MY FIVE FRIDAY FAVORITES

Well it's Friday night again...

I just can not get over how fast the weeks are flying by. I mean there are only {five} weeks left until baby Jude is due!!! How ridiculously crazy is that??? I'm so ready to not be pregnant any more but at the same time I feel like I have a million things still to do before he arrives. So in a way I'm not ready and at the same time, I'm not. I know you other mothers know exactly what I'm talking about.

Anyways... I thought I would start something new on my blog this Friday. I always love reading about and seeing what other moms are into, finding helpful, wearing, or eating :) So I'm starting

"My Five Friday Favorites"

here on my blog and I hope that you will find some things useful in my lists. I love getting feedback so please, leave me a little comment about anything you enjoyed or found helpful on the list!

Ok here is my first "Five Friday Favorites"

Chocolate Cake!!! I have been trying for let's see...over a year to find a chocolate cake recipe that was on plan with Trim Healthy Mama that I liked. After many failed attempts I had pretty much given up all hope of ever finding any recipe that would taste even halfway good. But yesterday I decided to try a recipe that I had tried to make a few months ago and hated. I had used Stevia in the recipe when I made it and Stevia leaves such a bad aftertaste in my opinion and the whole cake ended up being thrown away. I use the Trim Healthy Mama Sweet Blend now and let me just say...it's amazing! I used this recipe here for the chocolate cake. But like usual I made a few little changes. I used 1/3 cup of golden flaxseed in place of the almond flour & I used about 1/4 cup of the THM Sweet Blend in place of the Truvia. My oven is a lot smaller than most ovens so I baked mine on 350 for 35 minutes and it came out perfect. I let it cool completely and then added on the whipped frosting. I made a few changes to the frosting. I only used 1tbs of cocoa because cocoa is so strong I didn't want to overdo it on the flavor and then I used about 1tsp of the THM Sweet Blend to sweeten it but you may need to adjust the sweetener to your liking. It's only been 24 hours since I made it and there is only one piece left. My husband and all three of my kids loved it so much. Liam said it was the best part of his day! :) Oh and just a little side note...it tastes even better than next day after it's sat in the frig all night.

Have you seen this video on youtube?!!! "I Wanna Go To Chick Fil A". Oh.My.Goodness!!! I laughed so hard the other week when I saw it for the first time. Not every thing in it is exactly how my visits go but um yeah...I can relate a lot to this video. Go watch it right now. It will make your day so much better!

Ruy's first soccer game is tomorrow and so when his step-mom showed me this adorable soccer shirt that she bought to wear to his games, I knew I had to get one. I was a little concerned we shouldn't ever show up to any of his games matching because well matching is not really "in" for adults but we both decided Who.Really.Cares!!! And maybe we'll start a trend. I ordered a medium. I'm hoping it will fit even with my huge belly. Pregnant girl problems.

If you've been following my blog for even a short amount of time, you probably know that I have a very strong love for mason jars. I use them for a lot of things in my house but one of my favorite ways to use them is for drinking out of. My kids have actually picked up on the love of drinking out of them too so I knew I needed some kind of lid and straw for our jars. I found these lids & straws on amazon and they are so perfect. The straws are super wide which is great for smoothies! I also ordered these stainless steel straws off of amazon because I had heard they were amazing and I have to agree...they are fantastic. I always say everything tastes better in a mason jar and know I have cute straws to go with my cute jars...Makes.Me.Happy :)

And since fall is just around the corner, I thought I'd write about one of our all-time favorite "fall" books. We actually read this book a year long but it's about candy apples so I saw it's fall themed. Red Panda's Candy Apples is one of the cutest books. The drawings in it are wonderful and the story is just so sweet and simple. I got it from the library last September right before we went to the apple orchard and Liam fell in love with it right away. I had to get it for him for Christmas last year along with a little red panda stuffed animal. I'm planning on making candy apples with the kids this year because they've been asking for some since the first time we read this book. I guess I'm a little overdo on making them but hopefully we can get it done before little man makes his arrival!

Well that's it. I hope you all have a super fabulous weekend!

*I'll leave you with a few photos of our week. Excuse the poor quality. I snapped all these on my phone and not my "big girl" camera.