Shower Fun

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Last night was a baby shower for my friend from church, Kacy. She is having her second little boy soon. I met up with the girls at the World Garden restaurant while Chris took Mr. B out to Cold Stone Creamery.

A few of the girls:

Those are Robin's famous sugar cookies in the center of the table. She is SO talented!

And the mom-to-be, Kacy, opening her gifts!
We have some really talented girls in our church. Several of them sew and they make the cutest burp rags and onesies I've ever seen. I really wish I could do that! I think it would be so fun to make personalized gifts like that!

Tomorrow is another fun night out - movie night with some friends. I hardly ever leave B and Chris, so two times in one week is a little bit of a stretch for me, but I know they have a great daddy/son time without me!

It's a Gymboree Day!

This week B gets to go to Gymboree twice, since we missed last week's class. Grammy came along for the fun...

His favorite slide:

Brayden very proudly showed off his walking skills for most of the class. He's used to walking on hardwood at our house, so he still has a little trouble walking on those soft mats they have all over the floor at Gymboree.

For some reason he wasn't interested in the air log like he usually is, but he enjoyed climbing all over and playing!

Tomorrow we get to do it all over again!

Norwex Giveaway!

I'm really excited about this next great giveaway!

Have you heard of Norwex? It's a line of toxic free all natural cleaning and body products.

And I'm giving away a envirocloth AND a $25 gift certificate!

So click on my giveaway tab (or here) to enter!

All About...

Brayden of course!

I quit doing his monthly updates when he turned 1 year old but I decided it was time for a little post all about the Bman.

As of last night he officially broke the 20lb mark (20.2 to be exact).

He wears a size 3 diaper.

I've gotten a lot of sweet comments about the jeans he wears. It looks like he takes after me and has very, very long legs. He can't seem to wear any other brand of jeans than the one I currently buy - they all look like shorts on him.

He can say a lot of words but most of the time he just jabbers.

Each and every time he drops/throws something he yells "Uh-oh!"

He loves wagon rides.

He likes to give kisses.

He loves for his Grammy to count to five for him. He can hold up his "1" finger but then usually skips to "4".

His favorite toy is his baseball bat/golf club. Basically things he can hit other things with.

Throwing his football is a 2nd favorite.

(I have a picture to add, but I can't find my uploading cord. Once I find it I'll add it to the top!).

Saturday Fun - Chocolate Sheet Cake

I love good mail days. In my book, yesterday was a great mail day. Why? Because this arrived:

Isn't it cute? It's Brayden's Easter bucket! I ordered it through Etsy (of course!). You can visit Monkey See Boutique by clicking here!

We ran some errands today and have done a little more redecorating. We were going to antique a mirror but the rain clouds kept threatening us so we held off. With that extra time, I decided to make my mom's Chocolate Buttermilk Sheetcake. It is SO good and she said I could share the recipe with you, so here it is!

CAKE:

2 C flour

2 C sugar

1 stick marg

1/2 C crisco

4 heaping T of cocoa powder

1 C water

1/2 C buttermilk

2 eggs

1 t baking soda

1 t vanilla

1/2 t cinnamon

ICING:

1 stick marg

4 T cocoa powder

6 T milk

1 box powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 350.

Sift together flour, cinnamon, soda and sugar. In a saucepan, combine marg, crisco, cocoa, water and vanilla. Once it reached a slight boil, pour into flour mixture. Combine well then add buttermilk and eggs (one at a time). Pour into a greased 11*16 cookie sheet. Bake 20-30 min's.

ICING:

Once the cake is almost done, melt the marg, cocoa and milk in a saucepan. Once combined pour over the powdered sugar. Add more milk if needed. Pour warm icing over the warm cake.

I Wanna See...

I have never been a huge movie goer. It's pretty rare that I actually really want to go see a movie while it's in the theatre. I'd rather wait for it to come out and watch it in the comfort of my own living room. But this summer there a few movies I'm interested in...

First, Eclipse. Duh. It was my favorite book of the series and I am literally counting down the days until Chris and I go see it. It comes out June 30.

The Last Song: I've organized a little girls night for next Thursday and guess what we're going to go see! Yep! It was a great book - I hope the movie is half as good. I'm not a huge Miley fan but after reading the book, I think she has the potential to play the character of Ronnie really, really well.
The last one I doubt I'll go see but I had to throw it in here. I remember the Ramona books from when I was little - and now they've come out with Ramona and Beezus the movie! I think it's be a really cute movie to take your kids to see!
What movies are you looking forward to this summer?

Some Redecorating

I've slowwwwly been working on some redecorating. Everything in my house was DARK. Dark reds, golds and black. Awhile ago it dawned on me that those colors didn't really reflect us, so we are attempting to lighten it up around here.

My mom found these pillows at Pottery Barn (In the blue, not the red) and they now grace my couch and chairs:

My mom and I added some creams and blues to the entertainment center:

And I got this cool metal artwork for the breakfast nook:

It's still a work in progress but it is really lightening up in here!

CEC Take 2

Yesterday I met up with Sara and her friend Sydney at Chuck E Cheese! All of our kids are young - 18 months and younger, so we hung out in the toddler section. Brayden had so much fun with his new friends!

Yes, I have his binkie clipped to my shirt...

Afterwards, I headed across the street to Mimi's to meet Chris for a quick lunch. I hope to make a few more trips there soon because they only have my favorite muffin, the Banana Chocolate Chip muffin, through April!

Sleep Schedule

The folks at NewParent.com asked me recently to write a feature article for them! I was so excited - the hardest part was choosing a topic!

Eventually, I decided that one of the most popular questions people ask me through my comments and email - how I got Bman on such a great sleep schedule. So that's what I went with!

Go here to see the article!

While I was gone...

I got a few email requests for new pics of Bman. They are poor quality because they were taken with my phone but here they are...

Laying with Sox:

Giving me the innocent look:
Watching the snow fall (we got like 8" or something - and it all melted the next day).

Hope you enjoyed them!

Opps, Sorry!

I haven't been on the computer in...hm, three days? Opps. I finally turned it on this morning and I've got a ton of emails and some twitter messages from you all! I'm fine! Didn't fall off the face of the earth! Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you!

Do you ever get so caught up in something that you kinda forget about the other stuff you usually do? That's what happened to me.

Friday I got a package in the mail that I'd been waiting on. Four books. I'll let you all take a guess now about what they might have been...

Yep...

Twilight.

I swore I'd never read these books. I had a thing against them. But I was relaxing one day and there was nothing on TV. Noth-thing. So I flipped to the movie channels, and guess what was on. Uh-huh. Twilight.

I watched. Now I'm hooked. I ordered the books like, immediately. And that's where I've been since Friday. I'm almost done with the last one, but once I saw the emails and tweets, I thought I should probably make sure you all knew I was ok!

And by the way, do you all love the soundtrack as much as I do? I'm listening to Muse "Supermassive Black Hole" right now. Awesome song.

Green Day

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day! Which means lots of green...

And corned beef!! (Do you guys eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patty's day too?)

And of course, no blog post is complete without a picture of McCutie:
Hope you all enjoyed your St. Patty's day - and that you didn't get pinched!

Drumroll

The winner of my Oregon Fruit giveaway is...

Kim from The Kauffman Family!

Congratulations Kim! Send me your mailing address and I'll have your gift basket sent out to you!

And if you didn't win this one, I have more giveaways coming soon!

Clean Freaks, Come Hither.

After all this talk about vacuum cleaners and your most hated chores, I had a thought. Every once in awhile, that happens to me. Hehe.

I got a ton of comments and emails asking me to post my Grocery List spreadsheet (which I did last night). And you all have left me some great tips - on ironing, your favorite vacuums, etc.

So what if we all write a post with our cleaning/organizing tip(s)? Then we can share them through the MckLinky I've added below!

The list will remain open all day, so if you don't already have a post you want to link, you have time to write one!

You asked for it...

Several of you asked for my grocery list template and I keep forgetting to put it on here.

I don't always shop at the same store - but I use this template for the 3 stores I shop at. The things that I get almost every trip stay on top of the list, under their category. You'll notice a couple of other items like the finger brush, were just leftover from my last shopping trip.

I hope this helps you out!

Like Daddy, Like BB

Chris is hoping that soon he will have a little golfing buddy...

Not that he's pushing the issue...
or anything...
But right now, B would rather play with the golf balls...
And such.

The end.

The thing I hate the MOST

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I'm fairly sure we all have a household chore (okay, or a few) that we DREAD.

I thought about this subject while actually doing mine this morning...here's a hint...

Yup. Ironing. I am just not any good at it. In fact, and I am not ashamed to admit this, Chris is 100% better at ironing than I am. On Sunday mornings, he usually presses our clothes!

But this morning found me slaving away over the hot iron ... I mean, ironing a few of B's shirt that got wrinkled in the dryer. And my thoughts wandered to how much I despise ironing. My mom irons everything under the sun and actually seems to enjoy it. Or somehow find it relaxing. I did not inherit that gene.

I think I would be able to tolerate it if I was somewhat good at it. I spent (seriously) 15 minutes working on B's dress shirt for Easter. I'm fairly confident that on Easter Sunday, I'll find Chris standing in the hallway re-doing it. After all that time, it really didn't look much different from when I started. I'm a results driven person, and I just didn't see the results. Maybe that's why I like dusting and vacuuming. Things look messy, you dust and vacuum and then things look clean. Cause and effect.

So tell me, what chore do you despise?

Special Guest at Gymboree!

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Chris was working at home this morning so he went with us to Gymboree!!

Brayden was soooo excited to show off his cool tricks for Daddy:

He showed him how he learned to kick the ball:
How he walks around with his maracas:
How he loves to play teeter totter:
And of course, his favorite thing...pushing the big air tube:
And bubble time!
I think the other moms may have thought it was a little strange that we were both there, and possibly even slightly annoyed at my obsessive picture taking! Ha! That's okay - it was our makeup class, not the class I normally take B to, and I don't know if Chris will ever have the chance to go to a class again, so I wanted to be sure to have lots of pictures!

Froggy Potty

We headed to Target this afternoon - and I managed to leave my list at home. Love it when I do that.

But as we perused the aisles, Chris remembered that I had mentioned picking up a training potty - not that we are anywhere close to potty training, but there was a particular potty I wanted and so, you know, I needed it now.

I present, the Froggy Potty:

I was somewhere - I can't remember if it was MOPS or Playgroup, and there was a froggy potty discussion. I decided then and there (where ever "there" was) that I needed this potty for Brayden.

So we found it at Target (and Chris was shocked that the potty I wanted happened to be one of the least expensive) and grabbed it.

As for my V-8 Splash, a book I was looking for and extra hairspray...I totally managed to forget those. I mean, they are only things I actually needed now. But we managed to get the potty. Priorities.

Walkin' after Midnight

Last night Chris and I went took B to my parent's house so we could have a mini date night. The main reason for taking him there was we went to a Dave Ramsey simulcast today and childcare wasn't available, so instead of taking him over this morning, we dropped him off last night.

Brayden is moving towards being an exclusive walker now. Since we've gotten home, he hasn't crawled at all.

Wearing Granddaddy's boots...and standing in the bathtub. Don't ask, I don't know.
The midnight part of the title comes from what Chris and I did...we went to Babies R Us about an hour and a half away. We have been moving B's car seat back and forth between our cars, which isn't very easy. We finally decided to just get another car seat for Chris' truck. Well, on our way out of town, there were two separate three car pileups on the same bridge. We ended up stuck in traffic forever. So midnight is about the time we got home and went to sleep!

This afternoon, he and I went to the simulcast. It was way better than I expected if I'm being honest. Dave is so entertaining and it never got boring. When I think about talking about Roth IRA's, 401(k)'s and emergency funds, FUN is not the first word that comes to mind, but he really did make it seem like fun!

Have you seen Dave Ramsey or attended FPU?

Hair.

This boy has a lot of hair...

and a lot of bald patches...
and had to have his third haircut this week. (Not 3 in one week, just 3 total!)
I don't know if I've ever seen another baby with hair like B's. It grows long in the back and short in the front. It's like he is destined to have a mullet. I don't get it.

If I had had a girl, I don't know what I'd do. At least now I can keep the longer parts trimmed so it looks more like an "even" haircut!

Where a kid can be a kid.

Don't forget to enter my latest giveaway from Oregon Fruit!!! Just click here!

Today our playgroup met up at Chuck E Cheese - which I don't think I've been to since the 80's or early 90's!

B had a great time. His favorite thing was the telephone booth/atm thing.

He semi-enjoyed riding with Chuck-E. This little ride prints a picture of the Chuck and the passenger...and I walked off not realizing that I had a picture of someone else's kid, until one of the moms in our group brought me B's picture! Whoops!
We beat up the moles...he had a little too much fun with that.
He did pretty well, until I went to order pizza. Amanda was watching him but he lost his mind, so she brought him to me. I think he recognized the kids from the nursery and thought he was being left!

Oh, that and I was holding Julie's baby Shepherd (I'd link but her blog is private) and that sent him into a full on tizzy. Apparently, we have jealousy issues, and by we, I mean B!

But we had a great time overall and I can't wait to go back, hopefully next time with Chris. He was so jealous that B and I were going to his favorite place!!!

Let's Talk...

Vacuums.

That's probably the last thing you expected me to say right (unless of course, you follow me on Twitter!)??

As you might know, I have THREE indoor cats and 1 semi indoor Golden Retriever. Long story short, we have 2 golden's but one is young and goes whenever Chris goes (which by the way, is not a car dealership, a Las Vegas show or a computer programming office - various guesses you've submitted) and one is old. They are both adopted which is why I say "young" and "old"...we don't know the older ones exact age.

Anywho, I tell you that to ask you this:

Tell me if you love, hate or are indifferent towards Dyson vacuums.

I'm looking at the Dyson DC21 (it's last years model, I think). It says it's great for picking up pet hair, of which I have more than my fair share of around here.

Now if you want to tell me about another vacuum, you can do that to. Just keep in mind I want a canister, not an upright, and it's got to have some serious suction power. Really serious.

Right now we have central vac in our house. I just don't think it has a strong enough suction. I am on a routine of vacuuming the whole house every other day. I have a little Electrolux that I use for picking up here and there on the off days.

So, any recommendations??

Mops

Today was Mops Wednesday!

The topic today was organization. Our group talked a little bit about how we stay organized and swapped grocery store tips. I share my passion for using Excel to map out the store. I can't help it...I used Excel for so many things when I worked and I have a slight addiction to it. I have the store organized by how I show it and then the "staple" items that I usually buy every trip (milk, bread, certain fruits and veggie's) in bold and they permanently live on the list. Then I go through and fill everything else in.

So maybe that's a tad on the obsessive compulsive side. But it helps me get in and out of the store quickly - and when you have a busy 14 month old grabbing at everything he can possibly reach, the quicker I get out, the better!!

Today we also did a craft - we made scented lotion! I've never done anything like before, so it was a fun experience.

Now, I'm out the door again. I've got to get Brayden's MDO paperwork notarized and dropped off at church. Sometimes it feels like all I do is run!

Do you have a favorite organization tip you'd like to share? Leave it in the comments so we can all read it!

Giveaway!

I have a brand new giveaway going on over here and it's a YUMMY one!

Enter for your chance to win today!

Life is a Highway...

My mom and I went to the indoor mall today to walk around. It's a beautiful day outside...sunny and nice except for one thing. The WIND. Whoa, is the wind strong.

Brayden has never been on the little rides at the local malls, but mom wanted to see how he'd do...

and boy did he love them!

Just like his momma...we love to drive!

We're back home now and working on operation Sippy Cup. Today he has decided to at least carry it around and pretend to drink from it, so that's an improvement. After his nap he wanted a snack, but ended up eating grilled chicken, mac and cheese, yogurt and chocolate cheerios. Little man was HUNGRY! I love it when he eats so well!

Be sure to check out my giveaway page tomorrow. I've got another great giveaway headed your way!

Every Girl's Favorite Topic

As I was watching Jason and Molly's wedding (yeah, I got sucked in....Chris made his protests known from the other room) I was thinking about every girls favorite topic. Wedding dresses. Even if you aren't married yet you've probably flipped through the pages of a Bride's magazine or perused Kleinfeld's website.

I tried on maybe 10-15 dresses. That might even be a high guess. I am a know what I want type of girl. I knew I wanted a full skirt, strapless gown. I ended up choosing an Anne Barge design.

A local dress shoppe was having an Anne Barge trunk show and my mom and I went. There was one dress that was fresh off the runway...only the model had worn it. So, of course I had to try it on if for no other reason than to say I was the second person to ever wear the dress. Ha!! I fell in looooove.

The next day, we brought my Dad in and I showed him a few dresses but I could tell (even though he did his best to seem impartial) that he loved the Anne Barge...well, with one teeny tiny exception. The sample gown was PINK!

Needless to say, I ordered mine in white...the front....

The back...

So tell me about your wedding dress - and if you aren't married, find one you love online and tell me about it!

Will You?

Not so long ago, I shared with you about the child we sponsor through Compassion International.

You may be following the Kenya Bloggers who are on team with Compassion right now via twitter, facebook or their blogs.

If you're not, and if you haven't read anything about this trip until now, can I ask you to do something for me? Just take a minute - 60 seconds, and look at this post by MckMama. All you need to do is look - you don't even need to read what it says, because as the saying goes, the pictures are worth a thousand words.

And remember, there are still 781 children waiting to be sponsored in Kenya. Will you be the one that changes their life?

Busy B

During the day, B and I usually spend a lot of time in the family room. That's where all his toys are (well, a lot of them anyway) and there is nothing in there that he can really get hurt on. Well, more and more lately, he's wanted to be anywhere but the family room...

So more and more, we are "exploring" the house...

He found the bottled water, and took every.single.one out of the carton:

Then he found the dogs toys, and hauled each.and.every.one.of.them out of their bin:

And then he found the blinds...He loooooves to stare out the front windows and watch people walking their dogs, moms pushing strollers, cars going by. He would probably stand there for an hour if there was enough going on!

I love that picture - you can see his little reflection if you look closely!

I guess he's just a busy B!!