Dads get ready!  Father's Day is just around the corner and, like many others, I'm looking for some fun ways to celebrate the special men in my life.  I'm so blessed to have a wonderful husband who does an amazing job with our five kiddos, an awesome dad who is always there when I need him, and even one of my grandfathers still in my life.  While it's always a bit sad as we take time to reflect on my husband's father who passed away a year ago, I know that I truly have some great men in my life.  Read more [...]

Sending a big thank you to Camp Lebanon for welcoming our family to a fun-filled weekend at Camp! Has your family ever tried out Summer Camp together?  If you've been following along with my Camp Lebanon Series, you can see that our family had a fantastic time attending a camp in Minnesota.  This camp welcomes campers from all over the state of Minnesota as well as other states and is known as "home of the funnest fun".  After attending this past Memorial Weekend, my entire family is in full Read more [...]

Thank you to Original Grain for providing me product in exchange for review purposes. All opinions belong to myself. In high school my husband wore sweatbands and thicker bracelets as a part of his style. Once he got older he found it hard to find a transitional piece that didn't scream teenager. I introduced him to watches and he's been a watch lover ever since. While not really finding it hard to find watches he liked, he did have a hard time finding watches that looked good on him and were Read more [...]

  Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.So glad you could join us as we share our giveaways on  Tuesday's Giveaway Link Ups.  This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways. Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up 1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many Read more [...]

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free. Most of the time, I don't mind being 5'1". Of course, I've never been taller so being short feels normal to me. There are some downsides, though. One of them being using a top-loading washing machine is more difficult. If small items such as socks, underwear or a wash cloth get left at the bottom of the washing machine I can't reach it while standing on the Read more [...]

Sending a big thank you to Camp Lebanon for welcoming our family to a fun-filled weekend at Camp! If I'm completely honest, much of my daily life ends up revolving around food.  Perhaps it's because I'm the main cook in the house but I have to say that I was a bit worried about how we'd fair at camp.  We have one particular child who is the pickiest person I've ever met in my life and would literally live off croutons and Cheerios if we'd let him.  So leading up camp, this had me a bit stressed Read more [...]

Thank you to Nutrisystem for providing me with products in exchange for this honest blog review. All opinions are 100% my own. Last week, my family and I took a trip across the US. We live in Oregon and my husband's extended family lives in Maryland. We decided to take a trip to spend time with family as well as do some sightseeing...OK, a lot of sight seeing. While in Maryland, we visited Black Hill Regional Park. This park is on land that once belonged to my husband's grandfather. His grandfather Read more [...]

I was asked to be in a wedding as a bridesmaid when I was 19. I was excited to participate, and gleefully said "Yes!" without much thought. At the time I was in college and living independently from my parents, without any financial assistance from them. I realized a day or two after accepting that I would have to figure out how to pay to participate, but I wasn't even sure what all would be included. I recently was talking with a friend who just recently got asked to be a bridesmaid for the first Read more [...]

I was sent Gourmet Gift Baskets for review. All opinions are my own. I tend to struggle with finding gift ideas for the men in my life. My father is in his 70's now and while he's fairly active given his age, he lives a fairly simple life. He's never been one to collect things or to have a hobby that required regular purchases. It makes getting gifts for him a little tough because he just doesn't want much! One thing that I like to turn to for him is gourmet foods or snack gift baskets. Everyone Read more [...]

With Summer officially here and school work complete, the kids are spending a great deal of time outdoors.  As they run around and burn off all that Winter energy, they need to stay hydrated as well as eat some nutritious snacks.  I like convenience just as much as the next person, however, the number of ingredients that I can't even pronounce in many products at the grocery store scares me.  That's not even to mention the absurd amount of sugar too.  One treat that my kids adore and beg for Read more [...]