Update: Surprise Mother's Day Gift Basket Giveaway!

First, I want to say Welcome to all of my new followers!  Thank you so much to all of you who have entered the giveaway so far and are helping me reach my goal of 300 followers! As of right now, we are at 237 so we still need 63 followers to reach our goal. 

I wanted to update you all on the giveaway since it's been pretty hush hush ;) While the items in the gift basket will remain a surprise for the Mom who wins it, I do want to give you an idea of what you can expect to find. 

1.  Gift cards

2.  Bath and body items

3.  Home decor/novelty items

Basically, all things Moms love, but never buy for themselves! Soo, if you are a Mom or know a Mom who needs to be pampered, enter this giveaway!  And tell your friends!  The value of the gift basket is well over $100 at this point, and I will continue to add to the basket until it is too full to hold anything else.



Click on the button above to take you to the originial giveaway post, follow this blog via GFC (you do not have to have a blog to participate, just a google account), and then fill out the entry form.  It's that simple!

Thanks again and good luck!!

Pulling Together

Many times, the more time you spend with people the easier it is for them to frustrate you, disappoint you, let you down, hurt your feelings, or get on your nerves. It's often the ones we love and care about the most who seem to be able to hurt us the most. Did you know the #1 cause of stress for people is other people? It's true! We often let others dictate our moods and our actions based on our emotions, and while it's not healthy for us to be this way, we can't help but let it affect our daily lives. I came across an article today that listed 3 simple 'People Who Don't Stress People' rules. They were so right on and significant that I'll list them for you.

1. You have to accept me for me and not try to change me. That doesn't mean I won't ever change, but I need to be the one to make those decisions.

2. I'll always respect how you feel. I will never tell you how you should feel. I may never understand why you feel the way you do, but I do understand that your feelings are very real.

3. If you're having a difficult time with something or just not feeling up to snuff, please don't take it out on me and I'll do the same. We need to try to help each other, not drag each other down just so that we're both miserable-then we'll be stuck with no other friend in the world to pull us out of our misery.

How true are these words? And how hard is it to actually abide by these rules? I know personally, this is something I have to work on constantly. I have such an independent, type A personality that I don't often understand why some people allow others to plow right over them, take advantage of them, or treat them badly. Why do I feel the need to defend them? Tell them what they should do or say? Do I see them as weak? Do I lack respect for them because they don't defend themselves? Honestly, I don't know, but I do know that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's their life, not mine, and how they choose to allow others to treat them and how they decide to react is their business. I will try to bite my tongue in the future, and I will only give advice when it is asked of me. But, understand that while I feel you have your issues, I have mine too, and we are both a work in progress :)


Part of my work from home includes partnering with others who are hoping to build businesses from home as well. We encourage, motivate, train, and support each other. I love the women I partner with like I love my own family, and honestly, these women have become a second family for me. Some of them I have never met in person, but I talk to them more than I talk to people who live next door lol so at this point I know them as well as I know myself! We share similar goals, lifestyles, and values.  Today, when so many people care only for themselves and will do anything it takes to get ahead no matter who they have to step on to get there, it's refreshing to know there are still good, wholesome people in this world who genuinely care about seeing others succeed.  In the wake of the devastation our country has been forced to deal with over the past week,  month, even year, it's time we realize that life is precious.  People are precious.  It's time that we all start pulling together.  Please take a moment to watch this video.

Simple Truths - Pulling Together!

To my team: I love you guys for who you are. I admire your courage to take that first step toward a better future for yourselves and your families, I respect you for the hard work you do each day, and I am so very proud of you for working diligently to reach your goals. While we all have different personalities, and sometimes those clash lol, I can honestly say that there's no team I'd rather work with.

Laura, you are my rock, and I'm so grateful that over a year and a half ago you took me under your wing. You've been a second Mom to me, my mentor, and my closest friend. You are the glue that holds our team together, and an awesome leader. We don't thank you enough. You sacrifice so much of your time to not only lead our team, but you also often become mediator, marriage counselor, encourager, and Mom (sometimes all in one day lol). I don't think any of us realize how much we ask of you daily, but I do know that every one of us appreciates, loves, and respects you. Thank you for being EXACTLY who you are. I can't wait to finally get to talk with you in person and give you a big ole hug in August! Just like in the video, to me, you are my lead goose. I'll be right here, flying beside you, no matter what. Love you girl!

Check Out the GREAT Mother's Day Giveaway at 5 Minutes for Mom!

Every Mom deserves to be pampered on Mother's day, and 5minutesformom.com has an AWESOME Mother's Day giveaway going on right now! There are GREAT prizes to win including an HP Pavillion dm1 (notebook) so make sure to head over there and enter to win!

ALSO

Don't forget to enter our own Mother's Day Surprise Gift Basket Giveaway and help us reach 300 followers by the end of the month!

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Just a quick note from us:  Our area battled severe weather yesterday including numerous tornadoes.  We are all ok, but many families around us are hurting due to the loss of homes/property and worse, the loss of family members.  Please be in prayer for these families as they mourn, heal, and pick up the pieces.  We also ask for prayers for all the service workers out there working non-stop to restore the power. We thank and praise God for His protection and our safety! 

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Thursday Blog Hops:

 

Easter Fun!

Every Easter weekend, the girls and I decorate Easter eggs together and talk about why Easter is so important.  Even though we do fun things like Easter egg hunts and decorating, it's important to me that the girls know WHY we truly celebrate Easter.  As they get older, they have more and more questions, and it blesses my heart to see their little minds beginning to understand the love Christ has for us.  I am so thankful to have a Savior who was willing to die for my sins so that I could one day spend eternity with him.  My prayer is that my girls will come to know Him personally as well, and that as each year goes by, we will be reminded of Jesus's victory over death and the grace of our salvation. 

The girls didn't want Mom's help with eggs this year.  They thought they were big enough to do it all on their own so I got to stand back and snap pictures as they had fun decorating their eggs however they wanted.

The girls hunted eggs several times this year, but my camera died on me the morning of Easter so I only got pics of this one.  The wind was blowing so hard that the eggs were just rolling across the yard and didn't stay hidden lol.  The kids just ran around grabbing them!

After the hunt, the girls sat down with their friends for a breakfast of donuts and juice.

The girls' cousin Hillaree and Presley

And The Big Day Arrives...

The day of the wedding finally arrived on Saturday, and we couldn't be happier! We'd looked forward to this wedding for the last 9 months, and we'd worked so hard to make it everything Katie wanted it to be. 

Here's our excited bride as we arrived at the church at 10 am for hair and makeup!

The bridesmaids took turns getting pampered thanks to Mrs. Barbara, Anna (both stylists from the salon where Katie works), and fellow bridesmaid, Marlie.

Katie's turn!  She did take a minute to pose with the flower girls.  Love this pic!

Both girls were so excited about the wedding.  They have loved their Aunt KK since they were born (well since Makenzie was 4 months old lol), and they were THRILLED that she was finally marrying their Uncle Brad.

Before we knew it, it was time for Katie to get dressed.  Excuse the terrible way I look in my big ole oversized button-down shirt and sweats lol, I hadn't had time to put my bridesmaid dress on yet...too many other things to do!

Katie's dress was beautiful, and she looked amazing...here's one of the back too.

One last peak in the mirror before walking down the aisle (and a little lip gloss too!).

Oh, and I have to share this cute pic of all our toes...Katie's included :)

The Day Before the Wedding...

The day before the wedding, the bridesmaids decided to spend the day with the bride, get our nails done for the wedding, and eat lunch together.  Little did we know that the weather would take a turn for the worse, and we'd have to deal with tornado warnings! 

We arrived at the nail salon at 9:45 that morning, and you can tell by looking out the windows in these pictures how nasty it was while we were there.  The sirens actually went off twice! We had to wait a long while before we could even head home!

And look at my two sweet girls.....they think they are soo big getting their manicures and pedicures.  They did an AWESOME job as flower girls!



Wedding Prep

We spent the two weeks before the wedding building "walls" for Katie's reception.  See, the church where Katie and Brad were getting married has a new, HUGE gym that is still under construction but was the perfect area for a nice reception.  Well, it would have been perfect had the sheet rock been finished, but we won't get into all of that lol.  Anyway, in order to cover up all the construction "mess", we decided to construct "walls" made out of white plastic table cloths that hung from a rope all the way around the room.  Each wall took about 2-3 hours to finish.  We went through over a 150-200 table cloths too!  It was exhausting work, and we needed 3-4 people working on it at a time.  One to two people would hold the table cloth while another person stapled it to the rope in a way that it could slide, then another person would go behind that one to tape over the staples in order to reinforce it and keep it from falling.  Whew!  We spent many nights working until midnight.

You can tell by these pictures how literally exhausted we were lol!  I'm sure they were taken after we'd been working several hours.

Here, we were just getting started.  You can see what I meant by the construction going on in the room.

It really did look great once we completed it.  I wish I had a picture of the finished product to show you, but we were all so relieved to be done, I don't think we even thought to take one!  I'll be sure to post some pics when the photographer gets them to us.  The table cloths billowed around the room, and really helped add to the effect Katie wanted for her reception. 

We definitely weren't done at this point. Katie had a center column that you can see in one of the above pictures.  From it we strung lights and tulle. Then we had to move tables in, and decorate for the reception itself.  A lot of work for sure, but it was exactly what she wanted, and that's all that matters, right? 

Wedding Craziness!

I realize it's been forever since I've been able to personally post, but the last two weeks have been a bit overwhelming honestly.  I wanted to post some pics from everything we've been doing so I apologize for the multiple lengthy posts today :)

I did want to update on the Lingerie shower...It went really well, and we had a GREAT time! Katie got some awesome gifts, and we had fun playing games and eating a delicious meal. 

This was definitely not the first lingerie shower I've hosted-in fact it's probably the 4th or 5th- so I've had a little experience with this, but I wanted to find some fresh ideas this time around which is why I posted about getting some help and ideas from you all.  This was the first shower; however, that I haven't hosted at my home.  I booked a room at a local restaraunt, Harvey's, and it ended up being a perfect space.  We had a lot of room, the staff was willing to help in any way, and the food was great.

We played some really fun games that I'll link to this post.  I used an ice breaker poem that I've had for years to start things off.  Each guest (and the bride) add up points for certain things mentioned in a cute little poem, and at the end, the person with the most points wins a prize.  It was fun to hear the banter that went along with earning (and taking away) points. :)  You can find this ice breaker poem here.

After dinner, we played another game that I've used several times now in which you start with a small gift (In the past I've used a pair of panties, KY, etc.).  You wrap the gift continually until you've wrapped 10 different gifts each time placing the smaller gift inside a larger box.  Each gift has a cute little saying on top that whoever opens it gets to read out loud.  That person then gets to decide who gets the gift next.  You can find the cute phrases I used for each gift here.

We started with the bride.  She opened the first gift, read the phrase, and then passed it on to whomever the phrase described.

The gift continued to be passed until, finally, it ended up back with the bride.  She opened it to find a pair of watermelon flavored edible, crotchless underwear (sorry! A girl has to have something a little shocking at her lingerie shower right?). By the look on her face, I think she was definitely shocked ha ha!

Another cute *new* thing I implemented this time around was the Bridesmaid Panty Line.  It turned out to be so much fun, and all the bridesmaids did an awesome job picking out their panties for Katie.  I found this cute little panty line poem online here, but tweaked it a bit to fit Katie.  Each bridesmaid was assigned a type of panty to bring with them to the shower.  Then as I read the panty poem, each bridesmaid brought the panties up and hung them on a clothesline.  The panties symbolized milestones in Katie's life from her wedding to her 50th anniversary.  This got a lot of laughs as the panties started to increase in size as the "years" went by.  I would definitely recommend using this at any lingerie shower!

Lastly, Katie opened all her gifts.  She got some really cute things too!

Such a fun night!

Blog It Forward Tuesday

Just Married with Coupons and Sweep Tight do an excellent blog/giveaway hop, and I just had to share it.  It's great to be able to do nice things for others when in today's world, so many people are just looking out for themselves.  Take a minute to check out both of these blogs and then visit some other great blogs on the linkies for some new reading or some fun giveaways!

I'm excited to be able to Pay It Forward and share these awesome blogs/giveaways with you!

Rub Some Dirt On It- a great Mommy blog with some amazingly cute photography.

At The Maple Table- great blog with projects, recipes, and an awesome $100 Gift Certificate Giveaway to any store of your choice (as long as it can be purchased online).

Homeaker By Choice- providing encouragement and strategies for fellow homeakers!

Also visit:

A Time Out For Mommy- enter to win a $50 Target Gift Card!

The Mama Report- $100 Target Gift Card!

Couponing for 4- $100 Visa Gift Card!

Have fun visiting some new blogs and good luck on the giveaways!  Don't forget to enter our 300 Followers Mother's Day Gift Basket Giveaway! 

Paying it forward is such a blessing to others...how will you pay it forward today?