Happy Birthday Adalen!

It's hard to believe that 2 years ago tomorrow my little Ady joined our family! She has such a great personality and we love her so much!
Here's a few pictures to reminisce about her little life

Newborn















6 months












1 year















18 months

2 YEARS OLD!

tutu from LittleFortuneCookie















HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADY! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Zadyball is GOING GREEN!

I've had more than one person ask me if I can do organic Zadyballs. It took quite a bit of research, trying to find exactly the right materials, but they are HERE!
These are completely natural - no dyes - so they are currently only available in the natural color.

A new look for my van

A few weeks ago, I meet ScribbleIt in an Etsy chat room. I'd actually seen her shop before, and admired the beauty and simplicity of her designs. While we were chatting, she asked if I'd be up for a trade. Of course! But I wasn't sure exactly what I would need from her. Then she suggested a vehicle decal to advertise my shop. What a great idea!

So, as a result, my van has a new look. I think it looks great, but now I feel like I have to be a little more conscious of my driving. Not that I wasn't before, but if I accidentally cut someone off (I wouldn't do that, right?) it will not only reflect on me, but my business as well!

Be sure to check out ScribbleIt's shop. I plan to order from her again as soon as I know what I'm having and we decide on a name.

A BUSY Day!

Yesterday was SO busy! But I feel like I got LOTS accomplished!

First of all, I had a doctors appointment in the morning. My OB is in Scottsdale, which is almost an hour drive away. So, I figured that while I was going all the way out there, I might as well do some other things on that side of town as well.

So, the appointment went really well. I was surprised when I went in and they told me that they were going to do an ultra sound. I'm only 17 weeks, and Dr. Hale usually won't do an ultra sound until at least 20 weeks. I was actually a little disappointed because I thought this would be "the BIG one" and Brandon wasn't with me. But it turned out that the doctor only wanted to follow up because with the ultrasound I'd had at 8 weeks he'd seen some extra fluid. He just wanted to get another look and make sure everything is okay. And it was. :) It was fun to see the little munchkin moving around in there. I saw the head, an elbow, and even some little toes! Fun! Dr Hale tried to see if he could determine the gender, but he said it was still to small to tell. But, it was fun anyway! And I get to have another one when I go back in a month. That will be the BIG one!

So, after the doctor I went to a fun little shop called Moonbeams. I had contact the store owner a few days before and told her about the Zadyball. She had looked at my website and asked me to come and show her more. So, I took quite a few Zadyballs in for her to see, and she bought them all! So the Zadyball is now available in a local store!

After that, I met my friend Patti for lunch. I don't get to see her very often since she lives in Scottsdale. So that was lots of fun!

Then, that afternoon, I took Ady to get her 2-year-old pictures taken. They turned out SO well! I got a tutu for her from littlefortunecookie. It is SO cute and just made the pictures look great! Here she is dressed in it today. As soon as I get the pictures back, I'll post one here.


Check out littlefortunecookie to get one of your own!

Olympics and Other Stuff

If your family is anything like mine, you've become obsessed with the Olympics the last few days. It is so thrilling to me to see the entire world come together. I really enjoy watching the events and sharing them with my children.

One of the first events that we watched as a family was the Mens Gymnastics prelim on Saturday. While we were watching them preform on the rings and the pommel horse, Zander kept saying "I could do that!" And he tried to act out what they were doing.
So, maybe we will have to look into getting him into gymnastics to see if he really likes it.


In other news, the last few days Ady has decided that she is a BIG girl and wants to sleep on her big girl bed. She has done amazingly well! I was afraid that without being in the crib, I'd have to worry about her coming out of her room every five minutes, but we haven't had the problem at all! Now, we just need to convince her that she needs to use the potty EVERY time and we'll be set!

And the WINNER IS...

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in my little giveaway! I had a total of 54 votes (from both here and Etsy), which made it much easier to figure out the favorite that I should enter in the contest.

So, I made a list of all the entries, numbered each one and went to Random.org to choose a completely random number. #23 was selected, which happens to be...

Apple Blossom Designs

Congratulations! You get to select your choice of ZadyMini!

And, the winner of vote, no surprise here, is HOOTS THE OWL!
He easily defeated the competition with a total of 18 votes! In second place was Fetch the Dog with 12 votes.

So, Hoots will be entered in the Etsy Handmade Kids Challenge! Wish me luck!
Thanks again to all who participated!!

I'm blushing!

I know this is my third post in the last 24 hours, but I have to share this!

Every once in a while I search for my shop name on the Etsy forums. (I just like to see if anyone is talking about me). I did that today, and I was AMAZED at what I found! It feels so weird to find people complimenting you when you aren't even around.
The first thread I found was one called "What Etsy Shops Do You Consider Famous?". I actually contributed to this thread because there are several shops out there that I admire and I see them everywhere. So, I think they are famous. When that came up on the search, I figured that someone was just replying to me or something. But, this is what I found on page 15:

Beadz4BookWormz says:
These are some more that I remebered that I see around alot so I consider them famous! And there stuff is awesome!:

ZadyBall -Stuffed toy balls for children

Wow! Someone considers me famous??! Crazy!

But, even more amazing was that was a thread I found started by RightAsRainCreations, who I consider famous. She has purchased a few things from me and I was thrilled with the feedback that she left, but the fact that she started a thread about it to tell everyone, just blows me away!

Here is what she said:
Have you purchased something gush-worthy from Etsy? Post it here and tell us why you would recommend that seller!



I'd like to take a moment to highlight Zadyball:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5536688

I have bought three items from her shop so far. The first was the zadyball butterfly for my daughter. She is four months old now and her butterfly is her favorite toy righ now! She crinkles the wings and her little fingers can easily grasp the legs and she loves to shake and swing it!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10710120

I just ordered two of the Zadyminis. These are so well-priced and are perfect for gift-giving! The size is great too for little hands and fit more easily into a diaper bag for travel.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5536688§ion_id=5339669

My items shipped quickly, and were packaged well too! If you need a baby gift and want something a bit different that the baby will actually use - then look no further!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14030401


Wowie!!

Be sure to check out her shop. She has some awesome stuff! I'm planning to try her lotion and scrubs when I have some money to spend on ME!

New and a little silly

I had someone suggest that I make an octopus. A PURPLE one. Since people have always commented about the Zadyball, "what is that? An octopus?", I figured it would be a great idea!

But, what exactly should an octopus look like? It took me a while, but this is what I came up with.

The whole time I was making it, the Beatles song "Octopus's Garden" kept going through my head.
"I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade"

So, I thought I'd do a little research about that song, just for fun. This is what I found:

The idea for the song came about when Starr was on a boating trip with his family in Sardinia in 1968. He was offered an octopus lunch, but turned it down. Then the boat's captain told Starr about how octopuses travel along the sea bed picking up stones and shiny objects with which to build gardens. Starr said that hearing about octopuses spending their days collecting shiny objects at the bottom of the sea was one of the happiest things he had ever heard, inspiring him to write this song.

I decided to name my octopus Ringo - because he's just awesome. :)

Now, I might need to make all the Beatles.

Memory Tag

I got this one from my sister. And since I don't have anything very exciting to post, I figured I'd put it here and see what happens.

Memory Tag
Here are the rules:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Terrible Twos and More about the room

If you haven't yet, be sure to enter my giveaway!

Because we have been working on Ady's room, we couldn't let her sleep in there. We set up a pack-n-play in our bedroom and tried to get her to sleep in there instead. She doesn't do well when she isn't in her bed. She didn't have a nap AT ALL on Friday. (Instead she stood in there and screamed for over an hour until we finally gave up.) Friday night she didn't sleep very well either.
So, she was lots of fun on Saturday. Brandon spent the morning helping a friend and took Zander with him, so I was home with Ady by myself.
First of all, I tried to get her to take a shower with me, which usually isn't a problem, and is the easiest way to get her clean. She refused to get in. But, as soon as I got out, she threw a big fit because she didn't get to take a shower. *sigh*
Then, I tried to get her dressed. She wouldn't let me put her diaper on her. She kicked and screamed and threw herself around. I finally got tired of it and put in in time out, in the pack-n-play. I told her that as soon as she was ready to get dressed and be nice to me she could get out.
She sat in the pack-n-play, naked, for at least half and hour.
I finally managed to get her dressed and thought that everything fine. But then I got distracted doing something and turned my back on her for a minute. When I found her, she was in the bathroom, completely naked (again!), giving her dolly a bath. In the TOILET!
GRRR! Back into time out she went!
Needless to say, by the time Brandon got back home, I was pretty fed up with my little girl.

We had her room mostly finished, so she was able to take a VERY long nap. (hurray!)

Here's what the finished room looks like:

A Big Girl Room

If you haven't already - be sure to enter my giveaway!

It all started last week. I was sick and Brandon needed to get something from Lowes, so he took the kids with him. He came home with a little more than he was planning on getting. A PINK ceiling fan. Apparently our little girl already has her daddy wrapped around her little finger and knows how to get whatever she wants. She saw the pink fan at the store and just HAD to have it!

So, Daddy put the fan in her room.



BUT, there was a problem. It just didn't go with the walls. I wish I'd taken a "before" picture to compare. The room was originally painted before we were even pregnant the first time. We wanted it to be something neutral, and yet baby-ish. And what fits that more than pastel colors, right? So there were three different pastel colors - blue, yellow and green. Very light. And then before Zander was born, we tried to make it a little more "boyish" and added some jungle animals that really didn't go with the paint. I never really did like it all that much.
I wanted to redo the room when we first found out we were having a girl, but Brandon didn't go for it. It's been that way for close to five years, and I've really gotten sick of it. So, the new fan was the perfect excuse for a change!

Besides the fan, we've been trying to figure out how we are going to fit three kids in our house. Ady's room had been doubling as a guest room with a queen size been next to the crib. We decided that we'd have to get rid of the guest bed and put in a smaller bed for Ady, and then the baby will of course have the crib.
We'd been thinking that bunk beds would be a good option. And it could go in the boys room if we have a boy, and the girls room if we have a girl. But what about guests?
We went shopping and found a great solution! A bunk bed set with a double bed on the bottom and a twin bed on top! And we got what we feel was a really good deal.
So for now, we'll put the double bed in Ady's room and keep the top bunk in storage. She can start to sleep on the double, and it's still big enough for guests. And, it's another reason to redecorate. :)



So we decided to go with pink (of course) and we got paint to match the colors in the fan. The darker pink is VERY bright, but we only have it on the lower part of the room. The plan is to put in a white chair-rail to separate the colors. It just didn't get finished tonight. It was an all day project - mostly Brandon, but the kids and I helped.
Now we just have to convince Ady to sleep in a big bed. That will be yet another adventure!