The Gerhart Kids

Talent Show

2012-02-09T07:46:00.001-05:00

Every year my kids' elementary school has a talent/variety show. They can put on individual acts but mostly it is group acts as a grade level. The kids work really hard, practicing for months.
Serenity is in her 3rd year and just loves it. I can't wait to see how it works out.

My beautiful Munchkins

2012-01-28T20:42:00.001-05:00

Struggle

2012-01-26T23:36:00.002-05:00

Struggle

Thanks for the post from Kirk Wood

My sister just went through a very messy divorce. Her husband just came home one day and said he didn’t want to be married anymore and just walked out the door. They have two small children, and he just abandoned his family suddenly. I felt so sorry for my sister. She got some child support but that was all. She barely had enough to make ends meet. She had to give up a lot of things that we consider essential because she could not afford them anymore. But, about a month ago, my sister got a big promotion at her job. The promotion almost doubled her salary. I am so proud of her. She has been through so much that I feel she really deserved a break. She has now started getting back some of the things that she had to let go of before. She even got back cable tv. That was a really a big deal because it made her feel that she was really back on track and getting her life together again. And now guess who is coming around again? Yes her no good ex-husband came to see her. I guess whatever or whoever he was into did not work out. But thank goodness she told him to take a hike, and she never wanted to see him again.

Picture by Serenity

2012-01-02T00:49:00.001-05:00

Serenity's Newest artwork

My Family

2011-12-29T21:18:00.001-05:00

My Family

Content by Mauricio Benson

Having satellite tv albuquerque at home means my son spends a lot more time here. We get all the best games and I don’t care how we do it, just being able to know he’s in the living room watching football makes me feel so much better about where we all stand in life. He’s 16 and I know he’s really impressionable right now and the fact that our house is the kind of place he wants to bring his friends makes me so happy inside. It means we’ve done a good job of not judging him and making sure he knows he’s welcome here at the end of the day. I wish he had a good father figure to help change things for him but I know that he loves us and I’m just happy he still feels like he can talk to us. I wish I knew more solutions for this age but I’m just trying to be there for him when he needs me most!

Have twitter will retweet

2011-12-26T23:05:00.000-05:00

I got this from http://sweetsavingsincolorado.blogspot.com/. And I just loved the idea.

Just wanted to let you guys know that I will be happy to retweet your low entry giveaways (or special posts) for you. Just add @debigerhart to the ones you want me to RT so I'll be sure to see them, and I will erase that part before retweeting it for you! I think this is a great way to help each other get more exposure for our giveaways and special posts. If you'd be willing to help others out with this too, just leave a comment on this post with your Twitter ID. Just in case you're afraid you'll get inundated with tweets, I'm talking about maybe once a day or less, so it shouldn't be too unmanageable :)

A good day, mostly

2011-12-18T23:10:00.000-05:00

My day started very early. I have been having killer headaches again. I couldn't get to bed until after 3 and Willow woke up this morning at 5 am. So with a killer headache and a bright and early riser my day started. Well around 8 this is how Willow was found...

So after putting her down for a nap, I snuck in a nap too. WAHOO! That is always great. Serenity hung out with her daddy for a bit. The boys got to go to their friends house today, which is great because the friends are the ones who moved to Tennessee in June. The kids are their best friends.

And then Serneity, Willow and I went to my friend's baby shower. Serenity loved it because she felt very grown up getting to come with Mommy to the baby shower. My friend Alix is finally adopting her sweet baby girl from China. She has been waiting 5 very long years. So I am so happy for her. And now Willow will have a little play mate who is only 2 months younger than her. And we have a real life friend using cloth diapers. Which is so cool.

When we got home from the shower, Willow took a very short nap, about par for the course lately, and then we went grocery shopping. I don't mind the grocery shopping part, but I hate putting groceries away. I can never find space for anything. My house is just way too small. Then after putting the groceries away, I cleaned the kitchen while feeding Willow dinner, and Serenity her dinner. She was so excited that I let her eat dinner in the living room. Then I got Willow into bed and made myself some semi homemade chinesse food and Jimmy some homemade fetticine alfredo. He loves it when I make that. He says it is good and beats Olive Garden. Personally I don't like alfredo sauce so I have to take his word for it.

With a come and go headace, it was a good day. I know pretty boring in blog world, but a good day here. :)

healthy granola

2011-11-24T22:42:00.000-05:00

I am always on the look for yummy and healthy. Larissa mentioned these one her blog and now I want to try them.

Larissa's Granola Bars

1 cup brown sugar (I mix up my own using evaporated cane juice and molasses)

1/2 cup butter

2 Tbsp. honey

1/2 cup. *natural peanut butter (or natural almond butter - it's great both ways) *natural does not contain sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 egg

1 1/3 cup flour (I use either spelt, soft white, or kamut)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cup rice crispies (I use brown crispy rice cereal - which contains no high fructose corn syrup)

1 3/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds

1 cup chocolate chips (I use 60% cacao, dark)

1 cup coconut

Mix 1st 6 ingd. together. Mix dry ingd. together, minus chocolate, coconut. Add to wet mixture, fold in remaining ingredients, turn into an 11x15 greased pan and bake @ 350 for 20 minutes or so. You should cut them while they are warm.

You can use pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds instead of almonds for variety. You could also add a cup of raisins or dried fruit if you like that sort of thing. You could use raisins for an oatmeal raisin type of granola bar. Add about a teaspoon or so of cinnamon if you do that! Every person in my family loves these bars, in fact, Rosalie starts squealing with delight when I pull them out!

And I happen to know that they really are great - because they got the seal of approval from Rich.

Fuji for families

2011-11-05T15:49:00.003-04:00

Seriously what could be more beautiful than that. That is the picture people think of when they think of Fiji. But there is so much more. Really, it is a great destination for the whole family.

Fiji offers many family resorts for kids, resorts that feature romance and back packing.

The islands are nothing less than paradise. The beautiful white sandy beaches, coconut trees swaying in the breeze, and clear blue pristine oceans keeps anyone looking for a relaxing vacation longing for the time to last forever. Try staying in the Coral Coast Fiji, for an amazing experience.

If you are looking for a more adventurous experience, try white water rafting or back packing. Hike through the rainforest, into a native tribe to see what they have to offer. There you can see native making traditional garments using eco-friendly items. Also see the beautiful animals in the wild that most people only see on TV or in the zoo.

Compare hotels to find your best choices to make your dreams of a family vacation in Fiji a reality.

This is a sponsored post . All reviews are my own.

Free Canvas For Christmas

2011-11-02T15:48:00.001-04:00

I love the look of Canvases hanging on a wall. So this year for Christmas I plan to get one for my mom for a present. Canvas People is offering a free 8*10 and just pay for shipping of if I want to add extras or go for a bigger one I can get $50 off.

The last touches before my Halloween party

2011-10-26T12:50:00.000-04:00

Guest post written by Fiona Jackson

I really love throwing holiday themed parties. It's just so much fun to do it and I think that my friends and neighbors know to count on me for a good party every now and then. I decided to throw a Halloween party about a month ago and am getting ready to throw it this Friday night. I've been doing so much planning for it, but I almost enjoy the planning and the decorating even more than the actual party. So I really can't complain.

Besides, if the party ends up being really fun in the end, then it's all worth it. I've foudn so many ideas for DIY decorations online with mywireless internet Midland. I've been having my family help make some of the more fun decorations and I think it's made them even more excited about it.

I had my son work on a Halloween banner to hang on our porch so that all of our guests will see it hanging and be assured that they're at the right house. He's really creative, so he did a great job on making it look appropriately creepy.

Sunday Coupon Preview

2011-10-22T00:52:00.000-04:00

Looking for Halloween Pattern

2011-10-21T21:05:00.001-04:00

If you are looking for some stencils to make some new pumpkin designs. The Spring Mount 6 Pack has a new post today, all full of links to stencil and pattern site. Check it out.

Easy Halloween Craft

2011-10-20T21:09:00.000-04:00

When kids are bored and need a craft NOW, it can be hard to come up with something on the fly. Well, with Halloween here, try this one.

Always looking for a giveaway

2011-10-19T21:12:00.001-04:00

I am always looking for a new giveaway.

Here is this week's line up at The Spring Mount 6 Pack and Education of a Stay at Home Mom

The next Tony Hawk?

2011-10-18T19:40:00.000-04:00

Joey loves anything physical. He doesn't have much of an attention span for organsized sports, but a game of basketball at the park, throwing a ball around the yard, or hitting a ball in the field, he is all for. He loves riding his bike, and is always trying to learn tricks. When he learned to snowboard in the front yard, he was trying to do jumps and turns within an hour of making it down the hill. And he loves skate boarding. He has been doing the baisc for a few years, but just recently has been wanting to do tricks. He loves every aspect of skateboarding. He rides a board down the street when he gets his sister from the bus stop for me. He takes a board to the park. He even tries to do tricks on the sidewalk to the house, which is only a few feet long. He always goes to the skateboarding game on the WII fit. Plays Tony Hawk on the 360 so he can learn different tricks and what they should look like, and wants the board for the WII. He watches the teaching shows on demand that teaches tricks and techniques. And recently he came home from school wanting to make his own design for skate boards, buy some plain boards from the sporting good store and after putting his design on the them, selling them to his friends. And although I am not that good at telling one trick from another, I think he is doing a good job at teaching himself. I mean, he doesn't do many tricks, but I don't cringe anymore when he tries things, LOL. And he always puts on his helmet, without being told. Hey, I hold on to what I can, LOL. But here is my Joey, playing around while we were waiting for Serenity at the bus stop.

Check out this costume

2011-10-15T21:15:00.000-04:00

I love this costume. This site has a lot of really cool costumes and I love this review.

Strawberry muffins

2011-09-26T08:52:00.000-04:00

Fresh Strawberry Muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries (fresh, not frozen)

3 tsps sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix well.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture. Add vanilla. Gently stir in strawberries.

Spoon batter into muffin pans.

Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over muffins.

Bake at 400º for 20-25 minutes.

Makes one dozen muffins.

The Gerhart Kids is back

2011-09-04T18:31:00.000-04:00

HI. Before I had the blog as the Gerhart Kids. Then I decided to redirect this old blog to the new The Spring Mount 6 Pack. But since then I have decided, hey nothing is stopping me from keeping this one alive and well. So The Gerhart Kids is back.

Pizza sliders recipe

2011-07-28T17:13:00.000-04:00

Pizza Sliders Recipe

1 lb ground beef

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/3 cup pizza sauce

1/3 cup mozzarella cheese

8 small dinner rolls

pepperoni slices

Mix ground beef and seasoning in medium bowl until well blended. Shape into 8 patties

Grill over medium heat 4-6 minutes per side or until burgers are cooked through.

Top each burger evenly with sauce and cheese. Serve burgers on rolls and add pepperoni if desired.

What's for dinner?

2011-06-27T00:22:00.000-04:00

I always try to doing menu planning. I really do. I sit down and make a list, then I look for recipes, and write it all down. I do really good. Then I either just forget all about it, or I just don't follow it. I have the best of intentions. I also get sick of eating the same things all the time. I am always on the look out for new recipes. I think I am going to start posting new recipes on here as I find them. Then maybe I will be very adventurous and post a weekly menu on here. Before when I was trying new recipes I would have the kids rate them 1-5 stars. Serenity always gave it the most amount of stars and she was very proud of the fact she voted the most. The boys were a little more reliable. Maybe this time around Serenity will be able to give a better estimate of what she thought of the food. So I am hoping this will give me the motivation to actually keep up with this.

And no better time to start because I keep saying I am not buying any more food until I get through some of the food in this house. I get overloaded with stuff because I forget what I have and buy more when I am at the store. Then I end up with 8 cans of beans and 15 pounds of pasta. But nothing to go with either.

Blog review to write and need to update pictures

2011-06-11T21:10:00.000-04:00

I need to write my review for a product and I promised everyone I would be writing it this weekend, but I am waiting for the owner to get back to me.

Also I really need to get on here and make a new banner with some updated pictures.

I think these two things will be what I work on tonight. I am hoping to get that review up for you soon, and please come back to see some new pictures of my babies

All quiet on the blogger front

2011-05-15T16:30:00.000-04:00

Things have been quiet around here for me. I have spent the past few days either knitting or searching for my text books. I can not believe how expensive text books are. Holy Cow!

We had 3 days of rain here too. As much as it was needed, 3 days of the kids being trapped in the house seems like an eternity.

I am hoping to get some cleaning done today and finish up knitting the longies for my friend. I have so many things on my list I want to do. My kids laugh at my list. There is always some project I want to do. Anth even teases me saying because I have so much time to work on anything. I even have cleaning projects I can't seem to ever get finished. Ah, oh well, I guess I am just always a work in progress. LOL

Review of "Who Will Rule" and Number Sense

2011-03-23T15:11:00.000-04:00

Punflay was nice enough to let me review 2 of their apps for the Iphone. Now anyone who knows me IRL knows I love my phone. It is always with me. I mean always. I use it for everything. Now my kids are hooked. I finally broke down and started letting them play with the games on my phone. But it tough for Serenity because I don't have many apps that are for her, and she gets frustrated. I have been trying to get more for her, but didn't really know what to look for.

Who Will Rule

"Who Will Rule" is awesome. Serenity love to read books. This book is based on an Australian aboriginal fable. Basically it teaches how we are all equal and need to share the space around us. The graphics are adorable. Each page offers lots to touch to make noises. On some you can make the Earth spin. Others you make the different animal noises, or the clouds rain.

I love the features.

1. It has a Read to me or the kids can read it themselves.

2. Offers several language options, English, French, Spanish and German

3. My Voice - This is my favorite option. I can record myself reading the story for the girls. Willow likes to hear it too. The only thing I would say negatively about this, is I think it needs more recording time. Some of the pages were hard to get read before the time ran out. But that is an easy fix.

4. And then my kids favorite feature is the different ways to make the book's reader sound. There is kid, horror, helium, robot and chipmunk. Serenity gets a huge kick out of changing the voice.

My only other complaint is I wish it was easier to get to the setting page. To get to them now you have to start the story and then click the top of the screen to get to the setting button. I wish it was accessible on the main screen.

I really hope Punfly comes out with more stories like this one. It is defiantely worth the $2.99 app fee.

Number Sense

This is another really good app. It teaches numbers in a very creative fun way. There are several games to choose from.

The first game is booster balls. You have this moster guy who wants you to feed him balls. So then the screen goes to the balls dropping from the top and the kids have to move the catcher side to side to catch them. As each ball drops in the number pops up on the screen.

The next game is Do The Dotty. This is Serenity's favorite game. It is a dot to dot. And once you make the dot to dot, it turns into a picture. Serenity loves how you can take a snap shot and ass it to you pictures on the phone. I have tons and tons of snapshots now in my photos.

You can even change the colors of each picture after you finsish it

The next game is Numberella. The animal tells you what one to pick, the biggest number on the page or the smallest. If you click the wrong number, a cloud comes and it gets struck by lighting.

The next game is fishoonka. This game looks very simple but really makes the kids think. It changes up the order of what it wants them to do each time. Sometimes it wants you to make the red fish equal the yellow, sometimes more than and then less than. It took Serenity a few times to figure it out. She kept trying to do the same operation each time and wasn't following the directions. Once she stopped to listen she really enjoyed it.

The last game is Toot Toot Train.In this game the kids have to start witha certain number of cars hooked to the train. Then the game tells them how many cars they need to head off to chocolate town. So they have to either take some away or move some to connect to the train. The only thing I wish with this game was that it showed the math proble at the top of the page or at least said it verbally. It counts the cars with the kids, but I just would like to say something like you have 9 cars and need 10 to go to Chocolate town. And then Show the 9 + __ = 10. Or something to that effect. But honestly the game is still great like it is.

The game is available in the app store for $1.99 right now, on sale from $2.99.

Serenity gives both games an 10 out of 10. I give both games an 8 out of 10. I think they are both worth the small investment. They are great teaching games and keep kids very entertained.

Walks

2011-03-01T22:24:00.000-05:00

We had so much fun tonight. We all took a long walk. Anthony has been really sick the past 2 days and he slept most of the day. But the weather was just absolutely gorgeous tonight. Since Anthony was finally feeling better and Willow was slightly grumpy we decided to go for a walk. There is a huge developement behind our house. The kids were so excited to all go for a walk. We were out for about 2 hours. I don't know if the developement just had a yard sale or what. They had a ton of things our with free signs. The boys found a bike to give to one of our neighbor's little boy, and a few trucks for the girls to play with in the yard. They wanted to bring home everything they could find. A broken lawn mower, a briken mirror, and a huge computer monitor. It was funny watching them. Jimmy was teasing them the whole time.

But it was nice. It will be nice to do it more often now that my foot is finally healing.

Hives

2011-02-17T13:59:00.000-05:00

It has been a frustrating week. Willow started getting hives. It started in the middle of the night. She woke up at 3 in the morning flipping out just miserable. That went on until about 5 am. I found a hive on her leg but I thought it was a bug bite. She had been crawling around in the grass earlier at the park when we went to see fireworks. I finally got her down to sleep and went back to bed. She woke up around nine with a messy diaper. When I changed her, the mark on her leg was gone but she had one on her butt. I check on that one about 15 minutes later, and it was gone. She has such fair skin that she gets marks easy so I didn't think too much about it. Well later in the day she started getting covered in them. Then the marks would mysteriously go away again. After about 4 times of her being completely covered, and them disappearing I called the dr. None of my older kids have ever had any issues. No real sicknesses, except once Serenity had pnemomnia, but I didn't even know she was sick, I took her in to check her ears. Joey had an ear infection once. But that is the extent of it. Willow has had a mysterious rash and high fever, and now hives. The dr thinks she was having an allergice reaction to something. After thinking about it all day, I think it was from Joey's mango passionfruit slushie. It was only a sip but I am thinking that had to be it. So now we are on day 4 of hives. They aren't that bad now. Now she only gets a few and they go away quickly. I haven't been giving her the benydryl. She was such a space cadet from it. I gave it to her for 2 days but it was just making her a mess. So now we are just dealing with the rashes. She isn't that cranky anymore either. Poor baby. Now I just need her to get back to sleeping again. She has been up every night since this started and screaming. No matter what I do. It is a 2 hour affair. I am hoping the whole thing will clear up quickly.

Current WIP

2011-02-01T21:08:00.000-05:00

So thi is what has kept me off the computer the past few days. I am
making a pair of longies for a friend. The first picture is not true
to color as much as the second picture but even that isn't exactly. I
actually wish it was the color of the first. That is gorgeous, lol.

My hunny and my girls- Flash back

2011-01-12T16:44:00.000-05:00

A cleaning weekend, LOL

2011-01-01T19:20:00.000-05:00

I have been working on getting my house decluttered . I have been trying to get through everything for a few weeks, but I wasn't working hard. I would get a little done, and then leave it be. But we have too much stuff in a too small house full of lots of people. On Saturday, I really started working on my living room. Willow climbs up onto everything. Her favorite thing is Serenity's bunk bed.

Anthony's pillow

2010-12-11T22:01:00.000-05:00

Anthony had a FCS project, family consumers science, AKA home ect for anyone over the age 18. They were given the choice to sew a pillow, sweatshirt or bag. He wanted to make a huge pillow, and loves lime green. He wanted 3 yards of flannel fabric. As you can see this thing is a huge square. But it is comfy. This thing is so big and so bright, I think you could see it from space. But I am so proud of him. The stitching is really good for his first time using a sewing machine. Willow loves it. I layed her down on top of it and she had the best time.

Next he wants to make a tie blanket to go with it.

Defining our Children

2010-11-18T10:09:00.000-05:00

I recently came across Pigtail Pal on twitter, and fell in love with these shirts. I had to follow her on twitter. She has the best message, one I struggle to teach Serenity and Willow too as they grow. She is against defining our children into stereotypical roles Now my Serenity is very very girly.She loves dresses and baby dolls, she can't wait to grow up to be a mommy some day, and she LOVES princesses. But she will play in the dirt, climb (well try) trees, catches bug, and currently wants to be a doctor or a teacher when she grows up. And loves to chase her brothers, playing FBI agent trying to catch them for the crime they committed. I use to get very worried because she wanted to be a princess so badly, you know wanted a prince to come and save her and all that. Well, I quickly started teaching her that she doesn't need a prince to save her and that she can save the prince someday. And now she goes around singing, I don't want to be like Cinderella, by the Cheetah Girls. It is a song all about not needing someone to save her, and she only wants a Prince if they are riding side by side. I refuse to let my daughters fall into the trap of "This is who I have to be, because I am a girl".
Now the flip side, I also have 2 boys. I have one, Anthony, who is very sensitive, enjoys playing barbies with Serenity, is fantastic with babies, has mostly girl friends and hates sports. That is who he is, and that is fine too. Joey, loves sports, he is "all boy" so they say. He loves guitar, any sport he can find, doesn't like to play house, and tolerates the baby on his schedule, though he doesn't mind playing with her, her just gets bored with it quick, but he will play costumes for hours.

So what is my point. Well today I saw this on the Pigtail blog. It is a summer camp that girls go to be princesses and boy are explorers. I mean I have heard of themed camps before but you know science camp, computer camp, soccer camp etc.

I agree completely with Melissa, why couldn't it be castle camp and adventure camp including all the children. I never understood that.

In an effort to help spread awareness that we need to stop defining our children, I wanted to (have my rant) share this blog with all of you.

I have been thinking

2010-10-30T21:00:00.000-04:00

I would love love love to start an online shop to sell fluffy AP just all around crunchy stuff. I mean, I would really love to be talented enough to make the things myself, but I am a realist on this one, and I just am not skilled enough. I say this without being overly hard on myself or anything. I wouldn't pay for my things. I wouldn't pay for the things I knit or the things I sew. I wouldn't be ashamed to give them to someone, or of course use them on my own kids, but I wouldn't pay for my quality. But I would love to buy things whole sale and then sell them. I wold love to do it in real life, but come on, let's face it. There are very few crinchy mamas around here. But I think I might be able to make a few bucks online and I think it would satisfy my fluffy needs. LOL. I know I have precious little time left with all the fluff. Willow is growing quickly, and my baby days are done with her. Which honestly is a whole different post. My problem is really, I don't even know where to start. So in the mean while I dream of this little shop, and advertising it, and what kind of sales I would run, and what kind of dipes I would sell, all the gorgeous babywearing suppiles and mama cloth and .. and... and ... . You know, all that good stuff.

The Evening the Lights Went Out in Spring Mount

2010-07-26T09:51:00.000-04:00

We have been having an intense heat wave lately. The temps have been over 100 degrees. I have lost track of how many days in a row it has been. Even with the air on, it has been 77 in here. Well, out goes the lights. Off goes the air. The only thing you hear is the beeping of the backup sump pump.

Thankfully the storm had lower the temp outside somewhat. So we decided to load the kids up and just drive, with no real destination.

We drove around aimlessly. We drove past the power plant.

They are making power, but none for me. :(

As we drove around we ended up way out, somewhere we never were before. I couldn't believe we found the Village of the Yellow House. And guess what, HERE is the yellow house. I know this has been on everyone's mind, Just where is the house of the Village of the Yellow house.

By 8:00 we were all starving. The kids got a special treat. We stopped off at Burger King.

We came home to lights, a hot house, and sleepy kids. It was a fun time.

A paper butt... what will the neighbors think?

2010-07-23T15:05:00.000-04:00

My poor little Willow has had horrible diaper rash for days.She has been pooping A LOT, and even though we caught it quickly, she is still getting so red and the skin is broken. Add to that , her diapers have been starting to get amonia build up and stinking. So I planned to strip most her diapers and keep her in the few prefolds we have that almost never get used. So I knew those didn't need it. I don't think I even used them since the last time I stripped the diapers. I have about 9 or 10 of them. This morning I sent Jimmy to get me some dawn, and I took all the diapers to the washer. It is going to take about 2 loads because of all the g diaper inserts.

Willow has been pooping so much, that with changing her as soon as she wets, she has gone through all her prefolds too.

I had to put my baby in a paper butt. When we were getting her dressed, even though she had a little sun dress, Jimmy put a pair of shorts on her. He said it was to cover her diaper. Yes, because what would the neighbors say to her paper butt.

Right now all the cloth is drying and I can not wait to get that horrible chemical mess off my baby girl

Who Loves Giveaways! 7-23-10

2010-07-23T12:43:00.000-04:00

So everyone LOVES a chance to win something, but sometimes you don't have time to search all over the web to find them. Enter The Spring Mount 6 Pack. Every Friday I will list a few giveaways that have been brought to my attention, and of course a few of my own. Here is this week's giveaways:

2 Packs of boogie wipes Ends 8-1-10 Low entry

$15 GC to Ecomom.com Ends 8-15-10 Low Entry

Moboleez Nursing Bonnet Ends 8-30-10 Low Entry

Eco tip contest from Connected Mom, Ends 7-31-10

Flowers in Her Hair at A little of this and a little of that Ends 7-25-10 Low Entry

Pear Tree Personalized Greeting Cards at A little of this and a little of that Ends 7-28-10 Low Entry

Baby girl loves her berries!

2010-07-20T16:42:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago when I was on my way home from taking my placement testing at school, I saw a sign for strawberry picking. I have always wanted to go strawberry picking so I made a mental note of it. I have been saying all the time since then I wanted to go pick strawberries. Well, we finally get around to loading up the kids and heading out to the fields. We got there only to learn that it ended about 3 weeks ago, right about the time I saw the sign. Figures... LOL. But they did have some fresh local fruit so we decided to buy some of that. We bought blackberries, blueberries, zuchinni, hot peppers, golden plums, apples, and green beans. When we got home, Willow wanted a snack. I know she loves blueberries but she had never tried blackberries before. Well, turns out, she loves them.

After this she was such a mess, I decided to give her a bath. I did it in the sink (the first time she has ever had one in the sink) so she wouldn't get confused and think it was bedtime.

Bowling

2010-07-18T14:32:00.000-04:00

We love bowling. On Friday, it was so humid and sticky and hot and just nasty outside. We were all home, bored and the kids were starting to nit pick each other. We jumped in the car and headed out to find something to do. We ended up at the bowling alley. We had a great time. Here are a few shots from us hanging out.

We played 2 games and had dinner there. I won the first game which if you have ever bowled with me, is a HUGE shocker. Serenity usually beats me. And Jimmy won the second game, but he only beat me by 2 pins. I was very proud of myself.

Moboleez Nursing Bonnet Review and Giveaway

2010-07-17T19:24:00.003-04:00

Since summer has started, I have had trouble keeping myself, well, modestly covered up. Especially at the pool. I had been trying to use Willow's pink sun hat to cover myself but it wasn't big enough. The very next day, I stumbled across the Moboleez nursing bonnet. It was the perfect solution. The bonnets are adorable and functional. The wide brim covers everything without the huge covered look.

The bonnet was created by a mom in Canada, who had 2 kids of her own. The bonnets are made out of cotton and bamboo, so are ultra squishy and soft. They are very high quality. I love how the brim is nice and wide so you aren't shrinking down behind it. I do wish I could also put it on Willow as a sun hat though, but the brim is a little too big for that.

Here are some pictures of Willow and I using it. Please don't mind the horrible quality of the pictures. My hubby isn't very good at taking pictures and I couldn't take one of myself.

So want to buy one these awesome hats? Get one here. for $29.99 each.

Want to win one? Here you go, LOL. The contest will run until 8-30-10. And it is open to US and CA residence.

Mandatory Entry:

Go to Moboleez and tell me which bonnet you would like.

Extra Entries:

* Like MoBoleez on Facebook 1 entry

*Follow MoBoleez on Twitter 1 entry

*Follow MoBoleez' blog 1 entry

*Sign up for MoBoleez' newsletter 2 entries

*Follow The Spring Mount 6 Pack via Google Friend Connect 2 entries

*Follow me on Twitter 1 entry

*Vote for The Spring Mount 6 Pack on Picket Fences 2 entries

*Vote for The Spring Mount 6 Pack on TMB 2 entries

*Share this giveaway on Facebook 2 entries

*Tweet this giveaway: "I want to #win a MoBoleez nursing bonnet from @debigerhart @dianecurriesam http://tinyurl.com/22wu26o #bfing" 1 entry

*Blog about this giveaway 3 entries

*Grab my button, and a link back so I can find it 2 entries

*Refer a friend. Please have friend leave your name in their comment, and you must leave their name in your comment 5 entries per friend

Shopping for Willow and Serenity

2010-07-16T21:13:00.004-04:00

I was online today shopping for baby products, which is honestly no big surprise since if I am not shopping for yarn for me, I am looking for stuff for Willow or the big kids. I found this site, it is almost like a shopping search engine. Which I love because I really hate trying to search through all the links on a regular search engine.

Today I was looking to see what I can find for Christmas ideas. There are always so many things to that look great but then I forget what they are as I see them, so I figured I would start buying now. I was searching and I found the prettiest crib sets. I know crib sets aren't a huge item you think of for Christmas, but I usually try to have a few practical items in our Christmas too. And if Willow is anything like my other kids, she won't last in the crib for long and will be in the toddler bed shortly after a year. All these crib sets also work on toddler beds.

For Serenity I found this kiddie rocker and table set. OMG it is so stinking cute. Serenity has this really cool loft bed so she has the perfect place under her bed for it. She loves things like this because it makes her feel like she has her own space like ours. Plus her boys have big chairs in their room.

I am absolutely in love with this site. I feel like I can find everything in one place, instead of having to check multiple sites.

Review for Stamps from Eco Mom and a giveaway

2010-07-12T23:32:00.002-04:00

Can I tell you how much I love EcoMom and the Eco-friendly Baby products she offers? Seriously I can list a page full of things I want to buy from this site. This time around I get to try Melissa and Doug's Friendship Stamps.

When I first saw them I thought, Oh wow Serenity will love these. She is my littlest artist. All my (big) kids love art and love to do crafts, but I thought, a great kit for a kid. I was so suprised when they arrived. I would order this kit for me, easily. The stamps are the kind that are about 5 or so dollars a piece at the craft store. The kind adults buy for scrapbooking or making cards. They are incredible. It comes with a 2 color ink pad. One side is pink and one side is purple. Usually with ink Serenity is wearing most of it and it takes almost no time at all for the ink pad to be dry. So far, she has been making cards and pictures for 3 days straight and the inks are going strong. And when I say 3 days straight, I mean, she works from when she wakes up until bed, only stopping if I force her to eat, bathe or get up and play outside.

We had a baby shower to go to and she made the card. It looked gorgeous. When she was stamping it, the outside edges of the stamp wasn't getting into the ink. Which it usually does when she uses a stamp. And then the color pencils are very good quality. Not the junky kind that break when you try to sharpen them.

And they all come in a nice little wooden box to keep them organized. They are truly a very high quality stamp set. It isn't something I would see and think kids, but at the price Ecomom is offering them, it is easy to buy them for a kid. If you have a budding artist, or wanta nice arts and craft set for your child, or for a gift that looks like you spent a fortune on, you HAVE to check these out. Ecomom also has a dinosoar set that I am sure is just as great.

Ecomom is offering my readers a 15 % discount on your first order too. The code is SBBL405. This code is good until 8-31-10

And Ecomom offers Ecopass. Ecopass is a great program that allows you to purchase a $99 annual membership, which provides for a $15 % discount on every order PLUS FREE SHIPPING on all orders without worrying about the $75 minimum. Ecopass pays for itself in 4 orders, and breaks down to just $8.25 per month.

Now the fun past. A giveaway, necause ECOMOM is awesome like that.

ECOMOM- Eco-friendly Baby Products is going to give one lucky reader a $15 Gift Certificate to her store!

1.Madatory entry: Follow my blog publically and head over to http://www.ecomom.com/ and check out tell me which product you would like to try.

Addtional entries:

2.Follow Ecomom on Twitter - 1 entry
3. Follow me on Twitter - 1 entry
4. Become a fan of Ecomom on Facebook - 1 entry
5. Join Ecomom's newsletter - 1 entry
6.Vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs and/or Picket Fences - 1 entry for each vote per day
7. Tweet "Enter to #WIN a $15 certificate from @ecomomceo and @debigerhart Contest end 8-15-10 http://tinyurl.com/26lmwon. PLs RT" 1 Entry per tweet, may tweet 4 times per day.

8. Post on your Facebook wall and leave a link back. 1 entry per post, 2 posts per day

9. Spread the word about this contest on a message board, must not be spammed. Please follow all forum rules. 3 entry per message board.

9. Blog about this giveaway, providing a link back. 2 entries

10. Grab my button for your blog 2 entries

11. Refer a friend. 5 entries per friend who entrers, they just leave your name as a referrer.

Please remember to add your email address in your comments. If I can not find you, I can let you know that you have won. I only give 48 hours to respond to any posts and emails about a winner.

Contest will run through August 15, 2010

Read my Disclaimer policy here please

Yeah that's me

2010-07-06T21:02:00.000-04:00

I am so excited. It's the little things, LOL

Boogie Wipes review and giveaway

2010-07-06T20:06:00.004-04:00

I just received Boogie Wipes to try. Let me tell you with 4 kids, there is always a snotty nose. I mean with colds, allergies, and tears, someone always needs to blow and wipe. And this time of year we have serious allergies in my house. Boogie Wipes are awesome. Even the baby seems to not mind me wiping her nose with the. The wipes are really soft, almost like using a flannel napkin. They are moistened with a saline solution, can come in a Great Grape Scent, Fresh Scent, Magic Menthol and Simply Unscented. Recommended by pediatricians as a gentle, effective alternative to a dry tissue.The saline helps dissolve the dried on mucus. Personally I love the menthol. The kids like the Grape.

What is also great, they are easy to keep in your purse or diaper bag. And in a pinch you can even use the boogie wipe on a little ones face.

Boogie Wipes is a great company too. Since I work a few hours a week at a day care, they offered to send wipes for the parents to try. Not many companies will send 60 samples to a daycare. The parents loved them too.

Boogie Wipes is going to give one of my readers two (2) boogie wipe packages to try for yourself.
Contest ends 8-1-10
To enter:
Mandatory entry: If this is not completed, no other entry will be counted. Visit Boogie Wipes and join the Boogie Bunch here.

Additional entries:

1. Become a public follower of my blog. (2 entries)

2. Follow me and BoogieMom on twitter and tweet this giveaway with a link back. (2 entries This can be done once per day.)

"PLS RT! #Win 2 packs of Boogie Wipes http://tinyurl.com/28gcrha @Debigerhart #giveaway "

3. Become a fan of Boogie Wipes on facebook. (3 entries)

4. Grab my button and leave a link where I can find it. (3 entries)

5. Blog about this giveaway leave a link back to me and Boogie Wipes. (5 entries Make sure you leave a link where I can find it and not to your homepage.)

6. Refer a friend- Make sure your friend tells who referred them and you post who you referred after they post. (2 entries per friend who enters)

7. Enter one of my other giveaways or post a relevant comment on another post. ( 1 entry per giveaway/comment )

8. Vote for me at TopMommyBlogs.com (1entry per vote)

9. Vote for me at Picket Fences (1 entry per day)

Please read my disclaimer. And thank you for entering.

That was fun

2010-07-03T23:15:00.000-04:00

We spent the night out in the yard watching some fireworks that you can set off at hoime. It was Willow's first time ever seeing them. She was very impressed. And it was actually one of the first ones that Serenity remembers. Which is weird because she remembers everything, but doesn't remember us setting them off last year. We set off some of the fireworks you buy at the little stands, and then the kids did some sparklers. It was fun. We were hanging out with my brother, who lives upstairs, my cousin, who lives in the attached apartment, and my brother's friend who I have known my whole life. Plus it was my 4 kids, my cousins 2 kids, and the friends 2 kids. So everyone really had a good time.

My boys lit fireworks and sparklers for the first time. Talk about a nervous moment. I held my breathe. They were supervised by my brother, but I was still a nervous wreck. They are 12 and 13 and they have never used a lighter (at least not infront of me, now sneaky behind my back I don't know).

I am looking forward to tomorrow night when we go Skippack to see the "real" fireworks. They put on a great show. We are suppose to go to the parade and then fireworks with my friend, and future inlaws as long as Willow stays with the plan, LOL. But I can't wait. I love fireworks and I have missed out the past few years. Between bad weather and feeling lusy with pregnancy, and a grumpy child or 2 I haven't been able to go the past few years. So this year I am really excited.

Distracted

2010-07-03T11:51:00.000-04:00

I came on the computer last night to blog. I didn't have anything in particular to write but wanted to at least get on here since I have been slacking a lot since summer started. And I know me, if I slack to much too much the whole blog will fall by the waste side. So I came on last night, and got distracted. I though, ok, before I start a new blog I need to fix my you tube account. I had tried to upload a few videos I had taken of Willow walking with her toy and of Serenity riding a horse ride at the outlets. So I fixed it, uploaded my videos and got lost watching ASL videos. Most of my subscriptions are of people signing songs. I love ASL. I took a class a few years ago, and Serenity LOVES the signing times videos. Me too. I have learned a lot from them. And now we are teaching Willow to sign. I need to get her some of the baby signing times because they are meant for babies.

SO that was how I spent my night. I watched videos and by the time I remembered I had come online to blog, it was past midnight and I was too tired. Plus, for the past week Willow has woken up at 3 and cried for 2 hours no matter what I do. So I knew my time to sleep was limited.

You should check out Signing Times. It is great for older children and for babies. And I think even adults benefit from them.

Loving Summer

2010-06-30T20:34:00.000-04:00

I am enjoying my summer so far. But it is kicking my butt. The days have been non stop. We spend most days at the pool. The pool is great. It has a gradual entry so Willow can sit and it is only a few inches. Then we can walk out a little and it slowly gets to 3'6". Serenity loves the little slide and the fountain. Then there is a deeper pool for the boys. With 3 really cool slides.

The problem is I am beat. Willow gets up bright and early. And there is no cleaning with her awake. Then we go to the pool. Come home, make dinner, try to get things straightened up before getting the kids ready for bed. By the time I even get settled, it is after 10. Then I try to unwind.

As fun as it is, I have a neglected house and a neglected blog. I guess I need to try harder at finding a balance.
Or I could not go to the pool and park so much... Yeah like that will happen. LOL

babywearing

2010-06-28T23:54:00.001-04:00

I love babywearing. I mean I have mentioned it a few times since If you look at my (current) profile picture on almost all the sites, you will see me wearing Willow. That was the day we took the kids bowling. I put Willow up on my back and we had a great time. I had worn Willow at the park, in the store, bowling, at family parties, pretty much you name it. And almost 4 times a week while cleaning or making dinner.

Right now I am looking to add either a new wrap preferrably a water wrap or a new mei tei to my collection.

I joined a new babywearing group too. I am waiting on approval. I can't wait to be able to talk with someone who lives near me who shares my love of carriers and wearing babies.

Review and giveaway of the munchie mug - CLOSED

2010-06-26T21:51:00.002-04:00

Not now Mom, I have a review to write.

And the winner is:

Mama Campbell. Congratulations.

Mama Campbell said...

voted on TMB

July 10, 2010 7:21 PM

As any mom will tell you children and their snacks end up everywhere. Even my teenager and pre teen make a mess. Not as bad but they make one too. Serenity drops her snacks everywhere when we are in the car. But now that Willow is eating snacks a lot and of course wants to do it herself, we have puffs and crunchies everywhere. Enter the Munchie Mug.

This thing is awesome. Finally a product that I can hand the kids and it will hold their snacks but even if their turn it upside down, the snacks stay in place. But it is easy for the kids to get to. Even Willow can get in the cup with ease to get to her snacks. But it did take a few times for Willow to get the hang of it. Now that she has, she loves it. She gets really excited when she sees it knowing it is snack time.

The top of the munchie mug has fabric that holds the snacks inside but is soft enough for Willow to slip their hand in to get to the snacks.

But if she tips it over or throws it like she has just learned to do, there is no mess.

Another feature that is really great is it comes with a plastic lid that goes on when not in use, or even if you have one for a child who can't quite get the whole hand through the slot concept. The lid helps keep the food fresher longer.

I actually am going to order one for Serenity too. She likes to take snakcs in the car but always spills some.

Another absolute bonus of the munchie mug is the reuasable factor. I hate using plastic baggies. I almost never even have them in the house. So with this, I can let the kids fill what they want in it, then we are ready to go without the mess.

So I KNOW you want one. I mean who wouldn't? Now you are saying how can I get one?

Well... the awesome makers of the munchkin mug is going to give one of my US/CA readers a free munchkin mug, your choice of color. Ends July 11, 9:00 pm

How to enter:

Mandatory entry:

Follow my blog and go to Munchie Mugs and tell me what color you like.

Extra Entries:

1. Vote for me on Top Mommy blog, can vote 3 times per day, one hour apart. 1 entry per vote

2. Vote for me on Picket Fences. 1 vote per day, 1 entry per vote

3. Follow me on Twitter

4. Tweet about this giveaway, including @debigerhart, #win, #giveaway. May tweet up to 4 times per day.

5. Post on your facebook wall, may post 3 times per day.

6. Refer your friends. 3 entries per friend that enters the contest.

Remember to leave a seperate comment per entry, and leave your email address.

Please check the disclosure statement here

I think I like nature shows too much

2010-06-24T17:35:00.000-04:00

I have always loved nature shows. Any kind. But now I am up to watching our fish tank. We have a very simple fish tank, a 20 gallon with a beta fish, Hobby. We started to have an algae issue so we decided to get an algae eater. We went with snails because Hobby would attack any kind of fish we added. While at the pet store we also got a cool little frog. We got 3 snails. 2 really really small ones and one that was only slightly bigger. Well, the bigger of them has already tripled in size. I was watching him move around the tank eating. He is the coolest thing. Watching his little stalks searching out the rocks and watching the bottom encompass the rocks. I was mesmerized. But guess what I found while watching the snails... 3 baby snails. SInce snails are asexual they can reproduce on their own. The lady told us at the fish store that they would reproduce quickly. I just didn't realize how quickly. We just got them on the 10th.

But it is the neatest thing to sit and watch them, even if it is only for a few seconds.

Please vote for Willow

2010-06-23T23:04:00.002-04:00

Please vote for my Willow. She is entered into the cutest baby contest for Parent's magazine. You can vote everyday. Please vote, and I will be eternally greatful Parents Photo Faves

Sorry for the lack of posts.

2010-06-21T09:58:00.000-04:00

It really has been an insane week and a half. Between end of the year activities with the kids, a sick baby which turned out to be roseola, my mom is up from NC and me trying to get some admission things done for starting schoolo in the fall, by the end of the day I have been falling into bed. I read back on the one pst I made about Willow being sick. It took me about 3 hours to get that small amount typed and by the end I just didn't even care what it said.

So what has been going on? Willow is now a full fledge crawler who wants to walk badly. She is starting to cruise on the couch. She has a fierce fasination with wires. The fever that started in the beginning of last week lasted for 2 days then the day after it was over she got a really bad rash. After calling the dr they said it was just roseola and nothing to be too concerned with. But it did throw everything for a loop. Willow was sleeping really well before she got sick, but she was so grumpy and waking up for those 2 days, I ended up letting her sleep with me. MY BIG MISTAKE! She didn't want to go back to her crib. So when you combine that she wanted to sleep with me, plus she is sitting up and standing when I lay her down, but doesn't know how to get back down again, she has been having trouble getting to sleep again. But happily once she is sleeping things are fine. It was the cutest thing the other night. She was so tired and she fell sleep sitting up. She was sitting there all leaned over, and she would bolt back up cry and fall back to sleep. Poor thing was so tired. I layed her down and she couldn't even fight to get back up.

Serenity is now a first grader. She finished Kindergarten. I am so proud of her. She was so torn with school ending. She wanted summer vacation and the pool and going to NC to see my mom and the beach, but then she wouldn't see her friends everyday. She loves school. She was also going to miss Mrs. Ulmer her teacher. On the last day of school when she got off the bus, she cried hysterically. She was so sad she wasn't going to get to see the fifth graders again. Since they will all be moving on to the middle school. But now she is excited because she gets tv every night at bed, something that is usually reserved for weekends.

Joey did good in 6th grade. He is really excited for summer too. He has been trying to lay out. He says he is just relaxing on the grass, btu I know the truth, LOL. Especially when he asks how tan his back is afterwards. He is so excited that he doesn't have to take the swim test at the pool this year. He isn't the strongest swimmer though he swims well. The swim test is needed to go down the slide into the 4 foot water. So it isn't over his head. But for him the swim test is hard. They have to swim one length of the pool, which he can do pretty well., But then they have to tread water for a minute, and that one gets him. It usually take s a few times of trying the test before he passes that one. So this year because he is 12 he doesn't have to. Besides that Joey is ecited to go hang out with friends and practice skateboarding moves. Plus he is getting more freedom to ride his bike up into town. It isn't far, but he has to take the walking/biking trail.

Anthony is more bummed about school ending. You would think he would be loving it, but he misses his friends already. I tell him all the time that I will take him to hang out with them, but you know, he is 13 and everything is the end of the world. He is excited about the pool though.

On a sad note for all the big kids, their best friends moved away. Anthony nad Joey have been best friends with Kiyanna and her brother James for about 4 years. Serenity just recently became friends with their little sister, Sammy. And the day before school ended, they moved to Tennesse. It was very hard on them. Anthony is writing her notes enough to fill a notebook I think.

And as for me, I am jsut trying to get my house cleaned and decluttered. Plus I have some awesome reviews and giveaways coming up. I have a great review that I just need to get written up and all. SO stay tuned

It has been a rough week

2010-06-18T23:03:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts.It has been a really hard week. Willow was really cranky this past week. It started with teething, and then the mysterious fever. And yesterday she started with a bad rash over face. She has just been so fussy and must be held by mommy! She has been having trouble sleeping again. When she was sick she ended up sleeping with me again for 2 nights. So then last night she didn't want to sleep in her crib at all. I would lay her down and she cried so bad I ended up having to cradle her and nurse her to sleep. So imagine how she was tonight. She wanted no part of going to bed alone. Then the days were so busy with all the end of school year things. Plus the last 3 days are half days. And I have been trying to get everything squeezed in in the morning when I usually have a few minutes. I went to the college and did my placement testing this week too. I was happy with my results. I do have to take a refresher course in algebra though.

But it has been a long day. I am so exhausted. I will get on tomorrow to write a good post, lol.

Sick grumpy teething baby

2010-06-16T22:13:00.000-04:00

My little Willow has been a weeping Willow the past few days. It started with the first tooth coming in this past weekend. I am pretty sure she is still teething, but added to the teething pain, she started with a fever yesterday. So now she is a teething, in pain, feeling yucky, fevery grumpy baby. She is all about Mommy, even more so than usual, but even that is barely enough. She is just so out of sorts. It breaks my heart.I hope whatever is working its way through her soon.

The end of school is almost here

2010-06-14T19:55:00.000-04:00

This is the final week of school. Wednesday starts early dismissal and then they are done until September. I am torn on how I feel about this, LOL. In one respect I love summer, I love the slow pace, and hanging out with the kids. We go to the pool and visit my mom in NC. This year we have a season pass to Dorney Park, the amusment and water park about 40 minutes away. And add to the fact I am off all summer (except an hour or 2 a week at night). So we can do lots of things, and have lots of fun.

Then I think of what long weekends are like lately. My kids have been bickering a lot lately. Anthony is in his whole teen mode and even though he isn't as bad as I hear most kids are at this age, he has his moments. He gets moody, and irratable. One minute he loves everyone and the next her can not stand anyone.

Joey is a motor mouth. Yes I said it. A motor mouth. So am I, and I say it with the utmost love. But he will talk and talk and talk. And it gets to the point you can even understand what he is talking about anymore. Then he gets very sick of Serenity, and he wants to stand up for himself with Anthony breaks him down because he is relentless.

Serenity loves school and gets very frustrated at home. Unless we are busy every second, she gets cranky. And since the boys are older than her and can go to the park or to a friends house and she can't she gets miserable. When she gets in those moods, she nit picks until she ends up in trouble.

And Willow as much as she loves having the big kids around, she likes her routine. The big kids always throw her off. I know I will get her on a new schedule. But the hard part will be getting her adjusted to being out all the time.

And then there is getting my schedule adjusted. I never get anything done on days off from school. I get this mind set of hey they get the day off I want the day off too. Plus we are all over the world so things never get done.

So in general I am excited but dreading the bickering, and starting with each other. Plus the kids not getting their chores done, and omplaining their is nthing good to eat. But honestly I am excited about it all. I love having the kids home and can't wait to start planning our daily activites.

She doesn't seem to know how old she is

2010-06-12T08:18:00.000-04:00

I have said multiple times that Willow was hitting milestone remarkably fast. I don't mean ahead of other kids, I mean all at once without giving me time to adjust to it. Well this girl is 8 and half months old. She hasn't really crawled yet. She creeps forward a space or two, then sits back down. Well last night, in an half hour time, she mastered pulling up and she is starting to cruise. Thankfully she has not mastered that yet, but I think that will come by Monday. This picture it looks like she is just standing by herself, but she was leaning her butt against the couch. But doesn't she understand she is not old enoough for this. Doesn't anyone speak "babble"? She isn't understanding me at all. I keep telling her that it isn't time yet for this.Not to mention we only just started being able to lay her down to go to sleep without a hard time. Now she is getting herself stuck. She sits up and can't get back down or else she crawls (backwards, she is good at that, LOL) into the corner and gets herself stuck that way. But tonight she kept getting herself stuck standing up. And crying her little eyes out. She was so exhausted. I went to lay her back down and rub her head a bit. I layed her down, rubbed her little head down her back to her fluffy little heiny 3 times and she was out cold. My sweet girl!

Oh and I almost forgot, what else did she learn to do? Drink slushies from the straw. She did it the other day if the straw was already full, but now she can get it in the straw by herself too. And yes, I let my less than year old child drink a few sips of her brother's slushie. I never claimed to be parent of the year...

Oh yeah, and this morning she woke up with her first tooth. What the heck is going on, LOL.

Social Parade

2010-06-10T23:37:00.000-04:00

I love the Tuesday blog hop I do, so when I saw this one, I had to jump on it. I have found so many awesome blogs this way

Review/ Giveaway- ECOMOM Plum organic & Revolution Food- CLOSED

2010-06-10T22:18:00.004-04:00

And the winner is

The Winner is... Shala_darkstone.

shala_darkstone said...

Here's my tweet - http://twitter.com/shala_darkstone/status/17374808085

June 29, 2010 8:42 PM

You have 48 hours to contact me, before I move on to another entry.

Thank you all who entered.

Everyone wants to get their kids to eat well. But sometimes it can be tough. I know for me it is. I try to buy organic whenever possible. It is hard to get my kids to eat the healthy foods sometimes. I have every type of eater. Anthony is fussy and hates anything healthy. He also doesn't eat much unless it is junk then let me tell you, he can stash it away. Joey, now that child, he is going to eat me out of house and home. He eats tons. And he likes just about everything. Well, he will tell you he likes everything except canned plums, which he had ONCE when he was 3. Then Serenity likes most food, and will eat healthy when I push her a little. Willow, loves all my food. She isn't a big fan of baby food, but loves anything I am eating.

Tuesday, I received a package from Eco-friendly Baby Products-Eco Mom to review. It contained something for each of the kids. It had 2 Plum organic baby food, spinach, peas and pears and the other one, pumpkin and banana. Plum tots strawberry mish mash and apple carrot fiddle sticks, strawberry banana mashups, and 3 types of "sammys". The Jammy Sammy in 2 flavors, grape and strawberry, and then a grammy sammy. I had all the kids try them.

Willow tried everything except for the jammy sammys because she can't have peanut butter. When I opened the box full of goodies, all the kids were super excited to try everything. The first thing opened was the grammy sammy. The kids couldn't get enough of it. Anthony says it tasted something like a cereal bar. Willow couldn't get enough of it. All the kids voted for it to be added to the snack list. Next they tried the jammy sammys. Anthony made a face but said it was good. Serenity and Joey loved them, and I think they are pretty good and a good on the go type of snack for the kids. Anthony, Joey and Serenity ate the mash ups. They are the consistancy of apple sauce, but with lots of fun flavors and an great easy to carry pouch. Serenity and Joey LOVED them, Anthony isn't a fan of bananas but said he still thought it was good. While they ate the mash up, Willow tried the mish mash. OMG it was the funniest thing. They are probabally beter for an older child because they can control the amount of "squeeze" but she loved it. I couldn't give it to her fast enough, and she ate the entire container in a matter of minute. And wanted more. At snack time, Willow tried the fiddle sticks. They are another hit. She has had them several times. She likes to sit and eat one while I am making her food or food for the big kids.

For dinner last night, Willow had the baby food. I was kind of dreading this one. She doesn't love baby food, has never had spinach, and usually gags on peas. Well, she LOVES them. And they are tasty. Yes, I tried them. I try all the food I give her, LOL. The spinach, peas and pears although is a greenish color, it isn't a pea green color and really taste like you are eating green pears. The pumpkin and banana is really yummy too. She ate 3/4 of both containers. Serenity always wants to try Willow's food. Not sure why, but she always wants to try it, and always hates it. tonight I had to pull the pumpkin and banana away from her. She kept eating it. But she wasn't a big fan of the spinach one, but then again she doesn't like pears.

All in all, I think the kids loved all the products. And honestly at the price ecomom.com is offering them, they are affordable too. I love that they are organic. Another thing that I love, is that there are so many kinds to choose from. With my kids, that is a bonus. I can find something to please even Anthony. And the packaging rocks. It makes the great for lunch boxes, snacks in the car, or for the pool.

And...Ecomom.com has a way to make the products even more affordable. There is a programcalled EcoPass. Here’s how it works: You purchase a $99 annual membership which gives you a 15% discount on ALL of your orders as well as free shipping with out the $75 minimum requirement.

Also, for your first order, eco mom is offering 15% off using code SBBL405. Code is valid until June 30, 2010

Now the good part: Ecomom.com is offering my readers a chance to win $20 worth of Plum and Revolution Foods. To enter is simple:

1.Madatory entry: Follow my blog publically and head over to http://www.ecomom.com/ and check out tell me which food product you would like to try.

Addtional entries:

2.Follow Ecomom on Twitter - 1 entry
3. Follow me on Twitter - 1 entry
4. Become a fan of Ecomom on Facebook - 1 entry
5. Join Ecomom's newsletter - 1 entry
6.Vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs and/or Picket Fences - 1 entry for each vote per day
7. Tweet about this giveaway including #giveaway @ecomomceo and @debigerhart and provide a link to the Tweet- 1 Entry for each day you Tweet.
8. Blog about this giveaway, providing a link back
9. Grab my button for your blog

Extra entries for posting on FB wall- 1 per post per day
2 entries per friend you refer who enters.

Please remember to add your email address in your comments.
Contest will run through June 30, 2010

Read my Disclaimer policy here please

Tuesday Tag Along,

2010-06-08T12:53:00.001-04:00

Welcome to this week's Tuesday Tag-Along blog hop, hosted by Twee Poppets Review and Giveaway! This is a great way to discover new blogs while increasing the number of followers for your own blog. Please feel free to grab the TTA button for your blogroll to help bring more bloggers to this blog hop!

Without further ado...

Here's how it works:

Create a new Tuesday Tag-Along blog post. Include the Tuesday Tag-Along button by copying and pasting the code above. (You are also welcome to copy and paste these instructions in their entirety, or any portion of this Tuesday Tag-Along blog post!)

Add your blog name and the URL of your TTA post to the MckLinky below.

Follow Twee Poppets, the hostess blog listed in the first slot. Twee Poppets will follow you back! (Note: If you want Twee Poppets to follow you back, you MUST leave her a comment saying that you are a new follower and leave a link to your blog!)

If you can, please follow the blogs in the three slots before you (e.g., if you're number 20, follow numbers 19, 18, and 17). This is not mandatory, but it will help ensure that everyone who signs up gets a few new followers!

Follow as many other blogs as you want. The more you follow, the more that will follow you back! Be sure to tell them that you're following from Tuesday Tag-Along! You may also want to leave a link to your blog so they can return your follow more easily.

When you get a new follower through Tuesday Tag-Along, be sure to follow them back! It's just common courtesy. :)

The weekly Tuesday Tag-Along MckLinky opens every Monday night at 8:59pm Pacific Standard Time (that's 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time), and the TTA blog post will be posted well in advance of that time. The MckLinky will be open to add your blog until 11:59pm Tuesday night. You then have all week long to visit blogs and return follows!

There is a new list every week. The link you enter one week will not carry over to the next week's MckLinky. Please link up again each week to join in the fun!

I Candy giveaway

2010-06-07T15:49:00.000-04:00

The other day I was saying how much I wanted to try the I Candy system. I have been drooling over them for weeks. Well, today I can across this awesome giveaway today. Mama Kat and Kids is doing a giveaway for one of these awesome diapering system. Go over and check it out.

Ahhh she sleeps

2010-06-07T10:58:00.001-04:00

Willow has never been a very good sleeper. Since the day we came home from the hospital. And I never planned to truly co sleep. I mean, I use to kind of sleep with all the kids propped on my chest when I fell asleep while burping or napping on the couch. But I was always terrified to really truly sleep with my babies. Until exhaustion took over with Willow. When she was tiny, after nursing her she would cry when I layed her down. We had a great co sleeper on the bed, but she wouldn't sleep in it. So by a week, I was so tired, I just started sleeping with her snuggled up with me in the bed. And honestly I loved every minute of it. But I am a restless sleeper. I mean I spend more time awake at night than I do sleeping. And I move all the time. So with Willow that wasn't an option. Fast forward 8 months. Willow was still waking all night long, nursing throughout the night, and leaving me stiff from not moving, getting very little sleep and getting to be very cranky.

I have never been a cry it out kind of mom. Not that I had issues with others doing it, it just broke my heart and I felt awful. So I swore I would never do it. Over the past few weeks I have really met my breaking point. Willow would go down to sleep then wake up an hour later thinking it was playtime until 2 in the morning. Or worse yet, I would nurse her to sleep, lay her down, she would wake screaming. It was an all night affair. I felt like I never had 5 minutes to myself, and that she was always attached to me. I know that sounds selfish, but remember I couldn't even sleep without her attached to me. But even worse than that was where she slept when she wasn't sleeping with me was a pack n play bassinet against my bed. The biggest problem there, she is now pulling up and I was terrified she would pull up and topple out. Finally I knew something had to give.

I knew I couldn't do the CIO, ferber method. But what I decided was: on the first night I layed her down and came in to her every 5 minutes. I would tell her gently that it was bedtime, and I was here. I would rub her back and let her know she was not alone. It took 30 minutes but she went to sleep. And she never made it to that hysterical cry. That would have broken me. She only did the hey I am here cry. But around 10 she woke up. This was her normal time, and I was dreading it. Well, it took an hour and a half of doing the same thing. This one was much harder. She cried a little harder than the first time. But still not too hard. And then she slept through the night!!!!!! The next day when I layed her down for a nap, she whimpered for 6 minutes. I didn't even have to go in to soothe her. I was so proud of her. Bedtime came around: and she fussed for 10 minutes. I can't even call it crying. She did wake up at 1:30 and she really gave me a hard time. I was exhausted,and really just wanted to pick her up and snuggle her. But I stayed strong. It took about 30 minutes again . She wasn't screaming but she wanted me to come get her. She worked herself back to sleep, and slept the rest of the night!!!

The best part, today she was getting really sleepy. She was nursing and almost falling asleep. So we went into her room. Sat in the rocking chair, read a quick story to help her know it was nap time, and I layed her down. She cried, but only until I left the room. She played for a minute and went to sleep!!! My baby girl is learning to sleep and getting WAY big. She has been such a happier baby since she has been sleeping, and I think after a few more nights of getting some decent sleep, I will be a much happier mommy too.

My birds are gone

2010-06-06T16:20:00.000-04:00

I went to check on the birds yesterday and the nest was destroyed and the babies were gone. I think the neighbor's cats got them. My one neighbor comes home from work each day and lets her cats out. And they always come straight for our yard. This of course drives my cats crazy. The one day the orange cat scrtached my neighbors little dog. AS much as I love cats, I get so mad about this. Cats do not belong roaming the neighborhood. Well, I was afraid that the cats would get the birds. I cant know for sure, but with the way the nest looks something got them. It makes me so sad.

I did see that the ground hog that lives on my hill has a little baby trailing behind her. That was sweet.

Milestone after milestone after milestone

2010-06-04T19:26:00.000-04:00

Someone please tell Willow to please stop growing up so fast. First she was trying to crawl. Followed by saing saying Dada.Then holding on to things standing. Then she was playing in her crib, and I looked over and she had pulled herself into a full stand. Then she crawled forward 2 "crawls". Now today all of a sudden she decided she knows how to get from being in a crawl position and can get back to sitting. And it was all with in 2 weeks. Plus she has a tiny tooth bump about to break through. I mean come on now baby. Slow down some for me please.

Cleaning and purging

2010-06-03T14:46:00.000-04:00

You know, with Willow being my last baby, you would think I would be able to get rid of things easy. I did when I thought Joey was my last baby. We had gotten rid of everything. I mean he had just turned 5 when we found out I was going to have my lovely suprise Serenity. We started over from scratch. I had given it all away, never ever thought twice about it. Then again with Serenity. I had passed it all along. I was done having babies, I thought. With exception of the occational baby pang, I was content and we were done. Have I mentioned I love suprises. Then came my suprise Willow. Now this time around I know I am done. I had a tubal after Willow's birth. Soyou think I would have no issues with giving everything away. Do you this babyis 8 months old now, and I just finally got rid of 2 bassients. And selling off her diapers. It is torture. I leave them in boxes and bags piled everywhere. I use the excuse that I hate going through the trouble of taking pictures and posting them... blah blah blah. This from someone who takes pictures daily, and always posting somewhere. ok, so maybe I hate going to the post office. Sure that's my issue. Except it is right next to the bank where I go about 2 times a week anyway. I mean, hell, they share a parking lot, for pete's sake. And I am not normally a pack rat. I am the first to find it a new home or recycle/trash it depending on the case needed. Why all of a sudden am I this baby hoarding junkie? I don't know. I truly don't. SO today I made strides in getting rid of things. I put a ton of things up on ffs over at diaper swappers. Then put some things up for sale. Even some diapers. I am proud of myself. Maybe it was seeing that big empty space in my basement where the basinets were. Maybe it is the thought of having the paypal in my account to try to icandy urban fluff diapering system or buying some new yarn on hyena cart. Or maybe... heck I don't know. Maybe I just came to terms with, I don't need it anymore. Who knows. Why am I blogging about all this. I mean, why do you care? Well some of you are fluffy loving mamas too so might understand my pain. And also, I cant get anymore work done. Willow has decided to strike naptime today. Strike on playtime. Heck, even strike on snack time, and put my cleaning to a complete halt. Maybe she doesn't like me selling off her too small stuff either, LOL

She always amazes me!

2010-06-01T17:13:00.000-04:00

I remember about a year ago, Joey , then in 5th grade, wanted to have

a friend over after school. I picked them up from school. I had asked

the dad if the little boy if he could show me the way to his house

once we were back at school. The boy was a walker and walked home from

school as it was anyway. The dad said he did not think so. Now thus

confused me, but it turns out one of the parents always picked him up.

But still I thought he should know the 3 blocks home from school or at

the very least his neighborhood. But when I took him him home, he

really didn't know how to point ne to his house just through a few

turns. Thankfully I had the address and gps.

Why am I mentioning this? Well, Serenity is in kindergarten. Even last
year, she would ask me why we were going down this road if we were
going home when it was the road to go __fill in the blank__. So today
we had errands to run in town. After the bank, she thought we were
going home. But we needed to stop at another store. She started to
tell me how I had missed the road to head home. I decided to put her
to the test. I had her direct me home from Wawa. You know, she knew
every turn to make, where the stop signs were and the red lights.
Serenity even instructed me not to hit the lady crossing the street,
and to stop at the red light, lol. I was so impressed. This is a
little girl and she was giving me step by step instructions to our
house. It just made me so happy she knew it. Almost as if she could be
with a friend's parent and know how to show them to bring her home.
Anyway, just a proud mommy moment!

Todays picture of the baby birds

2010-05-27T18:44:00.001-04:00

I really can't believe how quickly they changed.

Will she be a CD pro when she grows up?

2010-05-27T13:41:00.000-04:00

It is so cute. Serenity had been trying to help me the past few days since I have been having to stay off my foot. Well, she likes to ge the diapers for Willow. I have them organised on the changing table. Each type is in its own bin. On the top theones we use the most, the AIO, pockets are in 2 bins. Next to them are the g diapers. On the second shelf are the fitted diapers with the covers next to them. Well, most of the AIO and \pockets are just plain pul in different colors. And the g's are just the basic colors. The fitted diapers all have the pretty patterned fabric. Serenity loves these.Her favorite diaper is a mama made fitted with giant cherries on them. Well the first time she got a diaper for me, she brought out a fitted. I explained to her that with a fitted we need a cover. After I explained where the covers are, she came back with the right ones. So the next time she got a diaper for me she came back with an AIO so I figured she thought it was too much work. Daddy does, LOL. So that was all for that day, and the next day I had the diaper bag with me so she didn't need to get any. Well we were stuffing pockets and snapping in liners from doing diaper laundry. Serenity picks up her favorite fitted and put it in the right bin. I stopped what I was doing to watch her. She knew where each diaper went and what it needed. I asked her " So when you get a fitted for me, what else do we need.?" She reaches in and hands me a cover.

It was the coolest thing. I was so excited to see she really understood the whole concept. I know, that right nowif you are not a cloth diaper user, you are reading this going, ok yeah sure. I know that is the look my husband gives me. He doesn't understnad my fluffy love. He uses them, and likes them, but just doesn't understnad my excitement.

Willow's Snugglie Review of Cow Belle Boutique

2010-05-26T16:42:00.001-04:00

Willow loves her snugglie from Cow Belle Boutique. Actually Celia, the owner of CowBelle Boutique, calls them WuvBs. But in our house all special blankets are called snugglies. This one is made of beautiful, squishy hand dyed OBV, organic bamboo velour. Willow's snugglie, was a custom order made just for her. I loved this colorway when I saw it on Celia's hyena cart. She makes the most beautiful colorways. I had a hard time deciding between this one and another one she had at the time. When we ordered it, it was the perfect size for Willow. She fell in love with instantly.And I love how soft and squishy it is.

Here is a picture of Willow the day she got it.

Isn't it gorgeous. She loved it from the first moment.

Here she is now, playing with her snugglie after her nap.

My only complaint about this snugglie, is that I need a bigger one. That is on my list as my next non-diaper fluffy buy.

Celia just finished dyeing up some more OBV and is busy sewing away so you can expect a big stocking coming soon. She makes drama pads, which are mama cloth, nursing pads, WuvBs, the occasional adorable child's outfit, and she just started making reusable tampons. Check out her hyena cart here and "like" her facebook page here so you can get all the latest news on what to expect from here shop.

Also, keep an eye out for a giveaway. Celia and I are working on one coming soon.

I am gimpy again...

2010-05-24T16:50:00.000-04:00

For about 2 weeks I have been complaining my foot has been hurting. It started out as just an ache, after running on the treadmill. Even then it was only at night. Then the pain started to get stronger, and the pain would start earlier in the day. Well, yesterday we went to Dorney Pak, we had the best time by the way. Well, by the end of the day, it hurt so bad. But I figured it would be better in the morning like normal. But it wasn't. So after we got Serenity on the bus, I had Jimmy take me up to the ER. I was expecting it to be horrible. I didn't feel like I belong at the ER, but knew I had to have the foot looked at. Happily the hospital has this new thing called, the Fast Track. It is for less serious things. To get you in and out quickly. After they do the normal triage, taking your blood pressure and all, they order whatever tests might be needed immediately. They ordered my xray, and then had me in a special room that was just for fast track. I was home by the time the boys were home from the bus. Including travel time, it took about 2 hours. Turns out I have a stress fracture. I have to stay off my foot for 2 week. I have crutches and a splint. It is like a half cast, hard on the bottom of my foot, and up my legs. It keeps my foot semi immoble, and keeps me from walking on it. Great, just what I need. So, now I have to try and figure out how to handle an 8 month old, walking a kindergarten down a huge hill to the bus stop every day, and wash clothes on another level.

Oh well.

Why are there raptures in the birds nest?

2010-05-24T16:39:00.000-04:00

OK. SO maybe they are not exactly Raptors, but they kind of look like it, don't they. I didn't go to check on them over the weekend because it was miserable weather, wet and chilly. I didn't want to scare the mama bird off the nest, leaving the babies exposed. Today when I sent Jimmy over to take some snap shots of the birds for me, (I can't get over there thanks to the cast and crutches, update on the later) he iscovered one of the babies is gone. The runt of the group was pushed out of the nest and died. The nest wasn't big enough for them all and the mama bird was having trouble taking care of them all. I am worse than a kid. I couldn't believe that the mama did that. Jimmy had to sit there and remind me how nature works. I know it, but it always makes me sad. I then had to explain to Serenity, the 6 year old, why the mother did that. That was not a fun thing to explain. The next question I had to explain was the people are not like animals. So here are my little raptors. I think they look like the raptors in Jurassic Park, kind of.

The mystery of the wholesale store

2010-05-22T21:58:00.000-04:00

We went to BJs today. Even though my kids have been in Coscos when they were younger, I guess it has slipped away from them. LOL. Today, it was neatest place they have ever seen. I couldn't stop laughing at them. They could not get over the "size" of everything. Then they also had this tiny little notebook computers. Since this was the whole other end of the scale to the rest of the store, apparently this was enough to produce hysterics every time they thought of it. And don't even get them started on the no bags. There was a cart that had a sign on it saying "free boxes" The boys couldn't understand why they would be giving you boxes, and why anyone would want them. The look of confusion of their faces...

PR friendly

2010-05-21T16:56:00.000-04:00

Be a Sponsor

The Spring Mount 6 Pack is very PR friendly and loves to review products for readers and spread the word about fabulous companies and products. I review family friendly products, for the crunchy and uncrunchy alike. I love to reveiw but not limited to limited to cloth diapers, baby gear, things for mama or daddy, family living, breastfeeding, new baby and kids.My family ages range from 8 months to 13 years old, with both boys and girls. I do not charge for product reviews.

I am happy to work with your company's needs to best promote your products. Giveaways are the most effective way to get wide spread publicity and networking; however, reviews of your products are also recommended. I would recommend coupon codes and free products with purchase as a popular way to encourage readers to make purchases.

Want to advertise on The Spring Mount 6 Pack? I am selling 125×125 ad slots on my blog, and other advertising spaces. If you would like information about my rates and stats, email me.

Want to be a sponsor or advertise on this blog? Email Debi at gypsysheart(at)gmail(dot)com

Baby robins day 2

2010-05-20T14:23:00.000-04:00

The baby birds today. They are already getting fuzzy. They will have
their first feathers soon. Mama bird wasn't there today. She is
getting food. Luckily it is a warm day for them. And the sun is
shining right down on them.

Baby birds

2010-05-19T23:29:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my neighbor, we now get to watch baby Robins grow. 2 of the robins were hatched yesterday and one hatched today. Mama bird is fiercely protective, of course, so my pictures are not great but I thought it was so amazing. All the kids got to see them. When the mama flew off when she felt we got to close, the sweet little brids started moving around and immediately looking for food. We didn't stay because I was worried the babies would get too cold if mama felt too threatened. Thankfully, the mama Robin was back in under a minute of us walking away and we only stayed for about a minute. The kids think it is the neatest thing. I am hoping to go and check on them every few days towatch how they are growing. I want to use it as a learning experience for Serenity.But honestly, for me too. I love animals of all kinds, and just find it so neat to watch them grow and change. This is my first time seeing newborn robins.

Da Da Da...

2010-05-18T21:52:00.000-04:00

Guess who just started saying Dada on purpose? You guessed it, Willow. For about 2 weeks you would hear da in the middle of her babbling. But tonight she has been saying dada over and over again. If we say it to her, she will say it back. She doesn't know that dada equals Jimmy yet, but that will not take long. And Jimmy is beaming from ear to ear. Dada dada dada dada. I love it!

Willow knows her carrier means bye bye

2010-05-18T14:16:00.000-04:00

It is the cutest thing. Whenever I get one of Willow's carriers out, she gets excited. She knows it is time to go for a walk somewhere. Every school day, I walk Serenity down to the bus stop. We usually use her gorgeous ring sling I have. It is quick and easy to throw on. It is also very comfy for short periods. After long periods I get antsy with it. Willow always loves it though.

On most week days we also walk about 3 blocks to get my van when Jimmy goes to work. We only have the one van at the moment. I could use the ring sling for this, but prefer my new carrier, my everywear carrier. This has definately become my go to carrier. So she has started to recognize this one for going for longer walks.

Yesterday, I need to run errands, like usual, and needed to go get the van. So I pulled the carrier out of the play area. Willow saw it and got so excited. She started kicking her legs, and making her little happy noises. I had to quick get something from the kitchen, so I set the carrier down and walked away. Willow burst into tears. She was so upset. She thought I was taking her bye byes. When I came back into the living room, and picked up her carrier, she stopped crying instantly and started kicking her legs again. I buckled the carrier and went to pick her up. Before I even got to her, the arms were up in the air, she was cooing. I picked her up and started to transfer her to my back, she was laughing and making all kinds of happy noises.

You know, I always wondered what she really thought of being back there. Did she actually like it or was she just indifferent about it. I mean besides, Oh yeah I am being carried. But apparently she truly loves it. That just made my day.

She likes it, she really likes it. :)

Sorry had to share my super cute story, you know a typical mommy brag.

Tuesday Tag-along

2010-05-17T23:24:00.004-04:00

Come on bloggers, it's Tuesday. Jump on the blog hop.

My review of Iameverywear carrier

2010-05-17T23:14:00.001-04:00

I received a free Iameverywear carrier through scandianvian child/ lillebaby to test out. Before checking this one out, for Willow, I had a mama made sling, a ring sling, a stretchy wrap and a woven wrap. I use the ring sling mostly, it is great quick throwing on to walk my older daughter to the bus stop. It was also great for a quick run into the store. But the down fall with the ring sling, for me, was I couldn't put Willow on my back. That is truely my favorite position for her. It keeps her happy, and "out of the way" so to speak. I can do dishes, cut veggies, work on my plants and garden. Whatever.
I love the versatlity of my wraps. I love that I can cradle Willow, throw her up on my back, breastfeed discreetly, wear her facing in or out. The down fall of the wrap. It is complicated, and time consumming. And if I am out in the yard, the tails get dirty while I put it on. Another issue, when Willow is on my back, it is very hard for her to fall asleep. Her head rolls all over and she gets cranky. Also, once she does fall asleep, it is impossible to get her off without waking her.

The next carrier I had wanted to buy was an asian style carrier. But the price of them... well it was no time soon.

Now enter my new Iameverywear carrier. OK, I AM IN LOVE!!!!! This has everything I love so much. I don't have the cradle attachment, but Willow wouldn't really like it anyway.But I could use it that way if I wanted to. She can face forward watching everything around her. She can face inward, snuggled up watching everything. I can also nurse discreetly this way. If I use the sleeping hood. She can go on my back. There is a saftey harness on the inside. It buckles the baby to the carrier. It reminds me of the buckle in a shopping cart, but it comes up through her legs too. It has a neck support cushion, that can be removed if you want. And then one of my favorite features that I can't have with a wrap. The sleeping/sun hood. I can have her in the inward posistion or on my back, and use the sleeping hood. And since Willow is almost always on my back, it is very easy to pull up over her head by my self. And speaking of using the carrier on my back, it is extremely easy to do by myself. The only time I do not reach for this carrier, is when I am running late for the bus stop and need to be able to adjust and put her in the carrier as I am on the run. I honestly love every feature about this carrier.

The girls and I before heading off to a community day Willow sound asleep with her hood up

She would not go to sleep until I put the hood on. It really was the sweetest thing.

My one and only complaint of the carrier: I am a fluffy girl as it is, but the buckle that fastens around my waist, gives that added muffin top. Even on women who are nice and skinny. But I am sure that can be fixed, maybe adjusting the tightness. But seriously, that is my one and only complaint.

And to show how easy it is and just because I think it is just too cute:

You can read some of our adventures so far using the carrier here and here. Plus I use this carrier almost every day to walk about 20 minutes to get the van from hubby's work.

I would happily buy this carrier, I think it pretty much replaces all my other carriers.

Awesome nursing giveaway

2010-05-15T23:06:00.002-04:00

You have to see this tunic! Mama B is having, I think, the best gieaway ever. I want to win this one so bad. I mean, I love free as it is, but this one rocks. And I hate to buy things for me as it is, so this one rocks. Go here and check out these amazing shirts for nursing.

Community Day

2010-05-15T22:01:00.002-04:00

We had a great day. Unfortunately Jimmy had to work again. So I packed the kids up and we headed out to Skippack to Marshal Oil Company youth day. When we pulled in, the kids and I all thought it was going to be kind of lame. It didn't look like that much was going on but we decided to check it out anyway. I am so glad we did.

The kids got to check out the fire truck and an ambulance. They have been inside the fire truck lots of time, but never inside an ambulance for no reason.

Then the characters came. I was waiting for Serenity to completely flip. She does NOT like characters. But after we talked again about how it is just people in costumes, she suprised me. And loved every single person who came out. That is huge. This is the child who just a few months ago at the book fair, screamed hysterical because Cat in the Hat walked down the hallway.But today, she was excited and hugging all over them.

There was a moon bounce, and games. Plus an amazing face painter. She gave Serenity a butterfly, Anthony Mario, and Joey Luigi.

Willow hung out the whole time on my back, taking in the sights, and then taking a cat nap.

After that ended, we headed back into Schwenksville for community day. The boys very quickly ditched us to go hang with friends. Serenity watched a puppet show, planted sunflower seeds and then got a snow cone.

While she ate her snow cone, Willow and I sat in the grass with her. Luckily for Willow, Serenity filled up on snow cone and shared with her. Wow, she loved it. She actually got mad when she thought I wasn't going to give her more. After a long day, we headed home. After the kids showed Jimmy everything they scored from goodie bags through out the day, we hung out in the yard. Willow decided to try to hola hoop. And the big kids played keep away with one of the many beach balls they received today. With the exception of Jimmy not being with us, I love days like today.

See the sunburn on her arm. That was through sunscreen. ;(

Drybees giveaway

2010-05-14T21:06:00.001-04:00

A great diaper giveaway. Can you tell I love diaper giveaways? I mean honestly who doesn't want to add to their fluffy stash, and without costing a cent... So here is another one!

Drybees AIO is just like a disposible. Honestly you can not get any easier. And who is hosting this awesome giveaway. Well that would be Mama B. To enter is really easy. Just tell her what color you like. THen there are other ways to get additional entries. Check it out.

Smarti Pants giveaway

2010-05-14T20:26:00.002-04:00

I so want to try this brand. I love this kind of diaper system. And much to my happiness, Misfit Momma is having a giveaway. I seriously recommend heading over, check out a great blog and enter to win.

I'm bringing fluffy back!

2010-05-14T19:19:00.002-04:00

Willow wasn't able to wear her cloth for about a month. Our washing maching broke back in December. It wasn't worth fixing and we couldn't get a new one. For a while we were still suing the cloth and just washing them at the laundry mat. But the laundry mat is over 20 minutes away and we were going every week to keep up. Well, I just couldn't keep up so it was getting to 2 weeks. Life was just too busy. But I didn't have 2 weeks worth of diapers. Not to mention dragging both girls to the laundry mat for 2 hours. But I didn't have 2 weeks worth of diapers. I mean that is a whole lot of diapers. Plus we were having stink issues with them sitting for 2 weeks. Well, finallythe laundry mat in town opened. It is 5 minutes away. I can run up, drop off a load, and come home even. So that was 2 weeks ago. But yesterday I got great news. We are getting an old washer. But at least it works! And I can hang a clothes line out back to dry the dipes. I am so very excited. So now... I'm bringing fluffy back, I'm bringing fluffy back.

SO of course, I have to show Willow in her fluffy butt, a happy heiny.

Happy Halloween

2010-05-14T16:26:00.002-04:00

What do you mean it is the middle of May? Ok, so I am a little late.The pictures were stuck on my camera. But I can still show off the adorable pictures, right?

So this was Willow's first Halloween, Anthony 2nd year of being able to go off on his own, and Joey's first. Of course it had to be a really crappy night. It was raining so hard. But that didn't stop us. So the boys went off with their best friends, James and Kianna. Jimmy and I took the girls out.

All my little munchkins My little unicorn

A skater, hippie, pumpkin, and unicorn

The whole gang A little pumpkin

And I knitted that hat, finished it 3

minute before it was time to go

Tuesday Tag A Long

2010-05-11T21:33:00.001-04:00

If you are a blogger, come chek it out!

CSI and FBI at my house for a murder...

2010-05-09T17:23:00.002-04:00

Mother's Day was eventful. My kids played CSI all morning while we were making breakfast. It was really cute. Made me realize how much they take in from the crime shows, both dramatic and real, that I watch. They knew what a warrant was, and made crime scene tape. They came to question me, asking about my alibi, and their Daddy's too. Turns out, the culprit was right under their noses. Joey and Serenity used their FBI badges, and their crime scene kits. Even lifted prints from my laptop. It was so nice tho have some time in the morning that required no technology (ex. computers and video games) and no bickering! That was the best part. I love watching them play and be creative. I swear Joey and Serenity can make something to play with out of anything, and they are good at dragging Anthony into it, even when he doesn't really want to. you know, he is too cool now that he is 13. LOL

Serenity checking for a pulse, see the gloves (L)

Jimmy taking the liver temp for time of death (R)

Serenity with her badge and crime scenen kit (L)

Serenity picking up evidence with a tissue so as not to contaminate it (R)

Joey dusting my laptop for prints (L)

Joey crossing the crime scene tape (R)

Finger prints of the vic.

Variety Club Camp fundraiser

2010-05-08T20:14:00.020-04:00

So today was the Variety Club camp fundraiser. The Vaiety Club is a cub/camp for children with disabilities and delays. The campus is beautiful. I have never been there before. The fundraiserwas to help raise funds to help give scholarships to families who otherwise might not be able to afford to send their children to the summer camp.

We had a blast. Willow was chilling out in her Iameverywear carrier.

She loves her carrier. When she sees it, she gets so excited. She knows we are going out somewhere. Doesn't it look like she is giving the thumbs up.

All of our names intertwined. Serenity and Joey doing chalk

I actually did that with Willow on my back

Jimmy playing with a sensory toy Serenity making a picture

Jimmy playing in the moon bounce with the kids.

And Lil Miss Willow sound asleep. She was fighting it until the hood went up. Hood went up, she went out.

On the way home. This is Jimmy's impression of Bruce Springstein. Yeah, he was being silly.

My thrifty find

2010-05-07T12:19:00.001-04:00

I love a bargin. I mean honestly who doesn't. We needed to head to the dollar store the other day to get some teacher appreciation gifts. I had been planning to get the teachers at my (kind of sort of) work coffee, breakfast and new travel mugs to go with it. SO while we were there, the kids of course wanted to go down the toy/baby aisle. Sometimes they have cute litle tees or shorts. I have bought a few of the tees in the past, but when I saw these cute little dresses I had to grab on in every color. They are really cute, and really light and summery. And add that to the fact that it was really hot out and Willow has almost no summer clothes. This is the one of the dresses. They are all basically the samebut in different colors. They will be perfect for the hot summer.

See my turtle in the background.

Awesome giveaway

2010-05-06T10:13:00.000-04:00

Exploits of a Military Mom is doing a review and give away of monkey snuggle diapers. I love cloth diapers and what is better than getting new fluffy mail? Free fluffy mail!!!!!It is easy to enter and the diapers are just too cute not to enter. Check it out, enter, and while you are there, read some of her other blog posts.

Aloe planting

2010-05-05T22:24:00.001-04:00

My mom loves plants. And she hates when I buy her presents. So with Mother's Day a few days away, I was raking my brain on what to give her. While watering my plants, I saw that my aloe plant was sprouting some babies. Well, my mom is very clutsy (like me) and she burns herself a lot. So that would be a great Mother's Day present.

Getting ready to start replanting.

While I was replanting, Willow was playing next to me on her balnket in the grass. She loves being outside.

While she was playing, she discovered a flower just out of her reach. It didn't take long before she got her hands on it and was taking the petals off.

Here is my beautiful aloe plant. I have only had it for a few months. It was just a baby itself when I got it. You can see the tiny little shoots coming off the main roots.

Here is my Mom's new baby aloe plant. It has 2 small shoots in it.

Here is my aloe plant in its new home. The other pot it was in was too small and since I was unpotting it, I figured I would give it a bigger pot.

My pictures are stuck on my camera

2010-05-04T17:09:00.000-04:00

I am so upset. I have this camera, and it is a really great one. Only problem, the tines on the recepticle where you plug the cord is are all bent. I have this lap top. It does not have a memory card slot. SO I can not take the card out of the camera to load them that way. I have this really old computer, because my good one broke. It has a memory card slot, but it s the wrong size because I can not get the card in it. I have this nice kodak camera that I can put the great camera card in. Problem there is the kodack wants to format the card erasing all my pictures. So now I want to know how to get my pictures from my great camera onto any computer in the house so I can use them. Any ideas?

The boys new hair

2010-05-03T10:09:00.001-04:00

Ok. So yes I let me 12 and 13 year olds dye their hair. How can I really say no. I do mine all the time. And it grows out. There are worse things. So earlier this week, they bought their colors. Joey wanted pure blonde hair. And Anthony went with Burgundy. I promised I would do it for them over the weekend. Here are the results.

Joey before. His hair wasn't cut yet, but this picture shows his original color well.

Joey during...

And Joey rocking his Eminem look.

Anthony before, when we were getting ice cream this weekend

Anthony during...

Anthony after. His is hard to see, unless the light is shining on it.

All in all, not horrible. I have done way worse to mine. I love Anthony's. Joey's, however, will take some getting use to. It is very bright. I don't hate it. It is just bright.

Cafe Press shirts!!

2010-05-03T09:44:00.001-04:00

So funny thing this morning. I get the baby down for a nap and have a few minutes to get one here. I open up the computer, and needed to jump on facebook to get a message. I was just about to set my status as "Looking for a new give away, be back soon with blog update" Before I get the chance, I see my friend has a post up about her rockin' cousin and her awesome blog and she is having a give away. WAHOO! Work was half way done for me. A great bonus to an already busy morning. So I click the link to check it out. Turns out I follow this blog. It was one of those random things, I stumbled across a while ago, clicked follow and started reading about this woman and her twins, who I didn't know. But I love kids and love reading, and her twins are just too stinking cute not to check out. Plus, she is entertaining so that is a bonus. So, anyway, she is offering a contest of these adorable Mommy and baby cafe press t shirts. The tees are made on ORGANIC American Apparel shirts. There are so many they offer. I still haven't had a chance to look at every single option. So check out her blog, and do the entries. It is that simple. And check out those sweet babies. Aren't they too cute!

Day in Skippack

2010-05-01T17:18:00.002-04:00

Skippack was having a yard sale today. It was open to anyone, just $10 bucks for a spot. Usually when things are going on in Skippack the place is mobbed and is lots of fun. So I planned to take the kids out, let them bring their allowance and have fun. Turns out Jimmy had to work today, so he had the car. I packed the kids up, threw Willow in her new carrier and we walked down to firehouse where Jimmy parks the car and headed out to Skippack. Well, the yard sale wasn't that great. It was a small turn out and the stuff wasn't really anything worth even looking at. But the kids loved it. Serenity found 2 necklaces as soon as we got there, that she "just had to have". Anthony did luck out with a WII game for 5 bucks. Everyone loves the SIMS and Jimmy and Anthony love Survivor and this is SIMS 2 castaways. Looks like best of both. And Joey found a puppet. Joey loves things like this. It is cute though. At first he wanted one of those ventriloquist ones, you know with the wooden heads, and those mouths and... NO WAY! I hate those things. They totally creep me out. I have seen Twilight Zone. I know what happens with those things when you aren't looking. Nope, no creepy wooden dolls. But the cute fuzzy thing is ok.

Since the yard sale was a bust (in my eyes at least) I asked the kids if they wanted to go look through the stores in town. Well, with hopes to stop off at the candy store, the kids were all for it. Turns out, the CANDY STORE CLOSED! But they still got to get ice cream. We stopped off at Sweet Treats on Skippack Pike. The lady was AWESOME. I don't usually stop for things like that so it was a real treat for them.

Joey wanted a coffee flavored cone,

Anthony went with a cookie dough cup,

and Serenity got mint choc chip.

That left poor Willow. Since I wasn't having ice cream. She wasn't going to have any except a lick or 2 from theirs. After one taste... that wasn't going to happen.

She wanted her OWN! The owner gave her a dog cone. Have you seen these. They are little tiny cones and it holds like a cookie scoop size of ice cream. So sweet and so cute.

Can you tell she loved it!

Hanging Pouch giveaway by Blue Bonnet Designs

2010-04-29T11:00:00.001-04:00

These are so stinking cute. I can only imagine taking Willow's picture in one of these.

Blue Bonnet Designs is giving one lucky US resident a hanging pouch for their picture taking pleasure. And to enter is simple... become a fan of her facebook fan page and go to her discussions. Once there, leave a comment on why you love taking pictures of babies. Come on, who couldn't come up with 10 reason, but all you need is one. Contest runs until May 10, 2010.

Check out her blog, for exact details, and some super cute pictures of babies!

I am Everywear challenge

2010-04-29T07:00:00.002-04:00

About 2 weeks ago, I read on Twitter about the I am Everywear Challenge. As a precursor to the event, Scandinavian Child was giving out 50 líllébaby EveryWear carriers. Interested parents were to send in an e-mail stating why they would like to be one of the 50 to receive an EveryWear. I love babywearing, and was already looking for an easy carrier that I cold just throw on especially for my back. I already had a few other carriers but none that were truely simple for back wearing. So I sent in an email. And to my very happy suprise, I was chosen. The challenge is to start, I believe April 28. I got the carrier last night, and I LOVE it. I had already had a very very fussy day with Willow, and she was jsut miserable. I put on the carrier and threw her onto my back. She loved it and promptly fell asleep. Also, Willow loves to nurse in a sitting up position, and she can be in the carrier facing me and still nurse. And with the sleep hood, although it isn't complete coverage, it is pretty darn close. I am looking forward to giving it a real try out and about. We are heading to a community yard sale this coming weekend, and I hate strollers for things like that. SO in the new carrier she will go. I am really excited.

Oh yeah, and since no one was really here who could get a good picture of me using it... here is Joey wearing Willow.

Diaper giveaway at Sew Crafty Baby

2010-04-28T20:13:00.000-04:00

Taken directly from her facebook

"All right.. guess we are ready for this weeks giveaway! This week will be one of the new colored FuzziBunz perfect fit pockets. So take a look and see if you like them, then come back and tell me which color your diggin' the most. Random winner chosen on Friday and will have diaper of choice shipped Sat. when they arrive. Sew Crafty Baby "

So check out her fan page, then check out her site. She has all kinds of beautiful diapers, and other baby items.

Hair bows by Daisy Dew and Tutus

2010-04-27T14:15:00.000-04:00

So Sabrina at Daisy Dew and Tutu sent me these awesome hair bows. They are the first hair bows to NOT fall out of Serenity's hair. These ones are on aligator clips but she offers lots of kinds. WE asked her for Penguin inspired barrettes, since the Penguins are in the playoffs, and we live near Philly, so can never find anything Penguins. I absolutely love how they came out.

OK, Willow doesn't really have hair yet, but soon. And when she does it will look so darn cute.

Serenity begged to wear hers today even though it did not match her outfit.

Where did her laugh go?

2010-04-27T13:06:00.001-04:00

First sorry it has been a few days. This weekend and the beginning of the week has been insane. There have been so much going on.

This morning, Serenity, Willow and I were chilling out snuggling in my bed. I don't remember what set Serenity off, but she started doign this fake laugh she has been doing. It is the most irritating sound. And it goes on way longer than a normal laugh does. It is a seriously annoying new habit. S this morning when she was started doing it, I asked her to please stop with the fake laugh. Then I asked why she was using her fake laugh. She looked at me very serious, and says, "Well I lost my laugh Mommy." Now trying very very hard not to laugh, I asked "You did? How did that happen?" "I don't know" she says, "and I can't remember where I had it last." SO I had her climb up into my lap and told her this super silly joke about a worm from when I was a kid. By the time the joke is done, she is laughing hyterical, a true laugh. Apparently the laugh must have been hiding under the blankets in my room.

And just because this is such a cute picture... Serenity this afternoon at the bus stop:

See that super cute barette in her hair. It is from Sabrina at Daisy Dew and Tutu. We just got them in the mail yesterday and even though it did not match her outfit, she begged to wear it today. Sabrina made a matching one for Willow.

Picinic this weekend

2010-04-25T23:54:00.032-04:00

It has been a nice weekend, well part of it anyway. Yesterday (Saturday) my cousin and I planned a picinic at the park. Between the 2 of us, we have a pretty big bunch. There was myself, and Jimmy with our 4 kids. Kimmy had her oldest daughter there, with her little boy and boyfriend. Then she has 4 more kids. It was so great to get all of us together, something which almost never happens where we can all make it. It was gorgeous during the day... but of course our plans were for dinner time. The weather turned chilly and by the end started to rain. But we had a great time. We had hot dogs and chicken salad, amish macaroni salad, chips, the kids had soda, and there were veggies. Franconia Park in Harleysville, has nice grills in the park. Plus a playground with swings and a merry go round, and a small trial, also a sand volleyball area. Of course, the kids found a giant contruction hill to climb on. It was great because there was something for all the kids, who are a wide range of ages. Willow is the youngest at 7 months, then Kimmy's baby, Jamir, is around 10 months, then Angel who is 2 1/2, Jayden, Jessie's son, just turned 3, Serenity, 6, Lindsey,10, Joey, 12, Jenna also 12 (She is older than Joey by 3 months), and Anthony, 13. They all had a blast.

All the "BIG KIDS" Kimmy and Angie

Jayden & Mommy Jessie stuck in the tube

Serenity pushing the merry go round Kimmy and Jessie upside down

Willow 1st swinging Jamir Swinging

The Babies Me and Willow

Robeez on Twitter

2010-04-22T10:36:00.000-04:00

On Twitter, Robeez is asking a question an hour to celebrate Earth Day by giving away a pair of Robeez every hour starting at 9am. Just answer their eco friendly questions on saving the Earth. Check it out.

http://twitter.com/robeez

Bright and early, and a good word for Daisy Dew and tutus

2010-04-22T08:59:00.000-04:00

So I am sitting here very blurry eyed from a very long night. I haven't even started looking for a give away yet this morning, don't worry I will. LOL But I wanted to to show off a friends work this morning. Although I haven't tried them yet myself, but I defiantely plan to, I have been told y friends her clippies are fantastic. And the pictures are gorgeous! So if you have little girls who love hair accessories, drop by facebook, check her out. I dropped a hint this morning hoping to see some bright yellow and black for the Penguins in the playoffs. Hope I see some in her shop soon.
Daisy Dew & Tutus