25 Random Things About Me.....

Okay so I've been tagged half a dozen times.... so since I FINALLY adm doing this silly little thing from facebook I mine as well post it on here as well.

1. I'm wife of 6.5 yeas to Nathan and mommy to 4 kids Maddelyn 5.5, Emma Grace 4, Caroline 2, Elijah 6 weeks.

2. Our life always has a "theme of the year" 02-Married, 03-Maddelyn, 04-Emma/Deployment, 05-Deployment, 06-Campaign, 07-Caroline, 09-Elijah/New House 10-?????

3. I am a bit OCD...okay MORE than a bit!

4. Even though Ia m OCD I am a procrastinator! I always seem to be rushing to do things at the last minute.

5. Somehow I ended up being in a (maybe causing us to be) a late family. Growing up I hated late families! Uhhh! What kids do to you!

6. We are about 5 into a HUGE house remodel on a big Victorian home. Oh the joy!

7. I don't want my food to touch on my plate and for the most part if it does I won't eat the parts that touch.

8. My bed covers have to be perfectly straigh while I sleep. I literally will get up in the middle of the night to straighten them if they get twisted or uneven. Okay, well maybe my sweet husband will get up for me! HaHa! Maddelyn has the same psycho problem.

9. I LOVE scrapbooking and photography but never have enough time for either. Now that I have a new scrapbooking room in our house I have no reason not to scrap more!

10. I have my degree in early childhood education for teaching kindergarten-3rd grade.

11. I homeschool our older 2 daughters kindergarten and preschool.

12. I am definitely NOT Betty Crocker! I really find little to no pleasure in cooking or baking. I think I fell off the family wagon on that one. My mom and grandma are both amazing cooks? So obviously that is not a genetically passed down trait.

13. For over a year now, I have made and sold hair bows on the internet. God has really blessed this hobby and turned it into a full blown LLC!

14. I have an honest phobia of snakes. I literally have had a panic attack when Nathan and I were out on a nature walk in a natural cranberry bog 2 years ago.

15. I HATE my wrist or inner arms being touched! For some reason it's like nails on a chalkboard for me and I even have problems sometimes wearing bracelets. Nathan knows this and thinks it's hilarious to hold my hand and then rub my wrist with his thumb or so when we are somewhere serious/quiet that I can't get away from him or laugh like in church! Little Booger!

16. In the 8th grade I rode 100 miles on my bike in one day. For real! Anyone who knows this should be laughing out loud at this right now and my non-athleticism!!! It was a school thing we did to rife up to the lake, on a ferry, around the island, and then back to our school again all in one day.

17. I have a cough...cough...addiction to dressing my children. "Hi my name is Mandi and I have a overwhelming urge for Gymboree and Hairbows!" There it is finally out in the open!

18. Nathan and I are the young couple's leaders in our church as well as elders. Yeah...in our late 20's and elders! How does that really work? Doesn't ELDER kinda mean OLDER???

19. I freeze all the time! No fail, if everyone else in the room is hot I am like ice.

20. I really don't care much for chocolate. I love candy but would go for Swedish fish, starburst, or jelly bellys any day over m&m's.

21. Nathan and I were honored to be on of the first people to go into the viewing of President Reagan's viewing in the capitol building in DC. We waited like 10 hours in the hot sun with a 15 month old and me huge pregnant to do so but it was amazing to see his body laying in state!

22. I once spent 3 days/2 nights at Walmart waiting on PS# to come out in stores! Now mind you that not only do I NOT play video games, but I was like 7 1/2 months pregnant! Nathan and I both waited to get 2 of them and immediately sold them on ebay and made almost $1000 on them. I'd say 2 night's vegging in the aisle at Walmart in lawn chairs was worth it!

23. When I grow up I want to own a scrapbooking bed and breakfast.....or be a Walmart cashier...I would even settle for a guide at a historical home?

24. I love traveling. I told Nathan that I would love to spend my retirement traveling. We'll see? That's weird for someone who had ever only be in like 8 states before i met my husband?

25. I love to read, but really just don't find time to read anything lately besides books with pictures and that rhyme! HaHa!

Rainforest Cafe

So obviously I changed things up a bit on the blog. I think it is all the white stuff outside that has had me snowed in the past 2 days that inspired me to go white? We'll see how long I like it???

The kids are in PA right now visiting Nathan's parents (thank you sooo much!!) while we attend a marriage retreat here in Amish country. Our church does three of these over a week at a bed and breakfast. It is our first time but each session only has like 4 couples so it is 3 days/2 nights spent working on your marriage with only the pastor and his wife and 3 other couples. We are so blessed that we have family who is willing to help us out with the kids. Nathan and I would not be able to do 1/2 of the stuff we get to do, if my in-laws didn't offer to keep the kids like they do. Thank you guys so much for that. I have so many other pre-school moms who say they wished they had that as well!

Before I forget, if I can have my friends and family say a prayer. As many of you know, Nathan and I are in charge of the young couples ministry at our church. One of our young couples (who have 4 small children) lost everything they own in a house fire last night. Being a mom myself I can't even imagine what they as parents are now facing. Can you picture telling your kids they now lost all their toys, home, and don't even have an outfit yet to wear to school? No way! Just please keep this family in your prayers.

January 27

So here is my latest photo of the day. I knew when I started project 365 it would be more of a project 150?? LOL?? So as long as I get pictures every few days or so? No, this is not just a pile of laundry ...well it is waiting to be washed. These are all the towns that covered my bathroom and kitchen floor Tuesday night. We had a plumbing problem that lead to rain in my kitchen ceiling from the shower above. AHHHHH! The frustrating thing was I was home along with Elijah when it happened. Nathan had gone to take my kids to Cleveland to meet my in-laws before the big snow storm hit. So I literally called him saying "Nathan I don't know what to do it's raining in the kitchen. No, you don't understand. IT IS RAINING IN THE KITCHEN!" So needless to say our contractor and some of his workers showed up at 9:00 that night to do damage control for me. Praise God! You know how the other day Nathan said our kitchen kinda looked like the Passover?? Well now I have renamed it "Rainforest Cafe" after seeing all the water raining down! The next morning when we had the new kitchen ceiling torn up they found some rotted wood, black mold, and some bare wiring up there. So I guess we should be thankful that it did happen to find all of that before something worse happened like a fire. So we did call our insurance and it will be covered. But, of course this does set us back even further with getting the kitchen up and running while they put all new pipes in, fix the wires and rebuild the ceiling. Oh and more than likely we will also have to go through the county for another inspection....joy! But, like Nathan said, another week and we would have had our new appliances in there, new counter tops, heaters, paint, etc. So it could have been a lot more expensive. Besides that, after getting the news about the family in our church it makes you think...yeah we are even more behind in the kitchen, it is going to be how much more money, and I still am living with a microwave and college fridge BUT we are all still safe and have a home! This is nothing! It is so sad to have to see someone else's troubles before you see how minor yours are int he big picture.

L-O-O-O-N-G Post!

So I am finally getting around to posting again. I was a bit busy this past week with the hair bow business and getting as much made up before the Feb 10th deadline with CSPIA. If anyone is interested there was a winner to the give-a-way on the other lady's blog.

So here is a short sum-up of our life over the past couple of weeks with my project 365. So here is a glimpse in our life.

January 14

Icicles off our front porch

January 16

We always take picture of the babies on their month birthday. Our little pumpkin turned 1 month on the 16th! Wow! It's gone so fast!

January 17

Caroline's Party pictures in the post from last week)

January 19

Yes, that is blood red in my kitchen! It's supposed to be a DEEP country red, but as in any red it is taking lots of coats! As Nathan says, it reminds him of passover??

January 20
We decid to take the kids out for ice cream and then to see a movie that night. We always go to Cold Stone Creamery to help celebrate each child's birthday. Caroline LOVED her strawberry/banana/mango sorbet with gummy bears mixed in! Yum!! (Alicia notice it's not only ice cream for my 2 year old...but covered in gummy bears! We took that picture for you! Bad Mom loading her with SUGAR! HaHa!)

January 21
Elijah had his 1 month check up the day before and the doctor was concerned with him projectile spitting up so much, so we were scheduled for a 6:45 am ultrasound on his bowls and stomach. Praise God everything was normal, but he's still throwing up. Not fun!

January 22

I was taking pictures of my daisy headbands and of course Caroline had other ideas. Let's just say I think I took at least 15 pictures of each band and maybe got one so-so photo! Oh 2 year olds!

January 23

Just some of the newest clips I have added to my etsy store and ebay. They are probably my best seller right now!

We found the most adorable things on etsy last week. This seller makes these cute little labels that you place on your child's onzie to take their "month birthday" pictures. Well of course I already had his 1month picture done but had to take these as well. So, over the next 11 months you'll see several of these pictures. How cute huh?

Of course I had a few extra photos to share. I still had not taken my own photos of Eli in his dedication outfit that my aunt made. We had portraits done but I wanted to play around and take a few of my own.

Here are a couple of layouts I finished up for last month's kit with twelvefriday's kit club.

HAIR BOW GIVE-A-WAY!!!

Hey Guys! I just wanted to announce that we are doing a little contest/Give-A-Way for our hair bow bowtique. It is part of a movement to get the word out about a law that is going into act on Feb 10th and will have a HUGE affect on all children's boutique items! The very basic sum up of this new law (Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act) is that after February 10th all items that are marketed and sold for children 12 and under will have to have lead level testing done on it. So what this means for us as a small business is that we will have to have lead testing done on all of our ribbons, clips, elastic, etc will have to have a 3rd party lab do a lead level test on it. What is even more frustrating is that we also then have to have another test on each completed product line to make sure the complete bow does not have too high of a lead level. We also have to have the products re-tested each time we get a new shipment in. Mind you we carry over 130 DIFFERENT ribbon color alone!!! So we would have THOUSANDS of dollars in lead testing just to have to re-do it all once we re-order our products! Not Possible! So as you can tell, I like many other children's boutique manufacturers are really not sure what to do. Also this new lead level testing doesn't just affect large toy companies (like the legislative people who signed it expected it to). It affect children's clothes, toys, books, school supplies, furniture, bedding, cloth diapers, HAIR BOWS, burp clothes, doll clothes, etc. Basically anything that is made for kids 12 and under. As you can see this affect many small business owner like myself that make things to sell online, at craft shows, or local boutiques. The sad part is that many of these items (such as books and cloth diapers) carry no lead at all anyways but yet they are putting many hard working stay-at-home moms and dads out of business! Isn't the entrepreneurial spirit what America was founded on? So what the federal government is doing...intentional or not...is putting all the small businesses that produce children's items out of business, only to leave the big companies who can afford all these new tests.

So after my little rant.....the Give-A-Way!

Another producer of children's boutique items has started a little give-a-way on her blog to get the word out about CPSIA and what it will do to stay-a-home moms like ourselves. You can visit her blog here http://www.whimsicalwalney.com/wp/ to play along. I am pretty sure that she will be adding other boutique item give-a-ways as the week goes on. All you will need to do is check out her blog and then afterwards stop by my website http://www.sugarsweetbowtique.com/ to pick out your favorite hair bows. Leave a comment on her blog saying which bows are your favorite and then a random person will be chosen to receive the group of Valentine's bows I have pictured above! Also just wanted to let everyone know that we have decided to extend our New Years Sale until Monday, January 26th. Stop by for some GREAT deals and to see some super cute Valentine's Day Bows!

Happy Birthday Caroline!

So today our Sweet Caroline turned 2! I can't believe it's been 2 years already! She is such a joy in our lives and her main goal is to get us to laugh! We decided that this year we would have a Mickey Mouse party for her since she calls all animated characters "Mickey Mouse" after we returned home from Disney. All week long whenever you would ask Caroline who is having a party, she would say "Me! Mickey Mouse Party!!! Balloons, Cake, Presents!" Too Cute!! It went really well and we had lots of people over to the new house. It was kinda nice to feel like we actually were semi-settled in with house guests. Well....besides the tarp hanging in the upstairs hallway where the new steps are being added to the 3rd floor and the fact that we have no kitchen, and when you hear the construction people banging while working on the kitchen. Besides that it felt totally normal! HaHa! Caroline had a blast at her party though! We learned though to have her open her gifts one at a time...through out the entire party for next year! Basically after she opened the first toy she was like forget the rest! We basically had to bribe her to open the next present! She would get "stuck" on each gift and really could care less about the other presents laying on the floor waiting to be opened. Oh the joy of the t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e (and yet so cute/funny) two's!

So I'll cut this short as hubby and I decided to watch a movie together tonight to chill after a week long push to get the house ready for the party.

Congrats!!

I just wanted to pop in and say congrats to my high school friend Elaine and her husband Kurt on the birth of their 2nd son, Micah! Elaine and I were due only a couple of days apart and our boys ended up being born 3 weeks apart! You'll have to check out her blog (to the right under blogs I visit) to see pictures of her adorable little boy Micah and big brother Noah! Congrats you guys!!!

Scrap'n and Snow!

January 9

In the midst of a Ohio snow storm, My hubby was sweet enough to drive little Elijah and I to our local scrap store for Elijah's very first crop night! He actually was pretty well behaved, of course after being held by the fellow scrappers!

January 10

We woke up this morning to several inches of snow! Of course the girls and Daddy had to go out to play! The fun part was trying to locate everyone's snow gear in the pile of boxes stored out in the garage still! Oh my! After everything was located and the girls were dresses, Daddy helped them build a snow fort! Of course we had to get a photo as well of Elijah's first major snow. He was literally out in the snow about 90 seconds! How fast can mommy get the girls to all look at her while she snaps a picture and runs the baby back into the house? Okay... some moms would say 90 seconds in the winter cold was cruel for a 3 week old, but I would say that's part of getting used to being an Ohioian!

Project 365

As part of my New Years Resolution to scrap more I really have been trying to get back into the scrapbooking vibe. Part of this has been getting active again on 2 peas scrapbooking website/message boards. It helps me be creative when I see what amazing work others have done as well as read the posts about all the newest things in scrapbooking. I feel so out of the loop!!! So after reading several posts about it, I decided to start a year long project that I have been reading about. It's called project 356 and the gist of it is that you journal about your year by taking a photo a day. The pictures on other scrap'ers blogs are of course just gorgeous, but I figured if I just shoot an image a day of something that sums up my day, that will work too? Hopefully by the end of the year I will have gotten better at my photos as well? I also know that there is just no kidding myself that I will get all 365 pictures (I'm already missing like 5 from the beginning of the year!) As I heard one scrap'er say though...even if you only take 15 photos a month, won't you still be happy with yourself at the end of the year at how much you have? So I am full swing into the challenge now! I also saw where scrap'ers took these pictures and then also made up simple journaling cards to jot down a note of what each day's photo was about. Then they take these and place them in baseball card sleeves and then in a binder! Of course some scrap companies were selling amazing albums/kits for this challenge but they sold out so fast that they made that company's website crash!!! Yep...a binder and baseball card sleeves will do for me!

The only bad thing about this challenge is that me being the perfectionist that I am......a photo a day kinda easily turns into a photo shoot a day? So yesterday I tried to make my photo of the day one of Elijah since he was 3 weeks old yesterday. Well I kept snapping more and more, trying out different angles, lights, and props. I think I ended up with over 50 photos for my "photo of the day." I really need to figure the one picture thing out! So here is what I have so far....

January 5

I began unpacking my scrapbooking room here at the new house. It's exciting to have my own dedicated room, but now that I have it, it's kinda overwhelming at just how I want to decorate it?

January 6

I know, more than one photo but it was too hard to choose which one to post. I had fun fooling around with different angles and such. I will narrow it down to one for my project 356, but I just wanted to share a few extras! I will probably fool around with editing a few of these too. Just something a bit different for his 3 week old pictures.

January 7
I spent the day venturing out with my 4 small children by myself for the first time! Elijah had another therapy session for his tight jaw (nursing problems) and I had to run a couple of errands and to the chiropractors. Lets just say it was pretty stressful running in and out of stores with them all in a major Winter storm, but we all survived!

January 8

I spent the evening once again trying to organize my new scrapbook room. I just love these little sundae dishes that I picked up at the dollar store for all my odds and ends.

Life as a mom of 4, 5 and under!

Okay..so here is a glimpse of my life with 4 children, 5 and under.....

9:00 am - My 3 little monsters eat an ENTIRE tub of yogurt as well as 3 bananas for breakfast! WOW!

9:30 am - Emma decides that red and white striped Christmas socks are the very best match to go with her navy blue Gymboree dress? I think she gets her fashion from Dad? She also decides that she is a hair stylist and wets down her own hair. I go in the bathroom to find both hair brushes and her and Maddelyn's tooth brushes all in the sink and wet? Hmmm????

10:00 am - I decide to start school with the girls but then realize that the baby needs changed. He messes through his onzie. While in the laundry room dealing with the onzie I decide to put another load in my new washer. As I am taking the clean clothes into our room to be folded I remember that oh yeah...the baby is still laying on the changing table 1/2 dressed! Opps! Thank goodness he can't roll yet! Bad mom!

10:30 am - I realize that I was going to start school again and of course as soon as I sit down to begin the baby decides it's time to eat again so I sit doing phonics while nursing..that's a first!

10:45 am - Caroline decides that school time is the very best time to give herself a make over in the bathroom! If mom's busy she can't say no?

11:00 am - I try to sneak away while they are doing their workbooks so I can change the laundry and find that Caroline has been entertaining herself in the laundry room???? I really don't think I want to know what was going on, but involved baby bottles she found in a box to be yet unpacked, a stuffed monkey that had recently been washed from it's swim in the toilet, and Elijah's blanket from the cradle. She is WAY to quiet when she is sneaking!!!!

11:30 am - I tried to start a new Bible program (Hooked on the Bible) that the kids got from their grandparents for Christmas. I thought it would be best to let Caroline sit in on the story and she thought because we were all in the floor it meant it was time to wrestle??? Um yeah? Funny that today's vocab word was Disobey????

12:30 pm - After School I realized that the upstairs could use a good vacuuming since the new carpet was shedding so much. My children's clothes look as if we have a very short haired puppy in the house by the amount of carpet sheddings they are wearing! While doing this I realize that Elijah is yet again hungry. After his feeding he needs changed again because he just messed through another onzie! Uhhh! That's outfit number 2 and we have not had lunch yet!

12:45 pm - Caroline starts saying that she has to potty so Maddelyn says she will help her get her pants down to sit on the potty. Sure enough she is messy when Maddelyn pulls the diaper off! Uhhh! Maddelyn yells for me saying...she pooped and Mom, her dollar was in her diaper! I run down the hallway and grab Caroline who is bare waist down and by now standing in the hallway. I send Maddelyn for a diaper and wipes so I can keep the mess in one spot. Maddelyn seems to have gotten lost in route so I leave Caroline in the bathroom saying, "STAY HERE!" I find Maddelyn downstairs in Nathan's office holding the dollar and explaining it all to Nathan! UHHH! I grab the messy dollar from her, grab the diaper and wipes and head back to the bathroom. Praise God Caroline is still standing there but covered waist down in mess!

1:00 pm - I finished feeding and changing him and realize that we have no more wet wipes on the changing table. The search begins for the wet wipe refills we had at my parents house???? Yep it's 1:30 and still no wet wipes! Well, I did kinda get side tracked. When I started digging through bags and boxes looking for them of course I had to put some of that stuff away.

1:30 pm - I realize that the reason my stomach is growling is because it's 1:30 and we still have not had lunch or gotten anyone down for naps! AHHH! How did that happen?

So now you know why I think we will still be unpacking about on the 4th of July!!!! On one hand I get about 15 minutes max to unpack a box before another crisis moment happens in our home. On the other hand the more I unpack and sort, the more ammo I am giving my kids to destroy! So it's 2:15 and I finally have the girls fed and in bed. That leaves me just enough time to write this all out and get a bite to eat myself before the baby needs fed again. Oh wait...Emma is yelling? Caroline just spilled a bottle of pop on my bathroom floor? So that's 2 kids back up? How on earth did that all happen. Oh and there goes Elijah starting to whine to eat. This would really be funny if it weren't all true! HAHA!!!!!

Christmas Pictures and New Years Resolutions

So I thought I would share a few Christmas pictures. I tried to get a pretty general overview form the like 500 pictures I took in just a few days' span! the photo above is the fmaily picture we take each year on Chirstmas morning at Nathan's grandparents' house. It's so funny to see little Elijah in typical boy clothes that morning and his sisters in their Christmas dresses. Oh well! That's the differences between raising boys and girls!

We did our annual cousin Christmas cookie party at my gandma's house. These woudl be the kind of cookies that are delicious but because of the amont of fingers that get licked, you wouldn't want to share these with non-family members! As you cacn see in the pictures, there was a lot more eaten than decorated that night! And yes...the one in Caroline's mouth is gluten free!

This one cracks me up! Caroline got a new big girl bed and all the decor for Christmas this year. One of the things my parents got her was a trash can to match the girls' pink bathroom. While we were all in the other room cleaning up the presents mess, Caroline decided to fill her "ice bucket" with ice. Yep...can't blame her! It does kinda look like an ice bucket!

So that was a general overview of our first Christmas in the new hosue and with our baby boy! It went wonderfully and the girls seemed to have a wonderful time! Emma said repeatedly that this was the very best Christmas ever since she now has a baby brother! How sweet!

I thought I would share my New Years Resolutions while I am at it. It helps me stick with them (a bit longer) if i make them publicly known so people can hold me accountable for them!

1. I resolve to scrapbook AT LEAST once a week this year! I really miss scrapbooking! It is truely a way for me to relieve stress and sicne I have been busy building my hairbow buisness, it kinda have been put to the wayside. I figured since I am falling farther and farther behind in my photos and now that I have a new one to scrap.....I better get with it! Besides, I have this beautiful new scrapbook room here at the new house to use (once I get it all unpacked!)

2. I resolve to get the baby weight off! Nathan and I joined the weight loss challenge that our church is hosting the next 12 weeks. I really hope to get soeme of the baby weight off before it's time to break out the Spring clothes! I had lost quite a bit before I got pregnant so now it's kinda depressing how small my pre-pregnant clothes were and just how far I have to go to get back in them! Uhh!

3. I resolve to spend more time cooking this year! As many of my friends and family know....I really don't like cooking. I have realized though just how much money we save when we cook at home, besides how much healthier it is for our family! It is definitely a challenge though because I will be tying lots of new gluten free meals. I would really like to get into the once a month (freezer) cooking as well, but we'll see about that. Now of course this resolution all is depending on my newly remodeled kitchen being completed. So for now I get to just focus on my other resolutions.

4. I resole to do more arts/crafts and field trips with my girls in their school work. I realized that we get caought up in the lesson plans and just trying to get their work done each week and we don't get much time to just be creative and use our imaginations. I really want to get them interested in the arts ans well as visit some interesting places in our area this Spring.

5. I resolve to learn more about photography this year. I really do have a passion for it but like everyting else I really just have not had the time to learn more about it. someday I would love to take a photography class here locally...but I'm not sure if it is a 2009 thing or not?