FREE Swimsuit Giveaway!!!

My swimsuit company, Pink Desert is having a

FREE SWIMSUIT GIVEAWAY!!!

The winner will receive a Lime Ricki, Hapari, or ModBE suit of their choice. You can view all of the suits on my website.

To enter the giveaway go here: www.fabulousfunfinds.com

Good Luck!

A girl can dream...

There's this empty retail space a few miles from our home in a shopping area with TJ MAXX and a bunch of other stores. I secretly (or maybe not so secretly) would LOVE to own my own store. Right now I run my swimsuit business out of my home and on the Internet. But I have high hopes of someday opening up my own brick and mortar store and expanding into clothing also. Anyways, every once in awhile I take a look at the available retail locations surrounding my home. I've had my eye on this particular retail space for about two years. Already painted, beautiful flooring, and ready to go. Just waiting to be filled with merchandise. Every now and then I stroll by after shopping and peer into the window.
It probably won't ever happen. And it would probably be a lot more of a headache than it would be fun. But hey, a girl can dream right?

Zumbathon

I had the most fun at the Zumbathon on Friday night. Seriously. What is more fun than several hours of nonstop dancing and booty shaking?
I missed the memo it was a St. Patrick's Day Zumbathon and everyone was supposed to wear green. Oops.

It was held at Silverton Casino

The Chip n' Dales may or may not have made an appearance. Alright, let's be honest that's them on stage! Only in Vegas right?! Don't worry mom, they kept their pants on.

I'm hooked on Zumbathons. Who else wants to come next time?

Happy St. Patrick's Day

From this little lucky charm (a day late).

Wondering what that white line is across the picture? Oh don't worry, she is just pulling a bunch of floss out of the container before I realized what she is doing.

Anyways, on St. Patrick's Day we got a babysitter and had dinner at Brio with our friends Bailey and Ernie. Dinner was good and the chocolate caramel cake we had for dessert was possibly the best cake I've ever had. What were your St. Patrick's Day plans?

18 Months

Kensie is a year and a half! Niel and I both agreed today that she is cuter than she has ever been. Yes, she drives me crazy at times with her tantrums and her strong will. But, she is far more funny, cute, and loving than she's ever been.

Weight:  20.2 lbs (5th percentile)

Height:  30 1/4 inches (10-25th percentile)

Head:  46 1/2' (50th percentile)

We've had pretty much the same routine for the last several months since Kensie switched to one nap. At first, it was a hard transition but now I like the one nap routine a lot because every day is the same. It's so much more predictable with one nap and easier to schedule the day. It's also nice to get out of the house more.

I've been wanting to do a post for awhile of our daily schedule. So here it is...a day in our life:

She's been waking up a little after 7 a.m. lately. I let her hang out in her crib for 15-60 minutes and play with her stuffed animals. Around 7:30 or 8 a.m. we have breakfast.

After breakfast we go upstairs and Kensie plays with her stuffed animals, baby, stroller, and books while I get in the shower. Once I start doing my hair and makeup she wants to get on the bathroom counter. Then she plays with my makeup bag and in the sink while I finish getting ready.

Next I get Kensie dressed, brush her teeth, and comb her hair into a pony tail sticking straight up on top of her head. If it's a special day she gets two pig tails:)

After we're finally both ready for the day (it seems to take forever sometimes!), we either run errands, or do things around the house. Tuesday mornings she has playgroup, Wednesday morning is park day, and Thursday morning is story time at the library.

Everyday around 10 a.m. she gets really cranky and needs a snack. Then she is happy again:)

We have lunch around noon and then she goes down for a nap. (Hooray!)

I usually work on my business, blog, read, clean, or coupon during nap time. I wish I napped more often during her nap time but I've always had a hard time shutting off my brain and settling down for mid-day naps. She usually naps an hour and a half to two hours. Sometimes it's almost three and I love my life. When she wakes up, I usually let her hang out in her crib for 15-30 minutes. Sometimes longer if she is just playing with her stuffed animals.

After her nap we get her a snack.

Then if it's nice outside we usually go to the park. If not we'll read books, play with toys, or run errands.

Around 4 or 5 p.m. I start cooking dinner. This is my least favorite part of the day for several reasons. 1) I don't like cooking 2)I'm not very good at cooking and 3) Kensie gets really cranky and hungry and just wants to be held while watching me cook. She also doesn't want snack food. She wants real food. Usually by the time I have dinner ready I'm about ready to pull my hair out.

Niel gets home between 5 and 6:30. 5 p.m. is very rare. 5:30 and 6 is pretty standard. 7 p.m or later is a long day and doesn't happen too often luckily. We are always SO happy when dad comes home.

We have dinner and then Kensie plays with her dad. They usually play hide and seek, wrestle around on the couch, read books, and play with toys while watching ESPN (of course). Sometimes one of us goes to the gym.

Since the time change we've been putting her to bed at 8p.m. instead of 7:30p.m. Around 7 or 7:30 we get her ready for bed. Right before bedtime we turn off all the lights, have family prayer, and sing her about three songs while holding her. Then we put her in the crib and tell her goodnight.

And that's a day! A few more things about Kensie...

Have we mentioned she loves sweets just like her mom and dad? Oh boy.

• She cuddles her puppy every night at bedtime
• Words she says consistently: Dad, hot, up, out, there, all done, thank you, bye bye, outside, eyes
• She's getting better at feeding herself with a spoon. Things get messy though.
• She folds her arms during the prayer now.
• She's been a momma's girl lately. Lots of separation anxiety.

We all got really sick this past month and have spent a lot of time cooped up in the house trying to get better. I am so happy we are finally better and back to our normal routine!

Reading Nook

Our master bedroom is rather large. I'm not saying that to be braggy or anything, we just didn't even know what to do with the extra space for awhile. We actually would rather have the other bedrooms in our home bigger and the master bedroom slightly smaller. Not complaining though.

We went back and forth on ideas for the extra space in the master bedroom. Niel wanted a reading chair and bookshelf for Christmas so we decided to turn the extra space into a reading nook. This is the end result.

I still want to hang some pictures above the big, empty wall behind the chair but I'm kinda taking a break from home projects as of late.

We are loving our reading nook. We've both been reading a lot in the last 6-9 months. Future blog post: favorite books as of late? Yes, I think so.

Valentines Day

(These were the best pictures from my photo shoot attempt on Valentines Day. She is so wiggly and uncooperative with the camera these days.)

Niel didn't have to work on Valentines this year so we started out the day with a shopping trip to Nordstrom Rack. We brought Kensie along for the shopping trip which always ends up being interesting. We were there for almost two hours and left with lots of clothes, less money, and a crying little girl. So much fun though. Next we had lunch at McDonald's and headed home for nap time.

That afternoon Niel and I got a babysitter and went to see 'The Vow'. We both really liked it. Bring a pack of tissues though. I cried through almost the whole thing.

The best part of our day was going to the buffet at the Rio. It's one of our new favorite places for dinner. After several rounds of both dinner and dessert, we left feeling full and satisfied. Having your husband home all day on Valentine's isn't bad at all.

MAGIC

A few weeks ago I attended MAGIC for the first time! I went mainly to see Modbe's swimsuits in person before ordering for my modest swimwear company, Pink Desert LLC.

Initially, I felt like a fish out of water. It was held in the Las Vegas convention center (which is huge!) and I had no idea where to go. I finally found the registration area, got my ID badge, grabbed a directory, and went in search of DownEast and ModBe's booth.

On my search for the booth I kept getting distracted. Hundreds of booths with everything from earrings, scarfs, purses, shoes, fur coats, evening wear, swim, etc. I was like a kid in a candy store. In heaven.

After about twenty minutes of wandering, I decided to check out the swim department. I was pleasantly surprised to see Hapari swimwear there. I'm always looking for new swim lines to carry and I've entertained the idea of carrying their suits in the past. I was really impressed with their suits and thought they looked better in person than online. The best thing about their line is the support their swimsuits offer for bigger chested women. Exactly what I've been looking for and something my company has been lacking in the last two years. After spending about an hour at the Hapari booth I headed over to ModBe. I met my sales rep in person finally, checked out the suits, and headed on my way.

It was a blast. If I could have, I would have stayed all day but I needed to get back home to my motherly duties.

Lately I've been spending most of my time getting ready for the 2012 swim season. I'm anticipating a busy spring/summer season and ordering lots more inventory than last year. I can't wait!