Photo Challenge Day 6 - Outside My Front Door

A typical fall evening in South Carolina,

taken from my front slab of concrete porch.

Also, today is my twenty-sixth birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

Oh! And have you signed up for my giveaway yet?

Photo Challenge Day 5 - and Have You Heard?

The theme for Day 5 of the 30 Day Photography Challenge is "Puppy Love." I went a bit literal with this one. Colin LOVES his stuffed puppy, and he sleeps with it every night. It has a pull-string that plays a lullaby, and he pulls the string by himself now. It's so cute.. I'll be sitting in the living room after I've put him down for the night and I'll hear music on the monitor.

Ignore the quality of the photo - I haven't invested in a flash other than the one that came with the camera. It's not the best for low lighting situations. :)

 

Also... have you heard about my giveaway? If not, you really should check it out!

It's time for a GIVEAWAY!

Raise your hand if you like free stuff! Yep, me too. I just recently won the MoBoleez giveaway over at Growing Up Geeky (woohoo!) and now I'm in the mood to give something away to one of my dear readers! I'm pretty sure you're going to love it as much as I do.

Smallish Studio is an absolutely adorable Etsy shop full of handmade goodies for your little one. Colin has a pumpkin hat in the 12-18 months size from Smallish Studio, and we love it. He's even gotten compliments on his sweet little pumpkin head!

{Ignore our squinty eyes- the sun was a little too bright}

So, onto the giveaway! {Drumroll please...}

One of YOU will receive the "Beary Cute Beanie" in size 2T-4T pictured below.

Isn't it super cute?! Looks great on girls and boys alike.

This is a Rafflecopter giveaway. It's almost too easy to enter.
Just follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget!

And.... go! Giveaway starts at midnight tonight and ends Thursday. Good luck! :)

Disclaimer: I have not been compensated in any way for this giveaway, and the ideas expressed in this review are my own. I honestly just love this Etsy shop!

Kidding Around, 9 month checkup and Photo Challenge Day 4

Welcome to {Kid}ding Around Friday!

 

{Kid}ding Around Friday is the place to share your

kid-related posts about:

Crafts, Milestones, Homeschooling, Kid-Friendly Food,

Pregnancy, Decorating, Photography, 

A Funny Story, Great Deals,

Organization and more!

{To Join the Party}

<a border="0" href="http://www.sbuxsweetie.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><http://i52.tinypic.com/mv0rgn.jpg" /></a>

1. Follow your hosts, Katie & Amanda (first 2 links)

2. Link to a specific kid-related post.

3. We'd love for you to grab our adorable little button.

4. Enjoy reading through some of the other posts and make new friends!

Each week we will feature a few posts from the previous week.

By submitting a link, you are granting Amanda and I permission to use the photos from your post.

WE ENJOYED READING THESE

LINKS FROM LAST WEEK:

Tangled Birthday Party

from La Dolce Vita: "The Sweet Life"

Halloween Craft

from Moms Like Me

Pumpkin Crumb Cake

from Diary of a Working Mom

Featured? Grab a button on the left sidebar.

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Sorry for the delay in today's {Kid}ding Around Friday post. This morning, I took Colin to his 9 month checkup {even though he'll be 10 months old in less than 2 weeks}. Here are the stats:


Height: 31 inches {98th percentile)
Weight: 25 pounds {95th percentile)


He's still growing at about the same rate, which means there is a possibility he'll be of the big and tall variety when he's grown. :) That's my little quarterback!!

Know anyone who's looking for a lead guitarist?

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And on a completely different note, today is day 4 of the 30 day photography challenge. The theme today is "favorite item." I would have to say that my most prized material possession is my wedding ring set. It's simple, but perfect. Not completely flawless, but close- just like the relationship I have with my husband, haha. :)

 Thanks for linking up today, bloggy loves!

Photo Challenge Day 3 - "Youth"

I love how this one turned out. It's so fun to capture Colin doing what he loves best - being playful and inquisitive. This toy was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but Daddy pulled it out early because our boy started pulling up recently, and this is the perfect height for that. :) I also chose to use a dutch angle for this photo to bump up the "youth" factor!

 

Photo Challenge Day 2 - "Calm"

Our sweet girl, Ellie, relaxing on the couch last night.

 

Halloween Fail, Challenge Day 1, and Winning!

Well, Colin's first Halloween was kind of a bust. The plan was to get him dressed as soon as we were both home from work and hit the road for some Halloween adventures. Well. When I picked him up from daycare at 5:15, the lady said he'd been awake since 2:15. Yikes. Baby boy really values his afternoon nap, and he hadn't had one yet. He fell asleep on the way home, and continued his nap on Daddy's chest when we got home so I could run around and get all our stuff ready for the evening.

Rather than getting him dressed in his costume at home, we decided to just let him sleep in the car and change him at Justin's parents' house. We were going to swing by the pastor's house too, but that was out at this point because we were running out of time.

He woke up as Justin handed him to me so I could get him strapped into his car seat. I sat in the back with him so I could feed him a bottle - he was overdue for his normal feeding time at this point. Maybe a block down the road, he started to fuss and I gave him the bottle. He took a sip and then SCREAMED. Immediately, I realized he couldn't breathe out of his nose. My poor baby has still been a little under the weather since catching his first cold last week. I told Justin what was going on and that he really needed his nose sucked out. Of course, we didn't have the aspirator with us. Daddy made a last minute decision to turn around and go home. At the time I was a little bummed, but it turned out to be the best thing, as our little fussy man kept coughing and sneezing throughout the evening. Poor thing.

Oh! And THEN, as I was handing some candy out to trick or treaters, we ran out. Like, in the middle of a group of kids. We only had one bag of fun-size Kit Kats, as we hadn't planned to stay home all evening. Whoops. I had to turn away a little boy dressed as Mario and tell him we were out of candy. I considered giving him the half a bag of Cheetos in the pantry, but figured his mom would frown on that sort of thing. So, we turned out our light, closed the door, and proceeded to do the normal bath & bedtime routine with Colin.

So there you have it. Baby's first Halloween was spent at home, sans costume.

On a more positive note, though, today is day 1 of the 30 day photography challenge. Today's theme is Halloween. Since I didn't get any of Colin, I took a picture of my favorite Halloween decoration instead. This little dude is currently hanging on our door:

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I won a blog giveaway this morning! Melissa at Growing Up Geeky was giving away a Moboleez nursing cover/baby hat, and I entered, thinking of future babies. As many of you know, I'm not nursing now; Colin and I both had a tough time with it. I wholeheartedly plan to try again next time, though, and this adorable nursing cover will certainly be fun to use when the time comes! Thanks, M. :)

More to come!