Top Ten Reasons Being A Newborn Is Horribly Difficult

 

Hi!  I'm new here.  At first glance, you would think I have the easiest life in the world: My every whim is seen to by willing, even eager slaves parents, I eat when I want, sleep when I want, and even receive praise for bodily functions usually discouraged in polite company.

But don't be fooled.  My life is far more difficult than it appears! Don't believe me?  Check out my list:

10. If I don't get my 20 hours of sleep, I get C.R.A.N.K.Y. don't even go there.

9. Speaking of which, these people keep odd hours. They sleep during the night time and don't eat nearly often enough. For some reason, they seem to expect me to adjust to THEIR schedule. They even get a bit grumpy when I refuse to conform...

8. What would be a tiny gas bubble for you is bigger than my whole stomach... So yeah, I think that's enough said.

7. Actually, no. That deserves a little more discussion. Can you even imagine the amount of discomfort that kind of flatulence can cause???

6. Imagine expressing the desire to go outside, only to be carried up the stairs, down the hall, and dumped in one's bed? Frustrating doesn't begin to cover it.  I just wish I could move by myself!


5. Trying to have a conversation or express a simple need is very frustrating when my only mode of communication is to cry.  Obviously, I have different types: I scream when I hurt, I wail when I need a clean bottom, I fuss when I am hungry and I whimper when my brothers get all up in my face.  It doesn't matter though, none of these people are very great at interpreting my signals...

4. My head is half my body weight. As fun as being a bobble head looks, it isn't. So stop laughing already.

3. I have these strange appendages that keep whacking me in the head no matter how desperately I try to control them. They invariably attack most ferociously at mealtime. My own body coming between me and my dinner? The humanity!

2. Pretty sure I know much more than these crazies who call themselves my parents. They tell me this will continue until I grow old enough to have my own, and suddenly, all bets are off... But I'm not buying.

1. I'm a grown up spirit squashed into teeny tiny quarters (Seriously. Have you seen my itsy toes?!?). It is nearly impossible to contain this much awesome, folks!!

Photo Credits: Davison Photography

One Lucky Pickle is TWO Years Old! (Giveaways CLOSED!)

Boy have we learned a lot about ourselves and about blogging in the past two years.  It feels like only yesterday that we were giggling on the phone together, trying to decide what to call our new blog!  Since then we have added three children to our families (one each!!), Lauren moved twice, and we have written over a hundred posts. 

And this is what we have been up to most recently:

Setting up a huge birthday giveaway for our most fabulous Pickle readers!  We are tickled that YOU are here with us!  Every comment, e-mail, like, share, and pin that you send our way still makes us giddy.  We want to say thanks, so we've partnered with some of our favorite online shops to get some goodies into your hands!!

First up, a set of 3 prints from Sea What I Sea Designs.  Click on the picture for more details and to enter the giveaway!




Next we have a hand knit monster of your choice from our very own Lauren at All Stuft Up.  Click on the picture for more details and to enter the giveaway.

Check out this gift basket filled with Younique Cosmetics (including the magical mascara that Jamie reviewed) from Crystal Chidester. Click on the image for more details and to enter the giveaway.

And finally, we have a Disney's Brave inspired necklace from Fandom Treasures!  Click on the picture for more details and to enter the giveaway.

Thanks to these awesome partners for some seriously nifty loot!  And a super big thank you to our One Lucky Pickle readers--you are the reason we do what we do.  I hope you win!

All of the giveaways start now (what are you waiting for?!?) and end Friday June 20th at 11:59 p.m. MST. They are open to all U.S. residents at least 18 years of age.  We will announce the winner on Saturday, so check back then!

Fandom Treasures Necklace Giveaway (GIVEAWAY CLOSED!)

I have been following Fandom Treasures ever since Melanie started her store.  I'm a big fan of all things Disney, and her necklaces are spot on--such a celebration of the magic.  Now she has expanded to other brands of awesome--so if Star Wars (I know, technically now Disney too), Friends, or Sherlock (just to name a few) are more up your alley, she's got you covered!

Which one is my favorite, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you--I own her Tangled Inspired Necklace.  I actually won it in a giveaway (I never win anything!!  It was SO AWESOME!!)!!

Now it's your turn to win!!  And don't worry if you don't ever win anything either--it's time to "Change Your Fate."  (See what I did there?  That's what the necklace says...)  And yes, I said that in a Scottish accent in my head--did you?

The giveaway starts today and ends Friday, June 20th at 11:59 p.m. MST. They are open to all U.S. residents at least 18 years of age. We will announce a winner on Saturday the 21st, so check back then.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Get ready to Par-TAY!

The fun starts on Monday--see you there!!

Pet Rocks

With the sound of the final bell ringing in their ears the kids burst through the doors of the school in a flurry of excitement. Bikes and scooters parading down the streets in a race to freedom... by the looks on their faces you'd think they were experiencing the heat of the sun on their faces for the very first time. And boy does it feel GOOD! 

School had been out for all of 20 minutes when Addie came up to me and said, "So mom! What kind of fun things are we going to do today?!" 

Uh... I dunno. RELAX? Play outside? Celebrate the fact that I get to take a brief hiatus from driving back and forth to school 3 times a day? Rejoice in the end of homework and spelling tests for a few months?! 

My brilliant suggestions were met with doubtful eyes and scowling faces. 

Shocker. 

"Why don't we make pet rocks?"

"What's a pet rock?"

"Oh my sweet children. Prepare for some serious fun! We're going on a walk!" 

We put Zach in the stroller and set off in search of the perfect rocks. We picked up a few friends along our journey, and they helped us scout out which rocks looked the most like different animals. 

"This one is shaped like a unicorn!" "This one would be a perfect butterfly!" 

Once we were happy with our collection, we busted out our handy dandy placements, and the paint!

(We seriously use these placemats for everything! They wipe clean so easily!) 

The kids had so much fun creating what started out to be pet rocks, and quickly transformed into abstract art. No matter- it was still a blast, and most importantly it kept the kids happy and engaged for hours! 

The baby took a break for a light snack...

And some much needed gardening. :) 

But for the most part, we spent the entire afternoon working on our pet rock project. 

You may wonder, after all that effort, why aren't there any pictures of the finished product? Well, the thing is... we left the rocks out in the sun to dry. My 3 year old decided the rocks looked hot and needed some water. So she dutifully filled up the watering can and gave them a drink. 

We now have a rainbow colored sidewalk, and naked rocks. 

(Turns out Crayola washable paints REALLY are washable!) 

Needless to say there were tears and apologies, followed by popsicles and promises of another pet rock adventure another day. :)

What kind of boredom busters have you been up to this week?

Closet Playroom Remodel

Sometimes I feel a little claustrophobic. We are a family of 6 living in a little over 1000 sq. feet. I know that we are incredibly blessed to have a home to call our own, and I LOVE our house! I really do! But there are days where I feel like the walls are caving in, and on those days I spend way too much time thinking about my dream home… A beautiful 3000 sq ft home nestled safely at the end of a cul-de-sac, with enough space for us to breathe. Surrounded by trees and a luscious garden, and a yard where my kids can run amuck… and we’ll have a garage, and a kitchen with enough counter space to cook a meal… sigh… It’s a beautiful dream. 

But it’s just that. A dream.   

One of the biggest items on my wish list is a playroom. I’d love to have a space where the kids can imagine, play, and create… and where I can close the door to contain the mess and pretend like it isn't there if I have to. This week while I was doing some deep cleaning in our closet under the stairs I decided… hey… if I want a playroom so badly, why don’t I just make one?!

So I did.

Now I’m totally kicking myself for not taking a before picture of what this closet looked like. But I didn’t realize I was going to be doing anything fun or exciting when I started my de-junking mission that morning. Sorry! There are no pictures of the total disaster that existed under my stairs. Imagine with me for a moment a closet so scary that you didn’t dare open the door lest something fall out of its precariously stacked location and knock you on the noggin. The floor was so littered with puzzle pieces, Legos, Barbies, and broken toys that you couldn't even see the floor.  In fact, there was no floor- just a knee deep swamp of despair.

True story. 

I took a deep breath and dug in. The first thing I did was empty the closet and get rid of anything and everything we don’t actually use. Then I vacuumed up the bag of powdered sugar that had apparently exploded underneath all the mess. How it got there in the first place I have no idea. After the space was nice and clean, I decided I wanted to paint! After all, what’s a playroom without some fun color?! I had a can of blue paint left over from an old project and used that to brighten up the space.

While the paint was drying, I organized the toys. An old wicker basket now holds all the dress up clothes. I happened to have some empty organizing bins in the attic, so I pulled those out and used them to store small toys and dress up accessories like hats, shoes and necklaces. (Ignore the ugly sticker... I don't know why I didn't pull it off.) Then I used an empty container from Sam’s Club that used to contain cheese puffs (I mean… uh… organic chia-flax-spinach-kale chips) to store all the play food.

This over the door organizer holds library books, and a few favorites from our bookshelf… I plan to rotate through them so we don’t always end up reading the same books.

 

One of the biggest reasons I wanted a playroom was to provide some creative space for my kids. My older girls LOVE to make crafts and they just end up all over the house and stuffed into every crevice of their closets. To solve the clutter issue I strung some twine on the wall, and used clothespins to hang up their masterpieces. If they want to put a new piece of art up, and there isn’t any room, they have to decide which piece they have to retire. That way I’m no longer the bad guy who sneaks old art projects into the garbage when no one is looking because I just can’t handle the clutter anymore. 

I also found two child-sized wooden chairs in my attic that had been sitting up there far too long so I pulled them out and stuck them in the "playroom." (This is why I have a hard time getting rid of things! You’ll never know when you need them again!) 

This totally rad ottoman now holds all the art supplies and also acts like a little table for pretend tea parties.

An empty tin is now the home for the stamps and glue sticks.

And as a finishing touch I decided to make a chalkboard out of an old picture frame and some chalkboard paint I’ve been holding onto for a while. I hung it over the ugly metal utility access panel on the wall… because why not? J

I seriously love this room! I know it’s small, but it’s so functional now! My kids spend hours in here every day, and I don’t know who is happier about it- them or ME! (Pretty sure it’s me.) They play dress up, do art projects, play house and their favorite make believe game- super spy! My oldest has also been using this room as a quiet place to do her homework. 

I think my favorite part of this whole project is that for the most part I just used items I already had on hand. The only two things I bought were the red ottoman and the super funky rug… both on sale at Ross! Score!

(bonus points if you can find spot the tiger and the yellow rose who snuck into this picture.) 

This project was so much fun, and it was a great reminder to me that THIS home can be my dream home. I know it's small, but we I honestly believe that someday we will look back on our years spent here and realize they were some of the happiest years of our lives. Some days I may feel like we don't have "enough" but I  am learning to that I have the ability to take what I have right now and make it enough. It’s all about being happy, wherever you are J

Help Me With Mother's Day!

Eeek.  Yeah, I know--Mother's Day is on Sunday.

I've been thinking about it for months, truly I have!

I've just been so busy baking my very own person-al Mother's Day gift (see what I did there?  Snort!!  Cuz I'm going to have a baby in three weeks...Okay, I'm so not funny...), I haven't settled on what to create for all the mothers in my life!!

What are YOU gifting to your very most special mother?

I was GOING to get a Bouq for my Mom and Mom-in-law, but I'm a little late for that...  I suppose better late than never applies, right?  I mean, who's going to turn their nose up at a Bouq?

But I still need something to give them on Sunday.  I'm kinda wishing I could reuse some of my past projects.  If you are in the same boat as I am, feel free to give these quick, fun projects a try!

My mother-in-law still has her jar o' flower pens sitting by her phone--they don't walk off as easily as other pens.  I guess all the boys that live there would rather find a more manly pen--PERFECT!!  The downside is that she doesn't need any more...but I'll take the win.

I suppose I could redo the photo gift box.  Moms love pictures, right?  Heaven knows I have enough paper to make a MILLION photo boxes. 

But I'm hoping for something new, something fast, and something amazing.  So go ahead, comment quick, and give me some good ideas.

Pretty please?!?