YoBaby Winner!

Congratulations to Jessica, who said, "I follow via google, entry 2."  She'll be winning the great YoBaby gift pack from Stonyfield Farms!  See, it pays to be a follower!  Thanks to all who entered, wish I had more to give!  And a big thanks to Stonyfield Farms for sponsoring this great giveaway!

As for the rest of you, I've got more good stuff coming (i.e. giveaways!), and some fun stories to tell too.  It was a tough week here for me, so I took a little bloggy-break, but I'll be back soon.

YoBaby Organic Meals Review and Giveaway!

I realize I've written about yogurt before. I like yogurt. My kids LOVE yogurt. We started feeding the creamy goodness to the babies about a month ago, and they think it's just great. So imagine my excitement when I was contacted by Kristina at Stonyfield Farm to review their latest YoBaby product!

YoBaby 3-in-1 Organic Meals are a delicious way to get some wholesome nutrients into babies and toddlers. Made with 100% organic ingredients, these little cups combine yogurt, fruits, and vegetables in a unique blend. Each one of these little 4 oz. cups contains more than 20% of the daily needs for protein and calcium, plus other essential nutrients like Zinc and Vitamin A.

Katelyn and Olivia got their first taste of YoBaby 3-in-1 Organic Meals today, and they were more than thrilled. Their legs and arms were flailing about, they cried when I alternated bites to the other baby, they practically leapt out of their high chairs begging me for more when it was over. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit here. But seriously, they really did love it. We tried the apple & sweet potato flavor, and I also picked up a pack of the peach & squash flavor so that's on tomorrow's menu. Our store didn't have any of the third flavor, pear & green beans, but we'll get some next time hopefully.

Now, onto the good part. The win some free stuff for yourself part. Want to try out the new YoBaby 3-in-1 Organic Meals with your little one? You're in luck. Stonyfield Farm is offering one of my readers a great gift pack including: 3 coupons for free YoBaby meals, a YoBaby travel bowl w/ lid, a YoBaby Organic Cotton bib, and a cute Eric Carle growth Chart.

Entering is easy: Leave a comment on this post.

Additional entries can be earned by doing some or all of the following: (leave an additional comment for each entry.)

• Become a follower of Thou Shall Not Whine (3 extra entries!)
• Grab my button and display it on your blog (3 extra entries!)
• Mention this giveaway on your blog with a link back to it.
• Leave a comment on a non-giveaway post.
• Subscribe to Thou Shall Not Whine in a newsreader.

This giveaway will run until Friday, February 26th, 11:59pm EST. Winner will be selected via Random.org and contacted via email.

I'm Guest Posting!

I'm so excited to announce that I've been selected as a guest blogger for The Stork Report over at Making Lemonade today. Head on over to see my post about diaper cakes, and don't forget to leave me some comment love! Carrie is running some fabulous giveaways right now so be sure to enter those while you're there.

Homemade Forts

Oh, how I remember the days of homemade forts.  I can vividly remember taking apart the entire living room in my childhood home, positioning furniture just right, removing all couch cushions, and pulling out every blanket and sheet from the linen closet.  All to make the biggest, coolest, sturdiest fort.  It would drive my mother mad to find her house like this, and I can remember her exact tone of voice when she'd say, "you'd better be prepared to put it all back the way you found it."  And we would.

Somehow Joey has discovered how much fun hiding under a blanket can be.  He is constantly asking us to make him a fort, and he gets so excited when we do.  His fort is much simpler than my old fort structures.  Thankfully his fort does not involve furniture moving, mounds of couch cushions and pillows, or even a trip to the linen closet.  He's only 2, so he's pretty happy with a simple blanket hanging from the side of the couch.  For now. 

I left a throw blanket on the couch last night, and the minute Joey spotted it this morning he had forts are the brain.  Well, I've found that our baby gate system is actually quite versatile in that when I bend it just right it creates the perfect little spot for my 3-foot tall friend.  As I draped the blanket over the top of the gate I looked over at Joey.  He was dragging his little-kid couch across the livingroom to put in his fort.  He then walked over to the table, collected his snack cup, and got into this lounging position. 

This simple structure kept my son occupied for 30 minutes today, as he brought various toys into his hideaway.

So if you haven't yet tried it I highly recommend homemade fort-making to any Stay-At-Home-Mom out there looking for a few minutes to herself.  And if you've got another simple idea to keep a little one busy let's hear it!

Valentine's Day Love

I've had some fun lately playing with my new camera.  Here are some pictures that I've been keeping to myself.  And what better day to share these photos than Valentine's Day!