Category Archives: recommendations

Becoming Savvy…

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If you look up the definition for the word Savvy, you will see it means well informed, smart, etc.  If you are savvy at something, it means you know what you are doing, people look to you for answers in that subject.  My husband is VERY tech savvy and I am, well….snot savvy! Haha My brother is savvy at languages while my other brother is savvy at gymnastics.  Well we have a dear friend, Keri Lehmann, who is savvy at all things body care!  She is a certified nail technician (and by the way does the absolute best manis/pedis you will EVER have) and she has made her own sugar scrubs, body lotions, etc for years.  Well she finally decided to get up the gusto and start selling her products so all of us could enjoy them.  She is lovely creator of, wait for it………Savvy Boheme. As a side note, my husband built her website, isn’t it awesome!

Anyway, These products aren’t just your ordinary lotions, cremes, bath salts, etc.  They are all natural, organic and fair trade ingredients.  The sugar scrubs are natural enough to eat.  Ok, Don’t eat them, but if they just happen to get into your mouth as you are putting it on your face, its not gonna kill you, its actually kinda tasty.  If you ever get a chance to sit down with Keri, ask her about her products and the benefits of them. She will gladly, and enthusiastically, share her story with you.  In fact just sit and talk with her about life in general.  Keri is an absolutely amazing woman and you’ll love her just as much as I do.

Keri only uses essential oils to fragrance her products and they smell amazing! But I will warn you, if you smell her bars of soap, you may want to eat one of them, they smell so good…until you remember its soap! Most moisturizers and lotions have extra “stuff” and preservatives mixed in and as Keri explains, all that “stuff” acts as a barrier, almost like saran wrap, on your skin and doesn’t allow the nutrients to actually get into your skin.  So your skin doesn’t really get the full moisturizing and nutritional benefit from the product and you just waste your money.  When you use ingredients that aren’t natural, your body doesn’t know how to process it, so it has to work extra hard to figure out what to do with it.

A lot of body care and personal products are made with fillers and solvents, like forms of phenol and phthalates…anyone heard of BPA?  Look them up sometime and see what all the health problems they can cause!  They are known to cause female and male infertility and fetal toxicity (which was a shock to me) and for all you fellow scientific people out there, some phenols are germicidal and are used in formulating disinfectants. Others possess estrogenic or endocrine descrupting activity.

I don’t know about you but when I look at the ingredient list on some of my lotion bottles, I can’t pronounce half of them on that long list.  So when I pick up her products and there is a short, simple list of ingredients (all of which I can pronounce and know what they are) its refreshing and makes me feel a whole lot better about putting it on my skin.

Knowing all this has opened my eyes and has caused me to go through all my body care lotions, soaps, moisturizers, etc and toss them all out!  I now only use soaps, lotions, sugar scrubs, bath salts, etc from Savvy Boheme!  I absolutely love them and am sold for life! Some of my personal favorite items are the african black soap (ABS) and Raven’s Balm (to be used as a moisturizer after the ABS). The ABS is one word, A-mazing! It completely strips all the oils from your face so is it a necessity to use a moisturizer after cleaning with the soap.  You can use any of her shea butters, raw sugar scrubs (for an extra benefit of exfoliating as well as moisturizing) but my favorite is the Balm.  You only need a tiny bit and it moisturizes the entire face but also keeps it from feeling all oily.  I have used the ABS for a little over a week now and can tell a difference already.  My face seems to be clearer and the skin looks fresher and younger.  But the most noticeable difference to me is that it doesn’t feel as oily throughout the day.  I have always had a problem with an oily face and after searching many many years  for a product to help with this, I finally found one!

I also love the Whipped Shea Butter and Raw Sugar Scrub.  I have used the Shea butter on my lovely souvenir stretch marks from the twins and it has actually decreased their appearance! I thought I would never be able to get rid of them because, man was I stretched to the max with those boys. I have recently started using her soaps (the Bliss soap smells awesome) and my routine is to use the body soap and then the sugar scrub.  I have actually used the sugar scrub to shave with and it works great as well. Because it moisturizes the legs enough, you don’t need to use lotion afterwards, but I do use the shea butter because that’s just how I roll.  Now that I have given you the knowledge and some recommendations, go get your very own savvy boheme products, you won’t regret it, I PROMISE! You can order them by clicking HERE

Thank you Keri for sharing your products with the rest of us so we can enjoy them too!!

Favorite Things: Part II

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When the boys were a couple months old I wrote a post on my favorite baby must haves, well now that the boys are a little older I figured I would do another one with a more current list for babies 6+ months.

in their snooze sacks

When the boys were little little we used the miracle blanket with them to swaddle them and it was awesome!! So when they out grew it we had to find something else to take it’s place, and at that point it was still kind of chilly outside and since babies can’t use blankets you need something to keep them warm. So I found the Snooze Sack and it was perfect.  The boys loved them! Its basically a wearable blanket, there are many different brands out there, but the snooze sack was the best one that I found.  It has a band type thing that goes around their tummy to keep them feel secure and then the sack keeps them warm.  I highly recommend it, my boys would still be wearing it if it fit!

 

Tommee Tippee Bottles

On my last post I wrote about the Dr. Brown bottles. They are great and I would still use them today but I just got tired of cleaning all the parts! So when the boys were about 4 or 5 months old I switched them to Tommee Tippee bottles.

They are great, and the boys didn’t seem to notice the difference much at all. Well, I take that back. Hayden didn’t notice a difference, but Ian wouldn’t take it for a day or two until he realized it was, in fact, ok to drink from. The nipples are very different than the Dr. Brown bottles and I think it confused him. They were not spitting up anymore or less when we switched them so I was happy. The only downside is that they can only be found at Babies R Us, so you can’t just run to Target or Walmart and get one if you need it.

The boys with thier taggies

Our boys love their Taggies. My mom got them each one for Christmas and they sleep with them every night. Its about a 10 X 10 square and its small enough that they can sleep with them. You can usually find Hayden’s cuddled up under him in his arms at night and if you try to take it away, he pulls it back from you. I have a feeling we’ll be ordering some more taggies for Christmas this year.

Pacifier Holder

This one is more of a general item. A pacifier holder is a must at this age. They are constantly dropping their pacifier and it lands on the floor. At home, I’m fine with this because its my house and I know its clean, a little dog fur never hurt anyone! But when you are out at the store or a restaurant, you don’t really want it landing on the ground.

Bumper Cars

The top one on our list is a walker. Now, there are a lot of people out there that say these are a safety hazard, and I can see why they would say that. But, at the same time, I don’t know how they are using them but there is no safety hazard going on in our house. The only hazard is that you may get your toes taken off by one when they run over them! Its called Common Sense people! Anyway, our boys LOVE these cars. We had one originally and they both loved them so much we ended up getting another one. So now we play bumper cars in our house.

Fisher Price Highchair

I originally got the hook on high chairs for our table because the dining area in our kitchen is kind of tight for space.  They worked great, until I had to clean them, then they are a a hassle to take off and wash.  They also had a gap between the seat and the table so every little crumb would slip through the crack, I can only imagine what the floor would look like when they are a little older.  So I decided to go ahead and get two full highchairs.  We still use the hook on chairs when we go places, and are great to have when we go to grandparents houses.  But if you’re looking for a highchair, go with a full sized chair and save some time and effort.  And, when you have two little ones, your time is like gold.

I decided to get the Fisher Price EZ clean Luv u zoo highchair.  This highchair is great.  Not only is it a smaller highchair but it is super easy to clean.  It is Crevice free to prevent food from getting stuck, the restraint straps are easy to wipe down, the height and recline are adjustable and it folds up for storage.

Hayden

When the boys were a little younger and not able to stand up or sit up by themselves, they really liked the Fisher Price space saver bounce and spin froggy.  They would play so hard in it, they would fall asleep sometimes.  Its a great bouncer for them to play in while you need to start dinner, laundry, etc.  They will still play with it some now, but since they are able to crawl they don’t like to be confined too long.

Sophie the giraffe

Sohpie, the giraffe. In all honesty, this looks like a dog toy…it feels like one, squeaks like one and our dog loves to try to snatch it from the boys.  We keep our giraffes the car for the boys to play with and entertain them while driving. They are easy to hold onto and get in their mouths to chew.  Great for teething babies.

The next one isn’t a baby item but it is a must when you have a baby/toddler in the house…a dust buster, or any hand held vacuum.  I was always pulling out our big vacuum to clean up after dinner and got tired of it so I went out one day and got a little hand held vacuum and it has been wonderful.

I could go on and on about all the things that are great to have but I won’t, these are just the top items that I would recommend for baby.

Baby must haves

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There are so many baby items out there these days. Some items are must haves while others are good to have but not necessarily needed, and then there are the ones that are just a waste of money. Take a stroll though the isles of Babies R Us and you will see what I mean.

A good example of a waste of money item would be the PeePee Teepee They are kind of light weight and if your little one wiggles and squirms around as much as ours do it will fall right off. Also, once the fountain starts to spray it just hits the top of the teepee and dribbles down so you still end up cleaning up after them. Great in theory, but not really practical. A good but not necessary baby item would be something like the Dr. Brown’s formula mixing pitcher. This is a nice item to have because you can mix a batch of formula and then pour it into bottles for the entire day, all at once. It cuts down on time and is nice to have but definitely not a necessity. It’s not that difficult to fill the bottles with water for the entire day and then at each feeding mix the formula in with it.

But here is a list of things, that in my experience, have become definite baby must haves:

1) The number one thing that I would recommend to any parent of an infant is the Fisher Price Rock ‘n Play sleeper.

Fisher Price Rock 'n Play sleeper


This bassinet is awesome and I can’t give enough praises about this product! It is extremely portable and easy to take places. We have taken these to both of our parents houses for visits and its great because the boys are used to sleeping in them so their sleep environment doesn’t change that much. Its also pretty light weight so you are able to carry it after having a c-section. It has a 3 point restraint for babies security and the cover is washable. Our boys slept in these the first 3 weeks and then we tried putting them in their crib. They didn’t do well laying flat on their back because they spit up more than normal. The bassinet is at an incline so it helps with their spit up and if your baby has reflux, like I suspect mine does, this is a must have.

2) Tommee Tippee bibs which are perfect for newborns and infants.

Tommee Tippee Bib


The neck is small enough to actually fit around their necks and it has a fat collar that’s absorbent and soaks up the slightest leaks and dribbles that run down the neck. Every bib we have is either too big or not absorbant enough for newborns so we haven’t used them. Instead we were just using a burp cloth under their necks and that’s a hassle and a half. Since I found these awesome bibs, I’ll never go back to the burp cloths. I went back and bought two more sets (they come in a pack of 2). The one downside is that the only place I’ve found them is at Babies R Us.

3) A sheet saver. In one night (the one night we put them on their back in the crib) we went through 4 of these.

Koala Baby Deluxe Plush Sheet Saver


These are great to have for little ones that spit up, vomit, or pee and poop through their diaper. It is made of ribbed fleece, an absorbent fabric, and has a leak proof backside to help to protect baby’s sheets.

4) This one was on my wish list a while back and I ended up getting two sets of them, one for Hayden and one for Ian (a set is 4 labels). It is the Inch Bug bumpy name orbit labels that imprints your baby’s name on the label.

Inch Bug Orbit Labels


With two babies, these are a must! Our babies are on two different formulas so we need these to differentiate the bottles from one another and so we give the right bottle to the right baby. These are especially good for babies that go to daycare or any childcare so you can keep up with your bottles, cups, etc.

5) Bouncy Seats are a wonderful thing to have. Of course you could live without having them so technically this should probably fall under the nice to have but not a necessity category. But with multiples, it is a must. I usually put the babies in these and put them in my bathroom while I take a shower. Ours has a vibrating mechanism in it and that seems to soothe them sometimes when they are fussy or tired but don’t want to go to sleep.

Chillin while mom gets ready

6) Dr. Brown’s Bottles. I’ve never used any other bottles so I can’t compare them to others but I love these bottles. They claim to reduce colic symptoms and decrease the amount of air babies take in while eating. I guess it works because our babies don’t seem to spit up a whole lot…I’ve seen some babies that spit up far more than ours, and ours have reflux. The only down side to these bottles are they have some extra parts to clean and it can be a hassle. Luckily we have like 16 bottles so we only have to clean them once a day.

7) Biz is a wonderful invention, while its not a baby item, it is a baby must have. Let’s face it, babies spit up and dribble formula when they eat. Formula likes to stain clothes and everything else it touches if you let it sit and dry. My mom told me of this little secret and it has worked so far, not one stained outfit or anything. I have a little tub that I put warm water and biz detergent in and then just soak the clothes, cloths or whatever in the water for a while before washing them.

8) Lastly is the Belly Bandit. Ok, so this one isn’t necessarily a baby product, but it’s a post baby product for mom. And what’s good for mom is what’s good for baby…in a way. This is a band that you put around your abdomen and it basically acts as a binding to hold in all your gushyness that is your abdomen after you have a baby. It claims to help get your body back to its pre baby state. In mine opinion, not only did it help with reducing the size of my tummy by helping the abdominal muscles, uterine swelling, bloating, etc but it also helps with pain control after the c-section. I’ve also noticed that it helps with stretch marks….not sure how but I guess it works with the elasticity of the skin. However it works, I notice that they seem less noticeable after I’ve been wearing the band for a while. I didn’t wear it all day like they say your supposed to and honestly I didn’t wear it everyday either. I still will wear it occasionally and I probably will for a while. Depending on the shirt you are wearing, you can tell you are wearing something under your clothes, but its not that noticeable. I recommend this for anyone who has had a baby….c-section or not. It is on the pricey side so if you are worried about cost, honestly you could probably just use a big ace bandage, but I can’t vouch for that since I haven’t tried it.

Belly Bandit

So there you have it, those are my baby must haves. I’m sure in 6 months my must have list will change as our boys get older, but this is my list for newborns.

Scentsy

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I have to say, I love my scentsy warmer and fragrances. I became a scentsy lover about a year ago and it is a wonderful creation. It’s great because it emits a smell stronger than most candles but it doesn’t use a flame. It uses a light bulb and wax, which by the way doesn’t get too hot if it spills for some reason. I’ve touched the wax when its at its hottest and of course, its hot but not hot enough to burn you so you don’t have to worry about a kid or anyone knocking it over and burning them.

Since I got my warmer I haven’t ordered any new scents because I didn’t know anyone that sold it that lived close to me…until now! Our friend Keri Lehmann is a scentsy consultant now so I can order any scents, warmers, etc to my hearts content. It’s easy too, you don’t even have to know the consultant apparently. I just went online to her web page, ordered the things I wanted and viola it was shipped to my house. The fall catalog just came out with new fragrances and warmers. I have a full size warmer that I use in our living room but wanted a smaller one for our bedroom so I got a plug in warmer. This is the one I just got:

I also wanted to get some new scents that were more fall like smells. I got the new Cranberry Muffin scent which is AWESOME, Hazelnut Latte and Cinnamon Bear. All three smell really good and make the house smell all homey like.

There is a new warmer that came out this fall that I really want to get…it’s called the Boho Chic warmer:

So if you have never used a scentsy, or even heard of one, you should go to Keri’s website and order a warmer, even the small plug in warmers are great and are ideal for small rooms like bedrooms or bathrooms. With the holidays coming up, they make great gifts as well…we gave a couple of warmers as gifts last year for Christmas.

Wish list

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The last 2 months I have had plenty of time to look online and find a lot of things that I would like to get for the boys. Here are a few of things that I have found.

1) custom labels

These are rubber band type labels that you can put on sippy cups, bottles, etc. With two little ones, these could come in handy when they move on to sippy cups.

2) Corduroy Vest onsie

Isn’t this the cutest little outfit?! I found it on etsy and yes, it is a little pricey for a onsie…$20, but it’s still cute.

3) Buy one Get one onsies

This is another onsie I found on Etsy and it’s a set of 2 onsies, obviously.

4) Tuxedo onsie

I’ve actually considered ordering two of these for the boys to wear at my brothers wedding in January….haha, its a little tuxedo!

5) shoe socks

These are socks that are made to look like shoes…because really what 3 month old needs to wear shoes! But socks that look like shoes, now there’s an idea.

Portion for Orphans

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Last night my sister-in-law, Kara, had a benefit dinner for Portion for Orphans. All tips given to their wait team will be given straight to Portion for Orphans to provide daily necessities and medical needs for children around the world. It was a great opportunity to learn more about Portion for Orphans and what your tip money can do to bring hope to children in need.
After the event she sent us a text and told us they got about enough money to feed and diaper a child in Kenya, India, or China for 1 year. If only it were that cheap to feed and diaper a child for a whole year here!

All photos courtesy of portion for orphans

Portion for Orphans exists to fulfill three primary goals:

* Raise public awareness about orphans worldwide
* Improve the quality of care provided to orphans
* Promote physical and spiritual development of orphans by offering training and educational support to their caregivers


“Raising society’s awareness of orphans and the critical problems they experience is the first step towards becoming compassionate to them and acting to solve their problems. Through visits to orphanages around the globe and first-hand interactions with orphans and their caregivers, we heighten our own awareness of the numerous challenges that orphans face each day. Portion for Orphans relies on informational events, public speeches, as well as printed and online publications to distribute alarming information about orphans to individuals and organizations who have the ability to become a part of the solution to their problems.

By partnering with supporters and volunteers, Portion for Orphans strives to improve the lives of orphaned children by meeting their physical, educational, emotional, spiritual, and vocational needs. Face-to-face contact with children at supported orphanages enables Portion for Orphans to accurately assess and prioritize their problems in order to determine their most vital needs. On a case-specific basis, Portion for Orphans volunteers take an active, personal approach to finding solutions and bringing together the resources required to meet the urgent needs of children and orphanages.”

Pay Attention Better: Drink Tea

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Useless fact of the day:

Feel a bit scatterbrained now and then? Make yourself a big jug of sun tea. Not for the caffeine, but for one heck of a potent compound that could fine-tune your focus. It’s theanine. When people in a study consumed theanine (an amino acid) and then performed a challenging mental task that required both looking and listening skills, their brains became quite active. Specifically, the right parietooccipital cortex lit up. That’s a part of the brain’s circuit system tied to attention span. So if you feel more alert and focused after a tea break, it’s no wonder! Awesome….I love tea so now there’s a good reason to drink it.

Carnival Ride

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cd
I just recently got Carrie Underwood’s new CD Carnival Ride. I absolutely love it. It’s almost as good as her first album, if not better. This album is more country than her first with hints of banjos and foot stomping tempos. You know its a country album when there’s a song about being drunk at the alter and you don’t know your new last name. It’s similar to Alan Jackson’s song “I don’t even know your name”. Then there’s the song about how the more boys she meets the more she loves her dog. My brother didn’t seem to like that song but I love it. Beofre I met Jonathan, that’s how I felt. Over all it’s a great album and I’m already ready for her third!

Books

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If you know me well you know I’ve never been a big reader…unless it’s a physics book–I know, I know -I’m a nerd! Anyway, I have recently found a few good books that I highly recommend. First there is one author that I just absolutely love. Lisa Scottoline writes these thriller novels about law and justice. She is quoted saying “I write books about justice because it matters, and involves the struggle between right and wrong, and love and hate. Once I start one of these books I just can’t put it down! she has about 10 books out now and I recommend the books: Mistaken Identity, Killer Smile, and Courting Trouble.
Two other books that I recommend are For Women Only and For Men Only by Shaunti Feldhahn. They are two books about the inner workings of men and women. These are great books about differences of how men and women think. They are good for anyone, not just people in relationships…they help you understand how men and women think and that can help you in any relationship, whether it’s your dad, brother, boyfriend or husband. An example she uses is the difference in the way women perceive images vs the way a man perceives it. She says that men have a visual rolodex, they see an image and at any given time something can spark that image and they flip through the rolodex and there it is–the image in their mind, whether they want it there or not. Another key point she says is that men would rather feel respected than loved and women would rather feel loved. Ask any man that and he would probably agree.
The last book I recommend is 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper. This book is a story about a man who was in a car accident and died but then came back to life. He was dead for about 90 minutes, hence the name. The story accounts for his time in heaven and then goes on to describe his time spent during recovery. The book is more of a testament on how he got through his recovery and why God brought him back to this earth and the pain he is living with. He got to have a glimpse of Heaven but God wasn’t through with him and he had to deal with why God brought him back. It is a really good book and I do recommend you read it. Any of these books you can buy through www.casadeblundell.com at our store or click on the Amazon link to the right of this page.