Yes, she sure is cute beyond belief but she is a handful and a half. Don't be fooled by the picture. Look away and do not make eye contact. She is rough, tumble, sugar and spice all roll up into one big package. She makes me laugh and pull my hair out all the time. One thing I noticed lately is that she really needs a lesson in how to play nice with other kids. She is not so much for sharing her toys. She pulls them away and makes the little kid "that's mine" grunt. Now, I know she gets it from her older sister who is always trying to steal the toy she is currently playing with. What I do not know is how I am going to begin to change the behavior. I want her to play nice and not be the mean bully kid. I know it will come with time and we will just need to work harder at it. The doctor said since she is the second child she will act out more and boy was he right. All we need to do is try to harness her inner hugger and all will be right with the world.
In my honest opinion, I think this was the best show so far. The show starts with Mickey and Minnie. Their car breaks down and they are in search of a tow truck. Who better to help with this situation than Mater. Mater comes out followed by Sally, Ramone, Flo and eventually Lightning McQueen. It was so awesome to see the actual cars driving around on the ice. My daughter is a HUGE Cars fan and when Lightning McQueen hit the ice she screamed his name so loud you would have thought some teen heart throb had just arrived. I watched her as she watched the show and there was no doubt she was soaking it all in and loving every minute.
Let's just say, I am a huge Bobby Flay fan and my family is also a fan of Hellmanns. So, when I was contacted by MomSelect to review the new Hellmanns Real Holiday Helpings site I did not hesitate one bit. I browsed the site and found lots of cool features. I entered to win free groceries for a year, printed my coupon, and signed up for their facebook page. My absolute favorite part of the site though is the recipe section. I watched Bobby's recipe videos and my mouth watered the entire time. My favorite is the Turkey Cuban sandwich. We have sandwich night at least once a week and are always looking for new recipes. We will be making this one sooner rather than later and I cannot wait to give it a try. I also cannot wait to try the twice baked potato and ham with our leftovers. There are so many great recipes you are sure to find several that make your mouth water.
So, it is that time again. Yay! Vic and I are planning to attend the December 4th showing of Disney on Ice. I am really looking forward to this one because she is a huge fan of the movie Cars and we both love Tinkerbell. They are also featuring The Little Mermaid and Lion King. It should make for a fun night. If you are located in the Denver area you should take advantage of this awesome deal.
Purchase a 4‐pack of tickets for only $44 for weekday shows
or receive $4 off weekend tickets by entering the
coupon code: MOM**
There is also a special Princess pre-show event available to all ticket holders. Arrive up to one hour early to tour the display of gorgeous gowns and meet a real princess! My daughter is so excited for this. We had so much fun at the last event that she cannot wait for this one.
Thanks to the great people at MomSelect I have the opportunity to review two wonderful Fisher Price infant products. The first is the Laugh & Learn™ Fun With Friends™ Musical Table. The second is the Laugh & Learn™ Smart Bounce & Spin Pony™. When these toys arrived both of my girls were so excited. Both products were super easy to put together. I sat on the floor while both of my girls watched impatiently.
The Laugh & Learn™ Smart Bounce & Spin Pony™ is really quite awesome. My little one hopped on and immediately started bouncing away. She started spinning the little play wheel on the handle over and over. The music played and she giggled the whole time. All of this was before I had even gotten the chance to hook it up to the TV for the games. This toy comes with a box that hooks up to your TV. It includes interactive games for your kids to play. There are multiple levels depending on the age of your child. Both of my girls had a lot of fun with this. There is counting, ABCs, shapes, colors and so much more to entertain them while helping them learn. I was able to set this up and while the kids played and learned cool stuff I got some work done around the house. My 18 month old loved all the bouncing. She kept repeating everything she heard and she was calling out all the animals she saw. 
I have never been to the circus and have always wanted to go. I have been waiting for it to come to town so that I can take my little ones. I told my oldest yesterday that we would be going and she could not be more excited. Are you planning on attending? If so, I have a special offer for you. Take your family and enjoy all the excitement. These details are for the Denver performances so please check your local area for show times. I will post a review after the show with all the wonderful details.
I was determined this Summer to have a pool available to us in the backyard. I started looking around at them and found an inexpensive above ground one for the patio. I talked to the hubby and he convinced me to get the biggest one. Well, when we got it home it just barely did not fit due to a curve in our patio. We decided to give it a shot anyways and see how it would do. It was filling up nicely and we were all so very excited. It took hours to fill and we waited patiently. I had such a hard time keeping Victoria out of it when we were setting it up that I finally just gave up and let her have fun.
I am always reluctant to go because the drive is so long. That is probably the only thing I really do not like. I wish we lived closer. It takes us 5-6 hours depending on how many times we have to stop for the kids. It is not just how long it is but a lot of that drive is through the mountains. The roads are steep and winding and so much of it freaks me out. My hubby is a really good driver. Most of it is just the fact that I am not behind the wheel and in control. That said, the drive is absolutely gorgeous. I just look out the window and find myself in awe of the Rockies and all their glory. There was still some snow on them. On the drive home we got a bonus and it started raining which quickly turned to snow. We were laughing at the thought of snow in June. Victoria wanted us to stop so she could taste the snow flakes on her tongue. 
The trip for us this time was a little rougher because we had to leave after the hubby got off work on Friday. The drive is worse at night and the girls were definitely more irritable. Aside from all that we made it in one piece. The ranch is literally in the middle of nowhere. It is about 90+ miles from the nearest town. There are no luxury items that we are used to having here at home. There is no TV, no phones (unless you want to walk to the top of the hill and hope for a signal), the beds are extremely uncomfortable and there definitely is no internet. Instead we traded all of that for wagons of dirt to play in, horses to ride, a very bumpy ride out to the pasture in Grandpa's rusty old jeep, fresh air, and peace and quiet. 
It turns out though it was just what we needed. The girls love it there and it does not take much to entertain them. Give them a wagon and shovel and you have enough for hours of fun. For me it was awesome. The only thing I HAD to do was sit in a lawn chair and watch my girls have fun. I grabbed my crochet and sat down to make some dish towels. It was so peaceful and relaxing. There were none of the stresses that I usually had. No feeling like there were so many things to get done and not enough hours in the day to do them. There was no planning and definitely no agendas. The entire weekend was spent winging it and doing whatever the heck we wanted. 
My little one is growing up what seems to me like faster than her older sister. Time really does fly by so very fast. She is so big now. She is on the brink of walking. She has taken some steps on her own but has not yet found her confidence. Her birthday was a good one overall. She did catch a virus and ended up with a fever of 103. She took it like a champ though and really enjoyed her cupcakes. My sister and her kids came over to share the day with us. I am so very proud of her. She is growing up into a beautiful and wonderfully loving little girl. She is so incredibly smart. I cannot wait to be there for all the years to come.
I have been waiting for years now for V to be old enough for me to take her to a show like Disney on Ice. She has finally reached that age and I am so excited. With the economy like it is though I figured I would still have to wait because it would be too expensive. Well, I am never one to pass up a good deal. I came across a great deal for the Disney on Ice. If you login and purchase your tickets through http://www.ticketmaster.com/ you can enter the promotional code "MOM" and get a family 4 pack of tickets for only $44.00. As far as I know though this code only works for the shows in the Denver area.
I am always on the search for healthy snacks for my girls. I get so frustrated because so many things I pick up and look at are full of sugar. I do not mind my girls having a sugar treat now and then but that is just it. They should be a treat not a snack. I came across these freeze dried fruit snacks yesterday and thought I would give them a try. They are 100% all natural freeze dried which of course got my attention right away. When I got them home my oldest was begging for some. I opened a package for her and she loved them. My husband who is way too picky even opened a bag and had a snack. They are so light and practically dissolve in your mouth. I decided to give them to my 10 month old. She loved them and I had to fight her to keep her from eating them all at one time.
I received a rebate coupon the other day for this and decided to give it a try. With my two girls the stains in this house are literally non stop. My youngest got ahold of the spoon the other day and decided to smear the lasagna on her hands all over her face, hair and shirt before I could even think of getting a wipe. My oldest tries very hard but I think the harder she tries the bigger the mess she makes. It is like it is drawn to them. The funny thing is I used to think there was no way my kids were going to be messy. I would hover while she ate like some insane person waiting for the moment I could swoop in and save the day. Even worse I spoon fed her myself for far too long. In my mind I knew she could do it herself but I was just out of my mind. All she needed was a little darn practice and a ton of messes and she would get the hang of it. Needless to say, I gave up that insanity really quickly. When the second one came along I was not even crazy enough to try and stop the mess. I have moved way past my momentary lapse in judgment.
We all have those wonderful moments with our children that we look forward to and cherish forever. The day they were born, first words, first steps, and especially the funny wonderful things they say. This morning I woke up and found myself in one of those moments I will definitely cherish forever. A couple of weeks back I won an apron in a giveaway they were doing over at Mommytalk. The apron arrived in the mail the other day and it is absolutely adorable. Vic happened to see it and got so excited. She called it her "cooking costume" and she immediately wanted to cook with me. Without really thinking about it I told her we would make pancakes in the morning because what we were cooking at the time she could not help with.
