Bullies Already

Recently my family and I took William to the mall to play at the indoor toddler area. We have taken him to a few different ones and he has always had fun and loves being around other kids.

However this trip was not a good one. Within a few minutes of playing an older little girl started following William around and telling him he couldn't play with certain things. Well he is one and had no clue what she was saying so I just watched as he went about his own way. She then came up to him and slapped him in the face! I immediately jumped up and went over to my son. He didn't cry or get upset he just looked puzzled. The little girls mother saw what happened and she handled the problem immediately, telling the girl what she did was wrong and put her in timeout. So we went on playing.

Not 10 minutes later a little boy started following William around. He soon started to come up to William and push him slightly. Of course his father was not watching, he was too busy texting the whole time. Then as William was about to climb up to go down the slide the little boy grabbed him by his pants and yanked him down! It just so happened that the little boys father saw this, since it happened right in front of him. He scolded his son and went back to texting.  I started to think maybe we should leave but my mom picked up William and moved him to a different area and she was playing with him so we stayed. Yet again a few minutes later as William was standing in front of my mother doing nothing but watching the other kids, that little boy came up and shoved William backwards and he fell and hit his head. Needless to say we were furious! The father had no clue. 

My son cried his eyes out and kept looking back at the little boy trying to figure out why he did that. My mom was about to march over to the father and say something, but I told her we would just leave. But I did go tell that little boy what he did was wrong and not nice. His older sister saw and after figuring out what happened she went and told her Dad. Well he came over and yanked the boy up by his arm and started yelling at him.

It became quite obvious why the boy had a behavior problem. His father again went right back to his phone. 

So my 14 month old still doesn't understand mean kids. And as a parent I'm left wondering what do other parents do in these situations. Times are different we have to fear other parents lashing out at us if we comment on their child's bad behavior or worse a physical altercation. So I ask other parents with more experience what would you / have you done in the same situation?

This Is Messy & Yummy

We found an awesome little project at the store that was only $5 a build your own gingerbread man.  Instead of making a gingerbread house because I think it would be too much for his attention span. It was a big hit.  

It was messy and entertaining for all of us. William ended up eating more candies rather than put it on the gingerbread man.  But it still turned out really good!

 

He was very proud of the end result.  

He is missing his hand due to a trial taste...it didn't taste great but it wasn't terrible either. 

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday fun and activities!

Music Thursday - More About The Ember

I posted on our bands Facebook page a little while ago that FromtheFallen had a little ember again.  I thought I would give a little more away.  Brandon has started writing again. I on the other hand still sing now it's just for an audience of 1.We are compiling ideas and working with new programs to take our music into a new direction.  We might never be as active in performing ever again but we still love creating and making music.  

We have always been able to work and write really well together.  Since the last album we have had a lot of changes and we have decided to use those challenges, adventures and changes in our life as new inspiration. Granted it is harder to write now that we have a family. Every time William sees Daddy pick up the guitar he wants to play too.  He loves music. Started pretending to bang on a drum since he was 9 months old.  Plus it is in his blood.  He has been a road dog too.  I was still performing at 7 months pregnant, and we recorded the entire "Pulse" Album during my pregnancy. He went on the road with us at 4 months old and I predict he will want to continue in his parents footsteps.  

So what is FTF's future?  I'd like to think of it as a blank canvas ready to be painted with endless possibilities. But whatever comes out will definitely kick ass! We plan to eventually release some music digitally in the coming year.  We shall all just have to wait and see.

My Winter Make-Up Must Haves

I might not be a professional make-up artist but I do have years of experience doing elaborate show makeup.  Bright vibrant colors and dramatic was kind of my signature look.

 

I am also a SAHM and have always had to balance finding great products that will hold up under intense lights and sweat yet need to be cost efficient. I do believe better products give a better look... most of the time. However I have never been able to justify to myself how spending a fortune at MAC is a necessity. To be honest with you to me a lot of the girls who work at MAC look like they all have pancake face make-up so their products turn me off for that reason as well. I Love, Love, Love, Sephora and could go broke in that place very easily. Yet again I find myself needing to get my hands on products that work well yet won't break the bank. I think there are some really good drugstore products that might even work better than the high end stuff too.  So here are my current must haves for the winter season, usually all year round too. These are also all easy on the wallet.

First off is moisturizer.  It must go on your face everyday! With SPF even if there is no sun, it will prevent aging and wrinkles. I use Olay Complete for Sensitive Skin. I have used it for years and it still is a go to for me.

Next is the Revlon PhotoReady Concealer.  I used Too Faced Concealer for years, until they changed their formula & color and I hated it afterwards. This Revlon PhotoReady line works very well. It comes in a really fair shade which I have a hard time finding .  It's great for me because most of the time I don't wear foundation yet still need an under eye concealer for my dark circles and a few red spots. It has worked great for shows, photo shoots, and everyday iPhone pics for me!

A newer find is the Rimmel Scandeleyes Waterproof Eyeliner in Black 001. It goes on so smooth and is super pigmented! I was surprised. Most drug store brand eyeliners are the worst and I would spend more for a better one anytime. So far this has been a great find. 

I have tried a lot of different Mascaras and time after time I come back to this one. The Maybelline Colossal Volum Express in Glam Black is just the best in my opinion. Plus I think it smells good for some reason.

When I saw this Sally Hanson Gem Crush polish in Cha-Ching I had to have it for the holiday season. It is so pretty and it comes in several great colors. It was the last bottle in our store so I know I'm not the only one loving it.

These are just a few of my essentials for everyday and holiday looks.  Let me know if there are some great bargin products I should try!

It's Too Cold To Play Outside

With the temperature being in the negatives around here lately, my little one has found a few new things to keep himself occupied instead of playing outside or going for walks.

I cool activity I found for him on Pinterest was to put clothes pins into a bottle. He liked it a lot. Plus I like it because he sat still for a few minutes, it was cheap to find the pins at the dollar store and it's good for his motor skills development.

This is just one of many gems I found at the dollar store! We also read A LOT of books. His favorite book right now is "Where's Spot" we read it about 5 times a day.





And of course messing with our cats is fun too!

 Pushing them around in the rolling chair. Chasing them around the house and giving them hugs is very entertaining for him.

Having awesome dinosaur slippers to walk around in makes everything more fun too! 

Hope everyone else is finding ways to have fun and stay warm. 

Snow and Power Packed Pancakes!

Well folks it's an exciting day for us, especially me. We woke up to snow! For someone who has lived their entire life up till now in the Central Valley of California it is so awesome. It never snows like this there.

 

I'm told I won't always feel that way but for William and myself our first real snow is putting big smiles on our faces. Even Teddy (our 10 year old cat) found it fascinating, it's his first snow too. While outside I could smell that wonderful smell that I remember from my youth going to the mountains to sled or ski. The church behind our house looked so pretty as the snow fell I sat on the back porch and watched the snow fall on the roof for awhile. 

Brandon is less enthused because he is dreaded the hours of snow shoveling in his future. 

We are supposed to get up to 8 inches today. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.  

This morning seemed like a good morning for my special banana pancakes. They and packed with nutrition and good stuff. 

  

William really loves them and he can really eat, trust me.

Here is the recipe for my fellow health nuts:

Makes 6-8 pancakes

1 Banana , mashed up

2 Eggs

1 cup Flour

1/4 cup Flaxseed Meal

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

3/4 - 1 cup of Almond Milk

Mix all together and you're ready to pour!

Music Thursday! : What I'm Listening to!

Thursdays on the Blog are going to be set aside for Music.  What FromtheFallen/Brandon and I are up to musically, suggestions on cool stuff, reviews and all things related.

Today lets dive into what I'm really listening to lately and think you should check out.

With the Holiday Season in full swing I find myself gravitating to more melodic sounds and musicians.  Something that just came out is Pentatonix version of "Little Drummer Boy".



I love these guys for pretty much everything they do.  Purely talented and genius' at arrangements. I really loved their version of "Radio Active" featuring Lindsay Sterling. Better than the original in my opinion, and I rarely think that about covers.

I've also been going back to listen to stuff released awhile ago.  Like Ed Sheeran, a great song writer, musician and lyricist.  This song creates such sadness for me personally.  Yet most of the teenagers who I see loving it and going to his concerts probably have no idea what it truly means.



I am a strongly against drugs of any kind but this song brings out the compassion in my heart for those poor souls who are so lost. And so many people need our help and compassion. We don't know their stories of how they ended up homeless, addicts, and so on.

On a different note (Pun intended)another great band that does amazing covers is Boyce Avenue.  I love Adele and love this song. Boyce Avenue does more than justice to it. I think these guys are so brilliant at their recreations and how they convey emotion always gets me straight in the heart.



So I hope you check out these videos and more music from theses artists. I realize that the music I create in FromtheFallen is very different and much heavier. But like most musicians I listen to a huge variety of genres.  Good music is good music I believe. Doesn't matter where it comes from.

Happy Listening

Bubbles & Children's Museum Adventure

Last night William had his first experience with Mr.Bubble's bubble bath.  The pictures are deceiving, he was not amused.

The first 5 minutes he was in he was trying to climb out of the tub and crying. He eventually calmed down and played a minute and tried to figure out what this strange foamy stuff was. Then he spent the last part of his bath swishing the water and pushing the bubbles away from him so that they would not touch him. Oh well, we shall try it again in a few more weeks.

Moving to a small town has proven to be limiting. Add in the fact that here the weather is already well below freezing. We get cooped up in the house most of the time except for the occasional trip to Walmart or Safeway (Yep that is about all there is to do here). We would normally go to the park, or go on a walk/hike.Yet now that it is so cold and we live in a much smaller town than before there is not much to do with a little one. But we found a little hidden gem here in town. We decided to try out the Children's Museum. I saw online that they had an infant/toddler play room. So going this morning, that is what I expect to let him run around in. Once we got there we were beyond pleasantly surprised that it was 3 levels with so much to see. Science, music, imagination areas and more!

It was a big hit! William loved that he could get into anything he wanted, play with other kids, and learn stuff too! The staff was super nice, the place was clean and even interesting for us parents as well. Plus on Wacky Wednesday it is only a $1 from 10-11, easy on the wallet. Definitely a must do again soon.

Welcome to My Life

Hi And Welcome

My name is Amber and this is my new Blog!  I am a Mom, Wife, Musician and Designer who recently relocated to Oregon. My Husband and I met in our Band FromtheFallen we rocked the US for years, then got married and now slowed down to raise our son and future family.

This time around my blog will have stuff from our life and what we are up to. Not just musically but also our life's adventure. Can't wait to share it will all of you!