Missing My Old Kentucky Home

One of my favorite spots and my husbands also in the fall is going home to Kentucky to Keenland in Lexington. Kentucky is where my husband and I both grew up, it's our home and always will be even though we have lived there in over 7 years, and such a beautiful place. It really is one of those places that gets in your blood and will always be there. You really respect the place you grew up, it's heritage and so many things you took for granted when you move away.  

I'm  missing Keenland this  year, and it gets an extra weekend for Breeders Cup today which is a race that's pretty cool to experience in person. My husband took me several years ago when it was at Churchill Downs in Louisville and it was a cold but fun day. However there is just something about Keenland. It's just so beautiful, and I enjoy it more than  Churchill, and  I spent a year working there doing a marketing internship during college. 

Last year we spent my 30th birthday there ( the pictures are from that trip) , it was great to celebrate with friends from home, North Carolina and one of my Disney best friends  for the closing weekend. Even more fun to introduce people who had never been. 

It's the beauty of watching the horses walk the paddock, the old stone everywhere. Watching the artist sit and paint. Tailgating with friends, betting on races and enjoying the beautiful fall foliage. 

Keenland only races twice a year for Spring and Fall meet and it's worth a trip to Kentucky! Even better hit the bourbon trial while your there too. Woodford Reserve is only about 15-20 min away and one of my favorite distilleries and my favorite bourbon.  The drive out there in the fall is beautiful. Stop and have lunch at Wallace Station. It's always busy and worth the wait! 

Today I'll enjoy the Breeders Cup and Keenland from afar and watch the races on TV.  We can not wait to take our little girl there one day, and hope she enjoys the ponies as much as her daddy and I do! 

Tasty Tuesday : Freezer Friendly Healthy Breakfast Sandwiches!

With a baby on the way and not a lot of energy to cook much anymore I've been stocking our freezer for the final weeks before baby and for after baby. I'm trying to keep it pretty healthy but easy. This is an easy grab and go breakfast for busy mornings and even non busy ones because these are just delicious.

What you need: 
Eggs 
English Muffins
Sausage 
Cheese 
Salt and Pepper 
Ramekins or something to bake eggs in 
Cooking spray 

To keep it healthy I go with a whole grain or multi grain english muffin. I would love to use the Ezekiel bread English muffins but I have a hard time finding them. Also they are great with turkey sausage this time I used an all natural pork sausage however.  

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray ramekins with cooking spray. Crack eggs into ramekins (I have to do in multiple steps because I don't have enough ramekins) scramble a bit with a fork and add salt and pepper. Bake for 5-8 min, sounds weird but some batches cook faster than others. Try not to over cook because the egg recooks some in the microwave also. 

While the eggs are cooking, I cook my sausage patties if I haven't already, cut my English muffins in half and get my cheese slices ready. 

Once eggs have come out and cooled down remove from ramekins. Place one egg, one sausage patty and a half slice of cheese on bottom half of English muffin and then place top on it. After I've put them all together I wrap each one individually in Saran Wrap and then place in freeze bag. 

When your ready to eat unwrap and place on paper towel or microwave safe plate and cook 1-1.5 min. My husband loves to grab these out of the freezer and take them with him to warm up at work on a morning he doesn't  give himself enough time to eat before he leaves. Though they have never lasted that long I've read that eggs are good 30-60 days in the freezer. 

Enjoy!

The Start of our Nursery!

You know when you have a vision but your just not sure if you can make that vision come to life? That's how I felt when I imagined exactly what I wanted for our nursery, but for once that vision came to life beyond what I could have imagined!

When we found out we were having a girl I knew I wanted pink, gold and mint green. People kept saying go with pink and grey but I wanted different. I'm in love with mint green and gold together and knew a baby pink would be the perfect accent to make it a very classy, elegant nursery.

First task was to empty out the room. The room has become my husbands man room  and also our workout space that I had just completed for the most part in March as an early birthday gift. We live in an apartment and it only took me 2 years to get it done. Literally finding out we were expecting just a few days later he got to enjoy it for several months still until we emptied it out. Here are a few pictures of the before.

The one thing I knew I wanted was an accent wall. We were not painting, originally I wanted stripes and found vinyls but then saw the gold dots I decided on. I ordered them from Etsy and spent about $45 much cheaper than paint, and they weren't that bad to put up once we got the groove of it.(well really once my husband got the groove while I supervised)  I was in love with the finished product and couldn't wait for the rest to come together!

The dresser changing table was a piece I already had, it has been in our living room and I knew it was the perfect piece for the nursery, it just needed a coat of mint green paint, new knobs and the touch of my talented momma! My mom paints with chalk paint and I have a few pieces in my home she did with chalk paint I love so this was no exception. The problem was finding the right color and we ended up mixing some different chalk paints to create the custom color, it couldn't have been more perfect! We got some cute little knobs from target and it was the perfect little piece! We used the same paint to do the monogram for over the bed I once it came in. 

We Have a few more things to complete before our girl arrives so stay tuned for the full Nursery! 

Disney Babymoon! Doing Disney even Pregnant Part One

So we have a strong love for Disney in our house. Disney was my husband and I's first vacation together while we're dating, less than a year later he took me back and proposed, and then less than a year after that we moved to Orlando for me to work for Disney! When we moved to Raleigh I knew we would miss it but was so afraid it may never be the same. After 2 trips post move it didn't feel the same but we stayed with friends not on property, so when we talked about one last trip before our baby girl comes it made perfect sense to do a full Disney trip. I am so glad we did and Disney felt like Disney again. 

We booked for Labor Day week, which was  also FREE dining plan and I'm pretty sure we had reservations made for dining  before we had our full trip booked. It's the one thing we love about Disney all the food! We are true foodies at heart. 

Don't get me wrong it was extremely hot but even being almost  30 weeks pregnant we had a fantastic time! 

Here are some tips for doing Disney pregnant. 

Tip One: have a few shoe options, my feet did swell some but mostly only when I had on sandals. Tennis shoes gave my feet the support they needed and kept me pretty comfortable. If your feet swell prop them up for a bit, when mine did they went down within a short time.  Rest as you need to and drink plenty of water! 

Tip Two: water is pricey, if you can get some bottles at the store or have sent to the hotel, do it! Also my life saver was Starbucks cups of ice water. In every park except Magic Kingdom they will give you the huge Trenti size cups of ice water, they will only give you small at MK but if you have your own bottle they will give you as many as you want, so fill it up. Other restaurants will also but I always remember Disney/Florida tap water tasting funky and this water was just fine. (So much when we got home if I would go to Starbucks for a small coffee I would ask for a big water. I find I drink water better with a cup and straw than bottles so whatever works) I also would fill my resort mug with water at the hotel. Honestly I would have never bought a resort mug but I was free on our dining plan and came in handy for ice water which was all I filled it with other than a few sips of Sprite on occasion when I had a little nausea. 

Tip Three: Pack snacks even if you are on the dining plan. I took granola bars, my shakeology to make my shakes just no blender, some fruit and crackers. You get so much on the dining plan but usually at your actual meals, so having things to snack on for breakfasts or morning snack especially while pregnant is a must. If we for a quick service meal I would try to get an extra bottle of water or some kind of fruit or snack I could pack up instead of the desert I didn't need at every meal. A few places did the bottled water which was great and others wouldn't so it depended on where we ate. 

Check back later for more tips for doing Disney pregnant and even just some great Disney tips in general! 

Maternity Pictures

Can't believe we are seriously in the final weeks of the pregnancy. We are so excited to meet our baby girl!

This past weekend we had some maternity pictures done, and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out! The only one thing I had wished for was more fall foliage, especially since it was the perfect fall day. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to take pictures at all, but I am so glad we did and will have these sweet memories. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

A friend of my moms did these for us, and she did such a great job. I'm so excited to get some family pictures when our sweet girl arrives!

Tasty Tuesday

So I thought Tuesday was the perfect day to share a great recipe! This granola recipe has become a staple in our house and can be made so many different ways. I love I know what's going into it and also it so much less expensive than buying considering I have most the ingredients in the house all the time. I keep oatmeal in the panty in bulk.

Pumpkin Spice Granola

Preheat oven to 350 degrees while you are mixing ingredients 

4 Cups of Orginal Oatmeal (don't use quick quick pats) 

1 tbsp spoon of seasoning of your choice (for this one I used pumpkin pie spice) 

1/4-1/2 cup pecans you can use more or less depending on what you like ( my husband likes less so I go with a smaller amount 

1/2 cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit 

Mix all the dry ingredients then add the wet ingredients 

1/4 cup of pure maple syrup or honey I've used both either works just as well depends on what I have more of in the house 

1/4 cup melted coconut oil 

1.5 tsp of pure vanilla extract 

Mix all the ingredients together, spread across a baking pan.  I spray mine with olive oil or coconut oil cooking spray so it won't stick and bake at 350 for 30 -40 min this really depends on how crunchy you want it. Let cool and store in air tight container. 

I have done this recipe without the pecans and cranberries and will add some dark chocolate chips once it's cooled,  this is my husbands favorite! I'm going to try making some chocolate granola soon because our favorite store bought is dark chocolate Love Crunch and it's hard to find and not cheap! 

We put ours on top of plain Greek yogurt, drizzle with a little honey to sweeten the yogurt and sometimes add some fresh cut fruit. It's a great breakfast or midday snack. 

This week I have had some Chobani pumpkin yogurt and this recipe was perfect on top of it!

Enjoy! 

Countdown to Baby Alvey!

I started this blog a few years ago and never really kept up, but with a baby on the way I've been so eager to get this started back up with a fresh new look, and to write and share so many things I love! So be ready for DIY, yummy recipes, health and fitness, faith, family and of course the countdown to Baby Alvey and all about our sweet girl when she arrives! I can't believe there are only 5 weeks  until she is due and while I've been very blessed with a healthy and happy pregnancy this momma to be is starting to wear out. Stay tuned for more updates , but as a little throwback I thought I would share the picture from our baby announcement!