an encouraging word for my stay-at-home mommies

Here's an inspiring quote I read in 'Staying Close' by Dennis and Barbara Rainey.
"When all is said, it is the mother, and the mother only, who is a better citizen than the soldier who fights for his country. The succesful mother, the mother who does her part in rearin and training aright the boys and girls who are to be the men and women of the next generation, is of greater use to the community, and occupies, if she only would realize it, a more ho0norable as well as more important position than any man in it. The mother is the one supreme asset of the national life. She is more important, by far, than the successful statesman, or businessman, or artist, or scientist."
-President Teddy Roosevelt

Honest Scrap Award

Wow, my very first blog award, I didn't know blogs got awards!! lol
I recieved it from my bestest friend, Nicole, you can check out her blog at Ramblings By Nicole.

Rules for giving and receiving the Honest Scrap Award:

1) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.

2) Tell those 7 people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.

3) Share "10 Honest Things" about myself.

wow, 10 things, well, here it goes

1. I had one date, and he's my hubby :)
2. I'm a total neat freak, i'm always moving and re-arranging and re-organizing things. I get it from both of my grandma's, double dose, yikes!! whenever my room got messy or my mom wanted it cleaned up, i would take everything out of it's place and re-put away everything!! my mom hated it, a simple 30 min project, would take me hours!! :)- it doesn't seem to bother mat though, which is good, especially since i rearranged part of the livingroom till 11 pm last night!! :)
3. I stress out when things don't go as planned.
4. I hate waiting and don't like waiting for answers, I like to be in control at all times. i have a bad feeling these go hand-in-hand :o
5. I'm a horrible procrastinator, I have projects that are only half done and over 5 yrs old!!!
6. I worry that I'm not training my kids right and that they'll be scarred for life!! :(
7. I fantasize about living in a million dollar house, with a huge kitchen, movie room, large playroom, huge back yard with a dog and a couple cats and a ford mustang in the 3 car garage. :)
8. I get road rage and everyone is a dumb driver, unless you're reading this ;) lol
9. I am a total tomboy, but love to go shopping, getting my hair done, wearing fancy clothes, wear shoes with heels, and want to get my nails done, and learn how to properly do my makeup.
10. I'm scared to get pregnant, because we could end up with twins again!!

Well, now you know everything!! ;) Since I only faithfully follow Nicole, who gave me this award and I can't give one back, I have no one to give this award too. So thanks again Nicole for this award, you're the best!! :)

crazy or not?!

Natalie signing 'water' :)


As you can see from the pics, I let the girls play with water at the kitchen sink!!! They had a blast and of course soaked everything from the sink to the floor! :D Hey, it was water, easy clean up. :)

amazing savings

So I consigned some clothes, back in September, to a child clothing store, (they only sell childrens clothing) and an adult clothing store (they only sell adult clothing) here in town. So the girls and I needed some winter clothes, so I went shopping. :) I was able to get 6 shirts, 5 pants, 2 Christmas dresses and a maternity shirt and spent only $6 after using my $47 store credit!! Then I went over to the new adult clothing store and got a pair of pants, 2 sweaters and 5 shirts and spent $8 after using my $27 store credit!! I got 3 bags worth of clothes, spent $14 and saved a total of $74!!!! Now there's a bargain!! :)

Wordless Wednesday #1

awesome giveaway

Mommy World is having a giveaway for a Thinkbaby feeding set. This set includes a bento box, a soup bowl, a baby bowl, a cup, and a spoon and fork. This stainless steel set is free of Bisphenol-A, PVC, Lead , Phthalates and Melamine. It ends Oct 31 at 11:59 pm est.
Go check it out!! :)

reusable snack bag

reusable snack bag. It has a waterproof lining made PVC free with a lead free zipper. This bag is FDA approved and is actually machine washable. Amazing! Plus the outside is a cute cotton print of you choice and for $9.95 only, you will never need to buy those leeching plastic snack baggies again. When buying reusable lunch product look for things that say PVC, BPA, and Phthalate free. This optimized the chances that you are buying only the safest products! You can get these at Mom 4 Life and she offers a military discount. :)

Natalie 'reading' The Tallest of Smalls

After we finished reading it together, Natalie wanted to 'read' it by herself. :)

my first book review!!

My friend, Nicole, told me about a Thomas Nelson Book Review she is doing and I thought, hey, that sounds like fun, I want to do it too!! :) So I went to their website, signed up and picked ‘The Tallest of Smalls" by Max Lucado and Illustrated by Maria Monescillo.

I love Max Lucado's books and was excited that this one was geared for younger children. It arrived in the mail today and I was so excited, that after my girls got up from their nap, we read it together! They loved it so much, that they asked to read it again!!

They may be a little young to understand what is being said, but they loved the illustrations and enjoyed picking out things they recognized. The Tallest of Smalls is a great book that I can use to teach my girls about the love of Jesus and how to treat others.
Here are a few pictures of the girls and I reading it together.










*I am a member of Thomas Nelson's Book Review Blogger program, http://brb.thomasnelson.com/. The opinions in this post are entirely my own and completely honest*

a surprise win

Ok, so I entered a giveaway and totally forgot about it, so in January I get an email 'Congratulations you've won the honestbaby Holiday Book Contest! We will be sending you "Kids in the Holiday Kitchen" in the next week.' I thought it was a hoax!!! So I waited for it to come in the mail and here it is. Now that the holidays are here I can make some of the recipes!! :)

winnings!! :)

I wanted to post the things i've won through some great giveaways and here they are

I won a 8 oz Apple Spice Gold Canyon Candle from Really Working From Home's huge opening celebration giveaway. She had a lot of stuff and I really wanted the candle and was shocked to get it!! Thanks to Deborah at Gold Canyon Candles, check out her site

Here is a fabulous Mommy Bag from Marilee at Really Working From Home. There's a lot of great mommy business info and samples. :)

These next three pieces of jewelry I won on a crazy, fun facebook giveaway, thanks Crystal, check out her site here.

Light Green Necklace set

Green & Silver Hoop Earrings

Turquoise Circle Necklace

purse hanger :)

helping mommy's win has a Joey Junior Purse Hanger review and giveaway.
I just saw one of these for the first time in a magazine and would love to win it!! :)
http://winningmommys.blogspot.com/2009/10/joey-junior-purse-hangers-review-and.html
so head over and enter her giveaway :)

win a diaper bag

Jacci at Sprinkles of Scarlett is having her first giveaway and up for grabs is a sweet diaper bag by JJ Cole.
The giveaway will end WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28TH @ 12 a.m. central standard time.
http://sprinklesofscarlett.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-first-giveaway.html
so head on over and enter her giveaway :)

what to post??

well, nicole told me I needed to find something to blog about, so I think I'll start with what I do almost every day, finding new favorites!! :) So if I find something neat or interesting, I'm going to blog about it and maybe my favorites will become your favorites!! ;)

a 'sweet' giveaway ;)

CSN stores has graciously offered to give away something pretty amazing to one Tri to Cook reader...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_g7_vN1zrRXA/StgA3Zlsp-I/AAAAAAAABAU/Bi-C-XA27AU/s1600-h/Automatic%2BFrozen%2BYogurt-Ice%2BCream%2B%26%2BSorbet%2BMaker%2Bin%2BWhite.jpg
if you want to join me to possibly win one go to:
http://tri2cook.blogspot.com/2009/10/year-gone-by-and-giveaway.html
Good Luck :)

BPA stainless steel water bottles

'Helping Mommys Win' is having a lot of giveaways, but the EcoUsable BPA free stainless steel bottles caught my attention. I've been wanting to get some for my husband, kids and I for awhile now. I love that they're reusable and I am helping the enviromnent and they're so durable. Check it out at http://winningmommys.blogspot.com/