church family

More Rainy Day Fun + A Few Favorites in Threes

We had another rainy day here in the ‘Burgh, so we decided to get outside and have some fun. We pulled on our rain boots and rain jackets and hung out outside for a bit!

Mother and daughter rain boots

Mom and daughter walking in rain

I’ve been working on teaching Sadie the colors of the rainbow, so we collected leaves for a little project.

She was so excited to show Jimmy her craft when he got home from work! The second he walked in the door, she took his hand and dragged him to the fridge and signed leaf. So sweet!

Toddler leaf craft for fall

Onto some of my recent favorites in lists of threes because I love a good list!

Favorite Moments Lately

  1. Playing Elefun with Sadie and Jimmy. Did anyone play this game growing up?!
  2. Working on Christmas crafts. I’ve been making wreaths and upcycled a mini Christmas tree this week.
  3. Hanging out with our church family. I love spending time after services just watching all the kids play and catching up with everyone!

Recipes I’ve Been Cooking and Baking

  1. Chickpea Soup
  2. Apple Cider Pork Chops
  3. Pumpkin Spice Ginger Cookies

Pumpkin Spice Ginger Cookies

Cookbooks I’ve Been Using Nonstop

  1. The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion
  2. Artisan Sourdough Made Simple 
  3. Modern Jewish Baker

Things I’m Excited For

  1. Jimmy and I are doing a staycation this weekend!
  2. Thanksgiving–I have no clue what we’re doing but I’m pumped.
  3. Decorating for and celebrating Christmas.

Pet Products We’ve Been Using On Repeat

  1. Waterless Shampoo. This has been a lifesaver with the rainy weather we’ve been having and Niva smells amazing after I put this on her. 
  2. Car Harness. It’s perfect for keeping Niva secure when we drive her to and from doggy daycare.
  3. Cat Toothbrush Toy. That’s right… a cat toothbrush, haha. 

Cat toothbrush

Tell me some of your favorites!

Couple sitting by bonfire

Weekend Fun at The Zottola House

Happy Monday! How was your weekend?

Husky laying with child

Jimmy and I were able to sneak in a date night on Friday while my mother-in-law watched Sadie. It was so nice to spend some alone time with Jimmy! We went to a local pool and spa store to look at hot tubs. We’ve been wanting one ever since we stayed at my parents’ beach house last month and went in their hot tub daily.

Time will tell if we actually get one because we are going to be spending a good chunk of money here soon on a fence extension to keep our Houdini dog from escaping, lol.

On Saturday, Jimmy went to a work day at our church and Sadie and I did some cleaning and organizing around the house. She’s been getting into our snack drawer lately and running around with crackers while Niva chases her and it’s just a constant mess. I put all the snacks up high and hopefully it saves me from cleaning cracker crumbs 24/7 😉

I also filmed a vlog on Saturday because I realized I’ve rarely documented a Saturday at the Zottola household. In the evening, we had a bonfire!

Family sitting around bonfire

Couple sitting by bonfire

Remember how I said I was really excited to decorate for Christmas? Well, I made a pom pom garland. I had some twine laying around the house and I used a hot glue gun to glue pom poms I bought at Dollar Tree to the twine.

Simple and easy! I promise I won’t hang it up until November 🙂

White pom pom garland with twine for Christmas DIY

Well, I better get going and start my Monday. I hear Sadie stirring in her crib as I type up this post.

I’ll leave you with a funny occurrence that happened yesterday while we were at church…

There’s a family on our street that has a siberian husky that looks just like Niva. The dog escaped and was running around the neighborhood and a woman a few doors down from us thought she was Niva so she was throwing bologna into our yard to lure her in and even got her into our fence. Our next-door neighbor had to break the news to her her that the dog wasn’t Niva, lol. We have been blessed with some amazing neighbors!