ATTENTION: New Favorite Kids Clothes Store!

So, those of you who know me, know that I (unfortunately) love to buy kids' clothes. Not just for my kids, but for other kids in my family, and any one else's kids...I just love kids' clothes! I can't help myelf. Recently my friend Lisa Sly told me about this wonderful store...Crazy8. It has the cutest clothes ever. And the stuff on their site right now doesn't even compare to what her kids have been wearing! But the best part about it is that it is super cheap. I mean, less expensive than Old Navy on sale stuff! Anyways...I'm lovin' it. Thought I'd share the love! Check it out!

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and
3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play
two sports
and either take music
or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must
take care of his 3 kids;
keep his assigned house clean,
correct all homework,
and complete science projects,
cook, do laundry,
and pay a list of 'pretend' bills
with not enough money.

In addition, each man
will have to budget in money
for groceries each week.

Each man
must remember the birthdays
of all their friends and relatives,
and send cards out
on time--no emailing.

Each man must also
take each child to a doctor's appointment,
a dentist appointment
and a haircut appointment.

He must make
one unscheduled and inconvenient
visit per child
to the Urgent Care.

He must also
make cookies or cupcakes
for a social function.

Each man will be responsible for
decorating his own assigned house,
planting flowers outside
and keeping it presentable
at all times.

The men will only
have access to television
when the kids are asleep
and all chores are done.

The men must
shave their legs,
wear makeup daily,
adorn himself with jewelry,
wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes,
keep fingernails polished
and eyebrows groomed.

During one of the six weeks,
the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches,
and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or
slow down from other du ties.

They must attend
weekly school meetings,
church, and find time
at least once to spend the afternoon
at the park or a similar setting.

They will need to
read a book to the kids
each night and in the morning,
feed them, dress them,
brush their teeth and
comb their hair by 7:00 am.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information:
each child's birthday,
height, weight,
shoe size, clothes size
and doctor's name.
Also the child's weight at birth,
length, time of birth,
and length of labor,
each child's favorite color,
middle name,
favorite snack,
favorite song,
favorite drink,
favorite toy,
biggest fear and
what they want to be when they grow up.

The kids vote them off the island
based on performance.
The last man wins only if...
he still has enough energy
to be intimate with his spouse
at a moment's notice.

If the last man does win,
he can play the game over and over
and over again for the next 18-25 years
eventually earning the right
To be called Mother!

My new favorite site!

In case anyone hasn't heard of this site, I thought I'd share it...
retailmenot
It's my new favorite site. I do a lot of online shopping and it has literally saved me hundreds of dollars!




All you do is search for the website you are purchasing something off of and it comes up with all kinds of coupon codes and tells you weather people have had success using them. Just try it out! I saved $3 on a pair of slippers for my mother in law! No biggie, but it adds up!

Deck the Halls!

We finally decorated our tree last night after it sat there for 2 days undecorated! Abbi loved putting the ornaments on!





Abbi's new cheezy smile for the camera!


Baby Jack is having so much fun!


Abbi's cheezy fake smile and sick Mama

UGLIEST Party Ever!

So this was by far the ugliest party I've ever been to! In a good way though. It was an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Everyone wore their ugliest Christmas sweaters, it was such a hoot! Paul and I didn't have much time to find anything super ugly, so we had to settle for what Ross had to offer. I have to say, I had the cutest ugly sweater there...oh well!
Anyways, it was such a blast! Thanks Debbie & Kevin for the wonderful memories! We'll never forget this party...even if we wanted to!

This is Debbie & Kevin and their adorable little girl Rachel who likes to hang out with me and eat my snacks at church! We love her!



Paul scored some awesome blue sequined bird ornaments for our tree in the white elephant. I stole a pretty Christmas bowl from my friend Tierra...sorry!

More Ariel

My computer wouldn't take this video from my camera a few days ago, so here it is finally...

More Crafty Crafts!

My friend Heather always has the cutest stuff on her blog! I am trying to take advantage of it because she is due to have a baby any minute! Seriously! To see some cute ideas for Christmas ornaments click here.
I think I am going to try the button wreath. I'll let you know how it turns out, or if it turns out!

Return to Sender...(an update on "Bad Advent Luck")

Well, I got a hold of the apartments and they received the package and returned it to the sender (who is in New York)! Just my luck right? So by the time it gets back and they send it to me again, well, you get the picture right? No advent calendar this year!

Bad Advent Luck!

So here is my sad story about the advent calendar this year...
I really really wanted this pottery barn kids advent calendar for my birthday this year:


But, it was sold out everywhere, even online! And it was selling for $250 on ebay! Yikes! So I settled for last years calendar, which isn't quite as cute, but 1/8 of the price:


So I was excited just to be getting an advent calendar. So I bought it on ebay, paid with paypal and have been anxiously waiting the last few days for it to arrive. Finally I check the tracking which I've been doing every day and it says it has arrived yesterday at 2pm! What? I check my doorstep...nothing, then i look at it more closely. It has been delivered to Folsom! I accidentally had it sent to my old Folsom address which I have not lived in for 3 years! I'm such a dope! Hopefully I can track it down!
So that's my sad story. Is that the dumbest thing I've ever done? or does anyone feel sorry for me?

Christmas Flowers

Every year at Christmas time my husband is so sweet and buys me Poinsettias. He must be feeling real nice this year because he got them from Costco and they are the biggest pot of flowers I have ever seen! They make my dining room table look so dinky! You can't really tell how big they are from the picture, but just take my word for it!

"Part of that Wooooooorld...."

Abbi loves The Little Mermaid and loves singing! Put the two together and you get this...(notice how into it she is until she sees the camera)

Playin' Hookie With the Girls!

So this is going to sound terrible, but occasionally I check my 4 nieces out of school and declare a family emergency, but then take them shopping! Today was one of those days! Instead of a regular elementary school education, I am educating them in the ways of the world. I am teaching them important lessons on budgeting, childcare, etc...You get the picture! Here we are learning all about the real world!

OH CHRISTMAS TREE!

We did it! We actually completed a craft! This was so easy and fun to do! It took about an hour and a half with Abbi helping us (probably shorter if you do it yourself). Just buy a Styrofoam Cone and hotglue buttons on it, then use pearl pins to push buttons to cover the open spots. You can stack buttons on the top, but we had star buttons and attempted to put them all at the top. The pictures don't do it justice. It is way cuter in person. I am pretty proud of ourselves though! Paul even got into it! Thanks for the idea Heather!

Cereal Disaster

I left Abbi alone for 2 minutes while I changed Jackson's poopy diaper. When I came back, this is what I found!

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. We had all of Paul's family over including Grandpa Great. We ate turkey, played games and shot off bottle rockets. It was good fun! Happy Thanksgiving everyone...now on to Christmas!


Puzzle Champions!

Jack's New Trick

Check out this video of Jack spitting...

Getting Ready for...

the cold weather. Well at least I think we might have had one cold day so far! Abbi had fun getting dressed up in her new winter gear!

Another Cute Craft

Ok, I totally would never have time to do this, but it seems pretty simple and I'm really into advent calendars right now. It's just a muffin pan and the days on the calendar are magnetic and you can put things in the "muffin spots." Cute huh? I think it would be cuter if you used fabric instead of paper and would make it last longer.

Button Tree...

Ok, I am going to attempt to make this button tree this year. Those of you who know me, know that I'm not real crafty...or at least since I had 2 kids I haven't been real crafty. So, If this works out, I'll post directions. Too cute! Hooray for Christmas!

Gingy's House

So, today we decided to be model-family-like and have a nice Thanksgiving Family Home Evening...we ended up making a Ginger Bread House. We've never been real huge Thanksgiving people. We always tend to skip right ahead to Christmas. So here are some pictures from our adventures in confectionery construction...


The Final Product



Paul's Gingy Santa



Icing-cicles




Our Letter to the Gingys...we put it inside the house before we sealed it




Buddy Jack's just in it for the candy!




Abbi and Daddy working so hard

Apple Hill

Well, we got a pretty bad craving for Apple Donuts this Saturday so we decided to drive up to Apple Hill and pig out on some! It was a beautiful day! Perfect weather! The kids were so well behaved! I couldn't have asked for a better Saturday! We ate lots of donuts and then swore we'd never eat another donut again. (of course we did the next day)

Mall Madness!

Wow, so we spent the whole day at the mall today. From 7am to 7pm! Boy am I pooped! The galleria had a big grand opening thing for it's new phase 1 stores. The morning stuff was pretty lame and the free stuff was even lamer. My poor friend Debbie who is a hairdresser won a free haircut! How ironic! Morgan lucked out and got $25 for the Children's Place and I got a big ball of bubble bath, which I used tonight and it made my skin all greasy!
It was such a long day for my kids, but they did so well. We played for hours at Pottery Barn Kids and I wanted to spoil Abbi and buy her everything there of course!
Check out the picture of Abbi eying out all the wonderful stuff in the window at PBK.
They both fell asleep in the stroller for a few minutes which was nice. Abbi kept laying down at the park, she was so tired!

You Know It's Been a Long Day When...

{here are some adventures in parenting from a worn out mom...ME! I hope you Enjoy!}





You KNow It's Been a Long Day When...

your beds been peed on and you're too tired to change the sheets.

your daughter has watched every princess movie she owns

you feed your baby bananas at every meal because you're too tired to fight with the peas and you think maybe it will make him stop pooping!

you go to your mother-in-law's for dinner (just kidding mom!)

you let your daughter have 57 toys in her crib when she goes to bed.

you cave-in to every demand even if it is not accompanied by a "pleesh".

you think you must just be hearing things when the baby starts crying 30 minutes into nap time.



you don't care that gas is $4/gallon...whatever it takes to get the kids to sleep.



you're sore from NOT going to the gym.

you walk out to get the mail alone 3 times a day.

you start sleeping on the couch because the pile of laundry on your bed has encroached on your groove.

you set goals for doing the dishes the day after tomorrow.

you have cereal 3 meals in a row

you bust out the powdered milk from food storage because you don't want to go to the store.

the exersaucer is your best friend

you start talking to your five month old and expect answers.


you are happy the kids are fighting so you have an excuse to send them to their rooms for some peace and quiet.

you can't find your kids' toothbrushes so you tell them to just brush their teeth with their fingers.

it's Breakfast for Dinner night.

the crusted leftovers of the grilled cheese sandwich from your child's half-eaten lunch looks good for dinner.

In the late afternoon you tell the kids they don't need sunscreen - just stay in the shady end of the pool.

You're too tired to change the channel when "Dora the Explorer" comes on so you just watch the show - with or without the kids.


Instead of a bath, you wipe your kids down with wet wipes and put them to bed.

Swimming in the pool qualifies as a bath for up to three days.

Instead of breaking up another sibling fight, you just remind them no hitting, pinching or biting.


You tell your boss, "...because Mommy said so."

You tell your husband, "...because Mommy said so."

You eat at McDonald's and don't even argue with them in the great Apples vs. French Fry debate.

You let ketchup count as a fruit or vegetable with a meal.

You agree to play Hide and Seek with the kids so you catch a quick catnap in the closet.


You throw a few extra Bounce sheets in the dryer instead of re-washing the load you forgot about in the washer.

You'll serve that frozen mystery leftovers so you don't have to brave the grocery store with the kids.

your Hubby gets an e-mail alert that tonight Mommy will be cashing in on some "Me Time."

You'll count dropping the kids off at the Kids Club and suffering at the gym for an hour as "Me Time."

Your legs fall asleep reading People magazine in the bathroom.

you blog hop after the kids go down just hoping to find someone who's life is as dysfunctional as your own, only to be disappointed, and fall asleep in front of your computer.

you post a blog about how dysfunctional your life is in hopes that it will make you feel better...and, in a way, it does!