Healthy Snacking

I know I've written several post on losing the post baby weight, but I've really just not done a very good job at it. A couple of weeks ago I decided to really buckle down. I forced my husband to give up Dr. Pepper with me so it would be easier. Did you know it's so much easier to eat healthy if you are avoiding Dr. Pepper? Who wants to eat fast food or pizza when you can't have a Dr. Pepper. What tastes good with water? Healthy food.

So this week I've been on the hunt for some healthy snacks. As I entered my pantry to grab a snack I noticed Emily's Earth's Best Pop Snax Sweet Potato Cinnamon flavor. I kind of have a minor obsession with Sweet Potato fries & well they aren't as healthy as I pretend they are well at least not from the place I like to get them from. So I figured maybe just maybe this could help take the edge off an unhealthy craving? So I popped them open.

The Pop Snax were a delicious treat & significantly more healthy than my not so healthy sweet potato fries. Plus they provided a good source of Vitamins A & E, Zinc and six B vitamins. And for the record I could have eaten the entire thing and had less calories than my sweet potato fries. That's a win for me & my waistline as well as my taste buds. 


And yes the next time I buy the pop snax it's pretty likely that I'll buy one for me and one for Ems.


*In the spirit of full-disclosure, I've partnered with Earth's Best as part of the "Earth's Best Blogger" program. Throughout the year I'll be receiving product, coupons, giveaways and promotions. However, no payment was given or expected for posting about the program, and as always, all opinions given here are fully my own.

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Real Mommy Friends

This post would be way too long if I didn't break this into parts so be sure to check back in for more posts on mommy friends!


Can I just tell you that I think everyone needs at least one good mommy friend? And I am talking the kind who tells you like it is & is just real. A few wouldn't hurt but one is definitely needed. Since Ems was born I have grown very close to a friend of mine because she's been real with me and non-judgmental when I've let her in on my dark side. Those early days where I'd find myself crying over spilled milk & wondering if I'd ever be okay...she was the one I texted or called. She was my life line. She saved me from a lot of insanity.


I just need someone who can say "yep the fact that you find motherhood tough is totally okay" and "no your not a bad mom". I was a little bit crazy at points in those early days & had I been met face to face with one of those moms who acted as if motherhood is all peachy & glorious I likely would have slapped her. No really...


And I do have a few friends that literally walk on cloud 9 all the time with their children and seriously I wonder how many cups of coffee they drink. I mean to never ever have a bad day and to never ever wonder if having kids wasn't cut out for you even if just for a few minutes. I have been so blessed by the friends who've told me their stories of how they've put their kid in the crib and went in screamed into their pillow. Or taken a walk in the backyard to catch some fresh air. Totally done it!

And on top of that I love that moms have blogged about those things. You my friend are not alone.

 (source)

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The Love of all Things Tasty

I am not exactly how much I've shared with you about our solids journey, but it has been quite the journey. Emily started showing an interest in eating at 4 months so we started rice cereal. She loved it for about 3 days & then wanted nothing to do with it. So we held off again until she turned 6 months. We started all the basic fruits & veggies to which I discovered Emily didn't care much for fruits. So we ate a good chunk of our veggies there for awhile but still was just eating 1/3 of a jar for nearly a full month. I was growing discouraged as all my friends younger babies were already chowing down on full jars, but was encouraged to just keep trying and she'd love it eventually.

I was given a bunch of Earth's Best Organic baby food from a friend, an Earth's Best blogger, whose children were older and didn't eat baby food any more. I decided to open a Stage 2 jar to see if maybe she liked that more & boy did we have success. We tried Plum Banana Brown Rice & she ate the entire jar for the first time.

I kept trying different jars and she loved every single one of them. I switched back to the previous food and she would only eat a 1/3 of the jar again. I had finally found the perfect fix to our problem and it is Earth's Best Organic baby food. 

My favorite part??

I love that they provide products with pure ingredients and that provide an excellent source of Vitamin C and iron which makes this momma happy. PLUS she absolutely loves the taste and the combinations even sound like ones I would be interested in eating. (Though I have not tried any yet) 

If you are having difficulty getting your little one to take to jar food seriously try out Earth's Best. Emily loves their rice cereals, grains & oatmeal as well as their jar foods. And I love that I am giving her something that is so good for her! So why not have a giveaway so that you can try it?!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*In the spirit of full-disclosure, I've partnered with Earth's Best as part of the "Earth's Best Blogger" program. Throughout the year I'll be receiving product, coupons, giveaways and promotions. However, no payment was given or expected for posting about the program, and as always, all opinions given here are fully my own.

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I Ripped Out Her Umbilical Cord

A friend of mine posted a picture of her little girls belly button this morning & it reminded me of Emily's cord falling out. By falling out I mean the time I yanked it off...on accident. 

 (p.s adding this picture of her when she was so little makes this momma a little emotional)

I was changing her diaper when it happened. I went to pull up her shirt & as I pulled up her shirt I yanked her belly button. She sobbed & so did I. I felt awful. Her pain subsided very quickly but man I felt so bad. It was my first time to feel like I had failed as a mom. Aren't you supposed to protect your child not hurt them?

Don't worry I realize I wasn't a failure as a mom. It was a mistake and I am sure I will make about a zillion more before her life is over. 

Sometimes I think we as mommas need to remember that sometimes we make mistakes and sometimes we do or say things that can hurt our children. I think it's important we learn that most importantly we love them & they will forget those little mistakes we make.

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Things for my Shop

I want your opinions about the new way I plan to display my products in my shop.

Currently they look like this:

And after adding a faux clothing line to my backyard they will look like this:

What do you think about the photo and the logo? All opinions welcomed!

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Cow Appreciation Day

I love Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a! I can't wait to do things like this when the kids (yes, we want more) are older. To dress up as a family like cows and enjoy a free meal sounds like an awesome idea. I can't imagine how much more of a treat that will be when we have more than 2 mouths to fill. So this year I made Emily a little costume even though she can't yet eat there yet. 

And here's years past:

Looking forward to many more years of appreciating cows!!

And p.s. I had always heard Chick-fil-a was one of the only fast food joints that cleans their playgrounds & it's true...they really do. I got to see the cleaning crew come in. Will be sure to take Emily there to play when she is older especially on Friday morning when it's newly cleaned :)

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My Salon Academy Hair

One of the perks of my husbands previous job was a $15 cut & color at the office salon. Yes, you ready that correct....$15! So with the new job I had a hard time paying the price I paid before so I looked for an alternative. After getting suggestions from friends I decided to give a try to the local salon academy. After all I had heard good things so I decided to go for it. 

WORST DECISION EVER!

Yes, I did save money. But time is far more valuable than money. I spent 4 1/2 hours getting an all over color & trim. I swear to you she painted on my color 5 hairs at a time. And then when I said cute 2-3 inches off I think she cut 2-3 centimeters off so she had to do it again. I still don't think she cut off that much, but whatever. And when she thinned it I thought I was going to jump out of the chair in pain. I finally had to tell her it hurt and she had to stop. 

I was trying to be patient and graceful. She was learning. And I have let people learn on my hair before. As long as my hair didn't turn red & wasn't shorter than my shoulders I was fine. But I won't go again especially now that I've found this piece of sexiness...

Yes, check out that short chunk of hair. I swear it's a foot shorter than the rest of my hair. What is that? Where did it come from? What in the world? I had seen a couple of random short patches under my hair and hidden that I was disturbed by but this one stopped me in my tracks. I mean seriously?!?

Lesson learned. No salon academy for me. Though my friend told me next time if I choose to go to ask for a Level 4 so if I decide to give them a second shot I'll be sure to ask for a Level 4.

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Seven Months

Dear Emily,

You have changed so much in the past month as you have begun to really develop such a personality. Your smiles keep everyone around you smiling too. It's always fun to make you smile & giggle. You have also started swaying/rocking to the music which is super cute. And now you are starting to mimic some of our moves too.

You mastered your sitting skills and enjoy sitting up playing with your toys. Plus we can sit in a high chair and shopping cart now which make life a little easier for this momma!


You are still trying to learn to crawl, but spend less time on your belly now that you are sitting. You can get up on your knees but then face plant. If you get up on your arms you will rock back & forth until you fall. I am sure it's just a matter of a few weeks before it's baby proofing time in this house.

You are becoming an independent sleeper now. You no longer prefer for us to rock you to sleep like you used to. We read you your books, give you your paci, say I love you and night night then lay you down. Normally you go to sleep within 15 minutes, but sometimes you fight us or want to be rocked. A lot of times you are trying to learn that crawling skill so you lay in bed rocking back and forth trying to get somewhere. 


Still loving the pool, but recently we discovered the local water park/pool and you love it! You can sit in the pool without your float and splash around. You also get to sit in the splash park and let the water come up and hit you in the face. We will be spending a lot of our summer going to the water park. Having to get creative to try to beat this Texas heat so we visited the aquarium and you loved it! Play dates are starting to entertain a lot of our free time.

We love you more today than yesterday and this will be true tomorrow and every day after that. You are the best thing that has ever happened to us.

Love,

Mommy

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Two Year Blogiversary

Today marks two years of blogging here at Giggles, Glitz & Glam. What once started off as a mostly craft blog has now become more of a mommy blog. I would say my journey to this place was difficult, but I am so happy to be here. I LOVE being a mommy & am excited about where this blog will go in the future. I am glad so many of you have stuck around for both the crafty side of this blog and now that mommy side. I so appreciate my readers! 

Over the past year my blog has had a lot of hits for our announcing pregnancy photo shoot. These photos have also been pinned a lot. I love that people are enjoying our photo shoot and being inspired by them!

Perhaps over the next year I'll share another announcing pregnancy photo shoot. But I guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out...

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Celebrated the 4th

Hope you all had a great 4th of July! I think that Emily's first fourth of July was a complete success. We decided to go see the fireworks with some friends on the 3rd since I knew Cody would be off the 4th if keeping her up late messed with her at least I wouldn't have to deal with the side effects on my own. She fell asleep while we were walking to our spot and stayed asleep until the show began, but then she woke up and really enjoyed the fireworks.

 

We headed to the parade the next morning with the same friends. Our little girls are 3 months apart so we do a lot together. Both girls absolutely loved the parade. Emily's favorite part was the music especially the drums. She was a trooper even though the parade was during her naptime. She fell asleep as soon as the car got moving. We wore that girl out!

We headed to a friends pool party after the parade. She had a blast playing in the pool and watching all the big kids. I wish I could have got a couple of pictures, but I left my phone in the house. She ended up falling asleep in the pool on her float. Let her enjoy a nice little nap that way before we headed home. When we got home we all laid down for a nap. We woke up and headed to the neighbors house for some burgers then little miss crashed hard. We thought about going to another pool party & more fireworks, but sweet girl was done so we just stayed close.

What did you do for the 4th? 

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