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blessings, thankfulness, family, fun, health, healthy, motivation, new year

2020 Recap And Intentions For The New Year

caffeinatedcarly

Hello, all!! Is anyone else ready to say good riddance to 2020? I have definitely had some low moments this year. It hasn’t been all bad though! We have definitely had some wonderful things happen as well! I like looking back and going through pictures. Here is the recap:

JANUARY: *K made a full recovery from her December hospital stay!

*I found out I was pregnant, but suffered an early loss.

FEBRUARY: K turned 1 and we had a “Sweet One” Party for her.

*My sister-in-law moved in with us because she started a job in our city.

MARCH: *The pandemic started, and I had a quarantined birthday at home.

APRIL: *We took a lot of walks, and played at home.

*We celebrated Easter at home and K had her very first egg hunt.

MAY: *Celebrated Mother’s Day with a socially distanced dinner with our families.

*Found out that I was pregnant and felt so much joy, and a little anxiety knowing that I would have two littles under two!

JUNE: *Had an appointment/ultrasound and our sweet baby had a faint little heartbeat.

*Had family pictures taken for when we were ready to announce our pregnancy.

*Found out that I was likely to miscarry, and was given options of how I wanted to go about it. I decided to let it happen naturally.

*Went to the lake with my husband’s family, and it was so nice to get my mind off of things for a while.

She ended up loving this!!

JULY: On the 4th, I suffered a very painful miscarriage at home. My mom and husband switched on and off taking care of me and K.

After the pain settled some I soaked up cuddles and cartoons with this sweetheart.

*Spent a ton of time outside and went to the Zoo often.

My giraffe loving babe!

AUGUST: *Put our house up for sale while our new one was being built. It sold in 5 days!

*Visited my brother and his family. K and her cousin had a ball together!

*Had many more Zoo visits, and enjoyed the outdoors as much as possible. It was a super hot month!!

SEPTEMBER: *Went apple and pumpking picking, and made some final memories in our first home.

*Moved into an apartment with my mom while our home was being built.

*Went to Michigan for my brother-in-law’s small, family only wedding. It was beautiful!

K was tired so this picture was the best we could get hahaha

OCTOBER: *Enjoyed SO many fun Fall activities: Hayrides, pumpkin picking, farm visits, and Boo At The Zoo. We also did a ton of Fall baking!

*Went on vacation to the Outer Banks, NC. My husband and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary while we were there!

NOVEMBER: *We moved into our beautiful new home and enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving.

Our new table and chairs! Perfect for Thanksgiving dinner and hosting (which I love to do). I can’t wait to do it more when Covid is a thing of the past.

DECEMBER: *Went to Zoo Lights, baked cookies, and enjoyed Christmas at home.

Now that a new year is coming, I just want to have a positive outlook on everything and enjoy making memories with my family! I don’t plan on making a bunch of resolutions that I won’t keep, instead I just want to enjoy this wonderful life I have been given.

Wishing you all health and happiness!

With love,

Carly

Christmas, family, fitness, food, foodie, health, healthy, healthy baking, healthy dessert

Holiday Baking And Christmas At Home

caffeinatedcarly

Hello, hello! I hope the Holiday season is treating you well. Things have been non-stop around here, and are just settling down. Christmas this year was wonderful for our family. I love being home and having no place to travel. Doing our best to stay covid safe, we saw immediate family only. I definitely missed seeing extended family this year, but feel like we made the right decision.

I wanted to highlight some baking, and Christmas fun from the past week! Let’s start back at Wednesday….

WEDNESDAY: I got to spend some time with one of my very best friends. We had wine flights at Coopershawk and enjoyed catching up! Neither of us have been out much lately, so it was fun to safely see her!

Coopershawk has the BEST wine selection! I always get the fruit ones.

THURSDAY- CHRISTMAS EVE: We always do our stockings on Christmas Eve morning! It is a fun tradition for us.

My sister-in-law lives in town and spent the afternoon with us. We did some baking (all using healthier ingredients)! It was so fun!

Cranberry orange muffins.
Banana bread.

Sugar cookies!

Homemade cinnamon rolls using almond flour! These were amazing!!!!! We even made our own frosting. 10/10 for me.

After all of our baking and getting K down for bed, we ordered Chinese food and watched a movie.

FRIDAY- CHRISTMAS DAY:

My Christmas excitement woke me up early so I made coffee and did a quick workout before everyone was up.

We relaxed until my husband’s family came over! My mom joined a little while later. We had a wonderful time opening gifts, eating and just hanging out.

K playing with sone fun gym items from my mom! Such a great way to get her energy out!
PJ’s all day!

We all watched a movie and played games that evening.

It was a wonderful Christmas!

I am looking forward to catching up with all of you.

Have a great week!

With love,

Carly

cookies, food, foodie, health, healthy, healthy cookies, healthy dessert, healthy snacks, no bake

Healthy, No Bake, Holiday Cookies And Christmas Plans

caffeinatedcarly

Hello, all! I woke up extra early today, but my daughter must have felt that because she is up an hour before she typically wakes up haha. Getting her out of bed is my favorite thing in the world. She gives the biggest smile, runs around in her crib, talks to the cats because they follow me, all with her curly hair in her face. Gosh, I love that kid so much!! Speaking of her, I am off to get her so this will be delayed until at least naptime lol!

Picking up and moving on. Christmas is right around the corner, which is crazy! I am super sad to be missing out on our typical extended family-filled evens, but also excited to be spending time with my family at home.

On Christmas Eve it will just be me, my husband, and K. We plan on spending the day in PJ’s, baking all the things, watching a family Christmas movie, and opening our stockings! Dinner will be takeout.

On Christmas day, we will get up, have coffee and breakfast, then open our gifts. Later in the day, my mom and my husband’s immediate family are coming over. It should be so fun! I LOVE hosting.

Let’s move on to some cookies, shall we?

K and I have been making some recipes together and this one turned out so good! She enjoys stirring and taste testing. I love egg free recipes because we can dig in while we stir.

INGREDIENTS: 2 cups of oats, 3/4 cups of almond butter, 1/4 cup of melted coconut oil, 1/4 cup of honey, 1 TBSP chia seeds, 2 TBSP almond flour, 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips, 1/4 cup of craisins, 1/4 cup of shredded coconut, pinch of salt

NOTES: I used bake believe white chocolate chips-this brand is keto and allergy friendly. I also used 50 percent less sugar craisins.

TO MAKE: Mix everything well and flatten onto a baking sheet. Once on the sheet, place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Mommy’s taste tester. These are definitely toddler approved!

TO MAKE CONTINUED: Remove from fridge and use your favorite cookie cutters to make shapes. These can also be formed into protein balls. We did both!

These are so yummy! My husband even loved them and he tends to stay away from healthy sweets!

I hope you enjoy! I hope you all have a wonderful week and Happy Holidays!

All my love,

Carly

food, foodie, fun, health, healthy, motherhood, motivation, toddler, update, workout

December Update-Food, Fitness, And Other Fun

caffeinatedcarly

Hello and happy Friday, all! December in our new home has been beyond wonderful. My husband is a master organizer, and we are completely unpacked and settling quickly. We still need curtains, and we also need to hang a few things, but overall everything looks great. I feel blessed beyond belief!

Other than unpacking, we have tried to keep life fun and as normal as possible despite these crazy times.

FUN WITH A TODDLER:

*Santa (masked of course) at gymnastics

*Salt dough ornament making and painting

*Zoo Lights

*Cookie making and gingerbread man decorating

*Indoor snow play-we added different food coloring to a bucket of snow

*PJ’s and snuggles

Her dress and pigtails melt me.
My favorite mornings.

FOOD, FRIENDS, AND FAMILY

I am still staying away from big groups, but I have seen some friends and it does a wonderful thing for my soul. My best friend came over last weekend and we went to dinner at Northstar Cafe.

We split a salad and pizza. It was so tasty!

We have been spending a lot of time with my mom and it has been wonderful. My daughter loves time with her grandma and I get a much needed break with her around. She gets us food and groceries often. We are so lucky to have her! She passes a healthy, delicious smoothie place on the way to our house called Power Fuel Nutrition and has been bringing me different ones to try. They are fantastic!

I can’t believe this delicious treat is healthy!

We had family Christmas pictures taken at our home this year and I love them! Our Christmas card is my favorite one yet.

K was extremely uncooperative, but our photographer captured some great shots!

FITNESS:

I am trying to build up my home gym as much as possible. I have a lot of space and have been utilizing it! I need to add some heavier weights and a yoga mat, but am enjoying what I have for now. I love using my loop bands and punching bag to get some strength training in.

OTHER:

*My husband and I just finished watching Schitts Creek. We LOVED it so much! Such a lighthearted and fun show to watch.

*I am re-watching Glee on Netflix. I loved it during its prime and it is fun to watch again.

*I am reading the Harry Potter series over. It has been fun to read as an adult.

*I have been watching a Facebook video series called Murder and Makeup. It is so cool!

*I am still enjoying my true crime podcasts!

That’s about everything for this post! I look forward to catching up with all of you.

Have a wonderful weekend!

With love,

Carly

food, foodie, health, healthy, healthy snacks, protein balls, toddler

Protein Balls

caffeinatedcarly

Hello, all! Once again, I have failed at consistency on my blog. Keeping up with an almost 2 year old and taking care of our new home keeps me busy. One of these days I will get a better schedule on here!

Anyway…

Today, K and I made some yummy protein balls this morning! Healthy, tasty, and toddler approved! I have certainly eaten more than I care to admit. Haha!

My official taste tester!

INGREDIENTS: *2 cups of oats. *3/4 cups of almond or peanut butter. *1/4 cup of melted coconut oil. *1/4 cup of honey. *1 tsp. of vanilla. *1 TBSP. of chia seeds *dash of salt. *add ins of choice: I used dark chocolate chips and unsweetened coconut

TO MAKE: 1) Mix everything together and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. 2) Roll the dough into balls and enjoy! 3) Store extra balls in the fridge

So yummy!

I hope you enjoy!

My goal is to catch up on my reader and wrap the Christmas presents by this weekend!

Stay safe and healthy, everyone!

With love,

Carly