Congratulations to Jessie!

Jessie Says:
December 3rd, 2009 at 14:03 Our 5 year old is obsessed with everything that has to do with Dora, so the fact that she asked for a Barbie this year is a relief for my husband and I…. Finally something different !!!!!!

For all the rest of you, don’t despair. There are still FIVE days of Toy Tuesday goodness left.

Today (December 4th) –> Mom’s Favorite Stuff
Saturday (December 5th) –> Bargain Briana
Sunday (December 6th) –> Table 4 Five
Monday (December 7th) –> Tip Junkie
Toy Tuesday (December 8th) –> Livin it, Lovin it

MK xo
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my feed.

Disclosure: I received a gift card for this post promoting Toy Tuesday.

If your kids are like mine, their holiday wish-lists and my wish-lists for them are never quite the same.

I wanted to make Georgia a handmade waldorf style baby doll. I showed her many, many photos and tried to talk her into it, but she’s firmly convinced that she wants this doll.

The Little Mommy Walk & Giggle Doll needs tender loving care. Little girls can nurture, play and help the doll take her very first big girl steps. Try to keep up as the Little Mommy Walk & Giggle Doll goes from sitting, to standing, to walking. This doll also loves to play peek-a-boo, drink from her bottle and take her puppy pull toy for a walk.

I remember ‘always’ wanting a Baby Alive and never getting one, so I am putting my love of natural aside and Little Mommy Walk & Giggle will have place under the tree.

For Sam and Lizzy, I’d love to buy them artistic and creative toys lovingly handcrafted in wood that promise to get them using their imaginations and increase brain power. Instead they’ve both listed these on the very tops of their lists:

The new Nintendo DSi is a high-powered hand-held video game system in a sleek, folding design — loaded with powerful features like touch screen control for a unique gaming experience. Snap great photos with the built-in camera, edit and send them to friends, play back your music with Nintendo DSi Sound, or browse the Internet with the Nintendo DSi Browser. From playing games to just playing around, the Nintendo DSi does it all.

Who am I to crush dreams? If the truth be told, I’d like to turn my own DS in for one of these New DSi’s. Anyone who’s ever been on a road trip with kids knows that Nintendo DSi’s save lives. REALLY MommyKnows!

This year, I am making my life easy. I’m going to do the bulk of my Christmas shopping online. I’ll buy the toys above at Toys “R” Us.

Toy Tuesday
On December 8, Bill Me Later is hosting “Toy Tuesday”. Visit www.toytuesday.com to find great deals on the holiday’s most wanted toys and gifts from leading retailers such as Toys “R” Us, Walmart.com, Step 2, Little Tikes, eToys, Drugstore.com, FAO Schwarz, HP, Overstock.com, MacMall, Mercantila and more.

What is Bill Me Later?
Bill Me Later is a quick, easy way to shop without using your credit card. To use Bill Me Later, simply choose Bill Me Later as your payment method at checkout at the merchant’s website, answer a few quick questions, accept the terms and you’re done. Approval only takes a few seconds. Then you’ll receive a bill in the mail (or online if you prefer).

Here is the really great part! Bill Me Later is going to give one of you a $250 Gift Card to Overstock.com a Toy Tuesday participating merchant and a $500 Gift Certificate (merchant to be decided based on the charity and their needs) to a local charity of the winner. That’s $750!

One winner will be chosen from the comments December 4th, 2009 @ 1 p.m. ET. Official Rules

There are five more days of Toy Tuesday GOODNESS and of course five more prizes. Make sure to visit Jodi @ MomsFavoriteStuff for tomorrow’s Toy Tuesday giveaway.

What’s on your kid’s holiday wish-lists? Comment for your chance to win!

MK xo
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my feed.

Disclosure: I received a $500 gift card for this post promoting Toy Tuesday.

*Winners are Nikki and Madeline – Congratulations, I’ll contact you both by email for your mailing addresses*

Mmm … the folks at The Popcorn Factory sent me a BIG tin of popcorn goodness in a traditional three-way combo of robust cheese, butter and caramel.

Guess which flavour is my favorite? I even had it for breakfast this week. I know, I know – I’m terrible! The popcorn on the other hand is not – it’s GOOD!

So good that I asked the Popcorn Factory if you could have some too, and they’ve offered TWO of YOU each a tin of popcorn.

The tin is massive, which is good because, I definitely have piglet tendencies. Did I mention that I REALLY liked the caramel flavour?

I am going to order a couple more. I think they’ll make fabulous hostess gifts over the holidays. The tins can be personalized with a photo or message label on top. For more information, visit www.thepopcornfactory.com.

In addition to the popcorn I received a box of Fannie May Truffles. I’d love to tell you how delicious they were, however, after scarfing down the cookies and butter cream frosted brownies from www.cherylandco.com that were also in the box; I decided to save the truffles for my Grandma. I know … honestly … I don’t think I could get much sweeter! It must be all the candy I’m eating.

If you’d like to win a tin of popcorn from The Popcorn Factory leave a comment on this post. I’ll pick two random winners on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 @ 1 p.m. MT.

What do you usually take to holiday parties as a hostess / thank you gift?

MK xo
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my feed.

Disclaimer: I was provided with popcorn, cookies, brownies and truffles to review free of charge. No payment was received in exchange for this post. The opinions in this post are my own.

Winner: Laura V. (please email me: kim (@) mommyknows (dot) com with your address and I’ll have these sent to you).

Last week while shopping in Soho, I found these great Izmir Measuring Cups in Anthropologie.

I loved them! I really wanted them sitting on my counter-top. I just knew I’d bake more if I owned these, and I was pretty sure everything would taste better too.

Unfortunately, I actually went to NYC with just a carry-on sized suitcase. DUH! Needless to say, there was NO ROOM for anything extra, let alone something breakable that would need extra padding.

So … I am going to order them online, and I thought I’d order one of you a set too! ‘Cause I’m nice like that.

Two ways to win:

1. Comment on any post until Friday, October 9th, 2009
2. Twitter about this and use hashtag #mommyknows (no need to comment your tweet, if you use the hashtag #mommyknows, I’ll count it).

The contest will close late Friday evening, I will then gather all the entries, randomly draw a winner and post sometime on Sunday, October 11th, 2009.

Good luck!

MK xo
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my feed.

Note: this is not a paid post. This contest is not sponsored by Anthropologie.com. I just like the measuring cups and thought you might like them too.

Winner is: Deborah (email me @ kim (@) mommyknows (dot) com with your address :)

Deborah Says:
September 25th, 2009 at 12:49 pm

Wow, that is one we could use. My husband claims that if it weren’t for my ’shoddy teeth’ we wouldn’t need our health benefits. We have 3 girls, ages 6, 5, & 2 and we keep up regular brushing for their teeth, but I honestly had NO idea I was supposed to be flossing them too! I don’t even floss my teeth often enough..gotta step it up a notch!

***
Do you hear the word dentist and shudder with fear? Georgia doesn’t, she hears dentist and thinks ’sparkly diamond rings’ (her dentist has a to-die-for prize-chest). For that I am very grateful (not for the prize-chest, but her comfort level in the dentist’s chair), especially because she had to visit him way too much over the past few weeks. She’s a trooper!

The parenting guilt, ACK! Cavities! She had cavities, more than one!

Most of all, it was upsetting to me that we hadn’t taken sufficient care of her teeth. I was also worried about getting her through repeat dentist visits. Then I realized, that there is no point in dwelling on ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda’! It was time to get Georgia’s mouth healthy and keep it that way! It turned out to be a positive tear free experience for us all.

Part of me wants to tell you that, two of my four children have never had a cavity (sorry I just had to get that in there) and Georgia has bad teeth, but what’s really important, is that Georgia’s oral care routine needs stepped up a notch (or two even) to keep her mouth as healthy as it can be.

Georgia’s dental visits coincided with a request from the experts at Oral-B Stages to share the importance of building good oral care habits at a young age with my readers.

Did I want to share this info with you?
Try some samples?
Offer you the chance to win a fabulous Oral-B and Crest family dental hygiene prize pack (customized just for your family)?

HELL YAH! Of course I do!

Earlier this week we received a wonderful package of Oral-B products for the kids in the mail, along with a great informational book, ‘Olivia the Toot Fairy and the Truth about Teeth‘.

The kids of course are thrilled with the new toothbrushes and toothpaste (all geared for their age/stage). Mr. MK and I read through the info book with the kids reinforcing the importance of keeping their mouths healthy, by brushing and flossing daily, NOT just running your toothbrush under the tap and saying you brushed them (SAM … I’m watching you!).

For Georgia, Mr. MK and I have stepped up our commitment to keep her teeth in the best shape possible. Twice daily thorough brushing, daily flossing, no snacks after brushing at night. It definitely helps that she came home from the dentist with her very own Winnie the Pooh Oral-B toothbrush and then received matching toothpaste from Oral-B in the mail this week.

We’ve printed out Oral-B Posters for each of our kids to reinforce our routines. The promise of a family skating day will be their reward at the end of the month.

Tips for Teeth (for kids of all ages):

• Tooth decay is the most common infectious disease in children
• Tooth decay in kids is completely preventable by parents setting good examples and habits at an early age
• As soon as there is a tooth – it needs to be brushed
• As soon as two teeth touch – they need to be flossed
• Oral-B Stages is the first line of children’s toothbrushes specially designed for each stage of a child’s oral development from baby to pre-teen

Download a bathroom poster loaded with helpful tips to keep kids on top of their brushing and flossing routine. Download and print the poster for free here:  Oral-B Stages Poster Downloads

Now to the fun part – the Giveaway!

Crest and Oral-B are offering one lucky family the chance to win a family sized Crest and Oral-B Oral Hygiene Prize packaged customized for your family (Value $125+). It will contain:

For the grownups:

2 x Oral-B Pulsonic toothbrushes (I want one of these!)
1 x Crest Pro-Health toothpaste
1 x Crest Glide Plus Scope floss
1 x Crest Pro-Health Rinse

For the kiddos:

You’ll receive: toothbrushes and toothpaste customized for your children’s age and gender from Oral-B Stages.

***

I will randomly pick a winner from all of the entries the evening of Sunday October 4th, 2009. The folks at Oral-B will ship your prize directly to you.

To be eligible to win:

1. You must leave a comment (worth 1 entry) and tell me about your family and your oral hygiene routine. How many kids do you have? Do you find it hard to keep your kids on track with brushing and flossing, or do you have it all under control?

Earn extra entries by:

2. Blog about the contest (worth 2 entries)

3. Twitter about the contest and use hashtag #OralB (worth 2 entries) – note: if you use the hashtag (#OralB), there is no need to come back and tell me you tweeted, they will be tracked.

4. stumble it (worth 2 entries)

5. follow me on twitter (do it … you’ll like it) (worth 1 entry)

MK xo
If you’ve enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my feed.