LipSense Review

I'm collaborating with my cute friend Jordan Sharp, who is a LipSense distributer, by writing this blog post about my thoughts on LipSense. I've never really been into MLM products, but when I heard about the lip makeup that stays on all day, I was intrigued. Well after trying it out for myself, I'm sold! LipSense lasts all day and doesn't smudge while eating, kissing, exercising, you name it! This makes life easier for me as a mom. I appreciate how low maintenance it is. I apply LipSense on once and don't have to reapply it for 8 hours or so (mine lasted about 9 hours today). Who really wants to reapply make up throughout the day anyway? I can go about my busy day while my lips stay fantastic. I also love that I can kiss my husband and my cute kids as much as I want without worrying about getting it all over their faces. That's kind of a big deal for me. These are my honest opinions, and I would recommend this product to anyone. If you want to try out LipSense for yourself, Jordan can take good care of you! She is on Facebook here. Follow us on Instagram to get 10% off your order! Jordan --> @lipswag.by.jojo  Me --> @chanelgentry22

LipSense color "Dark Pink"

How I Potty Trained Lizzie in 3 Days

Since a few of you have asked me how I potty trained Lizzie, I thought I would just write a blog post about it. I had heard of a 3 day potty training method so I started doing some research on the internet. I took what I found and made some tiny adjustments. Here's the trick, you've got to go all out. You find 3 days where you have no commitments and stay home for those 3 days. Make sure it's at a time where there aren't any big changes happening. I chose to do it over the weekend because Tyler was home more to help me. Also, there is no going back to diapers, ever! This is cold turkey. Yes, you will be cleaning up a lot of accidents, but it's only for 3 days. Ready? Here is what I did...

The day before we started, I took Lizzie with me to the store to help pick out her underwear. Can you guess what kind she picked? Yep, Frozen. We also bought Pull-Ups for naps and nighttime sleep. I told her that she is now a big girl and will start wearing panties tomorrow.

Day 1: I changed her out of her diaper when she woke up for the day and we said bye bye to the diaper. I left her naked on the bottom, and t-shirt on top. I'm usually strict about limiting Lizzie's screen time, but since we were stuck at home for 3 days, I let her watch a lot of shows. Luckily she had a bunch of new toys from her birthday so she played with those a lot too. I gave her diluted juice to drink so that she would drink a lot and obviously, pee a lot. I left a training potty in the living room so that it would be easy to get to. I sat her on the potty every 30 minutes and told her to pee or poop. Most of the time, she wouldn't go when I did that. I watched her very closely all day and when she looked liked she was about to go (or started going already) I would whisk her to the potty. Whenever she got pee or poop in the potty, I would praise her, then take her with me to dump the contents into the toilet and flush. Then we'd wash our hands and I'd give her a jelly bean or 2. On the first day, her success rate was about 50%. There were a lot of clean ups. When she had an accident I would just say "pee and poop go in the potty." No punishing, no getting mad. You want to make this as good of an experience as you can. Before naps and bedtime, I would have her try to potty and then put a Pull-Up on her.

Day 2: Same as day 1 except we left the house in the afternoon for about an hour. I was afraid to go anywhere far so we just decided to walk to a nearby park. Before we left, we sat Lizzie on the potty and told her to go. It took several attempts but when she finally went, we put her in panties and pants and then left. Since she had gone potty before, she didn't need to go while we were out. On this day she was getting better because she would say "potty" when she needed to go and would try to make her way to the potty. We still had some accidents.

Day 3: By this day Lizzie was taking herself to the potty. We did everything the same on this day except we went on a longer outing. Our outing was to my parent's house for dinner and she did end up having an accident there because she couldn't get to the potty fast enough. At home, she made it to the potty every time.

As of right now, I'm keeping Lizzie bare bottomed at home because it's just easier for her to go potty, she isn't very good at pulling her pants down on her own. Going out still makes me nervous because there isn't always a potty so close. We'll see how it goes as we start to venture out more. Hope this is helpful to any of you wanting to try potty training. I had always heard good things about this method but was still amazed when it worked! It's a long 3 days but totally worth it.

Lizzie is 2!

I'm really slacking with this blog lately since having Flynn, but I have to write about my baby girl turning 2 years old! Lizzie has brought us so much joy these past 2 years. She's the one who made me a mother and made Tyler a father which is a precious gift. She has developed quite a personality. Everyone who meets her says she is the funniest little girl. She is a social butterfly. She loves playing with other kids and gets excited when people come over or when we go visit friends and family. She is also strong willed; she knows what she wants and gets very upset if she doesn't get it. Lizzie is so smart. Her vocabulary is growing every day, she knows her ABC's, counts to 10, and knows quite a few animals by name and sound. That's another thing, she LOVES animals. Her favorite movies are Frozen and any of the Winnie-the-Pooh ones. It's so fun to watch Lizzie grow, even though it's happening too fast. We love our beautiful little girl!

We did our best to give Lizzie the best day. She played with her new kitchen toys all morning and had pancakes for breakfast. We took a trip to the zoo in the afternoon since it's one of her favorite places. After the zoo, it was party time! We threw Lizzie a Frozen themed birthday party. I got some fun food ideas from Pinterest and it was just too easy to find decorations; Frozen is everywhere! We ate good food, opened presents, and ate cake. My favorite part of the day was watching Lizzie's face light up when we all sang happy birthday to her. She had so much fun. It was a great day.

Calligraphy on the food cards done by yours truly. 

Recipe for sandwich recipe  ^ here

Flynn at 1 Month Old

Flynn has been with us for a month already! It's been a month of adjustment and exhaustion but also joy. Even though he doesn't do much right now, I love to just watch him whether he's sleeping or taking in the world around him. At 1 month old, Flynn wakes up 1-2 times at night. His longest stretch of sleep has been 7 hours. He is a great eater and nursing has been so easy with him. He likes baths now that he can actually bathe in a tub. He hates the carseat, and is still getting the hang of a pacifier. He smiles almost every time his daddy holds him. He likes tummy time but doesn't hold his head up too well yet. Oh, and I'm very happy that he still has some hair! Crossing my fingers it doesn't all fall out like Lizzie's did. We love this precious boy!

Favorite Baby Products

This past week has had some rough moments for me. The newborn stage is just hard with all the middle of the night feedings, constant diaper changes, and endless piles of laundry from all the blowouts. On top of that, I have a toddler to literally chase around. Needless to say, my house is a mess and I look like a mess more than half the time. However, I find some baby products to be extra helpful during this crazy time so I want to share those with you. If you have even more (or better) products you love, feel free to share!

mamaRoo baby swing

This swing was my saving grace with Lizzie. When she was still really little, she would not nap well during the day at all. She would only take cat naps and it drove me crazy. My mother-in-law was so kind enough to gift this to me in hopes that Lizzie would be able to sleep better in it. Well she did! She was only able to take long naps when in the swing. We had her nap there for a few months. This high tech swing has several different motions, speeds, sounds, and you can plug your phone into it to play your own music. It's seriously the coolest swing. I want one for myself to sleep in.

HALO SleepSack Swaddle

This swaddle is the only one that I have found that Flynn won't completely break out of. That little guy is stronger than he looks. When the baby is ready to transition out of the swaddle, you can leave their arms out while the rest of their body stays in the sack, making transition easier.

Homedics Sound machine

I'm a strong believer in babies sleeping with white noise. This is the one I bought for Lizzie and now Flynn sleeps with it. It has helped my babies sleep longer at night and blocks out all the noise from the rest of the house. It has 6 different sounds and you can set a timer of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or just have it go until you turn it off yourself. 

Ergobaby carrier

I just got this baby carrier and I've used it a lot with Flynn since he's been born like when grocery shopping or going taking Lizzie to the park. It's comfortable and I don't get tired from wearing it. This is the Original version which can be worn 3 different ways - side, front, and back.

Contours Options Tandem Stroller

I am in love with this double stroller! I like the staggered seating so the child in the back can actually see. It has a huge basket underneath to store all your baby needs. I also like that the seats are easy to remove and rearrange to face different ways. Bonus: it comes with a universal carseat adapter - usually you have to buy those separately.