Field Trip to Pizza Rita!

We went to Pizza Rita this morning for a co-op field trip. The owner gave us a tour, let the kids make the pizzas (above is Maddox putting cheese on one, that's all the cheese he thought the pizza needed), showed them how they mix the dough, etc. Each kid got to take home a ball of the dough to put in the oven with butter, sugar, and cinnamon to make a dessert pizza. We'll be doing that after nap. Then everyone sat down to eat pizza and drink pop. Then everyone went to a nearby park to play. Maddox had a great time!

At a Friend's Birthday Party...

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Maddox Off Roadin'

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Why Maddox won't be picking out my new car...when we decide to buy one...

So we were at Home Depot waiting in Dumpy the Truck while Shawn returned the power rake. A particular vehicle drove by and I pointed it out to Maddox. I said "LOOK! That's one of the cars Mommy wants to buy, you know later, but isn't it COOL?!?!" He shakes his head no and points to what HE thinks Mommy should buy, a Cub Cadet Lawn Tractor.

And the Winner Is...

Congratulations to Marilyn
from Yummy Things & Cupcake Dreams!
You're the winner of my Bloggy Giveaway
for a $5 Starbucks card!

Hiking at Indian Painted Rocks in Another Montage!

So Tuesday night we took Maddox hiking at Indian Painted Rocks, then to Didier's for frozen yogurt. Didier's has a different non-dairy flavor everyday and on Tuesdays a medium dish is only $1.69! (no, this is not a paid advertisement) He had a great time! It was hard to get him away from the river, that kid can throw rocks for hours. Check out the montage!

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Houston we have a ...

Problem. A concern. An issue. A dilemma. I think you get the idea. We're not sure what to do. We recently bought laminate flooring (Pergo) for our entire house and have started putting it down room by room. Currently we have 3 rooms done. Here comes the problem: Duncan (our husky) can't handle the new floor. When I say he can't handle, I mean he CAN'T. HANDLE. We tried *helping* him by holding his collar to make him try it out. The second all four of his feet touch the new floor he freaks out and starts scrambling like in a cartoon with all four paws going every which way, then he falls down. I feel I need to mention that this is the same dog who has had $2000 worth of knee surgery, we DO NOT want him to fall down! So far we've only put the new floor in 3 of the rooms he hardly goes in, but the plan is to put it everywhere. Everywhere except the bathrooms, but he can't live in the bathroom. And before you even suggest it he can't live outside either. He's a part of the family who lives inside, plus he's too stupid to use his doghouse, and I'd be worried that he was getting frostbite or heat stroke or something. (We're not getting rid of him either!) We can't exactly put runners thru the entire house everywhere he might want to go, even if we did at some point he'd have to get off the runner, because I'm not covering my awesome new floor with carpet. We've thought about cutting his nails really short, maybe his nails are too long and he's having a hard time not slipping. We've thought about lightly sedating him to chill him out a little so then we can try out the floor again and maybe, just maybe he won't freak out. These are the next things we're going to try. However, these may not work, so I'm opening this post up to suggestions. PLEASE, solve my problem Internets!

It's Here!

This Giveaway is now CLOSED!

It's Here! The Bloggy Carnival is here! Head on over to Bloggy Giveaways to check out the hundreds of giveaways going on this week. Last time there were over 600! It'll blow your mind! Check out what I've won in the past here or here. Now for what I'm giving away this time...drum roll please... a $5 Starbucks giftcard! I know, I know. I lack creativity. This is the same thing I've given away for the last three Bloggy Carnivals, but everyone likes this prize so I'm offering it up again. Maybe next time I'll think of something more creative. Maybe. So go forth and enter, enter, enter to win. Good times!

My giveaway is open to all US and Canadian residents, whether you have a blog or not, the cost of shipping is covered. To enter just leave a comment (if you don't have a blog be sure to leave an e-mail address so I can contact you) on this post by noon, Friday April 25th. I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner that afternoon. Good Luck!

BTW...If you have a moment please click HERE to offer up some advice to help me solve my problem, I'd really appreciate it!

First Yard Sale of the Season

So Maxie and I ventured out at 7:30 this morning (I with Starbucks in hand) to make the first yard sale rounds of the season. We left the boys at home with their Dads. There weren't too many sales today, but it was nice to get out, and gave us a taste of what's to come. My two purchases came to a grand total of $7. Maxie bought a lot more than I did this time out.

I bought this Spider Man fuzzy foam chair for $3. Maddox doesn't know who Spider Man is but it's the same type of chair Joaquin (Maxie's son) has that Maddox really likes and I wanted to have another chair for when Joaquin comes over. Brought it home, took off the cover and washed it, and now it looks brand new and Maddox loves it.

Then I bought this adorable farm animal framed picture for $4. (it's pretty big) I hung it in his room and he loves it too! All in all I think I did really well and am very happy with my purchases.

And Now for a Blues Montage! (I LOVE these things)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So we just dropped everything and got the hell out of dodge last night. Headed for the cabin. Shawn's Dad (or Grandpa Dale to Maddox) was out there helping remodel the kitchen. Maddox had a blast, loves to throw the rocks in the water! We've never seen so much wildlife up there before. Saw a couple of Eagles, a moose (even for a lady moose it was BIG), and several...I'll call them groupings of deer. I'd call them herds of deer, but how many deer do there have to be for it to be considered a herd? The most we saw together were 7. We stopped counting deer after 15. Late night for Maddox, didn't get home until 9, might be able to talk Shawn into going out again Sunday.

Lickin' the Cupcake Batter Spoon...In a Funk MONTAGE!

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Year's Supply of Reddi-Wip and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

Who doesn't love ice cream? I thought y'all should know about this contest too. Head over to Table for Five for your chance to win a year's supply of Reddi-wip (2 cans a month for 12 months) AND a year's supply of Ben & Jerry's ice cream (2 pints a month for 12 months)! YUM!

(HURRY! The contest ends April 29th!)

Contest for the kiddos...

Head over to The Opinionated Parent to check out their awesome giveaway from Lily Bean Market of a brown bag lunch! I think their stuff is so cute! Maddox loves to "cook", real food or not so I'd bet he would love it if we won this! I especially like the bag of potato chips.

I'm at it Again...

I've been winning stuff like crazy again! I keep telling you people to check out Prizey, I really think you should. Here are the two latest prizes I've won:

From the Gifted Grasshopper I won 10 Party Totes: This gift set will include our miniature signature Gifted Grasshopper tote bag, a soft covered book and our signature Gifted Grasshopper glasses, pencil and sticky notes.

Then from Goody Blog I won the Red Vines Licorice Giveaway! We'll have tons of licorice over at our house for quite a while. WooHoo!

I think I should also take a moment to inform you that over at Bloggy Giveaways they'll be hosting another Carnival starting next Monday, April 21st. By now, you should know all about the carnival. Every time I hold a giveaway here at my blog, linked to the carnival, and every time I also win at least one prize. Don't remember? Click here or here. Last time there were over 600 giveaways! That's over 600 different things you might win! You should check it out!

FINALLY got the video to work...and in a montage no less

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Speech Therapy Update

People have been wondering how Maddox's speech therapy has been going. So far nothing earth shattering. He's trying to talk more, and we're starting to hear some new sounds coming out of his mouth. The original estimate was about 6 months, give or take, to meet the objectives of his IFSP. (Individualized Family Service Plan) I'm not so sure. He really likes Tammy (his speech therapist) but he's not super cooperative. At one point on Thursday, she was trying to get him to make a certain sound, she looked at me and said "He's REALLY smart". (Code for he's not doing what I need him to do, he's always looking for the loophole) He might just be a lawyer some day. I told her that he doesn't usually work for free. She breaks out the Coco Puffs and "magically" he starts to participate. Last week was his first full week of speech therapy so time will tell.

Crazy Dinner...

So we went to IHOP for dinner tonight. Breakfast is Maddox's favorite meal of the day. Little did we know that they have a "Horton Hears a Who" inspired breakfast. (how could we NOT know? we must live under a rock most of the time, we never know what's going on) Pictures of it were plastered all over the place. Three guesses what Maddox wanted for dinner?! We decided a little extra sugar probably wouldn't kill him, and since we wish they would have had something like this when we were kids...we let him have it. (We're getting old so no guarantee that even if "they" did have something like this we would remember it) Check it out:

This was the Beezlenut Splash that we ordered for everyone to share. My personal opinion is that it was gross, but Maddox thought it was awesome. It's lemon-lime pop with chunks of cherry and berry blue Jell-O in it. Jell-O that you suck through a straw. I think I should mention that sucking Jell-O through a straw is just wrong. Shawn thought it made the Jell-O edible. (he hates Jell-O...who hates Jell-O??) To each his own.

This was the Grand Finale...*drum roll*...Who-Cakes. Pancakes covered with Boysenberry and Blueberry glaze, topped with rainbow chocolate chips and a pink lollipop. (the lollipop was hidden first thing then secretly disposed of) These things were so sweet Maddox gave up after a while and asked to eat my scrambled eggs, which he normally won't touch. So, as far as dinner goes, the only way it could have been any less-healthy was if we would have let him eat straight up candy. I have to say that, while it was probably another bad parenting moment on our part, Shawn and I had a really great time trying these things with Maddox and watching his face light up when they brought him that stack of Who-Cakes. Hopefully a crappy dinner every once in a while won't kill him.

$18 later... who knew?

Every year near our home (in between Fred Meyer and Kmart) a carnival comes to town during Spring Break. Tonight we took Maddox to his first carnival. We were a little hesitant. It really could have gone either way (love or hate) but we took a chance. I'm glad we did because Maddox had a GREAT time! The only problem was that he didn't want to go on the kiddie rides. He wanted to go on the Octopus (yeah right, like we were going to let him go on that, he wasn't tall enough anyway) but settled for the kiddie rollar coaster. Again we were hesitant. I mean to take a 2 year old, who had never gone on a carnival ride before, on a rollar coaster first thing probably isn't the greatest idea. So we started him out on the air planes. He was un-impressed. He was adamant that the rollar coaster was for him. So Shawn went on it with him. This thing went fast and up and down and all around and he LOVED it. Had a huge grin the entire time. Got off and made it known that he wanted to get right back on. Yes, he went twice in a row. Then...we ran out of tickets. $18 ( who knew it was going to cost that much) got him 3 rides (one of us went with him on each ride so it took twice the tickets) and I wasn't going to spend any more money. I wish I would have taken the camera. Oh well, there's always next year.