Happy Valentines day!

Today we are going to hand out flowers at a nursing home with a few friends. I'm taking two cute kids with me! Here is some pics of Maggie Claire in her Valentines shirt! She is too cute! :)

Happy Valentines Day from our family to yours!

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:30-31

thanksgiving week

My house has been decorated in fall things, and I love it! {the Christmas decor will be coming out tomorrow, can't wait!}

Since my 25th birthday was on Thanksgiving this year, we had a lot to celebrate this past week!

I made a "happy thanksgiving" banner and place setting cards for all of our family coming into town to spend thanksgiving with us!

Last week I told you guys about my birthday present... and here it is! A new "monogramming/embroidery" sewing machine! I have actually been putting all of my paint, bake, & create business money that I've been making lately towards this machine, and then Mike surprised me the other day and said "oh, I ordered your machine and it's coming tomorrow!" Of course, I started flipping out and waited anxiously by the door all afternoon. I still have a lot of learning to do, so I am telling myself practice, practice, practice! :) I have seriously already almost lost my salvavtion over this machine, but it is coming together and I am loving it!!!

We found out this week that Maggie Claire likes corn on the cob- just like her mama! she was so cute eating it and did a pretty good job at it too!

Will and Maggie Claire enjoying a ride in the wagon. They are so precious together, and Maggie Claire loves him so much!

This picture of MC makes me laugh so much. Since she is walking now, I always seem to catch her with this serious determined face, love this sweet girl and I am so thankful for her!

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving weekend {we sure did!} My in-laws are leaving to head back to California today, we sure enjoyed having them here! The best part is, they'll be back for Christmas! yay!

****Also- My sister-in-law, Bethany, will be having my new sweet baby girl niece, Sophie Grace on Wednesday, if not sooner! I'll post all kinds of sweetness when she makes her big debut in this world!****

beatin the summer heat!

I am loving this sweet summer girl! We are soaking up all the time at the pool & outside that we can get! Maggie Claire loves being outside, even if it feels like 100 degrees! Our 4th of July weekend was so good! I bought Maggie Claire this little pillowcase dress from a friend of mine who makes clothes, it is so cute! It says "Future Miss America"! hehe, precious!!

Maggie Claire thinks its so funny when Mike puts on his sunglasses... she was just laughing at him! She cracks us up!

We had a family 4th of July party at my moms on Friday night and it was so cute seeing Maggie Claire play with her cousins, Jack and Tate. Tate and Maggie Claire are 4 months apart, and he is a lot faster than her, but they are so cute playing together! Here is a picture of the 3 of them... they are all VERY busy, we couldn't get a good shot! hehe, but they sure are cute in their red, white, & blue!

Our family 4th of July picture!

me & mags

She loves the outdoors! As you can tell in the picture with her cute grin & chubby cheeks!

This next picture is my favorite from the entire weekend, because we went on a family bikeride! We bought one of those baby seats that attaches on my bike, and we rode to our new house!!!! {I'll post on that later this week!!!} The house is exactly 2 miles from where we live now, so that was quite the bike ride this afternoon of 4 miles! Maggie Claire seemed to like it, I think she was a little nervous about the whole thing after I took her over the curb which made her bounce and she didn't like that! I tried not to drive too crazy with her on the back! I'm sure I'm going to be sore tomorrow from riding! Can't wait to take her on it again!

All weekend, we wore red, white, & blue to celebrate our freedom in the United States!

God Bless America! :)

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

John 8:36

here's the tooth!

I finally got a picture of Maggie Claire laughing where we can see her tooth! What a little cutie!

Can you tell we are excited about 4th of July?!?! haha! I love 4th of July! I've been decorating the house a little bit & we are going to have a little 4th of July party at my moms house and I am super excited! :)

I've made some 4th of July hairbows to sell over at Paint, Bake, & Create, so jump on over, check them out, and order one! :)

Happy 4th of July week! {yes, we'll be celebrating all week long!}

wordless wednesday: ready for easter

will you me my valentine?

She sure is one cute valentine!

:)

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??

weekend 4th of July fun!

This has been one crazy 4th of July weekend! Mike flew in late Saturday night from Guatemala!!! YAY! It has seemed to be a long week without him here {and my hormonal pregnant-self!}. On Sunday we planned to go out on the boat with his parents and watch some fireworks in the harbor! We had such a great time!
I had never watched fireworks in Charleston from a boat, so that was a fun experience! Here's me just enjoying the show! :)

We were on the boat from about 5:30 to 11pm! It was a long night!

Mike and I enjoying the beautiful view!

We found this hat floating in the harbor that someone had lost, we rescued it, and Mike wore it just about the entire night! It was kinda funny!

So thankful that we live in such a beautiful city!

On Friday, before Mike came home, my sister-in-law and brother invited me go with them to the beach at night with a bunch of her family who is in town from Ohio. It was so fun, and my nephew Jack was so funny about the beach!

Jack loved digging in the sand, while Tate is in the background just chillin in his car seat! :) It was Tate's first time at the beach!

As soon, as we got there, Jack started lifting up his shirt saying "shirt off", he obviously wanted to get in the water, but when he got close to the water and the waves were coming, he would run away from the waves! It was also pretty chilly to get in the water because it was the evening.

Me & Bethany

Sweet little Jack :)

I'm so thankful that Mike is back in town, and we get to hang out and enjoy some time together! We both have Monday off, and Tuesday I have off too because we have an ultrasound and I have to go and take the famous pregnancy glucose test. yippee! {definitely not looking forward to drinking that nasty sugar filled drink!!}

I hope everyone has had a great 4th of July and enjoying this time to celebrate America! :)

fun on the fourth

We had a fun fourth of July this year! I was excited as you read in my earlier post of Mike and I getting a picture together with our 4th of July attire on!

In Nitro this month it is CRAZY July weekends and that weekend of course was to wear All red, white, and blue, because it was fourth of July weekend! After church on Saturday night, there was a Party at church with hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, and lots of fun! We hung out with our friends and family, and watched all the crazy kids go in the jump castles.

After the party, we did our own fireworks at Mike's parents house with his family, and our friend Roxi. We had a blast, and our grand finale was the "pink diamonds" fireworks! We liked the name, so we picked those up! we did have my favorite 4th of July accessory, SPARKLERS!

*Our first married 4th of July*

P.S. Our 1 year anniversary is coming up VERY soon! (2 weeks and 3 days to go)

Happy 4th of July

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy 4th of July! I love 4th of July because I LOVE LOVE LOVE sparklers (as you can see in the picture above)! We bought some tonight for the 4th of July party tomorrow that Mike and I are going to after church. I am very excited about the party because my family is coming, and a lot of my friends are coming! If you don't have anything to do for the 4th of July, after the 6:15 service at Long Point, we are having a party! I hope everyone will have a safe 4th of July, and don't get stuck on IOP for too long if you go see the fireworks out there! The traffic is always so bad!

Also, this will be Mike and my second 4th of July together, and last year we didn't get any pictures together, so it will be fun tomorrow at the party and I will be sure to take a lot of pictures! The first 4th of July (2006) we were dating he was in St. Louis with his family, and in 2007 I was in Costa Rica on a missions trip, and last year I didn't take pictures!

Today my mom and I both had off work, so we went to the waterpark with Beth(sis in law) and Jack(my nephew). This was us eating lunch, and the second one is Jack eating some oreos, which he loves! We had so much fun! :)

Here are a couple of pictures of the 4th of July in 2006 when my best friend Stephanie lived in Charleston, she has moved to Florida for the past 3 years for school. We went all out the night before, we made halter tops out of tshirts, we painted our toenails, and bought over the top accessories, it was a lot of fun, and we got some great shots! :)

Stephanie, me and Allison

Bethany and myself in 2006

PS- Our trip to Guatemala was AMAZING! I will be blogging about it soon, with a lot of pictures!Thanks for your support and prayers!

Valentines day and LOVE!

Since tomorrow is Valentines day, I decided to do a post about some things that I love!

Here we go!

• Sweet tea, Mt. Dew, Cherry Coke
  
• blonde bobby pins


• list pads!
  
• my nephew Jack


• funfetti cake with rainbow chip icing


• throwing any kinds of parties!


• Penelope from SNL


• painting


• scrapbooking


• anything with polka dots or monograms on it!


• glitter


• Seacoast Church


• blonde haired babies!


• any red heads!


• taking pictures of everything


• pizza, Olive Garden and moe's!


• Baking sweets


• Most importantly my HUSBAND and his sarcastic self, which makes me laugh!
  

Today Mike and I are celebrating Valentines day because tomorrow we are going on a ski trip with the youth group! So much for speninding time together on our first married Valentines day! It's ok though, today I made pizza for lunch and put the pepperonis on the pizza in a heart shape! Tonight we are going to Olive Garden (my absolute favorite restaurant) and using our gift card that we got for Christmas! YAY! I'm so excited. because Mike and I are on a budget we decided to get eachother some of our favorte drinks! I got him a six pack of bottled Dr. Pepper, and tomorrow morning I will be getting my favorite drink from Starbucks; which is a strawberries and cream frap with no whip cream! I am so excited, because I don't ever go to starbucks due to the hi prices! Yay for Valentines day! :)

Christmas in St. Louis and Mike as Santa Claus!!!

So, here I am sitting in the basement of Mike's grandparents house in St. Louis! It has been so much fun! We drove up here the day after Christmas, leaving at 6am and we actually arrived around 630pm! Even though we did gain an hour, we still made the drive in less than 13 hours! When we arrived, we hung out with family, and just relaxed. The next morning we woke up with good smell of breakfast coming down into the basement suite, which is where Mike and I are staying! All the family came over, and then we did Christmas with them. Mike's 2 cousins, Ryan and Morgan, who were in our wedding this summer were over and it was fun watching them open all of there gifts. Mike and I recieved a $25 gift card to Olive Garden, $25 gift card to Chili's/On the Border, and 2 $25 gift cards to McDonalds(one for each of us!) from his grandparents, and a few sweaters and jackets from his aunt and uncle! We made out pretty well this Christmas with the date night giftcards!!! Yay!!!After opening presents, and then taking an afternoon nap, we headed of to mike's mom's entire family get together at the Senior Citizen hall in Illinois. It was VERY Interesting! There was a water fountain at the Seniors hall that had a sign above it saying "PLEASE! This is a drinking fountain!!" We don't even want to know what people thought it was in order to put the sign out on it! Maybe someone used it as a bathroom one time!?!?! haha! Anyway, every year Santa Claus comes and gives presents to all the children there. It is usually one of the older men that dresses up in the Santa suit, but this year, somehow Mike got talked into being Santa Claus! haha it was so funny! His job was to come through the front door saying "ho! ho! ho!" and ask the children if they have been good this year, and then give them the present that is in the big red Santa bag! So, he did, Mike came through the door with a big "A Christmas Story" "HO! HO! HO!" He came and sat in the Christmas chair, and called out the names on the presents and the kids came and sat on his lap and received their presents. After all the presents were gone, a little girl came up and gave Santa a present that she had made. It was a book full of clippings of Santa Claus, it was so sweet.

Another great thing here in St. Louis is the famous QuikTrip convenient store. They have anazing slurpies and drinks all for great prices! If you haven't been to one, you need to go!!! Here are some pictures from all the festivites here in St. Louis, and I'm sure there will be more posts from here in St. Louis later!