JOHNSON’s Baby reformulates products and makes a #PromiseToBaby #partner

I’m happy to have partnered with JOHNSON’S Baby’s to help share their #PromiseToBaby.

The day my children were born my entire world changed. I felt unconditional love and knew that my heart would never be the same again. With each new child welcomed into my family my love has multiplied and my hopes, dreams, and promises to my children have grown. I am my children’s advocate. It is my job and pleasure to keep them safe, to teach them kindness, and to inspire them. I promise to support my children, to go to bat for them, and to protect them.

Family Favorite Toys

I have favorite toys. Yes, I still enjoy playing with toys and frequently encourage my children to unplug and use their imagination by playing with toys that do not light up, talk, or play an app. I like to get down on the floor and built, destroy, capture, and create empires with my children. My children’s toys are well loved and travel frequently. We take them everywhere with us. They go to the park, on car rides, and even on trips to visit family. These toys provide my family with endless hours of entertainment, so I thought I would share a few of them with you.

My Camera and Must Have Accessories – This is what I use.

I love my camera and I love taking photographs. My favorite photos of my family are ones that I have taken myself. My children’s smiles reach their eyes and I am able to coax their personalities out of them during our photo shoots. This is something that can be hard for a stranger to do. While I am not a professional photographer – I am a mother who loves photography and who enjoys taking pictures. I get asked all of the time about my camera and my camera accessories. Purchasing a DSLR camera was a great decision and looking back at past photos I only wish that I had bought it sooner.

For the longest time I had a simple point and shoot camera and that was fine, until it broke. When I went to replace my camera I knew that I wanted to upgrade and get a really good camera. I did a lot of research, read a lot of reviews, and played around with many different cameras. After a lot of time and consideration I made my purchase.

On the go with the Britax B-Agile Double Review

I am constantly running errands, heading to play dates, and taking someone to one class or another. It is pretty typical for me to have all three of my children with me when I am on the go – even when I am on my own. I have found that my key to a successful trip anywhere is being able to monitor all of my children easily. For me this means either babywearing or using a stroller and sometimes it means both. The newest addition to my stroller addiction is the Britax B-Agile Double stroller {Thank you Britax for providing a sample of the B-Agile Double to facilitate this review}. I must admit that I am very impressed with this stroller. 

There are days when I will babywear my daughter and have my two older boys ride in the stroller and then there are days when my oldest will help my push the stroller while my younger two catch a ride. It all depends on my children and their temperament. I love that the B-Agile Double can accommodate any child combination I throw at it. Since this stroller can accommodate children from birth up to 50lbs, even my oldest child can sit back and relax on a stroll around town.

An Inexpensive Dining Room Makeover

We have been in our home for a while now. We have worked really hard to make our house a home by adding, changing, and updating each room of the house. Most of these changes have been accomplished with a simple coat of paint. Some have required a bit more elbow grease. My latest project I took on and completed all by myself and I am really proud of how it turned out. I gave my dining room an inexpensive makeover.

What to wear to Disney World

When my husband started talking about taking our family on a vacation to Disney World I knew that there would be a lot of planning involved. After all - we are a family full of planners. We planned everything. We planned where would we stay, what shows we would see, where we would eat, what we would need to pack, and what we would wear at Disney World. I spent quite a lot of time thinking about what exactly our family would wear to wear to Disney. After looking online at various stores and perusing Etsy retailers I did not find what I was looking for. I soon realized that I would be the one needing to make my family matching family tee shirts to wear to Disney World.

I loved having matching family tee shirts for our Walt Disney World vacation. They were great for keeping track of each other and they provided a great ice breaker for people while waiting in lines. Cast members interacted with us wherever we went thanks to our tee shirts and the characters we met got a kick out of them too. They were a hit!

Summer Travel Safety Tips and a Safety 1st Advance SE 65 Air + #Giveaway

The 4^th of July usually means a vacation for my family on the beach. We usually hop in the car and drive up to Wisconsin for some family fun time, fireworks, and s'mores right on Lake Michigan. The drive heading to our vacation and home from our holiday vacation is always long and there is always a lot of traffic. Obviously we are not the only ones who travel for the 4^th of July holiday weekend. To help you and your families travel safely this summer I have partnered with Safety 1^st to bring you some travel safety tips by Safety 1^st Consumer Safety Expert Julie Vallese as well as a fabulous Safety 1^st Advance SE 65 Air + Convertible Car Seat Giveaway.

How to replace the foam parent handles on the Joovy Groove stroller:

This last spring I took my Joovy Groove stroller with me to Disney as well as the Joovy TooFold stroller with second seat. Since there was no stroller bag on the market that I felt could accommodate both of these strollers I sewed my own stroller bag so that my strollers would be protected once they were gate checked at the airport {best decision ever by the way- my strollers were dry and clean and undamaged}. But somehow while being used around the parks the foam parent handle on my Joovy Groove got damaged. There were large tears in the foam handle and although I was still able to use the stroller theses tears drove me crazy and I knew that as soon as I got home I would need to replace them. And replace them I did. After searching online for a tutorial on how to replace the foam handles on my Joovy Groove stroller I finally gave up {as there were no YouTube videos that I could find or directions anywhere!} and decided to just jump right in and do it.

  

Teaching color with a felt color matching lollipop game #DIY

As a former Pre-K teacher I enjoy bringing education into my home. I am constantly looking for new ways to teach my children without it seeming like a chore. I want them to enjoy school and love learning as much as I did. I look for way of turning lessons into games and keeping the games we play fresh and fun. Right now I am working on teaching my younger son color identification. To help with this I have created a felt color matching game. He likes to be hands-on {as most children his age tend to enjoy} and being able to hold and manipulate his colors helps to solidify his understanding. These DIY felt color matching lollipops were a huge hit with my children, even my oldest wanted to play with them!