: Be a Hero. Save a blog. Use Bloggled’s Blog Backup and Win an iPod or a CRICUT!

So I know the sweetest guy, and he and his buddies came up with this GRAND, FABULOSO, INSANELY GOOD idea of BACKING UP PEOPLE'S BLOGS!!!!! Yeah, I know =GENIUS!!! Where has he been all my life? Oh wait, I totally live with him.......

anywho...since I, and many people out there, use my blog as a total excuse for not keeping a journal, I also love the fact that they can make your blog into a book! Yup, not like other places that say they can- but really you have to upload every picture to their site, blah blah blobbity blah.... so...you should totally check them out. They're having a WAY COOL contest on Monday to launch their site and you, my people, could win a CRICUT or a 16GB iPod Touch- yeah, did i mention it was cool stuff????

read on for the info!

Have you ever had this experience? You are posting to your blog, click the publish button, and the very next thing you know the screen is blank. So, you click back to your drafts and nothing is there, then you click your published posts and nothing is there. At this point you are starting to think to yourself…oh no, what just happened? As you continue searching your blog admin for information you see that all your uploaded images, videos, files, and everything is gone.

Living through this situation would be enough to devastate any blogger. Knowing that years of data about your person, family, or business is gone can be difficult to overcome emotionally, but even more difficult of a problem to solve. If you haven’t backed up your blog recently, or ever, chances are your posts and everything else are gone for good.

This is the kind of situation that led Brent Ramey to the idea of creating Bloggled.com, “and to honestly save anyone in that situation the act of going insane.” Bloggled.com is a blog backup company that is allowing bloggers to backup their blog for free as an introductory product to celebrate their official launch out of beta and as a holiday gift this season. Bloggled is also offering multiple prizes to those who participate in their “Be a Hero, Save a Blog Contest” that is running through the day on Monday, December 15, 2008. Winners can choose from either a 16GB iPod Touch, or a Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter Machine and it’s quite simple to enter. All you have to do is one of the items below, but if you do more you get entered more times into the drawing…but you have to enter on Monday 12/15 to qualify so act fast, or should I say slow so I have a better chance of winning.

1. Join Bloggled. Register and sign up for a Bloggled account (http://www.bloggled.com/).
2. Friend or follow Bloggled on one of the following social network profiles:
1. Twitter: http://twitter.com/bloggled
2. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Brent-Ramey/1002883214
3. Subscribe to Bloggled’s RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/bloggled.
4. Blog about the Blogger Contest on another blog then notify Bloggled about the new blog post by commenting on their blog.

Anyway, as you can tell from my post here, I have met the criteria and will be hoping I’m drawn as a winner today. You can find the full contest details by visiting www.bloggled.com.

Glass Christmas Tree

This is a great post from Bloggled.com that I wanted to share with everyone. To See the original post go to www.Bloggled.com/blog



Over the weekend I attended a local event call the The Festival of Trees. This event was amazing and included some of the most unbelievable Christmas trees I have ever seen. Below I have written a review/report on the festival and of course I have included a ton of pictures along with my very own top 25 trees. That might seem like a lot but when I left the event I had taken over 138 pictures and I could have taken a picture of each of the 800 trees there. I have sourced the main festivals site for info along with info gathered while attending. Enjoy!!

The Festival of Trees was inspired 37 years ago by a group of 15 women from along the Wasatch Front, Utah. These women were challenged by Lewis M. Jones, Chairman of Primary Children's Medical Center Men Endowment Board, to identify a way to raise funds for the hospital.

The Festival of Trees was inspired when Co-chair Ruth Flint vacationed in Hawaii and attended a Christmas boutique featuring small, decorated Christmas trees, centerpieces, and Christmas decorations. They expanded their concept to include full-sized decorated Christmas trees, a gift boutique, and a sweet shop.

That first year, there were approximately 60 trees for display and sale and to everyone's surprise and delight, $47,000 was raised! This year they have over 800 trees and will most likely raise over 1.5 million dollars. Along with all the trees, there are gift boutiques featuring handmade articles, a sweet shop filled with freshly made candies and baked goods, displays of wreaths and door decorations, centerpieces, gingerbread houses, and backyard playhouses. There is also Santa, activities for children, hot scones and sweet rolls, which you can smell the whole time you are there, and continuous live entertainment. In all, the Festival spans over 220,000 square feet of display space.

The greatest phenomenon of all is that everything is donated. The trees are decorated and purchased by individuals, families, organizations, businesses, and church groups. In addition, others generously donate items to fill the shops and items around the trees. Thousands of people join efforts by contributing countless hours and means to give “A Gift of Love" to children in need.

They say that over the years, Festival of Trees has been copied many times throughout the United States and Canada. However, the Salt Lake City Festival of Trees remains the "granddaddy" of them all.

Over all, my experience was great, and I would recommend that anyone attend this event and soak in the holiday spirit.

Below I have listed Bloggled's top 25 favorite trees. We didn't rate the tress but the first one you see is the coolest tree we saw. If the pictures load slow we apologize, we wanted you to see the detail that goes into these tress.

Glass Tree

Read More.......

Deckin the Halls to Gobble Dee-Gook

Sawyer smothering Ben, as usual. Poor guy had just brought his new baby home from the hospital, was dying from lack of sleep, and he had to lug this chubbalufagus around all night. 3 cheers for Uncle Ben!

Finally, the time has arrived to Deck our Halls! This is the happy dance my children performed when I brought the boxes upstairs.
And the finished product. Not exactly a festival of trees, but it's ours, and we love it.
too bad that 3 days ago all the light went out....yeah, all 71 strands that I so delicately placed by myself for hours......we soooo need a pre-lit tree!

ahhhhh...love
Kara let us babysit Hadley thursday!!!! How we love her. I held her for 2 precious hours.

Come again Hadley, come again!

Conli and "Hagley"- she can't get enough of her!
cuz i love her pudgy fingers!
Sometimes little people crawl into little spaces and become scared.....
scared until they realize it's a great time for a photo op!

For FHE we went to Classic. We had the whole place to ourselves for like 1/2 hour- and it was fun. Conli was brave and decided to learn to skate. Thanks to friends, Max had a scooter to wheel around on.

sawyer gettin her dance dance groove on-before the throngs of people showed up and she was confined to Brent's lap.
it's a race.....I'm winning
Conli learning the ropes

Sawyer spent most of the night like this. She was not happy that she was not skating. Next time we'll think ahead, and bring a stoller for her to wheel around in-that way, Brent won't have any excuses.

THANKSGIBBING

was great! We went up to my parents on Wednesday and stayed til Sunday. Poor Brent- the TV was not connected so sport weren't around- he was a great sport though. Mom as usual, made thee most delicious feast EVER!!! She's the best cook EVER I swear!!!!! It was soooo great! I'm drooling right now.....get ahold of yourself Lisa!

Brent went fishing- always good times for him

Ky took the kids to HSM3- always rockin

I took my mom on a date- i love you mom.

I finished mine and Conli's stockings

and we had great family time.

this picture equals= Kyli said she'D join me on a run Thanksgiving morn. Yeah, join me she did, keep up, she did not. We ran down to Skyview, and decided to break in on the new track. I ran some laps, she struck poses for the half time shows. On the way back, I commanded her to run up the whole hill without stopping and then she could walk. She did not fulfill her end of the bargain. So, when we reached the top of the hill (it IS a hill from hell, I'll admit it) I fused her leg to my leg and we ran a "three-legged-race" the rest of the way back. It was awesome!

Love you Ky-ky!!!!!

lovies!
pre-feast festivities la china
Conli, the multitasker
a sampling of the carn
carve connie carve
kid spots
a complete thanksgiving feast
oh, so embarrassed!
gravy, get in my mouth
Kyli the babe holding the babe
this is what happens when you find your sisters extensions, and you just celebrated a NKOTB concert a week before. (I was channeling Jordan, circa 1990)
Conli getting her model on as we drove back to my parents...workin it, workin it! after visiting Uncle Jess at work Sawyers poor shirt was the casualty of her feasting conli=always wanting her picture taken

on Friday night we went with Minks, and Jensen's to the Festival of Trees. Last year Brent's mom and ward did a tree for some babies in their ward, and the kids liked it so much, I decided it's our new tradition.

It was still cool, but I don't recommend going on a Friday night to anyone- 'specially if there are strollers involved=mayhem! It was fun, and the kids loved the entertainment, but yeah.....soooo many humans! Matter of fact- Dave and JesseAnn may still be waiting in line to park and see Santa.

like i've said before. If you say, "Sawyer! Say Cheese!" She immediately assumes the "say cheese" stance....
the kidlets after leaving the craziness that was the Festival of Trees
As we were leaving the Festival, Conli wanted her picture taken by the big "light tree" but was too embarrassed to do it alone. Of course Max willingly obliged!
Sawyer's winter hat....oh the chubbs are flowing out of it!
and yet another Conlicious pose
...... there were never such devoted sisters.....

and thus concludes more fun for us!