Finagle a Foto Guest Judge and FREEBIE

Guess what?  I am going to be a Guest Judge for the Finagle a Foto challenge this week!  You could say that I’m a a little excited!  Okay, a lot excited! Woo Hoo! So, have you heard of this photo challenge? Did you say “No”? Uh oh, well I hate to tell you but, you sure are missing out!  I hate to see people missing out.  If you are interested, here is a little information about the challenge!  If you’d like to join in the fun and link up, feel free to click on that button below!  The linky goes live on Sundays!  See you there!  I can’t wait to see your submissions!

The Missing Link – Week 12

Have you ever felt like something was missing from your life? Well, it could just be one of the links below. Hence my post title! You may ask yourself "Is she serious?" Well the answer is "No, I'm definitely NOT serious." I'm just feeling silly. Seriously though, I thought I'd share some of my favorite links with you in an effort to spread the love. What's better is that I thought I'd make this post a weekly thang! No that isn't a typo. I told you I was feeling silly. So the links below may not complete your life, but I'm hoping they, in some way, add to it. I separated them into categories for easy navigation. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Free Printable: New Baby Checklist

I’ve been reading an awful lot of bump updates lately and I remember when I was pregnant (especially with my first child) that a new baby checklist would have come in handy!  I found a few partial lists on various websites but never came across a complete and thorough one to really keep me organized.  The hospital is fantastic in that they usually provide all of your immediate essentials like formula, bottles, diapers, swaddling blankets, infant caps, pacifiers, washcloths etc. but when you go home, we all know, that you are on your own!  I guess it’s safe to say “you better be prepared”.  I don’t know about you, but my favorite part of pregnancy was the preparation.  I really relished in all of those moments from purchasing boring necessities like petroleum jelly to the fun and exciting things like a little onsie that read “I love my Mommy” on it!  I just about melted right there in the clothing isle!  The hubby could have dropped me off at any baby store and I would have been happy for hours!  Need infant brush & comb; CHECK.  Need nail clippers; CHECK.  Need bouncy seat; CHECK.  Need want that adorable little bunny with those super floppy ears for the shelf in the nursery; CHECK!  Anything I could think of, I bought! 

New Grungy Collage

Hey there!  Yeah, I’m a little late posting for Tuesday.  You’ll have to forgive me, I went to bed super early last night (which is when I would have been drafting my Tuesday post) because I wasn’t feeling well.  I’ve been feeling super run down and almost like I’m fighting what could be a pretty serious cold.  Either that or I have allergies.  Not sure.  I didn’t give myself the ol’ booger test.  You know what I’m talking about right?  You blow your nose and if your boogies are green it’s a cold but if they are clear than it’s allergies.  It comes in handy when the little ankle biter gets sick.  It’s nice to be certain what she has so that I can treat it correctly.  Anyhoo, so last night when the hubby came home from work (at round 7:15 pm), I took advantage and ran myself a nice hot bath and then climbed right into bed afterwards at around 8:00 pm.  I don’t think I’ve been to bed at 8 o’clock since I started this blog seeing as my nights are really the only time I have to myself.  Anyhow, it was nice.  Today, I am feeling a tiny bit better, but still not myself.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t come down with anything.  I’m already envisioning Alivia and I sick for the weekend.

Guest Bloggers Needed

That’s right, I’m going on vacation again in two weeks!  The family and I will be packing it up and getting our SUN on in Cape Cod, MA.  I hate to leave my little bloggy for an entire week but I’m excited to go and relax!  I’d love to have guest bloggers to post in my absence and was wondering if you would be interested?  Yeah, YOU!  I’d need five guest bloggers to make sure the entire week is covered.  And in case you are wondering, or have never been a guest blogger, it is really simple.  You can submit your posts to me in one of the following ways:

 

Check me out!

Check me out!  I  wrote my very first post for someone else’s blog!  I’m officially a guest blogger!  Woo hoo!  If you’ve been following me, you’d know that I create my own collage templates so I thought it might be fun to share a tutorial on how to create one yourself.  If you are interested in this lesson, feel free to come visit me over at Growing up a NJ Wife & Mom.

I also wanted to link up the picture below to the following photo challenges.

The Missing Link – Week 11

Have you ever felt like something was missing from your life? Well, it could just be one of the links below. Hence my post title! You may ask yourself "Is she serious?" Well the answer is "No, I'm definitely NOT serious." I'm just feeling silly. Seriously though, I thought I'd share some of my favorite links with you in an effort to spread the love. What's better is that I thought I'd make this post a weekly thang! No that isn't a typo. I told you I was feeling silly. So the links below may not complete your life, but I'm hoping they, in some way, add to it. I separated them into categories for easy navigation. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Quarterly Top 5 Photos

 

I’m linking up the following 5 pictures (from April, May, and June) to the Quarterly Top 5 Photos photo challenge.  If you’d like to join in, feel free to read the rules and link up over at one of the following blogs:

 

- Sarah Halstead

- Ramblings and Photos

- Click.Pray.Love.

 

• Linky begins Wednesday, June 20th and ends Tuesday, June 26th
• Go through the photos from April, May, and June 2012
• Choose 5 and post them on your blog or Flickr account beginning March 28th
• PLEASE only use photos that include your CHILDREN and/or PETS
• Accompany each photo with a short explanation of why you chose it
• Be sure to include the Quarterly Top 5 banner or button in your post and you will be entered to win one of the prizes

New Pics… Esterina’s Birthday!

Go Elena, it’s your birthday!  Go Elena, it’s your birthday!  Well, not really but yesterday was just as exciting!  I made it through my dentist appointment!  Apparently, the dentist thought it was just a fluke that my filling fell out and that it would probably not happen a second time if she refilled it.  So that’s what she did!  It took all of 10 minutes and I’m as good as new.  If it falls out again, however, apparently I will need a ceramic fill which is essentially a crown.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t fall out again!  It will cost around $600.00 out of pocket!  Yikes!  It’s amazing how little that dental insurance covers.  I still can’t believe that dental work (other than cleanings of course) is considered cosmetic!  Are they kiddin’ with this crap?  Seriously, it’s crap!

Monday already?

Can’t believe it’s already Monday?  Yeah, me neither!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Alivia’s cousin, Esterina, turned the BIG 2 in June and we celebrated on Saturday with family!  It was a gorgeous day (a little chilly for June but still gorgeous)!  I snapped some pictures of course only I haven’t processed them with the exception of a few of Alivia which I’ve attached below.  Hopefully I’ll share the rest of Esterina’s birthday party tomorrow (Tuesday).

A shout out

I feel the need to discuss something VERY important!  Every day my blog followers grow and my posts are receiving more comments which is super exciting to say the least! Seriously, I love every single comment that I receive!  What’s most exciting, though, is to know that I am actually posting content that is interesting to all of you!  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!  So, where am I going with this?  Good question!  In addition to leaving all of my commenters comments on their blogging sites (I like to show love too), I wanted to do something a little extra to show my appreciation.  I actually copied and pasted every single comment that I’ve received in 2012 into an Excel spreadsheet then sorted by name to see who my most dedicated followers were.  I wanted to make mention of them in this post! 

The Missing Link – Week 10

Have you ever felt like something was missing from your life? Well, it could just be one of the links below. Hence my post title! You may ask yourself "Is she serious?" Well the answer is "No, I'm definitely NOT serious." I'm just feeling silly. Seriously though, I thought I'd share some of my favorite links with you in an effort to spread the love. What's better is that I thought I'd make this post a weekly thang! No that isn't a typo. I told you I was feeling silly. So the links below may not complete your life, but I'm hoping they, in some way, add to it. I separated them into categories for easy navigation. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

A few of my favorite things & GFC update

Apparently I don’t think us Blogger folks have anything to worry about regarding Google Friend Connect (GFC). I received quite a few comments regarding my previous GFC post (HERE) and I’m pretty convinced that GFC is only going to be retired for non-Blogger blogs. This link was provided by Skye over at First Time Mama – First Time Blogger confirming this. I also noticed that a lot of you commented with this same thing (about Non-Blogger blogs) so I think it’s safe to say we are in the clear! A BIG thanks to everyone that responded! Whew, right? And so the world is NOT coming to an end after all! I will still continue to follow my favorite blogs via GFC assuming it is available on your website. I am finding, however, at least 35% of the blogs that I’d like to follow don’t contain a GFC button at all which is a little disappointing especially seeing as I really don’t like to follow via feeds. Don’t get me wrong, I respect all of my fellow bloggers and your choices to include or not include the GFC button on your websites ;o)

The eye patch update

In case anyone’s been following our Intermittent Exotropia journey, I wanted to share some updates.  If you wanted to catch up you can find my previous posts on the subject HERE.

Last I left off I was trying the eye patch on Livvy’s good eye.  After that first try, however, I didn’t have much luck patching her eye for about a week or so.  I was not giving up though!  I thought it might be a good idea to try patching her eye when Daddy was home this time!  I thought he could help me get her excited to put and keep it on.  I put the eye patch on my hubby first and then on Livvy.  She looked like she was a little annoyed with it at first but we were quick to take her mind off it.  The hubby chased her around the house yelling out “I’m going to get you” while making this animalistic sound (something between a bark and bear growl).  I don’t know, don’t ask.  It seemed to work well and it’s amazing that Alivia could run without falling with only the one eye to see.  After that we put on Jake and the Neverland Pirates and she almost forgot her eye was patched completely!  It was a miracle!

Is it true about Google Friend Connect?

Has anyone else heard that Google Friend Connect (GFC) may be extinct and VERY soon?  You can find a post on this topic HERE.  The reason I ask is because I follow a lot of blogs through GFC and am wondering what I will do now to keep all of my favorite blogs in one place.  I feel so organized with GFC to be updated every time a new post is published on one of the blogs I am following.  It really is nice.  In an effort to be proactive, I signed up with Bloglovin’.  I figured this would be the next best thing.  For all of the blogs I follow via GFC, I am now following through Bloglovin’.  Also I have to, apparently, copy and paste ‘Follow my blog with Bloglovin’ code in a post to be able to claim my blog on bloglovin’ so here it goes:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I’ll eventually be adding a Bloglovin’ button to my sidebar along with my other contact buttons like Facebook, PInterest, Instagram, etc.

Web hosting + blog registration = confusion

I have a question today.  Does anyone out there use web hosting for their website?  Also, do you register your blog?  I’ve been doing research on these two topics and I’m still not understanding them completely.  Apparently a web host makes your website accessible on the world wide web.  This is strange.  The minute I created a domain name, I was accessible to everyone on the internet.  I’m not sure I get it.  Among providing accessibility though, hosting sites will provide you with various amounts of disk space to back up your content to.  Some hosting sites also provide security monitoring and advertising credits (which I’m still not quite sure what that is).  I don’t know about you but the back up services alone are enough reason for me to purchase services.  Does anyone know if Blogger does this already?  Back up your content? 

I’m rockin’ the shot!

Rock the Shot is having a June photo challenge and the theme is DADS.  I couldn’t be more excited!  I had just taken about a million pictures of Livvy and the hubby on our vacation in Sarasota, FL.  I had the following shot in mind.  It fits the theme perfectly, although it would fit the theme LOVE as well.  I say this because I love the way she is looking at her daddy in this picture!  She is so in love with him and, as you probably guessed, him with her!  One of my favorite parts of vacation was watching them interact with each other!  I could watch them forever!

New Pics… Some painted piggies

Who doesn’t love piggies?  I can’t get enough of them!  When you add polish, though, it just makes them that more appetizing!  I polished Livvy’s toes for the first time on Wednesday.  She was so good staying still for her Mommy.  I only applied one coat and then she sat still and watched me blow on her toes to help them dry.  I even filled up the sink with VERY cold water for her to soak them in to really make sure they were dried good.  In case you are wondering, I learned this little trick in nail school a long long long time ago.  Did I mention it was a LONG time ago?  No, seriously though, it works awesome.  I highly recommend this method.  I do it for my own toes when I give myself a pedicure.  In fact the colder the water, the better it works at drying the polish.  And it’s also supposed to be running water which is what I use for myself.

The Missing Link – Week 9

Have you ever felt like something was missing from your life? Well, it could just be one of the links below. Hence my post title! You may ask yourself "Is she serious?" Well the answer is "No, I'm definitely NOT serious." I'm just feeling silly. Seriously though, I thought I'd share some of my favorite links with you in an effort to spread the love. What's better is that I thought I'd make this post a weekly thang! No that isn't a typo. I told you I was feeling silly. So the links below may not complete your life, but I'm hoping they, in some way, add to it. I separated them into categories for easy navigation. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

New Pics… Sneak peek of Disney World

I planned on sharing all of my Disney World pictures in one post (my Thursday post) but, had unexpectedly (and at the last minute), went out to run some errands that took me ‘till 10:00 pm Wednesday night so now I’m exhausted.  I could only bring myself to process the following three pictures.  I hope to have the others processed to include in my The Missing Link post that I publish on Fridays.

New Pics… In love with my Daddy!

My Alivia is so in love with her Daddy!  I’m pretty sure he is in love with her too! 

New Pics… So here’s what we know

Alivia loves being outside.  She loves playing with the sand, but not standing in it even with shoes on.  We had to lay a towel on the sand for her to feel comfortable sitting in it.  When she got even a speck of sand on her feet she’d demand us to “wife” her feet.  That’s not a typo.  She pronounces “wipe” as “wife”.  She likes the warm ocean water but absolutely loves the pool!  She likes Mommy and Daddy to pull her around in her floatie.  She also likes to lean back in her float just enough to be able to kick up her feet comfortably and show off her pruned little piggy toes!  She loves sunhats and sunglasses and wears them well!  She loves her pink crocs and Little Swimmer pull-up diapers!  Hmmmm, what else?  She loves her Daddy!  She got to spend so much time with him while we were away on vacation!  It was so nice seeing them play and interact with each other.  I love the way she looks at him with such love in her eyes.  You can see that she feels so safe and secure in his arms.  I am going to write a post about this separately because I have some great pictures of the two of them together.  Today, however, I wanted to share some pool pictures.  Our pool in FL was so beautiful!  It was pristine, heated, and deserted (just the way we like it).  Nothing like having a HUGE pool to yourself!  Boy did we pick the perfect week to vacation in Sarasota.

New Pics… Home from vacation

Well, the family and I are home from vacation.  I usually get home sick and miss home, but this vacation was so different.  I felt so relaxed and at home in Sarasota that I just didn’t want to leave.  I think I speak for the rest of my family when I say that too!  We definitely weren’t ready to go home this time.  We could have used another week in Florida.  I guess that is a good indicator that we had a fabulous vacation.  We made some memories that will last us a lifetime!

New Pics… It is a laughing matter

So let me tell you a little story.  It’s not for the faint hearted.

You know when you see a bug, like a spider for instance, and for the rest of the day you would swear that you feel something crawling on you? You start scratching your leg, an arm, under your neck, on the shoulder etc.? Well that’s me. That’s what type of person I am. I swear they are crawling on me even though they aren’t. I don’t even like the sight of them.

The Missing Link – Week 8

As a special treat today I have asked LeiShell over at A Correll Collage to host this week’s The Missing Link for me since I would be on vacation. I thought it would be fun to have someone else compile a list of links they love for all of us to enjoy (including me)! For those who haven’t met LeiShell, she is a wife, mommy to a cutie pa-toot-y, and photography lover!  What can you find on her blog?  Good question.  You can find everything from writings about family, crafting, advice, and even personal struggles.  And what blog is complete without adorable pictures?  Don’t worry folks, she has that too!