Strawberry Pickin--> More like EATIN'

This is one tradition that our family has that is like opening the flood gates to summer.  What is a better way to welcome fun in the sun than strawberry picking?  Answer...there isn't a better way!

We have an amazing "farm" near us that does pick your own strawberries.  Last year we went when Lotte was about 10 months old.  She wasn't walking yet, but they give you these flats to put your strawberries in and I put the cutest strawberry in mine!

This is our little strawberry princess last year.

She loved eating her first strawberries.  You can see the juice running down her chin!

This year as soon as we got off the tractor ride she hit the field running!  She was excited to help pick the berries and Brother was excited to be in his Moby Wrap!

We would pick the berries and tell her to put them in the box.  Well, it turns out that she was taking a bite out of almost everyone she was putting in the box.  We had to go through and weed out the strawberries that were half eaten!  She is a silly girl! 

Here she is counting her haul!

It's official I have nursed my babies EVERYWHERE.  Including the strawberry patch!

We had such a good time that day!  And it is the beginning of what is sure to be a memorable summer!

I am currently taking suggestions for strawberry recipes.  I want to make a pie that my grandma makes, and we might make some preserves, but does anyone have a great ideas to use {currently frozen} strawberries?

Headband holder

A while ago,  Courtier Mommy posted my headband holder tutorial.  Since then she has had her TWINS!  {What did you do last week! Ha} Now I'm going to share the tutorial on my blog!  Here is part of the post from her blog.......

Lately Lotte and I have been wearing a lot of headbands with fabric and ribbon rosettes.  We have a LOT!  Have you noticed that headbands are extremely difficult to store.  I found myself putting them all in a gallon sized ziplock bag and shoving them into the bathroom closet.  ~not cool~ But a headbands don't clip, so I had to make a ribbon holder with loops

........and here is how I did it.

You will need:
34 inches of wide (1 1/2 inch) ribbon
54 inches of narrower (7/8 inch) ribbon {I left mine on the spool to make sure that I had enough}
3 inches of narrow (3/4 inch) ribbon
Straight Pins
Sewing Gauge
Sewing machine and tools

{all measurements are for my 33 1/2 inch long holder with 10 loops that are the perfect size for skinny headbands.  You could just as easily make yours with more loops, less loops or even bigger loops for bigger headbands}

Start out with your wide ribbon and heat seal the ends by running them near a candle flame.
Place your narrower ribbon centered on the wide ribbon and pin them together near the top edge.
Measure 3 inches from top and add a pin to mark your place.

Next, you will measure out 2 inches of the narrow ribbon and fold under until it meets the pin at the 3 inch mark.  Pictures are a little more helpful here than words!

Remove your pin and place it into all layers of ribbon to secure the loop.

Measure 3 inches down from your first pin and repeat the steps you just finished to make 10 loops total.

TIP:  Make sure your narrower ribbon is centered during these steps and it will cause less headaches and fidgeting when you are sewing.

Now you are ready for the sewing maching...mine's name is Lucy...because I Love Lucy!
Fold the top edge down 1/4 of an inch and sew a straight stitch through.

Create a loop with your 3 inch piece of ribbon as if you were making a "cause" or "awareness" ribbon and sew onto the top.

Essentially, the next steps you will just be making long rectangles with your sewing machine.  Start at the top corner and sew until you meet the loop folds.  Sew one or two stitches into the folds to make sure they don't come undone.  Then sew across the top of the loop.

Turn your project so you complete the rectangle.

For the next rectangle start under the loop as close to the edge as possible and repeat the steps you just completed until you reach the end of your ribbon.

Finish by folding up another 1/4 inch and sew in place.  Now admire your 20-30 minutes of hard work...and if you are like me, move on to another project before the kiddos wake up!

There you go!  Have a good week there are lots of other SITS stuff in the works!

Linked up to these FAB-U-LOUS blogs this week! <3

Strut Your Stuff @ Today's Creative Blog
Sugar and Spice @ 733 Blog
Inspiring Creativity @ Dragonfly Designs
We Did it Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado
Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design

Welcome to the 21st Century Kaleigh!

So the first week of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is wrapping up and I'm loving it so far!

I have learned quiet a bit in the last 3 days, and I have met a TON of fabulous blogger women who are out there doing what I do and lovin' it just as much!

The Secret To Success is {Literally} Support.  Join us...SITS Girls. 


Today's lesson is on self promotion and various ways that you can promote a specific blog post.  EVERYONE on the forum is discussing how they promote with social platforms like facebook, twitter, stumble upon and digg.  Even though I am a twenty-something, I can only figure out how to use ONE of these sites.  Pathetic I know.

So I am going to start where I am most comfortable and start my very own facebook page.  Even this is going to take some work on my behalf to figure everything out.

So hop on to the grand ole' book -o- faces and {LIKE}

Lotte Lu and Brother Too on FB

Here is my Profile Pic for Facebook...I <3 these kids!

12 Things That Get A Workin' Momma Through The Day

This working Momma is a busy Momma.  I have to try and keep myself as organized as possible to make it through the day.  Sometimes I feel like I'll never get it all done and there is no way that I will be able to keep up with the house, play with the kids, be myself and blog all in the few hours a day I have at home.

I need to run a tight ship {and truthfully I need to do a better job at it} but here are some of the things that help me keep my sanity while I am keeping my day job.  Nothing can make it EASY but these things sure help!!

1. THE most important thing I use during the day...My Medela Freestyle Pump.  This pump is the BIZZNESS!  Working full time and maintaining a 100% breast-fed baby is hard work and this pump makes my life considerably easier!

2. My Breast Milk Chart.  See a trend as to what I need/use the most?  I have a pretty {decor friendly} dry-erase board that helps me keep tract of how many ounces of milk I have and in what denominations they are split up in.  Every night I add milk to the freezer I mark it on the board.  Every morning that I take milk from the freezer, I mark it off the board.  LIFE SAVER.

3.  The Crockpot!  We have been eating a LOT of crockpot meals since I started back at work.  Number 3 leads me to....

4.  The CrockPot App for my iPhone.  It has sooo many recipes.  It goes outside of the box and isn't just Roast, Potatoes and Carrots.  So far we have tried Fiesta Chicken, Chicken Casablanca, and another one that I can't remember the name of.  They have deserts too!!

5. Along the same lines...the Pinterest App.  I. LOVE. PINTEREST.  I could spend hours a day on there looking at all the beautiful eye candy.  Having the app lets me check up on new and popular images while taking my break at work.  Spending 15 minutes a day on the app satisfies my "pinterest tooth" and that is 15 minutes that I have to do something else at home.

6.  Lotte's Craft Box.  In my craft area I have a basket with all of Lotte's crafty stuff.  She loves to color.  So when I have the kids by myself, and Mister isn't letting me put him down or I'm trying to get something cleaned or cooked, I break out her box.  It has coloring books, crayons, stickers, stamps and some other things she can play with without me holding her hand.  She loves sitting for a few minutes and just coloring and putting on stickers, and mommy loves the 5 minutes of her playing sweetly by herself.

7.  The Moby Wrap was seriously created for people like me.  I'm running around chasing a toddler at the park or the zoo is so much easier without having to push a stroller with Brother in it.  The Moby wrap is a God Send!  When he was newer and couldn't go to sleep, as soon as I put him in the wrap he immediately fell asleep and I was able to clean and get things done while holding him.

At the zoo with Brother in THE wrap!

8.  Our Daycare Tote.  My sweet aunt bought me a thirty-one mini organizer tote with our last name on it. I use this for our back and forth daycare tote.  It's so much easier than a diaper bag.  Every night I make sure to re-stock it with diapers, and thing of wipes, an extra pacifier for each kid, Brother's bottles and every morning I stick Mister's milk bag in it as well.  The tote is short so it is easy to see into when I pick up the kids to make sure everything is in there for the return trip home.

This is a pic from their catalogue.  Ours is in Mod Dot.

9.  Zantac.  I know it is horrible to have children on maintenance medications, but this is seriously a MUST for my little man.  His sister had acid reflux, but it was NOTHING next to his {my pediatrician said that it runs in families and is usually worse for boys}.  Having him on the Zantac has helped him so much.  He no longer projectile vomits, he doesn't get the hiccups every time he eats and he is sooooo much happier!  We tried to wean him off of it, but it was no bueno, as soon as possible he will be taken off of it, but not until he is better.

10.  Sectioned Plates/Tupperware.  This makes meals for Lotte super easy.  I know she needs 3 different varieties of food for her meals so I split it up and give it to her and BAM food is done.  For example: Breakfast she will get toast in her big section, blueberries in one of the smaller sections, and some plain yogurt in the second smaller section.   It also helps me to remember what she has had already that day so I can mix it up.

Terrible picture, but this is Lotte's Valentine's Breakfast in her section plate.

Heart shaped mini pancakes, heart shaped pears yogurt with heart sprinkles...

...that's how we do holidays around here.

11.  No Spill Snack Cups.  Lotte still doesn't grasp the whole tip-the-cup-over-and-all-your-cheerios-fall-out-on-the-floor concept.  So it is sooo helpful to have a snack that doesn't turn into a puppy snack by falling on the carpet!  Brilliant idea, wish I could have made a million bucks off of this one!  If only it could stop my daughter from grabbing a handful and spilling the ones out of her hand and into her carseat...sigh.

12.  The ONE thing that makes my life the easiest is having Moments Like This...

This is me HUGELY pregnant, horrible day...

I was crying for like 15 minutes 

and Lotte brought me all her baby dolls and tried to cheer me up. 

 It worked.

Snuggling on the couch with my newborn and my oldest baby!

...How Does Your Garden Grow??

Here is all the beautiful veggies that we planted in our Raised Garden Bed.

We planted several varieties of tomatoes.  Sugar babies, Romas and Beefsteak.

We planted several cucumber plants (YAY PICKLES!)

Even though we know carrots are hard to grow in our area, we decided to try some.  I would love to see Lotte pull some carrots out of the ground, but for as many seeds as we planted there aren't many that germinated.

We planted Snow Peas along the back with the chicken wire and these babies have already grabbed on.  They are so cool how they twist around the wire and climb.

And my favorite are the many variety of peppers we planted.  We have a red and a yellow.  Then we got a few different varieties we haven't seen before.  We got a Purple Beauty and a Chocolate Pepper.  They are both really sweet and dark type of pepper.  I'm excited to try them.  They are really doing well.

What did you plant? Are they growing?  This little one is growing like a weed, but I think I'll keep him around!