A Quick Note

I have had some people mention they were looking for a specific color bubble necklace over at Caroline G and they were out of stock. Well, they are all now fully restocked and available to order!!!

So, head over and get you a gorgeous necklace, or three, and pick from all the fabulous colors!!

And don't forget to use code: laurenp to get 15% off your order!!

She's also offering mini bubble necklaces in white, coral, and turquoise for those of you who like the smaller look.

I hope you find something you like over at Caroline G and you're able to get the colors you want this time! :)

Our Favorite Toddler Apps

Hudson has been in love with our iPhones since he was about 2 weeks old. Maybe I exaggerate a little, but not that much. He's mastered them and can navigate his way around them with no trouble. Occasionally he'll even make a phone call or send a text message. If he's done that to you, I apologize. I've also caught many a Facebook post or Tweet from being sent out! Yikes!

The various games and learning apps on the iPhone have been really beneficial for helping Hudson learn shapes, colors, letters, animals, etc. 

We decided to buy an iPad mini for Hudson(& us) to use and try to get him away from our phones. It's the absolute perfect size for him and he's in love with it. In fact, good luck getting it away from him without a monster FIT!!

All of these apps are also on my iPhone. I'm about to search for some more great ones to add to the list. A few of our top favorites:

Shapes - This one is probably the best app I've seen to teach kids their shapes. It has 4 different games(the balloons game is his favorite!) and he can identify every single shape correctly now. It's free and I highly recommend it!!

The iTot Cards/Counting/Alphabet - These are all great for object/number/letter identification. I've seen a vast improvement in his knowledge since using these apps.

Coloring - This one helps kids with color identification, but it's mostly just really fun!! I may have tried it out myself. ;)

Disney Junior - This one is just great for entertainment purposes. If you're on the go and need to entertain the little ones for a bit, they can watch full episodes (a couple each) of several shows that come on Disney Jr. (Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake & The Neverland Pirates, etc)

Stories - Hudson is getting more interested in this one. It can read the stories to the kids, or the sound can be turned off and the kids can practice their reading with it. It comes with previews of a few stories and you can purchase the full story, along with more stories for like 5/$1. I'm going to do that when Hudson gets more interested in reading them. 

(like I said....he loves the balloons!) 

Some of these apps are the "lite" versions so they are very limited, which is why I'm going to look to add more for him to enjoy. It's good to download the free versions, so you can see which ones are worth purchasing the full versions of. The ones I listed are definitely our favorites around here and have really helped Hudson learn shapes, letter, colors, etc. 

I hope you find them beneficial for your little ones as well!!

Glasses for Free? Can It Be?

Excuse the super cheesy title. Let's just run with it, shall we? 

Today I'm talking about glasses. I don't really wear mine much at all, but I do love a good, sturdy, comfortable pair for the times I do need them. And I'll ask that you please excuse my awkward "modeling". Not my favorite thing to do. But anyway...

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Firmoo about working with them to review a pair of glasses. I thought, "That sounds fun, sure!" Now, to be honest, I had never heard of Firmoo....mostly because I've just always bought my glasses from my eye doctor. Firmoo is an online retailer that sells hundreds of pairs of glasses, for amazingly affordable prices. 

Their prices are SO affordable, in fact, that I questioned the quality of the product.(mine retail for $33!!) I have had these glasses for just over a week, and although I only really wear my glasses first thing in the morning and right before I go to bed, I can tell you that the quality of their glasses is as good, if not better, than that of a pair of glasses you'll pay hundreds of dollars for elsewhere. Actually, these are more comfortable and appear to be made better than the DKNY glasses I have that came from the eye doctor. 

I will admit, I was nervous about ordering a pair of glasses online. Unable to try them on and feel them in my hands, and I also worried about how accurate the prescription would be. Firmoo makes it so easy to order your perfect pair. They offer a virtual try-on system and you can easily upload a picture to see how they look on your face. This is what really helped me make my decision. I have a tortoise color pair already so I went with the classic black. They do have a little design on the sides, for a little pizzaz. Although these are just a tad bigger than I'd prefer, they're comfortable and fit great. I was able to type in my prescription from my contact boxes and voila!! Easy peasy!! Now, if you have an astigmatism, there are a few more numbers you'll have to input, but a quick call to your eye doctor can get your full prescription. No prob! You also need to measure your pupillary distance, which is the distance between your pupils. This was easy for me, but some people have 2 numbers. (I still don't quite understand how that works, but whatever.) The best thing to do is call your eye doctor and get your full prescription so you know it's correct. Go visit them for a quick exam if you haven't been in a while.

Overall, I am super happy with my choice and am very impressed with the quality, fit, and the accuracy of the prescription. My glasses came in a very nice case, complete with a nice cloth for cleaning them and a small screwdriver for adjusting. Mine didn't even need adjusting, but that's great to have for others that may need it. And with their prices, I will definitely use them for my next pair of glasses!

But there's one more awesome thing about Firmoo. Something I'm excited to tell you about. They have a First Pair Free Program, which means everyone gets their 1st pair of glasses for FREE!!! All you pay is shipping! Does is get much better than that? Not that I know of!

They offer prescription/nonprescription glasses, reading glasses, bifocal glasses, and even sunglasses! If you don't believe they have great prices, great quality, and a great online store, then don't take my word for it and go visit them yourself!! And get your free pair of glasses!! A little birdie (their website) also told me that they're having a Buy One Get One 1/2 off sale through Valentine's Day! 

So, what are you waiting for???

Check 'em out!

High Five for Friday!

This week had a lot of fun things in it! Here are a few of my favorites.

1. Eating like a 12 year old with gummy snacks. It's embarrassing how easily I can go through a bag of this stuff.

2. A cute picture of this little dude is always included. He loves talking on the phone....even if the "phone" is a Wii remote. HA!

3. New couches! Ahhhh. Love 'em!! Pretend you don't see that mess, mmk?

4. A beautiful day spent watching this guy have a ball at the park.

5. And making sweet memories with his grandparents, and great-grandparents. Thankful for these times!

How was your week? Are you as ready for the weekend as I am?

Link up with Lauren to share your favorite things from the week.

Valentine's Day, Pinterest-Style

I like to live vicariously through Pinterest, as I'm sure a lot of us do. I have my dream home planned out, as well as my dream shoe collection, dream hair/makeup, and oodles of delicious food that I'm still waiting on to just appear out of thin air. And then there's aaaaalllll these ah-dorable DIY projects that look so cute and presh and of course I want to do them all. But, let's face it, I'm lucky if I get a blog post done before 9pm, something cooked for dinner other than a Stouffer's meal, or even a shower some days! Gimme about 10 more hours in the day, and I'll have all of these little crafts and projects whipped up. Until then, I'll just do it through Pinterest.

Take Valentine's Day, for instance. There are some super cute ideas out there but I just don't have time to glue 363 mini hearts to a piece of styrofoam. I don't have the patience sanity to thread 2,957 beads through a tiny piece of string, and I most definitely do NOT have the baking/icing abilities to make a 9 layer "ombre" cake with homemade fluted marzipan, buttercream, ganache, lemon verbena and some other fancy name I can't think of frosting. And don't forget the fondant cut-out hearts. 

All of these things are lovely and sound like something I'd love to tackle one day. But today (or tomorrow or next week or next month) ain't the day. I'll just buy frosted, heart-shaped cookies at Publix, and pay a few more dollars for that premade wreath or table decoration. I love a good DIY project but you can only do so much, yaknowwhatimsayin? 

So I'll just share a few of my favorite V-Day Pinterest finds and we'll just all pretend I did them myself. Cool?

*click on pictures to go to Pinterest sources*

Now, this is doable. I can handle this. Cute, no?

I actually have no idea what this is, but it's super cute. Could be a pancake kinda situation, could be some type of light cookie. Not sure, but the idea is cute enough.

There's no source for this, it just takes you to a picture.

Another doable one.

Heart-shaped bacon. 'Cause what says I love you more than bacon, am I right?

I'm not a huge fan of Peeps, but this is cute and great for a project with the kids!

OK, obviously there are lots of easy little crafts out there that even I can do. 

Cuteness!

Ok, here's a good one. Beautiful, but, um no. I just can't.....

I butcher the icing on a cupcake. I'd hate to see what I'd do to this poor thing.

Shut up! Look at all that pink! So pretty.

Here's a beautiful (edible) wreath. It's lovely and seems easy enough, but could you imagine meticulously gluing all 3,000 of those gumdrops on there? Me neither. 

Kudos to those who've done this one!

So, a few of these may or may not get done (probably leaning closer to the may not), but I'm just gonna pretend that by putting them on the blog that I can magically take credit for actually doing them myself. Sounds like a plan, Stan.