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

totally target

As some of you may know, I am in love with shopping at Target. When I find coupon deals at target, I get pretty excited. Well, this week there was a diaper deal going on. I have so many diaper coupons that I've collected over my entire pregnancy from different places, and I scored big this time! I got these 3 packs of diapers and a pack of huggies wipes all for $13.50! The packs of diapers ended up being about $3.80 each! {I don't have the receipt near me, so this is the estimate} I was able to stack a $3.50, $2.50, $2.50, $2, $.75 off coupons to get the good deal! Lesson- never throw away coupons that aren't expired- I've had so many of these for over 6 months!

Lately my preference of diapers for Maggie Claire is Huggies, especially the pure & natural- I love those! The sale this week at Target was $8.99 for huggies diapers, and if you bought 3 you would get a $5 gift card! I already had target gift card money left over from Christmas, so I ended up not having to pay anything out of pocket, and I got $5 gift card. It was a win-win for me! :)

I snapped a picture of Maggie Claire while we were in line waiting to checkout. Then I compared it to her first shopping trip to target when she would sleep the entire time I would go somewhere!

Here is her at 2 weeks and 3.5 months. Oh, slow down baby girl- you're growing up too fast!!!

Don't you just want to take a bite out of those sweet cheeks?!?!

Have a fantastic weekend! :)

this is the life

Today we went for a little family walk & I snapped a few pictures. This one is my absolute favorite, I can't wait until the spring & summer when I can take more pictures outside of Maggie Claire! She loves being outside {just like her momma} and she loved being on the walk outside.

She just chilled in her stroller and was soaking up the fresh air! It was such a nice day to be outside, even though it was a little chilly- the sun warmed us up! Gotta love a sunny day! :)

p.s. today forever 21 opened up in downtown charleston! I can't wait to go next week and check it out! I have been waiting for one of these stores to come to Charleston & it finally has! Did any of you locals go today? I know they were giving away gift cards to the first 400 people to come through the door, I heard it was packed!

confessions of a shopaholic style

First of all, if you haven't entered the Springtime hairbow giveaway, come check out my blogstore and leave a comment to enter & win! It's as easy as that! :)

On Wednesday night was the big local consignment sale, Charleston Repeats, that I registered for about a month ago when I found out I was pregnant and heard about the spring sale! It was so much fun! I felt like I was in the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic, which I absolutely love that movie! Anyways.... if you read my post earlier this week, I was on the look out for a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag for a good price! I walked in and one of my friend's from church who was working the sale was holding it up for me! I was so excited & it was only $25! They normally retail for around $170 online! There was only one there and it happened to be a brown with some green & pink, kinda girly, but hey, maybe I'm hoping for a girl! :) If not, I'm sure I can sell it or just keep it for when I do have a girl! My mom said "maybe it's a sign that you're having a girl!" I told her that I wasn't convinced!

Here's the diaper bag, it's so pretty, it serves as a one strap shoulder bag, or it has straps where you can wear it as a backpack! It's in pretty good shape, just the inside needs to be washed!
I also bought a pink maternity bathing suit, it was only $5 and it's going to fit perfect! It's a tankini style, which will be perfect for working this summer! {I still haven't decided if I am going to get the swimsuit that I blogged about in January... I think I can pull it off while I'm pregnant, but we'll see!}

Other items I bought:

1. a brand new {with tags} black w/white polka dots motherhood maternity dress for $12

2. a little girls strawberry dress, new w/tags for one of my friend's little girl {if I have a girl, I know she'll let me have it back after her little one grows out of it}

3. a new baby float, You guys know I will be taking my little one to the pool all the time! :)

4. The Toddlerhood Transitions book that we'll need for the class that we'll be taking at church.

5. My mom bought me the black "family" frame! It's really cute.

My mom got so much good stuff too for all her little grandbabies!

1. adorable little table & chairs set,

2. she bought me this sling, it was brand new still in the package,

3. a really cute pretend grill set, I know my nephew Jack will love playing with that!

so much more stuff I can't even remember! :)

All my goodies! :)

Yay for my first baby purchases!!! :)

I fell into the trap.

I started looking at bathing suits in January. I just cannot even wait until this cold weather will be gone! Two weekends ago, I picked up my local paper to get my coupons, and there it was the beautiful target ad. The big red target sign attracts me no matter where I am at. I was just flipping through it and there was the bathing suit that I have been picturing in my head of what I wanted! I found one very similar to it last year, but I couldn't spend the outrageous price that it was just for the top was $42! That is just crazy to me! I like to get bathing suits for around $20-$30. But Maybe that is why mine always falls apart after a year of wearing it! lol.

Last week when I was in target picking up a few things for the house, I tried it on, and I LOVE IT!!!!!! I didn't buy it though because I thought I would be a little too crazy if I bought my bathing suit in January! It really is adorable! It is black with multi sized polka dots on it, It is a tankini and it has a cute ruffle on the bottom of it!!! I love anything with ruffles on it :) It also has straps that you can attach or detach, because it is strapless, and yes, I will be wearing the straps when we go to the water park! :)

I couldn't get a bigger picture of it, but if you would like to check out my potential bathing suit for summer 2010, here it is @ target.

I'm also not one of those people who "only wear tankinis or one-pieces." But, I work at a summer program with elementary aged kids & we go to the water park 3 days a week and are required to wear tankinis or one-pieces. I actually like the way I look in tankinis, so I don't mind wearing them at all! I don't have to feel like I'm walking around showing my goods to everyone! haha :)

I'm so excited about this warm weather that is coming up in the spring & summer!

I will be totally done with the cold weather after the ski trip{yay! I love skiing!} that we are going on with the youth next weekend!

Have a great rest of the week everyone! :)

twin baby girls, shopping, and friends!

The biggest news of the week is that Jenny had her twin baby girls!!!!!!! They are such sweet little miracles, and what a blessing from God!!!! Sadie and Rylan are such beautiful little ones that are already bringing so much JOY to so many people! :) I went to go visit Jenny in the hospital, but I didn't get any good pics, so I'm posting a pic of Jenny and me from this summer when she was pregnant! The girls were completely healthy and absolutely GORGEOUS!!! Jenny is going to be one of the best moms I know! :) She totally rocks, she even brought the girls to church when they weren't even a week old! Go Jenny for getting out of the house! :)

Today I went to Old Navy and I purchased 14 items of clothing all under $5 a piece! I found some amazing deals, and after taking 3 trips to the fitting rooms, I got some good steals! My total bill was $40! I also had a 15% off your entire purchase coupon, thanks to OldNavyweekly.com. I love getting coupons off there! You can't beat that! My favorite items that I go were 2 pairs of yoga pants for $2.50 each!!!!! I will definitely be rockin those at school when I want to wear something comfortable, and hopefully they will inspire me to start working out more.... We'll see how that goes! Here is my clothes piles of everything I bought! :)

I had lunch with some friends this week Carissa and Michelle. Here's some pictures of our fun outing at the mall. I told Christina I would post some pics of Stone! He is just getting so big, and he is going to be such a sweet big brother coming up in November!!! Yay! :)

Carissa' little boy Hunter is SUPER CUTE and I love his sweet CHUNKINESS.

Next, we had the Middle School ALL NIGHTER. It was Crazy fun, and yes, I did stay up all night long.... I was so out of it all night long, so I only took about 5 pictures and none of them really turned out good, and were not good enough to blog about, so I just decided to post this cute picture of my and my friend April. Both of our hubbys are in ministry, and I just love her. This was us last week when a bunch of us went to go get sushi after Groundswell on Wednesday night. We're in small group together and it's awesome! :)

Yesterday after I slept all day to make up for staying up all night from the allnighter I went to my friend's wedding from work, Alex and her new husband Scott. It was a fun wedding, the people I work with at Northwood are so crazy fun. I love it! I wore my new favorite dress too! (Purple just seems to be my color this season!). I took this group pic of all the guests that came to the lingerie party. So fun! :)

I have two weddings coming up this month that I am looking forward to: Kyndal & Jonathan, and Sarah & Billy! Lots of birthdays are coming up too, including Mike's!!!!! Lots of fun in OCTOBER!!!! :)

St. Louis Gateway Arch and bungee jumping in Mills Mall

These last two days have been full of adventure! Yesterday, we went inside the St. Louis Arch, and yes, it was very intense! As we stood in line for our way up, I actually realized how small these little carts are that we had to ride up. The ride up the arch was only 4 minutes, so how bad could it be?? There was seven of us going up, but only 5 could fit in one cart, so Mike and I broke away from the group, which is always kind of awkward because you have to make friends for 4 minutes while you creep up the arch in a cart that is about 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall. So we get in the cart, or "tram" as they call it, and here we go! There was us two and another couple in the cart and right before we left to go up, anarch ranger" hopped in our cart wih us. The ranger told us that he had been working there for 16 years, and he usually goes up the arch once or twice a week, to do a 2 hour shift up there. He also made us guess how many stairs there were going up the arch. The answer: 1,076 stairs to go up the arch. He was a very nice guy, making the ride up there with the strangers a bit less awkward. Then when we get up to the top of the arch which was 630 feet high, we get out of our small cart and go into the observation deck, which wasn't very big either. There were very small windows that you could look out of to see the St. Louis side, which had an amazing view of Busch staidium where the Cardinals play, and you could also see the Illinois side from the other side of the arch. One of my favorite things that you could see was the shadow of the arch from the sun shining on it! It was so much fun, you can spend as mich time up there as you want, and then just catch the next tram back down. Here are some pics from the exciting day! It was so much fun!

Today, we went to the St. Louis Mills Mall. Our little cousin Morgan, as you can see in these pictures is so adorable. She was telling us all about the bungee jumping in the mall, and the glow in the dark miniture golf. So we went, and Brittainy and I got talked into going on the bungee jump in the mall. All I knew was that I wanted to do some flips! I had never been on one of those things, and I will tell you what, THAT IS A WORKOUT!!! Especially doing some flips! Here is some pictures of us all, and of me doing flips on the bungee jump! Watch until the end, because I didn't quite make the third jump, I couldn't get my legs over fast enough!!! It was totally fun though!