My Year in Summary

Let me just say that I cannot believe it is already the end of 2009!!!!! I have no idea where this past year has gone - I can clearly remember December 31, 2008 like it was yesterday (although at the same time it feels SO far away) - I was laying in bed by 9pm and probably fast asleep by 10pm. I was very pregnant and so exhausted! My husband managed to wake me up at 11:59 so I could watch the ball drop and I think I was back asleep by 12:01 - haha!! I also remember waking up the next morning and going over New Year resolutions with my husband. All I said was that after our baby was born, I wanted to have a low key year and just relax.

If anyone is reading this that knows me well, they know that relaxing is not something I do well. So here is a summary of my 2009 - the year that I just wanted to relax...

January 31 - my 3rd baby was born - a beautiful baby girl!

April 7 - I turned 30!!!!! I admit, it was a little hard for me, but I'm over it now

July - we moved out of 2 bedroom townhouse and moved about 45 minutes away to a 3 bedroom house - we got more living space for our growing family and my husband was able to cut his commute time down by a lot! This move was by no means without its hassles & stresses

September - my baby girl is FINALLY sleeping through the night (if you count midnight to 6am) - I am beginning to wonder when that relaxing I wanted is going to happen...

October - we move AGAIN!! and this time it's from Florida to Connecticut! And let's not forget that we only had about 2-3 weeks notice to get our entire house packed up. And a few days before we were supposed to leave, my husband got rear-ended in our minivan (the only car we have that fits our entire family!). We drove up with the whole family the week before Halloween - we drove for 22 hours the first day and then another 4 the second day. The kids & I lived with my parents for a month while my husband finished work in Florida and then moved all of our stuff up to Connecticut a few days before Thanksgiving. During that time, the baby and I were sleeping in the same room, so I am sure you can guess what I'm going to say here - she was back to waking up again in the middle of the night :(

November 7 - my brother got married and my 3 year old son & 2 year old daughter were in the wedding - they were adorable all dressed up!

November 27 - we are officially moved into our house in Connecticut

December 31 - it doesn't happen every night, but my baby is finally starting to sleep again through the night - maybe my relaxing will happen in 2010?

Although it was a crazy year, I wouldn't trade it for anything. It was hectic & stressful & definitely not low key, but probably one of my most favorites! I hope everyone else had a great 2009 and an even better 2010!

Great Giveaways - 12/30

Here are a few giveaways I wanted to share with you....


Enter to win Mightly Leaf Tea at TicTacDough - giveaway ends on 1/5


The Cloth Diaper Report is giving away a bumGenius Organic AIO - giveaway ends on 1/1!


Enter to win some Rockin' Green soap at Suburban Saving Mama - giveaway ends 1/18

Good Luck!!

Wordless Wednesday - Too Tired!

And she sleeps....on the couch while Grandpa reads stories to the kids....

Check out more Wordless Wednesday here :)

Ditching Disposables!

I guess this post is better late than never! If you haven't stopped by yet, head over to Confessions Of a First Time Mom for her Ditching Disposables event (it ends at the end of this week - sorry!). She still has a few giveaways open though for some diapers and diaper products - good luck!!!

Christmas Fun!

This was our first year celebrating Christmas on Christmas Day with so many family members since having our kids! In the past, we either did Christmas by ourselves in Florida (when I was too preggo to fly) or would fly up in the beginning of December and celebrate early with all of our family. So this year was amazing as we were able to have Christmas Eve & Christmas Day celebrations at our house! They even had 2 aunts & an uncle sleep over Christmas Eve (with 2 dogs too - so my son was on cloud 9!). I wish I had the time to take out my camera because our living room looked like a scene from a movie - there were toys, wrapping paper, kids, grown ups, and dogs everywhere! And as chaotic and crazy as it was, we wouldn't have it any other way! I hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas!!!

Upcoming Toy Review & Giveaway!

I was very excited to be contacted recently by CSN Stores and given the opportunity to review one of their toys and also provide my readers with a giveaway. Take a moment to check out their store - I was amazed at the selection of online toys available. And then keep a lookout for my review & giveaway post coming soon!

Upcoming Review - Golden Moon Tea

I have recently become a huge fan of tea! Before this year, I had really only known & had regular black tea. Don't get me wrong, I did like it. After my 2nd baby was born, there came a time where I don't think I was able to function without a cup of black tea in the morning to get me going.

But since moving up to New England from Florida, I've had to find ways to adjust to this cold weather. One way - lots of teas in the house! Nothing beats a cup of hot tea to warm me up. One store that I have found online is Golden Moon Tea - they sell a variety of high quality specialty tea. Their site is also very informative about different aspects of tea - health benefits, brewing instructions, history of tea and their origins, and recommended teas for different times of day.

I have been lucky enough to be chosen to review a few of their teas, including their Earl Grey tea. I look forward to trying them and can't wait to share with you how they tasted!

Christmas Tree!

Up until this year, we have always had a fake Christmas tree. My husband was never a fan of it, but he let me have my way (he is very nice like that!). My reasons were that it was better for my asthma/allergies, there was less mess in the house, and it was cheaper. Last year though, after we had our fake tree all up & decorated, I decided to do a little research about what kind of tree is better for the environment. We were trying to be more green, so I thought I should find ways be green around the holidays. I wish my fake tree wasn't already up, because our first year with a real tree would have been last year. But I came to my conclusion on December 23rd - and trying to find a real tree in South Florida 2 days before Christmas is pretty much impossible!

Did you know that the majority of fake trees are manufactured in China and made of PVC (a hazardous & toxic plastic). The majority of fake trees include lead - which is especially dangerous if you have small children that like to touch the tree & the ornaments. Last year, I had a 2 year old & 1 year old - so of course, they were touching the tree like crazy. This freaked me out, and because I am very rational (haha!), I put a huge gate around the tree so they could no longer touch it. I must say our tree looked a bit ridiculous on Christmas morning because there were no presents under the tree! They were just stacked all around the gate - I wish I had a picture to share! Needless to say, the day our Christmas tree was taken down last year, I trashed it and vowed to never own a fake tree again. I also noticed on our box that ours was indeed manufactured in China.

Here are some links to websites I used for my Christmas tree research:

National Christmas Tree Association

Real v Fake Christmas Trees on About.com

Scientific Blogging

So anyway, this year I have a 3 year old, 2 year old and 11 month old - an extra set of hands that loves to touch the bottom of our tree! It does result in a few more pine needles on the floor, but those are easy enough to sweep up. And what made this year even better (after just moving up to Connecticut) was that we were actually able to go to a tree farm and cut our own down (something we never would have been able to do in Florida)!

Here is my son picking out a tree his size...

Our wagon came in handy bringing the tree down the hill!

Here we all our with our Christmas Tree!

Settling In....

Well, we moved out of my parent's house and are now in our own house - yay!!! It was great that my parents were able to let the kids and myself stay there for a few weeks while my husband finished up things down in Florida. But after almost a month, I was ready to have our own space (and I'm sure my parents felt the same way!). They love their grandkids, but I have a feeling they love being able to send them home now at the end of the day - you know, when they start getting crabby - haha!

I was sharing a room with the baby while at my parent's house, so now I'm busy trying to break us from some bad habits we got into - nursing again in the middle of the night, letting her sleep with me when she woke up at 3am, and just her insistance with hanging out with me in the wee hours of the night. I could really use a good night sleep again :) We are getting there - it's just taking time.

We had a little bit of snow a few weeks ago and my 3 year old and 2 year old were so excited. They had both seen snow before during one of our trips up here, but neither of them remembered it - so this was really their "first" snow in their minds. My 3 year old son LOVED going out to play in the snow. My 2 year old daughter thought it would be fun, but once she got out there, she didn't have the same excitement as her big brother! Today though, we should be getting lots of snow from the storm heading our way - I am very excited! As long as it stays cold all week, we should have a nice white Christmas - something we haven't experienced in at least 6 years :)