Jumpin-Beans

I will be the first to admit that my mom and I were not best friends growing up... Granted, it was all my fault and I am glad that I finally realized that I was being a brat and that my mom was pretty cool....  My mom tried to give me all she could... and that was PLENTY, but I was young... and STUPID and not very appreciative... Now, looking back, I see that I was wrong, but I think that we have a great relationship now... We have gone on several Mother/Daughter trips and she is a great "maw maw" to Broxton... (Mental note, please remember to blog about how "Maw Maw" came to be...) Anyways.... There is yet another book in the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series... This one is called " The Magic of Mothers and Daughters ." Image Credit: Amazon The Chapters are: A Daughters Love Rites of Passage A Mothers Love The Face in the Mirror Family By Choice Away We Go Learning from Each Other Healing and Second Chances What Goes Around Comes Arou

If your house is ANYTHING like ours, as soon as certain infomercials come on, I start hearing " I need that! I need that!" Well, we have seen the Happy Napper ones for a bit now and lucky Broxton, he actually got one...  Not because I fell victim to the "Needing one" but we were lucky enough to get one for review... It was a bit of a good and bad thing added into one... You see, as soon as we opened it, he was so excited with the Happy Napper...  Photo Credit: NVision Photography I admit, I was pretty impressed with it too!   It was a stuffed dog house!!! Not just any dog house, but one that had a door bell looking thing on it that when you pressed, it made a snoring sound!!!! It was too cute and I knew it was going to make a great pillow.. Photo Credit: NVision Photography Then, we opened it and turned it into the stuffed dog. Talk about a great snuggle buddy for naps and bed time! I personally wish he would leave it as th

Is it just me, or are toys totally different from when we were kids? I mean, I thought we had some pretty cool gadgets, but wow... We were sent an adorable little "Best Flower Bud" for review and I tell ya, I wish I had a sweet little girl to play with it!  Yes, Broxton would have loved to have had it... but honestly, he has enough other toys, we will be giving this to someone else!  Have you seen the Best Flower Buds by Jay at Play currently at Toys R Us? They are these cute little flowers... that then turn into sweet little dolls! You can choose from Iris, Poppy, Blue Belle, Violet, Blossom or Daisy. Let me try and show it to you: At first, just a cute little rubber flowerpot with a cloth flower blossom. Cute flower blossom. Slowly start to turn the flower pot downward.  (It is a soft "gummy" type plastic. Nothing hard.)  Tada!  You have your adorable little doll now! See how it turns inside out? I love that the

Kids are about to get out for the summer...  That means NO SCHOOLWORK!!! WHoooo Hoooo.. But, that doesn't mean you can not keep their brains in high gear!!!  No, I don't mean teaching them math and science at home, but you can do fun activities with puzzle books and more to engage in brain activity... and shhhhh... FUN!!!! If you don't have kids... or they are too young... or you are wanting to engage your brain.. Why not look at books for you?! We were sent a collection of "Puzzle Books" and I have really been enjoying them! The collection we were sent has a bit of everything for everyone!   We now have, The Complete Idiots Guide to Picture Puzzles, Volume 2. I really enjoyed this, as I love searching for things... I know that when the boys get here for the summer, they will love looking at this... I will admit, I wanted to grab my pencil to circle the differences and everything, but that would take the fun out of it for anyone else down the

You know how a trend starts each year with a "must have" item?   Well, I think I might know what the "it" item is this year.. Image Credit: Braced-Lets Have you seen Braced-Lets yet? While some kids think that Braces are not cool... others think they are... I know I personally hated them when I had them, but now... I sure do wish I had them again...  (I should've worn my retainer more later in life!) Anyways...  If you want to make a fashion statement with more than just your teeth... Check them out... Braced-Lets are actually all made from orthodontic material...  The "bracelet" is actually a rubber power chain... and then you have the metal brackets and the colorful rubberbands... If you have ever worn braces, or know anyone who has... You know exactly what I am talking about when I mention those items... With so many colors to choose from... There really is no gender for who this would be seen on.. Bo

Mother Day is just around the corner... Have you thought about it and grabbed the perfect gift for yours? Keep in mind that not only can you go to a local Hallmark store to shop, the Hallmark name has great ideas for all budgets!  To be honest, I used to think that Hallmark was just the brand of cards... then, I eventually learned it was a whole store.. Later on, I learned that Hallmark makes all sorts of great gifts!!!! For Mothers Day, they seem to have everyone covered! You know, Mothers Day doesn't have to just be your biological mother.. They have cards for Grandma's, Aunts, Stepmoms, Daughters and More... They not only have cute cards, but they also have recordable cards and many other things.. Today, I want to tell you about two items we were sent for review... The first is a Recordable book . I think these are great, as my mom gave one to Broxton on Christmas one year... Not only is a recordable book a great story, but it is nice to have the chance to have

Have you seen a bike like this before?! Someone either REALLY loves COKE... Or, I need to get Marc a job driving this around :) Happy WEDNESDAY!

We recently saw an episode of Bubble Guppies on DVD and I was laughing at the show...  I was curious as to how it got its name, until we watched and I saw that the characters of the show were little kids that lived underwater and had fish tales!  That right there caught Broxton's attention and he enjoyed the show..  Image Credit: Amazon So, when I saw that Bubble Guppies were going to be released onto DVD for the first time, I knew I wanted to get it to see if Broxton would enjoy it for road trips!   Little did I know that I would watch with him!   The DVD has "Fin-Tastic Fair Tale TV Movie" on it... Get this... featuring the voice of Wanda Sykes!  She cracks me up and her voice is one that is easy to recognize, so I was laughing automatically! In this "movie" it was about fairy tales... They had a big fish (sorry, not sure of names yet) that was telling the kids about fairy tales.. you know, how they have a wolf, or bears... or a witch or a b

Let me start this by saying...  NO, I am NOT pregnant. Okay, now that we have that out of the way...  I have something really cool and exciting to tell you about!!!! When I was pregnant with Broxton, I was not sure what diapers we would go with.... I knew there were several brands and Marc had one that he had used with the other boys...but, I wanted what was best for Broxton...   At the hospital they used Pampers Swaddlers and I loved them...   They were great!  No leaks, fit right, no rashes or anything on him... heck, they even had a yellow line that came up when he peed!  I decided then that Pampers would be our diapers of choice...  To be honest, I did not really even get diapers at any baby shower... I think I got 2 packs total...   So, when it was time for diapers, I had to buy what worked best... Pampers Swaddlers, Cruisers, you name them, we had them! We would go and I would buy them, and I was always happy...  Today, I am just a bit more happy...  Why? Well

I love sharing books with you that we receive for review..  Well, today I have a new book to share... We had to go to the bookstore to grab a book for Marc and while there, Broxton got into his head that he just HAD to have a Pirate Book.  We took him to the kids section and he looked at books while Marc looked at the book he needed... Then, I told Broxton to put the book up and lets head home, that we could look at Pirate books from the library...  Then, Marc started talking about how great the illustrations were and that he wanted me to look at it.. (That meant that HE wanted to buy it!  Lol!) We got the book and Broxton flipped through it all the way home...  He looked at it again when we got home... and he had Marc read it to him last night for bed.. It was so cute to go and see Marc and Broxton laid up in the bed reading and then Broxton had to sleep with the book in the bed with him!!!! Marc of course had to go on and on about the illustrations, so I thought i

I am so happy to have had the chance to review another I SEE ME book. With Broxton not having a "common" name, you can not just grab personalized items for him at the store.. So, it is nice to have the chance to review to see great products! The latest book?  Very Happy Birthday!!!! Of course, I used the images from their site, but you just enter the name of your child and it is personalized just the way you would dream it would be! With our book, we went with "Broxton's Very Happy 3rd Birthday!" You can add the birthday number, or just leave it blank and have it be for all birthdays! Also, when ordering, you pick whether you want a birthday BOY or GIRL book. Image Credit: I SEE ME The book is larger than your hand when completely opened and fingers stretched out.. but it is smaller than an 8x10. I personally think it is just a great size for smaller hands!  (It is a square shape and I love that it is a board book.)  The reason I like the boa

If you need a good for the heart book... I have a new one for you! As we know, I get to review books from Chicken Soup for the Soul.. Then, I also get to host great giveaways as well :) Ready to hear about the latest book? Chicken Soup for the Soul, Food and Love. At first, I wasn't so sure about it.. I mean, Food and Love?  I was thinking more along LOVING FOOD.. I don't need to read about that, as I know I do... Hey, my whole family does! Then, I slowed down and looked again.. Food AND Love... As the author states in the introduction:  "It's how we show our love for family and friends and create an environment of caring and stability during an uncertain time."  If you think about it that way, many memories do include food! That being said, let me tell you the chapters in this book: Image Credit: Amazon Chapters: 1- Learning to Cook 2- Just Like Moms 3- Table for Two 4- Comfort Food 5- Little Helpers 6- In Memory Of 7- A Bite of Fun 8-

Image Credit: Amazon We have been enjoying the book, Bawk and Roll by Tammi Sauer and I tell you, it is a cute one! I had no idea that there was a first book until I looked online.. The first book is Chicken Dance (guess that would explain the page where it says "Chicken Dance 2")   My family loves Elvis, so I immediately chuckled when I saw Elvis Poultry was the star of the show..  As I read it, I could totally hear "The King" saying what he said...  Bawk and Roll stars Marge and Lola, two "chics" who have gone to tour as Elvis' dancers...  But, each show has them with a case of stage fright, leaving Elvis to say " If our flock can't rock, I gotta go solo!"  Which then leads me to another section that I laughed out loud at...   "The chickens crossed the road." I know, I know.. it is the little things that amuse me, but amuse me it did!!!!  You have to read the rest to see how it turns out, but I think you will