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Fitness Friday

January 30, 2009 By 18 Comments


Guess What Julie, if you come to visit me.

I’m doing the happy dance because my husband budgeted a Wii Fit into our budget. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

Now I’m a true Wii Fit Mommy.

I didn’t get it until Thursday night but my daughter (two years old) was so excited to help me open it. She went with Daddy to go to Costco and they brought it home. She came in and said. Wii Mommy. Wii.

We opened it, but it was her bed time. So I’ll show her how to use it tomorrow. I can’t wait to watch her imitate me tomorrow morning. That’s how I get her to do stuff. She Adores me and her father and wants to be exactly like us. If mommy is acting silly and dancing then she will too. Fun.

So, I’m bloated from, I think I saw someone say “Nancy”. I haven’t been in the mood for anything. I haven’t even wanted to do my recruiting for Bloggers Give. Why does the bad mood have to start and last a week before and after. (yes, I like to exaggerate).

Are you ready for my summary?

Monday
thru
Thursday
I didn’t go anywhere, oh wait, Wednesday I took my daughter to the doctor. I did some baby wearing and my daughter walked. Then we went to Target. So I got a little bit of exercise. I did also have a little bit of restraint when it came to the cookies. I only ate 6 at a time instead of the whole package.
Friday
This is my first day with the Wii Fit. I’m very excited to give it a whirl. Just setting it up was fun. I don’t stand straight and my balance stinks. My BMI is in the high range of healthy and I need to lose 10 lbs to be where I am supposed to be. That’s nice to have something tell you where you are and where you need to be. Be sure to visit the Wii Fit Mommies.

I’ll do better next week.

Filed Under: Wii Fit mommies

Louise Needs

January 30, 2009 By 3 Comments

You should try this it a kinda fun. I saw this on The Mom Buzz and she saw it on Small Town Mommy. Small Town Mommy was playing a game where you go to your browser and type in the search engine your name followed by the word needs. So, I used Live, and put in “Louise Needs”

Then you tell everyone the Top Three. But I’m going to tell you the Top five because it’s kinda funny.

Louise Needs to be someone’s only pet.

Louise Needs Angioplasty

Louise Needs to bone up on the 1920′s

Louise Needs your support.

Louise Needs to shut up.

Those are the top five. I think they sum themselves up though.

What do you need?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Aloha Friday – Uses

January 30, 2009 By 23 Comments


Kailani says “In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that they take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.”

If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

My Question:

What do you use most every day?

I use the changing table the most every day. I think I’m changing dirty diapers all day long sometimes.

Filed Under: aloha Friday

See Kai Run Springs Forward

January 29, 2009 By 1 Comment



I still can not believe that it is time for spring. This is the winter from down under. I mean, ice in Texas, snowed here yesterday, I can hardly think about spring. However, I do love a good pair of shoes. My kids love to wear sandals but I can’t. It is just too cold here.

I shared the Spring Release of Pediped with you, and now I’m going to share the See Kai Run Spring Release.

About See Kai Run

See Kai Run and Smaller promote healthy development of babies’ and children’s feet with their ultra-flexible soles, soft leather and wide toe box. Our footwear meets the American Podiatric Medical Association’s rigorous standards for foot health and functionality and has been awarded the APMA’s prestigious Seal of Acceptance.

See Kai Run is a family-owned and operated business located outside of Seattle, Washington. The idea was born when owner Cause Haun was on a quest for the perfect first pair of shoes for her son, Kai. Unable to find shoes in fun styles that still promoted the healthy development of little feet, Cause and her husband created their own line of shoes that satisfied all of these needs. In just four years, See Kai Run has seen sales expand from a few boutiques, mostly in the Seattle area, to stores all around the country and worldwide. Please visit www.seekairun.com for additional information.



I loved selling See Kai Run because they were so easy to sell. They have cute simple designs and they are soft and perfect for little feet. They start at a reasonable price. Now, if you ask me to compare them to Pediped I would say that they have a thinner sole than Pediped, this can be good and bad. It depends on the age of the child. Older children need a stronger sole so they need a thicker one. Which is what you get with Pediped; however, See Kai Run has come out with other shoes since then and they have a brand called eleven that probably compare. My daughter’s Pediped’s still look like new.

Now for the Spring Line:

See Kai Run® Showers Shoe Fans with 31 New Styles in its New 2009 Spring/Summer Collection

Innovative new designs for boys, girls and babies – plus the return of four old favorites

Seattle, WA, January 2009 – Jump for joy! It’s time to think spring. See Kai Run, popular manufacturer of the perfect first shoe for new walkers, is focusing on fresh silhouettes and colorways for the upcoming spring/summer 2009 collection.

“Parents want to be excited about what they see on the shelves, which means we have to take some risks in offering fresh styles,” says founder Cause Haun. “We’re adding some metallics for boys this season with a gold, khaki, cream, and black trainer.”

More highlights include a sophisticated black sandal with a row of white polka dots that can be dressed up or paired with jeans, as well as a bottle green sandal for girls with yellow and leaf green accents. In all, See Kai Run will introduce 14 new styles in its first walker line, sized three through nine. And by popular demand, it will also bring back four styles from previous collections in a new line known as See Kai (re)Runs. The Smaller® soft-soled baby bootie line sized from zero – 18 months will feature 17 new styles.

The new spring collection will be available for purchase at retailers, as well as online at www.seekairun.com beginning February 2009. Retail prices starts at $32. To view a sneak peek of the new line now, please see our Web site at http://www.seekairun.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?display=action&emptyoverride=yes&template=SKRTemplates/SKR/spring_09_collection_peek.html.

I just love shoes. I have the hardest time not getting my daughter every pair there is. I have to stay home and not do ANY shopping to keep myself from buying. Now with the touch of a click you can order shoes without leaving home. Boy am I in trouble. This information was sent to me. I was not asked to blog about it, but I do so because I am very grateful for their donation. Both companies are great to work with and I recommend both brands for different reasons.

Filed Under: review, See Kai Run, Spring line

Journal Buddies Review and Giveaway

January 28, 2009 By 19 Comments



I had the opportunity to review the girls version of Journal Buddies and it brought back memories of being in high school. I never paid attention in class it was so hard to. I would get bored or finish my homework and still have time left over. My friends and I would have this notebook and pass it in between classes. I would spend the entire class writing in the journal and then pass it to my friends. I think I had three going at one time once. Writing and passing. We would comment on each other’s comments. I wish I had one of those notebooks to look at now. Ahhh Memories…from the corner of my mind…nothing but memories…yeah.. Where was I?

Journaling is a great way to relieve stress, let out your creativity and help with self esteem. Children can have self esteem issues at any time during their development. It is important for parents to be there and be ready.

How can parents help?

Notice the signs of self-esteem issues.

Self Esteem Blog

Self Esteem Articles

Give them an outlet like the Journal Buddies. The Journal Buddies won the Moms Choice Awards for it ability to develop sharing, creativity, and kindness with the use of journaling, creating an unforgettable experience in building and improving a child’s self esteem.

So the Journal Buddie is divided into three different sections.

Section One: Sharing with others

This is the section that reminded me of being in high school. Writing about yourself and your friend and then they get to comment on it and write back. Every day you are asked questions about you and about your buddy.

Section Two: Creative Journaling

Drawing and stickers are strongly encouraged in this portion. So much so that some stickers, sparkles and feathers are included to decorate your book with. Every day you are given a blank page to draw on with one word as inspiration.

Section Three: Kindness

Kindness is about looking at the kindness in you and in others and writing about it. This helps you think of kindness and being conscience of it and giving you self esteem in yourself. Every day you are given a lined sheet to write on and in the beginning of the book you are given ideas to write about.

This would make an excellent give for a young girl. It should inspire her imagination and writing skills. My daughter is too young but I know she would love this. If it were spiral bound I would keep it. She would draw on it and say “who who” which means tigger. I love anything that will inspire creativity, thinking and imagination. Journal Buddies make me want to sit down and be a little girl again; pig tails and all.

“Journal Buddies: A Girl’s Journal for Sharing and Celebrating Magnificence”

has been awarded the Dove Family-Approved Seal. “The Dove Foundation has

established itself as a valuable resource for consumers seeking quality

entertainment and programming that’s suitable for their entire household,”

says Jeff Yordy, VP of Marketing, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Dove’s Review of Journal Buddies states that it is “a very creative way to help

encourage self esteem in young girls. It is so important in this day and age to

help children with their self-image. This delightful ingenious journal will show

them a way to capture their imagination, ideas and thoughts and share them with

others. Giving the diary concept a different look. This is a perfect gift for

young girls.” To learn more about Dove’s review of Journal Buddies visit

http://www.dove.org/MovieReview.asp?Unique_ID=7478

Furthermore, Journal Buddies interactive journaling systems for boys and for

girls are both winners of the 2008 Mom’s Choice Awards, an award that

represents quality and ingenuity. Like other symbols of quality that consumers

have come to rely on, the Mom’s Choice Award on a product, service or media

production alerts consumers its appropriateness for children. The Award is a

symbol of family-friendliness that parents, educators, librarians, social

service professionals and others rely on to help guide their purchasing

decisions

Thank you to Journal Buddies and to The Family Review Network for this Opportunity.

I would like to give my copy away and it is autographed.

Please Visit Journal Buddies and tell me something you learned.

For extra entries:

Subscribe to my RSS

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Drop on my EC

Blog about the giveaway linking to me and Journal Buddies for three extra entries

Follow me on twitter and tweet the giveaway

Tweet about Bloggers Give

Leave a comment for each entry and you must complete the first entry for the others to count. This giveaway ends February 28th 2009. You can enter every day by tweeting either of the two items listed. Leave me your twitter id so I can check. Good Luck

Filed Under: Activity book, book review, Journal Buddies

Wordless Wednesday – Cheese

January 28, 2009 By 30 Comments

Filed Under: Wordless Wednesday

BlogHer Sponsorship

January 28, 2009 By 2 Comments


Blogger, BlogHer, Blog What?

I started blogging in June, July, August. Man my mommy brain just can’t remember. I know I was going strong in August. Now I’m posting almost twice a day; except on the weekends. Now, I hear there is a convention for people that blog. What? What do you do? What is it for? Why do companies pay people to go?

Almost every other blog I go to now says HEY YOU, Big Company over there. Pay my way to Blog Her Please? Pretty please with sugar on top. I’ll call you my sponsor and post your button on my site. I’ll tell everyone I meet to buy your product. I’ll network like crazy. The all knowing WiKi says that:

BlogHer refers to a group blog and online community, and to an annual blogging conference for women. Three of the 2005 conference organizers, Elisa Camahort, Jory des Jardins, and Lisa Stone, began a company, Blogher LLC, which in 2006 also began a blog ad network. In 2007, BlogHers Act, a political blogging network by and for women, was started by the company.

Last year:

On July 16, 2008 Blogher announced a partnership with Women@NBCU and iVillage. This landmark agreement provides iVillage access to BlogHer’s extensive network of 2200 women’s blogs, and promotional opportunities across BlogHer’s large and influential audience. As part of the arrangement, iVillage, Oxygen.com and BravoTV.com will feature select BlogHer content. iVillage is an online network that is the leading women’s content network with over 16 million unique visitors monthly. The network will be the largest agglomeration of women’s media brands online.

This year:

There will be 30 session that will make up the Identity and Passions, Business of You, Leadership and MommyBlogging tracks at BlogHer ’09 in Chicago this July. You can check out that schedule here.

Would I like to go?
No not really. Are you kidding? I would love to go. A weekend away from the kids spending it with other women who like to write and share all with a bunch of strangers. ;-) . I love networking and face to face is much better than e-mail to e-mail. I would love to learn different blogging techniques and increase the readership of my blog. Of course, I still don’t understand why the all powerful monster Google has any say over my page rank.

How can I go?
I would need a full ride. I would need someone to pay for my plane ticket. I could share a hotel, with some stranger I met in the parking lot, but I might have to pay for half. Ok, it might be safer to pay for the entire hotel. So, I need money for that. I need money for the plane ticket. Now, I would also need a baby sitter. The only thing I could figure out to take care of the kids would be to fly to Texas, drop them off at their grandparents, then fly to Chicago and then fly back to Texas after the event. I should spend some time with my parents after dumping my kids off on them. Sounds like fun doesn’t it. I’m probably not going to go this year. But I’m definitely going to plan on going next year.

Oh wait. A shot in the dark came out of no-where. The best of the Mom Blogs MomDot has announced a partnership with Label Daddy, a made in the USA personalized label company, and they are providing partial coverage. Label Daddy is hosting their own contest and covering an entire sponsorship. You should go enter over there if you want to go to BlogHer more than anything else.

What would I do there?
I would schmooze with all the other bloggers. I would really talk up BLOGGERS GIVE. I would get a big scary hug from Trisha at MomDot. I would meet people in the review groups I’m in. Well, I would stay very busy. Maybe participate in a class or two.

What would you do?

Have you seen any crazy attempt to get the notice of a sponsor?

Smiles!!! Label Daddy BlogHer 09 Sponsorship

More about the giveaway……..

While they are already fully sponsoring Sara from Momma Findings for the convention and sponsoring Bridgette, Alicia, and I’s hotel fees, they want to go even further and are offering to cover 2 bloggers convention fees (worth approx $200 a piece) and one full ride to BlogHer for a lucky blogger (including plane, convention fee, and hotel cost).

Do you know any other company offering 5 Blogher sponsorships for the Blogging Community? I don’t! Yeah for Label Daddy! We are so proud to be associated with them and all three MomDot MEOs thank them from the bottom of our hearts for assisting us in paving the way to BlogHer.

Now where do you come in? Label Daddy has partnered with MomDot to reach bloggers with this great opportunity and we are kicking off the sponsorship here! You will be allowed to enter the other partial BlogHer 09 sponsorship contest for your convention fee on Sara’s page and the full ride (hotel, plane, and convention fees) directly on the Label Daddy page. You may enter ALL THREE, upping your chance of selection, and giving you three separate chances to win one of the three scholarships. We are the first one to post our contest, and those other chances will be coming this week. I will alert the site when they all go LIVE on the other sites.

Filed Under: Blog Her

The Jesus Storybook Bible – Review

January 27, 2009 By 4 Comments
In the introduction of the children’s bible it begins with a paraphrase of Psalm 19:1-2.

The Heavens are singing
about how great God is;
and the skies are shouting it out,
“See what God has made!”
Day after day… Night after night…
They are speaking to us.

To make a bible interesting to children it has to be like speaking. There has to be a story, something exciting. Inflection in the voice that is reading to the child. Or imaginative pictures to inspire the active imagination that lives inside our children. The pictures in The Jesus Storybook Bible are fantastically whimsical. They tell a story as much as the words do. Together the pictures and words make the bible come alive. As soon as I received this bible to review I opened it up and started reading it and didn’t want to put it down. I was very impressed.

No, not every story is in this bible but all of the major stories are. There is enough in here to start a good foundation in a child for the stories of the bible.

My daughter has three or four bibles now. She has one out in the van that she took to church with her. It was so cute as we were walking out the door she grabbed her bible and said “read”. Sorry, I had to share a little side note there.

This was written by Sally Lloyd-Jones and Illustrated by Jago. Jago has also illustrated many other children’s books and you can find his blog Jago Illustration.

About the Author:

Sally Lloyd-Jones bloggs about many random things. One of those being ramblings about Barbie. Now her business site is here. She is an author of children’s stories. She has written many different story bibles. This one being published by Zondervan.
This opportunity was provided by Faithapproved.
Filed Under: bible review, book review, Zondervan

The no-cry nap solution Giveaway

January 26, 2009 By 61 Comments

Elizabeth Pantly sent me a copy of her book to review and I thank her very much for the book. I have to honestly say that I have not had time to read this book. I have had so much come up in the last month that I have put my book reviews on the side and I’m sorry. So, what I’m going to do is give the book away. That way I can reach more of you blood sucking/I mean contest loving fools (I’m right there with you entering as many contests as I can).
I’m also going to let you know that The Family Review Network is reviewing this book and they start reviewing in Feb.
I will tell you that I read enough to agree that having a solid routine, even a nap routine is very important to help them sleep. We also have a solid bed time schedule. She covers everything. I was amazed at what I learned just in the small amount that I did read. Issues and answers. She talks about luvies. My son has a luvie, but luckily it’s just a rag and any rag will do. In fact, at the last play date we went to, he grabbed a nearby costume and started sucking his thumb. It was cute until he somehow managed to get tangled up in it. So, this was mommy NOT FOLLOWING the routine.
From the back cover:
  • Convince any child to nap every day
  • Effortlessly settle your child for nap time in his or her own bed
  • Turn short, fitful naps into long peaceful ones
  • Establish a nap schedule that works for you and your child
  • Confidently deal with sudden changes, nap strikes, and travel

Here is the BOOK Description from the catalog:

The No-Cry Nap Solution:Guaranteed Gentle Ways to Solve All Your Naptime
ProblemsBestselling parenting author brings her solutions to your naptime
dilemmas. Will your child only nap in your arms, in a swing, or after elaborate
rituals? Does your child take cat naps–or none at all? Let world-renowned,
trusted parenting author Elizabeth Pantley help you. She’ll guide you with the
same sensitive expertise and gentle approach used in her other No-Cry
bestsellers.Research shows that naps improve health, mood, growth, and
well-being. Yet children often resist the naps they need. The results are fussy,
crying babies and cranky, grouchy kids who also have trouble sleeping at
night!In The No-Cry Nap Solution Pantley explains to parents of children ages
newborn to kindergarten the importance of napping to both behavior during the
day and sleeping during (and through!) the night. She then shares with you her
gentle, loving techniques–tested on families of all sizes and
circumstances–and shows you how you can customize her solutions for your own
family. Pantley addresses issues such as children who resist naps, dealing with
schedule changes, turning short naps into longer ones, helping a child go from
needing motion to sleep to “stationery” sleep, nursing at naptime, solving
daycare napping problems, and more.

How to win:

Visit Elizabeth Pantly and come back and tell me something about her or her books.
Subscribe to my RSS
Add My button to your site
Advertise on my EC
Blog about the giveaway for three extra entries
Follow me on twitter and tweet the giveaway
Tweet about Bloggers Give
Leave a comment for each entry and you must complete the first entry for the others to count. This giveaway ends February 28th 2009. You can enter every day by tweeting either of the two items listed. Leave me your twitter id so I can check. Good Luck

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Meal Plan Monday

January 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

It’s that time of the week again. I need to plan out my meals. I’m just not motivated to be creative. I need to go to Costco to pick up some stuff in bulk. Please visit the headquarters for Menu Plan Monday

Monday
French Toast

Tuesday
Pasta, cheese, and peas

Wednesday
Pizza

Thursday
Chili Corn Bread

Friday
Leftovers/sandwiches

Saturday/Sunday
Make up as I go

I’m pretty sure I can get by for the rest of the month without anything. I can probably squeeze out without going to Costco, but it’s easier to go during the week than on the weekend. That place is a crazy mad house on the weekends.
Filed Under: Meal plan
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