Lateral Ellipticals, Two Celebrations, Baby Dane!

Happy Monday! Quick Weekend Update: Saturday was spent doing a lot of celebrating! It began with a trip to the gym: I ran a mile, walked 1.25 miles and did 10 minutes on this machine. It's basically an elliptical trainer, but it focuses on side-to-side (lateral) movement rather than forward movement like most. I was pouring sweat on this thing - and my inner and outer thighs were like what in the world are you doing? haha



After my workout, I ran home, mixed up some sliders and buffalo chicken mix and headed over to Andy & Monica's for the Auburn game. We got there around noon and watched the Auburn game while preparing for Andy's birthday! Monica was throwing him a great party at the casa! I made lunch/football-watching food: fiesta sliders, black bean burger sliders and buffalo chicken wontons - yum! (recipes coming soon!). Monica made everything under the sun! Seriously - like 4 different salads, meatballs, pizza dip, boiled peanuts - you name it! Everything was yummy and they had a great turnout! Here's some pics: 

Yummy spread!

This salad with poppy seed dressing was fabulous!

And who doesn't love amazing mini cupcakes?!

Mon & Her sis hitting Mon's buffet!

The girls I spent the day with - Nicole, Laura, Steph, Mon, LA and me - bad pic of me :( 

My sister came later and brought Dane! (and of course her husband Zach hehe) Not the best picture of Dane bug - sorry, Dane!

Dane & Uncle Austin!

Dane's dinnertime with his beautiful mother!

Dane LOVED some Andrew!

And he loved the Tuerk sisters!

The cute Porters :)

SUCH a great time! And an Auburn win on top of all of the fun! We narrowly (again!) won the game - this time against Mississippi State. The pups were there too of course and had a great time - only one accident - yay! Sunday was spent resting, relaxing, and watching movies with Austin. We did laundry, we cooked, we played with the pups, we prepared for the week - GREAT day!

Q: Ever tried one of these lateral elliptical machines? Now that i've done a bit of research on them it seems like the Helix is pretty popular - looks cool - need to see if any of these gyms i'm attending have one!


Q: Make anything yummy this weekend? My first time on the black bean burgers AND on the buffalo chicken wontons - loved 'em both - woo!

Book Review, Baby Dane, Breakfast Sausage & Gravy Pizza

Thanks for participating in the giveaway! If you haven't already, you have until Monday, July 18, and two ways to win! Also, thanks for your sweet comments about the new necklace. I really love it! It's taking getting used to - not used to jewelry and I feel like i'm always worried about it. I know it will become second nature soon enough! So as you know yesterday was pretty much our daycation, my mom & sis's visit and a bit of redecorating. The evening ended with me cooking a few recipes and packing for our trip to California. However, I've neglected to update you on a few things - here goes:

Book Review: So I finished Chevy Stevens' Still Missing last week. I couldn't put it down. I normally go to bed at 10:30, but I stayed up until 1:15 a.m. to finish it. True story. It was THAT good. I was immediately captivated by the way the story is told - in first person by the main character, Annie O'Sullivan. Each chapter is a different session of her telling her psychiatrist what happened to her when she, a realtor, was abducted from an open house one day. The story fills in all of the blanks - what was going on before, during and after her abduction, and the girl telling the story is so snarky and believable that you can't stop reading. I thought the book was awesome, total page-turner with great twists and surprises. I give it a 5/5 and highly recommend it.


Baby Dane: So you know Baby Dane, his mom and my mom came to visit on Sunday. SO GREAT to be with my family, I just loved it so, so much. Here are a few pics of Dane at the casa - the pups just loved him. Well, Remy loved him. Reuben was just like, 'what's all the fuss about?'  Here's a few pics:

Baby Dane with my mom, his grandmother! Love it.

Remy with her new BFF. She just wanted to be with him so badly and laid next to him his entire visit (well, when we weren't trying to stop her from licking his hands and feet- I think she thought he was her baby!)

Breakfast Sausage & Gravy Pizza: The. Bomb.

Breakfast Sausage and Gravy Pizza
Recipe adapted from Real Mom Kitchen
Makes 4 Servings
Nutritional Information: 466 calories, 56 carbs, 15 fat grams and 19 protein grams.

A-mazing. This is one of my higher calorie breakfasts but well worth it. It was SO filling with the eggs, gravy and sausage, and I loved how it all meshed together with cheese on top. The green onions added a nice crunch, but if you're not a big green onion fan I wouldn't worry - it would be great without them! If you wanted to lower the calories on this, I think you could take the cheese down by an ounce, and sub 1 of the eggs for egg substitute! This reheated well and will be made again for SURE. Check out the recipe on Healthified Kitchen!

Q: Assuming you have puppers, do they like babies?! I truly think Remy loves them and is so curious, and that Reuben is more miffed but if push came to shove would be the super protective one. 


Q: Ever cooked with a packet of country gravy? This was my first time but won't be my last time - that stuff is GOOD!

I'm an Aunt!

My lack of posting yesterday was for a VERY good reason - my sister and bro-in-law had their perfect, 9-pound, 4-oz., little boy, Dane Harrison Porter, yesterday! No, I don't have pics yet - I left that to the the father/photographer extraordinaire! But, speaking of him, here is one of him the waiting room right after baby Dane was born. He's such a proud dad already!

And, as a refresher, here are the happy parents a couple of weeks ago!

So yes, as you can imagine, baby Dane has:

• a cute, tiny nose
• beautiful creamy skin
• perfect little rosy cheeks
• and a head full of dark hair!

He's also SUPER chill, is doing well, nursing well, takes to feet pricks well and is just an all around wonderful little guy. I'M SO HAPPY FOR THEM. So yesterday I just worked, walked 3.5 miles during lunch, worked more and then raced home to get Austin, eat dinner and then head to the hospital. He was born around 7:30 p.m., we saw Zach and then the waiting game commenced. We didn't get to see him until super late, but of course it was worth it. He was just the chillest thing - I was holding my sister's perfect little baby within HOURS of his birth. TOO COOL. Loved it - couldn't wait to go back for more. I got home SUPER late and didn't sleep much but again, SO worth it. Can't wait for the pro shots from Zach - eeeee!

Q: Have you ever held a new born?! It was just like this baby human who I already love so very much. I can't wait until he gets home to his nursery and gets settled in - the nursery is ADORABLE. In fact, here are some pics of it courtesy of Zach.