Marvel’s The Avengers is hitting theaters this Friday May 4th! So in celebration of that, I have an awesome Avengers Prize Pack to giveaway!!!! In the prize pack is:

• MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS t-shirt in adult  sizes of S, M, L, XL
• MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS set of 6 buttons
• MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS one pair of limited edition 3D glasses

Marvel's The Avengers t-shirt

Marvel's The Avengers set of buttons

Marvel's The Avengers 3-D Glasses

The Giveaway: One of my readers will win a Marvel’s The Avengers Prize Pack!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I did not receive products or compensation for this giveaway. All opinions expressed are of my own and not influenced by anything or anyone.

Im hoping this installs right…lol using an older version of VB so some of you who have 64 bit or Windows 7+ may not be able to use it…not sure.

Click HERE to download the setup zip(extract all 3 files to the desktop, run setup.exe)

Basically its a small program that saves/reads text files you create and auto-copies them to the clipboard, if you have a lot of stuff you type up and submit to different people (such as pitches, emails, coding, or whatever), this will help you out a lot!

If it does help you out, please feel free to donate something, every little bit helps us and helps me want to develop the app further, if you have any suggestions theres also a link in the app to ask!

If theres enough interest in the app I might update it to VS2010, which is a much newer development environment so I can make it much more versatile.

Click the image to view larger screenshots.

Text Manager 2.0 Screenshots

For the past 7 years straight I have been doing nothing but buying diapers. No sooner than one is about to be out of diapers, another one comes along. Right now Jaxon is about to be potty trained and I’m looking at at least 2 more years (more than likely 3) of diapers for Justin. Finances keep getting tighter and tighter here so I’m always looking at ways to save money. I’ve seen a lot of moms recently talk about cloth diapering…I thought about this while I was pregnant but dismissed the idea since it grossed me out thinking about cleaning dirty diapers other than wrapping them up and tossing them. Now…I think I’m ready to try it. Plus I keep seeing cute cloth diaper baby bottoms and they are so cute! Not to mention, I’ve been making his baby food…trying to do things as natural as possible with him (if I had my way we’d still be breastfeeding) and trying to do it more with the entire family…so I’m thinking cloth diapers are a great next step!

So…tell me where I should start? Brands? How many? I’ve seen some are sized and some fit multiple sizes. Wet bags…what are they? Where’s the best place (price lol) to get them? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I have been asked this question MANY times…”How do you do it with 4 kids?” I never know how to answer because honestly….I don’t even know! Some days I feel like I’m going to pull all my hair out and just want to run away and hide under a rock…other days I look at my kids and wonder why they can’t behave like this all the time haha!

My little monkeys!

It’s an understatement to say that I keep busy. Mondays is Girl Scouts for Jaylin, Tuesdays is Karate for Jeffery, Wednesdays is OT for Jeffery and every other is Boy Scouts, Thursdays is Karate for Jeffery again, and Fridays we just recently started Jaylin in Gymnastics. This don’t include check-ups, or random other things that go on like the past 2 months I’ve had plenty of appointments to get Jaxon ready for Head Start in the fall by getting evaluated for his IEP, as well as Jaxon’s therapy. I am glad that very few things are on the same day so I’m not rushing from one thing to another, but it makes for one very tired mama to never have an evening to rest. Because even when Jeff offers to keep an eye on the kids so I can rest…I can’t rest. I’m either crocheting (which honestly has been pretty relaxing to me) or working on emails so I can keep this blog running. Even if I do try to rest/nap/take a hot bath…95% of the time there are kids screaming in the living room, fighting, or running around like they’re wild…so it’s never peaceful enough for me to fully rest unless all the kids are in bed and even then there are the million times they get out of bed for one reason or another. I’ve been in the shower at 10pm thinking all my kids are asleep and when I turn around I see a figure in the doorway…yep…there’s a kid up (mind you…my shower is on the OTHER side of the house so it’s not like the sound of water running woke them up)

Don’t consider this post whining. I don’t mind doing it all…if it makes my kids happy, then I’m happy. But if you ever wonder how I do it with 4 kids and everything else that I do…just know that I don’t even know how I do it…I just do.

So, if you ever come to visit…expect my house to not be completely clean…there are toys all over the floor…laundry waiting to be folded/put away on the couch and you may even see me curled up in a ball in the corner rocking…trying to keep from pulling my hair out haha!

Jaylin and Jeffery both have something they HAVE to sleep with…Jaylin has about a million things she sleeps with (seriously, there is barely room on her bed for herself!) So when asked to review Cuddle Covers I immediately thought of Jaxon. To my surprise we got 2, Max the Dog and Kit the Cat!

What is a Cuddle Cover? It’s a case for your pillow that is also an animal. It has a head, legs and arms and is sooooo cute and soft! They are easy to do too, just unzip and put a regular pillow in, then zip it back up and you’re done! There are currently 6 different characters to choose from, Berry the Bear, Louie the Lion, Kit the Cat, Max the Dog, Don the Dinosaur, and Izzy the Unicorn. They are all hypo-allergenic and machine washable too.

I give Jaxon Max the Dog while the big kids were at school and he LOVED IT!!! He put it on the couch with his sippy cup right away and laid down to watch TV with it. It’s now the one thing he always brings out of his room to lay down with, and also one of the things he now has to sleep with, if he’s taken it to the living room, at bedtime we say “Go get your puppy pillow” and he runs to get it and drags it back to his bed. Because Kit the Cat looks kinda girly, I give that one to Jaylin and she squealed with delight when we showed it to her! Now we need to get some extra money to get Jeffery one.

You can buy a Cuddle Cover for $19.99 and an official Cuddle Covers Pillow for $14.99.

The Giveaway: One of my lucky readers will win a Cuddle Cover of their choice!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received products for the purpose of reviewing at no cost to me. All opinions expressed are of my own and not influenced by anything or anyone.

Over a year ago (September 2010), we signed Jeffery up for Karate. It was something he could work towards the goal of belt promotions and also teaches respect. He enjoyed it from day 1 and continues to look forward to it every week! The past 19 months he has progressed so much, and his behavior has somewhat improved and he has went through an entire level of belts (Little Dragon, they have colors with a white stripe down the middle) Every belt promotion you could see the pride in his face! Just last week we had his last Little Dragon promotion…he is now going into the Family Class which have solid colors and older kids as well as adults. He’s excited for this change and can’t wait until his first class on Tuesday. I thought I would go through and show off some of the pictures I’ve taken over the past year and a half.

Jeffery at his first karate class. This was at Kinetic Kids as our trial period, once I knew he liked it we moved him to the Brian Mayes Karate studio (this is Mrs. Mayes) in Harrisonburg.

Getting a stripe on his yellow belt from Mr. K (I don't know what happened to the picture of him getting his yellow belt....I can't find it!)

Jeffery after his belt promotion from yellow to orange. With his instructors Mr. K and Miss Heather.

Belt promotion from Orange to Green.

Showing respect after getting his new belt.

Showing respect. Belt promotion green to red.

Check out his fighting stance!!!

Belt promotion from red to brown! His last Little Dragon belt!!!!

His final belt promotion was held last week, Jeff had to work but my dad showed up to see his exciting moment. Once he got his brown belt and it was explained to him the next belt would be GOLD, he was sooooooo excited, he talked about it all the time!  The day arrived and he could barely contain himself!

Jeffery testing for his Gold belt.

Impatiently waiting for his belt!

Miss Heather putting on his Gold belt!

This weekend will be hopefully (I say hopefully because I’m not sure if we’re going to have the money) his 2nd tournament. Last year he had a blast and got a HUGE trophy. The trophy was as big as he was!

Ready for the East Coast Open Tournament.

Demonstrating one his self defense combos.

One of the last parts of the combo.

He always gets excited when he uses his index finger to "push down" the instructor after the combo.

All the Little Dragons were told to cover their eyes while their trophies were placed beside them.

Jeffery with Miss Heather and his first ever trophy

Jeffery and his trophy with Mr. K.

Seriously, to take the last 2 pictures we had to wait in line!!!! These instructors are so awesome with the kids and are so loved! Jeffery really looks up to Mr. K and I can always count on Mr. K to have a heart to heart with Jeffery when he’s had a rough couple of days (home and/or school). I’m excited to be able to let Jeffery continue with karate and can’t wait to watch him grow more and more as he learns and understands more. Being 7, he don’t understand all of it…but he does get most of it. So this week, he’ll get a new uniform…without the little cartoon dragon and graduate up to an actual uniform (his current one has velcro and just slips over his head, the actual uniform ties).

So if you are local to me (meaning anywhere around Harrisonburg or Elkton VA) check out Brian Mayes Karate. It’s one of the things I’m so glad that I put Jeffery in!!!

I was not paid/compensated for this post in any way. I actually pay monthly for Jeffery to do karate, I just had to share his progress and my joy in the program.

Jaxon has been able to drink from a regular cup for awhile now, but lately he has taken the cups into the living room and put them on the floor for them to either be kicked over and make a mess or the dog to drink out of it which isn’t always good for the dog depending on what is in the cup (sometimes chocolate milk). When The First Years offered to send me some of their Magical Color Changing Sippy Cups I hesitated, after all, I had already broken Jaxon of sippy cups…but then I thought of the messes and stains on our carpet and didn’t want to add to them.

Jaxon with one of his Cars 2 The First Years Magical Color Changing Sippy Cup

When we first got the cups I showed Jaxon and he was thrilled because they had Disney Cars on them (when your older brother is obsessed with Lightning McQueen and Disney Cars, you can’t help but like them too lol). Initially he forgot how to use a sippy cup, he didn’t realize he had to suck on it…but once Mommy showed him how it worked he took his cup over to the couch and was able to relax with his cup. We still use regular cups for things like water, but the sippy

I put this in because I love his smile! He does enjoy his cup!

cups keep from having messes or the dog getting sick. Jaxon has thrown his cup when mad, it has been tipped over on the floor, it has fallen on the floor…taken a lot of abuse, and it still hasn’t leaked once! Jaxon likes when I let him watch as I pour something cold into his cup and the color changes before his eyes. It also has double wall insulation to keep drinks colder longer! Check out the video below to see the color changing action!

My favorite feature of My First Years Magical Color Changing Sippy Cups? No hard to clean valve. The valve is built into the sippy cup lid and you don’t have to worry about taking it out and cleaning it like you do other sippy cups (I remember those all too well!) The cup and lid are also BPA free and dishwasher safe!

You can buy The First Years Magical Color Changing Sippy Cups from Walmart, Target, Toys R Us and many other stores as well as online! The retail price is $8.99 for a pack of 2 cups. They also have many other popular characters like Disney Princess, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Minnie Mouse, Disney Fairies and Toy Story 3!

The Giveaway: I’m giving away one pack of Disney Cars 2 The First Years Magical Color Changing Sippy Cups to one of my readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received products for the purpose of reviewing at no cost to me. All opinions expressed are of my own and not influenced by anything or anyone.

First off…Do you know how hard it is to get 4 kids to look at the camera at the same time? Much less smile at the same time?????? Then add in a baby who got cranky and didn’t even want to be held by anyone but Mommy and yea…it was chaos. But we did get some good pictures and I have to say I have some absolutely adorable kids!!!!

Jeffery 7 years old. Isn't he handsome?

Jaylin age 5 1/2. My beautiful little princess!

Jaxon age 2 1/2. He's such a ham!!!

Justin age 4 1/2 months. He's so cute!!!

The only smile we got from Justin the entire session...this is actually a crop of a picture of all the kids together, but the other kids weren't looking lol.

All of my adorable kids!!! BTW, that is a face Jaylin ALWAYS makes when we tell her to smile!

The best picture of the session!!! I <3 these kids so much!!!!!

My kids are my life! I couldn’t imagine my life without them! These are the first pictures of all 4 of my kids besides in the hospital when Justin was born.

We’re a family of 6 and we currently only have one vehicle which is our mini van. It’s not the greatest on gas and it’s something I need on a regular basis to get the kids to/from school and activities. This doesn’t work out so well with Jeff working 12 hour shifts. He leaves at 5am (sometimes PM, depending on his shift rotation…he does 2 weeks of each) and comes home at 7pm (or AM depending on rotation), yes that means he has about an hour drive each way depending on the traffic and what lights he hits red (sometimes he can get there in as little as 30min) I asked him the other day how many miles he drives to/from work each day and he told me 50. That’s round trip. With gas prices going up up up up and up, we need a vehicle that gets better gas than our mini van (plus I would like to have it more often and not have to schedule the kids’ appointments around his work schedule. The qualities I am looking at in a vehicle are:

• Good Gas Mileage. We would prefer something that gets 30+ MPG
• Not Crazy Expensive. We do have 4 kids, a house payment and another car payment we need to make.
• Can Be Driven In Bad Weather. We didn’t get a lot of snow this year, but that don’t mean we won’t next year. Jeff is required to go to work no matter what the weather is.

2012 Dodge Caliber

Today I went out by myself (Jeff and the kids were home napping) and looked at some cars for Jeff. I first went to Dodge because I had seen on their site that the Dart was going to be coming out soon and was hoping it would be REALLY soon. I was quickly informed (because I asked) that they weren’t expecting the Dart until August possibly. I had seen pictures of the Dart online and it looked SO awesome! I

Caliber's Sunroof!

wanted to see it in person! Anyways, Dart aside, the nice sales lady (who I found out we attended the same high school…she was 3 years under me) showed me a nice little Caliber which got okay gas mileage and the price was good too. I was able to test drive one that had a sun roof (because Jeff loves convertibles and sunroofs lol) and it drove so smooth. The Caliber reminded me of a small SUV and a station wagon but sporty looking. It’s something I think Jeff would

Rear of the Dodge Caliber

like, but the issue in my head was the gas mileage of 23/27MPG. It’s about the same we were told our van would get but get no where near it. Now I know the Caliber is a LOT smaller than our van and it’s a different vehicle make but that doubt is still there. My experience at Dodge was excellent. The sales lady and manager were nice as could be. The manager was funny and joked with me about having 4 kids and we talked about this blog and many other things. We were laughing about a lot. They then decided to go into their used vehicle list and see about other vehicles they may have for us. Showed me 2…I thing they would both be great for Jeff but I’m always on the hunt for a bargain and will keep all options open right now. After I finally left Dodge, seriously, we talked a lot! Ran some numbers (found out Jeff will get a discount for working at RR Donnelley) and got a great deal. It’s still an issue with what the financing will do. That’s one reason we would like to get a new car, APR is lower, there is a warranty and you know where the car has been (used you have no idea how the other owner(s) took care of it). I drove to Hyundai.

2012 Hyundai Accent

The salesman at Hyundai was nice, told me about the car I was looking at when he walked up to me. It was a nice 2013 (their first 2013!) Elantra and told me options on it and the lower options that may be in our price range. Once I told him all of what we’re looking for he said he knew exactly the car for us. He then walked me over to a Hyundai Accent. There were only 2 left, a VERY pretty blue one (that I forgot to take a picture of!) and a nice grey one with a black interior. It looks sporty and I loved seeing the gas mileage of 30/40MPG with possibility of 47 MPG with EcoBoost. I didn’t test drive the Accent because I spent so much time at Dodge and had to be home in time for Jeff to leave for work.

2013 Dodge Dart

Overall, I know Jeff would prefer a Dodge. But we’re both disappointed they don’t make smaller cars anymore. I showed Jeff both vehicles and while I was right he did like the sunroof of the Caliber, he liked the look and the gas mileage of the Accent better. I know Dodge is a great vehicle (We owned a Caravan before we traded it in for a new van), but we have to look at the rising gas prices and what will be better in the long run for gas mileage. I wish the Dart was arriving sooner rather than later. From what I can find it looks like it will be late Summer before it is on dealer lots. Wish we could get a car for just a few months for Jeff until the Dart comes out. The starting price from what I’ve read looks like it’s good and the MPG is great too! I hope this is the first of many smaller cars Dodge comes out with. (I just talked to Jeff…and we MIGHT hold off until the Dart is released…he hasn’t looked at the pictures and articles like I have and I think he’ll like it. What’s another couple months of just 1 vehicle…right?)

I think for now I’m going to keep looking and see if I’m missing anything. I don’t want to jump into anything too fast and regret it later (like I do the van…I wish we would have waited and got what I really wanted).  I will be following #DodgeDart on Twitter for updates!

You can see more of my car shopping journey today on my Google+ Album.

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias All opinions are my own and not influenced by anything or anyone.