Ava the Elephant Giveaway!

Terence and I love the show “Shark Tank” on ABC.  Last year we saw a product we both thought was genius!  Tiffany, a contestant on the show created a children’s medicine dispenser called “Ava the Elephant“.  Tiffany was kind enough to send us one to try and also sent one to giveaway to one of YOU! 

Our family has had several bouts of sickness this year and Connor hates taking medicine!  This is such a great product and makes taking medicine not so scary for babies and toddlers.  I would highly recommend it to other Moms & thank you Tiffany for dreaming up such a wonderful idea!

Here is some info on Ava the Elephant :

  • What kind of medicine is she used for?

Ava is perfect for ANY liquid medicine and even liquid vitamins!

  • What if my baby/child doesn’t respond to AVA at first?

I have found that using a little of their favorite drink… milk, juice, whatever works for them…and using Ava when they are not sick can work WONDERS! They will then associate her as a good/fun thing instead of fear!

  • What ages respond well to Ava?

We have found through much research that any age child can enjoy Ava. Small babies smile instantly at her sweet face and like to use her ears as handles! This gives you a chance to dispense the medicine mid-smile! Toddlers and older children really like Ava counting down to opening up! And of course her praising them at the end is always nice!

  • What does BPA & Phthalate-FREE mean and why is it important?

Bis-phenol-A is a hormone-disrupting chemical considered to be potentially harmful to human health and the environment. After cancer turned my life upside down I was determined to find out exactly what I was using on myself and family. It is equally important to me that your child does not use a product made with harmful plastics.

Here are Connor & I demonstrating how it works 🙂
ENTER TO WIN:

1.  Leave a comment telling me why you love Ava the Elephant!  Visit the website HERE
2.  Tweet or Facebook about this giveaway and leave a comment.
3.  “Like” Ava the Elephant on Facebook HERE and leave a comment.

Ava the Elephant is sold at CVS Pharmacy & a complete list of retailers can be found here.

Winner announced Friday, May 13th @ 12:00 pm central time

Dallas Blog Meetup Re-Cap

I had a great time at the Dallas Blogger Meetup this past Saturday.  I met some great gals “in real life” and they were just as wonderful in person!  I hung out with Whitney (our chauffeur), Niki (our co-pilot), and Leah (My “OMG Whitney don’t crash!” partner in the back seat).  I’m not familiar with Dallas even though I live here….and Whitney did a great job getting us around.
They drove here Friday from Arkansas and they gave me 1001 reasons why I needed to move back home…ha…ha….I totally agree!  I would move in a heart beat if I could 🙂
 Here are Niki & I at Bread Winners Cafe in Dallas
 Leah & Whitney
 Whitney & I taking a picture of each other taking a picture….
 The whole gang above…
I feel like a barely spoke to a lot of the other girls there and I tried to introduce myself???
It was hard to talk to everyone and I just felt out of the loop a bit, I felt a little awkward at times, maybe next time we have a meetup it will be a little easier….I guess you never know how it’s going to go when you meet people in person!  The food was great though!
 Our next stop was SPRINKLES 🙂
You all know I happily obliged that! 
I love me some Sprinkles and I was nice and brought Terence home a peanut butter cupcake. 
Ignore those two skinny girls behind me….I mean do they even eat cupcakes? For Realz.
 ♥ Whitney and her Sprinkles ♥
♥  Niki and her Sprinkles ♥
 I love this kid table and chairs.  They should sell it!

 Next stop was North Park Mall.  Niki and I are obsessed with paper stores.  They have the coolest cards, paper, and doo-dads.  I am also in ♥ with Niki’s camera bag….maybe someday I can get a Kelly Moore bag for myself.  Considering I just dropped my new camera and broke my lens filter I think it would be a good idea.  I love these bags because they are so stylish and look like a fashionable purse, but it’s a camera bag!

Sunday:
We drove out to Plano to run some errands.  I saw these fabulous lamps at Design Within Reach.  They were so cool and modern!  I even saw a chandelier similar to the one Summer loves.  We were testing out some desk chairs because Terence has started to work from home full time now.  Our desk chairs are very uncomfortable, so hopefully he’ll find something suitable soon!

While I was out on Saturday Terence took Connor to get a hair cut (above left) and to Chick-fil-a.  I’m glad they had some good Father/Son bonding time.  Everyone thinks they look just alike…..he’s my kid too yo!  We also made another trip to Breadwinners Cafe (the one in Plano) for brunch again on Sunday. I was craving those pancakes & Connor and Terence got to enjoy it with me this time!

I have decided that when I get home from work it’s going to be family time and not computer/phone time.  Honestly- I’ve been neglecting spending time with my family and doing the things that matter most to me in order to catch up on blogs or check Facebook/Twitter statuses….and that ain’t right ya’ll!  When I get home from work I should not walk in and get on the computer right away, and there is no reason I need to check my phone 100 times day while I’m in the car, at work, or sitting there watching TV.  It’s not the person I want to become….I want to TALK and not text, if someone really wants to reach me or talk to me they know where to find me.  I have found myself lately ignoring those who matter most.  Terence and I will be in the car and he’ll be carrying on a conversation and I won’t hear an actual word he says!  He shouldn’t have to compete for my attention with my phone and the computer…..so I will keep my blog,Twitter, Facebook…..as long as it doesn’t interfere with my family life.  They are what is important to me and every now and then I need to be reminded of that and realize that even in this digital world we are living in….my “real” life is what matters most.

xoxo Becky

Nice Day for a White Wedding

I got up early this morning and I did watch the royal wedding.  I didn’t get up at 4 am, but I rewinded my DVR and watched it on the Today Show.  It was lovely and everything I thought it would be 🙂

Kate’s dress was awesome.  I think she picked something classic, unlike Diana who looked like she was wearing a down comforter, I think her dress will be one for the ages….

 So sweet 🙂
My child has been throwing tantrums lately….
 Can I just say I don’t like this phase AT.ALL.
 The blood curdling screams are just crazy!!!
 Okay….all better now…..

 I love you baby boy…..tantrums and all…..

I’m not the best cook.  Last night I decided to make hash brown casserole because Bonnie said Jarrett loves it.  Well….Connor….not so much 🙁  Terence and I ate it….but it didn’t taste as good as Cracker Barrel.  I wonder if I missed something?

 For dessert : CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES
Breakfast.  It’s good for dinner too 🙂

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Sno-Coneheads

Summer is upon us 🙂
Terence and I passed a couple sno cone stands last night and I couldn’t resist!  I am an ice queen, an ice cruncher, ice snob….if you will…..  I love Sonic ice and I love QT ice.  Just don’t give my plain old cubed ice!  Ha..ha…
I got the wild cherry flavor and Terence got a Dublin Dr. Pepper one.  They were both delish, but we did get a little bit of brain freeze! 
Connor saw the upper GI specialist today and he’s just fine.  Nothing to worry about, we just have severely picky eater and a major gag reflex going on!
So glad tomorrow is Friday and excited for the Dallas Blogger Meetup!!!

 I even got a gummy worm on top 🙂
It’s the little things in life isn’t it?

Home Improvement

So we Terence has been working on our yard a lot lately.  We plan on gutting our front flower bed and re-doing the whole thing.  When we moved in it was just builder landscaping there.  We would like to personalize it more and put some plants we actually like in front of the house.  I’m not sure what kind of border I want to use?  Just the plain metal edging or some sort of stone.  Stone is way more expensive though!  Suggestions???
 We finally got Connor in the grass. 
For some reason he has had a wierd fear of grass lately…it’s so silly!
And we have to keep him from running out into the road now!

 Here is what we are working on so far:
 This is a very small flower bed to the side of the front sidewalk
We got these flowers last weekend to plant here
I’ll show the finished results when we get it all mulched and everything 🙂
 Also, I had shared before that our guest bedroom was in need of some major decorating.
 We finally got a night stand!

Well, we had company coming and we had been putting it off so we finally purchased THIS one from Pier 1 Imports.  It’s not the greatest quality, but it works in that room for the time being.

 BEFORE :
See how the lamp was on the floor…
WHAT I WORE WEDESDAY:
Disclaimer: I realize I look like a total dork taking pics of myself!
 Shirt : Ebay purchase for $3.25 (Winning bid!) Love the polka dots!
Shoes: Old – Aerosoles
Pants: Black dress pants from Ann Taylor Loft
Have you ever seen such a wollering boy in your entire life?
I told you he loves everything SOFT!
He just clings to it!

We go see an upper GI specialist tomorrow.  Not sure what is going on, but we’ve been having issues getting Connor to eat well and take milk.  He throws up a lot afterwards.  Prayers are appreciated!

Easter 2011

We had a great Easter with Terence’s family this year.  I was still recovering from the stomach bug I got last week…but towards Sunday I finally started to feel a bit myself again. 
Sunday morning we went to Easter service at Terence’s Mom & Dad’s church.  I always like to go to church with family on Easter Sunday.  We are so blessed to live in a country that allows us to worship freely. Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice, may we remember that on Easter and every other day of the year……
Afterwards we had a yummy lunch at Trinity Terrace with extended family.  The lunch buffet was AMAZING, and the dessert bar was even better 😉
I hope someday we can take Connor to Arkansas to the farm so he can see how his Mama celebrated Easter growing up!  There have been some pretty bad storms in Arkansas this past week.  My Nannie’s roof is having to get some major repairs 🙁 
It seems like Easter came really late this year and Easter and Mother’s Day are back to back…….
So here is our Easter re-cap :
 Connor with Dad & Mom
He doesn’t stay in one place very long these days
 Mr. Studly Stud

 Connor & cousin Arielle
See how hard it is to get a picture of two new walkers???
ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE!

 We decided to give Connor his Easter basket on Saturday night and he LOVED it 🙂

 He’s really into anything SOFT right now.  He just loves to snuggle anything and everything!
Connor also got an Elmo Easter card from Nana & Poppy!
Thank you Nana & Poppy so much and maybe next year I can see you on Easter too!!!
Love, Connor
Hope you all had a great Easter as well!
Love, The Branches