Cloth Diaper Blog Hop

I just hopped onto a new fluffy blog hop that Fitteds and Pockets and Snappis, Oh My! is hosting! Feel free to add your blog to the linky on her blog and find some new fluffy blogs to follow!

Have fun hopping!

"God Loves Me More Than That" Book Review

How much love does God have for me?
More than the letters between A and Z. More than the bumbles in a bumble bee.
God loves me more than that!

I recently had the opportunity to review the book, God Loves Me More Than That written by Dandi Daley Mackall and illustrated by David Hohm. This is a sweet and meaningful book about a boy who wants to know how much God loves him. Each new question of how high, how big, how deep, how wide, how loud and how soft is God's love brings a different answer that looks to put the greatness and vastness of Gods love into a tangible, fun explanation.

The illustrations are beautiful and so creative! They really pull you into the imaginative imagery of the book. I really enjoyed turning to each page to see the new picture that would be there as the story unfolds. I also loved how the main character is a little boy! It just brings it that much closer to home for me! I really liked how each page keeps the sentences short and to the point, in a slightly rhyming way. It makes the flow of the story very readable and easy to follow for little ones.

I am really looking forward to continuing to read this to my son as he continues to get older and understand more and more things. I think this book will be a wonderful tool to help show him how God's love is never ending.  

I am so happy to add this book to our little library of books for our son!

Interested in adding it to your child's library of books? This would make a perfect gift for any little one this Christmas! You can buy it on Amazon or at any other major book retailer!

Waterbrook/Multnomah provided me with the this book for a review at no cost to myself and no other compensation was received. The item sent to me for review has not influenced my opinion of the product. I have sought to give my honest opinions and experiences on this product. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own.

All About Me...In 30 Days! Day 16

Day 16 – a song that makes you cry...

Well, it seems like since having little man, almost any song that has to do with love, children, growing up, or anything sentimental really can bring a tear to my eye. I don't know what it is, but I've gone all mushy since having a baby! I always keep my handy box of tissue nearby when I am listening to the radio in the car. Some days I am more susceptible than others to teary moments, but usually a good country son or a moving worship song can pull a tear or two right out of me. Also, at this time of the year, certain Christmas songs are so beautifully worshipful and moving that I can help but be moved to tears.

Probably one of the top country songs that gets me all misty is "Then" by Brad Paisley. I love it. It is so sweet and reminds me of how we can look back and see the wonderful journey that our love has taken and how it has grown day by day and adventure by adventure. 

Another song that I just love and yet it makes me all teary is the song, "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me. It is the song that we had playing while we took communion and prayed during our wedding. It is a beautiful song and has such beautiful memories for us!

"Then" lyrics
I remember, trying not to stare the night that I first met you
You had me mesmerized
And three weeks later, in the front porch light
taking forty-five minutes to kiss goodnight
I hadn't told you yet
but I thought I loved you then

Chorus

And now you're my whole life
now you're my whole world
I just can't believe the way I feel about you, girl
Like a river meets the sea,
stronger than it's ever been.
We've come so far since that day
And I thought I loved you then


And I remember, taking you back to right where I first met you,
You were so surprised
There were people around, but I didn't care
Got down on one knee right there once again,
I thought I loved you then

Chorus

And now you're my whole life
now you're my whole world
I just can't believe the way I feel about you, girl
Like a river meets the sea,
stronger than it's ever been.
We've come so far since that day
And I thought I loved you then


I could just see you, with a baby on the way
And I could just see you, when your hair is turning gray
What I can't see is how I'm ever gonna love you more
But I've said that before

And now you're my whole life
now you're my whole world
I just can't believe the way I feel about you, girl
We'll look back someday, at this moment that we're in
And I'll look at you and say
And I thought I loved you then
And I thought I loved you then

Wordless/Wordful Wednesday

Little man and I went on an outing to December Nights. (Well, we went in the day, but that's the name of the event) It was a multicultural food extravaganza! There were food booths from countries all over the world - we sampled food from Spain, Greece, Philippines, Japan, Denmark and more! Mostly I did the sampling and little man snagged a taste here and there. :) It was so much fun and such a wonderful day full of good food and fun friends!

My happy little man all decked out in his new beanie! 

...wait? What's this? Someones trying to snag my aebleskiver!?! Sticky fingers strikes again! Remember folks, he only looks sweet and innocent, he will steal your food in a flash!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hedgehogs...Share the Hedge

So, I thought I'd share a little of my hedgehog love with your all...along with my new found love for Etsy and all things handmade (aka: unique/one-of-a-kind awesomeness!) These are some hedgehog-gy items I have found recently on Etsy that my little <3 is just loving right now! 

 

Super handy and cute wet bag!

 Love this burp rag! I didn't even know they could be dyed!

This little basket would look so cute with some books in it in little man's room!

I love hunting for treasures on Etsy...you never know what you'll find! I find too many things that I love...haha! Looking through all of the unique hand-made items makes me wish I had all the time in the world to create such fun items (and the ability to actually make them...that might help too!) I really admire people who have the "crafting" talent...wish I could do all of my shopping through Etsy!

All About Me...in 30 Days! Day 15

Day 15 - a photo of yourself and a new friend you met this year...

Ok, so technically we didn't meet this year. We have known each other since before my hubby and I were dating, but we haven't developed a friendship until this past year. It has been so wonderful to have a friend who is going through the same "baby stages" with me and who is so much fun and easy to talk with and spend time with! I love that they live in the same housing area that we do, so our little ones are friend-ies! I am so thankful that our knowing each other has blossomed into a friendship, it is so special to me.

 

All About Me...30 Day Challenge! Day 14

Day 14 - a photo of a person you’d love to trade places with for a day

At first I thought, European royalty! But then, I realized I'd probably be spending the day doing something that had to do with ruling a country and not so much fun. I think I'd trade places with Keira Knightley and then hop on a plane to Paris and spend the afternoon having lunch and coffee at a cafe and then doing some shopping at the finest French boutiques, because, you know, I'd have that kind of money. :) 

 

Then I'd have dinner on the restaurant that's on the second level of the Eiffel Tower. 

Not a bad day in my book! I don't think hubby would be too disappointed if I swapped places with her for a day either. ;) 

I love watching this movie!

All About Me...30 Day Challenge

Day 13 - a description of what's currently in your handbag/purse/diaper bag!

Well I think it was rather fortuitous that I just cleaned out my diaper bag since I was going on an all day outing with little man and needed to pare things down to the necessities and get rid of the extra receipts, expired coupons, extra bobby-pins and whatnot. 

So, currently, in my diaper bag, I have:

• a changing pad 
• a medium wet bag with 2 extra cloth diapers in it (and in that wet bag, there are also cloth wipes and a small wet bag for the dirty diapers) 
• Plum Organics apple & spinach puffs 
• an empty bottle 
• a change of clothes & extra socks for the little man 
• a beanie for little man 
• 2 teething bling necklaces and 2 bracelets
• hand sanitizer
• some face lotion for little man with this dry, windy winter weather
• my wallet
• some Babies R Us coupons
• a pen
• chap-stick
• Ibuprofen 

...and then when I'm out shopping, I put my phone and keys in there and on occasion, a fun toy or favorite book for little man. Normally, there is plenty of little fun "extras" in my diaper bag, but, I just cleaned it out yesterday! :) Lucky me I guess!  

All About Me...30 Day Challende! Day 12

Day 12 - something you are OCD about...

Oh boy, haha! I don't know... (I'm sure my hubby might say differently, like that I must be OCD about using every pot and pan and making a mess when I cook) I think that I get moments or spurts of OCD-ness. Like, if ants are invading our home one room at a time, like they are right now, I'm kinda nuts about cleaning wherever there germ-y little feet have been. I just deep cleaned our coffee maker because I opened it yesterday and found ants crawling in it...ewwwy!

Then, when I sit down to tackle a project, I'd say I'm a little OCD about making sure I have everything I could possibly ever need for that project before I start and I always want my projects to turn out "perfectly". Geesh, I can beat  myself up over something because I don't think I did a good enough job. I'm also a bit OCD about page layouts and photo editing. I have to keep that one in check because I could spend hours moving something around a page or tweaking a photo. So, sometimes I have to tell myself it looks just fine and no one will notice! Otherwise I'll still be at my computer at 1:00 AM trying to get a photo's contrast juuuust right. I'll tell myself, Just upload the photo and order it already girly! Haha! So, I'll leave it at that...I'm mildly OCD when the occasion strikes me to be.

All About Me...30 Day Challenge! Day 11

Day 11 - a photo that makes you angry/sad...

Well this one isn't as fun. :( I didn't like having to think about a picture that made me sad.

This was taken right after our little man came back home from the hospital...again. Four days after we came home from the hospital with him, we went to go see his new pediatrician. She wanted to do blood-work right away. When she got the result that night, she wanted us to go to the hospital immediately. (Not something brand new parents want to hear!) Our little man had severe jaundice and needed treatment asap. His jaundice levels had skyrocketed! But thankfully, he is a blessed little baby and remained just out of the danger zone for permanent damage. He had to stay overnight and then some under the UV light and the hospital was nice enough to let us stay nearby in a spare room with a bed. Let me just say, I cried like a baby all the way to the hospital and throughout the night. 

It makes me so sad to see all the IV bruises and skin boo-boo's from the tape. I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of the heels of his feet, because they were so dotted with marks from the needles from where he had to have blood drawn, like a little connect-the-dot puzzle. Even after we were able to take him home, we kept having to go back for blood-work for a couple of weeks. I hated seeing my baby crying under the UV lights and poked and prodded without being able to explain to him what was going on. I hated seeing the reminders on his skin of what he had had to go through. It made me so sad for him, I never wanted him to be hurt. I will probably be feeling that way my whole life though. I'm a mama bear now! :) From the moment I knew we were going to have a baby, I wanted to keep him safe. Once he was out in the world in my arms, I wanted to protect him and love him, I didn't want him to be sick or hurting! I never want him to be sad or get hurt - it tears at my heart to hear him cry, I just want to kiss it and make it better ...with a mama band-aid!  

  

All About Me...30 day Challenge! Day 10

Day 10 - a photo that makes you happy...

So many pictures make me happy! I love pictures - I love taking them and I love looking through them. So, it's kind of like trying to find a needle in a haystack to find one photo that makes me happy. I had the hardest time deciding between a picture by a famous photographer or one I took or one taken of me. I finally decided on this one:

 

I don't have as many pictures of little man and I...mostly because I'm the one with the camera. So, when I have a pictures of the two of us, it sure does make my heart happy! 

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to the winner of the I See Me! personalized book giveaway! 

The lucky winner is comment #28: Mama needs a nap who said...
I have your button: http://mama-needs-a-nap.blogspot.com/

Congratulations Mama needs a nap! Thank you to everyone who entered this giveaway and a big thank you to I See Me! books who sponsored this giveaway!