Vacation Brain

Oh you guys.  I am so on vacation brain right now.  And let me tell you, I just need this break coming up so much!  Work was a challenge this week, my teething toddler son made mealtimes a bit of a challenge this week, I am just so spent.  I'm really looking forward to getting to Itasca and just unwinding and getting tons of one on one time with my two favorite men (even if I did just complain about one of them!)
I have a few posts scheduled for while I'm gone, so you will probably hardly notice my not being here, though other than that I plan to kind of go bare minimum on social media for the next week. I will likely Instagram/Facebook some pictures of our adventures a bit because that's what I do, but I'm trying to really embrace the "getting away from it all" kind of idea, so I'm hoping to give online stuff a little break, though I'm sure I'll be itchy to catch up with everyone after a few days!
Now here's hoping this work day doesn't drag and that the adventure of packing for a week in a cabin goes as smoothly as it can over the weekend.  Coffee will be fueling these things quite a bit I think!
I'll miss you all and wish you could all come with me!!  See you soon!

Friday Favorites - Ollie Edition

Hi people!  It's Ollie taking over my mama's blog again today! I'm getting to be such a big boy and I asked nice with one of my new words "please" (though I say it "peas") and mama can't resist me because I'm so cute, so here I am!  I'm going to share my five favorite things right now.  But they're not going to be my favorites for much longer because I change my mind all the time.  #toddlerlife

Garages - I love garages!  My grandpa's garage is my favorite.  It's big and open and he lets me run around in it.  He has all these cool tools and he gave me my own piece of wood.  My daddy's garage is pretty cool too but it's messier than grandpa's, so for some reason that means I can't play in there. The first thing I notice when we go to anyone's house is their garage! I just loving saying the word garage over and over again, though I pronounce it "ahge".  G's are kind of hard, I haven't gotten those down yet.  

Abby and Elmo - I still love me some Elmo, he is awesome.  I have an Elmo sippy cup and and Elmo toothbrush.  I also love Abby the Fairy from Sesame Street.  Mommy says it's ok for boys to like fairies.  Abby is bright and pretty and I get to watch her while I'm having my morning snack, so I like her a lot.  I also still like Mickey Mouse and Curious George and I like Daniel Tiger too. But Abby and Elmo are my favsies.  Sesame Streeter for life.

Park - One word about the park.  SWINGS.  I love to swing!  As soon as we come around the corner from the wooded area at our park I get really excited in my stroller and start saying "swing! swing!" until daddy takes me out and lets me run across the field to the playground.  And my favorite is when daddy is pushing me in the swing and says "zoom" - I like to say zoom too!  Cause daddy pushes me high and fast!  I also like going down the slide.  The first few times mommy had to help me, but I'm a big boy now, I can do it myself!  And there are so many puppies at the park!  I love puppies.  I got to pet a really nice puppy there last week.  It was the best day ever!

Books - I love books!  I like to pull all the books off my bookshelf to decide which one I'm going to read.  Daddy bolted my bookshelf to the wall, something about not wanting it to fall down on me. When I find the book I want I hand it to mommy and say "mama read" and she does.  My favorite books right now are The Tickle Tree, Pajama Time and Farmer Dale's Red Pickup Truck.  Mommy does funny voices when she reads Farmer Dale and it makes me giggle!

Playing peekaboo or just "boo" - I love peekaboo, I have loved it for a long time, but now I can do it too.  So instead of mommy or daddy going peekaboo to me, sometimes I jump out and go "boo" to them!  I like to hide behind my mommy and peek around her and go "boo".  It is so funny! I am hilarious.

And now I'm going to go, my other favorite thing at this moment is mommy is not working today! That means she gets to play with me all day.  She says we're going shopping at a sale where we can get me some clothes and toys for cheaper.  I don't know what cheaper means, but I know that I like the sound of getting new toys!  Bye bye!

TIGF - Spring

I haven't done a "Things I'm Grateful For Friday" post for awhile and I decided to do one today because I could use a dose of positivity.  I've been kind of immersed in some negative vibes lately and I just don't want to be stuck in that muck.  So, instead I'm choosing happiness and focusing on some good.
So what am I grateful for this week?  Quite simply - spring.  Spring has arrived early in Minnesota and it's been amazing this week.  I am loving not having to bundle up Ollie in a heavy jacket every day to take him to my parents house or other places.  I love that I don't have to go out early and warm up the car for him.  I am loving that we've been able to go for a walk every evening this week and it's a bonus that it's lighter later now too thanks to Daylight Savings time.  I am loving pulling out all of my pastel colored clothing.  I love that I have heard birds chirping in the morning.  I love that I was even able to open the sun roof in my car one day this week!
This winter was really much easier compared to last winter, so it's funny that I felt such a longing for spring to be here.  I think it's probably because the last two years we have had such long, draining winters and barely any spring to speak of.  So this year the early arrival feels like such a gift and I hope to enjoy every moment and I hope it's here to stay!
And there's someone else at our house who is pretty excited about the early arrival of spring too.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I hope you are getting to enjoy some nice weather wherever you are as well!

February Monthly Eats

Happy Friday and Happy almost end of February!  Today I'm linking up with Shea Lennon to share some recipes we ate this month.  Apparently we were all about getting healthy this month, we were definitely on a salad kick!
We decided to recreate a salad bar at home one night.  We started with romaine lettuce and some carrots.  We added a hard boiled egg and some diced ham for protein.  We added a little bit of cheese and then my favorite - Nate's homemade croutons and finally tossed it all together with a little Western dressing and a little Ranch dressing.  It's silly, but this might be my favorite meal of the month.  Delicious, semi healthy (I say semi only because of all the things we added!) and easy.

Next up, for our at home date night this last week Nate made us some grilled shrimp and scallops with steamed broccoli on the side.  YUM.  He keeps it pretty simple when he grills seafood, he only adds olive oil, salt and pepper before throwing it on the grill.  Nothing is really needed, it comes off the grill tasting like butter.  It just melts in your mouth.  We steam our broccoli in a steamer basket for about 20 minutes and also just have that with a little bit of butter and salt and pepper as well. Again, a simple meal, but very tasty.

And finally, we have another salad.  Nate wanted to recreate a salad he's been enjoying from a coffee shop near his work right now, so he picked up some supplies to attempt it at home and let me tell you, it sounded like an odd combination, but I ended up really enjoying it.  It has spinach, feta cheese, mandarin oranges, dried cranberries (think Craisins), honey nut granola (that is where it started to sound odd to me at first) tossed together with both poppyseed dressing and a balsamic vinaigrette.  It was so good and so filling!  The sweet items and tangy items went really well together.  I think this will be a go to for us, especially coming up this summer.

So there you have it!  We've really been making efforts to eat a little healthier and I think we did pretty good this month - and I think we've also found that eating healthy things like salad doesn't have to be boring or bland!  Have you tried anything new and different lately?  And check out Shea Lennon's blog for other food related posts!  Have a great weekend!

Friday Five - Oliver's Favorite Books

We've been making it a point to read to Oliver pretty much since he was born.  Nate even brought me a book to read to Ollie when we were still in the hospital - Oh the Thinks You Can Think by Dr. Seuss.  We would kind of read to him when he was a newborn, but we started making it part of his bedtime routine by the time he was about 3 1/2 to 4 months old.  It's been fun watching him actually start being interested in the books - he'll let you know if he doesn't like a book you're reading, he'll try to close it or he'll whine.  But if he sits still or even starts to giggle when you open up the book, you know you have a winner.

He mostly loves his board books because he can grab them and help turn pages and well, chew on them and stuff.  I thought for fun I'd share a Friday Five of his favorite books.  One of these is a new to us book, the others have been on repeat for quite awhile now!

He loves all the Sandra Boynton books for the most part, but his favorites right now seem to be The Belly Button Book and Moo, Baa, La La La.  He has enjoyed Barnyard Dance too and many nights we read the Going to Bed Book as the last book of the night.  
I find it almost funny that he'll actually sit still for Hop On Pop - it can be a long book, but I think he just loves all the words in it.  It's fairly fast pace too, which is kind of another requirement in his books.  He doesn't like it if we're not turning the pages very fast!
Another Dr. Seuss favorite of his is Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?  Again, lots of silly sounding words and it's a pretty quick read.  The copy we have is a board book too that is nice and small, so he can grab it pretty easily.
Finally, we have The Pout Pout Fish.  I think I've talked about this book on the blog before.  We tend to read this one to him on days he is a little on the cranky side, but it often works to cheer him up. Spoiler alert - the fish does get happy at the end!
Overall we find he really does like stories that are engaging, a little faster pace, lots of color and fun words.  There are others I didn't mention like Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Goodnight Moon that have been favorites for awhile now.  He really loves the Curious George cartoon on TV and we now have a bedtime book based with George that he seems to like.  And again, you can't go wrong with Sandra Boynton.  I'm just so happy he enjoys being read to and flipping through his books - we hope that means he will be a good reader eventually!
Any moms care to share your kids favorite stories?  We could use another Christmas gift or two!

Liebster Award

Well what a sweet and pleasant thing to be surprised with on a Friday.  I was given the Liebster award by a new to me blogger - Neive from The Aussie Osborns.  I have received this honor before but it's been a couple of years, so it is fun to be tagged to this again.  For those who might be unfamiliar, the Liebster award is a sweet award given from bloggers to other bloggers  - the term Liebster has German origins and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, lovely, etc.  The rules are simple, when nominated, you are given a list of questions to answer from the blogger who nominated you, you then write a post answering the questions and then spread the love to other bloggers.
So, I'm going to answer Neive's questions today because it always fun to do an all about me type post!
1. How did you decided on the title of your blog?  My blog has evolved this year in a big way.  When I started this blog, I called it The Fashionable Adventures of Bethie the Boo for three reasons - it was mostly a fashion blog, my childhood nickname growing up was Bethie Boo and the title itself was a play on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  After Oliver was born my blog focus shifted from being just about fashion to also being about daily adventures, parenting, etc.  I realized I needed a title change to keep up with that.  I tried out one title I didn't like as much earlier this year and then Nate helped me this summer come up with something simple.  I blog about my life and I have kind of built up my brand of being "Bethie the Boo" so he said, why don't you just call it "Life with Bethie the Boo."?  So simple, but it works!  Long answer to a short question!
2. What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?  Love.  I love sharing about my life, I love writing, I love meeting new people and sharing in their lives as well.  So the word "love" is the best choice I can come up with!
3. What is your favorite pastime other than blogging?  It's a tough choice!  I like playing disc golf or brewing beer with Nate.  I like taking walks with Oliver.  I like watching a good movie and I like reading a good book when I have the chance!
4. What is your favorite aspect of blogging?  Meeting new people and making friends - lately I've especially enjoyed making friends with bloggers offline so to speak and and am considering them more than just blog friends - they're friends.
5. Which recipe, project or idea on my blog (Neive's that is) would you like to try most?  I'm cheating and stealing Neive's answer actually, she linked to another blogger's recipe for a Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Banana Bread that sounds amazing.  Neive, if you try it, let me know if it's good!
6. Where does your blog inspiration come from?  Plain and simple my life.  My life as a mom, my life as a wife, my life as a daughter, my life as a friend.  
7. What is one country in the world you would like to visit?  Why?  I would love to go to Ireland in memory of my Irish loving grandmother.  It is a country that has always fascinated me, I remember writing a report on it when I was in middle school.  My sister-in-law just visited there earlier this year and went to the Guinness brewery and a scotch distillery and I think those places would be neat to see.  So someday I hope Nate and I can go there.
8. If you have children, what are their names?  If not, what are your favorite boy and girl names?  Well, most of my readers I think are familiar with my sweet son Oliver Michael.  We did consider a couple of other boy names - Gabriel, William and Julian.  We were thinking of using a "J" name for a middle name when we settled on Oliver, but then decided the initials of "OJ" were not a great idea.  I believe in my heart of hearts we're one and done on having kids (I'll share more about this eventually) so I'm not afraid to share my girls name choice - we would have named a daughter Kaylee Ann.
9. A long lost relative leaves you a large sum of money.  What do you do with it?   What wouldn't I do? LOL.  I would finish fixing up my house or maybe even buy a bigger one.  We'd get Nate a nicer car.  We'd do some traveling - especially to Disney World.  And my charitable heart would have to donate some to causes that mean something to me as well.
10. In your opinion, what is the best blog post you've written so far?  Include a link. Oh boy.  I've been at this blogging thing for three years, so it's really hard to say. I'll pick a couple of favorites.  From March 2013 - The Love Story Continues which is the story of how Nate and I got together.  From December 2013 - Baby Boo - introducing my sweet boy to the world.  From August 2014 - Giving Back a recap of my volunteer experience with some other MN bloggers.  
11. What is your favorite food? Oh man, this is a tough one.  I love food.  Anything with cheese is a win.  I have a weakness for cookies.  And bacon.  You can never have too much bacon.  Bacon makes everything better!
And now to tag some others and share the love!  I will be a little lazy and suggest you answer the same questions Neive gave me!  
Sara @ Writing with Bangles Jenn @ Wonderfully Unkempt Hannah @ Hannah Says Kristi @ Alligator Toe Brittany @ Lipstick and Yarn Shea @ Shea Lennon
Thank you again Neive!  I hope you all have a great and safe Halloween!  Tune in over the weekend to see our costumes from tonight.  I'm so excited to share it with all of you!  And can you believe it's November tomorrow?  Where is the time going!

Currently in September

One of my favorite monthly link ups right now is the "Currently" link up with Anne of In Residence and Jenna of Dearest Love.  They post the link up on Wednesdays, but I wanted to do Oliver's monthly update that day, so I'm doing my Currently for September today instead!  I am taking the week off from TIGF - not that I don't have things I'm grateful for of course!  Just thought this would be fun today.
--Currently I am--
Writing - Nothing much besides blog posts!  Kind of boring I realize!  I did make a spreadsheet for all my style challenges earlier this week, does that count?  Ha! #nerd
Anticipating - Fall!  Everything about it.  It's my favorite season and no, I'm not wishing the summer away and I know it isn't officially Fall until September 22nd, but I just am so ready for cool nights, bonfires, sweatshirts, apple orchards, hayrides, baking pies, cider....the list goes on.  I love it all, bring it on.
Missing - Getting to see my friends as often as I used to - between kids, jobs, travel and other things we don't all get together as we used to.  While I love where my life is right now,  I miss some of those carefree days sometimes!
Wearing - Long sleeves for the first time in awhile!  And jeans for Friday!  I adore this top I scored on thrift store day!  Took the day off from all my style challenges today too, I love them, but it's nice to take a break.

Shirt - Old Navy (thrifted), Jeans - Levi's (thrifted)

Necklaces - Charming Charlie, Stella and Dot

Craving - I was just telling Nate the other day we never went out for a good old fashioned ice cream cone this summer.  I craved ice cream a lot when I was pregnant with Oliver, but I just didn't find myself wanting it this year.  But right now even though it's cold out it sounds kind of good!  I'm also craving a good slice of pumpkin bread with a latte or a cup of hot apple cider.  Yum.  Might be time to do some baking!

So there you have it!  Anyone have exciting weekend plans?  We're doing a mass with our music group - for the first time since Ollie has been born, both Nate and I will get to participate so I'm looking forward to having my favorite drummer back with us!  We're also hoping to get a batch of beer brewed and I might start a major closet cleanout, we'll see how ambitious I get!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!