Fina Drea

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Quilt Giveaway
2008-04-23 20:23:00
Boys are napping. Ive had a shower.. blow dryed my hair.. put on make up! (pureanada.ca - best make up ever!)... and now im relaxing catching up on a few friends blogs.While on one I came across this great giveaway for a QUILT! I love quilts (its the southern gal in me, although im mostly city - so my husband says).If you enter the giveaway in your comment mention you heard about it from DREA and link to my blog. If you do that I get extra entries!!We have revival again tonight.. I have to do the special music.. heres hoping the kids do well... and everything goes smoothly.Again you can enter it here.
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Finding Balance...
2008-04-23 15:23:00
I AM WRITING THIS BLOG POST AS A MEANS TO VENT! IF YOU FEEL THE NEED TO LEAVE AN UGLY COMMENT JUST KNOW IT WILL BE DELETED AND IGNORED BY ME. I AM THROUGH LETTING PEOPLE WITH NO TACT TRY AND BREAK ME DOWN. THIS IS A POST I FEEL LIKE WRITING AS A WAY TO RELEASE SOME STRESS.Lately Ive really struggled with time management. It seems like I am just go go go all day long.Between house hold duties such as washing cloth diapers (I have a load soaking as we speak and 3 dirty ones on our deck waiting to be washed out, yuck!), folding regular laundry, washing regular laundry, organizing, cleaning up toys (my boys do well at keeping them in one room thankfully...), doing dishes (We have no dish washer... I AM the dish washer...), making beds... oh the list could seriously go on for paragraphs!!Weed out the house work though and that still leaves me with duties that come regarding the kids.You cant just let them play alone all day. Trust me Ive tried. It ends in lots of tears, screaming and fig...
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Blah
2008-04-23 14:22:00
Angry Puppy Toe? Originally uploaded by finadrea Taite looks how I feel this morning.Just one of those mornings...
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Wordless Wednesday - Let the Babywearing Begin
2008-04-23 02:04:00
*Taite is wearing Tyron from the Backyardigans**Also Updated Simple, Caleb and Taites Blogs*
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Sleeppyyy
2008-04-22 19:03:00
This week is really busy for us.Travis is preaching 4 nights in a row at my friend Kellys church. They are having revival (if you arent familiar with southern baptist churches you probably wont know what this is.. basically its a bunch of services in a row... Its sort of a tradition in the baptist churches... atleast thats what I've noticed.)Any how!With those services going on we dont get home and the boys in bed until past 9pm. Last night they maybe fell asleep by 10pm. They were wired for some reason and kept talking and playing.My parents are coming for a visit friday-monday... so I went ahead and put the boys in the same room (yet again). I dont know why I keep separating them... but they really do seem to sleep better apart. The thing is when family and friends visit we only have one guest room... and thats Taites room. So when they come I have no choice really but for the boys to share a room. Taite does better in a room with Caleb than he would with an adult.After guest lea...

Our Monsters :-)
2008-04-21 22:22:00
Earlier today I went to take Taite to the Chiropractor. It went well. Taite still is unsure of what to think about our Dr... but I think (hope) with time he will realize it doesn't hurt him. I just think he doesnt like others touching him. That and he isnt use to Doctors any how. He has only been I think twice since he was born. (and I mean to ANY Doctor he has only been twice. He has seen our Chiropractor more than a general Pediatrician) I do plan to take him for a baby well check up soon. I just hate going because they always question me about vaccinations. Every time.. never fails. But I do like to have the general things checked.. heart, weight, ears, eyes, etc...After the Adjustment I went to food lion to grab some milk and a few other items. While leaving Food Lion my friend Kelly drives up (either she was late or I was early haha). We had planned to meet up at food lion together.. but she didnt have her cell phone so we sort of just tried to run into each other at the same ...
More About: Monsters

I love supporting WAHMS
2008-04-21 20:02:00
Earrings 1 Originally uploaded by finadrea I bought these earrings (sorry they arent more in focus) at a carnival last fall. I LOVE THEM. They are a tad heavy but I normally dont wear earrings long any how.. so thats ok. They are just darling. Most of the earrings I wear these days are made by work at home moms.Etsy has a great selection as well!Why buy cheap-o china made earrings from Claires when you can get something unqiue and hand made for the same price (just about).Hope everyones having a wonderful Monday. Ours has been busy. Boys are napping.. Travis is home today so I am off to hopefully nap!
More About: Love

If you haven't signed up yet, you should :-)
2008-04-21 13:42:00
Just a friendly reminder that we are hosting a fun CONTEST. Its a very easy contest... The winner will win 50 plus dollars worth of Luna Pads over at Simple! This is a great giveaway... so check it out HERE
More About: Signed

Gimp 2 Lasso Walkthrough
2008-04-20 19:40:00
Finished Product Originally uploaded by finadrea Ive had many bloggers email me recently to help teach how to cut out images.I decided to do a walk through on flickr.. its not very good.. but I hope its good enough to help a few of you out :-)CLICK HERE to view it.
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Weekly Winners
2008-04-20 15:27:00
A Blog Friend of mine does this thing called Weekly Winners . I always enjoy her weekly wrap up.. so I thought I would try it this week.Here goes...April 13-19th - 2008Brotherly Bonding :-)Attack of the Painter!Fun Times w/ FriendsI have to add...This morning Caleb and I were talking because he was being mean to Taite.I told him that he needs to be nice to Taite.. because Jesus gave him his brother.. and that he only has one brother.. so he needs to be extra nice to him.Caleb then said "Well... if I be good.. then maybe Jesus can give me two Taite Burgers?"

Operation Inasmuch Success
2008-04-20 04:45:00
Today was a full day.Started a little rough.Caleb got up multiple times... resulting in one tired child today. But thats ok... he did fairly well from what I heard.At 7:45am we all met at the church.We had a good number show up.. over 80 people.(All there to help!)All the jobs went great. We helped cleaned up like 4 different sites...The children sang at rest homes.Others helped distribute throws to shut ins...While some just spent time in prayer every 15 minutes for the various things going on.My job was photography :-) yay!It went great. I had a lot of fun.At the end of the day (for me) around 1:45pm I went to pick up the boys... They were so tired. Taite was a zombi. The lady who was watching him said she was making him stand up so he wouldnt fall asleep. (I told her not to let him sleep since I was on my way to get him). She said any time she held him he instantly wanted to lay down and sleep. When I picked him up he rested his head on my shoulder and shut his eyes. He was like ...
More About: Success , Operation

Nice Day :-)
2008-04-19 04:40:00
Today was beautiful out. 83 I believe... sunny...After the boys late naps (and mine.. teehee) I invited a few friends over. Cooked up some chicken tenders and few other goodies. Enjoyed a nice meal together... let the kiddos play outside... went on a walk around the neighborhood... and ended the evening with DDR MAX :-)Update on Taite..He is feeling MUCH better. He only had one messy diaper today. It was fairly solid.. not nearly as runny as it was 2 days ago. We even put him back into his cloth diapers this afternoon. His rash is completely gone. Thank you BUTT PASTE!To be safe I'll keep him on rice milk tomorrow as well... just incase.Tomorrow we will be working all day during a project called Operation Inasmuch. We have 80 plus people signed up in our church to help... multiple churches in our town though will be doing this as well. Im excited to see how the Lord uses this ministry to touch our town.My job tomorrow will be to do the PR side of things. I along with our friend Ke...
More About: Nice

Maybe he wants a big boy bed
2008-04-18 20:25:00
While Caleb was at school Taite and I had our time together. I had major laundry to put away though.. so I put Taite onto Calebs bed (he loves to play in his bed).He played on that bed just as peaceful and content as could be for atleast 40 minutes. (I was in the same room)At one point I even thought he may sleep on it.. but he didnt.I suppose 15. mo is a bit early to move him to a big boy bed :-) No rush!Made for some sweet photos though...Caleb this morning got to ride to pre-school w/ Daddy on a bike.We live very close to the pre-school.. Id say 2-3 miles. Travis had a good time doing this.Off to try and nap.... maybe....

The Ped Egg :-)
2008-04-18 16:10:00
I have an issue w/ the heels of my feet getting thick skin.. and then when it gets dry it results in really painful CRACKS. HUGE! So I decided to purchase a ped egg. I saw it on TV.. and Im normally pretty leary of purchasing any tv product.. but I decided since it was sold at our local walmart that i'd get it a go.and..Im pleased to say that it does a fantastic job! Since starting to use it (about 3 weeks ago) my foot no longer has huge bleeding cracks. Seriously they'd crack so deep they'd bleed. Normally just 1 crack per heel... in the same spot. Now the crack is almost gone!Heres a video of a news channel reviewing it.Oh.. and I joined Twitter... what is twitter any way? I havent had a chance to read up on it yet...

Is everything toxic!
2008-04-18 01:59:00
My friend Stacey gave me THIS WEBSITE.. so I checked it out. VERY INFORMATIVE!I posted earlier today about sippy cups having certain numbers on them were unsafe.You can read more about that below if interested.On the website though that stacey gave me it listed safe and unsafe pacifiers.And of course...we had the unsafe ones!Grrr...Im sure our kids are fine... but grief!Is everything toxic!Maybe the thumb is better ;-)No really the thumb isnt better.. I was a thumb sucker and my parents will tell you they had a TIME getting me to stop. You cant exactly cut a childs thumb off... the pacifier is much easier to take away.My rule on pacifiers.They can keep them until they get 11 teeth HAHA.Thats what I did with Caleb. Although Caleb by age 1 had all 11 teeth (all 4 molars!).So he was done teething for the most part by 12 months.. but Taite on the other hand still has a ways to go.I dont have the heart to take it from him yet... not until he gets a few more teeth.The pacifiers we used th...
More About: Toxic

Sippy and bottle no-no's
2008-04-17 15:06:00
The other day Travis came to me and told me about a news show he saw on sippy cups. He said they gave a number for you to check on the bottom of your cup.. if it has the recycle numbers 3, 6 or 7... then you should toss the cup.This website has a great post about this topic... so CLICK HERE to get the details.I was amazed when I looked through the collection of sippy cups we had.. that a good majority of them were 3, 6 and 7! So I tossed them... and kept the few we had that were ok.We use SIGG Bottle s for juices and water... they work well..For milk though it isnt recommended you use siggs. So I still needed a cup safe for milk products.I hate nasty sippy cups that get milk particles all stuck in the tip... and after time you just have to buy new ones.Yesterday I purchased some PLAYTEX Sippy cups. Kelly recommended them ;-) and they were one of the "safe" numbers... so I did.I was a bit unsure how Taite would take to it.. He is very picky with sippy cups.. and lately has had a real ...

Disposables for now...Rice Milk is Enriched now?? Milk experts help me out
2008-04-17 04:06:00
To use more than 1 disposable diaper a day is hard for me. Ive fallen for cloth diapering so much that on days I cant use cloth I feel like im being wasteful.This week we had to ditch the cloth diapering for now... due to Taites diaper issues.He has a stomach bug from what the Dr. has told me.. hes on the BRATS diet again... (bananas, rice, apples and toast). Clear Liquids. Although I am giving him half rice milk half water... just because I notice he wont drink water all day long.. and juice just gives him the runs worse.. so I figured half water/half rice milk wouldnt hurt him. After all "RICE" is one of the items he is allowed to eat.Speaking of RICE milk though. Someone commented and said that rice milk didnt have the needed nutrients that babies may need.Im not by any means switching our kids to rice milk for good.. but for now I will until this poop issue calms down :-)But as far as it not having proper nutrients..Im not sure about that..I have a quart of the RICE DREAM Organi...
More About: Milk , Rice , Experts

When we get together.. we look like rabbits :-)
2008-04-16 21:30:00
They cant say we havent been fruitful and multiplied HAHA.....Enjoy the montage below..My friend Kelly and I got together to have the kids paint flower pots for Operation Inasmuch. Its this weekend.. so had we not done it today it wouldnt of gotten done.Besides the painting we managed to buy a few needed groceries.. as well as break in our new GIGANTIC sandbox... Travis wanted one that would be large enough for multiple kids to play "inside" it... He wasnt kidding when he said "large."ITS HUGE!!!!!!!!!We managed to feed all our kids... keep them from breaking and bones... paint the pots... play nicely (for the most part, hehe)... and leave in one piece.I look forward to the next time we all get together.Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.comBelow are a few of my fav. photos from the day...and of course the group photo... where the kids except 1 or twolook like they are slowly being tortured to sit for 3 seconds.
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New Review up on Simple
2008-04-16 14:30:00
We have a few giveaways going on right now on simple! Check it out HERE
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Keep Burger in your prayers
2008-04-16 03:17:00
Taite either has a bad stomach flu effecting his diapers... or he is highly allergic to something he has been eating... Lets just say every single diaper today has been messy... and we are talking wet as water (not just his pee)...The rash on him would make you cry... its awful.Poor guy...On a different subject... Caleb went to the Chiropractor today.. I had to take a photo of him on the adjustment table. Im sure the Dr. doesnt mind being on my blog ;-)We did have to (well Travis did) bribe Caleb to get adjusted... last time he went, he did it on his own.. today though he just wasnt having it.So we promised him ice cream if he did it... Like Travis... ice cream is Calebs weakness. He loves a good bowl of super man ice cream. :-) Of course we make him share a few bites with his brother... Here are some photos below *Oh and incase some of you think of this ... tomorrow I plan on cutting out all milk from Taites diet.. to see if this helps w/ the diapers... I have a sneaky suspicion ...
More About: Prayers , Burger

Business Purchase
2008-04-15 17:05:00
I know a few of those who read my blog may be interested in this..My friend Jamie recommended this photography back drop stand. I really need one ... All my shoots Im having to find things to drape my fabrics on .. and while it works fine for newborns or small children.. it doesnt work for families.So I made the investment.I can write all these purchase off on my taxes next year.. so it works out.If you want to purchase one check out this ebay store...
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Our town needs an indoor play ground
2008-04-15 14:48:00
My friend Kelly and I joke that we need to get T-shirts made for not only us.. but our children that says "Our Town Needs an Indoor Play ground"Of course "OUR TOWN" would be replaced with our towns name.The town we live in has a great outdoor park... but on those cold and rainy days we cant go there obviously... and after time kids want to get out and do something :-)We dont have any fun indoor play areas in our town.. except walmart (by walmart I mean letting the kids go wild in the toy dept.)Last night we had dinner w/ Kelly and her family.. We went to Wendys.. its fast and easiest for our kids. After the kiddos ate they ran around the entire place like little hampsters. They feed off each others energy... even the little ones (Taite and Lydia, both 1).Thankfully the people in Wendys didnt seem to care. I even asked the cashier if they were annoying them.. and she said "Nope! did they like their frisby (spelling?)?" Thats right.. the employees gave our kids a FRISBY to play with in...
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Taites such a rockstar
2008-04-14 19:16:00
Last year when Taite was just a few months old I got the chance to review a fun onesie from www.myrockstarbaby.comI have loved the onesies they offer ever since. They are specialty onesies.. so they will cost you more than the traditional walmart set.. but these are fun onesies that always get attention :-)Taite has been the feature baby on MyRockStarBaby.com for a while now. He was actually on big poster size prints at some of their NY shows. My famous lil man ;-)Emily (the original rockstar) snail mailed me a few onesies to photograph. The original plan was to just photograph a friends baby wearing them.. cause sadly Taite is growing up to fast and outgrowing the myrockstarbaby onesies.Sunday though Travis got Taite dressed and just so happen to put him in one of their onesies. I was amazed when I saw it still fit!So not only will they get photographs of my friends lil 6 mo. old (who is oh so cute and chunky! just want to squeeze him!)... but also some photos of Taite!I snapped a ...
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I wish I had my cell phone!
2008-04-14 15:15:00
Yesterday we had a huge gathering at a church nearby. It was for all the churches involved w/ something called Operation Inasmuch. You can google that if you're curious :-)While at this other church though we all met outside (all 400 plus people) and ate... I of course forgot to bring a stroller... and ended up wearing Taite in my Kozy Mei Tai and ring sling. Which I like better any how. Besides a few falls Taite and Caleb both had a great time.They had a special worship service after the meal.. but due to Taite being extra cranky (he fell like 3 times outside.. so I think he was upset and annoyed.. or tired of falling haha).. I decided it be best to just stay in the nursery with the boys... rather than risk them interrupting services.I was the only one in the nursery (oddly enough) and had an hour 1/2 to just hang out w/ the boys. They played so well together during this time! The nursery had some cool toys and an awesome playground. Not to mention a TV!So here I was sitting ther...
More About: Phone , Cell Phone , Cell , Cell-phone

They highlight the negative but never the positive
2008-04-13 20:41:00
I was online today while the boys napped editing some photos. I finally finished taking a set of photographs for Baby Love Slings.. The ones I took today came out so sweet. The lady wearing the baby though isnt the mother.. its the sister. I think its a very sweet set of pictures... and I hope Farrah over at Baby Love Slings enjoys them as well as the young lady and her family.While online though I got a comment from a lady on the post I wrote a few days ago. The one where I complained about Caleb WHINING a lot...You can check the comment out yourself if you'd like.. but basically what it said was that I should go through all my blog post with a pen and paper... and jot down all the negative remarks Ive made about Caleb.This really rubbed me wrong. I am not easily rubbed wrong either.Let me just say that I dont know who this commenter was.. She commented under a name but there was no link to a blog. She may know me in real life.. she may not. I doubt she knows me in person though.....
More About: Positive , Highlight , Negative

I just cant make the switch
2008-04-13 01:54:00
Tonight we felt like having a simple dinner.. so I made pancakes. Our boys normally love these.. and its easy and quick for me to make.I decided to try a new recipe I saw online for a healthier pancake...Heres the recipe ingredients 1 cup +2 tablespoon whole wheat flour1 tablespoon brown sugar2 tablespoon apple sauce1 cup -2 tablespoon water or fat free soy milk1 1/2 teaspoon baking powderpinch of saltoptional:1/2 cup walnuts or 1/2 cup blueberries or other fruitIf you actually want to make this go here for directions...Before you go though read what I thought about it...Bland...To denseNot enough sweetness (even w/ syrup!)To wheat-ishSorry.I didnt like this AT ALL. I am normally the type of person to really like wheat type foods. I eat organic wheat bread.. I normally try to buy flax seed breads... with all sorts of thick rich fibers in them.. (my husband hates these! so I buy him his own loaf of WHITE bread). So wheat flavors to me are normally very tasty...Not this.It didnt work ...
More About: Switch , Make

New Buttons
2008-04-12 21:51:00
I made some new buttons :-)Add them if you want (codes are located on my side bar ---- )
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He wants some cheese with his whine!
2008-04-12 19:22:00
Ever have those days that your child just seems to be Mr. Whine r?EVERYTHING I said today resulted in "uh! but mama!" (where do they learn this stuff?)or..."I dont want 2..."Owh, it took all the self control I had to avoid from flipping out on him today.Just whine, whine whine whine whine. I blame it on his lack of sleep last night (he woke up way to early)... but geez!Can you tell I needed to vent. :-)I feel like going shopping for fruit. (random I know)I got my organic mesh produce bags. SO CUTE (from www.reusablebags.com)I am pumped to start using them. I went to Kroger yesterday (in a town about 30 min. away) and they had a nice selection of organic produce. Im having trouble finding local farmers markets around here right now that have fresh organic produce... so Im having to just buy from grocery stores like Kroger. Walmart does not carry organic fruits! Only a few veggies.The taste difference though in an organic fuji apple and a conventional fuji is unreal. It was so much ju...
More About: Cheese

What a photoshop program can do..
2008-04-12 03:44:00
Heres a little photo tip :-)Sometimes in a photo you may have an object that finds its way into the photograph... and isnt welcomed :-)So... instead of just leaving it and trying to ignore it... why not get rid of it all together!I used a FREE Program called GIMP2 to edit a few of the photos I took today. Photoshop is a popular one as well.. but that will cost you a pretty penny ... try gimp :-)Heres an example... (In the fixed one if your monitor is bright you can see the mistakes I made. This is just a rough draft I did real fast... in the finished product there will be no gray shadows showing.)Belows another example...All the images on this post can be enlarged btw... just click on them. :-)Hope the tip inspired a few of you. Gimp is a great program and very easy to use.Below are a few favorites of mine from the shoot I did today.These two twins were just beautiful.. I may have to go visit her often to get my baby fix in hehe.Enjoy! See more HERE

Wait til you see the rest
2008-04-12 01:04:00
Twins Originally uploaded by finadrea This was my 1st shoot doing twins.. and soooo much fun!!I had two very sweet subjects to photograph.. who could go wrong.More to come later... (both are boys)
More About: Rest , Wait