Winning isn't everything.......

They say that winning isn't everything.... and while this is true.... WINNING SURE IS FUN!

A while back my cousin hosted a giveaway on her blog. I was so surprised that I won! The drawing was for an adorable hand crochet hat. I let Amalyssa choose what colors she wanted then reported to my talented cousin.

The hat came in the mail today. Amalyssa was ELATED! She was so excited to open the package and see her new hat!


Romy you did a wonderful job and have a friend for life. Amalyssa thinks you are the greatest (even though she can't seem to remember who you are..lol) She hardly took the hat off today! She even wanted to sleep in it!

We went to the grocery store and were there for about 30min. Amalyssa got 5 compliments on how cute her hat was! (Ok well 2 people commented twice... but that just goes to show how totally cute this hat is!)

Amalyssa was especialy excited that the hat matched the outfit she was wearing today. You cant see it in the photo but she has on a purple skirt.

Getting this hat was really fun.
THANK YOU ROMY!!!

Getting there... I think

Man life can get crazy on you FAST! This weekend/first of this week has been FUN and CRAZY! I am about to pass out from all the work I have piling up! I have spent the weekend enjoying visits from grandparents, birthday parties, and LOTS of planting! Which means...... LOTS TO BLOG ABOUT!

Since it is WAYYYY past my bed time thought I will keep it short and just chat about my gardening in this post. The rest will come later :).

My dear Mother in law is a WONDERFUL lady with a BIG green thumb! Since I have this cute new house, with these cute planting beds just WAITING to be filled... she came to help spend my money! Wasn't that nice of her! LOL. No really though it was very nice of her to come stay with us for a couple of days and help me get the front of my house all dolled up!

We went shopping and got a bunch of wonderful perennials that will come back bigger and better each year until our house looks like a lawn and garden 2 page spread! I was ALL excited to post you some before and after shots...you are still getting some... don't worry! The after shots arent quite as dramatic as I had once imagined them to be thought. I was thinking 'home makeover show' pictures... but they have more money and can plant full grown shrubs... I, on the other hand.... can't. LOL. So I have itty bitty baby shrubs... in three years I will give you the 'WOW' after shots.... but for now... just be happy that I dont have a flowerbed full of weeds! lol

This is a before and after of just one side.
I did them both... but really one before and after is enough.

I just HAD to do a before and after of this part since it was my FAVORITE.
Myself, I would have just planted flowers under the hose and been forever crushing them.
My wonderful mother in law had this great solution though!
PAVING STONES! Aren't they pretty! Eventually they will have grassy stuff in between them to make it even prettier. Now I have a great spot for the hose AND it looks nice! YAY!

And lastly...
this is for MY mother

As my MIL and I worked away in the garden we had a bunch of dirt and bark we had to dig out (for the area of the paving stones) We decided just to dump it underneath my back deck so I could have it in future if need be. The kids were playing nicely in the back with some friends. I would of course check on them every so often to make sure all was well.
This is what I found on one such check

Apparently SOMEONE had the great idea to have a PARTY on the deck with CONFETTI! (knowing full well that my daughter has a current FETISH with birthday party's I am pretty sure who's idea it was... even though Amalyssa can't seem to remember who thought of it.)

Sigh......

So why is this for my mother you ask?? Because she had to put up with ME as a child... and never killed me.... THANK YOU MOM!!!!
I can easily list SEVERAL occasions that MY mother had to experience, which may come on par with what I experienced today... many of them worse... I suppose this is 'just desserts' right? I was a child with crazy ideas and LOVED dirt and messes.... and now I HAVE one just like me! UGH!

Such is life.

So I have a few things I want to blog about... I will try to keep it short and simple! lol.
First off- if you want to see a few more of my family photos you can go to the Elle blog. They have some more of our family up there.... gee I didn't know we were that cute!!! I will refrain from blogging ALL my family photos... but you can go seek them out if you want! LOL

NEXT!

A Mothers Riddle-
This is a riddle for all you moms out there... (and dads... and whoever...but... you know)



Yesterday I notice that the inside of my son's ear is blue..... HMMM..... Upon closer inspection it seems to be a blue powder of sorts which when wet gets brighter.. rather like Koolaid or pixi stix powder. Now here is the riddle part...I have no blue Koolaid powder in my house...nor pixi stix. My son had NO OTHER TRACES of this material ANYWHERE. Not on his hands... clothes.. or even anywhere else on his face! I have found no other evidence of this powder anywhere in my house either.... just his blue ear!

So... if you have an answer to my riddle... please let me know.. I am baffled! I suppose I am GREATFUL that there is no other blue powder stains around my house... but I am REALLYwondering WHAT my boy got into and HOW!??


Moving on-
Really... we have some friends that are moving. LOL. So these lovely friends are moving far away. She happens to be one of the lovely ladies that 'won' a homemade gift from me in a thing I did a while back on my blog. So before she moved I had a fun idea for a homemade gift. I made for her (and her family) a

'Moving Survival Kit'

This kit includes
-a bottle of foot scrub- Tag reads "For when your tender tootsies need a rub."
-a modgepodge clipboard and note pad- Tag reads "Don't lose your mind trying to remember it all. Write it down or give us a call."
-a coloring book- Tag reads "Boredom Buster - This should keep the kids entertained for at least 15 min!"
-an empty photo album- Tag reads "Loved ones are never far away. Keep photos in this album to look at when ever the kids miss someone."
-a chocolate bar - Tag reads "Emergency Melt Down Bar"

I had a lot of fun making this up and I hope they enjoy it! WE WILL MISS YOU!!! Good thing we have blogs and facebook to keep us close!

Funny Story-


Our lawn is in need of some TLC! Scott wanted to hire someone to aerate the lawn. A few weeks ago he saw a truck side add and called the guy. The gentleman was of course happy to do it. He was going to come out and give us a free quote the next day. Next day he calls and says he is not in the area can he come Monday? yeah sure. Monday comes... Monday goes... no word. 2 weeks later we haven't heard ANYTHING from this guy. So we come to last Saturday. Scott is out front mowing the lawn and a guy is walking around soliciting his aerating business. He looks at the back lawn and quotes Scott 25$. SOLD! So he says he will be out on Monday to do the lawn. He also tells Scott that he does sprinkler systems later in the season.

Monday morning I get a call from the guy saying he is ready to come do our lawn. Fabulous come on over. He gets there and asks to see the back lawn... ok ... sure.... He comes back to the door and says "Ok I will do it for 30 bucks" .... "uh... well you told my husband $25." "Ok I will do it for $25 then" Great!

He drives his machine around and pokes a bunch of holes in our lawn which has left dirt clods that now look like dog turds all over... but hey.. it is good for the lawn right! Yay he is done. Comes to the door... I write him the check. All is said and done and good. He is walking away and I rememberd that Scott wants me to get his info so we can call him later for help with the sprinklers possibly. I call out to him "Hey my husband wanted me to get your info so we can call you later to help with the sprinklers" He gives me a very strange look and says "I don't do sprinklers"

Only NOW does it dawn on me that THIS is GUY #1!!! SHEESH! I felt SO BAD for guy #2!! I would have MUCH rather paid him than mister 2 week slacker! Guy #1 just got lucky I guess. Too bad Scott didnt tell me NAMES of either guy right?! End of story guy #2 never showed up... so either he came by and saw the lawn was done and just kept driving... or he is a slacker too.... guess I will never know!

Last Bits-


I cut up an orange for dinner tonight. I sliced it into rounds. Being the sloppy housewife that I am I left the ends of the orange on the counter to 'clean up later.' I came into the kitchen a while later to find Braden thoroughly enjoying his snack.


Who knew he liked orange peel?

Family Pictures!!!

I am in LOVE!!

Ok... as a photographer... it is hard to FIND a photographer to take your pictures. Everyone has their own style, and finding a photographer that fits YOUR style is hard! Well I am lucky enough to have found me a photographer! These ladies are everything I dream of being some day! Now I have a new problem.... I feel INFERIOR to these genius ladies!!! They do such an amazing job!! Their philosophy of photography is everything I think it should be and more! I just cant put words to how impressed I am by them. I wish they would let me into their circle and teach me their secrets.... somehow I don't see that happening..... sigh.... A girl can dream.

Here is a link to their site! It is amazing!
http://www.ellephotos.com/

Anyway... I haven't see all the pictures yet but they did put some of our photos up on their facebook page (with my permission). I CAN'T GET ENOUGH! I LOVE THEM! So I am sharing with you what I have seen so far of my family photos. I can hardly wait to see them all!

This one is my personal favorite so far... though I am in no way saying Braden is my favorite child! LOL

This one is my favorite family photo so far!

Easter and other random stuff

Well I have a lot to blog about, but I will try and let the pictures do the talking so I don't bore you to death... and so I can go to bed sooner! Above is a shot I took of the 'flowers' Amalyssa gathered for me. They are really weeds from the front yard... but they are pretty weeds! She is so sweet... I love when she does nice things like this.

Saturday we finally got our family pictures taken! We have re-scheduled it 3 times! I was so excited to finally get them done. I will post some picts when we have them... but for now I have to wait for the photographer to work her photoshop magic. This was a picture of my stress the day before pictures though... trying to decide what to wear! I will never again laugh at people who call me for advice about this! I had it all planned out perfect... then the day was going to be cold... so it was a mad rush to try and figure something warmer out with out going back to the store. In the end we wore our 'original' outfits and I just gave in and let them wear jackets for most of them.... *sigh*

Scott got a new lawn mower! YEE HAW! He came home with his shinny new toy and excitedly asked "can I mow the lawn now?" I said... "You better do it... because this is the ONLY time you will ever be excited to mow the lawn."


We had a really nice Easter this year. Nothing fancy... just a nice quiet day. Here is Amalyssa in her new Easter dress. Braden didn't get a new outfit.... well... for pictures... just not for Easter. LOL


Here is a pict of the eggs we died. The kids had a great time as usual.... and I had fun scrapping it!


And last but not least... I MADE A DRESS! WOO HOO! Ok... so it was a really simple dress... but hey.. it is my first one and I was proud of it. I ran out of energy for scrapping so you just get the pictures. I have but one question....

Who taught my daughter to pose like this???
It wasn't me!!!
Better go buy a shotgun to scare the boys off......

And lastly I will leave you with a story that I find amusing.

Most of you know my mother is an AMAZING seamstress. If you didn't.... well now you know! As I was sewing this simple dress for Amalyssa she said
A- "When I am a mom and have girls that need dresses I am going to have Grandma Loveland sew them
M- "Why is that?"
A- "Because she does FANCY dresses"
M- "Well... I am not as good as Grandma Loveland but I wanted to make my little girl a dress... besides.. it is just an after church dress and dosent need to be fancy"
A- "Grandma Loveland could make it fancy"

..... this went on for a while.... I was feeling like a million bucks, let me tell you. In the end Amalyssa decided
"Well... when my little girls need after church dresses I will let you sew them.... but when they need church dresses I will have Grandma Loveland make them"

Watch out Grandma Loveland......