March Ladies I Can't Live Without + Giveaway

This has been an incredible a month to say the least. 
 I went from under 300 to 550+ GFC  followers!
{Happy dance going on right here!}

I couldn't have done any of it without the love and support of these AMAZING large sponsor ladies.
Seriously! Each and everyone of them has touched my life in an unforgettable way.

Lena from Mom2MemphisAndRuby

Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter

Hayley from Hayley's World

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Lacey from Little Miss Nerd Girl

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

The Letter 4 Ladies

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Jessica from The Velarde's

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Colleen from Sound Track To I Do

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Kelly from Eat Yourself Skinny

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Amanda from Raising Miss Mommy

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Maggie from This Little Life of Mine

Blog 

Mary from Trusty Chucks

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Melissa from My PB&J

Blog | Facebook | Twitter  |  Etsy

Cindy from Cinsarah

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Erin from Living in Yellow

Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Victoria from One Crafty Mama

Blog

A lucky winner will in...

Medium Ad Space & Rockin' Nail Polish form Mom2MemphiAndRuby

My PB&J has an Etsy shop Evi Luna Boutique and is giving away a

"bunny lovin'" felt bunny and glittered egg clip duo!

I'm giving away a "mystery" bag filled with $25 of Mary Kay Cosmetics!

photo source

Want to be a sponsor of Our Reflection, check out our options HERE. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring

A time out. Sometimes that's all you need. A moment to just step back from the world ways, deadlines, and take a breather. Today at lunch I took a few moments, when outside, and smelled the roses. Ok maybe they weren't roses and they really didn't have a fragrance, but they were stop me in my tracks gorgeous.

Starting this week, I'm going to participate in the weekly photo challenge. I'm not actually entering my photo, but in the intro {like below} will be a glimps through my lens.

Photography is an art that is for everyone. This link up is deffinatly not only for the "pros." Be creative. Be yourself, because everyone else it taken! 

Every week a guest judge will choose a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner. Here are the prizes up for grabs this week:

1st Place PRIZE: $30.00 Gift Bag of Mary Kay Cosmetics

2nd Place PRIZE: $20.00 Gift Bag of Mary Kay Cosmetics

3rd Place PRIZE: $10.00 Gift Bag of Mary Kay Costmics

Here's how to enter:

• Created a post on your blog and include ONE photo submission for this challenge.
• Include the Our Reflection Photo Button 
• You can also link through your Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, etc., Just be sure you include the link www.our-reflection.blogspot.com within your post.
• Submit the link to your post using the InLinkz button below. You must submit the actual photo link {permalink}, not just your website URL. 
• You can submit your photo at any time during the challenge. The deadline for this weeks submission is  Sunday, April 1st, 2012 at 11:59pm {PST}. 
• Winners will be announced Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012.

Please remember to follow your host via GFC.

Check out other photo link ups and leave comments. Don't be shy!

Spread the word! Grab a button and add it to your blog.

Tweet or Facebook about the Link Up.

<div align="center"><a href="http://our-reflection.blogspot.com/" title="Our Reflection Photo Challenge"><img src="http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g383/_laurahernandez/photochallenge-2.jpg" alt="Our Reflection Photo Challenge" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Meet & Tweet Twitter Hop + Giveaway!

We're taking this Meet & Tweet to an entire new level!
Starting this week, this will actually be a Twitter Hop.

Follow your host:

Laura @ Our Reflection

This week's co-hosts are:

Jordann @ Makin Memories of Us

Hayley @ Hayley's World

Mandee @ Cloud Nine Designz

Hannah @ Grounded Parenting

Sarah @ Fontenot Four

Danielle @ Framed Frosting

***Want to be a future co-host? Email me at momsgonnasnap@gmail.com***

The Rules

1. Follow your hosts

{They are the first 7 in the linky and they WILL return the favor.}

2. Follow at least 3 new people via Twitter

{Or more! Introduce yourself... Its a great way to make new friends!}

3. Spread the word!

{The more the merrier! Grab a button and add it to your blog, 

Tweet or Facebook about the link up.}

<div align="center"><a href="http://our-reflection.blogspot.com/" title="Our Reflection"><img src="http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g383/_laurahernandez/MeetTweet-2.jpg" alt="Our Reflection" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

One lucky link up person will WIN FREE Ad Space 

on Our Reflection blog for the month of April!

Drum roll please....

Last weeks Meet & Tweet winner is Liz from The Blue Eyed Owl

Congratulations!

Please link up your Twitter account below 
{not your blog}

Photo Challenge Winners: Something Sweet

This was our biggest link up yet! I can tell everyone love the theme.

This week we had an awesome guest judge, Hayley from Hayley's World!

Interested in being next weeks guest judge?

Email me at momsgonnasnap@gmail.com.

Here are Hayley's top picks:

1st Place WINNER: Kate from A Creative Cookie

Nothing better than a macro pic....especially of some yummy sweet treat like Oreos! 
Love the composition and lighting! Awesome job!

2nd Place WINNER: Brooke from A New View 365

What a sweet face he/she has!!! Makes me miss my kitty. Love your focus! Great job!

3rd Place WINNER: Tory from Life As We Know It

Not sure what it is with kids, especially toddlers and dog cages. 

Both mine get in the too. This pic is adorbs!!! Good job! 

If your photo was in the top three, CONGRATULATIONS! You rocked it this week!

Winners please contact me at momsgonnasnap@gmail.com.

Hayley choose next weeks photo theme to be "SPRING!"

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Read here to see how it works to be considered a winner.

Link up opens this Friday morning so be ready!

A little secret, those first to link their photos get major hits.

Yellow Themed Baby Shower on Tuesday 10

This week's Tuesday 10 theme is "Spring Color."
I thought this would be perfect to share with you a "yellow" themed baby shower I'm hosting.
These are my inspirations of decor, favors & themes.

So do you think this non-DIY girl can pull this off?Piece of cake! {pun intended}
Blessings,Laura

Tattoo: Walk by Faith

My husband Chaz and I got our first tattoos about 10 years ago. Mine was a sun and moon design on my lower back and Chaz got an warrior band on his arm. I later had a small cross added between my shoulder blades and he got a tribal design on his shoulder. My husband and I both decided what we really wanted was scripture. Simple and to the point. It took us year to choose exactly what we wanted and were to put it. 

I got a kick out the sign walking in....

The big day came and I let the hubs go first. {I wasn't a chicken, he volunteered!}

My husband went with Romans 12.

For me, a daily reminder of 2 Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight." 

Going in, this was my idea.

 My little Charlie gave me a kiss for luck.

 Then she hugged me and said "I hope you don't die." She wasn't serious and got me to laugh.

 My time was getting closer and I was a wee bit nervous. 

 And then the fun began. 

I had been told by everyone who had a tattoo on their foot how much it hurt.

 Praying to hold myself together {since the last time I cried, a lot}. 

 Twenty minutes later, and the least painful tattoo I've ever gotten, was done.

I LOVE IT!

Happy Monday. Have a blessed week.

Guest today: Little Miss Nerd Girl

Hello Our Reflection fans! I'm excited to be over here at Laura's place for the day. I love her blog, there is always something fun going on! I am Lacey and I am the blogger behind Little Miss Nerd Girl. LMNG started in April 2011 and I updated here and there until August 2011, when I started to take the whole blogging thing a bit more "seriously." It's been a fun ride so far, and I hope you'll consider joining me for the rest of the ride. I honestly was suffering from writer's block when I set out to write this post and became quite distracted. I started to think about grocery shopping and baking a cake. You see, it's my husband's birthday on the 14^th and I'm big on making birthday cakes from scratch. Thinking about the cake led to the topic for this post...my husband! I'm not going to bore you with how awesome he is or how hard he works his butt off (even though he is awesome and does work is butt off). Instead, I want to share a little bit of our love story. I've been trying to persuade him to co-write our love story with me for my blog, but it hasn't happened yet - but it will, I am very persuasive. ;) So here is a teaser for you:

David and I grew up in Simi Valley, CA and we went to the same high school. He was two years ahead of me and it wasn't a terribly large school, but I never noticed him. The first time I remember seeing David was when he came into the local ice cream shop/burger joint I worked at (which he also worked at and quit two months prior to my starting there). He came in with an obnoxious girl, and she is actually the only reason I remember him at all. Apparently, they stole one of our spatulas that night and it was a big deal. 

David and the infamous spatula.

The next time I saw him was when he interviewed me for a position at the toy store he managed. I totally flopped the interview and they hired someone else, but when that guy didn't work out David called me to replace him. So, on March 11, 1999, I started work at the toy store. David introduced me to everyone and then left me in the hands of some of his supervisors to be trained. I've always been really shy, so I didn't say much, but I did feel really comfortable with everyone at the store (when the store went out of business a year later, a lot of the people I worked with remained good friends). 

B, D, and David in the toy store warehouse.

On my second day of work at the toy store there was a lot of commotion. David's 21^st birthday was approaching (he was a little young to be a manager, eh?) so, of course, he was headed to Vegas. But the excitement was two-fold because he was not only going to Vegas to celebrate his 21^st year; he was going to Vegas to marry his on again off again high school sweetheart. David ended his shift with a bounce in his step and the next time I saw him, he was a married man.

Bam! I'm so ending the beginning of our story there! I told you it was just a teaser! If you want to get to know more about how The Story of Lacey and The Story of David ended up merging into The Story of David and Lacey, then you'll have to keep an eye out for when I post them. Ah, I am such a tease. :p Thanks for having me Laura! I enjoyed giving your readers a little peek at my backstory.

One CAN Make A Difference!

be the change you wish to see.... The Shine Project

Photo by Rachel Lauren Photography

For a few months now I feel God has put something in my heart to somehow giveback to the community, but I was never sure just what. I prayed about it a lot. A few weeks ago I was sitting in church reading the bulletin and something just jumped out to me. It was called "A Heart for the Hungry". Our church's food pantry was empty. The pantry that used to feed hundreds of families, now, there’s a sign on the door that says “Sorry, there are no food bags available at this time.”

That was it! That’s what my heart wanted to do. Fill those pantry shelves until they’re overflowing! Could I do this alone? No. I need help. The biggest question was could I break out of my comfort zone of the quite one and become a leader? Yes, but only with God's guidance.

I had this idea of having a table set up in front of a local grocery store collecting non-perishable food donations. Then the idea grew to having one specific day and time where each grocery store in our city {all 5} would have a team of volunteers out front hosting a food drive. The thoughts went through my head... Could I pull this off? Can I find volunteers? Will people donate?

YES to every single question. We were approved for 4 of the 5 grocery stores since one already booked for the day. Then out of the blue, I get the call the other party cancelled and we have their spot. We have all 5!

Volunteers? I created a Facebook event page which went live just yesterday and volunteers have been coming out of the woodwork. People I don't even know asking to help. I have a team of people set up already for each location!


We needed the collection bins. The church two had but we needed at least three more. When I went shopping for them, found out they were $50 a piece. Ouch! That same day I received a call from a couple from our bible study, they had found 10 at a second had store for $1 each. What!? You better believe we bought them all!

I sit here today in aw. Every single obstacle that was set in front of me, God removed the barrier.

As for the donation part, we'll just have to wait and see. With what God has provided so far, I can't even fathom what He has in store. Our event is this Saturday. I ask for prayers. Prayers of encouragement and hope, that people will start a transformation from their old ways, and start a new. Putting others before themselves. We can't get discouraged. We can make a difference one person at a time.

I recall an synonym for the word JOY.

How to be joyful was to put these in this order:

Jesus, then Others, then You.

Jesus should be first in our lives no matter what.

He is our perfect example of how to live our lives.

That is the very definition of being a Christian.

Paul tells us at the beginning of Romans 15 this very thing.

We out to put other ahead ourselves; in doing so we will be emulating the actions of Jesus.


Let's SHINE!

Photo by Rachel Lauren Photography