Monthly Round Up: A Link Up

It's that time.... the Monthly Round-up linkup!

A link up that takes a look back at your recent blogging past.

I'm so excited to be co-hosting the first ever Monthly Round Up link up hosted by Jen at Our Love and Our Blessing. If you haven't been to this lady's blog before, it was time like last year. She is a FANTASTIC DIYer and I'm seriously in awe of every single one of her DIY posts. They're all amazing and thoughtful, modern, trendy, and just plain fab. Her most recent project is a teepee she and her husband made for their son, Boston. Love how those two are such a good/adorable team.

Here's what you do: 

--- follow your host and co-host 

---tweet about the link up    Tweet

--- link up.

That's it.  Super easy.  Can't wait to read all of your posts and see what you all have been up to lately.

Here are a few of my favorite posts from the last month:

I gave you a makeup class update!
I confessed a few things
I opened a shop! (for now, anyway!)
I told you how I'm not great at keeping secrets
I put studs on one of my purses and now I love it again!

Now.... get to linking up!

*you can read what this linkup is all about HERE.

Mommy-Brain Mixer: A Link Up

Hello, ladies!


If you haven't already, definitely enter to win $50 for an Erin Condren Planner and $25 to Starbucks!

Also, come on over this Saturday for a wonderful new blog series called "The Mom Connection!" You don't want to miss out on parenting tips and advice from some of your favorite bloggers, so put this Saturday, December 15th on your calendar! We will be discussing fighting the battle of getting your kiddos dressed!

------

Welcome to week 20 of the Mommy-Brain Mixer, ladies!

Please help spread the word so the Mixer keeps on growing!


If you haven't noticed, one of our favorite things to do is to share stories about motherhood and our littles. One of our favorite things about sharing these stories is your comments with stories of your own children!

Welcome to...

At the Mommy-Brain Mixer, we will be linking up our writings about anything and everything motherhood

We want to see funny posts, serious posts, sweet & sappy stories, mommy-brain episodes, memories from when your older children were younger, thoughts & lessons learned, and anything related to motherhood or little people. You know that post you wrote yesterday about your teething baby? Or that hilarious post you wrote about your 2nd grader's school play? Those are perfect, so link 'em up! 

The Mommy-Brain Mixer is the perfect place to find some great new blogs to follow, make some wonderful new blog friends, and enjoy some entertaining new reads!

*Hi NYABB readers. This is my "Mommy Brain" post if you have'n't read it:  Recent Misfortunes*

To make things even more fun, our friend Mar, over at Raising Bean, is hosting a sister link-up
for you to join, too!


Head on over there after your finished here and link up your recipes, DIY, arts & crafts, and sensory activities!  

Let's get to it, friends!

 

RULES:

1.Follow your hosts 

{the first four in the linky}:

 Cassie from Two In Diapers

Jelli from Jellibean Journals

Cassie from Live.Laugh.L0ve

Julie from From Awkward To Art

If you are new to the Mixer, please leave us a comment so we know to follow you back! We try to get around to all the posts, but as the Mixer is growing, there are some weeks that we are not able!

2. Follow your co-hosts

This week's lovely co-hosts {the next 4 on the linky} are:

Amy from Not Your Average Baby Blog

Noel from Daydreaming Realist

Charlotte from The Life of Mummy Rawles

Ashley from Chevron Stitches

3. Link up your mommy post!

4. Make sure to visit some of the blogs in the link-up and maybe even follow them!

{and comments are always loved} 

5. Tweet about the Mommy-Brain Mixer to help spread the word! 

Tweet

6. Grab this adorable button and place it somewhere on your blog!

 

 <a href="http://www.two-in-diapers.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" src="http://i523.photobucket.com/albums/w351/laurenjh04/Gracie%20Marie/mommybrain-mixer200.png" /></a><br/>

7. Don't forget to check back throughout the week, as we gain many new links throughout the week!



If you are interested in co-hosting a Mommy-Brain Mixer, send me an email at twoindiapers@gmail.com!

Mom's Monday Mingle

Welcome to Mom's Monday Mingle!  
<center> <a href="http://www.thenaptimereview.com/"><br /> <img src="http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w433/athometake2/Blog%20Design/Link-Up_zps1ce5f4f7.png" border="0"/><br /> </a></center>    

Last week we had 242

Moms ready to mingle! Please help spread the news on this growing hop! Please tweet about this hop! RULES: 1. Please follow each hostess. They are 1-6 in the list! Naptime Review-Hostess At Home Take 2- Hostess Me and My New Life Not Your Average Baby Blog That's Comma with a "K" Blesid Thrifter

We do FOLLOW back and we really love all the comments!

If you are new let us know and leave your blog address so we can return the follow ;)

2. Try to visit at least 4 blogs that interest you. Just don't throw your name into the link up, hoping to gain followers. Participate, make friends, and have fun! I know I have made a lot of great blog friends ;)

3. Feel free to grab the NEW button and display it on your sidebar or link it to the post.

Would YOU like to "Co-host" with us? Email Jessica athometake2@gmail.com at At Home Take 2. We are scheduling now for middle of November!

Check Out This Months Sponsor:

Manic Monday: A Link Up

<a href="http://liveinmyheartblog.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://i48.tinypic.com/vxewie.jpg" /></a></div> </a>



I would like to take the time to introduce you to this weeks Hosts. 
Feel free to take a look at their blogs, leave a comment, and browse
around. These are some great ladies!

 BLOG   |   TWITTER   |   INSTAGRAM   |   PINTEREST

 

 BLOG   |   TWITTER   |   FACEBOOK 

 BLOG   |   TWITTER   |   FACEBOOK   |   PINTEREST

BLOG   |   TWITTER   |   FACEBOOK

 

BLOG   |   TWITTER   |   FACEBOOK|   PINTEREST   |   INSTAGRAM

So
what is this link up all about? Well, every other week I will be
introducing you to my link up hosts. It will give you a chance to meet
someone you may not have known before.



Rules of the link up are SIMPLE!

1.  Follow your host and co-hosts
2.  If you would like a follow back, comment on our blogs and let us know. We would love to return the favor. 
3.  Participate in this weeks questions. 
4.  Provide the link to your post with the link up questions. Please
   use the coding above so it's an easy link back for your followers in
   case they want to participate.
5.  Come back in two weeks for another!

This weeks Q& A:

1. What is your favorite thing about fall? sweatshirts!

2. Favorite thing to wear this fall season? sweatshirts! (yup, again)

3. Have you decorated your home? If so, give us a description or share a photo! NOPE! Not super into seasonal/holiday decor for some reason...but don't feel bad for Carter yet, there will be an exception for Christmas, promise.

4. Favorite Halloween candy or fall themed food? salted caramel mochas at Starbucks...duh.

5. Are you dressing up for Halloween? Is your family? Share your costume idea! Well, here's the thing. It's in like 2 days and we're still not positive about our costumes. However, we were in the same sich last year and it all worked out just fine. 

Share your link to your Q&A below!

Friday's Letters + Winner

Dear Penelope,
You WON the giveaway for Laura's Favorite Things. Congrats! Laura will contact you very soon.


Dear Brie,
I think you may be the smartest/most fun blogger ever (well, you're tied with Ellen) because you're having a Halloween costume contest on your blog. Ladies, if you haven't seen this you MUST check it out. Does blogging get any more fun than that?? I don't think so!

P.S. I'm not just saying this because we made it to the top 3 for the week! ; )
P.P.S. While you're over at Brie's blog, check out her shop. It's all sorts of amazing. Trendy bracelets galore! Like this one!

Dear Brain,
You are tired. You should be resting and catching up on Dawson's Creek right now, but you can't turn off. It's exactly 1:27am and here you are at your kitchen table blogging after a grueling session with man work (I refer to anything having to do with numbers and finances as man work. I know women can do it too--feminists, don't yell at me, I'm not being like that. But when I read/write about numbers and money, I feel kind of manly and awesome).


Dear Dawson's Creek,
You're so much better now! I mean, you were always great, but you're 100 times funnier now that I actually get your jokes and metaphors. I don't even think I knew what a metaphor was the first time I watched you.

P.S. Have I mentioned that I started watching Dawson's Creek again? You should probably do it. One word: Netflix. I watch it in bed at night and try not to let the glare of the iPad shine in Tom and Carter's eyes. It's quite the skill, I tell you.

Source

Dear Tamara/Mrs. Jacobs,
Shame. Shame, shame, shame. Slash squeals, except shame because really, that's just terrible.

Best for last....

Dear Ariel (my awesome, gorg sister),
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
I got you the best presents ever (in my humble opinion) except I shall not post them because I refuse to ruin the surprise (so unlike me, right?) How fun is it to buy gifts?? Especially for sisters? It's the best.

Friday's Letters

Dear Where I Live,

OK, so this isn't exactly where we live, but it's down the street.

You're awesome. We had a  Moms' group today and it was SO much fun! And do you know how nice it is to go to one without packing and piling in the car (when I say "piling" it makes me sound like I have a lot more than one child, but I still feel like we "pile"). We walked out our door, went about 50 feet down the road to our neighbor's home (I have no idea what 50 feet is. I'm not one of those people that can estimate distance. I have no visual concept of feet or yards. None.). Amazing. I am so grateful that we live in a townhome complex right now. If you live here, it's pretty much a prerequisite to own a dog or a baby (yes, I just said "own" a baby). So if you are in possession of one of those, come on down.

Dear Bloggers,
Have you ever become super great "blog friends" with someone, only to realize you live RIDICULOUSLY near to each other? This just happened to me and it's amazing. Go say hi to Heather. Oh, P.S. We also pretty much took over Twitter last night because of it so, sorry if that was a little annoying (but I'm not sorry).

Dear Everyone,
If you haven't entered the giveaway on This Hive for a $50 gift card, you should probably do so. Who doesn't love a dress or two?

And also, if I may share this little thought with you:

I keep reading articles about women who read blogs and then compare their lives to the lives of the bloggers and then end up feeling bad about themselves in the process. They/we feel like the authors of said blogs have perfect lives while ours suck. These articles always seem to say the same thing: bloggers need to be real.

Now, I'm all for being real, I completely am, and I strive to be that way. And we should be real. But I think something else needs to be addressed (here I go sounding like I'm an actual "blogger," I know I'm not, this is just my {hopefully} humble opinion). How about when we are readers of blogs (which we all are, obviously...) we try to be happy for other people instead of envious or jealous or them? You know? Don't allow it to get you down. We obviously aren't ALL great cooks, fashionistas, avid DIYers and so on. Some of us are great cooks, some are fashionistas and some are amazing DIYers. No one is all of these things. We all have our strengths, we all have our weaknesses and I think we should appreciate the strengths of others because ours strengths are not all the same, and they shouldn't be. We need to look at ourselves and find out what we're good at, and we need to celebrate that rather than wishing we could do something like someone else. And I'm just going to end this like a news article (abruptly) because this is a large-and-in-charge chunk of text. Bye.

Oh, and for the record, I don't think I am one of those people that other people are envious of, what with my puke stories and all. This is just my view of blogging right now.

OK, that's enough deepness around these parts. Enjoy your weekend (personally, I'll be working up a storm...wooo).

Bloglovin' Blog Hop

Well, it's just a big old blog hop around these parts this week. Thought i'd get it all in at once, you know? It's not possible to meet TOO many bloggers---so link up!

*  *  *  *  *  *

What's Bloglovin' you ask? Well, only the greatest way to keep track of the blogs that you love. With the discontinuation of Google Friends Connect (GFC) for non-blogger blogs like myself, I decided that I needed to find another way to keep up with all of my favorite blogs that are not hosted by blogger. I stumbled upon Bloglovin' and I am in love! It is very similar to Google Reader, in that you can see the beginning of the post and the first picture attached to the post. Plus, Bloglovin' automatically updates your posts. Another added bonus is there is a Bloglovin' application for IPhone and Android devices. Woohoo! Like I don't spend enough time reading blogs. Now it's a simple touch. Love it!

In order to participate in this hop, you need to have Bloglovin set up for your blog. You can find a super easy tutorial here. I promise it'll take you less than 10 minutes and you'll thank me down the road.

There’s only a couple of rules:

1. Please follow your hosts! They are the 1st nine blogs linked.

2. You MUST link up your Bloglovin' url to participate, NOT your blog.

3. Post our button for the blog hop on your page to promote the fun. You can grab the button from my sidebar. The more the merrier so shout outs about the party on Twitter or Facebook would be greatly appreciated.

If you're interested in co-hosting next month shoot me an email at russej10{at}gmail{dot}com. I also have some sponsor spots still available for October, which you can find here. Alright, so let's have some fun and mingle! Please remember to ONLY link up your Bloglovin URL.

Friday Letters

Dear guy who came to change our air filter and smoke detector batteries,
I'm sorry you had to go into our storage area/laundry room/pantry/extra desk/treadmill with boxes stacked on top of it room. I forgot you were coming (woops) and  did not organize it for you. You also saw the master bedroom, which was maybe not in its cleanest state. Let's be serious, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't the best. #embarrassing.
Thank you though, for giving us that box full of batteries for Carter's toys. That was super sweet and thoughtful.

Dear New Hair (picture to come on Instagram/Twitter. Wait for it...),
I wanted to dye you all brown, but I got scared. So I did half of you. If I decide I like it, I'm going to go all in. I've always been blonde, but it may be time for a change. Plus, you awesome hair color you, you are demi-permanent, which means you won't be ridiculously hard to get out and go back to blonde in case I hate you. Thoughts?? Who knows hair? Offer your words of wisdom.

Dear Ascenta NutraSea Kids,
I'm super excited to give you to Carter. You're going to make him even smarter than he already is {blatant bragging}. Moms, if you want an Omega3/Vitamin D3 combo to give to your child--this is it. Plus it's only about $18 from VitaCost for a 40 day supply. Winning. (plus it's liquid and not a gummy which = no cavities).


Dear Amy (that's me--in case you forgot who's blog you're reading. I know you read a lot),
You are hysterical that you're going to a Business Plan Bootcamp class tomorrow. Good luck, you're going to need it. Don't worry though, Kels and Kurt will be there to  do everything for you help.


Have a fantastic weekend lovelies--this girl with an English (I like to refer to it as a spelling) degree is off to get a little more business savvy!

I Believe In

I believe in never buying the same toothpaste twice. What fun is there in that?

I believe in owning a lot of shoes.

I believe in caring more about the needs of others than our own.

I believe in not buying the same deodorant twice. Again, boring.

I believe in makeup. We all look better with it, just accept it. I believe it should be socially acceptable for all men to wear a little too (I know what you're thinking. No, Tom does not wear makeup).

I believe in not using Christian lingo. It kind of reminds me of this video (if you haven't seen it, go pee first so you don't make a mess).



I believe in not being serious in my blog posts 95.6% of the time. You'll get a deep one, one day though, I'm sure of it.

I believe in color. Bright, happy ones.

I believe in working hard. 

I believe in being educated. 

I believe in puppies. Especially Boo.

I believe in being afraid of the dark. 

I believe in salted caramels from Whole Foods. I also believe their calories don't count.

Friday's Letters

Well, it's that time again.

Dear 90s,
I'm kind of stuck on your music lately. I don't know what it is. I think it reminds me of being a pre-teen and being able to sit around and listen to music all day and basically not do anything else unless I wanted to. Ah, the good old days.



Dear Hair,
You suck. You used to be awesome (at least I thought you were), but then you went and got all hormonal on me after Carter and you still haven't recovered. I really don't appreciate having a little front mohawk, a mullet and a receding hair line. It's kind of the pits.

Dear Head Bands,
You could fix my hair issues, but you insist on giving me a headache after about two minutes. Why must you press on the sides of my head just so? It's like you find these little pressure points and cripple me. It's not fun feeling beaten up by a head band. Even you little cloth ones bug me after a while.

Dear Hair Spray,
Why must you make my hair crunchy? You say you won't, but you lie.

Apparently there's nothing that can be done about my hair issues. I should just throw on a baseball cap and call it a day.


Dear well meaning 20-somethings who complain about too many baby pictures on Facebook,
I just want to take this time to apologize to you that you are forced to wade through pictures of cute babies on Facebook (oops), on blogs (oops), twitter, instagram (oops again) and basically every other social media outlet everywhere. I'm sorry you see us (moms with babies) at the grocery store, at Target and at basically every other establishment.

It must suck to be reminded so often of how lame you're going to be one day. I'm sorry we haunt your  Facebook and your blog, but sometimes we want to be reminded of the lack of lameness we used to possess.

*So if you follow me on instagram, you've already seen these. Yeah guys, I'm on instagram now (amy_nyabb). 

Always, Sometimes, Never: Puke Edition

Today was one of those times when we got to an indoor playground (that was super awesome bee-tee-double-you) and Carter got afraid of the wristband and he threw up. On me. On him. On the floor, and almost on the lady working behind the counter (who had to clean the floor). I feel like I should send her flowers or something. It couldn't have been fun to clean up half digested yogurt and almond butter. PLUS, it's a nut free facility, so we totally ruined that with his vomit too. I probably should have thought twice about bringing nuts internally.

This kinds of reminds me of the time yesterday, when Carter fell and got scared and threw up, and then I was convinced that meant he had a concussion so I called the doctor. Oh, yes, the puke landed right on me again. I guess it's just my life's work to get puked on. It's totally fine. Happily, though, there was no pukage at the doctor's visit yesterday. Just screaming. Screaming about getting measured, weighed, and getting his big ole dome measured (oh and there was that little thing called shots too, we won't get into that).

*Meanwhile, back at the playground (can you "meanwhile" when it's about the same person at two different times? I don't think you can, but whatever)* he fell off a bench and didn't flinch. He was sitting there next to his cousin eating a dehydrated pear, when he thought he'd scoot off. Only his shorts stuck to the paint on the bench and he face planted into the rug; I dashed over, scooped him up while heart-attacking, and then he looked at me like, "Mom, what's your deal? I'm fine, okay?" and proceeded to laugh like it was the funniest thing ever. Moms, how do you not have a stroke every day? These past two days make me feel like such a worrier. I know, I know "kids get hurt," but if you ask me, it happens way too often. And I'm always that overprotective hawk-mom guarding his every move too (apparently every so often I fail). These toddler months we've endured so far have been quite the eye opener. I don't really know what to, exactly, I just know that I would die if I had twins. I would die a legit death filled with a lethal combination of heart attacks and strokes.


Here's a little summary of all that rambling if you're too lazy to read it all, or if you got bored half way through:

Carter always throws up when he's scared. He sometimes throws up when he's sad. And he never doesn't throw up. We are a pukey bunch over here. Apparently I did the same thing when I was little, so I guess I got what was coming to me. Karma's a stitch.

So this was what I like to call a little double link up post. I'm linking up with Ellen, Brie, and Taylor's always.sometimes.never link up, AND at Two in Diapers Mommy-Brain Mixer