Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

The lucky girl to win a gift certificate to Natty Sue Designs is......

Result: 3  

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Shelley from House of Smith's!!

Which one will she choose???

A movie invite?

Some cute thank you notes?

She had better let us know!  

Congrats Shelley! 

I'll be contacting you!

Party Like a 38 Year Old

See this handsome guy?  Hard to believe I've known him for 10 years now...

He seems to get better looking and is a sweeter husband and father every year.  
He must be wishing for that. 

His parents came to celebrate with us for dinner last night, which always turns the night into the party since the minis have Nanny and Papa's undivided attention!  

Happy Birthday Dan!  

I hope your day was great, I love you!

Last chance to enter the giveaway!
I'm picking a winner this afternoon!

Smitten

Who knew I could be so in love with three boys at the same time?  This blondie has me wrapped around his finger and he knows it.

We went to his Kindergarten testing this morning and he passed with flying colors.  Yes, of course I listened in (he was facing away from me so he didn't even know I was there) and yes, my smart cookie got every.answer.right. 

Hey, I paid big bucks for preschool so I get that bragging right!

Somehow I left being signed up as a room mom....uhhhh...I am now very scared of my calendar this next year. 

We went on a date afterward to get his backpack, a new shirt for his first day of school and of course, a new Iron Man toy to play with at In-and-Out.  

I will not be eating there again for a good year I think.

Yes, he ate the entire tray of fries and the whole double double. 

Love you Greggie John, thanks for being my fun date today!

Don't forget to leave a comment for my Natty Sue Designs giveaway HERE! 

How Did This Happen?

I could not get a sitting still picture of this boy today.  He was up and dressed with his bed made at 7:20 a.m. when he woke me up!

He was ready to start school.

But confessed a little nervous when I was combing his hair. 

I'm already loving his teacher and I was so glad to see so many cute kids that we knew already in his class!

He lost a tooth this morning right as we were leaving and then he was thrilled to be assigned to be #8 in class.  

"Mom, I am the luckiest boy EVER.  I LOVE 2nd grade!"

I swear I just brought him home from the hospital - I'm not sure how he got to be this old already!

Natty Sue Designs GIVEAWAY!!!

I know this is a silly little thing, but I am really excited to have 101 followers! 

I wanted to have a giveaway just to say thanks for visiting me in my own little corner of blogland.  

I distinctly remember the day I heard the word "blog."

What IS that?  

I started my own that very night.  I had no idea what it would be, or that it would lead me to meet so amazing and talented people and to make so many sweet friends!

I'm not a "super social" girl with a huge circle of friends. 

  I'm actually pretty quiet until you get to know me and I sometimes have to force myself to be chatty.  

But I have really appreciated having a spot like this to just be myself.  

So what's the giveaway?

A gift certificate to Natty Sue Designs!

She makes the most darling cards and invitations....like these:

 or these...

  Well, this sweet boy just makes me super baby hungry so let's keep moving along here...  

Or you could hang onto the credit and use it towards a Christmas card.  Natalie did this for me last year...so cute!  Except LuLu's hair.  Thankfully we have that under control now. 

Since I am a girl who HATES rules, this is going to be simple.  

All you have to do is leave a comment for one entry.

And if you are a follower, leave a comment stating that and it counts as a second entry.

That's it!

The winner gets a gift credit to Natty Sue's Etsy shop for any invitation to use whenever you wish!

GOOD LUCK!!  

Will pick a winner on Friday at noon, MST!

Date Day

My mom told me that when my brother, Mike started Kindergarten, she took him out on a date for school clothes and lunch.  Just the two of them.  

I know it's a fond memory for her. 

So I decided to do the same thing with my children.

 

I rarely get one on one time with them, it's not always easy to carve that out. 

It's been a fun tradition so far, with Greg's turn being next week.  

He is so excited!

I think I am going to be sick of In-and-Out after this.  They both have picked that as their lunch spot!  We had fun picking out a new first day of school shirt and new backpack. 

Love you Grahamer, thanks for the fun date!  

Getting Ready for a....

Good morning!

We have a busy day of....not much going on!  

Boys haircuts and then a day full of "what time are grandma and grandpa picking us up?"

It's the boys sleepover night and they couldn't be more excited!

LuLu, Dan and I have a date tonight - which means we are eating chicken enchiladas in peace without gagging noises from the peanut gallery! 

We get happy about the small things around here. 

I am SO SO excited to have 101 followers!  

I don't know why, I just think it's cool.

I know some friends of mine have THOUSANDS (and seeing their blogs, you know why.)  But I am A-OK with my small little corner of the blog world.

 I may be doing a little shopping and gathering for a giveaway on Monday!

  

And if you are like me and have a full day open for fun..you might want to check this out for a project...

This is Shelley's gorgeous re-modeled pantry!! 

Holy cow...no other post has EVER made me want to get myself to IKEA as fast as this one!  

I am in organizing heaven just looking at it!

Have a fun Friday!

Reagan and Piper Jane

I know I've posted about little Piper bird before but her cute mama did a guest post over at CJane that made me start crying today. 

If I'm crying it's only fitting that everyone else should also.

It's not a "I feel sorry for Reagan" cry...it's more of a "I wish I could be a better mom like Reagan" cry.  

I suck. 

I get so impatient.

I have temper tantrums.
I sometimes expect my children to snap to it and act like an adult. 

I need to chill out. 

Enjoy.

 We all have our trials - the Breinholt Family is a shining example of how to deal with them. 

And if I had a copy I would post pictures of when Reagan and I were bridesmaids together for my brother's wedding. 

Just to prove that I once wore the same outfit as the fashion goddess herself. 

Never mind that she was 8. 

ps...Reagan has another fun blog, Hairdresser on Fire...you'll find yourself wishing you lived in Manhattan so she could work her scissor magic on you!

Thrifty Treasures Monday!

I swear that my boys are getting better at yard sales than I am!  Greg begged me to take him Saturday morning and to be honest, I wasn't really in the mood.  GASP!!!

But 10 minutes later there were the three of us ready to go.

The boys found two sets of boxing gloves at the first sale. 

$10.00 each set. (!!!)

The lady saw my little boys fists full of change and let them have them for $1.00 per set.  She made their day!

 I got the following for LuLu:

 Everything was $1 a piece.  The Scout shirt is large but it might come in handy when Graham is 10?  Or I might just keep it in case a boy in my Pack needs one. But they aren't cheap ($23 new!) and for $1 I thought I would chance it!

This wasn't even for sale!  It was on the driveway with other pots, but when I asked the lady how much her and her husband said they'd never seen it before but would sell it to me for 25 cents.

I'm going to make a salt bucket for my porch this winter with it. (Yes, Kari, totally copying you!)

Best part of the morning was Greg yelling out in the car after finding a $50 Death Star Transformer for $2... 

 "We are the luckiest garage salers EVER!"

Linking up to...

Rhoda at

Drywall is Here!

After over a year (A YEAR!) of waiting, the drywall is finally here! I would almost be doing a happy little jig on my front porch but my drywaller man is on a vacation.  So no walls for me until the 27th. 

Have you seen how they haul this stuff?  Crazy!  In a good way, I mean it kept my boys fascinated for a good hour this morning.  Well worth the price we paid for delivery.

Hurry back Alfredo - we NEED you!

Something I DID do a happy jig about - Blueberry Salsa.  

My oh MY!  

It was yummy!  I made it for my book club dinner tonight and thought it was delish!

I posted the recipe over here if you want it! 

Hosting a Giveaway?

I'm thinking of hosting some sort of giveaway or party when I hit 100 followers.

ONE HUNDRED - this is BIG stuff friends! 

(You know I'm making fun of myself right?)

This will be in about 6-8 months at the rate I am going, but I'm a girl who likes to plan ahead.  

If anyone would like some free advertising and would want to do a giveaway please send me an email and we can work something out. Free gifts for readers, free advertising for you = fun party for everyone!

Our Garden

So I decided to grow a small garden this year.  

After years of "phoo phooing" gardens and my many "I don't garden" comments I thought for the kids sake we should grow one.  It might be fun.

I was right!  Where has this garden been all our lives? 

Dan started back in April by helping the boys makes me this:

 that now looks like this:

 Obviously not a fantastic first time attempt but not bad enough to discourage us.

The tomatoes seem happy, I planted a Celebrity, two Better Boys and a Roma

 The Anaheim Peppers are coming in and I'm cleaning and freezing them so they will be ready for salsa making.

The minis painted large Popsicle sticks for us to use as markers.  We've messed up with the beans but I'm going to string the trellis today and hope they might be revived.  

But now I'm thinking raspberry, strawberry and blackberry bushes along the back fence and maybe a dwarf Cherry or Peach tree for next year!

Are you growing a garden?  Do you have any great tips for a novice?

Shopping Girl

Well, Dan and I discovered today that although Lauren detests a shopping cart, she's certainly not one to turn down a trip to Target...

"Um, dad?  Do you have any money?"

"Never mind, I'll ask mom"

Shopping and a few Cheetos totally wore her out.  Maybe I need to take her more often to get her to nap?!