InspiredByFinn Review (Teething Necklace)

Well we are at that stage of life when Elijah is starting to teeth! Who knew it would come so fast!?

I have heard horror stories from many people about teething and I wanted to be prepared! So, I asked my dear friend Bert, over at FTM, about the "teething" necklace she purchased for her son. She got it from InspiredByFinn. She loved it! So I thought I would give it a try...I mean it can't hurt to try! I went on the website and found so many options to choice from. Well, I believe if something works, why change it, so I bought the same necklace Bert used for Brennan, the Butter Round.

The necklace came for Elijah on a Monday and we popped it on him!

Elijah wearing his necklace!

At this point he had one tooth that had already broke through on Sunday. We put it on him each day (taking it off during naps and at night) and waited to see if it was helping. I have to be honest, I wasn't so sure it was...I mean he only fussed ONE day while the first tooth came through! So a little skeptical I kept on waiting. Then it hit...we didn't put it on him for hours and he was fussy...not fussy because he was hungry or tired, but fussy from teething! The other thing I have noticed (can't say 100% that it's related...) but he has had NO drooling and has rarely spit up with the necklace on (and he was spitting up every day)!! I think as time goes on and more teeth start making their way up we will be able to notice a difference with the necklace even more!

But for now...I am happy and Elijah is happy! :) PLUS...their shipping is great...only $2.95!!

Here is a little more about the necklaces (taken from the website):

Our necklaces and bracelets are handcrafted and are made of authentic Baltic amber, the most esteemed type of amber in the world. The translucency of amber depends on the amount of air bubbles contained within a piece of amber and their distribution. Some believe the color is related to the type of tree source. 

Via

Among other things, amber is a natural analgesic (pain reliever) and anti-inflammatory. When amber is worn on the skin, the warmth of the skin releases trace amounts of healing oils on the skin. Commonly known as "teething jewelry," Baltic amber has been a natural and traditional European remedy for teething discomfort for hundreds of years.


The necklace fastens with a screw clasp, and the necklace cord is knotted in between each bead.


I received the necklace at a discount from InspiredByFinn  for giving my honest review. All opinions on this review are my own.

Taggie Love Giveaway

My first giveaway is here!! I am privileged to introduce you to a brand new company called Taggie Love!! Taggie Love was started by a wonderful young woman named Abby. We go to church together (well now she left us for college) and had the honor to get to know her better through the Senior High program. She is an amazing woman with a heart of gold and has a talent for making these adorable Taggie blankets! She made my son, Elijah, a taggie blanket and he LOVES it, so much in fact that I ordered a second to have on hand!

This giveaway is your choice of a boy or girl Taggie Blanket...yep the winner gets to choose!! BUT that's not all...everyone who reads this has the opportunity to receive 10% off your order at Taggie Love!! When emailing Abby with your order give her the code: Elijah10%. These make GREAT gifts!

Here are the two Taggies you get to pick from...

Here is what moms are saying about the Taggie Blankets:

My Review: My son Elijah LOVES his blanket! It's a perfect size for traveling in the car, shoving into the diaper bag and taking with us everywhere. Elijah loves to suck on all the tags that hang off the edges. It's so precious to see him falling asleep hanging on to his blanket!

Abby does a wonderful job creating a blanket that your child will love. She incorporates things they love, things you love and certain colors (like to match the nursery).

Elijah sucking on the tags

Bert's Review: I love Abby's tag blankets. Brennan, my 2 and a half year old, has had the same one she made for him before he was born. Since he was four months old we haven't left "Taggie" (that's what we call it) home without it. It's funny, we actually had Abby make another Taggie in case we lost the original one. Now he uses both, but prefers the original, he even calls the replacement "new Taggie." 

I think part of the appeal babies have for Abby's blanket is it's size, the colors and fabric choices Abby uses and the durability of the blanket. We have had the same one for two and a half years and although it's well loved, it's still in one piece and the tags have not fallen off. Here's a picture of him when he was seven months old loving his Taggie. Whenever he picks it up he brings it to his face to smell it - something he's been doing since he first got attached to his Taggie.

Brennan at 7mo. with his Taggie

How to Enter:

You can entry several times. After each task accomplished leave a separate comment below.

1. Become a follower [click on the follow button] of Life's A Project (Mandatory for Giveaway)

2. Become a follower of Taggie Love.

3. Tell your friends on Facebook about the giveaway with a link to the blog.

4. Blog about the giveaway (include a link to the blog).

5. Tweet about the giveaway (include a link to the blog).

Don't forget to leave a comment after each entry!! 

Contest goes from Thursday, April 28th until Saturday April 30th! Winner announced on Sunday, May 1st!!

NEW NAME...

As of today my blog will no longer be called Life's Journey but instead be Life's a Project. I decided to change the title for a few reasons...

1. Life is a journey, but I want my blog to have many things...including home projects, recipes, ideas, and of course the happenings in our life.
2. I wanted something a little catchy...so PLEASE tell me that's catchy er!! Ha ha!
3. I like the name better! :)

Bare with me as several more changes are underway with my blog! AND stayed tuned for my first giveaway tomorrow!!

Welcome to...

Life's a Project: The life and projects of a Homemaker!

Easter Recap

Elijah and I (and my sister, Kelsey and Pablo the Pug) headed to Staples for Easter, while our husbands stayed in the cities. Josh had to work (the life of a Pastor) and Mark helps with sound tech stuff.

From the minute we attempted to leave it was an adventure!!

Car adventures: trying to get Elijah's car seat base into Kelsey's car (that has a shoulder strap instead of lap belt), Elijah not wanting to take a nap, Pablo jumping into the backseat and scaring Elijah into a hysteria, and lastly Pablo being locked up in his kennel for the remainder of the drive where he continued to whine THE WHOLE WAY!!

BUT...who could stay mad at this face?!

Adventures while we were there: Throwing Kelsey a baby shower on Saturday and holding one Easter dinner on Saturday, Getting to meet my newest 2nd cousin (who is ADORABLE and so TINY), Hearing my Uncle Jim preach at his church, Elijah seeing his 3rd cousins (three of them), Having a second Easter lunch and getting to see a lot of family members!! AND Elijah learning to sit up for a long period of time!!!

The Mommy To Be at her shower

Reading with Great Grandpa Kenny and 3rd cousin Tommy

Elijah with Grandma and Grandpa Griffith

Elijah and Uncle Leighton

Then once we were home we gave Elijah his first Easter basket from mom and dad.

"Is this egg for me?"

While all the adventures leave for great pictures and good stories it still doesn't compare to the reason for Easter and that is that Christ is Risen!

How did you spend your Easter? Any good stories?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from my bunny to yours...

During all the hustle and bustle of Easter egg hunts, pictures with the Easter bunny, family dinners and lots of chocolate, may we not forget the real reason for celebrating Easter! Jesus is RISEN!

via

To Paint or Not To Paint??

I have this glider that I got for free, thank you Kennedy family, that is perfect for my living room!

The Glider

I already have it set up in there, however I do not like love the fabric.

It doesn't go with my colors or flower patterned couch (also for FREE from my aunt's in-laws).

The couch

Other chair in the room

So, my options...recover it have a friend recover it, live with it or paint it! Yep, you heard me right...paint it! Now I NEVER would have thought to paint fabric until I read Hyphen Interiors post Painted Upholstery: The Process Revealed (Full Tutorial). Kristy over at Hyphen Interiors painted a wing back chair and it looks FABULOUS!!

If I paint it, I need to decide what color. If I were to recover it I would probably go with a brown or tan...maybe red. But painting it I feel needs to be bold or dark to cover the pattern. Either decision needs to be done on a budget. 

What do you think? Would you be brave enough to paint a chair? What color would you do?

Top Ten Update

Here is a Top Ten update on my little boy...

10. Elijah's first tooth cut through the bottom this weekend. (*And I felt another one today, on top!)
9. Elijah attended his first Senior Retreat (and did great)! He LOVES the students! (and leaders)

Drew and Elijah in their matching MN Gopher apparel...

8 . He is rolling like crazy..and started army crawling a LITTLE bit.
7. He can sit for a few seconds when put in that position.

Reading a book

6. He LOVES giving Eskimo kisses, but he does it so fast and hard it hurts!
5. He loves doing the motor boat (thank you Grandpa Pat)...especially while eating!
4. He is getting better at taking longer naps...finally! (Rarely do we have a 20-30 minute nap anymore)
3. He gets so excited when Josh or I come home after being gone!
2. He loves going for walks outside and being able to look around!

He wasn't sure about me being so close to him. First walk of the seasons...

1. He is ready to wear 12 month clothing at 7 1/2 months!! He is tall like his daddy!

*Bonus: He discovered bubbles at childcare yesterday (yep, he went to work with me! I was in the Toddler Room and he was in the Infant Room). We tried them out when we got home!!

Checking out the bubbles...

Giveaway at Newlyweds...

Love a good giveaway?!? I sure do!! There is a fabulous giveaway over at Newlyweds Next Door: Reviews and Giveaways. The giveaway is for a $100 Amazon.com gift card! Oh the possibilities! And while you are over checking out the giveaway page you should check out their other blog Newlyweds Next Door. I have seriously become a blog stalker! :) I love reading about their redecorating, traveling and life as newlyweds! 

So, what would you do with your gift card? I am writing my wish list right now...

Pampers Gifts to Grow

Have you heard of the Gifts to Grow program? Do you currently use the program? I do and I love it.

pampers.com

Here is what they site says about their program-

The Pampers Gifts to Grow Rewards Program rewards you every time you choose Pampers diapers, training pants and wipes for your growing baby.

To start, simply collect the codes from all your Pampers purchases. To see the points add up in your account, just sign up with Pampers.com and enter codes on Gifts to Grow Rewards or on your mobile phone. After that, you can redeem your points for items in the Gifts to Grow rewards catalog.

The Gifts to Grow Rewards Program has been extended until December 31, 2012!


My Review-

The Pampers Gifts to Grow program has been great for me. I have entered codes I found online and also codes I received from my diaper purchases. I find a lot of my free codes on pocketyourdollars.com. [Side note...if you haven't been to pocketyourdollars.com you are missing out]. My points have started adding up and I can't wait to cash them in for a 8x8 Photo Book from Shutterfly [$30 value].

pampers.com

Just to get you started here is a code worth 50 points- Happybdaypamprs [expires 4/14]

What do you get with your Gifts to Grow points?

Swagbucks

I don't know how many people out there know about swagbucks...but here is the low down that I know. Swagbucks.com is a site that offers a search engine much like Google. One big difference is that Swagbucks offers you points or swagbucks for searching. Not every time will you get swagbucks but every once in a while. Now your swagbucks add up and you can also do things to help get more bucks like taking daily polls, printing coupons, searching, getting referrals, etc. You can then use your swagbucks to purchase things or use them to get gift cards. Swagbucks has a nice selection of gift cards to places like Starbucks, Amazon.com, Target, Southwest Airlines, and more! 

Swagbucks.com

Here is a link if you are interested in checking out Swagbucks.com for yourself! Link: Swagbucks


I just earned enough for two Amazon.com gift cards...or I might hold out for something else! What will you use your swagbucks on?

Bag GIVEAWAY at FTM!!

My lovely friend, Bert, at FTM is giving away an adorable bag/purse or could be diaper bag from Deyitta's shop on Etsy.com. Bert owns one of these adorable bags and loves it! 


Hop on over to her blog for details on this awesome giveaway and a great review! 


Click here to jump over to Bert's blog: Review & Giveaway!!! One Pretty Bag from Deyitta!

Name Art: DIY

I wanted to make some Name Art for Elijah's room. I already had a white canvas that I had bought at JoAnn Fabrics for 50% off over a year ago. So I decided to make something with that. In my head I knew what I wanted...however, my art skills are not as good in real life as they are in my head and this is what I came up with!

First attempt: NOT so good!

I used the accent color (a brown from Walmart) that is on one of Elijah's wall for the base of the canvas. I then used the main color of his walls (Eucalyptus Leaf from Home Depot) for the letters to spell his name. It is nothing to write home about...but apparently I can write about it here! :)

So I decided to repaint the canvas in brown and come up with a new plan. Well...after MANY days of painting, repainting, gluing, and Mod Podging  here it is!!

I apparently take my pictures crooked...

It still didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but it's better than the first attempt.

Adventures with Monkey: Update

For all you following along or participating in Monkey's travels, I thought I would post an update. As of today Monkey has had quite the traveling experiences [I must say I am a little jealous]!!

His very first stop was to Mexico on a Baby moon with Mark and Kelsey (my sister and brother-in-law)...

Monkey's next stop was to visit our wonderful friends in San Diego! Josh took him out there and left him there for Jon and Emily to take sight seeing!

Emily: "At the Studio Diner, a haunt we found via Diners, Drive-ins and Dives"

Monkey then headed to the East Coast with my friend Bert (and her mom, Mary) to visit her sister, Laura.

Monkey received music lessons from Laura.

Monkey also had some yummy food at a nice restaurant.

After all that Monkey stayed home for a little while before heading back out on the road, literally, road trips.

He went to Washington DC with Kayla. Kayla was in my small group and is Elijah's babysitter 95% of the time. There were 5 stops (different cities in different states) along the way.

Everyone on the trip seemed to LOVE Monkey. Can you blame them?

Monkey also went with Nicole, Jon, Annie and Jenna road tripping to Florida to visit the Gerhard's aunt and of course do some touristy things while there. 

Monkey with his friends

Monkey with the girls

Monkey then went to Chicago to visit my co-worker, Robyn, who moved there with her sister this fall. Upon arriving (via mail) he jumped on a plane with Robyn's sister for a business trip to Paris (rough, huh?)! *Pictures to come

Monkey is visiting my high school friend Rachel in Nebraska. (*Side Note: Rachel and I went to HS together, youth group and a Mission Trip. We both attended the same college, not the same time, for at least a year and we both married Youth Pastors named Josh and have sons named Elijah. We both love Photography and sell or sold Mary Kay. Our sister's are BFF and our parents are super tight...we were meant to be friends). *Pictures to come

Rachel will be sending Monkey on to New Mexico to visit Chelsea, a friend from my hometown who is studying in New Mexico. 

Well there is an update of our traveling Monkey!

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has or is planning on helping me out with this project! It has been SO fun to see the adventures you take Monkey on. I can't wait to start making the scrapbook for Elijah! I look forward to the day when he is a little older and we can look through it and discuss the different places and people in his life!! 

**Remember, if you want Monkey to come visit you or take a trip with you, you can email me at daphnechristenson@gmail.com.

Senior: Drake

I had the privilege to photography Drake, a senior from our youth group, for his senior pictures this spring. Drake was willing to go with the flow and here are some of the pictures we got during the shoot...

I also got the wonderful chance to photography his sisters and do a couple family shots. Here is one, just for fun...

Drake and his three sisters



The Many Faces of Elijah

In a matter of 5 minutes or less, Elijah managed all of these faces and then some...