Happily Blended Product Reviews, Giveaways, and tales from a Mommy Blogger of three

Mommy Makeover – Ever Think of It?

July 29th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Thinking Outloud

I am a mother of three children who are almost 8, 4 and 2 years of age. Of course giving birth to them put a huge toll on my body. I have never been one to sit and dwell on the way my stomach looks after three kids or how my hips are what I call “had a baby hips” because I am in love with myself and my body. This being said, I can’t say that I haven’t ever thought about a breast reduction.

I actually used to have a babysitter for one of my children who had breast augmentation done and she being the only person I ever have known to have this procedure done, I can say she was very happy about her new look. I still remember the day she saw me first after having the procedure done. She says to me “Brandy do you notice anything different” and I said “umm your hair” or something like that. My then babysitter cocked her head and kept asking and I kept answering wrong til I finally said “I have no clue then”. It was at that point that she showed me (with a bra on) that she had had breast augmentation done.

To be honest, I never looked at her chest so therefore I didn’t notice that when she asked what was different. I giggle each time I tell this story to someone! All I do remember is that she was very, very happy to have a little boost and with most females something like this helps them feel better about themselves after having a child or maybe after years of working out and trying other avenues it comes to a point where some form of plastic surgery may be best suited for them.

I am happy with me, I love me and I will continue to work towards a leaner, stronger me always! What would you ever do if you could have something “fixed” in a Mommy Makeover?

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

Back To School Time is Coming

July 29th, 2010 · 2 Comments · children

I can’t believe that school will be starting before we know it! August is next week which means the mad dash to start getting things ready for back to school, my daughter is still too young to worry about things like school lockers because that is a high school extra thing around here, not lower grades. Unless you now get a school locker when you are in the fifth and six grade school we have, who knows, haven’t been in that school in many, many years.

As school starts, especially if you have a high school age child or even middle school age child you must start thinking about the paper, the pens, the crayons, the markers and things like clothing, shoes and accessories. I remember when I was in school I didn’t like that my Mom would buy my clothes at Ames, I always wanted the clothing that was “in style” and of course the clothing that was “in style” costs so much money that my single mother wasn’t going to dish out the money for that even if she could have afforded it.

Now as I watch my oldest grow up and get into the higher grades I see that she may be just like me in the area of wanting the best of the best, which means the most expensive in the eyes of children, and even in some adults. Am I right or am I a right? So as back to school time nears what are you looking to purchase for your children? Is it items for their school locker, clothing or something else far fetched that they are required to have for their classroom studies?

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

Making Memories in the Backyard

July 29th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Brandy's Life, children, parenting

Yesterday I decided to drop offline and go outside with my two sons and my BlackBerry while we waited for my daughter to get home. The sun was shining and the boys love being outdoors. So we ventured outside together to race some bikes …

Get Ready ... Get Set ...

GO AJ

They enjoyed the racing for all but a couple minutes when they realized the pool, yes the junky old pool from last year that has no plug in it, and has old water in it, was available to them. Oh yeah … enter pool time …

I'm Gonna Get You K

Watch out I HIT BACK!

So after both kids put each other in tears and anger …. while Mama was smiling because Baby K was being the little baby of the family, they decided they would get along but I did get a shot of Baby K with me .. he was fussing and I was trying to make him smile well didn’t work as you can see …

Sad Baby Oh that face is priceless, it is his fake crying face, is it as obvious to you as it was to me? After a few minutes of this Baby K went right back to smiles …

Happy Baby K The boys decided that they would get along from here on out after their fighting with water buckets and other miscellaneous toys in the pool. AJ thought it would be sweet to put his baby brothers bike in the pool …

Here you go Baby K ...

Then AJ did some odd movements, stretches perhaps?

Silly Pose AJ Then after all this was said and done I had to start cooking dinner and our day in the pool in our backyard, fully clothed in diapers none the less had ended. The boys did not want to go inside, they love the great outdoors and so I pulled out the bribe “Boys if you come in we can have a pop ice” and inside they ran!

This was the end of a great memory making afternoon! So what did you do yesterday?

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

The Hunger Games Winners

July 28th, 2010 · 5 Comments · giveaways

Congrats Winners The Hunger Games book giveaway that was hosted has now ended which leaves me to use Random.org to choose FIVE lucky winners … drum roll please ….

Congrats to:

Tabathia from A Mom Who Loves Her Kids and Loves to Read
Patricia Hill
Tara who is Tara Tagli Lassin on FB
Jason from All World Automotive
Angela Fuller from Over Boy’d

An email will go out later today if not tomorrow morning to all of you, if you do stop by before you get my email feel free to send a contact through my contact form with your shipping details telling me that you won The Hunger Games.

Thank you to all who entered and look out for my review on The Hunger Games which I am still working on finishing so that I can move on to the second part of the series of books!

Looking for current giveaways? I have three going on so visit Happily Blended Giveaways to see what’s new!

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

Getting Everything Organized

July 28th, 2010 · 5 Comments · Brandy's Life

It is official as I stated before my ex husband and I are back together, we are truly happy and things are more different than I could ever imagined. Our family is back, we are 100% better than ever and we plan to MOVE, yes I said MOVE. We are on the look out for a larger place and actually hope to become renters instead of home owners.

Why are we moving? Well for starters when I first purchase the home we are living in, I was a full time out of home working single mother of one. It was a 2 bedroom home we only added a “sort of” room onto the house so that my daughter could have a room to herself after having two new brothers born two years apart. So since November 2005 when I purchased this 2 bedroom home, you can see a lot has grown with the family. There is now a Mom, a Dad (step Dad to Ki), two sons and one daughter living in this small around 1,000 square footage home.

Bounce Back

One of our children, AJ, struggles with sleeping issues, therefore he rarely sleeps and if he does it isn’t a good night sleep. AJ keeps J and I awake for hours sometimes at night and is often found waking his baby brother at the dawn of the day when the little one is not ready to get up. AJ is the only person in the house who doesn’t care to get any sleep and his mood changes are probably more than likely from this lack of sleep.

Not only am I going through this idea of selling my home and moving to a rental home, but I have plenty of reviews sitting in my room I must get video and/or pictures of to share with you. Plenty of products that are scheduled to go live and well then there is also the running of my virtual business.

So please be patient as you may find content few and far between and a majority being published are my reviews, this does not in anyway mean I am not going to be publishing content any longer, it simply means I have a lot scheduled and the “content” of my life, support for bloggers and more is minimal for the moment. Do not worry do not fret, I always bounce back 10 tens better and you know I will!

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

A Fun Popalicious Toy For Your Little Ones

July 27th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Product Reviews

My family received Pop On Pals for a review product and so it arrived, as shown above, and I was begged to open this fantastic looking amusement park toy. After tearing off all those little tie things that they seem to think toys need now a days I was able to hand the toy over to my sons and the video shown below is their first reaction to the Pop on Pals Amusement Park Play Set.

ABOUT POP ON PALS

Pop On Pals is a whole new world of “popabilities” from Spin Master. With endless mix and match fun, little ones can be anything they want to be. A fireman can become a musician, a princess becomes baker, a puppy becomes a ballerina. Pop On Pals encourages imaginative play and help develop fine motor skills.

OUR THOUGHTS

My sons obviously loved this toy and what I like about it is that my children are ages almost 2, almost 4 and almost 8 years old but still loved playing with this amusement park together. Although my youngest child, Baby K didn’t care too much for the sharing part of this toy! He often is found telling his brother to go play with something else. That little comment brings me to the only con I found with this particular play set, that it only came with one little Pop On Pal man and that one man with two young boys isn’t so much fun for too many hours of play.

Overall it’s a great toy, it has been thrown by the boys as they are boys and often play hyper and aggressively. The Pop on Pals Amusement Park Play Set has taken a beaten and is still in one piece! Therefore it seems to be a strong toy, at least up to this point and we have had it for a while now.

WHERE TO PURCHASE

You can purchase Pop On Pals at most any local toy retail store such as Toys R Us, Target, Sears and yes you can even find them on Amazon.

Disclosure: Product referenced in this review was provided free. All opinions are based on my that of my own and my children.

Have you smiled today?

Question about this post or something found within it? Read my Disclosure Policy.

KIDStrong Positive Energy for Kids GIVEAWAY

July 27th, 2010 · 10 Comments · Product Reviews, giveaways

Look at that, right before we headed out for our Fourth of July fireworks celebration my two older children, AJ and Princess Ki decided to do a toast with their new KIDStrong Positive Energy drinks! They also brought a couple along for the trip!

Our children loved drinking these drinks and I loved that they are full of goodness for the children and allow them to stay hydrated, especially in these hot NH Summer days! I plan to find locations to get more of these KIDStrong drinks as I haven’t yet seen them in my local Walmart where I go grocery shopping.

ABOUT KIDSTRONG PRODUCTS

100% natural.
Low in sugar.
Packed with 22 vitamins and minerals.
Free of high-fructose corn syrup.

Mission –

To be the world’s number one provider of positive energy to kids everywhere. That’s why behind every great-tasting sip are KIDStrong experts who are fully dedicated to the unique needs of growing children. We stay on top of the latest obesity trends, are acutely aware of today’s busy lifestyles, and are genuinely interested in providing families with a convenient, healthy option. At KIDStrong, scientifically-formulated goodness is with you, every step of the way. – Taken from KIDStrong About Page

ENTER TO WIN:

One lucky winner will receive 1 case of Grape and 1 case of Orange KIDStrong (that’s 24 total bottles – 12 per case). Giveaway ends on August 14th at 12:00am EST. Winner will be chosen by random using Random.org. Winner will be notified by email directly. Any person who doesn’t follow entry requirements will have their comment entry deleted without notice.

HOW TO ENTER – all optional, none “required” but must complete at least one for an entry:

“Like” KIDStrong on Facebook. Leave a comment below telling me you did and what your FB username is.
Follow @DrKIDStrong and @brandyellen on Twitter. Leave a comment below telling me your Twitter username.
Tweet up to 3 times per day, periodically not all at one time, and leave a comment below with a link to your tweet.
Subscribe to Happily Blended via RSS or Email (see links in right hand sidebar). Leave a comment below telling me which method you subscribed to.
Subscribe to Happily Blended’s weekly Newsletter (see link in right hand sidebar). Leave a comment below telling me you did this.
Visit another non-giveaway post on Happily Blended or my other blog Moms Vacation Land and leave a comment on that non-giveaway post. Come back here and leave a comment telling me which blog post you left a comment on.