just doing life together...

Every Monday night we have a life group that meets. We have been apart of this life group ever since we have been married, which has been a little over 2 years. Last year we started the tradition of going to the festival of lights in our town together as a life group! A couple in our group have family members who own absolutely charleston, a company who rents out big party buses for events and special occasions, and we got to have one for the night! It was so fun!

Here is me and Mike on the bus.... (this picture was taken with my phone, poor quality)

On another note, look how long my hair is! My hair hasn't been this long since high school! I guess this is what prenatal vitamins will do to ya!

Here is our entire group. Our group hasn't always been this big, three couples just recently joined in the past 2 months. Actually this was the first time that everyone was together- all 16 of us! The festival of lights is a drive through deal, where you look at all the lights, but halfway through you can get out and walk around and they have stuff to do. There are big fire pits to roast marshmallows, so we brought our own fixings to make s'mores & hot chocolate. {they charge way too much- like $1 for 4 marshmallows- rip off!} We really had such a great time!

This is the crazy sand sculpture that was on display at the festival. I told Mike to not take a picture of it, because it is just going to waste space on my laptop. So I decided to make the picture serve a purpose and show it to all of you- It is pretty impressive and it is huge! I guess I'm just not the kind of person that takes pictures of random things. I like pictures of people and their faces, not dumb sand sculptures! hehe.

Here is our entire group again in front of the trolley that we took! A pretty good looking bunch of people! I'll name everyone from left to right:

Travis & Lisa, Leland & Mary, Matt & Ashley, Joel & Annette, Garrett & Lauren, Robert & April, Stew & Ashley, and Mike & me.

Such a fun way to get into the holiday spirit! Have you done anything fun to get in the Christmas spirit?? We did put up our tree{s} this weekend... I'll post on that later!

the golden year.

Today is my golden birthday. I honestly had no idea what a golden birthday was until a few days ago. All I know is that I have been looking forward to this birthday for years! I am 24 years old on the 24th! This is such a special birthday for me because this is my first birthday of being a mom. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present this year, because Maggie Claire is the best present I've ever had! :)

Today we went to lunch and did a little shopping with some birthday gift cards that I got and now Maggie Claire is napping before we head over to Mike's parents tonight. What an awesome birthday it has already been spending it with our little family!

Happy 24th Birthday to me! :)

wedding fun

This post is a couple weeks behind, but we took maggie claire to her first wedding, and it was actually her first road trip to Columbia- about 2 hours away. She was an absolute champ & did great! It was a fun wedding with a lot of our friends there.

We were celebrating the new Mr. & Mrs. Dycus!

{Kristin and Zach}

Me & April {she was a bridesmaid}

Mike & his buddies

{Darrell, Curt, Robert, & Mike}

Family picture- all dressed up

{mc was falling asleep at this point}

hehe :)

Julie and myself

{friend from high school that I was super excited to see}

Me and Angela with our babies

{her little girl Jade just turned one! She is also expecting baby #2}

I'm 6 weeks old today!

Six weeks. Wow. I can't believe that it's already been that long! It feels like just yesterday I was holding you in the recovery room after delivery.

Today, Maggie Claire, you are six weeks old. You are a joy to be around and I thank God everyday for blessing us with YOU! You are such a wonderful baby, and you are doing great with everything! You like to eat and sleep, as I've said before, and you are still loving to take a bath! I can't wait to take you to the pool next summer- I know you will just LOVE it!!! I gave you a bath this morning, and afterwards I just held you and just wanted to smell that sweet head of yours that I just washed in Baby Magic. :)

You are smiling a lot more, and I took this sweet picture of you yesterday and you just kept smiling and laughing at me. I love all of your coos and grunts that you make. You will be talking my ear off befor you know it!

You don't mind other people holding you, and you like to sit with dad and while he watches tv and you just stare at the ceiling or other things around you. I left you in the nursery last weekend for the first time, you slept in your carseat until I came to feed you, and then some of the nursery ladies loved on you when I went back in to response time with your daddy.

You are slowing losing all of your baby hair, but you still have some in the back & on top of your head. I just wonder what kind of hair you will have when it starts growing back in!

{hopefully curly blonde like your mommy. hehe}

You really like your paci and I just got you a new cute paci holder, so now you are really styling! :) I like to dress you in black & pink alot, especially those black leggings. They look too cute on you!

I pray over you all day long, and I know God has big things in store for your life!

"For this child we have prayed... "

1 Samuel 1:27a

snail mail

Nothing is better than going to the mailbox & finding a package from a best friend! I got a package on Saturday & I was super excited to find all of these goodies inside!

There was a really cute and soft pink blanket w/brown polka dot trim, a package of three onesies w/animals on them, 4 pairs of leggings/pants, a flower headband w/rhinestones, a bag for me to put a few things in when I head out with mc and don't want to tote the entire diaper bag, a decorative wipes case that has a little bling on it, and my favorite: a sign for MC's room that says live life one cupcake at a time! How adorable is that???

This was all from my friend Christina and her two girls Olivia and Ella who live in Tulsa, OK. Oh yes, and I almost forgot about the stuffed mickey. Olivia just turned 3 and she loves loves loves Mickey Mouse, so she knew that maggie claire needed a mickey mouse! How sweet are they, and I can't wait for them to come to visit and meet Maggie Claire! :)

MC enjoying her new blanket with one of her onesies and new pants on!

On another note, Monday Mike and I were cleaning up around the house getting ready for small group and I laid maggie claire on the couch while we were putting things away. {don't worry, we were right there, and she wasn't going to fall or anything} Well, Mike looked over at her and she had flipped the pillow that was laying beside her with her hand on top of her head. It was so funny! She was just waving those crazy hands everywhere and kicking her feet trying to get it off! We moved the pillow back behind her and she did it like 3 more times! She was just having the best time with that pillow! I told Mike that she was trying to throw it at him, but she couldn't quite get it that far! hehe. Sooner or later she will be having pillow fights with him. she's practicing early!

Booginhead. that is the name of the paci holder that I have heard great things about, so I just had to get it for maggie claire. I recieved a few paci holders off my registry, but my friend carissa told me about the booginhead paci holder that both of her kids use, and she says it is wonderful! I got it in the mail yesterday and I have realized that I love love love shopping online! :) I want to do a lot of Christmas shopping online this year. Because I'm just not feeling dragging a baby out and about to go Christmas shopping with all the crazies out there!

Anyone else with me on wanting to shop online for Christmas presents this year?

Happy Wednesday! :)

Happy Birthday Mac!

Last Saturday we went to Mac's 1st birthday party! His mom is one of my good friends Anita, and Mac is just the sweetest thing ever! We tease about Mac and Maggie Claire getting married one day! Who knows- it might happen! Their family actually just moved away after living in Charleston for a few years, but luckily they only moved a few hours away, so a visit for a day is possible! :)

I took a lot of pictures at the party for Anita, so I hope you like them! :)

{I wish I would have taken more of everyone who was at the party- I was focused on getting a lot of pictures of Mac, I didn't take any of anyone else!}

the giant cupcake

I am in love with all things cupcake, so I decided that MC needed a cupcake picture with her cute cupcake sweater & her ridiculously large cupcake hairbow beside the cupcake.

This cupcake as you might have read about it before was made by my friend Tiffany. Didn't really turn out as I planned. Maggie Claire really didn't want to have her picture taken & she was tired. But looking back, these pictures make me laugh really hard. I thought you might enjoy them! and please laugh, because they are started out really cute, but then I realized this is ridiculous!

I hope everyone has a very fun filled Tuesday!

"This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!"

Psalm 118:24

1 month old

Happy 1 month birthday to my sweet baby girl!

Maggie Claire is 1 month old now, and she is just doing wonderful! She really is such a good baby! She loves to eat & sleep, and we are so thankful for that!

This weekend she had her first bottle, and did great! She has now had the bottle for 2 of her feedings, and both times she drank 3.5 ounces. We are very excited about her taking a bottle. I am so lucky to be able to pump & save up for us to be able to go on date nights & leave her with family while Mike & I go to small group or do ministry events together.

I'm not sure exactly how much she weighs, I'm thinking a little over 10 pounds.

She is eating every 2.5-3 hours, making 8 feedings each day. I have started to let her stretch at night at 4 weeks old, she normally will give me two 4 hour stretches, but last night she went 5 hours! She is on a feed, wake, sleep routine during the day and at night it is just feed and back to sleep. I was impressed with her sleeping 5 hours last night & looking forward to her sleeping through the night by 7-8 weeks old. I don't think we'll have any problems getting her to do that, she LOVES to sleep & I think she gets that from her mom & dad. hehe. :)

Her absolute favorite thing to do is take a bath! She loves it when I give her a bath, especially when her body{not her head, don't worry} is under the water, She coos and smiles the whole time! She likes wearing her headbands & hairbows, I think she just knows that there's not a choice, when it comes to that! haha. :)

MC sleeps well just about anywhere. She likes her carseat, crib & bassinet. She has slept in her bouncy seat & swing before, but I don't think she prefers them, I will normally put her in those when I'm taking a shower & I'll put her in the doorway where I can see her if I need to. I'm thinking she will start to like her swing more as she is getting older. This week, when I think about it, I'm going to get out her play gym and lay her underneath it during her waketime. I don't want to over stimulate her too much, so we'll see how that goes! :)

That's just about all the updates for her 1st month! We are just head over heels in love with maggie claire, and are enjoying life with her. I am so blessed to be her momma!

Maggie Claire's birth announcement

Floret Rose Baby Announcements

Shop custom birth announcements at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

oh what fun...

Yes! Christmas is right around the corner, so I am definitely already thinking about Christmas cards! I have been making photo Christmas cards ever since Mike & I started dating. People thought I was crazy giving out Christmas cards with pictures of me & my boyfriend on them But, I guess I just knew that we would be together forever, so now I love looking back on them every Christmas! This will be 5 years of doing Christmas cards together, and this year is extra special because we are now of course adding Maggie Claire to our family Christmas cards! Oh, I can't wait! This year I am thinking that I will be using Shutterfly's Christmas cards because of the great selection that they have!

Here are a few that I really like:

This is one of my favorites. I love how the brown looks so elegant and unique. I also love how the message of the card is Christ centered, exactly what Christmas is all about! Shutterfly has an entire collection of religious Christmas cards that are great to remind people what Christmas really is about! I also like how you can use 4 different pictures. I might have trouble picking 4 pictures to use though! I think the classic beach family pictures would look perfect in this card, if that's your style!

This is a fun Chistmas card and is one of shutterfly's flat stationary cards, which I really like because they are not printed on photo paper, which in my opinion makes the cards look more elegant! I also like how the "merry christmas" font is on top of the photo. Too cute!

These holiday story cards are also another option that I am liking! I've never done a letter that goes along with the Christmas card, but I think this is a great idea because you can tell all your friends and family everything that has been going on throughout the year! Plus, you can put 3 pictures on it! How cute!

Well, those are my top picks!

Have you decided where you are going to get your Christmas cards from??

november first.

hello november!

This is my absolute favorite month of the year, and not only because it's my birthday month, but I am just in love with the weather! Plus we are getting ready for all of the holiday festivities beginning with {my birthday is the day before thanksgiving} Thanksgiving and then coming soon there after... Christmas! I have already been looking at the Christmas decorations at Target and Walmart! hehe. Oh yes, and I remembered that I bought a mini pink Christmas tree last year before I even knew I was pregnant, and I can't wait to put it up in MC's room!

And now for some pictures of maggie claire... don't you just love the jean skirt?!?!

On Friday was Rocktoberfest {fall festival} at our church, and I dressed MC up as a ballerina. My friend Allison gave me this bathing suit with a tutu attached at one of my baby showers for MC, and I put a long sleeve shirt & leggings on underneath it for the festival, and there is her halloween costume! {It's really a 9 month suit, so there is room to grow for next summer} She was the cutest ballerina there...

My nephew Jack was a firefighter, and Tate was a dalmatian! They were so cute together! oh, and Tate... he was just too adorable... every time I would look at him I would just giggle because of how cute he looked in his dalmatian costume!

Me & my little ballerina!

Maggie Claire got to meet her aunt Brittainy this weekend too! It was Brittainy's birthday this weekend, so she came home from school in Florida to see everyone, celebrate her birthday, and meet maggie claire! {Brittainy is Mike's sister}

That's just about all the excitement going on around here! It's kinda crazy being a SAHM because there is so much to be done around the house... the laundry is piling up, there is baby stuff every where, there are dishes that need to be cleaned & put away, but all I have energy to do while MC is napping is sit on the couch in my pjs at 3:30 in the afternoon and blog. Well, at least I did take a shower today! :)

happy Monday everyone!