August 11, 2015 by Krista

Fiber One Cheesecake Ice Cream Sundaes

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Fiber One. All opinions regarding Fiber One Cheesecake and all content in this post are 100% mine.

We started back to school this week. Our schedules are getting fuller and we are going to be busy as ever. Since it’s only the middle of August, we still have very summertime temperatures. We are trying to squeeze a little bit of summer in around our other schedules while the weather is still nice. For me, that means dessert can still be made mostly of ice cream. YUM.

I love ice cream, but it’s not my only favorite dessert. Fiber One has a new sweet little snack out: Cheesecake Bars. That’s right… cheesecake bars. These sweet treats are only 150 calories with 6 grams fat and each bar contain 5 grams of fiber, which is 20% of your daily value of fiber. They are available in strawberry and salted caramel flavors. They are on shelves nationwide at major grocery and retail stores. I couldn’t resist my cheesecake temptation and came up with a super simple, perfect summer dessert.

CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM SUNDAE
with NEW FIBER ONE CHEESECAKE BARS

Ingredients:
– Vanilla Ice Cream
– Fiber One Cheesecake Bar
– Additional toppings (optional)

Directions:
– Chop a Fiber One Cheesecake Bar into small cubes.
– Put approximately 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream into a bowl and top with the cheese cake dices and any other toppings desired. I found 1/2 cup ice cream to 1 cheesecake bar to be a good ratio. Adjust to personal preferences if desired.
– Serve.

Fiber One Cheesecake Bars are the perfect guilt-free take on a decadent dessert and they have the added benefit of fiber. Perfect for snacking when my raging sweet tooth just won’t quit.

July 30th is National Cheesecake Day, but don’t worry if you missed it. Fiber One has decided to dedicate an entire month to the delectable dessert. Fiber One is hosting a Fiber One Cheesecake Appreciation Month Sweepstakes on Facebook through August to help everyone participate in the month-long cheesecake celebration. There will be 1 to 2 winners everyday, plus a grand prize winner. So, what are you waiting for? Unleash your cheesecake craving! Celebrate Fiber One Cheesecake Appreciation Month and use the hashtags #FiberOneCheesecake and #FiberOne #Cheesecake on social media and tag @FiberOne. Don’t forget to enter the Facebook Sweepstakes too!

August 10, 2015 by Krista

Back to Clean with Clorox Disinfecting Wipes Grab-and Go Cleanup Kit

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BackToClean #CollectiveBias

Have your kiddos gone back to school yet? Big J left for his first day of first grade just a few hours ago. It’s official: we are back to school! Back to out schedule, back to a routine! As much as I love a little spontaneity, a schedule is just so much more family-friendly! I know where everyone has to be and when and why and for how long and what I am responsible for and what I have to do to make sure it all happens. It’s just easy. Let the routine begin! Tomorrow… Today I am reclaiming my house from the natural disaster that was summer break. We’re getting back to clean!

I decided to set up a little grab-and-go bucket to help me keep things clean around here. This is for the everyday, all day messes my boys are continually creating. I gifted one of these to a teacher friend of mine and she was in love. She keeps it locked up on the top shelf in her cabinet and can pull it out if there are messes that need immediate attention until she can track down the janitor or to give a little more of a deep clean at the end of the day. Want the details?

CLOROX BACK TO CLEAN
GRAB-AND-GO CLEANUP KIT

Materials:
– Clorox Disinfecting Wipes
– Clorox stay-wet Disinfecting Wipes To-Go Pack
– Clorox Grout and Tile Scrubber Brush
– Clorox Single Scrub Sponges
– Clorox Bleach Pen
– Clorox Comfort Rubber Gloves
– Clorox Foamer Bathroom Bleach Spray
– Clorox Pump n’ Clean
– Small Basket

Directions:
– Just put everything in the basket and be sure to store the basket in a child-proof, safe location. It’s ready to go when you need it. It’s that simple and you’re ready for any messes life will throw your way. Because life will throw messes at you… get back to clean with Clorox products and know that you’re family is protected from germs.

If you want to make a smaller kit, cut out whatever you feel you don’t need. If I could only put one thing in my kit, it would be the Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, hands-down. There are so many uses for these wipes and I always have some on hand. Clorox Disinfecting Wipes kill 99.9% of germs. They’re also protect against common bacteria such as Staph, Salmonella, and E. coli. All things I want as far from my family as possible. Clorox Disinfecting Wipes won’t streak, which means I can clean the kitchen counters, spot-mop the kitchen floor, wipe off the toilets and then use Clorox Disinfecting Wipes to clean the mirror and faucets too. No streaks! We use these wipes everywhere: in the car, on the patio, on often-touched surfaces like door knobs and light switches, in the kitchen, the bathroom and to wipe down toys when they get grimy and need a little shining up and so many more places.

Ready to make your own kit? I grabbed all my supplies at Target while I doing all my other Back to School shopping. Get back to clean and grab your own Clorox Disinfecting Wipes at Target and protect your family from all those germs your precious kiddos will be bringing home this school year. And go check out more ways to get back to clean at Target!

August 8, 2015 by Krista

11 Places You Should Keep Huggies Wipes & 25 Reasons Why

It’s a blessed day in the house of mothers everywhere when, miraculously, you no longer need to buy diapers! It’s a day I anxiously await in our house, even though I know it’s at least a couple years away. While the days of diapers eventually end, there will always be reasons to keep wet wipes around.

1. In the car. Even if you don’t have kiddos in your car routinely, you can use Huggies Wipes to clean up those little spills or keep the dust and dirt off the dash and out of the air vents. It’s nice to have some wipes to clean up your shoes or hands or feet when you’re finished splashing in puddles, hiking in the mud or dirt or playing at the sandy beach before you track all that nature into your car. Don’t let a little mess get in the way of a lot of fun! HUGGIES® Wipes helps our whole family enjoy all of our adventures.

2. In the bathroom. I use wipes in the bathroom all the time. And not once on dirty bums. Okay, maybe once… or twice. We are potty training after all. But I use them more to clean up messes like soap spills, typical bathroom grime and gunk, make up build up on the counter top, or pee puddles. See reference to potty training above… It is a boy’s bathroom. Soap scum in the shower and soap goop on the counter are easily taken care of with a swipe or two of a wipe. I love Huggies Wipes for cleaning up after bathtime. It allows my boys to be a little more independent with their bath routines, but I can clean up any bath time play and soap spills with one or two swipes.

3. In the bedroom. I use wipes in the bedroom to take off my make up before I go to bed. So easy, much less messy when I’m not trying to splash soap off my face and Huggies wipes are gentle on my skin. I can enjoy all the day’s adventures, trying to keep up with my little explorers and still take care of my skin, even after I’ve already collapsed into bed. Middle of the night diaper changes are a snap with wipes in the bedroom. I don’t even have to take my baby out of his bed to get the job done. Wipes can be great for cleaning up grown-up bedroom messes too. Maybe invest in a wipe warmer for you…

4. In the kitchen. Little kitchen spills are perfect messes to use wipes on. Whether it’s wiping up faces and hands after dinner, cleaning up the sticky Popsicle someone left on the counter or the juice spilled on the floor. I love that using a wipe keeps the sticky messes to a minimum, is gentle on my boys’ faces and makes it easier to keep up with the messes in my kitchen. Dinnertime doesn’t have to mean messes!

5. On vacation. Whether you’re visiting Grandma, exploring somewhere new or making a weekend beach or mountain getaway Huggies wipes can come in handy for lots of life’s adventures. Keep grandma’s treasures as clean as they were before you arrived, clean up minor scrapes and injuries, freshen up dirty hands and faces, and get off that pesky beach and that seems to creep its way into every crack, crevice, nook and cranny. The photo is of an actual suit case we took with us on vacation to North Idaho before I unpacked it. I didn’t even have to stage the wipes in it, they really were already there.

6. In the Office. I use Huggies wipes in my home office often. Mostly, I use them to clean off wet and dry erase markers from my white board. They are also great for a quick computer or tablet screen wipe down. Dust and grimy fingerprints are no match for a quick swipe with a wet wipe.

7. In the Classroom. I am not a professional teacher, but my children’s educations are one of my top priorities and as such we have a small space dedicated to learning activities. Wipes play a major roll in our learning activities. We have an easel with a white board on one side and a chalkboard on the other. Wipes render a clean surface to practice spelling, writing and other concepts on the boards. They also make quick work of left behind play dough residue when we play with Play dough. They clean up paint activities and have even been used to scrub crayon off my counter top. We do a lot of learning activities during play time too and Huggies Triple Clean Layers helps keep the messes under control so we can learn and have fun!

8. At the Store. Have you ever wiped down a shopping cart? If not, you’re probably doing yourself a favor. Huggies wipes can help get the worst of the gross, grimy yuck off your shopping cart. I always try to wipe off the handle at least when we go to the store. It’s a little more peace of mind for me when my baby inevitably licks it. Gag factor=10.

9. At the Park. We use these epecially if we are going to have snack time while we are at the park. My kids are dirt magnets and the last thing I want to do is hand them a snack to hold with their grubby dirty hands. A quick wipe down helps me ensure they aren’t ingesting all those playground germs with their mid morning snack. And I’ve cleaned up more than one scraped hand and skinned knee with a wipe before.

10. Camping. We just spent a week camping and wipes were one of the first things I packed. I lost count of how many times we used them to clean up the boys’ faces, hands, and feet. We used them to clean up our high chair tray and our boys that still use their fingers to eat with at meal times. There was even a wipe down for me every couple days. Because even that is better than not showering for a week. I also used a wipe to shave my legs while we were camping. Yes, that actually happened. And it worked so much better than the dry shave I attempted a couple days before. No razor burn when I used the wipe.

11. In the yard. We don’t actually keep Huggies Wipes in our back yard, but they are right inside the back door. These are for cleaning off hands or feet after I’ve been out in the garden or for when my toddler ends up covered in grease or when my boys have been particularly adventurous in their exploring and damage control needs to be done before they are allowed back into the house.

Huggies Wipes with Triple Clean Layers offer a superior clean and a wipe thick enough I don’t have to worry about rips or tears while I’m wiping up some of life’s most unmentionable messes. Wipes get used all around our home, not just during diaper changes. Check out the 101 Uses of Huggies Wipes at Walmart video for even more reasons to keep a package of Huggies around your home, car, and on vacation and make sure to add a package of wipes to some of your family’s favorite places. Because Kids Outgrow Diapers, Not Messes.*

August 6, 2015 by Krista

Keep Rocking With Lenovo™ 500 Bluetooth® Speaker Giveaway!

I have always loved music, ever since I was a little girl. I spent many afternoons tucked away in my room after school, working on homework, with my stereo playing away. One of my first purchases after I moved out was a cheap CD player. My computer has always been full of music for as far back as I’ve had my own computer. Only recently, as my kids have started realizing that music is actually words that have meaning, have I started being especially selective in what music I play around them. I wanted them to be exposed to all kinds of music, not just the overly-bouncy music marketed to children. I love just about every kind of music and I wanted to share that with my boys. My love of music has made up a little bit for my lack of talent in that department. You might be able to imagine that music is a pretty important part of my life.

The Lenovo™ 500 Bluetooth® Speaker has been rocking my music world for the past week and I have been finding a whole new way to take my music with me. We recently took a nearly 2,000-mile family road trip to visit Mr. Napping’s parents. We spent hours and hours and hours in the car with three young boys. It got rough a few times. We bought a van back in February and it has a blessed video system built in, which means at least we could entertain two of the three fairly easily. But Baby N is only 17 months old and isn’t into the fascinated-with-movies stage yet, so using headphones with him is a joke. So we have to pipe the movie audio through the entire car in hopes he will be mildly entertained while strapped into his car seat. As much as I love a good animated movie, 14 hours of Baymax, Nemo and Rapunzel is enough to drive me crazy. With the Lenovo™ 500 Bluetooth® Speaker, Mr. Napping and I can turn the audio system off in the front seats and listen to our own entertainment. It makes the miles pass more quickly and so much more enjoyably.

Even better, the Lenovo™ 500 Bluetooth® Speaker is more than just a speaker! With the push of a button, it goes from playing music to speakerphone for phone calls. I found I needed to turn the volume up when I used the speakerphone feature, but the controls are right there on the speaker and it’s a simple press of a button. You can use the speaker and still be hands-free in the car. My mom said the call quality was better than when calls go through the Bluetooth built into our van.

The sound is great. My audiophile husband was impressed with the output of the Lenovo™ 500 Bluetooth® Speaker. Clear, crisp sound blasting 270-degrees and a rechargeable 1800 mhA battery with up to 4 hours of playback make this super light speaker, just over 1.5 pounds, a total dream and the ultimate take-and-go unit! It’s got NFC, which makes it a breeze to pair with your phone; and, it’s incredibly easy to switch between devices. I’ve got music on my phone and Mr. Napping had some audio books on his phone. Regardless of what we wanted to listen to, it was super easy to get it all hooked up and working in a minute or less.

Sounds pretty sweet, right?! Think you’d like one? Would you like to try and win one?! That’s right! What are you waiting for? Get all the details and enter to win with the Rafflecopter widget below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

July 29, 2015 by Krista

3 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Breastfeeding with Colief MOMents

Thank you to Colief Infant Digestive Aid for sponsoring this post. I received a bottle of Colief Infant Digestive Aid for my own personal use. All opinions, text and experiences are my own. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Most everyone can agree that being a new mom can be tough. It can be even harder if you have a baby that suffers with colic. My oldest had mild colic for the first few months and then, luckily, it got a little better. The first few weeks were rough though.

I couldn’t nurse him because my milk took a week to come in and I didn’t even have colostrum to entice him with. By then he’d already become accustomed to a bottle and had little interest in nursing. As a first time mom, I had no experience with breastfeeding. I had been exposed to it, but I soon discovered it’s really something you can only learn by doing. All the information I’d been given wasn’t even a little bit like my first experience. If I had done a little more research and been better prepared, I think I would’ve tried a little harder and maybe a little longer to breastfeed. These are three things I wish someone would have told me about breastfeeding as a new mom.

1. Very first, I wish someone would’ve told me that not breastfeeding your baby doesn’t make you a failure or a bad mom. My entire pregnancy, all I’d heard was how breastfeeding was picture perfect nutrition for that brand new bundle in your arms and that the bonding that happens during nursing sessions was crucial for both mom and baby. Yes, there are many benefits to breastfeeding and I wholeheartedly support it; but, not breastfeeding doesn’t diminish the quality of your mothering. Nursing sessions are not the only way to bond with your new baby and the infant formulas on the market will sustain your baby and help them grow into happy and healthy children.

I felt like a complete failure when I decided to stop trying to breastfeed. I had spent three days trying to get my baby to latch longer than the time it took him to fall asleep, and then pumping to try to increase my supply. I was taking herbal supplements to help increase my milk production, I smelled like an IHOP and I was exhausted from getting up every two hours to pump. Everyone has a breaking point and, sitting on my kitchen floor with tears streaming down my face and a breast pump painfully attached, I’d reached mine. While I didn’t want to formula-feed my new baby, I was more than ready to stop failing at, and hating from my very core, breastfeeding. I wish someone had told me that if breastfeeding isn’t working, it’s okay to stop and you are still a great mom.

2. It might hurt. It might hurt a lot. Especially at first. I was horrified when my milk finally came in and my breasts grew three cup sizes. Seriously, three cup sizes. Even more horrific, they were as hard as rocks. Engorged breasts are painful breasts. Then you add in the whole someone suckling on your nipple every two hours; those get raw and tender too. To top it all off, I have a very strong letdown and it can be painful too. And no one ever mentioned the after birth cramping that happens when you breastfeed and your uterus contracts as it’s shrinking back to its normal size. I expected none of this. For nine months, I’d been told: your milk will come in, your baby will take what he needs and your body will make adjustments on a supply-and-demand basis. Sometimes, letdown feels a little tingly. Breastfeeding shouldn’t hurt.

The truth is sometimes it does. But there are usually things you can do to help it not hurt so badly. Meet with a lactation consultant to address your specific struggles. I spent a week wondering if I was broken or just a sissy because I thought breastfeeding hurt worse than labor! I wish someone would’ve prepared me for this possibility so I could’ve mentally prepared myself better to take on the issues I had with breastfeeding.

3. It gets better. I attempted to breastfeed my oldest for two months before I reached my limit and gave up. He is a bright, happy, healthy boy who turns six years old tomorrow. He is awesome. I breastfed my second baby for eight months, four of those were exclusively breastfeeding. He’s adventurous, fearless and will probably give me a heart attack someday, but he is so confident he can do anything. My third little guy breastfed for nine months, seven of those exclusively. He is curious, loves to explore and at 17 months is already a tease with a great sense of humor. Whatever struggles you might have with breastfeeding, just know this: It gets better.

You’ll learn technique and your instincts will develop more strongly as you become more confident in your ability as a mom, and not just for breastfeeding. You will bond with your baby and being a mother will forever change your life. Parenthood can require some big sacrifices, but the rewards can easily be one hundred fold.

You got this momma! And write down those moments that make your heart swell because, with your foggy mommy brain, you might not remember them. And, someday, you’ll wish you could remember it all.

Colic affects approximately one in five infants born in the United States – about one million new babies annually. Be prepared before baby arrives and add Colief Infant Digestive Aid to your baby registry. If you find your baby suffers from more than just breastfeeding challenges and is one of the more than 20% of infants with colic, try Colief Infant Digestive Aid to give your little one (and you!) some relief. It’s a digestive supplement that you give your baby when you feed them. Different from other colic solutions, Colief Infant Digestive Aid is not given directly to the baby, but added to the formula or breast milk before each feeding, making it easier for them to digest the milk by breaking down most of the lactose. There are directions on administering to breast and bottle fed infants, so no matter how you feed your baby, you can still give your baby the relief you both need.

Colief® Infant Digestive Aid is a gluten-free dietary supplement for the reduction of colic-associated crying resulting from temporary lactose intolerance (TLI) in infants. Colief Infant Digestive Aid may help reduce the crying time associated with colic by breaking down the lactose in breast milk or infant formula, making it easier for infants to digest. To learn more, visit http://us.colief.com or LIKE the brand on Facebook.

This is a product-provided, sponsored conversation that contains affiliate links. All opinions, text and experiences are my own. Colief Infant Digestive Aid is a dietary supplement to provide relief due to colic-associated crying from temporary lactose intolerance (TLI). These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. The product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

You can find Colief at your local Walgreens or get it online and have it delivered to your mailbox. If you want more information on Colief, check out this YouTube video or the Colief website. Find out what another mom has to say about Colief in this video. Or join the Colief community on Facebook.

Enter the Share Your #ColiefMOMent Giveaway now for a chance to win a $500 Walgreens gift card, a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag of your choice, or be one of five weekly winners to receive a package of Colief Infant Digestive Aid! Enter before 8/14/15.

CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM SUNDAE with NEW FIBER ONE CHEESECAKE BARS

CLOROX BACK TO CLEAN GRAB-AND-GO CLEANUP KIT

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CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM SUNDAE
with NEW FIBER ONE CHEESECAKE BARS

CLOROX BACK TO CLEAN
GRAB-AND-GO CLEANUP KIT