Tag: kc

Posted in Friday Favorites, Holidays, Travel

Friday Favorites {#283}

Posted on by jgalvinwhite

Hello and happy Friday!

Of course, I’m always team “TGIF,” but something about Fridays in December are just a bit better.

We had a little bit of everything this week from re-entry after Thanksgiving break to a snow day and the kids having busy evenings with activities.

As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.

This is a super-sized Friday Favorites from Thanksgiving tidbits to festive fun.

Going back to last week, we were in KC for Thanksgiving. We drove a bit after school on Tuesday and finished the rest of the drive on Wednesday. Overall, we had a pretty chill KC visit which was fine by me.

Of course, I had to catch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on Thanksgiving morning.

My dad’s cousin hosts that side of the family, and there are probably thirty people there…my cousin outdoes herself with the tablescape and place settings.

I always look forward to the personalized chocolate turkey! It’s a fun and sweet tradition!

We snapped some family photos…

My brother and his family were there too!

Can you go to KC without getting BBQ? Per Hayden’s request, we had some for lunch on Friday.

The girls baked cookies…

…and we spent some time with my Gma. When I think of my Gma, I always think of cardinals and Nutcrackers. She has quite the collection of both…and she passed down a Nutcracker to each of the great grandkids.

We also made a visit to the Magic tree which is a fun tradition. It had started to rain, so we had to snap our pics quickly…

GG was in on the fun…

We left around noon in Saturday and drove home mostly in the rain which was no fun. There was actually snow on the ground for quite a bit of our drive through Missouri and Illinois.

Sunday morning me thanked pre-Thanksgiving me because it was nice to sip my coffee by the glow of the Christmas tree.

The Nutcrackers have found a home…

….as did this cookie jar…another hand me down from my Gma. My brother received one as well.

My mom gave my sister-in-law and me one of these cute Christmas trees… I hope I can keep it alive!

Topsys Popcorn in a KC staple, and it’s one of my fave traditions to get some during the holiday season. I don’t think they always do it, but now it’s in some grocery stores there, so my dad picked some up. The crew plowed through it, so I picked up a couple of tubs to bring home.

I shared my Trader Joe’s haul yesterday, and I love this festive bag.

Sunday, I put out our outside decorations. We don’t do much, but we haven’t had light up trees in a couple of years. I purchased a set of two on Amazon, and they arrived just in time. I was pleasantly surprised with them.

They have a battery pack, and I did wonder about turning them off and on every night…but lo and behold when I went to turn them off the first night, they’d gone out…and then they were lit up the next day. So, they must have a timer that I didn’t realize. My version appears to be sold out, but they have a “snow” version.

On a Target run a couple of weeks ago, I picked up the wreath for the mirror as well as a cute pack of ribbon. I decided to tie some on the coffee table tree that I’ve had for years, and it’s the perfect festive touch.

On that same trip to Target, I lucked into finding two of the Christmas icon glasses. I got one tree and one gingerbread man. I wish I’d picked up a couple more because it appears they are sold out.

Classic…cold milk and a couple of Oreos for dessert.

I also use them for iced coffee…so festive and cute.

We had a snow day on Tuesday which was kind of unexpected. The meteorologists were talking about a chance of 2-5 inches of snow, and it was certainly cold enough, but I don’t think I’ve every had a snow day in December!

Our streets were fine by 9am, so I guess the timing was just right with snow covered roads when the buses would be driving their routes.

I actually went to school to set up my tree…This was the one that Hayden put in his room when he was little, but it’s been in our attic. Next year, I need to remember to add a few more lights. The tree skirt, beaded garland (I probably should have gotten two strands), and ornaments are all from Amazon.

One of my favorite food trucks came to school yesterday. I love not having to pack my lunch, and I love the “mozzaroni” sandwich to warm me up on a cold day.

I shared my December book trackers on Instagram. They are saved in a highlight, so feel free to use them and tag me. I love seeing what others are reading.

Favorite Mom Meme:

’tis the season (of life!)

Bonus Fave: Flashback Friday

This pic is from 2013…and it was the first time the kids went ice skating. We were in KC for Thanksgiving, and we went ice skating at Crown Center which is something we used to do when I was a kid. Like with most things, Hadley hopped right on the ice, and Hayden was a bit hesitant. Their personalities haven’t changed much since then!

Share Our Lives:

We have our last Share Our Lives link up of 2025! We’d love to have you join us!

Weekly Recap:

I had a few posts this week!

Prime Purchases
November books
Tis the Season: Trader Joe’s

I hope you have a fun and festive holiday weekend!

Posted in Clothes, Friday Favorites, Holidays

Friday Favorites {#215}

Posted on by jgalvinwhite

Hello and happy Friday!

How was your week? Ours was pretty good, and it included a little bit of everything.

As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.

Here are some favorites from the week:

Last week I was in KC to help my dad after his knee surgery. While both legs of the trip to and from KC were long thanks to delays, on my flight from Lex to Chicago, I got bumped to first class. I don’t think I’ve ever sat in first class on a flight.

I won’t let it go to my head, but I did enjoy my Diet Coke out of a real glass! Oh the little things…

…and even though the flight from Chicago to KC was delayed, this was my window seat view once we finally took off. I don’t love to fly, but I’ve gotten better about being less anxious when flying. It is kind of amazing to be up in the air and above the clouds.

Ok this is random, but we haven’t had cable for a few years, and one thing I do miss about not having cable is all of the random channels like Lifetime, TLC, and Nickalodeon, etc.

Well, while at my dad’s, we watched a lot of “Me TV” last week.

I’m an old soul when it comes to TV shows…I could watch Green Acres, Leave it to Beaver, and The Beverly Hillbillies all day long.

Also, when I left, the Major made me bring home this pack of 72 pieces of bacon for Hayden. haha

Trav’s birthday was Sunday, and I didn’t get home until five hours past my original flight’s scheduled arrival time…and I ended up flying to Louisville instead of Lexington. Anyway, we didn’t get to Lex until after midnight!

After a week away, I was happy to go out to dinner with these guys to celebrate Trav….even if it was a day late.

We ate at one of our favorite restaurants: Carson’s.

We had dessert at the restaurant, and it hit the spot.

I was able to go to the pool two afternoons this week which was nice.

I shared my July trackers on Instagram, and they are saved in a highlight. Feel free to use them and tag me!

Favorite Clothing Item:

I bought the “Sally” set from SSYS at the beginning of the summer, and it’s been one of my favorite things to wear. I have their crepe set from last summer, and it’s one I wear often as well.

We were at Walmart this week, and Hadley picked up these“Athletic Works” shorts. They are less than $7, and so soft! She’s worn them to sleep in as well as to the pool with her swimsuit.

Favorite Mom Meme:

Funny story. The past few vacations, I’ve given the kids a list to use when they pack. I’ve told them many times to figure out exactly what they need. So, if I write “t-shirt,” they decide if they need three shirts or five. Anyway, Hadley, who is often wearing a sweatshirt, and for sure has too many sweatshirts, packed one sweatshirt on our recent vacation….to the Pacific Northwest…where you might actually need a sweatshirt even in the summer.

Well, joke’s on me…of course, she ended up buying not just one but two sweatshirts on our vacay.

Weekly Recap:

I’ve been a busy blogger lately. Here are my posts going back to last weekend:

PNW Vacay #2: Olympic Trials
Summer Sundays #5: 4th of July Recap
Share Our Lives
PNW Vacay #3: Oregon Coast
Let’s Look
Throwback Thurs: First Beach VacaY

What are your weekend plans? We don’t have too much going on. Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve been home on a weekend, so I hope to do some “regular” things like meal plan, place my Kroger order, stay caught up on laundry and more!

I do have a Summer Sunday post planned, so come back then!

Thanks for reading,

Posted in Amazon, Friday Favorites, Meals and Recipes, Travel

Friday Favorites {#211}

Posted on by jgalvinwhite

Hello and happy Friday!

Well, I feel like Fridays are arriving quicker than I like. It’s the opposite of during the school year…I’d like for time to slow down a bit.

As always, I’m linking up with Erika and Andrea for this week’s Friday Favorites.

Here are some favorites from the week:

KC:

Usually, I write a whole post recapping our trips and vacations, but I just didn’t have time this week. So here’s a quick run down of what we did when we went to visit family.

We usually go to KC at the end of the summer, but just how our summer is this year along with high school sports starting in July, I wanted to make sure we got our trip in sooner rather than later.

Last Wednesday, the kids had 9:00 dental cleanings, and then we left around 11:00 for KC. It was a nine hour drive, per usual, but thankfully, it was uneventful!

Honestly, we didn’t do a ton which I think we all really appreciated. Coming off the school year and still being a bit tired, it was nice to just hang out and relax.

We’ve played Left, Right, Center, but my mom LCR Wild, and it was a fun twist on the game.

I definitely recommend it.

My mom’s neighborhood was having their annual garage sale, and the kids helped out a bit..or did they?!

Hayden went to the driving range a couple of times.

We went to the Royals game on Friday night. They were playing the Seattle Mariners. Since moving away from KC, I obviously don’t get to see them play a lot(in person), but we’ve attended a few games through the years with the kids.

When the kids were probably six or seven, we went to a game, and they were losing in the first inning 10-0 (or maybe more!). Well, this team is better but the game started off the same way. They were down 7-0 at the end of the first inning, and then 8-0. Eventually, they started to chip away at the score, and we wondered if they’d make a comeback.

Well…they did! A walk off win was very exciting to see in person.

Bobby Witt, Jr. (#7) is definitely one of the favorite players.

Every Friday night of the season, there are fireworks (win or lose)…and they are even better after a big win!

There was a little bit of rain in the middle of the game, but otherwise, it was a really nice evening of baseball.

On Saturday, we took Crumbl cookies to my dad’s house.

While at my dad’s house, we watched the final episode of Wheel of Fortune with Pat Sajak as the host. This has always been a favorite show of mine!

Then, we went to Gma’s house for dinner, and we watched the UK baseball game and then played some more LRC Wild. Just like last year, Hayden is very into watching these games. We got home on Sunday just in time to go to the last super regional game with Travis and cousins.

It was a really great visit seeing family and enjoying some downtime.

Again, thankfully the drive home was pretty easy, but with only me driving, I was ready to get home!

When I got home, I was excited to see that my Trader Joe’s peonies had bloomed even more than before we’d left.

While we were in KC, we missed our “Homerversary”…

…so we got him DQ ice cream on Monday night. He’s five(ish) now, and we love him so.

After his dessert, we took him for a walk.

Fave Follow:

Do you follow Kara on Insta? (@karaskorner123) She’s a hoot!

Fave ‘fit:

I bought this set from Amazon a couple of weeks ago, and it’s great!! I ordered my regular size, and it looks like the price has dropped a bit…to less than $26. I’ve worn it a couple of times, including to summer school on Monday.

Now I kind of want to buy the shorts version I’ve saved as well.

I did get a little pool time this week…even though it was brief. Of course the one afternoon I could go, the pool closed early for a swim meet.

I’ve been on a reading roll lately…including listening to two audio books. I used my nine hours each way to KC wisely. Real talk: those are the first two audio books (The Office BFF’s and Birdie & Harlow) I’ve ever listened to…and they were both memoirs (ish), so that’s why I chose them. I’m still not sure I can focus and follow the plot of a book while listening.

Favorite dinner:

On Tik Tok a few weeks ago, I saw this simple recipe shared. I buy the “cook in the bag” pork loins pretty often, but this person took the pork loin out of the bag, added it to the slow cooker, poured in a can of beef broth, and a can of water and cooked on low for 6 hours.

Then, you do need to drain the meat, but we put it on sliders with some BBQ sauce, and shredded mozzarella.

This was my easy and delicious dinner the other night with a microwave baked potato and watermelon:

Favorite Mom Meme:

hahaha!

Bonus Fave: Flashback Friday

I love this memory from 2013. The kids shared a bedroom for their first 3.5 years of their lives. We had four bedrooms, so we turned their nursery into the guest bedroom, and then they each got the remaining rooms.

Hadley hugged Hayden goodnight and said, “See you next time!” before going to her own room the first night.

Weekly Recap:

I had a couple of posts this week:

Summer Sunday #2
Share Our Lives
Let’s Look

What are your weekend plans? I’m sure we’ll celebrate Trav on Father’s Day, and I hope to start crossing some things off my summer “to do” list and maybe get in a little pool time.

I hope to have another Summer Sunday post this weekend too.

Thanks for reading,

Posted in Family, Holidays

KC, CoMo, and NYE

Posted on by jgalvinwhite

Hello!

Well, we all made it to school on time yesterday. Again, the schedule and routine will be good for us, but re-entry is always difficult!

Last week, I shared a Christmas recap, and today I’m sharing about out of town Christmas and the second half of break.

The four of us celebrated Christmas the morning of the 23rd.

We also woke up to additional snow and negative wind chill temps. We enjoyed our morning at home and then prepared to go out of town. Trav’s family always celebrates on the 23rd, and then we were headed to KC on the 24th. Honestly, we kept hearing about the road conditions, some parts of the highway shut down, and more. It takes quite the effort to pack up the car with luggage and gifts, but once we did so that afternoon, we decided to attempt the drive to Louisville. Let’s just say that I was outvoted. Slow and steady was the name of the game. What normally takes 1 hour 15 minutes took over 3.5 hours. Honestly, we didn’t have an issues, but we saw cars on the side of the road, came to a standstill a few times, and more. I was relieved to get to Trav’s mom’s house.

We enjoyed our evening with them…always good food, games, presents, and dessert. We woke up on the 24th, dropped off Homer (He was staying in Louisville), packed up the car, and hit the road to KC. Once we crossed into Indiana, there were no travel issues.

Once we got to KC, we unloaded the car, showered, changed, and got ready to go to my dad’s cousin’s house. I always “joke” that we drive eight hours west to then drive about thirty minutes more because he lives in Kansas. Some of my extended family I only see once (maybe twice) a year. It’s always fun to catch up, there’s great food, some exchange gifts, and play a few games. It usually is a late night after a long day of driving.

Christmas morning, we opened gifts at my mom’s and then went to my dad’s. KC was expected to get some freezing rain/snow Christmas evening, so we went to my Gma’s for dinner, but it was a little earlier that normal. We opened gifts, ate dinner, and then played some Bingo. My kids don’t always want to play games when we are at home, but they always do when we are in KC.

Then, we were in KC for two more days. Honestly, we didn’t do much which was nice. One night, I actually got 11 hours of sleep. I was beat. I always wish we did more, and some years we go to Union Station, the Plaza, or ice skate, but we didn’t do much because the weather continued to be so cold.

Hadley made crepes one morning, and then my aunt and Gma came over to carry on the waffle cookie tradition. We use the waffle iron that we think is at least 150 years old. It was brought over from Germany by my great great grandfather in 1898.

The kids are really good at making these.

Hayden and my mom completed a puzzle one afternoon, and the kids played Scattegories, Jr. with my mom too.

We usually drive home after four days in KC. The kids didn’t know it, but we planned on stopping in Columbia, Mo. (literally right off the highway on the way home) because my Tigers were playing the Kentucky Wildcats. Since Columbia is only 1.5 hours away from KC, and it was a 6:00 game, that meant that we had a bit extra time in KC. We had a slow morning, went and visited my Gma again, packed up the car, had lunch with my mom, stopped by to see my dad and then hit the road to CoMo.

Once we pulled into town, we told the kids why we were there, and they both were excited. We found a parking spot right by the quad, and went to see the columns and Jesse Hall. We stop through CoMo every few years, so while this wasn’t the kids first visit to Columbia, they probably don’t remember much of the last time they were there.

The weather was beautiful that afternoon. A lady offered to take our photo, and I was clearly outnumbered in the black/gold to my three in blue.

Travis and I met in Columbia. He worked for Mizzou’s athletic department as did I my senior year. For many reasons, I love Columbia, but meeting him was a wonderful twist of fate.

We walked around a bit before heading to get some food.

Unfortunately, two of my favorite places were packed, so we stopped for nachos and a drink before heading to the game.

After dominating against a ranked Illinois team the week before, Mizzou Arena was sold out! I hadn’t been to this arena in years, and it was all of our first time attending a game there.

All I was asking for was a competitive game…

…and it was even better than I’d hoped with a *dominating* win for my team.

I joke that my family should be thankful that I’m such a gracious winner!

After the game, we drove on to St. Louis to spend the night. We finished up the rest of the drive to Kentucky the next morning.

NYE

I’m not a big NYE person, but some of our friends host a progressive dinner. The friends’ houses are close together and in our neighborhood, and they’ve been kind enough to include us the past couple of years.

One house has apps, then another house has salads, then the main meal, a dessert house, and ringing in the new year house.

Another friend and I helped at the main course house. We had beef tenderloin, Brussel sprouts, and I made potato casserole.

The set up was so pretty.

The kids were in and out of all of the houses, and Hadley snapped a group pic for us.

Like I shared yesterday, we also drew three words as our “words of the year.”

These were mine:

It was a great night.

As an addition to yesterday’s post and my interest in Enneagrams, @ashton.creates had Enneagrams for the new year…

5…

  • Night in
  • Traditional food
  • Bed by nine
  • To do lists
  • Reflecting
  • Netflix

6…

  • Sparklers
  • Small gathering
  • Sparkling cider
  • Midnight
  • Goals
  • Dreaming

Most of these are pretty on brand for me I would say.

What are your typical NYE plans? January 1 sure hits different when I have to go to school on the 2nd!

Thanks so much for reading,