4th Mommy Mondays

Happy Memorial Day! Hope you're having a fun day. We're mostly cleaning around here.

Just a quick Mommy Mondays today! My son is 18 mo. old (as of yesterday) and officially weaned from the pacifier! Still working on getting him to sleep longer through the night though. He'll sleep 9pm-6am lately when it used to be 8:30pm-8am. Maybe he had a growth spurt (he is now 34.5 in. - 1 in taller than last month) and is just hungry faster lately. Hopefully because I need sleep! It's too hard for me to go to sleep right when he does so I can get 8 hours in too.

Love to hear any mom stories from you!

Fashionable Fridays #9

I'm linking up to One Crafty Mommy's Fashionable Fridays! Check it out! One Crafty Mommy and Fashionista on a Dime are working together to share affordable fashion! You can link up posts of your fashion, questions about fashion, etc.!

Would you like to become a sponsor for Fashionable Fridays. Check it out here.

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I wore this outfit to church a couple weeks ago. It helped me feel skinnier. I've been tucking in my shirts a lot more so I can try to accentuate my waist. Most of my shirts hit my hips thus the tucking in. Plus this skirt has little pockets and rouching area that looks silly if I had the shirt over it.
As I look at this picture again, not so sure about my stomach area. Plus my chest has become smaller since I've stopped nursing making my "baby fat" look a little more prominent - bummer!
Blue long sleeve shirt: Shade Clothing - $5 on sale
Cream pocket skirt: Layers Clothing (out of season) - $10

Here are my cute silver shoes. I had bought these at some large shoe store in Chicago for my friend's wedding last year.

Here's my hair. I had to do something quick since I didn't have time to straighten it. So I did a side messy bun and put some rhinestone spiral clips in to add a little more glam. The spiral clips, I believe are from Kohls. My friend gave them to all her bridesmaids to wear in their hair for her wedding.

Let me know what you think! Any tips would be appreciated too. Remember I'm no fashion expert! =D

Classy Cosmetics 100 Followers Giveaway

 

Classy Cosmetics offers tutorials and reviews on make-up and even some fashion! She's having her 100th follower Giveaway. All you have to do is become a follower and let her know that me, Scrappy Gifts sent you! Then complete other entries too!

Her giveaway includes all these Fabulous items! 

- MAC Strobe Cream (trial size)

- A custom accessory piece by Adelyn Shop Designs

- Delicious chocolate Lindon truffles

- A Maxine's Mop brush (comparable to MAC #239)

- Nicole Miller Bronzer

- Gwen Stefani (LOVE HER!!!!) L.A.M.B fragrance (trial size)

- The Brush Gaurd (includes 5 various sizes!!!)

- Lash Blast Mascara

- A fabulous Lancome bag to put it all in =)


My favorite post is her tutorial on Smokey Grey and Black Eyes. I have to try that sometime.

Rosy Cheek Boutique Quilt Giveaway!

Rosy Cheek Boutique is giving away a quilt from Late Night Quilter. Quilt will be selected from finished quilts made by Late Night Quilter. SUPER LOW ENTRIES! ENDS May 31st!

Check out all her cute stuff!

Amazing little skirts for girls.

Adorable shoes and bows.

3rd Mommy Mondays

Pacifier Weaning!
My son is almost 17 months old and we've been working on weaning him from the pacifier hard core the past month. Before that we were just trying to only give it to him during nap times. Now he's been doing great without it for naps; still working on completely getting rid of it for bedtime.

One thing I 've noticed that's really helped with the transition was giving him a stuffed animal and a pillow (I never wanted to give him a pillow because I was scared of the suffocation thing, but he's been doing great with it and the pillow has stayed in one spot the whole time). The pillow has helped more so maybe because he's seen us sleeping on pillows.

Our little setback: he got sick around Mother's Day. I hate when I'm weaning him and he gets sick. I just think it's unfair to take it away when he's sick.

He's slept through the night once without the pacifier last week. Last night he didn't quite sleep through the night; he did wake up once, but cried it out. He slept from 9pm-6am without it, but that's waking up early! He has gone more than 24 hours without it so I think I'm to that point that I'm going to throw it away. It's so hard for me to stay strong especially when he hasn't been sleeping through the night. I get way too grumpy some days and then I have no energy to get anything done around the house like today. I like to do things slowly, get both him and me used to it. I'm not good with cold turkey. But I've made up my mind that the pacifiers are gone- garbage! Hopefully this will end soon and I can sleep again so I can have enough energy to be pregnant again soon.

So any tips from you Mommies or Daddies? How long will it take for him to be used to it and get back to his normal sleeping schedule (His naps have been somewhat shorter and he hasn't slept through the night more than once without the pacifier)?

Fashionable Fridays #8 - Fancy Pants

This week's Fashionable Friday is about my son. I'm hoping to do a post about my husband since he's had to dress up for his new position at work, but I can't get him to let me take his picture. Let me tell you, he's hot and he's done very well picking out his own stud outfits now =D

I won this giveaway not too long ago for a $20 Certificate to Fancy Pants by Jamee. She does adorable applique work. I had her do a custom order for me and she made this.

"Come Play with Mii" shirt. Aren't I so creative? Thanks Jamee for putting my idea to life. It's awesome perfect for our Wii-loving family. Maybe my husband and I should get some too =D

Already a serious Wii player =D

I also splurged some and bought this cute tie shirt. I ordered both shirts in Youth S so hopefully my son will stop drooling by then and stop ruining his cute shirts =D

Fancy Pants by Jamee also has lots of adorable girl outfits. Also with her boy shirts, she usually makes matching boy bottoms.

2nd Mommy Mondays

Lately I feel like I've been wasting a lot of time especially on the computer, but I always have something to do on the computer that it's hard for me to keep up with scrapbooking. I work on my 2 main blogs, family blog and sometimes recipe blog. I need to work on my 2008 and 2009 family blog books and my son's ABC book (I'm making it using my free Shutterfly.com code). I check my family e-mail, junk e-mail and business e-mail. I upload pictures to share with family members and to get printed out. Check other blogs and I check facebook to keep up to date with friends and family. All of this I have to mainly do during nap time. Sometimes I try to do this stuff at night, but then at that time my husband is on his computer too so our internet connection gets really slow.

So in order for me to get more scrapbooking done, I've made a schedule for myself for what to do during nap time. Hopefully it will help. I've started it some and I've felt a small difference. My goal is also to turn off the computer once nap time is over so I'm not attempted to check on things at night once my son is asleep.
I have touched on this a little bit in this post, but I think I need to have more of schedule so I'm not wasting time.

Here's my schedule. Leave comments on tips and suggestions or share what your schedule is with your free time. I know there are so many Mommy Bloggers out there that have posts everyday so how do you do it?

Of course this isn't set in stone. I've very big on flexibility.

DAILY

• check e-mails because if I don't....my junk e-mail (surveys, online shopping, blog subscriptions, baby/toddler info, etc.) gets 100+ messages

Monday

• Mommy Mondays posts
• catch-up on any TV shows I missed last week
• check-out other blogs on my blog list

Tuesday

• scrapbooking or work on blog books

Wednesday

• Deeper Cleaning
• NO computer

Thursday

• schedule Fashionable Fridays post
• schedule Scrappy Gifts' Friday Favorites post

Friday

• schedule Scrappy Saturdays post
• Primary Lesson

 Saturday

• Family Blog
• Deeper Cleaning

Sunday

• write to my Brother-in-law who is serving a mission in Mexico
• Family Blog
• upload photos or scrapbook

Here are some links to other moms who share bits of their schedules or when they blog.
Home Sweet Home
Make Me a Blessing
Tales of a Recovering Perfectionist

Five Question Friday at Mama M's My Little Life

I hadn't participated in a while so I checked the questions for this week and really liked them so here are my answers! =D





1. Take your pick...date night, girls night out, or night out alone?
First Choice: DATE NIGHT! Probably because it's so hard for us to actually get a babysitter. I'm oh so willingly. Little harder for my husband and our son is super shy with many people. How I wish we could have family around.
Second Choice: Alone time. Then I actually could get scrapbooking done and not worry about cleaning everything up right away if my son wakes up.
Third Choice: Girls Night probably because this is the easiest one for me to put together. I have movie nights with friends every so often plus we get together for play groups. I guess it would be nice to go shopping with the girls without babies though.

2. Can you touch your nose with your tongue?
NOPE....I'm better at getting close to my chin then my nose though.

3. What is your favorite flower and why?
Rainbow bouquet of roses. I love all the pretty colors. My parents gave me a boquet for my high school graduation so now I'm hooked on them. (This bouquet is good, but mine had blue roses too)

I like bright colored lilies and gerber daisies too, but never know the exact name of the lilies I do like.

4. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?
This is a hard one, but the first thing that came to mind....Realize that I'm beautiful sooner which would have helped me with my self-esteem and make me a better friend and more attractive to others. Finally realized that I'm beautiful just this past year no matter if I'm all decked out or if I'm just in scroungey clothes with no makeup.


5. If you won the lottery, what is the very first thing you would do?
Be totally shocked. Then figure out a budget on how we could get a house, another car, save a bunch and learn to invest, send money to family in the Philippines and then maybe celebrate by buying some things we wanted.

Fashionable Fridays #7

I'm linking up to One Crafty Mommy's Fashionable Fridays! Check it out! One Crafty Mommy and Fashionista on a Dime are working together to share affordable fashion! You can link up posts of your fashion, questions about fashion, etc.!

Would you like to become a sponsor for Fashionable Fridays. Check it out here.

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Here's the outfit I wore on Mother's Day. Now that I look back on it, my dress is probably a little too long which causes me to look short (I am short, but who wants to look short?) I love my red belt though (it was the first time I wore it too - from Kohls) and because I love my dress so much, maybe one day I'll take it up a little.

One day I hope I can find the perfect red shoes. Any tips for good ones out there?

What did all you Mommies wear on Mother's Day. By the way, right after church, I went straight into some comfy pjs (our church ends at 4 at least so I wasn't in pjs all day - but who cares right it was Mother's Day).

Hope all of you women who have touched a child's life had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Memories by Christine Engagement/Wedding Series - Bridal Showers

"The month of May will feature my (Memories by Christine) engagement/wedding series! I'm having 2-3 blog hops a week throughout the month so we can all share memories of our special days. Even if you aren't a scrapbooker, you can still participate! Bridesmaid and maid of honor stories are welcomed too!"






Bridal Showers and Bacherlorette Parties: Well I didn't have any bachelorette parties - they're not as popular with LDS culture. Plus I only had 2.5 months from the time I was engaged to married.

I was fortunate though to have 2 bridal showers in such a small amount of time. December 2004

For my first bridal shower, my awesome aunts threw me one at Chandlers Restaurant/Club. (Delicious Food) They sure spoiled me.

For my scrapbook layouts, I used green anf pink because in all my pictures, many people were wearing those colors.

The left layout was made at a Close to My Heart class/party. I hated it at first because it was all pink. Pink isn't my favorite color, but I'm more accustomed to it now. To add some style to the layout, I used a red pen to trace around words and shapes to make it stand out more. Before it was all faded and bland to me.

These are pictures of me opening presents. Also one of my most embarassing moments occured during this part. I didn't have a head table at my bridal shower because all I had was a maid of honor and no bridesmaids. I had lots of friends, but not many girls that I was super close to that lived around town (I had more guys friends). Anyway wearing a skirt and opening presents with nothing to hide me. Yeah....I got the pictures back. My mother had taken pictures of me opening like every single present....now the embarassing part, half the pictures you could see up my skirt! Ahhh! My own mother didn't even realize it, but I'm sure others did. I don't remember any signals to say close your legs! Maybe I was blind.

The pink left layout needs some sort of title  in the center or something. Still haven't figured it out after all these years.

I love the right layout. I used when of my gift bags from my shower on it. Those hearts are using foam stamps and paint, I think.

My maid of honor wrote the list of who gave what.

My friend made me my fake boquet (even though in a temple marriage, there's no Rehearsal) My other friends helped get the presents and put them away.

My table had all my friends at it that could come. I was barely 20 years old. The other tables were "the adults." I sure used to use tags a lot back in the day when I first started scrapbooking. They were so cheap and easy to use and great way to journal.

Again more tags are used. I love "My Moms" layout. I thought I was so clever.

The right layout, bottom left picture are my awesome aunts who spoiled me rotten with not only hosting a fabulous shower at a wonderful restaurant, but they gave me tons of gifts. I would open a present and it was say from the Sues (both their names are Sue). Present after present said from the Sues. In LDS culture, I don't think there's a lot of extravagant large gifts. Plus Mike and I are way simple and were going to college so we didn't go for the expensive stuff, so my aunts said they spent the same as they did on my cousins. Still I was way shocked at how much they gave me.

2nd Bridal Shower - hosted by another awesome lady, one of my best guy friend's mom at her house.

I invited many of those who couldn't make it to my first one or those who didn't make the guest list on the first one because I was limited to amount of guests since it was at a nice restaurant. A lot of church friends. It was more laid back and with games. I love playing games!

I used to be way more creative with ribbon in my beginning scrapbook days.

Did you know I was the maid of honor at my friend's wedding. Her wedding was the day before mine! Crazy huh! Well I hosted her bridal shower at one the home of another wonderful lady, she was one of our teachers when we were in YW. I played tons of games at that one. Like name all the objects on the tray. Write their addresses down on an envelope and do a drawing. That way she didn't have to address any thank you's later. There were  a couple other games, but I can't remember what they were.

I also co-hosted a small shower for a co-worker since she was out of state for college. We did the TP dress idea. We made fruit pizza - yum! Can't remember what else, but it was a really small event.

Since I couldn't be in town for my best friend's shower (I just had a baby, but I made it to the wedding!) Plus I made up for it by decorating her and her husband's hotel room ; D. Anyway to help with her shower even though I couldn't be there, I made all of her shower invites. I created something on word and then glued it on some purple cardstock (one of her wedding colors) and added some rhinestones to each one. They looked amazing. Why I didn't take picture - no idea! Usually I'm way good at that.

First Mommy Mondays

When I thought about Mother's Day coming up and with my blog being called Crafty Mommy Diva, I wanted to do posts about being a mom too. I'm still so new at being a mom that I thought what a great way to get ideas, support and share joys with other moms. To honor Mother's Day this year, I've started my first Mommy Mondays.

You can leave a comment or you can leave a link to your very own Mommy Monday post. (I'll be getting a Mommy Mondays button in the near future.)
Share what you did for Mother's Day: for your own mom, MILs, or for you.
I called both my mom and MIL. Still working on making some photo books for them, but still need pictures.
For me, my husband gave me a card which our son also wrote in (he's 17 mo.) He helped take care of our sick son. He watched our son so I could teach in church. I received some chocolates at church too.
Simple acts of appreciation mean so much.

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Then to participate in Mama M's last day of her Mother's Day Mania, I'm writing a letter to my 17 mo. old son. (ended Sunday - Mother's Day)


Dear James,

Where to begin? I hope you know how much I love you! You are my first and only child right now. This is my 2nd Mother's Day. Thank you so much for sleeping this year because last year  you did not sleep well at all making mommy very sad. This year you decided to get sick on Saturday night with a 102.6 temperature. You were fine and then you started shaking/shivering at the store. By the time we came back home, you were terribly hot! Couldn't find any of our thermometers, so Daddy was nice enough to buy this cool one that changed colors. Green-normal, Yellow-slight temp., Red-bad temp! Well you were easily in the red. You ate very little, but you easily laid out by the TV with me and fell asleep in and out.

Then you had trouble staying asleep so we moved you back to your crib where you slept a couple hours and then woke up. Daddy was so nice to put you back to sleep so I could still sleep. Thankfully you stayed asleep until about 8am, but with nice yucky green boogers covering your one nostril. Cleaned you up and had breakfast. You actually played and made it through sacrament meeting at church. Daddy took you home, so Mommy could teach Primary. You apparently missed me during the last half hour of church because you dragged around my purple coat. Now you're asleep again getting all the rest you can so we can talk on the phone to your Uncle Conner who is serving a mission in Mexico.

Today could have been a lot tougher if you were younger, but you sure have taught me a lot especially since last Mother's Day. Being a mother is hard work, way harder than being a teacher or day care provider. I thought I knew it all since I worked in day care and became a teacher, but being a mom is a full-time job 24/7. I also learned that it definitely is the best job in the world. I love being your mom. I love watching you grow. You have learned so many things so fast: sitting up at 5 months, crawling at 6 months, walking at 10 months, etc. Now you're learning to say so many words and you're climbing all the time. Climbing into your high chair has been pretty helpful though =D. Pretty soon you'll be talking all the time, asking me why about everything. You'll learn to read and write. You'll go to school. Get baptized. Make friends, drive, date, graduate high school, go on a mission, get married, graduate college and have kids of your own. It will go by way too fast I'm sure.

I hope your dad and I can teach you the Gospel, to pray, read your scriptures, go to church, have a testimony, remember Jesus, and choose the right. I hope I can teach you (since your dad won't be very good this) how to dance, how to treat a woman: be a gentleman, remember the little things, to go on dates (not just hang out). Now your dad and I can both teach you about sports especially basketball, but other sports too like soccer, volleyball and any others that interest you. You're already trying to dribble a basketball so I'm sure it will be so fun to play together as a family. Hopefully we can both remember all the school subjects too so we can help you learn about math, science, social studies, history, geography, spelling and more.

I hope you always remember how much your dad and I love you. Your grandparents love you. Your uncles love you (hopefully they will get some aunts to love you too). All of your family loves you. Most importantly your Heavenly Parents and Jesus love you. Always remember that you are a child of God.

With all my love,
Mom

Mother's Day Tip

Coupon Sherpa shared this with me...
Want to do something extra personal? Mr Free Stuff has "14 DIY Ways to Make Mom's Day Memorable"

If my son was old enough to do these things, then I'd really like these: (heck I'd love if my husband did these although he doens't create much drama for me)

• Mom & Me scrapbook obviously
• No drama day
• Open your heart
• Heartfelt card
• Clean house

Mother's Day Mania at Mama M's Little Life - Birth Stories

Thursday: Birth stories!! I know I've done it before...but, honestly...I can't get enough birth stories! I'm gonna do this particular birth story on my oldest...since he made me a mama for the very first time! This is an easy one...so many people already have birth stories written, just link up that post!


TOOK This pretty much straight off my family blog - added  a few things to help you understand better....I loved re-reading this.

After Mike dropped off BIL, Derek at 11:45pm Saturday, November 29, 2008, we had about an hour together then my water broke at 12:47am, Sunday November 30, while we were lying on the bed watching National Treasure. (My husband was still in college and so was his brother. Since we had non-school housing, BIL stayed with us the whole Thanksgiving Break- Now that I look back on that; I'm annoyed Mike and I only had an hour of alone time...the last time we were alone to spend quality time together was before Thanksgiving Break - probably more so annoyed that my husband played computer games with his brother most of the week)

Picture taken earlier that day-little did we know...

Anyway continuing on....My water breaking felt almost like a contraction but just on my left side. It did feel like a pop and then suddenly it felt like I wet the bed...not a lot came out, but by the time we went out to the car....a lot came out and I was dripping, at least I was outside. The whole time Mike was like are you sure we have to go to the hospital you're not having any contractions. I told him yes either my contractions had to be close enough or my water had to break. After your water breaks, you have about 24 hours to get the baby out. He was probably surprised since baby wasn't due until December 12th. I had a feeling he'd be coming early.

So we go to the hospital and get admitted. First they have to check me out and make sure my water really did break. They have a little test strip that turns bright blue when your water is broken...yup my water did break! Then she checked to see how dilated I was...not a fan of this. I was dilated to a 3 which surprised me because on Friday I was only a 1 at the doctor's office. I hadn't had very many contractions since that time either. From that point, my water never stop coming out in sporadic times. I thought it would all come out at once, but I got some here and some there. I felt bad when water came out as I was switching rooms.

First room: checking if my water broke
Man I'm huge! HORRIBLE PIC (I had gained 42 pounds)

The nurse suggested walking around to start more contractions...didn't work...probably because my feet hurt too much since I didn't have my nice slippers with me yet. Mike thought it would be fun to take my picture with an IV. He said it reminded him of old people.

Man was I really that big! FREAK

At 6am, the next nurse said they would be starting me on Pitocin to get my contractions going more. I was nervous about this because friends had said that labor is harder when they do this and I really wanted to do this without pain meds. Well it definitely got harder! The nurse said people have still gone without the epidural with Pitocin. I think I reached level 5 on the Pitocin. The nurse said I kept doing well with breathing. By this point though Mike had fallen asleep which did not help. I tried calling for him, but that didn't work. My breathing started turning into "he he ahhhhh!" or "he he owwwww!" I had to yell out. Finally Mike woke up and I asked the nurse to try the birthing ball. Since it seemed that my contractions were easier standing up. If my legs weren't so weak, I would have tried doing it standing up. The birthing ball helped some, with Mike rubbing my back and me leaning my head against him, but boy it was still hard. By 9am they checked me again and I was only at a 4! I was like give me the epidural, no way would I make it to a 10 without it. The doctor and nurse said "Good girl"

Before epidural

The epidural took forever to get...about 30 minutes before they arrived. The nurse tried to get me some other medicine to put with my IV until then but that took long too! When the epidural guy came, he had me sit up (all the videos I'd seen had women lying on their side). Sitting up was hard! Then I had 2 contractions while he was doing the epidural. Mike held onto me and I held on to Mike so I wouldn't shake or jump with the contraction. The epidural guy said I had a lot of blood vessels back there so I better not move. Scary!



Me after the epidural. It was so amazing that I could actually take a nap and not have to go to the bathroom for 2-3 hours....this was very nice especially since I haven't experienced that in several months while being pregnant. I thought I had to go to the bathroom, but the nurse said that those were the contractions. I was like really; I hardly felt them.

At about 10:30am or so the nurse checked me again for dilation and I was at an 8 (I was amazed that I was already at an 8...I guess I really needed the epidural to relax) so she had me wake up and start pushing as I reached a 10. 4 pushes for 10 seconds each, during each contraction. It was hard to feel the contractions at first but eventually I could. Mike and the nurse would each hold a leg and I would push...didn't hurt at all. The baby would move down but then move back up. The nurse was a little worried because during each contraction the baby's heart rate would go down so she gave me an oxygen mask. That was interesting. Since she couldn't see him crowning, we tried me pushing on my side...that was supposed to help the baby's heart rate too. She left Mike to hold my leg with each contraction. This was the part that was the hardest for Mike because it was the grossest part. I felt so bad, but I had no idea what was happening until Mike told me. The doctor came in around 12:30pm and said that the baby was far down enough to get him out, but he would have to use a vacuum. I didn't really want him to do that but oh well. A couple more pushes and the doctor yelled at me to stop because I was about to tear. He said he would cut me instead so I'm like okay. Mike coudn't see him cut but he saw the scissors. I was like whatever because I couldn't feel anything. Then suddenly James was out like that at 12:58pm. I was awed that very moment, how could that come out of me?

So I guess I was in labor for about 6 hours, just counting after they gave me Pitocin.
The doctor handed Mike the scissors to cut the umbilical cord... I watch Mike to see what he would do because he said he didn't want to cut the cord. Mike did cut and I heard him telling his brother Jacob and our friend Ryan several days later that it was pretty cool, but it was hard to cut...you couldn't just make one cut. He told our friends Ryan and Megan that Ryan should cut the cord because it was a pretty cool experience.

While I was holding James, the doctor stitched me up. Mike said he used a needle shaped like a fishing hook. Then the doctor just pulled the placenta out which I thought was weird. I thought I would have to push that out. Oh well whatever. Then the nurse pushed down on my stomach, that kinda hurt and I'm guessing that pushed out more blood.


James weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 inches long. His head was 13 cm round. I overheard them saying his APGAR scores were 8 and 9. I was like that's it, only 6 lbs! I worried then that I really had gained too much weight!


James getting his first bath. I loved hearing his cry. It was so cute!



Love at first sight. Amazing feeling!


Mike didn't want to hold him yet, but the nurses just handed him over so he had no choice. I loved seeing Mike hold James the best! That's probably the moment I got really teary-eyed.



All cute and cozy. I swaddled him myself. I've definitely gotten better at it. Isn't he precious?


*In case you're wondering what I look like now. Check out some of my Fashionable Fridays posts. I've learned how to hide the baby belly some.

Mother's Day Mania at Mama M's - Whoopsie Wednesday

Wednesday: Whoopsie Wednesday! Let's kick this off with a little support therapy! Nearly every mom I know, had a "whoopsie" with at least one (all?) of their kiddos...falling off the bed, bonking a little head going around the corner, a bent toe in a shoe...I've heard so many stories! And, I know we ALL feel horrible about those times, so let's share 'em!



Almost didn't want to participate in this one because the first story that came into my mind makes me feel like a horrible mother, but maybe I can get advice from you guys.

We were staying a friend's house who had lots of stairs. Our house has 2 mini half stairs. My almost 16 mo. old son at the time went slowly up the stairs and I waited for him at the top. He stopped at the midway landing and I told him to keep coming, but then he started to lose his balance. I started running down the stairs, but it was too late he fell down half a flight of stairs. My heart was pounding so badly and didn't want to stop. He cried for a few moments, but went right back up the stairs. I figured he must have been okay since he didn't cry long. Am I horrible mom?! I still feel horrible about it. I should have stayed closer to him. He's really great at climbing stairs and we practiced all day climbing down those stairs since he doesn't know how to climb down stairs since we don't have any big ones to practice on at our house. Should I have had him checked out? I'm paranoid now that he's messed up his brain or something.
How old would you wait until you trusted your child with stairs without supervision?

Engagement Story

First the Winner of The Hair Coverings $25 Hair Accessories is #5...

#5 is Kady from Take a Mom's Word for It!

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Join Memories by Christine's Engagement/Wedding Series BLOG HOP all during the month of May 2010!


I had done this for another blog hop too....back on February 9, 2010

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So I'm posting this one way ahead of time because I've been the last one to post on all the other days....so you can check my other posts out if you haven't read them.

Monday: How I Met my Husband
Tuesday: Best Date Ever

To Participate go to Mama M's My Little Life


We had been dating for 18 months at this point...most of the time being spent convincing him that we could be married, be okay financially and go to college (I had 1 year of college behind me, but he hadn't started yet).
Anyway about a month before he proposed he said he had to talk to my parents about something. Since my birthday was coming up; I thought maybe a surprise party or a proposal. After Mike spoke to my parents, my mom started acting differently...so I figured proposal, but just in case I kept thinking of something else that was good so I wouldn't be disappointed. As my birthday came closer, Mike let me know that he had my birthday present....I would tell him that it was a camera because I thought that would be nice to have...even though we both knew I really wanted the ring.
(I should preface this that he did give me a promise ring for my birthday the year before - mailed it to me while I was in college and wrote a sweet note promising when the time was right, we'd get married)
Since Mike couldn't come out on my actual birthday; I went to his family's that weekend...the 23rd and 24th (October 2004). I don't remember much about the weekend; I remember some details from church, but all I was thinking about was my birthday present. Mike said he'd give it to me when all of his family went to sleep; that night of the 24th his dad stayed up later than usual until around 11:30pm! Then when his dad finally went to sleep, Mike gave me my first clue. Here are the clues in his words. (Mike did this little scavenger hunt like Mike's dad does on Christmas for their big present)


Clue #1 : To find your present look where your wallet is...
Clue #2 :Your present is not here; you need to look underneath a chair in the kitchen.
Clue #3 : Sorry not here either. . . . you need to go to the place where you "relieve" yourself.
Clue #4 : Boo Hoo, no present here. . . .you should search your bag again.
Clue #5 : Wow you're good at finding clues . . . I would check where you wash clothes

Clue #6 : This is pretty long. . . .you excited yet? hahaha ok, your present is under (Mike's pillow)

Clue #7 : Haha, tricked ya, no present here : D Ok your present is on top of the T.V.
Clue #8 : I love tricking you; it's so funny. . . . Here is your last clue. . . . It's on the desk in Mike's room
Clue #9 : Look into my eyes and tell me what you see cuz I'm about to ask you. . . .

I had to turn around after the last clue; it was intense and still gives me butterflies. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him (blushing profusely)....he didn't have the ring though; it was in his closet. I just hugged him and he's like hello what's your answer...I'm like oh yeah! I had to make him put the ring on my finger.

I had to do this whole scavenger hunt quietly since everyone was sleeping which was tricky because I had to go up and down the stairs.

My ring is a marquise cut, .54 carat diamond on a thin white gold band. It was beautiful and bigger than I expected.

picture of our rings on our 5th anniversary - sorry not the best quality ...I have other pictures somewhere.

Announcing our engagement to my extended family..later that night we announce to people at church at the Ward Halloween party. October 30, 2004

Engagement pictures

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