weekend recap {on a tuesday}

I guess you can say I started my weekend on Thursday and well, ya know finally getting around to telling you all about it on late Tuesday night. So here's how it went:

Thursday: I get off work and head to Columbia with this lovely bunch of ladies to go to our friend's open studio and shop around for some lovely products! Talk about a fun car ride- seriously I think we need to go to Columbia more often together girls?!?!

Carrie, Katie, Jessi, April, Abbi, and me

We were all there supporting Jessi, over at naptime diaries :)

Friday & Saturday we just hung around the house because Hurricane Irene was coming! My goal was to get a picture for Maggie Claire's birthday invitations. She is such a squirmy girl so it is hard to take pictures of her! Here's a sneak peek- There were also balloons involved! :)

Sunday was Maggie Claire's 1st ever "girlfriend birthday party". So fun and so adorable! It was a baby pool party for Gemma! Gemma's mom is my friend Whitney and she throws the best and most beautiful parties and showers! Seriously! I was sad when we left and I realized I didn't take any pictures of all her cute decorations. I did get these little sweeties in the pool though. Gemma is in the yellow and Maggie Claire is in the pink.

We were inside cooling off and Maggie Claire wanted to hang out with her newest friend Elle. It was more like Maggie Claire wanted to kiss her! precious!!!

maggie claire, gemma, and elle- they haven't gotten the hang of "squeezing close to your best friends and smiling." They'll get it some day! hehe.

me and whitney with our babies- I can't believe they are turning one! Gemma is 6 weeks older than mc. I told Whitney that we have to coordinate our next pregnancies together so that we'll have babies the same age again! :)

That's all for now! I've got to tell yall about my double stroller story... that's another blog post! stay tuned! :)

does summer have to be over?

I started a new "nanny/caregiver/babysitter" job last week. Can you tell I'm having trouble what to call my new job? hehe. It's 3 days a week, but it's 10 hour days 730-530, so it's a full time job. The little boy {he's 6 months old} comes over to our house so it has been great and so nice because Maggie Claire can stay on her schedule and nap in her crib. I'm just so blessed to have off on Wednesdays & Fridays! Especially because Friday is Mike's day off, so we declare it
"friday family funday" along with a lot of other families who work at Seacoast.

Since I started this new job we have had less time to soak up the sun at the pool or beach, but are still trying to as much as possible. On Friday, we set up Maggie Claire's baby pool in the backyard and let her play in it. She is just like her momma and loves to be outside. Can't you tell? She loves to cheese at the camera...
I really would like to go to the beach some more before it gets too cool outside, but luckily living in Charleston, you can go to the beach just about anytime up until November! Hopefully this weekend {if the hurricane doesn't hit us}, or next weekend we'll be hitting up the beach. :) What I do love about school starting back is that going to the park is way more fun because it seems to be less crowded. I'll be taking both babies to the park a lot in the fall. :)

Since summer is winding down, the fall brings a whole new season of life that we are starting back up including our Thursday morning Bible study! :) We are doing a Priscilla Shirer study called SEEDS, which I am definitely looking forward to! Also- it's starting to be birthday season! All of Maggie Claire's friends are having birthday parties-starting this weekend, and then it'll be Maggie Claire's 1st birthday in about 6 weeks! I'm trying to prepare myself for this- I am definitely not ready for my baby to be 1 yet. Good thing we still have 6 weeks.

Well, I'm looking at the baby monitor and looks like Maggie Claire is ready to get up and eat some lunch, so I better get back to mommyhood. It's very rare for both babies to be sleeping at the same time, so I was soaking in this blog writing time. Have a great Tuesday everyone! :)

California Trip

We had the best time in the beautiful state of California! We've been home for 2 weeks now and I am finally getting back into the swing of things. It's more like the "new swing of things" being in out new house! ;) I wanted to share some pictures and show you all the exciting thing we did on our trip.

Here is Mags playing peek-a-boo with my new hat. She is so funny playing this, and it makes her laugh every time she plays it.

This place was so awesome. This "beach club" was in my in-laws neighborhood. It was a pool, but it had sand like a beach to play it. I'm not sure if I had more fun or Maggie Claire did playing in the sand!

We went to a couple of places where there were petting zoos and this lama{I think that's what it was} was just looking at MC and it kept doing its lips funny! It actually never scared her, she just kept looking at it like "what is this thing?!?!?!"

sweet mags swinging in the swing. Look at her precious sandals!

MC petting a goat at the petting zoo. This goat had weird eyes!

mimi sherry helped her not be scared of any of the animals, because you know this mama is not an animal lover!

We went on a little train ride too, Mags sat with mimi and papa. They had the best time with her, we were so sad to leave!

OK, yall! Maggie Claire road a real pony! This was the most precious thing ever and she loved it! She didn't even hold on the entire time- my brave girl! She really had no idea she was even on a pony! I was so paranoid the entire time she was going to fall off- as you can see my hand in the picture right behind her, as Mimi Sherry walked the pony. The pony's name was Dan. how cute! Afterward when we were taking pictures, she was so proud of herself. We got it on video too. It is the cutest thing! You can watch the video on youtube here!

Nothing says California like going to in-n-out burger! I'm not a burger gal, but it was delicious!

Mike and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary while we were in California! We went on a date that included riding a ferris wheel, shopping, and eating at the cheesecake factory. We had a great time, and I got to wear my newest favorite dress I bought at ross for $12.99! :)

it was a perfect night with my love!

Of course we went to the beach while we were there. The famous, Laguna Beach! We came here on our honeymoon and it was so neat to come back and enjoy it 3 years later as a family of 3. We also went to Balboa Island one day and that was fun too!

Mimi & Papa had Maggie Claire lots of toys and fun things to do at their house including this adorable fun hippo pool that she absolutely loved!

mags with her glamorous mimi sherry!

Looking forward to coming back again! Luckily, I have some really great in-laws who have a beautiful place for us to stay, so vacationing to California will be a regular event for us! We really did love it, and most of all we loved visiting them!!!

10 month pics & updates!

Our baby girl is 10 months old!

She turned 10 months while we were in California on 8.7.11!

Maggie Claire- you are growing up soooooo fast! Look at her sweet face- I am so in love!

I don't have any stats this month, but I know she is growing and gaining weight, because she is getting so heavy to carry! The girl likes to eat, I am wondering how much she'll weight when we go for her 12 months.

Having Maggie Claire fills my heart with joy! I can't not look at her and smile! :) Even when she is doing the wrong thing- I just have to turn my head and giggle. What a baby doll she is! She amazes me by how smart she is and I seriously just want to kiss her face all day. She doesn't let me obviously because she would rather play!

This picture below cracks me up of the two of us! She is giving a thumbs up and she has what I like to call a "Mike face", where she looks just like her crazy daddy!{he makes that face sometimes} We just laugh so hard every time we look at it! hehe

What is Maggie Claire up to....

• busy crawling EVERYWHERE and getting into anything she can!
• loves opening and closing cabinets & doors
• she can pull up on her knees, but hasn't pulled to a standing up position by herself yet.
• eating more table foods & still likes all her baby foods. It's so much easier to give her table finger foods because I can eat too and I don't have to feed her! :) But... that is just another sign of her growing up :(
• Her favorite table foods right now are grated cheese, black beans, & crackers
• she now has 2 teeth! Her 2nd tooth came in while we were in California. That was pretty exciting because her mimi sherry got to witness her 2nd tooth coming in! :)
• she is growing out of all her 6-9 months clothes and only wears 12 month clothes now
• size 3 diapers
• this has been such an exciting season for us because of so many firsts: airplane ride, visiting grandparents in California, moving into our first home as a family, and many more!
• still nursing 4 times a day- the weaning process is starting in a few weeks. :( I am sad because she is my baby and it's hard seeing her grow up so fast, but it will be nice not being pregnant or nursing- I'll be a free woman! :)
• She loves her new house! Her new room is pink and has a little tykes kitchen in it, and she loves it! Well, the only thing she can really do now is open and close all the doors and take all the play food out of it.
• Her hair is getting so much longer too- its actually curling up in the back- sooooo sweet! :)
• her first word is "hi" or "hey". It is so cute. She will say it to me or Mike when we walk in the door
• she waves bye bye & claps
• her newest thing is to dance! She sways side to side when there is music or we start singing to her. It's so cute!

WOW! slow. down. baby. girl! I just ordered a few party decorations today for her 1st birthday party. It's less than 2 months away!

We love this baby girl and are BLESSED to be her parents! :) Thank you for lighting up my life mags!

it's been a while...

Well, it's been 2 weeks since I've blogged! We've been super crazy around here, ya know moving into our house, trying to get settled in, Mike was at youth summer camp, and we just got back from a week vacationing in California with my wonderful inlaws. Saying we were a little busy would be an understatement! hehe. Well, here are some fun things that I've been wanting to blog about... I started this post before we left for California, but I never finished it... enjoy! :)

My new beach hat! I have been wanting one of these big floppy straw hats for a while, and when this one was on sale at a beach shop in CA, I snatched it right up! I love it! :) This was on our anniversary, August 3rd, after we hung out at laguna beach for some fun in the sun.

This little summertime baby is just like her mama, she loves popsicles! In the afternoons, I've been taking her outside to play in her baby pool and I let her share a popsicle with me. She loves loves loves it! She also turned 10 months this week! gasp... she is growing up too fast! :)

Since she turned 10 months old, I began planning her 1st birthday party! It's going to be cupcake/polkadot/zebra theme... and it's going to be FUN! I got these adorable cupcakes in the mail last week as a taste tester for Mags party! They are from Anita's Sweets & Treats and they are too cute! On top of all the cuteness, they are so delicious! You should go check her out here!

Along with decorating our new house, we went to Ikea while we were in CA to check out some things we want to get for our house like a desk/workspace for me, a tv stand for our tv that we haven't even bought yet, and I found this adorable laptop support that I want to get! The closest Ikea to us is in Charlotte, so we have to plan a day to go there and shop, hopefully sometime soon!

garden flag- since becoming a homeowner a little over 2 weeks ago, I am on a buying frenzy. I love getting little things for my house. I've been really wanting a cute garden flag. They had a huge selection at the craft store the other day, but nothing really stuck out to me to buy. So I started searching online. How cute is this one? The tutorial is over at the vintage qwen. She seriously does the cutest stuff and has inspired me to possibly make a garden flag!

iced animal cookies- you know I love me some target. well, when these pop up in the dollar section, you know I get some! hehe. Mike was out of town the week before we went to CA and I was just sitting in bed on my computer eating them! bad habit- good thing he's not gone very often! ;) Speaking of Target... I had no idea there were Targets with starbucks in them?!?!?! When we were in California, I walked into Target and HELLO! There was a starbucks! Apparently this is normal for some people, but not in Charleston! I have to drive out of the way to get to a drive through starbucks. Life would be easier if I didn't have to get Maggie Claire out of the car to go to starbucks, but when it's attached to our favorite store.... AMAZING! :)