Hunting Island

It's been so cold here. I know you are all thinking "well duh, it's winter" but our little southern blood can't handle the cold. The flu and other illnesses are making their rounds. I HATE when Brynn gets sick as I'm sure most of you mamas understand. So we've been laying low and kicking it at home to avoid the germs but the cabin fever is getting so real y'all. 

By Sunday Brad could tell I needed to get out of the house decided we would hop in the car and head to Hunting Island State Park. It was a little bit of a drive but we've kind of become pros at road trips. This time we spent our drive going through questions on the app "Gottman Card Decks" since we timed it so Brynn would nap the whole drive! We haven't gone through all the decks but we really like this app, and it's great for couples to get to know each other better. Absolutely recommend this app as a tool for building a better relationship with your spouse. 

The drive was so pretty and we were absolutely in love with Hunting Island and the light house there. Such a fun little day trip. We had fun walking along the beach with all the driftwood trees and Brynn loved collecting shells and rocks (she stashed some in her pockets that we discovered once we got home). This area got hit pretty hard by Hurricane Irma but we were still in awe of its beauty. The facilities there are so nice and clean and we are sad that we are just now discovering this gem. We will be returning!! 

Target Haul

If you are anything like me you walk into Target with only one thing on your list and walk out with a million other things and end up forgetting the one thing you went in to buy. When I go to Target I ALWAYS have to stop in their little dollar section. Which if we are all being honest here, most things are $3-$5 now but that section has some great stuff. I was expecting it to be all Valentines Day stuff but I ended up finding some great things for Brynn and thought I would share with my fellow mamas! I immediately sent a text to Brad saying "I'm just going to go ahead and apologize for all the money I'm about to spend at Target" because let's be honest Target takes all my money.

I realize that all of these items could be made super easily but let's be honest when I have down time I would rather take a nap or binge watch The Office on Netflix! I can't be the only one?!

Anyways, the first thing I found was this little mail set. Guys, I am obsessed. I love that Brynn will be able to use this for a few years. I am planning on buying one of those little mailboxes so that she can put the envelopes in there. I laminated the letter cards so that they will be more durable and so she can re-use them again and again.

The next thing I found was this little bubble gum machine which was perfect because I'm really trying to work on teaching Brynn her colors. Brynn loves matching the colors!

Another fun learning tool is this cute little cookie and oven for number recognition. This is too advanced for Brynn right now but she still loves putting the little cookies on the pan and putting it in the little oven.

The last thing I found was this adorable finger puppet set! They had a farm and zoo set as well (I'm trying to convince Brad I need to go back and buy them, haha). Brynn loves it and I love hearing her make the little dragon roar!

I love that with most of the things I found she can play with them now and later they can help her to learn as well. I love seeing what other people pick up at Target so if you've found something recently that you are obsessed with share with me because chances are I'll make another target run just to get that item! haha.

Embrace

Last year in addition to making 3 goals for the new year I also chose a word/phrase to focus on. My phrase last year was "be present". This was something that for me personally I really needed to focus on. I had found myself mindlessly scrolling social media instead of enjoying the time with family and friends. I would pack my calendar as full as I could which ultimately lead me to not being able to focus on a task at hand because my mind would be running a million miles a minute just thinking of all that I had committed to. I knew that needed to change so I made "be present" my motto for the year. I am not going to sit here and tell you I was perfect at it but I did get better about putting my phone down so that I could create better memories with my family and friends. I stopped saying "yes" to every little thing so that I could be present physically and mentally for the things and people who matter most to me. 

I saw a difference in my life because of that little phrase and knew that I wanted to pick a word again this year that would help me improve as a person. I bounced around a few different words and I kept coming back to the word EMBRACE. 

2018 is going to be a big year for us, full of lots of change. It will be full of ups and downs because let's be honest, every year is. I'm not always great with change. I can be kind of a control freak so when things don't go according to my plans I tend to freak out and the anxiety kicks in. 

That is the main reason I chose the word embrace. I really want to focus on WELCOMING all the change instead of freaking out about it and getting stressed out.

Embrace also means to take or clasp in the arms, to encircle, to surround. These are all things I want to focus on when it comes to my loved ones. With all the tragedies and illnesses in the world, I want to truly embrace my loved ones. I would hate for something bad to happen to someone I love and always have to question if they knew how much they meant to me. 

I would love to hear what your goals for the year are (I'm still working on coming up with mine) or if you also have a word/motto for the year and feel like sharing, I would love to hear (maybe I'll even use it in the future!)

Southern Snow Day

Wow! I can't believe I haven't blogged since May. That's probably the longest stretch. Shame on me. Anyways, here we are welcoming 2018!  I believe this year is going to be full of all kinds of magic. For starters, we got snow here in Charleston yesterday. Yes, you read that right. SNOW in CHARLESTON. All day long my mind was blown. Never thought I would see palm trees and snowflakes together.

We had a prediction of snow for a little over a week and I kept thinking yeah yeah yeah, that's never going to happen. Well Wednesday morning arrives and we had a little play date with our neighbor in the morning. Once they left, we started getting a little sleet and I thought that would be it. Just a little bit of ice.

Well I put Brynn down for a nap around noon and then I look out the window and I see HUGE flakes falling from sky. I sit there thinking okay it's snowing but there is no way it's going to stick. Well as the next hour went by it really started to stick. The news predicted us getting 2-4 inches but nothing more. You guys we got 6.5 inches of snow.

When Brynn woke up from her nap we took her out to experience snow for the first time. At that point we only had about half an inch on the ground but it was coming down hard. Needless to say she hated it. She would stand so still and just cry.

I snapped a few pictures just to document the day in case that was all we got and it melted fast. Thankfully, we got more snow as the day went on and we decided to take Brynn out again. Brad showed her how to pick up snow and throw it and all of a sudden she was in love with it.

We played for a little bit and then came back inside and spent the rest of the day sipping hot chocolate and reading books.

When Brynn woke up this morning she ran to the window and saw the snow and said "snow, play, let's go" and ran to put her boots on. So we bundled her up and went on a little adventure around our complex. It still blows my mind that we got snow here but I loved the extra time we had with Brad and the memories that we made!