Happy Wednesday, y’all! Here’s a little life update with What’s Up, Wednesday with Shay!

WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK…

Sunday night, we went to a new seafood restaurant here in town called The Catch for grilled shrimp, and it was so good! It’s kind of in between fast food and a full sit down restaurant, and we were really impressed! Monday night, I made mushroom swiss burgers, and fries from the air fryer. On Tuesday, we went to Popeye’s for a little fried chicken. 🙂 Today and tomorrow are meal delivery days– the super sweet women on our Ladies’ Ministry team at church have been organizing meal deliveries for us because of Olivia, and they have been delicious! And Friday we are headed out of town!

WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT…

Last week, Steven had a week of vacation and it was so nice to hang out all week! Obviously, I’m still on maternity leave so I’m still at home this week, but having him home was so fun! We took a trip on Monday to Junction to eat at our favorite barbecue place and play at the state park.

On Tuesday, we went into Austin (about an hour from our house) to eat at Pappadeaux and shop at Babies R Us with some gift cards we had before they close. Little miss slept the whole time, and then she helped me blog about her birth story that night…

And had a visit from my uncle, aunt and cousins!

WHAT I’M LOVING…

Being a mom!!! It has been pretty sweet so far, and I’m loving every minute. Well… maybe not the minutes when she screams with gas pains, but almost every minute! 😉

I mean, look at this sweet face!! Who wouldn’t love this???

And if you are interested in hearing what we have loved using so far the last few weeks, check out last Friday’s #FaveFiveThings post on Newborn Necessities!

WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO…

Haha, see detailed description above!! This week is a little more structured- Steven is working in the clinic and we have a little more going on. Today, we are taking cookies to Steven’s clinic cohort and getting pictures made with the Easter bunny, and then tomorrow we are helping with the Easter bake sale for the Alliance. Then, Steven gets another week of vacation next week!

WHAT I’M DREADING…

Can I say going back to work? I love my job (really, I do!), and I know I will enjoy it once I get back in the swing of things, but I love snuggling my munchkin all day!! Luckily, I’ll only be working in the office two days a week, so I will still get some snuggle time!

WHAT I’M WORKING ON…

I’ve got several little projects going on right now. I’ve set out to purge and clean/ reorganize several spots in our house, like the pantry, closets, my desk, etc. while I’m on maternity leave. We’re trying to get rid of a lot of things we don’t use/need right now on eBay and Craigslist, so that takes up some time, but is freeing up some space, which is nice!

WHAT I’M EXCITED ABOUT…

I don’t really have anything in particular, everything is pretty sweet right now!

WHAT I’M WATCHING/ READING… 

The week before Olivia was born, I grabbed a bunch of books from the library- all of them from the Hannah Swensen series by Joanne Fluke. They are all about a girl named Hannah Swensen who owns a cookie shop that solves mysteries/murders in her small town. I love them because there are recipes in between each chapter as well! They are a little fluffy- kind of like Hallmark movies of books (I think there are actually Hallmark movies of these called Murder She Baked?), but they are fun and light. I’m not reading as much now as I was before Olivia, but I do still read some, especially when pumping.

As far as shows, I didn’t add in a whole lot to my usual rotation with the mid season premieres- I really like Good Girls so far, and we watched the whole first season of Timeless, so I’ve started that back again. I watched the premiere episode of Rise because it seemed kind up my alley, but at the end, I just didn’t care for it, so I haven’t watched any more episodes since then. In the mean time, I’ve been watching The Mysteries of Laura on Netflix during the day by myself, or at night while I’m feeding Olivia. It is older, and is a crime/detective show, but is definitely more comedic than gritty, which I appreciate. A couple months ago, Steven and I started watching The Office from the beginning together (I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen them, I’ve lost count, but it’s his first time to watch it), and we’re now a few episodes into the 8th season, so we’re getting close to finishing.

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO…

I’ve had Travis Cottrell’s new album The Reason on repeat for weeks now! It is just beautiful– I feel like it does a really good job of marrying newer style worship songs with an older hymn style, which I really love. This version of “What a Beautiful Name/ Agnus Dei” is GORGEOUS!! I mean, if you don’t have at least a few goosebumps at 4:25, I’m not sure what to tell you…

I’ve also been trying to keep up with my podcasts– The Big Boo Cast, The Popcast with Knox and Jamie, and I’ve been checking out a new one recently– Married to Doctors. It’s really encouraging if you are a fellow physician wife! Knox and Jamie also have a really interesting new show out called The Bible Binge, which I’ve enjoyed as well!

WHAT I’M WEARING… 

Let’s be honest– I’m rocking the momiform all day, which, of course, is athletic tights and some sort of tank with a sweater, pullover, or sweat jacket. I wear real clothes about 1-2 times a week (more if needed, but definitely not if I’m just at home or running errands around town). I’ve been able to wear and button my pre-pregnancy pants/jeans since one week postpartum, but let’s continue to be honest– tights are more comfy.

For a while now, I’ve had a Fabletics membership, but if I am on the ball, I skip each month and don’t buy anything. There were apparently five months I was not on the ball because I had five months credit built up that I had to use (if you don’t skip the month or purchase an outfit before the 5th, it automatically charges you and gives you an “outfit credit”), so I used them all up a few weeks ago and got five new outfits now that I’m not pregnant. Here’s my honest opinion– I love their clothes. Their tights fit so well and are really good quality. But I hate their membership thing. I want to just be able to buy them without them being in a predetermined outfit and for a “discounted/member price”. But Kate Hudson does her own thing, and doesn’t consult me. 😉

I’ve got the Salar leggings in a few different colors/ styles and they are awesome, so I would recommend those if you decide you are interested in the membership. The tops I’ve gotten are a little hit or miss. I have a few (like this one) that I really love, and some that are just okay.

WHAT I’M DOING THIS WEEKEND…

We are headed out on Friday to Steven’s parents’ because they are throwing a Sip and See for Olivia on Saturday. We’re planning to head up to Lubbock for a day to see some of our sweet friends there next week. I wish we were going to San Antonio because Tech would be playing in the NCAA Final Four/ Championship, but alas, that was not in the cards. But we had a good run!

WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH…

I don’t think we have anything in particular planned next month that I can think of!

WHAT ELSE IS NEW…

I think we’ve covered about everything! Here’s a little update on our boys since I’ve haven’t talked about them a lot lately:

Everyone has adjusted really well to Olivia. Ruger pretty much ignores her, Gump and Boudreaux have taken over as her protectors, and Pecos is such a ball of crazy that I’m not sure he’s noticed Olivia exists. Gump and Boudreaux like to give her doses of slobber hair gel and coming running whenever she makes a peep to check on her. Everyone is very gentle with her so far.

Pecos is doing so well with his training! He is doing great with his basic obedience, and is already on fire for retrieving. Ruger and Gump still go out for training with Steven basically every day, and he has started running with them in the morning and at night. Their heeling is good enough now that they run without leashes and the boys are so good at staying right at his side no matter what distractions are around. Boudreaux is still just a big ole sweetheart and chills inside whenever he can!

Bonus Question: What is your favorite Easter tradition? 

I don’t know that we have any consistent Easter traditions, but I loved hunting eggs when I was little and can’t wait for Olivia to be old enough to hunt them! Fun fact: our first married Easter (2016) was a white Easter. We were living in Amarillo at the time and a random storm just blew in and dusted everything with a fair amount of snow. We’ll never forget the preacher making the joke that if you were one of those people that only came to church on Christmas and Easter, you might be a little confused that day. 😉