Cheerio Treats

I wanted to share this recipe with you, that I tried yesterday and haven't stopped snacking on ever since (which could be a bad thing, but oh so good). I found the recipe on Pinterest which was taken from here.

Cheerio Treats

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 5 cups Cherrios

1. In a large sauce pan, combine sugar and corn syrup.  Bring to boil over medium heat.
2. Allow mixture to boil for one minute and remove from heat.
3. Add peanut butter and vanilla to mixture and mix until smooth.
4. Add Cheerios and mix until all coated.
5. Drop mixture by spoonful onto waxed paper and allow to cool.  Enjoy.  (I get about 2 dozen from this recipe.  It all just depends on how big you make them.)

freebies

I just wanted to share some freebies I ran across this morning.

First on the list: treats.com
Treats.com is offering your first free card ordered through them, using promo code: freetreat. I ordered mine this morning and the awesome thing about this promo is you don't even pay postage! You can personalize your card by changing the wording and even adding your own photos. So excited for my husband to see his personalized card from the One Row girls!

Next up: Sneakpeeq.com
Sneakpeeq is offering free $10 to new members. I used mine to purchase a lovely Bohemian Rhapsody ring, and only paid $1 for shipping. After this purchase I ended up with free shipping and $10 more to spend towards another purchase and purchased a Fathers-Day gift for my hubby (gonna keep that a secret in case he stops by. "Hi honey!").

Bohemian Rhapsody ring found here

Also, what's great about Sneakpeeq is you gain badges with your purchases as well as if you invite 10 friend and they join you earn $10 to spend in their stores! Very exciting.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I have and have a wonderful Thursday!

Virtual Baby Shower

You read it right. A virtual baby shower. How do you ask was it "virtual"? Well, let me explain. My sister-in-law is expecting (any day now!) and I wanted to throw a shower for her. The unfortunate part is that she lives in Germany and I'm in America so it made it impossible to actually get together. Then, I had a brilliant idea: "we can throw a shower for her over Skype!"

In the past I've had relatives "join us" for my daughters birthdays via Skype and it's always been really successful, and lots of fun (one birthday my Mom was the quiet relative who sat in the corner - she was out of state drinking tea and watching the festivities - so fun!).

So, my mother-in-law and I planned it out, set the date, made sure the time difference worked for a time to throw it here AND there, and we proceeded.

We had loads of fun getting everyone together, sitting around and chatting with the parents-to-be in Germany. My mother-in-law and I opened the presents up for her and showed them for her as we went along and took lots of pictures. My mother-in-law also made Jenny (sister-in-law) a corsage for her to wear but unfortunately it didn't make it there in time for the shower.

We figured we had to be really creative on how to keep Jenny incorporated into her shower even though she couldn't be present. We played games that Jenny also had there with her so she could play along with us. One of the games played had to do with guessing which countries word for "baby" was which country (there was a list of words and we had to guess which country it belonged to). I loved this idea since she lives far away, and has traveled a lot, so it really pertained to her.

Also, the guest book was a finger print tree guest book. I thought this was really neat, because again, she wasn't able to be present. So, to get her relatives prints who were here on this tree that she can hang in baby's room was a much more physical and tangible guest book compared to just signing a name.

Finally, when my mother-in-law goes to visit Jenny in just a short while she will take some of the decorations for Jenny and will also do up a party there for her, and make similar foods that were here so she can experience the shower there. So neat! We had a lovely time and I hope you enjoy the photos!

 baked french toast casserole with a raspberry syrup

 brunch bake

 the food table

 baked french toast casserole close up

 fruit kabobs

 guest book "signing" (finger print) table

 Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes and Mini Donut Muffins

 Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

 Lilacs (great for a purple and green themed party)

 All of the wonderful gifts

 Me with my mom and daughter and the parents to be in Germany via Skype!

 Mine Donut Muffins

 Beautiful smiling mother-to-be Jenny

 Baby's name sign

 Fresh lemons in the Pink Lemonade

 Grandma chatting with the parents

 After all the guests "signed"

 Our cone-cat joined the festivities

the pom poms I made 

reflections

I just want to take a moment and reflect on how things are going lately. Life isn't always easy. Especially now that I'm a wife and mother (and a stay-at-home-mom at that). I find myself feeling secluded, feeling as though there's no one to tell about how things are going without putting someone off (or even myself at that) and so repressing and ignoring these feelings, hoping that they just go away. I can't complain, and honestly, that's not what I'm doing. But, I can say that there are some things I'm fighting with on a daily basis, and as I'm discovering, they're quite similar to what most mothers deal with, especially in the early years of motherhood.

My family and I are in a big transition period of our lives, without real direction in sight. It's easy to get overly discouraged. I thought to myself on a walk today that sometimes I feel like something is going to come along and "be the straw that breaks the camels back." There's just so much iffy'ness in regards to the direction for our family, that sometimes I feel as though we're simply hanging in the balance. Without a real push in any direction it's easy to feel lost.

I know God tells us not to move until He directs us to do so, and thus, that's what we're doing. Waiting. Not moving. Trying to be patient while doing so, and not always succeeding.

I do get discouraged.

I do push myself out of my funk and look back to Him.

But, it's an ebb and flow.

It's sometimes (well, usually) easy to get frustrated and discouraged because God hasn't spoken about where to go/what to do.

This is something I remind myself.

He led me where I am today. He spoke to me and guided me HERE. He will not leave me where I am. We will be guided again. As long as we wait for His timing it will be perfect.

I've seen, first hand, how this is true.

WIWW

Turns out this is one of the only things I've sort of been "on top of" lately. And it's not even Wednesday. Haha! Sorry for that. But, I have been getting the pictures taken, which I'm happy about :)

 cardigan: thrifted

Tank: Target

Jeans: F21

Shoes: Target

 Top: Target

Necklace:F21

Pants: F21

 Dress: A gift

Leggings: Charlotte Russe

 *kisses*

 Dress: A gift from my mother-in-law brought back from Thailand

Leggings: Charlotte Russe

Dress: Target

Jeans: F21

Necklace: F21

Sandals: Walmart

at my sister-in-laws virtual baby shower

dress: thrifted

belt: F21

Leggings: Old Navy

linking up to:

<a href="http://thepleatedpoppy.com/blog/" _mce_href="http://thepleatedpoppy.com/blog/"><img alt="pleated poppy" height="125" width="125" border="0" src="http://thepleatedpoppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/wiww125.png" _mce_src="http://thepleatedpoppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/wiww125.png" /></a>

WIWW

So, this week has been a button up shirt, tucked in the front of my jeans, kind of week. You know, looking back on my fashion of years passed I would have rather DIED instead of tucking my shirts in.

Funny how some fashion don'ts grow on you ;)

 Jeans: F21

Belt: F21

Button up shirt: Thrifted American Eagle

 The whole shabang: F21 

 Jeans: Target

Top: Garage sale (for $1! can I get an "Amen!"?)

 First off, I'll go ahead and admit, No. This was not from this past week.

But, I forgot it for last week, and it's a cute family photo, so I just HAD to add it. Wouldn't you?

I mean, come on, my girls are phenomenally beautiful. I love showing them off ;)

Dress: Garage sale

Cardigan: Target

Jeans: F21

Busy home. Looking at my girls = a good reason to smile.

Top: thrifted

Cardigan: Thrifted (but from Target)

Belt: F21

Jeans: F21

linking up to:
<a href="http://thepleatedpoppy.com"><img alt="the pleated poppy blog" height="125" width="125"  src="http://thepleatedpoppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/button1252.gif" /></a>

reflective photos

So, this has a lot to do with me, as it does with practically everyone else and their cousin.
Photos of yourself and posting them online.
Why do we do it?
Are we self obsessed?
I wonder that sometimes when I post my own photos.
Do people think that about me when I post a photo I took of myself or someone took of me?
Most photos (if not all) that are posted of ourselves have been screened prior to posting/sharing.
We do this because we have a certain image we want to put out there.
Usually this image is a good one (hopefully) that we're trying to present.
So, the question I have, is, how many of these photos that we like of ourselves are we posting?
If we post a ton, are we basically telling those around us that we're self obsessed?
That we think we're super hot/sexy and haha we're going to rub that into your face?
Well, I'm here to say that, no, I'm not doing that.
I don't think people (yes some are) but not all are doing this.
It's healthy take a nice photo of oneself and wish to share it because, hey, goll darn it, we think we're beautiful!
I think it's healthy to post photos of ourselves that we enjoy.
The internet has opened up a HUGE venue to do this.
For self expression. IMMEDIATE self expression.
Perusing my Facebook homepage it's flooded with self-portraits.
Yes, I'm going to go as far as to call them self-portraits because they're personal self expressions.
This isn't a post responding to some negative comments, it's my own self reflection on my own photos that I've taken.
I enjoy taking photos of myself because when I get a good one (which takes a few shots) I can look at it and think "I'm beautiful."
My own personal Glamor shot.