Archive for July, 2009

Baby’s Got A New Tooth! and other Jesse stuff

Here’s an update on sweet Jesse – now 6 months old. He’s sitting up, pretty savvy in the walker, and makes the funniest faces.
And, all that droolin’ wasn’t for nothing. Sweet Jesse had his first tooth break through last week!

Yay, Jesse!
He had a few fussy spells with this first tooth but nothing too dramatic. He’s such a trooper.

So, what does this tooth mean for Jesse? Absolutely nothing right now. He’s still nursing exclusively and will be for a while yet. He is a rolly polly 22 pounder at 6 months now so he’s not hurting for food. The kid doesn’t miss a meal!

His siblings have really taken a liking to him. He’s fairly good natured and they like making him make silly faces. Most of the hair he had on his head when he was born fell out and it’s growing in strawberry blond like his closest aged brothers. He looks like Ryan but we also see a lot of Uncle Matt in him.

I just love his bright blue eyes…
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How to snag free photo books at CVS

This week at CVS there is a free 10 6×8 page photo book offer. Here’s what ya need to do to make this work.

You’ll need a CVS Extra Care Card. These are free and are just your general customer rewards cards. You can get one of these by simply asking your cashier for one.
Then, you’ll need to have a picture card loaded with your favorite memories. Take it into CVS and use their little Kiosk to create your 10 page 6×8 photo book.
This first book will cost $7.99 plus tax. Pay for it and make sure to have the cashier swipe your Extra Care Card. You should receive a $7.99 Extra Care Buck (or ECB) which is like a coupon good towards anything in the store. It will be at the bottom of your receipt. You can either use this coupon to pay for a second Photo Book (and subsequently receive another $7.99 ECB) or you can use it to pay for anything else in the store.
The ad says you can only do this deal once but it has been verified that this deal is working at least 5 times. This means you can roll your extra bucks, making one photo book after another until it says at the bottom of your receipt that you have reached your limit for that offer. Then, you can take that last $7.99 ECB and use it towards anything in the store.
This deal is good through July 18, 2009 so get a move on!
Have questions? Go here to read more about working with CVS deals or just email me.
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My 8 Year Old Chef

Gabe(8) wanted really badly to make dinner tonight. Since I am sick with some kind of head cold or flu or something I was totally okay with this until I heard what he wanted to make.
The recipe he wanted to use came from his sweet mind and included:
Ground beef, cream of potato, mushrooms, green beans, and tomato paste.
I talked him out of that.
Then he told me he’d like to make a pasta salad. That I could go for.
What we ended up having was spaghetti with mayo, seasoning salt, and cut up bologna.
How did it taste? Well, it wasn’t horrible. It tasted like pasta with bologna in it.
Wanna come to dinner?
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Giveaway – again – Cheerios Books!

I am re-posting this giveaway because I cannot seem to get a hold of a winner from the original offer. So, here it is again. Hopefully I’ll have more luck this time around.

This week’s giveaway is brought to you by Cheerios!
Not only is there a giveaway at the bottom of this post but also a link to a fun contest!
Cheerios has an annual contest for aspiring children’s book authors and the winner is given $5000 and a chance to have their book reviewed by a publishing company. Not only that, but they have generously offered me 4 children’s books to giveaway to one of my readers! Here’s some more official info on the author’s contest. You’ll find the information on the separate book giveaway at the bottom.

Do you want to be Cheerios next great children’s book author? If you have a knack for telling stories for young kids and you’re interested in a $5000 prize and a possible publishing of your story please read on.

Just enter your original children’s book story here by July 15, 2009. While on the site read about Lori Degman. Her story, 1 Zany Zoo, won the Grand Prize in the 2008 Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories New Author Contest. Not only did she win $5,000 from Cheerios, but she will also have her book published by Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing. You can see her book come to life on http://www.spoonfulsofstories.com/.

I received a set of the pictured cute books in the mail with the gift of a second set to giveaway to one of my readers as a thank you for promoting Spoonfuls of Stories.

Here is how to enter.

US residents are welcome to enter per the rules below. Pay special attention to the closing date! You can enter twice by following the directions here by 7/12/2009. If I ‘know’ you please don’t hesitate to enter! Winners are chosen at random via a number generator.

  • Entry #1: If you want to win the set of 4 children’s books generously donated by Cheerios leave a comment answering this question: If you were a children’s book character which one would you be and why.
  • Entry #2: Link to this entry from your blog and write about this giveaway and then leave a second comment with the link where you passed on this giveaway info. This entry should be SEPARATE from your first entry.

1 winner will be chosen on or around 7/13/2009. We will announce it on the blog here as well as TRY to email the winner. I say ‘try’ because I often get email notices returned to me as undeliverable, I get no reply, or the winner doesn’t give a method of contact. Please make sure you check back to see if you are the winner! I won’t hang onto your winnings forever. After a week or so I will choose a new winner or relist the giveaway. WINNER: Please allow about 3 weeks for your gift to arrive once you forward your shipping information to me.
If you don’t want to leave me a method of contact please remember to check back to see if you are a winner. We are easy to contact. Also, if you do leave a method of contact you need to check your spam folder. Many people have missed out on winnings because the winner’s email went to their spam folder to be spotted after an alternate winner was chosen.

Subscribe to our RSS Feed so you don’t miss any of our giveaways and winner announcements!!!
contact me if you would like me to host your giveaway!
Visit
this page to see our complete contest rules.
View our
privacy policy.

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The challenges of advice

People don’t give me advice on parenting too much anymore. I’ve got seven kids who are well adjusted, socially capable and happy, who can sit through a church service without a peep – not counting baby Jesse who decides to eat and then poop through his diaper every Sunday right in the middle of the sermon (we go to the nursing room for this event). Go figure.

I remember when I had just a few kids and how hard it was to take unsolicited advice from women who had more experience. Not only did I get a lot of advice, I got a lot of conflicting views. One lady would tell me I needed to get my baby sleeping through the night when another would tell me that my baby woke up in the middle of the night for a reason and I should cater to their 3 a.m. cries. It used to irritate me when somebody told me that I shouldn’t be giving my baby a pacifier or that I held them too much or not enough or the wrong way.

Now that I have 7 kids it goes more like this, “So, Mel, do you sleep train your babies? What do you think about having them cry it out?”. FYI – I don’t mind getting up with my babies in the middle of the night. They’re cute and cuddly and the house is perfectly silent. But, that’s just me. I like to wait to sleep train them until they’re done with the baby stage. By then they’re learning to obey mama’s voice and there is no ‘crying it out’. I guess that’s another post.
Isn’t it funny how now that I have learned to take all that baby advice less offensively and more as people wanting to be helpful and lend their experience, I don’t receive it anymore.
Why does it work that way?
And now that I’m older and wiser I always think back and wish somebody had told me to find joy in the 3 a.m. feedings, to hold my baby as much as possible, to slow down a little and enjoy them, to kiss their soft heads more.
The thing is, is that they probably did. I was just too young and self focused to listen.
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Energizer Giveaway – Pink Bunny Slippers

***Due to the holiday weekend and the fact that a lot of people were vacationing the last week we’re extending the giveaway for another week! Please enter by July 12th.

The Energizer company just keeps giving and giving. Here is another giveaway you’re gonna love!

These sweet plush bunny slippers with the cute sunglasses are just adorable! How about these things for keeping young!
No, these adorable slippers are not child sized! They are a one size fits most adult slipper!

The Energizer company is really striving to connect with their customers in a fun way and these slippers are only a part of the coolness. With giveaways, freebies, coupons, and Facebook, this Bunny just won’t stop beating his drum and burning rubber in his blue flip flops!
Yes, I said Facebook. Not a user myself, but I’ve heard that people are really into it. If you’re a Facebook junkie you’ll be happy to know that the pink bunny is, as well, and he’s got his own page jam packed with goodies.

Here’s the scoop on what you’ll find when you join the Bunny’s fan page -

  • Humor and inspiration
  • A heads up to the whereabouts of the pink bunny
  • The Energizer Bunny’s photo and video gallery
  • Deals, coupons, and giveaways
  • Promotion and program information
  • Screen savers, wallpapers, and icons
  • and soon they’ll have games available, as well!

If you love Facebook and cute pink bunnies you’ll be quite happy joining the Energizer Bunny’s fan page!

Also, if you have a talent in photography you’re gonna want to look into the Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest! They’ve teamed up with National Geographic to offer a photo contest – enter in one of six categories including:

  • Animals/Wildlife
  • Nature
  • People/Cultures
  • Travel
  • Weather
  • Inspiration/Keep Going

Think you have that winning photo? Head on over and check it out!

Now, for what this post is all about – giving stuff away!
This giveaway, courtesy of the Energizer company includes the following:

  • 1 pair of way cool adult sized Energizer Bunny slippers
  • 1 package Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries
  • 1 package Energizer Advanced Lithium AAA batteries

These batteries are specially made to last longer in digital cameras and have shown great long lasting power in remote controls, too. If your family is anything like ours you know that batteries are a hot commodity. Being on a budget often means that when the batteries die the toy is off for a while. Longer lasting batteries are definitely a plus in my book!

Now, for the rules…
US residents are welcome to enter per the rules below. Pay special attention to the closing date! You can enter twice by following the directions here by 7/12/2009. If I ‘know’ you please don’t hesitate to enter! Winners aren’t chosen based on how well I know you – I don’t play favorites ~:O).

  • Entry #1: If you would like to win this Energizer package please leave a comment telling me about your favorite way to stay childlike.
  • Entry #2: Link to this entry from your blog where you wrote about this giveaway and then leave a second comment with the link where you passed on this giveaway info. This entry should be SEPARATE from your first entry.

1 winner will be chosen on or around 7/13/2009. We will announce it on the blog here as well as TRY to email the winner. I say ‘try’ because I often get email notices returned to me as undeliverable, I get no reply, or the winner doesn’t give a method of contact. Please make sure you check back to see if you are the winner! I won’t hang onto your winnings forever. After a week or so I will choose a new winner or relist the giveaway. WINNERS: Please allow about 3 weeks for your gift to arrive once you forward your shipping information to me.
***If you don’t want to leave me a method of contact that is fine, but please remember to check back to see if you are a winner. We are easy to contact. Also, if you do leave a method of contact you need to check your spam folder. Many people have missed out on winnings because the winner’s email went to their spam folder to be spotted after an alternate winner was chosen.

Subscribe to our RSS Feed so you don’t miss any of our giveaways and winner announcements!!!
Contact me if you would like me to host your giveaway!
Visit
this page to see our complete contest rules.
View our
privacy policy.

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Dizzy Bat Race – 2009 With Video!

We had a lot of fun on Saturday. Taking the advice from Kim & Jason we had a family Dizzy Bat tournament.
I played around with my video editor for the first time and after a great learning curve came up with this…

Hopefully, we’ll be able to do more videos like this because we are always doing silly things that are video worthy.

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