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. After taking a few cross-country trips to the West Coast and several over-nighter drives to Florida to visit the kids’ nearest grandparents, car trips are still our favorite way to travel. And we’ve got the …

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 of Optimism Facts:

Optimism is a skill that all children can learn.
Optimism helps children solve problems, set goals, build confidence and find ways around obstacles.
The more Optimism is practiced the easier it becomes.
Optimism leads to greater happiness …

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. She may just be the sweetest, happiest, smartest little toddler I know.
The 3 kids were playing in the pop-up bus, and AJ pulled A.D. down on his lap and said, “I like you, A.D. You …

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 memorable Valentine’s Day was the one several years ago when CandyMan and I were on a date, eating a peaceful dinner without the kids and he asked me, “Oh. Did I tell you that we’re both speaking in church …

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 almost always covered with blankets.

This is Reese in our Cozy.
Back in the beginning of December, I posted 5 tips to get kids to bed (and stay there), after seeing a prompt and challenge on TwitterMoms. The …

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.
And we love to eat out.
On January 26, 2009, we had lunch together at Chick-fil-A. My gorgeous sister, Andrea, came along, too.

Those were good, good times.

This picture simply reminded me that AJ needs another haircut. It looks so much better …

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 the end of the message, I was practically raising my hand shouting, “Me! That’s ME!” at my computer screen. I responded right away, and I was sent a sample of Neosporin’s Lip Health Overnight Renewal Therapy …

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!

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 with our next challenge in 2 weeks. Manic Mother has picked her favorite, too. Is it yours?
I fell in love with this little duck in the snow taken by Lori from Peterson St. Louis. I …

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 a picture to this week’s I heart faces challenge.
And then I started looking through the entries and felt inspired. So I tried my hand at some texture.

And you know what? I loved how it turned out! …