Steppin' Out Saturday 7.30.11

::deets::

Bathing suit top--borrowed from my Momma so I could get rid of these tacky tanlines. pretty sure it's from Target.

Bathing suit bottoms--Kohls.

Shades--Xhiliration @ Target.

and Brookie's deets include an uber cute suit from Circo @ Target.

We spent our Saturday lakeside...and it was absolutely gorge outside. 89 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. The perfect day to go to the beach. Best of all? Everyone else in Ohio thought the same thing #insert thick layer of sarcasm. It was SO crowded!

But the girls had so much fun. These 2 are lil sand lovers. And it was SOOO much fun cleaning sand out of every crevice of their body. #add on another layer!

After we left the beach (and spent over 30 minutes cleaning sand of out everything & everyone), ate at Margaritaville (which was pretty stinkin' gross, hate to say) we headed home.

The girls were grumpy bears from being in the sun all day, so it was an early bed time for all. Which left the hubs and I time for Pizza Hut, cheap Merlot, and "Arthur". Whatta Saturday night. We are so much more cooler now than we were before the lil nuggets came along....at least I like to think so.

Linking up! You should too.

Power Outage Entertainment

I picked up hours at work last week, so by the time Friday rolled around, I was exhausted. I only work half days on Fridays, so I was excited to come home, put the girls down for a snooze, and then take one myself. After lunch Emmy was all ready to go down. Her bottom molars are coming in & she's been downright miserable so I breathed a huge sigh of relief when she finally passed out after almost an hour of fighting sleep.

I went downstairs to find Brookie on the couch having a "rest period" watching Pound Puppies. Ahh, I could finally sneak in a 30 minute nap.

Then CRACK, BAM, SHAABOOZLE {yes, that's exactly what it sounded like}. It starts lightning & thundering outside and then with a loud pop sound {something like PIZZOP!} our power went out.

Now Em slept right through mother nature's hissy fit. But once the power went out & the baby crack machine and fan shut off, she was up. And angry. And so was Brookie, blaming me for shutting off her "friends". So after a -not so- quick call to the electric department, I found out that there were 94 other complaints in our area & that the power would be back on by 5pm.

It was 1pm. Shit.

First things first, I had to get Emily back to sleep. It only took about 20 minutes for her to go back out, thankfully. The makers of Womb Bear knew what they were doing when they made him battery operated!

Next up was figuring out how to entertain a scared, bored, and no longer sleepy 2 year old.

First we did some coloring by candlelight.

After about 10 minutes, she was bored (again). She suggested we played dress up. No problem. The central air shut off with the power and it was 90 degrees outside...so of course she picked out to wear a dress, tights, and cardigan.

Next she wanted to play "pretty pretty princess". Translation---"let me get into your makeup bag & apply the shit out of it onto my face".

I was too tired to barder with her. She won.

First came the eyeshadow. Purple eyeshadow.

Then the bright.red.lipstick I wore when I dressed up like a flapper for Halloween 4 years ago. I hadn't seen that tube of lipstick since then, but somehow she knew exactly where it was. Must've been eyeballing it....waiting for the exact moment when she knew Momma would sleep deprivingly say "sure, you can wear that".

The finished product!

Yama hama it's fright night!

 When I showed Dustin these pictures of his sweet beautiful first born, he actually stepped back a bit and said "that's kinda scary", then proceeded to call her lil Joker for the rest of the night.

But she was in love with her makeover. Kept staring at herself in the mirror, whispering "soo beatiflull" to herself. And then realized that Mommy had no lipstick on! Oh the horror! (literally). She took care of that reeeeal quick.

Whatcha think? Hawt stuff right hurr.

After about 15 minutes of her running around the dark house with the chance of falling and staining everything in sight with that mouth, my OCD kicked in and straight to the tub she went.

There's my natural beauty.

After she was squeaky clean, we layed on the couch munching on s'more goldfish crackers, telling stories, and reading books.

The power turned back on around 3pm....juuuust as we were both falling asleep. And sissy decided that was the perfect time to wake up.

*sigh* Dark circles are coming back in style...right?!?

100 Followers Giveaway Winner

Congratulations Libby! Good luck getting "Victor Vito" out of your head once Thad wants to play the DVD over and over again....and then one more time.

Thanks to everyone who entered this fun little giveaway!

Weekend Recap (3)

1.) Dancin' to her own beat at Friday's. 2.) WW's who?!? 3.) Gah, I adore piggies on little girls! 4.) Is it bad that I never get buyers remorse at F21? Didn't think so.

1.) First purchase for a certain someone's puppy pawty made! 2.) Snack time for my big ol' brown eyes. 3.) Fall clothes=flove. Matching fall clothes? /dead. 4.) Like? Dislike? I'm still kinda 'ish about them, but for 10 bucks I couldn't not buy them, right? RIGHT?

1.) Coolest ones there...true story. 2.) Oh Donnie. If only Marky Mark were there too #dreamcometrue 3.) Schweaty Bettys. 4.)  My husband is down right adorable. I just love him so much.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend as well!!

Don't forget my 100 followers giveaway ends this Thursday!

One last thing?

How 'bout a vote for high school best friends & boy bands?!?

Hang tough...ALRIIIGHT!

Steppin' Out Saturday 7.23.11

Boo for horrible thunderstorms keeping me from getting my picture outside. And on that note, boo for hideous green carpet.

::deets::

Shirt--F21.

Shorts--F21 {notice a theme here recently?}

Belt--thrifted {for $1.29. seriously.}

Bracelet--Apt 9 @ Kohls.

Shoes--Old Navy.

Hate to post and run, but this girl is headed off to the NKOTBSB concert tonight with friends from high school--squeeeee! I may be a married momma of 2...but those boys men still make me all giggly (avert your side eyes!) 

Y3W...100 Followers Giveaway!

As you may of read, The Stauffer Shenanigans reached 100 followers this week--yay! I've been blogging here since July 2009, when my baby Cakes was just 10 months old {I could just kick myself for not starting this blog when I found out I was pregnant with her. And with these bean pole legs, it's do-able.} What started as just a place to document Brookie's newest thing and having a handful of followers has became something much more. I've met so many wonderful people through blogging and it's been such a gift to myself. Looking back & seeing posts like Trick or Treat 2009 or feeling Lil Sprout move for the first time, it's a sweet trip down memory lane.

I'm rambling---you'll get that, and a tear or two, when you ask a Momma of TWO toddlers to think back. As I said, we reached a triple digit milestone this week and as a thank you to my awesome readers, I'm doing a giveaway! Just lil ol' me, no sponsor this time. Can you feel the love?

If you have young children or have ever watched a half hour of Nick Jr, you know the name Laurie Berkner. Brook & Emmy sure know her...and know her well. Seeing their faces light up when she comes on TV is adorable. Em's chunky thighs & booty gets to shakin and watching Brook try to memorize the words & dance moves is heart warmingly hysterical. And I've gotta admit, I love her too. How does she get her hair in those perfect frizz free ringlets?!?

 "We Are The Laurie Berkner Band" is by far Brookie & Emmy's favorite DVD and now one of you have the chance to receive one too!


There are THREE ways to enter.

1.) Become a fan of The Stauffer Shenanigans by clicking 'follow' under Loyal Shenaniganians. If you already follow, leave me a comment saying so.

2.) Follow me on Twitter  If you already follow, leave me a comment saying so with your account name.

3.) Tweet about the giveaway! You can do this once a day & each tweet equals another chance to win, so don't forget to comment each time.

That's it! One of you will soon be stomping around the house to "We are the Dinosaurs" with your child or find yourself humming "Under a Shady Tree" in the car without your kids.

This giveaway will end next Thursday, July 28th at 11:59pm eastern time. I will use random.org to select a winner and it will be announced shortly after. Please make sure you include your email in your comments so I know how to contact the winna winna!

*The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my initial email or I will pick a different winner, and that would suck for you. This DVD will come brand new from Amazon.com to your house & will include S&H. Only for U.S residents only. Good luck!*

Meet Johnny

Dustin & I have been on the hunt for a good family car for the past 7 months. We knew we wanted something bigger than our cars, but still mid size. Something good on gas with a v6 engine. Something with a good size trunk where we can put the girls wagon in. Something with black cloth interior (I'm not a fan of leather seats) and black exterior. Something with AWD, something that drives a heck of alot smoother than our Malibu & Grand Am. Something NEW! We're youngins, always bought used.

We found everything we wanted in the 2011 Dodge Journey Mainstreet.
  I was very apprehensive about buying from a Chrysler company because my Sebring in college gave me many many many problems. Many. But once we read all the reviews on the 2011 journey & saw how much Dodge put into making it much better than the 2009 and 2010 models, we decided that this was the best choice for our little family. Plus we got a 5 year warranty and 5 year loan with 0% interest. Can't beat that!

Introducing Johnny {black interior, black exterior, black on black like Johnny Cash. Ya, we're lame....in a cool way.}

Push button start, which makes me kinda feel like Judy Jetson. Touch screen commands. A place for your picture memory card to upload pictures to the screen. CD/DVD player. Light up & cool/heated cup holders. Dual climate controls. Internet hot spot (no more stealing Micky D's internet while on the road!) An outlet to program our phone so we can use this screen to answer & talk.

And sirius radio? Siriusly awesome. Dustin is absolutely obsessed, especially since....

 There's a Bruce channel.

The backview. On the bottom of both girls floorboards in a hidden compartment. It's insulated to act as a cooler, or it can just be to store your purse or crayons/coloring book/other sanity savers for long car rides.

This Momma really will have eyes in the back of her head.

So much more room for junk in the trunk. And if the carseats are out, they fold down completely. I can already imagine the drive in movies with the girlies.
Andplusalso there's outlets back here & an LED flashlight attached to the bottom left.

 and ample space underneath. --shudders at the sight of a snow scrapper--

Love this guy! I'll more than likely curse his name on the 15th of every month {it was a nice 7 months of NO CAR PAYMENT!}, but it's worth it!

How 'bout a vote for naming all your cars? Thanks from Aaron Lebaron, Sid Sebring, Malibu Barbie, and Johnny Journey (Don't Stop Believin').

Wordless Wednesday

YAY!!!!!

Actually, I got to 100 followers yesterday evening...got all excited {triple digits for this lil ol' thing?!? really?!?} and then had a follower jump ship.....not cool. To you jumper, sorry the Shenanigans wasn't tickling your fancy anymore.

Buuuuut when I woke up this morning and checked out Blogger, lo & behold number 100 was right there. Thanks, Angela!

So let's celebrate! Keep your eyes open for a fun giveaway here soon. And I promise I'll get a post about Johnny up soon. It's just a smidgen hard to get pictures of him when the hubs has barely left the drivers seat.

How 'bout a vote for triple digits!

Featured at Toodle Along Tuesday

My friend Mama G at Growing Up Geeky takes part in running a weekly blog hop for Mommas with another friend of mine, Kristin at Our growing Garden. It's known as Toodle Along Tuesday and it's such a great way to find other blogging Mommas and also gain new readers. Love it.

Especially this week because I'm featured! Yay!! Check it out & if you are visiting here from TAT, welcome! Thanks for stopping by. Hope you come back again soon!!