Tag Archives: amazon

Sunday Meal Plan – Week of 10/27/14

Posted on October 26 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

Happy Sunday! I’m so happy to have you here!

Before I get into the meal plan, I wanted to just talk about what a sweet little boy Emmett has been. Why? Because I love him and because I’m a proud momma. He’s been so full of pleases and thank yous and it just warms my heart each and everyday.

This morning, Seamus said he woke up and was telling him thank you for everything, getting him out of the crib, changing his diaper, giving hugs, etc. The best part for me is that he is using please and thank you appropriately. He doesn’t seem to have any confusion on when to use please, thank you and you’re welcome. I love it! I realize it might seem pretty silly to some, but when you have a child, you are just so proud of everything they do. 🙂

Love him!

So how was your weekend?

Ours was pretty awesome! Saturday I got up early and headed to Starbucks to get some of my work done. I have a desk at home, but as soon as Emmett starts waking up, I lose my concentration. I had a lot to do and wanted to be productive, so I showered and headed out. I’m glad I did, too! I got so much accomplished!

When I got home, Emmett and I spent some time playing with Play-Doh (Emmett is partial to the Play-Doh fun factory – affliate link). With the this set, there is a mother, father, and boy cut out. He had me help him make one for each of us. Then he took the mother and father and had each of them say I love you to the other and then give each other kisses. It was the sweetest thing! I’m so glad that we’re showing him what a loving and happy relationship is all about.

We also headed down to visit my parents which was really nice. It’s always so laid back there! Emmett plays and we chat, he loves playing with all the different toys that grandma has!

Today will be filled with laundry, grocery shopping, food prep and tidying up. Nothing exciting, but all things that need to be done.

And now, onto our meal plan

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, feta & 2 slices of bacon

Lunch for the week: Chicken Soup, Rice Crackers & mini sweet peppers

_______________________________________________________________

Sunday: Chili & Corn Bread

Monday: Spaghetti Squash – Fettuccine Alfredo

Tuesday: Rotisserie Chicken & Asparagus

Wednesday: Pork Tacos

Thursday: Steak, Chick Pea and Tomato Salad

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Scrounge Night

Lunch for the week: Chicken Soup, Rice Crackers & mini sweet peppers

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, feta & 2 slices of bacon

I’m linking up with Laura from Mommy, Run Fast! and Jill from jillconyers.com, be sure to stop over and link-up your meal planning posts.

Your turn!

Anything fun, new or interesting on your meal plan this week? I’d love if you shared in the comments below!

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Filed Under: Food & Recipes

Stocking Stuffers for the Toddler in Your Life

Posted on December 17 by Jillian416 • 2 Comments

Who doesn’t love stocking stuffers?

Does anyone else just LOVE their stocking? I enjoy getting gifts, and opening them with family, but after all of the hoopla of those gifts is complete, you still have your stocking. My parents have always ensured that our stockings were full of lovely little trinkets to enjoy opening and using. It’s because of this, that I want to fill Emmett’s stocking up with loads of fun little stocking stuffers!

The top 10 greatest stocking stuffers for your toddler

Pacifiers! Not all babies love them, but Emmett does and I can think of no better stocking stuffer then several of these bad boys. Emmett’s favorite are the Philips Avent Classic Pacifier, he’s used the Philips Avent brand binkies since he was born and has not rejected them once. I love them because they have all sorts of fun designs, and they seem to come up with new ones quite frequently.

Considering Emmett can lose a binkie like a cat loses cat toys, we’ll throw in several different containers of them.

Fizzy Bath Colors – I know that not all kids love baths, but Emmett really does (other than getting his face washed), so I got him these Sesame Street Fizzy Bath Color Tablets. I thought it would add a fun little element to bath time!

Coloring Books and Crayons – Emmett is still in the “I like to eat crayons, not color” phase of toddler-hood, but he’s getting better at using them to just draw. I want that to flourish, so I plan on getting him a cute Elmo coloring book (since he loves Elmo), and a pack of chubby Crayola crayons.

Ornament – This may not seem like a great toddler gift now, but Seamus and I plan on getting Emmett an ornament every year. When he’s much older, my hope is that each one will mean something very special to him since Seamus and I will have chosen each one with care.

Musical Instruments – Not a real, grown-up sized one, but something child-sized and fun. I’m really liking this Harmonica, as an option.

Monster Hands Temporary Tattoos – These look like so much fun! E might be a little young for them right now, but in a couple of months, they’ll be perfect!

Sticker Book – Emmett loves animals of all kinds, so this Busy Kids Sticker Book Farm Animals, is right up his alley.

Finger Paint and Paper – I know they use paint at day care, but we have yet to use any of it at home. I really want to get Emmett some of these, so that we can start playing with them at home.

Alphabet Magnets – I loved having these around as a college student, so having them in our house now, to leave messages to Emmett or Seamus, will be so much fun.

Socks – Everyone always needs socks, and they’re a fun little thing to add to Emmett’s stocking. He may not enjoy them as much as I will, but that’s okay, I can be a wee bit selfish. 😉

Alright, that’s a peek into what we’ll be filling Emmett’s stocking with this year. I cannot wait to go through it with him!

Your turn!

What are some of your all time favorite stocking stuffers?

What stocking stuffers are you placing in your child’s stocking this year?

Disclosure: Philips Avent supplied me with multiple versions of their Pacifier to review, however all opinions are 100% my own. I have loved Philips Avent products since before Emmett was born, you can read some of my other reviews here.

Filed Under: Family, Reviews

Mighty Handle – Happiness in a Hook

Posted on September 3 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

I’m not lying when I say that the Mighty Handle is happiness!

If you’re anything like me, you hate making more than one trip to your car for bags of groceries, your dry cleaning or any other heavy items, you want to collect it all and get it into the house all at once. The problem is that when you grab 4 or 5 bags (or other items) at once, your fingers start to ache or go numb from the heft of the items and the uneven distribution. The Mighty Handle can fix all of that! It might sound like an infomercial, but I assure you it lives up to it’s name!

When Bloggy Moms contacted me about trying out and reviewing the Mighty Handle, I was thrilled but I had my doubts. I’ve lived in the city for about 14 years and have never been able to find a way to make one trip into the house with all of my groceries, and that’s not for lack of trying. However, I kept an open mind, because anything is possible.

I wasn’t about to take it easy on the product, I wanted to put it to the highest test possible. Guess what!? It passed and with flying colors!

The first time I used it was for groceries. Seamus typically will take the heavier bags and run them in the house quickly, this time I grabbed them all. Bags with 3 or 4 bottles of Polar Seltzer, bags full of veggies and fruit and bags full of jars and cans. I loaded up the hook with the bags sitting on the floor of my car and then lifted, it was still heavy (obviously the Mighty Handle doesn’t reduce the weight of things) but it felt like I could have loaded it up even more. I managed to carry everything into our house without a problem. My hands and fingers weren’t aching, nor were they numb. In fact, if I had two of these, I would have been able to get everything in, in ONE TRIP!!!

Mighty Handle Stats

Mighty Handle’s ergonomic grip provides a more comfortable way to transport groceries and dry cleaning
Prevent spills with Mighty Handle’s unique Twist-Lock feature
Carry up to 50lbs per handle
Made in the USA
Produced from recycled material

If you’re looking for an easier more efficient way to load and unload your car, then look no further than the Mighty Handle. I’m assure you that you won’t be disappointed! You can order it on Amazon, here.

You can Like Mighty Handle on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

Your turn!

Have you ever tried a gadget like the Mighty Handle to help with lifting heavy items?

**Mighty Green Solutions provided me a Mighty Handle to try and review. As always, the statements and opinions are my own.

You can see my other reviews, here.

Filed Under: Reviews

Rubbermaid LunchBlox

Posted on July 13 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

As moms I think we’re all looking for the easiest and healthiest way to create lunches for our kiddos. One such way that has become my new obsession is Bento boxes.

Have you heard of them?

[source]

According to Wikipedia, “Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento holds rice, fish or meat, with pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.”

Now, obviously, if you look at that picture or read the description, you’re going to think I’m crazy and that there is no way Emmett would eat that. I completely agree, however, there is a huge “movement” going on where parents are making kid-friendly bento boxes. It allows the parents to be super creative and offer their children a huge variety of foods, which sets kids up to be good eaters as they get older.

For the past few weeks I’ve been on the hunt for a bento that would work for Emmett and that I could buy locally so I wouldn’t have to wait for it to ship. Well as luck would have it, last weekend Seamus needed to go to Target to get a container to keep his salad dressing in, so we were looking around the container aisle. Lo and behold, there was a display for the Rubbermaid LunchBlox. I knew within a second of looking at them, that they’d be perfect.

The set we purchased came with one large box, that has two separate compartments and then 2 small 3 oz containers and 2 longer containers as well as a “blue ice” ice pack. The best part? They all click in together, like so…

I love this because so often you make soup or maybe a stir-fry with a delicious sauce and if the container it is in tips over, it spills everywhere. Since everything clicks one to another, you just stack them and if carried flat, nothing will spill. One word of warning, they are not airtight, liquids can seep out but despite that, I am absolutely in love with these!

Here’s one of the lunches I made for Emmett this past week:

Grill chicken, golden raisins, mini-graham crackers and a fruit salad with strawberries and blueberries

Grill chicken, golden raisins, mini-graham crackers and a fruit salad with strawberries, blueberries and nectarines

The pink and blue cupcake holders are silicon Wilton Reusable Baking cups, that I purchased off of Amazon. They work great for keeping smaller items away from the bigger things, but they also keep the wet from the dry or the savory away from the sweet. They work really well and if you’re going to get into making bento lunches, I would absolutely recommend getting some of these.

I want to also provide you with another great resource for purchasing bento boxes as well as some fantastic lunch ideas. Laptop Lunches is a site dedicated to the art of bento lunches. On their site you will find a plethora of different types of boxes and believe me, Emmett will be getting one of those soon, but more importantly, they have an entire page dedicated to photos of different bento lunches. Pretty much endless possibilities, because the sky is the limit!

Have you heard of bento boxes? What is the first bento lunch you’re going to make?

**This is not a sponsored post, it was fulled purely by my love of bento**

Filed Under: Food & Recipes, Reviews

Baby Book

Posted on February 18 by Jillian416 • 0 Comments

When we first brought Emmett home from the hospital, we realized that we didn’t have some of the things that would be most helpful for a 4 day old baby so Seamus went out to buy what we needed. One of his stops was at Target, where he found THE most perfect memory book for Emmett. It’s a “just one you” brand by Carter’s, here’s a similar version since they don’t seem to be making the monkey one any longer but I did find the same version on Amazon.

In keeping up with this blog and other life events, I just haven’t had the time to fill out the baby book. Obviously I don’t want to forget any little detail because I’d love to eventually have it completed for E baby, so I’m going to use the different “fill in the blank” sections as prompts for some blog posts. Then I can always print out the post and paste it in his book when I find time and I won’t have forgotten anything.

The Day of Our Engagement

The very first prompt is, “all about mommy and daddy,” “how mommy and daddy met.” Well my sweet boy, your momma and daddy met in a rather nontraditional way, we met through Match.com. Momma had joined for only a month, to see who was online with maybe the possibility of a few dates but nothing serious happened in the first 30 days. The day AFTER my membership ended I received an email from someone, who in his pictures was handsome and whose profile was interesting, so I rejoined for another month so that I could see his full email and get his contact information. Your dad and I emailed back and forth for a couple of weeks and spoke on the phone to get to know one another and eventually met in person. We were both pretty smitten with one another right off the bat and spent a lot of our first date talking and flirting. Momma spent a good chunk of the date talking about which vegetables she likes cooked and which vegetables she likes uncooked. Super exciting, right!? 😉 Your dad still picks on me about it to this day but it’s all good natured fun.

I really enjoy telling the story of how we met, so when you’re older I’ll tell it to you in more detail.

Filed Under: Emmett's Memory Book, Family

Amazon Prime

Posted on October 18 by Jillian416 • 1 Comment

Oh my god, I’m obsessed!

I joined Amazon Mom a few weeks back. What that is for anyone who isn’t familiar, Amazon allows anyone who is a mom, a caregiver, knows a mom, grandparent (pretty much anyone), to join their program for free. The program offers a 3 month FREE membership to Amazon Prime which provides FREE 2 day shipping, this right here is a huge selling point for me but you also get 20% off all diapers and wipes, as a plethora of other discounts. After 3 months, you can choose to pay for Amazon Prime for a year or not, either way, you still get those 3 months free.

Anyhow, that’s not why I’m writing this post, I’m writing this post because I cannot stop searching for items that are Amazon Prime available. I’m not even planning on buying all of the items, I just keep putting some term or another in the search box and seeing if anything there is available for 2 day shipping. And really, SO MUCH IS!

Here a few of the items I found…

and then something for mom…

But I need to wait to buy this until my hair gets quite a bit longer!

I didn’t buy any of these items today (just added them to my wishlist) but I did buy some diapers and a Halloween costume for Emmett (pics will come after Halloween). The best parts for me are 1- diapers and wipes are cheaper online than they are in a store (we use Pampers Swaddlers) and 2- I can wait until pretty much the last minute to buy diapers and they’ll still get here quickly enough because of the 2 day shipping. Love that!

I know, I probably lived in the dark ages but I’ve finally seen the light.

Have you experienced Amazon Prime? Any great items you’ve found through Amazon?

Filed Under: Family