our family grace

22 June 2014

Mommy Moments Blog Hop and $100 Giveaway!

Happy 100th Mommy Moments Link Up & GIVEAWAY!

In addition to winning the $10 Starbucks card and $100 Paypal cash, the winner also gets their pick of a Pearberry Pie headband pictured below!

Looking back over the best couple of years, I had no idea how this link up would change my life. I was just a clueless pregnant woman excited about becoming a mama! Turns out, this link up is where I have met some of my best friends and been so encouraged each week as a mama!

Because each of you are what make this link up possible every week, we want to celebrate YOU with a giveaway! Enter to win below and then link up your post for the week!

Thanks to all these wonderful ladies pictured below for their contribution to this fun giveaway!

This Marine Wife//A Cowboy's Life// Madly Wish//Foxy Domestic Side//The Life Of Faith// The Not Quite Military Wife//Beautiful Family Affairs//Just A Touch Of Crazy//The Everyday Momma//This Little Light Of Mine//The Peanut's Gang//Eat, Pray, Read, Love//Sounds Of My Pitter-Patter//Crazily Normal

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Motherhood has its seriousness and frustration as well as its laughs. That's why we are here. Life is much easier when traveled with companions! So mamas, let's join together in the spirit of motherhood and share our moments together. We want to hear the happy, sad, tough, terrible, hilarious moments that make being a mother the best job in the world!

The top viewed link this week belongs to Sweet Country Roots and her post Back To An Old Fashioned Way Of Thinking! I loved this post and the heart behind it. Even though we can't really go back in time, it's so important to instill some of the values from the past even in our current culture. Thanks for the great post Brittany!

An InLinkz Link-up

12 June 2014

Toddler Battle Ground

Eating has become such a battlefield recently. Really, Bug is a great eater. She'll eat almost anything, depending on her mood. Our biggest battle is how she eats. She has become Miss Independent as of late and that goes double for eating times. She absolutely must feed herself. No matter what. Also, she wants to cut up her own food, or in another instance, she just wants to pick up the whole plate and bite off one by one what she's eating.

A couple nights ago, we made burgers. The hubs cut hers into bite size pieces and covered it in cheese for her to eat. Something she typically loves! Did she eat it? No. She pitched a fit and kept pointing at my plate. Now my plate had a whole burger (not cut up), a different type of cheese, and onions. She wanted to eat my food! And, well, as most mommys know, you pick and choose your battles. This was one that I was willing to let her win. It was late, she didn't nap well, I was tired, you know how it goes. So I traded plates with her. She decided to pick up that burger whole in both hands and just take bite after bite of it. She devoured almost the whole thing, including the onions! Silly girl.

So really, I don't have any tips. I go by what kind of mood my little girl is in. If she appears to want to eat, then we eat and we eat well, but we have to do it at her pace. And you know what? I'm okay with that.

Oh. One more thing. My daughter LOVES eggs. I think she could eat eggs for every meal...so if we're having problems, eggs and applesauce are a go to. In my mind, as long as she's eating and it's relatively good for her, then that is all that matters in the long run.

Like A Morning Cup of Coffee The Not Quite Military Wife

From Here To Eternity Words About Waverly

Pardon My French Beautiful Family Affairs

My Delicious Adventure The Life Of Faith

Running From The Law The Olive Tree

May 8: Taming the Temper Tantrums

May 15: Weaning from Breastfeeding or From Formula to Cow’s Milk

May 22: Dealing with Mommy Guilt

May 29: When People Share Their Opinions and How to Lovingly Handle it

June 5: Traveling with your Toddler

June 12: How to get your toddler to eat their veggies…or their food at all

June 19: How to make time to blog in the busyness of motherhood

June 26: Bedtime Battles (nap or bedtime)

An InLinkz Link-up

08 June 2014

Mommy Moments Blog Hop!

Hey mamas!

Welcome back for another great week of Mommy Moments Link Ups! Thank you for linking up and for spreading the word last week! We had some awesome links last week as usual.

The top viewed link this week belongs to This Crazy Beautiful Love and her post "Baby #2 Bumpdate" We love baby bump updates here at the Mommy Moments Link Up. In fact, three of the four of our Mommy Moments Hosts are also pregnant! Woohoo! Bring on the babies :)

The Life Of Faith

The Not Quite Military Wife

Beautiful Family Affairs,

Like A Morning Cup Of Coffee

A Mom In Need Of Advice

Now, link up your post!

Post can include anything related to mommy-hood, children, homemaking, pregnancy etc. If you aren't a mom yet, feel free to link up your preparation for motherhood, your journey as you try to conceive, or even a post that would be encouraging to the other moms in the party!

Then, explore some of the other posts in the link-up and say hello to some new blog friends!

Please, pretty please, we'd love it if you would tweet or share the link up on Facebook so we can all make even more friends!

We would also love it if you could add the Mommy Moments button to your post or blog so everyone knows where you are linking up! If you are not able to copy/paste the code on your page, please e-mail one of us and we would be happy to send you the code!

http://the-life-of-faith.blogspot.com//search/label/mommymoments" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank">http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k537/faithkonrath/cfa5ba11752f4e898055d03d33cf24e0.jpg

P.S. We will be having a new guest host every week! Want to be a guest host of the Mommy Moments Blog Hop? Send Faith a message at farmprincess14{at}gmail{dot}com. We would love to have you!

Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

An InLinkz Link-up

05 June 2014

Oh the places you will go...

Traveling with a baby or toddler is in an art form in and of itself. It's not easy. You basically have to pack up the whole house and take it with you. At least that's what it felt like for us.

Here are some quick tips that I have for when you have to take a trip with your little one:

make a packing list - I searched on pinterest before taking our first road trip with Bug for list ideas. Our first trip long road trip with her was when she was 6 months old, not exactly a toddler, but it holds with the same ideas.
travel by night - We typically travel by car whenever we go places and have yet to travel anywhere by plane. So for traveling by car, we love to travel at night. Why? No stops because the Bug sleeps through the whole trip. Of course this isn't the best on the hubs and me. I personally hate traveling by night, but for the Bug it works out great.
plan multiple stops - If you do travel for the day plan for multiple stops. Our second trip out to Texas, I couldn't handle driving through the night again. So we decided to take the 14 hour trip during the day. This was hard on all of us, but with lots of stops, we were able to hold off any major tantrums. I recommend searching out parks or fun restaurants for your little one to run around at. My favorite stop we made was at the Mississippi bridge at sunset. Bug was able to get out and crawl around on the quilt I brought. It was such a wonderful time and I highly recommend finding parks for your kids to get out and run around in.
start during nap time - We're going to the beach in a couple of weeks. This will be about a 4-5 hour drive without stops. In order for us to get the best start, we plan on leaving right before Bug's nap. So we'll eat, and then head out. Now her nap won't last the whole trip, so we'll have to stop and let her run around once she gets up, and then it'll be back in the car with Little Einsteins to distract her.
don't be ashamed of resorting to electronics - Bug loves the iPad or iPhone. Her favorite shows to watch is Little Einsteins or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I am not ashamed to tell you that we have let her watch multiple episodes of these shows. Happy mommy makes for a happy baby and a happy trip.