BLoggy Giveaway Cool Goodies Part 2

****UPDATE****
I have picked two winners and am waiting on a response from them. I will post who they are as soon as they acknowledge my emails. I for some reason they do not respond I will choose alternates this Wednesday. Thank you all for your wonderful comments and support!

This is so much fun that I thought I would add a little more to give away... Please,Please,PLEASE make sure you leave an email address or a blog site where I can contact you... If you have a blogger ID but not a blog make sure you have your profile set up to allow others to see your email address. There are several people who left comments yesterday and I have no way to contact them...so sad. So please be sure and check. Ok now on to the goodies. I have hand made 6 simple cards for you. I love to have a few extra cards ready at any time so that I am not scrambling to make something, and now you can have a few too!

There are two thank you cards, one thinking of you card, one happy birthday card and then the last card says smile and you could use that for lots of reasons. Now all you must do is leave a comment and I will draw randomly on Friday at 8 am. Good Luck!

Oh and if you have not already done so click here and enter that give away too!!!

BLoggy Giveaway Cool Goodies

Hello and welcome to my blog... I am a stay at home mom of two great kids, an avid reader, scrapbooker, and photo bug. Thanks for stopping by!

If you have not been to Rocks In My Dryer yet you need to go and check out all the cool links for this Bloggy Giveaway, but before you do please check out what I have dug up to give away.


To start with I went through my stickers and thought I would share what I have in abundance. I am also adding in this cute mini album that is just perfect to fit in a purse or to give as a brag book for grandma. It will hold wallet size photos.


In order to win all you must do is leave a comment, and make sure I can get a hold of you by email or by blog. I will do a random draw on Friday morning at 8am and post the winner on this blog as well as notify you. Good luck!
Oh and do check back as I will be adding to this list through out the week. Thanks again for stopping by.
****UPDATE**** Be sure and check here for my other give away!

A few of the good ones

BLoggy Giveaway

This seems like a whole lot of fun so I too will be participating! One of my most favorite things is to give to otheres and what an easy and intresting way to do it while meeting others in the process! This will happen on July 23rd so be sure and check back!

Wordless Wensday: Not In The Mood For Photos

Something New

Well I thought I would try something new so I am looking on line to get reviews from other moms like me and I love it. They do the research and I reap the benefits, one of those sites is Mama Speaks this is a review blog and worth the time it takes to check it out. I came across this due to a contest at Adventures in Babywearing, Oodles at Kangaroodle. Kangaroodle is a great place to shop and I have really enjoyed browsing... Now if my wallet was as big as my wish list!
So if you have the time check it out.

In other news I wanted to share that yesterday was a terrible no good day!! Do you ever wish you could just rewind and live that moment over again?? This was NOT one of those moments!!!! We took a two hour drive down to the lake in order to celebrate James' birthday with his grandma Linda who could not fathom him not having a birthday party. So she bought him a cool spider man cake and all the trimmings and took us all out for Chinese food, which should have and would have been a great time.... However James, who woke up that morning with just a few sniffles from allergies, was progressively getting worse on the ride down and by the time we got there he would not lift his head up AT ALL. So we give him medicine and hope that feeding him will help and off to lunch we went. Where my darling little girl decided she did not like James getting all the attention and that EVERY ONE else had a better plate of food than she did. So she screamed, and screamed and threw food and well screamed some more, while all the good folk of the small town shook their heads at us. James refused to touch any food at all and laid his head on the table only to look up under the strictest request. Well about twenty minuets in to lunch I could take no more of the screaming nor the shaking heads , and I took Miah out while the rest of our group gather our belongings and paid the bill. Upon returning back to Linda's home we tried to get James excited about the cake and gifts but the poor guy could only muster a half hearted attempt and really would have rather just taken a nap. We cut our visit short and headed for home and on the trip Miah had decided that the car seat was not her friend and she was anything but happy. You guessed it she screamed most of the way home until I gave in a put a movie on just to keep my sanity in check. I know now that she too was coming down with a cold and what I thought to just be allergies with James is, well , more than that and he is currently running about 102. The real kicker here is that after that horrible day whit my two cherubs being out of sorts we get home only to realize that in all the rush to get out of the restaurant my purse had been left behind... GREAT! So now we are trying to figure out the least pain in the rear way to get it back. Oh yeah and I also went to my neighbors Once Upon A Family party where the hostess proceeded to be really rude to me, just par for the course I guess. I must have had a label on my head yesterday that said beat me while I am down. Ok I guess I will stop venting for now, but I will post pictures of our pitiful adventure yesterday later on.

Going on around here

Is this not the cutest scene... Apparently I was not getting Miah's dinner to her fast enough so James stepped in. It got really quiet so I looked around the corner to find this, and as any good mom would do I grabbed the camera :0) Sooooo CUTE!
Miah got a new doll. All the ones she currently have are just a wee bit to big and she ends up dragging them by the hair and sounding as if she is out of breath even if she loves them to pieces, so I got her this tiny cabbage patch and she loves it.
This summer has been unusually wet. In fact it has not been this wet since 1913. Well along with all this water are a few great puddles.... Seems Miah found one! No really we let her explore with her big brother and they had a blast, she just came out a little more wet than he did. I guess that happens when you are closer to the water.
See all the pretty pig tails?? This hair dew is much more darling in real life . She loves it to and takes great pleasure in touching them and shaking her head, she is my little girly girl.
Try as I might I can not keep her out of the dogs cage. We are taking care of a golden retriever for the week and her cage is smack dab in the middle of my living room and that means Miah thinks it is fair game. I keep our two dogs cage in the bedroom and she loves to get her little hands on it but most of the time she can not get to it so this cage has been to much fun for her.

That is what is going on around here the last few days.

Mommy's Little Mess Maker

Sometimes you just haft to let them explore and learn. Note the word SOMETIMES, this is NOT an every day thing. I do let her have a variety of finger foods and some foods that she needs a spoon for that are no where near this degree of messy, but this is a first with the yogurt. I usually feed her and then give her the spoon and container with just a smidge left for her to get out, but today I just let her go for it while I did the dishes. She smelled like a strawberry all day even after her bath! I have got to say for all the mess she sure did have a good time and looked oh so cute doing it!

Happy Birthday James

James is Two here.

Today my little man turns six...6?!?!? years old! Time has just flown since the moment I first held him and breathed him in. If you have not read James' adoption story I will tell you it was a miracle for us. I just want to take a moment and say a special thank you to his birth mother for the most precious of all gifts, and for the choices she made in his best interest.You are so loved!

James, My how you grow so quickly. It is a hard thing for a mother to watch her baby turn into a young man, for it is her job to help him grow while all the time her heart wished to keep him safe and little for so much longer that time allows. You are bright and bold, handsome and witty, giving and loyal. My darling one you are more than all my dreams combined could have ever wished for. I love you James .... Happy Birthday

Hand in Hand with Daddy.

Such a handsome little guy at three.

Four was such fun with so much to explore.

Five has come and gone but forever in my
heart will it live on..... I LOVE YOY!!

Happy 4th of July ffff

I am making this page a part of the FFFF. If you are intrested please go to Loving Lydia and leave your info.

May you all have a wonderfully blessed day! Thank God for Freedom still Rings!

This is for Robyn

Hey Robyn you asked if Miah ever takes a bad picture... Well I thought it would be fun to share a few with you. Most of the time when I take pictures I will take about twenty or so to choose from and most of the time it is about half and half on the quality, it is because Miah is BUSY and will not sit still or remain in one place for very long, and she loves to try and take the camera away! Then there is always the bad lighting or out of focus pictures so yes there are some "bad" pictures. Here ya go....

I have c0me to learn that Miah does not like flowers in her face and really she is not keen on touching them at all.

Here is Miah trying to take the camera away and giving me attitude after being told no.

This is a melt down... I took about fifty pictures this day and she wanted in my lap. I kept trying to distract her and she finally had enough but I did get some great pictures too.

So here she is NOT even remotely happy about the baby elephant statue and will not even look at it let alone sit near it.

Hey We hear that the stork is going to ride again soon.... We just wanted to say good luck and in honor of this months babies we are wearing our ladybugs just for you!
Come on Mr. Stork there are lots of wonderful mommies and daddies waiting to see there little darlings.....

Issues

She is cute, lovable, and cuddly.... BUT.... We are having a few issues! Miah is hitting James, and yelling at him. Yep this little doll is giving her big brother one heck of a time and it has just been getting worse. James is trying so hard to be a good boy with her and some times it works but lately Miah seems to resist anything James does or she will flat out hit him. Heaven forbid he sit in my lap or get any type of affection from me or Randy . If she sees that she literally will scream at the top of her lungs and come running to be picked up and at that point if she can pull, push , or hit James away she will. I really am not sure what to do now, we tell her no when she is hitting , remove her from the situation, or James will move over to let her up too. I find this to be a fuzzy line for what a "normal" ( Yes she is normal but her past is not) 15 month old would do. I remember James doing some of this to an extent, but Miah seems hell bent on not sharing mommy at all, as well as daddy and any thing she deems to be hers. HELP?!?
The next issue we are having is FOOD. She wants to eat non stop, and will eat anything put in front of her. If anyone else is eating after she has finished her more than ample plate she will scream for what they have as well. She can sign bite and does so with much gusto most all day. She will walk to the kitchen and sign the word over and over again. The pediatrician says to cut her off and not to allow her to over eat and I do agree with this, but at the same time I feel bad telling her no when it comes to food. I am making sure is on a schedule and that I feed her on time but to be honest no matter how diligent I am if she sees me working with food she will CRY as if the world is coming to an end until I put something in her mouth. I know this will all work out but right now I feel very frustrated with it. I mean the child will literally sign for food as soon as I pick her up in the morning, as if she is starving. I hate thinking she feels deprived of anything, so how do I get through this and find a balance.
My Last issue for the day.... On the move and into everything!!!! Ok I know that is just part of having a toddler. Miah is BUSY, so different from James type of busy. I have nick named my Miah Elisabeth ...Busy Lizzy! I love this issue but boy am I tired at the end of the day!

For the most part our transition to being a family of four has been remarkably easy, much more so than what I prepared for, which I am glad I did prepare. However I am learning to watch for subtle behavior that is related to her past experience and how to deal with these issues in a non threatening way to her, as they hold some kind of comfort for her. When she acts in these ways she is saying she wants the control here, and needs it to feel safe. I want to teach her to trust me to see to all her needs with out her demanding I do so, I want her to feel safe. It will come, but it takes time.

Not ready for this!!!!!

So I was comfortable going through my day not worrying about any broken bones or bloody noses. James is not the kind of kid who jumps on the bed or climbs to the top of a tree. He really does not like sports that involve to much effort yet. So I thought I was safe for a while, I mean he is not even ready to have is training wheels off his bike yet...almost, but not YET! TO tell the truth I like it that way, I hate, HATE the thought of him getting even a skinned knee. My insides turn to jelly when he gets hurt and I freak out if I see him doing something that is even remotely dangerous. Ok I hover... Bad mommy... I know, but darn it he is my baby! I mean big boy. I want him to be a boy to try new adventures and have a great time doing it.... in theory.... but at the same time I want to protect him and I can not do that when he is spiraling down the street on a thin board! Granted he is almost six and it is time he get some spunk in his spine and not be afraid, so how do I let go and still keep him safe??????? By the way his dad thought it would be cute to PUSH him down the street at full FORCE. Thus the picture above courtesy of our neighbor Dave, because mommy could not watch for fear the constant sucking in of deep breaths would distract James and cause him more energy than if he focused at the task at hand. So here are the following two pictures after the full force ride.....

Don't worry baby there is always tomorrow. As much as it pains me to watch I know you can do it! Never give up on something you really want, always try again because getting there is always half the fun. Love ya big guy... I mean my baby!!!

Miah Gets a trim

So I had to make a choice, let Miah wear her hair up all the time or get it trimmed. So I let them trim it... Only the bangs and it took all of two minuets literally but you would have thought the earth was falling apart. Miah HATED it and I felt so bad but at least she can now see. This is the before



Here she is in misery.


Here is a face free of hair.

Prayer and positive thoughts

Some of you may rember that before Miah came home I took care of a baby girl for 16 months well now that baby is a big sister. Bella welcomed her baby sister Gabby home just two weeks ago. Gabby is in need of prayer and positive thoughts. Her mother found out today that she has Galactosemia. The Doctors are not sure to what degree this is as of yet and they are running a few more tests. When I know more I will post that information till then please remeber this family.

We Love You Daddy

It amazes me how great Randy is as a dad. I always knew he would be and even though he is not "perfect" he is pretty darn close. Last night at church a friend was telling him Happy Fathers day and that this year he is Doubly blessed... That Is SO true! We Love you Randy and I wanted to say Thank you for Choosing to be a dad, for going through this roller coaster ride to be parents with me and for loving and giving of your self every day. You are a hero in our eyes!

Family FotoFun Ford Style "Love"

I am loving this challenge from Donna at Double Happiness.... The theme this week is LOVE. I have got to admit that James and Miah are still trying to figure each other out and really learning how to be siblings. With that comes lots of testing and trying one another and mommy often has to step in with a little direction. However I know that they do love each other and are starting to form a bond to last a life time.... How do I know?? Well moments like this one though rare are becoming more and more frequent as time goes by in our home. This moment was not staged they were being "loving " of their own accord here and I am sooooooo glad I caught it on film.( Then I made them pose a few more times LOL). If you want to play along be sure to check out Double Happiness and add your own link.

A sweet read

I just had to share this special moment between brother and sister. Most of the time Miah will scream if James tries to touch her or get near anything that is hers, but this girl LOVES to be read to. She wants a book first thing in the morning and will literally jump out of my arms to get to them. I was doing laundry around the corner when I heard him and I RAN for my camera and walked in on the most tender scene, and wouldn't you know it but the battery was dead, so I fumble with the back just as he was finishing up... Bummer! Then I hear him say so sweetly..."want me to read it again" and so I got just enough on film. I am so proud of you James you did a GREAT job!