Things I’m Loving Friday #349

This Friday is an extra special in the Fagan household. It’s our 10 year wedding anniversary!

It’s crazy for me to think that we’ve been married for ten years (together for 16 — Ryan always thinks that’s important to recognize!) but then when I think back over the last decade I suppose we’ve crammed a lot into the past ten years! We’ve moved from Orlando to Ocala to Charlotte, been through jobs changes, loss and babies and there is absolutely no one I’d rather call my partner in life than Ryan.

(Here are some of my favorite throwback Ryan-related posts if you’re looking for a little somethin’ to read this morning: 14 Things You Might Not Expect About Us / Our (Awkward) Wedding Kiss / Marriage After Kids)

Waaay back in 2010, we initially planned to go to St. Lucia for our honeymoon. Our plans got canceled at the last minute due to a hurricane and we always said we’d make it to the beautiful island for our 10 year wedding anniversary. Apparently we didn’t plan for an international pandemic or a two-month-old baby! Even though our plans look a a little different than we anticipated as we celebrate our anniversary, I honestly don’t feel all that disappointed. I’m a homebody at heart and spending our anniversary dressed up in a ridiculous family Halloween costume with Ryan and the boys as we head off to a low-key outdoor get-together with a couple of friends ranks pretty high on my list as a great way to celebrate an anniversary. We’ll do something romantic and celebratory when life settles down a bit (maybe for our dating anniversary in February?) but today I’ll be focusing on the blessings that have come our way over the past 10 years.

In addition to celebrating our anniversary, we have some more fun planned for the coming week! My sister, brother-in-law and niece arrive at our house tomorrow and then we’re all heading to the mountains to meet up with my parents for our annual mountain getaway. Our mountain trip is easily one of my favorite weeks of the entire year and I cannot wait to have all of us under one roof. I’ll probably be a little off the grid on the blog next week but hope to pop in when I can to share some of our adventures with you.

Enjoy your weekend and Happy Halloween!!!

Things I’m Loving Friday

• Rhett is Two Months Old!

TWO MONTHS!

2 months of watching Rhett grow and getting to know his sweet personality ⠀
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2 months of full-body rocking as we try to get him to fiiinally fall asleep ⠀
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2 months of staring at his face while he dreams and his little lips twitch into smiles, frowns and silly faces ⠀
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2 months of sweating all over each other ⠀
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2 months of the sweetest sounding baby coos and lots of newborn grunts, burps, shockingly loud toots, hiccups and nasally noises (I forgot that newborns are loud — especially in the middle of the night!) ⠀
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2 months of Rhett’s eyes flying open the minute we put him in your bassinet ⠀
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2 months of my heart turning to mush when he fall asleep on my chest or curls up into me as he finishes nursing ⠀
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2 months of watching Rhett soak in the craziness around him and handling lots of “aggressive cuddles” from his big brothers like a champ ⠀
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2 months of both of us being covered in breastmilk 24/7 ⠀
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2 months of kissing him approximately one million times a day⠀
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2 months of thanking God for blessing us our sweet baby boy

These past two months have been a blur of sleepless nights, lots of spit up but even more love. We love you so, so much, Rhett!!

• Vinyl Record Wedding Song Lyrics (Custom from Etsy)

When I was looking for anniversary present ideas, I stumbled upon this one on Etsy and thought it was so creative! It’s a custom print featuring the lyrics to our wedding song (“Everything” by Michael Bublé) so it looks like a vinyl record. You can customize the size (I went with an 8×10 print) and I think this will look great as part of a gallery wall or propped up on one of our built-in bookshelves in our living room. As I’m writing this post, I haven’t given Ryan his anniversary presents yet, but I’m hoping he’ll like this one and that reading the words to the first dance song from our wedding will make him smile.

• Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud (Book for Kids About Kindness and Happiness)

Early last week, my friend Lauren’s sweet daughter Claire wore a bracelet she made to the park where we met them for a playdate. When Chase told her he liked her pretty bracelet, she gave it to him. He was so excited and I was so impressed by her kindness and generosity. When I heard Lauren praise Claire for “filling Chase’s bucket” I asked her where she heard that term because I loved it. The discussion lead to the discovery of the Have You Filled a Bucket Today? book which I promptly ordered and immediately loved. The book does a great job of highlighting the importance of being kind to others by “filling their buckets” through various actions, words and gestures. (You can also be a “bucket dipper” when you do something not so nice to others.) Not only does it encourage kindness but it brings everything back to the way being kind to others makes you feel and how it only increases your personal happiness. We’ve now been discussing what we all did to be a “bucket filler” for others every day and I love the way this book is encouraging Chase (and our whole family!) to look for opportunities to make others smile.

• Latest Blue Apron Delivery

This shout out is sponsored by Blue Apron!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — Thank goodness for Blue Apron! As a long-time Blue Apron customer (we’ve been ordering their meals for more than seven years!) I find myself appreciating our Blue Apron deliveries more than ever during the busy seasons of life… aka right now! In this postpartum phase of life, it’s incredibly nice to have some of our dinners planned and ingredients shopped for so I don’t have to do anything other than slice and dice and serve! We continue to come back to Blue Apron for our meal deliveries year after year because the meals are not only flavorful and delicious but they incorporate new-to-me flavors and a variety of cuisines which make mealtime interesting and incredibly tasty! Most meals are ready in 35 minutes or less and include high-quality ingredients and specialty sauces from boutique brands that might otherwise be hard to find or time-consuming to make.

Here’s a glimpse at the meals included in our most recent delivery:

Salmon & Avocado Rice Bowls (This was, hands-down, our favorite meal in the box! It instantly inspired me to add ponzu sauce to our refrigerator because we loved the way it brought out the flavors of the salmon. This recipe reminded me of some kind of a cooked poke bowl in the best kind of way.)

Mongolian Beef & Noodles (Blue Apron’s pasta dishes are some of my all-time favorites because they deliver FRESH pasta in their boxes and it makes a world of difference! This perfectly slurp-able fresh lo mein noodle dish put typical Chinese-American takeout to shame!)

Calabrian-Fig Chicken & Mashed Potatoes  (I swear Blue Apron has a way of taking something as simple as chicken breasts and elevating them in a way that makes them feel special.  And the addition of crème fraîche to the mashed potatoes was next-level!)

If you would like to try Blue Apron you may click here to receive $60 off your first three boxes. It’s such a fun way to change up dinnertime at home and make a homecooked meal feel a little special…which is something I think a lot of us could use right now during these crazy times!

• Friday Flashbacks 

Instant Pot Butternut Squash Chicken Curry (I know this was a recent share but I’ve heard from a bunch of you who have made it and loved it already so I wanted to highlight it again! I’ll be doubling this one to make for our family in the mountains next week!)

Halloween Spider Cupcakes (Just in case you’re looking to make something festive for Halloween on Saturday!)

Question of the Day

Are you dressing up for Halloween this year? If you have little ones, are they dressing up?

Please share your costume plans! I always love hearing what everyone is being every year!