5 1/2 months already?!

It is crazy to think that the Malligator is 5 1/2 months and Alligator is almost 2. TWO. 2 years old. Amazing! (Oh also notice how original I am in hiding M's name? I know some of my readers know my kids' names, but some don't, and I'd like to keep some things a bit private.)

So we are doing pretty well around here! Everyone is sleeping better at night. Our days and nights are way more predictable. I kind of feel like I have the hang of things around here. It was right around this time with Alligator I felt this way too.

A lot of people have asked us about solids for the Malligator because she's 5 1/2 months and a lot of people start at 4 months. We are not those people. ;) We are waiting. It is much easier to give her a bottle or a boob right now, why mess with that!? With Alligator we waited until nearly 8 months and it did not harm her one bit. She eats almost anything. She loves some vegetables. She loves fruit. And she will tear up some BBQ meats. Her favorite veggie: lima beans. For real. She will pick them all out of the mixed veggies first when we have them with dinner. She is such a silly girl sometimes too.

Here are some pictures I have to share, finally.

 Here she is! So excited to be 5 months old!

Not quite sitting up on her own yet, but very very close.

I have a picture of myself in a grocery bag when I was about Alligator's age. My dad was holding m e and I had a similar smile going on. Well this is MY grocery bag and here is Alligator in it. I made this bag and I suppose I made it pretty well. I was swinging her around in this thing for a good 15 minutes. She weighs about 29 pounds! 

 We were testing out my new camera lens with my niece and Alligator outside. Yes she is playing with a thing of deodorant.... I am still figuring out the lens and how to get a good bokeh going on. Next I need to figure out how to do some good Photoshop tweaking. Not bad though? I have a good subject. ;)

Malligator sticking out her tongue. She loves doing this right before I hit the camera button instead of smiling.

Here are some very cute bibs a friend of mine sent me. You can get your own custom bibs here: http://stores.ebay.com/Deals-by-Kathy

I won a giveaway of these custom name crayons. I blurred out the names but you get the point. ;) You can find your own custom set here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/MadebyMAXX 

I also was looking through my pictures on my computer and found THIS blog entry from last year around this date. Amazing what a year does. Here are the pictures from that post. This kid cracks me up!

I have a new Facebook page for my Alligator Lane store too. If you haven't checked it out go here:
http://www.facebook.com/alligatorlane

I'm doing a Giveaway through another page on Facebook, so if you are interested in that check out Mommies Who Love Freebies and see the September Albums. To enter you have to like the sponsor (or person doing the giveaway) and then like the picture of the prize you want to win. I'm giving away a tie onesie in Album 1.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear from or see who is reading, so leave a comment and say HI. I am going to try to update more often and tie the blog more into the shop on Facebook and Etsy. Also might start doing some giveaways of my own and for some friends. So thanks for checking us out and come back again!! =)

Woud you like to win this?

I know I want to win this!! My friend over at My Two Red Shoes is having a giveaway on her blog. Her mom makes these fantastic quilts...and my friend made a fantastic red headed baby. Check him out on her blog, he is super adorable!! She has tons of information about cloth diapering on her blog too. We've both cloth diapered our babes since the start so if you need any info she probably has it there!

So here is the link to go enter to win this fabulous quilt: http://www.mytworedshoes.com/2011/07/cozy-quilt-to-good-home-giveaway.html

Also, I've been a bad blogger...I plan to change that soon. I have a few projects to show off and will be updating my Etsy and Facebook pages with them all soon!

Giveaways are great!!!

I want to share with you a great giveaway going on on my friend's blog. She's a shopper. Like, REALLY, an awesome shopper. The title of her blog is "Hi My name is Elise and I'm a shopaholic" so that sums it up. She loves to find deals, put together great outfits (something I am NOT good at), and show them off on her blog. She also has a separate blog for selling things she doesn't need/want/use or never used.

So she's doing a giveaway. a $25 Macy's Gift Card giveaway. She loves Macy's. I guess Macy's loves her too since she's doing the giveaway. ;-)

Go check out her give away on her blog here: Macy's Gift Card Giveaway

It is really easy to enter her giveaway. First: you HAVE to become a follower of her blog in order for your entries to count. After you become a follower you can get TWO entries into this giveaway. First entry is required for your second entry to count...you just have to comment and say what you would/might buy at Macy's. Second entry (bonus) you can blog about the giveaway (like I'm doing here) and comment with a link to your post. You leave a separate comment for each entry and there you go...entered to win TWICE. Easy peasy.You just have to leave a comment to get your two entries.

I know this person in real life. She is great. If we didn't have such busy schedules between both our families would surely be hanging out way more often. I think she agrees?! ;-)

She will be doing more giveaways in the future too, so definitely STAY a follower to get in on her fun giveaways. She really loves shopping and sharing deals so you won't be disappointed.

So go follow her, comment, blog and comment about it...and WIN!!

Another Giveaway!

Who doesn't like free stuff?? And coupons codes?!

I met up with  www.jessicalovestosavemoney.com through the bump when I offered to help someone with a pillow case dress daughter in a forum post. The lady I helped out with a dress loved it and it turns out someone else wanted one too. =)

That someone else turned into this review and giveaway on her money saving blog. The giveaway is for any item $12 or less and there is also a coupon for 10% off anything through Etsy. So GO and check out Jessica Loves to Save Money and enter to win my Alligator Lane Giveaway on her blog! (Plus - she does awesome deals and giveaways all the time!! )

Playdate!

Today is a FIRST for me. =) I am being featured (is that what it is called?) on another blog! My friend LeeAnn from The Life of Rylie...and Bryce, too! does a "Saturday Playdate" where another blogger is featured, talks a bit about themselves, talks about their blog, and anything else they want. Sometimes she knows them in real life and sometimes she knows them only through the internet. We actually met through thebump.com a while ago and exchanged emails about both of us trying to sell our pool tables while we were pregnant. I finally made it to a get together with some of the Central Florida girls, with Alligator about 3 months old, and we met in person. We've been saying since then that we need to try to do something again, so someday that will happen. =)

So here is the link to her blog where I posted. Check her out!!

Also don't forget about the giveaway going on my friend's blog!! My fantastic friend is hosting a giveaway on her blog for my Etsy Shop: Alligator Lane. Check her out...there are a bunch of ways to enter. =)

Just to make sure there is some cuteness in with all these buttons here is Alligator in the bath the other night. You can sort of see all her teeth. She has 2 molars coming in, one on each side, and 2 more working their way up on the bottom row.

Wordless Wednesday

She likes to look in the oven, so we try to leave the light on now. 

Don't hate on our awesome outfit - white pants with gray zebras, purple shirt, and green bib. =) We got mismatched at home playing and getting dirty. Then she gets changed before we go anywhere.

I'm also excited to say that I'm doing my first GIVEAWAY!!! My fantastic friend is hosting a giveaway on her blog for my Etsy Shop: Alligator Lane. Check her out...there are a bunch of ways to enter. =)

And just for good measure - another fun picture of little miss Alligator. She loves to play and run, jump, and plop all over our new couch. It is nearly impossible to catch her sitting still on camera anymore.

Happy Wednesday! Where is your Wordless Wednesday post? Comment and tell me.

PS - I've been a bad blogger and not posting as often as I should. I will try to improve. =)

Giveaways to share!

     I have a few friends doing some very great giveaways! I thought I would list them all in one post to make sure others knew about them.

     Mixed is doing a fantastic $25 Gift Certificate giveaway to My Baby Clothes Boutique. They have some adorable things on that store and I'd love to win a GC! Even if I don't win I have already bookmarked the site and will drool over items for possible future purchase. Go enter in her giveaway it ends soon!!

     My in real life friend LeeAnn is doing a few giveaways on her blog The Life of Rylie...and Bryce too. Actually she has a few giveaways going right now. Check out her $20 Zappos.com giveaway that ends on the 18th, $30 Costumes4Less gift certificate giveaway, and more. Go check her out.

Thanks for reading. If you haven't already, grab my button and follow me!! =)

My friend is doing a good GIVEAWAY

Who doesn't like Giveaways??? I sure do! So my friend LeeAnn is having a good one....Check our her blog The Life of Rylie...and Bryce too!


She is awesome online and in real life. =) She has two adorable kids, she works, and has this fantastic blog! I don't know how she does it all.


She's having a giveaway for Costumes4Less until September 21st. I've ordered from this site before and they are pretty great. She is giving away a $30 gift certificate to Costumes4Less to one of her readers. So GO and enter in her contest and you can mention I sent you. =)

Another giveaway on a Great Mom blog

My friend Kaymee is doing another great giveaway on her blog. Her button is over there <--- on the side too "The Mommy Diaries".

One her recent giveaways for some handstamped jewelry from Brag About It our friend Melaina won! Very jealous. ;-)

Click HERE for the awesome adorable crochet hat giveaway she is having from Ambernee Crochet.

Thanks for stopping by! More updates to come soon, with pictures!

My friend's Giveaway - We love giveaways!

My Mommy Friend K is doing a Giveaway of some awesome jewlery on her blog. Plus she's just fantastic. Go check her out here:

http://kaymee81.blogspot.com/

Check out her giveaway here:

http://kaymee81.blogspot.com/2010/06/brag-about-it-hand-stamped-jewelry.html

Tell her Amanda sent you! =)

MamaBargains.com ~ Rave

I forgot to mention this a while back, even though I told Mama Bargains I would. So here goes.

Mama Bargains had some baby sunglasses on sale for $5 each (or something like that). I thought it was a great price! I have seen them at Target too, but never in the girl colors like I wanted. So I scooped 2 pairs for Allison. One pair was pink and the other pair was purple.

I paid for regular old First Class shipping because I'm cheap (err, I mean, frugal). The glasses got here pretty quickly, within a week I think. I opened the shipping bag and found this:

See the cracks right there on the lens? I was pretty sad, but then I quickly went to check out their return policy. The return policy looked pretty cut and dry and it scared me. It said something like this: "We do not accept returns, refunds or exchanges and do not offer warranties of any type on any products. All sales are FINAL!" (Taken right from their site.)

I thought I was done and out my $5.

I wrote them a quick email and included a picture showing them what happened. I think it was mostly because of the packaging the glasses came in . There weren't protected at all in the flimsy little mailing bag they came in. They wrote me back within a day or so and promised me another pair. The replacement pair came quickly, priority mail this time, and in a sturdy cardboard box. Most importantly they came in ONE piece!!

Here is Allison modeling her new glasses in the pool.
Yay MamaBargains.com! Thanks again for great customer service.

Diaper Contest!

An online friend of mine is doing a contest for a diaper! I love contests and ways to earn extra entries. Here is a link to her blog with the contest info:
http://www.exploitsofamilitarymama.com/2010/03/cloth-diaper-contest.html

Right now she's making a video diary of her trial with Rumparooz diapers all this week. So far I've only used BumGenius diapers so I'm curioius to learn about her experience with Rumparooz. Check her out: http://www.exploitsofamilitarymama.com/

I love giveaways!

I just heard about a giveaway I thought I'd share with my readers. Do I actually have "readers"? Maybe someday...anyway...read on:

So I will soon be posting a picture of my fabric stash and my new cabinet I got and made for my stuff...then you will see that I clearly have a problem with fabric and collecting it for things. So when I hear about fabric giveaways I always enter! You can enter too!

Jessi from the jumpupanddown blog is giving away some fabric scraps. If you mention that you got her blog from my blog it helps (I think). You can enter until March 4th (Wednesday). Here is a direct link to the scrappy giveaway .

((In case you're wondering I heard about Jessi's giveaway from Penny on her blog.))

Fun Friday Giveaway....

Frugal Mom is having a give away!! She's giving away $100 at Amazon.com and a awesome bag from Artsy-Crafty Babe. Visit Frugal Mom's blog here: www.frugalmom.net/blog

This is the bag I like from Artsy-Crafty's etsy shop...I like them all, but this one is my choice for my favorite tonight. If you want to try to win, visit Frugal Mom's blog and follow the directions!

Giveaways!

Coach Purse Giveaway on LaVieDeLaurie.com!! Who doesn't love a free coach purse?!

Click HERE to enter to win!