Favorite Foto Friday...and a GIVEAWAY!!

The theme for this weeks FFF is of course HAPPY HALLOWEEN! And, in other bloggy news this is officially my 100th post! Yay me, taking this blogger world by storm! A big shout out and HUGE thank you to Amanda who gave me just the push I needed to start my blog. So enjoy the pictures of our Pooh and Piglet, and leave me a comment. Everyone who leaves a comment on this specific post by midnight Sunday 11/02 will be entered in a drawing for a giveaway. One comment will be randomly chosen and the winner will recieve some of my favorite things as a celebration of my 100th post!

I LOVE this picture~

Such Joy!~

Hugs for baby sister~

Mama's little Piggy~

Want to see more adorable Halloween pictures? Visit Sarah's blog and join in on the FFF fun!

Have a FUN and SAFE Happy Halloween everyone!!

Tag, they're it!

I've been tagged by my blogger friend Susan over at in The Psych Ward. Check her out, she's super funny! Anyway...here are the rules~

1.) Link back to the person who tagged you & share the rules on your blog.

2.) Share 7 random facts about yourself.

3.) Tag 7 people & list their links on your post.

4.) Tell those 7 people by commenting on their blogs.

Here are 7 random facts about myself.

1~ I am a planner in every sense of the word. I plan everything I possibly can before it happens, always have always will.

2~ I never wear only 1 shirt. I layer my shirts and wear 2 every single day. If I wear only one shirt I feel naked, or exposed, or something.

3~I am a weirdo about even numbers. The volume on my car stereo must never be at 23, or 25...always only 24. Same with the TV volume, usually 18. If it's too loud I go for 16, if it's too quiet I go for 20. My alarm clock, when set, is ALWAYS on an even number. Weird I know...don't judge me.

4~I am very ambidextrous. I use my left hand as often as my right. I am really 'right' handed as I do write with that hand, however, I use a Highlighter with my left hand. Used to get made fun of a lot in college for using one hand to write and one to highlight. My sister who is really 'left' handed does as many things with her right hand as she does her left. She throws right, bats right, drives with her right, etc...Anyway, this is supposed to be about me, not my sister. Moving on...

5~I hate to sleep with a fan blowing directly on me. The breeze from the fan makes my hair move against my face and I wake up all night long thinking there are spiders crawling on me. Weird I know. Travis lies claims that he can't sleep without the fan on. It is really one of the only things we ever argue about. And as a side note, we NEVER have spiders in the house and have a pest control service come monthly...it's just a weird thought in my head I guess.

6~I have owned 6 vehicles in 8 years....still not happy with the one I have. I tell Travis often that he is lucky I go from car to car and not man to man, LOL!

7~Nick Carter from the 'Backstreet Boys' is my cousin. Actually my 2nd cousin. His mom Jane, and my mom are cousins. We don't keep in contact with their family, and have not in years.

The seven other bloggers I am tagging are:

Amanda because she is such a great friend and I love her!

Mindy who has the cutest family and biggest heart!

Erin who's sweet little girl makes me so excited for Brynne to grow up! (but not too fast!)

Jennifer who writes one of the first blog's I stumbled upon and has become one of my favorite blogging buddies, she is such a sweetheart!

Jill another of the sweetest bloggers out there, and with such a beautiful family!

Sarah because we see so many of her beautiful pictures but I'd love to know more about her!

I've only listed 6 bloggers, so anyone else who'd like to participate...consider yourself tagged (=

Busy Busy

Landon won't be quiet long enough to take a picture these days...

We have been busy getting ready for Halloween this week. I have to admit that Halloween was never a favorite Holiday of mine, but now that I have kids...I LOVE Halloween! Both kids have their costumes...and look super cute (even if I do say so myself). Daddy helped Landon carve his pumpkin Sunday while Brynne napped. Landon helped Mama make some roasted pumpkin seeds and decorate the front porch. Suprisingly we are still having a lot of warm weather. Just yesterday the high was 90! It's almost November! Hopefully Halloween night won't be too warm, both the kids have heavy costumes.

Back to Blogging

So...I am back (=

I picked up the laptop last night and was so excited to get it home and see how it was working. So far so good. Although the technician copied my photos onto a CD but he never did actually put them back onto the computer. So I had to spend a bit of time doing that this morning, but I am not complaining...I am just extremely thankful that I have all of our photo's still! I have a TON of pictures to post and things to blog about. Our Internet is working really slow, for whatever reason, and I am hoping it is not the computer. We have a new media card in the laptop so it should work nicely and with no further problems. I don't usually blog until the kids are napping, so check back in a bit for some more updates!

I can see the light...

So, a bit of a computer update...I heard from Sony yesterday and apparently our entire hard drive was corrupted? I dunno, I guess that they had to restore all of the factory settings and completely re-format the hard drive. This is so irritating because I have about 600 photos on the computer that we have not backed up, yep 600 photos in only 6 weeks...guess I am a little camera crazy right? The main reason we took the computer in to be serviced was because it would not recognize any outside hardware. When I would try to back up the pictures the computer would not recognize my flash drive. So after a 10 minute argument with the idiot customer service man he agreed that Sony would back up my photos for me. THANK goodness!! So, we should have our computer back by late next week. Here's hoping it works! I can't do this again!!

Hope everyone is doing well, I can't wait to catch up on all those bogs I stalk (=

Just an update..

Hey everyone, hope you are all doing well! I feel so out of the loop! Our laptop, yes the brand new one, is being serviced by the Geek Squad yet again. They seem to think that the computer has a faulty media card...or something like that. The computer will not recognize any devices that we link to it. No camera, not the scanner, not the wireless Internet even. Now that the Geek Squad thinks they know what is wrong they have sent the laptop back to the manufacturer to hopefully be replaced! We should have an answer within 3 weeks! So until then, blogging will be less frequent.

On a more positive note Travis and I celebrated our 7 year wedding Anniversary on Saturday!! He, with the help of our family, surprised me with a weekend in Laughlin. I have been sick all week with a bad cold, so the timing for that sucked! But we had a GREAT time and enjoyed sleeping uninterrupted (= We missed the kids soooo much and even came home a night early. I will post more about our Anniversary, and our fun weekend away once I get the computer back.

Both Landon and Brynne also had the cold, and are finally starting to feel better too. We don't have a very busy week so hopefully just a lot of R&R at home, to recover and concentrate on being healthy! I can't wait to check in with everyone and see how you all have been!

On the go..

Brynne is growing sooo fast, and I can see my baby days slipping away...

Closer to walking every day~

She walks out of the picture every time...

Proud big brother helping sister walk~

Sweet girl~

Not Me Monday~

Visit MckMama's Blog to join in on the fun, and tell everyone what you didn't do this week! For now here are a few things that I most certainly did not do this week!!

I most certainly did not put Landon to bed 2 days in a row without remembering to brush his teeth. What kind of Mom would do that?

I definitely did not allow Landon to play with an entire box of tampons just so I could have 20 minutes to straighten my hair. He did not make a huge mess all over the bathroom floor either!

I obviously did not eat an Abba Zaba candy bar and nothing more for breakfast twice this week. Oh, and I did not tell myself it was ok because they were the fun size bars either!

I also did not give the delicious chocolate/caramel covered apple my sister bought for me to my husband and son because I definitely did not decide to go on a diet the day before she bought it!

I did not tell 2 separate people at work that I couldn't work for them this weekend. I certainly did not tell them I couldn't work for them because I don't like them. And I most certainly did not decide to work for 2 other people who I do like! That would be so bitchy wouldn't it?

I also did not watch Paris Hilton's new reality show twice this week. Who actually enjoys watches that crap?

Wekend Warriors

So you may remember this post in which I blogged about our hallway bathroom and the major renovation that Travis was doing. Well although most of the remodel was complete we still hadn't laid the tile on the floor. We have had the tile, and all of the needed materials, just not the time needed to do the project! Well, Friday Travis was off and he decided to take advantage of his 3 day weekend. Check out our weekend project!

Travis arranged, cut and laid all of the tiles and I grouted them! I still have some cleanup to do, but we wanted to let the grout set overnight~

This is my favorite thing about the hallway bath. Travis made me this little area so I have a place to put a laundry hamper for the kids clothes.

All that's left is adding the base moulding and touching up some paint!

And as a disgusting reminder, here is the hallway bath in its original state, when we bought the house. Travis took out the window since it was a horrible source for mold. Who the heck designs a bathroom in which the shower has a window in it? Not above it, in it!
We already have all the hardware, towel bars and such, and the pulls for the drawers on the vanity. We have never hung or installed any of it because we wanted to finish the messy floor project and touch up the paint first. I will be sure and post the final picture at the end of the week, once we have had time to do the last minute touches. Pretty productive weekend huh?

Daddy's Copy Cat

Landon wants to do everything Daddy does! Yesterday Travis was pressure washing his dirt bike and Landon RAN into the garage, got his bike and proudly pushed it out to Daddy. You see, Landon needed his bike washed too~

Travis was such a nice Daddy (as usual) and helped Landon get the water just right. Then he showed him how to point the nozzle at the bike and pull the trigger~

Landon's bike was clean and shiny in no time!

Favorite Foto Friday~

The theme for today's FFF is "Octoberfest."

It's no secret that Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love fall for so many reasons...the mild weather, the leaves turning, our yearly trip to the apple orchard, cooler nights that mean fires in the fireplace, baking, cleaning (I'm weird..I clean in fall, not spring), but most of all I look forward to the pumpkin patch! Because most of our pictures are on the broken laptop, these are all I could come up with!

Landon's first trip to the PP 10/06~

(with all that orange hair his head looked just like a pumpkin!)

Last Year searching for pumpkins with Daddy 10/07~

We tried hard to get a good picture this year, this was the best we got, LOL. We'll head to another PP next week so I'm crossing my fingers for some great pictures!!

Like what you see? Want to see more FFF posts, visit Sarah's blog and join in on the fun!!

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am so thankful to be called Mama by these 2:

I am thankful for my wonderful family, and friends.

I am thankful to have a coffee date with my sister tonight.

I am thankful that both of my kids are healthy and happy!

I am thankful that Brynne slept through the night last night.

I am thankful for my hubby's job, because he works in the construction industry and times are tough for a lot of families right now.

I am thankful to see my mom and sister this Saturday.

I am thankful for my strong and happy marriage.

I am thankful for our home and all that is in it!

Warning! Pumpkin Picture Overload!!

We loaded the kids up in the car and headed to the closest major town, in hopes of having a fun afternoon at the pumpkin patch. We have a really great family owned "U Pick" Pumpkin Patch nearby, complete with farm animals, a tractor ride, a corn maze, and various other cute activities for kids. We took Landon there last year and had SO much fun. Some of our favorite pictures were taken that day. We have been so excited to take Landon and Brynne there this year and of course take a million new pictures. Well, we pull into the parking lot and the sign says they do not open until Oct. 11th! WTH? Don't they know it's fall!? Don't they know they have customers who drive ALL the way across town to spend money!? Don't they realize that every other pumpkin patch around here is already open for the season!? UGH, so irritating! We turned around and headed back to one of the trashier smaller pumpkin patches, that was literally 20 minutes closer to the house. Landon was pretty upset when we pulled out of the pumpkin patch parking lot as quickly as we pulled in. We got him to calm down (with the help of a snack, lol) and headed back to the closer patch. Here are a few pictures from our date with our kids~

So excited to show sister the pumpkin~

Awww, I told Travis we should get him one~

Too little for the petting zoo~

Daddy and Landon feeding the animals~

Helping Landon~

Daddy and Landon, who was SICK of pictures, LOL~

Family shot...the kids never look at the camera~

Landon LOVES animals~

With Mama feeding the goat~

Picking out some fall favorites~

Big Brother + Little Sister = LOVE!~

Petting the sweet bunnies~

Sooo heavy~

Mama and Brynne~

Brynne's 1st Pumpkin Patch~

Daddy helping to find a good one~

SO funny!

Ok, so many of you may already read McMommy's blog over at The McMommy Chronicles. I find McMommy to be SO funny and entertaining. Well, she's outdone herself on this post! McMommy's husband has a "Man Cold!" and as wives we have all been there! Click here...I promise you will laugh out loud!

You're Welcome (:

Musical Beds

Travis and I made the decision long before we had the kids, not to allow them to sleep in bed with us. I'd heard story after story from other mom's whose 5 year old was still sleeping in bed with them and refused to sleep on their own. My bed is my sanctuary...I spent many an afternoon lounging in it watching TV or reading a book before I had kids. I love my bed, no really...I LOVE my bed! It is the most expensive thing we own inside the house, and as I remind Travis often, it was worth every penny!! There have been many nights, especially with Brynne, where it would seem like a reasonable solution to just bring her back to bed with me for some snuggling, in hopes of calming her crying. Nope, never done it. Didn't do it with Landon, haven't done it with Brynne...ever! Fast forward to this morning. Landon was up at 6am! It was still dark out. He wandered down the hallway and woke me up because he couldn't find his binky. I pulled him into my bed, covered him up and told him I would be right back with the precious binky. I found the binky amongst the mess of blankets in his bed, returned to my room with it, handed it to him and started to get settled in under my sheets and blankets, pulling my sweet boy close.

"NO sleep Mama's room!" he yelled (yes, I typed YELLED)

So I say "What? C'mere Landon, sleep with Mama, under the blankies."

"NO Mama's Bed!" he YELLS as he is climbing down...

"Where are you going? It's ni-night time, and it's still dark outside!" I called after him as he walked quickly out of my room

He marched his little body right back into his bed and was asleep within 2 minutes!

Well Geez, what's it take for a Mama to get a little love around here?! My boy is growing up! Guess that's what I get for 'training' him to sleep in his own bed all these (2) years...

Day at the Park~

So funny, look at that dirty face and shirt!

Sooooo happy to be at the park~

Such a big boy running accross the 'scary' bridge~

So fun Mama~

Atleast one of us is looking...

So happy, telling Mama all about the slide~

Me and my two babies~

Not too sure about the dirt~

And course...Mama's FAVORITE shot of the day~ (could they look any more alike?)

Such great weather, and a FUN time at the local park with our babies!