Saturday, October 20, 2012

A Giveaway! {Giveaway Closed}

Yes, you heard that right.  Welcome to the first ever giveaway on These are the Days.  This is a special giveaway and I am honored to dedicate this to Ruby June Warburton. 

Meet Ruby.   

Ruby 2

I love this picture.  I remember when I saw it for the first time one year ago.  I just stared in awe at that beautiful little girl.  I am still staring in awe.  I could feel her strong spirit through these images. I love the way she is staring at her mama.  It is the sweetest connection there is and my heart just broke for them.  I know that Ruby is an extremely special little angel baby and one that will  touch so many hearts.  Ruby was here on the earth for 15 cherished days.  It is her one year birthday!

Meet Kristin. 

She  is the mother of Ruby.  She amazes me.  She is such an example of strength and grace through adversity.  She is a wonderful mother to Ruby and has honored her and kept her spirit alive by sharing Ruby’s love and giving to others. 

Ruby bw-15

Ruby 3

To celebrate Ruby’s first birthday,  Kristin has put together 15 days of blog giveaways and invited family and friends to join her.  I am day 10 and so happy to be a part of this.  Each giveaway involves the color red.  It is Ruby’s signature color.  :)  To read more about Ruby on Kristin’s blog go  here.  

This is what I am giving away. 

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Three little red birds which are Christmas ornaments but you can use them anyway you like.  They have clips on the bottom so you can easily attach them to something or just let them sit alone and make something extra pretty. 

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Also this pack of 24 Zig Zag cupcake liners and toppers. 

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Whether you are taking a treat to a party, surprising a neighbor or just baking for your kids at home they will make the whole process of baking and giving much more fun! 

The birthday gift Kristin and Jared wanted for Ruby was acts of service.  Big or small.  It doesn’t matter.  Just a way to think of others and show someone you care.  For one entry leave me a comment sharing an act of service you have done.  It can even be a mundane daily task.  Sometimes as mothers we don’t think much about those tasks but if you look at it from a different perspective you will probably see it is often related to service.  Go do an act of service in honor of Ruby and come back to share with me!

And since my giveaway has to do with the Christmas holiday, for two entries share with me a way you are going to make the holiday season extra special for your family.  Do you have a special tradition? Are you going to try something new?  Let me know!  I would love to hear.    

Don’t forget to leave me your e-mail address so I have a way to contact you. 

Giveaway closes on Wednesday the 24th at 11:00 p.m.  ‘cause that’s my bedtime!  I’ll close it before I go to bed and post the winner on Thursday morning! 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

27 comments:

  1. Those are so cute! I am letting my husband sleep in this morning after weeks and weeks of letting me sleep in. He definitely deserves it! Thanks for all your thoughts about Ruby. I don't think I can ever read enough about her.

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  2. To do something extra special, I want to do a lot more kids crafts with my children. I haven't done this before, but now that my oldest is 3, I'm hoping that we can get into the habit of it.

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  3. A tradition that we do have is going to my Grandma's house every christmas for lunch. It's something so simple, but it doesn't feel like Christmas without it. This is getting me so excited for christmas! :)

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  4. Our Christmas tradition is sleeping under/next to the tree. It started with my family when I was young and my siblings and I have continued it with our kids. My parents told us we had to stay up and tell them when Santa arrived and every year we fell asleep. It worked well for our family!
    My act of kindness happened yesterday when I was able to give a lady a diaper at the zoo when she approached me trying to pay me for one since she had run out. I was happy to help and not take her money.
    jody (jodododo@hotmail.com)

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  5. act of service.would be letting my husband disappear this weekend with out us and me home with the child. ha. a tradition we do every year is have a.candle light dinner and read the story from the Bible. We also always pick a family to give to. My favorite!

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  6. So sweet, as is Little Miss Ruby. I know it isn't much, but today I bit my tongue instead of loosing it with my children as we were running late for soccer. They were fighting, I was running around like a mad woman, and it was obvious we were going to be late. I said a quiet prayer and spoke calmly to my kids, which in turn helped us make it to soccer only a few minutes late.

    Sariah.melina@gmail.com

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  7. My FAVORITE tradition at Christmas is to do our service tree. We were very poor in college with kids and didn't buy presents. We started this then and have been doing it since. We draw a paper tree on poster-board and each night at bedtime we write a service on a little paper present I made on the computer. We write who we did a service for and what it was. On Christmas day before we open our presents, we read all the services for the month,

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  8. What an adorable giveaway! And I love your blog. I just spent over an hour looking at your beautiful pictures and cute family.

    Anyway, our Christmas tradition is having all the kids sleep in the same room on Christmas Eve. My husband did that in his family growing up and my kids just eat it up.

    My act of kindness for sweet Ruby was watching my neighbors kids so she could go to the store ALONE! I'm amazed how good it always makes me feel to help others.

    Also-and I don't know if this counts- but my little baby was quite ornery and making a huge mess and I was starting to get frustrated with him. Then I started thinking about Kristin and little Ruby. I realized that she would probably give just about anything to hear her sweet baby cry and make a mess and I realized how lucky I am. She is such a great example. She is choosing to have a great attitude about her loss and she is helping so many people. Really amazing.

    Stephaniebladen@gmail.com

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  9. We saw Halloween boxes of premium chocolates so we got 4 one for each of my kids teachers to give them a special treat.

    karen_huse@hotmail.com

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  10. We started a tradition last year of our thanksgiving tree it was so special. We would write what we are thankful for each night on a leaf. The local paper even puplished it on the front page! You can imagine my surprise when I got my morning cup of coffee and looked down and there my kids were the front page story! Here is the link to read about it.

    http://14fir.blogspot.com/2011/11/front-page-news.html

    We will do the tree again this year.

    karen_huse@hotmail.com

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  11. My husband did the dishes this morning. Every last one of them. I came home to a perfectly clean house and I think that act of service was maybe the nicest one anyone could have given me! I'll make sure I share the prize with him if I win ;)

    As far as Christmas goes. A friend of mine has a tradition where each kid gets 4 gifts--something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read. I really love the idea and I'm going to try it out!

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  13. What a fun give-away. I noticed a girl that looked sad at the grocery store today and offered my help. She found her mom soon after and all was well.
    For Christmas, we used to pick a family to share the Christmas story. Each of us siblings had parts and then at the end the one with the wisemen's part would give the nativity set to them. It was a fun tradition and I'd like to carry it on with my own little family. my email is mail4erica at gmail.com
    And, I love your family photos - very good looking children you.

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  14. For the past about three or four years I guess, after reading the book Christmas Jars, Mark and I save our change all year long and then in Dec we either give the money or buy gifts for someone who needs something extra. Thanks Krista for sharing in this giveaway in Ruby's memory, you are so sweet! pamdegraw@yahoo.com

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  15. I guess I am in the flower mode this week, gave flowers to 3 people just to say we are thinking of you! pamdegraw@yahoo.com

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  16. Wow Krysta, you do beautiful work! Coree is always calling up moms and asking to babysit their kids. This gives the moms a moment to relax or go to the store without having to load and unload several children. Today she and I gave service at a missionary extravaganza. There were different games for the community to participate in. We helped facilitate the "sack" races. It was fun for us to get to know people in our community. Loved it......also gotta love those missionaries! Last week I changed jobs and work gave me some balloons. On the way home I stopped at the store. There was a little girl getting in the car next to me. I have her the balloons. It seemed to make her day. What small little things make people smile.

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  17. I gave some swim diapers to a neighbor going on vacation who needed them and couldn't find them in stores. For Christmas last year we paid off someone's layaway, I think we would like to continue that!

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  18. Happy Birthday Ruby! I have been busy coordinating families who have children with cancer and families who want to give them Christmas. So far I have 2 families that want to help little Ryker (age 3 with a tumors on his nerves) and Jake (16 who just had his leg amputated and his cancer is only 30 % contained). What I've found by being a volunteer with the Cache Valley for Hope cancer foundation is that I get to help people all year long. By the time Christmas rolls around, my husband, my children, and I have donated hundreds of hours raising money, giving support, bringing meals, and hugging lots of people who need a little extra support. I think Ryker's mom would love the birds.

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  19. Happy birthday sweet Ruby.. I have had many acts of service done for me and my family this week since I had a baby on Monday so I haven't been able to do much but my sweet husband who has been doing the most service for me I woke up feeling great and made him breakfast this morning! We have started doing the 12 days of Christmas for a family in need last year since my kids are starting to understand the excitement and we want to have them understand the true meaning of Christmas. Something we are going to continue.

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  20. What a fun giveaway I love it. Thanks for being a part of this.

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  21. what a wonderful little angel Ruby is, all children are a precious gift no matter how long you have them.

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  22. I love seeing the Ruby giveaways. Such a sweet idea in remembrance of a beautiful baby.

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  23. 1. How FUN! I was able to watch my sweet niece while my sister in law got her hair done. I knew Kristin was celebrating Ruby this week, and thought of Ruby as I held my tiny niece.
    2. This year, for the holidays I'm setting a goal to finish shopping early, and for my little boy I want to do a couple new traditions to continue on. One of them will be to make a simple nativity and teach him about Christ's birth. I'm hoping to have him "help" decorate the tree too. (he's only 20 months, so he won't be a lot of help, but it will be fun for him).
    Thanks!
    Ali.m.mcbride@gmail.com

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  24. Thakn you so much for hosting! I love this giveaway. For act of service: This past weekend we were traveling and I had to call a cab service to drive me to my location. I had a nice conversation with the cab driver who confided in me some challenges he was facing and difficult times. It felt so good to be able to tip him some extra $ and he seemed genuinely grateful.

    As for Christmas traditions, my new husband and I are slowly strarting to adopt our own traditions. This year, I really want to start a family advent calendar and am looking for fun ways to start this tradition. Thanks! Heather (HAH1202 at aol dot com)

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  25. God Bless you for having a giveaway,this year our family will be doing RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS for the less fortune. NaomiB trailway22@hotmail.com

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  26. My husband and I are coming up on our 7 year anniversary and after 2 dogs and 2 kids and a mortgage and two jobs - we are tired at the end of the day. This past week I decided to make an effort to prepare dinner for my husband and my 2 kids Owen {3} and Amelia {1}. We usually eat at random when life gets so hectic and I wanted to make it a point to really appreciate the time we have as a family. I am blessed to have my husband of 7 years!

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas. So many traditions. My favorite is on Christmas Eve. We all get new PJ's, we watch "A Christmas Story" and we eat salami, cheese, crackers, and pickles. It is so comforting and I adore the coziness that is my life!

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  27. I just went to check your blog and saw I was a WINNER :)yah!Not sure if you tried to e-mail me yet,but I havent recieved an e-mail yet.trailway22@hotmail.com-Have a great day Naomi Beachy

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