winner winner chicken dinner.

okay i totally stole that line from the movie '21'. only an okay movie in my book. but a funny line. so here goes the winners from my birthday giveaway. i used random.org to find the winners. and after i picked the three winners i used the random.org to pick who got which prize. so you see TOTALLY random. :0)
winner of prize number one (the cleaning wipes)...is person number one!! JEN from 'what really matters' what's kind of funny is that she is from wisconsin!! and jen is a 'new' follower...welcome aboard!

prize number two (clinique lipgloss)...goes to...person number 25. who is ALICIA over at 'more than words' she lives in sunny california and has five kiddos and homeschools. she is such an inspiration and blessing to have 'met'.

and prize number three (targ-ey gift card)...goes to person number 18. who is ESTHER over at 'the mommy diaries'. it also happens to be her birthday...TODAY!! so go on over and wish her a happy birthday. esther is a blogger who i've been fortunate enough to meet in real life!

and prize number four...oh wait there wasn't one. oh wait. yes. in fact there is. i bought two packs of the wipes, because i thought i needed some at home. so i decided to give away another pack, in the french lavendar scent...to one of you who placed two comments to say you followed me. nine of you did that. and the person who won is number nine. miss ELYSE over at 'following him'. it has been so much fun getting to know elyse through blogging. and she's in college for my 'dream' major...special ed. (that is what i was going to college for...maybe some day again...for now i'm mommy and lovin' it)

so congrats ladies!! please email me your addresses!! i'm looking forward to mailing out your goodies!!

and thanks to ALL of you who entered. it was so much fun!! my 'blogoversary' is coming up at the end of this month...i may have to give away some more fun stuff. well stuff I think is fun anyways!

so i've been gone ALLLLLL WEEKEND. and yesterday. first time in a long time i went days and days without blogging. so i have lots to say. we'll see how much i do. :0) we had a great weekend. it was nice out, 45-50 ((which is nice for wisconsin)), and i took the oldest two kiddos to an easter egg hunt on saturday. they got some candy found an egg. (it's one egg per child...they just throw the rest of the wrapped candy on the ground...fun fun.lol) then i took the kiddos to my mom's house. she had some eggs to color. so they colored eggs. they loved it. and as an added bonus MY house didn't smell like eggs. :0)

sunday was church. and after church anyone who could stay, stayed for resurrection day! we had a superb spread of food. yummy yummy chicken. (that reminds me of this guy who works at sarku. in the mall.) anyways. yes it was yummy all of the food. after that we went to my parents to celebrate and eat more yummy food and yummy birthday cake. even though i am 26 my mommy still makes me a birthday cake, angel food. mmmmm.

oh wait. friday. i went to the mall. biggest most biggest mistake!! everyone was there. i sorta forgot it was 'good friday' and that no one has school. i think they all came to the mall. it was crazy. but my sister met me there after work so that helped out. the 'easter bunny' was at the mall. we walked by his 'station'. do you want to know what the sign said?!? it said this " the easter bunny is gone watering his garden " WHAT!?!? okay i instantly think this, why don't you just put up a sign saying...the easter bunny is taking a pee. i mean seriously!!? that's just what i thought. note to 'easter bunny' please change your sign, how about this "the easter bunny is eating some carrots"...something other than watering your garden!

we don't 'do' the easter bunny at our house. so breigh i think was a little confused because she kept saying i want to pet the bunny. then he walked by and i said, see it's just a person dressed up. her response...can i pet the bunny's face? no. saturday there was another 'easter bunny' at the egg hunt. she waved to him and when he got close she moved behind me. good thing i can just explain it's just a person dressed up and she doesn't think some freakishly large bunny comes to her house! lol.

oh i must share the melting pot experience. it was SO yummy!! like SO SO yummy. the only downfall to the night was a drunk girl totally flirting with her waiter, completely unappropriately. like really. i can handling hearing someone flirt. but the stuff that came out of her mouth...let's just say shouldn't be said! i was sent a survey on my experience at the melting pot. i told them it was nice, but they should discontinue two for one martinis. the girl had downed like three! maybe as a person who chooses not to drink i just don't understand. who knows. all i do know is she was thouroughly annoying. go be drunk somewhere else. :0) thanks.

so i think i covered, in a nutshell, for me, what all happened.

i also would like to take the time to ask for some prayers. first off we're having caitlyn and dustin's baby dedication this weekend. (never mind you caitlyn is not a 'baby' anymore...) so just prayer for that. and also for our church. we go to a small 'home' church. we are getting bigger for the basement. so our pastor drywalled part of his garage to move church out there. because it is wisconsin it's a tad cool out yet and we may have to be bundled up this weekend out in the garage/church. but it is so cool.

our church may also have the opportunity to buy an old church in town. so please keep that in prayer as well. we all want what god wants for the church.

i also have a prayer request for our children's ministry for our church. right now there really isn't one. we've had to 'discontinue' children's church during services as of this coming week. to be honest i'm totally bummed! when we first started attending church amelya was like the only kid. we had her downstairs with us. it went only okay. she was a distraction to us and to others. and i really don't ever feel like i learned anything much. after we had two kiddos people started watching them for us. then as our family and the church grew we had people doing children's church. well some people have stepped down. which means there isn't enough people. which means we are going to try to have our kiddos with us...well that was the plan anyways. so because i know how difficult it is to get anything out of church with my kids by me, i offered to sit out of church and listen to the service on a speaker and watch all the kiddos. i asked the other two mommies (and daddies) if they'd be willing to switch it up. or just shaun and i will do it.

i think it is kind of unfair to ask caitlyn to sit still and quiet for an hour. she's little and she is a good little girl...but i think it's asking a lot of her to do that. we had her downstairs for worship last week and shaun had to step out with her. so my thinking is by me offering, and others who are willing, to step out the entire church service, will cut down on distractions and raise up the learning. i'm willing to sit out every other week if need be, at least shaun or i will be 'fed' and all the other parents will be too. i just don't want to have my kiddos being the reason someone is missing what god wants to tell them.

i also don't want the kiddos to be 'bored' at church. i grew up 'catholic'. i was always bored at church, and when i got big enough i pretended to be sleeping until my mom left so i didn't have to go. i don't want my kiddos to ever be bored at church. i want them begging to go to church. so i think by trying to keep some sort of children's church going is crucial to that. so that's my mission. whether i do it alone or not doesn't matter...i just feel it's what god has layed on my heart.

do any of you attend small home churches too?!? anyone have any ideas how to help the situation?!? i'd love to hear them. and i covet your prayers!!

i've babbled on and on. and i'm sort of tired. and because the baby dedications are this weekend means my house needs to be in tip top shape. with sick kids last week..the housework fell of the face of my earth. speaking of sick kids...dustin has an ear infection. please tell me when this will end?! :0) peace out my friend. and congrats again ladies who won!!