Hippity Hoppity, Easter's on its Way

I absolutely love Easter, second to Christmas, it's my favorite holiday. The true celebration is of course, the most important, the rising of our Lord Jesus. What better a gift can we celebrate than that?!

1 // I've already ordered Cadence's Easter basket for this year. I would share a picture of it but it's not yet arrived yet. It's Lilly Pulitzer inspired and I purchased from a "blanks" page on FB. Essentially you can purchase un-monogrammed items from them, but there is a clear spot on the product where a monogram would go. It's for businesses or individuals who have their own monogramming machine. I cannot wait to receive her basked so I can monogram it. Pics to come! (Is it terrible I thought of ordering one for myself? #allthingsLilly)

2 // I have a Type A personality. What can I say. I plan out vacations, I'm organized and I'm not a procrastinator. This has pros and cons, but a pro is that I have already purchased some Easter goodies and thought I'd share the cuteness, just in case you have a little princess too. Cadence is smitten with cats. She always has been and I feel this isn't just a fad, but something she'll always cherish. How cute are these Easter basket items I purchased? All the links are provided on where you can purchase these adorable items.

Cat Ear Necklace

LED Kitty Nightlight

Pusheen Coloring Book

3 // Trust me, this video is worth watching. It will give you chills.

4 // Do you have any resolutions for 2018? I started on my list yesterday. I like to make a list in my monthly planner, this way I can look back at the end of the year and see how many of my resolutions I completed.  Some are things I've done before, some are things I've never done and some are things that I feel are necessary to do. 

5 // I enjoy baking. When I'm frustrated or bored I bake. It's just something I like to do. Others go on jogs, shopping, snacking or pouting, and while I am guilty of all those other things, I tend to gravitate toward baking. Yesterday was just one of those days. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and every little thing aggravated me, so I baked. These lemon bars turned out delicious!

Powdered sugar on top makes all the difference!

Happy Friday!

Do you Cricut?

Back in the early fall I jumped on the Cricut bandwagon. For the past 10 years I have always paid someone to monogram items for me and honestly, I probably could have bought a Cricut three times over for what I paid these people throughout the years. 

With our upcoming trip to Disney I knew I wanted some shirts made for our family of three, once I did some research online and realized the cost of a monogrammed shirt I knew I needed to learn more about how to make these items myself. 

I did a little research and didn't look back. When I ordered my Cricut, before it even arrived, I watched multiple YouTube tutorials. I'm talking hours and hours at a time. It's a lot to take in but I knew I had a lot to learn, I still do!

I am so happy with the items that I have made for ourselves and our home. I have had so much fun making things for family and friends for birthdays and Christmas. 

Here are some items I've made:

I've done several other things over the months. My Cricut has become such a useful tool that I use all the time. The learning curve wasn't too hard, and I stated before, I'm still learning new things all the time. YouTube and FB groups have been great resources. 

A lot of people make businesses by using their Cricut, that is not my intent, it's just great to be able to monogram something on hand without paying someone to do so. 

So, do you Cricut?

Disney Dining | Vacation 2018

We have been to Disney as a family on three separate occasions. The first time was just a weekend trip. Cadence was 4 and we wanted to see how and if she liked it enough to book a week long trip. We enjoyed our time but waiting until she was a couple years older was the right decision for us.

Her first week long trip was a couple years later when she was 6 and it was amazing. It was mine and Tarls first week long trip to Disney as well. In years past we have always only ever went for a weekend stay. This was also our first time booking every single thing through Disney, including the dining plan, photo package, hotel and park tickets. I've always booked the hotel separately, paid for tickets upon arrival and we always would grab a quick snack in the park and eat dinner somewhere in Orlando that evening. Booking through Disney made everything SO much better. It was unforgettable!

Fast forward to another two years later when we went in 2016. We had enjoyed our trip prior so much that we booked very similar things. We had stayed at another Disney resort, but we had booked a lot of the same meals because we had enjoyed them so much the first time. As delicious as they were the second time around we knew that when we eventually went back we wanted to try all new things (well, mostly all new, there are some restaurants that are must-dos every time!).

When we book our Disney trips we each say two places we would like to try and I book them. This time, when we sat down, I said let's try and come up with new places we'd like to try, so that's just what we did, with the exception of three. Three places are simply must-eats for us. They are so delicious and their ambiance is so gorgeous we just have to see it when we go. I have said this several times before, but to us, the dining plan is so worth it!

You can read about some of our past dining experiences, as well as some helpful tips, here.

Our first dinner takes place at Animal Kingdom Lodge. AKL is well known for their artisanal dinners that are unique specifically to as if you were in Africa. I'm not going to lie, the thought of eating a traditional African meal scares me. I'm a southerner at heart. Give me all the fried chicken and mashed potatoes I can handle and I'll be good to go but review after review had shed light that Sanaa, a restaurant located in Animal Kingdom Lodge, was an incredible meal. After lots of review reading and scamming through pictures we decided to jump out of our comfort zone and try it as the start of our vacation.

Our second day in Disney provides us with lots of delicious familiarities starting with breakfast at Be Our Guest, located in Beast and Belles castle in Magic Kingdom. We've been fortunate enough to snag all three meals here before. Our most favorite taste wise is dinner, although breakfast is a close second. The reason we chose this for breakfast over dinner is to be able to enter Magic Kingdom before everyone else since we have an early reservation. Castle pics anyone?!

Dinner on our second day is held at mine and Tarls most favorite restaurant on all of Disney property, Ohana's, located in Disney's Polynesian resort, a quick monorail ride away from Magic Kingdom. Unlimited noodles, chicken wings, grilled steak, shrimp, chicken and caramel glazed bread pudding, all the while you have a spectacular view of Cinderella's castle. A must eat every single trip.

Day three is all new for us, starting with our Bon Voyage breakfast. This is a new character dining experience Disney just began last year. We've done all of the Disney character meals so it was exciting to hear they had a new one to offer. We will get the opportunity to meet Flynn Rider and Rapunzel along with Prince Eric and Ariel. The Bon Voyage breakfast is located at Trattoria Al Forno which is off Disney's Boardwalk. All of our trips to Disney and all of our resort hopping to see all the different architecture, we have yet to see the boardwalk, so we are all excited about this character breakfast.

Dinner on day three takes us to 50s Prime Time Cafe which is located in Hollywood Studios. Imagine walking in an old diner back in the 50s, that's what 50s Prime Time Cafe is all about. This was a must for Cadence because they offer gluten free fried chicken. How amazing is that?! Plus for dessert, ice cream, ice cream and more ice cream! Yum!

We also have reservations at two other places that we've done previously, Garden Grill and Kona Cafe. Kona Cafe is a favorite of Tarl and Cadence. It's located close to Ohanas, in the Polynesian resort. They offer magnificent breakfast items including huge pancakes, thick waffles, but they are most famously known for their Tonga Toast, banana stuffed french toast. Garden Grill is a spinning restaurant you can find in Epcot. It slowly spins and gives you a 360 degree view of Epcots, Living with the Land attraction, while also getting to interact with Mickey, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale. We had so much fun here on our last trip and the Thanksgiving inspired feast was an unforgettable one so we decided to book this again.

Our final four reservations are at Tony's Town Square in Magic Kingdom. Italian is my most favorite food and I've wanted to try Tony's for years. The ambiance takes you into the movie, The Lady and the Tramp. We've heard rave reviews for Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge. They are well known for their huge platters of BBQ with all the fixins', so we decided to give it a try. Living on the coast our entire life, seafood is a way of life. We knew we wanted to try Disney's seafood buffet, Cape May Cafe, located at our most favorite resort, The Beach Club. All you can eat crab legs, shrimp, and other shellfish…I mean, it doesn't get much better than that. Plus dessert at Beaches 'n Cream next door. How bad can that be? We also have reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern in Magic Kingdom. This is another one of those restaurants I probably would have never booked but reviews had recommended this one so much we decided to give this one a try as well.

We are slowly counting down the days around here. Have you ever been to any of these restaurants, if so, which was your favorite? Likes? Dislikes?

Take a look back at some delicious looking photos from our last trip to Disney.

Breakfast of Caramel Banana Donut with Whipped Cream at Be Our Guest

Our favorite snack credit. Beignets at Port Orleans French Quarter, and yes, they have gluten free options!

Surf and Turf at Cinderella's Royal Table. This is stacked onto a serving of mashed potatoes and this meal is so amazing! We decided to skip CRT this time around because it takes up two dining credits and we really wanted to use those to try some new places. 

Swedish Meatballs with a cranberry relish at Akershus Royal Dining Hall located in Epcot. Akershus is a favorite of mine for breakfast, in fact, I've contemplated booking a breakfast here for our upcoming trip (still undecided if I will or won't). This is served at dinner. We weren't huge fans of dinner because it is true authentic Norwegian food. That cranberry relish was so tangy and delicious though!

Second to the beignets, this is our favorite dessert. Soft, moist, pound cake topped with a berry reduction and homemade whipped cream. This is found at Garden Grill and one of the main reasons we chose to eat here again. And again, if you are gluten intolerant or have celiac, they offer this dessert gluten free as well.

The famous Tonga Toast found at Kona Cafe. Honestly, I hyped it up more in my head and I think that's why it was a let down. The cinnamon sugar crusted exterior was delicious, but it wasn't filled with banana enough for my liking. Too "bready". I would recommend trying it at least once however.

Cheesecake!

Plethora of desserts found at a majority of Disney buffets.

Dessert trio at Cinderella's Royal Table. 

Lemon stuffed cream puff at Be Our Guest.

Whipped Cream and berry stuffed cream puff located at Kringla bakery in Epcot's world showcase.

Fresh creamy gelato fresh from Paris, well Epcot's Paris!

Off to a great start | Plans for 2018

Snow in the lowcountry is a rare occurrence, and when it does indeed happen it's a light dusting that melts within an hour or two. It most certainly is never something that we can play in or really get our hands cold in.

When all our local weather stations predicted 5 inches of snow for us not many people believed them, I was one of those non-believers. I am so very happy to say that I was WRONG! We received a good 5 inches of snow, so much so that it is still on the ground today. Sure, it's not as thick or fluffy as day one, but it's still lingering, and y'all, it's beautiful! I sure wish we could get this at least once per year.

We have had so much fun making snowmen and snow angels, having snow ball fights, making snow ice cream (which was awful BTW), and eating tons and tons of fresh, white, fluffy snow. If you're new here I love photography and capturing moments. I was fortunate enough to get a lot of memories captured on camera.

It truly was such a fantastic way to bring in 2018!

Every two years we try and go on a long family vacation. As much as we'd love to do this annually, financially that's just not in the cards right now. So on the odd years we do a couple weekend trips here and there and on the even years we do our big one. Something Tarl and I always try and do once a year is a trip for just us two. It's great to have one on one time together with just him and I. 

Our last big trip was to Disney in 2016 and it was wonderful, you can read all about that trip here (I've also provided a link to my Disney Tips post which I find really helpful for families who are planning their first Disney trip):

Disney Tips

Disney Vacation 2016 Recap - Days 1 and 2

Disney Vacation 2016 Recap - Days 3 and 4

Disney Vacation 2016 Recap - Day 5

Disney Vacation 2016 Recap - Days 6 and 7

Disney Vacation 2016 Recap - Our Final Day

We start planning our big trip the year before, so back in 2017 we threw out three ideas, a week long trip to visit the Northeast states, Washington, or Disney again. As much as we loved the thought of visiting our nations capital, it was definitely not at the top of our list between the three. What ultimately decided us going back to Disney was a weekend trip back in 2017 to Orlando while visiting family. We had brunch at a Disney resort and rode the monorail for kicks before driving back home. Seeing the castle grace the end of Main Street USA but not being able to actually go inside of Magic Kingdom was torture, so we knew right then and there it was Disney again, so we booked for April 2018. What seemed like such a long time back in March 2017 is now quickly approaching us now that we're in January 2018. We are now in the double digits of our trip and all three of us are impatiently waiting on April to get here. 

The weekend trip that Tarl and I want to take later on this year is NYC. There's just nothing like walking those city streets. New York City is my most favorite place in all of the US, to be honest, it even beats Disney for me, but Cadence isn't quite old enough in my opinion to walk the streets of Manhattan, so we'll save a trip to NYC for her later in the future. In the meantime however, if you've ever taken your children to NYC please give me ideas. I've been three times but never with my child.  Tarl and I are discussing mid-October of this year. I've been before in the Fall and it's beautiful seeing the city graced in oranges, reds and yellows. Central Park is stunning in Autumn. This is not an officially booked trip, but as soon as those flights for October open up, I plan on booking!

I plan on sharing all of our plans and dining reservations for Disney in an upcoming post, so stay tuned! Are there any fun places you have planned for this year? Do tell!

New year. Same ole me. Same ole blog?

Are any of you still out there? I get it's been almost a year since my last post. Truth is, after everything that happened last year, family became #1. Family is always #1, but I didn't care about anything else, most certainly writing here, but if I'm being honest, I knew I'd come back. I love writing here and sharing my thoughts, ideas, and life in the lowcountry, so I put my blog on private and have read my favorite blogs every morning waiting for the right time to come back and start a blog post of my own. Here I am.

We have LOTS to catch up on so let's get started, shall we?

My last post was January of last year, how crazy is that? Needless to say we have a year to catch up on. On the other other hand though, the time rushed by and here we are, in a completely new year. Last year we started Cadence on her insulin pump which has been so beneficial in assisting her type 1 diabetes management. Her numbers have been so fantastic, that along with the dexcom, we have gotten her A1C down to 5.8, that's an A1C that a non-diabetic would have.

If you've been a reader for some time, than you know our love for Disney. If you're just now joining in on reading then be warned, we love us some Disney. This past year we just couldn't swing it. Financially we try to go every two years and with just having gone in 2016, it just wasn't going to happen. However, we went and visited with family in Orlando back in March so we made sure to make a reservation at a Disney restaurant, The Grand Floridian Cafe, for brunch, and then after we rode the monorail. It was awful! The food was delicious, but riding the monorail and seeing the castle so close but not being able to enter the parks was torture. On the ride home we booked for Disney 2018. What seemed like SO long at the time is now quickly upon us! We leave for 9 nights/8 days this coming April. To say we are excited is an understatement!

Along with Type 1 Diabetes, Cadence also got diagnosed with celiac disease. Disney is the best with food allergies. Gluten free Mickey waffles for the win!

Riding the monorail while simultaneously booking our 2018 trip!

If you really look close, you can see me tearing up being so close to Magic Kingdom and knowing good and well we couldn't go in! Hah!

This picture was taken in Mount Dora, Florida. We spent two wonderful days with my Aunt Nancy, Uncle Eddie and Aunt Jan. 

April was a fun one. Naturally, we all still miss my mom so very much, but of course, my dad has taken it the hardest. We try to spend as much time together as we can, and last April we spent some time at the strawberry patch. It was such a great day!

Most importantly in April, we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We also took lots and lots of pictures.

We kept busy throughout the summer. Lots of trips to the beach and the riverside. We took several trips to the library and read our way through the extreme heat we have here in SC. We visited a museum in Columbia, along with our state capitol building. We went to the zoo. Cadence attended her first summer camp for four days. She enjoyed it thoroughly and had an amazing time. She said her most favorite thing was horseback riding.

Once the start of fall began in September, it started off not so great, Hurricane Irma! Tarl has a job that does not allow him to leave when a hurricane approaches, so Cadence and I were off to a girls trip, just the two of us, all the way to Gatlinburg, TN. It was the only place we could find with availability. I was a nervous wreck. I had never been that far without my husband, especially by myself. What I found on our journey, was that it wasn't as bad as I thought, in fact, there were moments that were amazing, like Cadence and I enjoying the beautiful mountains in Cades Cove.

We spent four days in chilly weather, mountain views, shopping and missing daddy. It was fun but we were beyond ready to get home. As soon as Tarl called and said it was safe to travel back, we did that same day. Our cabin was rented through Thursday morning, but he called on Tuesday morning and we left that day! 

Although it had a rocky beginning, September sure did have a beautiful end. My brother finally proposed to the girl of all our dreams! She has been such a blessing to our family, and when he finally proposed we were all ecstatic. There wedding was like something out of Southern Living magazine. Tarl, Cadence and I were all blessed enough to be a part of it.

October brought along with it my most favorite season, Fall. We did your basic fall (but necessary) things. Pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, you name it, we did it. I adore fall.

November and December were spent celebrating the holidays the best way we know how, baking and family. I love Thanksgiving and Christmas and they always go by so quickly so I cherish every moment and memory that I can. We also celebrate our sweet girls birthday in December. Cannot believe she is another year older! Where has the time gone?! Cadence got chosen to be the lead in her ballet companies recital, The Nutcracker. She was awesome!

2017 was a crazy year. There were most definitely bad parts, but I always try to be optimistic and the good far outweighed the bad. I'm ready to see what 2018 has to offer for my family and I pray the Good Lord has wonderful plans for me and for you!

I'll share what we have planned for 2018 next time...