Blog Awards

I have just been awarded two awards from my friends. I was awarded the Friends Award by gahome2mom @ Loving Heart Designs and the Sisterhood Award by EllyBean @ Connected2Christ on Monday, March 23, 2009. I want them to know how thankful I am to have friends like them!

Gahome2mom is a homeschooling mom of 5 girls. She also has 2 grandsons, 2 granddaughters and a Chocolate Labrador Retriever puppy dog named Charley.

EllyBean was my good friend even before we were bloggers :) We met online when we were younger because we both loved this series of chapter books named 'Animorphs'. We would role play the characters together and sometimes make up our own. She is actually one of gahome2mom's daughters. She now has a beautiful baby girl that is about my Teela's age and lives only about an hour and a half away from me. She is also very talented and has an Etsy and a Zazzle store.



So along with the Friends award comes some rules ... here they are ...
Rules do accompany this honor:"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award." .

The Friends Award Goes to:
1. EllyBean @ Connected2Christ
2. Jordan @ Goddess of Sewing
3. Carrie @ Carrie 143
4. Codilyn @ The Suite Life of Zach and Codi
5. Carla @ How Does This Work Again?
6. Missy @ Sweet Funky Vintage
7. Carrie @ The Gremlin Wrangler
8. Barb @ Handbook of Nature Study



Those who won the Sisterhood award please follow my example and pick some friends of your own and send them the “Sisterhood Award” too.

The Sisterhood Award Goes to:
1. Laura @ The Allen Family
2. Kineret @ BlackBerry Blossom
3. Melody @ Melody and David Olsen

PakNak Charms Giveaway Winners

I am a little late at posting this because my daughter, Tatiana, was in the hospital to get a portacath placed so they can take her blood easier for sodium levels. I was there with her and I realized that my laptop that I had with me didn't have a screen capture application on it and I didn't have permission to add one...it is actually my husband's laptop. I want to thank everyone who commented and let you know that I will hold other contests on this blog...so if you didn't win this time by all means subscribe if you haven't already so that you can keep tabs on when the next contest will be. Anyway, without further ado the winners are: gahome2mom, YZgirl4, and EllyBean!! I will be contacting you each by email.

5 Minutes for Mom Ultimate Blog Party

Welcome! Please make yourself at home, read some posts, comment, and subscribe if you want. If you are here for the Blog Party, then let me take a moment to introduce myself. I am Crystal a.k.a. Finamoon, stay at home mom extraordinaire to 4 kids. I have a wonderful, supporting husband that has just as many (if not more) projects than I do. He currently works for the Portland General Electric Beaver power plant as a Plant Equipment Operator and is taking classes to get a mechanical engineering degree. He also just got LASIK done to both of his eyes and is loving it! I currently homeschool both my sons who are 8 and 6 (almost 7). I am also planning to homeschool my 5 year old special needs daughter who is totally blind and has cerebral palsy (among other things) and my almost 1 year old daughter. I also love to take photos, blog, travel, and shop. What can I say? I like to stay busy!

5 Minutes for Mom is having an Ultimate Blog Party from March 20th - 27th and everyone is invited!! Head on over and read the instructions on how to participate. Prizes will be awarded and fun will be had!! I am participating and you can too. Join in the fun here as we celebrate and don't forget to post!!

There are so many cool prizes to be won at this year’s Ultimate Blog Party, but my top three picks would be:

89 — $100 gift card to HomeGoods
Provided by: HG Openhouse
58 – Kitchen Aid Artisan Stand Mixer
Provided by: Moms Who Think
17 — Fire polished Czech Bead Bracelet (sized to fit) and Pierced Earring Set (color based on availability)
Provided by: Jenna’s Jewels

And if my top three picks are already chosen, I’d love any of the following (in order of preference):

2, 133, 87, 15, 19, INTL 37, INTL 41, INTL 51, USC 17, USC 44, USC 75, INTL 61, USC 11, USC 12, USC 28, USC 39, USC 14, USC 25, USC 35,USC 78, USC 79, 112, 7, 30, 8, 48, 21, USC 10, USC 15, USC 73, USC 77, 28, 44, 122, 130, 9, 1, 94, 11, 12, 20, 16, 55, 38, 52, USC 45, USC 46, USC 47, USC 51, 69, 22, 113, USC 40, 62, 41, 117, 104, 91, 125, 60, 135, 118, 81, 80, 90, 97, 51, 106, 121, 26, 56, 5, 46, 111, 98, 76, 67, 72, 73, 79, 40

If none of these are left then I would be happy with winning anything!! :)

My Manga Family

Here is from left to right...My husband: Brian a.k.a. Afalina, My oldest son (who is currently 8): Delbin a.k.a. squeaker, Me a.k.a. Crystal or Finamoon, My oldest daughter (who is currently 5): Tatiana a.k.a. Tati or Boo, My youngest daughter (who is currently 11 months): Teela a.k.a. Tee or Na, My youngest son (who is currently 6): Jaedan a.k.a. Bug.

I had fun making this of my family. I had to improvise a little bit because they didn't have any really young kids to work with in the program I was using called Face Your Manga. I used the collage feature on Picasa to do this picture.

PakNak Charms Review and Giveaway

"PakNaks are fun soft rubbery 3-D decorations for kids (and adults too!) to personalize all of their stuff. Backpacks, lunchbags, headbands, computer bags, household items, the list is only limited by your imagination."

They have 40+ designs to choose from and each come with a card that has some information about the character you chose. They are interchangeable, collectable, and tradable. They go on extremely easily and are weather resistant so they can be taken anywhere.

I received The Squishes and William to try out and I decided to put them on my daughter, Tatiana's, g-tube pump travel bag to dress it up a bit. It was very plain and even though Tatiana is totally blind she can feel the PakNaks with her fingers because they are 3-D. We went out with it on her wheelchair that was just redone because she had grown out of the seating on it and already and the kids in the neighborhood were asking where she had gotten them. They thought they were really neat.
Win it! Anne at PakNak is generously giving 12 PakNaks away for my blog contest. Three of my readers will win 4 PakNaks each. Considering I only have 2 so far, I envy you :)

Mandatory:

Go to the PakNak website and tell me which 4 PakNak Charms you would love.

Additional entries:

1. Subscribe to my blog by blogger, by email, or both and let me know. (1 extra entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway on your blog and provide me with the link. Make sure you have the link to this post and PakNaks in your blog entry or it won't count. (2 extra entries)

3. Grab My Button - See Sidebar to the right - Leave your link (1 extra entry)

4. Technorati my blog and let me know your link. (1 extra entry)

5. Tweet about this contest on Twitter and leave me your Twitter user name or link. (1 extra entry)

Make sure you leave me your email in all posts so that I can contact you. If you blogged about this leave 2 entries saying you did. This contest ends on Monday March 23, 2009 at midnight (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada).

Also, my friend at Connected2Christ is having a different PakNak contest on her blog too.