potty training = painted piggies

We have been working hard the past few week on having Little Sass use the potty. She is doing awesome for only being 25 months but is notorious for waiting until after to tell me that she has pooped in her panties. So after two poopie accidents yesterday, I totally bribed her this morning by telling her that if she would tell mommy before hand and then poop successfully in the potty that she could have "polish on her toes".

Well it worked!! Little Sass proudly told me "mama, there is a big poop in there", whilst pointing at her tummy, so off to the potty we rushed. Immediately she told me "all done" but I handed her a book and told her to tell me the story. Well she only got a page into it before she proudly declared " I did it!"

Then she went and plopped herself just as you see above into one of our recliner chairs and waited for me to gather all the polish materials. This is also the only time she doesn't fight me on clipping her toesnails so I snuck quick clipping in there too! She is super excited about her pink toes and we even added a little bling bling to the big toes, which is cracking me up! She than proceeded to add sticker bling to her tiny ears which is pretty stinkin' cute too! She also was completely intrigued by me weaving some paper towel strips between her toes and immediately walked on her heels when she was done.... apparently that skill is instictive because I never taught it to her!

all natural fruit crisps

I love that Costco is offering more and more organic and all natural choices. The yummy fruit crisps from Brothers All Natural are one that we have been buying for about a year now. I started buying them when Little Sass started finger foods. I liked giving her these all natural dried fruits broken into small pieces instead of "puffs". Then as she got a little older they made great finger foods because she could hold a whole apple or pear slice and work on it herself.

Even though we are long past that stage, we still buy these yummy snack for treats on the go! My hubby even loves them and one bag contains about 1 1/2 pears or apples! The box we just bought last night now has strawberry/banana in it too and I just know those are going to be a hit!

These are a great lunchbox alternative for allergy children too because they are tree nut free, gluten free, soy free, dairy free, vegan and kosher! (this is according to the pear package, please check each individual fruit variety to confirm this).

I am hoping to get a giveaway arrange with All Brother's Natural in the future so be on the look out!

britax car seat installation videos

Early on we learned the hard way (umm...expensive way), that we would get the most bang for our buck by investing in Britax carseats. Our Bubbie has always been close to being off the charts both height and weight and was growing out of his cheaper seat by 18 months but obviously too young for a booster. I wish we would have bought his marathon right off the bat because at 98%ile and 4 1/2 , he still fits in the highest setting on it. When Little Sass was ready to move to a convertible seat, we put her right in the Britax Blvd. because I knew she would easily stay harnessed to atleast age 5 if not older in that seat (she is little bitty). I have always said though, that I wish all carseats came with a video explaining how to install them correctly. Bottom line, it doesn't matter what kind of seat you have if it's not installed correctly.

Well here's the good news....... if you own a Britax seat, they have a whole website FULL of videos showing you exactly how to install your seat! You can put the make and model of your specific seat in and it will show you how to install it rear and forward facing. For a visual learner like me this is great! The biggest thing I learned, that I did not know was that when you swap your child from rear facing to forward facing you have to rethread your whole latch system! Whoops! Click here to access the site, then put in your make and model!

ps. Please leave me a comment if you didn't know this either. It will make me feel much better in my lack of car seat knowledge!

two great diaper contests!!

I found two great diaper contests last night that you have to check out!!



First off, Your Mama Reviews has a great one, but it ends today, so get on it!! They have been having AIO showdown week. They reviewed a different AIO for a week and on each AIO post there is a contest to win diapers! YAY!! The contest I would want to win the most is the Fuzzi Bunz one. Click here to get to their blog or find them on my blog roll. These mamas are great!





The other contest you have to check out is at a great site called The Cloth Diaper Whisper. This site is an awesome resource for cloth diapering mamas or any one interested in cloth diapers. The contest is actually sponsered by Kelly's Closet and they are giving away $170 worth of cloth diapers and supplies!! Woo Hoo!! Click here to find this awesome giveaway! Also, here is the link to Kelly's Closet. I haven't personally shopped there yet, as I just discovered their store last night, but the layout is awesome and I can't wait to place an order for the new baby!

Alright, get busy! You have a lot of comments to leave if you want to win one of these contests!


Oh and if you lucked out at the swaddlebees sale yesterday, leave a comment and tell me whatcha got! I bought two fitteds and two aio's and a wet bag for new baby, plus 4 aio's and two wet bags for new baby's cousin that will arrive just three months later! Yay for new fluff!

fluff sale!! woo hoo!!

Swaddlebees and Blueberry Diapers are having an outlet/seconds sale today!! It is suppose to start at 4pm EST. Click here to go directly to the site! These are my favorite cloth diapers because they are super slim and trim, yet absorbent and look so stinkin' cute on!! I am so excited to order "new baby" so fluff today!! Here are so cute pics from Swaddlebee and Blueberry of some little cuties wearing these dipes! (oh and the pic in my header is of my little sass wearing a blueberry minky!).

meal planning monday

I thought I would start us off with a meal plan Monday. I find when I plan meals I am much more accountable to us eating healthier and staying home for family meals. I loved this image I found because despite pureeing the best organic fruits and veggies to give my kids a great, healthy start, they both have tend to be picky eaters, especially come dinner time. So we have had to come to the choice that you eat what you serve or you choose to not eat that meal. I do always try and put at least one thing that I know they will eat on their plates, but even that does not always work!

So, enough of all that..... here is this week's meals: ( oh and keep in mind if some of my combos seem crazy, I'm pregnant!)

Monday-
Rotisserie chicken, pasta w/ cheese sauce,carrots and broccoli, corn on the Cob and crescent rolls

Tuesday-
beef enchiladas, cream corn and brown rice

Wednesday-
spaghetti ( I puree bell peppers, carrots or other various veggies in my sauce to boost the veggies my kids get!), sauteed zucchini w/ EVO, garlic and Parmesan, salad

Thursday- Hamburger Salads
angus burgers on salad with mushrooms, onions, cheese, tomatoes, whatever you like on a burger!
and baked fried okra

Friday/Saturday- One night I'm sure we will eat out, the other we will have a natural hot dogs, with baked sweet potato fries and baked beans

a joint effort....

so apparently I am pretty bad a keeping up with two separate blogs, family and here.... so I'm going to try and combine the two and see how it works! hope I'm a better blogger!