Life on Sunshine Street

Fall is here!!

2012-10-03T22:59:00.000-05:00

I LOVE FALL!!! It is October 3rd and fall is officially here. Fall is Minnesota is absolutely beautiful! Yesterday and today we had some beautiful weather, mid 70's, so we have been living outside! I am not looking forward to being stuck inside with these little monsters all winter... We will be doing all kinds of fun stuff though so hopefully it won't be to bad. We have been at the park for a couple hours a day the last few days, I keep forgetting my camera so we don't have many pictures :( I plan on doing some pictures of the boys soon though, they are getting so big!! Here is a picture of the beautiful trees at the park by our house that I snapped with my phone a few days ago. my phone camera is dying so I don't have much on there anymore either.

Here is a video of my silly's playing on the swings together, Joshua loves to give Sam "Underdoggies" :)

Hope you are all having a great fall!

Love Love ♥

So we have this idea...

2012-09-13T16:29:00.000-05:00

Ryan and I love traveling. It is obviously a lot harder with two little boys in tow :) But we have this idea to start these photo books for our little guys. We want to take a picture of them by the state sign every time we visit a new state. We went to South Dakota this summer before we decided to start this, so we will have to go back! But we got our first pictures a couple weekends ago when we went to Wisconsin for Ryans family BBQ. He has a lot of family there, so we will be visiting there often. But I am excited to find the photo albums we are going to use and start this neat memory for my boys. Hopefully we can actually get to a few places before they are grown and we will have more than three pictures in their albums.

We have this crazy dream that we will make it to the east coast in the next couple years and do an amazing road trip. Crazy right? I know it would be amazing but it would be hard with kids and since we aren't done having kids we are likely to have a little one still in a couple years. But it could be fun.

Here are the first pictures for the album, of course I forgot my camera so all we got was cell phone pictures. But it is better than nothing :)

Has anyone ever done something like this for your kids? How is it working for you?

Love Love ♥

Happiness is...

2012-08-25T21:15:00.000-05:00

Happiness is a bowl of broccoli.

Well at least if you are my 15 month old who is obsessed with broccoli it is.

Love Love ♥

Insanity anyone?

2012-08-01T23:06:00.003-05:00

The hubby and I have been trying to get into better shape lately. We got bikes and have been biking everywhere, have been going for runs and trying to eat a little healthier. Something we have been wanting to try is the insanity work out. I have heard good things from friends and have been wanting to do it for a while. We just are trying to pay off credit cards and not spend money! SO I was pretty happy when I came across this page.

Anyone else want to try to win the sequel to the insanity workout? I would LOVE this. The giveaway ends in 18 days, so head over to http://knowmybody.com/ , check out their site and enter to win a free workout program. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me :)

Love Love ♥

This smile...

2012-07-22T13:45:00.002-05:00

This boys smile...

Gets him out of so much trouble!!

This boys handsome smile...

Melts my heart and ALWAYS makes me smile!!

Love Love ♥

Life with Joshua

2012-07-18T15:28:00.002-05:00

Life with Joshua is full of moments like this:

"Mommy, bear pee toilet. Not floor. Nasty on floor."\

Apparently the bear is getting potty trained too...

Love Love ♥

Sure you can

2012-07-07T22:48:00.001-05:00

Sure Josh, Sam and I will follow you all around the park while you wander and watch the "big kids" play

Sure guys, you can splash in that huge "lake" that is in the middle of the grass in the park. I won't even complain about you splashing me and getting me soaked when you need to be held for 5 seconds. Sure thing boys.

Sure, we can leave the park 5 minutes after we got there when you have talked about playing there all day. Apparently that huge open field with nothing in it is more exciting.

Sure we can stop at this random swing in the park and swing for twenty minutes. Getting off and on 2.5 million times. I feel like the swings at the park would be more fun. I could be wrong though.

Tonight was your night guys. Considering you fell asleep 5 minutes after we got home, I am gonna assume you enjoyed it!

Love Love ♥

June in Cell phone pictures

2012-07-06T14:53:00.005-05:00

We have been having hot hot weather and LOVING it :) the boys and I have been living outside, going to the beach and having all kinds of fun.

Love Love ♥

My big boy

2012-05-30T18:19:00.000-05:00

My big boy Sam had his one year check up today. He is sitting in the corner feeding the dog his bottle right now (in case you were wondering what a one year old does when he gets home from his check up). He's always been a big boy and that doesn't seem like it will change any time soon!

Big guy is off the charts again. I think his 9 month appointment was the only time he wasn't off the charts. You mean, its not normal for my one year old to wear 2t and 3t clothes? Hmm. I thought it was! He's been given the ok to use 1% milk because he doesn't need the calories of whole. The doctor was impressed with his walking. He's been walking since he was 9 months so he is a pro. He also got a compliment on his cool diaper :) I love when people are interested in my cloth diapers! He was wearing one of my favorites

My green totsbots green diaper is one of my favorite on Sammy. Well he is cute in anything of course. Notice the band aids from his shots. Poor guy was traumatized. We are about to make corn dogs and french fries (Sam's favorite food) to try and cheer him up a little! Have a good rest of the week friends.

Love Love ♥

Winner Winner!

2012-05-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

I just chose my winner for the sticker giveaway on random.org

the winner is entry # 4 Natasha With her entry "I followed PrintRunner on twitter- natashakelly79 :)"

Congrats Natasha! Please leave a comment with your email address and I will get it to the sponsor!

Love Love ♥

Did you hear?

2012-05-24T15:59:00.000-05:00

I am giving away a set of 250 stickers! You didn't hear? Then go here and check it out! It's only open for a couple more days. Don't miss your chance :)

Love Love ♥

Plans?

2012-05-11T16:26:00.000-05:00

Why yes, I do have plans tonight! They look something like this:

And that is just the beginning my friends. I have beds to make, bathrooms to clean and dinner to make. It's ok to be jealous of my exciting Friday night. I would completely understand.

Love Love♥

Did you miss us?

2012-05-09T15:19:00.001-05:00

We have been outside loving the weather! Have you missed us? We had a garage sale last weekend have been crazy busy but now I am back [as much as I can be when we have this sunshine and want to be outside!!]. Here are some [cell phone] pictures of my cute kiddos to show you what you have been missing out on :)

[playing with deuce on his bed]

[silly sleeping]

[lazy mornings]

[shopping for a bath tub]

hope you are all loving your spring
love love ♥

Free Stickers anyone?

2012-05-07T15:59:00.001-05:00

My little man LOVES stickers! So when Printrunner.com emailed and asked if I wanted to give some away on my blog I, obviously, said YES. How cool would it be to create your very own stickers?? Now you have a chance to do just that.

Details about the stickers

Sticker Shape: Standard Stickers

Flat Width: 2"

Flat Height: 3.5"

Quantity: 250

Paper: Premium Sticker Stock

Colors: Full Color ( 4 Color Process), Black and White

Proof: NONE

Ready to Ship In: 3 Business Days

*Giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above.

Want to buy some of your own? Try PrintRunner's stickers printing through their online printing services. Very reasonably priced and you get some awesome stickers.

Love printrunner.com? Like their facebook page here or follow them on twitter here

Comment on my blog telling me what you would choose to have on your stickers if you win.

*I will receive a prize of 250 stickers as compensation for hosting this giveaway

Extra Entries:

Follow Print Runner on twitter- Leave a comment telling me your twitter user name
"Like" Print Runner on Facebook- Leave a comment telling me your name on Facebook
"Like" My blog page on Facebook- Leave a comment telling me your name on Facebook

Leave a comment for each entry. Happy winning!

Easter in pictures

2012-04-18T14:54:00.003-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter! The boys got all kinds of goodies, we went to church and we had some good family time

Joshua discovering his "Easter basket" hid in his closet

Yay Cars!!

Sammy checking out his goodies

Me and my guys

Sammy checking out some candy from his and Joshuas Easter basket and Grandma and Grandpas

Keeping himself entertained during the Easter Egg hunt

I found all my eggs now stop taking pictures and open some candy Mom!

Me and my big sister :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Love Love ♥

5 Years of Love

2012-04-04T21:54:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was 5 years since me and my man said "I do" in an American Embassy in Okinawa, Japan. My oh my how we have changed.

We went from this

Summer 2005 Ryans graduation from basic

to this

June 2011 family pictures

I know, I know. It's definitely time for some new family pictures! My boys are so much older now. I'm gonna have to talk to my dad about that :)
Love Love ♥

Handsome Sam

2012-03-30T13:21:00.001-05:00

Handsome Sam always has a smile on his face

Love Love ♥

A better Mom

2012-03-26T13:50:00.000-05:00

I always feel like my boys deserve a better mom. I find myself thinking a lot, "I don't have patience! What was a thinking having kids 17 months apart?" But today, we have a had a really good day. I have realized that honestly, the way our day goes depends on me more than them. It's all about how I react to the things that happen, and how I act towards them. Joshua is in a "NO" phase. Well more of a "Unh-Uuhhh" phase. Man is it annoying.

Mom: "Joshua come eat your hot dog for lunch" Josh: "Unh-Uhhhh" (then realizing what he said now to, he runs to the table to eat)
Mom: "Josh why don't you go potty so we can go outside and play" Josh: "Unh-Uhh" (followed by a 5 minute fight to get him to go pee so he doesn't pee his pants outside)

You get the idea. It is getting real old, real fast.

But today I tried something new. We were getting ready to go to the gym, I told him to go to the bathroom before we get his diaper on to go to the gym. He, of course, said "Unh-Uhhh" and I said "okay we won't go to the gym them" I went about my business, put some dishes away and went to get the broom out to sweep. The minute he realized that we weren't going to gym, he ran to the toilet and went pee, brought me the diaper and said "Here, Mom" So I put on his diaper and we went to the gym.

I realized with that, he says "no" just to see how I am going to react. I don't give him the reaction, he listens. AMAZING!

I need to teach this little man how to react to things in life. Not with an arguing attitude, but with an accepting attitude. I plan to try this a little more. If Joshua is in a bad mood, then I probably shouldn't attempt to go anywhere anyways. So we will just stay home. If he is just pretending his bad mood, he will do what needs to be done and we will go on our way.

I am trying to remember that he is learning everything from me. It's kind of scary to think about!

Love Love ♥

Booty Buns Giveaway

2012-03-23T23:06:00.000-05:00

I am so excited for this giveaway! How amazing would that be to win all of these??

Welcome to the Go Green ♥ Give Charity Cloth Diaper Giveaway Event sponsored by Booty Buns Cloth Diapers! Over 175 blogs have teamed up to present this amazing cloth diaper giveaway hosted by Daily Mothering.Here's your chance to win an entire stash of one-size cloth diapers!

This amazing cloth diaper prize pack includes:

20 Booty Buns One-Size Cloth Diapers

(these true one-size cloth diapers fit 3-45 lbs!)

20 matching flannel/terry cloth wipes

40 microfiber inserts

20 cotton flannel liners

(picture does not show inserts or liners also included)

First, a little about Booty Buns...

In case you haven't heard about them, Booty Buns Cloth Diapers are incredible one-size cloth diapers that truly fit from birth to potty training! They feature a snap-down rise with 5 different snap settings (most one-size diapers only have 3!) and a waist with 10 regular snap settings plus 2 crossover snap settings. The diapers have hip snaps to prevent wing droop on smaller sizes. The incredible size range of this diaper fits from 3-45 lbs!

Booty Buns Cloth Diapers are pocket diapers and each diaper includes 2 snap-on microfiber inserts that can be stuffed into the diaper or laid on top with the included cotton flannel liner against your child's skin. The diapers have a waterproof PUL outer and a soft suedecloth inner with dual gussets on the inner lining to ensure everything stays IN the diaper! Booty Buns One-Size Cloth Diapers come in an assortment of bright colors and each diaper includes a matching handmade flannel/terry wipe. You can find out more about the diapers at Booty Buns, or check out the detailed Booty Buns One-Size Cloth Diaper Review at Daily Mothering!

Booty Buns is dedicated to encouraging others to "go green" and "give charity." Shannon, the owner of Booty Buns Cloth Diapers, leads by example. For every diaper that Booty Buns sells, she donates one Booty Buns Cloth Diaper to a child in need in the US and in third-world countries. Booty Buns is the exclusive cloth diapers donator for Operation Showers Of Appreciation, and they are also donating diapers to babies that have severe medical issues. Shannon hopes to donate a lifetime supply of cloth diapers {20 diapers} to every baby in need around the globe. You can join in this effort by purchasing your own set of Booty Buns Cloth Diapers and telling your friends about Booty Buns!

Make sure to stop by and follow Booty Buns via Facebook, Twitter and Blog for news and giveaways!

And now for the giveaway!!

ONE WINNER will receive this gigantic cloth diaper prize pack valued at $546!

And, the winner will get to select their choice of diaper colors!

This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada.

Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.

Click "Do It" for instructions on how to complete each entry.

There is no mandatory entry. Complete as many entries as you wish.

The more entries you submit, the better odds you have of winning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Beautiful Weather=No Time to Blog!

2012-03-22T21:27:00.002-05:00

I feel like I was doing so good blogging for a couple weeks (days?) there. Then this BEAUTIFUL weather came upon us and I am once again MIA. We have been busy doing things like staying outside from 9:30-7:00. Seriously that happened a few times. By the time I thought about dinner it was really time for bed! I love the beautiful sunshine in March though. We had a few 80 degree days. Yes, I am still in Minnesota! The last few days have been rainy, but we have still had time to get outside for a while and ride bikes and go on walks. I love how good the boys sleep after a full day of sun!

A look at our life the last couple weeks via cell phone pictures. Enjoy!

Taking Sammy for a little walk

Playing with the umbrella

Exhausted after a full day of playing outside and visiting family

First Bonfire of the year!

I found some old pictures while doing some spring cleaning :) Me and my sister Janelle

Doing a little thrift store shopping on a rainy day!

Beautiful sunset on an evening walk

Looking for birds with Auntie Meg

We have been busy busy enjoying this weather and are hoping it doesn't go away any time soon! I would love the weather to be like this year round. Who says global warming is a bad thing :)

Love Love ♥

Some Random Sentences

2012-03-05T22:58:00.002-06:00

I think cloth diapering was one of the best choices I've made.

I love looking for new, fun printed diapers.

Joshua has been seriously potty training for a few weeks now, and went about 4 days without an accident. Lately he has decided he wants nothing to do with it and I feel like we are back at square one. I've heard this is common though so I am not too worried.

Samuel is taking a few steps now. I think he needs to get to the chiropractor because his left hip looks really stiff when he tries to walk.

We are supposed to hit 50 degrees tomorrow. We will definitely be spending some time outside :)

I have had a head cold for over a week now and it is showing no sign of leaving. Forgive me if I would rather spend my "alone" time curled up on the couch watching my favorite shows like Army Wives and The Voice than sit on the computer blogging.

The only reason I am on here now is because I have been spending way to long on here looking at new cloth diapers to add to my stash. I'm hoping to buy a few more next time we get paid and get another step closer to washing them every other day.

I discovered these adorable overnight undies that I am gonna try out for Joshie. Hopefully they will last through the night. We've been having some issues with him waking up soaked.

I have 3 loads of laundry sitting upstairs waiting to be folded, honestly I don't think that will happen until at least Wednesday. And by then it will be 5.

My dog always sits in really weird spots staring at nothing. I'm not gonna lie, sometimes he makes me think there are things in my house that I can't see. It's definitely creepy.

We have been working on letters with Joshua. Well mostly A. He seems to know it, until you show him another letter and he thinks that one is an A as well. I guess we have to start somewhere huh?

Joshua has discovered that he can leave his bed on his own. I was hoping he wouldn't discover that. He thinks its funny to get up every couple minutes and lay in our bed when we are still downstairs.
We did pictures of the boys the other day at my parents. Joshua threw a fit and smashed his head into my mouth and chipped both of my front teeth. Nothing major but man is it annoying. Hopefully we got a good picture out of the whole ordeal.

I NEED to get some sleep now. My children enjoy waking up at 7:00 AM for absolutely no reason and then be little crabs all day long. It is oh so much fun for us all.

So long friends. What is on your mind?

Love Love ♥

Its official!

2012-03-01T14:01:00.001-06:00

I am a cloth diaper mommy! I have been using them regularly for almost 3 weeks now and pretty much exclusively for a week. I have only spent $6 on disposables in the last 3 weeks. Considering we used to spend $60 every two weeks I consider this money saving experiment a success. Okay so maybe I spent $100 on cloth diapers but they will pay for themselves in no time!

So, What are we using?

These little guys are so easy to use! I currently have 3 shells and 7 liners and I wash them every night. Eventually we will work our way up to washing every other but for now, this is working. I love how easy they are to use. At first I was just planning on cloth diapering at home but after deciding on these diapers I realized it was so easy to use them on the go, there was no reason not to do it!

The only issue I have is I can't seem to get these to stay dry over night. So we use the Blueberry basix AIO.

I love this one for at home, it is super absorbent. It's a little more bulky though so we stick to Grovia when we are out and about. I still, on occasion, wake up to wet boys.

Anyone have any advice on a good over night cloth diaper? What is your favorite for your little one?

Love Love ♥

Finger paints anyone?

2012-02-28T21:47:00.001-06:00

We have been doing a lot more crafts lately, Joshua loves hands on stuff so I have been trying to let him have at least one time a day where he can pick a craft and have at it. His favorite is finger paints! This is an idea we got off of a website (honestly I go on so many I don't remember which one) and he has done it multiple times already.
1. Put as many colors of finger paint on a pizza pan or cookie sheet

"I paint?"

2. Spread it all around

"Squishy!"

3. Try different things to see what they look like

trying q-tips and cotton balls
4. Press a piece of paper on the pan

Now push as hard as you can!!

Paint!
And Voila

The finished product, framed in the living room :)

What is your little ones favorite craft?

Love Love ♥

Clearly

2012-02-27T13:34:00.000-06:00

this is the most logical way to eat cheez-its

Apparently in his little head it is :) Love Love ♥

Who Knew??

2012-02-25T23:21:00.001-06:00

Toilet paper rolls could be so much fun!

Ok maybe that last one didn't have anything to do with toilet paper rolls but he is so stinkin' cute I couldn't resist. Love Love ♥