March Madness Giveaway!

I am so excited that it is March! This month marks the beginning of Spring . . . almost . . . in Utah. It is also Davin's and my birthday month! This year it includes the Oscars (this upcoming Sunday in case you didn't know), a birthday trip to California, and my baby turning two! It's a big month in my opinion. We'll pretend that we are celebrating my 389th post too. In order to help make March a little sweeter for you too I am going to host a giveaway!

This month you, my loyal and faithful readers (and anyone else who stumbles across this giveaway), have the chance to win a $10 gift card to See's candy! I love me some good chocolate and See's is by far my favorite. $10 will buy you about a 1/2 pound box of chocolates. Be sure to try the bordeaux, which is my fave. You will also receive a tube of my favorite lip gloss. It's C.O. Bigelow Ultra Mentha Lip Shine. I also like their tinted mentha glosses, but the lip shine is what's up for grabs. It is so fresh and tingly and even tastes good!

Make sure to share the love and tell your friends about this giveaway too. I will choose a winner on March 10, 2010 at 8pm (or whenever I get my kids to bed that night), so make sure to enter before then! Good luck!

The RULES:
To enter the giveaway leave a comment telling me something you are looking forward to in March. That's it! Don't forget to leave me an email address to contact you if you win.

Extra Entries:
You can earn an extra entry for:
-Blogging about this giveaway with a link back to this post and leaving me a separate comment telling me you did.
-Having a March birthday! and leaving me a separate comment telling me.

I'm super excited to hear what fun things your March has in store and for one of you to win chocolate and lip gloss!

On My Mind . . .

The Olympics:
Oh how I have loved this Winter Olympics. Aside from the rather boring opening ceremonies, I have been riveted by the Olympics. My favorite things to watch were women's downhill skiing, figure skating, freestyle aerials, and some speed skating. The short track speed skating makes me dizzy, but long track is cool. Anyway, I am kinda bummed that the Olympics are almost over, but I'm glad that I got to watch so much of it. Thank you DVR. :)

Ian's Job:
I am so thankful that Ian has a good job that he likes (most of the time). However, he has been working insane hours this last week and will be doing the same next week. (For example: last night he didn't come home until 5:30am, yep in the morning and he was heading back in at 10am) Well at least he will hopefully get to relax a bit while we are in CA next month.

Finances:
Things with the finances are good. I cleaned out the files like I was going to. Then I bought a shredder, which stopped working with just 3 more papers to shred, so it went back to the store. Oh well. I haven't actually made myself do cash yet, but I'm doing well with sticking to my budget categories and not using the credit card. Although the next 2 weeks will really be the tough spot because it's the end of our "month" and there is less money than the previous 2 weeks.

My Blog:
This week I finished editing my 2007-2008 blog book. 274 pages. I also imported my 2009 blog into a second book, so now I'll have that one to work on. I'm really excited to see how it looks in print. It looks good on the computer, so I'll let you know.

Kids:
How could they NOT be on my mind?!? I have been single mommying it a lot this week, and let me just say I would not be a good/happy single mom. Last night though we went and took a pizza over to have dinner with Daddy. The kids and I haven't been doing anything too exciting either. We babysat a couple times this week, which was fine. I'm just building up my babysitting karma for the rest of the year. We went to story time at the library yesterday. It was about cats. The kids did really well and Davin said "uh-oh" and "meow" a lot.
Today we went to DI to drop off a bag of stuff. It's Weston's favorite outing, so he was excited. We ended up coming home with more than I planned. Usually we pop in and I let the kids each pick out a little 25 or 50 cent toy. Weston generally finds some kind of action figure. Anyway, today Weston found 3 characters from Kung Fu Panda. I caved and let him get all three. Davin picked out this hideous little baby Kermit doll. I found the farm animal See and Say that I wanted to get Dav for his birthday. It didn't have batteries in it, so I wasn't sure it would work, but for $1.50 I figured it was worth a shot. It works great and Davin loves it!
I am oh so looking forward to some girl time with my friend, Tara, tomorrow. Also, stay tuned, there will be a fabulous March giveaway in honor of my birthday!

Musings

Nothing eventful is going on this week. Just our normal stuff. Today Weston got his hair cut. He sure is handsome. He loves getting his hair cut and is really really good at holding still and doing whatever the hairdresser asks. I think sometimes he wants to whine about it (for example, he really doesn't like when they spray his hair with the water bottle), but I am always bragging about how good he is for haircuts that he doesn't want to ruin his streak, you know? It's a pride thing, but it works in everyone's favor.
We went to Sam's Club. It was a dull trip. No samples. I couldn't find the frozen edamame that Ian wanted. Which means we will also have to go to Costco at some point. I played Go Fish with Weston again. We have played every day since he got it. Not that I'm complaining. It's much more fun for me than Chutes and Ladders or Memory. And it makes Weston happy. We read lots of Dr. Seuss today. I still love Dr. Seuss.

I worked on my blog book. Can I tell you how excited I am to finish it, get it printed, and pore over it??? I have about 50 pages left to do. I know that sounds like a lot, but out of 274 pages it's getting pretty close.

If any of you are interested in doing a blog book . . . I am using blurb.com. I am not a huge fan of the Booksmart software that you use for editing the book. It's slow and draggy. I have to wait a couple seconds for it to catch up on almost every move I make. Also, be prepared to have to spend a significant amount of time on editing. When blurb imports your blog it sets it up in a default layout. The default layout is ugly and wastes a LOT of space. Luckily Booksmart is not hard to figure out. It is time consuming though. This book will only be June 2007-December 2008. I will have to do a whole other book for 2009.

Anyway, Ian has been working late. I have been staying up too late watching the Olympics. Poor Canada losing hockey. They won ice dance though! As I've been working on my blog book and re-reading through all my old posts I've been getting nostalgic. It's mostly fun, but it's making me really miss my good friend Dawnie. I had forgotten how much we hung out and how well we got along. I haven't found a replacement for her yet and it's been almost a year. Weston saw the pictures from Mason's party on the computer while I was editing that post and told me we should move to Arizona so we could live by Dawnie and Mason again. :) Miss you Dawnie!

Ian is coming home for dinner tonight, then going back to the office, so I was planning on making one of his favorite meals. I discovered I was missing a key ingredient when I went to put it together. I made up my own chicken sauce instead. I hope he still likes it.

I want to go on a marathon date this weekend. Double feature at the movies with dinner in between. I need some theater time before the Oscars on March 7th. Anyone want to babysit for us? We'll trade you!

I guess that was a little long. Sorry. I've been lacking in adult conversation lately.

Saturdays

It's so nice when you have a slow Saturday. It helps if that slow Saturday is also sunny. We slept in (while the kids watched Incredibles), got ready, then ran errands. I got to go to the post office all by myself. It's amazing how fast and easy errands are without having to get kids in and out and haul them into places. Ian took the boys with him to the man store (aka Home Depot) to get a new propane tank so we could grill for dinner. While there he checked into getting new blinds for the den.

Side note:
When we moved into this house it had no window coverings except for in the den. We bought blinds for the whole rest of the house, but kept the ugly, dirty, old ones in the den just because we could. They have endured additional wear and tear (aka kids pulling on them and lots of dust) in the 3 years we have lived here and were looking quite shabby.

When I heard how inexpensive it would be to replace the blinds in the den I said we should do it. Today. We had a birthday party to attend this afternoon, but afterwards Ian went and bought the blinds and had them trimmed to size. It took him under an hour to get the old ones down and the new ones up.

They look so nice! They actually match the blinds in the rest of the front of the house now. I like that they let in more light since they are the 2 inch faux wood ones rather than the 1 inch vinyl ones. Despite the ease of this little project we still ended up with 4 trips to Home Depot. Good thing it's only a mile from our house. Hooray for easy, inexpensive facelift house projects. And for sunny Saturdays.

Mommy Days

Some are good, some are not as good, and some are downright miserable. Yesterday was a good mommy day. We had nothing on the agenda but ended up having a very nice day. We took a slow morning that included baths. Then Weston picked going to the aquarium as our outing. The kids raced through it. I mean, they literally raced each other.
We were done pretty early so we went and picked up Ian from work and all went out to lunch together. It was nice to see Ian since he has worked a lot of hours this week. Heaven forbid he actually work less than 40+ hours in a 4 day week. When we got home Davin went to sleep and Weston had some quiet time in his room. While Dav was still sleeping, Weston and I did puzzles, read library books, and played. It was a good mommy day.

Today, not so much. I had errands to run. Kohl's, Walmart, library, post office. We only made it to the first two. And the kids were ultra whiny. Weston just thinks he should be getting presents non-stop since he kind of has since Christmas. Sheesh. We were buying a gift for a birthday party this weekend. Weston even got a game and still whined at me. Sigh. I need to make a pact with myself to not buy him a single thing for a whole month.

Should be easy, right? I have a hard time with it for some reason. Does anyone else have this problem? I mean, it's just a book or toy at the dollar spot here, and an ice cream at Arctic Circle there, but it seems like he is growing up entitled. Blah.

Tonight Ian and I were supposed to be having a stay-at-home date. Kind of like the rest of my life. Stay-at-home style. However, he got called to the hospital to give a blessing. I'm so ready for a little break from the mommy days. Anyone up for planning a girl's weekend?!?

President's Day!

On President's Day we started off with a swim at Grandma and Papa's hotel. The water wasn't too cold and the boys loved getting to splash around. They especially loved putting their toes in the "hot pool."
After our swim and some showers we went to lunch at In N Out. It wasn't even as horribly crowded as I imagined it would be at noon on a holiday. And, of course, it tasted delish. Ian's parents wanted to get me a birthday gift while they were here, so after lunch the girls went to Target while the boys went to Kohls.

For my birthday I wanted to re-do my bathroom. My old towels that we got for our wedding were getting pretty ratty. I mean, holes, unraveling edges, etc. It was time for some new towels, so I figured I would also get a new rug, toilet seat cover and toothbrush holder. I picked out some pretty deep red towels with "silver" accents. The hand towels and toilet seat cover are actually more of a gray, but it works. I kept the same shower curtain since it's still in good shape. I love my new bathroom and having big, fluffy towels is seriously the best.
When we got home from our outing we played some games and visited before Ian and the kiddos took the grandparents to the airport. We had such a fun whirlwind visit with them. I love it when they can come to visit and play. The day ended with a President's Day FHE. We talked about Article of Faith #12 and how lucky we are to live in a country where we get to make a lot of choices for ourselves. We also talked a little bit about the Olympics then watched a couple of skiing and snowboarding races before putting the kids to bed. Whew! What a weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

First thing in the morning on Sunday Weston came in and woke me up. He was getting dressed in his BYU shirt and hat from the day before and needed help finding his pants that matched. He's such a funny kid. The kiddos woke up to their I Love You balloons. Weston's was a frog and Davin's was a monkey. They loved them.
I got Valentine's Day flowers. They are so pretty and the lilies just keep blooming and smell so good. Ian actually brought them home for me on Friday night so I could enjoy them all weekend. How thoughtful. :)
Valentine's Day was also our ward conference. I went to choir practice in the morning, then Weston gave his first talk in primary. He did a great job. He spoke loudly and clearly. He looked at the audience and everyone was charmed. He's such a ham. :)

The choir sang in church and since I had grandparents to sit with my kids I sat on the stand the whole meeting. It was so nice. And I think the choir sounded pretty good. That night we had a nice Valentine's dinner. I made spaghetti with browned butter and mizithra with green salad and Martinelli's. We ate on my china and drank out of my crystal. It was fun to use my nice dishes. The kids were relegated to their little table. It's a good thing they don't normally eat there though because Davin wouldn't stay in his seat and eat.
After dinner and dishes it was Valentine time. We exchanged cards, some homemade and some not, and gifts. The kids got spoiled. I got them little goody bags with wind up toys, Buzz Lightyear suckers, and chocolate hearts in them. They also each got a new shirt from me. Weston is a big fan of his new "Vader Lives" shirt. Grandma and Papa got Davin some new dinosaurs and Weston a Darth Vader action figure. Great Grandma got Davin a mini Chuck the Talkin' Truck and Weston got a transformer Darth Vader. It can be a fighter ship or Vader. Lucky kiddos.

After presents we had a little Valentine's dance. This was something we always did growing up. We each got a turn to dance with my dad. I wanted to carry on the tradition. It was fun. Ian's parents are good dancers so they showed us all up, but the kids got in on the action too.
We ended the evening with the kids putting on a "glow show" with glow sticks. We had fun making patterns with our sticks and the kids danced around in the dark to their favorite songs (1901 by Phoenix and Modern Love by Bloc Party).
The adults stayed up late again watching the Olympics. This time we got to watch the pairs figure skating. So fun. I love the Olympics!!! It was a very happy Valentine's Day.