’ve been to Greece twice and Turkey. They brought us back some Turkish delight & I was a big fan!!! I’ve never had anything quite like it- it’s almost light like marshmallow, but also gummy and dense? Sort of hard to describe!

They also brought some money for Quinn that she could use as play money.

Pete and my mom read a few books to Quinn before bed.

November 24th we met up with a friend from high school and her kids at the library. After, we went to Yada Yada Coffee. My mom and I both got tasty matchas & a “milky” for Quinn of course!

That evening my mom made some delicious eggplant meatballs with pasta and garlic bread. I need this recipe- these were so good!

That evening Tripp said “more” for the first time!

That day I received a shipment of Ahimsa stainless steel dishes, bowls and cups for the kids. We needed some new stuff & Quinn has loved these!!!

November 25th we had Tripp’s 9 month appt then my mom and I stopped into Ardmore for some coffee. They also have some incredible chocolate croissants.

Quinn received a KiwiCo kit and this one was digging for fossils. She had fun doing this with Grampy!

November 26th we stopped by Gigi’s to wish her a happy birthday! It was nice to see some family briefly that we wouldn’t see the day of Thanksgiving either.

We lost our power that night right after we finished making dinner (good timing!). Thankfully I had some battery operated candles ready and there was still a tiny bit of natural light coming through.

I entered into the Pioneer era, cradling my battery operated candle running around saying “it’s ok family! We will make it through winter if we stay together! This candle will bring us warmth!”. No one found my performance amusing except for Quinn 😆. We did get our power back fairly quickly!

I think this was the evening that we watched a couple dances from the Dancing with the Stars finale! Tripp was into it!!

And that brings us to Thanksgiving!!

Chat again soon 🙂

Merry Christmas Eve!

Wow I cannot believe how much has happened in just a couple months. I feel months behind on here just because there is so much to share. We’ll get there eventually hah!

Early to mid November Tripp’s mobility skyrocketed. It’s so much fun, stinking adorable and exciting, but also so tiring! He constantly needs spotted and pulled away from things (even though we are baby proofed, they always find a way! 😅). I am absolutely bushed by the end of the day.

I think what makes it extra tough is I feel like it’s made my quality of time with Quinn extra slim because I’m so focused on keeping Tripp from hurting himself. I used to be able to set him down and play with them both, but now I’m just trailing him while she plays independently. She plays independently so well, but I miss her even though I’m with her all day! We still try to find time in the evenings after Tripp goes down and we try to do our dates, but with the holiday season things have been all over the place. We’ll find a new groove soon I’m sure!

November 10th was the first snow of the season!! I was so thrilled saying, “Tripp it’s your first snow!”. But then it dawned on me he was born in February so it was not, in fact, his first snow haha.

Lately, I’ve tried to take pictures of just every day moments more intentionally.

Looking back at videos and pictures from when Quinn was little I realize how much I love just the ordinary things that I may not have thought to even capture at that time, like a snapshot of a corner of the playroom or a video of a random conversation- just to hear her sweet voice.

This picture reminds me- Quinn has been loving this Lovevery calendar! It’s a great way for her to know what’s happening each day and learn the days of the week too.

That day it felt right to pull out more Christmas decorations considering the snow on the ground.

We were low on groceries, but I made a nostalgic meal my mom used to make us of sausage stuffed acorn squash. I used beyond meat Italian sausage and added a little dairy free yogurt too.

Alas, the snow started melting fairly quickly. But little did we know we’d have our fair share in the month to come!

November 12th Quinn helped me make a delicious risotto that Chat GPT provided based on the ingredients we had at the time. It was made with Arborio rice, coconut milk, tomato sauce, bone broth, and corn.

It was a big hit!

A fellow blogger and friend, Linda, suggested this ACE bakery sourdough and it was so delicious!!! Quinn actually woke up asking for it the day after she tried it haha.

Another day, another scavenger hunt! Sometimes ChatGPT goes rogue with its creations but it works well enough.

I added peas and shrimp to the risotto when it was ready to go! A big hit!

November 13th this Princess, Tripp and I headed to the library .

That evening DJ and Quinn built quite the magnatile castle! They create something like this almost daily. Magnatiles are easily some of the best toys. Easy clean up, endless play time. We’re all big fans.

Baby in explorer mode!

I have to barricade off Quinn’s magnatiles creations so they don’t get destroyed by a babyzilla!

Where did Tripp go?

The afternoon of November 14th it was nice enough in the afternoon to go on a walk. I was laughing that one house turned their skeleton into a Pilgrim.

We also thought this pumpkin made into a golf ball was pretty cool!

November 15th was a GREAT day! Since Tripp was born, DJ and Quinn have been going to a park a little further away with “the silly slides”. This is Quinn’s favorite park, but I’ve never been with her due to the distance. Well we felt that Tripp was probably at a point where he could tolerate the drive, so I was finally going to see the Silly Slides park!

The actual name is Preston’s Hope, and it is adorable!! They have a play town with all kinds of different buildings representing a city staple (fire station, hair salon, school, etc.).

Quinn took a lot of pride in showing me around! And I did get to see her do the silly slides over and over and over again!

After, we went to Pinecrest area to walk around and grab coffee. Pinecrest has a fantastic shopping row that was absolutely bustling when we were there. I’d love to go back there for a full day. We stopped into Heartwood and got delicious coffees and a milk for Quinn. We also all split a vegan double chocolate cookie!

We swung into hobby lobby after to get some Christmas crafts and supplies to make Quinn a library bag.

Then we worked on some crafts when we got home!

We also made Quinn’s library bag! We just used the iron on decals & a plain bag. It was so easy & she loves it! She picked out all the decals herself and I thought it turned out adorably.

November 16th we attempted at making homemade ornaments for the grandparents for Christmas. Quinn wanted to make the gingerbread man brown but we didn’t have brown paint- I majorly failed at my attempt to create brown too. Not even sure how we got to that gray lol. We joked the grandparents are getting coal from Quinn this year.

November 18th I went to a mom’s get together for the women from our Church. We put together crafts for each day of Advent to do with our kids. It came with an instructional book. Each day has a verse, a discussion and a craft. It’s been such a joy doing one each day with Quinn! While I was there (Tripp came with me), DJ took Quinn to frozen yogurt and then to the lights at Western Reserve. They had a couple trees gorgeously lit up!

November 19th we met up with Gigi for a fun day. First we went to Hobby Lobby for a couple more Christmas crafts and then continued onto Barnes and Noble. We grabbed coffee/some snacks then headed to the upstairs Children’s area.

It actually happened to be story time too! We met some other sweet families there, and it was so much fun!! I definitely want to do this again soon.

That afternoon we blasted the music and danced around. I’ve found whenever I don’t know what to do/am feeling overwhelmed or just need to get the energy up music and dancing will always do the trick! Quinn and Tripp are slowly but surely starting to play together and it is the sweetest!

November 20th we were out of the house most of the day running errands. I let Tripp munch on a baguette at Panera. He loved it and would get angry whenever I dared pulled it away for even a second. Hah! Quinn didn’t finish her Mac n cheese so we took it to go. I figured she would want it an hour later or so.

We went to Asterik coffee shop in downtown Cuyahoga Falls. Always delicious!!

On our way to the library, Quinn asked for the mac n cheese. I realized I didn’t have any utensils for her to use. She said “it’s ok mama I have some!” And she pulled out a kids spoon from her car seat. No idea how long it was there, but it looked clean enough 🤣.

When we got home, Quinn had mail from Maggie! She sent her this adorable Bluey coloring picture 💙.

November 21st I finally got our basement bedroom livable!! I still have some decorative work, and I need to find a dresser for it- but I’m pretty pleased how it came together!

That day I got my hair done for before the holidays.

Sleepy moose with stockings.

November 22nd Quinn and I went first thing to First Watch. It was soo much fun.

Quinn drew this duck, which I thought was so good!

My girl with a pancake as big as she is, haha!

I realized as we were doing Christmas set up I didn’t have a stocking for Tripp yet as it’s his first Christmas! I ordered one exactly from where I did last time but his is a smidge bigger than everyone’s. I might try to shrink it in the wash, but for now, oh well!

That afternoon we went to the mall to see Santa! We also did a Build-a-Bear.

Quinn brought along her Chase she made last year! This year she made a cat.

Santa went.. as expected. Neither kid was about it haha!

We stopped by Ardmore Coffee after.

Then we were home!

Phew this is getting long! I hope you all have a blessed and restful Christmas ❤️🎄.

Mackenzie

Hey hey! Hope you are staying warm out there (if it’s as cold where you are!) and having a wonderful holiday season.

November 1st we ventured to HomeGoods and Target. Target is Quinn’s favorite store because they have Bullseye the dog!

Don’t look at the weeds- we’ll just pretend those don’t exist- but my mom planted these flowers in my garden when she was here in the Spring and they bloomed so beautifully!

That afternoon DJ did a scavenger hunt with Quinn. I hid “treasure” in a toy treasure box in our backyard and then DJ drew the map to help her find it. She loved this!

That day was beautiful, so we made sure to go for a family walk.

That evening I made chicken patties out of the force of nature ancestral blend. This is our favorite ground chicken- the flavor is tremendous, and it’s packed with nutrients.

Now what is ancestral blend? It’s made of ground chicken, skin, liver, heart and gizzard… but it just tastes like chicken, literally. For the longest time I’d been buying the ancestral blend beef too, and DJ had no clue what it was made of. Now that he knows, he’ll ask “are we eating the chicken brain tonight?” 🙄 lol. It is really good and super nutritious though! I served that dinner with murasaki sweet potato and broccoli. (P.S. If you come over for dinner I won’t subject you to the ancestral blend, do not worry- lol!).

November 2nd we went on a walk and said goodbye to Quinn’s favorite Halloween decorations before they were taken down (read: Gargantuan mummy monster). We got a Kiwi Co crate too so we worked on that in the afternoon. The theme of this crate was gardens. We made a planter with different veggies (made of different colored beads) and then completed a flower project that demonstrated how capillary action works in plants.

November 3rd we busted out the Thanksgiving sensory bin activities to replace the Halloween ones. She spent a while doing this color sorter activity.

After that she pretended to make different muffins. We put them in a muffin container and whenever I asked to try one I was hit with a “they’re not ready yet” 🤷🏼‍♀️.

She also loves to play pretend daycare and will take all the chairs in our kitchen, arrange them into her car formation, buckle in each doll/stuffy and drive them to school!

Daycare snack time! I let her have some Little Spoon containers to play pretend with. I see containers differently than I used to- a yogurt container is now a fun craft or a “building” rather than just a tub to be recycled!

That afternoon we went to Rock the Spectrum. We always have a great time there especially if Quinn finds a friend her age, which she did this time!

Tripp was even enjoying it too!

They have a great little baby area. What I especially love about rock the spectrum is it’s not very big which makes it easy to keep eyes on the kids at all times. I can be playing with Tripp in the baby area and still see Quinn easily.

Time for grocery shopping!

That evening I made a sheet pan meal. I was inspired by previous recipes and then just doctored it up as I saw fit.

We couldn’t stop talking about how much we enjoyed this. I tried to remember how I made it and jotted down some notes, here they are:

Fall sheet pan : 

• vegan beyond Italian sausage 
• Brussels 
• Mushrooms 
• Onion 
• Vegan feta (follow your heart)
• Butternut squash
• 2 tbsp maple syrup 
• 1.5 TBSP olive oil 
• 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar 
• Salt and pepper 
• Toss veggies in marinade, then put in oven 
• Roast 385 for 20, turn up heat to 425 then check frequently 
• Sauté sausage on stovetop until crispy and then combine with sheet pan when done

At some point in the evening, Quinn decided to practice her name on her playroom wall 😆.

I really don’t mind her exercising some creative liberty on the walls in her playroom. I think it’s because my Mom let us have pretty free rein on our bedroom walls growing up. We painted them, put up murals, they were messy with melted crayons, etc. I figure we can always just paint it someday but then I probably won’t want to 🩷.

November 5th we did library story time & craft!

That afternoon we went to Gigis with Moose too. Oh my goodness Moose was living his BEST life running freely around their yard. He has space in ours, but not that much space- and he was loving it! Quinn was getting such a kick out of it running after him giggling. Tripp didn’t mind hanging around outside either!

We had a lovely afternoon at Gigis and then headed home.

For dinner we had meatballs with vegan feta, couscous, roasted carrots, cucumbers and hummus.

November 6th we went with a neighbor and her kids to the library for baby music and play time! This was a big hit with all the kids.

Quinn has become quite fond of the library’s Curious George.

That evening I needed some fresh air. I had chat GPT create a scavenger hunt for us – and Quinn was all about it!

That evening was- you knowwwww it- Chili!!’

November 8th we went for a family walk then set up the Christmas tree. Quinn was such a big help this year and was so into it! I think I’m near as giddy this year for Christmas as I was as a kid- seeing the joy of Christmas through their eyes is just the best 🥹.

That evening we had non-aesthetically plated tacos with peas and potatoes. Some days you make a pretty meal and others you are throwing food on a plate as fast as you can before everyone melts down 😅.

Oh also – DJ and I had a funny discussion. I often say “I just need to plate the food” before dinner. He thinks it’s a funny way to say put food on the plate- but to me it just sounds right/natural. I’m wondering if it’s because I worked at a catering company for weddings- it was all about food being “plated”. Does anyone else use that use of the word at home?

I’d say this is a good place to wrap! Chat more soon 🙂

Mackenzie

P.S. this post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I might earn a small commission if you make a purchase. Please know I’ll only ever share products I truly stand by and use! 🫶🏻

My heart (and my stomach) are so full! Thanksgiving this year was lovely, and I’m eager to share all about it! There is just so darn much to be thankful for this year. We would have been traveling to my mom and Pete’s for Thanksgiving this year, but since Tripp is so little they offered to come to us and Kevin, Halston and Captain (their pup!) were able to too!

I have been so excited to host. I’ve been planning the menu for a long time now (it helps that the Thanksgiving menu is pretty standard ;)). We put together our basement guest bedroom for Halston and Kevin, and Quinn helped me with the table decorations. We used her sensory bin pumpkins, corn, pinecones and acorns from Hobby Lobby for the decorative flare!

We are ready to host!

Here’s a list of everything we used:

• Chargers
• Plates (disposable and non toxic for the win)
• Napkins
• Table runner
• Candle holders
• Battery operated candles

The napkin rings were a wedding gift from 2015, so I’m hard pressed to locate those! But I did find these similar ones.

We woke up to frosted grass and a light snow gently falling. It was a gorgeous morning to hunker down and enjoy cooking and coffee!

My mom and I prepped dishes a couple days prior to Thanksgiving to make things easy the day of. When it was crunch time (we ate around 2 pm), everyone was in the kitchen lending a hand (including the dogs who were our personal vacuum cleaners). Halston and Kevin made the most incredible Huaincaina sauce- a Peruvian sauce that goes over turkey (or anything). It’s stellar, and Kevin graciously made me a non dairy version because he knows how much I love it! They were able to find the speciality aji Amarillo chile pepper for it at a place called Zak Supercenter.

Pete was on turkey carving & roll duty, my mom helped with the final touches and kept food warm in the oven/Our Place oven. DJ and I warded off meltdowns from the littles haha. When everything was finally done we pulled it all out to serve. We realized I really need some type of multi-dish warmer! My mom said she’ll get one as a Christmas gift, so that will be very helpful for next time hosting.

My mom also made these!

You can put whatever you want in these fabulously festive glasses. Halston used it for a vodka sprite, Pete had white wine and we used them for sparkling water. You could also do red wine or a spritzer too! An easy idea for Christmas drinks ;).

For our turkey, I was able to find some non-plastic turkey bags. You guys, this worked so well!

Look at her!!

My mom really took over the turkey so I cannot take credit for that; she did awesome 😍. Of course, as moms do, she talked about it being dry and we looked at her like she was crazy because it simply was NOT. It was delicious!!

We had our work cut out for us this year since we made double of almost all the sides (a dairy version and a non-dairy version). We definitely took the path of least resistance for some dishes and used some boxed/canned items- but it worked out great.

Here was every single thing we made (including our short cuts ;)):

• Organic turkey from Whole Foods
• Roasted multicolored carrots- roasted at 385 until softening then turned up to 425 until crisp (I just watch them so not sure on exact times)
• Vegan green bean casserole and regular green bean casserole (Marie Callender’s).
• Vegan mashed potatoes and regular mashed potatoes (we used Edward and Sons Organic).
• Vegan creamed corn and regular canned creamed corn with added steamed corn and crumbled sausage (we stole this idea from Gigi!)
• Immaculate biscuits (my obsession)
• Cranberry sauce (canned)
• Mac and cheese (the bestttt)
• Stuffing
• Simply organic brown gravy
• Huancaina sauce (Kevin’s personal recipe!)

The vegan creamed corn and vegan green bean casserole were new recipes and turned out incredibly delicious! We all agreed we could have just made those without the “regular” versions based on how good they were. I am absolutely keeping these recipes!

Tripp was a big fan of mashed potatoes! I’m kicking myself for not getting a pic of him eating but you know how it is hah. Quinn ate one roll and a bite of turkey and called it good 🤷🏼‍♀️.

My mom did some turkey trivia which was fun! Pete killed it- who knew he was a turkey maven! I think the fact that surprised me the most is turkeys can make up to 28 distinct sounds! Not just gobble gobble- who knew!

Of course, we busted out the glasses from last year 😄.

There was a moment that gave us a particularly good laugh. As dinner was wrapping up, I got up from the table and came back and sat in Halston’s seat since she was up playing with Tripp. Quinn looked over and earnestly asked, “are you mommy or Aunt Hally?” 😂. We confused the poor girl! Even Tripp was soo content with Halston all weekend we think he just thought she was a mommy clone. I’ll never forget when Quinn first met Halston when she was about 6 months old and did a double triple take.

For dessert we had a vegan pumpkin pie that was actually unbelievably good. Halston said she didn’t want any, then tried a bite and got a slice immediately lol. DJ said he’d have no clue that it was vegan. Pete also made his famous pumpkin crunch that whole family is obsessed with. Next year when I can have dairy again I’ll be making up for lost time with that. We had all the fixings- whipped topping, reddi-whip and vanilla ice cream. I offered beforehand to get apple pie but everyone said they just wanted the pumpkin crunch, so that made that easy!

Family selfie time!

After, we partook in the important tradition of watching football late into the night.

Except the dogs who were tired from being dogs all day!

How was your Thanksgiving? And my favorite question to always ask- what was your favorite dish you had?

🦃

Mackenzie

P.S. this post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I might earn a small commission if you make a purchase 🫶🏻. Please know I’ll only ever share products I truly stand by and use!

Hey friends!!! We are moving right along here! Welcome to another Summer archived post.

August 24th was baby dedication day at church. Since Quinn was a little older when we started attending here, we never had her dedicated, so the church said we could dedicate both kids that day!

It was really special. All sets of Quinn and Tripp’s grandparents were there to support them & it meant the world to us. Even my mom and Pete made a trip in 💞. The congregation reached out their hands to pray over all the babies being dedicated. Our Pastor even prayed over each child individually. Before praying over Tripp, Tripp went on a little velociraptor/yelling rampage lol so the pastor prayed he would use his lungs to bring glory to God, which made us all smile. I was sweating up there- Tripp was in the thick of a leap/teething and fussy as could be that week, but he held in there!

That evening we had one of my absolute favorite recipes that I wanted to share with my mom and Pete- Slow cooker pork shoulder.

Y’all trust me on this recipe! It’s fantastic. We served with air fryer green beans & white rice. We also had some Best Day non-alcoholic beer which I really enjoyed!

That evening we all went as a family to the park. It was a wonderful day 🩷.

August 25th we went to see Grandma Violet. She was so thrilled to see her great grandbabies!

After we got home and Tripp napped, I snuck out for a little date with Quinn to Nervous Dog Cafe while my mom watched the little man.

I absolutely treasure this one on one time with my girl!! We shared a vegan breakfast cookie. She had some milk and I had an au lait.

Tripp back at home hanging out with Grampy ❤️ (this was before the separation anxiety really ramped up!).

That evening we had lamb chomps from the anti-inflammatory crockpot cookbook. This is probably my favorite recipe in there! I always serve with roasted carrots and couscous.

6 months!!

After getting Tripp’s 6 month photo on August 26th we headed to Szalays.

It’s always so much fun here. We shared some nectarines and perused around outside a little. My mom got us some sunflowers 💕

Before they left, they read some books to Quinnie.

Here are the gorgeous blooms next to beautiful flowers we got at the baby dedication too!

It was really tough to say goodbye that time. Tripp was going through it, as was I. Thankfully things turned around once those adorable bottom teeth popped through!

Next up is Amy’s wedding, yay!!

💗

Mackenzie

P.S. this post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I might earn a small commission if you make a purchase 🫶🏻. Please know I’ll only ever share products I truly stand by and use!