s u m m e r☀️

My mom is a teacher, my little sister is finished with her junior year of high school (omg just now realizing she will be a senior) and my fiancé has weekends off so that leaves our summer nice and open for some fun! We are so blessed we are able to spend it together and this will be our first summer with Presley. Wahoo! It's crazy-when you have a baby suddenly the word "first" feels proper to place in front of...well...pretty much everything. EX: first time at a restaurant, first time at a movie, first summer, first pair of pink pants, first EVERYTHING. 

I've put together a to do list: summer edition :) best to do list EVER! 

1-SPLISH SPLASH! Buy a baby pool for Presley and watch her splash around in the water. 

2-GARDEN TIME! I would love to start a garden. Nothing fancy. I will start small because I can't keep any plants alive. When I say garden it will probably be more like a single flower or something...but it's something I think I will enjoy and Presley will too! It will help teach her the value of hard work and caring for something. 

3-VACAY! Summer just wouldn't be summer without a little vacation right? We are traveling 8-9 hours to a small town in New Mexico to visit some family! And in July we are going to San Antonio to sea world! I'm 22 and excited about seaworld...judge me. (Although I am a little conflicted about seaworld because I've seen blackfish and I kind of want to boycott them. However, if places like that did not exist we would not be able to experience God's beautiful creatures. Kind of a selfish concept.) There is a zoo about an hour and a half away from us and we'd also love to visit that! So if any of you have advice about traveling with an infant...lay it on me!

4-COOK! The ratio of recipes I have pinned on Pinterest and the amount I've actually attempted to cook is ridiculous. It's like 600 to 0. Now that I've got the time I would love to pick one meal weekly and try it :) and I'll also start small with this one too because I'm no chef that's for sure. 

5-ARTSY FARTSY! I have a baby girl and I have never made a single bow for her....isn't that CRAZY? This summer I want to make all kinds of bows to match her cute outfits! The girl has more clothes than I do! Maybe paint some mason jars...melt crayons on a canvas...get crafty! 

6-CELEBRATE! I have a friends bachelorette party and a few weeks after that I have ANOTHER friends bachelorette party/bridal shower/lingerie shower. And both their weddings are this summer which I am a part of :) YAY! Father's Day is in June and Garrett made my first Mother's Day a very special one so I will make sure his first Father's Day is just as good! My brothers birthday and Garrett's birthday is in July. My sisters birthday is in August. And every day I am alive is a reason to celebrate! Praise God.

7-GARAGE SALE! I recently went through my closet and Presley's closet and found we both have a whole bunch of stuff we don't ever wear! I'm not a very organized person (I'm a little better since becoming a mom) but it felt nice to have our closets nice and clean. We've also got some cool knick knacks we just don't have a use for anymore so I'm ready to get those out of here and earn a little bit of money for it!

8-VBS! One of my friends and I are teaching the 3 year old class at vacation bible school this July and we are both so excited to fill kids minds and hearts with the knowledge of God's love! The theme is "Agency D3. Discover, Decide, Defend" it's like the kids are spy's on a mission to discover decide and defend the word of God so it's going to be pretty fun!  

9-GET FIT! My friends and family always joke about how I'm going to be the skinniest person with the worst clogged arteries because my eating habits are so unhealthy. I want to change my diet and get myself some muscles ;) 

10-BOOM! I don't know about y'all but my favorite part of summers as a kid was getting to watch and play with FIREWORKS! I still enjoy them I think they're so pretty! I'm excited to spend 4th of July with Presley and see if she loves them as much as her momma :) or if they will just scare her...

•hope you guys have the best summer yet• 

 

Just a lil bragging

Have you ever ran into someone you haven't seen in a while and felt obligated to have an awkward conversation filled with small talk and long pauses?? If you said no you're lying. 

During my pregnancy and since I've had Presley I am back in my small hometown and most of my friends from highschool are away at college and I haven't seen them in a while. One of my closest friends had her bridal shower today, actually she had her lingerie shower and bridal shower today, so I had the privilege of seeing so many of my old friends TWICE in one day. I haven't seen some of them in so long! And it was nothing like your typical "Oh hey! How's school? And life? Oh that's cool okay bye!" type conversations.....it was G E N U I N E conversation. With genuine people at that. 

Here's another question for ya-have you ever sat and thought about how different your life would be if your path wouldn't have crossed with a particular person? If you said no AGAIN, you're lying. As I was sitting there enjoying myself and the company I was surrounded with I really just felt so blessed!!!! Even though I had not seen some of those people in so long it didn't matter. Because at one point our paths crossed. God brought me to them and them to me. Friendships were built, memories were made, and they've lasted. And I just feel.........blessed. 

So yeah I basically just wanted to brag about how awesome my day was and friends are. :)

This is the bridal party which is such a GREAT group of girls. Love em all! 

 

Baby activities

Before I had Presley I was a "I like babies I just don't want one of my own...." type of person. I just always thought to myself "What do I do with it?" Haha. Obviously, my opinion has changed quite drastically! I love being a mommy :) but for those of you out there who are freaked out by babies and wonder what the heck you're supposed to do with them I thought I would put together a list of activities you can do with a 4-6 month old! It's around this time that holding them feeding them and nap time just doesn't quite entertain them anymore. 

1- peek a boo! Babies have an "out of sight out of mind" way of thinking so when you play peek a boo it's like magic to them! You're disappearing and re appearing. They love it! 

2-read to them! I know you might feel silly reading to them when you know they don't even know what you're saying but they love to hear your voice and see all the pictures.  And all the different voices you make while reading help them learn conversation.

3-socialization! Letting your little one be around people, animals, other babies and toddlers may be a scary thought for some of you! It was for me. Mostly because I'm super paranoid that anytime someone touches Presley she will get sick. (That has not happened) she loves to be around other babies and animals! 

4-spilsh splash! Presley loves all things water. She's loved baths since day one. One of her other favortie things to do is sit on the bathroom counter and watch me turn the water on and off! 

 

5-cuddle! Our family doctor has not let me live this down....throughout my pregnancy I always said "Presley will never start sleeping with us." I'm eating my words now. (sorry I'm a cuddler.) They're only little once! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. 

6-playtime! Believe it or not...your baby does like to be put down every now and then. This concept took me a while to understand. Haha. Presley loves her bouncer, play mat, vibrating chair, chewing on her toys, playing with her piano, and tummy time! She also likes when I stack objects and knock them down. Playtime is the best way to keep a baby entertained! 

Of course there are many other things you can do such as go for a walk-babies love the outdoors. Or nap. Everyone loves a nap no matter what age ;) take a drive in the car, listen to music...Presley loves to be sang to. Gonna be a music junkie like her momma! Let them look in the mirror! All sorts of things. Just remember that everything is so new to babies so it honestly doesn't take much to keep them entertained. It just takes a little thinking outside the box!