Mom-Spotted Giveaway: Contours Bassinet, Three Wheel Stroller, or Tandem Double Stroller

That's right!  Mom Spotted is offering this amazing giveaway.  You can win your choice of a Contours tandem double stroller, a Contours three wheel stroller, or a bassinet.  This would not only be perfect for any mom out there who needs a little something special and new for their baby but would also be great for someone who wanted to have an awesome shower or new birth gift for any of hteir friends.

If you are curious as to what these products look like I will share some pictures with you.

Controus Classique 3 in 1 Bassinet in neutral or pink



Contours Options LT Tandem Stroller



Contours Options Three Wheel Stroller



 

Things I'm Thankful For

I'm starting something new to try & be more upbeat & positive.

1. Having a healthy & happy immediate family

2. Being able to spend so much time enjoying my mom & dad

3. Unexpected friendships

4. My church family

5. Women that I can look up to as positive role models

6. All of my great friends

Christmas Traditions

That's right I'm preparing for Christmas, making my shopping list & doing everything I can to start getting gifts out of the way.

I have a few Christmas traditions & I will be blogging through the holidays.

Tradition 1--Santa does not wrap! After an unfortunate incident with my oldest when he was three & questioned why Santa & mommy had the same wrapping paper I decided Santa was no longer going to wrap.

Tradition 2--handmade stocking stuffers, that's right I'll be making some of my kids' stocking stuffers. This year I plan on painted letters to spell their names in their new rooms & initial photo ornaments.

Tradition 3--a new one! Instead of having an Avent calendar I will be placing twenty four books under the tree. I will start youngest to oldest & we will open a new book each day, Then we will read a story before bed each night.

Christmas Eve Tradition 4--new pjs to open

Tradition 5--Santa brings one gift, mom & dad give one gift, & you get a gift from each sibling.

So I am preparing for many things. I'd love to hear what you are preparing for.

Recipe--Delicious Cheesy Stuffing Side

Okay so this is definitely not considered "home" made in my opinion but when you are in a pinch for a side and you need something this is so yummy!!

6 Tbs butter, melted and divided
1 box chicken flavored stuffing mix
1 can of Progressive starters in any flavor that you choose (I prefer the parmesan basil one)
1 pckg cheese slices (I used swiss!)

Preheat oven to 350.  Pour 2 Tbs butter in the bottom of a glass casserole dish.  Spread half of the stuffing mix over the butter.  Lay the package of cheese slices over the top of the mix.  Pour the  can of Progressive starter over the stuffing mix.  Pour the rest of the stuffing mix over the top and drizzle the remaining 4Tbs of butter over the top of this.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Not only is this delicious it is so simple and something we all can do in a pinch when we need a side to serve at the last minute.  It would be good for you women out there that have hubbies who call last minute for entertaining as well.

Review Brenda's Bows

Brenda's Bows is an adorable shop on Etsy that has a variety of products that you are sure to love.  I am super excited about the bow board that I was sent to review.  It has killed me to not hang it yet but with the repainting happening as soon as it is less humid I was determined to wait.  I just didn't want to have to fill an extra hole.

You can probably tell from all of the bow reviews or the pictures that I have posted that I am a bit obsessed with finding cute hair goodies for my little girls.  I love having girls, getting them all dressed up, and coordinating hair goodies with their outfits each day.  I don't ever like to have to be without something for them to wear in their hair.

First off I feel compelled to mention that there are hundreds of different bows in her shop.  Yes that is right there are hundreds of products to look through.  This can be a bit overwhelming when you are looking but if you are searching for something specific and use the search option, chances are you can find it here.

She has literally every type of bow that you can imagine included korkers and puffs.  I love the colors of this Happy Birthday Loopy Puff.  The puffs start at $4 and the korkers start at $6 for a set of two.



Pony O's are a great choice for girls who wear pony tails on a regular basis.  There are options for most sports and some that feature popular characters, like Mickey Mouse.  Miss Althea loves ballet more than anything else and wants to grow up and be a "beautiful ballerina" so I had to share this one.  One great thing about these is that they retail for just $5.  How awesome is that!!



She also has a variety of hairclips and bows, being that I rainbows I figured that this one was appropriate to show you.



She can create a variety of headbands, some of them from ribbon so I am sure if you have special needs that you could make requests with her as Brenda was fabulous to deal with when I was going through the process of obtaining the awesome bow board.  She really does have a great selection of bow boards and bow holders like this adorable purple caterpillar.



Here is the adorable one that I received.  I love many different things about this.  First of all I love that there are hooks to hang Adeline's headbands from.  No other bow holder that we have has these so they are a great touch.  In addition I will be able to hang the pretty hair ties that we have from this and I can still hang the bows from the ribbons in the middle.  Plus it is going to blend nicely in one of the girl's owl themed rooms.  I am so excited to be able to hang this up and am seriously bummed that I am not able to use it yet.

 

 

Brenda has even been adding some clothing and tutus to the shop.  These skirts are super cute and just $15 and available in a variety of different sizes.  Plus there is now an area in which she has added some baby goodies to the mix too.

 



 

Review Choco Venyl

Choco Venyl is amazing little Etsy shop that I found as I was considering how I was going to redecorate my home.  I have an adorable owl bathroom in the upstairs of my house and this lovely company has sent me some of the best decals that I have seen.  They are actually made from thin layers of cloth and are not made from the standard material that other decals are made out of.

I also think that these are some of the cutest decals that I have seen.  If you are curious as to the rest of the decor in my bathroom it is from this line.

Now here is the fun part for me.  Choco Venyl has a ton of additional amazing decals for your home.  All of them are made in this same unique fashion.

I think that this Princess and Castle piece is something that is unique and beautiful.



These hot air baloons are awesome too. 



Of course, as with most of the shops that I feature, Choco Venyl has a ton of additional things that I would love to get my hands on.  You should head over to their shop and tell me what you think about their products.  I'd love to hear what you have to say about them.  Tell me what your favorite is.

Friday Fun Facts, Thanks Sugar Plums and Lollipops

So I was checking out one of the newest blogs that I follow, Sugar Plums and Lollipops, and I saw this fun little survey.  I thought that my readers would enjoy reading this as much as I did and finding out a little bit more about me.  So here goes.

This is simply a random questionaire.

1.  If you could speak 3 different languages in addition to the one you speak now, what would they be?
1.  Spanish
2.  Mandarin
3.  French

2.  When you are board what do you usually do?
get lost on Pinterest, catch up on Facebook, blog, read, or write...it's not often that I am bored thanks to being mommy to four amazing and active children

3.  Are you addicted to anything?
Powerade Zero and Gatorade G2 and currently Oreos :)  This changes all of the time.

4.  What song is stuck in your head right now?
"Waste" Phish (feel free to listen if you are interested)

5.  Ever have a prank go wrong?
I know that I have.  I am trying to think of an instance that I can mention on here (keeping it family friendly folks).  When I was a kid I pranked around with my brother and told him that he was adopted all of the time.  If you saw the two of us together you would understand just how completely absurd this really is.  Anyways he actually had nightmares about being adopted so this was probably the worst thing that I have done in my life in the form of a prank gone wrong.

 
Here is my brother for those of you that are interested.


Here I am...as you can see we look quite a bit alike!

6.  Favorite lollipop flavor?
My favorite flavor of lollipop is probably the charms caramel green apple.  Yummy!!

7.  Favorite pizza topping?
I have two
1.  thin St Louis style crust with tomato sauce, almonds, roasted garlic, spinach, broccoli, ricotta, parmesan and provel
2. thin St Louis style crust with garlic and olive oil, walnuts, blue cheese, mozzerella, and parmesan

8.  How do you eat Oreos?
I think that I eat them backwards from everyone else. I actually peel the frosting out of the middle and set on my plate then eat the cookies plain.  Finally when all of my cookies are gone I savor the cream filling.  This is my favorite splurge right now, seriously I am obsessing over them.

9.  What age did you find out that Santa is not real?
I honestly don't remember.  I had a brother that was five years younger than me so I pretended for so long afterwards that I have no idea.

10.  Stupidest thing you did this week?
I opened my big mouth when I should have kept it closed.  You will see in the future that this is a trend of mine.  Something was said to me that I should have been quiet and mature about but I was so upset that I blurted out something stupid.

 

My Busy Weekend

So I am going to be a writing fool this weekend.  I have tons of posts that will be posted on here for all of you. 

I just wanted to let you know what was going on.  Of course everything that was promised this week in the way of reviews and posts is going to be added this weekend.  I had hoped to space it out throughout the week but life just took over with it being the first week of school and all for Andrew.

So things got out of hand quite quickly and I ended up with no extra time.

On top of that I have been having this really weird joint pain.  Weird because I have no clue as to what is going on and being one of the millions of uninsured Americans I am in a position where I am not able to go to the dr and find out.  I am relying on prayer for myself to start to feel better much in the same way that I am trusting God that I will eventually be back in the shape that I need to be in.

Things that Freak Me Out

So I have been reading all of these emails and hearing stories on the news of flesh eating viruses.  These really freak me out.  I mean seriously I am a freak about always washing new clothes and was seriously bad for years.  Now I am horrible again.  I had let things slide momentarily when my kids would get something from Shane's mom since she lives nine hours away and I understood her wanting to see them in it.  I will ask her now to please wash them first if she wants to see the kids wear them.  I will explain my crazy paranoia and tell her that I am sorry but that this is going to have to happen b/c otherwise I am going to have anxiety and possibly panic attacks while my kids are wearing the clothes.

Are there things that freak you out?

I know that this one is rare and not something that should be very common but I seriously am having some issues and problems with it. 

There are other things that seriously freak me out quite a bit.  One of these is something happening to my kids.  We are not really talking about rational fears here but we are talking about seriously being freaked out by something that is completely out of my control.

So I hate the idea of my kids riding in a car that I am not in.  When I am with them I am fine but when I am not with them I have a serious issue with them being in the car.  This gets worse if they are not in the same area that I am in.  I mean I seriously understand that if something were to happen to them while someone else was driving with them that there would be nothing that I could do even if I were behind them but somehow this gives me a reassurance that I need.

I need to know if other parents out there have this issue.  I seriously cry nearly every time that I leave my kids, this isn't normal right?  I know that my mom is shocked at this fact because she says that it was not hard for her to send us kids to grandma and grandpa's.  Since this is the only place that mine have stayed overnight I have no idea why my anxiety is so bad.  It has even gotten to the point that Shane has complained before stating that it is not normal and that I should be happy to have a little bit of a break from time to time.

I would love to hear from you, what do you think?  How do you feel about these things?

Initials Inc Shopping Opportunity with Possible Giveaways!!! (valued at up to $75!!!!)

I love shopping and I love creative products that make my life easier.  Plus this month only you can take advantage of a great deal.  You can purchase a lunch lady lunch bag for just $12.50 with any purchase of $35 or more.  This is a steal. (You can read more about the lunch lady below.)  Remember that personalization is always free!!

One company that I really love is Initials Inc.  They have so many cute things that will make your life easier.  I have a whole list of products that are my personal favorites.

If you want to shop you can check out my online book party link here.

I am giving you all an opportunity to get something for free if my party hits a high enough amount of goodies sold.  I can't really afford to offer a giveaway if this is not the case.

So there are some incentives to shopping with me over the other people out there.  I will use a random number generator so I can add in the orders that I have gotten on paper and this is how I will choose a winner for any giveaways.

If my party reaches $550, I will offer a lunch lady (lunch box that can double as a great way to carry mommy's milk or as a make up bag) and your choice of a compact or a key fob.  Total value $31

The lunch lady is a personalized lunch bag that comes in five different prints.  It is not just a great lunch box but it can also carry your mommy milk or even be a make up bag if you are not the lunch carrying type.  It is valued at $25.  Plus you get your choice of personalization.

 

You would get your choice of the adorable compact or a key fob.  Compacts come in 4 different colors.  Key fobs come in five different fabric choices.  You can organize your key fob to match a purse or to make the sash that you put around the top of your purse.  It's a great deal.



If my party reaches $650 I will offer the above things as well as a clip it case, sneak a peak, sash, or buttoned up sash.  Total value up to $39.   The clip it case is a great little case that you can get to put stuff in and hang on the side of your purse.  I plan on getting one of these and putting my keys in here as well as putting in a tube of lipbalm.  It comes in five different fabric choices as well.  The sneak a peek is one of the most adorable mirrors that I have seen.  It buttons on to your bag and looks like an adorable flower but the backside is a mirror.  The sneak a peek comes in eight different colors.  There are twelve choices with the sash and it is made to go around the top of the handbags.  You can then change how your handbag looks to fit your personality.  This is one of the things that I am super excited about.  The buttoned up sash is made for the same purpose and you can get it in fourteen different options.
   




If my party reaches $750 I will offer up all of the above and a tech pouch.  Total value up to $55.

The tech pouch is perfect for all of you with kids.  These are a great way to store their iPod touches and headphones.  They will both fit inside and you can always be sure that their iPod is protected.  You can store other items in there as you see fit.  It comes in five six different colors that are perfect for kids or adults.



If my party reaches $1000 I will offer up all of the above and a tech wallet, wallet, travel wallet, game on pouch, zip around, a just in case, or a flat iron case.  Total value up to $75!!!  The tech wallet is similar to the tech pouch except it is a wallet too.  The best part about this one is that it actually will fit an iPhone in the outside pocket and you can fit a camera in the middle.  So it doubles as your wallet, a place to carry your phone, and a camera case.  It has a wristlet strap so it is perfect if you are going out to use when you do not want to carry anything else or to be able to just throw into the diaper bag.  There are seven different options for you to choose from with this one.  The wallet is adorable and matches some of the nicer handbags or will look perfect with any purse that you have.  The travel wallet matches the adorable line of travel bags and suitcases.  It is a great choice for you if you travel on a regular basis as you can coordinate with your other options.  The game on pouch features your choice of initial and is great for any handheld gaming device.  This is perfect for that little gamer or budding photographer as they can even store their sd cards in there.  There are six different options to choose from.  The zip around is a great bag.  It easily stuffs inside itself so that you can carry it anywhere that you are going.  It fits nicely inside of any purse or handbag and is perfect to use as a shopping tote or to have if you need a place to store dirty or wet clothes that you were not expecting to need a bag for.  It is a great option to carry in your diaper bag as well.  There are four different options with this one.  The just in case is a great little case to carry in your purse.  It matches the other adorable accessories for the handbag line and can be personalized.  It is a great option to carry those essentials that you might not want everyone to see inside your bag.  There are five choices for you to choose from with this one.  The flat iron case comes in three choices and is a great place to put your hot curling irons or flat irons after you have finished your hair.



With any of these prizes you will be able to get the personalization and color choices that you want.  Plus you get to pick between the different options.

Orders have to be received by Saturday at 8 pm so that I can contact winners and get the party all closed up by Sunday. 

The things that are on my huge shopping list include the following.

For mommy:  The black and white striped item is awesome.  It is an all weather blanket that zips up, is completely wipeable and is waterproof.  It is only $38 and something that we will personally use at festivals, the park, and picnics.  This is the one item that is imy favorite.