springtime fun

Hi friends! I haven't been around on the blog much, but if you follow me on twitter, fb, & instagram, you probably can tell that warm weather is my love language! ;) We have been enjoying the outdoors maybe a little too much {hence my sunburn shoulders from the beach yesterday}! I just thought I would share some pictures of our fun times outside lately!

This is my new favorite picture of Maggie Claire! Seriously, the polka dots are killing me! I could eat her up! ;)

We were at the beach for our missional moms April large gathering this week, and had the best time! I love love love going to the beach, but when you go with your friends, it's so much better, and Maggie Claire had the best time!

Her strawberry swim suit & hat this year are just a bonus to her sweetness.

This was from a few weeks ago at the GFI Charleston Easter egg hunt. This was her official first egg hunt, and let's just say she picked it up really fast, as you can see with her basket full of 20+ eggs!

If you want to join me for some springtime fun, I'm hosting a playdate at wannamaker park this coming Wednesday, April 25th at 11am! We will be meeting at the sprinklers, so bring your kids in their swimsuits & a lunch, and we'll have some fun! If you have any questions, just email me hilarysurratt@gmail.com

Have a great weekend! :)

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!!!

pool girlfriends

Yesterday I met a couple of my girlfriends at the pool. My friend Carissa, has a little girl Sage, who is 4 months older than Maggie Claire. These girls are so funny, because they are both BIG TIME mama's girls! They sat at our feet the entire time and if we got up, they were watching our every move! Of course, I had to snap a few pics!

pool cuties

lunch time!

{carrots, strawberry apple puffs, and a slice of an apple}

I gave her a slice of an apple for the first time. I think she liked it because she thought she was a big girl. She chewed on that thing forever!

leftover carrots on Mags face. hehe.

I am loving all of these summer playdates! Invite us to a playdate and we'll come play & bring snacks! :)

Proverbs 17:17a
"A friend loves at all times"

summer fun with mags

Summertime is my ultimate favorite season of the year! {minus the 100+ degree weather we are having!} I love everything about the beach, pool, sundresses, getting a tan, popsicles, and slushies! Just trying to stay cool! I just wanted to post some of my favorite pictures that I've taken recently with my phone & a few from my camera!

I love getting Maggie Claire dressed in the morning. Her hairbows normally don't last all day in her hair, so I like taking sweet pictures of her playing in the morning after she gets dressed! ;)

She is definitely my baby girl, lovin' her some banana popsicles!!! We just came in from a walk in the stroller, and the poor girl was all sweaty, so I decided we needed some popsicles! I have a huge package of these banana ones, so I started feeding it to her and she just loved it! Then I was videoing her and she just took it from me and started going to town with it! hilarious!! She was so excited! I uploaded the video on youtube, you can watch it here!

Mags is at the baby food age right now and introducing solid foods is fun, but I sometimes get stuck and don't know what to give her! This normally means she ends up eating puffs or cheerios! Here she is with some little pieces of bread- she liked it, but then I think it was too dry for her, next time I'll do cheese toast! ;)

Last week we were suppose to have a playdate with some friends at their pool, but we left Maggie Claire's carseat in Mike's car that day which means we were left without a carseat to go anywhere! So... we packed up our pool stuff in the stroller and headed to the pool down the street! Here is Mags getting her sunscreen on! ;)

Our apartment pool is always SO DIRTY & packed with people who don't even live here, so we go to another apartment complex's pool across the street where there is NEVER anyone there and it's SO CLEAN!! {Hopefully no one will know that we don't live there!} :) hehe

We had so much fun and no one was even there! awesome- the entire pool to ourselves! :)

Do you like Mags' little hat? hehe- she somehow threw her hat out of the stroller on the way to the pool, and I didn't even notice until we got all the way to the pool, so I had to make-shift a hat out of her onesie. {We found the hat on the way back home by our apartment door}

What a little pool cutie!!!

Another fun summer outdoor activity we like to do is swing on the porch! We are going to have to find somewhere to hang our swing ASAP in our new house because of how much Maggie Claire loves her swing! Do you see her little baby doll that she's holding? She loves all her baby dolls right now, it's the most precious thing ever! :)

Here's our beach pics from last week when we went with a bunch of other ladies and babies for a beach playdate. Maggie Claire had the best time even though it was her naptime- she'll skip her nap anytime to go to the beach! She actually fell asleep the minute I put her in the car before I even had everything packed up! We had the best time!

This is Maggie Claire with her new friend Anson Mae at the beach. They were so cute playing together.

ahhh, I'm soaking up all this sweetness of me and my baby at the beach! ;)

So here's some of my favorite things that me and mags have been doing this summer! What are your favorite things to do in the summer?!?!? I'd love to get some more ideas!

ray of sunshine

There is something about the color yellow that just makes me smile. I love love love the color yellow. If you didn't know before, my bridesmaids wore yellow in my wedding. When you see someone in yellow, it should just brighten the mood. Especially when you see a cute baby like this in yellow. This is probably one of my favorite pictures of her ever. She lights up my life!

She is just like a yellow ray of sunshine. She will make you want a baby, she is so cute! ha!

"Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music."

Psalm 98:4

30 minutes

{This was written on Thursday, but as most of you can relate to, being a mom and blogging means being interrupted 20 times and never being able to finish & publish a blogpost. hehe}

Today I was able to get 30 minutes of peace by the pool. It was much much much much needed, and I am so thankful that I was able to at least get 30 min. It would have been nice if it was an hour or 2, but you get what you get, and that 30 minutes was bliss! I read a little from Building a Discipling Culture by Mike Breen after attending my first discipleship huddle today w/ other pastor/ministry wives. Meeting with a group of people that you can be real with, let your guard down, and be full of high challenge is so refreshing. What a great Thursday it has been!

pool fun :)

This week is spring break for the schools in Charleston, so that means I have the 3 kids that I watch plus Maggie Claire. I decided to do fun things this week, because nothing is better than having a week off a school and doing lots of fun stuff!

Yesterday we went to the aquarium and today we did the pool! It had been 2 busy days... now I need to figure out what we are going to do for the next 2 days, and I'll be good to go! {I'm thinking water balloons in the backyard might be fun?!?! hehe.} The aquarium was awesome, and these kids I watch are even more awesome because of how good they are!

This was Maggie Claire's first time at the pool. She loved it! She was just soaking it all in! I was too busy worrying about all the kiddos getting a sunburn, I wasn't even thinking about myself.... resulting in burnt shoulders and a burnt back, so glad my face didn't get burnt!

I got this new float for her on the way to the pool b/c I forgot ours at home and it was too far to turn back around. Needless to say, as soon as I was done taking this picture, it started deflating b/c there was a hole in it! I'm taking it back tomorrow and getting my $7.99 back, thankyouverymuchCVS!

As we were leaving the pool the glorious ice cream truck came rolling up, of course I couldn't say no, it's spring break for crying out loud! haha. I got the kids the firecracker popsicles, and I got the famous screwball. Screwballs were always my favorite thing to get as a kid, so I went for it... it was $2!!!! Seriously?!?!? It use to be the cheapest ice cream to get. I couldn't believe it, and it got a whole lot smaller! They don't make them like they use to! Plus, the 2 gumballs at the bottom were not even gum. They just kind of disintegrated in my mouth, it was really weird and very disappointing!

I am getting super excited about Easter coming up this weekend, and next weekend Mike's parents are coming into town for the weekend! I can not even wait! We miss them so much, I wish they were staying longer!!! We are also doing a special baby dedication for Maggie Claire next weekend. It will be so special. Her cousins Jack & Tate are getting dedicated too! Speaking of Jack... today he is three! His "Thomas" party is on Saturday and I'm sure it will be a blast! Happy 3rd birthday to my 1st nephew Jack! We love you!

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather! We sure are! :)

Maggie Claire's first beach trip

Today I took my baby girl to the beach. Just me & her, and it filled my heart with joy. The beach is seriously my love language- haha! I am looking forward to many many many more trips to the beach with her! It was a little chilly because of the wind, but the sun was warm, so I was able to take her out of the stroller and enjoy the sand & sun!

She was absolutely adorable at the beach & she loved it! She just was having the best time. It really was so fun just to sit & hold her and soak up these little special moments.

Her little toes got all sandy as she was kicking with her sweet little feet.

Ahh, this is the life! I love how all of these little pictures turned out!

I already know she will be a beach bum just like her mama!

"How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand..."

Psalm 139.17-18