Adventures-In-Mommy-Land: November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

tiny prints

I'm so excited about Tiny Prints Christmas cards.

I usually spend for..ev..er writing out our family's cards. I always thought it was more personal to write out each family member's name by hand.

But then, I always end up with horrible writer's cramp from spending so much time on them and the writing starts to get pretty sloppy after a while as well.

That's why I love the idea of these cute holiday cards from Tiny Prints.

Snap a few pics of our family.

Pick out a card

Then place my order.

There are so many options to chose from....

The only problem I see....

is choosing one card from the hundreds of choices.

I love the mail I get this time of year.

Who doesn't love getting tons of Christmas cards in the mail.

I love to save the ones we get every year, especially the pictures that come with the cards.

I can't wait to get started on ours and I can't wait to start receiving some as well.

*Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post, but I may receive free holiday cards for sharing this great website on my blog.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

~Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway~~~CLOSED!!

I'm tickled pink to be given the opportunity to giveaway another fabulous dress by Shabby Apple.

Shabby Apple is an online women's boutique with beautiful dresses, skirts, accessories, jewelry, maternity wear, children's clothing and even bath and beauty gifts.

There are so many beautiful choices, including this one...

The Nothin' Like A Dame dress by Shabby Apple is a simple shift dress with a lei of tucks, folds and petal-like ruffles along the rounded scoop neck. Princess seams and careful tailoring keep the shape classic and form-flattering, and the cap sleeves and deep red color make this the perfect holiday party dress. This dress retails at $78.00.

How to enter:

Mandatory Entry: Like Shabby Apple on facebook and leave a comment here telling me that you did so.

Extra entries worth one entry each...

Follow Shabby Apple on twitter
Like Adventures In Mommy Land on facebook
Follow Adventures In Mommy Land (jfamilyofeight) on twitter
Follow Adventures In Mommy Land via GFC.

*Please, leave your email in your comments, so that I may contact the winner easily. Thank you!

Good luck!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!!

* the winner will be drawn on Friday, December 9 at Midnight EST via random number generator *the winner must have a US shipping address. *there will be no exchanges for the winning dress.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Shabby Apple, so I could get a small portion of any sales coming from this blog.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Hey Mom, Look What I Did (#8)

WAHOOO...

Week # 8 is here!!!

I still can't believe how incredible this link party has become!

and the best part is, it keeps growing!!!

makes me an extremely happy girl

Let's get this party started....

This actually was a "Hey Mom, Look What We Did" week The boys were feeling kind of bored while I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner so I told them to get the craft supplies out and entertain themselves. They made an advent chain.

At some point during the food prepping, Nicholas and Nathan held up their chain and in unison said "Hey Mom, look what we did." They were quite proud of themselves too, as you can see ;)

That's what WE did this week

how about you,

What Did YOU Do this Week?

Link up and share all the fun activities, arts, crafts and fun stuff you did this week.

Grab the linky button and put it on your blog, if you like, so that others can share in the fun too.

Thanks for joining us....Hope to see you again soon!!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Homemade In December Link Carnival!!!!

Welcome to the

Homemade in December

Link Carnival!!!

Come and link up all your homemade Christmas crafts, recipes, arts and projects! Revive last year's posts and let's share as many ideas as we can! Please do grab a button for your sidebar or post, and we'd love if you followed the hosts too!

*By linking up your project here - you are giving the hosts permission to use photos and information from your linked post in features on our blogs- we will always link back to you and give you full credit!

Link away!!

Pajama Rama Contest......

If you've been hanging around my blog for awhile now, then you know that I am getting ready to cohost a Christmas party with some other fun, fabulous bloggy moms. As part of the kick off for this super fun holiday party, Blissful and Domestic's Danielle is hosting a Christmas Pajama Rama Party.

The theme for our party is "Homemade in December" And that includes those homemade Jammies....

((these are the jammies that I made....if I can do it, "sew" can you!))

Do you sew your own pjs? orMake some for the kiddos? Here is your time to shine and share your designs.

There will be some great prizes up for grabs

The Winner will receive....

The Ultimate Hairstyle Ebook

by Abby Smith @ My Yellow Sandbox

Silver Bird Necklace from Quicksilver Creations

$10 Giftcard to Blissful and Domestic Designs

A beautiful Headband from The Letter 4

Plus some FREE advertising from these sweet ladies and all

The Homemade in December hosts.
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Here Are the DETAILS.....

Come and link up all your homemade jammies!

They can be new ones for this year or you can link up ones made from previous years, if you like.

They can be for you, your hubby, the kids, or whoever...

Please grab a button for your sidebar or post,

and we'd love if you followed the hosts too!

Contest ends December 16 at midnight.

Sew get busy now, time's a wastin!

After those three weeks, they will be judged by all the "Homemade in December" hosts......

The winner will be announced on December 23.

I can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Family Table

I recently guest posted on the blog JDaniel4's Mom...she asked me to share my thoughts on pausing for family dinners on Thanksgiving. I was honored to share my thoughts with her readers and wanted to share them here with all of you as well. I tweaked it a bit since then.

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Every Thanksgiving as I sit at my kitchen table and look at those sitting around it with me...I can't help but feel grateful for the joy and beauty of having such a large family. Yes, it's loud and there are fights over who gets a turkey leg and who gets to break the wishbone.

But it's also a time of appreciation. A time to truly be thankful for the life that we live and the family we have to share it with. I take the time and sit and stare at each one of their happy little faces and I'm glad God chose me to be their wife and mother. I'm grateful and proud that my children remember to always thank me for preparing their food, every day.

I sit and listen to them as we take turns saying what we are thankful for and I laugh when they say silly things...and I appreciate when they say simple things....how many things we take for granted that others don't have. Every year, Rich and I share the special memory of how each one of our children got their name or how we are thankful that God chose to bless us with them. We tell them, not only how special we think they are, but how much they are loved and wanted. Our life is truely blessed because they are are in it.

I feel good when my children are happy and I love to see them smile. It's what I live for. It makes me happy to hear Nicholas say "one more time, so we can hear Mommy laugh because I love to hear her giggle."

I think family dinners are something that people don't appreciate in these days. When I sit with my family and we are telling jokes and laughing and supporting each other - it makes me happy. Why can't more families sit and take time - to pause their busy lives and enjoy their families. Truly listen to them. So many families 'eat and run' or sit in front of the tv and don't get the chance to appreciate the rare gift of family.

Family is everything to me...my blog motto is "Family---Its not where you go or what you do, it's who is beside you that counts." Now whether that person is a true family member or one that has just become like a family member....appreciate them. Tell them how much you love them. Because we truly don't know how much time we have with each other and we should never take that time for granted.

Teach your children to appreciate and honor the adults in their life. Take time for each other - who else in life is there to grow old with you, love you unconditionally and be there for you even when they are angry...but your family. So, don't just sit together at Thanksgiving dinner and acknowledge the gifts that God has blessed you with...Sit with each other every day or as often as possible. Enjoy the time, the beauty and love that surrounds you (literally). I promise the peace and love you will feel while you eat, will feed you more than the food ever will., Take the time to look around that table and be grateful for the gifts that you are blessed with, not only on Thanksgiving day, but every day as well.

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!

*linking to Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday

Monday, November 21, 2011

Hey Mom, Look What I Did (#7)

Can't believe we are on week #7 !!!

I'm so proud of this little baby...it keeps growing each week

and I love all the ideas that keep coming.

I'm still so grateful to everyone who has helped make this linky successful.

On that note,

Let's Party....

Here's what WE did this week... This week has been kinda busy, because of Nick's birthday party, and our tissue paper turkey craft, and Nick started wrestling again, plus, I haven't been feeling very well. So, we ended up just making a harvest scene using foam stickers. I thought it was kind of lame, but for some reason, Nathan absolutely loves doing this.

He will make up stories with the stickers as he places them on the paper. It's the funniest thing ever listening to him giggle and play with the stickers.

Hey....whatever works, eh?

I should add that we spent lots of time playing Go Fish and Memory this weekend as well.

and that he won every single game of Memory that we played...

Which sort of scared me a bit, considering they say that "memory" is the first to go, when you get older.

uh oh.

Now, it's your turn...

What did YOU do this week?

Did you spend time baking up some yummy cookies?

Make a craft?

Paint a picture?

Plan a fun activity?

Feel free to add your kids art & craft project, baking activity or other fun activities to the link list below. Grab the little button and share on your blog, if you like, so others can join us too - Thanks for joining and I hope to see you again next time!