OOTD - Traveling & Winter

Winter has arrived in California! It has been around the 60's, so that means we can pull out sweaters. I am sure any of you Midwesterners reading this are rolling your eyes. I plan to wear some of these outfits when I go to my parents. I need some warm, comfy clothes while I am traveling. If I think I am cold at 50 degrees in California I am going to die with the 10-30 degrees in North Dakota.  

Some of these items are new and some are oldies. I will try to link up to what I can find. 

Tee: Nordstrom

Cardigan: Nordstrom

Jeans: American Eagle similar

Booties: Nordstrom Rack

Button up: Gap

Vest: Old Navy similar

Jeans: Old Navy

Flats: Lucky

Tee: Nordstrom

Vest: Old Navy 

Leggings: Old Navy

Scarf: Express (old)

Booties: Nordstrom Rack

I am struggling to find a utility vest right now at Old Navy or Gap. I guess it isn't the season for them. They do carry them very often! I think everyone has more holiday things out right now. Watch Old Navy for the fur vests. Last year I bought mine for 50% off during Thanksgiving time. I recently started a Pinterest board just for fur vest inspiration. I don't wear it other than the holiday season. I am going to try to wear it more this winter. I really love it! 

The outfit above is really comfortable! It would be really good for traveling. There are plenty of pockets to put things especially when you are traveling with a toddler. I always need pockets when I am getting on and off planes. I need like 4 arms for getting on a plane. I really have a good system down, but still any mother could use a few more arms. 

Monday Thrive - November 13

1) Thank goodness today is Monday and not a Friday! I am not a fan of Friday the 13th! My friend from high school and I were always soooo superstitious. We would go out of our way to avoid a black cat. We were always on edge on Friday the 13th. Random thought I had while typing out November 13. lol

2) We just got back from South Padre Island, Texas. We were there for a week. It was an amazing trip! We did a lot of relaxing. G just loves the pool! It was hard to get him out of there at times. He liked the beach, but the pool was his favorite. The first day he was a little hesitant, but within an hour he was floating all over. I am going to work on a whole blog post about things to do in South Padre with a toddler, reviews of restaurants, review of items we brought with us, and our resort.  

I have a lot of posts planned, but I have a rough 2 weeks coming up! I will do what I can. I wanted to post some gift guides. That might not happen since the holidays are just flying upon us. I still need to figure out what we are doing for Christmas cards! Usually I have them done and printed by now. Yikes!

3) Are you looking for some small businesses to buy from for the holidays? Check out the ihelpmoms holiday guide for up to 30% on the Best Mom’s Holiday Gifts!!! There are some great companies that are offering discount codes. I love SIC Cups. I blogged about them here. 

https://ihelpmoms.com/more/free-books-for-moms/holiday-gift-guide/

4) Next week my sister will be here for a week! We have been making menus and itineraries for the past month! I can't wait for her to come. The last time she was here was for Christmas right after G was born. It will be nice to have her here for a week. I always love having my family with me at the holidays.

Lacey wants to take her fiance to Alcatraz. I have gotten to the point I give instructions to people on how to get there, but I don't go anymore. I want to wait until G wants to go there to go again. I have already been 3 times. It's a great tour! I highly recommend it! I think once you have gone once you don't really need to go again. =)

5) There are always firsts! This year I am going to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving. I want all the decor up before my sister gets here. We are going to celebrate Christmas with her while she is here. I don't want to deal with putting it all up when she is here, so I am going to do it this week with G. He has LOVED Halloween. He doesn't want to take the decorations down. I think once he realizes we are putting up the Christmas tree he will love it. I put up my Halloween, fall and Thanksgiving decorations up at the same time. I am really looking forward to Christmas with G this year. He tells us all the time stuff he wants for his birfday and Christmas. 

I hope you have a fabulous week! 

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post Monday Thrive appeared first on MrsPost08 Blog. 

Monday Thrive October 9

1) G and I went to see my cousin in Dallas a couple weeks ago for a long weekend. We had the best time and I LOVE Texas! There are so many reasons why I love Texas. We drove down to Waco for a few hours. 

A blogger I follow went to Waco earlier this year. One thing she said was do not plan an entire vacation to see Magnolia in Waco. I have to totally agree. Waco is a day trip. My cousin and I had 2 toddlers with us, so we rushed more than we would have if we had been alone. We went through the store. There was sooooo much cute stuff! I only bought a Shiplap tshirt. I wasn't sure how to bring back the huge adorable signs they have at Magnolia. 

G and I traveled 1,741 miles! 

Front of the Magnolia store. They also have a bakery that had a ridiculous line of about 50-75 people waiting to get in. I didn't think there would be anything inside I would be able to eat, so I didn't even wait in line to get inside the bakery. 

Inside one portion of the store. 

I loved the outside area where they had food trucks, area for the kids to run around and swings. It really is a fun place to go hang out for a little while. I don't see how you could spend more than 4 hours max at the silos. That is going through the store, bakery, getting food at the food trucks and enjoying the outdoor area. 

After we were at the silos then we went to Harp Design Co. They have a teeny tiny store with some cute things. I bought a key chain there. We went through the store in about 10 minutes. 

2) Liz and I ate so much delicious food! Mostly tacos! We had tacos at least once a day and sometimes twice a day. I felt like I had gained 5 pounds by the time I got home. lol

We enjoyed some Jimmy John sandwiches! They do have a lettuce wrap sandwich that was AMAZING!!!! 

Let me tell you about these nachos. TO DIE FOR!!!! Liz made this cauliflower nutritional yeast turmeric vegan cheese sauce. It was amazing!!!! Then she chopped up all this product and made an AMAZING mango salsa. We ate this for dinner one night and the next morning for breakfast. lol I came home and made it again for myself!  

3) G had the BEST time playing with Liz's kids! One morning he came down the stairs saying "kids don't worry I am coming down". lol He is hilarious! He just loved all of them. He has been talking about the kids since we got home. He had to tell Chris all about them. 

I brought in diaper boxes for them all one day to make cars. One of the boxes ripped. I cup all the boxes, so they were the same. I told them they now had a mini van with a sliding door. All of them thought that was the greatest thing! 

4) I love Texas! I love how polite and friendly people are. Men hold the door for you and offer to help you. Texas has mega churches all over the place. And they have tacos EVERY WHERE!!!! Mmmm I could eat tacos allllll the time! 

5) Traveling with G was good. We seem to have a great traveling routine down. He usually naps on the plane for a portion of the flight. I load up the tablet with plenty of shows for him to watch, bring lots of snacks, and bring a few new toys. Direct flights are the best! I hate having to change planes. Thankfully we can fly to Dallas direct! On the way home we flew Virgin which was fabulous because they have tv's for everyone!

Monday Thrive - August 21

I am trying to get us back into our routine after a couple months of craziness. G went to school every day for a month, then we were gone for a month and now we are trying to find our new groove. I thought I would share some of my traveling tips with a toddler and eating paleo in today's post. 

1) Last year in September I wrote a post about Traveling with a Toddler. I didn't want to be a traveling Gypsy this year, so I wanted to come up with a different way to bring a car seat. Two days before we left I ordered a luggage cart you can find HERE. I wasn't sure if I was going to use it or if I would use my Bob Stroller. I figured if I decided to use my Bob I would return the luggage cart. It was moments before our shuttle picked us up that I decided to leave the Bob at home and use the cart. Best decision!!!! 

I was traveling alone with G. I needed to have my hands free as much as possible. When we got to San Francisco Airport I told G the cart was too heavy and I needed help pulling it. He was really nervous about riding in it. I threw our carry on bags in there, pulled the luggage cart with car seat and my suitcase. I had him right beside me, so I could grab him if necessary. I had looked at the car seat carts which ran $50-$100. I looked at them numerous times online. I just thought they looked like a luggage cart and the they were marking them up because parents buy all this crap we think we need for kids. I am glad I went with a cheaper version. This will work great for us while we travel. We have 2 more trips coming up this year. I also like to bring our car seat on the plane. 

On our flight home G wasn't scared to ride in the car seat. We had an episode of a tantrum in the Denver Airport. I strapped him in there while he was whaling and got to our gate. 

2) Just buy your kid their own tablet! It's a life saver for traveling. We ended up buying him an Amazon Fire Tablet. I am still not sure I am happy with this purchase. I kind of wish we would have just spent the extra money and bought him an Ipad mini. You can download YouTube Kids on the Fire. G loves YouTube kids. If you are only going to let them use it for traveling this is no big deal then. 

I was able to download shows from Amazon Prime and Netflix. Just a helpful tip download the shows the day before you leave. I downloaded some of them and they expired before he could even watch them. Thankfully we realized this on the 1 hour flight. I had some new toy firemen I was able to pull out and save the day. Rookie mistake for downloading shows. :::eyeroll:::

I downloaded a bunch of podcasts for myself. These saved my sanity for the 3 hour flight. You go through a magazine way too fast! I downloaded a bunch of different ones. Jen Hatmaker has a new podcast I just love! I listened to some Dave Ramsey to help me stay on budget and My Favorite Murder. Those girls on My Favorite Murder are crazy. I can only listen to that podcast a little or become paranoid about being murdered. It's very unlikely I will be murdered on a plane, so I felt it was safe to listen on there. I had to then listen to Jen Hatmaker before I got off the plane. lol

3) Pack lots of snacks for everyone!!!! On the way to ND I packed some paleo pizza. Thankfully I packed 3 pieces. G ate one, I dropped one and I got to eat one. I packed the Kids RX bars. I love these! They are the perfect size! I packed G some of his favorite snacks - crackers, pouches, fruit leather, nuts. I usually pack a big bag of nuts. Both of really like them. 

I always pack a reusable water bottle for both G & me in our carry on bags. Once we are through security I find a place to fill them up. This saves you about $5-10 bucks. It's ridiculous what they charge for water in the airport. I did end up buying us a soda water on the plane to share. G was very excited about the juice. He thinks soda water is juice and I am just going to let him continue thinking that. =)  

You can usually find a salad in the airport. I have gotten a side salad from McDonald's skipping the dressing. Quizno's had a salad that I just had them skip the dressing that seemed to be paleo approved. I do the best I can when I am traveling. If I end up with a little sugar in a dressing I let it go. I can't eat dairy at all, so I always skip anything that might have dairy. 

4) Dress in comfortable clothes and layers! Why is take off so hot and when you are in the sky it is so cold? I am usually sitting in the airplane sweating like crazy before we take off. Then we get in the sky and I am shivering because it is so cold.  I wore some looser fitting boyfriend jeans, tshirt, jacket and converse. I need something that I don't need to be adjusting and tugging on. 

I dress G in usually one of his favorite shirts. It helps getting dressed early in the AM. It also can be a conversation we can have while waiting. What is on your shirt, what color is that, etc? I also put on easy shoes for him. As soon as he is strapped in his seat I take his shoes off and put them in one of the bags. He is known for kicking his shoes off right away. I just take them off, so they don't get lost. 

5) I packed a rollerball with lavender this year! This was a great thing. I would roll some on the bottom of G's feet and the back of my neck. It really helped us stay relaxed. Early mornings, cramped space, and long travel days do not mix well with a toddler. Thankfully he slept for 3 hours on the first flight. Then we had a FOUR hour layover. It was either a four hour layover or an over night layover. I picked the 4 hour one! While I love Frontier's prices I do not like their flying times 90% of the time. We also don't have many options that fly into ND. 

When we would get on the plane I would roll some lavender on us. When we got to Denver I had him run as much as possible. We went up and down the moving walk ways. Up and down the escalators. He walked around looking at different planes. Whatever we could do to get out some energy. Using the tablet is not an option once we have landed. I will give him toys to play with while we watch planes. 

G really did well! He has been on planes often, so he knows the drill. It is getting easier now that is older too. A lot less to pack. No diapers or bottles. Smaller toys. 

I hope everyone has a fabulous Monday! 

California Tourists!

My cousins from ND visited for a week around the first part of March. We were tourists around Nor Cal for a week. We had a lot of fun taking them to places we have been and to new places we haven't even been. 

G was really good! We were in the car A LOT! He happily rode along with watching the tablet very little. He really was a trooper. I packed lots of snacks, some car toys and uploaded some of his favorite shows to the tablet. 

We went on some hikes. I put him on my back. He was ok being in the Ergo for a little bit. He would rather run or have us carry him for a little bit. He is getting heavy. I had to tell him if he wanted to be carried he had to go in the Ergo. That usually resulted in him saying he would walk. 

I love this picture of us at the Golden Gate Bridge! It was the first time we have walked on the bridge. It was the first time we have taken G to the bridge too. 

Disclaimer: All thoughts and opinions are my own. The post California Tourists appeared first on Because Chocolate Can't Get You Pregnant.  

Wordless Wednesday

Traveling with a Toddler

I have traveled a lot with G alone on quick trips. I was a little nervous to make a 4+ hour flight alone. We had a 3 hour layover in the middle of the flight. I was mostly nervous how I would manage all of our stuff on and off the plane. I had a car seat, stroller, and 2 bags. I had plan to just take 1 bag on the way home, but G insisted we had to take his blankie. I shoved it in his little back pack to avoid getting it drug through the airport. Once we got off the plane he wanted me once my hands were free. 

It worked really good to just take one bag. The flight attendants and passengers were really nice about helping us too. I would wait until almost everyone got off the plane before I even attempted to get off. I had to wait for the stroller anyhow, so it made sense to just wait. 

Look who I ran into at the Bismarck airport! It's Josh!!!

Watching the planes! 

Playing with his farm animals. 

I pack a lot of new toys for G to play with on and off the plane. He loves opening new things to play with. On the way home I packed too much. He ended up sleeping for an entire flight. It worked out great! I think later flights are the best. Toys and snacks are the way to travel with a toddler. 

Just a little excited to go home to see Da Da! 

Here is my gypsy cart! It REALLY worked fabulous! For one person this works. The Bob stroller is a beast! It hauls everything so nicely. When I needed to push G I just set him in the car seat and away we would go. If he wanted to walk I set my bag in the car seat, so I could hold his hand. I was so glad I decided to take the Bob with us. It worked great on the farm too. 

Texas

A couple months ago we went to Texas. We went to see if we liked the area and possibly move there. Lacey came with us to check things out. We are all hoping to make the big move in the next year. 

George LOVED the beach! He had so much fun walking around the beach, playing in the sand, chasing the birds and even going in the water. 

We visited a rain forest one day. 

I love this picture! It is so cute how George is looking at Auntie!

Hey, Momma look there is a bird!

Tips for Traveling with a Toddler

We are getting ready to travel with a toddler again. The first time we flew I scoured Pinterest looking for ideas on how to keep a toddler busy on a plane. Well I packed a bag FULL of stuff. Lesson learned you don't need to take that much stuff. On the way home I lightened my load and brought a few things for him to play with. 

My tip for any trip is to pack new toys. Go to your local dollar store and buy 5-10 items depending the age and amount of travel time. I like to buy dollar items because I don't care if they get lost or ruined. George loves to pull things out of packages, so tissues are fabulous. Post it notes are another fun thing. He can write on them, post them around the car or airplane and move them around. You can also buy stickers to put on the post it notes. 

Above are some newer things I bought for our upcoming trip. He won't know how to fling the chickens, but he will like the rubbery feel. I am thinking once we get to our destination we will have fun flinging them around the condo. 

The little play packs are from the $ section of Target. He loves to pull everything out of the bag. Stickers, crayons, pictures, scribble on the items and shove it all back in. It keeps him busy for a little while. 

George LOVES my wallet. He loves to pull out the cards, hand them to pay for items and shove them back in. I decided to take one of Art's wallets he doesn't use anymore and put in some gift cards, hotel cards and various other cards we had laying around. He has fun pulling them out and putting them back in. One thing I learned was to only put a few cards in the wallet. Keep the rest to the side to replace the ones that he loses. When there are too many cards he gets overwhelmed and isn't interested. 

He is really into books right now. He brings me different books on a daily basis to read. His favorite are books with flaps to open, pop up books and ones that have different textures to feel. I bought him a couple flap books. 

I keep all these toys in a container in his closet, so he can't play with them. I want them to be new exciting toys just for a trip. That way he is excited to play with them. 

I recently discovered Turo a company that can help you make some money while you are on a trip. Did you know at certain airports you can leave your car, park free, earn some money by letting others drive your car while you are gone? Ok this is awesome because I HATE paying to park my car while I am gone. We will be looking into leaving our car in the future when we are gone. Check them out if you are willing to let someone drive your vehicle while you are gone. 

FTC Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. I am writing this post based on my experience with the service and all opinions are my own. I am not being compensated to write this post. 

I was in So Cal for 4 days this week. Sammy was very upset that I was gone. He barely ate and laid around sad. Art said each night he would run in the house looking for me. When he couldn't find me he would walk to bed & stay there all night. Poor little fur baby. Last night he went crazy when he came home and found me on the couch. He was jumping on me and running through the house at full speed lol. The rest of the night he laid on me or beside me all night.  Such a funny dog! 

Wordless Wednesday

Reef Fishing

Art and I went reef fishing while we were in the Bahamas. Reef fishing is for littler fish. We caught a lot of sand fish, which are used as bait. We caught some yellow tail snapper, grunt, and a trigger fish. Art actually out fished me this time around. My reason for not catching fish was because I wasn't letting my line down low enough. Ugh!!!! If I had let my line all the way to the bottom I would have out fished Art. lol

 

Art caught the first yellow tail snapper

 

Hey, I got a BIG one!

 

Isn't that fish just beautiful! The colors were soooo bright. Art didn't keep this fish. The fishing guide said trigger fish are very hard to skin. That fish had some massive teeth. They were as big as Sammy teeth. lol

 

Look I caught one too!

 

Everyone fish!