memorable wedding moment? Win a 2nd honeymoon

Do you have an awesome wedding moment? Do you have it on tape? Well its your lucky day! Moderngreetings.com is giving one lucky couple a second honeymoon! This is their 4th second honeymoon contest, and this time its all about those of you who videotaped your wedding! (don't worry if you didn't tape your wedding there is still a chance for you to win, read on to find out more)

How to enter: Contestants must upload a video of your most memorable wedding moment OR (if you don’t have a video from your wedding) you can create a video where you explain your most memorable wedding moment. The winner will be decided on votes this time, so you are encouraged to share your entry and encourage your friends and family to vote for your video.

The contestants will enter and upload their videos through the contest tab onMdrngreetings.com's facebook page. If you choose to create a video, Moderngreetings.com suggests you use a smartphone or webcam for ease of shooting and uploading…they don’t expect them to be cinema quality videos.

Contest runs January 4- January 10th! So get to it!

Disclosure: I was compensated by moderngreetings.com for sharing this information with you. I wouldn't share anything spammy or that I didn't think was worth your time. 

Thankful

Happy New Year!
I Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and life is calming down after the rush of the holiday season. We went to Arizona for Christmas to spend time with my family which was fun and stressful going to see family always is. My tire poped on the way down and we will need to have some work done but I'm very thankful to my parents for all their help in dealing with our car issues.
Every New Years you see everyone talking about their resolutions and then a month or two later breaking those resolutions. I'm guilty. I have all these plans every year about what I want to accomplish but never follow through. This year I decided to focus on one thing. I chose a word. One thing I could focus on all year. My word of the year is Thankful.
Its so easy to be negative. Its easy to forget to count your blessings, Its easy to get caught up in what you don't have, whats gone wrong or whose wronged you. But If you can remember to count your blessings, even in hard times, you will be better for it. So that is my one goal for this year. to be Thankful. To count my blessings when things are going wrong. To remember all I have and be grateful for what God has blessed me with.
I have an amazing husband who loves me and who I love more than anything. He is funny and smart and sweet. He loves me despite my major flaws and works hard to take care of me and the girls. I am so very thankful for him.
I have a crazy, sweet, funny, outgoing three and a half year old who drives me crazy and makes me laugh more than anyone ever. We waited almost 5 years for her and she was worth the wait. We went through testing, rude drs, fertility treatments, a phone nurse who told me I had miscarried when I hadn't and all of it was worth it. I couldn't imagine my life without that crazy girl. She is my Sunshine, she lights up our home with her infectious laughter. She is incredibly smart, she is inquisitive, brave, loyal, funny, beautiful, and loving. I Love Tabitha and I am so grateful that I get to be her mom.
I have a sweet, inquisitive, happy baby girl who loves to cuddle. She is smart, and inquisitive. She Likes to wait till Tabitha makes noise to distract us and and she will quietly move like the wind and get what she wants. Shes our little stealth baby. She brings us so much joy and her laughter is beautiful. We had to use fertility treatments for Eva just like Tabitha. We were told we were losing Eva at 7 weeks because they thought she should be bigger. Yet again the dr's were wrong and we have the opportunity to be her parents.
I am thankful for the knowledge that we will be a family forever. That because Morgen and I got married in the Temple we are sealed for time and all eternity. I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. That he sacrificed for us and we have all that we do because of heavenly Father's love for us.
I'm Thankful for the fact that we have 9 am church this year. I know its early, but it will make it so Eva can still take her naps and that is great.
I am Thankful for my family.
I am Thankful for my friends.
I am Thankful for all of you who read my blog. You all are the reason I am here.
This year I am going to try to write a post every Thursday about what I'm Thankful for that week. Some weeks it may just be I'm thankful for a full nights sleep. But its important to remember the little things too.
If you want to join me each week I would love to know what you are thankful for too.

What I'm most Thankful for is my Forever Family. 

Lucky 13 Giveaway hop

Welcome to the LUCKY ’13 New Years Giveaway Hop hosted by BloggerPR! In order to kickoff 2013 with a BANG, BloggerPR has organized an event to celebrate the new year with some amazing prizes! Each of our amazing  bloggers are giving away a prize valued at $20 or more.  This event will run from December 29th until January 12th, which gives you plenty of time to hop down the linky list below. Good Luck & Happy New Year!

I am excited to be providing the winner of the Lucky 13 giveaway on Crafting in My Closet a pair of Sarah boots from BearPaw!! i love these AWESOME boots! Oh my gosh so freaking warm! These boots will be staying on my feet all winter here in Idaho! These boots are so soft, so warm and so comfortable. I love these boots. I have snow boots, but thse are so amazingly warm and I never want to take them off. 
The Sarah boot retails for $84.99. 

I got these boots in charcoal grey and seriously I don't want to take them off! These boots are 10" tall, made from cow suede upper and have 3 toggle buttons on the ankle. The lining is made of sheepskin and wool blend, and they have a classic low profile rubber wedge outsole. 

Make sure you like bearpaw on facebook for all the information about their awesome shoes.

Disclosure: I received a pair of Bear Paw Sarah boots in order to facilitate this review. All views are my own. I was not compensated in any other way for this review. All views are my own. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure you enter the other great giveaways! <!– start InLinkz script –> <!– end InLinkz script –>

Modern greetings second honeymoon twitter contest.

Hey all, Remember a few weeks ago when I told you all about the second honeymoon contest on moderngreetings.com? Well guess what? They are doing it again! How exciting is that? Moderngreetings.com is doing a great contest this time. For all you twitter lovers here's what you need to do, tweet to @moderngreeting (no “s” at the end of the twitter handle) about how your significant other proposed to you and hashtag it with #MGTakeUsAway, then you must go to the moderngreetings.com facebook page and complete the submission form. It’s important to note that you MUST also fill out the submission form on their Facebook page to be eligible to win. Moderngreetings.com will then pick their favorite proposal story tweet and the winner will be awarded the Second Honeymoon Trip to the destination of their choice. Moderngreetings.com is also asking that all of you encourage your friends and family to retweet your proposal story tweet to increase your odds.

Hurry you only have Till January 4th to enter!

Disclosure: I was compensated for this post by Moderngreetings.com

Review: John Deere by Uncle Milton

Do you have a little one who likes to get dirty, collects bugs and rocks, loves animals? Well Uncle Milton has you covered. Uncle Milton has a great new line of John Deere toysfor the little farmer in all our kids. Uncle Milton sent me 4 products to try out from the new John Deere toy line.

First they sent me the John Deere BugJug. This is a cute little jug that you can use to catch bugs and look at them with a magnifying glass. Tabitha not being a huge fan of bugs was excited to use it to look at ladybugs. Tabitha and her friends had fun collecting all the bugs and watching them walk around the bug jug. The bug jug was easy to put together and would be a lot of fun for a child who likes nature and bugs and wants to get a closer look. After trying it out with Tabitha I gave it to my 5 year old niece who is really into nature and I hope she gets more use out of it in LA than we would in Idaho (where it snows 6 months out of the year). (unfortunately I took a bunch of pictures of Tabitha playing with this then my computer crashed and now its too cold for bug catching)

Next we got to try out the John DeereFarm Dough. This was Tabitha's favorite toy that we got from Uncle Milton. It comes in a yellow container that is covered with a rubber tire tread. It comes with some brown Farm dough, a chicken and pig toy and some vegetable toys. This thing is great. It keeps Tabitha entertained for hours on end and she is always asking to play with it. It is recommended for children 4+ (Tabitha is 3 ½ ). Keep an eye on those little tiny vegetables that come with it, they are small and can cause a choking hazard. I make Tabitha play with it at the table with some paper or the cheap table cloth under it. The smell of the dough is a little off putting. But it doesn't seem to bother Tabitha at all.

Next we tried the John Deere Mini FarmProjector. Tabitha my little flashlight obsessed kid who is also a huge fan of animals thought this was an amazing little toy. She enjoys switching the lenses so that she can see all the different animals. She is having a lot of fun playing with it, but because there are so many different pieces I have taken to making her put them all in a plastic bag when she is done so that she doesn't lose any pieces and her little sister doesn't put them in her mouth. The Farm Projector comes with 6 different farm animal images, and needs 3 button batteries that come with it. It says it is best for 4+ but Tabitha has no problem working it.

The last item we were sent is the JohnDeere Chick hatchers. Now these I was not a fan of. They say you put the egg in a cup of room temperature water. The egg is supposed to crack and let out the chick fairly quickly. I put the egg is slightly warmer than room temperature water. It sat there for over 18 hours, before I got annoyed and put it in hot water because the egg hadn't even cracked. After putting it in very hot water the egg started to crack after an hour. The chick began to expand, but it really smelled awful and was slimy. When the chick looked to be done expanding, I took it out of the water but the smell of formaldehyde was so strong that I couldn't give it to Tabitha. We tried washing it to get the nasty smell off but it wouldn't come off and Morgen and I weren't comfortable giving that to Tabitha.

The John Deere line also has an ant farm for kids 6 and up.

I Love Uncle Milton products and with the exception of the egg hatcher I would buy all of these products again.

Disclaimer: I was provided these toys for the purpose of this post. I was not compensated in any other way. All views are my own. 

Little break

Hey all, I'm taking a little break. Things are very crazy with hubby in school and trying to get Christmas stuff done. I will be working on the girls dresses this week and some presents and will hopefully have some tutorials up next week!

See you all soon!!

Win a second honeymoon from Moderngreetngs.com

Where did you go for your honeymoon? Morgen and I went to Hawaii and it was Amazing. We got married in November (our anniversary is today actually) but we went on our honeymoon in January. It was awesome. Not tourist season, and we had so much fun. I would love to go back. If I could go on a second honeymoon now, I would probably go to Lake Tahoe, or Disneyland. Both are a lot of fun and both are perfect for us.

So how would you like to win a second honeymoon? Well thanks to moderngreetings.com you can! Now through December 6th ModernGreetings.com is holding a Facebook photo contest for a funny wedding photo. The winner will be the photo that gets the most likes. Go here to start your entry. Once you enter your email address you will be automatically redirected to the contest app on their facebook page which will have all the directions and terms and conditions. To enter the Facebook photo contest. Upload the funniest picture from your wedding, Caption it with the story behind the photo and why you deserve to win, submit your photo, share your photo with family and friends to get them to vote. Its that easy.

This is the first of 4 contests (I'll be telling you about each of the other 3 contests as they begin so keep an eye on the blog,) and each contest will have one winner who will win a second honeymoon valued up to $3000! You may enter all 4 contests but can only win once. Each contest you enter will award you with one $5 voucher for moderngreetings.com, so if you enter all 4 contests you will have $20 voucher to moderngreetings.com.

So what are you waiting for? Hurry and go enter to win your dream second honeymoon!

I was compensated to write this post. All views are my own.

Foodie Friday: moms casserole

So I know I'm kind of late for foodie Friday but well life gets in the way and I'm gonna do it on Saturday.

Growing up my mom made this great easy casserole. It was all stuff she had in the pantry usually (well a few fridge items as well) and it was quick and easy. Since we have been trying to east less caned food and more fresh food I've updated my moms recipe using fresh foods.

Chicken casserole

2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 package of waky Mac colored spiral pasta. I've found a few versions that have a full serving of vegetables in the noodles which is awesome.
1 package fresh sliced mushrooms
1 bag frozen organic mixed veggies (carrots, green beans, peas, corn and potatoes)
1 can olives (large)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or if you make your own that's even better. I plan to start making my own)
8 oz sour cream
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons of butter

1. Cook the chicken and cut it into cubes
2. Cook the pasta according to package directions
3. Mix pasta, vegetables, chicken, cream of mushroom, sour cream, and olives and spread in 9x12 pan
4. Melt butter
5. Mix butter, bead crumbs and Parmesan cheese until completely coated and lumpy.
6. Spread bread crumb mixture over pasta mixture
7. Cook at 350 for 45 minutes

This is one of our go to fall/winter meals. It's filling and oh so good

Enjoy!

Sickness

The plague seems to have invaded my house again. I'm totally sick. Eva is sick. Morgen is sick. And Tabitha, well Tabitha is trying her best to convince me she isn't sick. She doesn't want to miss story time and preschool tomorrow. We shall see. But today, she spent the day crying over nothing, or curled up on my lap while we zoned infront of the tv.
I had a total crappy mom day where I let her watch wonder pets and eat dry cereal all day. I then made hotdogs for dinner. Just hotdogs. No buns. No vegetables. No salad. Yea. I'm awesome like that. Tabitha asked for more chex with her hotdog. Sure why not.
Then about an hour and a half before bedtime I lost it. Tabitha had hit me in the stomach with some grabbing toy and I had had enough. He had been trying to force me to play some game as I was trying desperately not to puke all over the living room. I told her to go to timeout. In the span of 5 minutes, Tabitha refused to go to timeout, lost all three of her stories, hit me again and got taken to her room. I got her ready for bed and she passed out. That is how I know she's sick. An hour before bed she was out cold with no fight. Although she woke up at 9:30 (my bad, I went to check on her an accidentally woke her) and she started asking to come to my bed( nope once you get your own bed there is no coming back to mine). We got her back to bed, but I think we will be containing the plague here in our own home tomorrow rather than preschool and story time.
But at least some of us are cute when we're sick. ( I mean Eva, because its definitely not me!)

Out and About Giveaway!

Welcome to the Out and About Giveaway Hop, Hosted by Crunchy Farm Baby and Crafting in My Closet!  This fabulous group of bloggers has put together some awesome prizes, all consisting of items that are great for mamas and daddies when they're out and about with their little ones!  Our hosts are offering two grand prize packages that you can enter to win on their sites.  Here at Crafting in My Closet, you can enter to win a grand prize pack full of items for babies; and at Crunchy Farm Baby, you can enter to win a grand prize pack full of items for toddlers!  After entering my great giveaway, make sure to head to the linky at the bottom of this post to enter all of the other giveaways!

So What is in the Grand Prize for babies? Let me tell you is is AMAZING!!
Starting with a diaper bag from BabyCake Boutique (My Etsy Store) (Picture coming soon) a $50 value
Then we have an Amber Teething Necklace of your choice from Teething Tots a $23 value

Next we have a New Original ErgoBaby Carrier in Night Sky! a $120 Value (review coming soon)

and Finally we have an Entire Stash of Glow Bug Diapers in winners choice of boy or girl prints! Thats 24 Diapers, 24 inserts and a Wet Bag! AMAZING! (review coming soon) a $300 value!!! 

The baby Grand Prize has a $493 value! 

The Grand Prize package on Crafting in my Closet is open to residents of the US and Canada 18 or older. 

This event will run from November 10th at 12:01am and will end at 11:59pm on November 20th.  Unless otherwise stated on the individual blogs, all participants must be 18+ and live in the US.  

Please make sure to join us for a Twitter Party on November 21st from 9:00-10:00pm EST!  We will be giving away some great prizes during the event, as well as announcing our grand prize winners!  To RSVP to the party, simply enter either one of the grand prize giveaways and more info will be sent to the email address given.  See you there!

This contest is now over! congratulations to our winner Allison Charnesky!