And the award for the cutest blog header goes to…

Create with Christine

I love the sequins!

Christine has been with the scrapbook company Close To My Heart since October 2004. She considers herself lucky to have a job that allows her to stay home with her boys Conner and Blake while remaining creative, being able to connect with other adults, and earn an income.  Christine also says it’s a blessing to be a part of a company where a regular stay at home wife and Mom can be a rock star and says that the corporate staff truly loves the consultants.

From Christine:

Close To My Heart’s motto is “let us show you how” and as a Consultant thats my “job.” It’s a pretty amazing job! I hold monthly classes for cards and scrapbooking, teach at in home parties, and provide tutorials via my website. In other words I get to spend endless hours being creative with friends!

For all of you stamp and scrapbook lovers, Christine is giving away an Idea Book and the cutest stamp set in. the. world. (You can customize the house!!) ($26.95 value)

To enter to win the idea book and stamp set, go to Christine’s blog and leave her a comment.

She’ll pick a random winner on Sunday, Sept 12th around 8 pm West Coast time. Good luck!

I was not compensated for this giveaway.

]]> http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/09/05/create-with-christine-a-giveaway/feed/ 2 http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/09/03/wheres-mom-41-of-52/ http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/09/03/wheres-mom-41-of-52/#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:02:38 +0000 Becca http://ourcrazyboys.com/?p=2969 [...]]]>

This week, Mom had a girl’s night out.

At a grocery store.

Yup, you read that right.

You could find me at the brand new Fry’s Marketplace up in Phoenix at Tatum & Shea roads.

I was lucky enough to meet Sara, Amy, Brenda, Melissa, Sara, and Amy; along with some other amazing Arizona bloggers!

This store is amazing.

A-mazing.

There’s a lounge in the front of the store (next to the Starbucks) with big screen tv’s and free wi-fi:

A cooking school (you read that right, too):

A salad bar,

A prepared food counter (not just fried chicken!),

A cupcake bar/upscale bakery/chocolate fountain:

a juice bar:

a wine cellar:

A huge natural/organic/gluten free section:

A … {wait for it}… library:

A toy section (Matt, our amazing tour guide, even showed us the ZhuZhu Pets):

Valet parking (they’ll even wash your car while you shop!), curbside loading, covered parking, and a jewelry store (!!).

And do you know what?

I didn’t even tell you everything.

Really.

Some things that I learned about Fry’s (straight from the President’s mouth… the President of Fry’s, not the President):

-Frys accepts all coupons (coupons from other stores like Target and Safeway, from the paper, internet coupons…)

-Fry’s rounds all coupons up to $1 -except for Fry’s coupons. I saved $10 today by using 10 .35 coupons. True story.

-Fry’s loves bloggers. They gave us a 2 hour long tour (full of yummy samples, friendly workers, and smiling faces), answered all of our questions, took notes about the questions they couldn’t answer right then, and asked nothing in return.

They even rolled out their red carpet for us:

At the end of our tour, Matt (pictures above) gave us $25 gift cards. One for me, one for you.

Yes, you.

My loyal reader.

So, I’m not promoting this giveaway.

Not tweeting about it.

Not putting it on facebook.

I’m telling you that if you leave me a comment and tell me what Kroger store is nearest you, you’ll be entered to win the extra $25 gift card.

I’ll pick a winner on September 10th :)

Oh, how about you scroll back up and click on my new friend’s blogs? They’re some of the best frugal/coupon bloggers in Phoenix, and they talked me into taking coupons while shopping today – I saved a total of $70 :)

Leetle bitty print: Fry’s invited me to be a part of their Very Important Blogger Event and provided 2 $25 gift cards and a swag bag full of  yummy wine, cheese, and crackers. The opinions in this post are all mine, and I love Fry’s. My local one and the new one in Phoenix. Which is why I drove 370 miles round trip to attend this event :)

]]> http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/09/03/wheres-mom-41-of-52/feed/ 17 http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/09/02/gigglesnort-greetings-a-giveaway/ http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/09/02/gigglesnort-greetings-a-giveaway/#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:01:01 +0000 Becca http://ourcrazyboys.com/?p=2911 [...]]]> Are you smiling?

Because the name of this card company makes me smile.

I used to have a friend that would laugh and laugh, and then snort.

And that’s when you knew the party had started.

Gigglesnort Greetings is located in Fort Worth, Texas. The company was launched by Carrie Dils in 2008 with little more than a box of old photos, some sticky notes, and a wild hair.

Gigglesnort Greeting cards are born within a pile of old photographs. Matched together with clever sayings, the perfect card is made.

Carrie is an entrepreneur at heart and the greeting card business has given her an opportunity to combine her creativity, humor, and love of business.

I “met” Carrie from through a mutual friend on Twitter.

She’s a great person to follow: She’s funny, kind, and always willing to offer advice.

I have to share my favorite card with you:

“For the life of her, she could not remember where she’d parked the car.”

That card = my Mother.

Movingrightalong…

Carrie generously donated a Set of 12 Witty Note Cards (valued at $25) to one of you guys!

This set features four of the most popular folded card designs (three of each). Stylishly packaged in a red organza bag, these funny cards are perfect to send one at a time (email me for my mailing address. ahem) or give as a gift!

All Gigglesnort Greeting cards are printed on a premium 14pt. glossy cover stock.
Inside: Blank
Card Size: 4.25″ x 6″
Envelope Color: Kraft

There are two ways to enter:

1. Go to the Gigglesnort Greetings website and look around. Then come back here and leave a comment about what card you would love to send out! (Please keep in mind that if you got here from Facebook, you may have to click the X button on the top right of the screen to close out the Facebook page and enter a comment. It’s a Facebook thing, not me :)

2. Carrie would also love for you to “like” her page on Facebook. If you do that, come back here and leave another comment letting me know that you did, and it’ll count as an extra entry.  (If you don’t have a Facebook page, just write a sweet comment to Carrie and I bet she would consider that a 2nd entry :)

The fine print: I love to help small business, and I love to promote products that I like. I was not compensated for this blog post or giveaway. The opinions in this post are mine all mine. Giveaway ends 9/9/2010 at 8pm Arizona time or whenever I finish playing Cinderella and can sit down at the computer.

I am so excited for September!

I have been working with a few (10!) small business that I’m going to spotlight throughout the month.

And all of them are offering giveaways!

You probably know that I’m not one to do a lot of giveaways or advertise on my blog, but I thought it would be fun to do something different and let everyone know about these great business owners. I want you to know that I was not compensated for these giveaways or paid for advertising.

There will be cute kid’s items, beautiful handmade items just for Mom, items for scrapbookers and people who love to sew, and discounts (about $500 worth!) for those of you who are looking to make beautiful memories.

So, in addition to regular blog posts, keep your eyes open for these giveaways. Each one will last for a week. If you miss one, that’s ok, because you will easily be able to find the businesses on my sidebar for a month after their giveaway begins!

Good luck, and have fun!

I regret to inform you that I am taking tonight off.

Yes, off.

I am aware that this night out comes at the same time as your first final exam of grad school.

Oops.

I (enter sing-songy voice) was invited to my first ever VIBE (Very Important Blogger Event) in Phoenix.

Because, you know, I’m a Very Important Blogger. (hahahahaha!! Are you all rolling on the floor laughing?)

While you are giving baths and giving goodnight kisses, I will be having the time of my life (or of the week, at least) with my good friends @shuggilippo, @childhood, @supersavingsara, and @saving4someday.

Make sure you give those boys a big kiss from their Mama.

Love,

your VIB wife ;)

I received the best package in the mail yesterday.

Something fun.

Something inexpensive.

Something that was going to make all the neighbors jealous.

It was from Quote The Walls.

Don’t you love it?

I do.

I’m not much of a hanging picture/painting kind of girl.

I actually don’t have anything hanging on my walls, except for in the kitchen.

I faux-painted almost every other room in the house so I could get away with not hanging anything up.

That’s why vinyl wall quotes are my new best friend.

They’re simple.

They look awesome.

And they’re customizable!

(Though I can’t take credit for this adorable saying… it came right from Rebecca’s site.)

Care for step by step instructions?

1. Tell your handsome husband to center and level the quote… backwards. Oops.

2. Ask your husband very nicely to help you center and level the quote the correct way :) Then sweet talk him into helping you pull the backing off.

3. Use the pink scrapey that comes with your quote to rub the letters onto the wall. Your husband may or may not be silly and take pictures of your butt that you will find on the camera later.

4. Slowly pull the paper off of the wall. Slowly is key with big designs. Sometimes the letters want to stick to the paper.

5. Find the cutest 6 year-old in your house, and ask him nicely to help you rub the letters onto the wall, making sure they’re stuck.

Simple.

Seriously simple.

And guess what?

Rebecca generously offered to give away two $25 store credits this week!

Just go visit Quote The Walls and tell me what you would order with your store credit.

I think my next wall quote purchase will be this:

In the biggest size available.

You know, just not with an F in the middle… :)

So, what do you love?

—

Small print: Quote The Walls kindly provided a vinyl wall quote for review purposes. The opinions in this post are my own. Please limit your entries to one per person. Two winners will be chosen on Friday, August 27th at or around 8 p.m. or whenever my little ones go to bed.

]]> http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/08/22/quote-the-walls-a-giveaway/feed/ 56 http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/08/02/my-blog-break-in-pictures/ http://ourcrazyboys.com/2010/08/02/my-blog-break-in-pictures/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:00:34 +0000 Becca http://ourcrazyboys.com/?p=2760 [...]]]> I’m dying to share some pictures of what I have been doing for the last 2 weeks!

Most of these are cell phone pictures, so bare with me…

Steve is visibly absent in these pictures because he has been spending a lot of time behind the closed door on the right.

Not to be mistaken for the open one on the left. That’s the bathroom.

He has officially started his Master’s program and is there every night and weekend. It’s just like he’s traveling for work, but he’s not. I guess it’s better to be behind the door because I can still scream and ask him to come kill bugs for me :)

I have been watching Jack make new friends and spend time with “old” ones… (I love the thumbs in the pockets look).

I have been spending a lot of time in my new classroom planning for the amazing kids that I have this year…

Michael has been coming to have lunch and play games with me on the days that I work.

We spent last weekend watching a friend take the Lindy’s Challenge…

and drooling over the mac and cheese burger (though I didn’t try it):

We waited (very patiently) for the monsoons to roll in… and they finally did!

We have spent a lot of time talking about how to deal with Jack’s hoarding…

This picture was taken today while we were rearranging his room.

I went to move his dresser and he said, “Well, Mom… there is some stuff under there… “

I don’t think I shared it with you, but about a month ago, we found this stash under Jack’s train table:

The funny thing is, these are items I had asked Jack to throw away at one time or another.

Anyone have any ideas about how to nip this in the bud? Because apparently, whatever I’m doing is not working.

Anyway… where was I?

Michael fell off of his scooter and banged up his hip and arm pretty good…

We had a few chances to see real Arizona cowboys in action:

Oh, and we tried to rescue a lizard from our pool, though it didn’t work :(

Tell me… what have you been doing lately?

Hello?

Are you there?

{chirp… chirp…}

No one?

Ok. I’ll be back tomorrow.

Tell all of your friends, and don’t forget to come back!

and Jack’s first (and second) day of kindergarten began with some tears, but ended on a great note.

Here’s to a wonderful, memory filled year for us all!

Due to the start of school and work for the year, I am taking a mini-blog vacation. I’m thinking 2 weeks will be enough time to get our routines started and relax a bit.

See you all soon!

I shamelessly borrowed my photo idea from Darcie, who took adorable first day photos of her little ones last year.

Daddy Bookins is coming to several Arizona Pump it Up locations for a Bounce Book Tour!

I just bought my ticket for Tucson…

Who is coming with me?