Season of Giving Day 6 Host a Diaper Drive

You might have noticed that yesterday I used the wrong phrase for this series. I called it the Season of sharing, but whatever you call it, Season of Giving, Season of Sharing Spirit of giving, we here at MomStart hope to encourage you to find a way to give this year.

By Summer,

Pampers

Calling all parents! Quick, look in your bag, stroller, child’s closet, bathroom, car – chances are you’ve got some “leftover” diapers from a stage your child is no longer in just lying around. You know the stragglers you can count on one hand. You may know they’re there and just haven’t known what to do with them, or they might be sitting there waiting to be discovers, but I have a solution for you. Check with your local food bank to see if they accept “open package” diaper donations. My local food bank, Maltby Food Bank, happily accept diaper stragglers to help their patrons as diapers are so expensive! There is also a local support for single moms-to-be in my neighborhood called Special Delivery and they will take your open diaper packages too. Mom Start worked with Pampers and Johnson’s earlier this year to help support Special Delivery.

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My local organizations also accepts other diapering and baby supplies such as open packages of wipes, diaper cream, pacifiers, bottles, and cans of formula (including samples received in the mail). Check with your local organization when you’re looking to get rid of these items. Remember, product donations to your local non-profit 501(c) are tax deductible.

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If you want to make a bigger impact, ask your friends to search their homes to find their straggler diapers too. If you’re donating to the food bank add some non-perishable food items. Organizations in need of diapers will also gladly accept cash donations and gift cards to purchases items needed by their cliental.

Feeding America is a group of food banks and Feeding America can help you find a local food bank in your area if you don’t know where one is located. Feeding America can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

About Summer:

Summer is very active in our Local MOMS Club chapter, she is the mother of two adorable active boys, and is always thinking of ways to help others. She is a friend, a wife, and always busy as all mommies are. She is very active on Facebook, addicted to Geocaching and very interested in organic and green living while cooking up a storm.

Pampers Cruisers "30 Days of Play " Let’s Rock Elmo #PampersCruisers

I have two really great things that I get to combine for you today. One, I was at the Time To Play Holiday Toy Showcase in New York last week and had an amazing time checking out all of the top toys for this Holiday Season and even though, Hasbro’s new Let’s Rock! Elmo didn’t make the top Time To Play List let me tell you he’s going to be a popular toy this year.

 Hasbro Holiday Toys

Another really cool game that I have to mention but has nothing really to do with this post and it’s prize is the Logo game, because one of the BEST LOGOs is in the game. It’s just cool, cause it says Pampers!

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Now onto the second part, as you may likely know, I’m a Pampers Brand Ambassador and I love their diapers. So much so that I switched from using Huggies, and I used Huggies for years. Pampers continues to make improvements and they recently improved Pampers Cruisers with 3-Way Fit. These diapers are currently rolling out on shelves. Now, because they are always looking to improve the product experience they wanted to produce diapers that allow babies to play at their best. The three-way fit adapts to  little waists, legs and bottoms. The Pampers Cruisers with 3-Way Fit have been enhanced with a longer absorbent area and new soft quilted backsheet, like their Swaddlers diapers.

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But perhaps the most fun? Now, you may have been wondering why I started off a Pampers post with a toy announcement about Elmo, well here is where I’m going to pull it all together for you. New Sesame Street graphics! Even Oscar the Grouch is making his debut appearance and joining in on all the fun!  They are SUPER CUTE:

Bolt Size 5-1 Back

You can visit the special “Cruisers Sweeps” tab located on the left side of the screen, and participate in daily Sesame Street trivia for a chance at exciting prizes. Each day a new question and set of prizes will be offered giving you, a chance at winning a pack of newly improved Pampers Cruisers with 3-Way Fit alongside cool Sesame Street items. Like tickets to Sesame Place…HELLO! Or even better, a chance at winning a year’s supply of diapers and an all-inclusive, four-day/three night vacation for two adults and two children (age 15 or under) to any of the four Beaches Resort’s “Sesame Street Caribbean Adventure” in Turks & Caicos or Jamaica!

This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the winner, Milcah.

All rules can be found under giveaway rules.

I was not compensated for this post in any way but I do represent Pampers as a brand ambassador.

Pampers Hello Baby & Hello World Parenting Apps

Having a baby is the most wonderful and most challenging event you may ever have in your life. Everything turns upside-down and for the rest of your life you have responsibilities that never ever go on hold. Even me telling you this will not fully prepare you for the changes you have coming up. It’s something that just has to be experienced and enjoyed.

The brand new Pampers Hello World Baby Memories App is available now for free download on itunes for  iPad, iTouch or iPhone and it’s pretty cute. Makes me really wish I had this when Zoe and Miles were babies.  

 

The excellent features on the new Hello World app include:

HelloWorldFirst we have Growing Baby, This part of the app allows you to take daily photos of your baby then pulls them all together in a time-lapse video so you can see how quickly your baby is growing right before your eyes! The best part is you can use this feature to create your own personal parenthood story. You amazingly start with the baby bump, then the growth of your baby’s facial features, hands, feet, first tooth, etc. Growing Baby reveals in a remarkable way how precious babyhood really is.

Then Albums, This allows you to conveniently organize and arrange, by category, your family’s photos directly on your ipad, itouch or iphone device. I’m never organized so this would save my life, how about yours?

And Finally Making Memories, this is a one-touch sharing capability that allows you to take photo and videos, then quickly upload them to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter or Youtube at the touch of a button. Sharing made easy!

Now the other new and outstand parenting app by Pampers is the the Hello World Baby Memories app. This app is part of a series of apps called Pampers Hello Parenting Apps which also includes the Hello Baby Pregnancy Calendar. Which is pretty spectacular I must say.

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HelloBabyThe Pampers Hello Baby Pregnancy Calendar allows you to explore life-sized images (iPad only; images in iPhone and iTouch are not life-sized) of a baby in the womb from week 4 up to week 40. You will learn about the stages of pregnancy and make small discovers about a baby’s development. I had to look at a book and use a count down device that was NOT IN COLOR. So this is fascinating to me.

Did you know that a baby could respond to sounds by week 28? The "womb translator" feature allows you to record your voice, then play it back or share it with friends in the tone that your baby hears it.

So these are two really cool parenting apps to help you with reminders about your coming and already here baby.

This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the winner, brian e.

All rules can be found under giveaway rules.

I received no compensation but do represent Pampers as a brand ambassador.

Pampers Gifts To Grow

I thought that since I am a Pampers Ambassador that I would start sharing these codes with you when I come across them.

pampers gifts to grow

Earn points toward scooters, strollers, books, magazine subscriptions, gift cards, and even charitable donations. Join now and get 100 Free Points. You will also receive periodic emails and special offers.

Join Pampers Gifts to Grow Rewards program and receive 100 free points toward your purchase of Pampers goods.

How You Can Help Pampers Little Miracles Mission (3 Days Left)

From now until Mother’s Day you can help little miracles all around you. Pampers Little Miracles Mission is your mission to help make Mother’s Day special for another mother you know. All you have to do is congratulate an expecting mother with her upcoming little miracle. All you have to do is offer a mom a smile in a time they need one. All you have to do is offer a pregnant mom  your seat so they can rest. All you have to do is give a mom some flowers to brighten up their day. All you have to do is something, anything to help another mom out and remind them how special their little miracles are. Moms deserve a break and any kind of outreach is a great way to lift up another mom. I’m excited for the little miracles I’ll be helping later this year at Children’s Hospital in Seattle.

 

Just by making a pledge on Pampers Facebook page you could be making a different on a larger scale. Pampers will throw 1,000 baby showers for expectant mothers across the country in May and June. They will be sharing pictures and stories with us so you can see how you’ve helped. Let’s continue to celebrate the special little miracles in each of our lives and uplift someone else today!

 

I’m a Pampers Ambassador, and I’m posting this because I love this campaign.

Life Behind the Blog: Why We Do The Things We Do

I’ve been keeping extremely busy behind the blog. My husband and I are taking a class at church called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey and well we’re learning all kinds of things, and mainly we’ve come to the decision to live our lives differently. We’re working very hard selling stuff we don’t use or no longer need, and I’ve sold a few things that I really loved to make a little extra money to put some of Dave’s practices into place. You may have even noticed that I’ve been doing more sponsored posts and have been trying out a few advertising techniques in order to earn a little money. Every little bit helps.

I’ve also been working on a few different charity projects. I don’t’ blog about all the charity work that I do, or mention it as much as I used to but I haven’t changed, most of the products received are still donated. I’m still making an impact in my community with all the work I do here on MomStart. I know that other bloggers look at my site and see it as a waste of on-line space but I’ve decided I don’t care what they think anymore. Everything I do and all the hard work and commitments I sign up for help this site be the success that it is and open up the opportunities that allow me to do things to help others. I love what I do, and I love the people I’ve met and the PR reps that I get to work with. So I hold my head up high knowing that I do have integrity in all that I do. And just to say thank you to all the companies involved in the larger projects we’re working on, I wanted to mention a few of them. Here are four of our current projects that we’re working on right now as a MomStart team behind the blog!

Box Out Hunger – The Box Out Hunger cereal drive is something that my local MOMS Club chapter does to benefit the Maltby Food Bank. This year MomStart has been working with the Nature’s Path Organics Food company. So we asked them if they would match our collection box for box and they said yes. So a big thank you to Nature’s Path Organics from MOMS Club of Woodinville WA and MomStart. Maltby Food Bank uses these boxes of cereal and snacks to feed kids that would normally get a free meal at school, and during the summer would otherwise go hungry. Nature's Path Earth Day Giveaway HR

Eastside Domestic Violence Program Fundraiser – Remember that sandwich competition that I was part of? Hillshire Farms donated 1000.00 to the Eastside Domestic Violence Program on behalf of my participation in the contest. I’ve also gathered up quite a few products (over $1800.00 worth) and things that were hardly used or were given to me from companies to donate directly. The Eastside Domestic Violence Program is having their yearly auction and fundraiser World of Hope Dinner & Auction on May 14th 2011 and I’m quite proud to be apart of it. 

EDVP logo

Pampers Miracles – As a Pampers Baby Board Ambassador, I’ve been given the opportunity to host a charity event of my making. They are providing me with the means to do some very large random acts of kindness that I can use to throw an event or just donate to a charity that helps little miracles. I’m so excited to be apart of the Pampers little miracles program and can’t wait to start helping little miracles. I’ve pulled in some of my friends to help me come up with ideas and this ones going to be BIG, so it will take much of our time and you’ll see even fewer personal posts while we’re working on this one.

Pampers logo cmyk

Seattle Mom Prom – Summer has been quite an asset to MomStart this year and she’s been working on supporting the Seattle Mom Prom. On May 21, 2011 at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center from 8pm until Midnight Seattle Mom Prom will be raising money for Postpartum Support International of Washington. We’ve been collecting products for them to use as door prizes or possibly auction items and we can’t wait to be part of the fun. If you live in the Seattle area you can find out more by checking out the Seattle Mom Prom website, Liking their Seattle Mom Prom Facebook page, and following them on Twitter @SeattleMomProm. If you’re a company and want to help by giving a donation you can contact Myla Rugge through her Mom Prom email address [seattlemomprom@live.com].

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All of these things are because of this blog, the support from our readers, and the companies that we work with. So the personal posts may have slowed down for the time being, but that’s because we’re working very hard behind the scenes. Thank you everyone that makes all of this possible. 

Interview with Bethenny Frankel From The Real Housewives of New York City to Pampers Ambassador

_MG_4046.jpgLast week I had the opportunity to interview Bethenny Frankel over the phone. Bethenny is a new mom to a 7 month old girl named Bryn, she has been learning how to juggle being a mother while maintaining a career as a famous business woman. Bethenny is widely known for her role in The Real Housewives of New York City and for being a natural foods chef who has a no nonsense attitude about feeding your children healthy home made food.

I really enjoyed interviewing Bethenny, I found her responses real and relatable as a mother of two children myself. I haven’t seen a single episode of The Real Housewives in any city, can you believe that? So because I live under a rock, I had no idea who Bethenny was until Pampers introduced her to me. To me, she’s another busy mom with great advice on how to juggle being a mother and a career.

Check out her great responses on feeding your children natural home made food, juggling parenthood and a career and learning how to deal with much less sleep. Oh and I love how she said that Pampers Baby Wipes are her most used item with Bryn. I have to say, we use a LOT of Pampers Clean ‘N Go Wipes.

 

Pampers Gifts to Grow is a rewards program for purchases of all the diapers and products you use from Pampers. When we first started using diapers, programs like this were on a hiatus and I’m so excited that Pampers brought it back. I love rewards programs. For every package of Pampers diapers you purchase you can enter the rewards points to use when you reach a certain amount towards different items you may want. If you check out the Pampers Facebook page you will see that a Radio Flyer is valued at 5,075 points. Pretty cool!

 

I’m a member of the Pampers Baby Board and I was under no obligation to publish this post or interview!

New Pampers Cruisers Dry Max Review and Giveaway

I received a sample of Pampers Dry Max Diapers to try out. I’m usually a Huggies Supreme purchaser. We came to believe that they were the only diapers that would hold everything our kids had to give, but I’m beginning to see that Huggies now has some competition.

 

New Cruisers! Get your FREE diaper sample!

 

Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max has:

  • New Dry Max technology – our driest ever – to help lock wetness in up to 12 hours.
  • Twenty (20) percent less bulk, making it Pampers’ thinnest diaper and our driest ever
  • Softer outer cover for comfort inside and out
  • Tapered design
  • Sesame Street® characters (Sesame street® is a licensed character with Pampers in North America)
  • Will be offered for the same price as current Pampers Swaddlers and Cruisers (Pricing is at the sole discretion of the retailer.)

About the Dry Max Technology:

  • Dry Max describes the new "engine" or core of Cruisers and Swaddlers diapers.
  • It allows for the removal of the airfelt ("paper pulp") found in current Swaddlers and Cruisers, resulting in a thinner and less bulky core. Currently, Pampers is the only brand with this technology on the market.
  • The thinner core is enabled by the new Absorbent Gelling Material (AGM), removing the need for airfelt. The AGM is more permeable, meaning it locks wetness in faster than previous AGM.
  • The Dry Max technology will also be available in Pampers Swaddlers diapers for new babies in March 2010.

Why we like them:

I love them because I think they smell great. I mean, putting a diaper on my kids just seems like what has to be done, but I’ve really enjoyed putting these Pampers Dry max on them because it smells so good. Please don’t think I’m crazy, I love smelling them. Yes, my DH laughs at me.

Reason number two: they are super soft. I can’t believe that they are diapers, they are super soft and extremely stretchy. I think Miles could even go down a size because they pull so much.

Reason number three: they are really thin. Even when they are full of liquid they are super thin. Not as thin as when you put them on but you should see the difference in a full Huggies and a full Pampers.

Reason number four: they don’t leak. It’s great!

Enter To win:

Liz Lange designer diaper clutch specially designed for the new Pampers with Dry Max diapers AND a redeemable coupon for a free week’s supply of diapers

 

Clutch with Cruisers

To Enter:

Visit Pampers and tell me what size you would need for your baby! Mine wears size six.

Extra Entries:

Follow me on twitter tell me your twitter ID
Tweet about the giveaway and include a link to the giveaway
Advertise this giveaway on any giveaway site, blog, or facebook and tell me where you advertised it (include link to giveaway). 5 Extra Entries for each one you do
Subscribe to my blog
Comment on any other non-giveaway post
Use any of the share options below, digg, stumble…2 entries each

The contest will run until March 29th 11:59 pm Pacific. All rules can be found under giveaway rules.

Pamper’s Olympic Update, get your free diaper tomorrow

http://pampersassets.thresholdinteractive.com/media/images/products/38360_Sz3_DIAPER_3.jpgThe Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games are upon us and athletes are clamoring for high performance warm-up suits and other gear to give them a competitive advantage. For the first time ever, babies of Team USA will experience a gold-medal moment by sporting their own high performance gear – Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max! Pampers’ new diaper is of such high performance, that the Team USA athletes and their babies will be equipped with the diapers as they head to Vancouver. In honor of these athletes and their families, Pampers has created specially-branded Team USA diapers with the Dry Max technology.

Although these limited-edition Team USA diapers will not be for sale, parents can request a free sample three-pack of Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max on Pampers.com starting January 29. If this sample includes a Team USA diaper (they will be randomly inserted in select sample packs), their baby will win a one year supply of Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max.

Fun Baby Facts?

  • A nine-month old baby can crawl up to 400 meters in 20 minutes (Learning to Keep Balance. Karen Adolph, Dept of Psychology, New York University)
  • A cruising baby in one day can take as many steps as a marathon runner in a race (O’Malley, M. “Normalization of temporal-distance parameter in pediatric gait” J. Biomechanics 29, 619-625, 1996)
  • A baby can fall up to 300 times before managing to stand up or walk (American Academy of Pediatrics, pg 260-261; Babyhood, P. Leach, pg 254)

Partnering with U.S. Olympic Families

pampersFor many U.S. Olympic athletes, bringing home a medal is not just their dream – it’s their family’s dream. Pampers is working with two medal contender athletes – U.S. Olympic goldmedal speed skater and dad to baby Hadley, Chad Hedrick; and skeleton World Champion and mom to toddler Lacee, Noelle Pikus-Pace – and both of their families – to share their Vancouver experiences from their babies’ point of view. Photos and videos will be uploaded daily to Pampers.com.

Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max

Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max is the brand’s first high performance diaper and the biggest innovation for the Pampers brand in the last 25 years. Pampers has invented the Dry Max technology and applied it to the current Swaddlers and Cruisers core, which allows the diaper to be 20 percent thinner than current Pampers Cruisers without sacrificing any performance. This hard-working diaper locks wetness away and is Pampers’ driest diaper ever. New Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max have game-changing benefits for mom, baby and the world. For more information or to request a free sample beginning January 29, visit www.Pampers.com.

Free Diaper

Starting January 29th, parents everywhere will be able to request a free sample three-pack of Pampers Cruisers with Dry Max on Pampers.com. If the sample sent includes a diaper stamped Team USA (randomly inserted in select sample packs), their baby will win a year’s supply of Pampers diapers!

This post is on behalf of Pampers, they will be sending me some Olympic Diapers and a few other supplies as part of their Team USA campaign.

Gearing up for the Olympics, sign up for Free Pampers Diapers

Olympics and Diapers? What do they have in common?

Pampers villagePampers is sponsoring Chad Hedrick. He is up to his ears in diapers at home and the Olympic speed skater is quite the proud father. The Pampers logo has a prominent spot on the upper left front of his racing suit. He became a first-time father nine months ago when daughter Hadley was born. So while Pampers is skating for Gold, they are also going to be handing out free diapers.

Sign-up for the free sample three-pack at Pampers.com starting February 12th

This post is on behalf of Pampers, they will be sending me some Olympic Diapers and a few other supplies as part of their Team USA campaign.