Blogger Opp!

Sign-ups are open for the fabulous Kinderfeets Giveaway

This event is free to join with an announcement post. 

For participation, you will receive 2 free links (Facebook and Twitter)

Sign-ups for the event closes on June 28th

Sign up for the event Here

Squirrel's 4th Birthday!

Squirrel's birthday was this week. He turned 4. Where did the time go?

Seriously, when people first heard I was pregnant a lot of them said "It goes by so fast!".

I really got sick of hearing that. Yes, it goes by fast, I get it.

When he was born he was so tiny, only 7 lbs, 7 oz.

It didn't take long for him to start putting on the weight. He was a super chunky baby always coming in between 75th and 90th percentile for weight but only the 50th for height.

Yes, it goes by fast.

No matter how many times I have heard it, no matter how many times I have said it, it goes by fast.

It is strange to think that this year is my 8th wedding anniversary,

Squirrel has been around for half of our marriage!

It goes by so fast.

This year we celebrated with some of his friends, in the past we have only celebrated with family.

We picked up some pizzas (and of course cake) and met up with some friends at Elm Creek Park.

The park has a huge play system.

After eating pizza the kids had some play time and ran off some energy.

We then re-convened for some cake!

Who doesn't love cake? I didn't order it in advance so we got whatever was available in the deli.

It was a chocolate cake with fudge icing. It was decorated with large circle sprinkles and mini ice cream cones. Oh my gosh was it tasty!

We all sang "Happy Birthday" and with a little help from friends he blew out his candles.

Then it was time for presents. This kid is spoiled. He got his favorite things:

action figures, bubbles, a book and a hooded batman towel!

When the kids arrived I gave them all a birthday hat and a little goodie bag. Squirrel wanted nothing to do with the hat until someone showed him that he could put it on his butt and pretend he was a bee. He then proceeded to 'sting' mommy and daddy.

He had so much fun! I really enjoyed watching him with his friends. 

I am happy that we decided to do something at the park rather than at our house, it was much less stressful.

For the Home Giveaway Hop

<a href="http://mommysfavoritethings.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r135/mditzzy2008/FTH_zps3616776e.png" /> </a>

Hosted By: Mommy's Favorite Things & Mama's Baby Cupcakes "For The Home" This Blog Hop giveaway is going to be items that are meant For The Home. Anything that has to do with the home. From decorating to cleaning products. From food to Bedding. Whatever goes in the home. There are lots of options for finding a prize for this wonderful event. Your only mission is to find the perfect prize pack for your blog! Because this is a blog hop, each blog will be responsible for securing their own prize on their own blog. Each prize must be a Minimum of $25. The Prize can be sponsored OR you can self sponsor. Each blog can have more than 1 winner, but each winner must win at least $25 in prizes.  Joining this Blog Hop is FREE with Announcement. When: 7/8-7/22 Who: Anybody with a blog can sign up for this one! Sign ups close 7/1 Click HERE to find the HTML for the announcement post and Don't forget to add yourself to the Linky Below! You MUST post an announcement post in order to enter this hop! You can also join the Facebook Group for our events here

Summer Cloth Diaper Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the 2nd annual Summer Cloth Diaper Giveaway Hop! Heather from Mommy's Favorite Things started this event last year and now Mama's Baby Cupcakes is co-hosting. 

This hop is focused on items you'd want/need for everything cloth diaper related! After visiting my giveaway, make sure you use the linky below to take a look at the other 20+ blogs and see what they have to offer for you and your little one! Each blog has a minimum prize package of $25 per winner. 

Also be sure to check out the Grand Prize hosted on Mama's Baby Cupcakes blog. One winner will have the chance to win 6 Fusion Stay Dry 3-in-1 cloth diapers from Funky Fluff with your choice of Boy/Girl/Neutral colors. That's a retail value of $122!

Just Me and the Boys is partnering with Pandalina's Pocket to offer a matching Pocket Diaper and Bib set ($25 value)! Winner will choose ready-to-ship items or custom with available prints. Visit the Pandalina's Pocket cloth diaper review here.

After entering to win this diaper/bib set make sure you check out the other blogs below and enter to win more fabulous prizes!

Enter on the Giveaway Tools widget Below.
Must be 18+, open to US and Canada.

Diggin' Our Pandalina's Pocket Cloth Diapers

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this review. All opinions expressed are my own and 100% honest.

Pandalina's Pocket is a Canadian company run and designed by WAHM, Lisa. She is super crafty and makes items such as cloth diapers, bibs, jewelry, stitch markers, and magnetic book markers.  She can also make swim diapers and will be launching some hybrid fitteds in the next few months.

Her pocket diaper design was inspired by her use of pocket diapers on her son.
She made her pocket openings with less of a flap. This allows for the insert to stay in the diaper and remain covered so you don't run the risk of the microfiber inserts being against baby's skin.

This Pandalina's Pocket diaper is actually my most recent cloth diaper purchase.

I chose a pocket diaper with 'Cars Go Round' print and a black fleece inner.

The black fleece inner gives this diaper a pretty sharp look.

I love the vibrant colors of the print and that it has multicolored snaps!

These diapers have a three snap, snap-up rise (x-small, small, medium and unsnapped large) to adjust from infant (10lbs) to toddler (40lbs). This particular diaper has color coded snaps to easily change sizes by matching snap colors.

 Besides the sharp look of the black fleece, I also like black because staining isn't noticeable.

Looking at the opening you can see how the insert is tucked in nicely. When snapped on my little man I know there isn't a risk of the microfiber resting on my son's skin, which is a problem I have had with some of our other pocket diapers.

Other great features of this diaper:

-Two rows of color coded waist snaps.

-Soft, stretchy leg and waist elastic.

-We have had no leak issues with this diaper.

 Bug played in the sand box for quite some time. This diaper kept his messes in and the sand out!

Do you dig this diaper?

Buy it: Visit Pandalina's Pocket on Facebook or on Hyena Cart to get one of Lisa's fabulous diapers or one of her many other hand crafted items.

Win it: Pandalina's Pocket will be giving away a matching Diaper and Bib set to one of my readers during the Summer Cloth Diaper Giveaway hop! Check back June 21st!

Baby Bullet Giveaway!

Giveaway Hosted by: Elitemama and Sponsored by: Capital Brands

Co-Hosts: A Purpose Driven Wife, The Minister's Wife Stamps and Saves, Diva's POV, My Dairy Free Gluten Free Life, Cluttered Genius, Simply Sherryl, The Deal Match Maker, Its The Simple Things, WEMAKE7, Mami's 3 Little Monkeys, A Purpose Driven Wife, Cloth Diaper Addicts, The Secret Life of a SAHM

The Baby Bullet Care System has revolutionized the way you'll feed your baby for the first 3 years of life. Jarred baby food is a big expense compared to homemade food and jarred food contains unhealthy sugars, fillers and also preservatives. Even those jarred foods that are labeled organic! With the Baby Bullet, you can make and store an entire weeks worth of food that is healthy for the little ones in under 5 minutes. 

The all-new Baby Blend Blade is specially designed to blend fruits, vegetables and a combination of meals from baby's first "stage one" purees to stage 3 toddler meals.  

Pictures Are Deceiving!

Father's Day was a busy day for us and also happened to be my husband's birthday.

After Bug woke up from his nap we decided to get outside and head to the park to play a round of disc golf. Have you ever played disc golf? It is my husband's favorite sport.

It is played like golf only with a flying disc (frisbee) instead of a ball and a chain basket instead of a hole.

It was a gorgeous afternoon. Warm, sunny, dry!

Here in Minnesota we have been waiting for these days. It has been a cold and rainy spring.

Here is a picture of my boys enjoying our time on the disc golf course!

Actually, it was quite miserable. 

The mosquitoes were horrible! 

We pretty much ran through the first five holes. 

I gave up throwing my disc after hole one in an attempt to keep the blood sucking insects off my little man.

I sprayed the little ones and myself with some bug spray, but it wasn't enough. 

The mosquitoes were vicious!

Then add a whining (almost) four-year-old.

We gave up after the 6th hole. This course has a total of 18 holes!

How did I get the decent picture? 

Well we were at the top of a hill in an open space where the wind was blowing.

In this spot we were safe(ish). 

There were only a handful of skeeters vs. the thousand everywhere else.

Has anyone else ever been in a miserable situation, but the photograph tells a more promising story?

Blogger Opp!

Sign-ups are open for the fabulous Baby Bullet Giveaway

This event is free to join with an announcement post. 

For participation, you will receive 2 free links (Facebook and Twitter)

Sign-ups for the event closes on June 26th

Sign up for the event Here

Family Hand Print Craft for Father's Day

This year we decided to do a home made Father's Day craft. I have always liked hand print projects so I searched Pinterest and found a really cute family hand print craft.

Squirrel loves crafts!

The only down side to doing a family hand print craft for Father's day is that you have to get daddy's hand print. Which gives away part of the surprise. When I traced daddy's hand I had him close his eyes, at least that way he didn't know the details of the hand print.  

The hardest part was getting Bug's hand print. I had heard of two different tactics to getting the print of an infant/toddler.

The first one I tried was to get him to keep his hand down long enough to put a mark at the tip of each finger and the bottom of the palm.  I only got two finger tips marked before he started to get upset. 

The other tactic was to put oil on the baby's hand, or in our case, toddler's hand. So I pulled out my coconut oil. After rubbing it on Bug's fingers and palm I quickly placed his hand on the paper. Then I traced around the oil mark and cut out the perfect little hand print.

I chose to use bright colored papers and alternated solids with patterns so each of the prints would stand out.

Make sure when you trace everyone's hands that you do so on the 'wrong' side of the paper (and with the same hand). Then cut the hands out. When you flip them over they'll be on the right side and there will be no visible tracing marks.

Gluing the hands down, starting with the largest (typically Daddy's). Continue gluing hands down in descending order of size with the bottom of the palms aligned.

You can then find a cute poem or Bible verse to write on/around the hands.

I chose just to put our names on our hands and title it "Our Family". I also included the date so when I am looking back a it in 10 years I'll remember how old the boys were.

Then I put it in a picture frame.

I really like how it turned out. 

I wanted to do something a bit more exciting than just having Squirrel give him the gift. 

We decided to do a treasure hunt. Daddy had to search the house (and close outdoors) to find his gift.

I had Jackson draw a picture of daddy. On that paper we taped his first clue.

He then had to go to his tool box...

His shoes...

The couch...

The pantry...

 

And eventually the grill where he found his present!

(Yes, it is in a pink bag!)

 

Daddy really liked his gift. He decided he wants to put it in his cubicle at work.

 

Unfortunately Bug was asleep while daddy went on his little scavenger hunt.

 

I think we'll have to make another one of these. I'd really like to have one for our dining room!

What did you and your kiddo's do for their daddy for Father's Day?

Dutch Baby Cloth Diaper Review

One of my new favorites!

While I don't currently 'need' more diapers. I would love to replace many of them that I currently have with some more Dutch Baby diapers.

I was really lucky to have won a store credit to Dutch Baby!

One of the items I purchased with my credit was a one-size pocket diaper.

While I was looking through the available prints I saw this one and fell in love. I asked my husband for his opinion, which probably wasn't the smartest thing, because he could have preferred a different print or said the usual "I don't care".  But to my surprise, not only did he chose one, but he chose the same one I had in mind! I hadn't even told him my pick yet!

 The print is called Multi Mystery and I requested boy-ish colored snaps.

This one-size diaper features four rise settings; extra-small, small, medium and large (unsnapped).

Two rows of 10 snaps to adjust fit around the waist. 

This inside of the diaper has a unique design when compared to our other diapers.

The wicking material is a breathable jersey fabric. The pocket opening is in the back, but not at the top. The opening is overlapped, which helps prevent messes from getting inside the pocket. The encased leg elastic is stretchy and fits nicely around Bug's legs without digging in.

 

This diaper is very well made. Camilla does some great work. Her stitching is clean and even.

The fit is great too! I sometimes have issues with a good fit on my little chunk.

In the pictures he is on the largest rise setting. Most diapers he is between medium and large.

This diaper has been great for us during day time use. I have used a BumGenius insert in this diaper as well as a Best Bottom (medium). I prefer the fit of the BB in this diaper.

I have not tried this diaper for naps or overnight, and I probably won't. Because Bug sleeps on his tummy, I only put him in diapers for sleep times that have a tummy panel, otherwise he gets tummy leaks

While I really like the jersey inner, I avoid using this diaper if I know he is due for a bowel movement. Because of the texture it seems more difficult to keep the material from staining.

I also got one of the wet bags and a key chain.

The wet bag is great! It is 12" x 12", zipper opening and snap handle for only $8!

Seriously, you can't beat that! The key chain is super adorable!

At some point I think I'll have to get one of the AIOs, but that may have to wait until my next baby.

I was not asked to write a review, nor did I receive any compensation for this review.

Mommy FAIL!

I told myself I would not allow this to happen to Bug.

I was cautious. Double checking. Triple checking.

Today... today I didn't second guess myself. Today... my 'baby' fell down the stairs.

We live in a split level. There is a gate at the top of the stairs. I thought it was closed, I whole heartedly believed it was closed. I let him walk away while I cleaned out his potty chair.

I stepped out of the bathroom just in time to see him start tumbling down the stairs.

My heart skipped beats as I ran to his aid. I was sweating and shaking as I picked up my screaming 15 month old.

It took less than a minute to calm him down. He was completely responsive, but very cuddly (although he has been extremely clingy for the last few days due to his teething).

We all have those moments where we take our eyes of our child for short period of time. You honestly can't watch your child every second of every day.

I just thank God that in that moment my little boy was OK.

He is not damaged. He is still here. I still have my little Bug-A-Boo.

Edible Deodorant!?

What would you say if I told you I could eat my deodorant?

Ok, so I wouldn't really eat my deodorant, but I could! I made my all natural deodorant with items found right in my kitchen.

After doing a bit of research I found a recipe I liked which also had some great feedback.

 

My recipe included items that I already had on hand:

6 T. Coconut Oil (softened works best)
4 T. Baking Soda
4 T. Corn Starch
Couple Drops Lavender (or other) Essential Oil (optional)

Step 1: Mix together baking soda and corn starch.
Step 2: Using a fork, mash the coconut oil into the baking soda/corn starch mixture until well blended.

Step 3: Add a couple drops of essential oil and mash until blended.

I had the recipe book marked on the computer for a while before I actually made it. It wasn't until I was out of deodorant, and wasn't going to be out and about for a few days, that I decided to make it.

I have been very happy with my homemade deodorant so far. It took a couple days for me to get used to applying deodorant with my fingers. Not sure why that was so weird for me, but it was. You could put it into an empty deodorant applicator, but you'd want to make sure it didn't get too warm as coconut oil melts at 77 degrees. I store mine in a reusable glass container.

I used virgin coconut oil for my deodorant, which has the coconut smell. If you don't like the smell of virgin coconut you could use expeller-pressed coconut oil which is flavorless and scent free.

Besides being natural, another great thing about this deodorant is that you don't need a lot. I use about a pea sized amount per underarm. While I am not doing heavy manual labor I am chasing my little ones around all day and have had no issues with smell. I definitely recommend trying it!