Remember last year when I was raving about PicturesOnGold.com? Well, it's been almost a year since we received our daughter's personalized locket and with every month it's become more and more special to her. She still shows it to everyone and wants to talk about how it was made special just for her, and it's the first thing she looks to when she needs something sentimental to get her through a day without us or a tough day at school. 
So, when Pictures on Gold asked us if we wanted to create another special piece for the holiday, we couldn't say yes fast enough. We all decided that the new baby needed a special necklace just for her that would match her sister and we got to work making a locket for her.
Giveaways
Awesome Christmas present ideas from Daisy
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ItsADaisy #CollectiveBias 
In our family, Christmas is about time spent together. Sure, we also do presents, but it's not as much about the morning of opening gifts as it is about all the fun we experience as a family each holiday season. This year, as part of our Christmas fun we have included the Daisy BB gun that every kid grew up wishing for under the tree. Besides having awesome Christmas present ideas for teenagers, gifting a Daisy just like dad and papa have is great for bonding well after the presents are open.
The teenage years might be more difficult in terms of bonding opportunities, but throughout the years we've found Daisy BB guns to be an amazing way to reconnect as a family. From target shooting with dad, skills courses with papa, and safety lessons with mom to days spent setting up BB gun ranges and target shooting practice with cousins, Daisy has given us numerous ways to connect and have fun as a family. 
Stuff their stockings with kid-friendly nail polishes from Piggy Paint
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PamperedPiggies #CollectiveBias
My daughter wasn’t even two years old before she started asking for nail polish. With the urgency many kids would request toys or candy, she requested “pretty nails”, but I refused to give in because I was worried about what was in those nail colors she coveted so much. As you can imagine, we were both thrilled when we found Piggy Paint, a company that makes kid-friendly nail polishes that are non-toxic and hypoallergenic for my little fashionista. 
Piggy Paint is a water–based nail polish specially formulated for kids that contains no toxic chemicals or yucky stuff. Just like the adult versions, Piggy Paint comes in a rainbow of vibrant colors. It’s free of formaldehyde, toluene, phthalates, Bisphenol A, ethyl acetate and acetone that is in other polishes, which makes it my favorite pick for my daughter. 
Continue the tradition with the new BeForever line from American Girl
Have you checked out American Girl recently? They just debuted their BeForever line this fall in stores nationwide as well as online and it has girls everywhere excited. We were at the Seattle store the day BeForever was announced to check the line out in person and do one of their many in-store crafts thanks to a recommendation from our personal shopper. I honestly had no idea what to expect and was just going for the craft and event aspect, but I was thrilled when I realized what exactly the new line included.
It’s no secret that we love American Girl and I always talk about how we end up at the Seattle store whenever my daughter gets to choose what we do for the day. But what you don’t know is that we spend most of our time checking out the historical collection and looking at anything and everything that’s new for each of their historical girls.
This time we were met at the store by one of our favorite American Girl employees and told that the line was replaced, and I’m sure I didn’t hide my disappointment very well. She quickly went on to explain that the BeForever line still had many of the dolls we adore as well as a new addition she knew we would be thrilled about.
Friends, welcome back Samantha Parkington. 
Thank goodness for HoneyBaked Ham this Thanksgiving
By now you probably know how much I love HoneyBaked Ham and how it made me into a ham-lover after 3 decades of turning the stuff away. These days I’m always looking for another reason to visit the store near me and load up on their ham and turkey, and the fact that Thanksgiving is … Read more
Beat holiday weight gain with the Jawbone UP24 from AT&T
It’s only the first week of November and I already feel like hibernating for the remaining winter months. It's getting rainy and cold here in Seattle and my living room is feeling awfully cozy with the fire going, so it's easy to just close my eyes and curl up on the couch. But, the one thing that's keeping me going and staying active? It's my Jawbone UP24 from AT&T that helps keep me in line if I'm not meeting my step goal or I'm going over my calorie goal. 
Did you know that AT&T carries a bunch of tech-savvy solutions for fighting off this season of eating more and exercising less? More than just phones these days, AT&T stores offer a variety of wearable technologies for consumers interested in health and fitness, such as the UP24 from Jawbone I was raving about earlier this year. With activity/sleep trackers, smart watches, pulse monitors, arm bands, scales and much more, AT&T has everything you need to stay within your fitness goals and beat this holiday weight gain. You can see their whole line by clicking here.
Not just a toy car: introducing the awesomely customizable Modarri cars
I never, ever thought I would utter the words “we’re a car family”. But, with a husband who hasn’t missed a car show since he was a tiny boy and a son who simply asks for “any cars I don’t have” for Christmas and birthdays, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Obviously, my daughter and I were the holdouts, content to let the boys play with their cars – some toys, some very real that take up my whole driveway – and smile.
But, then we found the world of Modarri cars, and I think we all got a little giddy at all the possibilities for this amazing new take on the toy car. 
Part build-it-yourself custom car model, part art to be displayed and enjoyed after building, and still 100% toy that can be played and raced with, the Modarri car line takes everything you thought about boring toy cars and flips it on its head. Although ours came assembled and ready for play, each Modarri model includes multiple different parts: a chassis, hood and windshield, seat pan, seat, fenders and frame, wheels with front and rear suspensions as well as a hex tool for building and rebuilding to your heart’s desire and traffic cones to contain the shenanigans.
Be a brilliant gift-giver with Brilliant Sky Toys & Books
Are you as overwhelmed with toy shopping as I am? You’d think I would be good at it by this point considering I hear about toys even before they hit the market. But, sometimes even I have a child on my list that I have a really hard time buying for. Those times I’m very grateful for neighborhood toy stores with a diverse and eclectic mix of high quality toys that won’t be abandoned in just days for the next new fad.
Stores like Brilliant Sky Toys & Books offer that and more at their 17 locations {and counting}. By offering amazing and personalized service, and more than 10,000 high-quality specialty products, it allows you to “discover, experience, explore, interact, and enjoy” in a fun and relaxed environment. 
But wait, before you get overwhelmed with the idea of 10,000 different products to choose from, you should know that Brilliant Sky understands how you feel. That’s why they announce their annual Brilliance Awards every year before the holiday season to make shopping that much easier for their guests. 
The 5th annual Brilliance Awards were just announced and again I’m wowed by the amazing 
collection of toys and more that they have chosen to highlight. In fact, we own many of their top picks this year, and they are the ones we return to over and over again.
This year's 2014 award list features 12 products with price tags from $9.99 to $129.99 with most toys running about $24.99 to $29.99. And, with the exception of the Sphero 2.0, these picks are surprisingly low-tech and classic, which I know I appreciate. By using this brilliant list as a guide for all your holiday shopping you can be a brilliant gift-giver and do all your shopping quickly and easily.
Our love of GoldieBlox begins!
Anyone who knows my kids knows all about their deep desire to understand how things work. They are rarely content with a simple explanation of the facts and instead require an in-depth analysis of everything that perplexes them. It is likely this knowledge that led many close friends and family members to reach out via phone calls, my inbox, and various messaging systems with a suggestion of a brand they knew my kiddos would flip for: GoldieBlox 
One click to the GoldieBlox homepage and I was instantly smitten. This wasn’t just a toy my kids would love, this was a toy that I would have designed for them if only I knew how. It includes all of their absolute favorite things: building things, imaginative play, and figuring out how things work in a really fun way that the whole family can get involved in.
For those of you who have been emailing over the past year begging me to get the GoldieBlox toys for my kids, I say thank you. You will be very happy to know it was literally love upon first #unbloxing and even though they have only been playing with their own GoldieBlox toys for the past few weeks, they are just as enthralled with them as you probably guessed.
If you want to see how excited we are about GoldieBlox, you should go ahead and watch this video:
For those of you who haven’t heard about GoldieBlox or seen their adorable Super Bowl commercial, you are probably wondering what makes this building toy different, and the short answer is: a lot.
Send them back to school on the right note with SOL REPUBLIC {DECK wireless speaker review}
Are you in the thick of back to school planning like I am? There are clothes to buy, glue sticks to stock up on, and there are goodbyes to plan for, because back to school is sneaking up on us quickly.
But, what if your baby isn’t quite a baby anymore and those days of construction paper and pencil cases are well behind you? For you, back to school shopping requires some creativity in order to send your child off to school on the right foot.
Sure, you need the latest sneakers and some updated clothing, but what I think is more important than that is what your child will be listening to. Sending them back to school with a good pair of headphones, earbuds, or even a portable speaker can make those early mornings, bus stop waits, and late nights studying a whole lot more enjoyable if you have your music with you. 