Guest Blogger Week: Meet Jamie @ Avant Garde Parenting

‘Roll’ into 2011: Rolos + Pretzels = Kid Friendly Deliciousness

Hey guys, I’m Jamie from Avant Garde Parenting, a website that offers tips, tricks, and unique ideas for parents of young children. I’m so happy to share one of my favorite kid-friendly recipes with you. It’s a yummy treat that’s easy to make and honestly, I don’t think it really has a name. In my family, we just call them by the two main ingredients: Rolo Pretzels. Truth: I’ve never been a fan of chocolate and pretzels together but trust me, these are to die for.

Here’s how you make them: Have your kiddos spread out mini pretzels on a cookie sheet. I put a silpat underneath, but wax paper works fine, too. Unwrap a Rolo candy for each pretzel and have your kiddos plop them right on top. Bake at 325 for 4-5 minutes until the candies are just melted.

Here’s the fun part: Making them your own. You can leave them plain, make pretzel sandwiches, press a pecan half on top of each one, sprinkle with shaved coconut, or top with your favorite (other) candy. Use your (and your kiddos’) imagination! Whatever you decide to do, these treats are delicious, easy, and a surefire party hit. Have fun and enjoy!

Guest Blogger Week: Meet Tiffany @ Mom-Nom.Com

Tiffany is a wife to her best friend and a mother to two beautiful children, Bubs & Bubbette {No, those aren't their real names. Sheesh.}   When she's not doing public relations for one of the top zoos in the country, she's over-sharing at Mom-Nom.Com, {http://mom-nom.com} the e-result of her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnoses, after nearly losing Bubs in an accident in July, 2009.  Now? She's just trying to figure out where they go from here...one post at a time. 

http://mom-nom.com

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Hi, I'm Tiffany
 
I blog over at a little land called Mom-Nom.Com. (http://www.mom-nom.com) and Kristina was kind enough to invite me to her space to help share the holidays with y'all.  She's amazing like that.  This time of year, there is nothing I love more than starting a fire, grabbing my favorite blankey, making a nice big bowl of stew...and taunting my kid with Elf on the Shelf. 
 
Wait. 
 
What?
 
Yep, you heard me right, friends.  There is nothing more traditionary in my home than the month long torture that Elf of the Shelf brings to my son.  {Side note:  a lot of normal children are tormented by the mere sight of Elf on the Shelf.  Fortunately, for us, my son is not among them.} 
 
 
I give you Exhibit A:
 

 
And the resulting Exhibit B:

Son: BUT WHY!
Me: Elf is watching. 
Son: ugh. 
 
or
 
Son: This is not fair. 
Me: Don't forget about Elf. 
Son: ugh. 
 
or, maybe even
 
Son: Please, Mom. PLEASE!
Me: Elf said no. 
Son: argh. 

I am all about traditions, people. 
 

Guest Blogger Week: Meet Elizabeth @ The Writer Revived

Please Welcome Elizabeth from The Writer Revived
She is a writer and currently working and editing on a book. She has a cute daughter SB and she lives in Florida. If you want to hear her brag about florida, her daughter and her book. Follow her tweets and blog.

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Hello! I’m Elizabeth. I live in Florida with my husband and our two year-old
daughter. After she was born, I made the surprising (to me anyway) decision to
become a stay-at-home mom. In that first year, I was immersed in motherhood.
But as my daughter grew from an infant to an increasingly independent toddler, I

realized I had neglected to nurture myself. Most importantly, I needed to get back
in touch with my creative side.

Shortly after my daughter’s first birthday, following a long hiatus, I rediscovered
my passion for writing and jumped in headfirst. I developed an idea for a
nonfiction book (about motherhood), wrote a proposal and began querying
literary agents. That proposal is currently with two agents for consideration.
My blog, The Writer Revived originally started out as a way to detail my writing
journey.

As the blog evolved, I also began to write about motherhood. It became a great
release for me to share about my experiences as a new mom. It also connected
me with tons of other moms and enabled me to develop a strong support
system. And it is the subject of my book, so it made sense to take the blog in that
direction. At this point, about half my posts are about being a mom, and half are
about being a writer. Please stop on by if you’d like get to know me a little better.
And help me get to know you! I love making new connections!


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Let it Snow?

I moved to Florida to get away from snow. After 30 years in the Midwest, I'd
had enough. However, 80 degrees year round did not particularly appeal to me,
either. So I settled in Northeast Florida, where we do have a change of seasons.
It goes a little something like this:

December = Fall
January = Winter
February = Spring
March - November = Summer

OK, I may be exaggerating a little. But I like that it can get cold here, albeit for a
short time. I get to wear sweaters and build fires in the fireplace. It can even get
really cold. But I don't ever have to worry about the white stuff. Or its very nasty
cousin, ice. Which is more than fine by me.

As much as I do not enjoy snow as an adult, I can appreciate how much fun it
is for a child. Now that I have a daughter, who turned two yesterday, I want her
to be able to experience it. When she's a little older, we will plan a trip around
seeing some snow (perhaps we will visit Kristina and her family in Tahoe!). For
now, we had the opportunity to witness it right here in the Sunshine State.

Don't get too excited. I'm talking about the machine-generated kind. America's
oldest city, St. Augustine, plays hosts to Winter Wonderland Florida, where you
can count on snow every night at 7:00 during the holiday season. Earlier this
month, we took the String Bean (SB for short) there to get in the Christmas spirit.
I'm not so sure she did...

Guest Blogger Week: Meet Jessica @ Straight Take Jess

Please welcome Jessica from Straightalkjess.
She has an awesome blog, and needs Mountain Mum readers support. Please go and check out her blog and leave her some love.
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I'm started blogging almost three years ago and since then my blog has evolved to be a little piece of me.  I use it as a sounding board, I complain, I talk about my kid, work, fashion victims, and anything else that strikes my fancy at the moment.  I've been married 8 years and we've got a 5 year old daughter and another baby due June 2011.

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December is a busy month in the "Straight Talk Jess" house.  To be fair, being a lawyer, with a {now} 5 year old Princess and a baby on the way {coming June 2011},  2 stinky dogs that always seem to be hungry, and a partridge in a pear tree, things are always busy in our house (you can check out the random craziness and my two cents on anything and everything at my blog).  We have the celebration of our sweet baby girl (who was born early and saved us from spending Christmas in the hospital 5 years ago).  We also fill our December with decorations, Christmas parties, cookie baking, and the trek home to spend the holidays with our family.
Here are a couple highlights of our busy month:

1)  Christmas decorations!  Now that my sweet girl can fully appreciate them (more than just staring at the lights in awe as a baby), I love having her help decorate the tree. It's so sweet and something I remember being such a special thing for me and my family when I was younger.  We put the Christmas music on and I let her go to town on the ornaments.  Of course she gets a little help from mom and daddy to make sure that there are some ornaments towards the top of the tree too.

2) Santa!  We have  to visit Santa.  It's tradition!  It's awesome to watch her grow from year to year and see her go from cautious, to crying, to bribed, to more-than-happy to see her with Santa.

3)  Birthday time!!! It's hard having a birthday in December.  So we don't let hers get lost in the shuffle.  This year we celebrated "Ava Day" with a couple celebrations that started with these delicious cupcakes at school and ended with a day spent doing what she wanted over the weekend. I think it's definitely a new December tradition in our house!

4) Home for the holidays.  Another big part of our December is family, of course.  We don't live close to family so we make the trek home to share our Christmas every year.  Luckily, both of our families are in the same city so we don't have to worry about visiting families in alternating years or spending one weekend here and the next there.  It's a lot of visiting {we have THREE big celebrations in one day.  And that doesn't even count what Santa brings on Christmas morning!}, a lot of family and a lot of food, but we couldn't imagine it any other way.

Hope you enjoyed the sneak peek into our whirlwind holiday month.  Thank you Mountain Mum for letting me join you!
From the "Straight Talk Jess" house to yours, I wish you a beautiful month and a very MERRY CHRISTMAS filled with joy, love and family.

Guest Blogger Week: Meet Rebekah @ Country Mouse Tales

Meet Rebekah from Country Mouse Tales. 
Check out her uber cute blog, and her cute family. All you Mountain Mum followers, please leave her some love!
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I am a 20-something Pennsylvania girl, wife to a handsome teacher, and stay-at-home mom to a one year old boy.  I am learning to cherish the little joys that life can bring as I see the world through the eyes of a child once again.  I have been chronicling my successes, failures, and kitchen disasters at www.countrymousetales.com since 2008.


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Reclaiming the Ordinary Day


-'Mama' he cries.  His little hands tangle in my hair as he clutches my neck, his eyes still heavy with sleep.  We slowly make our way down the stairs to being our morning routine.  


-Coffee percolates and I prepare his bowl of oatmeal as he sips apple juice from his favorite blue cup.


-Laundry to the left, last night's dishes to left, and a laughing boy chases the dog around the kitchen, leaving a trail of juice behind him.  


-We bundle in our coats and run to the car.  'Dog!' he yells excitedly as he sees the neighbors pet looking out the window.  'Woof, woof' he proudly barks, showing off his newest skill.  I strap him in and he gives me a smile before we head out.  


-Hours later, the turn of the key in the door.  A smiling face, handsome eyes, and a squeal of 'Dada!' as he toddles as fast as his legs can carry him to the entryway.


It's not perfect, but it's mine, and now that the hustle and bustle of the season is quickly dying down, I can finally take a look around and appreciate the gifts (not the presents, although those are nice too!) that I have been given over the last year.  The life, the love, the laughter, not so much the laundry but I'll take the good with the bad.  


It is so easy to feel down at the end of the holiday season.  The parties, the glitter, the lights, it's all gone - basically overnight.  January 1st rolls around, and the discarded Christmas trees at the curb mark the end of another year.  Three months of winter are staring us dead in the eye.  Three months of 'Ugh it's so cold' and 'I miss my flip-flops' as we trudge through another snowstorm.  I know I tend to wallow, to get stuck in the misery of the everyday instead of choosing to see it's beauty.  This winter, reclaim your day.  See the beauty in the ordinary.  It doesn't come naturally to me, but this is what I have learned in the last year - we don't get these days back.  We will only have their memory to cherish through the years to come.  I want to remember the beauty of now, the laugh of my toddler, the faint beginnings of smile lines on my husbands face.  There is beauty here. 

Guest Blogger Week: Meet Jami @ Boy Crazed Momma

Please welcome the first guest blogger this week. Jami from Boycrazedmomma.  

She is a hoot on twitter and check out her blog and let her know that you are visiting from MountainMum.com I have asked some of my favorite tweeters and bloggers to guest post for me this week, while I'm in Seattle, Washington visiting family. 

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I am a SAHM mom to two adorable, young boys--Sweetie Pie is almost 4 

and Boogaboo is 19 months. I spend my days trying to keep the chaos to a minimum while not losing my mind. I get way too little sleep and drink way too much caffeine. You can find me on Twitter (@boycrazedmomma) where I will have you captivated with my wisdom on raising boys, being the perfect wife, and just life in general. Did you sense the sarcasm? My momma motto is “Sometimes a momma’s got to do whatever it takes to survive the day and make it to tomorrow.”

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I grew up with many Christmas traditions. My aunt’s fudge. The mantel display

my mom put up from the time I was itty bitty that has now become a Christmas

fixture on my mantel. But of all our family’s Christmas traditions, the one that is

the most special to me is Christmas at Mimi & Papa’s house. (Now just Mimi’s

because Papa has been gone for 11 years.)

My extended family on my mom’s side is huge. I think we are up to around 60

people now. My Mimi & Papa had 5 children, 15 grandchildren, and I’m not

even counting up the number of great-grandchildren. And you can’t forget the

poor souls lucky ones who married into this chaos. For years our family met for

Christmas at Mimi & Papa’s the evening of Christmas Eve. Papa was adamant

about it. ADAMANT. Everyone was just expected to be there. No one questioned

it or even minded that it was more of a requirement than an option. When it was

Christmas Eve, we were there. Growing up the grandkids would always put on a

skit. And me being the bossy one meant I always put myself in charge. We’d sing

Christmas carols for the adults. The tree at their house was always decorated with

apples with all of our names on them. (Most of the apples have been lost now,

but some of the apples are still around. We still look to see whose name is on

the tree every year.) We’d open gifts. We’d eat way too much food, mainly Aunt

Gloria’s fudge. (One Christmas the fudge disappeared. We found it in Papa’s room

with him. He was rationing it out!)

I remember the first year someone missed Christmas Eve at Mimi & Papa’s. It

was my cousin. I can’t recall now why he and his wife couldn’t be there. What

I do remember is all the flack he got for missing Christmas with us. It was all

in good fun, but let me put it this way: He and his family have not missed a

single Christmas at Mimi’s since & that was 13 years ago. We are serious about

EVERYONE being there. One year we had to miss the gathering because my

family lived in another state at the time and a blizzard blew through on the 23rd.

We finally had our “own” Christmas in our own house and, although it was fun

and relaxing, we missed our extended family greatly. I still remember calling to

talk to my cousins and the bitter-sweet feeling it was because I wanted to be

there with everyone.

As years have passed & our family has grown larger, this tradition as morphed

a bit. We no longer have Christmas at Mimi’s on Christmas Eve. It’s now the

Saturday before Christmas Eve. This year for the first time EVER, our Christmas

get together will not be at Mimi & Papa’s house. Our family has just gotten too

large, so we’re meeting in a community center. We’ve gotten a little more lax

with letting people off the hook if they can’t make it—a little. (I mean come on.

I can tell you the date for Christmas at Mimi’s in 2014 right now—December

20th. Plan around it folks. But things do come up—like the year I was 38 weeks

preggers and my OB told me I had to stay in town. I missed it that year.)

As extended families go, mine is extremely close. I never realize how lucky I was

to have this growing up. I just thought everyone did. But now I realize that we

are the exception, rather than the rule. There’s something special about knowing

if you need help or just a kind word, there are at least 59 other family members

who will provide that!

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We know the celebration is a success when someone laughs so hard they pee

their pants. (And that doesn’t include anyone wearing Depends.)

We in the third generation get a kick out listening to the 1st and 2nd generations

discussing their health and surgeries of the year….each one trying to top the other

one.

Halloween - for tricks or treats? - Guest Blogger Amanda

Guest Blogger Today!

Please meet my friend Amanda from The Forever Endeavor.  I've known Amanda since high school. She is very loving and kind person. I don't think I've met anyone else in this world that has a bigger heart than this lady. She is a Newly Wed and married her high school sweat heart. I even went to homecoming with them on their first date. She has the cutest new blog and a new blogger. Although, not a mother yet, she plans on making babies in the next year or so. Don't give her too many baby horror stories. Since it's coming up on Halloween, she had a great cute post, and I asked her if I could have her as a guest on Mountain Mum. 

Please welcome Amanda to the blogging world and leave her some love @ The Forever Endeavor

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This year the discussion of dressing up has come up again between my husband and me. He really wants us both to go as 80's prom zombies. And every time he brings it up I can't help but to have the same image in my head every single time.

I don't know how many of you have seen the movie "Mean Girls" but it's one of my all time faves. It's got some of the greatest one liners EVER!

Boo, you whore!

I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me... but I can't help it that I'm so popular.

And my personal favorite

Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you.

Well it just so happens that when I think of Halloween and dressing up, I also always think of this scene; where Cady(played by Lindsay Lohan), the new student who has lived in Africa her whole life and has been home schooled up until now, walks into her new friend's party looking like this:

Because her new "friends" neglected to tell her that once you reach a certain age, dressing up for Halloween isn't about being scary and most creative anymore, it's about who can out skank each other. In fact, her exact words are:

In the real world, Halloween is when kids dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In Girl World, Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm guilty of it! I have a picture to prove it

Not my finest moment, but for that night, it was fun. Bryan bought it for me, and I'm not sure if it was supposed to be some kind of nurse or dominatrix woman? In 2005 we weren't even old enough to go out to the bars, so we went to a local house party, and even though I felt like I looked good, I still felt completely ridiculous. I mean, what would my parents say if they saw me like this?!

Now, flash forward four years, and this is what I wore last year

[please don't mind the creeper to my left, that's my husband, dressed up like a crazy psycho killer clown that just escaped from jail]

This costume was the product of a last minute decision to go out to the local bars for Halloween and not feeling comfortable enough to wear something skimpy like I did once before. And if you're wondering I was a Seahawks fan... lame.

I guess my point to all of this is, if you've got it, flaunt it, but is it necessary to show alllllll your secrets? Since it's not so cool to dress like a "ex wife" as Lindsay calls herself in the movie, it's totally fun and acceptable to feel pretty and sexy, but some of the outfits have just gone so incredibly overboard. I don't want this come across like I am judging, and I'm sure the argument will be made that it's just one night, but I guess I just don't get it. I just find it humorous that the movie is completely right in saying that this is the one night that girls can dress like complete - ahem- sluts, and no other girls can say anything about it.

With that being said, this post was not meant to step on any one's toes, I'm just simply expressing my personal opinion. I hope that my costume this year is super cute and still tasteful, something in between my nurse outfit and half-assed attempt last year. If everything goes according to plan and I'm able to find every part of the costume that I need, here's a hint :) Stay tuned for pictures from Halloween weekend, we will be attending a wedding reception that is being held on October 30th and is costume themed. I'm kind of excited for this one!

<3 Amanda