Embracing a Healthy Family

Announcing Another Grandchild and Win A Wish from Huggies® Little Snugglers Diapers

I participated in a Huggies® and Mom Central posting opportunity in which I received a gift card from Huggies® in exchange for my honest opinions.


If you are a regular to my blog, you know that I have children and that I've always stated what a Huggies® family we are.  Not only did I use Huggies® with my two younger ones but my oldest uses Huggies® exclusively too.  I didn't use Huggies® with my oldest as she's 26 and have no idea what I used all the way back then!  I have tried many brands and I do have a second favorite but I always turned to Huggies® for the reliable protection and unbeatable skin care which is why I eagerly wanted to share Huggies® Little Snugglers Diapers with you.  I also wanted to share that I'm going to be a grandmother again!  My oldest is due early November and in spite of her newly discovered ovarian cancer, we know her little-one-to-be saved her life as the tumor wouldn't have been discovered if it weren't for him.  As she progresses towards her second child, who are close in age to my second crew of children, we are happy to continue along the Huggies® line of products.

As snug and as happy as can be with a dependable, dry Huggies® on!
We all love those adorable soft hugs from our babies, not to mention as they grow too, so why not have make sure the second hug is just as soft?  Huggies® Little Snugglers Diapers has a new Gentle Absorb Liner that provides a cushiony layer of protection with hundreds of tiny absorbent pillows keeping your baby's skin dryer. Huggies® has changed and improved over the years with such great new features such as a wetness indicator so no more putting that finger inside the diaper to feel if it's wet.  For the newborns, there is an umbilical cord cut out to help protect that sensitive healing spot that we all worry about.  The diapers also feature a cottony-soft inside and out to help keep your little one comfortable as well as a unique stretchy Snugfit waistband that is flexible and pocketed to help keep the messes inside and not all over the bedding or your arm.  

As I plan for my newest grandchild, it's time to open up an old post I wrote in which I made a Huggies diaper cake for my first grandchild.  This time, I'm using Huggies Little Snugglers Diapers in a Beatrix Potter theme and will stack the sizes since Huggies ® Little Snugglers Diapers are available in five sizes from Preemie (up to six pounds) through size 3 (16-28 pounds).  With a suggested retail price of $11.99 for a jumbo pack to $22.99 for a BIG pack, I can't go wrong and the other beauty is, they are available in grocery stores and major mass retailers nationwide so wherever I shop, I will be able to find them.  Although my favorite place to shop is Target, which I had done weekly while we lived in El Paso, but we just moved across country so now I have to find my nearest Target and fast!  My oldest loves Target too and has a registry for her baby-to-be.
As part of my participation in this project with Huggies® and Mom Central, I received a $50 Target gift card which I used to purchase two packages of Huggies® Little Snugglers Diapers online as I forgot to capture my prior week's purchase of Huggies® for my other little one.  If you haven't shopped online via Target, you are missing out!  There are great shipping deals and other specials they routinely run and if you live in a congested area like I do, shopping online beats fighting traffic!

If you know someone who is pregnant or if you are, don't forget to submit your wish to Huggies® as for six months, there will be one lucky winner per month with a prize value up to $5,000!  All you have to do is create, if not already done, a registry at Target and then click on the Huggies Little Snugglers Diapers Make a Wish to learn more and enter!  I just did so hurry and enter and as a bonus, you get to sign up for a free sample after you complete your wish entry.  The registry is fast and easy and really lets you set up what you want and need to help others give you the perfect gift!  Target provides suggestions or you can browse on your own and what is wonderful, Target will even allow your gift givers to ship the gift to you!


LeapTV Pre-Order is HERE!

This is a sponsored post from LeapFrog and MomSelect but the opinions are of my own.

If you have children, you probably have heard of LeapFrog.  My children and grandchild are big fans of LeapFrog's array of educational products and from the LeapFrog family including the LeapPad, LeapReader Interactive Map, Letter Factory DVDs, LeapReader Book Sets, Touch Magic Learning Bus and Leapsters that we own and now we can't be more excited to learn about the latest LeapFrog product is now available!  This is sure to be a huge hit with kids given that it's made for kids and provides education and action.


LeapTV provides three opportunities to play from body motion, pointer play and classic controls.  Just swivel one end of the controller out with a simple click to play in pointer play mode.  For body motion, no controller is needed and your child will be able to use the camera mode for playing fun games like Sofia the First.  Classic controls might be a favorite to the little video game avid who's used to pressing A and B buttons for fast paced gaming.  The three modes of play will surely be a hit among the little ones and why not offer up educational value while they play?  I know my kids love playing games and I gravitate towards the ones that will teach while engaging their attention in fun play.

Check it out the LeapTV behind the scenes video here and don't forget, you can now purchase the new LeapTV during the special pre sale!

Get Ready for LeapFrog's NEW LeapTV Gaming Console Coming September 2nd

This is a sponsored post from LeapFrog and MomSelect but the opinions are of my own.


As I previously wrote, if you have children, you probably have heard of LeapFrog.  My children and grandchild are big fans of LeapFrog's array of educational products and from the LeapFrog family including the LeapPad, LeapReader Interactive Map, Letter Factory DVDs, LeapReader Book Sets, Touch Magic Learning Bus and Leapsters that we own and now we can't be more excited to learn about the latest LeapFrog product releasing on September 2nd called LeapTV!  This is sure to be a huge hit with kids given that it's made for kids and provides education and action.

Mark your calendars because on September 2nd, LeapTV Gaming Console will be available for pre-sale!  If you haven't heard about LeapTV, check out the great LeapTV YouTube video:


Aperion® Audio Speakers Rock

My family loves all the gadgets like most everyone else as we have iPods, an iPad, iPhones and other devices.  It's almost a must nowadays to have at least one and of course, most use them to hold their music collection on them.  They make it so easy as well to have multi-purposes for the devices such as traveling, at home, exercising and more.  They are great to have but the sound is not all that great which I've learned as I take my iPhone with me on the treadmill.  I'm constantly pulling out the headphones which disrupts my run as I want to use it for the Nike run app. Not having a good sound demotivates me because I get energized with music which is where Aperion® Audio Speakers comes into play as I just love my ALLAIRE™ WIRELESS SPEAKERS AND ACCESSORIES! Music has never been better!



I can hook up all my devices and with the Avantree Roxa Bluetooth 4.0 Receiver, I can play music from anywhere in the house and it will be transmitted to the Aperion® Audio Speaker. When I received it, I was surprised by the size as it was bigger than a typical device speaker but it was portable enough to take anywhere.  The set up was very easy which I like as I don't like reading instructions.  Other features include:
  • Adjustable and removable steel base allowing you the look you want
  • 100W total power
  • Six internal speakers that includes four powered drivers and two passive radiators
  • Three sound modes: natural, bass boost and enhanced stereo
  • Simple connection to your home network via push-button or wizard for Wi-Fi and plug-and-play for Ethernet
  • Compatible with Windows 7 Play To and Windows 8
  • Works with DLNA®
  • One-year warranty
  • FREE SHIPPING
  • FREE lifetime technical support
  • Live chat
  • 30 day in home trial
I recorded the sound first on the Kindle with the highest volume allowed and then I plug it in and you can hear how much louder, clearer and better it sounds:


It's really a great system and my girls like it so they can't hear my voice fluttering as I sing and run per my middle daughter.  


To show you how easy it is to set up, here is their own video:


Overall, I love the Aperion® Audio Speaker system.  I love the portability and lightweight feature of the speaker.  The wireless adapter allows the speaker to be placed anywhere while plugging in the device somewhere else.  The three music functions allows the user to adjust the sound to their preference and the various volume levels is ideal for any listener since it can be tuned in very low or very high.  There was no distortion or interference heard and the sounds was incredible.  It's a great speaker system to have in any house that enjoys music or even audio books and more.  I would recommend it.

Follow Aperion® Audio on the following social media channels:


*Disclaimer:  I received the complimentary system as part of this review.  The opinions are of my own.

Personal Chef To Go: Excellent Healthy Meals

I've been trying for some time to eat better and with the recent diagnosis of my youngest child having congenital heart disease on top of severe asthma and my middle child having epilepsy, it's even more important for myself and my girls to eat healthier.  Sometimes it's not always easy to eat healthier nor to have the time to cook a great meal between working, running a non-profit for children and blogging.  I have to admit that I was a bit reluctant to try out the meal selections when I was asked to review Personal Chef To Go given past experiences with meals through the mail although I have to confess, I'm referring to diet type programs.  If you want to read the entire post, I welcome you to do so but if you are limited in time, please scroll down for a review summary at the end.

I was surprised to receive all the food still cold as living far west, it's hard to get packages still on ice but these were perfect.  Personal Chef To Go did an amazing job packing them in a reusable Styrofoam cooler with reusable ice packs.  They even provide ideas on how to reuse the items and how to dispose of the other packaging material to be as green as possible.  I love these type of coolers and ice packs and never throw them out so it's an extra bonus.  The items were all packed nice and neat and even the dinner rolls managed to arrive without a smash or dent in them.  Now, the hard part was deciding what to try first!  As I sat on my computer, I kept thinking about the really green salad and rolls so that was my first meal to try along with my middle daughter.  

The Fresh Green Salad serves 2-3 and contains the nutritional information along with storage instructions.  It's made of romaine lettuce, red peppers, green peppers, cherry tomatoes, red onions and has a balsamic dressing that is just right.  Not too heavy and not too light.  The vegetables were all in their prime and each had wonderful flavor.  The cherry tomatoes lit up the salad for me as they burst with such a wonderful sweet taste.  It was the perfect salad.  The dinner rolls made it an ideal lunch.

Next on our list was the baby carrots and rice.  As you can see in the picture, the spices made it such an eye appealing dish.  This was a favorite of my youngest daughter.  I was surprised as I expected to bite in to crunchy carrots but the carrots were cooked to perfection and had a wonderful taste along side the flavorful rice.  It was a very healthy and tasty side dish.
For an entree, we had the Greek Chicken Penne Pasta that was made from grilled chicken breasts and whole grain pasta with peppers, peppers, red onions, and olives tossed in a tomato sauce and topped with feta and Parmesan cheeses.  Another great dish that was perfectly flavored.  The spices were just right as well as the amount of the tomato sauce.  The cheeses perfectly enveloped just the right pieces of chicken and pasta to give great flavor in each bite.


Pomodoro Shrimp tossed in fresh basil, garlic and tomatoes and served with the dish below that of roasted sweet potatoes and petite mushrooms.  Another perfect tasting meal!  The shrimp was not spicy and was tender.  The sauce was rich and tasty.  My personal favorite were the roasted sweet potatoes as I'm a sweet potato fan!


Next on the menu was Italian Style Chicken Stew made with chicken breasts simmered in tomatoes, spinach, cannelloni beans and Parmesan cheese served with whole grain macaroni.  The chicken was full of flavor and the tomatoes, spinach, cannelloni beans and Parmesan cheese provided the perfect flavor combination to compliment the chicken.  The whole grain macaroni was not overpowering with flavor but was perfectly done.  My girls didn't like it but they are unfortunately, macaroni and cheese fans.  I like the idea of eating whole grains and this provided the perfect balance.

Our next meal was Grilled Herb Marinated Pork Chops that were grilled with their special herb marinade served with petite baby carrots.  Again, perfect!  It's amazing the quality and abundance of flavors every meal had.  As you can see from the pictures above, spices are definitely used to maximize the wonderful tastes.  My girls did like this meal!  

As you notice, each meal was prepared in a healthy manner.  No deep frying, no bread coatings or such.  When Personal Chef To Go states, "Where professional chefs deliver smart'n healthy meals for a smart'n healthy lifestyle," they mean it.  Here is my youngest with all smiles happy with her meal.  It looks like my middle one is sticking out her tongue and she might have because she didn't like the chicken but she's a typical child and likes her chicken nuggets.




How it Works:


Personal Chef To Go's online site details everything you might want to know about the mail delivery program.  You get to see the meals you want before you order to ensure it's what you would want.  You can even see the next menu to plan accordingly and choose the frequency of delivery to include an auto-delivery that features a bonus of exclusive access to the Chef's Table which has a lot of material as well as a savings per week.

Each meal arrives in a flavor-fresh container that has a "enjoy or freeze by" date clearly written on the package.  The dates are far enough in advance that you can enjoy the week's menu all week long without worrying about them expiring and since you can freeze them, never a problem if you have plans for dinner out.

You decide on the meal that suits your lifestyle best and choose from:

  • Busy Singles; 
  • Couples on the Go; or 
  • Family Favorites

Each meal is simple to prepare and only requires minutes in the microwave but you can also bake in the oven if you prefer. 

Special requests for dietary restricted foods and allergies can also be accommodated 

You can read more about who Personal Chef To Go is here.

Menu Costs:

  • Busy Singles ($99.95/week)
    • Five entrees and three entree salad lunches
  • Couples on the Go ($129.95/week)
    • Ten individually packaged dinners consisting of two servings of each of our chef's five guilt-free selections are included in this package.
  • Family Favorites ($89.95/week)
    • Choose from either a full, 16-serving plan (four meals/four servings each); or a half, 8-serving order (two servings each).
  • Dinner Only ($69.95/week)
    • Five individually packaged dinners consisting of a single serving of the five weekly entrees from the Couples on the Go menu are included in this package.
  • Lunch and Dinner Menu ($124.50/week)
    • 5-single serving lunches and 5-single serving dinners from our most popular weekly items
Review Summary:

Overall, the very best in pre-packaged foods in the store or via mail delivery.  I daresay even better than most of my meals as they are truly delicious with the right blend of spices and other ingredients.  It's easy to see that the meals are prepared by recipes created by chefs.  The portions are perfectly sized for two adults or one adult and two children.  The variety of the menus also give you a break from the same old thing night after night.  With the convenience of ordering and delivery from the ease of preparation, it's the ideal way to be healthier without breaking the bank. Personal Chef To Go definitely has an excellent idea here especially for the busy families or singles on the go!

Follow Personal Chef To Go on Twitter, on Facebook and on YouTube.  Also, don't forget to sign up to receive free E-Alerts, specials and more on their home page.



LeapFrog's New LeapTV Gaming Console Coming Soon for Pre-Order!

This is a sponsored post from LeapFrog and MomSelect but the opinions are of my own.

If you have children, you probably have heard of LeapFrog.  My children and grandchild are big fans of LeapFrog's array of educational products and from the LeapFrog family including the LeapPad, LeapReader Interactive Map, Letter Factory DVDs, LeapReader Book Sets, Touch Magic Learning Bus and Leapsters that we own and now we can't be more excited to learn about the latest LeapFrog product releasing on September 2nd called LeapTV!  This is sure to be a huge hit with kids given that it's made for kids and provides education and action.


LeapTV provides three opportunities to play from body motion, pointer play and classic controls.  Just swivel one end of the controller out with a simple click to play in pointer play mode.  For body motion, no controller is needed and your child will be able to use the camera mode for playing fun games like Sofia the First.  Classic controls might be a favorite to the little video game avid who's used to pressing A and B buttons for fast paced gaming.  The three modes of play will surely be a hit among the little ones and why not offer up educational value while they play?  I know my kids love playing games and I gravitate towards the ones that will teach while engaging their attention in fun play.

Check it out the LeapTV behind the scenes video here and don't forget about the pre-sale coming soon!

$20 Walmart Gift Card Giveaway - Ends 8/20


Every so often, I giveaway gift cards that I receive from blogging to my readers for the fun of it.  This time, I'm giving away a $20 Walmart Gift Card and it's easy to enter with many options below.


  a Rafflecopter giveaway

the Other Woman on Digital HD and Our Cool Closet Swap Party #otherwomanswap


Have you heard of Digital HD?  Have you ever wanted to watch a movie really really bad that you just couldn't wait and were so excited to be able to watch it before it's even released on DVD/BluRay?  With Digital HD on iTunes, you get to not only watch much anticipated movies earlier than the release date but they are also cheaper!  As a double bonus, if you missed out on The Other Woman with Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate is available on Digital HD to watch NOW!  In celebration of this release, I hosted a closet swap party with some of my friends and family!

the Other Woman synopsis:

If you forgot what the comedy The Other Woman is about, it's three girlfriends who form an unlikely friendship that celebrates girl power in an unexpected way.  Diaz's character, attorney Carly Whitten, learns her seemingly perfect boyfriend is married to Mann's character, Kate, so you get how the story probably goes.  Not so fast, throw in the beautiful and voluptuous Upton as the mistress and you have the merging of three women who are on a mission!

What is a the Other Woman Closet Swap Party?

So what's up with the closet swap party theme?  In the movie, Carly and Kate bond during a scene where they have a dress up night with all the luxurious clothes in Carly's closet hence the night in/closet swap party idea.  This might inspire you to get a few friends over to have your own closet swap party and if you need some ideas or fresh clothing, check out SNOBSWAP where you can swap out what you don't want for something you really want and stella & dot for more great jewelry and more pieces as well as more great ideas.

Planning a the Other Woman Closet Swap Party:

  1. Select your date and if you are having it for yourself, pick before the holidays if you want to go elegant or seasonal pending on what you would like to gain and give up. This is a perfect time for your kids and starting back to school too!
  2. Send invitations early enough to give guests time to go through their closets.  Remind guests to bring clean, gently used clothing and/or unused cosmetics and perfumes.  Evite is a free service perfect for inviting your friends and family.
  3. Prepare a menu of drinks and light snacks as you don't want to have too many messy fingers.
  4. Establish a shopping system as you want to make sure it's all fair and that no one gets all the best wanted items.  Draw straws or have a random number system to determine order.
  5. If you have the space, set up areas to make it look pretty and organized.  Use either portable closets if you have them or clothes line to hang and tables for accessories and cosmetics.  Don't forget the mirrors too!  You can always ask one of your guests to bring a mirror or two if they have them.
  6. Don't forget to suggest left over items be donated to a women's shelter or another agency to pay it forward.

Our Other Woman Closet Swap Party consisted of some fingernail prep time as no party is complete without feeling all girly!  Our snack and drink table looks a little plain here as normally we go all out when it comes to a party but we ran out of time with trying to make all the displays look good.  Since we give a lot of parties, we had plenty of tables and figures to make it all look great.  The key to a great swap party is displaying the items in an organized, functional yet pretty way.  The Stella & dot catalog offered some fun with seeing all the available pretty items as well as SNOBSWAP so we had our online time station for those that were done swapping or waiting their turn.  The beauty with providing a computer for the guests was they could look for fashion ideas for their new or potentially new clothes and find great accessories too!


Thanks to our participation, we had lovely party favors to give each guest that included a nice carrying tote, nail polish, a manicure set, a tape measure, a cute pink hanger and instant flip flops.  We also had a party raffle of two gorgeous tote bags with a beautiful leopard print cosmetic bag which was a huge hit.


Of course the other purpose we were there was to watch the Other Woman via our complimentary Digital HD copy from iTunes.  It was a slapstick comedy of female bonding proportions where cheating hubby gets put in his place by this unlikely trio.  Nearly everyone enjoyed the movie and it's hard to not want to jump on the treadmill after seeing these three beauties especially Upton. I think it's one of those revenge type comedies that appeals to many women because so many of us have had a bad relationship so even if we didn't live out some of those revenge plots, we did with these trio.  I won't give too much away but if you want a few laughs, this is the movie to watch solo or best with a bunch of your girlfriends. It might not be a bad one for your significant other so they can see what can go grown with straying!

The next time you want an excuse to get together with the girls, plan a closet swap, get some great new clothes and have a finale by watching the Other Woman.


Please note that the party favors, raffle gifts and movie were complimentary.


#OtherWomanSwap

Closet Swap Party in Celebration of The Other Woman Coming Out on Digital HD July 15



Have you heard of Digital HD?  Have you ever wanted to watch a movie really really bad that you just couldn't wait and were so excited to be able to watch it before it's even released on DVD/BluRay?  With Digital HD on iTunes, you get to not only watch much anticipated movies earlier than the release date but they are also cheaper!  As a double bonus, if you missed out on The Other Woman with Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton, starting July 15th, you can watch it before it's even released in stores!
If you forgot what the comedy The Other Woman is about, it's three girlfriends who form an unlikely friendship that celebrates girl power in an unexpected way.  Diaz's character, attorney Carly Whitten, learns her seemingly perfect boyfriend is married to Mann's character, Kate, so you get how the story probably goes.  Not so fast, throw in the beautiful and voluptuous Upton as the mistress and you have the merging of three women who are on a mission!

So what's up with the closet swap party theme?  In the movie, Carly and Kate bond during a scene where they have a dress up night with all the luxurious clothes in Carly's closet hence the night in/closet swap party idea.  This might inspire you to get a few friends over to have your own closet swap party and if you need some ideas or fresh clothing, check out SNOBSWAP where you can swap out what you don't want for something you really want and stella & dot for more great jewelry and more pieces as well as more great ideas.

Mark your calenders for the Digital HD release on iTunes for The Other Woman on July 15th and stay tuned for our Closet Swap Party!





#OtherWomanSwap
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