Winner Winner Chicken Dinner...

It's time to announce the winner of my first giveaway, but first, a very special thank you to Susan from GirlSunday Designs for her generosity and just for how awesome she is to work with.  The winner will get 1 snack bag and 1 sandwich of their choice from Susan's Etsy Shop.

Using random.org the winner is...

Stacy from Stacy's 101 List.  Congrats Stacy, e-mail me at ashleysmith_82{at}hotmail{dot}com with you info. and I'll have Susan contact you.

Another huge thanks to Susan, it was so much fun working with you and hosting this giveaway.  I absolutely love my snack and sandwich bag and use them both daily and have gotten so many compliments on how cute they are and what a great idea.  If you haven't had the chance, head on over to GirlSunday Designs, Susan is offering free shipping right now.

On another note, I had a fabulous evening with my parents and Cole.  We had pizza and Dairy Queen for supper and we had a great visit with them.  I was so spoiled this year, I got some adorable Halloween decorations from my boss and this little purse/wallet to put in my purse (great for when you want to run to the store, it holds your cell phone, money, cards, etc.

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 It was just such a great day, thank you so much for all of the e-mails, comments and loving birthday wishes.  If everyone had a day as good as I did we would all be so happy.

The Most Special, Important and Awesome Day of the Year

You read that title right, today is the most special, important and awesome day of the year.  That my friends is because today is my birfffday.  I am officially 28 years old and I don't feel a bit over 16 (ya right!)  It really hadn't felt like my birthday up until last night.  One of my favorite girls came over a for a visit and brought me cheesecake, a beautiful flower arrangement and an adorable birthday balloon.  It was such a nice visit and a relaxing evening.  She's definitely one of the best...

 Last night my boys gave me my birthday present early seeing as Ryan will be working this evening.  I got my favorite perfume which I was out of and some money for my shopping trip in late November to the states, needless to say, so far I have been spoiled rotten.  My day has already been filled with lots of love and birthday wishes and it really makes you realize just how lucky you are. 

On another note, today is an important day because it's the last day to enter my giveaway...what are you waiting for?  Get going!

Sleep?! Who Needs It!

I need help, actually my whole family does.  We have a loving, energetic almost 3 year old ball of fire on our hands and he thinks that waking up anywhere between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. is acceptable - EVERY.FREAKING.DAY. and truth be told, it's not.  We are all exhausted and this is causing our evenings to be really, really tough. 

I've googled and read every possible thing on what you can do for a child who is constantly rising really early in the morning.  So far the following have not worked for us:

Going to bed later
Going to bed earlier
Covering him up with extra blankets
Making his room darker
Trying to get him back to sleep
Trying to convince him to play quietly in his room
A night light

The only other thing left to try that I can think of or read of is white noise.  We are going to try a fan in his room to see if that will work, but other than that I am at a loss. 

At first we thought it might be that Ryan's alarm wakes him up, but low and behold on his days off Cole is still up.  He runs into our room asking us to play and then proceeds to fly down the hallway turning on all of the light switches (for some strange reason our light switches are at child height, weird I know).

Please, oh please send me any and all of your suggestions.  But please don't say toughen up and deal with it that's the joys of parenthood, because I am an overtired expecting mother and I may just hunt you down and sick him on you for a good solid month.  All others would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and don't forget to enter my giveaway.

My First Giveaway!

Happy Hump Day (finally!), is it just me or has this week been dragging on?  Today is my 12-week appointment with my doctor and I am so excited to get an ultrasound referral.

I have been lucky enough to befriend this lovely lady Susan who is so kind, has a great blog (go check it out) and an adorable and creative Etsy Shop - Girl Sunday Designs.   Susan started making snack bags a couple years ago when she sent my daughter to pre-school and noticed how many zippy bags she was throwing away. She figured there had to be a better way and had just started sewing at the time and thought this would be a easy project to work on. Little did she know a whole business would evolve from it.

Susan is currently offering free shipping right now on all of her snack and sandwich bags and she is also doing fundraising by donating a percentage of the sales back to schools or day cares who fundraise through her shop.  If you are interested, please contact Susan directly, I can tell you first hand that she is very personable and easy to work with, not to mention quick!


Susan sent me a snack bag and a sandwich bag to try out and talk about an all around fantastic product!  The prints are so, so, so adorable and I have cut my disposable sandwich bag use down by quite a bit.  Here are a few pictures of the bags in use:

Cute packaging

Snack Bag

 Sandwich Bag

 Snack bag full of pretzels for Ryan's lunch

Snack bag full of popcorn, one of Cole's favorite treats

 Sandwich bag used for all my goodies in my purse

 Less mess in my purse, love, love, love this!

Susan has been kind enough to offer one lucky ready a chance to win one snack bag and one sandwich bag from her Etsy Shop.
To enter to win a snack bag and sandwich bag from Susan's Etsy Shop you must:

1st entry (mandatory) - go to Susan's Etsy Shop and tell me what you favorite product is

2nd entry (mandatory) - must be a follower of my blog  (you do not have to have a blog of your own)

3rd entry - go and check out Susan's Blog

4th, 5th and 6th entry - blog about this giveaway

Leave me a separate comment for each entry with your e-mail address by October 27th at midnight and I'll announce the winner on the 28th.

Good luck and thanks so much Susan!

Vote for Kari B...PLEASE!

Happy Friday everyone!

A friend of mine has entered a contest to win a trip to Australia and I need your help.  It will only take you a minute to vote for her and trust me, she most definitely deserves this trip.  KB is a genuine person and will always make you smile.  Take a minute to watch her video and then vote for her - please oh please!  It only takes a minute and you could help her make this happen.  Also, please leave her a comment with some love, I'm sure she'd appreciate it.  :)

Australia Campus Perks

Her video is Tour Down Under with KB

What are you waiting for?  You can vote daily, so please do!

And So It Starts

Now that the news is out in the open I feel great and can finally tell people all about it.  First off, a confession - I have been lazy, no I have been beyond lazy.  When I was pregnant with Cole I was sick (so sick) every.single.day. for the first trimester.  I would wake up in the morning and I was sick.  I would get in the shower and I was sick.  I would brush my teeth and I was sick.  I would put on a sock and I was sick.  I would wait at the bus stop and was sick.  I would get on the bus and then off again at the next stop and I was sick.  Get the point?  This time - I wasn't going to be sick, that I was sure of.  Why I never got Diclectin from my doctor is something Ryan and I asked our selves a million times.  When we found out I was pregnant I booked an appointment with my family doctor that week.  She is fantastic, but unfortunately she doesn't deliver babies, although I may have tried bribing her into doing just this one (didn't work - YET).  First thing she asked me 'are you all pukey and stuff again?' and thankfully, no I wasn't but she felt my pain from all we went through with Cole and prescribed me Diclectin right away for this sweet little one.

As luck would have it, I haven't needed Diclectin yet.  I have been nauseous like you wouldn't believe some days, but luckily it's nothing that Sea Bands and a piece of gum won't fix.  So the sickness isn't terrible, but on to the fatigue.  I am so tired.  I can barely force myself to do anything but lounge when I don't have to make supper or do any motherly duties.  This little one is sucking every ounce of energy that I have out of me.  Bed time at 8 or 9 p.m.?  Yes please!  Hopefully that will pass shortly as I need to clean my house on a regular basis again and start feeling like myself.

Enough baby talk for one day.  I promise this won't become all about the baby, but yes you will hear lots about it, and see plenty of pictures (but don't worry Dancy - nothing graphic, I promise).

I was tagged last week by Stacy in a fun little game of tag, where she answered 8 questions from someone and then she had to make up 8 questions and tag 8 others, so here are my answers:

1. What is your favorite thing to cook?
I love to cook anything with lots of garlic, but my favorite has to be pasta sauce.  Tomato or Alfredo, it doesn't matter, as long as there is lots of garlic.

2. What is your favorite TV show and why?
My favorite TV show is Grey's Anatomy and seriously, why wouldn't it be?!  Grey's Anatomy is THE best show on TV and I absolutely love Meredith...she's a riot.

3. If you had a $10,000 shopping spree to anywhere, where would you pick and why?
I would have to pick a $10,000 shopping spree to any shopping mall so that I could get all sorts of goodies from different stores and not just be limited to clothing or decor.  A cheat, I know.

4. What song are you likely to sing at karaoke in a bar?
None.  I am tone deaf and would never, ever, do that again.  I promise - never, ever.

5. If you could take any kind of class, what would you take and why...ie. Dance/Art/Photography?
I should say Dance class as I am so rhythmless, but really, I don't care because I only dance when I am drinking and by that point I don't care at all.  That being said, I would take photography so I could learn how to finally work my camera properly and hopefully capture loads of cute moments of Cole.

6. What is one thing that you couldn't live without and why?
Assuming people aside, I couldn't live without water.  Now, I know this is obvious but even if it weren't a necessity, it would still be my choice.  Besides drinking tea, I drink a lot of water.  You will rarely catch me without a bottle of water in my purse or car.

7. What is your favorite season and why?
This one is tough, I love Spring, Summer and Fall.  I love Spring with the exception of the mud, muck and the smell of dog poop.  I love the feeling of warm weather approaching and being able to drive with your window down and enjoy a warm breeze.  I love Summer for the beautiful weather, flip flops and being able to enjoy the longer days.  I love Fall for the crisp cold air, the beautiful colors and the smell of Fall.  Again, a cheat.

8. What is your favorite color and why?
I love the color black.  Okay so it's a shade, but anything looks good in black.

Questions:

1.  Who is your favorite actress/actor?
2.  What celebs fashion style do you absolutely lust over?
3.  What is your greatest accomplishment to date?
4.  Do you have an addiction (purses, shoes, etc.)?
5.  If you could meet one celebrity who would it be and why?
6.  What do you consider to be your best personality trait?
7.  What is your favorite store to shop at?
8.  What is your biggest fear?

I am tagging everyone and hope to see some answers soon!

Insert Happy Dance Here

We have big news.  Huge news.  Exciting news.  Heck, I could do this all day.  I'll let Cole show you instead...

We are expecting our second child and we are beyond thrilled.  Due in the first week of May and feeling great.

101

I have been working on my list of 101 things I'd like to accomplish in 1001 days for about 2 weeks now and I am only half way through.  I started adding some things last weekend but when I really thought about them I realized that they weren't substantial enough, rather that I was just adding random things to finish up my list.  I have several things that I really would like to accomplish and some that I may not get done but I am planning to strive for completion of all of them.  When I told Ryan I was first thinking of making this list he looked at me as though I was absolutely crazy and said "Do you really need to find more things to do?" and while I see where he is coming from, I just don't see myself doing all of the things that I want or need to do in any set amount of time without this list.  I tend to put things off seeing as life is so busy.  For example, making a will.  That is number 1 on my list and is so important for us to do but I just keep saying that I'll get to it soon and that started 3 years ago.  So this is it, I am going to finish my list this week and get started on it.

Do you have a list of things to get done? 

I hope to post my list later in the week for everyone to see and will most definitely be posting pictures and recaps when an item is checked off.