Favorite baby items

A tiny human uses a lot of stuff!! And I feel like my house has been overtaken by everything a baby might ever need! :) I wanted to share 6 of my favorite items that aren't the basics!

-MIRACLE BLANKET- It's a swaddle blanket that is seriously a miracle worker! I really think I have a good sleeper because of this blanket! I swaddle her in it during all naps and bedtime. We tried other ways of swaddling and this one is by far the best, in my opinion! Read more about the Miracle blanket HERE.

-MY BREAST FRIEND nursing pillow- This was wonderful for me when learning how to nurse a newborn! It was so hard for me to get comfortable and the boppy just wasn't doing it for me. I got it at Babies R Us for around $50 and even though I don't use it anymore, I think it's worth it for the first months of nursing!
-MOTOROLA VIDEO MONITOR- We were given this particular monitor as a gift and I LOVE it!! Not only does it have night vision, pans & zooms, it has a microphone to be able to talk to the baby. And it also has the temperature of the room which we have loved knowing. No matter what the brand, I think a video monitor is a necessity! :)
- NAP NANNY- We were also given this as a gift. I had heard great things about it, but little did I know that my child wouldn't sleep anywhere but in it!! With a reflux baby, the incline is amazing! For us, it is worth every penny!
- WIPE WARMER- My mom bought this and I told her it was not necessary and I didn't think I wanted one. She made me put it out and try it and of course now I love it!! I think Preslee appreciates the warm wipes too! :)
-Fisher Price Discover 'N Grow Kick & Play piano gym- I didn't think Preslee would be big enough at 2 months to play with this but she absolutely loves it!! When she kicks the piano keys, it plays music. She will lay on it and play for 20-30 min sometimes! This is such a fun play mat!!

Our hometown shower!

Matt and I were blessed with a hometown baby shower Sunday in Arkadelphia! Both of us had been looking forward to this day for quite a while. Matt's dad was the pastor of our church for 27 years before he passed away in 2005 after a battle with leukemia.

Over that period of time, we developed some very close relationships with many people at Third Street Baptist. And even though we haven't seen some of them in a long time, they showed up in big numbers to shower us with generosity.

And they weren't alone either. A lot of our family members and good friends from Arkadelphia also attended the shower. We had a huge turnout and were completely overwhelmed by all the gifts we received!

I guess they know how much I love sweets because there were lots of chocolate treats and some really tasty pink punch!

The diaper cake was too cute!! It was made for a Princess, topped with a tiara! :)

These were the cutest bloomers ever on the back side of the diaper cake!

Cute display of candies!

These cake balls on a stick were pretty much to die for! YUMMY!

I had actually seen this plate before and always thought it was so cute! It's extra special with that baby on top! :)

I thought this "Midnight Messages to Matt" was the cutest idea ever!

All the guests wrote special notes to Matt on Preslee's diapers.

Hopefully, these diaper messages will provide a laugh when Matt is groggy in the middle of the night on diaper duty!

Matt and his pretty momma!

She is so excited about finally getting a girl to spoil after having 2 boys!

I was so excited to see my sweet and long-time friend Kara! She coached me in cheerleading and gymnastics when I was in middle school!

She was also an EEE at Ouachita before I was, and she got Preslee this precious gown!! (The EEE sorority mascot is Mickey)

I'm not sure there are words to say how grateful I am for all these baby gifts! I was completely overwhelmed while opening presents for a full 2 hours! But it was SO much fun!

I mean come on....how could I not have fun opening cute things like this?!

Sweet Blaise was also there and helped me open a few gifts! She's excited about Miss Preslee coming and I can't wait to see Blaise and her brother Cabb with our sweet little girl!

My childhood best friends, Kristin and Tizzie helped host my shower! I love these girls so much and I never could have dreamed about the time we would all be mothers!! Kristin is due Jan. 9th with Miss Elliott and Tizzie is about celebrate Gus' first birthday on December 10th! I might cry when we finally get all our kids together!

After the shower, we packed up and headed home with a car full of goodies!! I was so exhausted but couldn't wait to get everything into the nursery!

I loved reopening all the gifts and reading through all the notes on the diapers!

This one really made me smile! :)

I almost don't want to use these diapers because they are just so funny!

It was the perfect baby shower that I had always wanted and we'll never forget it! Going "home" is always special but after the seeing all the sweet details of the shower and feeling all the love and support from our Arkadelphia friends, I'm really just so grateful for growing up in such a great town!

My 2nd baby shower!

Some of my best friends from college threw me a shower in Little Rock this past Sunday. We all went to college at Ouachita Baptist University. Most of them live in Central Arkansas so it was so fun to get together with everyone I don't get to see near enough!! I seriously had so much fun and loved all these sweet details they thought of to make my day so special!

My good friend, Stefan made this wreath! She has been so crafty lately! This wreath is now hanging on the nursery door and it just looks precious!

My roommate in college, Gracen, was so generous to host the shower at her house and she made this cute diaper cake! We had elephant decor in our dorm room and apartment in college so the gray elephant was such an appropriate decoration at the shower! :)

They know how much I love chocolate! And I just love seeing my little girl's name and initials on so many things!

My cousins, Suzy and Alex came to this shower and I was so excited to see them! They got Preslee her exersaucer which I am sure we'll be using a ton!

Emily and I don't get to see each other enough because she lives in Fort Worth! She is having a sweet baby girl at the end of December! (Luckily for her, my belly is totally covering hers! ha!)

My childhood friend Lauren surprised me with the Nap Nanny, which is SUCH a nice gift!! She said they wanted to do something special because I got stuck in the elevator at her wedding! Ha!

Matt later asked if they make Nap Nanny's in adult sizes because it looked so comfy! :)

Some of my pledge sisters! I wish we got together more often!! I have SO many wonderful memories with these girls!

How cute is this onesie??!!

Love this monogramed bib and bloomers! Our sorority colors were black and red so it was only appropriate for Preslee to get some red and black things along with all her pink stuff! :)

It was so good to see Kimbo and Jessica! I haven't seen either of these girls in over a year!

I am so thankful to have such sweet friends that already love Preslee so much too!! I had the best time putting away all the goodies I got from the shower!

We are blessed with so many friends and family who shower us with love before Preslee arrives! And we even have one more shower in our hometown! I am so grateful for all these sweet gifts for our baby girl!

Stroller

I have had the hardest time deciding on a stroller that worked best for us! I think I have decided on the Bumbleride Indie for these few random reasons...

• I wanted something with a good size storage basket! I have a bigger diaper bag and need room for shopping bags at the mall! haha! :)
• We are not big exercisers but we do walk Romeo and wanted something like a jogging stroller that would be a smoother ride than your traditional travel system stroller or umbrella stroller.
• Matt really liked the look of a 3- wheel stroller and it seemed easier to maneuver in crowds.

I am getting a Graco infant carseat and the snap-n-go stroller for the beginning while she is still so little. So this stroller will be for when she is sitting up in the stroller but if we choose, her carseat can go on this stroller too!

If you have this Bumbleride stroller and can give me any insight on it, that would be much appreciated!! I got to see it and push it at Buy Buy Baby and really liked it so hopefully everyone that has it likes it too! Any of you that want to know more about it can read more about it HERE.