Beach Trip

Last week went to the beach with my family for our first vacation of the summer. My mom, Eliza, and I were the only ones who stayed for the whole week, but everyone else was in and out. Ryan, my Dad, and my brother and sister came for both weekends, my mother in law and my aunt came during the week, and my grandmothers came the last weekend of our trip. Some of our family friends let us stay in their beautiful house in Debordieu for the week, and we can not thank them enough for their kindness. Thanks Nanny! :)

Warning: this post is picture overload to the extreme, but in my defense, I was trying to document every part of Eliza's first time at the beach. She loved the sand and hated the water at first, but she eventually warmed up to it. We had such a great trip, and we can't wait to go back and do it all over again next week. I promise I'll take it easy on the pictures this time around!

House Happenings

Hey y'all! I'm still working on a post from our beach trip, but until I can get those pictures up I thought I'd give you a little update on our house. Not too much has changed on the inside since the last time I posted pictures, but the exterior is really coming along. Ryan assures me that we are still on track to move in at the end of July or beginning of August, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Simplify

Hey friends! We're back from the beach and getting back into the swing of things. I'm trying to catch up on things around the house and getting ready to do this all over again next week. We're actually going back to the beach with Ryan's family for a few days and then on to the lake with my family. We lead a tough life. :) I'm working on a post from our beach trip, so I'll back soon with lots of pictures.

On another note, I am so excited about moving into our new house. The closer it gets to being done, the more real it all becomes.  However, if I've learned one thing from being in a small apartment for the past few months, it's that we have a lot of "stuff" that we can do without. A lot of our belongings are in storage, and while there are times that I wish I could get to some of our things, I realize that we don't really need them. I am going to try to remember this when I start buying items for our new house.

This post may come back to haunt me later. I can just hear Ryan now: "Remember that post you put on your blog when you talked about how don't really need all this stuff." Ryan, you are not allowed to hold this over my head! 

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Happy Father's Day

Okay, so I lied in my last post when I said that we wouldn't be able to get the internet at the beach. Ryan brought his wireless card, so we have internet access for a couple more hours until he leaves to go back to Greenville.

I want wish Ryan, my dad, my father in law, and my grandfather a very happy Father's Day! Ryan, you are such a wonderful father to Eliza. I love the way she lights up when you walk in the room and I love watching you with her. I am so proud of you and I love you very much! Thank you for everything you do for us!

It's Official

My summer vacation begins today! We are leaving for my family's beach trip this afternoon, and I can't wait to spend an entire week doing absolutely nothing. We won't have internet access, so I'll be taking a blog vacation as well. I hope you all have a great week and I'll see you when we get back!

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Summer Reading

My summer break starts in just a few days, and to say that I am excited is an understatement. I love to read, but just don't have a lot of time to during the school year. I usually read somewhere between five and eight books every summer. I already have a pretty good list going for this year. 

1. One Thousand Gifts

2. House Rules

3. Devil in the White City

4. Same Kind of Different As Me

5. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

6. The Poisonwood Bible

Baby Must-Haves (6-8 months)

I've had this post written in my head for weeks now, and I just haven't had time to actually get it done. This is a really busy time of year for me because school is coming to an end. While most schools in the state, and the country for that matter, are out for summer break, the school I work at is still in session. We have one more long, painful week left before we can celebrate being finished.  Our school district started late  this year because of construction, which I thought was awesome at the time, but we're paying for it now. I even have to work tomorrow!

Anyway, enough of my ranting. I wrote a post shortly after Eliza was born about some of the products that we found especially helpful. Now that she is a little older, our list of must-have has changed. Here are some of the things that we have been loving over the few months.

Baby Signing Time DVD 
Eliza loves this DVD. She likes the Baby Einstein DVDs as well, but for whatever reason, she seems to like this one better. Every time I turn it on, her face lights up. I will look over at her, and she will be giggling at the TV screen. I have memorized every one of the ridiculous songs from this DVD because we watch it over and over again.

 

Shopping Cart/High Chair Cover
This cover has been great for going to the grocery store and out to dinner. When Eliza first learned how to sit up she was a little wobbly, and it made me feel better to have  some sort of cushion in the grocery cart and/or high chair. It's also good because Eliza like to eat everything, so this cover had made trips to Publix a little more sanitary. :) To be honest, I don't really like the strap on this brand because it's kind of a hassle, but the actual cover has been nice.

 

Angel Dear Lovie
These are the snuggliest (is that a word?) little toys. Eliza has a couple of lovies, but this pink giraffe is her favorite. She sleeps with it every night, and I know this sounds crazy, but when she is upset about something, and I give her the lovie, she seems to calm down a little bit.

Plum Baby Dispensing Spoon
There are other brands of this spoon out there, but this is the one we use because Eliza eats this type of food. It is great when we are out and about because it fits right on to the bag of food and it doesn't make a huge mess. 

Sophie the Giraffe Teether I know a lot of people like the bigger Sophie the Giraffe teethers, but this mini one has been great because it's easier for Eliza to hold on to. I don't know what it is about these things, but children love them. Another plus with this smaller one is that it's cheaper.

Baby Einstein Jumper
We got Eliza this bouncy seat for Christmas, and she was really too little to use it then. Around five months old was when she was big enough to play in it. I think she could entertain herself for hours in this thing. It is hilarious to watch her when she gets going in it. Now that she is crawling, I'm afraid to take my eyes off of her, so if I need to walk in another room for a minute I just put her in the bouncy seat.