5 on Friday + a winner

O*N*E
Well I promised that on Friday I would announce the winner of the The Little Mermaid Giveaway, so without further ado.....

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats Maria!!!

Please make sure to email me your address by Monday September 30th, so i can give it to the sponsor. 

T*W*O
So after seeking out some advice from a few of my favorite photography bloggers, I decided to go ahead and rent the 50mm 1.4 from borrowlenses.com. Let me just say, OMG!!! I love this thing!! I havent even really had the chance to fully use it yet on a client/subject, but i played with it in my backyard on the dogs and i think im in LOVE! I cant wait to use it tomorrow on my new nephew. Thank you Mandy for your suggestion!!! Now if only i can convince someone to buy it for me for Christmas. Only 88 days to persuade someone, who will be the lucky winner? :)

my mother-in-laws black lab, Sophie

T*H*R*E*E
Im so proud of myself for jumping back on Weight Watchers full force! And not only because i can see a difference on the scale, but also because I feel like i am making better choices. Like right now, i just went on to plan what im having for dinner because I know we are going to a mexican restaurant since its my mother in laws last night in town. I tracked all the points, yes everything down to how many tortilla chips im going to eat, so that i know i will make a better choice while im at the dinner table. go me! (oh and look for an upcoming post where i will do a complete update on my progress thus far)


F*O*U*R

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Ive been thinking about what I want Matthew to be for halloween this year. Surprisingly hubs agrees with my idea, normally he has some kind of remark on it being cheesey. But you see my mom has been calling matthew "bam bam" for quite some time now. So i think it would be really cute if he was Bam Bam from Flinstones. I could even be Betty Rubble, or Wilma Flinstone. Highly doubt hubs would be willing to dress up as Barney or Fred, but I could give it a shot. lol. My issue is, we live in south florida, and EVERY.SINGLE. costume i find for kids is like a full body suit. Dont the makers realize that my kid might die of sweat? And come on, its Bam Bam for god sake! all he needs is a little skirt-like thing and a stick! but no, all the ones i can find look like this. Not only is it a full body suit, but the whole hair thing makes it look really weird to me. So i think i might just bite the bullet and shop for the costume on Etsy. It may be a little, read ALOT, more expensive to have someone make it, but i think it will look way better. Anyone know anyone that could make me a bam bam costume? Im sure it wouldnt be too difficult, and i could probably make it, but i just dont have the time or will power to try and figure it out.

F*I*V*E
Not only have I had major baby fever lately, but i think Ive also got a case of the "i wanna bigger house" fever too. The two kinda go together. You see i want another kid soon. Like would love to be pregnant before the new year (no we are not currently trying), but we honestly dont really have a big enough house to add another kid into the mix. Technically we could enclose the carport, which is what we have wanted to do all along. But 1) we dont really have the money for that right now and 2) that still wouldnt give us the space we need. Ideally, i would love a 5bd/3bath. I know, i like to dream BIG. But think about it 1-our room 2-matthews room 3-baby #2's room eventually 4-my home office and 5-a spare bedroom, or possibly baby#3. Technically kids can share rooms, so thats always negotiable, but i need a separate room for my office. Currently its in whats supposed to be a dining room. But technically we cant afford a house like that out east where we live now, and i really dont want to live out west if i can avoid it. So basically i just have to live with my baby fever and big house syndrome until someone decides they just want to give me lot and lots of money! any volunteers? Id be happy with something like this:

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Hope everyone has a great weekend!

If youre new here, leave a comment and ill make sure to hop on over to your blog too!

So what wednesday

This week im saying So what if....

• I let Matthew cry for a good 15mins before i decided he just wasnt going to take his afternoon nap today
• It only took $14,000 in credit card debt for me to realize i need to tame my shopping habits
• I brought up the whole debt situation to my father in hopes he might help me out somehow, even if its only to borrow the $ from him to avoid interest...... 
• Im getting less work done for work this week because i kept Matthew home with me an extra day to save a bit of money
• I gained 4.8lbs last week, but i made up for it this week by getting rid of 5.6lbs! Woohoo!
• If i look forward to wednesday weight watchers meetings to just get out of the house and have hubby feel the full responsibility of matthew for a night
• I only mowed the front lawn today, when the back is really what needed it, but it started pouring and at least it gives me some exercise for tomorrow
• I left 2 loads of clean laundry in the living room, in hopes my mom would fold and put away while she came over to watch matthew before hubs got home
• I had a dream my birth control failed due to the use of antibiotics this month and ended up pregnant....dam baby fever....and aunt flo arrived today so no it wasnt a premonition 
• I wrote this post from my phone so the likelihood of the layout being all messed up is pretty darn good ;) (update: i went back and reformatted thursday to make it look right lol)

Dont forget to link up with Shannon and let us know what your saying So What to this week

5 on friday

I really love these 5 on Friday posts. Especually since Ive been slacking majorly in the whole blog department, this gives me a chance to catch up on the small things

O*N*E
Im officially an aunt again! my sister-in-law gave birth to a cute baby boy, Francis "Frankie" James, on Tuesday Sept 17th, 7lbs 3oz, 20inches long. This means that Matthew is also officially a big cousin! Im so happy he is going to have a cousin around the same age as him, seeing that my sisters kids are 13 and 6, these two lil boys will only be a year apart. I cant wait to see them be best buds and having lots of family get-togethers where they are running around with each other. And oh-my-aching-ovaries!!! lets just say holding him when he was less than a day old did not do any good for the looming baby fever ive been having.......

T*W*O
So with my nephew being born, and the maternity/1yr photoshoot i booked for my friend a couple of weeks ago, its really got me starting to think about turning this little photography hobby of mine into a business. My friend said that she got so many compliments on the photos i took of her lil expanding family and her lil girls 1st bday, and mentioned that she wished i had a facebook page for my photography so she could tag them/recommend me. Which then got me into thinking of a logo for my possible business. what do you think of my first idea? After playing around with my initials for a little while, i feel like it almost looks like a butterfly, and i LOVE butterflies. So im sure there could be a few tweaks, but im really liking it so far


T*H*R*E*E
More photography stuff (sorry its been on my mind alot lately), i cant really afford another lens right now and while scouring pinterest for newborn session ideas for my nephew, i came cross this site called borrowlenses.com, have any of you used it? I asked a couple of my photog friends and they all seem to recommend the 50mm as a wonderful lens to use. So im definitely contemplating whether to rent it for a week or two to try it out on my nephew. And then if i fall in love with it, maybe i can ask for it for christmas?

F*O*U*R
Ive had enough with this whole laxidasical (did i spell that right?) approach ive been having with weight watchers over the past 3-4weeks. I know the program works, i know i can do it, i know im successful with it, but im just too dam lazy. urrgghh. so this week i told myself there were no excuses. Granted ive only just said that yesterday (since wednesday was my weigh in day and i gained basically 5lbs in the past 2 weeks), but im going to track, eat healthier, exercise, and NOT step on the scale until next wednesday. so far so good. ive tracked every single little bite ive put in my mouth, i went rollerblading yesterday morning before matthew and i even ate breakfast, and im going to publix on my lunch break to stock up on healthy food. wish me luck.

F*I*V*E
Its actually starting to feel like fall around here as of this morning. As I walked matthew out to my sisters car this morning for pickup, i could feel a cool breeze and the i wasnt covered in sweat when i made it back in the house. and that says alot when you live in south florida. I love fall. Not winter, but fall. Normally right around Halloween is when i feel like our seasons somewhat change around here. But i have to to admit, i am completely jealous of you ladies who are already rocking the boots, scarves, and jeans. Oh and also those who get to go apple picking. I LOOOOOVE me some apple! I wish we had an orchard somewhere around here, but i think thats only for you northerner :( but that wont stop me from making this apple cinnamon baked oatmeal recipe. Not only is it apple, but its also weight watcher friendly. If any of you are following the plan, you must go check out Emily Bites. She has some great ww recipes that do not disappoint!!! (and you dont even have to tell your hubby its diet-friendly, he wont be able to tell!!)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

And if you havent already, go enter my latest giveaway to win a The Little Mermaid Diamond Edition 2-Disc Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack with Digital Copy!

If youre new here, leave a comment and ill make sure to hop on over to your blog too!

a quick update and a giveaway

Wow, you know how everyone tells you once you have kids time seems to literally fly by? Well they werent kidding. I cant believe it is already half way through September. Alots been going on around our neck of the world. Lots of projects at work, lots of random house projects (including building a swingset!), baby shower for my sis-in-law, and now she is actually at the hospital as of last night getting induced due to a liver condition they found in her. All is well so far, and I cant wait to meet my new lil nephew hopefully later today! <insert baby fever here>

But along with all that good news for me and my family, I have some good news for you, my bloggy friends, too! I have the opportunity to give one of my lucky readers The Little Mermaid Diamond Edition 2-Disc Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack with Digital Copy!

I was so beyond excited to be able to host this giveaway! We all know we love Disney around here, and The Little Mermaid just so happens to be one of my all time favorite Disney classics. Funny, I was just talking to hubby about how when I was growing up, i would have definitely considered myself a Disney kid (opposed to Nickelodeon). I think i had every classic Disney movie on VHS (omg, showing my age now with the VHS reference), but the few that stayed in my normal rotation were The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Sleeping Beauty.

And honestly, it kind of makes me sad that all my old VHS's will go to waste, and my kid(s) wont have those for their viewing pleasure since we dont own a VHS player anymore. But luckily, The Little Mermaid is coming out of the Disney Vault for the first time on Blu-ray Combo Pack and HD Digital on October 1st!

If you want you chance at winning a free copy for your kiddos (or yourself, if youre a fanatic like me lol) then just simply enter below through the rafflecopter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Oh and you can also check out is the movie's website, which includes clips, games and activities by going here.

Good luck!

I received a copy of the movie in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.