[Five on Friday] Happy Halloween!

Happy Friday!

I'm so happy it's Friday that I don't have much else to say, so...without further ado...

ONE.

Secret Santa Mommy and Me Book Exchange.

So excited to announce our Secret Santa Mommy and Me Book Exchange! If you didn't see the original post, click here for all the details.

Don't forget to email in your RSVP and book lists by next Wednesday!

TWO.

New blog URL.

One million and one thanks to this girl right here. My bff. Vickie. She helped me with what seemed like it would be impossible. And she made it look SO easy.

Vickie, thank you SO much for helping me change my blog URL.

xoxoxoxo.

Announcing...

THREE.

Verizon Credits.

When I upgraded my phone to the iPhone 6, Seth took my old iPhone 5. We just had his phone lying around the house, planning to do something with it, when he heard a commercial on the radio about turning in your old phone for a $200 bill credit. We figured that surely this could not possibly apply to his old iPhone 4S but we decided to try anyway since the commercial said "any phone". So off to Verizon he went! And lo and behold... we got a $200 bill credit. I looked up my bill the other day and let me tell you, there's nothing more exciting than seeing "You owe -$33.11 by November 7!" I'll take it!

FOUR.

Oreos.

By now you all know that I have developed an addiction to Oreos (I don't think it's specific to Halloween Oreos because I'm sure the addiction will continue on into the Christmas Oreos.) I pretty much have at least one (or two... or three) a night. So the other night I put Mason to bed and asked Seth if he would like some milk with his Oreos (because I fully intended on going downstairs and getting some milk and cookies) when he simply responded "just go downstairs and look". I walked downstairs and walked in on this :

He knows me too well!

Oh, and by the way... we ran out of Oreos the other day (seriously, we go through a pack a week - it's getting bad!) and when Seth went to the store for some OJ for Mason, I told him to get some more Oreos. Like the amazing husband he is, he obliged. But to my dismay, he got mint ones. I was a bit disappointed and actually might have given him a dirty look and rudely said 'thank you' when he brought them home (so sorry Seth!!!!). Then on Wednesday night we tried them...
OH. MY. GOSH.
They taste like THIN MINTS. Yes, GIRL SCOUT THIN MINTS.
Run, don't walk, and go buy yourself some mint Oreos!

FIVE.

Peach Green Tea Lemonade.

I did it! I did it! I replicated my favorite drink at Starbucks!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Hope you all have a fun and safe evening!

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Linking up with these lovely ladies!

Scarf Swap.

You guys. I found the PERFECT swap for me - a scarf swap! I didn't originally follow The Perfect Catch Blog so luckily a couple of my blogger friends let me know about this awesome swap going on (thanks girls!)

I was paired up with April (she doesn't have a blog but you can find her on Instagram @flutterby_33). She is a hard working mama of a little boy (just like me!) who is a couple months older than Mason so we were the perfect match! She lives in Houston and the weather there has been very similar to here - HOT - so I knew just what to get her. We emailed back and forth a couple times and agreed that where we live there is no reason for a scarf but we love them anyway! 

I sent her some ideas of the scarves that I have now and what I like. She mentioned one specific scarf that she liked of mine (which also happens to be one of my FAVORITES) and I knew just what to send her!

April's scarf!

She received it the other day and said she loved it and knew just what to pair it with.

I'm so happy she loved it as much as I do!

The scarf that April sent me arrived the other day. As soon as I opened the box - even just a tad - I knew I was going to LOVE it.

And I was so right!

I only wish I had gotten it the day before because it would have gone perfectly with the outfit I was wearing that day.

It's the perfect shade of pink with the perfect pops of blue and purple.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

Thank you April!

[Christmas Fun] Secret Santa Mommy and Me Book Exchange

I know, I know. Please don't kill me with the title of this post. I am fully aware that it is not even Halloween yet buuuuuuut I just can't wait to share this any longer!

I'm so excited to introduce a fun gift exchange that I am co-hosting this holiday season with Courtney at Sweet Turtle Soup and Jenny at The Chronicles of We.

A Secret Santa Mommy and Me Book Exchange where both mom and toddler get a fun gift!

Sounds fun, right?! If you're interested, please "RSVP" (so to speak) to the Secret Santa email listed :

secretsanta.mommyandme@gmail.com 

Please note : participation in the book exchange is only guaranteed if you email the specific email. Please feel free to comment below if you are interested (and to share your excitement about the exchange!) but please please please also make sure that you email in. The latest date to RSVP is next Wednesday, November 5th. When you email, please make sure to RSVP and say you would like to participate as well as include your full name, mailing address, blog URL, and a list of 10 books for you and 10 books for your child. The books can be any books you like - they don't have to be holiday themed but they definitely can be if you want.

Partners will be chosen around November 7th and emailed out to the proper people. 

November 21st would be the last day to mail the books to your Secret Santa and then link up with us with a blog post on December 9th sharing the fun books that you received.

We know the holidays get crazy after Halloween so we wanted to give you all as much time to shop and ship before the post office and/or UPS and FedEx get crazy!

We hope you will participate with us and join in on the fun!

[Fall Bucket List] Football Sunday

This weekend was the perfect combination of busy and lazy.

(which equals the perfect weekend in my book!)

Saturday was our niece Kayla's birthday party. We had the absolute best time eating lots junk food, decorating pumpkins, and discovering our new found love of bounce houses.

Once Mason discovered that there were Doritos and that there was a candy table with chocolate covered Oreos, it was all over. Seth and I spent the rest of the party trying to keep him from consuming his weight in Doritos. Once we were done eating lunch aka chips, we ventured outside to the bounce house. It took a little while for him to warm up to the idea of it (he spent a lot of time going in and out and in out), but once he got in, we couldn't get him out!

It was finally time to sing 'happy birthday' to Kayla so we convinced Mason to get out of the bounce house with the promise of cake. We went outside, ate our cake, and then went to decorate pumpkins. I think I was more excited than Mason as I had images of the beautiful pumpkins that I posted about on Friday in my head. Needless to say... the painting did not turn out as I envisioned. Mason hated it after 2.7 seconds and my painting was less than professional. But hey, at least our pumpkin looks cute on the table with the rest of the bunch.

Sunday was set for swim lessons and football.

And then Mason woke up with a cold.

We cancelled swim lessons, but still spent the day laying low and watching football. The Steelers are Seth's team and they had the TV slot for the 1pm game so we were happy campers. We put on our Steelers attire and were ready to cheer them on!

I still haven't found Mason a Steelers shirt so he just wore Steelers colors.

And then we attempted a family selfie and Mason wanted NONE of it.

We spent the afternoon hanging out with our friend Vickie, eating in n out for lunch, and cheering on the Steelers (who won! WOOHOO!)

And almost the icing on the cake...

I alllllllmost won the football pool that Seth's work has.

I was thisclose.

Darn Green Bay!

Made me lose by one stinkin point.

This (above) is week 6's picks. It's from a couple weeks ago, but needs proper documentation because...

I WON!

Sorry for the bragging but... I beat 6 guys who know wayyyyyyy more about football than I do.

Back story : Seth used to be the only one of the two of us who participated in his work's (non-money/non-betting) football pool (basically because I could care less about football - sorry football fans!). The guys pick who they think will win each game and assign points to the games based on how confident they are that that team will win (16 games = point ranges from 1 to 16, 15 games = point ranges from 1 to 15, etc.). Whoever has the most points at the end of the week gets to have the trophy (some random trophy they have at work - probably someone's old soccer/baseball trophy?) on their desk for a week.

Then we got married and were going on our honeymoon for two weeks and Seth would miss two weeks worth of football pools. So, what did any amazing new husband do? Let his new wife pick for him. So what did I do? I WON us one of the week's we were away! And thus began the 'Liz column' on the sheet. It's been almost four years and I've never looked back! Often, I don't do well. But sometimes, like this week, I beat the boys!

Sadly, me winning doesn't really get me anything (but bragging rights) and Seth gets to have the trophy on his desk for a week. And that's good enough for me!

***

Now, tell me!

What Fall fun have you been up to?

Pick an item, celebrate Fall, and link up with us!
I would love to see how you and your family are spending Fall.

 Desiree at Macke Monologues | Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me | Elizabeth at Chasin' Mason

[BOY MOMS] Sydney from Raisin Southern Grace

Happy Monday all! Before I get to today's #BOYMOMS post, I wanted to make a quick note. I finally (after many months of talking about it!) changed my blog URL (with the help of my AMAZING friend Vickie!). 

birenbunoutoftheoven.blogspot.com will forward and I think bloglovin updated (thank you for checking Courtney!), but if you have the blog bookmarked or anything, please make sure to change the bookmark to my new URL :

www.chasinmasonblog.com

Thanks!

************

Hi Friends!  I’m Sydney and I blog over at Raisin Southern Grace.  There I talk about some of my favorite recipes, building a house, how I struggled with infertility, and the new addition of our son, Griffin.  Since my husband and I had to deal with infertility, we didn’t have a conversation regarding if we wanted a boy or a girl.  We just wanted a baby.  We wanted to be parents.

After going through infertility treatments for a little over a year (we miscarried in May 2013), we found out we were expecting on our second wedding anniversary, August 27, 2013.  To say we were thrilled is an understatement.

We were able to find out the sex at our 16 week ultrasound.  Once the ultrasound tech showed us “the money shot”, I knew right away and I asked if I could be the one to tell me husband.  Finding out that we would be parents to a boy was overwhelming. 

Even though we would be happy with having a boy or a girl, we LOVE having a boy. 

And who says boys aren’t fun to dress.  I am having the best time dressing my little guy like “a little old man.”  People say that boys are Mama’s boys and Griff (who we call, The Boy) fits that to a T!  He is the best snuggle bug and always likes to nestle into my neck.  My boy can make this #boymom’s heart just melt. 

Since Griffin is only 6 months old, we are really looking forward to the stages ahead.  I’m looking forward to trips to the park, making mud pies (bring on the dirt), and kicking the soccer ball around. Dada may prefer to toss a basket and go hunting with the boy though. 

I believe the world needs more good men and it all starts now.  I look forward to teaching Griffin to be a man, be a good husband, and raise good children.  I’ll be teaching him to hold doors for women, to be polite, to put the toilet seat down (your welcome future wife), and to French braid (for your future daughter).

One word to describe being a boy mom is Fun!  We laugh play constantly, we laugh constantly, and we love hard.  I feel like all my children will be boys and that they all will eat me out of house and home.  And I’m okay with that. 

Moccs

Feel free to follow along with me more on Raising Southern Grace for updates on my little guy and some of our favorite things each month.

What a fun series Elizabeth.  Thanks so much for including me in on the #boymom movement.  

*************

If you would like to share a post about you and your son, email me at chasinmasonblog@gmail.com .

I would love to feature you! You don't have to have a blog to participate!



Bare with me...

... things are a changing! Please bear with me for the next couple hours as I transition my blog URL...

Thank you!
Elizabeth

[Five on Friday] Halloween Snaps

Last month, Erinn did a post on saved snaps. Seriously, her post spoke right too me. I do the EXACT SAME THING. With Instagram, you can't just save the image like you can on Pinterest or Facebook so I take a screen shot to save the picture for reference later. A collage of my saved snaps would definitely be a post for a different day (or this post should be call thirty five (or more!) on friday), so today I am going to focus on five of my favorite Halloween captures.

ONE.

IN LOVE with these pumpkins! Love love love the colored pumpkins with the gold glittery stems!

source @ohgoodiedesigns

TWO.

How creative and easy are these donuts? Festive and simple are right up my alley!

source @whimsyandwise

THREE.

How fun are this prints to hang on your wall or decorate a mantel or display on a party table for Halloween?

source @caravanshoppe

FOUR.

Jessica (Little Baby Garvin) is always so festive! How awesome is this mantel?

source @jlgarvin

FIVE.

How fun for an adult Halloween party??

source @mypaperpinwheel

And just one more... I saw this on Facebook and thought it was ADORABLE.

Seriously, look at that picture on the left.

How stinkin' cute is this little girl?!?!

source unknown (Facebook)

And for fun ... how cute is this for Thanksgiving??

source @weheartparties

Happy Friday!

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Linking up with these lovely ladies!