South Carolina: The Beach

We had a blast at the beach! It was Zara's first time seeing the ocean which was neat, she took awhile to warm up to the water. We think the sound of the waves scared her more than anything. The water was so warm and we basically had the beach to ourselves just a few people here and there. The first couple of days we would get all of our beach stuff together and go play on the beach like we did when we were little, Dusty built sandcastles and we would take breaks to go play in the waves. Zara ended up eating a lot of sand and getting sand in her eyes so instead of playing on the beach we decided it was easier to just go for really long relaxing walks and look for sea shells. This beach had shells EVERYWHERE! We had fun looking at the beach houses while we walked and watching people fish in the ocean. We even saw a couple of dolphins in the water.

If you look close you can see a butterfly next to Zara's head, there were butterflies everywhere!

Zara's first time in the ocean, warm like a bathtub. 

Ended the evening with a beautiful sunset. 

Funny face!

Zara makes the funniest faces. Zara napping with one of her favorite toys......paper.

Totally zonked out.

All Zara wanted to do was pull his hair.

Walking home from the beach through the JUNGLE! This was when we realized that bikes are ALWAYS a good idea so we rented them the next day.

Zara and her sea shell.

South Carolina: The Drive

We recently got back from our first trip as a little family! Dusty was sweet and surprised me by planning a  trip to South Carolina for me for my birthday, we stayed in this little town called Edisto. He secretly emailed my Grandparents about about staying in one of their timeshares (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!) and figured out all those logistics kinds of things. We drove to South Carolina in two days and realized that driving was one of the funnest parts of the trip for us, no interruptions, just listened to tons of podcasts (thanks Collin for showing us how to listen to podcasts :) ) and read books and ate treats ( thanks Kassie ;) ). Zara did really great, actually amazing! It was the longest road trip of her entire life so far. 

The Smokey Mountains! Sometimes when I get bored in the car I take pictures of things through my sunglasses, it's sort of like an original "filter", these clouds are what I saw through my sunglasses.

We stopped for some food and Zara was diving all over trying to get her little figures on some fries. 

Snuggles with Auntie Kasey

Kasey and Collin were great hosts, Collin even made us waffles in the morning before we left!

Kasey and Collin surprised me with an Ice Cream cake for my birthday!!! It was delicious!

Kasey gave Zara this toy for teething and the boys thought it was hilarious for her to keep it in the back of her pants.

We knew we were getting close when we crossed this long bridge to get to Edisto, neither of us realized that Edisto was a little island till we got to the bridge. 

Pinterest Project: Quiet Book Lion

Zara is getting a quiet book for Christmas from her Grandma and Grandpa and I get to make it! I spent way too much time looking at quiet book websites, yes, they do exist and Pinterest looking for ideas and inspiration. I decided to try and make an animal book first. The first page is this little lion that has all different textures of ribbons for the mane. The pinterest version that I found doesn't actually link anywhere so I just used the image as a reference. I did some things differently than the picture. I looped the ribbon instead of having it lay flat, it seemed too time consuming to sew or melt all the edges of the ribbons, and I did some different stitches and also used totally different ribbons for the mane. 

Pinterest Project: Felt Garland

Garland is everywhere these days and I love it. I pinned this cute scalloped garland and used it as inspiration to make a colorful garland for Zara's room.

http://pikkupikkupisaroita.blogspot.fi/2013/07/vitosen-tapetti.html

I used left over felt that I've had around forever, I didn't even measure or use a stencil, just started cutting out little half circles. Then I piled all the colors up in random order and started sewing them together. It took about 10 minutes from beginning to end and I think it turned out pretty fun. I wish there was more bright pink but I was was working with what I had. 

Six Months Old

Little Miss Zara Mae is already six months old! Half a year! 

Zara, congratulations on surviving your first southern, hot and humid summer! You are getting so big. You can sit up really well on your own  and you enjoy sitting up while you take your baths now. You are eating lots of different kinds of food like peaches, pears, peas and mango's. You are turning into a little chatterbox and it's pretty adorable. You will string a whole bunch of sounds together and look at us like "did you get that? What do you think?". You are starting to scoot around on your belly across the floor towards things that interest you like remotes, wipes bags, or any sort of paper. You can finally sit in the cart at the store like a big kid, and it makes shopping much easier. You stick your tongue out all the time! It is so funny! Lately you like to gnaw on a slice of apple or a celery stick. We are having so much fun with you and can't believe it's already been six months! 

I'm the boss here!

Little Zara 3 months ago, what a difference a few months makes.