I'm expecting...

UPDATE: It is now closed to comments!! Thank you all for playing. As funny as some of you were, all was fair and I actually quite enjoyed the competition shameless displays of desperation to see who could post the most comments and all the reasons each of you gave for you being the right choice (although, I do have to remind you this will be done randomly and I'm not easily swayed!)

Good luck to you all! And maybe I'll post the winner tomorrow...or maybe not...you'll just have to keep checking.

Cause it's my prerogative.... (and I guess you could either be thinking Bobby Brown OR Britney Spears as someone pointed out...but I definitely went with Bobby)

********************************

...all lurkers and non-lurkers alike to comment on this post!

Gotcha.

Oh you funny, funny people who suggested it might be that I'm pregnant! Boy wouldn't THAT have been a surprise! Especially to me.

Sorry to disappoint, but the big news is...

One year ago today I started this little blog. It's my 1 year Bloggiversary!!!

Please, no applause. Seriously, now, settle down. What's that you say? You're not as excited over this little fact as I am? You mean your life hasn't been dramatically changed by my inspiring words pictures of cows giving birth, dead chickens laying on sidewalks, the most adorable skunk on 2 feet you ever did see, and other such drivel?

Well, apparently I shouldn't have hyped it up so much, because now you're all sitting there going, "That's it? That's the big reveal?! Whoop-dee-doo. You've been blogging for a year. Good for you. Can we get back to our own lives and our other, way more interesting friends, please?".

BUT that's not ALL this post is about my friends. Nope, it's not. I also came up with a brilliant way to celebrate, if I do say so myself.

In honor of my 1 year blogging anniversary I thought I would grace you all with 365 interesting facts about ME! You know, for the 365 days that are in a year, but I guess you had already figured that out....

1. But I quickly shot that idea out of the water because I didn't want to drive away any readers or in real life friends or family for that matter, that I've somehow managed to keep coming back...


2. So instead I decided it was time for my first ever Giveaway!!!

So can you get excited about that?! I know I am! I love to give gifts, so consider this my little gift to you.

The winner will receive...a 1 year membership to the jelly of the month club!! What?? That doesn't make you want to comment? Beggars can't be choosers.

I kid! I kid!

The real prize: winner's choice of either a $15 Starbucks giftcard OR a $15 Target giftcard! mmm hmm. That's what I'm talkin' about.

Of course, there's a catch. You actually have to leave a comment in order to win. And I bet you didn't know that you don't even have to be a blogger to comment. At the bottom of the post you'll see a link that says how many comments there are. It might say "0 Little Snippets" or "43 Little Snippets" (less likely, unless I've just won over at MckMama's place) or "7 Little Snippets" (way more likely in my little world). Anyway, click on that link and comment away (using the anonymous option if you don't have a blogger account).

And I would say only 1 comment per person, but what would be the fun in that, right CarpoolQueen??? So comment as many times as you can stand lookin' at my blog.:) And the winner will be chosen at random...whenever I decide to end it. That's my prerogative. Cause it's my blog. Anyone else thinking back to Bobby Brown right now??

If you're having a hard time deciding what to comment about, I won't care if you just go ahead and speak the truth and tell me how beautiful my children are, how blessed I am to have the man that I have, which card you would choose and what you would buy, or how you like the green background of my blog (if you don't like it, feel free to keep that to yourself).;) OR if you've been a blog stalker reader but never commented until now, you could just introduce yourself!

So what that means is you better start commenting.

Now.

Hurry up.

Why are you still reading this??!!!

Happy anniversary to me, happy anniversary to me, happy anniversary to me-eeeee, happy anniversary to me!

Oh and feel free to spread the word...

Wordless Wednesday - the shin guards and jock straps edition

Also known as: what's been keeping us really busy these past few weeks.

The Non-wordless part:

I haven't forgotten about the big reveal on April 30th, which just so happens to be tomorrow. Have you?

You'll get extra points if you can guess what it is.

(not really)

barm

Or farm.

But I prefer to use and document the way my Babes, who is already growing up way too fast (so why would I rush it?), says it. Because I think it is too stinkin' cute that she mixes the words barn and farm to make barm. So, I will not correct it. Trust me, it naturally corrects itself. And by naturally, I mean by the older brother who feels the need to correct everything she says, even when she's right!

But on to the point of this lovely post.

A few weeks back, Babes' preschool class went on a field trip to a dairy barm.:) And I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Oh, and I think she loved it too.

Anything baby related is usually the highlight, right?

Well, we were able to feed the calves that were a few days old...

pet the calves that were 1 day old...

and observe the calf that was T minus 30 seconds old...

No, your eyes do not deceive you.....

Guess I should have posted a warning before that last one.

And to the man assisting this poor mama cow: I'm pretty sure that NONE of us moms actually believed you when you told the kids that it doesn't hurt the mama or the baby. All I have to say to that is...yeah right. Have you ever given birth mister? Or a better question would be... have you ever had something the size of a 5 year old come out of you while you're standing, while you're being watched by 30+ spectators, while someone with a chain crank contraption pulls that 5 year old baby out of you?? I think not. So don't try and tell us that that doesn't hurt. Especially when the cow herself is telling us otherwise by the bellows that are coming forth from her.

But I digress just a little.

We got to watch the cleaning process (VERY necessary for the future enjoyment of my milk and dairy products, let me assure you.),

the milking process,

Sure hope they didn't feel violated by me taking this picture. And, boy, does it bring back memories of nursing and pumps....

the processing process,

the storage process,

and, yes, the birthing process (Which my daughter is still talking about. Unfortunately for her daddy, it just often seems to happen during the dinner process, which he is usually not too thrilled about.)

And, here, does this make up for the photo from above??

And we also saw the feeding process...

AND I got some pictures of a little fun in process...

Ain't no cotton-seed mountain high enough to keep me from loving you, my Babes.

The End.

Alphabitty Moments - I is for....

So around this blog, Thursday is beginning to mean it's time for another Alphabitty Moment, created and hosted by Mama Bear over at 4 the Love of Family. It's time to get a mooove on and preserve some of life's sweet, bitty moments.

Without further a do.

I is for.....

IN motion.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I KNOW that it's 2 words. But right now this best describes our children and our family.

For, not only are we in (constant) motion, it seems, physically, keeping busy with church, school, sports, chasing after our active kids, but hopefully you will find us "in motion" in our spiritual lives as well. Because no matter our ages or number of years as a follower of Christ, we should always be in motion, running toward our Father, eyes focused on Him, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Constantly straining towards knowing Him more, becoming more eager with each passing day as we grow in our relationship with Him.

So, yes, it's two words with one not even starting with "I". And, yes, it has a double meaning to me. And yes, I could have used words like imagination, irresistible, icky:) (which would have been a problem for me, because I probably have hundreds of pictures that fit the bill for those...and which one(s) would I have chosen?)

Instead, I chose a word (OK. Words!) that I know will not just be for the here and now, but will be applicable in this entire treck through life.

Of course, next week you'll most likely find me back to less in depth words like jump or jolly or joker, but tonight I guess you could say I was feeling a little more Introspective.....

NOT a Wordless Wednesday

I thought about going wordless today, but that usually doesn't work well for me and since I've been MIA from posting on my blog the last couple days I figured it would pretty much be an outright lie for me to title this Wordless Wednesday.

I've spent the last week and a half sweetly cuddling with my 3 resting and recuperating children who lived together in perfect harmony taking temps, giving meds, putting in movies, wiping noses, applying cold washcloths to foreheads, washing off morning eye gunk, holding sleepy, coughing baby, pulling out hair (my own), breaking up arguments (constantly), trying to not let the house go to the pigs...all the glamorous parts of my job. I would like to say that I handled everything with complete love, tenderness, and grace, with no moments of frustration, but I did have them.


So not perfect.


So glad I'm forgiven. By my Savior and my children.

So hope they remember more of the tenderness and less of the frustration...

Still so content and thankful for this time and role in my life.

So wouldn't trade this for anything in the world. I so love my children.

So...eventually I'll get caught up on some of the posts I'm behind on, but until then I'll leave you with this....

"nobety can but mama lincon and Daddy Emma you can com in if you need to tell me somthing but you can not play in my room"

Apparently the usual "Keep Out!" that many brothers use, wasn't concise enough.

Just in case you were wondering...

Yes, my hubby and I laughed our heads off (when he wasn't looking). No, he wasn't allowed to put it up. Our thoughts were, at least it didn't say she couldn't come in AT ALL. Like all good big brothers he left it open that she could come in if she needed to tell him something. Because he, of course, couldn't miss out on the really important stuff. Just looking out for his interests.

And I'm sure glad Lincon was allowed in, since it's his room too and all.

On a totally unrelated note...I'm working on a little something for April 30th. Any guesses on what and why?????

Sunny, Sick, Sweet, Sleepy, Shorts Sunday

Going unplugged.

I now have all 3 kids sick at home.

So, in order to play nurse maid and do some housekeeping, I will be signing off today...at least until later tonight when reinforcements come in.

But before I go I'll leave you with a few things I've learned these past few days...

1) You really should think twice before you leave your youngest almost 2 year old Monster unsupervised for more than 5 minutes 5 SECONDS because if there is any semi-edible food leftover in the top of the trashcan, he WILL find it. Remember when this happened? Well, this morning it was leftover McDonald french fries from yesterday and he found them, took them to his little carpet picnic in the living room and was munchin' away before I found him.

You would think I would have learned by now.

2) Just because your 7 year old has a 103.5 temp. does NOT mean that he doesn't have the energy to still fight with and irritate his younger sister.

3) It is inevitable that the moment you decide to write a post about the evils of cold cereal and your current ban on them, your supportive other half (who hasn't read your blog for awhile) will decide to insist that you buy some cold cereal to have on hand, and thus unknowingly make you out to be a liar. (and he thought it quite funny!) I did refrain from buying the Cheerios (ahem, Whimzie!), and instead went with the more expensive Organic variety that is half-filled with air and is gone in 2 days. Strategy, I tell you. Strategy.:) Because I also stocked up on Steel Cut Oats and the ingredients to make healthy muffins, granola bars, and the like...

4) I really should retake English Grammar because my punctuation is all over the place.

5) One more reason to not judge. Thanks CarpoolQueen! ...for making me a goose-bumped, lump-in-my-throat mess.

Alphabitty Moments - H is for...

Is it really that time again? Wow, that week went fast. And here I dilly dallied around and waited until the last minute to figure out this week's letter....H. If you haven't already you should really join the rest of us in capturing and remembering life's itty bitty sweet moments. So, skiddadle over to MamaBear's campground lickity split and link away!!!

(Just trying to see how many spell check errors I can get while using words that aren't actually correctable. :) I'm random like that sometimes.)


H is for...hats, hats, and more hats!

I'm having a rare moment of indecision. Those who know me will be laughing right now.

And so I give you entirely too many pictures.

Buddy as a baby.

Buddy as a big boy and birthday boy.

Babes as a baby. (Don't ask me what she's doing, but I'll take your guesses.)

Babes as a Super Star...
...a pirate...ARRG!
...as a cowgirl (or should it be called sowgirl??)

...and as one who contemplates water. (??????)

As you can see she's a lady of many hats...and shoes. But that's a whole different letter.

Monster as a baby...(cause I know NO ONE can resist the newborn picture...)

...as a snow bunny...(with the most edible cheeks ever!) and my left eye peering at you...

...and as a bigger baby (cause he will always be the baby) wearing sister's hat (he's not picky).

The whole pack and parcel of them last Easter sporting their....hats.
..and because this was just too funny to leave out... I present to you my lovely hubby and his cousin/brother and their...hat hair:)

Now, if you'll join in, I'll raise my hat to you!