Advertising Sale & Giveaway!! Three Winners!! ***CLOSED***

So I think its time to have another advertising sale for my blog! If you have a blog or business that you would like to advertise on my blog, for the month of July and August you can purchase advertising for 50% off!! I'm talking single digits here! It's a great deal! Email me for pricing and details at mommyferg02(at)gmail(dot)com.

If you're feeling lucky though, you should enter this giveaway!! I'm going to give three lucky readers one month free advertising in the form of a 125x125 button. The button will be placed on the upper right hand side of my blog under the Featured Sponsors title and will be linked to your website/blog. So if you want to get some great exposure, be sure to enter!

Don't forget! If you are a business and you would ever like to host a review/giveaway on my blog, by doing so you can automatically get one month FREE advertising in the form of a button or logo on my blog! Check out my  PR and Media Kit links in the toolbar at the top of my blog for more information!

Giveaway!!

One month FREE advertising in the form of a 125x125 button placed in the top right sidebar of my blog! There will be 3 winners!

**Mandatory Entry**'

Let me know what you would like to advertise! (blog, website, etsy, etc.)

*Extra Entries*

(1 entry) Follow my blog via Google Friend Connect. 

(1 entry) "Like" The Not-So-Secret Confessions on Facebook. Leave your first name and last initial. 

(1 entry) Follow me on Twitter. Leave your twitter ID. 

(1 entry) Post on Facebook or Tweet about this giveaway tagging me and linking back to this blog post. This can be done once every 24 hours. 

(1 entry) Comment on another non-giveaway blog post. 

(5 entries) Send me a recipe to review for Fun with Food Friday! Email recipes to mommyferg02(at)gmail(dot)com. 

Giveaway will end on Friday, July 15th at 11:59 PM EST! The winners will be chosen via random.org and emailed. The winners will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen! 

Made With Love Event- Date Change AND Earn Extra Entries NOW!

So there has been a little change in the date for the big Made with Love Event. It is now going to be July 18-24th! 

If you haven't heard about the Made with Love Event I'll re-explain some things! Its going to be an awesome event with 4 different blogs involved! Myself, The Reynold's Mom, Becoming Brea, and Lindsay's Family Reviews and Giveaways!

The event will be one week of amazing reviews and giveaways all featuring handmade products and businesses with handmade products! Each sponsor will be hosting a giveaway as well as a review product! There are so many different types of items and businesses being featured! From children's items and cloth diapers to jewelry and home products and all kinds of other products! You won't want to miss this!!

Here is my list of sponsors so far! If you have a handmade product/business you would like to be featured in this event and would like more information please contact me at mommyferg02(at)gmail(dot)com.

Snugs Boutique

SheDragon Body

Fawn Maternity

Wee Expressions

JudysLilQuiltFix

Baby Blossom Designs

Koliden's Gifts

Bowtique Expressions

Rockabitty Baby

Made By Mom

ANovelIdeaCrafts

Charitable Creations Jewelry

EcoLips

A Mommy Made It

So here's the good part for you!! You can earn some extra entries BEFORE the event even starts! And there are simple ways to do it too!!

For Five(5) extra entries: Grab the event button located on the right sidebar of my blog under Blog Events and Fun! Post it somewhere on your blog or website. Then come back here and let me know you did leaving the link to where you posted the button!  One comment per entry! (So comment 5 times for 5 entries!) And be sure to leave your email!!!

For Six (6) extra entries: Blog about the Made with Love Event! Make sure you link back to all 4 hosts (links above) and be sure to include the dates!  Then come back here and let me know you did leaving the link to your blog post! One comment per entry! (So comment 6 times for 6 entries) And be sure to leave yor email!!

These extra entries will be tallied up at the end of each giveaway! So if there are 140 entries for one giveaway the first comment here will be comment #141 and so on! This will be done for EVERY giveaway! So you are really earning some extra chances to win!! You will have until July 17th at 11:30pm EST to earn your extra entries!! Good luck!

Wordless Wednesday- Baby Love!

Noah and his cousin, Layla! He's good with her! Hope its a good sign that he'll be good with his baby brother/sister!!

Potty Training!

So after talking to Brian we decided Noah was as ready as he'll ever be to potty train! We decided if we stuck with it and were consistent and he wasn't having it after a week or so then we'd stop for a while and try again.

So yesterday was Day One for us. The day before we went to the store and got rewards for when he went in the potty and we were all set to go! I told him no more diapers and he would repeat it "no more baby diapers" ..it was too cute! So yesterday we got up and I told him again..no more diapers..time to start going in the potty. The morning was a little rough. He would start to pee on the floor and then we would "RUN" as he would say to the potty and he'd sit and sit and wouldn't pee. And then he pooped on my floor! But I didn't make a big deal out of things. Just kept telling him he needed to go in the potty.

So after his nap we started again. After about an hour he started actually telling me when he had to pee! And completely emptied his bladder each time in the potty! He did this three times! I was so proud!

Then Daddy got home and we went outside for a bit. Brian wanted him to have underwear on outside so he didn't get bug bit or anything so we put big boy undies on him! What a disaster!! As soon as he had them on he peed! Put on a new pair..pooped in them!! Every pair he went in!! Even with going to sit on the potty every 20 min! So I'm not so sure how we need to handle that.

But anyways, I know he can hold it and I know he can recognize when he has to pee so we are sticking with it! We are on day two and while we've only been up for a few hours..he still hasn't peed in the potty. Hopefully he'll start to get it again like he did yesterday! Wish us luck!!

Mom Blog Monday Blog Hop!

Are you a Mommy blogger? Do you blog about your kids? Do you blog about great things for Mommies?

 Do you wanna meet other Mom Bloggers?

This blog hop is hosted by The Not-So-Secret Confessions of a First Time Mom , Luxury Living Frugal Style, and So Easy Being Green!

Rules?

All we ask is that you follow So Easy Being Green, The Not- So- Secret Confessions of a First Time Mom, and Luxury Living Frugal Style.We are the first three on the linky!Then follow spot #4 which is the featured blog! Be sure to leave us a comment so we can follow you back!

We would LOVE it if you'd grab our button and put it somewhere on your blog or in a blog post! This would help us spread the word. However, you aren't required to.

This week's featured blog is...

Raising Knights

Hello! My name is Christy and I'm a stay-at-home, homeschooling momma to FIVE young knights-in-training. They range in age from not-quite 17 years down to 16 months. I have been married to Papa Bear, my knight-in-shining-armor for over 18 years. All of my boys keep me busy, to say the least, and it's never a dull moment around here. Blogging is a way to for me to connect with other women, share what I've learned, and tell a story without condensing it down to the bare bones details. When you drop by Raising Knights, you'll discover an eclectic collection of posts that give you a glimpse into my journey through the joys and perils of raising boys, along with an occasional product review and recipe. If you're a mom of boys, be sure to check out my new Life With Boys Link-Up. Hope to see you soon! 

Help for Minot, ND!

So I have a friend that lives in Minot, ND. If you don't know already I doubt you watch much tv, but anyways, Minot, ND has been devestated with massive flooding. My friend, luckily, lives on a hill and hasn't had to evacuate her home yet, but thousands others have had to leave their homes and are living with very little or living off of others just to survive. Once this is all over there will be many who will be facing financial hardship while they try to pick up the pieces of their lives. I can't begin to imagine what they are going through.

So if you can help, help will be greatly appreciated. I asked my friend what we could do to help those in her city. They easiest way to help right now is to send money to the Red Cross of Minot or by texting "MINOT" to 90999 for the Red Cross or 80888 for the Salvation Army. There is also a program for the children affected by the flood called Minot Mousers and they are taking donations such as toys, clothes, and other things the children could benefit from.

If you would like to send items to the people, my friend Liz suggested items such as bottled water, bleach and cleaning supplies, paper plates, cups, napkins, paper towels, toilet, paper, etc. She says they will take anything though! There are so many families in need right now so there's no telling what all they will need.Even extra coupons you have lying around will be helpful to those in need!  I am going to try to get together some care packages to send to her so she can distribute them to others. If you would like to do the same email me for her address. She says if you put Red Cross, Salvation Army, Humane Society, etc C/O her name,  she'll make sure it gets to the right place. Some mail is still running but not all. Since she lives on a hill and is not as much affected as others, she is still getting mail. You can email me for her address at mommyferg02 at gmail dot com.

I leave you with some pictures of the town of Minot right now.  If you can't help financially or sending items, please help by praying for those who have been and are affected by this horrible mess!

Pictures were found at http://www.kxnet.com/default.asp?l_t=toolbar . 

Pregnancy Update! 18 Weeks!

July 14th!!


That's the big day!! That's the day we find out whether baby Ferguson is a boy or a girl! I am VERY excited to find out! At first we weren't sure if we wanted to find out but then I decided I wanted to decorate a nursery so we will be finding out! So on July 14th, if baby cooperates, we'll know! I'll be sure to post on here too that day once we tell family and close friends.

Everything seems to be going well with this pregnancy. I am feeling baby kick a lot now days! Especially at night right when I'm ready for bed lol! That's how Noah was too! I feel really good too! I've been working out and have had a lot more energy. I'm really starting to pop out too and clothes are getting too tight! I'm sure I'll be in all maternity clothes within a month! I actually started having some Braxton Hicks contractions the other day but the dr said it was most likely from being dehydrated. With it being summer its a lot easier to become dehydrated than ya think! So I've upped my water intake and that has helped.

I'll post a belly pic soon for ya'll too see!

Veggie Tales LIVE! Sing Yourself Silly! Review and Giveaway! ***CLOSED***

I grew up with Veggie Tales! Loved the movies and songs as a kid! So I am so glad that Veggie Tales is still around for my son to enjoy the songs and learn from the message each story gives! I received Veggie Tales Live! to review and immediately recognized some of the songs I grew up to love!

In Veggie Tales Live!- Sing Your Self Silly, Bob, Larry and the rest of the cast take the stage to sing and dance to all your favorite songs! Other cast members think they should sing songs with lessons and food and other types of songs so you get a huge variety of fun songs to sing along to! This dvd has over 70 minutes of LIVE silliness and features 18 silly songs Live!!

Your kiddos are going to love this dvd! Noah is only 2 and paid attention to almost the whole movie and was singing and dancing along the whole time! Not only does this show feature all your favorite Veggie Tales songs but it also teaches great lessons like all the other Veggie Tales movies! Noah and I both really enjoyed this dvd and its something we can pop in any time and never get tired of it!

***Giveaway!***

One lucky follower will win the Veggie Tales Live!-Sing Yourself Silly dvd!!

**Mandatory Entry**

If you are a Veggie Tales fan, tell me one of your favorite songs from Veggie Tales! If you have never watched Veggie Tales before just tell me why you'd like to win! Be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win!

*Extra Entries*

(1 entry) Follow my blog via GFC

(1 entry) "Like" Veggie Tales on Facebook.  Leave your Facebook name.

(1 entry) Follow Veggie Tales on Twitter. Leave your Twitter Id. 

(1 entry) "Like" The Not-So-Secret Confessions on Facebook. Leave your Facebook name.

(1 entry) Follow me on Twitter. Leave your Twitter Id.

(2 entries) Subscribe to my blog via email.

(1 entry) Grab my button and post it on your blog or website. Leave the link where you posted. 

(1 entry) Post on Facebook or tweet about this giveaway, tagging myself and Veggies Tales, and linking back to this blog post. Leave the link where you posted. This can be done once every 24 hours. 

(1 entry) Tell me your favorite Veggie Tales character! 

Leave your email with every entry!

Giveaway will end July 7, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST! The winner will be chosen via random.org and emailed. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. Giveaway is open to US residents only! 

Wordless Wednesday- My New Coupon Area!

Hubby fixed up our loft for me to have my own special coupon area! Now I won't be taking over the dining room table anymore! :)

My Stay-at-Home Mommy To-Do List

So I can’t really say I’ve been a true stay-at-home mom since having Noah. While I haven’t been employed since having him, I’ve been in school since before he was born, including while I was pregnant, and then again since he was 2 months old. So I’ve been really busy most of the time since having Noah and haven’t really been home with him like most stay-at-home moms. In fact, Brian has been home as much, if not more, with Noah than I have since he only works weekends.

So now that I have graduated college I get to be a true Stay-at-Home mommy! I am very excited about this! I have a big long list of things I want to do, with Noah as well as for myself! So I thought I’d write it down and blog about it so I have a list to go by!!

• ·         Keep my house cleaner now that I actually have time to clean on a regular basis haha!
• ·         Start doing some time of home school/lessons with Noah..just simple stuff like teaching him letters and numbers and such.
• ·         Get my coupons more organized so I can use them more and save more money!!
• ·         Have and go to more play dates so Noah and I both can get some social interaction.
• ·         Read again. Like one book every few weeks. And actually finish them!!
• ·         Workout-daily.
• ·         Start scrapbooking again!
• ·         Once we find out the gender of the new baby, start planning and working on the nursery!

This is only a running list and I will probably continue to add to this! I hope I can keep up with this list since I have more time on my hands, but you know how life goes, never as planned!

Mom Blog Monday Blog Hop!

Are you a Mommy blogger? Do you blog about your kids? Do you blog about great things for Mommies?

 Do you wanna meet other Mom Bloggers?

This blog hop is hosted by The Not-So-Secret Confessions of a First Time Mom , Luxury Living Frugal Style, and So Easy Being Green!

Rules?

All we ask is that you follow So Easy Being Green, The Not- So- Secret Confessions of a First Time Mom, and Luxury Living Frugal Style.We are the first three on the linky!Then follow spot #4 which is the featured blog! Be sure to leave us a comment so we can follow you back!

We would LOVE it if you'd grab our button and put it somewhere on your blog or in a blog post! This would help us spread the word. However, you aren't required to.

Since I was on vacation this past week I completely forgot to pick a featured blogger but be sure to link up so you have a chance to get picked next week!! 

Beach!!!

We had so much fun at the beach, even though yesterday I came down with a cold! :( But the rest of the week was awesome! I saw an old friend and we swam in the ocean nearly every day (Noah loved it!) and we even went on a dolphin cruise!

It's nice to be back home though! I feel like a terrible slacker with my blogging but I have some fun stuff coming up! Thanks for bearing with me this week! Here's some pics from our week!

Guest Blog Post- Enjoying the Unexpected!

Ever notice that some of the greatest "mom moments" happen with the occurrence of the unexpected?

Laughing when your 16 month old mischievously breaks into the chocolate and listening to her giggles of happiness as she successfully snuck by yet another thing past her rookie mom....

Sighing with nervous satisfaction after a two hour coupon shopping trip in which your baby finally decides to sit sweetly, smiling and showing only positive goodness (eating only one coupon and shredding only 1/3 of your grocery list?

Giving up after a frustrating eating session in which your child refused to allow any food to cross over her lips and smiling guiltily as you recognize your own stubbornness in your child's personality.

Laughing hysterically at your child's funny faces as she seeks to gain yet more attention.

My biggest unexpected moment in motherhood was learning that my baby had an extra chromosome.

Yep, some of the best things in life arrive under the realm of the unexpected.

 Enjoy whatever unexpected blessing are in your life this week...I know I plan to...

Checkout my blog this week for a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card.

Guest Blog Post! Summertime Bucket List!!

Hi guys, I'm Darlene from tales of a young mamma I'm excited to be here today while Michelle is on vacation! 

I'm a stay at home mamma to a soon to be four year old little boy. I also nanny (out of my home) for a one year old boy so we like to stay busy.

Summer is probably my favorite season, and here in Colorado there is just so much to do outdoors as the season changes! I always try to make a bucket list for every season, so we can cram in mommyferg02@gmail.comas much fun as possible.

Some of the things on our Summer 2011 bucket list

*Go to the pool at least once a week. So far we are two for two on this one!

*Find 5 new parks to frequent (there are So many parks around, but I've been lazy and we go to the same 2 almost every day)

* Go to Pirates Cover for the first time. This place looks SO much fun and it's only about 30 min from our new place.

*Go to the Denver Children's Museum on rainy days- this is only 10 min from us and we have a year pass and don't go often enough

*Go to the Cherry Creek farmer's market on weekends. We have only been once and this is only blocks from our house so we have no excuse not to go!

*White Water Rafting! I've lived in Colorado for 4 years now and have yet to go, every summer I say I'm going to, yet somehow haven't gone yet!

*Find recipes and cook more 'cold meals'. Our little house get's SO hot when the stove is one, so I really need to figure out how to cut back on using the stove. Plus- learning more recipes is always useful! (Have any to send my way??)

*Boulder reservoir! Great little beach, not many of those here in Colorado!

* BBQ more often. Self explanatory. 

*Find a splash a nearby splash park. There has got to be one around here! (We just moved to Denver from the suburbs where we had one we frequented all the time)

*Mountain camping! We are only 30 minutes from the mountain, have all the camping gear we need but have yet to take Jasper camping. I think he would Love it!

*Go to the one little beach here in Denver that I've found. It's not really a beach, but it's a great place for kids to play right in the heart of Denver, we've already gone once this summer and Jasper Loved it!

So there you have it, our Summer bucket list. Anyone have any ideas of fun kid activities to add to the list? 

Mom Blog Monday Blog Hop!

**Somehow I made a boo boo in the linky this week and the hosts and featured blog are not the first 4 in the linky! So Sorry! But we're in there so please find us and follow! And be sure to leave a comment so we can follow you back! **


Are you a Mommy blogger? Do you blog about your kids? Do you blog about great things for Mommies?

 Do you wanna meet other Mom Bloggers?

This blog hop is hosted by The Not-So-Secret Confessions of a First Time Mom , Luxury Living Frugal Style, and So Easy Being Green!

Rules?

All we ask is that you follow So Easy Being Green, The Not- So- Secret Confessions of a First Time Mom, and Luxury Living Frugal Style.We are the first three on the linky!Then follow spot #4 which is the featured blog! Be sure to leave us a comment so we can follow you back!

We would LOVE it if you'd grab our button and put it somewhere on your blog or in a blog post! This would help us spread the word. However, you aren't required to.

This week's featured blog is....

Dat's So Cute

Hi!  I'm Bobbi a stay-at-home mom of 2, soon to be 3, all boys, living the life.  It truly is crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way, I think I would be bored.  My blog is a huge part of my life.  It is like one of my kids.  I love and take care of it, and hope it does well.  I share a little about everything on it.  Recipes for food and drinks, crafts, photos, stories of life and I have a little help on Mondays from two of my favorite guys, my wonderful husband Steve and my cousin Barry.  They bring a man's point of view for all of you lovely readers.  I love blogging and have loved meeting some truly amazing bloggy friends on here.  I hope to continue to meet and entertain you for you to keep coming back!   With Love, BJ

All Done!

Sorry I've been missing here lately! Thursday night I graduated from college and then last night was my graduation celebration dinner with family and friends! As well as a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon...so I've been busy!!

Graduation was awesome! It feels so great to be done! I am very proud to have accomplished this with a little one. It was very hard at times but I did it!

All is well with baby #2. Heartbeat was in the 160s and we find out the gender on July 14th!! I can't wait to know!

Today I have been packing for our vacation! Hubby is only working a half day tomorrow and then we are beach bound until Friday! It's sorta my graduation gift I guess you could say, but its also just a much needed vacation for all of us! I am very excited!

I may be scarce this week. I'm going to try and find a few guest bloggers for the week so you don't completely give up on me haha. If your interested in being a guest blogger email me at mommyferg02@gmail.com !

I leave you with me and hubby on graduation day!!

Prefense Hand Sanitizer Review & Giveaway! ***CLOSED***

Before I became a mom I wasn't really all that worried about germs and getting sick and all that scary stuff. But once I became a mom, germs were a big part of my new life! And now with a toddler I think its an even bigger deal! Noah is always into everything including things that are not so clean. He's always picking things up off the floor or ground! And if your a parent you know that having a sick kiddo is not fun at all. So as parents we do our best to protect our kids from these germs that make our kids sick.

Well I have recently discovered a product that helps us parents keep those germs away!! Prefense is an alcohol free hand sanitizer! Its non-toxic and safe for the kiddos to use! Some other great perks is that it protects you for 24 hours and it doesn't dry out your hands like other hand sanitizers can do!

Myself and the boys have been using Prefense for about two weeks now and I LOVE it! It's a foam so its easy to just squirt on Noah's little hands and rubs in really well without being sticky and wet! I love that it protects our hands for 24 hours but is still safe even if Noah sticks his hands in his mouth! I also LOVE that there's no harsh alcohol in it! So you don't get that strong alcohol smell either! Really this hand sanitizer doesn't have any smell, which is great! The bottle is fairly small but lasts a long time! I like that its small so I can stick it in my purse and carry it with me when we go places! It's great!!

Buy It!

www.prefense.com

Win It!

The awesome people at Prefense are giving away an 8oz bottle (640 applications) of Prefense Hand Sanitizer to one lucky reader! 

**Mandatory Entry**

Just leave me a comment with your email address included!! 

*Extra Entries*

(1 entry) "Like" Prefense Hand Sanitizer on Facebook. Leave your Facebook Name.

(1 entry) "Like" The Not-So-Secret Confessions on Facebook. Leave your Facebook Name. 

(1 entry) Follow Prefense on Twitter. Leave your Twitter Id.

(1 entry) Follow MommyFerg02 on Twitter. Leave your Twitter Id. 

(1 entry) Follow this blog via Google Friend Connect.

(1 entry) Grab my button and post it on your blog or website. Leave the link where you posted. 

(2 entries) Subscribe to my blog via email.

Giveaway will end June 22, 2011 at 11:59pm EST! The winner will be chosen via random.org and emailed. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. Giveaway is open to US residents only! 

Wordless Wednesday! (sorta)

I had to see what my graduation cap was gonna look like yesterday...because I am officially DONE!!! Graduation is tomorrow!! I am so proud of myself and so glad to finally have accomplished this goal!!