Five on Friday (7)

I've had different variations of this post in the works for a while now, but finally I'm actually here writing it down. Which means I'm excited to say I'm linking up with Five on Friday!
1. The boy and I recently purchased a new set of dishes from Sur la Table. Our old ones were random and mismatched so we figured it was finally time to act like grown-ups and upgrade. We actually couldn't decide on one design, so we bought two different sets. Since both of them are all white they do still go together. The photo above shows the square ones, with the boy's coq au vin, and the one below the more circular ones, with some of the boy's pad thai.
2. Earlier this week it was announced that Garth Brooks will be having a concert in New Orleans in July. I was hopping this would happen, and am so, so excited about the news. The first concert I ever saw was Garth, back in 1996 or so, and am so excited to see him again. Tickets go on sale in a week, so hopefully I'm able to score some good seats!
3. The boy and I recently discovered a new Italian restaurant right by our house, Randazzo's. It's a tiny, family owned restaurant where the chef is from Italy and is so, so good. The first time there I had the lasagna, and while good, the marinara overpowered the homemade pasta a bit. However, on the second visit I had their vegetable pasta with pesto, which was amazing. Honestly, the pesto is likely the reason we'll be going back again and again.
4. The past two year's I've been ending every month with a recap post, except I never got one up for April. Honestly though, with everything I'm trying to balance it's hard for me to manage to post anything, let alone a timely post like a recap. Plus with my daily photos and Elley's monthly updates, I'm still basically recapping daily happenings. What I'm trying to say is that for now, I don't plan on posting monthly recaps. But who knows when or if it will return.
5. One item I will miss from my monthly recaps are my flashbacks where I highlight a post from year's past. But there's no reason why I can't still do that in other posts, like a Five on Friday post! With that said, 3 years ago, in May 2012, I posted about my bridal shower out in California.

If you're stopping by from Five on Friday be sure to say hi! Also let me know your view on monthly recap posts.

Five on Friday (6)

I'm back linking up with Five on Friday to share a few recent happenings!

1. This weekend the boy and I are planning our first real date night since becoming parents. Or really date afternoon, since I'm not quite ready to leave Elley overnight yet. But my in-laws are planning on watching her tomorrow afternoon while we go see The Avengers, the first movie we'll see together since November or so. Definitely a change from a year ago when we went to the movies together almost every weekend.
2. Speaking of Elley, we decided to start her on real food this past week. She seemed kind of indifferent to the whole thing. I really think her favorite part was chewing on the spoon, but overall it seemed successful. We did start her a little early, especially since the boy so was excited to start making food for her. For her first meal, we went with green beans, but this does open up quite the world of possibilities.
3. Elley has a number of outfits that my mom made for me when I was a baby like these purple overalls. Even more fun, my dad sent me a picture of me as a baby wearing the same thing. In the picture below I'm on the left, while the one on the right is my daughter, 30 years later.
4. We had some crazy bad weather earlier this week, with not only thunderstorms but some tornadoes. It was so bad that we all took shelter at work. Thankfully I'm not aware on anyone who was really injured. But we did have a tree fall on our front fence and a tree fell on the driveway at our daycare. Definitely a scary experience, but one that could have been a lot worse.
5. On a brighter note, the Re-Read Challenge at at So Obsessed With has been inspiring me to re-read more often lately. I've slowly been posting my reviews of the Little House books which I last read in college. But also, I recently reread Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. I'm not posting a full review of it since I posted one when I read it a little over a year ago. I do think I enjoyed it more this time. I think because the information wasn't as new I was able to absorb it a little more and pick up things I missed the first time through. I know I rated it a 4.5/5 before, but now I'd probably go with a 5/5.

Five on Friday (5)

It's my first Five on Friday of the new year!

So far, we have had a fairly low key new year. We spent New Year's Eve at home and New Year's Day at my in-laws' eating lunch and watching football. As for a few other random updates...
1. My Erin Condren planner arrived! 2014 was my first year with one, my first year with a written planner since college even, and it was a success. It definitely helped that I had all type of pregnancy related appointments to keep track up, but I used it for a number of other things as well, like writing down shopping lists and scheduling blog posts. After one year with one, I knew 2015 wouldn't quite be the same without a brand new one to carry around with me, and I can't wait to start getting use out of it.

2. I'm always reading new books, but something I don't do very often since getting into book blogging is reread favorite books. I did reread The Mennyms last year and had a blast, which is why I'm so excited to participate in the 2015 Reread Challenge. I know my overall reading will likely be down in 2015 with our daughter taking up quite a bit of time, but even if it's limited I still want to make a point to reread more in 2015.
3. Three-weeks-old isn't too young for an American Girl doll, is it? Because I'm obsessed with the 2015 doll of the year and think my daughter needs her. I mean she's a baker that's a francophile (and yes, I do realize it's a little odd for a French themed American girl). But still her accessories include macaroons and a slice of brie! Plus there's a French bistro set! And she's only here for one year, so would it really be that awful to buy her for my daughter now, since she won't be available once she's older?!?!?!

4. About two weeks ago we had newborn photos taken. We don't have the photos back yet, but our photographer, who blogs at Little Mrs. Married posted a behind the scenes sneak peak. If I already wasn't excited about them, that photo only increases the anticipation, and I can't wait to see how they all turn out.
5. Speaking of bloggers and babies, I was gratful to receive this gift from Lisa and Amber two of my longest blogging friends. There's definitely something to be said for the blogging community and the friendships that you're able to form with people across the world. I really wasn't expecting to receive anything like this, but I can't even express how excited I was to see it arrive in the mail.

If you're stopping by from Five on Friday be sure to say hello! And just for fun, how old were you when you received your first American Girl doll? As for me, I received Felicity for Hanukkah in second grade which would have made me seven-years-old.

Five on Friday (4)

I feel like my blogging has been kind of spotty lately. Yes, I'm still getting posts up, but they're pretty much all reviews or pregnancy updates. I kind of miss some of the more random life updates I used to post. But I figured that this would be a great excuse to link-up with The Good Life to share a few recent happenings.

1. A few weekends ago I had a much needed haircut. I didn't really do anything too extreme, really just cut off a lot of the dead ends, but still, there's nothing like a haircut that gives you an excuse to take selfies.
2. Although really the main reason I had my haircut was because I wanted it to look nice for my maternity photos. I haven't seen them all yet but my photographer, Melissa V Photography, who blogs at Little Mrs. Married, did post a sneak peak and so far I'm in love!
3. Speaking of the baby, the past few weeks I've gone through my old children's books sorting the ones I want to keep or giveaway. (Most of which have wound up as keep.) I'm in the process of tracking them all on goodreads , and while they aren't all listed yet I'm already close to 100. Not too shabby of a library for a baby that isn't born yet. Although considering how much I read, you can't be that surprised.
4.. This past weekend was my nephew's 5th birthday party. It's crazy to think that when I started this blog he wasn't alive yet, and how he's 5. Crazy how quickly time passes. I'm sure I'm going to blink and before you know it we'll have a 5-year-old of our own.
5. While it's been a while since I've mentioned my 101 in 1001 list I have been making progress. I can officially say I've completed 99) Have no dessert/sweets for 7 days, although not necessarily by choice. With my gestational diabetes I've basically cut out all desserts from my diet. Kind of depressing, especially when everyone one expects you to be eating ice cream all the time, but at least I've found a tiny silver lining to it.

What are some of the random happening in your life lately? And if you're here from 5 on Friday, be sure to say hello!

Five on Friday (3)

I feel like I haven't been that great about blogging lately and a lot of little things seemed to slip through the cracks. So I decided to link up with Five on Friday to start to catch back up!

1. The boy and I made it back to Another Broken Egg cafe, which I think has become our favorite brunch location. Once again we split an order of their biscuit beignets, then I had pancakes with blackberries with a side of sausage and a scrambled egg.
2. Baton Rouge officially has a Costco and the boy and I celebrated with our first Costco run. Now while there's not a lot of thing we need in bulk with just the two of us we still had no problem spending a couple hundred there!
3. I made my mom's potato pie, which was number 60 on my 101 in 1001. Of course by I made, I mean the boy made and I supervised, but that's practically the same thing, right? (And for those curious the recipe came from Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells.)
4. Speaking of my 101 in 1001 list I also joined a synagogue which is number 85 on the list. Of course my time's more than halfway finished, and I'm nowhere near halfway completed, but I'm hoping to have a post up soon with more details on that.
5. Last fall I was obsessed with Alex & Sierra on X-Factor and was so excited to see they released their new single. This isn't the official video, but instead the lyric video. Although I do think the puppets are adorable and don't think they need anything else. Plus the song is incredibly catchy and I can't stop singing it!

What are 5 things that you want to catch me up on in your life currently?

Five on Friday (2)

I'm once again joining in with the fun and linking up with Five on Friday!

1. I finally went out and bought the newest Nashville soundtrack. I own every Nashville album so far, and as much as I love the show, I think I love the music even more. And yes, I am still one of those people that goes out and buy cds. There's just something about have a physical copy and being able to look through the album booklet that I can't quite quit.
2. After I finished my Project 365 last year, I was so excited to kick off the new year and not worry about it. Except I miss it. I find that I rarely think to take photos anymore now that I don't make myself. And while I don't miss the stress, I still plan on taking it on again in 2015!
3. The boy and I stopped at Trader Joes last weekend, and since I couldn't find my normal chocolate covered fruits, I picked up these chocolate covered ginger pieces instead. I will admit that I'm a bit ginger obsessed, I always go through both mine and the boy's ginger when we have sushi, so it isn't too much of a surprise how much I love these. They do have a very strong ginger flavor which I know everyone isn't a huge fan of, but they're perfect for me.
4. I'm excited and a little shocked to share that someone nominated me in My So-Called Chaos' Best of Blog Awards! I'm currently up for The Bookish Babe (for Best Book Blog) and Courageous Commenter (for favorite comment-leaver). If you do enjoy reading my book reviews and love reading my comments, I would be ever so appreciative if you took the time to vote for me.

5. Also in exciting news for you, I'm currently hosting two book giveaways. Today is the last day to win a copy of At the River's Edge and you have till Tuesday to enter to win Marie Antoinette's Head!

Do you ever buy physical cds still, or have you completely switched over to digital music?

Five on Friday (1)

For the first time in ever, I decided to join in the fun and link-up at The Good Life for Five on Friday!

1. After all the cold weather and ice, things are starting to get back to normal. But just for fun, here's one more photo from our yard from Wednesday afternoon.
3.I kept hearing over and over how much I would love Downton Abbey, and finally gave in to temptation. I borrowed the first season from a friend and while I'm only 4 episodes in, I am loving it just as much as I hoped.



3. With all the crazy cold weather we've been having I thought it was finally time to try the pin above. While my version my not have been as pretty, and the ice cream melted pretty quickly, it was still amazingly delicious.
4. For years I've been driving by Mitterndorf's on the way from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, and I finally had the chance to stop in and try it. I had their soft shell crab platter, and it was exactly what I was expecting (in a good way). It is a bit out of the way to stop by normally, but I'd be more than happy to stop there again on the way back from New Orleans.
5. I've spent years of refusing to upgrade my phone, but I finally did it and am now the owner of an iPhone 5C. Of course that means I lost my unlimited data plan, but so far that hasn't been an issue. I've been avoiding downloading apps so far, except for Twitter and Instagram which are basically required, but if you have any suggestions for apps I should look into please let me know!