Adorable pictures *plus* a GIVEAWAY REMINDER!

Yeah, yeah, you're probably  already sick of my giveaway rambling, but  I'm sorry--I'm going to keep reminding everyone until the giveaway is over one week from today!So if you haven't already entered my giveaway please do! You can find rules and details in my previous blog entry HERE
And thanks to all of my new followers and Facebook  fans too! But just a reminder, you must comment  either here on my blog *or* on my Facebook page in order to be entered into my giveaway so don't forget to do that :-) I don't  want to just assume that every follower and fan is interested in the giveaway so if you want entered just comment telling me so!

Now onto some cute  pictures! First, I  ordered long sleeve tshirts for the cold weather season--for my shop. Now normally I'm disappointed with "unisex" shirts because they tend to look more like boy  shirts with the fit and cut. However I just got in my first shipment of long sleeve tshirts today and I'm so impressed with how equally  cute they look on both boys AND girls! I am watching my niece and nephew today and Sawyer  was more than happy to help  Raya model for me :-) He  told me he'd really  love me to make him "a red shirt like this---with bunnies on it"  LOL. We'll  see buddy :-P

Now for the record, all of my designs are available on these long sleeve shirts (a variety of colors available--sizes 2T-5/6)...these shirts are an additional $3 so you just purchase the long sleeve upgrade along with whatever design you want in my store. Long sleeve white onesies are always a *free* upgrade though.

I can't wait to make  some new designs on these!

In other  news, today  while the babies  took their morning nap the big kids and I did Thanksgiving turkey handprint pictures (idea from Pinterest of course!)....they turned out great! It was hard for me not to help them make the pictures look perfect (picking coordinating fall papers, etc.) but  I decided they should be able to do them how they wanted :-) So they each  picked 4 "special papers" to make the handprint turkey feathers and then they drew with pencil on the background writing/drawing things they are Thankful for. The pencil backgrounds needed some interpretation though so that others would know what they were haha....so I had them dictate to me the things they were thankful for as well. Here are the masterpieces!

Raya's (In case you can't read it she  was  thankful for "Dada, sissy and Harper, green cup, Barney and Baby Bop, kids, and candy"  ....I love how the first thing that  came to her mind was "dada"....when Mama was the one doing the s tinkin' craft with her! ;-)

And Sawyer's ...he was thankful for "snow, birds, his green cup, mommy and daddy, his pen, Barney, flowers, his snack, the raspberry bush, Shawna's trampoline and tree house, and his candy bucket"  :-P

Oh, back to me taking pictures  of the new long sleeve shirts. I had taken them outside  for pictures and  the babies flocked to the front door to watch us like poor, neglected children :-P

"Yay! She's coming for us Harper!"

And although the babies missed out on our fun handprint craft, I do have this:

I may or may not have bribed the big kids with candy in exchange for the modeling. And Raya  may  or may not have reminded me the *second* she walked inside so that I didn't forget!

Oh, and Raya may or may not be wearing a swimsuit cover-up as a dress today :-P

What else? Have you guys seen  the "Choo Choo Soul" dances  on Disney? Well Raya  loves dancing along and today all the kids got in on the action!

They decided they needed dancing headbands on :-)

These next few need no explanation ...awwwwww

Today I was cleaning up the kitchen and things were pretty quiet. I went around the corner to see what was going on and I walked  into  story hour! Being good as can be :-)

Let's not forget the babies today...being good as well! Although poor Brielle has a nasty cold :-(

Now  some quick ones from yesterday---Raya wanted to drink her "bottle" like Brielle

Raya loves to smell  the flowers Lee  gave me for our anniversary. Although the flowers have  slowly dwindled and died  off and  without fail  Raya always  chooses the one dead flower left to "smell" LOL

And here is Brielle WALKING yesterday! She just started walking (pushing the doll stroller) everywhere! I  will be very surprised if she isn't walking unassisted by her  1st birthday, but we'll see!

She's a lady with places to go people! And don't you love the dangling monkey paci :-)

....but she still  takes a spill  every now and then.  That  stroller gets to  going too  fast  for  her  little short legs to keep up!!

And I'm saying one thing I'm thankful for at the end of each entry this month, so today I am thankful for my niece and nephew! I love being able to  have them over to my house regularly  now that we've moved back and it's so fun seeing the friendships between them and my girls--it's going to be fun watching them all grow up together!

GIVEAWAY begins today! Free Stuff!

**First off, thanks so much to everyone who has already "liked" my new Facebook page and shared it with friends!**

Ok everyone, my next big  giveaway starts today! My giveaway last week was for new followers  only, but  this time the giveaway is open to everyone!

Up for grabs to the first place winner is a complete outfit of your  choosing--either something listed in my store or your own custom idea :-) I  can do birthday outfits, Christmas ensembles, your child's favorite team/character, etc.---anything you want! Now, if I have 15 or more people enter the giveaway then I will also pick a 2nd place winner, who will win a shirt of their  choosing. If you are all super awesome and I have 25 people or more enter then I will choose a 3rd place winner as well. That person will win a "grab bag" item--basically you tell me gender and age of the kid and I will send you a surprise :-) Don't  have a little one? Win something for a baby gift, relative, hypothetical baby-to-be, whoever you want!

So as you can see, the  more people who play, the more prizes to be won!

You can enter by doing one or more of the  following (and it only takes one entry to win, so don't  feel like you have to do all or nothing--one is better than none!):

1) Follow my blog (This earns you 1 entry. However, if you were already a follower *before* my last giveaway you will get 2 entries. ....Hey, they deserve a perk of some kind for being with me so long people :-)

2) "Like" my new Facebook page... Found HERE (This  earns you 1 entry)

3) Go to  my Etsy shop No Paparazzi Please and then comment on my Facebook page telling me what  your favorite item is (This earns you 1 entry).

4) Blog about my giveaway (including a link to this giveaway) on your own blog. (This earns you 2 entries).

5) Tell your friends! (For every new person --"new" being someone who isn't already a blog follower of mine-- who enters my giveaway and mentions your name you will earn yourself 1 entry!  For example, if Sally is already a follower of my blog and she tells her Facebook friends to enter my giveaway and 3 of them do so and comment saying "Sally sent me!" then Sally earns 3 additional entries--one for each of her friends :-)

** After you do at least 1 of these things you MUST then comment either here on my blog *or* on my shop's Facebook page telling me which of the 5 things above you did. That way I can keep track of everyone who has entered the giveaway. (If you blogged about my giveaway please include a link to your blog post for me as well)

I will use the random number  generator to pick a winner(s) on Friday, November 11th--just over 1 week from now. Thanks in advance  for playing along!!!!

I've entered the world of Facebook!

So  I finally  took the plunge  and created a Facebook  fan page for my Etsy shop No Paparazzi Please today! Check out my new  Facebook page HERE

And if you are interested in entering my next giveaway (stay tuned...it's  coming this week  yet!) then I highly suggest you go over and "like" my new Facebook page, b/c that's going to earn you an entry into my next giveaway! If you are unfamiliar with Facebook you just click the "like" button at the top of my Facebook page, and then all  of my updates will start showing up on your news feed :-) Or you can go to my Etsy shop and click the "like" button at the top of that page too. Of course you must have a Facebook account in order to do this. So "like" my new page and spread the word!

In other news, today was a better day with the girls (thankfully). We had many more giggles and much less tears today!

Oh, and this shirt Raya is wearing?

That  was my latest experiment. You see, I have many pairs of knee high socks laying around (to make legwarmers with) and Raya has lots of short sleeve shirts that still  fit from this past summer, and very few long sleeve ones! So put the two together (literally) and you have a new long sleeve shirt that looks like the "2 shirts in one" style that  is so popular right now! Yes, I sewed socks to her shirt to make sleeves :-P It worked great and Raya thought it was super comfy! This would work for sizes as small as 3/6 months (looser fit arms) all the way to 4T/5T (more fitted arms). I  think this opens up all sorts of possibilities  if I were to use the fun patterned socks too! I'm thinking maybe Brielle's sock monkey birthday  outfit will have sock sleeves :-)

And yes, she's sitting on the  kitchen counter. Just one of the many reasons I love this new kitchen...counters contain toddlers who don't  like to stand still for pictures!

Not to leave out Brielle...

Raya loves stacking block towers, and rather  than buy a special set of blocks I  just let her use our Jenga game :-P

To end this  somewhat disjointed  update, here is Brielle's  latest obsession. Numerous times a day (like tonight before bed) I hear banging in the kitchen and run in to find this:

Guess she  found  what she  needed :-P

Oh, and since I've promised to end each update this month with something that I'm thankful for, tonight I am thankful for my husband's job! Not only  am I thankful he has *any* job in today's economy, but I'm very thankful that he worked  hard to secure a career where he can support the family and which allows me to stay home with the girls when they're little. With Raya I was very appreciative of how lucky  I was to stay home, but I think with Brielle I tend to take it for granted more because I've gotten so used to the idea of being a stay-at-home mom. But when I stop to think about the fact that Brielle is almost 10 months old and I've never had to leave her with a babysitter (other than my mom) it makes me very very thankful!! So thanks to the hubby for  working hard :-)  ...and we'll see if Lee reads this, because today he told  me that he often skims my blog and only reads parts when I mention him, to ensure  that I'm not making him look bad :-P

Don't forget to "like" my new Facebook  page!

Post-Halloween CRASH

So  let's just say that today has not gone so well. It all started when Raya  woke up and clearly had *not* forgotten for one second that she had a bucket full of candy. And so began my day long battle with a 2 year old over what could be eaten when. She ate m&ms for breakfast (after I did my motherly duty and made her eat breakfast first of course! She chose Fruit Loops....hey, don't judge! :-)

Then all day she kept saying "I full!", which in Raya speak  means she's hungry. Insert funny story now--so Raya always says "full" instead of "hungry". Well last night after trick or treating we went through the drivethrough in town for a quick supper and Raya was chanting that she was "full"....so Lee proceeded to give her a 2 minute lecture on the differences between "full" and "hungry" and he tried to get her to practice saying "hungry" etc.  etc. Well she kept saying she was full so then he started saying "no, you're *not* full...are you *full* or *not full*?" and on and on.....until finally Raya just looks at him really seriously and says "eat!"  ...with the tone of "hey dude, I don't care what the hell you wanna call it, just give me some food!" :-)

So anyways, my patience was worn thin by 9am with the whole candy begging thing (and she was too smart for me to trick into thinking the candy was gone!) so I loaded the kids up and we went to the library. Library went fairly well and before I knew it we did lunch and it was nap time (I thought for sure my day was finally turning around for the better!) and then I smelled it (or actually *didn't* smell it). You see, this morning I thought I was being all "good housewife" and putting a roast in the crockpot. Fast forward to 1pm and it suddenly hits me--hey, why doesn't it *smell* like roast in here?!....I run to the crockpot to find out that the outlet I had plugged it into wasn't working!!!!!!!!!!! The breaker had "popped" on it or something and I hadn't known it. Ugh!!! We ended up eating dinner at 8:30 tonight when the roast was finally cooked!So  by now my day seems to be taking a turn for the worse..Brielle wakes up early, after a very short nap b/c she is starting to come down with a cold, and Raya wakes up still candy crazy and ends up biting her lip while eating a piece after nap. She then proceeds to whine and cry ALL AFTERNOON so help me....I thought i would lose my mind! Our conversations all afternoon and evening went something like this: Raya--"I full Mama! I eeeeeeeeat!!!" Me--"ok, what do  you want?" Raya--"noooooo, it hurts!!!!!!! ...I  hungry Mama!" Me--"yes Raya, what do  you want? Do you want string cheese?" Raya-- "nooooooooooooo, hurt lip!!!!!!" Me-- "Do you want a popsicle?" Raya ---"nooooooooooooooo, I hurt!!!!" Me--"nice soft yogurt for your lip?" Raya--"noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"....and crying Me--"ok, that's fine, don't eat anything if your lip hurts", Raya---"I eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat Mama!!!!!!!! Noooooo!"

....and on and on. Finally, after hours of this and her not eating anything, she went to sleep. I see a super slight fat lip on the bottom, so she really  did bite it, but it didn't even puncture the skin or anything, so I have no idea why she's making such a big deal about it!

So yeah, Not a fun night. Here's to hoping tomorrow is  much much better!!!

In other news, Brielle is eating a lot more independently and especially loving mum mums and puffs. Today she was eating a mum mum and as I was looking at her it hit me--I was postive I had pictures of Raya eating mum mums in the exact same outfit when *she* was a baby!!! So i consulted my trusty blog and sure enough, I found them!Granted Raya was a good 3 months older in her pictures, compared to Brielle, but it's still fun to put them side by  side  :-)

And some more cute ones of my current little mum mum eater :-)

She's got a "scrunch face" just like Raya does now! :-)

What else? Oh, well here is Raya enjoying her m&ms for breakfast....

And one more "funny" to share....Raya now refers to HER tutu as "So So's pink  skirt"...so today she asked for permission to wear "so so's pretty pink skirt" LOL. I just think it's funny that Sawyer has claimed this tutu for his own and worn it so much that Raya has pretty much forgotten that it's *her* skirt in the first place! hehe. Here she is this morning proudly wearing it---she wore it to the library too. Interesting fashion choice Miss Raya :-P

...and while my little fairy was so  kindly  playing with  her baby sister this morning, it didn't take long for ^^^This^^^^^

to turn into this:

Poor Brielle...she's just thinking "what  the heck  is your problem girl!?!"

...and no  to  go  crash after my very loooooong day. Guess it's not only the kiddos who  crash post-Halloween! :-P

oh, one more thing, I've decided to end each blogpost during the month of November with one thing that I'm thankful for. So let's start with the easiest one of all--my girls. Because even after a very trying day like today, I couldn't be more thankful that I have been chosen to be the Mama of two such precious, funny, smart, loving, adorable little girls. Every time I read/hear about a mom who is struggling to get pregnant, or who tragically loses a child, or who's child is battling a serious illness, etc. my heart breaks for them and I become even more grateful for the life I have and the little girls I get to spend it with :-) So be thankful this November everyone--life is good.