Tips For Traveling by Car with Kids

road trip

I was just reading an amusing post about the Dreaded Family Car Trip. The 7-9 hour trip with 3 kids that this dad writes about has nothing on our December 18 hour car ride to Florida. With 5 kids and no empty seats, to boot. Five children makes traveling by plane to see grandparents cost-prohibitive. [...]

Optimism: Inspire an Attitude of Gratitude

Fishful Thinking - optimism

I mentioned last Saturday that I was going to focus on one Fishful Thinking ingredient each month between now and June. February is Optimism month. I thought I’d post a little overview of what optimism is and why it’s important (as parents especially) to focus on this great value! From FishfulThinking.com, I found a list [...]

Give Me Your Best Shot – Daughter in Law?

Three friends

I think my 4 year old son may have met future wife. I had a vision of an older AJ and his little (girl)friend when she and her big brother, AJ’s best friend, were over at our house this week. By the way, I am just as smitten with this little girl as AJ is. [...]

Making Valentine’s Day Memorable

As we near the end of January (how did that happen so fast?!) it’s time to start thinking about the next big holiday. Valentine’s Day (cue the horror music) photo by Whipped Bakeshop on flickr CandyMan and I have never been very good at making Valentine’s Day special. In fact, my most memorable….no, my only [...]

St. Eve Kids *Cozy* Giveaway!

St. Eve Cozy

Updated: This giveaway is closed. The winner is commenter #14, Safire. Congrats!! Who doesn’t enjoy getting warm and cozy, curling up on the couch, and reading a book or watching a movie on a cold Winter evening? I know I love it. And so do my kids. We’re a cuddly family, and our couch is [...]

A Year Ago Today, At Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A shake

Do you ever go through your pictures and check out what you were doing a year ago exactly? I got curious tonight and checked out January 26, 2009. Last year, my mom had just come into town in preparation for my son’s baptism. When my mom comes to visit, we party. We shop. We laugh. [...]

Neosporin 3-Day Challenge

Neosporin - cross section of lip surface

A few weeks ago, I received an email from Mom Central asking if I would be willing to participate in the Neosporin Lip Health 3-Day Challenge. The email said something along the lines of “….Many of us dread this season as we come to expect uncomfortable lip-splitting and cracking, fading color and scaly texture….” By [...]

We Have a Winner!

Thank you to all 448 of you that entered the Wilton Birthday Giveaway. But only one of you could win. And that one person is…… Lauren from LaureNspired Congratulations, Lauren!

Bloggography Challenge – ISO

duck at boathouse

Is it Tuesday already? How does the time go by so fast? It’s time for another Bloggography Challenge! But before we move on to this week’s challenge, I wanted to showcase one of my favorite pictures from the first challenge (Winter theme). I’ll be looking through this week’s entries to show off another favorite picture [...]

I Heart Faces – Texture

I heart faces texture

I’ve got to admit (and this won’t come as a surprise to those of you who know me): I rarely if ever use texture in my edited photos. Textures kinda scare me. I love looking at photos that have had texture added to them, but I rarely add them myself. So I almost didn’t add [...]