Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Creations Elin Review and Giveaway!

I have been meaning to get my next two reviews and giveaways up for quite a while now, but with the busy-ness of moving and all that fun stuff, and dealing with a deathly slow dial up connection, it's been difficult. But, here I am! ;-)

As avid readers of my blog, it's no secret to some of you that I love homemade products. I especially love homemade products when I can get them for my children and they are special to us. I came across Creations Elin products on a fellow blog, and fell in love immediately. Eileen is wonderful to work with, and makes gorgeous and creative high quality children's gifts. From her website:

"Créations Elin offers one of a kind hand painted items for children’s bedrooms or playrooms. Crafted with old fashioned care and integrity, each piece is lovingly created to produce a one of a kind product for the discriminating and discerning client wanting something above the ordinary. Any item can be personalized in the colors coordinating with bedding or room decor. We will also work with you to create a specially designed product you will be proud to display and enjoy, or give as a gift."

I was sent the letters C and M, for Connor and Merasia, of course. I got matching designs, because I'm anal like that. ;-) I was so excited to recieve the letters and could not wait to get them open and on the wall in the twins' room when they finally came. We moved shortly after, and they are protected away in storage for now while we live with family for a month, but I can't wait for them to be hanging in the twins' room again when we move into our new place in a month or two. :-)

I don't have photos of the exact letters I recieved since I didn't get a chance to snap some pics before we had to unexpectedly move, but this is the design I got:



I got the C in the blue circle design and the M in the pink circle design, and both on a chocolate colored satin ribbon.

While I was initially surprised that the letters were smaller than I expected, I am extremely happy with them. The twins love to look at them hanging above their beds (when they were there, :-) ), and I love seeing them also. They are gorgeous and finely crafted. :-)

Now, for the fun stuff...

Eileen has graciously offered to do a hand crafted wood letter of a child's first initial for one lucky reader of A Day in the Life of a Mother of Multiples!

Here's how to enter:

(PLEASE LEAVE SEPERATE COMMENTS FOR EACH ENTRY OPPORTUNITY YOU DO, IT'S EASIER TO COUNT UP AND CHOOSE A WINNER THROUGH RANDOM.ORG THAT WAY. :-)) )

MANDATORY Entries (1 entry a piece):

1. Go to http://www.creationselin.com/ and look through her boutique. Then, come back here and post a comment, telling me what product is your favorite.

2. Follow my blog publically via GFC.

3. Comment on another of my posts and leave a commen here when you do.


EXTRAS (To be completed only AFTER the mandatory entries have been completed!):

4. Join Eileen's mailing list at http://www.creationselin.com/ (1 entry)

5. Follow me on Twitter (2 entries, leave 2 seperate comments)

6. Tweet about this giveaway once a day, and post a comment each time you do (2 entries per tweet, so everytime you post a comment telling me you tweeted about this giveaway, you will gain 2 extra entries...as long as you remember to post here and tell me! :-)) )

7. Follow Eileen on Facebook (1 entry)

8. Follow Eileen on Twitter (2 entries, leave 2 seperate comments)


Giveaway ends on July 14 at midnight Eastern time, and the winner will be chosen randomly and announced later the next day. The winner has 48 hours to respond to my email before I will have to choose another winner. Good luck to all!! :-))

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Little Duck Organics Fruit Snacks Winner!!

Oh my goodness...I am SO sorry it has taken me this long to post the winner for this giveaway! With the business and stress of moving, the car breaking down, etc., I totally forgot and just couldn't get to it!

So, without further ado, the winner of the Little Duck Organics fruit snacks giveaway, according to Random.org, is Ashley!!! Ashley has been contacted and has 24 hours to get back to me before I will need to choose another winner!

I'll get the next couple of giveaways posted as soon as I can! :-))

Thanks for being so patient with me!!!

Blake

Monday, June 21, 2010

All Grown Up!

 We have been so busy lately, and to get away for a little bit, we spent the night at a friend's house Friday night. She had a 10 month old daughter, and they happend to find her a toddler bed on sale a few months ago, so they decided to buy it early and just leave it set up for when her nieces visit and then her daughter will use it when she is ready. When I told her about Merasia's recent sleep issues and how it seemed that she wanted out of her crib, she suggested trying it out for the night, but leaving the pack and play up in case it didn't go well and then we could just put her in the pack and play instead. I thought it was a good idea, so that night we got the kids ready for bed, put Connor down in his pack and play, and then put Merasia down in the bed. I checked on her a few minutes later and she was out like a light. I snapped this picture of her early in the morning before she woke up:


She stayed there all night, waking only a few times to get her paci replaced and her seahorse turned back on, which is totally normal for her at night. But no meltdowns or wanting to get out of the bed like she was afraid of it, like she did with her crib. We have stayed here for 3 nights so far, and she has slept in the bed all three nights, and even napped in it today. Her crib at home turns into a toddler bed, with one side staying up, so we are buying a bed rail today and will get that set up when we get home. The first night in the bed, Merasia woke up the next morning and got in bed with hubs and I (since we have been sleeping in the same room), and then she walked around and played and then got tired and went back in the bed to sleep some more. She is such a cutie! I snapped this picture in the morning when she first woke up:



LOL!

It amazes me that she is doing yet another thing that reminds me she is a real little person, just like all of us. ♥

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Following the Crowd...

Upon the very good advice of one of my lovely followers, I have followed the crowd and joined the ranks of Twitter! Yep, it's official. I tweet now. ;-)

I agree with Ashley, who recommended this for me, in that it will add something else for all of you to do when I hold giveaways, and will probably help me gain more exposure as a blogger and more followers. So, that convinced me. :-)

I haven't used it much recently, but I am sure I will as time goes by...it's such a busy time for us right now!

Anyway, look me up! @mama2multiples

:-)

Monday, June 14, 2010

I'm Alive! :-)

I'm ALIVE! I love my readers...so thoughtful of some of them to check up on me! :-)

We are still in the moving process and getting settled in with my sister in law. We will be living here for 6-8 weeks. Not the ideal situation, but it's the way it's gotta be for now. I have been super busy with working from home, moving, organizing, keeping up with the kiddos, and everything else....not to mention the fact that they have dial up here, so a slow connection and not ideal for tons of blogging. We are hoping to get that changed to high speed soon though.

I will check in when I can...hopefully soon and more regular!

No word on if the Clomid worked yet either...only about 5 or 6 DPO. ;-))

Sunday, June 6, 2010

New Winner for Silly Mama Quilts Giveaway

I had to choose a new winner for the gift certificate for Silly Mama Quilts because the original winner didn't email me back in time to claim her prize. :-(

So the new winner, according to random.org. is ANG!!!!!! She has been contacted by email and has 48 hours to reply to me before I will have to choose another winner!


Be sure to enter the giveaway for Little Duck organics fruit snacks, we only have 2 entries so we need more before I can choose a winner! :-)

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Admist all the disappointments...

...there has been one amazing thing happen.

Connor took his FIRST STEPS!!!!

We were at our friend's house, where we stayed for 4 or 5 days when our car broke down. We had gone there the night before the car broke down for dinner and stayed the night, and then with no car to get home, they offered us to stay there for another night or two while we got things figured out. So super sweet of them. :-) My sister in law took the kiddos overnight last Friday night into Saturday evening because my friend and I were working a yard sale with my mom. We were dealing with everything going on, but trying to stay positive and I had missed my babies terribly that overnight, more so than normal. I think it was just because with everything going on, I wanted them with me even more. They finally got dropped back off to us Saturday evening, and we were all sitting around and playing with them. Frank was in a chair next to me, Terry, my friend's husband, was on the couch, and my friend Jenn and I were on the floor.

Connor pulled himself up to stand against the couch, and was just standing there, his back against the couch, not holding on. I put my arms out just to see what he would do, and to EVERYONE'S HUGE SURPRISE, he WALKED! He took 4 or 5 steps and fell into my arms with a big warm hug. I MELTED and lost my marbles. I bawled like the biggest baby ever. We were all just shocked. It was completely unexpected, and happened at a time of such stress for us, that we all really needed something like that to keep going and to help us get through everything and to remind us of the things in life that really matter. ♥

When it rains, it pours!

Isn't that the truth? It seems when one bad thing happens, a hundred more seem to follow like a domino effect.

This last month has been extremely stressful for us. Hubs has been out of work since the very end of April, when he threw his back out. Of course this is stressful because he is our income, but we have been managing. It's tough, but we are getting by. We figured it would be a quick fix and he'd be back to work within a few weeks or something, but...not so. Well, really, he was allowed back to work on light duties and no lifting over 10 pounds a couple of weeks ago by the doctor, but his boss is being difficult and not cooperating with us, so that's not happening.

We are also in the process of moving. But that's a whole other story I won't get into here or now.

To top it off, our car broke down a week ago, and is still not fixed. Heck, we don't even know what's wrong with it! I was with my best friend Jenn, and my kiddos and her daughter, hanging out and doing errands, and hubs was with my friend's husband, helping my mom with some things. It was supposed to be my first night of class for the summer semester, but I really did not want to go. Of course, I was planning on sucking it up and going anyway. But then hubs called that afternoon and said the car broke down, he thought it was a rod bearing (which means nothing to me), blah blah blah. I was stressed and upset. On top of everything else, we didn't need that too. I dropped my class and had a small meltdown. We got the car towed to my mom's house with the help of my friend's AAA, and since money is tight, my sister in law offered to buy the parts it was going to need. That was helpful and fine, but once the parts were installed, it didn't fix the problem. Back to the drawing board. It's been a week now, and hubs still doesn't know what is wrong with it, which is weird for him, since cars are his LIFE. It's what he does for work, he is a mechanic, so for him to not know what the issue is, is pretty bad. We are able to get it back home where he can tear it apart and get to the root of the problem though, so hopefully within this next week it will be fixed and back on the road.

In the meantime, we have had to rely on friends and family to get us places, and that's never fun. Not to mention we are going stir crazy sitting in the house day and night. We are very active and like to get out and do stuff, even if it's just going for a ride in the country or whatever, and not having that freedom right now is a huge adjustment. But we're trying to stay positive that it will be fixed soon and things can get back to normal...somewhat.

It's been in these last couple of weeks that I have realized just how true the title of this post is...

When it rains, it really DOES pour.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

CSN Stores Review!



I have been meaning to get this dang review posted for months now and FINALLY have the time and energy to do so!

Upon first looking through CSN stores numerous websites, I was amazed and overwhelmed at the wide variety of products they sell!

I worked with Ashley and finally decided on what products I wanted for review. At first, I tried out the Dream Baby Stay Put cutlery and bowl set. I thought it would be great for the twins, since they are almost 17 months and it would help them learn to feed themselves with utensils.




Unfortunately, when we recieved these items, they didn't work properly. I contacted Ashley, and she graciously allowed me to choose another product to review instead. I thought that was customer service at it's best!

When I chose to review the cutlery and bowl sets, I also chose this towel for Connor:


When I was allowed to choose another product to replace the cutlery and bowl sets, I chose this towel for Merasia:

I also chose this laptop case for review:



I recieved all of my items quickly, and was very excited to use them and try them out.

I absolutely LOVE the hooded towels. I love the designs of them and they are perfect size for the twins. All of the other hooded towels we had were getting too small, but these are nice and large, and don't shrink in the wash either. And they stay sooooo soft, even without adding fabric softener to the washing. :-)

I LOVE the laptop case! I love the gel padded cubes for protection, and it's waterproof, which is very important with toddlers and high tech equipment. :-) It's not too big and not too small, and I can fit my power cord in the case with my laptop as well. My only complaint is that the handle isn't very big...only enough for a couple of fingers to fit in, not long enough to swing on your shoulder like most cases. But, that's only a small complaint compared to how much I love the product all around. I use it regularly and would definitely recommend it.

All in all, I am very happy with the products I was sent for review, and with the customer service I recieved. I will definitely order from CSN stores in the future, and would recommend them to everyone. :-)

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Silly Mama Quilts Gift Certificate winner!

The winner of the gift certificate to Silly Mama Quilts, according to random.org. is Mommy2Chazz!!!! She has been contacted by email and has 24 hours to reply to me before I will have to choose another winner!

Be sure to enter the giveaway for Little Duck organics fruit snacks, we only have 2 entries so we need more before I can choose a winner! :-)