Hope You had a Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! On Christmas Eve we went over to the neighbors and re-enacted the story of the birth of Jesus, it was a great reminder to them of what Christmas is truly about and I would have to say that baby Cooper played his part perfectly...wink!


Highlights included seeing their excited faces as they were getting ready to come downstairs (see pic), baby Cooper rolling in the wrapping paper piles all morning and cooking Christmas Dinner with my mom all afternoon. Memorable moment....Jonas getting a "shiner" when his cousin got over zealous with the Wii remote....ouch!!!!

I am slowly starting to put the house back together and get back to normal life. I have so many great new products to add to the store now I just need the time to do it! I also need to find a way to simultaneously finish off all the fudge and truffles in my kitchen while I start losing the holiday pounds I have been putting on! Have any ideas, feel free to share!

Don't Forget to Track Santa on Christmas Eve

One of our favorite activites on Christmas Eve is to track Santa online as he makes his deliveries! A great website to do this at (although you can probabbly find a few others) is at http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.htm

Beginning at 2:00 am MTN on Christmas Eve, you can track Santa Live as he makes his historical journey around the world! They even have photos of Santa and his reindeer as they work their way around the world! Also a great motivator to get them to get in bed before Santa and his reindeer arrive!

There is also a way to reach Santa's voicemail (this is a San Diego number, not toll free) at (858) 560-6994 in case (like me) you didn't mail Santa your Christmas list in time!

From the 11 year-old's archives

One of my all time favorite stories is from when my eldest son Jonas was just six. I recently told him this story over dinner and he laughed so hard I was worried he might pass out....that means it must be "blog worthy"

We were moving and my husband was trying to come up with games to entertain Jonas in the U-Haul. He came up with the "how many game". How many toes are in the car...how may ears, etc. Jonas has always been quite a know-it-all so my husband had to step up his game a little to how many appendices, how many kidneys.....to that Jonas blurted out "TWO"!

My husband and I looked at each other, puzzled, and asked how did you get two? And then he says (completely serious), "well you don't have kid knees and mommy doesn't have kid knees but I have kid knees"

Have a great weekend!

Today Felt Like Christmas To Me!

Today I have a list of chores a mile long that I have barely put a dent in BUT the mail came and the UPS man has been here and I am in absolute heaven.......

Today our "Ooga Boogas" arrived from Australia and they are irresistible! I love how friendly she was able to make the monsters for us and now my 4 year-old wants to keep them all. The next package had the first four bags from our upcoming C Berry Baby Line of diaper bags and purses.....all the agonizing over which fabrics and which styles really paid off! Suzanne from Bella Boutique Creations did a beautiful job!

Just when (in my world) I thought it couldn't get any better, a bulk of fabric showed up (I know it is on the floor in the picture but that is okay because I still have to wash it before I sew). Now all I want to do is get inspired and start some more sewing! I haven't decided whether I am going to start with shopping cart covers or kimono baby booties....my favorite part of the process is ironing the beautiful fabrics after the wash and seeing the patterns jump back to life! ahhh.....I love the little joys in life, they are everywhere! Now I have to get back to my chores.....ugghhh.....

Get it in time for Christmas!

I have just added the option for overnight delivery in order to ensure delivery in time for Christmas.

Keeping a stock of customized products in stock has really helped this year! Several items that take 2 weeks for the manufacturer to create are here in stock and they have been sending their customers to us. I almost completely out of Nursing Necklaces but we have a few left that can ship in time!

Just as a note, we do have some already customized, ready to ship, Ellie Bellie Superhero Reversible Capes with the following customization:

Lightening Bolt: available in Black/Aqua Dots and Diamond/Red

Letter "A": available in Black/Aqua Dots

Letter "C": available in Black/Aqua Dots

Letter "I": available in Black/Aqua Dots

Letter "M": Available in Diamond/Red

Letter "S": available in Diamond/Red

You Can Donate Your Ponytail too!

Those of you who have known me a while know that every few years when my hair is unbearably long, I donate it to Locks of Love that creates real life hair wigs for children who have lost their hair due to cancer! I went in and donated yesterday and, as always, it felt great!

While I was there I learnt about a new hair donation program called Pantene Beautiful Lengths that donates real-hair wigs to woman fighting cancer to help them regain a sense of normalcy in their life.

Both charities are wonderful causes. If you are thinking of donating just keep in mind that Locks of Love has a 10" minimum and Pantene Beautiful Lengths accepts donations starting at 8 inches. 2 inches may not seem like much but when you are talking about how short your hair will end up, it makes a big difference.

Just thought I'd share and maybe try to inspire and remind you of the little ways we can offer a BIG help to others!!

here is my "after" shot..............

"Chase-isms"....a 4-year-old's world

My 4-year old Chase can talk anyone's ear off, just ask our friends, neighbors, the UPS man and the 911 operator (that's a whole other story). It's not just how much he talks, it is the things that come out of his mouth that make him so hilarious! I thought I'd share a few of what we lovingly call "Chaseisms"..............

Whenever he tells a joke (which only make sense if you are 4 too) he asks, "Did I make you laugh all the way to Africa?"

Today in the car when one of the 6th graders in our carpool asked him when he had made the picture on his shirt, he replied "Oh, just about fifteen hundred years ago."

If he gets hurt instead of a kiss he claims , "A cookie will make it feel better"

If he really wants something he tells you that it will make his heart soooo full of happiness if you give it to him but if you don't his heart will be so sad.

He has officially re-named his little brother "Cooper the Pooper Spitter-Upper"

He asked my mom once (the Nana) why she was short like ET

He thinks his phone number is 2 and tells people to call him all the time.

Once when he...uh...how do I say it politely, passed gas, he said, "I burped out my butt".

Even more potty humor (can you imagine if he reads this one day when he is a teenager) once he was grunting and groaning on the potty and all of a sudden he moans out "E......T.........phone........ home....." my husband and I were actually crying we were laughing so hard!

Hope you got a chuckle out! Have a great day

Make Your Own Marshmallow Shooters

These marshmallow shooters are simple, quick, inexpensive and best of all......not messy to make! They will guaranty hours of family fun (especially when stuffed in every one's stockings for Christmas morning).

Materials Needed:

PVC Pipe from your local home improvement store cut into approx. 10 inch length

White Vinyl Covering (can also use fabric, contact paper, wrapping paper, use your creativity)

Decorative items (ours were made with electrical tape in red and green wrapped like a candy cane but yarn or ribbon works fine as well)

Mini marshmallows

sandwich baggy and ribbon to attach

Directions:

Simply wrap the PVC Pipe with decorative paper and apply a strip of electrical tape at the top and bottom to secure in place. Next wrap PVC Pipe with electrical tape. Place mini marshmallows in a sandwich bag and secure with ribbon. For fabric, you can also paint glue on the pipe and roll onto the fabric and trim edges.

A mom hint: on Christmas Eve, hide a secret stash of mini marshmallows so you have extra "ammo" on Christmas morning

Ooga Booga for you to love!

These adorable monsters are on their way all the way from "Down Under". I worked with the creator to make a Ooga Booga line for our store that would be free from buttons and have a friendlier face (minus scary teeth) and I couldn't be happier with the results!

We have Orange Spikey Oogaboogas, Green OogaBoogas and Yellow Two Eyed Oogaboogas. If you have any ideas for fun names for the Ooga Boogas, please feel free to post a comment!

BabyLegs Shipments are coming in now!

I know today is wordless but.............I know a lot of you have been waiting for new shipments of BabyLegs to get here and I am happy to say the first (of three) shipment arrived today and the inventory has been added to the site. The next shipment will be in tomorrow!

I have been getting a lot of emails asking about BabyLegs on girls 3 and up so I thought I would post a few model shots to show how they can be worn as your baby grows!

HINT: The Organic BabyLegs actually run longer than the regular BabyLegs so I prefer them for older kiddos!

Wordless Wednesday

New Blog Poll

Our new Blog Poll is up, what do you have marked off your Christmas List.....please tell me I am not the only one who can't mark them all off!!!!

C Berry Baby Monthly Contest

Our C Berry Baby of the Month is....................Princess Harmony!

Harmony turns 1 on December 24th and is wearing one of our Pink and Green Reversible tutu by Ellie Bellie Kids in Pink and Green and a interchangeable headband! Congrats Harmony on winning a FREE pair of BabyLegs!

The Monsters Are Here!

Finally, I have the NissaLisa Monster Onesies, Tees and Monster Fun up on the website....thanks for your patience! NissaLisa products are hand made by two sister-in-laws that have 8 kids (no, that is not a type-o)between them! As you can imagine, one thing they do not have a lot of is time so we are so excited that they were able to supply us with a line in time for the holidays!

Each Monster is made of terry cloth making it washable & durable enough to outlast your "little monster". Check them out quick as we won't be restocking any of their line until after the New Year and they are bound to go fast!

Just some inspiration..........

Simplify life, magnify living

Enjoy the little things in life for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Love is not a matter of counting the years it's a matter of making the years count.

Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss you'll land among the stars.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Thanks for your support and patience!

The holiday time is always a fun but hectic but add the "business boom" into it and I feel like a crazy lady! I am having a hard time keeping a lot of items in stock but I am trying to place reorders as quickly as possible to be sure to meet all of the holiday deadlines. All of our "mom-preneurs" that make the products we sell are experiencing the same "crazy-lady syndrome" and are having a harder time getting their orders out to me quickly. Because of this, I have taken the ability to order items that I don't have in my possession (with the exception of personalized items) off of my website so people aren't stuck being nervous about their gifts arriving in time. If you see anything you want showing as "out of stock" please feel free to email me to see when they are expected to arrive. I will be happy to reserve one for you!

Good news is the popular Biscotti Style Secure2Me Blankets that were on back order arrived today just in time for our rainy weather! I have 2 shipments of BabyLegs "en route" including some new designs and we will be getting a new design of Mommy & Me Nursing Necklaces soon!

Also, I spoke with the girls over at Julian & Co aka Little Jules and their current turn a round time is 10 days so you still have time before Christmas if you get them in soon!

SNEAK PEEK-Our new Line of Purses, Totes & Diaper Bags

It is so exciting- after 6 bolts of fabric, numerous late night brainstorming sessions, and kids running at our feet- the first C Berry Baby Bags are being cut! Here is a sneak peek at 3 of the designs:

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Traditions

With the birth of our 3rd child, my decision to open a business and stay at home, and my husbands career change all happening this year we knew that we needed to scale down our Christmas "gift giving" and try to refocus on the true spirit of the holidays.

I looked around for inspiration on new traditions that we could incorporate and I thought I would share a few and hopefully you can share some of your family traditions as well!

Instead of a standard advent calendar we created a "Christmas of Good Deeds Countdown". Each of my older boys had 24 strips of paper and a Christmas Tree cutout. On each of the links we wrote down a good deed for the day. My 4 year old kept it simple, give someone a big hug, be a helper around the house, etc while my 11 year-old came up with ideas like donating some of his toys to charity, teaching his brother something new and making breakfast in bed (my favorite). Each day they are so excited about seeing what their good deed will be that they have seemed to forgotten that it is also a countdown to Christmas Day!

This year on the night that we set up our Christmas Tree, we are going to lay by the tree huddled in blankets and read Christmas stories by the fire (even though it is still in the 70's in San Diego).

We adopted-a-family through our church that lost their home in the fires. The best way to teach our kids to be generous and giving is by modeling it. We have had a great time shopping for things to give to boys who are around their same age.

Please feel free to post a comment to share some of your family traditions!

C Berry Baby Monthly Contest

Did you know that each month we have a "C Berry Baby of the Month" Contest? The winner's picture is posted on our website on the Contests and Specials Page. The winner receives a free pair of BabyLegs!