Baby's First Moccs. | Freshly Picked

Before I even found out I was pregnant one of my favorite things to do was browse Pinterest and look at cute baby products. That's when I first came across Freshly Picked Moccasins and thought they were the cutest little shoes ever. I knew that when we finally had a baby that I needed to get them a pair because I was obsessed! 

I know that infant shoes are not necessary at all but how could one resist such cute little shoes? Calum is soon going to be crawling so I wanted him to have something comfy but that would protect his little feet. FP moccasins are made of soft leather that molds to his feet which is perfect for the summer because I know his feet won't get too hot. Also, the elastic band makes it easy to put on and take off unlike a lot of other baby shoes out there. 

Unfortunately,  baby's feet do grow fast so I went with a size 6-12

months (even though he's only 4 months old). They fit on his feet now but he does still have room to grow. Plus they will stretch some along the way. One of my favorite things about the moccasins that kinda goes with my statement above about baby's feet growing way too fast, is that after they wear the moccasins for a while, their foot print will appear on the bottom! Which will make a perfect little keepsake for his memory box.

[ The Freshly Picked moccasins in the above pictures are The Blue Spruce City Moccs.] 

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products listed above for free in exchange for an honest review. I am not required to write a positive review. All of the opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.

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Giving the gift of JORD this father's day + Giveaway!

This year my husband gets to celebrate his first Father's Day, as a father.
Though our son is only but a few months old, I still wanted to make this day special for him, by getting him something he could cherish for years to come. He was recently telling me that he wanted to get himself a nice watch. Something he could use when dressing up, but something that he could also just wear on the daily when he wasn't working. I knew that he would never actually go out and buy himself a watch because he's the type of guy that would rather spend money on something more important. I did hours of researching trying to find the perfect unique watch to surprise him with.

That's when I came across JORD watches! They are a company that makes unique wood watches. They have a large selection of wood watches for men and women. They also offer personalized engraving and sizing.

 This Father's Day I got an opportunity to collaborate with JORD to help promote their wood watches.
This was perfect, because like I mentioned above, my husband had always wanted a cool watch!

I let him pick a watch of his choice from their wide selection and he went with the Zebrawood & Navy watch from the Frankie Series. ( As seen in the pictures above)

If you are on the hunt for the perfect Father's Day gift, make sure to check out JORD watches.

(To shop their other men's watches click HERE.)

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!GIVEAWAY!

With the help of JORD, I am hosting a Father's Day giveaway!

You must click on the link below then enter your name as well as your email address.

Every person will be entered to win a $100 gift code to use on the JORD site! Only one lucky person will win but everyone that enters will receive a consolation code to use on their website worth $25 once the contest ends!

Comment below telling me which watch you'd pick out!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Good Luck Everyone

and Happy Father's Day!

Luxury Wooden Watch
Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products listed above for free in exchange for an honest review. I am not required to write a positive review. All of the opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.

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Making life easier at "dinner thyme"

As a stay at home mom or even full time working mom, dinner time seems to always be a dreadful moment. At least for me. We seem to have a list of must-do's that are more important then preparing for dinner. Whether it's doing the dishes, doing the laundry, taking care of the kids, dinner time seems to always be on the back burner. 

The most time consuming thing about making dinner is always the preparation time. Wouldn't life be so much easier if we all had a personal prep cook that could just prepare all the ingredients and measure them out for us? OH, and come up with meal ideas! I think so.

I recently came across a company called "Dinner Thyme" that is based out of New York.

Each week there is a new menu using consisting of nine different meals and four dessert options. You simply pick our which meals you'd like and how many portions (1,2,3 or 4) of each. They are a non-subscription service, so if you don't need dinner one week, it's perfectly fine just don't place an order.

When it comes delivery time, your meals will arrive in a secure, well insulated box packed with ice packs. 

At work all day and afraid you'll miss the delivery? That's okay. As long as you have a safe place for them to place your box, you don't have to be home. But don't worry, your food will also stay fresh and cold.

As for pricing, Dinner Thyme offers a broad selection of meals to fit everyone's budget. The meals are generally $11.95 per portion but can range from as little as $9.95 to $12.95 per portion. Desserts range from $1.65 to $3.95 per portion. 

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(The following meals I selected were one portion.)

Meal A- Chicken Meatballs Chardonnay Over Pasta And Herbs 

Meal B- Grilled Cheese BLT With Tomato Sauce Dip

Meal C- Chicken Tikka Masala With Cilantro Rice And Gralic Naan

Meal D- Lemon Chicken With Green Bean Casserole 

My first impressions when receiving my box where that everything seemed to be nice and fresh. All meals lettered by A,B,C and D. For the different meals I had selected. Which made it easier to know which ingredients when with which recipes.  

Having everything already prepared made making dinner so much more enjoyable and quicker. I didn't have to worry about forgetting an ingredient at the store or not having enough of something. 

My overall experience with this service was awesome! It is something that I will defiantly do again in the future. I would suggest everyone give it a try at least one time! 

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products listed above for free in exchange for an honest review. I am not required to write a positive review. All of the opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.

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Calum | 4 month old

[ 15.13 lbs and 25.5 inches long ]

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Father's Day Gift | Fishing Inspired + Giveaway!

This year I decided to put together a fishing 'basket' for my husband.
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Instead of going with a typical basket, I thought what better then using a tackle box.
I picked this one up from Walmart on clearance for only $15.00!

I wanted to include some fishing essentials like hooks, lures, bait, etc.
But there is such a large selection out there that I didn't know what to pick. That's when I came across Lucky Tackle Box - A monthly subscription for fishing. It was perfect! It came with a variety of things for $14.99 which what was included in the box, was easily two times the cost.

While searching for fishing related products online, I came across this shirt on Etsy from Wander Loose.
It is the perfect representation of my husband, so of course, I had to get it!

And last but not least, you can't forget to add some sort of goodies!
For example, a pack of gum, some beef jerky, candy, etc.

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!GIVEAWAY!
Do you have a man in your life that would love to win his very own Lucky Tackle Box?
If so, make sure you enter the giveaway below.

Before entering the giveaway, please comment below why you'd like to win the Lucky Tackle Box - Panfish Box!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck everyone!

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products listed above for free in exchange for an honest review. I am not required to write a positive review. All of the opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family.

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out with the old and in with the new | Nest bedding

About 3 years ago, when my husband and I got married, we purchased our first mattress together as a soon to be married couple. We went to a local store and bought a $600 mattress that we thought we loved. 

Well after the first few nights we quickly realized how horrible it actually was. We thought that maybe by buying a memory foam topper that it would solve our problem. An extra $180 later, our bed was still the most uncomfortable thing ever.

Seeing as we had just gotten married and bought our first home, we didn't have the means to go out and buy another. So for the past 3 years, we've been sleeping on this awful mattress. 

I recently got an opportunity to work with NestBedding. 

They are a family owned, factory direct, organic, natural, and certified mattress and bedding company located in Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, New York and Chicago.  

I selected the Alexander Signature Series mattress (Medium) because it seemed to be the one that would best fit my needs. It comes in three different firmness levels (Soft, Medium and Luxury Firm).

The medium feel is made up of the following layers:
(information taken from Sleepopolis)

Top layer (cooling / comfort) – the top layer is 4″ of gel memory foam. This layer works to absorb heat from the sleeping surface and disperse that through the sides and bottom of the mattress. It also helps to provide great support and pressure relief for the mattress.

2nd layer (support / comfort) – the second layer is 1″ of visco foam. Visco foam provides great bounce, responsiveness, and cooling. Placing this layer directly below the gel memory foam provides the mattress with higher levels of comfort and support.

3rd layer (transition) – this is a 2″ layer of transition foam. The transition foam provides additional support to the foams above and acts as deep compression support for heavier sleepers.

Bottom layer (foundational) – 4″ layer of base foam. This layer acts as the foundational base for the mattress. It also helps to prevent the mattress from bottoming out and improves the edge support.

When selecting my mattress there was a few things I was looking for.

The main one being good support for our backs and the medium feel provided the perfect amount of support we were looking for.

Other information
(information taken from Sleepopolis)

• Shipping – free shipping within the US, compressed in a box, arrives in less than 7 days
• Trial Period – 101 nights
• Returns / Refunds – 100% money back guarantee if you decide the mattress isn’t right for you (so long as you request a refund within the 101 night trial period)
• Built in USA
• Warranty – 20 years
• Discounts – use code “BESTBED100” to save $100

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When Christian offered to through in a pillow for me to review as well I was even more excited. My husband used to have this memory foam pillow that loved so I knew he was going to love this one as well. Well let me tell you! This pillow is literally like sleeping on clouds. The pillow comes pretty stuffed BUT it's adjustable! Yes that's right. There is a zipper on the side so you can remove as much as the filling as you'd like and save it in a plastic bag. My husband did not remove any of the filling. He said it was perfect the way it arrived.

The Easy Breather Pillow

(information taken from the Nest bedding website)

Made with all USA made materials, the Easy Breather Support Pillow is a Tencel Blended Fabric and is filled with a proprietary blend of materials that provide a supportive yet supple support that mimics a down and feather pillow while cradling your neck and providing proper support and opening up breathing passages. Soft on the neck and face yet supportive. Don't forget! It's adjustable. Just open the pillow and remove some of the fill to fit your preference. Available in Standard, Queen and King Sizes. No latex and no animal product in this pillow.

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After testing out the Alexander Signature Series mattress for a couple weeks, I can officially say that I have never slept  better in my life.

 My overall all experience with the NestBedding company was fantastic. The mattress and pillow took less then a week to arrive to us. When we received the mattress it arrived in a box. The mattress was tightly rolled in plastic. The box does weigh around 100lbs, so it was a little tricky to set up alone, but if you have help I'm sure it would be 10x easier. The mattress and pillow had little to no smell, unlike most companies. The quality of the mattress itself was also very impressive. 

The first few nights we slept on the mattress we were undecided if we truly enjoyed it. That thought quickly went away though and now we love it! It provides the perfect back support without being too soft or too hard. As for the pillow, it is like sleeping on clouds. My husband and I fight over it. We actually take turns sleeping on it! I think that means we should probably get a second one haha. 

If you are thinking about purchasing a new mattress or very nice pillow I recommend checking out Nest Bedding, they have great customer service and can answer any questions you have.

Alexander Signature Series Medium Queen Mattress

The Easy Breather Pillow

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Breastfeeding, Pumping + Formula | my struggles

Today I am writing about something I've been struggling with for a few months now that I don't think enough people really talk about.

I've been dreading writing about this subject for a little while now, because it's still upsetting to me.

Since I found out I was pregnant I knew that I wanted my baby to be exclusively breastfeed. That I was going to do whatever I could to make it work. But honestly I never really knew how hard it was going to be, I just thought that it was something that was easy and came naturally. But boy was I ever wrong. 

It all started from the day he was born. He never really latched properly and it was the most painful thing ever. I had multiple different lactation consultants try and help me. It just never seemed to get better though. But I didn't give up just yet, because I had my mind set that I was going to make it work. Sadly, we only made it to about 6 weeks before I gave him his first bottle of formula. And let me tell you, it is one of the most heart breaking things ever. Not many people talk about it but it truly is. You feel like a complete failure. At least I did. I was so upset over the fact that not only was he not latching properly, he wasn't getting enough milk that I had to give him this garbage.

That's when I switched over to pumping. I figured, if he's not going to latch then at least I can pump and feed him that way right? I was still supplementing with formula here and there which was still hard on me emotionally but he was still getting breast milk so that's all I cared about. I was somehow able to build up a small supply along the way. Things seem to be working out. Until recently. 

I have started to lose my milk supply. Which is completely devastating to me. But there is no one else to blame then myself. I never had the greatest milk supply, but I used to religiously pump every 2-3 hours on the dot. Over the past few weeks, I became too busy and never really made the time to pump or drink enough water. Two very important things when it comes to pumping. 

I don't want to say that thing whole journey is over yet. Because I am still willing to try and start over and give pumping my all, but I just don't know if it's too late. I feel like I have tried everything in the books to try and boost my supply. I have gone through my entire frozen stash and he is mostly on formula now, which kills me. 

If you have any advice, tips, tricks or anything that could help me out in this hard time, please leave a comment below! I know that I am not the only one struggling with this and I think it needs to be talked about more.

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