Entering Blog Giveaways

Have you ever entered a blog giveaway? I know, I know, some of you are thinking, why waste my time, I'll never win those things or even that they are fixed! NOT SO! I can say initially I didn't enter many. I entered a handful, then the unexpected happened --- I WON! ***SQUEAL***

I now enter giveaways nearly every day, and I am still winning. I'm not saying that I win the biggest prizes (however I do keep trying), but I win great prizes everytime. Even if it's not something that you would use (my breast pumping days are over) you probably know someone who would be thrilled with it. I have several pregnant friends and I keep on entering those baby days giveaways because I might just be able to win a great gift for them. Many of the giveaways are HUGE, and others a on a smaller scale, but they are sure fun!

With the holidays coming up I urge you to start looking today. They are literally everywhere in blogland. In fact I'll start you off with a few blogs that specialize in giveaways. Plus just to make you a little jealous I'll include a list of some of the things I've won. ;)

I've won:

* personailzed monkey - I use this as a behavior reward
* set of 6 race cars
* woman's shaving kit
* a sippy cup
* a great Disney penny bank (very exciting for the girls!)
* 250 business cards - I used them as Mommy Cards
* 100 flyers - I'll be using these to promote an event at our church
* Rock'n Phonics DVD's
* a homeschool t-shirt
* a Phonics Flipper (hand created by a bloggie Mommy)
* money management software
* ink saving software
* a beautiful necklace I gifted my Mom

plus so much more!

Check out some of these sites for great giveaways!

- The Tightwad in Utah
- Audrey's Giveaways
- Giveaways for Mom

You never know what you might just win! Think gifts, someone you know may just want those crazy socks that you would never wear ;)

Disneyland Recap #1

Disneyland is truely the happiest place on Earth, hmmm, well maybe it's the happiest place most of the time, lol. The girls managed to each find a reason to bicker with a sister while we were there. Ahh, such is life.

Overall we had a fantastic time. The first day we were there we headed to Critter Country and met up with Eeyore and Pooh for some great pictures. The girls were very excited to see the characters close up.

We were so excited to finally be in Disneyland that we only took one break all day. We went back to the hotel for a quick break and to move our luggage into the hotel room. We rushed right back to Disneyland, eating while we walked. :) A little crazy excited right? YES!!

Knowing that we were going to be there for a week meant that we didn't feel like we had to rush anything. It was so nice to let the kids run around Tarzan's Treehouse and Tom Sawyer's Island for as long as they wanted. They LOVED it all! It was hilarious watching them run as fast as they could for a few feet, then stop to let Baby Big Girl catch up.

Joy oh joy, we've arrived!

Let's pretend I did this in the order I actually should have, okeedohkie? Moving right along...

Yay! After 7 long hours miserably contently strapped into carseats and forced watching movies on the portable DVD players (Yeah for Grandma's reminding us how valuable these are), we are in Disneyland!

First stop HOTEL! Let's unload some of this stuff! hmmmmm, not so much huh? Okay well the hotel decided that we would be unable to check in early, which we pretty much knew before hand, but thought we *might* get lucky. On to plan B, dressing in the McDonalds bathroom.

Don't laugh, the kids were serious. No embarassment here, we were heading to Disneyland. We donned our matching tie dyed shirts and did our hair in the parking lot (well we did the girls hair, I was smart enough to do mine at home).

Off to the happiest place on earth we troted with pep in our step and wonderment donning our eyes. The girls were so excited! First stop, whooo hooo! As we entered Disneyland Alice and The Mad Hatter were preforming right inside the gates. PERFECT! Spunky Girl volunteered to dance with Alice when she asked, A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E! I nearly cried, I know I'm a sap! It was the perfect start to our Disneyland vacation.

Disneyland Here We Come!

In just three short days we will be headed to the happiest place on Earth! The girls are insanely excited, which means that we are getting excited as well. Now don't get me wrong, I can't wait to get to Disneyland, but I'm also the one that does all the packing for Disneyland. If you don't know, packing for 7 people, one of which is bound to have at least 2 accidents while in Mouse Land is no small feat.

I let go of some of my control issues and allowed the girls to choose their clothes. I have this crazy need to SEE my kids at all times, and we've found through trial and error that it's way easier to maintain possession of the kids while they are in matching, brightly colored clothes. Obviously this would require some thought, since I had the great idea to donate a large percentage of their clothes about 8 months ago. (This BTW did make my life a little easier!) We kept their favorites, well guess what - NONE of them share a favorite color. After several hours, seriously, like 5 hours, of shopping we managed to find 8 matching shirts for each of the girls.

The living room is taken over with stuff for Disneyland. It's a hot mess right now! I'm telling myself that it's okay since I know it's only a few more days till we head out. A friend asked today how I was going to get all of this stuff into the suburban, hmmmm. I'll take a picture of it, I know I can do it.

Off to school the big girls now. Mass amounts of schooling to finish before we leave town.