Our Weekend v.8

We had another great weekend. First off I want to share that this weekend Sophia officially started walking on her own!!!! This is such a big deal to us because she's a little over 18 months! Most of the children her age at her daycare have been walking forever!

On Friday I get a call from my mom saying that Soph has been walking at daycare. I actually didn't believe her because they tell me that she tries to walk all the time but I never see it. But when we got home I def saw it! She'd just be playing and get up and walk over to the couch where Gary and I are. We are SO happy!!

She didn't walk the whole weekend but we're getting there. She is so cute when she walks!

On Saturday we woke up bright and early and headed to the 2nd Annual Walk4Vets. Even though it was freezing we had a good time. We're glad that we were able to be there and support our troops! We couldn't stay too long because poor Soph was freezing.

I had Gary drop me and Soph off at my parents so we can see my grandma. She came over and we went to the store with her. We love seeing nanny on the weekends!

Later that day we headed to Old Navy with my mom. We got so much stuff. My mom and I are so good at finding the best deals. We found shirts that were $2 and $3!!! And they were beautiful shirts! We left with a lot of new clothes!

We ended our evening at the mall where daddy met us and Sophia decided to walk some more! And she also got to ride the train!

We woke up Sunday morning and just watched cartoons and played. {My fav. kind of mornings}. Gary left to go play golf and flag football so it was just me and Soph. We played until nap time and when she woke up my friend Steph was here. She brought over some outfits she bought for Soph and we put her in one of the dresses. She looked so cute. We headed outside to enjoy the pretty day. Soph enjoyed sitting and playing with the rocks. So of course I took lots of pictures.

I took a lot so I'm only going to add a few right now bc I'm running out of time. Gary started night shifts again so Soph and I will be staying with my rents every night {I'm too afraid to stay at our home alone} and the bed at my parents house is so comfy that as soon as I got here last night I went to sleep and didn't even get my computer out.

 I'll add the rest in a post of just pictures tonight, but here are my favs!!

Oh, I just love her cute little smile. Oh, and I wanted to share that this pretty girl in green didn't throw any fits this weekend!! AND this blog hit 10,000 page views this weekend too. I know that's not a lot for other blogs BUT it is for me!! Thanks for visiting guys & we hope you all had a great weekend!

Check back tonight for some more pictures from this weekend!

Litltle Bits of Happiness v.9

This is what brought me happiness this week:

{like all of my little bits of happiness posts, these are all taken with my phone and then put on instagram, so if you do follow me on there you've already seen this. also, i'm counting last friday in this lil bits of happiness post.}

Sophia turning 18 months // Hearing one of my fav songs come on Pandora {the first word of the song is my name} // Being cute and eating fake grapes at daycare // Toddler kisses // Sweet Sleepy Baby // Painting that Gary's mom drew of all the grandchildren .. it's perfect!

Does anyone know of a good site to make collages? I used to use Picnik and loved how easy it was and want something like that.

Linking up with MrsStephanieT

Sponsor Swap in May!

I've enjoyed sponsor swapping in April and I am def. going to do it again in May. I have really met some lovely ladies and I have noticed a lot more traffic on the blog.

If you want to swap email me and let me know!

We'd love to have you! 

josephine.a.king@gmail.com

Oh, & it's completely free!

April Sponsors Part 3

I can't believe it's the end of April! 

I wanted to share my last group of April Sponsor Swaps!

Please check them out and say hello!

A little about me:

Where do I begin? Well, for starters, I am a mother to FOUR beautiful children. I started blogging years ago under another name, but life changed and switched it to Life of a Mother 2 Three. However, this January, I had a baby girl, Samirah Danae is her name. My other loves of my life include Summer Brooke, who is 11 (teenage moms, help!), twin 8 year old boys, Kobe Hakim & Korey Abdur (they keep me on my toes, give me my grey hair, AND manage to make me smile at the same time, ha!). I am a country girl at heart. We love to go four wheeling and roll around in the leaves, no seriously, we live on the East Coast of North Carolina, at the beach, but in the country. We have the BEST of BOTH worlds. I always wanted the white picket fence, but settled for what we have, and we love it. Hope you enjoy my blog and feel free to stop by ANYTIME.

Blog // Twitter // Facebook

Jennifer from Forever Lovely

'

Kodi from Leaving My Mark

Melissa from Knit Purl Baby

Giveaway Winner

Before I get into the winner I wanted to share that my fiance, Gary said he'd cook dinner (as long as I still did the dishes) this evening so that I could get on here and catch up and do a post!! That NEVER happens. He actually thinks I'm kind of crazy when I spend time {hours} on here.

Usually I'm doing mom duties after work. You know, cooking dinner, doing the dishes, play time with Soph, giving Soph a bath and then putting her to sleep. That's how every week night is after work. By the time it's all over I'm ready for bed myself and I never have time to get on here and do a post or catch up on my favorite bloggers. 

So it's 7:30 and I get to blog! Usually I'm on here around 10PM barely awake trying to get stuff done. I'm pretty excited right now. 

But I just wanted to share that. I wonder when it will ever happen again.

Now onto the winner.

{Oh & I started this at 7:30 but didn't finish it until after 10, Sophia wanted all of my attention}

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My first giveaway on the blog ended today. 

I was pretty excited to do it and I really enjoyed doing a review for Copy Kids. 

They agreed to give one of my lucky readers a copy of the DVD & the winner of the DVD is ...

Congrats to Lindsay F at Little Mudpies !! 

Thanks for entering! I'll be emailing you!

Copy Kids {Review & GIVEAWAY}

I recently got the chance to do a review for Copy Kids. They sent me their DVD and told me to write a review about it.

Feeding a toddler fruits and vegetables can be tricky. Half the time all of Sophia's food ends up on the floor for the dog to eat or she's only wanting to eat fruity pebbles or fruit snacks. 

As parents we want our toddlers to eat enough and we want their food to be nutritious, not junk. So of course I was pretty excited to review this product to see if it'd help with Sophia wanting to eat her fruits and vegetables. 

Copy Kids Eat Fruits and Vegetables started out when a mother noticed that her daughter was more willing to try new fruits and vegetables when she saw another child eating them. 

The DVD features children eating fruits and vegetables. It's produced for children aged 6 months to 5 years and is divided into 12 chapters, each focusing on a different fruit or vegetable. The veggies and fruits include: Bell Peppers, Cucumbers, Carrots, Avocado, Tomatoes, Broccoli, Oranges, Bananas, Raspberries, Strawberries, Apples & Blueberries. 

We decided to try Avocado, Strawberry and Tomatoes. Sophia has tasted all of these but she usually just plays with them instead. 

Sophia was not too happy when I brought her inside from playing. I started the DVD before I even put her in the high chair and just the intro got her attention and she smiled and started clapping. I already liked the DVD as soon as she did that.

I put her in the high chair with the avocado. She did not take her eye off the TV, only to scoop her spoon in the avocado and she actually ate it, with her eyes glued to the TV.

We tried strawberries and tomatoes too. Sophia has always liked strawberries but she's only ate a few. She finished the two I had on her tray and as soon as she was done she was asking for more. I think she was only asking for more because the children on the screen were still eating.

She has never wanted to try tomatoes before. I put them on her tray with the children eating tomatoes on the TV. She tried them BUT she didn't like the taste. She immediately spit it out, but at least she tried it, right?

The DVD was very entertaining for both Sophia and I. It really had her attention and she could not keep her eyes off the TV the WHOLE time. I think they did a great job on using children who enjoyed eating their fruits and veggies. Whatever keeps Sophia entertained while eating healthy is something we're going to like and use in our house.  And for other parents reading this, I recommend this DVD. It's a creative and entertaining way of encouraging healthy eating for your children. 

{Not gonna lie, we even kept the DVD playing after she was done eating.}

Check out their video.

Copy Kids have won two children's excellence awards. One from Dr. Toy and the other from MCAT. They are also approved by the USDA and added to their Education and Training Materials Database for pre-school nutrition.

The DVD also features an interview with pediatrician Dr. Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP. Gordon is the author of Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow. He talks about childhood obesity and how parents can prevent this by choosing healthier foods for their children. He also explains why Copy-Kids is such a powerful idea.

You can read more information from their press release here. And of course like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Wanna have your own copy of this DVD? Well Copy Kids have agreed to give away one copy to one of my lucky readers!

{ THE VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY ON THE BLOG!!}

To enter please fill out the Rafflecopter form below. 

18 Months

Sophia, Happy 18th month pretty girl. I wanted to do this post before I got too busy and forgot. I have been slacking on your last 2-3 months. I took your picture just never had the time to write to you. I'll get to that. I promise. 

But we decided to bring your chair outside and take some pictures. The weather was perfect and you kept saying you wanted to go outside. Daddy was outside hitting golf balls so you wanted to hold and play with the balls and club some too while I took these pictures. 

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At 18 months you have learned a lot. Your talking and communicating with us so much more. You've learned a lot of new words. You now say: Pease (Please), Down or Get Down, Top It (Stop It), Cookie, Monkey, OwGide (Outside), Bubbles, Owie (Ouch), Uh Oh, Eww, Nummies (Food), and all the other words you've been saying the past couple of months.

You are still not walking on your own. I know you can, you're just afraid I think. We practice all the time but as soon as we let go of your hand you just go to the ground and crawl. If we ask you where your eyes, nose, hands, belly, hair and feet are you point to them. And when we say Sophia how old are you, you put your one finger up!

You can still fit into 12-18 months but most of your clothes are 18-24 and sometimes even 2T. Mommy loves shopping for you and you have so much clothes! Your shoe size is still pretty small. I have been buying sandals for this summer size 18-24 months at Old Navy but I'm afraid they might be too big because the 12-18 months are still small for you. Your daddy says that you're not walking because your lil feet are too small.

You still eat everything! You do a great job with eating your fruits and veggies. Your favorites are string cheese, strawberries, fruit snack and spaghetti. You'll eat anything we eat though.

You sleep pretty good at night. Maybe wake up for a lil bit because you want your bottle (yes, you're still on the bottle, but you use a sippy cup too) or looking for your binky. You take at least 1-2 naps a day and they are pretty long. If you don't get your second nap then you go to sleep pretty early in the evenings. You still fight sleep sometimes. You'll do anything you can to stay away. Sometime's you'll just start making noises, it's funny.

You still do ok out in public. Shopping is kind of hard with you. We have to bring a lot of things to keep you entertained. You do better at restaurants. As long as you have food in front of you, you're ok. But when you're unhappy, everyone knows it. There are sometimes when we have to leave the store because you just throw the biggest fits.

Speaking of fits, you're starting to throw more of them when I take something away from you. You are always trying to get into stuff you're not supposed to and when I take you away from it you go start screaming and sometimes even smacking mommy. As soon as I calm you down you're back to loving me.

You started getting some teeth in the back. I think you have 3 in the back now that are coming in. You're hair is still crazy and curly. One thing that is different is you don't have your ears pierced anymore. I don't know what happened but every day I'd pick you up from daycare and you would have lost one. I kept buying new ones and you'd somehow lose one or even both. I even bought the screw on ones so I have no idea how that happened. I just decided to stop buying them and I'm pretty sure they grew over :(

I hate that you had to go through the pain when you first got them and will have to again one day when you decide you want your ears pierced.

You are growing up into such a little girl. I almost feel like calling you a baby isn't right because you really aren't. I'll just call you my baby girl. That works for me.

I love you baby girl. Happy 18 months!

Our Weekend v. 6 & 7

I usually don't blog on the weekends because we're always busy doing weekend stuff. But the weather is cold today & Sophia hasn't been feeling the greatest so we've had a very relaxing weekend.

We are actually at my parents house just hanging out while Gary golfs and plays some flag football. He's crazy, the weather is 45 degrees. Sophia is playing with her grandma so it's perfect time for me to blog, right? 

I forgot to do an our weekend post last week so I'm just going to do both of them now.


{And if you're here from the blog hop, welcome!! Please leave a comment & say hi. I'd love to visit your blog!! }

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They opened up a Cheddars in our town so we decided to check it out last weekend. We went Friday after work. The wait was about 50 minutes but Soph did a great job while we waited. She walked around with Gary and sat on the bench and people watched. She also did some dancing to the music they played outside. 

The food was good and was a decent price so I see many dinner trips there in the future. Sophia did good too while we ate. She loved the artichoke and spinach dip and feeding it to Gary.

The next day, Saturday, we just hung out at the house. Sophia played and took naps. That evening we took Soph to my parents house so she could stay the night. Gary and I met up with our friends at Cheddars for dinner again. After dinner we headed over to another friends house to hang out. It's always nice to have a baby free night with friends, even though we miss Sophia.

We spent our Sunday at my parents house. Sophia always has a good time there. We sat outside with a blanket and played. She also planted some flowers while I ran to the grocery store. 

Here's a collage of all the pictures taken from last weekend with my phone.

We haven't done really much of anything this weekend. It's been rainy and cold so we've been stuck inside. We did get to play outside for a little bit on Friday because it was warm out. I took Sophia's 18months pictures yesterday with her chair. I'll be uploading the ones in her chair tomorrow with her updates. Here are some others from Friday.

Sorry for all the pictures but I wanted to share everything from both of our weekend. We're going to spend the rest of the today inside watching Baby First on TV and being lazy. We're going to stay warm too, it's supposed to snow tomorrow! This weather is crazy!
Hope everyone is having a good weekend! 


And if you haven't already, enter to win the first giveaway on the blog here!

Little Bits of Happiness v.8

Hanging out with my favorite girls // Sophia sharing with Zoey // Warm weather and getting to wear her romper // Looking back at me // Watching Copy Kids for the first time and loving it. 

I didn't get the chance to take out my camera this week so I had to take some from Instagram. 

Hope everyone is having a great week!

DONT FORGET TO ENTER THE VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY ON THE BLOG! 

Linking up with MrsStephanieT

“Traumatic”, but Funny Events

So, this is going to be a very random post but I wanted to share with everyone the “traumatic events” that have been going in my life.

Let me start by telling everyone that I live out in the country. There is hardly any cell phone service where I live and I’m pretty much out in the wilderness. I’ve always lived in this area so I’ve grown up around all this.

When I was younger I loved playing outside. I loved getting dirty and catching bugs.

Well, I guess I slowly grew into a girly girl throughout the years because today I am terrified of any bug that comes near me. I scream at the site of a spider and scream and run like a crazy woman.

My family, friends and even neighbors know this about me. They also like to mess with me and tell me there’s stuff behind me so I can take off running while they all laugh.

Well the other morning, I’m sitting on my couch just watching tv with Sophia. I go to touch my hair and I feel something in it. I immediately panic and pull whatever is in my hair out and just throw it on the ground screaming for Gary. He comes in and I tell him to look at the ground and see what I had on me.

We both look, and it’s a freaking tick!!!!

Just thinking about these little creatures makes me sick. We have a little dog that spends a lot of time outside so I start blaming him and telling Gary I don’t want him anymore. Poor dog, I blame everything on him.

Later that day, I give him a bath so I can make sure he didn’t have any more on him. And he had none. So because he didn’t have any on him, I decided I still wanted him.

But we haven’t seen any more since then. Thank God.

THEN.

The.Worst.Thing.Ever. Happened. I got off work yesterday evening and headed to daycare to pick up Sophia. We head home and I go into our front porch and go inside. We change so we can head back out to enjoy the day. It was beautiful out.

Well I forgot something inside so I pick up Sophia to head back in. As I’m walking in, I SEE A SNAKE. And it wasn’t just laying there. The snake had its head up at me, ready to attack.

 Instead of turning around and heading back outside, I leap over the snake (with Sophia in my arms), screaming like crazy. I get to the front door and I’m so panicked that I am unable to even open the door. So I’m standing there screaming, still with Sophia in my arms.

I finally get inside and I’m running into things trying to get to safety (the couch). I put Sophia down on the couch and call my mom. I’m barely breathing and can barely talk. I finally get out there is a snake on the porch and my mom says she’ll be there.

I’m still freaking out. My clothes were drenched and I couldn’t feel my hands or toes. It was that bad. I couldn’t get in touch with Gary because he was working out so I call one of my good friends Stephanie. I just needed someone to talk to me to calm me down.

I kept saying crazy things like the snake bit me and it was inside the house. I exaggerate and overreact sometimes. Stephanie was able to calm down, through her laughs.

I didn’t leave the house, or move, until my mom got there. She brought my dad and they both looked around the porch and didn’t find the snake. I’m hoping my craziness scared it off our porch.  

I spent the rest of the evening freaked out. I didn’t go near the front door and I looked into each room before I walked in.

I’m going to be so afraid to walk out of and into my house. This morning before work I had Gary walk out first and I leaped off of our steps and ran to the car, while holding Soph.

Poor Soph. She’s going to terrified of everything watching me act like this. I’ve been laughing all day just thinking about what it probably looked like to her or if anyone was watching.

I guess this isn’t really too shocking because of where I live BUT it’s still very traumatic for me and I wanted to share and document this so I can go back and have a good laugh, (or just freak myself out again).

Let’s just hope that there will be no more ticks or snakes the rest of spring and summer.

Have you ever ran into a snake or a tick and have a funny story about it? Leave me a comment about, I’d love to have another good laugh!

Have a great day everyone!

Joining the Party - UBP 2012

I decided to catch up on all of my favorite blogs this morning and noticed that everyone was talking about The Ultimate Blog Party 2012 so I decided to join for my very first time!

So, if this is your first time here, hello! My name is Josie . I'm a young mommy to my beautiful girl, engaged to her daddy & we live in a small town in WV. 

And this is my blog. I use my blog to basically share our daily adventures, memories and anything random that comes to the mind of a young, busy momma working full time who loves photography, fashion, blogging and anything girly & baby. So follow us and join us on our adventure as Sophia grows! Oh! & leave a comment and say hello, I'd love to meet you all as well!

{Read about why I blog here }

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