Kindle Fire Giveaway 4/30-5/14: YOU CAN #WIN!

One of my favorite things to do is sit back with a good book and read about far off adventures and mysteries that need to be solved. To me, summer is the best time to lounge about and read all of the books that I had no time for all year long! So I am super excited to bring you this fabulous giveaway. One luck winner will get a Kindle Fire to call their own, just enter in the Rafflecopter form below!

KINDLE FIRE GIVEAWAY!

For The Love of Mom Giveaway!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL THE MOM'S, MOM'S TO BE, MOM'S YET TO BE, OR MOM LIKE PEOPLE!

WE LOVE YOU ALL!

With Mother's day just around the corner I joined together with some great blogger's to bring you this:

For The Love of Mom Giveaway.

All dressed up...

There is something to be said for seeing little kids in dress up clothes. No, I do not mean playing pretend by wearing a stethoscope and taking the temperature of every stuffed animal in the neighborhood. When I say dress up I mean dressing up!

My son is going to be the ring bearer in my little sisters wedding this June. He will wear a tuxedo and he will walk down the aisle {hopefully without incident} carrying a little ring bearer pillow. This will be a fairly good sized wedding and there will be a lot of eyes on him. I am sure that my little center of attention will love it!

Father’s Day Giveaway Event: Celebrating Dad!

 

Looking for a fun way to celebrate Father's Day? Need ideas for a Father's Day Gift? Want to WIN the dad in your life something fabulous? 

Sign up for the "Celebrating Dad" giveaway hop or come back and enter the giveaways June1-10!

Laughter and life in a laundry basket…

When my children were born they both spent the first couple of weeks living in a laundry basket. I put a pillow in the bottom of a laundry basket and covered it with a baby blanket. I used the laundry basket to carry my children all over the house. They slept in their laundry basket cribs for the first couple weeks of their lives and loved it!

We did not have a mosses basket or a portable basinet that I could cart around the house all day long. Since we had a perfectly good crib as well as a pack-n-play I simply could not justify purchasing another contraption that would only be used for a month or two. We made do with what we had.

Game Day Challenge with Odwalla and Champions For Kids #OdwallaCFK #CBias

As a mother of two little boys I spend a lot of time running around pretending to be a dinosaur or giving the boys train rides on my back. We run nonstop all day long and we give 110% to whatever activity we participate in. My family is extremely active and with the weather warming up we are looking forward to expanding our list of healthy activities to include more sports. Being active is an essential component to being healthy and I am trying to raise happy healthy children.

Not everyone has the ability or the resources to choose a healthy active lifestyle. Some people do not have the equipment needed to play sports and some don’t have access to a safe place to engage in these activities.

This month I partnered with Odwalla and  Champions for Kids for another SIMPLE Service Project {#OdwallaCFK}. The SIMPLE Service “Game Day Challenge” is centered on the idea of being healthy and being active with Odwalla.

Crockpot Shredded Chicken: quick and easy dinner with a kick!

Crockpots are my friend. When it comes to meal preparation for my active family I love the ease and convenience of throwing some ingredients in a crockpot to cook and coming back hours later to a finished meal. I am always on the lookout for simple and delicious crockpot recipes and I am happy to share my latest tried and true find with you.

Most of the time I find that chicken cooked in a Crockpot comes out chewy and unappetizing. Until recently I refused to even bother with Crockpot chicken recipes for this reason. Then I visited my mother and tasted her shredded salsa chicken recipe and I was sold. My mother gave me this recipe and it has quickly become a family favorite.

TurboFire: Getting fit and healthy with BeachBody Fitness.

My goal for 2012 was to get fit. My little sister is getting married in June and I wanted to look good and feel great for her wedding. I wanted to lose the pregnancy weight I had gained from having two children and I wanted to get toned up {translation- I wanted to look good}.

Getting children to love reading is as easy as Do-Re-Mi.

My boys are all about books. They both love to read stories and will sit and listen to their favorite books being read over and over again. My children are 3 years-old and 1 year-old and both of them have a love of literature that blows me away.

I was not one of those women that read, sang songs, or played music to my babies while they were growing in my belly. I know that once their little tiny ears develop they can hear what is going on outside the womb; I was just never truly comfortable engaging in this activity. I spoke to my children while they took up residence in my body… but that was about it. So my children’s love of stories did not come from me reading to them before they were born.

I guess this love of literature really started when my children were about six months old. Around six months of age I stopped feeling so overwhelmed with the daily requirements of keeping my children alive. I started getting restless with our daily life and started looking for fun ways to actively engage my children. Since both of my boys started to truly be more mobile around 6 months of age I needed a way to entertain them, so I started with board books.

I picked some simple board books that were easy to read and provided an easy cadence that my children would pick up on. I wanted stories that had rhyme and repetition as well as pictures that were bright and cheerful! I sat down on a comfy chair, snuggled up to my little peanuts, and started to sing my way through story after story. The more sing-song-like a book was, the more my children enjoyed it.

Wordless Wednesday: Business or Pleasure?

I just realized that it has been a really long time since I dropped a Wordless Wednesday Post on you. Since I have been so caught up with the complete chaos that is my life I thought that I would simplify things today and share some fun little pictures that I snapped this morning! I hope you enjoy!

My attempt at a spa-like bathroom:

I have a nice size master bathroom. There is a whirlpool bathtub that I adore and a separate shower that gets used daily. It is not a huge bathroom but by no means is it tiny. And yet I have struggled with my master bathroom for a quite some time now.

The space that has given me the most difficulty is that spot right behind my bathtub. It is a corner that serves no purpose and is not big enough to put anything substantial in. That and my three-year-old likes to pretend that my bathroom is his personal jungle gym; so anything I put in my bathroom needs to be toddler-proof!

So I spent a while browsing images of bathrooms online and I started to notice a pattern. The bathrooms that I was drawn to over and over again all had some type of greenery as well as a display of towels. Some even had glass containers filled with soaps and salts. These accessories gave the bathroom the spa-like feeling that I find relaxing and appealing.

#PamperMe Mother's Day $300 Cash Giveaway!

We are Thankful for our Readers and we would love for you to win some cash to make your Mother's Day extra special.

  The Freebie Junkie and Children Teaching Mama are joined by other fabulous bloggers in offering 1 lucky reader the chance to win $300 in our Pamper Me Cash Giveaway event The cash giveaway is open to all worldwide and will be paid directly into your paypal account   What would you do with $300? 

Dyson Housewarming Giveaway Blogger Event Coming Soon!

I love giveaway events. I love being able to bring great giveaways to my readers as well as to fellow bloggers. The bigger the prize, the better! Mom to Bed by 8 is hosting the Dyson Housewarming Giveaway Event from June 1 to June 15. She is making this a free to join blogging event and is accepting signups now.

Join the Housewarming Dyson Giveaway event today, grow your readership, and offer your readers a chance to win an amazing cleaning tool! The prize is a Dyson DC23 TurbineHead Vacuum (retail value $399).

If you sign up, please say that Mom Mart referred you!

Http://MomMart.blogspot.com

Being sick when you have kids...

Whenever I feel terrible I picture those British signs that have popped up everywhere… You know those “Keep Calm… bla bla bla” signs. So I decided to make one of my own.

 

Fitness Friday TurboFire: Week 12

I cannot believe it is week 12 of TurboFire and I am done! It has been one entertaining ride and I have definitely been in need of motivation more than once throughout my BeachBody Fitness journey. I am glad that I gave this program a try.

Spring Cleaning: reorganizing and refreshing one bathroom at a time #EasterSmiles #CBias

I like to keep a nice clean home. Some may call even me obsessive. Although I like to keep everything picked up and organized, there is one area of the house I tend to avoid. If I were Superman, bathrooms would be my kryptonite. This of course means that they are the areas in my home that need the most work.

I tend to keep a lot of stuff underneath the bathroom sinks in my home. Everything from excess toilet paper to medicine and cleaning supplies can be found in each bathroom of my house. I keep cleaning supplies in each bathroom so that I don’t waste time locating supplies. Everything I need is right there and ready for me to tackle the task!

From baby to toddler in the blink of an eye!

My baby boy is getting so big so fast. I feel like I just brought him home from the hospital and yet he is walking and eating table food! My baby boy is no longer a baby anymore. He is now a tumbling toddler.

Star Wars Themed Room

I ran across a Star Wars themed Nursery while perusing the internet and started to think about how I wanted to decorate the children’s playroom in our future house. Originally I wanted to do a Dr. Seuss themed playroom. I am still unsure of which one I will eventually go with, so I have decided to make inspiration boards to help me organize my thoughts. I have put together a Star Wars Inspiration Board for a family room or a play room. This Star Wars Inspiration Board will work for kids with fun pictures and accessories but with going overboard so the adults can enjoy the space as well. 

None of this is actually happening right this minute. First we have to sell our home and then find and buy a new home… Then the fun decorating stuff gets to happen! Until this occurs I will have to be satisfied with my dreams and ideas. So without further ado, here is my Star Wars inspiration board.

Meeting C-3PO and R2-D2 for the first time!

I am sure that my husband has been waiting on pins and needles for our boys to show an interest in Star Wars. After all he owns a ridiculous amount of Star Wars toys from his own childhood that he can pass down to his children when they are ready…. The question is are they ready?

I hope you had a happy Easter.

My Easter Sunday started at 6:30 am. My husband’s started a little earlier than that. While I was all snug and warm in my bed my hubby was out in the chilly morning air hiding the Easter eggs that we had spent the day before boiling and dying.

At about 6:30 in the morning my little band of boys came in to wake me up so that we could go down stairs and discover what the Easter bunny had brought. With kisses, cuddles, and a little bit of laughter I was persuaded to get out of my bed.

Odwalla Champions For Kids April Simple Service Project #OdwallaCFK #CBias

My family is a very active family. We try to be as healthy as possible, whenever possible. We drink water, milk, and juice instead of soda pop and we try to consume healthy snacks as opposed to sugary sweet treats. We love to be outdoors when the weather permits playing games and running around. So when we found out that the Simple Service project for April was a “Game Day Challenge” we were ecstatic!

We Bought a Zoo #CouchCritics Review

I was so excited when I saw the preview for We Bought a Zoo. It looked like a fun family friendly movie that I could watch with the kids. We are an animal family and love taking trips to our local zoo. This film seemed like it would be right up our alley. So we went ahead and reserved a copy at a Blockbuster Express kiosk for our Friday movie night!

Easter Egg Hunt!

My family loves holidays. We embrace them with open arms and enthusiasm. One tradition that my husband’s family particularly enjoy is the Easter egg hunt.

Fitness Friday: TurboFire Week 11

I set a goal for myself this week to stay on schedule. As any mother can tell you, that is not always easy. When you are a mother you have to learn to be flexible or you will go CRAZY! With that being said I think I did a pretty good job this week of sticking to my goals.

Being able to enjoy the great outdoors again!

I love it when life decides to throw me a bone and bless me with nice weather. It means that I can get out of the house with the kids and let them blow off some serious steam without breaking the bank.   

When the weather is nice there is a little go-to list of activities I like to do with the kids.

 

The simple things in life make me laugh.

I like to think that I have a pretty good sense of humor. I really like to laugh and find myself laughing at the simplest things sometimes.

No Sew Fleece Blanket Tutorial: Perfect for story time and picnic play-dates!

I love throw blankets. I especially love the no sew fleece blankets that I can make myself. I have given them as gifts to several friends and family and I own several of them myself as well. They are my favorite blankets to use. They are soft, breathable, and perfect for story time. My little guys also love to use them as blankets for impromptu picnics.

Lawn Mowing Magic!

My neighborhood has been taken over by landscapers and I could not be happier about it! I live in a town home and one of the things I like most about where I live is the fact that I do not have to shovel snow or mow my lawn. As part of the association fees, those tasks are contracted out.

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen: French Quarter food in my neck of the woods!

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but I love New Orleans. It is my favorite city in the entire United States of America to visit. I simply love New Orleans.

Off to the races: spending time at the Hawthorne race course.

My husband and I like to watch a good horse race. There is something so invigorating about watching the horses take off and run all out towards the finish line. It is even more fun when you have picked a winner and you have someone to cheer for!

My husband and I both like to spend some time looking over the program. We like to check out the statistics and history of the horses racing. We like to learn more about jockeys and how they ride. We especially like it when a rider is on a hot streak!

For my husband’s birthday this weekend we spent the afternoon at Hawthorne Race Course. We wandered around the race course facilities did some people watching. We even did some walking down by the starting gates and had the opportunity to see the horses being loaded up for a couple of races.

Little Tikes Sale: Coupon Code!

Little Tikes makes some of the most entertaining and engaging equipment for children on the market! My little guys love playing on their cube climber and sliding down the slide! They love to teeter-totter on their whale and push their toy lawnmower around the house. My family loves their Little Tike toys!   

Right now Little Tikes is offering 15% off bouncer purchases. Simply use the coupon code “BOUNCE” when checking out to receive 15% off your bouncer {product total only – does not include tax and shipping}. There is free standard shipping to the lower 48 states. This coupon code expires 04/30/2012

View the Spring Bouncers Circular!

 Http://MomMart.blogspot.com

World Autism Awareness Day!

Please join me in World Autism Awareness Day by lighting it up blue!   

Autism now affects 1 in 88 children, 1 in 54 boys. 

These numbers are staggering, and if the rate continues to rise, I honestly do not know what will become of future generations. 

More children are diagnosed with Autism than diabetes, AIDS, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy or Down syndrome – combined.