miscellany

Maggie Claire has become really good at stalling for bedtime. She is only 16 months old and she has already figured it out! When she brings me another book and signs "please", how can I resist this sweet face? Yup, that was our stack last night of the 11 books we read. So blessed to be able to read books to her. Not to mention, I love the fact that she loves reading. I'm hoping she will continue her love for reading and books! :)

Silly girl, she was giggling while I was trying to take her picture before she went to bed in her crib. I just want to remember all of these sweet moments with her! :)

Mike's parents were in town this weekend, and every time they leave, I wish they could stay just a little bot longer! Maggie Claire getting some mimi and papa squeezes in before they left, so sweet.

And because I can never get enough of this sweet girl, here are some pictures from last week. She stacked the cakes all by her self and we told her to say "tada!" then tried to sweetly repeat it. There were a few really warm days in the high 70s and we celebrated with our first popsicles of 2012!

I had to put sunscreen on her after I realized her shoulders were getting pink. Then she woke up the next day in a rash from the sunscreen on her face, shoulders, and neck where I put the sunscreen. :( Looks like we'll be getting some Aveeno baby sunscreen or something for sensitive skin soon for her! This was taken right after she woke up drinking her milk cup. I was worried for her all morning, then I just started praying for her, and by noon, it was gone! Praise the Lord!

Another day last week, I caught her stealing my sweet tea outside! She tasted it, and then gave me a funny look, haha. silly girl! She only drinks water and milk normally, so when she gets something else, she is shocked! {she does have diluted juice too at parties, or if we are out at a restaurant and it comes with her meal, she's not deprived! hehe}

I am a lover of these fruit/veggie squeezes. They are easy to take places and Maggie Claire loves them! Beech Nut just came out with some, and they are only 98cents. great deal, b/c sometimes they can be up to almost $2! I was super excited when chickfila started putting them as an option in the kids meals!

One great thing about when grandparents are in town and wanting to watch Mags, I get out and do some clothes shopping! I had a gift card from Christmas that I hadn't spent yet, so I was excited! Here's me standing in line for the dressing room at forever 21. They really need to open another one of these in Charleston! It's always a mad house when I go in there! I got a lot of clothes for spring! I was excited! Now, I just need a tan so I can wear my new yellow dress! ;)

I'm linking up with my sweet friend carissa over at lowercase letters.

Happy Monday Yall! Have a great day!

"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

John 14:13

miscellany monday: moving edition!

It's closing and moving week!!! I drove by our house today and snapped this picture on the way home from a play date this morning with some wonderful ladies! It feels so good to see the SOLD sign! The landscaping needs some lovin' but that will have to come later! hehe

Only 2 more days until closing! It's Wednesday at 11am, so pray for it to go fast and smooth! YAY!

Last week, we went to lowes and picked out paint colors for our house! The cotton candy color will go in Maggie Claire's room, the serendipity will go all throughout downstairs {living room, dining room, and kitchen} and the gray frost will go in our bedroom. The bathrooms and extra bedroom will have to wait, these are on top priority right now!

Our living room is looking more like this, all boxed up, but there is still a lot of packing to go!

Last night Mike and I decided that we are going to give the BIG OLE' tube tv the boot. If you want it, come and get it, it still works! It takes up too much room, and it's pretty heavy. We already planned on buying a flatscreen tv on black friday, so until then, we will be tv-less! It'll be one less thing to bring into the new house. :) We don't have cable, so basically the only thing we use the tv for is to play the wii and watch DVDs. We can watch DVDs on our computers, so we'll just be without the wii for a few months. It'll be weird not having a tv in our new living room, but I guess it'll just be a sitting area until the end of November!

SO thankful for our new home! Now... I better get back to packing!

Link up your miscellany over at lowercase letters! :)

vacay, business & cuteness miscellany!

{*}Vacation here we come! We aren't traveling far, just 2 hours to a beach resort so we won't have to have Maggie Claire in the car for too long. I'm praying everything works out, and we don't have a vacation gone bad like last May when we missed our cruise ship. Keep us in your prayers as we travel! I am so giddy to just lay on the beach! This is our first vacation with Maggie Claire, so I'm hoping she'll do good sleeping some where else!

{*}If you didn't see my post yesterday... I've re-launched Paint, Bake & Create! yay yay yay! I'm in between jobs right now, aka: currently looking for a job! Sounds fun, huh? {if you know of anything, let me know!} Well, I've been working on my new Paint, Bake, & Create blog in the meantime & I'm open for orders. I love making handmade things... so head on over to the website and browse around! While you are there, leave me some comment love on what you like the best. Also, feel free to grab my button below! Thanks for your support & be on the lookout for a giveaway in the near future!

<center><a href="http://paintbakeandcreate.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="hilary surratt" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/hils4reals/buttonicon-2.jpg" /></a></center>

{*} I'm now considered a top mommy blogger! woot!

{*}high fashion leopard baby sandals. These are too cute for words! We were at target this weekend and I saw these and loved loved loved them. I was with my mom, she got them & will be wrapping them as one of Maggie Claire's 1st birthday presents. {The smallest size they had was a size 5... so she'll wear them later on!}

{*}Oh yea... I had to show a Maggie Claire pic of her in her adorable strawberry dress! I love this dress & I bought it right when I found out I was pregnant and I didn't even know it was a girl yet! {Of course I made her a matching hairbow!}

Happy Monday! Link on up to Miscellany Monday over at lowercase letters.

miscellany monday in may!

I had a fabulous 1st mother's day. I have the cutest, happiest baby around town, so this momma is happy! :) Here is us yesterday: me, Maggie Claire, and my mom! I am so blessed to have a super mom who I love and can hang out with all the time. Maggie Claire loves her too! :) We got my mom a handstamped charm necklace with the grandkids names on it. I got it from the silver sunshine shop on etsy! I love her stuff, I would love to get a necklace for myself now! :)

My adorable friend Brittany graduated from college this weekend, and I was able to make her some sparkle garland for her party! Congrats Birttany! Here's the sparkle garland for my friend brittany sparkle! {Everyone knows her by sparkle b/c she loves glitter like nobodies business!} You can follow her on twitter @sparklespice. I love her!

This is what my house looks like after every weekend. We are in Mount Pleasant{about 20 min from where we live} about 75% of the weekend, which means I am always carrying stuff in and out of the house, and by the time I get home on Sunday afternoon, I just want to put it all down and crash on the couch. so this is what my house looks like every monday morning! haha- and it still looks like this and it's almost 3pm! I better get to cleaning b/c my mom is coming over to watch Maggie Claire tonight, and I need to cook some food to take to small group!

Happy Monday everyone! Link on up with other Miscellany Monday posts!

More post coming this week on Maggie turning 7 months, paint bake & create relaunching, and MC getting spoiled by her grandparents from California!!! :)

favorite things so far about April...

• sonic happy hour- after a long day of being a "nanny", "babysitter", whatever you want to call it, I always hit up some happy hour sonic. I always have to hurry to get there by 4! I guess I have an addiction when the car-hopper recognizes me and says "the usual applies!" After he delivers my cherry coke. I think he remembers me b/c I once was heading into the ladies room at sonic carrying MC in her carseat and he was in there washing his hands! I don't know why, but he apologized like five times and said he was "restocking the toliet paper." really? that was just a weird. he could have propped the door open if he was "just restocking the toliet paper!"
• Playtime at the park- On Thursdays I attend a womens Bible study at my church and to close out the semester we had a celebration afterwards at a local county park. It was a lot of fun until Mags decided to give me a poop explosion out the diaper and EVERYWHERE- the stroller, her little friend that was swinging with her, my hands, and all over her clothes! We haven't had a blowout in a while, so I guess she wanted to remind me what it was like! Needless to say I had 2 naked babies at the park, wiping down and changing clothes! Thankfully, a sweet lady in my Bible study helped me get everything thing clean! Here is a picture pre-blowout {haha} that my sweet friend Katie took.

• oh yum. These came out at Zaxbys{one of my fav lunch spots} when I was pregnant and you better believe that I had a few while Mags was in the womb! Good news is... they came back out for a while and I'm not even complaining! I'm not a fan of the chocolate whipped cream, so I get mine plain- had one on Saturday and it was delish!

• enjoying time with Maggie Claire- She is just too much fun and I still can't believe how blessed I am to have her. I think to myself all the time "I can't believe that she's mine!"

• summer outfits- As you all may know, Maggie Claire has way too many clothes that her grandma{s} buy for her! Well, her summer outfits are my favorite! I had her in this ice-cream top from gymboree & her white jeans from oldnavy. Please, lets talk about how cute these white jeans are! hehe.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Monday!!!

Link up over at Carissa's blog for some more miscellany!

miscellany things i'm loving right now...

1. tollhouse cookie dough- I know it's not that good for you, it's not organic, and it's not that trendy made from scratch stuff. but it's goooooood. I like it like that! ha! I'll put 6 precut cookie squares in the oven while we are eating dinner, and then they'll be ready when we finish. yum yum!

2. maggies new swing- my mom(who had foot surgery this week & is doing great) got MC this playstar infant swing and we set it up last week. She absolutely loves it! We put one of her highchair/shopping cart covers in it to give it a little extra padding and she would swing out there all day if we would let her!

3. easter candy... Of all the seasonal candies easter is by far my favorite! I just had to pick up some starburst jelly beans when I went to target today {they were on sale!} Starburst jellybeans are definitely my favorite, this is usually all I ask for in my easter basket every year! :)

My other favorite {they are Mike's favorite too} are the reese's peanut butter eggs. They are so delicious! I picked up a two pack of these at the gas station the other night for me & Mike. I ate mine slowly and savored every bite- Mike just devoured his in probably 2 bites! ha- the differences of me & my hubby!

4. my new haircut! The last time I got a haircut was in August 2009. I blogged about that haircut too- you can see that picture & post here. Seriously- it's been over a year and a half, you could say I was in desperate need. I got it cut off on Friday & I'm loving it! {sorry about the bad webcam quality picture!} The best part is... it's still long enough for a ponytail- that was my only requirement for this summer!

On another note... my baby girl is rolling over!!! Did I mention she is 5 months old today? oh, and she has enough hair for a little hairbow clippy to fit in? {without a headband} ahh.... slow down baby girl!!! Be on the lookout for her 5 month post & pictures later on this week!

Happy Monday! Link on up over at carissa's miscellany monday!

monday! monday!

{1. back to work}

On friday, I went back to work{not full-time} to fill in for someone. I actually enjoyed working, making some money, and seeing all of my co-workers!

I sure did miss my sweet Maggie Claire though! I went home during my lunch break and was able to feed her for one of her feedings, but Mike gave her a bottle for her afternoon feeding. She did great at home w/daddy despite the fact that she is a total momma's girl! Since Mike doesn't work on Fridays, I am able to fill in if they need me while Mags stays home with daddy. :)

{2. milk trays}

My mom found these on the clearance isle at target. They are Sensible Lines milk trays to freeze breast milk by the ounce. You pour them into the trays and they freeze one ounce at a time. I thought they were pretty cool b/c I usually pump more than what Maggie Claire will drink, therefore... they might work for me so I won't waste the milk by freezing it all together! Has anyone else ever used these?

{3. blush}

I am seriously addicted to blush. I wear it everyday, and can never have enough. I get comments all the time saying "oh wow, you have rosy cheeks!" haha. Maybe they are trying to tell me... "you have too much blush on!" oh well! Maybelline's pinch o' pink is my absolute fav. My friend April always tells me "you gotta have your blush." hehe. My other go to makeup necessity is mascara. I have blonde eyelashes, so mascara is a must! :) I don't ever wear eyeliner though. I use to wear ALOT of it in highschool. I just kind of stopped one day though. Does anyone have a favorite eyeliner that they wear that I should try?

{4. valentines brownies}

Ohhh yes... I bought some of these goodies this weekend. I am such a sucker for holiday snacks. The seasonal section at Target gets me buying something everytime! I haven't opened them yet. It comes with 5 brownies in there, I thought that was such an odd number. I guess Mike and I will have to split the last one! haha.

{5. come on summer!}

You heard it... We are ready! Maggie Claire has her sunglasses and we've got our charleston county beach/park pass! This weekend made it to 70 degrees here in Charleston and it was wonderful!!!! I am looking forward to the summer more than I ever have before!!!

Happy Monday everyone! :)

I'm back: miscellany monday :)

I didn't realize that I haven't participated in miscellany monday ever since I've had Maggie Claire. It's time to get back in the swing of it!!! Link on up @ carissa's lowercase letters

1. sisterhood mornings

I started going to a women's bible study on Thursday mornings at my church this past week. It felt so good to go worship with a bunch of ladies and hop into a group! My group is starting off studying one month to live by Kerry & Chris Shook. I am super excited about it & I'm looking forward to fellowshipping with a new group of ladies! I have always done small groups, but I am normally a leader of a small group for teens, so I was a bit nervous going on Thursday & the funny thing was that I think I was the youngest person there out of over 100 ladies that came! Talk about having a lot of people to look up to... I am so blessed!!! Have any of you read this book?

2. warm weather please

I know I say this every year, but all I can think about it going to the beach this summer! March, can you please hurry up so I can go to the beach and catch some rays with my sweet baby girl?? Thanks. :)

3. baby jeggings

Maggie Claire got her first pair of jeggings from her Oma. Yes, they are so cute I just cant stand it!!! I can't wait to pair them with more outfits & some boots!!

4. high chair

I am looking for a high chair because before we know it we will be introducing solids to Maggie Claire and we need a good one! I need your advice on an affordable high chair! I would really like a chicco polly high chair, but it seems to be a little pricey. We do have one, it is a wooden restaurant style one from pottery barn. I just don't think it's that practical for our house for maggie claire. I'm going to probably bring it to my moms house and leave it there for when we come over b/c it would work over there!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Monday!!!

miscellany monday :)

Today I'm linking up with carissa's miscellany monday with all my random events that are happening!

1. I'm 32 weeks, only 8 more to go! woohoo! {hopefully less than 8 weeks, I'm not too excited about going into labor after my due date!}

2. my favorite pens. they are papermate flair marker pens. I love them and I am in need of some more, I plan on going to get some new ones this week! I use them mainly to write in my planner, but they are so colorful and they don't bleed through paper. aahhh-mazing! :)

3. school is in session! Today was the first day of school where I work {even though I wasn't even there today, I had to call in sick... blah blah blah}. I am a K2 preschool teacher, and there is no more water days. These are a bunch of the kids in my class enjoying water day last week. We are officially out with the summer schedule and in with the school schedule!
4. flash flood... turn around and don't drown! On Friday, we were on our way out the door, and it started pouring down rain! Our power went out and we weren't even able to leave our apartment because the entrances to our apartment gets flooded really easily. When the rain calmed down we were able to leave and meet our friends for dinner, but this is what we came home too! If you can't tell, the brown line was the flood line, we live on a small hill and the water was about 4 feet up the hill. You can see the debris line from where the water was! It was so crazy! I felt like we were having a hurricane coming through!

5. new blog design. If you haven't already seen it, I made a new blog design! I absolutely love it!! I designed the header myself, and I finally learned how to make myself a button with a grab box! What do you think?? Also, please feel free to grab my button and add it to your collection!

6. weekend full of baby showers. I attended two baby showers on Saturday and they were both really fun! When you are pregnant, you get to know a lot of pregnant ladies! haha, at Jessica's shower there were 5 of us there that were pregnant! My due date is just a few days ahead of Jessica, even though, I'm sure she'll deliver before me... this is her 2nd baby boy on the way!

Jenna, Jessica, Katie, & me {Jess Ray... you left right before we took this!}

I'm so glad we got this picture on Saturday, because today Whitney had her baby!!!!!!

Gemma Lane Randall was born tonight weighing in at 7 lbs 7 ozs 20.5 inches long

I plan on going to visit with her tomorrow. I am just too excited for her and can't wait to love on sweet baby Gemma! Gemma and MC will be best buds! :)

Courtney's baby shower... Whitney, Abbey, Courtney, & me

tomorrow my sweet small group friends are throwing me a baby shower and I am just so excited! I can't wait! My friend April keeps telling me how excited she is because her and Sara have so much stuff planned! ahhh..... I can't wait! Let's celebrate maggie claire!