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Life Starring Ellie and Eve

MY REVIEW- Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo

Eve was a very particular baby...oh who am I kidding, she still is. Around the 3 month mark she didn't want to be sitting or laying, she wanted to be STANDING. She was not happy unless she was standing, and since she wasn't exactly standing by herself at 3 months, that meant that momma or daddy had to be holding her all the time. This situation got old quick, so I decided to try out the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo. I thought it looked neat and it had good ratings so I got it. I have to admit to being skeptical of how she would like it, like I said she was and still is a very particular baby, and if she doesn't like something...well she lets you know... loudly.
So crossing my fingers and holding my breath I went ahead and stuck her in. She gave a whimper, a small whine and then bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce she turned into one happy little baby. She loved it, she still loves it. She finally entertained herself, she bounced and still bounces like a wild child, and best of all I don't have to hold all 21lbs of her all the time. YEAHY! I definately recommend this to anyone who has a baby who likes to move, it was a life saver for me.

THE ELLIE AND EVE SEAL OF APPROVAL

Ps. I would like to add a note about the doorway jumpers that also do the same thing as this jumperoo. Please, please, please make sure that if you buy these that you install them CORRECTLY!!! I have heard stories of them not being installed correctly and breaking off from the doorway while the child was in them causing serious injury. Make sure that you follow the set-up directions carefully, if you aren't sure you did...don't put your child in it until you find someone who can look at it for you. Best of all, I would suggest mounting it onto the wall using screws into the studs. Just be careful.

Melaleuca GIVEAWAY!!!

GIVEAWAY: Win a bottle of the Renew lotion and a box of double fudge Access bars!

To Enter: Go to Melaleuca and look around. Then come back and leave me a comment telling me what products you liked the best. BONUS ENTRIES: *Subscribe to my site (leave me the address you used) *Follow my site (leav eme the name you used) *Grab my Button (leave me the url) *Blog about my site or Melaleuca or both (leave me the url) *Tell 3-4 friends about Life Starring Ellie and Eve (CC lifestarringellieandeve[@]gmail[.]com

My REVIEW- Eric Carle Books and GIVEAWAY!!!

I love books, I always have and I always will, and I hope to instill that love of reading into Ellie and Eve. One of my favorite illustrator is Eric Carle, I don't care who actually write the book as long as he is the one illustrating it. As I have mentioned before, I even dressed the girls up as the Very Hungry Caterpillar and the Very Hungry Butterfly for Halloween. Three of my favorite books that Carle illustrated are:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?

Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See?

They three are easy to read; Brown Bear is great for learning colors and they are all great for learning animals. Ellie has Brown Bear memorized and she reads along with me. I absolutely love any and all Eric Carle books and I would recommend finding and reading them all!

THE GIVEAWAY!!!

Two lucky winners will each receive:

Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See (Board Book)

Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See (Hard Cover)

Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear (Hard Cover)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See (Hard Cover)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See (Hard Cover 40th Anniversary Edition with CD)

MSRP Value of $80

Click Here to enter

THE ELLIE AND EVE SEAL OF APPROVAL & THE MOMMY SEAL OF APPROVAL

MY REVIEW- Embellishment Queen and GIVEAWAY!!!

There are time when you know what you want, but you can't exactly figure out how to do it. I knew that I wanted my girls to be the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Very Hungry Butterfly for Holloween, but I had no clue who to turn to get make the wings that Ellie would be wearing. To my rescue came Sonny, a designer who operates Embellishment Queen. Although she creates the prettiest pieces of wire wrapped jewelry as well as handbags in her shop, Sonny also worked in costuming for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and St. Louis Shakespeare Festival...and she offered to take my custom order for the wings! She made the wings and they looked great, exactly like the ones from The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and as an added bonus, she made them so that I could take the harness off and use them as decoration in Ellie's room; she even included legs, antenna and the body. Sonny makes jewelry and handbags and also takes custom orders; visit her store today!


The Giveaway!
Sonny has offered a custom set of earrings to the winner of this contest. Who says that all the giveaways should be about the kids? Click Here to find out how to win these adorable earrings!

MY REVIEW- Fisher Price Link a Doos Links

These little links are one of the most versatile toys on the market! Why, you ask? Because there are so many things that you can do with them...currently I have links attaching toys to Eve's carseat, attaching toys to her exersaucer, and she uses them to teeth on since they are the perfect shape...not to mention I have one on my keys so I can find them quickly in my bag. I generally like buying toys for the girls that have some kind of educational value, and while there is the occasional lapse when I just buy something that looks fun, I like toys with purpose. Eve got two packages of these for Christmas because there are so many things that I can do with them, necause she enjoys them, and because when one set gets lost it is always a good idea to have another one on hand. These get:

THE ELLIE AND EVE SEAL OF APPROVAL

MY REVIEW (Mom Product) Covergirl Outlast Lip Color

So, if there is one thing besides baby gear that I consider myself addicted to it is probably makeup. Now, I don't usually make time to put makeup on, but that doesn't stop me from coveting and collecting. I recently had the chance to try out Covergirl's Smoothwear All-Day Lipcolor and let me just say this: I am IMPRESSED. This, coming from the momma who has made it one of her missions in life to find the coolest, best staying on, and overall best deal lipcolors, means a lot. I put it on in the car at a stoplight...yes bad momma I know, but when you are strapped for time you do what you gotta do. It was easy to put on, smeared evenly and nicely, and the color was nice and rich. I added the moisturizing topcoat they sell with the color and it added a nice sheen and made it feel like my lips had the best moisturizer on. I went about my day...didn't check the mirror, didn't reapply, didn't do anything except eat, drink and snack away. I went to bed and woke up this morning...the lipcolor was still on and hadn't smudged! Ok...you caught me I didn't wash my face before bed, but that is not the point. This color lasted through an entire day of regular activity and all night long...totally awesome! I am going to go out and buy multiple shades to have on hand. I definitely recommend this for mommies who have just a few minutes to get done and go.

THE MOMMY SEAL OF APPROVAL

MY REVIEW- Bolt the Superdog Movie

So, today being the cold cold day it was, I decided to take a chance and go see a movie...what movie did I want to see Bolt: The Superdog. The commercials looked funny enough for me to appreciate and Ellie liked watching them too, so I was hoping she would appreciate the full length movie.

We liked it!!! The movie was funny (go Rhino the Hamster) and entertaining for both Ellie and me...Eve even liked watching the screen even though she had no clue what was going on. The dialogue was witty and the animation was awesome. It is amazing the stuff that Pixar can come up with. The true test: could Ellie sit through it without getting out of her seat, running all over and disrupting the other movie goers? YES! Ellie sat in her seat, enthralled, for 2 hours with only one seat change when she was getting fidgety with about 10 minutes left. I am still impressed.

The only thing that I really didn't like about the movie was the fact that it is in 3D. Maybe it is just me, or the fact that I have a child who won't wear the 3D glasses, but I really just don't think 3D is all that important...maybe if was some adult super action movie?

Overall I think this is a great kids movie! It even keeps the adults entertained, unlike some kids' movies where I aways wish the projector would fail. It is a great family movie and while not heavy on the storyline or plot it is rich in entertainment.

THE ELLIE AND EVE SEAL OF APPROVAL

My REVIEW-Graco Snugride and SafeSeat

After two kids, I consider myself somewhat of an expert on infant carseats. After all the research, trying out, buying returning and buying again, I have come to the conclusion that Graco Snugride and SafeSeat step one are two of my favorite infant carseats on the market.

The Graco SnugRide
(pictured top right) has comfortable, lightweight without the baby in it, has a high safety rating, and fits into most strollers (if it doesn't fit directly into the stroller you have or are thinking about buying you can buy an attachment part). Another thing that I really like about the snugride is that fact that the base is pretty easy to install using both the latch system and a regular car seat belt. There were only two small issues I had with the snugride, the first being the weight restriction. Both of my girls gained weight like crazy as infants and Eve (who was in a snugride) grew out of her's at 5 months. This wasn't really an issue for us since I had stopped lugging her around in the carseat anyways...it just wasn't practical to carry her in it while trying to carry or hold Ellie's hand. My second small issue was the fact that some models need to be adjusted from the back, which really isn't practical. Pay attention to the model you are getting and make sure that the straps can by adjucted from the front and you will be fine. Note that Graco has jsut recently come out with a Snugride 32 which goes up to 32lbs and 32"!

The Graco SafeSeat (pictured bottom right) is another favorite of mine, and was the carseat I bought for Ellie. This carseat lasted until we turned her around and put her in her convertible carseat at age 1. It was comfortable for her, lightweight when she wasn't in it, came in some neat patterns, and had high safety ratings. Again it fits into most strollers and you can buy the adapter that makes it fit into almost any stroller out there. I must say that this carseat base was the easiest to install at least using a regular car safety belt. It has a little snap down latch, so you just tighten the seatbelt and then just snap the latch down and are good to go.

My one and only major problem with Graco is the fact that some of the patterns that I LOVE are only available when you buy a travel system (carseat and stroller combined). I am hoping that sooner or later they will come to the realization that people with muliple children shouldn't have to buy a stroller they don't need to get the carseat they want.

THE ELLIE AND EVE SEAL OF APPROVAL

MY REVIEW: Joovy Sit n' Stand

So, I recently had the opportunity to try out the Joovy Sit n' Stand stroller. I have to admit I really liked the idea that it was based on...a lightwight stroller with a full sized seat for the youngest and a standing and sitting platform for the oldest (and best of all it has a strap in harness for the older child's seat). I thought that something like this would be great for Ellie who loves to walk and run around and then come over to me and say "I hold you..." I liked this stroller since it was lightweight, pretty easy to push, nice looking and fit into my car (I only had one issue and that was with folding it up...it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to collapse the stroller). While I might have like the stroller Ellie and Eve had some issues:

* the sitting platform behind the main seat is a little cramped in general, but when the front seat is in a semi-reclined position the child has to hunch over in order to fit.
* the standing platform was nice, but the child literally has to stand still in order to fit.
* the front seat doesn't recline all that much so the younger child has to fit in a relatively upright position, which Eve didn't like after a certain amount of time.

Overall I would say that this stroller is good for parents with a older infant or toddler (as the youngest child) and with a older child who would really only use the standing platform as opposed to the seat. It is a nice stroller, but it is pretty expensive unless you can find it used from craigslist or ebay.

MY REVIEW: Evenflo Triumph Advance DLX

When my first daughter was 11 months I started researching convertible carseats...I was so excited because it was such an important moment...the turning of the carseat! The carseat that I was looking for had to be:

* safe
* ultra comfortable since we are in the car a lot
* nice looking
* would have to safely install into my SUV, which does not have a latch system
AND
* affordable and not break our bank

There were a lot of options to look at and choose from. My final choice ended up being the Evenflo Triumph Advance DLX. It was affordable, got great safety reviews, was easy to install in my car and fit snugly without using the latch system and super padded and comfortable.

The first day it was delivered my daughter immediately sat in it as soon as I took it out of the box. We put it in the car forward-facing on Ellie's first birthday and she thought she was the coolest kid ever. In following year we have been very happy with how well the carseat has held up and Ellie still likes sitting in it. We were so pleased with how well the Evenflo Triumph Advance DLX performed that we bought another one for Eve, who grew out of her infant carseat at 5 months.

THE ELLIE AND EVE SEAL OF APPROVAL