First Round of Winners for Moms Leaving the Workforce Event

 

I first want to say this has been a really fun event! Thank you to everyone that entered and thank you to all our sponsors. 

  Congrats to the Winners!!

Hug A Monkey Baby Sling

Amber L. said...

I'm following Hug a Monkey on Twitter @buttonlove appetizerfora.......(at)..........(dot)com

 Build A Dream Playhouse 

3 Giggly Monsters said...

Entered Larry Gets Lost in Seattle and Seattle ABC Book Giveaway mega.....@.........com NuturMe Baby Food

A Helicopter Mom said...

I entered the Alex Toys Little Hands giveaway. #1 mickey...... at .......dot com

Little One Books

JessAndJeff said...

visited the site and I'd definitely get goodnight moon - one of my fave children's books!

jessi......at .......com 

Doodles Coloring Book

J said... 

 

I like The Coupon Queen Bee on FB Mama Bird amam..... (at) ...... (dot)com

Alex Toys Screaming Monsters Bath Toy

Adelina Priddis said...

following Alex Toys on twitter 

@ HomeMaidSimple fami.....@........com

CONGRATS to the winners! I will be emailing you within the next hour. My little one is crying and needs lunch! You have 48 hours to respond to my email before another winner is selected.

 

** I blanked out parts of email address for the winners for privacy =)

A Gift to Myself: Lose 30 lbs before I turn 30!

 I have started a journey today. One that will make me healthier, happier and allow me to be active with my son as he grows up. I will be 30 in a little over 3 months! When did that happen lol I feel like a teenager still. Hopefully its not because I still think like one lol. I am challenging myself to lose 30 lbs before I turn 30!!
I will post about every 2 weeks my progress and encourage you to leave me tips and advise.

I have done this weight loss battle before but not since having a child! I am of course doing this for me but for my husband and son so I can be healthy and active with them. I have been a size 10 to a size 24 but no more!!! Turning 30 is a huge deal to me. Its my point where I have to say ok, I am a mom, a wife and a member of a big family who all love me and need me. I need to pick up myself and be an adult! I want to follow my dreams and I now know what they are. My 20s were spent eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Then losing the weight just to gain it back again. I am committed to a higher purpose so no more back and forth. I am changing my habits and daily routine for me and to be an example of healthy for my son.

Today in Target we walked by the card section and at a glance I saw the 30th birthday cards. My heart raced! I know its not a big deal to most people, its still very young. But to me I thought I would be farther in life and have things figured out by now. I have learned that each decade of life it a new chance to make things better. To grow from what I have learned on the past, good and the bad! I know I can do this, I know I can eat healthy, stay in shape and be the person I want to be!

My plan is to ride an exercise bike every other day and the other days do a bit of yoga, sit ups, and light weight lifting. I am going to replace lunch with fruit smoothies, have a healthy breakfast containing no meat and dinners that have at least 3 veggies. I know I can do this and keep to it because its a healthy choice more than a weight loss choice, if that makes sense lol. Plus I have told all of you so now must do it!

Alpha Tot ABC Poster Review and Giveaway

 I have been looking for fun and educational posters and art work to put on the wall of my sons room. He often wakes up after a nap and just hangs out in there. I can hear him talking and wonder what is he saying. I thought to my self he needs something to see that will help him with his letters but also be fun to look at. I have to admit I am also on the lookout for a giant cat poster lol he would be in heaven if he had one!

Alpha Tot has a really cute and quality ABC Vehicles poster called "Things that Go". It had many of the vehicles he loves on the poster. "L" for Locomotive, (Yeah Thomas!) "D" for Dumptruck (We just got one and he adores it) "S" for Stroller (Can't live without ours!) and "J" for Jetski ( He has the cutest ride on jetskit that plays music and he dances to it). I thought this was a great poster and I showed him the stuff around the house that we had matching to the poster and said the word. I know if I show him enough times he will figure out the words for his stuff. We have it just hanging on the wall for now but are going to get a frame to protect it.

Alpha Tot posters are made by an artistic mom who wanted to create an ABC poster that had something other than the average A for Apple, B for Banana type of poster. The poster is 18" x 24" and printed on recycled paper with soy ink.

GIVEAWAY:

For our Moms Leaving the Workforce event Alpha Tot has generously offered one lucky reader the chance to win one unframed ABC Vehicles Poster for your home.

Here is how to enter the giveaway.
MANDATORY Entry:
Follow Alpha Tot on Twitter

*Leave your email address in your comment so I can contact the winner*

Extra Entries: Can be done after leaving a comment for mandatory entry.
If the extra entry says 1 extra entry leave 1 comment and 2 extra entries leave me 2 comments and so on.

-Follow Me on GFC (right top corner) +3
-Follow The Coupon Queen Bee on Twitter +1
-Like The Coupon Queen Bee on Facebook +1
-Enter any of the other giveaways during the Moms Leaving the Workforce event  and leave a comment on which giveaway you entered. +2 for every giveaway you enter.
-Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link +5

*Limited to US residents; 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts March, 31 2011 and ends on April 8, 2011 at midnight PST.  Winner will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post. I was sent a free unframed ABC Vehicles poster for this review.

Skip Hop Dash Deluxe Diaper Bag Review

 

I recently had a messy situation with my last diaper bag. It involved bananas, yogurt and the stroller falling over as soon as we took out our son. When ever we put the diaper bag onto the stroller it would go on there very awkwardly and made it unbalanced when it was not being sat in. I had a banana and a container of yogurt in the bag and when it fell over the banana  mushed out everywhere and the yogurt pack broke open. I reached into the bag and felt a slimy icky mess! Our last diaper bag was not a good one. It has just one big opening with only one zipped pocket and a side bottle holder that constantly let the bottle fall out.

I knew we need a high quality diaper bag that had many pockets and could easily stay on the stroller. I did a mini happy dance when I found the Skip Hop line of bags. The Dash Deluxe is made to be stroller friendly. What mom who has a stroller doesn't have a diaper bag right! It was a perfect fit for me. I loved the color and pattern selections, it took me a few hours to decide which one I wanted. I went with the Wave Dot pattern. It matched our First Years Brand stroller perfectly! The nice thing is its a cool bag so my hubby will still carry it lol. I almost got a flowery one but then realized he would not want to carry it. Boys I tell ya!

I love how many pockets are on my Skip Hop bag, plus I like the name too! There are 11 and most have zippers or a snap closure. I could easily fit everything we had in our old one and it never makes the stroller fall over. I wish I had this bag from the beginning! It comes with a cushioned changing pad and the bag is PVC free. The bag has a removable shoulder pad that can easily be tucked away for when you are hanging it on your stroller and easily placed back on to carry it on your shoulder. I am really happy with this bag and now have room to store all the items I need for my son and not have to have them stuffed into one compartment. I bought him a pair of cute little sandals and he would not wear them so thankfully I had extra pockets on the bag to store them for when he decides to let me put them on him.

The bag fits perfectly on our stroller!

Skip Hop has so many other great diaper bags on their site as well as bibs, bedding, paci pockets, toys, kids backpacks and so much more. They have a new line of called "Treetop Friends" that is just adorable! They have little owls, tress and branches on them. So cute!

You can learn more about their products by visiting their twitter and facebook pages. A great thing about their company is a portion of their sales goes to charities that benefit woman and children.

** I was not paid or compensated for this post. The opinions in this post are 100% mine and may vary from other opinions. I was provided for free the item in this post for review purposes.

Bring Back Beatrice 1,108 Baby Names Book Review and Giveaway

Bring Back Beatrice 1,108 Baby Names with Meaning, Character and a Little Bit of Attitude by Jennifer Griffin is a cool book to have for baby names. The book is full of classic names and names that are not used as much anymore. Sometimes with trendy or little kid types of names we forget they will be adults one day. Before I named my son I tried to rhyme it with things, think of what other kids might call him, and other wild things I thought up. I wanted to be sure it would be cute as a kid but manly as an adult.
I found my sons name in there and it said it was a high brow classic name and a superior choice! So cool! My name mentioned peace,  I am very mellow and want everyone to be happy! We are hoping in the next year or so to have another child and this book will definitely come in handy. My husband laughed and said it would work for naming pets too!

Some of the girls names I liked were Ruth, Leah, Eileen, Chelsea and Audrey. Then there is Beatrice which means one who brings joy! This book would also help with middle names which sometimes can be harder to pick.

The boys names I like are Madden, Matthew, Cohen, and Spencer. Books like this one make me want more kids to name them something awesome. Don't worry I won't have another baby just for a cool name lol maybe we will  get a fish tank and I will name them all!

I enjoyed that the book has facts and lists of names and nicknames from different sources. There are lists of names like "funny girls" and "wonder woman" and some kings and queens names. This is a fun book!

GIVEAWAY:

For our Moms Leaving the Workforce event Workman Publishing has generously offered one lucky reader the chance to win one copy of Bring Back Beatrice. 

Here is how to enter the giveaway.
MANDATORY Entry:
LIKE Workman Publishing on facebook

*Leave your email address in your comment so I can contact the winner*

Extra Entries: Can be done after leaving a comment for mandatory entry.
If the extra entry says 1 extra entry leave 1 comment and 2 extra entries leave me 2 comments and so on.

-Follow Me on GFC (right top corner) +3
-Follow The Coupon Queen Bee on Twitter +1
-Like The Coupon Queen Bee on Facebook +1
-Follow Workman Publishing on twitter +2
-Visit Workman Publishing and tell me another book you would like to have +2
-Enter any of the other giveaways during the Moms Leaving the Workforce event  and leave a comment on which giveaway you entered. +2 for every giveaway you enter.
-Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link +5

*Limited to US residents; 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts March, 30 2011 and ends on April 8, 2011 at midnight PST.  Winner will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post. I was sent a free copy of the book mentioned in the post from the publisher for my review.