Today I met Jami who is my Tribute To Moms Contest winner!  YAY, Jami!!!

Being a parent — especially a mom — is quite a tough job!  Of course it is truly rewarding and can even bring your ability to love and feel loved to a whole new level you never thought was possible.  But there are always times, or entire days, that we chalk up as “challenging” and we hope for a better day tomorrow.

I love real parents — parents who admit to the bad times as well as the good times.  I think it is because it makes me feel better to know I am not alone.  There are days when I just want to crawl back into bed, or days when I don’t know how I’ll get through it because my monkeys won’t listen to me!

This contest that I ran in Fall 2009 was so much fun.  There were many great entries about the joys and challenges of being a mom.  I enjoyed reading every one of them!

Jami is the winner of my Tribute To Moms Contest.  Here was her entry:

I had just delivered my third baby – this time a girl. We were ecstatic! In preparation for this event, however, I wanted it to be special for my other two kids. I had hand-picked some particular gifts about a week before I was scheduled for my planned delivery. The gifts were “from the new baby” to her new big brothers. For the four-year old brother, the “baby” gave him a cool parking garage for his cars. For her two-year old brother, she got him a cute, sweet, little red Elmo doll that lets you pull his arms and legs back and forth – the Stretch and Fun Elmo.

SO, if you have never seen a bull go after a red-caped bullfighter, you have not missed anything. Just try and picture what happened next.

My two-year old (already rambunctious) son took one look at the red Elmo, and immediately began acting upon his already-understood-middle-child-syndrome anger on this poor, poor innocent doll (btw, his new baby sister happened to have been born with red hair…hmmm…). Nonetheless, that little stretchy Elmo took such a beating. Not only were his arms and legs stretched back and forth, but his entire fluffy body was tossed around the recovery room like a kangaroo that had been locked in a cage for a month (not sure if that image really works, but you get the idea). It was fortunate for little stretchy Elmo that we were in a hospital, because he needed some major repairs.

Somehow, we caught the entire fifteen-minutes (yes, fifteen-minutes of Elmo beating) on video (and yes, we will absolutely save this video until we need to show it to his someday-fiancee).

In case you were worried, nearly two years later, Elmo is a happy, well-adjusted doll that happens to be eyeless, disheveled, and missing some other body parts. Yet he always has that loving smile that brings the same to all of us, whenever we look at the poor fellow…who will forever sit on the fireplace mantle, away from angry middle-child two-year olds.

(To read all the contest entries, click here to go directly to that blog post.)

Poor Elmo

Prize 1:  Starfield Bay necklace

As the winner of this contest, Jami won a silver fingerprint charm and chain from Starfield Bay!

I think it looks great layered with her onyx necklace.  I have mine layered too.

Prize 2:  A Photoshoot with Moi!

The focus was on her as a mother of three beautiful children.

I love this one.  Tee hee.  Reminds me of my home! 

Meet The Kids

Here are some of my favorites of the kids:  Gavin (3.5), Kelsey (2) and Cade (6).

Can You Hear It….

The tune to Batman?!!  Da da da da, da da da da… BAT MAN!!!!

High Five with Elmo

At this point, Elmo was soaking wet from falling into the creek.  Nice!  And he was super dirty.  So high-fiving Elmo was not too pleasant, as you can imagine!

And that’s Brett, the daddy, on the right.  He was great as the solo act when I needed to get the kids’ attention.  Thanks Brett!  You were terrific and even entertained me as well!  What a nice bonus to my morning. 

Posted in Contests/Promos, Lifestyle

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