The Life of a Home Mom -

Wordless Wednesday: Mamaroo

June 11, 2013 By homemom3 · 11 Comments

Right after Nicoli was born I won a Mamaroo through 4Moms website and I wasn’t sure exactly what it was but knew I had to have it. Watching the video on the site I could tell that it would help soothe my baby and could act like a bouncer. I couldn’t wait to try it out. I have two separate dates for the pictures, the first two are from a month ago and the bottom are from a few minutes ago. He’s gotten so big in just this past month alone.

Honestly, until I won the Mamaroo I had never heard about it. Course after I won it I heard other friends talking about it and found out my sister had bought one for her daughter right after she was born. I can see why they like it so much. The seat is super soft making it easy for your baby to just lay there and go to sleep. There are tons of music settings, 5 different types of movements (car ride is his favorite) and 5 speeds. Above him is a hanging toy with three colorful football shaped objects that have all types of patterns on it, one side is black & white and the other is colors you can interchange them. Oh and it is easy to take it apart and put it together. I’m currently in a hotel and bringing this along for our road trip because it takes less than 2 minutes to have it up and ready to go.

By the way, this is NOT a review product. I won it, was never asked to write about it but since I love it so much I wanted others to know about it. Okay this is a wordy Wednesday post. Please drop your link and don’t forget to tell me if you had one or if you had a favorite bouncy/swing for your little baby.

Filed Under: wordless wednesday Tagged With: mamaroo, wordless wednesday

She Donated her Hair!

June 10, 2013 By homemom3 · 1 Comment

Ever since I donated my hair to Locks of Love last year both of my girls have wanted to do it. BabyGirl got to be the first out of them to do it this weekend. I must say as the two of us waited outside the shop before cutting her hair I repeatedly asked if she was sure. I knew this was a big thing and cutting that much hair off would be huge. I mean am I right? A girl loves her hair, especially when she’s taken such good care of it.

Before

As you can see it had gone just a little past the middle of her back and it is thin. I wasn’t 100% sure she was ready for this. But she made sure to tell me she was. She even told me she wanted to make sure that someone that didn’t have hair would get some. She also told me, “Mom it is just hair, it’ll grow back.” No truer statement. Honestly I think it was harder for me to watch her cut it even though I was proud, I know how much care was put into making her hair that long to get it chopped off. She was all smiles before and after, even now when I look at her she grins from ear to ear. She did such a great thing and for that I am proud.

After

Can you see the joy she has? Even with her hair in hand she is smiling. She also says she knows she looks cuter now. The kids played a game of trying to figure out which little actress she reminded me of. Figured it out, the little girl on Ramona and Beezus. I know there is another from when I was younger but they’d never figure that out. Have you ever donated your hair or had a child do it? If you are my friend on Facebook you have probably seen my pictures from when I donated my hair a year ago.

Great Clips is the store we went to in order to donate her hair (and mine when I did it) because if they cut all 10 inches (no less) you get it done for free. Make sure your hair is washed before going in. Of course since she was doing it I told them to give it a style so it cost us a little bit but not much and for the price it was totally worth it. Very proud of my little girl!

Filed Under: Home & Living, kids Tagged With: donating hair, locks of love

Rent Out those College Textbooks for Money

June 9, 2013 By homemom3 · No Comments

It’s that time of year again, kids are graduating high school and preparing for college. But it is also the season where college students are preparing for their next year of college and looking for deals on those really, really expensive textbooks. I know, I was in college for a few years and those books do not come cheap, not unless you find them on sale somewhere. If you could would use deals to get your books cheaper? One idea is for those in college to actually rent their textbooks, that is right you don’t always have to buy books at full price.

Renting college textbooks are much cheaper and you don’t have to lug them around once you are done with the class. (leaving lots of book space for your other textbooks and your fun books. CampusBookRentals.com allows you to get 40-90% off bookstore prices. If you join the site you will be able to get free shipping to both get your books and ship them back when you are done. You won’t have to worry about strict renting periods, they are flexible because they know not all colleges end at the same time and that college can become a bit crazy at the end of each class.

Are you one that likes to highlight the important information? Not to worry you can do that in these books, granted do not be shocked if you rent a book that has a lot of highlights when you get it. At least you’ll know some good information to study. Looking to be able to give back a bit? Campus Book Rentals donates to Operation Smile every time someone rents a textbook. Now if you never rented textbooks but are coming close to the end of using your new ones you can rent them out, this means they will pay you for your textbooks just got to Rentback.com. By the way it isn’t a one time payment, every time your book is rented out you get money. Can you imagine how much you can make? Wow! I have two boxes of college textbooks but must admit I am considering selling some of them to this site now. Make money renting your books with Rentback.

(Disclosure: This is a paid post)

Filed Under: Home & Living Tagged With: college, textbooks

Share Your Vacation Memories with Tripographer

June 5, 2013 By homemom3 · No Comments

(Sponsored)

With the summer upon us and kids out of school it is time for those vacations. Am I right? Are you planning on going anywhere this summer? We are going on vacation in a few short weeks to California and before you ask we are driving, or maybe I am driving, that part is uncertain but there will be 5 kids in a vehicle going across country. I imagine taking tons of photos and with the help of Marriott I will be using the Tripographer to share our vacation with you.

So what exactly is Tripographer? It’s new and exciting, it is a fun and easy way to make an awesome way for you to share your trip with everyone. This can be a trip to the store, an amusement park (where ya have about 50-100 photos) to a business trip. There are filters where you can add comments to photos (or short blog entries), create beautiful slideshows and you can build actual street-view tours and share them all on your favorite social networks. (twitter and facebook for me.) Want to try it out? Visit http://tripographer.marriott.com/

If you are a blogger, and chances are you are if you are reading this, then you’ve probably taken tons of photos during your vacations and posted them on your Facebook, InstaGram and blog. Am I right? Tons of photos you upload and then have to go back and explain what everything is. I know you’ve seen many of our trips, whether they were us going to a funeral, moving to another state or just going somewhere fun (museum) so this should be a lot of fun and helpful. You can share it with FB, Twitter, Google +, tumblr, linkedin and more.

My picture:

I love that with the treat your picture you have several (more than 10) options for shading, coloring, etc.
Tripographer:

Once you are at the site you can treat a picture, create a slideshow or build a tour. You can load your photos from your computer, webcam, FB, Flickr or Instagram account. Upload a photo, edit the photo, post a caption and now share it.

Disclosure: This post was written in partnership with Niche Mommy Network & Conference and that I received a compensation for this post.

Filed Under: Home & Living Tagged With: tripographer

Kids Bowl Free in Greenwood

June 5, 2013 By homemom3 · 1 Comment

Kids bowl free in Greenwood, Indiana this summer if they register. I don’t know about you but I loved bowling as a child, in fact I was in a bowling league (can’t say I was very good but I have a lot of happy memories) and bet my kids would have a blast. Head on over to Kidsbowlfree.com and register your kids today. Registered kids will be able to play 2 free games every day during the summer. Sound like fun?