Summer

Summer is finally here and has been pretty warm so far. Our days of been consisting of outdoor play, Popsicles, lots of water, the kiddie pool and the sprinkler!

Sweets Indeed

Sweets Indeed is a great little shop for all your party needs. And is the home of the sweet skewer. Marie of Sweets Indeed will provide you with the yummiest treats, packaged in the most adorable way for any of your entertaining needs. Marie sent me a wonderful little treat package filled with Kettle Corn, Chocolate Bark, Gummy Worms, Taffy and of course the famous sweet skewer.

The decor on these treats give the most special touch, the “Eat Me” tags and colors are just so sweet and fun. Sweets Indeed is the perfect vendor for your candy or dessert station at your shower, wedding or birthday party. I would love to order some of the Delicious sweet skewers for Finley’s next birthday party, Marie offers the cutest Hello Kitty kabobs. What a fun treat to send the kids home with!
Fin and Ez thoroughly enjoyed all these sweet treats, as did Aaron and I. The chocolate bark was one of my favorites next to the skewers. It was creamy and soft and very high quality.
You an find Sweets Indeed on facebook and on Etsy!

Rhubarb Peach Cream Cake {Recipe}

My lovely Mother in law taught me how to make this Delicious cake the summer we lived in Alaska. It is super easy and you can really use any fruit variation you wish. The peaches are my addition to the cake but you could really use anything that bakes well. Strawberries, blue berries, and raspberries would all be wonderful and pair well with the rhubarb.

All you need is:

1 Box Yellow/white/Vanilla cake mix (whichever you prefer)- Make as directed on box
1/2 cup of chopped fresh peaches
1/2 cup fresh chopped rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1 cup of Cream.

Make you cake mix as directed on the box, pour into pan. sprinkle fruit chunks on top, pour sugar evenly over fruit, then pour cream evenly over that. Bake as it says on your cake mix box and viola, Yummy creamy fruity goodness!

Note- I usually make this in a casserole type dish, but used my bundt cake pan and the fruit and cream stuck just a little on the bottom. Could have been because I was way too impatient to dig in and didn’t let it cool long enough.

12 weeks

We had our NT scan today for the genetic testing of our new baby. We will get the results back by Friday.
Everything looked really good, baby is measuring 12 weeks today. And kicking, stretching and being very active. It was so amazing to see that adorable little thing moving around and to see it’s beautiful heartbeat flickering away! I can’t wait to find out if we are having a boy or girl. My gut tells me girl and I so far have guessed correctly with each pregnancy, so we will see if Mama is right again. Aaron had guessed the opposite of me each time and is guessing boy this time. We have names picked out for each and will be finding out the last week of July. We originally were going to wait until the birth to find out the sex, but the planner in me cannot wait that long. We are super excited and can’t wait for our new baby. Even more exciting? This little baby has a cousin due the very next day as us. Aaron’s brother and his wife are expecting their first baby. So that is so fun and very cool.
I’m starting to feel a little better and hoping the morning sickness starts to subside within the next couple of weeks. Once I start showing I will post bump photos each week and some fun little survey type questions.

Here are a few photos from our u/s today.

Baby is looking right at us, and was propping it’s leg up on it’s knee.

I love my Daddy WINNER

And the winner of the I love my Daddy prize pack from Have it Sweet and Roots Soap Co is
Kytah00 Congrats!

Please email me at jhil2626{at}yahoo{dot}com to claim your prize. You will have 48 hrs to do so or I will have to choose a new winner. Thank you.
And a big thank you to my sponsers, you guys rock and have amazing product thanks for sharing your shops with us! And thank you to all my readers and new readers for participating!

I Love My Daddy Blog Hop Event

Welcome to I Love Daddy Giveaway event hosted by Makobi Scribe and co hosted by Jamie’s Precious Peas and Little YaYa’s . From June 15 at 9pm (Est) – June 19 at 11:59 PM (Est), we invite you to visit each participating blog where you will find many giveaways to honor Dad and celebrate Father’s Day.

I have a great little prize package for all those Daddys out there! One winner will receive A Caramel Of The Month Club by Have It Sweet Three Month Subscription and a Roots Soap Company Man Collection Soap package.

Here is what Anna has to say about herself and her awesome Soap shop:

My name is Anna and I make 100% natural cold process soap. My mother taught me her recipe when I was about eight years old and I made it for her company for years until it was time to fly the nest, live some life and get started on my own business. I got back to my “roots” in 2010 and started my little company! I still use the same recipe (tried and true!) incorporating my own essential oil blends and rainwater from the backyard (since we have so much here in Oregon!). I am dedicated to using only pure essential oils, natural colorings and ingredients.
I make it all in my home with my two sweet babies around me (who are making me old while still keeping me so young!) We love to explore the Northwest and most especially our beautiful city of Portland, OR. We love to hike, read books, cook yummy food, hang our laundry outside and ride bikes. Chances are that your soap order will be delivered to the local post office on one of our bike rides! Babies in tow.

And a little about Have It Sweet Confections:

Have it Sweet is a 100% Eco conscious business. They use all fair trade and organic products where they are available and all the delicious sweets are all natural, no preservatives. The husband and wife team make sure that every sweet is 100% hand made. These two busy sweethearts get it all done by hand from cooking, prep, to wrapping, shipping etc. They also have a passion for charity work and a large portion of their business proceeds go to charities such as project night night, the ocean conservancy, the Nature conservancy, various food banks, make a wish, St. Jude’s and Habitat for Humanity. It is something they absolutely love to do and their business makes it possible. These two are truly an amazingly talented couple who put lots of love into their amazing sweets. I can’t wait to try my sweets I ordered and their new lollipops.

To Enter you must be a H is For Hillman Follower via GFC (Mandatory)
Extra Entries:
Choose one of the following or do both- Leave a comment for each.
1. Follow the Have it sweet blog
2. “Like” Roots Soap co on FB

Giveaway will end on June 19, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. Open to US only. The winner will be chosen by random.org. Winners will be announced on H is for Hillman and emailed. Winners will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. I received no monetary compensation for sponsoring this giveaway. Please note that H is For Hillman, “I Love My Daddy” or the “I Love My Daddy” bloggers are not responsible for sponsors that do not fulfill their prizes. We have represented each sponsor with the expectation they will fulfill their prize and in a timely manner. I will contact the sponsor regarding your prize. The sponsors, in most cases, are shipping their items to you directly. We will make every effort to assist you obtaining your prize. If there is an issue with a sponsor, please notify the blog you won a prize from within 30 days for assistance, after that we may be unable to assist you.

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Third and Final

I didn’t really know how I was going to feel about this pregnancy and it being our last before I got pregnant. I thought that I might feel sad or feel like I wasn’t really ready to be done. But it is totally safe to say that I feel 100% happy and content with the fact that this is my last pregnancy and last baby. I’m sure the bad morning sickness has a lot to do with the fact that I’m totally okay with being done. And also being pregnant and trying to take care of these 2 little monsters probably has a lot to do with it as well. I look at how hard I work daily on trying to provide everything I need for them on a daily basis from meals to play, not to mention trying to keep up with all the house work. I’m exhausted, I feel crazy for even doing this at times. Like what in the heck was I thinking getting pregnant again this soon, maybe we should have waited? Well we didn’t and don’t get me wrong. We are very excited and happy to be welcoming another baby into our home, no doubt. I just feel a bit overwhelmed and it is even harder without any family or friends around. Like today, I’m feeling extremely exhausted and grumpy. These are the days I wish I had someone to drop the kids off with so I could have some me time and catch up on some sleep. So here’s to the next 30 weeks, and me being the person who loves being pregnant already wishing them away, so I can be done being pregnant and holding my new precious baby.

Give It Your Best Shot

The Paper Mama is challenging photog mama’s to enter their “best shot” in a photo contest! Here is my Entry. My sweet girl on a warm summer day exploring the lazy river. This is one of my favorite photos I have taken of Finley, I love how she is walking along so concentrated on her surroundings, soaking them all in!

CozyToes Review and GIVEAWAY

I have an obsession for adorable baby shoes, especially little shoes for tiny baby girl feet. I love shoes myself but there is just something about those tiny pretty little things for a girl. I find myself making excuses to buy tons of pairs for Finley, when she was little and now bigger. She needs sandals, tennis shoes, boots, casual, dressy. Something to go with every outfit.
CozyToes is a beautiful little Etsy shop that offers the most adorable handmade girly shoes. Each with the perfect touch of frill and fanciness. Something for any moment or something special to top off that perfect outfit. Kate of CozyToes also offers matching headbands to go with her adorable handmade creations.

At CozyToes by Kathydee you are welcome to design your shoes by mixing and matching colors and styles or you can pick from one of Kate’s gorgeous designs.

This is a little something Kate has to say about herself and her amazing little shop:

I have a passion for frilly baby girls shoes and opened my Etsy store in 2008 creating and offering custom designs that are adorable and affordable. Every pair of CozyToes is handmade by me and I use the softest 35% wool and fully line them with Fiesta felt. I hand trim every pair with matching embroidery floss, top them off with colorful embellishments and sew Velcro to the strap.

Kate sent us the most adorable pair of little shoes for our new baby. (no, we don’t know if it’s a girl yet, but I’m pretty sure my mommy instinct is right and it is!) A beautiful silver grey and plum pair and I absolutely adore them. They are well made, soft, and so adorable. I can’t wait to put them to use!

Your custom orders are always welcome, so you can match any pair with any outfit for that special Holiday, Family get together or family photos! Kate also is offering a new Tough~Tek neoprene rubber soles for toddler shoes now.

CozyToes is offering one of my readers a pair of shoes of their choice! To enter head on over to Kate’s shop and then come back here and tell me the pair you would choose if you won.
Can’t wait to win Enter COZYWELCOME at checkout and you will receive a 10% discount.

For Extra Entries (please leave a comment for each you complete)
1. Follow or be a current GFC follower of H is For Hillman
2. “Like” H is for Hillman on FB
3. Tell me your favorite Boy names, we have a name but no middle name to go with it and need a bit of help.
4. Vote for our family to win a free photography session by Emailing wymanphotography@hotmail.com and say “Vote for Story #2” (This Entry ends 6/8.)
Giveaway Ends Friday June 10th. Winner announced Saturday Morning.

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