Last Minute Gift Ideas

Here are some cute gifts for any last minute shoppers out there!


Eddie Bauer Down Scraper Mitt
$29.95
To protect your paws from icy debris in the early morning while you are getting your car ready for work. I hate when that happens!

Coloring for Grown-Ups
$10.00
Let's face it-I still love to color! And this is great for a good chuckle!

Wreck This Journal

$9.70

To unleash your inner creativity....wreck the journal-scribble, doodle, spill on, cut up and pee on (if you really want)- to your heart's content

Ceramic Measuring Spoons

$14.00

To brighten up the kitchen

Chalkboard Planter Set

$24.00

For the person who loves to cook with fresh herbs

Mr. Potato Head Super Spud

Regularly $49.99, at Kohls for $24.99

For all the kids in your life...it comes with 4 potato bodies and loads of accessories. I think I'd play with this myself.

Sweet Tooth Sunday-Nutella Snickerdoodle Sandwiches

Last week, I had a cookie swap with some friends. I searched far and wide for a delicious, easy-to-make recipe. I came close to the perfect thing when I find this recipe for Snickerdoodle Biscoff Sandwiches, but not knowing what the heck Biscoff is or where to find it, I figured, "You can never go wrong with Nutella". So I came up with these Nutella Snickerdoodle Sandwiches, and they were amazing!

Book Review-Blackberry Winter

Before I start this review, I have to confess....Sarah Jio is one of my favorite authors. Whenever I hear about a new book she's writing, I get giddy! If I ever become an author, I'd want my style to mirror hers. Enough gushing! On to the review...

Plume, $15.00

A Week in Our Lives-December 10th

Another week down, another week closer to 2013! 

It's been an incredibly busy week for us. I got a promotion at work (!!) which was a huge surprise! I've been at the company for six years. It's crazy how fast the time has gone. 

Bartek is finishing up his classes for the semester and then he has a nice, long break until February. He's only 3 semesters in, but it seems like he's been at school forever.

We did so many fun things this weekend. Here's some cute pics of pizza-stained face Landon.

And Bailey being tired of Landon's shenanigans 

On Saturday, I joined the boys (and girl) to do some good ol' shootin.

Kayla hit nearly all of her practice targets, crushing the boys!

I hit 11 out of 25 targets, the worst out of our group (hah!), but twice as many as the last time I did it.

Later in the afternoon, we took the boys to the park.

Bailey is obsessed with the playground. He loves it more than Landon!

That night, thanks to my mom and dad babysitting, Bartek and I got the chance to go to a friend's holiday party. Lots of fun all around.

On Sunday, my mom and I did some holiday shopping. Holy cow. That was exhausting. I think I'm still trying to recover!

And, of course, lots of fun coming up this weekend. Cookie exchange, possibly snow tubing, working on the Christmas cards and some more holiday shopping!

A Week in Our Lives-December 3rd

Welcome to December. 2012 is almost over and if you believe the Mayans, just 18 days left of the world. But I like to stay positive and think we have many more years ahead of us. 

This weekend was packed full of fun. My new scooter arrived! I ordered it to make my commute easier since the PATH is still down with no end in sight. Here I am, going for a test drive on Saturday morning. It's going to take a lot of practice for me to get comfortable with it. I'm not as young as I used to be.

Later on that morning, we went to Home Depot to pick out a Christmas tree. This was Landon's first time picking one out. Last year, I don't think we even took him out of his carseat while we got one. 

Here he is inspecting all of the trees.

In the little tree aisle. We have no room in the apartment for a big tree!

Our tree was so little that it could stand up in the back seat, no problem.

Decorating! Landon loved the nutcracker ornament. 

This weekend, Bartek was the greatest husband ever and watched Landon while I hung out with friends. I celebrated my friend Kayla's birthday on Saturday with pizza and cupcakes. And on Sunday, I went with friends to the Jets game. The game itself was really sad, but we had a good time anyway. It wasn't too cold, either, so we didn't freeze our butts off.

And much more fun to come this week!

Photo Christmas Cards

Do you send regular Christmas cards or ones with pictures on them? I feel like in the past five years or so photo cards have really increased in popularity.

It's become a whole event for us of attempting our own photo shoot for Landon. He's not so great at cooperating. He'd rather be running around and playing with toys than sitting for a picture. When we finally do get a good shot of him, one of my favorite websites for photo cards is Pear Tree Greetings. They have so many unique templates. They even have photo cards that double as Christmas Tree ornaments.

And the good thing is that they regularly have promo codes for discounts too. 

Stay tuned in a few weeks for a glance at our 2012 Christmas card!

Wanderlust Wednesday-Delicious Orchards

If you are in or visiting the northern part of the Jersey Shore, a great place to stop for some delicious produce, homemade pies and lots of other prepared foods is Delicious Orchards Country Food Market in Colts Neck.

They have a section of homemade pies that looks just divine! If it weren't the weekend before Thanksgiving, when we knew we'd be indulging in LOTS of pie, we would have bought one ourselves. It's there, right when you walk in, to tempt you!

Proceed down through the store and you'll find what seems like miles of produce. Everything you can imagine is there. If we lived close by, you can bet we'd be shopping there every week to stock up on fruits and veggies. 

 Near the pies, stood a few tables of chocolate that really caught my eye. I cannot pass on chocolate!

We left with some of that chocolate, mozzarella and tomato salad, cranberry apple cider, gourmet chips and salsa, and delicious apple cider donuts! 

Delicious Orchards
320 Route 34 South
Colts Neck, NJ
Website
Open Tuesday-Sunday, 9:30 am-6pm

A Week in Our Lives-November 26th

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving. This year was a Bamond-Thanksgiving. We switch off every year between mine and Bartek's family. Unfortunately, they both live too far away to celebrate together. Here's some pics from our holiday.

Dad carving the turkey

Bartek and Landon in a turkey coma

Our beautiful and delicious desserts 

Facetiming with our family in Delaware

Matching Christmas PJs. So adorable

Family shot 

Bartek with his Godson, Wyatt 

An attempt at a Christmas photo

On Friday, Bartek and I had to part ways. We BOTH had our ten-year high school reunions. It was great to see everyone and catch up. 

The ice luge

Catching up with old friends

Friends for, like, a bazillion years

And then on Saturday, we had some more fun with friends going out in Morristown for our friend, Erika's birthday, but I don't have any pics because Bartek can't take non-blurry photos. 

Anyway, it was an incredibly busy, but super fun week in our lives. As Christmas is getting closer, it seems like our weekends are so full! It's an exciting time of year and I can't wait to get all of our Christmas decorations up.

Sweet Tooth Sunday-Cranberry Apple Crisp

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is being able to try new recipes that you see floating around on Pinterest. What better reason to experiment! That is how we tried our favorite Mac N' Cheese and cranberry sauce recipes. 

This recipe was a nice change from the typical apple pie we have on Thanksgiving. I found it on CountryLiving.com

Cranberry Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

4 large apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 1/2 c. fresh cranberries

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. rolled oats

3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/3 c. butter, softened

Heat oven to 375 degrees. 

Lightly coat an 8x8 baking pan with butter or Pam. Add apples and cranberries to it.

In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and softened butter. Mush it with your hands until it's combined and starts to form crumbles.

Sprinkle the crumbs over the apples and cranberries.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Wanderlust Wednesday-Brookdale Dog Park

Brookdale Park in Bloomfield, New Jersey is one of my favorite parks. It's a huge park with tons of fields, a nice big playground and an awesome dog park. Coming from Hoboken, the land of tiny, grungy dog parks, when we found this one, Bailey barked with glee. Admittedly, we've only taken Bailey once or twice since Landon was born since it's never a good idea to bring a baby or child into a dog park. But we went this past weekend and I stayed on the outside of the fence with Landon. Bailey was so excited to be back.

There is nearly an acre of space for the large dog park and about half of that for the smaller dogs. Brookdale Dog park has tons of agility equipment: A-Frames, barrels, adjustable jump bars, and a ramp. It has a couple of water fountains, a time-out area for naughty pups and tons of seating for owners under shady trees.

This is definitely a must for any dog owners in the area who want to socialize their pups.

Address: Watchung Ave, Bloomfield, NJ. Once you are inside the park, follow the signs for the dog park.

My Favorite Recipes for Thanksgiving

There are only two days until Thanksgiving! I can't believe it came up so fast. Bartek and I hosted Thanksgiving two years ago...our first and only time (so far). The scariest thing about cooking for Thanksgiving is the turkey. You don't want to be the person that messes up the star of the show. Thankfully, my dad came to the rescue and made the turkey for us. Phewww!

There are two other star recipes we have been using since that first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Bartek and I each have our own thing we focus on. 

Bartek makes this delicious Mac N'Cheese from Martha Stewart...

It is absolutely amazing! Mac N' Cheese leftovers are so much better than days on end of turkey!

The recipe that I make is Martha Stewart's Orange Cranberry Sauce. It definitely beats the can-shaped stuff from the canned-vegetables aisle. 

I've made this several times besides Thanksgiving. The sweetness of the orange cuts the tartness of the cranberries. It is so absolutely delectable!

What are your go-to Thanksgiving recipes?