NEW BLOG AT www.hangingwiththehuies.com: Friday Faves

1. FALL DOOR MAT - I’ve been on the hunt for just the right fall door mat for a while. I wanted something warm and fallish (of course) but wanted something without pumpkins plastered all over it because my porch is already filled with them. I almost gave up the hunt and moved my focus to a finding a cute Christmas mat when I found this little guy hiding in a corner at Target. It was the last one and it was perfect. You can also find it on their website. Anyway it’s adorable and I love seeing it each time I open my front door.

2. WONDER BY R.J. PALACIO – I haven’t finished the book yet although I am enjoying it so far but what I love more is what this book has started. I was looking for a soul hugging book to read this fall (did you see my “Mama Fall Bucket List” ) when I found Wonder. It had awesome reviews claimed to be a quick read and is reviewed to make you laugh, cry, and feel warm fuzzies. Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. After picking my new fall read I started thinking “Humm this would be fun to read with other people…..like a book club!” I jumped on Periscope ran the idea of a virtual book club past my Periscope buddies and “We Be Book’N” was born! Yes I started a virtual book club with a bunch of strangers. Fun huh!?! Anyway I’m hoping we’ll get to know each other a little more over the next few months. Wonder is our 1st read. We have a Facebook group and will be hosting monthly book chat via Periscope!

3. DEVA CURL BE LEAVE-IN – I’m having a bit of a postpartum hair crisis. Massive hair loss and my curls are going all wonky. They used to be lush and bouncy but now are more frizzy and stringy. It’s not good! This stuff has honestly saved my hair because I had my phone in had ready to call my stylist to have it chopped off when Kent talked me down from the ledge. I did a little research (y’all know I research the crap out of things before I try them out) and found this stuff. I tried a few other items from the Deva Curl line but this one alone was a game changer for me. My curls are bouncy again and I no longer feel the need to chop them off. I’m still using the other products I shared in my “How I Style My Naturally Curly Hair” post but adding this into the mix. It does exactly what it says it’s going to do…..volume and soft bouncy curls. Hopefully my hair sorts itself out in a few months. I if I keep losing hair like I have been I’ll soon need to buy some ball caps to cover up the baldness.

4. MY FITNESS PAL – This week’s Wednesday’s post was all about my new diet plan. People like to call it a lifestyle but honestly this is a diet plan for me because once I drop the weight (if IIFYM works for me) I hope I will have learned something and will no longer need to count my macros. Anyway My Fitness Pal has been my buddy this last week! Even if you’re not following IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) this is a useful app to track your food intake and is super simple to use. I’m sure most people know about it. It’s been around for a while BUT I’ve been giving mine a little extra love this week as I’ve been tracking each and everything I eat. I recently upgrade to the Prime version and I love it. It’s great for visual people with all its graphs and pie charts!

5. COFFEE MUG – Another Target find. Not much to say about this one besides it’s cute and makes me even more happy for coffee time. They have several different sayings. I picked up the Warm and Cozy and Coffee coffee coffee one. Oh and it’s priced reasonably at $3.99

6. NATURAL BLISS PUMPKIN SPICE COFFEE CREAMER - Y’all this stuff is crazy yummy! I usually steer clear of these types of coffee creamers. I have them on occasion but for me I think they're too sweet and kind of kill the coffee flavor I love so much. The Natural Bliss creamer in Pumpkin Spice has just a hint of sweetness and pumpkin goodness without being too much and all the ingredients are things I know and can pronounce so that’s sweet. I’m going to be sad when they pull this one off the shelves come Christmas time.

7. IKEA BAGS - So am I late to the Ikea bag awesomeness bandwagon? I’m not sure if it’s even a thing or if I’m the only one that is in love with these massive bags. I was in Ikea a little while ago and picked up a bunch of random home décor items. The person that checked me out recommended that I purchase one of their bag for $1 to hold all my purchases. I pictured myself making 5 trips to the car with both boys on my hips. “YES I’ll take a bag, shoot I’ll take 2!” I had no idea how awesome and useful these things were going to be. Since bringing them home I’ve used them to…..
-Carry multiple bags of grocery in the house. I pile in several bags inside and swing it over my shoulder all while holding Carson.
- Cart laundry up and down the stairs.
- Collect boxes to take out to our Recycling bin.
- Gathered items from our closets that I wanted to donate.
- I loaded them up with our Costco purchases. They’re great for big bulk items.
- Collect laundry from the boy’s laundry baskets so I no longer need to carry the baskets down stairs.
These bags are awesome! I have one in our house and one in the car and next time I’m shopping at Ikea I’m picking up another so I can have 1 up stairs and 1 down. If you don’t have a massive Ikea bag you got to get in on this friends!

8. A Carson Favorite SIMILAC ALIMENTUM READY FEED – A Carson Favorite although I’m super happy about it too. I was able to nurse Weston until he was 6.5 months old which is a massive success story after all that we went though. Carson was doing GREAT! I had high hopes for our nursing relationship then all the sudden things took a bad turn. Caron has his own nursing story that is very different from Weston’s. I’m happy to share if you’re interested. Anyway we’re no longer nursing and it’s been a real struggle trying to find a formula that works with his sensitive system. What worked for Weston (who we also struggled with) didn’t work for Carson. Alimentum was our last choice. The ready feed version of this formula is the only formula at least over the counter that is hypoallergenic and corn free. Once we knocked out the diary and corn his digestion issues started to clear up. He’s eating so much better, chunking up even more, and started to sleep longer stretches at night (around 5 hours). His diapers are a million times better (I’m talking about poo guy just in case you missed that) and his skin has cleared up too. The sad part is that it’s CRAZY expensive even more so than what we had Weston on which was pricy. I’m in the process of trying to get our insurance to cover it as he has a prescription for it. Fingers crossed! The other good news that comes from this is we’re now able to get him in cloth diapers. I decided to hold off putting him in cloth until we got his digestion issues all sorted out. Yay for a new fluffy bum in the house!

9. A Weston Favorite LARGE PLASTIC DUMP TRUCK – I bought this at Target to use as a prop for a brother newborn shot I was doing (just to give you an idea of how large it is). I ended up not using it for the session but held onto it. Good thing I did because Weston has fallen in love with this truck. He plays with it constantly and it’s held up great to all the love Weston has given it. I bought it a year ago but I still see them at Target. It’s huge and I think I only paid $12 for it.

And because you can’t love everything here’s something I did not like……..

BOOOO! TRADER JOE’S HARVEST BLEND HERBAL TEA - Finding a new fall tea to enjoy was on my “Mama Fall Bucket List” I heard the harvest blend from Trader Joes was good so I picked it up. Uuummm nope it’s so NOT good. I tried it twice but I ended up tossing it. Save your money and skip it but do try………

TRADER JOE’S VANILLA & CINNAMON BLACK TEA – It’s good crazy good and they already have it out! Add a little cream to it and it’s like a yummy dessert in your cup! Usually I don’t see it on the shelves until we get closer to Christmas so I was excited to see it when I popped in to buy the harvest blend. I buy boxes of this tea and store it in my panty so I have some to enjoy throughout the year since you can only buy it during the holidays.

Some of our faves from the week being used because these are things we really do LOVE and have purchased with our own money. I’d be all over a Similac sponsorship though! Similac are you out there? Do you hear me?

My cute mug filled with Nespresso goodness and little Natual Bliss Coffee Creamer