Portland Beanie Company Rebate for Readers

A while back my sister-in-law had a giveaway from the Portland Beanie Company. My mom entered the giveaway and won! Of course she entered for her grand baby, so we got to choose a hat of our choice and I picked the chocolate newsgirls beanie size 12-24 months. This way Natalie can wear it in the fall/winter. We had to try it on and what do you know? It's soooo cute! I'm thinkin' these would make for some really cute baby gifts. Check out the company. I'm always proud to support local small businesses and hope you do too! In fact, Nili at Portland Beanie Company has offered my readers a 15% discount/rebate from now thru the end of July. Enter Belly Laugh in the message to seller to receive your rebate. Hurry, offer is only valid until July 31st, 2009.
By the way, she has products for adults too! So even if you don't have little babes you can still shop for yourself or a friend. I'd love to hear what your favorite finds are :)

A Week of Product Reviews

I've been wanting to share some of my favorite products and have decided to do that with a week of reviews. Each day I will share different products and my likes and/or dislikes.
Some of the things I will be sharing are: a local Etsy Company, lotions, soaps, makeup & hair products. Stay tuned!

Summer Time Adventures

I promised to share a few of our fun days from last week so here goes. We went with our friends Emily & Wyatt to Omsi last Tuesday. They have a year pass and invited us to tag along. The boys had a great time and even Nat got to put her toes in the sand and play with the blocks in the kids area.

On Wednesday, we went to the Rose Festival Jr. Children's Parade. We talked Aunt April, Maddox and Sean into joining us and made a day of it. It was very warm and humid and the parade didn't start until 1pm. After over an hour of Jr. high marching bands, we decided we had enough of a new thing and decided to get the kids home. By this time everyone was hot and ready to get to some air conditioning. I'm glad we went, but we probably won't be going to the junior parade again any time soon. The Rose Parade is more fun with the large floats vs. Jr. high marching bands :)

How about you? Do you have any summertime things that you enjoy doing with your families?

The Clean Up Continues . . .

If you haven't read about my Stuart Little I & II experiences, I urge you to catch up. Here, here, here, & here, should suffice to get you in the know. Last week as I was preparing for a garage sale and therefore rummaging through my garage for lost treasures, I decided it was time to tackle the task of cleaning out my maternity clothes bin. I offered them to a friend and when I opened the lid - WHOLA! Mouse tracks. yuck. So, I had set the bin aside because I didn't have the time (or patience) to wash all of the clothes, and I most definitely wanted to make sure the mouse was not still residing in the bin. So fast forward to last Thursday I decided I was ready to tackle the task. As I started sorting thru the clothes (in the garage with gloves on) I found several surprises. First, this mouse had been "living" in my maternity clothes. Secondly, he chewed through my most favorite comfy pants and three shirts. Completely chewed holes through my shirts. GRRRRRRRR. Thirdly, he was storing dog food in my maternity bin. There was so much, I had to take a picture. Insane. Completely insane. I'm so glad I found this now, instead of when I was pregnant and needed my clothes. shiver.

Guess what day it is?

Before you read, there's a couple other good related reads @ dot. . . dot. . . dot & the creative mama.



This last weekend was CRAZY busy. I'm not joking. My sister-in-law April and I had a gi-normous garage sale on Friday in the pouring down rain. And yet we so almost everything. Huge success. Friday night was dinner with Baker's fam for his brother's birthday. Kids got to bed late and had short naps. Saturday was chores around the house. I felt so icky I slipped back in bed for a few minutes. I think that means I'm getting old. My whole back was sore and gave me a stiff neck. Don't forget the sore throat and hurting ear. Saturday night was dinner with Baker's bro and April and a movie (just the two of us). We saw Star Trek. It was good. And I was pleasantly surprised. The kids got to bed late. So, by Sunday morning while preparing for church, the babies weren't real thrilled about being hurried out the door and managed to have a few crying fits simultaneously (the beginning clues that we had pushed them too far). However, Baker had planned a nice day for just the two of us (after church) and so the babies went to my dad's for lunch and afternoon naps while we had lunch at Roses and shopping at the Woodburn outlets. Sunday night - babies went to bed ON TIME. My mom has Monday's off of work and we generally get together at her house. It gets us out of our house, gives the babies time with Gama Jean (as Luke would say) and allows me to run errands while the babies take naps in the afternoon. Today though, those poor babies were pushed to their max. Even though they took great naps and were on schedule I could completely tell by the end of the day that they needed the normalcy of their home, their own beds and just to be in their own environment. At 9:45 am the produce guy at New Seasons had pity on me and offered Luke a banana. And it got better from there. I had made Luke the promise of a bagel before leaving the house this morning and he was more than excited. Since he ate a protein bar and a banana at the store, and I offered him a Vivano smoothie from Starbucks and he said no . . . I just kinda forgot about the bagel (pronounced beagle in Luke's world). We pull away from the drive thru window and he says from the very back seat. "Beagle mom?" "I want a beagle." Ugh, whoops. Sorry buddy. No bagel. After a trip to Costco and 3 naps later (Nat 2, Luke 1) we headed to Safeway. It was glaringly obvious that Natalie was not feeling well and had a fever. But, we needed more baby motrin and food for dinner, so off we went. We ended up giving Natalie motrin while shopping because she was so fussy and hot. REAL hot. By the time we left, I think everyone in line either felt sorry for us or happy to see us leave. Probably both. I've never experienced such a fussy/screaming baby in a store like that . . . until today. And I lived to tell about it. Wonders never cease. So guess what today is. As long as Nat's fever doesn't take us to the doctor, it's a laid back day at home. It's pajama time.

Book Review

I just finished reading Covenant Child by Terri Blackstock. Incredibly good. It is a very fast read, you won't want to put the book down. The chapters are short, the story line fast paced and the moral of the book parallels the story of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15. If you're looking for some good summer time reading this book gets an A+.

The Winner is . . .

Babies and Bargains! Congrats on being the recipient of the Stonyfield Organic Yogurt giveaway. Thank you to all who entered this contest. Stay tuned for more giveaways later this month!

just a reminder

The giveaway ends tomorrow night at 7pm PST. If you haven't entered, go for it! I have lots to catch up on next week. This week was full with a trip to Omsi, a children's parade, a garage sale (which included finding more cleanup from the mice incidences - ick), and my brother in law's birthday. Next week I'll show pictures and stories. Should be fun!

Yo-Kids!

Hey all! I just wanted to say, if you haven't checked out the giveaway from Stonyfield Farms, be sure to enter. My little boy has been eating their yogurt for some time now. In fact, one of his favorites are the yogurt tubes. They're a handy snack to pack during the summer time months. We took some to the park last week to share with a friend and we are taking some with us today to the children's parade. So if you haven't tried Stonyfield products be sure to check out their entire line of organic products!

Yo-Baby Giveaway!

NOW CLOSED

It's June 1st and what better way to start off the month than with a giveaway! The friendly folks over at Stonyfield Farm contacted me and offered my readers some free goodies! The winner will receive everything shown in the picture courtesy of Stonyfield Farms. This giveaway includes a bowl with lid, an organic bib and five coupons for free yo-baby yogurt! If you have ever priced Stonyfields organic yogurt it costs around $4 (at least in the Pacific NW), so these are some high value coupons!

Here's how to enter:

• 1 entry - Leave me a comment (with your email address) telling me of your favorite Stonyfield product, or Stonyfield product you would like to try.
• 1 entry - Become a follower. If you are already a follower then leave a second comment stating the fact. You MUST have a blog acct to be a follower. (Don't forget to include your email address)!
• 1 entry - Blog about this giveaway. Leave a direct link in your comment so I will be able to find your post. (Include your email address in your comment too).
• 1 entry - Post a picture of your little one enjoying their favorite Stonyfield product on your blog. Again, be sure to leave the direct link in your comment so I can find your post quickly. And as always - INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!

The fine print. If you do not include your email address and I don't know how to contact you personally, (meaning I don't know you) you will be disqualified from the giveaway and another entry will be drawn. Also, this giveaway will start June 1st and end June 7th at 7pm pacific standard time.