Book Fan Friday

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! Ours was nice. Baby Girl ate a little bit of everything we had and pretty much liked it all! Now today is all about putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house for Christmas. We got a couple of new decorations last year and I'm excited about putting them up! We usually get more stuff to build on our decorations the day after the holiday (whether it be Halloween, Christmas, whatever) so we can get it cheaper. Unless I see something I just LOVE and don't want to risk it selling out before the sales. I try to be good about that, though. :) This year we only bought Baby Girl a new stocking (since hers from last year was pink, small, and said "Baby's 1st Christmas") and a light up polar bear to go on our front lawn. SUPER cute. We also got Baby Girl a new ornament, which is something we'll be doing every year. My parents did it for me (it was always wrapped and under the tree when I got home from school and the tag always said To: Me From: the Christmas tree... it was always the first ornament to go up that year) so I would have a nice start to my own Christmas tree whenever I moved out. So we're doing the same with our daughter.

Speaking of Christmas, I will be updating the look of this blog today. Please check back soon if it is not up when you read this! Awhile back I won a giveaway for a custom header from Coffee: Freshly Roasted Graphic Design. I LOVE her work and I think the header she made me is so perfect! As for the background, my friend over at Momma's Playground put it together for me. Isn't it so cute? There is another background I found over at The Cutest Blog on the Block that I like, too, so I might switch things up halfway through the season. Who knows? :)


Anyway, on to this week's Book Fan Friday! I've decided that starting this Friday and for every Friday through Christmas I am going to read Baby Girl a new Christmas book. Okay, so if you've joined me for Book Fan Friday before, you know of my love for the If You Give series by Laura Numeroff. Not to mention the fabulousness that is the Kohl's Cares for Kids program. Well, one of the books available through that program was If You Take A Mouse to the Movies.


Among other things, the mouse strings popcorn and wants to put it on a Christmas tree and make ornaments and whatnot, so it seemed perfect for today.

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

Happy Friday! We chose a special story for this week since Baby Girl turns 1 tomorrow! I absolutely LOVE Disney and Winnie the Pooh is one of my favorites. A long time ago I got The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh written by A.A. Milne.


There is a story in the book called Eeyore Has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents.


Eeyore happens to be one of my favorite Disney characters so I was excited to share this story with Baby Girl.

Sorry it's a short Book Fan Friday, but there is a pretty long list of stuff I still need to get done before Baby Girl's party tomorrow! I'll post pics of the party tomorrow night or Sunday.

Please visit my Amazon store to purchase this or any other books featured on Book Fan Friday! And if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

First off this week, I would like to introduce to you (drumroll, please)....

THE OFFICIAL BOOK FAN FRIDAY BUTTON!


I'll wait until you're done cheering...

Done? Okay. :) My friend over at Momma's Playground made this button for me. I am super excited to have a cool button for Book Fan Friday. I have it over there in the sidebar and would be more than honored if you wanted to grab one and put it on your blog.

So, we need to get ourselves to the library because, well, it's been awhile. But this week just wasn't the week. Baby Girl came down with the flu or something a few days ago. She had a high fever, was cranky, clingy, didn't want to eat much... just generally unhappy. She's getting better and better each day and it looks like she's almost kicked it, but I didn't want to push it so we stayed in and read Richard Scarry's Favorite Storybook Ever.


Anyone else love this book from when they were a kid? When I saw it at the NEX (where they have a small selection of children's books) I was so thrilled! We read it this week and Baby Girl, of course, loves all the colorful, silly pictures. And I loved sharing with her yet another book I loved from my childhood.

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

This coming Monday's Muffin Tin Monday theme is Children's Literature. So I wanted to pick out a good book that I could create a muffin tin around (come back on Monday to see what I did). I also was getting a request from my hubby to make Puffins again (surprise, surprise, yet another GREAT idea from Bakerella!). When I got this request I immediately thought of the book If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. A little while ago we had gotten If You Give a Pig a Party and really enjoyed it. Baby Girl just loves the illustrations.


Please visit my Amazon store to purchase this or any other books featured on Book Fan Friday!

I am so excited this week to put up a MckLinky for you to join in on Book Fan Friday! If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

Goooood morning! Well, technically, good evening since I'm writing this on Thursday night, but whatever. It's time for Book Fan Friday, once again! Yay! Hooray!!! Okay, I need to lay off the birthday cookies... too much sugar. (I'm turning 25 today! Okay, well, honestly I'm turning 27 but my friend over at Saving the World One Cupcake at a Time and I have decided I am turning 25.) Oh, and they are banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, by the way. Yummy! Anyway, this week's book is The Shy Little Kitten by Cathleen Schurr.


Wanna know how I picked this book this week? Well, it was about 9pm here and I realized I didn't have a book out for the post. AND all of Baby Girl's books are in her room. AND she was already sleeping. SO I had to sneak in and grab the first book that was on top. I love going in and checking on her before I go to bed anyway, though. She is just so beautiful and peaceful when she's sleeping. *sigh* ♥

Anyway, this book really is a classic and Baby Girl LOVES cats so this is a great book for her. She gets excited when I get this book out and points to the cats and says "Cat!" Again, *sigh* ♥

Totally random thought of the day: Anyone else have "You're lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground!" stuck in your head? *ahem* Moving on...

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

Baby Girl decided to take an early nap today and slept through storytime. Well, to tell you the truth, I really didn't feel motivated enough to go just to get a new book. Lazy, I know, but I have been feeling worn out lately and wanted to just relax. Nothing wrong with that every now and then, right? Anyway, so I decided to pull out a book from our own little home library that we haven't read in awhile. I decided to pull out a classic... One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss.

Can never go wrong with Dr. Seuss!! This was one of my favorite books growing up and my wonderful husband found it at a garage sale here shortly after Baby Girl was born. She loves all the colors in the book. It was a perfect choice for this lazy Friday. :)

Please visit my Amazon store to purchase this or any other books featured on Book Fan Friday!

Book Fan Friday

Thank goodness it is Friday!!! If for no other reason than another installment of Book Fan Friday! I caught some 24-hour bug that has been going around (at least I hope it only lasts that long!) and don't feel so hot so please forgive the short post this week. We're continuing our Christmas book theme this month with Merry Christmas, Curious George by Margret and H.A. Rey.


It is a very cute book about Curious George visiting a Christmas tree farm. I mean, it has to be cute, right? It's about Curious George and all the craziness he gets into!

Once again, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

Happy Friday! This week I wanted to read Baby Girl one of my favorite stories from when I was a kid. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.


The book I have has this story as well as a few others like Pinocchio and Thumbelina. I really want to get a book that is just The Velveteen Rabbit and has more illustrations eventually. Maybe on our next trip back to the states. :) It is a beautiful story about a toy bunny who becomes real because his boy loved him so much. I read it to Baby Girl for the first time when she was probably a few weeks old and both hubby and I teared up.

Please visit my Amazon store to purchase this or any other books featured on Book Fan Friday! And if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

Storytime today was extra special because my wonderful husband was able to join us! He had a break from work and came to see what it was all about. You could really tell Baby Girl liked having her Daddy come listen to a story with her.

While looking through all the books this morning, I wanted to find one that I was not familiar with at all. Some of the books I have done for this blog so far I have either read, heard of, or were familiar with the characters (ie. Berenstain Bears). So I really wanted to discover something new with Baby Girl. I came across a book with a cute little owl on the cover. Turns out the owl doesn't want to be known as a cute, little thing.... at least he doesn't think he does. It is I'm Not Cute! by Jonathan Allen.


It is a sweet little book. I generally read to Baby Girl during the day, not as part of her bedtime routine. I want to incorporate reading into her bedtime routine, but just haven't yet. Anyway, I feel like this book is a perfect bedtime story. I can picture myself reading it to Baby Girl while she lie all snuggled up in her bed (well, when she's older... she's still in a crib right now of course).

I am still trying to think of a good name to replace "Book Fan Friday." Honestly I haven't really sat down and brainstormed too much, but I'm hoping inspiration will come! If you have any ideas, please leave a comment! And if you have any books you have read your little one that you guys have just loved, I would love some recommendations! I received a recommendation last week and look forward to seeing if the library here has it. Since it was similar to the book I checked out last week, I decided to save it for another week but it is on my list!

Book Fan Friday

Happy Friday! I realized yesterday that I haven't done Book Fan Friday for TWO Fridays in a row! Ack! You'd think the last two Fridays were, I don't know, Christmas and New Year's or something. ;) Either way, I am going to try and not let that happen again.

This week I thought I'd share something that I think is just the coolest thing. For Christmas, Baby Girl's Great Aunt Barbara sent her some storybook pillows. I'm sure most people have seen these before, but I hadn't until they arrived in the mail. She got Baby Girl Cinderella, Tinker Bell's Talent, and Disney Princess - The Best Day of All.


The front and back covers are like, well, pillows and have fabric pages. They have tabs (one with velcro) that keep it closed.


I found this set at QVC and they also have another set we might get with Snow White - The Sweetest One of All, Sleeping Beauty - The Wedding Gift, and The Princess and the Frog. They also have sets for boys that include stories from Cars, Toy Story, and others. LOVE them! Baby Girl always brings them to me to read to her and she will lay on them or cuddle with them every day.

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

**God Bless America, our military, police, firefighters, and everyone who was (and still is) affected by 9/11.**

Every time I go look for a book for Baby Girl, I always see Bee-Wigged by Cece Bell, but never chose it. I guess I didn't really feel drawn to a book about a giant bee when I saw books like Guess How Much I Love You and Are You My Mother? So this week I figured I might as well try it out! It ended up being a very sweet story about being yourself and how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.


Bee-Wigged definitely has a great message and goes about bringing it in a fun, unexpected way.

Please visit my Amazon store to purchase this or any other books featured on Book Fan Friday! Have a fabulous weekend!

Book Fan Friday

Hello! I may be off spending time with my hubby and Baby Girl, but I made sure to write up a Book Fan Friday post before I left so we could still keep up with what everyone is reading this week. In the spirit of going to Disney World, I read Baby Girl another book from the Enchanted Moments series. Since we are going to go see Cinderella's Castle, I felt the perfect story would be Cinderella.

A wonderful story that I have always absolutely loved. :) I always get excited to share with Baby Girl different stories and characters that I loved as a child (and still love!).

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday News

So thanks to a wonderful suggestion from my hubby (and support from my great friends), I am going to change up Book Fan Friday just a tad. Starting next week I am going to put up a MckLinky and would LOVE if you all would join in! If you've found a children's book, novel, or whatever that you really enjoy, please share it with us!

Book Fan Friday... With A Little Extra Story Thrown In

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it or not, but we're planning a trip in March to go to Disney World.... ooohhhh, actually I just looked back a few posts and I mentioned our trip in October. Well, first of all, for a few reasons that changed from late October to late September. AND I have some super exciting news. We're going this March as well! Hold on, don't get too excited yet. That's not the best part. I'm going to be meeting MY DAD there!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, a bit of background might be needed here. The last time I went to go see my dad was shortly after my mom passed away (she was only 56 - cancer sucks) and I was 7 months pregnant. That means I haven't seen him in 1 1/2 years AND he's never met his one and only granddaughter. Which means he finally gets to meet her!!!! I am beyond excited, let me tell you. And I feel very happy that I get to take him to WDW because, well, I get my Disney obsession from him and he's always lived in Cali so he's gone to Disneyland in Anaheim hundreds of times but he's never had a chance to go to WDW. So I think that it will be incredible for him to see it for the first time and to see it through Baby Girl's eyes. Please excuse me if I'm rambling. I just wanted to share my joy with you.

Actually, I decided to share this story today (as opposed to, say, this weekend) because it actually kinda has something to do with Book Fan Friday this week. Well, we already know that Baby Girl's 2nd birthday is going to have a Disney princess theme (Hubby's the one that suggested it! ♥) and she has had her picture taken with all but 4 of the princesses. I thought it would be cool to do something with those pictures to use as decoration or a game for her party (I have some ideas I'm playing with, but that's a different post). Anyway, I figured she still needs her picture taken with Princess Tiana (LOVE The Princess and the Frog), Pocahontas, Mulan, and... Princess Jasmine. Which brings me to....

Since I was thinking about this today I decided to showcase one of the books in the Enchanted Moments series, Aladdin.

I love this story. Fabulous movie and music, too, I might add.

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

Happy Friday! We finally got our little butts over to the library this week to grab a couple of books. This week's book is Poor Puppy by Nick Bruel.


This is the sequel to Bad Kitty, which I got awhile back. I got a kick out of that book and Baby Girl enjoyed it, too, so I thought it'd be cool to go ahead and borrow Poor Puppy. It definitely is super cute and it still has some cool details in the pictures just like the first book. At one point while the puppy is playing with all his toys (because kitty doesn't want to play with him) he finds a bunch of cat toys and you see kitty perk up and start to follow him around. I just love that you get more out of the story when you really pay attention to the pictures. This book goes through the numbers 1-26 and the alphabet.

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

Let's see... it's Friday... that means today we are checking out of our hotel at Walt Disney World and driving up to Jacksonville to get ready for our flight back home tomorrow. Next week I will be sure to post pictures and stories from our trip! But right now, it's time for...


Since we were at Disney this week, I decided to post about The Jungle Book 2.


Baby Girl actually picked out this book. We went to the library to pick a few books a couple of weeks ago. Hubby came, too, and we decided to pick out 3 books. I found one right away, and as Hubby was looking for one, Baby Girl found this book, picked it up, went to one of the floor pillows in the kid area, and sat down to flip through it. We couldn't leave without that book!! It was so sweet. It is broken up into three sections which are the perfect length for Baby Girl so she doesn't lose interest. The pictures are beautiful, too.

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

It's already Friday!!! I'm sorry for the lack of posts this week. Our travel dates got kinda messed up and we've been scrambling to figure something out. I'll fill you in on everything when we get back. I'm not sure when we're going, but soon we'll be at Disney World! My Daddy will be flying in, too, and I'll be seeing him for the first time in about 2 years. AND he'll be meeting Baby Girl for the first time! Holy cow I'm excited! So I won't be here next Friday, but I am going to have a BFF ready to post while I'm gone. This week, though, is Peanut Butter and Jellyfishes by Brian P. Cleary.

I really enjoyed this book. It is very colorful and fun, which Baby Girl loved. It goes through the alphabet listing some very silly things like "rafting red raspberry rivers." I guess that's why it's called "A Very Silly Alphabet Book." :D

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

Happy Friday everyone! Being the Friday before Thanksgiving, I wanted to pick out a special Thanksgiving book to read to Baby Girl. We found The Beastly Feast by Bruce Goldstone.


It is pretty cute and the illustrator used great, vivid colors. It is about a feast that all the animals are bringing food to. For example, mosquitoes bring burritos and fishes bring knishes. It's a lot of fun.

We also did a bit of an art project. I printed out a Happy Thanksgiving coloring page off of Crayola and let Baby Girl go at it. We also did a few Christmas projects, but I'll post more about those after Thanksgiving. :)

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

A Sparkly New Book Fan Friday

I had a hard time deciding which book to do this week. Hubby suggested this book since it is definitely one of Baby Girl's favorites. She only has board books around that she can reach so she doesn't tear the pages. She's usually very gentle with books, but every now and then she gets a little rip happy. She brings this book to me multiple times a day to read. My Pretty Pink Purse by Tim Bugbird.

The whole book, inside and out, is sparkly and glittery. Using the flash helped show that.

This isn't a storybook, but it's cute and fun. The "purse" is full of everything pink, of course. Baby Girl just loves it. As I write this she saw the book on my lap and started asking me to read it. I definitely recommend this as just a little something fun if you have a girly girl in the house.

If you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.

Book Fan Friday

Happy Friday! Quite awhile ago we started making plans to take another vacation to Walt Disney World. This week we have started planning more of the details and getting psyched up for the trip. So this week I decided to start reading Baby Girl some of the Disney books we have. Keeping in the theme of yesterday's post, I read her The Little Mermaid.


This particular book is part of the Enchanted Moments collection that includes books with the stories of Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. What's really cool about this collection is when you put them next to each other in order, there is a picture of Cinderella's Castle on the binding. A definite must-have if you, uh, I mean your little one is a Disney princess fan. :)

As always, if you have found a great book, children's or otherwise, I would love to see what it is and what you thought about it! I will leave the link-up open all week so feel free to join in at any time.