Reviews Archives - The Life of a Home Mom

Assessables Review

May 20, 2013 By homemom3 · 3 Comments

Nicoli was sent an outfit to review before he was even born. The outfit is a newborn bodysuit, known as Assessables. Why so early? Simple, it was one I could have him wear at the hospital. This wasn’t just any outfit though, this is a specially made one for newborns. These little bodysuits are designed to be worn in the first few weeks of life because of the umbilical cord.

Assessables was created by a mom (Jonelle Krier) and a nurse with years of experience, she actually entered the Huggies Mom Inspired Grant Program where she won top prize. Top prize goes to the mom that creates the most innovative ideas inspired by moms which is a $15,000 grant to create their idea. If you have an idea you can enter from now until July 31st.

One of the first things the doctors/nurses worn you about is how to take care of the cord once you get home. You are told don’t get the cord wet, don’t tug on it, don’t pull it off, etc. So how do you keep the cord from being tugged on when they are wearing onesies that go right over the cord. Most moms bring their own outfit to dress baby in for the first time leaving the hospital, which of course can hurt the little guy/girl. Jonelle felt bad, she was always telling moms they needed to take special care of this area but the hospitals never gave them anything to help with that. This is when she figured out a special onesie with long sleeves that can cover the hands (mittens) and have a cut out area around the cord would be a great thing for moms. As a mother to (now) five kids I tell you this definitely would’ve helped out in those first few weeks. It is hard keeping the area clean, cared for, etc when you are always on the go and quickly pulling those onesies or pants up over the cord.

The Assessables outfit is a long sleeve bodysuit (to keep the baby warm) that goes over your infant very easily. These are 100% cotton. There are two button choices to choose from when you are snapping them up at the bottom, which means if they are longer they can have a bit more room or if they were smaller it will fit snug for them too. I love the little mittens that go over the hand area because our big issue is him scratching his face. Now Nicoli lost his cord before he was two weeks old (not by tearing). These outfits come in a 3 pack for $18.99 which you can get at www.assessables.com, hospitals or boutiques.

Check out our live video review: (no laughing I’m still getting the hang of these)

Disclosure: I was sent an Assessables outfit for review purposes. Pictures and opinions are mine.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: assessables

Hug a Cub From Build-a-Bear Review

May 9, 2013 By homemom3 · 8 Comments

I recently discovered that Build-a-Bear weren’t just for the young kids on up but they have a very special edition to their set, a newborn type called “Hug-a-Cub.” The Hug-a-Cub Club has tiny gifts just for little babies, which includes newborn babies. Now as you all know, I (as well as my kids) am a very big fan of Build-a-bear, one of the reasons is because there is always something for everyone and now that I know they have something even for the newest member of our family that seals the deal.

The Hug-a-Cub has brown bears, a blue puppy, a green frog, pink bunny and a white lamb to choose from. One thing I always worry about when someone gets a baby (especially a newborn) a teddy bear or doll are the eyes and nose, these little guys have sewn in eyes, in other words nothing sharp or hard. So you are probably wondering what we were sent to review, right? First, I wasn’t sure which would get here the gift or my “Little Man” but it seems they are faster than he wanted to be and his gift was waiting here at the house when he decided to come out. Oh with the exception of his Blue Puppy dog that Little A insisted I bring to the hospital for his baby brother.

The Hug-a-Cub package comes with:
- Baby Bag
- Snuggler (what we call a plush rattle)
- Lil Buddy Puppy (tiny baby blankie with puppy head)
- Very soft baby blue blanket
- Bear (for us it was a blue puppy)
- Their papers

This costs $49 and if you add embroidery it is an extra $10, I think adding a name to the bag is totally worth it. Now they will have their own bag to carry around. Currently the kids take the bag with us with one of his toys (normally the bear or rattle), diapers, wipes and his pacifier. So it is being used as a diaper bag which is handy for me. The gift comes in either a signature colorful bag full of tissue paper and your collection or the cub condo. What do you think of them?

As far as what Nicoli thinks of his new gifts….lets just say he sleeps wrapped up in his really soft, baby blue blanket. His slightly bigger brother loves to shake his rattle for him and as far as the lil buddy and stuffed puppy goes….he sleeps with them every night. In fact I fell asleep last night with him on my bed (Boy was I tired) only to discover Little A decided that if his brother was sleeping he must still sleep with his puppy dog. I woke up an hour later to find the puppy beside him.

Disclosure: We were sent the Build-a-Bear Hug-a-Cub for review purposes. As always, all pictures are my own as well as our opinions.

ProFlowers Review~ Mother’s Day Flowers

April 23, 2013 By homemom3 · 3 Comments

I was recently asked to review a bouquet of flowers through Proflowers, boy I don’t think it is ever a good thing to tell a woman to take her pick of flowers. It took me a good two weeks to actually pick the ones I thought I’d like best. There were so many pretty selections to choose from, items like gift baskets, flowers, plants and of course little gifts I thought would be nice.

Before I discuss what I ended up getting with a ProFlowers gift card from them, I want to explain why it is so hard for me to pick just any flower. See growing up my family’s yard was known in our tiny town as “The Secret Garden.” Why you ask? Simple we had 7 trees and 50+ rose bushes growing in the middle of the desert. This is not something that comes easily but the flowers were always amazing and well cared for so when I look at flowers they really have to speak to me. I am not just going to grab a dozen red roses because they are pretty, chances are I had them growing up. It would have to be some very colorful roses, not just pink or red but an orange or something different, like tie-dye.

So I guess this means I’m one of those exotic flower type of people because we didn’t have them growing up. I want something that is different and will WOW me. I ended up getting the Deluxe Mother’s Day Spectacular for $39.98. I got to pick what type of vase I wanted ProFlowers to ship my flowers in. You can pick one or none, I picked the square glass vase which cost $9.99 and my shipping was free because I picked to have them delivered during the week and not weekend. They have plenty of Proflowers coupons here. I still had a few bucks left so I ordered a small brown teddy bear for our baby coming very soon. The total for all of this was $64.16 and I think for this order I got a lot.

When the flowers arrive they do show up unopened, another word for it is they haven’t bloomed yet. Don’t forget to check inside the box for the little food for the plants, I’ve seen others comment theirs dies immediately and mine didn’t as long as they are fed. I will admit that the irises began blooming right away but it took longer (few extra days) for the Stargazing lilies to bloom. What does that mean? Well in my case I didn’t really get the effect it shows online. By the way, I still have two lilies and it has been over 2 weeks. Aren’t they pretty?

Disclosure: I was provided a gift card to make my purchase to do an honest review. No other money was sent my way. Opinions and pictures are mine.

Filed Under: Reviews, Women Tagged With: proflowers, review

Warm Traditions Lamb Hot Water Bottle Review

April 8, 2013 By homemom3 · 8 Comments

Thankfully it looks like with this weather getting better my children are getting over their colds, but of course with the warm Spring Weather also means allergy season will be hitting our home. I was recently asked if I would like to review a water bottle from Warm Tradition. At first I thought, what good is a hot water bottle in the spring, but then I learned all the uses for them…not to mention they have cute covers to go over them. Here is the little guy they sent over to us, which is perfect because when the kids are sick they can now count sheep.

As you can see the sheep/lamb is the perfect cover for the hot water and is soft. I was worried that it might get too hot with hot water inside it but it does not. It actually gets warm but not hot and stays warm for at least a few hours. You can also put water or ice in it instead. I must admit I had no idea that you could use a hot water bottle for more than just being sick with a fever.

The many uses of a hot/cold water bottle:

- headaches (fill it up with cool water or ice)

- cramps (that time of the month? warm water) this is also great for the labor pains.

- sinus infection

- boo boos kids get

- warming up those toes late at night.

- sore muscles

As you can see that is quite a list and with myself, hubby, four kids and a baby on the way this will definitely come in handy. I can even put this sheep in the stroller when going for a walk on a cool night to ensure the baby stays warm. For those that are interested, the water bottle can easily be pulled out of the sheep cover to fill it up, this is made out of thermoplastic which means it’ll stay warmer longer. However this is not something a child should fill up on their own. Cold water is fine but not hot water. The water bottle is free of BPA, phtalate, latex, rubber and is odorless, safe and recyclable. This cute little lamb is only $19.95

There are many other covers to choose from on the site, there are flannel, felt, cuddly teddy bears, scary monsters to keep the bad dreams away, etc. Follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: hot water bottle, review, warm tradition

Reese’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream Eggs & Mounds Eggs

April 1, 2013 By homemom3 · 7 Comments

Reese’s Peanut butter cup Ice Cream bars and Mounds now have Easter Egg shaped bars from Good Humor. It was just last year that we discovered that both companies were selling individually packed ice cream bars and we all loved them. Now they have shaped them to look like eggs which is perfect for Spring/Easter. With all the kids on Spring Break these came out at the perfect time. Mounds once again taste just like an ice cream mounds bar, however the Reese’s peanut butter cup has a velvety smooth peanut butter taste.

The kids and the hubby both said the Reese’s could use a little more peanut butter but for me it had just the right amount. I’m one to also make peanut butter ice cream shakes with less peanut butter than everyone else so it was like that to me. Either way each box was happily ate up by all involved in this review process and asking for more. The Reese’s has 240 calories per individually wrapped bars while the Mounds only has 190. Both retail between $4.39 and $4.49 a box.

Along with these limited edition bars there are also Pumpkin shaped Reese’s peanut butter cup Ice Cream bars, pumpkin shaped York Peppermint Pattie bars, and birthday cake bars. Since these are limited they are only out during that particular season. So if you want to find the Egg shaped ones get to the stores this week.

Here’s a few more pics of the kids enjoying their ice cream eggs. Little A loved the fact that the bunny could’ve dropped them off.

Disclosure: We were sent both products for review purposes. No compensation was passed on. All opinions and pictures are the property of The Life of a Home Mom.