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Family Fun at Biltmore House

October 1, 2009 by Jennifer 12 Comments

We are a family that will just get up one morning and take off. We do not plan, we just start driving. I love being adventurous and my girls love seeing the world like this. I didn’t get to do a whole lot of traveling growing up, so I have always said that I would change that with my girls. When we got the opportunity to tour the Biltmore House this weekend, I was ecstatic. I have been several times in my life, but my girls and hubby have not.

This estate is located in Asheville, NC.

The area is just beautiful and as you can see, the views are just remarkable. I could just sit there all day watching the views. You are not allowed to take pictures from inside the house, but please take my word for it. It is very beautiful, detailed, and just down right top notch designs. My girls never once complained while touring the house either.

You can see the very detailed architecturial work outside as well.

We took the guided tour inside and that was very fun, because we could engage with the tour guide and our girls could ask questions as well. I wanted to include them in every part I could. Once we were outside, we were on our own, so we took the chance to show the girls all the details of the outside of the house.

After taking in all the beautiful features of the outside of the house, we took a stroll through the gardens. I love nature, I love flowers and I love just taking a stroll with my family. This was so relaxing, girls were stopping and just taking in all the gardens had to offer. Just amazing time you can have with your family and just be you. Have quality conversations with them and just enjoy the view.

Up next, our tummy’s were starting to rumble a little bit. They have an awesome picnic area located at the Deer Park Restaurant which is on site of the Biltmore Estate. We enjoyed a nice boxed lunch that was healthy and not just some junk threw together 😉 all the while taking in the beautiful scenery.

It didn’t take long for the girls to say “I’m done eating”, once they found out we were headed to the Biltmore Farms. This is a fairly new feature of the Biltmore Estate, so I was excited to tour this as well. As you will see the girls were able to pet all the animals and be right there with the baby chicks.

The farm was all styled out in Fall decor, so the girls were enjoying that as well.

With that our tour came to an end. The girls are still talking about it and hubby said he was just blown away by the whole estate. It was definitely something he is glad he did and we would like to go back at Christmas and Spring as well. I know at Christmas they have Carolers all through the house singing Christmas songs. I just would love to see it all decorated as well for Christmas.

This is definitely a must see if you are ever in the mountains of NC. Your whole family will enjoy it and you can definitely make a full day out of it.

FYI: I did take these pictures with my own camera ;).

Recap of Type A Mom Conference

September 29, 2009 by Jennifer 7 Comments

I was so tickled pink that a blog mom conference was actually right here close to home. It was so cool seeing mom bloggers all across the United States come here to the mountains of NC. I’m not selfish… I’ll share my beautiful landscaped mountains ;).

The conference started out right with all the moms mingling together with Mom Talk Radio since she was treating us to the infamous blue drinks! Thank you Maria for treating us so well and getting the conference off to a great hit!

I also had a wonderful dinner there in the hotel’s restaurant that first night. It was a group of ladies that I have been following on Twitter for a long time, so it was very neat to get a chance to meet them.

Awesomeness Moms were: @TodaysMama (So looking forward to her jello contest) @JylmomIF @AlliWorthington @cassieaiden @RealLifeSarah @SSmirnov @ExtraordMommy @MomSpark

We also had an open reception that night and I finally got to meet after 4+ years two great moms that I have corresponded with online. It was @TheMenuMom and @HBHW

We finally made it back to our room.. I would say close to midnight. Ready to take on the big Friday.
No conference day can start though without a run to Starbucks. So thankful for my wonderful Carolina buddies that helped me get my starbucks fix since we don’t have Starbucks in Boone. Also, it was awesome to be sharing this trip with @JessicaKnows. She is one fantastic talented lady. It was her session that I went to first and it ROCKED. Definitely best session of the day!

She had some great panelists on her panel too. Thank you @Griner @KatjaPresnal @dbinkowski @nancy_martira @ssmirnov – It was just so interesting to hear directly from the PR officials on the social media stance with mom bloggers.

Pretty soon it came time for the arrival of my most definitely super talented, awesomeness, wonderful co-worker at BabyCenter. She supervises me on the Social Media side and I am just so excited to be able to work with her. We really had a great time at the conference.

Of course… I had to introduce her to my super cool Carolina friends.

We spent a lot of the afternoon networking with PR and meeting other bloggers. It really is so great to put a face to names you have been talking to so much with online. Just like the super cool @PensieveRobin

Later that night we were treated to dinner at the great Table Restaurant by the super fab Maria Bailey. I am so thankful our paths crossed back earlier this year. She really is an inspiration to us moms and definitely knows her stuff ;). Thank you so much Maria!

It was great getting to chat with @scrappinMichele and @KeepitClassyJen and @MightyNest there at dinner as well.

Onto the next day, we had more sessions. The best session of that day was the BlogKarma session. I tweeted my heart out for that session. Also we had the blogger town hall meeting right after that and our beautiful Carolina Marketing Director for @ScanChild got up and spoke. She is awesome.

Then that evening my beautiful girls and wonderful hubby arrived… I was so happy to see them. Overall, the conference was wonderful. All the connections I made meant so much and it was just so great getting to hang out with all my Carolina Moms and my partner @BabyCenterMom. Mom Bloggers do ROCK! I know I am leaving out so much and so many great moms I met this weekend… but truly it was an all around great conference.

Childs Favorite Blankie Makes it all Better

September 21, 2009 by Jennifer 7 Comments

When my youngest dear daughter started school this year, I knew we would need to get her attached to a lovey. You see her lovey has always been my hair. That’s how she goes to sleep at night, that’s what she plays with when she is not feeling well, or if she gets hurt so I KNEW we had to do something.

That is when we were contacted by Fill In The Blankie. Now, I knew we would not be able to get just any blanket for L. She is very picky in her ways. So when I saw you could customize each side of these blankie’s then I knew I would definitely have a winner.

From their site: “We personalize ‘em out the wha-zoo” You provide the copy, we’ll embroider your warmest wishes along all 4 satin edges. Much more than a monogram, or a name & a date, you’ll have up to 200 characters to work with. Each blanket truly tells a story.”

I made sure that we included our whole family in this blankie so it would make it that much more special. When the blankie come, L thought it was so cool that all of our names was on her very own blankie. She immediately got attached to it and has to have it every night when she goes to sleep. When school started, I would send it to school each day for her to have nap time. The teacher says that L does nap time so well and I really think its because she feels the closeness of all of us in the blankie.

I LOVE that the blanket is not cheaply made either with low quality materials. The reason is because I know this will last her for so many years and she will be able to treasure it always.

“Nothing but the best — pure luxury”
No fleece, acrylic or flannel here! Every one of our baby blankets is made of 100% woven cotton, trimmed with 2 inches of the silkiest smooth satin you ever did see (or lay your hands on).

The other night, I was up late working and the girls wanted to be in here with me so they both fell sleep on the couch with their blankie and umbrella. It just made me smile in so many ways because I knew that blanket was bundling up so much love between them.

They have so many colors and styles to choose from. Their site says they have (32) blanket styles/colors, (27) fonts & (12) thread colors ensure your baby blanket is as original as the little one who is lucky enough to carry one. The design on L’s blankie fits her to a TEE. She is very girly so to have a blankie with cute colors and flowers hit just right for our little’ girl’s personality.

One of the best parts on the customization of the blankie is that you can give these for so many occasions such as birthdays, new borns, baptisms, special holidays and the list could go on. So go ahead and look to see who you can send a special blankie too so they will always have a special treasure to hold on to.

Would you like to win a blankie for a special someone in your life? Fill In The Blankie has agreed to give one away here at One Moms World. Leave a me a comment below on who you would give one too and I’ll select a winner on random.org. Contest will end next Monday September 28, 2009 11:59 pm EST. Tweet about this contest for an extra entry :).

Disclosure: Fill in the Blankie did provide me the blanket for me to review and keep, but I was in no way paid to write my review. This review comes from my heart and I will only tell you how I really feel :).

Weight Watchers Lose For Good Campaign

September 13, 2009 by Jennifer 8 Comments

As I am sure everyone knows, I am a huge Weight Watchers fan. It has helped me and continues to help me lose weight! When I heard that the Lose For Good Campaign was back for the second year, I was stoked.

Weight Watchers is teaming up with its members and online subscribers and charitable partners, Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger, along with celebrity ambassador Jenny McCarthy, to fight hunger at a local and global level.

As Weight Watchers members lose weight from August 30th to October 17th, Weight Watchers will donate up to $1 million to help feed children and families who need it. Plus, members can participate in local food drives at Meeting locations. So for the second year in a row, losing weight and getting healthy means healthy meals for kids, stocking food banks, and helping those in need.

Here’s a link to the Lose For Good page: http://www/weightwatchers.com/loseforgood.

Last year’s Lose for Good campaign not only raised $1 million to fight hunger, but 2,000 local food drives were established, 1.5 million pounds of food was donated to those in need, and Weight Watchers members lost a total of four million pounds! In fact, the money donated from last year’s campaign saved the lives of 6,000 malnourished children in impoverished areas of the world, helped build community gardens, stock food banks and provide after school and summer meal programs for kids in the U.S.

This year, Weight Watchers aims to make the program even more successful by hosting an online social media day, Lose-A-Palooza, that lets everyone show support by getting the word out on the Web. For every mention of Lose for Good via blogs, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace on September 15, Weight Watchers will match with $1 to Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger – up to $25,000.

Here is a video as well that will help share more about this campaign:

For more ways to participate on Lose-A-Palooza day, September 15, you can either click on “discover even more ways to do a world of good” at the link above or visit http://www.weightwatchers.com/loseapalooza

Making a Special KeepSake for Grandparents

September 12, 2009 by Jennifer 10 Comments

Tomorrow is a big day… it is Grandparents Day! Unfortunately, my girls only have one set of living Grandparents but they adore them so much. We will say a special prayer for our wonderful “Angel” Grandparents.

My parents love receiving sentimental things from the girls. The girls absolutely adore their PawPaw and YayYay. You may ask why the girls call my mom YayYay ;). When M was a baby, my mom would always call her on phone or come over and go yayayayayayayayay to her over and over. M would just crack up so much and laugh so hard. Well when M was right around a year, when she would see my mom, she would automatically yell out Yay Yay! So the name was born. They know no different! I love that M gave her a unique name too and L just followed suit naturally and calls her the same thing.

So when we heard that Grandparents.com launched a new section to their website to let you send a sentimental recording for FREE… I was all giddy. You can surprise the Grandparents anytime, any day and anywhere with a special recording. We did just this tonight, so the Grandparents will get it first thing in the morning when they wake up. My girls sang the song “You are my Sunshine” and also said a couple sentences about how much they love them and we clicked finished and had it emailed. I can’t wait to hear their reaction.

I think now every couple of weeks, we will do this to surprise them and just make their day :). Go ahead and give it a try… it sooo cool and something they will treasure always and forever. AND its FREE!

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