My fun factory video and Lenovo Laptop giveaway X's 2....

you have to head over to Mommy PR and Dear Crissy to enter for a chance to win this awesome laptop!!! Good luck but I hope I win!!

Here's the video I made for the contest!

Holiday Treat (watch out it's addictive)!!

I have not posted on this blog in quite awhile but I have an opportunity to participate in the Holiday Open House Giveaway Event and it requires you publish your own Holiday Post to enter!

I am going to go with a post about my most favorite holiday treat that is great to bring with you just about anywhere over the holiday season!

Some call it Christmas Crack, some prefer Reindeer Crunch but you can call it what ever you wish! Send this in a cute box/bag with your kids to school for teacher gifts. You could add this to a cute ornament for a pollyanna gift or simply make for the dessert table at any holiday celebration!

The directions:

Things You'll Need:

• 1C butter
• 1C light brown sugar
• 40 saltines
• 12oz chocolate chips
• chopped nuts
• foil
• pam spray
• deep pan

Step 1:

Bring sugar and butter to a boil in a pot on the stove, reduce the heat to med heat for 3-5 minutes until sugar and butter are completely mixed.
Foil a 15x10 jelly roll pan and spray foil well with Pam Spray
Line the pan all over with the saltine crackers

Step 2:

Pour butter and sugar mixture all over the crackers & gently spread all over.
Put pan in the oven and bake it for about 7 minutes at 375 degrees.
Remove pan from oven & pour chocolate chips over the top of cracker mixture.

Step 3:

Let the chips melt slightly and then spread the chocolate all over with a knife.
Take chopped nuts and sprinkle them all over the chocolate.
Stick pan in fridge for 2 hours to let set.

Step 4:

Crack it into uneven pieces and you are DONE!!

Long time no blog, but here's an update!!

Ok so Jamesen is fast asleep in his crib as I'm writing this.... Melissa and I have been putting this off for soooo long now because well.... I guess I just didn't think he could do it!

In the beginning I just couldn't put him down.. for real the first 6 weeks Jamesen was attached to me. Then he really did sleep in his co-sleeper for awhile.

THEN....

We just had to get some sleep. Jamesen was not the happiest baby in the middle of the night... we ended up ABUSING the swing... not on purpose but it was the only way he would sleep.... I felt horrible but really we had to get some sleep. Well as most of you know Jamesen is not a petite child. Just at 6 months he was TOO BIG for the swing... SHIT!

So I took him upstairs one day and laid him in my bed with me and patted him, hummed to him and hugged him to sleep... I was so happy at that point that I was able to get him to sleep without the swing that I wasn't really worried about it.

Fast forward another 6 months.... Now he's 28 pounds... And we aren't the smallest chicks... so all night long one of us was balancing on the edge of the bed and the other acting as a punching bag/kicking bag. Last wednesday I had it! I had already read the book: The sleep easy solution... and was psyched to start the sleep training.

Last night was the first night Jamesen was to go in his crib. We got a late start because we had a family party but we wanted to start anyway.... enough with the excuses! He went in at 9:20 and stayed in the crib until 8:30 this morning. He cried for about 10 minutes (I balled my eyes out) and went to sleep! WOW is all I have to say. He did cry out about 3 times during the night but by the time I got to his door he was settling down and fell back asleep. I just couldn't believe it!

The nap today didn't go AS well... He did fall asleep after exactly 8 minutes. He "cried out" on and off after the first 45 minutes for the rest of the time he was in his crib but not enough for me to go and rescue him! He was in his room for 2 and a half hours but didn't get a lot of sleep... So when I went to get him he was tired...

I wore him out today... he walked up and down the block with Brianna and her friend Brenna, jumped on the trampoline, ran around the house in a circle (I opened the gates on either side of the playroom), and played with Nathan (my cousin's 5 month old that I watch on Monday's and Tuesday's).

Melissa was late coming home today... she had to stop at the grocery store for some much needed items. When she got home we fed Jamesen, I gave him a bath and played with him in his room. Melissa read him a book on his floor (he won't sit still for me to read to him) and we both gave him kisses and hugs. We put his sound machine on, turned out the light and I laid him down in the crib. I though he was trying to get up so I RAN out of the room. I was fully prepared to hear him SCREAM! To my surprise he didn't make a peep... And still at 10 he hasn't cried out or woken up. I just can't believe it!

So.. does this make us bad parents? We have obviously been keeping our poor boy up at night. I feel so guilty... I didn't think he could do it. Well now I know and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Wish us luck! We both feel like the other shoe is about to drop! This has been so easy so far.

He's still sleeping and quiet!! 10:07 PM...

Saturday Morning at our house.....

Thought this was sooo cute... The kids watching the Simpsons Movie together bright and early on the weekend!!

Just cute pics...

These are pictures from today... We had to go out in the rain this morning to bring dry clothes to Brianna at the school because she got caught in the down pour along with 11 other kids... We also went for a walk because the sun came out and it was beautiful for a bit!

Oh and Jamesen is 34 weeks today! He'll be 8 months on the 11th... (also my wife's Birthday!)

Touchy subject....

I ran into this video when Jamesen was about 4 months old... Before seeing this I had no idea what a circumcision entailed.... I just knew that it wasn't for me or my son... I just wish more people researched the history and purpose of circumcision before they closed their minds and thought that circumcision is the only choice!

So here's the video I watched... when I watched it I was in tears.... Please watch it so that you really know what happens to your newborn son when the nurses whisk them away and assure you that it is a quick and painless procedure!

This is amazing!!

From reading about it on the website it sounds like a pretty reputable and "non-hoaxy" program! I was never one that liked the idea of throwing your baby in the water "because they know how to hold their breath" but this is different.... I would love to take Jamesen but they only do it in Arizona now. I did sign up to request that an instructor come to us but their has to be 30 families in the area for them to consider traveling!! Watch the video...


http://www.childdrowningprevention.com/index.html