Wonderful Site :)

I am excited to announce that my Mary Kay giveaway will be featured in 5 Minutes for Moms in their weekly "5 Minutes Around the Blogosphere" column. YAY! The site is wonderful and is run by work at home moms, Janice and Susan. They also on top of being moms, running this great site, and having lives of their own, manage to also run two toy stores: Pedal Cars And Retro Collectibles and A Rocking Horse To Love.

They feature many readers blogs, so if you are looking to read other blogs, click HERE. It is an honor to be featured! You can also check out their home page with the button on my right sidebar. :)

3x Thursday MeMe!

1. What are your favorite kinds of plant life (plants, flowers, etc)? Why? I LOVE bogenvalia's. They are so beautiful, and yet their thorns are so long and vicious! It amazes me how they were made to attract you to them, then push you away!
2. Do you associate any memories with certain things (flowers, objects, etc)? Any you'd care to share? Every time I pass by a celery field, or smell celery, I am reminded of going down to Grama's and arriving late at night to walk in the house while she was preparing my Grandpa's lunch for the next morning. She would always chop him up some celery and so she smelled of it when we would give her a hug hello. That to me is one of the best smells in the world! I will always have that as a reminder of my grandpa and how much fun we have when we visit Grandma.
3. By what method do you keep track of your memories (blogs, scrapbooks, etc)? If you don't do anything to preserve your memories, how do you keep track of them? Does it matter to you? I take pictures, and now the blog. Its such an easy way to keep everything in one place...memories, pictures, milestones, all put together right in your computer. :)

See other Thursday MeMe's here: 3xThursday

In "Other" Words

“We as women, think of ourselves as mothers, teachers, nurses and son on, but God says that we are builders. We usually relegate this role to the men, but we are building with something far great than brick and timber.” Nancy Campbell, The Power of Motherhood: What the Bible Says about Mothers.

As mothers it can be so hard to stay on top of things and remember that we are responsible for building our little one's character. Everything we do is a model for our children. Every one slips up and I just try to remind myself that God is bigger and He is the one to help us when we fall. We all kiss the booboos, we help our children learn the alphabet, but we also help to build in our child a love for God and what He has created. Its a wonderful feeling and honoring to know that God has entrusted so much to someone so small.

CARLA DALY GIVEAWAY

Carla Daly Childrens Art

Now what child wouldn't love these fabulous pictures! Carla Daly's Children's Art is full of vibrant colors, fun jungle animal themes, and high quality, these prints are fabulous for any childs room or bathroom! I was lucky enough to recieve the Number One Bus Tour displaying all of Addison's birth information! The print is high quality and painted in acrylic paint and then printed on a 300gsm watercolor paper. When shipped, each print is backed with board and wrapped in cellophane with information about the artist in the outer packaging. The shipping is VERY fast especially considering it is coming straight from Ireland!

How can you pass on one of these! I am lucky enough to be able to give away the print shown above as a birth print for your little one!!! All you have to do is visit Carla Daly's website and leave a comment in this post telling me which is your favorite print. The winner will win the print shown above - "Number One Bus Tour", valued at $28 with dimensions of 12"x 16". You can buy a frame at any major department store and put it directly in your childs nursery to display for years to come!

Please leave a valid email address or way to contact you to be eligible to win. Winner will be chosen by Random.org

To earn an extra entry (or two!) you can do the following:

**Add my button to your blog, and leave a link in a seperate comment.

**Blog about this giveaway and leave a link in a seperate comment.

CONTEST ENDS JULY 31st AT 11:59PM

Another giveaway@

My friend Heather is doing another giveaway!!! This time it is the Flip Ultra mini camcorder! Go to her site to check it out and enter for yourself!

http://www.hermashaw.blogspot.com/

In "Other Words" MeMe

“When we are set free from the bondage of pleasing others,when we are free from currying others approval-then no one will be able to make us miserable or dissatisfied. And then, if we know we have pleased God, contentment will be our consolation." ~Kay Arthur

Wow, talk about hitting home. I try to be such a people pleaser all the time. How can we grow as Christians when we can't admit that we are weak? We strive to please other earthly people instead of the Maker that we SHOULD be trying to please. I find myself trying to "out do" people in what we have materialistically. Bigger house, better car, better cell phone. Yet none of this matters in the end. All that matters is what we are and what we look like on the INSIDE. What is in our hearts! If we rest in the fact that we know God is all knowing, all powerful, and full of love for us, we can rest also in the fact that no matter what others think of us, there will always be someone who loves us for just who we are, sins and all.

Do your own In "Other Words" Meme here! http://shortybearsplace.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-other-words-tuesday_14.html

Saturday 9 (MeMe)

1. Do you plan to be at the beach this summer? Yep! :) We have one down the road on the delta.
2. Do you have a favorite beach? The Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz...good sand, and the water isn't too cold to swim in!
3. How old were you on your first beach trip? I know I was REALLY little. I was born in Vegas and we went to Lake Mead alot. So I'm guessing less than a year old.
4. Did your folks own or rent a cottage at the beach? Nope. We just do day trips. :)
5. Have you or would you bring your kids to the same beaches you went to as a kid? Of course!
6. What type of bathing suit do you wear at the beach? A one piece with shorts...no one wants to see a fat girl like me in a bikini! My stretch marks may blind you! LOL
7. Do you have favorite food you like to eat at the shore? Oranges...so long as you don't get sand on em!
8. Do you have a favorite drink you like at the shore? Lemonade or Sprite
9. When is the next time you will be beach bound? Don't know! But hopefully sooner rather than later!

Check out other Saturday:9 MeMe's at: http://samanthasaturday9.blogspot.com/

Friday MeMe

#1. Cake. Buttercream, whipped cream or ice cream? Ice cream all the way! Nothing beats ice cream!

#2. When entertaining do you use real, paper, plastic or styrofoam dishes? If its a nice get together, with adults only, we use real dishes. If its something like a birthday party, we use paper/plastic.

#3. When hosting a party do you cook, have it catered or go to a restaurant? We cook. Usually BBQ style. :) Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, finger foods.

#4. Share a recipe that you frequently serve when having a party. Home made salsa and chips....ten large red tomatoes, cilantro, onions, tomato sauce, salt, tobasco sauce, season to taste and its done! :)

Visit a Friends Page...

My friend Heather is doing a GREAT giveaway for those moms out there! You can win a free Carla Daly print for your child's room, playroom, or bathroom! THey are wonderful in quality! Check out her blog to see the giveaway rules and instructions on how to enter! :)

http://hermashaw.blogspot.com/2008/07/carla-daly-review-giveaway.html

3x Thursday

3x Thursday: 07/10/y2k+8: Long Lost Friends
1. Do you ever have 'ghosts from the past' pop their heads in to say hi? Has it happened to you lately? If so, who was it? If not, is there anyone you wish you could find?

No, I can't say that I have. Although it would be super cool to see my grandpas that have passed away and know that they can see my kids and how big they are getting! :)

2. What do you think of Facebook? If you're a Facebooker, have you had any contact with long lost friends of the past?

I have a facebook account, but don't really use it. I don't really care if I'm found and don't really care about finding people. I created it mostly so that I could keep in touch with family.

3. Pretty much everyone is easily found these days. Do you miss the days of not being able to be found, or do you welcome people finding you? Why/why not?

I like it when people find me. It means that I get to show off my life now! I love telling people that I'm a mommy of three beautiful and wonderful kiddos, and that we own our own home. To me, that is success...we are happy, and living well, and I like to show that off to the snobs from highschool! LOL.
http://www.hairmetalqueen.com/3xThursday.html

Professional Pictures...

Anyone know how hard it is to get three kids under five to all smile and look at a camera together?! I do now!!! HAHA

Trip to the Waterpark!

We went to the little water park by our house today. It was lots of fun and the kids had a BLAST! We couldn't keep KJ off the slide. Brie wasn't too sure about it. As long as she was near mommy, she was okay though. Addison must be my little fish! SHe was loving splashing in the water and getting wet. It was the perfect day for it too as it was already 103* at 11am this morning. We got there early enought to get some lounge chairs in the shade too so that was lucky! Anyway, here are a couple of pics...none of Addy because I had to hold her the whole time, but here's some of KJ and Brie and KJ's buddy Nathan! :)

Work Update...

Work is going really well. I know this is bad of me to say, but its been a nice break from the kids. The bosses seem to like me and say I will be a server by the fall. I'm not getting my hopes up, but that would be VERY nice! I am working four days a week, and all on the weekends usually. One manager said it was because he knew he could count on me to keep things running smoothly, which was nice, but then again, it means no weekend vacations. Oh well. C'est la vie I guess!