Mommy Moment: Silly Sleeping

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I never know what I'm going to find when I go in to check on my daughter after she's fallen asleep.  She chooses the strangest, funniest places to sleep.  I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite pictures with you.  I also thought it would be even more fun to have you share YOUR pictures of your kids sleeping in crazy places or doing funny things.  So please email me your images!  I'll be posting them in a few days so if you could get them to me by Monday the 28th that'd be great.  Send your pictures to mommyminutesblog@gmail.com.

Here are some my my favorite pictures of my daughter.  Can't wait to see yours!

She HAD to have her basket of toys every night.

She fell asleep "reading" an empty photo album.

Reading again.

She started making messes and getting out all of her toys.  We have since moved her toys out of the room.

She's done this a few other times.  How does she breath like that let alone sleep??

This is my favorite.  She crawled into a laundry bag.  Seriously???

For some reason she prefers to sleep anywhere but her bed.

At grandma's house she emptied out their bookshelf.  

We walked in and couldn't see her anywhere.  Then we spotted her zebra legs poking out from under the crib.  Also notice she put all of the stuffed animals in baby brother's crib.

We walked this the next night and noticed a big pile of stuff shoved in front of the crib.  I moved the blankets and next ran into a barrier of the pack-n-play package after moving that to the side I found her like this:

We couldn't open the door all the way because her feet were in the way.  She had gotten some little chairs, tipped them over and fallen asleep under the metal frame.

As you can see....she's a bit crazy when it comes to sleeping.  It's always an adventure with her ha.  Make sure to send in your pictures so I can post them next week!

Fantastic Fajita Seasoning

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I've been in search of the perfect homemade fajita seasoning.  I finally decided to just create my own and I LOVE it!  Here's the recipe:

3 Tbs. Cornstarch
2 Tbs. Chili powder
1 Tbs. Paprika
1 Tbs. Sugar
1/2 Tbs. Salt
2 tsp. Chicken bouillon, crushed
1 1/2 tsp. Onion powder
1/2 tsp. Garlic powder
1/2 tsp. Cumin
1/2 tsp. Cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. Crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp.  Ancho Chili Powder

This recipe makes the equivalent of 3 seasoning packets.  I like to add a bit of lime juice when cooking the fajitas.  If you don't have ancho chili powder, you can just add a bit extra chili powder.  If you want to cut back on the heat a bit, you can do less red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper.

This is what your seasoning will look like:

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Wish I'd Known: Set An Alarm

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Over the past few months I've figured out a trick that seems to help with parenting a 2 1/2 year old.

Set An Alarm

Like in the morning?  No don't do that!  Sleep as long as you possibly can!  You'll need every ounce of energy to get through the day.  What I mean is I use an alarm as a way to get my daughter to stop asking for things constantly.  If you know my daughter, you know she LOVES to eat and would pretty much eat all day long if I let her.  So rather than having her yank on my pants and beg INCESSANTLY, I tell her she can have a snack when the alarm goes off.  

I use the alarm trick with many other things as well like clean-up time, bed time, when we get to go outside, etc.  It really works.  My daughter will ask to do something and then will say "Set an alarm."  Then she won't ask again.  Or if she does, I just remind her that we have to wait for the alarm to go off.  It kind of turns it into a game.  Maybe it won't work for your kids, but it's been amazing for us!

Princess Party For A Good Cause

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I had the wonderful opportunity of taking pictures of Anthony's family just before Christmas.  Anthony is 16 years old and is in need of a heart transplant.  His friends and family are putting together a Princess Party Fundraiser to help earn money to cover the cost of the surgery.  

If you and your daughter go to the party it will only cost you $25.  That's such a great deal and they are even serving lunch!  If you are looking for a fun activity to do with your daughter(s) (and live in Utah) please consider helping out this family and register for the Princess Party.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

To read more about Anothony click here.

What a great family!

Mommapproved: Baby Activity Table

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Today's Mommapproved product is one of my very favorites:

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Fun with Friends Musical Table

We got this as a baby shower gift when I was pregnant with my daughter and it was one of the best gifts we've ever received.  The legs are removable, so we started off with it on the ground while my daughter crawled around.  Then when she started to stand, we put the legs on the table.  She still loves this toy and she's nearly three.  She'll sometimes request her "big computer" to play with during nap time.  My son also loves the table.  He stands and does a little jig to the music the table plays.  It's so cute!  

The tables are a bit expensive.  I've seen them range anywhere from $30-$50, but they are seriously worth the money.  They don't brake easily like so many other toys out there and they are great for the different stages children go through.   I'v seen them at yard sales, so watch out for them there.  If you don't find a deal, just fork over the money.  You won't regret it.

Tube Drop Game

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Yesterday I made a little "Tube Drop" game for my son.  

You put tape a paper towel roll up and put a basket underneath the tube. 

What an easy set up!

Put a ball (or some other object) in the top of the tube.

The ball magically drops into the basket.

 Pick up the ball.....

Do it all over again.

And look cute while doing it!

Mommy Moment: Jingle Bells

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Yesterday I sang a solo in church.  As we were sitting on the pew I was explaining to my daughter that I was going to leave to sing so she needed to be a good listener for daddy.  Then our conversation went like this:

Her: What song are you singing?
Me: Come Thou Fount
Her: NO!  Not that one.  I want Jingle Bells!  Sing Jingle Bells Mom.
Me: Not today sweetie.

Then she took matters into her own hands and started belting Jingle Bells.  Maybe she should have been the one singing the solo ha.

Indoor Campfire

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Yesterday we had a "campfire" in our apartment.  It was really easy to put together and provided some fun entertainment.  Next time I think we just might have to put together a little tent and sing kumbaya haha.

To make the fire I used toilet paper and paper towel rolls.  Technically I painted them with brown paint, but it turns out the brown was pretty much the same color as the rolls so it made very little difference.  I was planning on just using tissue paper for the flames, but I didn't have any orange tissue paper and we couldn't have an all red fire :)  So I threw in some colored foam.  I just stacked everything, but if you really wanted to, you could glue everything in place.

We laid out a brown blanket and pretended it was dirt.

For the marshmallows, I used 2 white pipe-cleaners each and wrapped them around some paintbrushes.  You could use real sticks or pencils or anything else you have lying around the house.

Then you roast yourself up some marshmallows!

If you had different colors of pipe-cleaners you could also use red or pink or brown to make yourself some "hotdogs" to cook as well.    

Jalapeno Pepper Burn

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The other day I learned a very important lesson:

Wear gloves while cutting jalapeno peppers

As it turns out, jalapeno peppers can burn your skin and it hurts really really bad.  I had never experienced anything like this before and I've cut several jalapenos in my days.  About 30 minutes after cutting the jalapeno, my hand started burning a bit.  Within minutes, my hand felt like it was on fire.  It got all red and swollen.  I dipped it in a bowl of cold water while I ate dinner.  The water helped, but once it wasn't cold anymore, my hand started burning again.

I decided to do some research and ask around to see if there were any remedies.  I got quite a big list.  None of them were a permanent fix, but some did provide a bit of relief.  I thought I'd review the different remedies for you :)

Cold milk: This did stop the burning while it was cold, but once the milk was warm, my hand burned again.  Apparently pepper burns aren't water soluble which is why people recommend milk/dairy.

Baking soda and water: Didn't really seem to work for me.

Tooth paste: This helped take away a bit of the burning, but didn't soothe it as much as the cold things.  It was a bit longer lasting as far as keeping away the intense burning/pain.

Lemon Juice: I didn't have any at the time so I don't know if it helps or not.

Dip in milk then flour: Surprisingly this worked very well for about 5 minutes and then it was back to burning like crazy.

Sour cream: The sour cream worked super well for about 1 minute and then once it turned warm my hand burned again.  If only it stayed cold the whole time I think it would have been one of the best.

As you can see, I tried a lot of remedies and nothing seemed to really be helping at least not for a long period of time.  It was time for bed so I just kept filling up a bowl with cold water next to my bed to put my hand in until I could get to sleep.  I chose to do water even though I knew the burn wasn't water soluble because I found that cold water and cold milk had the same results (they worked while cold and not while warm), I didn't want to waste anymore milk and I didn't want to risk spilling milk all over my room while trying to sleep with my hand in the bowl.  The good news is, I woke up in the morning and the burning was gone!  So a great remedy is sleep haha.

I did get a few other suggestions later, but I was already asleep.  So I'll tell you in case you want to try them out too.  

Lime Juice

Rubbing Alcohol or hand sanitizer

My husband thought that maybe I was just being a wimp, but I tried describing to him that it actually hurts worse than any other burn I've received mainly because when not treating it, the heat/pain continued to increase with no end in sight.  It was so strange.  I had no idea a jalapeno could do this to you.  I knew that you shouldn't touch your eye after cutting peppers, but now I know why people wear gloves.  From now on, I'll be wearing gloves too!

I'm Back!!!

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I'm back!  Sorry I fell of the face of the Earth for a little bit there.  I decided that the little amount of free time I had between photo shoots, editing and life in general should be spent with my family during the Holidays rather than blogging.  Now that life as slowed down (a little bit) I am ready to get back into the swing of things.

I hope you had a fantastic Holiday Season.  We sure did.  We went up to Idaho for Christmas to spend time with my in-laws.  I love having cousins around to play with my kiddies.  My son was teething and sick, so he wasn't in a great mood, but my daughter LOVED life.

Do you have any fun New Years resolutions?  How are they going?  

My New Years resolution is to keep my house clean.  Not necessarily perfectly clean because with kids that's just not going to happen, but clean enough that if people randomly stop by I won't be embarrassed haha - sad I know.  I hope I'm not the only one that has that problem.  

Well I look forward to posting and hearing from all of you again.  Thanks for all of the support!