Who wants free stuff

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $35 dollar gift certificate to CSN. Go HERE to enter by leaving a comment. It ends Monday Jan. 31st at noon PST. So hurry! And tell your friends. Because who doesn't want to win free stuff!

Adoption

As I blog stalked this weekend, I found a whole bunch of blogs that were talking about adoption. I am not one to take on a 'cause' or to let my opinion really show, but this is one I can totally get behind for many reasons. The first reason is that I know how important adoption is because my older sister is adopted. I can't imagine our family without her. She just fills a void in the family and it wouldn't be complete without her. I am thankful for her being my sister.The main reason I will vocally support adoption right now is that our very dear friends, Matt and Traci have also been looking to adopt. I have never met another couple that is more deserving. Soder met Matt while they were working at Parking Services at Weber State. They hit it off perfectly and have become very good friends. Traci is the sweetest person I have ever met and is always full of laughter and smiles. She is a nurse and seriously, it is the perfect job for her because she is so understanding and caring (which is also why she will be a great mother, too). Matt is a hard worker and is focused on becoming a prosecutor. I know that he will be a great dad because he is patient and funny. He always has a great point of view and is so positive when times are tough.
The perfect baby is out there waiting to find them and I can't wait until they find each other.
If you have a second, please check out their profiles here AND here.

$35 DOLLAR GIVEAWAY!!!!

I have been having some bad karma/luck lately. It seems to be pouring down some bad ju-ju along with the buckets and buckets of rain up here. I haven't really been in the blogging mood. I have had a teething/whining baby. Also a dog that won't stop getting into trouble. We are poor, especially since the holiday is over (but who isn't this time of year?) and to top it all off, I pulled my back out AGAIN while trying to move boxes for my job. So imagine how happy I was this morning when I got an email from CSN to do another giveaway or review. Even though I really wanted a pizza stone for me, I decided that I should pass my good fortune on to one of my loyal readers to make their day bright. (I believe in karma so something good for me with be right around the corner.) I hope you all remember CSN from my previous giveaway in November. They were the website that had everything from a corner TV stand, to flip flop shoes, to lemon zesters. This time they are offering a $35 gift certificate for me to giveaway.

So in the spirit of making someone else's day brighter, please leave me a comment telling me a time when you made someone else smile. And hopefully, just hopefully on Monday January 31st at 12:00 Noon PST I will draw your name and make you smile with a $35 dollar gift certificate from CSN! Of course, you can get more entries by blogging about it on your blog, or posting on Facebook about my giveaway, or tweeting about it. (make sure to leave an extra comment for each one that you do.) Good Luck!

Please leave an email where you can be reached with your comment and a link if you blog about it or fb or tweet about it. If the winner can't be contacted, I will draw a new winner. Seriously, Good luck!

No place to go

On Sunday, Soder has been taking an art class. It happens to be in Seattle and this week, since I was a good girl and finished all my work before Sunday we went along with him. After a long discussion between baby and I, we decided that we would go and hang out at Gas Works Park, one of our favorites. It was so great to get out of the house and actually be in the city. This has been a long, long winter (so far) with many days filled with rainy goodness that has kept us trapped in our house (that and the fact that there isn't very much extra in the bank account to go and wander around aimlessly. I find when I wander I spend, and when there isn't any to spend it is better to stay home.) It was cloudy and thankfully didn't rain on us. We were able to take a few pictures and wander around, through the tons of goose poop and mud. It was a great time. We still had time to kill before we had to pick Soder up, so we took a little drive up Queen Anne Hill. It is seriously such a great area. I loved all the stores and neighborhoods. I was scouting for a park up there (for when we have some visitors this spring), but didn't find it and ended up driving around longer than I had expected because I got a little lost. My partner fell asleep on the way back to where we were picking up Soder so I didn't do any more fun exploring, like get a cup of coffee. So our exciting adventure ended up with Baby asleep in the back, and me reading my magazines in the car while we for class to get out. Regardless, it was a great time to be out from these four walls. I really needed that, and I think the cabin fever has left for at least a few more weeks.

Saturday Night = Movie Night

We have always loved watching movies. It was the closest thing to our hobby. Now things have changed, but are kinda the same (most of the movies we want to watch aren't very 'family friendly'). We still try to do movie nights, usually on Friday or Saturday, but now they are usually more kid friendly. Like this weekend, we watched the movie Ponyo. It was pretty good with a lot of great voice talent (Tina Fey, Matt Damon, and Liam Neeson), however, it was originally a Japanese animated movie. The story was pretty fairy tale-ish, but the characters they had in it were a bit odd. (those Japanese are a crazy and imaginative bunch!) There were a couple of head scratching moments, but overall it was a cute movie.The best part of the night was definitely the popcorn. I have been giving Baby a lot more new foods and so I decided to give him a few small bits of fluff off the popcorn. He loved it. And took it really seriously. If I didn't move fast enough he would get mad and bounce off my lap and try to grab his own handful of popcorn. I love introducing him to new foods, and this was definitely one of his favorite. I have the feeling he is going to love movie nights too!

I love how he looks like, "Dad, can't you see I am busy eating popcorn, can you get that camera out of my face???"

Just because he is so stinkin' cute

I seriously don't know what my deal is with taking pictures of him in laundry baskets. I am a weirdo, I know. The picture below was two months ago in the same basket. I guess he just always looks so cute in there.

The faces they pull

I was playing a 'fishy' game with Baby the other day and Soder was able to video some of it. It is about 45 seconds long, which for me will be followed quickly with my mother and father calling me saying they saw the video on my blog. (which to me is so cute because they are getting more tech savvy everyday.) I love the faces he pulls and just to clarify I was clapping by his face and not snipping his nose every time.