Birthday + ER = F-U-N!!

Brad took the actual day of his birth off work to go snowboarding. This has become a tradition because it's free on your birthday. Snow had just fallen and he had the best time (we love you Jeff!!).

While he was snowboarding we made him his birthday cake...

I love the way the mini layer cake looks...

The plan was to make Hot Hubby's favorite...chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

I was out of chocolate frosting... ug!

I have whipped frosting... yeah... he LOVES whip. After I started frosting the cake I noticed it was cream cheese whipped... ug!

Brad doesn't like cream cheese frosting... ug!

I never knew this was the beginning of foiled plans...

Brad got home from snowboarding and took a birthday nap. I was going to surprise him with dinner at Disneyland, complete with the big bag of kettle corn to snack on while we strolled the park and rode kiddie rides.

Then there was a scream...

Eli had been sitting on the counter with my awesome cousin Olivia, and fell. In the time it took to pick him up he had a HUGE bump... it looked like a blue and red golf ball was embedded on the front of his forehead.

I was cuddling him and Brad suddenly said, "Eli is falling asleep try to keep him awake."

Eli wouldn't wake up.

To say that I was freaking out is an understatement!

We loaded up and headed to the ER... Eli was lethargic the whole time falling asleep as I tried to keep him awake...

We were really scared :(

We got to the ER, and as soon as we got out of the car Eli was just dandy. REALLY! He was running around, making the whole waiting room laugh, pretending to be a choo choo train... with the embedded golf ball on his forehead.

We decided to stay and get a scan because he had been so out of it earlier.

ALL CLEAR

Sigh of relief!

But we didn't get out till 10pm... too late for the birthday surprise :(

The following week my sporty Hubby decided to take his friends paintballing for his birthday party. They shot at each other all day then enjoyed Tri-Tip for lunch!

Testosterone was a flowing!

Nothing like shooting the ones you love...

They were banged up, bruised and covered in welts... they were MEN!

Hot Hubby got home, and the kiddos and I let him have a (much needed) 2 hour nap, then we took him to our favorite pizza joint (Haus of Pizza in Huntington - for all you local readers!).

Now I'm sure you are all wondering what I got Hot Hubby for his birthday... I shall not include the details... but he liked it... wink...

Our Wedding...

Welcome to the first ever Remember When Linky!!
Remember When... You Got Married?
Enjoy my wedding then scroll down to the bottom and add your name and the link to your wedding post (not your main blog). If you are linking a new post include a link back here so your friends can show off their weddings too. The linky will be open all week so be sure to check back to see the latest wedding flashbacks!
My hair had fresh flowers...
We really wanted the ceremony to be short and simple. It rains a lot here in February... it poured every other weekend in the WHOLE month. The week before, at the rehearsal, it was pouring... I mean sheets of rain. We were knee deep in mud and water. We had no "plan B." We must have been blinded by love... ha!

Our wedding party was large and they were all fantastic. Did Brad get thrown in the lake? Nope... I said it would be OK after the pictures and the guys respected my wish... but it never happened later!

I had to get a little silly... thankfully he was kinder to me!

I loved the dance floor! Lights and lanterns hanging from an old tree... beautiful... romantic...

Surprisingly, we stayed till the very end. We had so many out of town guests to hug and chat with. Brad kept trying to pull me away... it was hysterical. I was so exhausted after the wedding we hit up Starbucks on Main Street in Huntington before we headed to the Hyatt. We were still dressed in our wedding garb and the barista wrote "bride" & "groom" on our cups. We thought we would get freebies for sure... no luck... but we did draw quite a bit of attention from passersby!

Our wedding was a dream come true... except that I forgot the table numbers and the cater came and told me (yes the bride) immediately after the ceremony... like I could do something about it. It all works out in the end... as life usually has a funny way of doing...

Giveaways RULE!!

I love Giveaways!

Penny Pinching Diva is hosting an Eli's Lids Giveaway. Yeah!

Enter to win a Lid of your own to top off your little guy (or gal). Shynea (the acutal Penny Pinching Diva) has made this giveaway super fun with loads of ways to get extra entries.

I got the chance to ask Shynea a few questions...

How many kiddos do you have?

I am the mommy to four little boys. Ages 7 years, 6 years, 17 months and 3 months.

What do you love most about being a mom of boys?

I love everything about being a mom to boys. To me, they are so loving. They are always asking me how am I doing. Or telling me how pretty I am. Just showing appreciation of everything I do. They never let the small things go unnoticed. I also love the fact that I get to let my tomboy side come out. I get to wrestle with them and I have an excuse to stop cleaning and just get down on their level. From legos to the Playstation, I get the chance to be a kid again when I am with my sons. I get the chance to raise boys to become men so that they can one day go out and be good people and good husbands.

When and why did you start Penny Pinching Diva?
I started Penny Pinching Diva as a way for me to blog about my family and share with other people my experiences of "pinching pennies". I am a stay at home mom, so I had to learn how to take care of my family of six on one income. So here I was, surfing the Internet one day and I came across all of these websites on how to save money and how to use coupons. I decided to combine my blog into a little bit of everything. So I post about my family as well as money saving tips, couponing, shopping at CVS, recipes, crafts and frugal living.
If you only had 3 quick Penny Pinching hints to someone who wanted to save money they would be...

• Always use coupons
• Shop off season
• Learn how to play the CVS game

What inspires you?

My family inspires me. Everything that I do, I do it for them.

Thanks Shynea for Hosting this giveaway!!

Cheerio Hunt...

Eli's Lids was highlighted on the OC Register Mom Blog.

See my "tip" about a Cheerio Hunt here.

Keep in mind my silliness when you read it!!

Bookmark The Mom Blog. It's a lot of fun, especially if you live in Orange County!

Daily Tips from The Mom Blog HERE.

For Over Our Bed...

Spray the adhesive to the NON PRINTED side of the paper

Glue it to the WRONG side of the fabric

Cut out the letters guided by the grey

I kept the paper on so the letters would keep a strong shape

I also traced and cut our kiddo's hand prints and a heart for My Love's name.

I added the center heart later (I'm still thinking of adding 's after the heart).

This was very easy to do and inexpensive to boot! I got the 2 big canvas for $6.00 (for both on sale), the small one for $4.00, the paint was about $1.50 each and the fabric was about $2.00 each. This huge art piece was less than $20.00!!

An added bonus... If I decide to change the wording or colors I can peel off the fabric, repaint, and spray adhesive new stuff on!

This would also be a lot of fun to do with scrapbooking paper instead of fabric...

WARNING:

The next day you might recieve an email from your hot hubby while he is at work...

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Hey love,

I was just thinking about this weekend and how much fun I had with you and the kids. Just wanted to tell you that I love our life.

PS. I love you over the bed creations.

PPS. Your mom is right, you are the only person that has an idea and makes it come to life!

PPPS. Have I told you I love grabbing your butt???

Reminder: Don't forget to post about your wedding or link up to a previously written wedding post tomorrow for Eli's Lids first ever Remember When Linky... Remember When You Got Married?

Buddies...

... an awesome post about our friendship here.

I had a Chocolate Fountain!!!

Only 5 days left to do your wedding post for the first ever Eli's Lids Linky...
Remember When you got married?
Did you have a big princess wedding? An elegant beach wedding? A shotgun wedding? Elope? Did you get wasted and wed in Vegas?
Share your unique day with me.... because I want to know... really!! I love this stuff.
It will be so much fun to show off what a hottie you were in your wedding dress and those perfect centerpieces and that family member that got a bit too wild and the first dance and...
Just to get your juices flowing... below is one picture from my wedding... I love that the breeze is blowing my veil off my face. We are listening to our vows and Brad is thinking "I can't wait for tonight!!" (btw - I did have a chocolate fountain at my wedding... it broke... so we turned it into chocolate fondue!!)

Rules for the Linky (simple but read them anyway!)...

• The post has to be about a wedding... if you haven't had one or are too embarrassed to share yours, post some vintage pix of your grandma's big day. (I'm thinking I'll do my mom's and my Granmom's too!!)
• It should have pictures
• When you add your link, do it for that specific post only. NOT your blog
• It doesn't have to be a new post... so if you posted about your wedding 3 years ago and you don't want to write a new one, just link to the one you already did!
• Link your post back to the my post on the 27th so your blog visitors can join the wedding-show-off-fun too!
• Comment on the weddings you visit... cuz we all LOVE comments!!

(If you don't know how to do a linky then just email me and I'll walk you through it!! That's how bad I want to see your wedding mania!)

Done smelling like milk...

~Breast milk is best for baby.

~Nursing is free.
Those are the 2 reasons I breast fed my kiddos.

Cora is now 11 months old and she is done with the boob and I'm not forcing it back on her.

This means I'm DONE!!!

Woo hoo!!!

In honor of this special occasion I got new PJs and I'm going to get all new bras this weekend (thanks to Hot Hubby's $50 visa gift card, an award for being awesome at work... you go babe!!).

Goodbye milk stained pajamas!!

Goodbye ugly nursing bras.*

*Now don't go showing me cute nursing bras, I know they exist. They are too expensive and I wasn't about to spend non-necessity moo-la till the magic one-year-switch-to-whole-milk-milestone.

Random Breast milk Note:

I heard breast milk helps with pink eye and I found it to be surprisingly soothing on my Race for the Cure eye agony. Before you start thinking I'm crazy do a Google search and you'll find it is totally legit. Here is one I found especially helpful.

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I'm linking this post up with Musings of a Housewife's What I have Learned This Week Carnival.

Because I have learned that new undies and matching PJ really do equal inner peace and joy!! You don't believe me!?!? Do it, then thank me later :)

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Join our Remember When... you got married Linky here. Do a new post on your wedding or link up to an older one January 27th - 31st. Join the FUN and show off how awesome (or lame) your wedding was!

Save the Pop-Up...

Every once in a while one of our pop-up books is a little roughed up and gets ripped apart (I'm sure this never happens at your house). I had been taping them... which lasts about 2.5 seconds before it is back into the fix-it pile.
So I came up with this solution...

Reminder:

The first Eli's Lids Linky "Remember When You Got Married?"will be on January 27th. So get those photos scanned in, and that post written so you can show off your day as a bride (or anti-bride!)!!!