giveaway winner!

The winner of the Opolis Clothing Giveaway is...............

Danielle L of The L Family!

She said: I'd love a sooners shirt for my little guy. super cute.

Danielle, please email me {natalie(dot)pettijohn(at)gmail(dot)com} your choice of shirt for you, choice of shirt for your baby boy, and your address please :)

life is...

...putting flowers in her hair.

marry you

i love you, i love you, i love you. and so happy to be your wife. life is so good.

OPOLIS CLOTHING GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!

I get excited about much. So very many things. One thing that brings happiness to my day and life is sharing 'things' with you. This giveaway holds a special place in my giveaway heart because Opolis Clothing Company was started by two fellow Sooners. I will always support that which comes from the land of crimson and cream. You betch'a. They came up with a solution to a problem I know you've had if you're as die hard about your school as I am (all college gear looks the SAME). In their own words:

Pat and Zac met in Middle School in 1995. They went to college together at the University of Oklahoma. Pat and Zac were both taken into the college life…classes, fraternities, friends and of course, sports. It was then that the guys noticed a lack of quality vintage looking college t-shirts. They were determined to find an old Oklahoma vintage tee to wear to the next football game. After searching stores, websites, even thrift stores, nothing could be found quite like what they had pictured. They knew it was time for a change.

Pat and Zac wanted a vintage university t-shirt that was soft, comfortable, and made of good quality material. They wanted to create the old times of university life. They fell in love with the old mascots, chants, lettering, and styles. While creating their designs, they knew throwing an old design on a brand new shirt, or putting a brand new design on an old t-shirt just wouldn’t cut it. That’s why they took the best of both and created the unique style that you find at Opolis today. They had a few designs here and there and showed them to their friends. Everyone they showed loved the styles and wanted to buy the tees immediately. The guys knew they were on to something.

Their idea became a reality as they decided to come up with their own line of vintage tees for people of all ages from seniors to alumni, to students, to fans and even to babies. Their goal is to create the vintage style that so many people had expressed an interest in. This was the beginning of Opolis Clothing Company!

Ok! So this giveaway is for ONE women's t-shirt OF YOUR CHOICE and ONE baby t-shirt or onsie OF YOUR CHOICE!! Humongous!

To enter...

for one entry: become a follower AND tell me which of the items you would like to win

for two entries: become a follower, 'like' Opolis Clothing on Facebook, AND tell me which of the items you would like to win

for three entries: become a follower, like 'Opolis Clothing' on Facebook, post about this giveaway on your blog, AND tell me which of the items you'd like to win

Below are the schools they currently have designs for and the ones you can choose from! Arkansas-Kansas-Missouri-Oklahoma-Oklahoma State-SMU-TCU-Tulsa

Check out their website for their full line of vintage college apparel! This giveaway closes Thursday February 17th at 6pm!

are you busy, too?

We've got company this evening (a friend of JR's), company tomorrow (one of the prettiest families I know) you might know of them! We have a birthday party celebrating a one year old in this most precious family this weekend, too. That's how we do :) busy, busy, and busy. We love it. I think our calendar is full into the middle of March. A calendar, hahaha! It always makes me laugh when my girlfriend's and I, 'put' each other in our calendars. Lame! I have to do that or I'll forget to shower, even. Lame! Do you have a calendar for your family?? Please tell me you do. I definitely have some blog world friends that I would LOVE to put in my calendar one day! Cheers to the totally creepy world of blogging!!

I was going to do one of my '10 things you should know about Natalie' posts, but I always think of them when I'm in the car listening to Kesha or something else horribly inappropriate for a mother of two to be jamming to. Alone. In the car. I then forget by the time I'm actually at the computer.I'll tell you one since I've already built you up with such anticipation.

#6 thing you should know about me: I use really cheap makeup. I read all of these blogs of girls who use high-end clothes, shoes (I do share in this, shoot - can't resist a nice shoe), makeup, toilet paper. Whatever. I've got two tiny's, a home I like to decorate, a dog that has some toys more costly than my clothes, and maybe one day a week that I actually wear it. My only splurge is Bare Escentuals eye shadow. They're stellar and shiny. Outside of that, my face is courtesy of whatever they stock at Walmart and Target. I hope you can't tell, and if you can just don't tell me.

Before I leave you with some fun and excitement tomorrow, I'll leave you today with two pictures I posted a few years ago of JR and I as tots. I'd say our babies are a pretty fair blend of the both of us, with more a lean towards JR :) I'll take that, he's hot.

do you like color?

I love all white, but if not that, I'm starting to come around to the bright side. I'm loving homes with bold colors, but really have no idea where to start. Shoot.

If only JR would let me paint somewhere in our house this color:

Like a burnt mango color. Mmmmm. I love. Against that white. I die.

Do you have color in your house? where? tell me!!! please and please :)

the little things

I always tell you about how fast life goes, especially mine. There are days that after changing 17 diapers, washing bottles 3x in one day, and throwing food in the crockpot - those little things slip by. The ones that make you grateful to be alive. Like these...

That 'family' sign above, was a gift from some of the people that share a gigantic part of our heart - Lauren and Rico - I believe it was a gift from them on our very first Christmas as married's. It's traveled from Texas, to Pennsylvania, and it now is home in Oklahoma. Everytime I look at it, I think of them. That's a little thing that makes me grateful to be alive.

I love my husband. He knows it. There are days though - that after changing 17 diapers, washing bottles 3x a day, and after throwing food in the crockpot that I forget...I forget to be sweet. I do. I'll 'fess up. Sometimes he comes home and I nag, about many things. In lieu of my lack of sweet, I've set up '30 reasons why I love you' all around our house. Some funny, some real. A reminder that I'm not always a nag, and I really do love you. Even when you leave your wet towels on the floor...even when. *sigh*

Leaving JR notes, that I know he appreciates...that's a little thing that makes me grateful to be alive.

I used to make us meals that came out of boxes when we first started dating. That was a long way from the ramen and hot dogs I ate while in college. I didn't even know Food Network existed. I didn't really care. Thankfully, things changed. I now cook, and I now love it. It doesn't scare me like it once did. I almost caught our Dallas apartment on fire. Really. What's even better is that every meal I make, I have JR rate on a 1-10 scale. We like games like that, keeps it fun y'all.

We're snowed in. We have been for a few days now. There's only two things 'people' do when you're snowed in, right? We won't name them here, publicly. As all are calling for a baby boom, I'm COOKING. Holed up in my kitchen. Our house will NOT be contributing to the snow day baby boom. Instead, I made you bread. If only I could blog the smell the bread gave my house. This was with no breadmaker, sister. Just me, flour, my kitchenaid, flour and flour. Did I say flour? It turned out delicious. The recipe called for six loaves, I ended up with three. What??? Either way it was fun to make, and I am dang proud of myself. It's so delicious and even nutritious! Beat that. Can't.

Being able to gift it though to your friends, is one of the little things that makes me grateful to be alive.

...oh, and these two faces. my angels. (my toddler-tempered baby boy, and baby belle). angels, 98% of the time. we're working on that other two percent :) oh, my heavens.

where i come from

When thinking of this post, I had/have no intentions of this being a sap of a story...but I'm not sure that I can talk of my parents without it being somewhat of an emotional (happily-emotional) way of words for me.

Most that know me outside of blog life, know that both my brother and I were adopted. I've thought much of revealing this, only because I don't know that this is such a huge part of who I am. To me, adoption and being an adopted child play such a monumental and at the very same time, a very small role in what made me.

There is a 'thing' that I think wanders the minds of those blessed enough to be adopted - at least for me it did - that the idea of mothering and giving birth to your own children seems somewhat a suspicious thing. A curiousity. How can a parent that did not give birth to a child, love that baby as it's own? I was two days old when I was adopted. Two. At the age of seven I found out about my story, both my brother and I. My parents never hid the fact, and even encouraged us to seek out more about ourselves if wanted.

I chose to never know more of the two days before I was my parent's daughter. I had a mom. I had a dad. Two people that in the twenty seven years of my life have not once waivered their love me, their care for me, and the inexplicable bond I share with them as my parent's daughter.

I was theirs, I am theirs. They chose to love me, and although it is a strange thought to feel gratitude for the love of your own parents...I do, and it sometimes overwhelms me the life they have provided for both my brother and I. They are the two best people I know. There is no better. Both are my best friends, and have supported the both of us in anything and everything that's ever come along our way - ever. I know that must have been hard with me!

They now share the overflow of love in the lives of my babies. The roles shift in life and I now know the feeling of being a parent. The joys, the fears, the triumphs, the tears, and the true true happiness that a child brings. I have yet to find a greater experience personally, than to share the babies with my parents.

They love me, the same way I love my babies. The very same way. I say adoption is and isn't a big part of me, because my parents made it that way. It was never to make us feel different, nor to define us. It never did for me, and I rarely - if ever, think of where I came from. My life started with my parents. Didn't yours?