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Adult Themes, DIY & Crafts, Entertaining, Printables

Free Printable Baby Shower Advice & Best Wishes Cards

Free Printable Baby Shower Advice Cards: "Late Night Wishes..." for the Mom to be! Free download printable for a new mom, or a multiple-time mom! I recently helped cohost a baby shower for a dear friend who was expecting her second little bundle of joy. With the mindset of keeping it laid back and casual, we decided to keep everything low key, and do a little something that would be meaningful... rather than play baby shower games. Free Printable Baby Shower Advice Cards Instead of Games The idea of each guest writing a little note to the mommy, came to mind. So......

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Organization, Parenting

The Smart Way to Pack for Baby or Toddler

Ever since creating the baby & toddler packing list for you {ahem, years ago...}, I've wanted to fill you in on the SMARTEST way that I know how to pack my little guys. I'm certain that this one little life-changing tip, will CHANGE the way you pack for your baby or toddler. The SMART Way to Pack a Baby or Toddler: 1. Start by sorting the clothes that you plan to take with you. I do this by pulling articles of clothing out in categories. For instance: I start with onesies & shirts. I pull them out of the closet, and place them in a...

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Halloween, Holiday, Parenting

Halloween Activity for Kids: Candy Apple Decorating

If you're like me, I'm always looking for activities for my kids to do, especially around the holidays. Granted, you can make candy apples any time of the year, but there's just something special about whipping them up in the Fall. Get ready to get sticky... Halloween Activity for Kids: Candy Apple Decorating Let's face it. Creating candy apples isn't rocket science. However, giving you the idea is what I'm here for. :) Items Needed: • Apples {we used small apples, for our little kiddos, but huge apples can be FUN} • Caramel candies • Baking Candies, Sprinkles, Candy • Water for melting caramel • Wooden skewers or lollipop sticks •...

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Marriage, Real Life

5 Simple Ways to Make Your Husband “WANT” to Come Home…

WHEW! There are some brutal people out there! Ever since I published this post, it has gone crazy viral and some of you are NOT afraid to speak your mind. So I feel I must explain my intentions with this post, to explain where I'm coming from. My husband is very good to me, and does extremely nice things for me. So in return, and out of respect, I like to do nice things for him. Have you ever heard someone say, Be the wife your husband can't wait to come home to at night? No? Yes? I've heard it a million times, and...

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Decorating, Home Tour, House + Home

Home Tour Part 12: The NEW Nursery

No... I'm not pregnant. I just called this post the "New," Nursery Home Tour because I finally, finally, finally... redecorated my son's nursery. If you're new here, and you want to see the home tour from the beginning: START HERE! If you saw the first tour of his nursery, I admitted that I just reused his older brothers nursery decor. And not that it's not ok... I was kind of getting sick of the old decor, and wanted to mix it up a little. When I was shopping at Hobby Lobby one day, I came across a section that had this "wilderness, native,...

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Parenting, Real Life

“I’m Sorry, But You May Not be Able to Have Children”

I'm getting COMPLETELY personal with you today. But I've struggled for so long wanting to share our story with you, because it means so much to me. I told you back in June, during my post "An Afternoon of Bonding," that I would share with you one day how my husband and I were told that we would more than likely not be able to have children. Today is that day. My husband and I had been dating for 10 years, and we finally tied the knot in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was absolutely the best way we could have gotten married. Our...

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Family + Friends, Father's Day, Holiday, Real Life, Review

An Afternoon of Bonding: How to Spoil Dad this Father’s Day

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone, promise! #TheGiftOfClean #CollectiveBias I thought the day would never come that my husband would take our kiddos out on his own. {Not because he ever said that, but because if felt like for YEARS, I was stranded at home with babies, while my husband went to work, ran last minute quick errands, because it was just too much work to load up a baby and hit the road, and go with him.} Now... the boys are getting older, and they're able to just slip their...

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Parenting, Real Life

Febrile Seizures, What all Parents Should Know

Disclaimer: I am NOT a health/medical professional. I am simply telling the story of what we experienced as parents, with our little boy that day. Scariest day of my life. Still. Three years later, still the scariest day of my life. As a mom, as a human. It was Thanksgiving, 2012. My 17 month old toddler was safely strapped in to his carseat, in the back of our Yukon, as we were traveling down unfamiliar highways, on our way to Alabama for a first time Thanksgiving celebration at my sister's house. The tv was playing his favorite Thomas the Train movie, and I would...

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DIY & Crafts, Gift Ideas

New Baby Gift Basket

DIY New Baby Gift Basket Idea: Love how any new parent would love this gift idea. This one simple trick will help you make a gift basket look so much better! Alright, so I'm on a gift basket "kick," this week. If you missed my "Box of Sunshine," gift idea, or the "Happy Pops Day," basket, don't forget to go check those out. Hint: You'll find my secret to making gift baskets look fabulous, in my "Box of Sunshine," post! ;-) Possibly, I'm on a gift basket "kick," because I procrastinated on buying gifts for the last month. Now... I'm playing...

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A Modern Day Mom’s Nursery Essential

You know I'm a mom of two. So that makes me a pro, right?! {Ummm totally kidding on that.} But it does give me a little experience in the nursery/baby/must-have, department. I have friends that are becoming moms for the first time, 2nd time, 3rd time, and even 4th time. {I even met a woman a couple of months ago that was getting ready to have her 7th. Bless that woman.} As moms, we like to bounce ideas off of each other, and tell each other about fab, new things. So whether you're having your first soon, or having your seventh,...

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Parenting, Real Life

Dear New Mom of 2…

I was exhausted. Some days I'm still exhausted. Being a new mom of 2, can definitely make you want to hide in the panty some days and cry your eyeballs out. (Insert my memory of the Sex and the City 2 movie, where Charlotte goes in the pantry and cries for just a moment, because her kiddos are stressing her out.) Dear New Mom of Two... The Ages: I'll begin by saying that my two boys are 2 1/2 years apart. Moms with kids that have a bigger age gap may be completely different. If so... I'd love to hear about it in...

Food + Drink, Parenting, Real Life

Baby Food Recipes

Last week I shared "How to Make Baby Food," where I told you my normal process for making, and storing baby food. Today, I thought it would be a fun idea to share Baby Food Recipes, that I have created in the past, that you may find helpful too! As I mentioned last week, when you're first starting out with feeding your baby, baby food, it's best to stick with one food for a few days to make sure he/she is not allergic, or can tolerate that certain food item. If you feed multiple different types of food, and you notice...

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Food + Drink, Parenting

How To Make Baby Food-Learn to Make Homemade Baby Food for your Baby

Remember my post the other day about how I taught my baby, Baby Sign Language, and how I pretty much said I wanted my baby to be the smartest little thing anyone ever knew, and how I wanted only the best for him? Well it was no different when it came to making homemade baby food. But I had the same question that may have brought you to my post today: "How to make baby food?" I'll start off saying that anything that I recommend is NOT approved by a doctor, and I DO NOT consider myself an expert in this field, so hear me...

Parenting, Real Life

All Time Favorite Baby Learning Tool: Baby Sign Language

I'm surrounded by women producing babies. I guess it's the stage of life that I'm in, because it seems like so many of our friends are having little precious bundles lately. You know, before you have kids, you think to yourself how you'll do this and that, to make your baby the smartest, and most well behaved baby that anyone knows? Yeah, I had those thoughts too. I told myself I'm going to make homemade baby food, he'll be speaking Spanish by the age of two, and that he will NEVER act like those other kids in public that scream and...

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Decorating, Home Tour, House + Home

Home Tour Part 9 – Baby Nursery

I'm SO excited that I'm finally getting around to continuing the home tour. Life kinda happened, and I took a short pause in decorating the rooms. The nursery however, REALLY didn't take up too much of my time. I kept it very simple, (some may say "bare,") but that's ok with me. Less is more, right? Let's get started... I sinned. Yep. Go ahead, roll your eyes at me... tell me I'm a horrible mommy... What did I do? I re-used the nursery décor from my first baby to decorate my new baby's room. Eeeeek! Well heck, let me tell you why. One, I...

Parenting, Real Life

10 Mom Fails I’m Guilty Of

I've been referred to as the "helicopter mom," {check out my post about that here: "The Helicopter Mom"} But I'm here to tell you, even though I "hover," over my children as much as I physically can, it still leaves room for "mom fails," and let me tell ya... I've got 'em and done 'em. I'm just not going to tell you about all of them. I need to keep some of those "oops," to myself. No particular order. They're all "mom fail," equal, I'm sure. 1. The "mom fails," started before we even left the hospital with our first son. ...

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Decorating, DIY & Crafts, House + Home

Nursery Ideas for the Wall

Hey all! It's FRIDAY, the sun is SHINING, and I've finished a cup of coffee before both of my kiddos have even woken up. Cha-CHING! I MAY even get this blog post in about my "nursery ideas for the wall," if I'm lucky! ;) If you've been following me for a while, then you have probably seen the home tour that I've been giving. The nursery is next on the list, but I wanted to go ahead and share a little tidbit in the meantime. As you know, my craftiness level doesn't go very high. As a matter of fact, if I...

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Hospital Delivery Gown Giveaway!!!

Ok you all, I'm gonna tell you a little somethin' that may CHANGE your world completely when you're in the hospital, bringing a new life in to this world. Remember how I just had a baby like 6 months ago? Yeah... I've never told you this, but it was the BEST delivery I could have ever imagined. Why? Heck if I know... I barely had any pain {thank you epidural}, I "practiced" pushed ONCE, and the baby came out. No lie. {Now now now, before you hate me for my "movie-script-fantasy" of a fantabulous labor experience, I was in labor...

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Parenting, Real Life

Preparing Toddler For A New Baby

"Preparing Toddler For A New Baby." Ahhh, I remember searching that phrase in my toolbar just months before my second little bundle of joy was to arrive. I knew life was about to change for my husband and I, but I also knew that my toddler's life was about to be flipped upside down, overnight. I was scared that my son would be in total shock when Mommy and Daddy had to share their love with this new little "thing" that moved in to his house. I was AMAZED at the transition my son made when we brought the new baby...