The weekend is here! I’ve been anxiously awaiting this weekend because I booked tickets for me and the boys to fly down to Florida to snuggle with Callie! (We will be staying with my parents and don’t worry, I have full intentions to actually help my sister and not just snuggle her baby — I know how that goes! — but you better believe I am looking forward to loving on my niece, too!)  We bumped up our Thanksgiving timeline and will now be flying to Jacksonville early Sunday morning and Ryan will be driving down with Sadie after work a little closer to the holiday. Bring on the family time!

And now before I am off to get this Friday rolling and figure out what all I need to pack for our travels, I wanted to share this week’s Things I’m Loving Friday roundup with you guys. Let’s dive right in!

Things I’m Loving Friday 

• Family Photos from Tripp Photography

Does anyone else out there get slightly stressed out at the thought of Family photos? I know I can’t be the only one because I saw this little gem on Instagram a week or so ago and it made me laugh out loud:

I love my mom so much but that image brought me back to my mom asking me and my sister to pose in velvet dresses when we were younger and my sister and I just being so over it. Now I am that mom and I realize how hard it is to get two kids to look semi-decent in a photo, especially when one of them is a baby! But somehow Katie from Tripp Photography worked her magic on our family and sent over some of the most beautiful photos to us earlier this week.

Katie reached out to me on Instagram a couple of weeks ago because she’s looking to build a presence in the Charlotte area and I couldn’t wait to set something up because her IG feed was filled with gorgeous, moody images that had a such a unique and artistic look to them. Katie is incredibly personable and friendly and made our family feel comfortable right off the bat. She was also great with Chase (she has a little boy of her own and is currently pregnant) and did a great job of capturing pictures of our family interacting which I greatly prefer over super posed photos.

We are so grateful to Katie for sharing her talent with our family and if you happen to live in the Charlotte area and need professional photos of you or your family, I highly recommend Tripp Photography!

And since I had a few outfit detail requests here’s all the info from what I wore for our family photos –> Shoes: Wenda Cut-Out Booties via Target/ Bralette: Free People / Slouchy Sweater: Amazon (available in 4 different colors) / Jeans: Pistola via Stitch Fix / Hat: Scala via Nordstrom (I ripped the feather out!)

• @Britta_Beauty‘s Instagram Facial Massage Videos

After Ryder was born and I began waking up a lot in the night for middle-of-the-night nursing sessions, I’d often awake to find myself clenching my jaw. I’m not sure why or when I began doing this but I’ve been trying to stop it the minute I notice myself clenching. I say all of this to say that I had no idea there are massages out there you can do for your face for a myriad of reasons. I randomly stumbled upon @britta_beauty‘s Instagram page and found myself watching her facial massage videos and was inspired to follow along. This video for jaw tension is my current favorite and I follow along with the video after applying rosehip seed oil to my face and it feels fantastic! I also love her morning lift massage videos even though I find myself doing them most often before bed.

• Clean Eating Magazine’s Turkey & Mushroom Ragu-Stuffed Acorn Squash

I seriously swear by my Clean Eating Magazine subscription for meal planning! It’s one of my favorite go-to resources for finding new nutritious recipes to try and I love ripping out the recipes we love to save in a big recipe folder for future meal planning purposes. It’s the best and delivered yet another dinner winner in our house this week. I made the Turkey & Mushroom Ragu-Stuffed Acorn Squash from the October issue and it was fantastic! Definitely worth trying and definitely worth saving.

• The First Patient by Michael Palmer

I finished reading The First Patient by Michael Palmer earlier this week and it was an interesting and intriguing one! The book follows Dr. Gabe Singleton and is a medical mystery that takes off when Marine One lands on the doctor’s rural Wyoming farm. The President of the United States and Gabe’s former roommate at the Naval Academy, Drew Stoddard, asks Gabe to come with him to Washington, D.C. to be his personal physician after his previous doctor mysteriously disappears.

After Gabe agrees to help his friend, he flies to the White House and soon witnesses the president in the middle of what appears to be a mental breakdown, complete with hallucinations and other odd behaviors. It doesn’t take long for Gabe to suspect that the President’s condition may not be attributed to natural causes and Gabe soon finds himself searching for answers, a process that proves more challenging and life-threatening than he ever imagined.

• Friday Flashbacks

Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cake (Sharing this here because I am planning to make this one for my family during my Florida visit! It’s a festive fall recipe that’s a little different from the usual Thanksgiving desserts — and super easy to make, too! )

10 to 100 Driveway Workout (Keep this bodyweight workout on hand if you’re traveling this Thanksgiving and hope to sneak in a quick no-equipment-needed total body workout!)

Question of the Day 

What is one thing making you smile this week? 

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