Monday, July 30, 2012

Photo Contest!

Two posts in one day...how lucky are you guys!

I recently was asked to blog about a contest being run by my favorite photo site, Shutterfly!  I have blogged about them before, back when I shared our Photo Holiday Cards, and will again when we order all our Wedding photo gifts for family & friends!  They offer so many amazing products and services and have some of the best prices on the web!  Be sure to check them out for all your photo printing needs!  Now, on to the contest...

You can win a trip for 4 to the BAHAMAS and get a professional photo shoot to help you remember this awesome vacation forever!  All you have to do is go here and upload your favorite photo and caption based on this weeks theme!  You can get a gift just for entering and you can enter at any point over the 5-week sweepstakes!  How awesome is that?!  You still have time to submit a photo for the Sports & Activities theme for Week 4 and for the Parties and Celebrations theme for Week5!  Make sure to check it out and enter!


PHOTO THEMES
•       Week 1(7/9): Americana - ended
•       Week 2 (7/16): Great Outdoors - ended
•       Week 3 (7/23): Water Fun – current week
•       Week 4 (7/30): Sports & Activities
•       Week 5 (8/6): Parties & Celebrations
PRIZES
       Instant win prizes just for submitting a photo!
       Weekly prizes (contestants can enter one time/week)
       Weekly featured photos: up to 5 weekly entries will be selected from the gallery and featured on the Facebook fan page.
       Grand prize: trip for 4 to Bahamas, 4 nights, family photo shoot

*Disclaimer:  All opinions about Shutterfly are my own personal opinion and were not facilitated by gifts or offers from Shutterfly.  I was offered a photo book promotion for sharing the contest information but that is all.




I'm back!

Okay, I don't even really know where to start!  I haven't blogged in ages!  So much has happened since the my last post!  I will try to sum it up quickly...

The biggest news I have to share is that I GOT MARRIED seventeen days ago!  It was HOT but wonderful!  Eric and I are very happy to be together again and raising our girls as a family, after being apart for 5 years.  The girls are loving it as well.  You can look forward to a post of wedding pics with more details as soon as I get more from our photographer!


Last week we got some very exciting news, Eric has been hired as a paid Fireman by one of our local departments, which is wonderful.  It would be even better if said department would go full time paid.  For now they are only part time which means Eric will have to continue working 60+ hours a week, which sucks, but its a HUGE step in the right direction.

In January I started teaching childbirth education and breastfeeding education for Baby Love Birth Services, to go along with all my doula stuff.  I am LOVING it.  I also help organize/run a HUGE baby fair that happens twice a year, Baby Love Essentials!  We have had 2 events so far with our 3rd coming up this September.

Since January I have had the honor of attending two different twin births as a doula.  One was a home-birth and one a hospital birth, both were vaginal deliveries!  Both babies were born breech at the home-birth, one complete breech and one footling breech.  Baby B was born breech at the hospital birth!  Both were truly amazing experiences and I feel so lucky to have been able to be a part of them!

I stopped homeschooling in January this year and sent "M" to school for the very first time ever.  I felt like I was not able to devote enough time to school with "M" & "L" bc at the time I was working, teaching and organizing the baby fair on top of doing school. She started right after winter break ended at a local public elementary school.  She started in 2nd grade and it went WONDERFULLY!  Her teacher was AMAZING and not at all your typical elementary school teacher.  She was very laid back and relaxed about everything. She even told me that I can opt "M" out of the standardized testing in the future if I want to.  She is very liberal and a "hippy" so we got along really well ;)  "M" loved her and absolutely LOVES school.

"L" will be starting kindergarten in the fall!  I am sad and excited at the same time.  I am really happy that she got into the class we requested.  They are trying out a program at the school where the kids stay with the same teacher for both kindergarten and first grade.  I really wanted her to be in the classroom where they do this.  We got our teacher assignments over the weekend and she will be in that class!  Both girls are so excited for school to start in a couple weeks!

Eric and I are very excited to start TTC after the girls are back to school!  We both know for sure we want to have another baby and would love to have one next summer.  I am getting ready to start the exciting journey of temping and charting my cycles.  I am hoping and praying we get pregnant right away bc I am such an obsessive control freak the TTC is extremely stressful for everyone involved or not involved really (not that it isn't for many couples...its just stressful for me in a different way, not bc I've had a hard time getting pregnant but bc I obsess over my temps/charts/ovulation etc and make Eric do the deed twice a day for a week surrounding my ovulation and try to control getting pregnant like I do everything else!  Maybe this time will be different...don't hold your breath though!)

I am hoping to try and get at least one blog post up a week starting now and then we shall see how it goes.  I have so much to share, I just haven't been making time to do it.  I guess I will have plenty in couple weeks with Eric working days and the girls both in school all day!  I am not going to know what to do with myself!  I haven't been home without a child in over 8 years!