Five on Friday

Time for another edition of Five on Friday!  I don't know about you, but this week FLEW by!

TGI[Freaking]F!

I'm linking up with April, Darci, Christina, and Natasha for this week's Five on Friday!  It's kind of all over the place this week ... but that's indicative of what my week has been like. 

O N E - Coconut Oil
I've been using this for everything lately.  It's amazing.  I bought it before I had the baby to do some oil pulling but I've used it for everything but that.  I use it for nipple cream with breastfeeding.  I read that it's a great alternative to lanolin because of its antifungal properties.  Lanolin can cause thrush and with coconut oil you don't have to worry about it.  I've also used it for moisturizer for my cat.  She's on a restrictive diet which leaves her skin so dry, a quick dallop of coconut oil helps ease the dryness and itchiness for her.  I also love using this on the baby.  She got a small yeast infection inbetween the fat rolls on her neck and the prescription cream just would not get rid of it. One quick swipe of coconut oil and within two days it was gone. I can't wait to try it as a shave cream this summer ... and I say summer because let's be honest, who shaves their legs everyday in the winter.  Not this girl.

T W O - The Crib Boycott
So a couple of weeks ago we tried the dreaded crib transition.  I wasn't ready but I figured at 5 1/2 months it would be a great time to establish a sleep routine in her own room, in her own bed.  I expected it to go great.  I anticipated a few hiccups but figured as a whole Mykenzi would do just fine. I was wrong, so wrong.  It was worse than her newborn days.  She was up every couple of hours in tears.  I'm talking bottom lip pucker, real tears type of crying y'all. It was heartbreaking.  We kept pressing on because we figured she would eventually get used to it but after a week of zero sleep for any of us, we brought her back in our room this week where she instantly went back to sleeping through the night.  I guess she wasn't ready after all. 

T H R E E - Dreaming of Summer
It's no secret I'm a beach girl.  Winter hasn't been too terrible this year.  I've kinda been busy being a Mom so I haven't really had the time to mope over the cold.  It never fails though, as Groundhog Day inches closer my need for warmer weather gets stronger.  I can't wait to get outside with Mykenzi and go to parks, the zoo, and most exciting, the beach!  She loves baths so I'm hoping she'll love the beach as much as I do.  I get giddy thinking about how amazing our first summer with her is going to be.  So hopefully that dang groundhog predicts an early spring!

F O U R - Willow Crowns
If you haven't visited Willow Crowns you're missing out.  Megan has the cutest collections of headbands for your mini.  She even does Mama & Mini collections which is adorable because who doesn't want to twin with their little girl?  I recently bought The Blake headband in Gold for me and Mykenzi and I just can't get enough.  I find myself planning our outfits around the headband just so we can sport them together.  I also have been asked to do a Mama and Me shoot this spring with the amazing Tay Gray Photography and will definitely be wearing our matching headbands.  Taylor also did my Maternity photos and they were gorgeous!  So I'm super excited about the Mama & Me.  As for the headbands,  not only are they beautiful ... the quality is great, and shipping was fast.  Megan designs and hand makes these headbands to order which just makes them that much more special. I definitely see many future purchases.

F I V E - Tortellini Soup
This has quickly become one of my favorite recipes.  It combines my love for cheesy pasta and my husband's love for soup into one hearty recipe.  You can make as healthy or as not healthy as you want.  It's a really versatile recipe.  When I read the recipe it called for Turkey Sausage but I cooked mine with Sweet Italian Sausage and it turned out amazing.  Toss it all into the crockpot and BOOM! 4 hours later you have an amazing dinner on your hands.  I'm going to try to share more recipes on here because I've run across some really good ones lately.  I'm all for easy dinners so don't expect gourmet recipes.

Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup

1lb Sweet Italian Sausage
2 Cans Hunt's Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic, & Oregano
2 Cans Chicken Broth
1 19oz Package of Frozen Tortellini (You'll put these in the Crockpot frozen)
1 8oz Block of Cream Cheese (Cut into 1" blocks when adding to Crockpot)
1/2 a Bag of Spinach

1.  Brown Sausage in a skillet on stove top until cooked and crumbled.  Drain.
2.  Add browned Sausage and all other remaining ingredients to Crockpot.
3. Stir to combine ingredients.
4. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours.  Stir occasionally during cook time.
5. Serve with shredded Parmesan. Enjoy!

I served mine with Buttery Croissants.  You can add things like Black Olives, Mushrooms, or Peppers to your soup.  Like I said, it's extremely versatile.  Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

That's it for this week!  Hope you all enjoy your weekend!  My plans involve not getting dressed unless I absolutely have to this weekend.  Pajamas all day!