Things I’m Loving Friday #359

Good morning, my beautiful friends! How are you doing? All is well over here! I actually only had one day this week with both big kids in school (I kept Ryder home on Tuesday because he had a slightly runny nose) so I wasn’t as productive as I was hoping but I’m just glad Ryder was healthy and good to go for preschool yesterday so he didn’t have to miss his class Valentine’s Day party!

Both boys celebrated with class pizza parties and brought little goodie bags of superhero Valentines, candy, bouncy balls and animal keychains for their classmates and flowers for their teachers. Before school, we practiced having Ryder say “Happy Valentine’s Day” when he gave his teachers their flowers but when he handed them over outside of his classroom, I asked him if he had anything he wanted to say to his teachers and he said, “Thank you!” Clearly we do a lot of “please” and “thank you” in this house, too. Haha!

As for our weekend plans, it’s going to be a rainy one so I have a feeling a lot of indoor activities will be on the agenda. We have a drive-by birthday party parade for one of the boys’ friends as well as our annual Valentine’s Day Mission on our calendar so it will be a fun one, even if it is a wet one!

I hope you all have a very Happy Valentine’s Day on Sunday and enjoy today’s roundup of weekly favs!

Things I’m Loving Friday

• Welcome Colette!!!

Without a doubt this is the best news of 2021 for our family! Leslie and Ross welcomed their second daughter, Colette, into the world and she is just so precious. We’re dying to meet her but until we can hold our sweet niece, we’ll take advantage of all the FaceTimes, phone calls, texts and pictures we can for our Colette fix. Callie is adjusting well to her little sister and other than some pain nursing followed by Colette’s tongue tie revision that happened earlier this week (clearly tongue ties run strong in our family!), everything is going relatively smoothly for the new family of four! I’m thrilled to be an aunt x2 and am just so, so excited for my sister and her wonderful family. We love you tons already, Colette!

• Hyper Vitamin C Serum

This vitamin C serum is LEGIT. I actually found out about the serum when I was looking to support more Black-owned businesses and I’m so glad I did! Once I found myself in my 30s, I began to notice a lot more age sports on my skin and anytime I picked at a blemish, I was left with a fancy scar for liiife. I’ve tried so many different lightening serums and still swear by rose hip seed oil for everyday wear but this serum has made the biggest difference for me in the one month I’ve been using it. I have two dark sun/age spots on my face that have bothered me for years and both have lightened dramatically in only 30(ish) days!! I use the serum immediately after washing my face at night (it’s the first thing I apply to my skin before rose hip seed oil) and I cannot sing its praises enough.

According to the Hyper Clear website, the serum was developed by founder Desiree Verdejo after she struggled with acne and hyperpigmentation during her first pregnancy. It’s packed with 15 percent vitamin C and vitamin E that help brighten skin, smooth fine lines and rough texture, and dramatically clear dark spots from hyperpigmentation. A combination of fruit enzymes, bearberry, turmeric and kojic acid work together to attack hyperpigmentation and drastically lighten dark marks, age spots and acne scars while natural botanicals work to minimize the occurrence of future outbreaks. LOVE this stuff!!!

• Pregnancy Page Updates

I’m slowly plugging away at some behind-the-scenes updates I’ve had on my to-do list forever and am happy to share that this one is D-O-N-E! I updated my Pregnancy page and also added drop-down pages for  Pregnancy + Baby #2 and Pregnancy + Baby #3 to organize all of my pregnancy and baby-related content in one place. I know I absolutely loved looking back on bloggers’ pregnancy posts when I was pregnant with Chase and hope that those of you who might be interested in this content might have an easier time finding it now!

Also worth noting… I added a Miscarriage page to my blog. This felt uncomfortable in many ways for me to assemble but not a day goes by that I don’t get a comment, email or DM from someone going through this pain. I found connecting with other women who have been through miscarriage incredibly helpful to me when I was so devastated and I hope that these posts, while very hard for me to write and share at the time, will help those in the midst of this heartbreak feel less alone, too.

• Sendacake Surprise

Earlier this week, Valentine’s Day surprises arrived for me and the boys from Ryan. He told us to open them when the arrived because something in my box was perishable so Valentine’s Day fun came a little early! He had me on edge when he took out his camera to take a video of me opening the box (I think I asked him if it was going to explode – haha!) but inside the box was such a fun surprise! When I lifted the lid off my box, paper butterflies flew everywhere and faux flowers spilled out revealing a little red velvet cake and a sweet note from Ryan. The boys’ box had a cupcake bath bomb inside (our kids have a fierce LOVE for bath bombs) and when they opened their box, six mini stuffed animals fell out. I had never seen anything like Sendacake before and thought the whole thing was so unique. It definitely made our whole family smile!

• Personalized Bracelet Stacks

A sweet Instagram follower and fellow mom of three boys, Katie, sent me some of the cutest bracelets earlier this week! The bracelets include our boys’ names and I absolutely love them! They make me smile every time I look down at my wrist and I have a feeling they will be a staple accessory for me for a long time. If you love the look of these bracelets, I highly recommend checking out her personal IG account, @kwmank. She has a highlight featuring lots of bracelet samples you can choose from, as well as “how to order” instructions. Thank you so much, Katie!!

• Friday Flashbacks

Easy Orange Juice Chicken Marinade (I made chicken thighs using this marinade this week and, once again, we all loved them!)

Sweet Potato Quinoa Bowl (Creamy, nutrient dense, vegetarian and delicious!)

Question of the Day

Are you doing anything special for Valentine’s Day? 

What is one thing making you smile this week?