The winner is Utmom of my 5 Little Monkeys! Congrats!

Look What We Want!

Wouldn't this little boy look absolutely adorable tooling up and down the street (ok - my front yard) in this too cute for words pedal car? That's what I think too! And so I entered this contest sponsored by 5 minutes for Mom. This little beauty is available at their website along with other retro toys and pedal cars! They retail for $259. My little guy is an absolute Mustang fanatic and would go absolutely gaga over this one!

Are You Nanny Deprived? Take This Quiz to find out..

1) Have you ever eaten a random cheerio, puff, or pretzel just because you had no where else to put it?

2) Have you ever vowed to never again wear white due to constant grime, bodily fluids, and dirt showing minutes after you've gotten dressed?

3) Have you ever used your garden hose to wash down a high chair, stroller or child?

4) Have you ever walked around with a half eaten cookie in your pocket?

5) Do you look forward to going to the doctor or dentist just so you can sit in the waiting room and read a magazine by yourself?

6) Have you ever used a public restroom while holding a child on your lap because there was no where else to put them?

7) Have you watched Yo Gabba Gabba? I'm so sorry if you have!

8) Have you spent at least two consecutive days in sweats?

9) Have you ever counted down the hours until bedtime?

10) Have you perfected the fine art of changing pee soaked sheets while still mostly asleep?

11) Have you been forced to discuss or explain the plot of a Disney movie while trying to merge onto an interstate in rush hour traffic?

12) Have you ever had to use preschool safety scissors to cut a major package because that was all you could find?

13) Have you ever cleaned grilled cheese off of your sunglasses?

14) Have you ever answered the door wearing "princess jewlery"?

15) Have you ever run out of batteries on PURPOSE?

16) Have you named your dustbuster and consider it part of your family?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, you truly are Nanny Deprived!

Thank you to Amanda at Nanny Deprived http://www.nannydeprived.com/ for allowing me to use this! Check out her site for other funnies and lots of great Mommy and Baby gear!

Products Made In the US

I can hardly believe it, but this little guy is about to turn 2 a week from today. My baby is no longer a baby! WAAAAAH! But along with sadness comes the (pains) I mean joys of celebrating his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese (the family tradition - lol!).

Those toy scares from Christmas are still looming in the back of my mind as I go looking for birthday presents for the little guy. Did you know that 45 million toyswere recalled last year, and none of them were made in the US? I have found an amazing assortment of stores on-line that sell made in the US products only, but one of my favorites so far is Made in USA forever, not only do they have great toys, but they also have men and women's clothing, things for the house and more. The prices are very reasonable, and I have found things not only for Luke's birthday like this cool fire truck and this , because just like mom he's addicted to the computer, but I've also found some things for the older boys when their birthdays come around in April and May (3 of them all at the same time - ARGGH!).

I also checked out the about us page at Made in USA Forever (because I'm nosey that way) and was pleased to see that the company was started by a dad in California -there is a pic of him and his adorable baby girl (I am a sucker for things like that!) I also appreciate the fact that toys made in the US keep jobs here in the US, and are better for the environment (other countries do not have the pollution standards that we do). So... I'm off to shop a bit more, just wanted to share the site in case anyone else is concerned with the safety of kid's toys these days.

Ten Books Your Child Should Read by Age 10

Disney Family recently posted a list of top 10 reads for kids. The list included:

1. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," by Eric Carle

2. "Goodnight Moon," by Margaret Wise Brown

3."The Little Engine That Could," by Watty Piper

4. "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault

5."Go, Dog, Go!," by P.D. Eastman

6."Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak

7."Where the Sidewalk Ends," by Shel Silverstein

8."Charlotte's Web," by E.B. White

9. "Ramona the Pest," by Beverly Cleary

10. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," by Roald Dahl

I definately agree with most of the books on this list, but was a bit disappointed that no Dr. Suess books made the cut! And 2 of my all time favorites - Love You Forever and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day were also missing. Any of your childhood faves miss the list?

Is Your Family Prepared?

Nobody wants to think of the possibility that something bad could happen to your family during a natural disaster, but with the flood coming just a few miles from my home and effecting many of my friends and community members, I realize just how vulnerable and unprepared we really are.

Hoping to become a little more prepared, I've been doing a little research on-line and found that the Red Cross has an AMAZING site filled with usefuil tips, checklists, and just about everything you need to prepare your family for the unexpected.

One thing that I found particularly interesting was the suggestion to call Red Cross to find out what disasters are most likely to happen. This would have been very helpful in our town, because most people did not expect a flood in a desert, but, if they had checked here they would have known we actually are living in a flood plain.

Some things we will be doing include:

1. Making a disaster plan with set locations to go if anything were to happen- one locally and one a little further out. We will also give family members these phone numbers to reach us in an emergency.

2. Checking our our insurance coverage to make sure we understand ALL of our coverages and lack of.

3. Preparing a disaster kit and putting all important papers in a fire proof safe that is easy to grab if we were evacuated.

Flood!

Our tiny little town has made national headlines due to a flood! A small section of our community is currently under up to 8 feet of water in some parts. A levee broke on part of an irrigation canal after heavy rains. We live in a desert, so this was completely unexpected for many.

As many as 300 to 400 homes are destroyed. Luckily no one has been injured due to the floods.

We are ok - we live about 3 miles from the flood. In fact, we didn't even know about the disaster until friends and family members started calling us from all over the country to see if we were ok. Then we turned on the news to see what they were talking about.

Please keep the families who lost their homes in your thoughts and prayers.

Tagged - Again!

I have been tagged again! This time by Renee Baker who asked me to list seven informal things about me, then tag others (Sorry!) So here goes:

1. I am addicted to sugar in almost any form - mostly candy - Twizzlers, Kit Kat, JuJubes, Jelly Beans, Hot Tamales, etc.

2. My favorite movie as a child was Annie and I now have a red little poodle named Annie.

3. My favorite thing to do to exercise is tap dancing.

4. I majored in accounting in college - and regret every second of it - especially at tax time when everybody asks me to do their taxes.

5. I hate eating fish - I am a Pisces so I feel somewhat cannibalistic - go ahead and laugh at me - how many of you won't eat deer because of the whole Bambi thing - enough said.

6. My favorite author is Jodi Picoult who coincidently publishes her books every March right around my birthday. The last one, 19 minutes actually has my birthday in the first sentence.

7. In high school I once resisted the invitation of a very cute boy to skip class to go get doughnuts because "What wouldI tell my kids?" (I obviously didn't have any yet, but I was already worried about their values!)

Now the FUN part: I will tag: Dawn (because she has a cute little guy), and Veronica (because I just found her fun blog and it will remind me to go back and read some more!)

Pay Per Post

Yeah! My blog has FINALLY been approved for Pay Per Post!!! I guess in the past I have not been prolific or consistent enough in my blog postings, but I have finally been fairly regular about my blogging. I have achieved one of my New Year’s Resolutions (to be better about blogging) and it’s not even the first week! LOL!

Anyway, the idea behind Pay Per Post is that advertisers pay you to blog about their site or product. Your opinions can be negative or positive and you can pick and choose which opportunities you take. When you get to the home page, you will see a list of featured opportunities, and the amounts you would be paid if you choose the opportunity (you have to be qualified for certain opportunities). The amounts of pay appear to range anywhere from $5 to $250. Scrolling down the home page, you will find a list of Pay Per Post’s top earners. The all time figures feature people with figures around $11,000 to $18,000. If you are a little more analytical (like me) you can click to see monthly top earnings around $100 to $200 or daily at $45 to $60 – not too shabby. We have college on the horizon for a few of our boys, and we are doing whatever we can to save up for that expense - even a few extra dollars a month will come in handy!

Next to that section you can find a featured blogger of the day – not only do they pay you for your posts, but they give you a little free advertising.

I have just been approved, so the verdict is still out on availability of offers, speed of pay, etc. but I will keep you updated. Blogger friends who have referred me have raved about their services. I will tell you that I was pleased with the customer service prior to approval – they give you tips and advice on why your blog might be rejected.

Another thing that I like is that they have blog ethics They require full disclosure that the posts are paid posts.

Wordless Wednesday

The Kids clowning around with the Santa's friends costumes at the Nutcracker.