Liebster Award

While I was out of town a couple weeks ago
for my sister's 18th birthday surprise Harry Potter party
(which I can't wait to tell you about, but you can read her priceless reaction here),
I was nominated for a Liebster Award...
TWICE!

From Pebbles & Piggytails
&
Spindles Designs by Mary & Mags
Thanks guys!

I've been having a lot of migraines lately,
& being in front of the computer really hasn't been helping them
which is why I'm FINALLY getting around to posting this.
Anywho...

The Liebster Award is a blogging award given to you from another blogger
that wants to acknowledge your blog and likes what you share.
It was designed as a way to encourage new or small blogs.
You get to learn more about your fellow bloggers in the process,
& it's just plain fun...

The Rules:
Link back to the person who nominated you.
Share 11 random facts about yourself.
Answer 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
List 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers (as best as you can tell based on their page).
They should be bloggers that you believe deserve some recognition & a little blogging love.
Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominated to answer if they accept the award.
Let those 11 bloggers know that they've been nominated with a link back to your Liebster Award post.

11 random facts about me:

1. I met my husband on MySpace because of an energy drink.
2. I collect pictures of quirky mailboxes.

3. I prefer water instead of milk with sweets & baked goods.

4. I have actually cried over spilled milk.

5. I am petrified of spiders - I literally freeze when I see one. Until it moves towards me. Then I run as fast as I can & have been known to cry hysterically.

6. I am extremely talented at laughing & crying at the same time. You seriously can't tell which I'm doing sometimes.

7. I love to sing & recorded my first cd before we moved.

9. In college, I wanted to major in Music Education with a minor in Theatre.

10. I'm OCD about weird things. Here's a couple examples: When I fill up gas in our car, the change total needs to end in a 0 or a 5 (Ex: $70.60 or $66.95 - It's always better if it's an increment of .25 or right on the dollar, but never something like $68.28, $71.54, or $67.01). When we go out to eat, the total after the tip needs to be rounded to the nearest dollar (bill of $21.52 + 15% tip of $3.23 = $24.75. I would round the tip up to make it $25 even). I'm weird, I know...

11. I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In other words, I'm a Mormon.

22 questions nominating bloggers have created for me (because I was nominated twice):

Lisa from Pebbles & Piggytails asked...

1. What is your dream vacation? I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, Bora Bora, & Antarctica (not all in the same trip), but there are plenty of other places I would love to visit as well!

2. Do you believe in miracles & why or why not? Absolutely! "Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible." - Mary McLeod Bethune

3. Cats or dogs? Dogs

4. Why do you blog? I wanted to be able to earn a little extra money from home, update family & friends on our life, get back into journaling, make new friends, share my favorite recipes, & motivate myself to be more organized.

5. What's your favorite kind of social media (FB, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc)? That's a tough one. I like each of them for different reasons. I'm probably on FB the most although I don't update it very often. I check Google+ the second most, but only to check my Dad's feed... He posts all sorts of inspirational quotes, intellectual facts, cool videos, & breathtaking photos on there that he doesn't share on FB. Pinterest would be next. It's crazy how easy it is to get sidetracked on there. I love checking Instagram periodically (weekly maybe) to see what pictures my friends have posted recently, but I don't check it daily. Twitter is probably my least favorite but I do check it from time to time.

6. Are you an outdoors person or a home-body? Haha... Is it possible to be both? I love being outdoors, but I enjoy chillaxin' at home too.

7. Where do you hope to be in 10 years? I hope to be a better version of myself. It doesn't really matter where as long as I'm with family. (:

8. What's your favorite thing about your mom? I love that I can talk to my mom or my stepmom about anything. They're both wonderful & I love them dearly.

9. What is THE food you couldn't live without? Cheese. I love cheese. (Although I couldn't stand it when I was pregnant with Little Princess...)

10. When is the last time you went on a date with your spouse or significant other? Earlier this month for our September anniversary (we celebrate two) - we ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant called Cebollas, then went to a drive-in theater to watch Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters & Despicable Me 2. The time before that was our Valentine's date when we saw Warm Bodies.

11. What's your favorite way to spend time with your family? I love going on trips together (big vacations, weekend trips, or day trips) because so many great memories are made, but hanging out at home together is wonderful & relaxing too...

Mags from Spindles Designs asked...

1. Why do you blog? I wanted to be able to earn a little extra money from home, update family & friends on our life, get back into journaling, make new friends, share my favorite recipes, & motivate myself to be more organized.

2. What is your favorite day of the week? It's a toss-up between Saturday & Sunday. I like both because weekends are when we get to spend the most time together as a family. Saturdays because we can do plenty of fun things together, & Sundays because I can be spiritually uplifted from church.

3. What is your favorite food to make? That's a tough one because it really depends on what mood I'm in... Poppyseed Chicken tends to be one of my go-to meals, but anything in the crockpot is great because of the easy prep & easy clean-up.

4. What is your least favorite holiday? Labor Day - because that's when majority of the swimming pools close.

5. What is posted up on your fridge right now? My magnetic whiteboard to-do list, meal ideas, & a Colts football schedule magnet that we got in the mail. We just moved & haven't unpacked our magnets yet, so the outside of our fridge looks pretty bare.

6. How often are you on Pinterest? I pin things with the internet widget or on my phone whenever I come across something worth pinning, so I rarely get on Pinterest itself. It's a really good thing too because when I get on the actual site, I tend to get sidetracked easily.

7. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? I love all kids of ice cream, frozen custard, & fro-yo, but Coldstone's cheesecake ice cream with raspberries & Heath bar is probably my fave.

8. What is your dream vacation? I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, Bora Bora, & Antarctica (not all in the same trip), but there are plenty of other places I would love to visit as well!

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? A better mommy, wife, daughter, friend, etc - basically a better version of me...

10. What is your craft specialty? I'm not really sure that I have a specialty so-to-speak because I enjoy all kinds of crafts. I don't feel like I'm that great at any of them in particular, but I enjoy making creative muffin tin meals for my kidlets if that counts. You can check them out in an album-book on Facebook or in my post directory here.

11.What is your favorite quilt pattern & have you ever made it? I love this ombre denim quilt - it looks fairly simple but I haven't mustered up enough courage (or time) to attempt quilting yet. I also think that it would look really cool with some ocean wave-like stitching similar to the stitching found here, but that's waaay too advanced for me!

11 bloggers that I am nominating for the award:
McCall @ Dusty With Starlight
Kayla @ Kaye's Cupboard
Arrienne @ Ribbon Runner
yogamama @ Toddling in the Fast Lane
Koogle @ Koogle's Korner
Amanda @ Food, Family, Fun
Sarah @ Blame it on the Bento
Christina @ Raisins and Goldfish
Momma J @ This Little Blog of Mine
Alex @ Teach Through Play
Leah @ The Dog's a Boy Too

1. Why do you blog?
2. What is your favorite animal?
3. What is your favorite musical?
4. What is your favorite main dish?
5. What is your favorite dessert?
6. What is your favorite vacation spot?
7. Where would you love to travel to someday?
8. Who is your favorite Disney character?
9. What is your favorite movie?
10. Which season do you enjoy the most?
11. Do you know the muffin man?

xoxo

UP Birthday

So I found this half-written post of mine that I had started before we moved...
Rather than re-write it, I'm going to just post it as-is.
Simply because I can.
& also because I giggled a little when I read through it just now.

I've had so much going on with the move that I've really been slacking on my blog.

But that is a-o-kay with me...

I honestly don't want to have to stress about catching up on here in addition to the other million things that need to get done.

But I will still write a little here and there.

I will publish my posts once my thoughts are actually complete.

I am entitled to a break from packing every now and then right?

Good, because I am burnt out with this whole packing/moving thing & want it to be done already!

So we had a Cars party for Little Dudeman's birthday a while back

and the following weekend we had an UP themed birthday party for Hubby's 30th...

Ya know...

Since he's growing "Up".

I'm punny.

He really wanted to avoid his 30th birthday altogether, but I told him that it was inevitable.

Sooner or later he would have to face the fact that we all get older, and that it's not such a terrible thing.

It just allows for different phases of our life to happen.

For example, take Carl in the movie UP...

We get to watch him & Ellie grow old together,

and that's a beautiful thing.

We get to see how life can be an adventure,

and that we create new adventures throughout each phase of our life.

Hubby recently decided he wants to learn how to fly...

So for part of his birthday present,

I told him that he can start flying lessons after we move

so that he can get his pilot license.

What an awesome new adventure now that he's 30 right?

We had a busy, yet fun-filled weekend.
I spent all day Friday making 'balloon' cake pops
& filling up balloons with helium.

After work, he was greeted with this Spirit of Adventure balloon attached to a stick.
I forgot to take a picture of it flying solo,
but at least I remembered to take a picture at some point.

He saw the rest of them when he got into the kitchen...

You see, I had sent a facebook message to family & friends asking them to write messages on the balloons and then mail them to me.
I'd say I got a pretty good response (:

81 balloons.
Only 2 partial losses.
One flew away (to the ceiling).
One casualty while I was filling it with helium.
(which I laid next to the house so he could read the message)
We had pizza for dinner, then watched Up.

Saturday morning I gave him a Wilderness Explorer pin badge and told him,
"The wilderness must be explored! Caw, caw, RAWR!"
I informed him that we had some badges to earn...
I was going to make sashes & everything, but time got the better of me with the move.
Ah well.
First, we went to the park and had a picnic lunch in 110+ degree weather.
It. was. hot.
The kids wanted to play at the playground, so we spent quite a bit of time there.

We looked at the clouds and tried to make shapes out of them.
We didn't see any turtles, flying elephants, or babies,
but we did see some pretty cool clouds.
To be honest, I don't remember what shapes we saw.
I guess that's what I get for finishing this post almost 4 months after the party...

 After the park, we visited the Palm Springs Air Museum.
It was pretty cool since we had never been there before.

Hubby even got to try out a flight simulator!
Well, sorta...
They have a super advanced one that he wanted to try,
but they wouldn't let him since he doesn't have his pilots license yet.
Lame.
Instead they let him do a computer game version...

It was pretty similar to the flying app that he's been playing on his phone & the tablet.
Only the lady wouldn't let him do that by himself either...
She was constantly hovering & telling him to do this or that rather than let him just do it.
Her instructions made him stall the plane when he already knew what to do.
Silly lady.
Never underestimate my Hubby (;

The museum was getting ready to close
and we had seen just about everything that we could see,
so we loaded up the car to head to our next stop.

We were going to get ice cream cones,
sit on the corner,
 and call out red & blue cars...
But it was waaay too hot.
We decided to just go home and have ice cream there instead.

When we got home I put 3 balloon shaped toothpick candles into one of the balloon cake pops.
Then we sang Happy Birthday so that he could blow out the candles & make a wish...

Cake Pop Flavors:

Red - vanilla cake w/ pink lemonade frosting & red candy melts

Orange - chocolate cake w/ orange frosting & orange sherbet flavored candy melts

Yellow - vanilla cake w/ homemade fruit dip & yellow candy melts

Green - vanilla cake w/ key lime frosting & key lime flavored candy melts

Blue - chocolate cake w/ cream cheese frosting & blue candy melts

Purple - mystery flavors of cake & frosting (basically whatever was left) & red/blue candy melt mixture

After getting stuffed with cake pops & ice cream,
it was time to open presents.
The kids & I got him some UP themed gifts...

Clockwise:

With this baby, you'll NEVER get lost! - Certificate for Black Ops II map packs,

81 balloons with messages from family & friends,

Paradise Falls jar with approximately $65 dollars of change in it,
Caramellos - His favorite chocolate to lure snipes (we all know Kevin loves chocolate),
an Adventure Book with plenty of pictures & memories of his life thus far,
his Wilderness Explorer badge,
and of course,
an Ellie badge...
He earned it.

Happy {belated} birthday Justin!
You're the besterest!

xoxo

1-Year Blogiversary Round-up

This past week my number of page views & followers have significantly increased!

I'm sure almost all of the new traffic is due to the $500 giveaway that I'm co-hosting,

(& you should definitely check it out if you haven't already...)

but I would like to welcome any new readers to my tiny corner of the blogosphere

regardless of how you may have stumbled upon it!

I hope you enjoy reading my posts

& I look forward to getting to know you through your comments!

Feel free to check out my 'About' section to get to know me a little better,

& you can read this post to learn why this blog is named Life is Fantasmic.

With so many new readers

& today being my actual blogiversary,

I thought it would be fun to do a round-up of the top posts from this past year.

That way you new readers can see what my blog is all about,

& I can simply enjoy reminiscing a bit...

Mommy School faves:

A is for Ants - A Bug's Life

E is for Elephant - Dumbo

P is for Pirate - Peter Pan

R is for Robot - Wall-E

T is for Tiger - The Tigger Movie

Dr. Seuss' birthday

Recipe faves:

Cheesy Chicken Bacon Ranch

Cheesy White Chicken Enchiladas

123 Brownies

Party faves:

Mickey Mouse Birthday BBQ

Ladybug Picnic Birthday

Cars Birthday Party

Organization faves:

Building a better budget

Curing Cluttered Countertop-itis

A random fave not mentioned above:

Chicken Parmesan

I hope you enjoy looking through these old posts!

xoxo

1-Year Blogiversary Giveaway

That's right folks!
Life is Fantasmic has officially been around for one year!
Well, almost...
The actual one-year mark is on September 6th.

A couple of my other blogging buddies are also celebrating their one-year blogiversaries this September...
If you have a one-year blogiversary this month,
leave a message in the comments
& I'll update this post with a shout out link to your blog as well!

Lisa over at Pebbles and Piggytails is celebrating her first year of blogging this month!


Her blog is all about the power of Moms.
The gray & yellow reminds us that
sometimes life has sad or gray moments,
but to be cheerful because the sunny & bright times will always follow.
Being a Mom can be tough at times,
but she knows how important it is to stay optimistic!
Love her,
& love her blog (:

Cathy over at A Peek Into My Paradise is celebrating her one-year blogiversary too!

She's celebrating with this amazing month-long giveaway that she organized,

What would you buy with $500?
Amazon, Target, Paypal...
You choose how you want your $500
Awesome, right?

27 bloggers contributed towards that amount.
15 of those bloggers are co-hosting the giveaway on their blogs,
& I'm one of them!
That's right.
You can enter the giveaway right here!
How convenient for you (:

The 15 wonderful co-hosts:

Lynn @ Turnips 2 Tangerines

Josi @ That Suburban Momma

Angie @ Snack Cups and Smiles

Ruth @ My Devotional Thoughts

Megan @ C'mon Get Crafty

Jeanie @ Create and Babble

Amy @ Love, Amybecca..x

Melissa @ Home on Deranged

Marissa @ Life is Fantasmic

Cat & Katrina @ Thinking Outside The Sandbox: Family

Kelly @ Hoppy Bottoms 

Sofia @ Something on Everything

Kristin @ Dizzy Busy and Hungry

Teri @ The Freshman Cook

Sunnefa @ Coder Mommy

The other amazing sponsors that contributed to the giveaway:

Lisa @ Chronically Content

Elizabeth @ Food Ramblings

Lanaya @ Raising Reagan

Elena @ Cropped Stories

Stephanie @ The TipToe Fairy

Natalie @ At Home with the Hinkleys

Amy @ The Stitchin' Mommy

Lori @ A Pinch of Glitter

Kim @ Enjoy the View

Consie @ Atop Serenity Hill

Jessica @ The Wondering Brain

Britney @ Mommy on Demand

Yep, each of these wonderful ladies contributed towards the $500 giveaway.

The winner gets to choose how they want the money...

The $500 can be divvied out in $50 giftcard increments between

Target,

Amazon,

& Paypal.

It can be split between two or all three of the above options,

or you can spend it all in one place.

The giveaway will be going on the entire month of September

& will close Monday, September 30th at 11:59pm (PDT)

So the question is...

What would you do with your $500?

Enter to win via rafflecopter here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

• Open Worldwide except where prohibited by law. 
• No purchase necessary. To enter, participants must use the Rafflecopter tool, have a Facebook and Pinterest account to have entries in those social media.
• Winner Must have a Paypal account if Paypal Cash is chosen.
• Winner will be selected by Random.org and be notified by email. Winners have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. Please note that A Peek Into My Paradise is responsible for the sending the prize "money".
• I do not share or sell information and will use any information only for the purpose of contacting the winner. This giveaway is not affiliated or endorsed by Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.
• Must be 18 or older to enter this Giveaway.

One-year blogiversaries this September:
Life is Fantasmic
Pebbles and Piggytails
A Peek Into My Paradise
Lunchbox Dad

xoxo