Toddler Talk ~ Week 21 (Merry Christmas!!)

Thank you so much for joining us each week for Toddler Talk Thursday. We wanted to wish you and your families a safe and Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year too!

Join us for our next Toddler Talk in January. Until then, we hope you enjoy our special treat starring Squishy, Baybah, and Hayden!

Christmas Blessings to You and Yours! Xoxxo - Us!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with family friends yesterday. They live out here half the year, and are more family then friends! (although they are great friends!) Their son has to work holidays so we usually celebrate early or late depending on the year. We had a great time.

Squishy walked into their home and with-in 1 minute had shoved a handful of cat food in his mouth (yes, my son ate cat food!) and flipped over the water bowl. He was everywhere. But it sure was fun.

My little man LOVED mashed potatoes. He couldn't get enough of them. I could barely get them from the spoon to his plate before he was shoveling them into his mouth.

Hope you are all enjoying your families and eating lots of yummy food. I have many things to be thankful for this year. But I didn't want to forget to say thank you to you - my readers. I love all the comments of support and encouragement from perfect strangers. You have all made my day in one way or another. So from the bottom of my heart - Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving!

And....
You better guard your mashed potatoes or someone Squishy may just come and steal them!!

Daily Vegas ~ I am thankful for Babe and Bob.

It has been a long day - well, a long week. I can't believe it is Monday again. It is amazing that no matter how much you try not to let it happen, Monday's still have a way of sneaking up on you.

So, since I am exhausted and we got home late from the Haunted Harvest Redo, (due to our rain out last weekend) I have decided to post a few things that made me thankful this week.

*I am thankful to have a wonderful husband who understands me supports me in whatever I am doing. Including Blogging. Did I mention yet, I am going to Blogher 2011??

*I am thankful to have a son who couldn't possibly get cuter! His smile is my world, and laugh is my heart. And who now says "Hey Babe" to me and still calls Daddy "Bob". Really one of the sweetest things ever.

*I am thankful to have found such a wonderful group of moms who I am lucky enough to also call friends. And while Thursday Playgroup saves my sanity, Wednesday Bingo nights remind me it is okay to be a wife, mother, and a woman.

*I am thankful to have such amazing family. My thoughts and prayers are with my father and his wife. Tomorrow is the beginning of a difficult journey. I pray the chemo goes smoothly and allows his wife to have more time to be with her family, my dad, and her grandbabies.

*I am thankful to have had "Auntie Kim" move in with us. By this time last deployment I was very literally a zombie mommy. There are so many moments I know I missed out on trying to do it all alone. Kim has been such a lifesaver, a huge help, a wonderful aunt to Squish, and a good friend to me. She has truely allowed me to be able to breath through this deployment, and feel like I wasn't missing out on some important moments.

*I am thankful that we are almost finished with this deployment. Only a few more weeks. (hopefully) I am ready for the hubs to be back with us where he fits the best.

What are you thankful for? Have you thought about it lately?

Winners of the Kiboomu MP3 Top 30 Preschool songs:

Avonlady02, Chelsei, and Shelby. The winners have been notified via email. If for some reason they do not respond - new winners will be chosen. Congrats! I hope you enjoy this Kiboomu album as much as my Squishy and I do!!

Winner of the Reader Appreciation RockaBye Baby Cd:

Not Quite Susie Homemaker. Thank you to all my readers, I am floored every time I come onto my blog and find comments (which I LOVE). Make sure you stay tuned - Who knows what I will have for you when I hit 1000 followers - something pretty awesome I am sure!!

Have you voted for Family and Life in Las Vegas on Top Mommy Blogs today? Help me break into the top #25!! Thank you!

WINNERS!!

Are you ready to find out who won? All 10 winners have been emailed! They have 48 hours to respond before I will have to draw a new winner. Let's all give them a big pat on the back! Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter. If you are a new follower - Welcome! I hope you will stick around and stop in to say hi! I have many more fun giveaways coming up, and lots of Las Vegas Life to share! Not to mention Mommy's Lil Monster Bash is quickly approaching and we have many many fun giveaways, tutorials, recipes, and more lined up! It should be a busy, but fun fall!

So without futher delay; Family and Life in Las Vegas Blogmania Winners!!

Random.Org picked the following numbers in this order:
Prize Package Winners: #692, #758, #235, #435 - Mini Winners: #1208, #616, #273, #552, #366, #752

Prize Package #1 - Andrea
Prize Package #2 - MommyMonkey aka Debbie
Prize Package #3 - A Fairy Good Mommy aka Amanda
Prize Package #4 - Karen

Mini Wins #5-#10 - Best Housewife, Lady-bug Kellie, Hannah, Gianna, SAPsMaMa, and Cuzinlogic.

CONGRATULATIONS!! I am so excited for all of you. These are some really great prizes from some really great Sponsors.
Thank you once again to the Blogmania Sponsors of Family and Life in Las Vegas. EcoMom, FlutterBaby Gifts, Corn Warmerz, ERGOBaby, Kidtoons, and Bethie Boos Tutus have all been wonderful to work with. If you have a moment check out their sites, look around, and even say Hi!

And because I am feeling super generous today(Because this is how we do it at Family and Life in Las Vegas), I am going to give away a pair of beautiful diamond earrings, from http://www.diamondearrings.org. These are cubic zirconia, but look real!! I recently wore a pair out for my birthday celebration and love them. They really look real! Why buy diamond earrings when you can get these for next to nothing! Head over to the website and check it out!!

The earrings, and me wearing my pair of the earrings!

The Winner of This Giveaway is Theresa over at The Fun Fritz Family!

Congratulations to all! Hope to see you all back entering giveaways and participating in the meme's I co-host!!

Daily Vegas ~ Favorite Posts

Wow! I can't believe I now have over 300 followers. What a crazy concept. There are people out there who want to read about my daily ramblings, see pictures of my family, and see what we are up to in Our Vegas Life.

I had originally started this blog for my family. We live so far away from them, and Squishy is the first grandchild on both sides of our family, so it only seemed right to start blogging. What I didn't realize was that in starting this blog, I would rediscover a passion for writing, (or rambling depending on the day) as well as a therapeutic outlet for a sleep deprived, happy mama, happy wife, sometimes crazy, gets lost in my head way too often, constant over-sharing, always silly "me".

While my family loves the constant updates about our lives, I think that sometimes they don't fully understand why I would want to put my life on the *gasp* internet. For me, blogging has become a place to meet like minded parents, and other wonderful people I wouldn't otherwise have the chance to meet or know. It is a place to share tips, whine to sometimes sympathetic and understanding ears, and celebrate the little things that otherwise may go uncelebrated. It's not like I am a stranger to the internet, after-all I did meet the Hubs online too!

I love the idea that I will be able to one day have all my posts put into a book for my children to read. I love that I have found so many other wonderful blogs to read, and lives to follow. I have learned something from each and everyone of the blogs that I read.

So in honor of hitting 300 followers, I have gone back and picked ten of my favorite posts. I hope you will take a moment to check some of them out. If nothing else, some of them are good for a smile. Thank you for reading, following, and leaving your thoughtful comments. Stay tuned, I have some serious fun coming up in the next month. Some GREAT giveaways, AWESOME guest posts, Blogmania, more from the hambone himself my Squishapillar, and more of Our Vegas. (Did I mention more Squishy??)

In no particular order...

My 1st post

Just Silly

Fathers and Sons

Why we switched to Cloth Diapers

Just like his Dad

A bit about me

Grandpa Fail

How Squishy got his name

Days like today

Letter to my son on his first birthday

"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." ~Hans Christian Anderson

My husband is my sunshine, my writing gives me freedom, my child is my flower. Blessed doesn't even begin to cover it!