Tiny Prints Valentines Classroom Cards

I received a most amazing email this evening from Tiny Prints.

They are offering bloggers 50 free Valentines Classroom Cards in exchange for blogging about their Valentines cards & all the awesomeness that is Tiny Prints! I love Tiny Prints. And I would 100% say that even if they weren’t offering me a promo for some cards. I ordered Father’s Day cards from them this year, and I actually ordered some Valentine’s Cards from them recently (no link on them just yet, but I will share them once my Valentines receive them!). Here are the Valentine’s Cards that they have to offer, and here are the Valentine’s Greeting Cards. What’s the difference? The cards are if you need to order 10 or more (if you have lots of aunts & uncles & grandparents that you want to share with!) and the Greeting Cards are specific to one person.

Let’s start with the Classroom Cards -  Here are a couple of my faves…

On the inside it has a spot for his picture and it says “and some secrets must be revealed!”. Garrett is BIG TIME into Ninjas & Lego Ninjago sets, so I think he would love it!

On the inside, it just says “Happy Valentine’s Day”, with a spot to put who this one is addressed to. The guy on the front looks like the guy from “The Incredibles”, and we are definitely into that movie these days! This one would be more appropriate for him to give to his guy buddies in class.

On the inside, it has lots of hearts scattered around like the front and just has a place to put who it is addressed to. I thought this one would be cute since she is a dancing QUEEN & it was similar to the Super Hero one above!

On the inside, it says “have a sweet valentine’s day”. This one caught my eye because Gina has such a sweet tooth!

Where else can you find Tiny Prints on social media? Their Twitter is @TinyPrints, Facebook page is here, and they even have Pinterest Boards!

I honestly can’t say enough about Tiny Prints… Their quality is outstanding, their prices are incredible (greeting cards cost same or LESS THAN a Hallmark card for the same quality and it has your favorite pictures on it!), and they even have a wonderful membership program that I am seriously considering enrolling in where you can get 25% or 50% off each card (first one is FREE).

I hope you will check them out! If you do, I hope you’ll share you designs with me!

Gymnastics

Friend Makin Monday: Short Answers

It's Monday again! Already??

Basically, on Friend Makin Monday I just link up to Alltheweigh.com so everyone can all my FMM questions and answers....  This week's edition has been named "Short Answers". Short answers. Haha. We all know concise is not something I have mastered in the least. Nonetheless, here we go... 

1. Mac or PC? PC
2. Do you paint your own nails? Yes. Rarely. And generally just the toesies.
3. Beach or mountains? I loooooved the beach this summer. So... beach!
4. What’s the title of the book you’re currently reading? Lol! What? A book? It has taken me 5 days to complete a single issue of Redbook this week.
5. Do you dance? Since I have discovered how much of a dancer Gina is, I have started dancing around the kids more. And I'm sure I look ridiculous, but who cares? Other than that, no, I am not a dancer.
6. CNN or Fox News? FoxNews. But I try to stay away from any & all of it these days (I HATE the election coverage. Hate it) unless there's a specific story I am intrigued by.
7. Do you ride a bicycle? Nope. There's not really a safe place to ride by our house. I used to take a spin class before Garrett was born. I was good at it!
8. Do you get a yearly flu shot? Yes.
9. Best movie you’ve seen in 2012? I watched The Help & Larry Crown a couple of weekends ago. Both were ok, nothing really outstanding in my eyes. We watched Beauty & The Beast in 3D this weekend IN THE THEATER. Of course, I had seen it already a good 100 times, but it was amazing in 3D!
10. Do you prefer to workout at home or at the gym? I don't work out. But hopefully, once that man of mine gets home - I'll get to start again and start my road to being forever healthy! Hurry home, honey, before this "want" leaves me!
11. Last airport you were in? FSM picking up my hubby last month for his R&R.
12. Married or single? Married!
13. iPhone or Android? iPhone
14. Do you prefer to be in pictures or taking pictures? I like both.
15. Favorite brand of sneakers? Nike all the way.
16. Do you like snow? No. I work, so I would have to get my kids out in it to get to work, so no bueno. Plus, our yard really retains sogginess, and it takes it forever to dry out... which means I have to really monitor Lily's trips outside. And who has time to do that?
17. Do you have/want to have kids? Have
18. Summer or Winter? Out of the 2, Summer. I love basking in the sun. However, Autumn is my hands down favorite season. No competition.
19. Do you know how to swim? Yes. I used to teach swimming lessons & I was a lifeguard for 4 summers. Best. Job. EVER.
20. Do you prefer to shop in store or online? Online most definetly. I love coming home to see a package on the doorstep!

So, there's my not so short answers!

Beauty & The Beast + Gina’s Afternoon With Nanny & Poppa

Garrett & I went to see Beauty & The Beast in 3D today. While texting my Momma today, she said she remembered taking me to see it when it was released in 1991 (I was 14) while we were in Shawnee, Oklahoma at OBU for one of my piano competitions.

As Garrett & I walked up to the window to get our tickets, my college roomie, Nicki, and her 2 kiddos were buying their tickets too! AND, one of Garrett’s teachers, Miss Tabitha, was there! So we grabbed our popcorn, diet coke & a blue raspberry icee and got our seats. Garrett didn’t care too much about the 3D glasses, he said the blurriness didn’t bother him. I told mom that I didn’t know if he was just low maintenance or he had vision problems! LOL! He did wear the glasses during the musical scenes though. He got a bit wiggly toward the end, but overall did amazing! When it ended, he said “That was AWESOME!” and the crowd around us cracked up.

We headed to the movie theater’s arcade, and I gave him $2 in quarters to play games. When his quarters were gone, I told him it was time to go… and he said “OK”! So proud of my big guy for just leaving and not throwing a fit!

Where was Gina while we were at the movies? She was getting some awesome Nanny & Poppa time! She still doesn’t care anything about watching tv or movies, so I knew that she wouldn’t enjoy the movies theater. Plus, it’s nice to just spend a little one-on-one time with each one sometimes! 

I love it when I come home and find cute pictures on my camera… Always a very welcome surprise!

She & Poppa held a tea part with Ariel, the Cow-baby Cabbage Patch, and Rapunzel.

This girl loves to give some sugars! And she loves her babies! I saw her changing one of their diapers this morning.

After the movie, Garrett & I ran by Hobby Lobby so I could get some stuff to make a bow holder to hang in Gina’s room. I wanted to also grab some picture frames, but after about 10 minutes in there, I remembered why Garrett doesn’t get to go into HobLob EVER. He made me a nervous wreck. He wasn’t bad, in fact, he stayed right by me, but he was just chattering away and wanting to touch EVERYTHING. Definitely one of those stores I need to be in by myself. Other than those few minutes… it was SUCH a great & relaxing Saturday!

Reading To His Little Sister

Garrett is 4 years, 1 month, 1 week & 1 day old… He can recognize every letter (upper & lower case). He can’t read any words yet that I know of, but he loves to “read” to Gina. Tonight, since it was Friday night, I let them take a bath in our bathtub downstairs. They each chose a color tab, and Garrett chose blue, while Gina chose red… so they had a purple bath! I red them FIVE Dr Seuss books while they were in there. Garrett kept asking for “one more”! And since we weren’t pressed to get into bed, I kept reading. I love the Dr Seuss rhymes, and so does Garrett! He tries to guess the rhyming word before I get to it!

After their bath, while I was getting things picked up around the house, I noticed them sitting side by side under the blanket on the couch. Garrett had picked up this “One Rainy Day” book, and was making up his own story for Gina. He told her this was called “Ducky, Ducky, Where’s Your Home?”!! Seriously! Came up with that on his own!

He made up a whole story about every picture in the book… Below is a mud pie… And there was also an ant, and he had Gina point to every picture and repeat what he said it was.

So enthralled with Garrett’s story about the ducky!

“And that’s the end, Gina Barrina! Do you have any questions?” No really. He really said that.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but they are pretty tight, and the majority of the time, they play amazingly well together. I know it won’t always be this way, so I’m soaking it up while I can. In a few years, when they might be at each other’s throats, I’ll come back and live in the good ole days by reading these posts!

iMeet the First Lady

So there’s this little show on Nickelodeon called iCarly. And this week, they had a very special episode called “iMeet the First Lady”. In case you’ve been under a pop-culture rock, the main character on the show is Carly. And in the show, her dad is a deployed Air Force Colonel. So, Michelle Obama used this platform to show her support of children & families of deployed soldiers.

Now… Do the G’s even remotely understand who Michelle Obama is? Uh, nope. But they like iCarly. Well, Gina thoroughly enjoys dancing to all their music (we totally rock out to the theme song in the van!). Garrett says it’s a show for girls. But, I do catch him watching it.

So, we I watched the episode… They played around and made a lot of noise, while I did a lot of shushing while I tried to listen.

I was super impressed with the episode! It was funny, but they definitely made their point in addressing the sacrifice that families & children make while mommy or daddy is deployed. And I just wanted to note on my little blog that this special episode was aired while the G’s daddy was deployed.

Michelle Obama: I came here to say, “I’m proud of you”.

Carly: Why are you proud of us?

Michelle Obama: Because of how much you care for your father… (she goes on)

I hope people see that in our little family when they look at us – how proud we are of their father (& my husband). Because we are. We seriously could not be any prouder to support him. He is such a great leader of our family (even if it has to be from afar for a while). And he loves these kids more than they’ll probably be able to understand until they have kids of their own. I love to hear him talk about them and the hopes & dreams he has for them!

Gina & Her Cereal

Gina loves her some cereal! (I hate cereal, I am an oatmeal girl, but I have somehow produced 2 cereal-loving-offspring, and I am cool with that!) And she knows where I store it! She grabs one of her snack-traps out of the drawer…

And then proceeds to hold it up towards the top of the pantry and yells “MOMMA!!! Momma, she-reel" until she gets some cereal. Her favorites right now are: Fruit Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Coco-Puffs, and Kix. The best part is that she knows which one she wants! I hold up the boxes and she says yes or no until I grab the right one!

Sunday Cartoons

Yet again, our day was filled with a lot of Phineas & Ferb. It’s one of those shows that I certainly don’t mind just having on all day in the background while I fold laundry, clean, and do whatever around the house. But when I say Garrett sitting like this in Gina’s princess chair, I had to snap a pic…

 

Our Saturday Fun With Miss Maci & Miss America!

We had a guest with us today (NOT the bird from yesterday)… My niece Maci came over because her big brother, the Jett-man, had some basketball games, and she didn’t wanna go. I’m so excited that Jett-man is playing in the fort now, because now Maci can come hang out with us more! We had so much fun!

The day started with Maci doing Gina’s dolls’ hair (she detangled all of their hair and styled them! I don’t wanna let Gina play with them now because they all look so pretty!). And she even tried to fix Gina’s hair.

Maci got smart and pulled Gina’s princess chair over, and used it to keep Gina in one spot. At one point, Maci said “you need to chain her down to fix her hair! She sure is wriggly!”. I said “yeah, I do that every morning!”. I thought she said “PIN” her down, and in the mornings, I sit Gina between my legs, so I can somewhat keep her still. She’s very tough-headed, and does actually loves to have her hair combed. The sitting still part is what’s hard for her, so sometimes it does become a bit of a wrestling match. Anyway, Maci says “you CHAIN her down?!”. So I then told her I misunderstood what she said… Haha.

All the while, Garrett was plopped in Gina’s Disney Princess Dress-up Trunk watching some Phineas & Ferb…

Look at him all folded up in there!

After Gina’s nap, we got our hoodies on & headed outside! This was the first time Garrett’s basketball goal that Santa brought had been outside. He cried when I picked it up to take it outside. I don’t know if he was truly upset, or just tired. Maci & I explained to him that we were just taking it outside temporarily, and that we’d bring it back in.

Gina brought her stroller out that Granny & Papah got her for Christmas for it’s maiden journey outside.

3 seconds left in the game… Lynn takes it down the court… He shoots… HE SCORES!!!! And the (insert high school mascot name here that Garrett is playing for in 12 years)’s win the state championship!!!!!  (a mom can dream, right? No pressure, future Garrett!)

He’s either showing us that he’s 4 years old, or that he made 4 shots in a row… Maybe BOTH! Look at his face, that is pure joy right there.

Maci taking the 4-wheeler for a ride!

He’s up to 5 now!

… for the win!!!!… oh wait, we’ve already done that, huh?

Then it was time to break out the sidewalk chalk!

Poor Gina, one or both of her eyes water anytime we are outside.

Maci drew a big hopscotch design (I had to google “Hopscotch” to see what you call the drawing on the concrete). Garrett actually knew what hopscotch was! I guess they play it at school.

I think it got up to about the mid-50’s today, but it was quite windy… So when I brought the capri-suns outside, I brought gloves out too. Maci was super impressed that the same gloves that fit Garrett & Gina could fit her hands too! Also, Maci was super excited to see that Gina was wearing her old Eskimo Joe’s hoodie! (not that she remembered it, I told her)

Just having fun running around the yard!

After a quick toy pick-up on the driveway, we took our party to the backyard!

I didn’t get any pictures of it (shocking, I know), but today was the first time I remember Gina really wanting to slide. Maybe because Maci was doing it? But Gina would go down the slide however Maci went down the slide! If Maci slid down on her back… so did Gina! And if Maci went down on her belly… so did Gina! When Gina would go down the slide on her bootie, she would hit the ground with such force, that she almost did a forward roll! Maci got tickled every time she did that!

Sweet girl…

Maci was the “counter-girl” (as she called it), and Garrett was the “guy in the kichen”. I would tell her what I wanted to eat, and she would take my “money” and yell back at Garrett what to cook.

Maci went inside to get the tea set so they could have a “tea-party” I guess that’s what Garrett just has to deal with when he’s the only boy.

Jerry, Kelli & Jett came to get Maci… and after that my kids were bored. Haha! We ate a little dinner, and then I caught up on some DVR while we waited for Miss America to come on.

Gina & I watched a bit of Miss America (she danced to all the fun songs they played), but she was just too tired. She was all cuddled up, laying on my chest under the blanket. It was pretty sweet, but she’s one of those kids that has to sleep in her bed, so I took her upstairs. Now, Garrett is asleep in our bed… and I’m watching the talent portion of Miss America. I was pulling for Miss Oklahoma (my home state), Miss South Carolina (she lost over 100 pounds!), and Miss Alabama (I liked her curves, she looked most like a Miss America to me!)… but all that’s left out of the talent from my 3 is Miss Oklahoma!

I have seen several other blogs preparing for Miss America watch parties this week… and now that I have a daughter, I want to do one too! Next year, she might not be all that into it just yet, but soon… we’ll be doing that too! I can’t wait!

Miss Oklahoma was the 1st runner up… Miss Wisconsin won. While I’m a bit upset that my home-state didn’t win, still just excited for another girl to get to have that honor. And her platform is Mentoring Children of Incarcerated Parents, and for some reason that intrigues me. She has an incarcerated parent, and she has now become Miss America… I wish her a year of greatness!

A Bird. In Our House.

Tonight started out very pleasant & uneventful… Granny & Papah brought Chili’s over for dinner. I have a reading light that has gone out in the van, and Papah was going to change it. They grandparents played with the grandkids. Papah brought the ladder in to get some burnt out bulbs out of our high ceilings so I’d know what kind of bulbs to get next time I get to Lowe’s. And then it was time for them to leave…

They weren’t gone 5 minutes, when I heard something FLUTTER BY MY HEAD while I was standing by the bar.  I saw whatever it was perch on the lamp on the mantle. And I grabbed my camera.

Garrett didn’t see it right away, but my flash (obviously) spooked it and it flew around the room. Amazingly, it didn’t get struck by the ceiling fan! It landed on the windowsill above the back door…

Garrett took this one of it flying in the kitchen. You can bet your bottom dollar I wasn’t the one getting this close to it! I kept telling him to get away from it before it swooped on his head! Or even worse… POOPED on his head!

It landed in the dining room, and here they are talking too it. Garrett kept asking me if it talked. There are 2 birds at Lily’s doggie day care and they are both very chatty. Both can imitate the door-ding there and can also imitate a dog’s bark. I told him no, all this bird could do would be POOP. Which, to my dismay, definitely intrigued him. He’s 4. Poop and toot are his favorite words.

So while I’m snapping away, I’m also on the phone to mom & dad. I calmly said (while dad was ordering hot chocolate at mcd’s drive-thru) – “there’s a bird in the house”. Mom told dad and then she calmly said “we’ll be right there”.

The Schwans man pulled at the same time mom & dad did! So the G’s & I hung out in the garage while Mom & Dad worked their magic. They turned off all the lights trying to get it out the back door. But the playroom light was on upstairs, so it went up there. Luckily, they were able to get it in a towel and get it launched out the back door.

Where was Lily? I had just put her out when I realized the bird was in the house, so I left her out there. Mom & Dad let her in… why? Because she’s technically made to hunt birds, so why not?

My friend Brandy commented on my picture of the bird on facebook that there was an old wives tale that said that a bird in your house means you are pregnant. So that was a big funny all night between Molly and Jenn and all my other pals on there. But I googled it, and apparently it actually means ill luck or death. And on Friday the 13th, no less! NICE!

BIG thanks to my parents… SO glad that they were still close enough to come back and help out!! I don’t know that I could have handled that one on my own!!