Appreciation and Apologies

Alright folks, if you have been on facebook at all in the last two weeks, you have seen me posting nearly non-stop about the "cute baby contest" that Vi was in.  The last day of the competition was today, and we didn't place.  But not for lack of support from all of you!  I never did find out how many competitors there were, but I know there were hundreds, and we ended up in 5th place with 648 votes! THAT is simply amazing.  By today we had 105 people join the 'baby contest' even that I created who were voting regularly.  TONS of you shared this with all your friends and everyday I saw people who were strangers to me, but friends of friends taking the time to vote for my daughter.   So to all of you who took the time to like Hy-Vee, approve the app, Vote for Vi, share with your friends, and support us in this 'popularity' contest.... THANK YOU!

If I had known the extent of the competition I probably would have started a page, and spreading the word a little earlier to our friends and family who all committed to vote, because I know many of you started voting just these last few days.  I think we at least could have gotten the top 3 if I had realized what I was getting into.

I honestly can't begin to express how much it blew me away the sheer number of you who really committed to this.  We feel extremely loved and thought of that so many of you would take the energy to bother your own friends or advertise on your facebooks for our sake.    It really was such a little thing, but it made us feel extremely loved!

In the end I know we were extremely obnoxious in trying to get votes, and I doubt I will ever do a contest like this again.  I am just so thankful that the process was just something that made us feel loved and thought of.  I was on the Hy-Vee site reading a post they put on their facebook page, and when I started reading through the comments saw the saddest, most pathetic responses from the moms (the true competitors) in the competition.  There was bickering, name-calling, accusations (people signing up on websites to get votes?) disrespect.... what was the cost for winning?  Like I said, I'm just so thankful that for us, the overall experience was feeling blown away by people's thoughtfulness!

So, just to reiterate, I want to make sure everyone knows, I am fully aware of how obnoxious it was to get all these notifications every day, the chance of diapers, wipes and food for a year was definitely worth the effort.  Yet I apologize if it was as annoying as I was trying to be to get your votes.  But more importantly, I want everyone to know how extremely thankful we are for all the votes that you gave us!

She really is the cutest in our book :)