VLOG: What We Would Do with A Million Dollars + Win 1 Million & 5,000 every Week Mega Prize

Special thanks to Publishers Clearing House for sponsoring today’s discussion.

I think we've all seen the videos on tv of the Publishers Clearing House Van
pulling up and suprising a winner with balloons and a big check!
Did you know you can enter to win that check yourself online??! 

Ben and I sometimes talk about what we would do if we won money like that.

The kids and I created a video this morning to share...

Just because videos make blog posts more fun. :)

What we would do if we WON:

-Pay off debt...... student loans, we don't like you.
-SAVINGS! Would be such a blessing to have more security,
money saved for their college, emergencies and the future.

-Be able to help Ben's Brother's Non Profit: Dirty Vagabond Ministries.

-Be able to give more generously to those we meet in need.

-We are in a cozy 3 bedroom one level house...

would love something a bit bigger to fill up with babies and host family! ;)

-Maybe buy a bigger vehicle. We have a little hyundae that fits all three kids
in the back seat with a squeeze. lots of "she's touching meeeee" going on in that car.

- I have always wanted to publish a children's book.

I have one written, and having the funds to back it up....

would make that dream of mine come true!

-Travel to Greece with my husband!..maybe go back to his birthplace of New Zealand!

-Travel with our whole family.. go on some fun adventures!

I’m sure you’d love to be the next person to win $1 Million plus $5,000 Every Week for Life from Publishers Clearing House! June 30th is their Prize Event. Think about how amazing it would be to receive a check for $5,000 every single week for the rest of your life. In one year alone, you’d have $260,000! And on top of that, the winner would get ONE MILLION DOLLARS ON THE SPOT! Think about what you would do with $1 Million. Now think about what you would do with $5,000 a week for life. Then combine those two thoughts and THAT’S what you could do with the Mega Prize!

What would you do if you won the PCH Mega Prize?
Click to enter online.

"No, You cannot marry your cousin."

We recently packed up our crew and traveled to Indiana for my cousin's wedding!

It was one of those trips where, during the 5 hour drive, I had to keep

reminding myself that we were going to have some good family time!

**"stop being crabby we're having fun family time!!" might have come out of my mouth at one point.**

Before we lost shannon, I was blessed by a random "stranger" with

an airplane ticket to fly down to atlanta to visit everyone.

Little did I know that would be the last time I got to see Shannon.

It's experiences like that that make me so much more determined to make the effort, however challenging it may be with little ones, to visit friends and family. Life is too short to stay in the house doing a routine nap time! pshhh.. lets live a little and lose some marbles.

I'm so glad we made the effort to go.

Family is important.

The girls had fun, but are now stuck on finding their

prince after seeing all the love in the air! ;)

SOPHIE: mom who is going to be my prince? how about jude?

ME: honey you can't marry your cousin. and you'll find your prince one day!

SOPHIE: how about micah? ME: you can't marry your brother either.

SOPHIE: why? ME: because micah is gonna marry another girl.

SOPHIE: I'm a girl. he can marry me.

(I didn't bring my camera..but had my iPhone to snap away!)

car trip tips:

1. BUY and PACK scooby doo graham crackers snacks.

Looks like dog bones... immediately awesome to toddlers.

2. pick up bribery dorito bag at gas station.

3. do NOT share your water bottle with the toddler who just ate the doritos.

My girls have a lot of cousins nearby..

but they don't get to see their atlanta cousins as often.

So I was happy they had the weekend to catch

fish together, eat ice cream and force them to slow dance with. good times.

My cousin's wedding was BEAUTIFUL!!

I made the mistake of quietly whispering in sophia's ear "He is about to say you may now kiss the bride!".... because she then responded with "Daddy says you don't kiss boys!"

loud enough for everyone in the rows around us to hear.

only to follow it up with "Are they going to have a baby now?"........... :::head in hands:::

I love the first dance at a wedding reception. love love it.

But my cousin and her "prince", as the girls call him, 

had the most AMAZING first dance.

It was like straight out of a movie. so romantic!

Sophie: "Mom.. the prince is handsome. he has nice hair."

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day!

So thankful for all of the men and women who serve our country and

those who have given their lives!

God Bless America.

Hope you got to soak up a lot of family time over the long weekend!

The Reality of Taking Photos of Sisters

Sisters..

they are fickle little things!

I'm sure the same thing goes for brothers...

but based off of my experience,

I'm focusing on the little ladies in this post.

One minute they love each other... singing Jesus songs and doing ballerina twirls.

The next minute they are ready to body slam each other

with a very high pitch warrior scream.

I'm scared. for myself and the one getting attacked.

Taking them out in public is always fun and exciting...

(Sophie: 4 Sienna: 2... birthdays in august)

Because of my little ones fickle attitudes about each other during this period of their life..

Photos are a bit tricky to get the first time around.

And because I get lots of comments on Instagram and Facebook

implying how much my girls love each other and how good they are...

I thought it was time to put this out there for the world to see.

They are stinkers. cute-adorable-love each other-then heaven

forbid you take their purple crayon-arm pincher-stinkers.

Pretty sure they aren't the first of their kind.

I'm so glad they have each other though...

Because they are helping each other learn to love more!

learning to share and be patient... learning to roll into a ball for protection.

jk. on that last one but I'm sure that'll came later.

The day I took these photos at target I laughed out loud as I looked through my photo feed.

A delirious, how am I going to ever survive, laugh.

It seriously sums it up right now.

I wasn't laughing DURING this moment...I wanted to pull my hair out because they were acting like I was torturing them making them eat an icee.

As moms, we know you have to take a few MILLION photos to get a good one.

And even though I probably won't frame all the bad ones...

I love my little stinkers. even when they drive me bonkers.

BUMPED by BLANQI Bloggers- Video Reviews!

It was my job to help BLANQI Founders, Valerie and Sabina, round up

a great group of Bloggers to try out their new line BUMPED by BLANQI

which is now available! exclusively on Target.com!

There were some bloggers I knew we HAD to get...

and then some that I found, and fell in love with immediately! You will too.

Here's the first round of blog reviews!

 I'm so happy with the girls we got on board to try the

Maternity or Postpartum cami and do a video review for all of you!

Look below for links to their blog post where they share their thoughts on the new line.

It was so fun seeing the real people behind the blogs through the videos!

And I loved seeing BUMPED on each of them

after we had been chatting about it!

image via lemon and lavender

Some of these girls are rocking the

postpartum and some the maternity...

ALL of them are giving away a cami of your

choice from the BUMPED line!

AND a $25 gift card to TARGET!

I know 2 or 3 of the giveaways have ended...

but go enter the ones that are still going on! hurrry!!!! ;)

Vanessa of See Vanessa Craft- Maternity

Ruthie of Ruthie Hart - Maternity

Jennifer of Baby Making Machine - Postpartum

Nicole of The Style Hatch - Maternity

Kara-Kae of The Mom Diggity - Postpartum 

Sarah of The Stroller Ballet - Postpartum

Heather of Dandy Giveaway - Maternity

Kim of Oh Sweet Joy - Postpartum

Caroline of Chocolate and Carrots - Postpartum

Moriah of Moriah Makes - Maternity

Ashley of Lemon and Lavender - Maternity

ME! Natalie of The Busy Budgeting Mama - Postpartum

Stay tuned ten more AMAZING bloggers who are

set to share their video reviews this upcoming week!!

(and MORE chances to win one of your own and a Target gift card!)

I was that crazy lady in Walmart today +Free Gifting Printable

I was going to write this blog post...

about my crazy day.

About how I took a trip to walmart because we had NO diapers.. and NO Toilet Paper.

It was a must trip. So I loaded up all three kiddos by myself and headed there.

only to end up being a shoppers' attraction with both girls in the cart, micah strapped to me, racing through the aisles to the bathroom because

sophie was screaming in pain from her stomach hurting and dry heaving

(she is super sensitive and was gagging from her tummy hurting. insane. I know)

I thought she wasn't going to make it and throw up all over the walmart floor...

so we ran for one of those recycle box/trash can things. yup. classy.

when I thought she looked better and wasn't going to throw up,

we made our dash to the bathroom....alllllll while the

LONG line of people for returns stared on horrified.

 LOVE hanging out in a public bathroom with 3 kids. it's super fun and not gross at all.

Plus loud automatic toilets are known to be LOVED by small babies.........not.

Poor thing though.. as soon as I got sophie to feel a little better we grabbed the toilet paper/diapers and she started sobbing again.. race to the bathroom!! AGAIN.

We finally ended up checking out. and if one more person told me I

had my hands full I was going to flip. flip or cry. one or the other. haha.

And what do you do when you have new toilet paper in the house....

Play with it of course!!

Later came across this and realized a certain toddler

was trying to cover her tracks..... ::cough:: sienna ::cough::

I was going to write this blog post about how some days

I feel like I'm running in circles..

Sophia came up to me wanting me to check out her hair

"I'm making it not crazy"..................

She thought it was my hair product that I put in my hair to smooth it out.

nope.

my face wash.

Oh and Micah was rocking a hand me down christmas outfit because it

was the first thing I saw that he fit in. grabbed it. he didn't leave the house like this..

I don't want to look tooooo crazy out in public.

But tonight, while snuggling with sienna before bed,

I started thinking how I don't want to post just about how hard my day was.

Of course I want moms to see that we all have hard days...

I want my readers to leave my blog relating to me..but also feeling uplifted!

I kept thinking about when someone dropped off this gift basket for us when we moved in..how I seriously wanted to cry I was so thankful for their kindness.

I feel a connection with you as my readers...

and I wish so badly we could all just do one big play date! ;)

That we could drop off meals for each other when we knew someone was having a hard day.

I kept thinking how important community is as moms.

It made me want to reach out more to my mom friends...

to not just think about my hard days, but to think about them and lift them up!

If you feel like me... and want to celebrate motherhood

and lift up your fellow mamas...

I just made up this printable for you to download and use when dropping

off something to show you care!

I asked on my blog's facebook page:

"If a fellow mama did something to show she cared,

by dropping something off,..what would you be SO HAPPY to receive?"

(click here to read the facebook status,

read what other mamas said and leave your choice!)

FREE "CELEBRATE MOTHERHOOD- LIFT UP YOUR

MOM FRIENDS" - PRINTABLE DOWNLOAD

I'm also offering, by request of a blog reader via facebook, the same design but
with my blog and 'celebrate motherhood' tiny at the bottom of each tag!
Would love for you to share our little community with other moms.
Maybe it'll be the connection that mom needs to feel a boost!
DOWNLOAD that version HERE

AND, since a lot of my readers say Mum instead of Mom..
I made up a british version as well. :)
Download the MUM Printable HERE.
and the MUM Printable with my Blog HERE.

Motherhood is hard...

and so very beautiful.

Sisters.

Please Pin, Tweet and Share the printable!

We all need to bless our fellow mamas more.

We know how some days are hard..and we aren't alone in

feeling 'happily' exhausted while taking care of our sweet babies.

So let's reach out and love on each other a little more!

I would seriously cry if someone dropped off a case of diet dr. pepper at my door.

That's all it would take! haha.

sophie update: she feels better! an hour after we got home she was back

to her normal self. must have been gas bubbles. poor little thing.

Black and White Gallery Wall up in Kitchen!

In our new rental, we have a big wall behind the eating area of our kitchen...

and I knew right away I wanted to do a gallery wall with all my black and white frames!

I'll do a more detailed post sometime soon.

Right now I just put all the frames up on the wall and

I have some different prints to update them next.

Since taking the photo below, of the frames up on the wall,

I backed up and moved the bottom row all over a little to the right. haha.

The perfectionist in my has been tweaking them. ;)

 The next morning we enjoyed eating breakfast while looking at our frames!

Excited to UPDATE the frames next! I'll be sharing what I put in them

and where the frames are all from. Super happy with how it's coming together.

Mommy Confessions

If you want to feel better about your parenting skills...keep on reading.

I love being a mom.

LOVEEEE it.

It is one of the hardest but most rewarding things I've ever done in my life.

 -- I have cried while getting dressed.

1. because everything had baby spit up on it

2. because I don't know what fits or what doesn't fit at this point.

3. because I look in the mirror some days and only see a tired mommy

and not the young fresh faced girl I feel like I used to be.

-- Sometimes I feel like I say....

 no. stop. don't do that. time out. slow down. don't put that in your mouth. don't fight. get out of the cupboard. don't lick that. no your brother isn't a motorcycle. talk quieter. get out of the bathroom. don't pull her hair. go to sleep. put your clothes back on. go to bed please.......

 WAY too many times a day.

It makes me want to go bonkers. seriously bonkers.

--I have felt overwhelmed.

--I have felt incapable

--I have felt like a failure

--I have felt like my brain was going to burst from the noise in this house.

--My laundry room has a mountain of dirty laundry.

--My bedroom has a mountain of clean laundry.

--at one point this week every single room had laundry in it.

--Many mornings I choose keeping the kids alive and the

house from burning down instead of showering.

--I have texted my husband,

while he is at work, that I was losing my mind.

the text sometimes starting with "blah sdhfjkhsjdkfdhjs"

this happens more often then I want to admit.

--Sometimes I don't have time to wash my hair for a couple days.

thank goodness for dry shampoo.

--I'm TIRED. a lot.

I always wanted to be a mom. since I was a little girl!

One thing no one ever told me...was how TIRED you will be as a parent.

Think cramming for finals times a million......haha.

But the crazy thing about "parenting exhaustion"...

is that it can suddenly be easy to handle in one sweet moment with your child.

a hug.. a giggle.. a reach for you.. it makes you forget how worn you feel...

and gives you the biggest feeling of peace.

Just knowing you are everything to that child. and this is what God is wanting from you.

 

THREE KIDS.

Sometimes it's easier to stay home... sometimes it's easier to take them out!

I just have to prepare myself mentally before I go.

I will be slower than I WANT to be.

I will probably think at one point I wish I didn't make this decision. haha.

BUT... I have gotten better at taking the whole gang out.

We once went to target. I didn't have my k'tan wrap... So I was carrying micah on my hip and the girls were in the cart. we got a lot of stares. and a lot of "you are brave!" "you have your hands full!" "do you need help?".... my reply was "oh they are being angels right now! this is a good trip." ;) which they were. I think silly straw bribery worked.

I have learned how to juggle them better.

Micah goes in the wrap. each girl gets a hand.

We have our system down, even though sometimes things get a little crazy and I'll be holding a melting down sienna while micah is in the wrap.

And that is when I get chuckles and stares from passerby's. soo fun!

Cure to any hard day... baby giggles.

You can't help but be happy when you hear them and see a jolly face.

I am learning to accept and not be so hard on myself.

But many days I wish that I could have been a better mommy...a better wife..

Sometimes I wish I trusted in God more.

Every day I pray for more patience.

I have the peace of knowing this is exactly where God wants me to be...

Now I just need to be realistic in my expectations that I set for myself.

I can do this. with HIS help. and maybe a case of diet dr pepper.