On the Mend...

Everyone is feeling much better.  We're all fever free.  Minor coughs are still hanging around. No vomiting though!  Kylee is now working on 2 teeth so she's cranky, has some minor diarrhea, and just wants to cuddle with her mama when she's not running around or playing.  Will be back to regular blogging tomorrow. I can't wait!  I've got 2 posts in mind and I'm just trying to pick which one I want to write up first!  Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Go Away Germs!!

This has been a sick house since last Sunday!  It started out with Kylee having a 103.2 fever and her not wanting to eat much.  Then that turned into diarrhea, vomiting, coughing, sneezing, runny nose..and just a very sick little girl.  After a trip in to see the doctor we were told it was viral and it just needed to run it's course.  Of course on that very same day.. me and Tim started feeling sick.  Wonderful... so now it's Sunday again.  We're all still sick and it stinks because this was Omaha's first sunshine filled morning and afternoon in WEEKS!  And us? Well we were stuck inside.  On a good note though I have discovered that some vapor rub on the bottom of Kylee's feet and a humidifier next to her crib do wonders!!  She was getting up 2-3 times a night or more due to her cough being soooo bad.  Last night? She slept a solid 13 hours AND took a 2 hour nap today!  It was A-MAZ-ING!  So hopefully in the next few days we will ALL be feeling better.  (Just in time for the next snowfall.....) 

I knew she was sick when she crawled up on the couch by herself w/ her sippy and laid on the pillow

(She may be sick but she's still darn cute!!)

Sick days are best when you get to control what's on the tv!

One Rockin' Winner!!

The winner for the "One ROCKIN' GREEN Giveaway" is... #110 Jessica said...  "follow your blog"
The winner has been contacted and has 48 hours to respond before a new winner is drawn.  Thank to everyone who entered!!

Box Baby

My daughter LOVES boxes.  Boxes of all shapes and sizes.  Big boxes. Little boxes. Square boxes. Rectangle boxes.  So when we got her new car seat OF COURSE she needed the box.  She's been playing in it for weeks.  Yesterday we got her a pretty pink potty chair and OF COURSE she needed the box.  The car seat box has just been sitting in our living/dining area looking so bland and boring.  So, my mission this weekend was to spice it up!  And spice it up I did. I covered the box in white paper ALL over and made a few "windows" and then me and Kylee drew pictures everywhere!  To finish it off I sealed our precious drawings in with packaging tape.  This was done with the idea that it would keep our beautiful project looking beautiful longer... and Kylee couldn't rip the papers off!  Win-Win!    Her potty chair box we just cut a hole in so she could see out and she walks around with it on her head laughing and giggling.  

Silly girl playing in the potty chair box!

The front entrance to the fun play box! Enter Princess Kylee!

Please don't be jealous of my amazing artistic abilities.. HAHA!

The other side..and the 2 windows/openings

Top view of Kylee in her fun play box!

The back view!

I love watching her play in her boxes.  She takes her stuffed animals in there, she reads books in there, she feeds her baby dolls in there, and sometimes she takes her snacks in there.  It's so amazing to watch her little mind grow and develop.  She's becoming so creative and has such a wonderful imagination. 

Hello There Mrs Panda Bear!

So we were lucky enough to win a Buddy Tops from Jessica's blog giveaway in December.  I was soooo thrilled because Kylee LOVES to wear hats! (Mostly her daddy's football ones!)  So we had to pick which animal we would like.  We chose Ah Wah the adventurous Panda!  "Ah Wah comes from a far away land to make new pals, so make sure you take him out to meet all your friends! It's always an exciting adventure whenever you're with this world-traveling Buddytop!"  That was taken from the Buddy Tops website and I couldn't agree more!  We just got it in the mail today and Kylee has not removed it from her head.  She's been running around and laughing and we even played hide-n-seek in her bedroom while she was wearing her Ah Wah panda hat!  She hid on the side of her crib which made her looked like she was caged in!  (I dont love seeing a caged animal... but when it's my child in a SUPER cute animal  hat..it's sooo picture worthy!)  Enjoy!  And I'm guessing you should probably head on over to Buddy Tops and get one. ASAP!  You won't regret it!

Hello There Mrs. Panda Bear!

Oh no!! The panda is on the run!!

It's okay..she's in her "cage"!!

Just kidding! We would never cage this too-cute-for-words panda!!

One ROCKIN' GREEN Giveaway

I have been cloth diapering for about 8 months now.  Originally it was something I started doing to save money.  Then, I started learning more and more about cloth diapering and I was happy to be helping out the environment!   I also began noticing that my daughter was having less and less issues with diaper rash.  I don't know about you but I can't imagine that  a nagging rash on the bum would feel very good so I bet my daughter is also glad we made the switch!  Anyways..I had my cloth diapers..but what was I supposed to wash them in?  That's when I was told about the amazing Rockin' Green Soap which is made with our precious babies in mind. 

Rockin' Green Soap is made of safe, natural, phosphate free ingredients, which are good for the planet, and is great for our precious babies! (And even for us adults!)  What is the best part to me? That it is TOTALLY safe for cloth diapers.  It has been designed and perfected to get the YUCK out of our diapers (and clothes) and leave everything smelling fresh and clean.  Even better is the fact that Rockin' Green is a dye free detergent with no fillers, enzymes, or optical brighteners!  It is an easy rinsing formula and is great for all water types. 

Rockin' Green comes in sooo many great scents.  My personal favorite is Cherry Almond and I've had many bags of this wonderful smell taking home in my laundry room cupboards.  I was also quite the fan of the seasonal scent Pumpkin Crunch!  That's another great thing about Rockin' Green ... you get a couple of new scents for every season!  Who can complain about that? Not me! 

For my cloth diapering moms and dads out there..
How many times have you been SO frustrated because you've got the dreaded "stink issue" ??
How many times have you been ready to toss out a diaper because it's badly stained ??
How many of you love keeping your diapers looking fresh and as new as possible ??
I'm telling you.. ROCKIN' GREEN is the way to go!!  I've battled my fair share of "stink issues"...I've been plagued with the ammonia stinks..and I have had more stained diapers than I care to talk about.  For the minor issues all I had to do was a good 1-2 hour hot soak in the washing machine with Rockin' Green and all was solved.  (For more stubborn issues I will give a good long soak overnight.)  Since using Rockin' Green  my diapers retain so much more of their color and vibrancy than when I've used other detergents.  I cannot recommend this detergent anymore.  I can say though.. you will NOT be disappointed and you will NOT want to use any other soap!

SO...what was the point of this post? The point of all this informative rambling?  WELL... the lovely Kim, who is the fabulous creator of Rockin' Green, is offering one of my amazing readers a chance to win their very own bag of ROCKIN' GREEN (which is good for 45 loads if you use a top loaded and 90 loads if you use a toploader).  How great is that??!  So how do you enter to win? Well, listen up folks...

Mandatory Entry:  Tell me what your favorite scent of Rockin' Green is!  (If you haven't had the pleasure of trying it yet..tell me what scent you would like to try!) ALSO..tell me what scent you would like to see offered!

(Please  leave your email address in your entry comments or sign in publicly so I have a way of contacting you!)

After completing the mandatory entry you may do one or all of the following:

1.  Follow Rockin' Green on Twitter  (Dont forget to leave your Twitter ID) .. 1 entry

2.  Become a facebook fan of Rockin' Green ...1 entry

3.  Follow me on Twitter (Leave your Twitter ID in comment) .. 1 entry

4.  Subscribe to my blog via email... 2 entires (leave 2 seperate comments)

5.  Publicly follow my blog via Google Friend Connect ... 1 entry

6.  Add my button to your blog (Include a link to where I can find it) ... 2 entries  (leave 2 seperate comments)

7.  Tweet!!  (Include @RockinGreenSoap and @Mommacrissy in your tweet)

You may tweet up to 2x a day ..tweets must be at least 2 hours apart (Leave a seperate comment each time you tweet)

8.  Blog about this giveaway (Include a link to where I can find it)... 3 entries (leave 3 seperate comments)

9.  Make a purchase of Rockin' Green during the time of the giveaway!  (Email me a copy of your receipt..you can block out personal info I don't need) ... 10 entries! (leave 10 seperate comments)

Good luck!

While only one person can win this giveaway.. you can all be the proud owners of your own Rockin' Green by purchasing a sample bag for $2.50, a 45/90 load bag for $13.95, or a 90/180 load bag for $22.95!  The hard problem will be choosing which scent to get!


One ROCKIN' GREEN giveaway ends Saturday, January 23rd at 10:00PM .(CST). I will use random.org to determine the winner and notify the winner via email. The winner will also also be announced on this blog. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

OPEN TO U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY

My Precious Baker

So since the roads are covered in snow, ice, and other craptasticness (what a word!)...me and Kylee are still indoors. In our pajamas. Finding ways to stay entertained.  I decided today was the perfect day in the ice cold tundra to make... Banana Muffins!!  So I headed on over to Cat Can Cook and snagged up the perfect recipe and headed to the kitchen.  Kylee was very excited for this because she got to cross over the gate to get into the kitchen which pretty much never happens!  We washed our hands and set to work. I had already measured things and set them out.  Life with a 13 month old requires preparation and planning.  Let me just say... it was a BLAST!  Kylee actually helped a lot!  She put in flour and helped mix and stir.  She also laughed when I was cracking the egg.  Silly girl!  The muffins turned out great and we each enjoyed one with a nice cold glass of milk! 

Here she is checking out the ingredients just tossed in

Then we have to stir it up REALLY good

Bake it in the oven at 400* and enjoy smelling the yumminess coming from the kitchen

And then time to ENJOY!!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

What's that you ask?



Why is my Christmas post so late?


Well...that's a good question.


Answer is... I've been a slacker. A very big slacker.


Well Christmas has come and gone. (As well as New Year's Day for that matter). And I just thought I would throw up some pictures and tell you all about our holidays. (Or lack of).


This was the first Christmas in my entire life that was not spent with family. Mother Nature decided to drop assloads quite a large amount of snow on us during the holidays. It started with some rain a couple of days before Christmas... yes.. RAIN! Then  it snowed. And snowed. And..well..you get the picture. Thursday it snowed. Friday it snowed. Saturday it snowed a little more. Then it was done. What was the end result? Tons of snow, impassable streets, 5 foot snow drifts, and us. Trapped in the house.

Anyways, Christmas Eve we watched some Christmas movies, hung out (because really what else were we going to do), and watched the snow fall. Kylee got to open up one of her presents and of course..she wanted the big one. Which turned out to be a baby stroller. So of course we had to let her open the package that contained her baby doll. Because who just wants to push around an empty stroller? She was so excited about the things coming out of her packages. She was very serious while opening them though. Silly girl! She played and stayed up late (9:30 is late for this girl).

Christmas morning she opened the rest of her presents. We colored. Built with Mega Blocks. Tried on new clothes. Listened to music. Danced. (Realized we were still trapped in the house). Watched movies. Napped. Oh and did I mention.. we watched the snow fall. Joy. Later that night I made us Christmas dinner. (My very first time making Christmas dinner by the way. Which probably explains why the ham was so dry. Oops.). We also played some video games on Tim's new PS3. Had a few drinks. Went to sleep. (Yes, it was still snowing).

So while our Christmas was pretty uneventful (Other than the amazing joy I felt watching my beautiful baby girl get so much enjoyment out of opening her packages to find awesome gifts.) I felt SO blessed to be with my family. We were all happy, healthy, and equally pissed at Mother Nature. What else could you ask for?

* I did finally venture out Saturday night to run to the store. It was pure craziness on the streets. Lesson learned*

Verbal Ignorance

So..there are few things in this world that irk me. I lie. There are a lot of things in this world that irk me. I just try not to let it show. But one thing that just drives me up and back down a wall is when people drop the word 'retarded' ever so casually. It's a terrible word. People who say it should feel terrible for saying it. It's just as terrible as a lot of other derogatory words out there that people get chastised for saying. I've been involved in some aspect with special needs people my entire life. As far back as I can remember anyways. I'm not going to put you on display for all to tar and feather you. But I will ask you to refrain from saying it around me. Don't text it to me...type it to me..or sing it to me. But really.. why would you sing it to me? That would make you an even bigger asshat! (Thanks Megan for the word usage). Please just take into consideration the feelings of the millions of people in this world who are affected with any kind of disability. Sound good?