FEEDING FRENZY WITH NUBY

For some reason, my daughter is a crazy eater. I almost need to go out and buy a swim cap for her head, to stop her from running her messy "foodie" fingers through her hair at every single meal. She's also a fan of picking up and throwing her plate of food, tossing her bottle, and smearing food all over herself.

It's no surprise that when Nuby came to me with some of their newest feeding time essentials, I was elated! My husband was a little skeptical, how could a matt stick to our refinished antique highchair and my hulk of a baby wouldn't be able to rip it off and throw it? How could these feeding items make mealtime a little less chaotic? That's what I'm here to share with you today!

Nuby Sure Grip Miracle Mat

This technology and this mat are nothing short of a miracle!! The Miracle Mat is virtually a plate and placemat in one, that suctions to any surface and stays put. What I love is that Sawyer can easily maneuver her food within the sections of the mat. I was a little hesitant because we don't use your everyday highchair, we have an antique highchair that I refinished before she was born. But sure enough, the Miracle Mat really does stick to the tray of my wooden highchair! Owen was a little jealous, so at snack time I let him use the tray on our kitchen table, and again it doesn't disappoint. Thank goodness it's 100% silicone and wipes clean so easily because we use it often. Another bonus is that it is dishwasher safe, and just like every Nuby product it's BPA free. Lucky for you, the wait is almost over! This Sure Grip Miracle Mat is launching this June @ Babies R Us and this July at Amazon.com.

Nuby Designer Series Clik-it Grip N'Sip Cups

When Sawyer turned 1, we cut her off the bottle cold turkey. I'm a firm believe in having your children learn to use a sippy cup as early as 6 months. Lucky for us Nuby created their Designer Series Clik-it Grin N'Sip cups, perfect for ages 4 months and up using their first sippy cup! They have two easy handles for your little one to hold the cup, allowing for better control. Sawyer loves walking around the house gripping her sippy cup right by her side. One of my favorite parts of this cup is the click that you hear when you've screwed the lid back on - that's when you know it's locked. The spout is easy for her to use and perfect for little ones just learning how to use a sippy cup. This designer series release features some of the cutest prints and patterns, they're bright for your kids to see and in my opinion pair perfectly with these summer months ahead. The good news is that the Grip N'Sip Designer Series cups are available now at Babies R Us stores!

Nuby Fun Feeding Utensils

Who doesn't love a fun fork and spoon? These Fun Feeding Utensils are perfect for those little hands just learning, or the toddler whose almost mastered using utensils during mealtimes. Owen loves to use is "spork" as he refers to them as much as possible. The spoon and fork are very deep, so that lots of food can be scooped up and not spill. Just like other Nuby products, they are made for little hands to easily grip onto. The handles are shaped perfectly for your lefty or righty, and are also colorful and fun to look at. These of course are BPA free, dishwasher safe, and come in a pack of 4 - perfect when you have two littles that fight over who gets to use it first! Now they can both have their own set. These Fun Feeding Utensils are available now on Amazon.com.

Want to win a pair of Nuby Designer Series Grip N'Sip Cups for your little one? Read the instructions and enter below!

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CREATE YOUR OWN CALENDAR

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Mother's Day - the one special day out of the year to really go above and beyond honoring mothers all over, showering them with love and sweet gifts of gratitude. As a mom of two myself, some of my favorite gifts I've ever received were the handmade presents from my littles. The painted handprints, the pictures, the sweet poems, the personalized effort that goes into all of those gifts truly gives them a special place in my heart (even if it was all teacher completed).

This year my sister-in-laws and I wanted to do something really special for the moms in our lives - and ultimately have a few fun keepsakes for ourselves too. After pages of group texting, two weeks of shooting, a little chaos, lots of goldfish and a few bomb pops later a calendar was created. But not just any calendar, a themed calendar with monthly photos of the cousins complete with outfit changes, prop changes, and of course backdrop changes. We took our photos straight to Shutterfly, where the customization options were endless.

Shutterfly has two calendar sizes to chose from in size (12X12 inch or 8X11 inch) which come printed on high-quality cardstock. One of the best options that they offer was being able to start the calendar on any month you wanted. For us this was perfect since we were giving it to our moms for Mother's Day, we started our calendars with the month of May, and then continued for 12 months into 2017. We chose matching patterned backgrounds for each month that complimented our pictures. Shutterfly even allows you to personalize special dates of each month using a photo and test - perfect for all of those birthdays and wedding anniversaries!

The best part about this project? It's perfect for any holiday! 

This calendar could be given for Christmas, for a birthday, Father's Day - really any holiday. After our "been there done that" experience, I came up with a few tips for making your calendar perfect!

TIP #1

Take each photo as the months go by. While we crammed everything into two weeks due to our Mother's Day deadline, it would even be helpful to do it as you go. That way you don't have to take all of the boxes down from the attic with all of your decor from Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. 

TIP #2

Organize every month. Since it was the three of us bringing four babies together, we mapped out each month's theme, and came up with a color scheme for outfits as well - that way all of the clothing was cohesive in the pictures.

TIP #3 

Bring on the bribes. After about shooting four months, the kids knew what was up, and they weren't having it anymore. A few m&ms or crackers never hurt anybody, am I right? 

Now I'm sure you want to see the rest of the monthly photos with all of the cousins corralled together - check them out below! 

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

This calendar is definitely going to be a hard gift to top. Every emotion was evoked watching our moms turn each months page which made it all worthwhile. I think the candid photos and everything going on in each picture from babies sleeping to babies crying makes it so special. It's the perfect keepsake for all members of the family - good thing I ordered one for myself! 

I don't know if I could just chose one, but which month was your favorite?

Shutterfly personalized calendars // Shutterfly coupons (you may use more than one)