Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Lily's First Day!

It's time for Lily's 1st day of preschool!

Lily's school is 3 days a week for 6 hours and taking a lunch in a lunchbox is a definite high point for her! In preparation for school this year, we headed to Toys R Us for a Frozen lunchbox. The advantage of starting school later, all the backpacks and lunch boxes were on clearance! Score!  We found the very last Elsa and Anna lunch box!  And after careful consideration of all the choices, she picked a princess backpack.




Finally the morning was here! When she woke up, Lily started singing the Daniel Tiger  morning ritual song to get ready for school. "Clothes on, eat breakfast, brush teeth, put on shoes and off to school..." Though she wasn't happy with me that I made her eat breakfast before getting her clothes on.
She chose Fruit Loops to eat.

She picked out a pink dress {surprise surprise} to wear for her special day!





When we got to school, she was happy to find her new cubby and then begin her day. She proudly showed off her lunch box and new backpack before telling me it was time for me to leave! I'm so glad she loves it!

One of the things I love about her teacher is that she takes pictures in the moments at school that moms don't typically get to see and she shares them!  At home, we've been working with Lily to hold her pencils, crayons, markers correctly instead of in a fist, so I was happy to see that she was doing that yesterday! Now to get her to slide her hand down a little bit. ;)  Work in progress...


She had a great first day!

And because I love comparison pictures...
September 10, 2013 (pre-k 3) and September 8, 2014 (pre-k 4)

Here's to a great year, sweet girl!!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Celebrating Lily in Arizona


Lily turned four this summer and it was quite a celebration! Well, more like 4 celebrations really. :)


First up, we celebrated in Arizona while we were visiting my family in July!

If you know anything about me, you know I don't do store bought cakes for my kids, but with another party at home in Pittsburgh, time at a premium in Arizona, and 195 degrees outside, turning on an oven and baking a cake just wasn't going to happen. Costco filled in perfectly! Lily was ecstatic and that's all that mattered to me!

We had family and family friends over to my brother and sister-in-law's house (Uncle Jas & Auntie Carrie) to swim, chow down on good food, and have cake.  It was a fun day!  A perfect summer birthday celebration!






















  Aunt Pam the Great took pictures too!




 Lily got a lot of special gifts! Thank you all so much! She actually plays with most everything everyday still!









 It was a good day!


Thank you all for coming to celebrate our girl! It was a special birthday for her to be able to share with our family and friends in Arizona.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Huggies Little Snugglers~Share Your Wish and Win!

Disclosure: I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Huggies and Target. I received samples and a promotional item to facilitate my review. All opinions are 100% my own!

Diapers are a staple in my house.  As much as milk or bread are.  Maybe moreso. 'Cause for real we couldn't get by without diapers for Violet!

I'm one who has stuck with disposable diapers for my babies and not jumped on the cloth diapering train and. Adding a fourth little one into my house, I simply do not have the time for anything else. They work for me and I like them! I'm not going to pretend that I'm not pretty brand specific for my babies when it comes to diapers. With  my oldest, who is now 14, I found what worked for him and just stuck with it for the others when they came along and it worked for them as well. There were some specific features that I loved about the diapers also which made me stick with them for the babies.

Huggies New Little Snugglers diapers reeled me in.  I was willing to give them a try because they seemed to have the qualities that I was looking for for my newest baby girl!

If your hug is the first thing your baby feels, making sure the second hug feels just as good which is what these Huggies Little Snugglers seem to do to my baby because they feature a new GentleAbsorb* Liner for a cushiony layer of protection with hundreds of tiny absorbent pillows to help draw mess away from the baby’s delicate newborn skin. Protecting my baby's skin is paramount!

The wetness indicator?  Yeah, that's awesome with a newbie! Letting a new baby continue to sleep because you can just glance at her diaper and know if she's wet is a priceless!

Let's get to the rest of the nitty gritty of these new diapers~
Product details:
• Cottony-soft inside and out to help keep new baby comfy
• Wetness indicator lets you know when it’s time to change
• Umbilical cord cut-out to help protect sensitive belly buttons
• Flexible, pocketed back waistband to help keep in mess
• Unique stretchy SnugFit* Waistband provides a gentle, secure fit

Pricing and availability:
NEW! Huggies® Little Snugglers Diapers are in grocery stores and mass retailers nationwide
• Available in five sizes, from Preemie (up to 6 lbs) through Size 3 (16-28 lbs)
• Suggested retail price of $11.99 for a Jumbo Pack and $22.99 for a Big Pack (diaper count varies based on diaper size)

I'm a Target shopper. Period. Sometimes it's at Target.com because come on... FREE shipping with my RedCard? Heck, yes! Most of the time it's in store because I love being able to use my coupons and score great deals on diapers!  Most times I have a Target coupon AND a manufacturer coupon to maximize my savings on diapers.  You simply cannot beat it!

When I went in to pick up these new diapers for the first time, there were none to be found in the size that I needed. I asked a Target employee for help and they were out of them.  Good indicator to me! {Ahem. Frozen toys anyone?} I just did my other shopping and knew I'd be back in the next day anyway. When I went back the following day, sure enough the boxes were there and we were good to go!



Creating a baby registry with Target is also something I have done with all my babies simply because it's so easy plus there's usually some perks to go along with it!  This time is no different.  If you're expecting, be sure to include Huggies Little Snugglers diapers and Natural Care Wipes to your registry and then upload the link on the Huggies Register Your Wish website, you can be entered to win a year supply of free diapers! Could you imagine?!