Friday, September 30, 2011

Giveaway Linky - {9/30/11}

Welcome! Please link up your giveaways here! This will be an ongoing linky and will also be featured weekly on Fridays! If you are interested in being a Featured Giveaway at the top of the page, please email me!

Featured Giveaway

Fun-da-middles Giveaway

Add your Giveaway Below! You MUST include your end date or your entry will be deleted. Entries will also be deleted up 5 days after they have ended. Thanks!

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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Being There for Them

Guest post written by Jeramy Sparks

Being there for mom and dad has become more and more responsibility the older they get. I love them to death but it’s hard having to watch out for two elderly parents when you’ve got a life of your own you’re trying to keep up with. I needed some help so I called my best friend Sarah in Napa and asked her what she’d been doing to help her parents who also live in Texas. She told me about texaselectricityproviders.com and said it was helping save them money on their electricity so I told mom and it filtered through. Sarah also said that she buys plane tickets when they’re on sale on Tuesdays because they’re cheaper then and that she’s taught her parents how to Skype so she can better stay in touch. Those were all really good suggestions and I’m starting to feel like less of an absentee daughter but at the end of the day I still wish I was closer to mom and dad.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Lingering Leaf Ring - {Winner!}

Congrats to Sarah Morrison! She is the winner of the Mark Lingering Leaf Ring!

Also, a couple reminders! Be sure to add your giveaways to the ongoing giveaway linky! It's right over there in the sidebar!

And, get signed up for the Under The Tree Giveaway Event coming up November 8-14!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Menu Plan Template - {Printable}

I LOVE menu planning! This month I made a Menu Plan Template for the month of October! I bought myself a wood picture frame at thrift store and spray painted it black to match my kitchen and put the Menu Plan Template in the frame. Then I just use dry erase markers to write my menu plan each week! Stay tuned because I plan on making a different template for each month! Enjoy!

MenuPlanOct.

Monday, September 26, 2011

My Own Story - {Review & Giveaway}

My Own Story is an awesome website that allows you to customize stories for your children. But, these aren't any ordinary stories...these are stories that are about real life experiences! The stories can be an important and useful tool for helping children and their families understand change and various life events. The books are about things such as the first day of school, a new baby in the family, going to the dentist, moving to a new city and many other things. Not only are the stories great, but the pictures are adorable too!

My daughter's and I sat down and went through the stories to find one that they would want to customize. My 7 year old was getting ready to go get her first cavities filled and we found the perfect book about going to the dentist! She customized it herself with her name, her dentist's name and other information. We even printed it out so that she could read it over and over! It really helped her to understand what was going to happen at the dentist office!!

Personalizing the stories are so easy. Once you pick a story and personalize it, it is kept in an archive with a password that you can always go and read or print out! I love this site and the stories! You can sample the stories by clicking on them to see what they are going to say before you purchase them! How great is that?!

You can learn more about My Own Story by visiting HERE! You can see the collection of stories HERE! Visit there Facebook page HERE! Follow them on Twitter HERE!

My Own Story is giving 5 of my readers each a $10 gift certificate! That is enough to customize 2 stories each! Please enter below using Rafflecopter! Good Luck!

For some reason, this post isn't working correctly. Please Click the title of the post or HERE for the Rafflecopter to show up! Thanks!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Knotted Hairstyle

Lately I have been trying to find new hairstyles for my girls and I, just for fun! There are so many I want to try! Here is one I did the other day. I saw some knotted hairstyles, but couldn’t quite do them myself. This one I could! I just pulled my hair back from both sides and tied it in 3 knots and then secured it with a hair tie. I sprayed it with hair spray to help it stay and it really did stay! These pictures are taken after shopping for 3 hours at the mall with a teenage daughter! Ha!

FUN-da-middles Prize Pack - {Giveaway}

Light up your child’s face with a home-baked treat that can be a perfect snack any time of the day. Betty Crocker^® Fun da-middles™ are the first boxed-cupcake mix of its kind that will leave you pleasantly surprised with their sweet center! Delight your family and watch the smiles unfold as you greet them with the delicious, fresh-from-the-oven taste of new Betty Crocker Fun da-middles cupcakes.

These cupcakes are so cool! You don't even need to frost them because the frosting is in the middle! And man, do they taste good!!! Surprisingly enough, they were easy to make too!

Here is a picture of how they turned out for me! Pretty good, huh?? Makes me look pretty clever! haha

If you would like to try them out yourself, you can download a coupon for $0.85 off HERE!

Wanna learn how to make these cupcakes? You can watch the video!

Betty Crocker is giving one of my readers this awesome FUN-da-middles prize pack! The prize pack includes:

One sample of new Betty Crocker Fun da-middles cupcake mix
One cupcake pan
One oven mitt
One package of cupcake liners
One box of cupcake gift notes

Enter below for your chance to win! Giveaway ends October 6th @ 12:01am EST!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Mommy's Monday Blog & Facebook Hop - {9/19/2011}

Hi! Welcome to Mommy's Reviews and Giveaways! I'm so glad you stopped by!

This week is the 11th week of Mommy's Monday Blog & Facebook Hop! I hope you will join in with me!

Blog Hops are a great way to discover new blogs, make new friends and get new followers! If you are a new follower of Mommy's Reviews and Giveaways, please leave a comment so that I can follow you back! :)

While you are here, be sure to enter my Current Giveaways!!!

Also, if you have a giveaway going on, be sure to link up on my Ongoing Giveaway Linky!

Have you signed up to be part of the Under the Tree Giveaway Event? If not, do that here -

it's FREE to join!

ADD YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE TOO!!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Giveaway Linky - {9/16/2011}

Featured Giveaway

Lingering Leaf Ring

Add your Giveaway Below! You MUST include your end date or your entry will be deleted. Entries will also be deleted up 5 days after they have ended. Thanks!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Betty Crocker Box Tops for Education - {Giveaway}

Betty Crocker Box Tops for Education is a simple, but fantastic way to help your schools earn money for things they need such as new computers, library books, or a playground! Last year, your contributions earned more than $59 million for America’s schools!!

You can now find Box Tops for Education on all Betty Crocker Baking Mixes! Be sure to save them to help your local schools! For more information on how, please visit their website at www.boxtops4education.com. You can also visit them on Facebook and Twitter!

Betty Crocker is offering this awesome Prize Pack to one of my lucky followers! The Prize Pack includes:

Cupcake iclips
Cupcake bag
Cupcake notepads
Box Tops for Education pencils
Neoprene Lunch Sack
Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate Brownie Mix

The stuff in this Prize Pack is adorable and the Lunch Sack will come in super handy....and really....who doesn't love brownies!!! YUMMM

Enter below for your chance to win!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

What's YOUR Backup Plan?

Do you have a Backup Plan for the files on your computer? If you don't, you really should give Carbonite a try! Right now, you can try it FREE and also get 2 bonus months with your subscription!

Before I go any further, I have a true story for you! About 6 months ago, my hard drive crashed on my laptop...crashed....I was devastated!!! BUT, luckily, I was already a Carbonite Customer and have been for over 2 years now! ALL of my files were saved! AND while I was waiting for my new computer, I could still access on my files on my old computer that were backed up with Carbonite from any other computer!!! How cool is that?!? Then, once I got my new laptop, I just signed on to Carbonite and transferred all my files onto my new computer!!! Easy Peasy!!!

Want to know a little bit more about Carbonite?

Try Carbonite online backup for 15 days. Then get 2 extra months with your purchase. Your life is on your computer. With so much to lose, there's only one smart way to protect it. Carbonite online backup is the easy, automatic and secure way to safeguard your irreplaceable computer files. These days we all have things on our computers we just can't stand to lose: photos, music, financial documents and more. Carbonite works automatically and continually to make sure your computer files—and memories—are backed up offsite. Try Carbonite at no charge. No credit card required. Try Carbonite today • Unlimited online backup • Automatic and continuous • Encrypts files for privacy • Installs in minutes—PC or Mac • Trusted by over 1 million customers • Get your backed up files from any computer or smartphone • Only $59 a year

Winners!!!!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Lingering Leaf Ring - {Giveaway}

Do you know mark.? If not, you should meet mark.! My daughter, Olivia, and I just became mark. representatives recently. We mostly did it so that my daughter, who is a teenager, could make her own spending money. I'm not big on just handing over money to my kids...I like for them to earn it. So anyway, her and I are doing this together! To kick off our business, we are doing a giveaway! Mark has this adorable new ring for sale HERE for $18.00, called the Lingering Leaf Ring. We are giving one away in a size 8!

We would love if you would also check out our mark store HERE!

Enter below with Rafflecopter to win! Good Luck!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Mommy's Monday Blog & Facebook Hop - {9/12/2011}

Hi! Welcome to Mommy's Reviews and Giveaways! I'm so glad you stopped by!

This week is the 10th week of Mommy's Monday Blog & Facebook Hop! I hope you will join in with me!

it's FREE to join!

ADD YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE TOO!!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Jamberry Nails - {Winner!}

Congratulations Susan Bryant! You are the winner of a set of Jamberry Nails nail shields!!!

The Social Picnic Winner Announced!

This Lil Piglet and Family Approve are happy to announce the winner of the 2nd Edition of the Social Picnic Event. And the winner is...

Congratulations to Katie Allen who won the $500 US PayPal AND the Nextbook Next6 Tablet!!!

After careful inspection of all the Social Picnic 2nd Edition entries, there were 27,118 duplicates still leaving 105,275 legitimate entries. These duplicates were deleted before the winner was selected AND confirmed, as you can see in the image below.

Social Picnic Entries Duplicates Removed

Thank you to all the blogs who participated and helped make the 2nd edition of the Social Picnic event even more of a success than the 1st edition. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list for notification of the next Social Picnic event, please submit $5 US as a gift (you pay fees when asked) via PayPal to stacey@thislilpiglet.net AND send an email to the same email address with "SP Waiting List" in the subject list with your blog information. This is not mandatory, rather a choice; the waiting list will be notified first of the next edition of the Social Picnic before being announced to any others.

This Lil Piglet and Family Approve have decided to make a couple changes to the next edition of the Social Picnic to make participants and entrants experiences better which will be announced to the waiting list first. We hope to see you participate in the next event or see you pop by the hosts blogs for other event updates. In the meantime, check out the Ultimate Gamer Giveaway Event, now taking Sign Ups but be quick because we are already over half full, just in time for Christmas and the other events This Lil Piglet is participating in by selecting from Blog Events on the top menu bar and clicking through to the event you would like to read more about. The Ultimate Gamer event is expected to be as successful or more successful than this event.

The Social Picnic $500 and Tablet Giveaway

The Social Picnic event is finally here, hosted by This Lil Piglet and Family Approve. To enter the giveaway, the Rafflecopter giveaway form will be located on participating blogs September 1- 12:01 AM EST - 8th 12:01 AM EST

Enter to win...

$500 Cash via PayPal

Next6 Android Tablet

If you like reading books, browse the internet, listen to music, view your favorite photo albums or videos, Next6 is your new best friend. Its sleek design, touch screen feature, 7 inches color display,and WiFi is nothing short of amazing. As an added bonus, Next6 also comes with 25 free preloaded books. With one touch, you can open your favorite book and enjoy it anywhere anytime. When fully charged, you can read for up to 10 hours.

Your new Next6 will come with the EBook Store App, so you can download eBooks directly from the web. Its crystal clear capacitive screen is easy to use and gives you crystal clear images especially when playing HD video. If it’s games that you prefer, there are thousands of free 3rd party apps available for you to download. Next6, it is all you need in a tablet!!

Rules and Regulations of the giveaway:

1. Each entry gains you one entry towards the winning prizes

2.The winning entry will be checked to ensure they have complied with their entry. If it is found that the winning entry has not completed the entry requirement, a different winner will be selected.

3.The $500 Cash prize is open Worldwide. The Nexbook Next6 Tablet prize is open to US and Canada residents only. One winner will be chosen and will win ALL prizes. If the chosen winner is located outside the US & Canada, they will win the cash prize only and a second winner will be chosen for the tablet.

Tips: If you've never used Rafflecopter before, it's an easy way to enter giveaway's. Keep in mind that Rafflecopter is run using Javascript so you must enable javascript on your computer to use. If you are having trouble, try a different browser or make sure you have updated your computer and browser.

Because of the amount of entries for this event, we suggest bookmarking this page and spreading out your entries throughout the course of the event.

Have fun and Good luck!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Giveaway Linky - {9/9/2011}

Featured Giveaway

Velcro Memo Board Giveaway

Add your Giveaway Below! You MUST include your end date or your entry will be deleted. Entries will also be deleted up 5 days after they have ended. Thanks!

Heely’s- {Review}

When I was asked to do a Heely’s Review, I was so excited! I had seen people (ok, mostly kids) wheeling around on Heely’s and thought it would be a fun thing to try! I chose the snazzy pair shown below, mostly because I love pink and black!

When I got them out of the box, I had to put in the wheels. That was super easy! Then I put them on. That was super easy! Then I tried to “wheel around” in them…FAIL! Oh boy, not as easy as I thought it would be! What did I expect though? I’m 37 years old. I’m not a kid anymore…oh well! Thank goodness Heely’s has tutorial videos on their website! I headed right over there and watched what I SHOULD be doing!

After some practice, I sort of got the hang of it…a little bit…not enough to go do it in public and embarrass my kids or anything. But enough so that I didn’t fall on my butt! haha It was actually pretty fun trying to get the hang of it. Honestly, I think it would be a great work out for me and a great way to find your balance. I think if I practice some more, I could really do this!

I also thought that these shoes are very cool looking just as regular shoes. It’s great because you can easily pop the wheel out and put the plug in and wear them around normally. My daughters now all want a pair of Heely’s of course! If you get yourself a pair of Heely’s or some for your kids, be sure you also check out the safety guidelines! Better safe than sorry!

You can also follow Heely’s on Facebook and Twitter!

Disclosure: Because of my relationship with Business 2 Blogger, I was provided a pair of Heely’s at no charge from Heely’s to review and share my honest opinion.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Canvas 4 Life–{Review}

I was so excited the other day when I received my canvas print from Canvas 4 Life! I had gotten this awesome picture of my youngest daughter in the adorable tutu that I made for her, so I decided to have it put on a canvas! Well, luckily, I was asked to do a review for Canvas 4 Life! Perfect!

Canvas 4 Life makes it so easy to put your photos on to canvas. I just went to their site, uploaded my picture, chose my size, chose my color (from original, black & white or sepia), chose my coating (from uncoated, matte or satin), chose my depth (from 0.75” or 1.5” deep), chose whether I wanted the picture to bleed around the edges or not and then I picked to do “Photoperfect” – which automatically makes adjustments to my photo to make it look better! That was it! Easy!

As you can see from the canvas above, it looks awesome!!! The quality of the print is superb! Honestly, I don’t even have the canvas anymore….my husband stole it from me to hang in his office at work! He has gotten so many compliments on it!

If you have any canvas printing needs, you should definitely got to Canvas 4 Life! These would make great Christmas presents!!!

Right now they have a sale going on! For 5 more days you can get 20% off EVERYTHING! Not too mention, I have a special discount code for you on top of that!

Please use the discount code: mommysreviews10 and get 10% off your order!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Under the Tree Giveaway Event Sign Ups

Under the Tree is a week long giveaway hop event being hosted by Mommy's Reviews and Giveaways and Life With Two Boys.

When:

The giveaway event will begin on November 8, 2011 at 9:00 am and end on November 14, 2011 at 11:59 pm.

Requirements:

* All participants must have a giveaway specifically for this event that runs the duration of the event

* All participants must find their own sponsor(s) and host the giveaway on their own blog. You may sponsor your own giveaway if you wish.
* The prize/prize package should be geared specifically for a child (toys, books, movies, etc..) and should have a minimum value of $20

* Display the event button in your post so hoppers can easily identify it

* Display the linky in your post to encourage hopping

* All participants must abide by FTC and Facebook rules and regulations

* Please limit the mandatory entries to only 1 or 2. No limit on extra entries

* Most importantly. Have fun and try to win a few gifts for under your tree as well!!

Sign Up:

Sign Ups for this event will end on October 31st. There is NO FEE to participate!

Sign up here to participate in the Under the Tree Giveaway Event.

Please post the above button in your blog sidebar after signing up to help promote the giveaway. It would also be great if you could do a blog post about the event also. The more the merrier! The more blogs that participate, the more exposure your blog will get!

If you have any questions, you can email Chanin at Mommy's Reviews and Giveaways or Danielle at Life With Two Boys.