Tips and Tricks Tuesdays from moms

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This week I'm talking apps! I recently got to borrow my Dad's ipad and I'm totally obsessed! Hear that apple? You can send me one any time!

Now we try not to use technology too often with our little man. We want him to be a lover of the outdoors and we think the way we were raised was pretty great. I loved my childhood summers spent playing in the neighborhood with my friends and coming home when the street lights came on.

So far, we try to limit the tv watching. I only turn it on as a last resort. When he is in one of those hold me moods and I am busy doing something else or when he refuses to leave the dishwasher alone and I'm trying to empty or load it.

The Ipad is also a last resort tool for us. Like when he was standing up in his stroller at this clinic I was at getting a tb test. Hello, Ipad!

These are the apps we love (all are free because you know that's how I roll!):

The best app is Peekaboo HD. C is almost 15 months and can tap the hay bales to make the animal appear.

Fisher Price has 4 free apps that are great. C loves them all. Two have keyboards that you can play which he loves. One is animals and the other is body parts on a puppy and kitty with cute songs that he dances to.

Road Rally is an interactive Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode. Love it!

Pirate School is Jake and the never land pirates and you put a picture of your kiddo on a pirate body. It is a little advanced but so freaking cute!

Animals Zoo is fun. Pretty basic, the animals make noise.

Since C liked the keyboard on the fisher price games I downloaded Epic Piano, Epic Banjo, and R-Tap Drums. They are ok.

OldMcDonald has some fun games. Only sings the first verse of the song on the free version.

Phone4kids has a lot of fun stuff on it. It has letters, painting, a phone, and pretend texting.

Twinkle star sings twinkle, twinkle and has fun games.

Those are our fave apps right now. What apps do your kiddos love? Write a post and link up! I think next week we will be talking about traveling with toddlers!

A hair tutorial for people that suck at doing hair!

Did you see I got a haircut? I've been dying to tell you all about the hair tutorial I finally found that works! I think my hair looks pretty good in those pictures. I used Kate at The Small Things Blog's How To Curl Your Hair With  A Curling Iron (full head tutorial).

I shower at night because I am a mom. Can I get an amen? I go to bed with wet hair because by the time the kid is in bed I'm ready for bed myself. I would love to roll out of bed in the morning with my hair done for the day. I've tried all the no heat curl methods and they don't work! See below.

I've tried other curling methods like the girl that was on Ellen that sings fast or the easy beach waves where you just twist your hair and put a straightner over it. They don't work. Or should I say give me the look I am after.

Not only does this curling method give me cute hair, it is super quick! The 2nd time I did it with my longer hair it took me 15 mins. With my shorter hair it only took 12.

You guys definitely have to check out Kate's blog and all her hair tutorials. I might be slightly obsessed with her hair. I might have taken in pictures of her hair when I got my haircut. I love the half up braids. It is definitely a go to hair style for me!

Show us your life picture display

Today is show us your life ways you display pictures. We have a ton of built ins in our house. Our downstairs family room/man cave has a built in desk and built in shelves. I decided to put a lot of our framed pictures on those shelves since I don't think there is a good place for a wall gallery in our house.

Below is the shelves to the right of the desk. We have all different frames and some black and white pictures. I even used some place card holders from our wedding to hold pictures!

 The shelves on the left side. Two rows of shelves have dvds on them. The other two have pictures.

This is a picture of the desk and you can see the shelves on either side.

So that's our main place we display pictures!

Stop and Smell the Roses Vlog!

I'm linking up with Mandy from House of Rose this week, trying a peach, and Hubby answers a question!!!

Yes, Chase is a wiggle worm! Yes, I'm a freak of nature that hasn't tried A LOT of common foods. I'm thinking of doing a vlog series with me trying different foods. Any other picky eaters want to join in on it?

Tips and Tricks Tuesdays from Moms swimming lessons

This week I wanted to talk about swim lessons! Last week we finished up our 8 days of swim lessons at our local city pool. Remember I recently told you all that I had planned out my swimsuits and cover ups...

Swimming lessons tip #1: It is not a fashion show. I don't know about swim lessons where you live but Chase and I were the youngest mom/son duo. There were a few other skinny moms that rocked the two piece but there were some tankinis, one pieces, and even swim shirts? On the cool days those moms in the swim shirts were probably laughing at our skinny butts.

tip #2: Pray that your kid isn't the one crying but if they are don't sweat it. Day 1 one of the little boys was having a tough morning. Another mom said, "One of those mornings?" I'm sure she felt so much better after that. We also had a little girl that cried the entire 30 minutes every day. I think her mom and I both figured out she didn't like the cold. There was one warm day that she was fine. I could tell her mom was miserable the whole lesson and felt like she was torturing us. I didn't care. I just felt bad for them both.

tip #3 Be prepared for a lot of play time (I asked Hubby for another tip when I was at nine and without reading this he said these exact words) and your kid to have no clue the majority of the lesson. Again, I'm just speaking from my experience but C spent the majority of the lesson trying to drink the water when it was time to blow bubbles. He obviosuly had no response when she asked him what kind of ice cream he wanted to scoop or what kind of animal he wanted to be. He also wouldn't give her high fives. I thought she was going to suggest adaptive lessons.

tip #4 If your child is a giant like mine try to remind people how old he is and be super annoying and say his age in months. C was the same size as some of the almost 2 year olds so I wanted to be specific and tell them he was 14 months old. He's not 1 almost 2. He's barely 1. I only do the month thing with other parents and because of his size. I hope I won't have to do it forever! I'm really bad at math.

tip #5 Get yourself dressed and sunscreen before your baby. Then sunscreen your baby up, doing it with the tv on is helpful to distract them and keep them from wiggling. Then put the swim diaper on.

tip #6 Get yourself and your baby dressed and sunscreened before you leave the house if you can. We were only five minutes from the pool so it was much easier to do all that before we got there.

tip #7 Bring your stroller. It was nice to have a place to kind of contain C while I took my cover up off.

tip #8 After the lesson dry off and head out to the car. Change your baby out of the swim diaper in the car before putting them in the carseat. I swear those things don't actually hold any pee!

tip #9 PRAY that your baby doesn't drop a duece in the swim diaper. I hear it is no fun to clean up. We've never experience the #2 swim diaper. My boy knows when to hold it! Knocking on wood as I type.

tip #10 Invite the grandparents and Daddy to come watch if they can. Have them bring cameras. I may have told other moms I could teach them what we learned at swim lessons in 15 minutes in our pool but it was still a first and he loved it!







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Hair cut!

I got a haircut! I love it! I might go even shorter next time!

Hubby made fun of me for putting on make up to get my haircut. I told him I want them to think I'm cute and give me a cute haircut. I didn't tell him I tried to pick out cute clothes too! Do you do that too?

I apologize

I wanted to apologize for my blog post yesterday. Again, my heart is broken for the families in Colorado. Thank God that infant is ok. My intention was never to upset anyone.

It does bring up an interesting topic. Judgement. Is it ever ok? Where do we draw the line with parenting decisions?

I am learning and growing every day and this blog helps me to do that. I strive to be a better person and you all help me with that.

Now let's have a great weekend and have some fun next week!