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Each year for Christmas, I tend to get duplicate gifts, mostly because all the girls want the same kind of things. This year on their lists were fruit infuser water bottles, art supplies, selfie sticks, and teething necklaces... yeah, teething necklaces. They all wanted one to chew on. A few wanted them for concentration purposes, a few for the fashion, and Boog wanted one because he likes necklaces.
The Big One got more than one. It wasn't fair, I guess... but her necklaces didn't have a whole string of beads or matching bracelets like the others, so it was almost even. One of hers was one of these My First Sweet Tooth teethers. They came in three colors, orange, strawberry, and blueberry. The Big One got blueberry.
These adorable little necklaces are designed to look like an Oreo-style cookie made from BPA-free food grade silicone. It's even got a cream filling. That's pretty cool because most teethers are one solid color.
They come on different colored strings that seem to be nylon. The strings can be taken out if you want the baby to play with it. I don't think it would be very easy to put it back in if you could at all... but you should never give the baby the teether if the string is still in it.
The grooves on the outside of the teether cookie help the baby to sooth their sore gums. It can be used at normal temperature or refrigerated for extra soothing.
These are great for teething and I recommend them to any parent of a teething baby. To learn more check out Kidznet Enterprises on Amazon.
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
Now is the perfect time to stock up on camping supplies for next year's camping season, now that snow has finally hit. One of my biggest struggles with finding and buying camping equipment is that I need things that will take up little room, but still be useful. One of our biggest space takers is bedding. We're talking a pillow each and a warm blanket for at least every two people. That's minimum, so for a family of seven, that's a lot of bulk.
It's kind of unnecessary bulk too, because those things don;t need to take up so much space. for instance, a neat alternative for the pillows would be self-inflating pillows. They roll up tight when not in use. Then when you need them, just unroll, loosen the valve and let it sit for a few minutes.
The Pillow-To-Go self-inflatable pillow by Practico Outdoors is just that kind of pillow. It comes in it's own drawstring bag. It's about the size of a roll of paper towels when it's all rolled up and in it's bag.
When out of it's bag, it's held into it's roll shape by two wide elastic bands. When they're removed and the valve is loosened, the pillow rolls out flat and starts inflating. To be honest, it doesn't inflate so much that I would be comfortable. But the valve is so easy to blow into that it's really quick work to inflate it more full.
The pillow is waterproof and has a 100% Lifetime Warranty.
It measures 20"x12" when laid out flat and is ergonomically designed to be super comfortable. I recommend this pillow for anyone who goes camping or travels a lot.
To learn more, check out Pratico Outdoors on Amazon or on their website, Praticogoods.com
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
This is Gandalf. I introduced you to him before, but in case you missed him, he's our recent Humane Society adopted kitty. We don't know how old he is, the lady who does aging was busy when we went to go home. We chose him because he seemed very docile and friendly, quiet, and well-mannered. We loved him right away. He really is a very sweet cat.
Problem is, he doesn't like the chaos of a family home. He's not bitter or anything, but he hides himself away into the back hall and just hangs out there all the time. It makes me sad. So I've decided that the poor guy needs some areas in the house that are his to hide in and be alone. I hate to say it, but I guess he won't be the cuddle bug I thought he would be. Oh well, we love him anyway.
One thing I cam across that I thought he might enjoy is a cat tunnel. It's a set of three collapsible tunnels that converge into one common area with a peek hole.
The tunnels are thinner material than I thought they might be and they make a crackling noise. That means that it fold up smaller and occupies the cat better. The crinkling is similar to some of the baby books with fabric pages that make a crinkle noise when you touch them.
It takes up about as much room as I envisioned. If you feel like just putting it up in a corner instead of folding it up every time, it does stand on the three tunnels pretty well and takes up minimal floor space.
I couldn't get my cat to hang out long enough to enjoy it, but soon we will be renovating that area that he has chosen as his and there will be room for him in there. I hope he like it.
I would recommend this for cat owners, especially owners of playful kittens. To learn more, check out Premium Choice Products on Amazon or on their website. And to get $20 off the purchase price of this cat tunnel, use the coupon code CO6TFCFC at checkout.
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
My van is always a hot mess. At any given moment, it looks like a tornado went through a day care and dumped everything in the middle of my van floor. It's bad. We're talking six plus inches of shoes, books, toys, blankets, clothes... that's just after a week! I've found anything and everything come cleaning day. We just had a cleaning day this past week and I am happy to say that it now only looks like someone dumped a small office trash can on the floor... way better. We rush cleaned so we would get it in the shop.
When my van comes back from the shop, I am determined to keep it clean. I have so many new cool tools for that including multiple back seat organizers, a visor organizer, a trash can, seat covers, and a really awesome trunk organizer. Wanna see my trunk organizer? What? You do!? I knew it, okay, here it is:
Introducing my saving grace, the Vipinzon Car Trunk Organizer for cars, SUVs and minivans. Yesssah! Look at that thing! Okay, let's look at all it's awesome features, one by one. First, that little pocket on the end there. In fact, the whole end piece, handle and all, let's look at that.
That pocket has a Velcro closure. I don't know if it's necessary to be honest, but better safe than sorry. The handle is made to be comfortable. Why? Because you can use this to carry stuff in from the van to the house and back again. Do you hear what I'm saying? This thing can go in each night, be properly emptied and filled for the nest day's adventures and put back in the next day. It's MADE FOR THAT.
Beach one day, soccer the next? No problem. Just lug it into the house using it's handles, put beach toys away and fill it with water bottles, shin guards, and snacks. I am all over that idea. And the kids don't even need to have motivation for that, so long as their things make it into the organizer, the plan stays in tact.
Now let's look at the sides. Here's where it gets interesting. It has eight mesh pockets, four for one side and four for the other. They are okay sized, great for activity books or other such entertainment. Since each kid will have their own organizer for that, I'm thinking I will use it for an extra outfit per kid and some flip flops. Nothing awesome, just a long shirt and leggings, something small, thin, and will work in a pinch for an emergency change.
Now, see that other thing in the side? It's a buckle, there is four female buckle ends and two male ends. If you decide that you really only need one half of the organizer you just scrunch up one half of the unit and buckle it closed on both sides. If you want to put the organizer away for a while, scrunch the whole thing and buckle it, it becomes super thin and storable.
Okay, now the inside. The inside can be divided into either two or three compartments. There is a main divider, then there is also a second wall that can be attached via Velcro to the inside of one of those main two compartments. I think I'll be using it, just to further separate snacks from accessories, from toys, etc.
It's made to hold up to 75 lbs of cargo and has a non-slip bottom to prevent the organizer from sliding around. I think this organizer is fantastic and I would certainly recommend it to anyone needing their vehicle to be a bit more organized.
To learn more, check out Vipinzon on Amazon.
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
I've carried five children to full term. I've spent a good 47 months of my life being pregnant. I've also spent about twice that amount of time being overweight to such a degree that I'm technically obese. I was a chubby kid, slimmed out just in time to start motherhood and after the birth of my last child, I fell back into my big normal. And because of all this, I am no stranger to stretch marks. I wish I were, but alas... it was pretty unavoidable.
I can look back now at a time when I was too embarrassed to wear a bikini because of stretch marks. It was the thinnest time in my life... I look back now and I want to slap myself. I was so thin, I wish I'd let myself be confident. Instead, I wore the kind of bathing suit that has a tank top top and short bottoms and still covered with a towel.
I don't think I will ever get to that level of confidence where I can step onto the beach in a bikini, and I'm okay with that. But I would like to have a little more confidence. One thing that would boost my confidence a little bit is if I could get these stretch marks to be just a little less obvious.
That's where this Stretch Mark Smoothing Cream by CLIA Beauty comes in handy. It comes in a 4 oz. tub with a screw on cover. The texture is about the same as Noxzema, you know... the weird firm and soft at the same time weird kind of cream. I like that.
After the texture, the first thing I noticed was that it smells EXACTLY like chocolate. It smelled like I was smearing myself with melted chocolate chips, like maybe I should be making cupcakes with this cream instead of rubbing it into my skin. I liked that too. Mmmmmm!
That's probably due to the Cocoa Butter, first ingredient after Deionized Water. Other awesome ingredients to note are Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Glycerin, and Vitamin E. With all those amazing ingredients, it's hard to go wrong.
I haven't been using it long enough to say whether it will smooth out all the stretch marks or not, but it has a 100% satisfaction guarantee for all the CLIA products and as a lotion is sure works well. I have a feeling it will work great and I hope to check back in a few weeks with some great news in the way of improvements.
To learn more, check out CLIA Beauty on Amazon and on CLIAbeauty.com.
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
