/ Noted Joys

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Welcome

What started as a digital diary to document a newfound journey as a stay at home mom / wife has quickly evolved into my own little corner on the internet where I share all that life brings my way -- the good, the bad, and everything in between. Thanks for stopping by; I hope you stay awhile!

12.21.2018

Educational Play ( + Gift Guide ) With LakeShore Learning


If there is one thing that I love it's toys that promote learning, imagination and education while my boys play. If that's something you're wanting for you little ones, may I introduce you to a brand that makes this their main mission?

LakeShore Learning has toys that encourage your little one to dream big and use their imagination. They have products for young scientists and fashion designers. They also have educational toys that help your little one make learning their ABCs and numbers so much more fun.


Felix recently received a spaceship and a wooden railroad track from Lakeshore Learning that he is absolutely in love with!

Every time I bring out these toys for play time, he squeals in delight. He spends hours playing with the cute little astronauts, their mini rover and their spaceship as well as taking apart and putting together his wooden railroad! I love that he gets to play with these toys and that his growing little mind is exposed to different jobs, scenarios and play that prompts him to use his imagination. I can't get enough of watching him enjoying these things!

Another thing that I love about Lakeshore Learning products is that they are super light and portable which means Felix can take them with him when he goes and spends the day at Grandma's house. It's so easy to pack up the wooden railroad and take it with us -- makes everyone's life so much easier and hassle free.



Gift Guide


Here is a mini gift guide composed of Lakeshore Learning products that any growing mind is sure to love playing with! I've numbered and linked each product down below for easier access.


Products 

No. 1: Doctor's Office
No. 2: Make Up & Hairstyling Doll
No. 3: Hands On Teaching Globe
No. 4: Dinosaur Adventure Backpack
No. 5: Young Scientist Microscope Set
No. 6: Super House Cleaning Set
No. 7: Feels Real Baby Dolls
No. 8: Let's Play School
No. 9: Puppy Purses
No. 10: Grandma's Dress Up Trunk
No. 11: I Can Drive First Fire Truck
No. 12: Toddler Safe Food Basket
No. 13: Deluxe Doctor's Office

Aren't these some of the cutest toys?! They're all so neat and fun! I can't wait to get my hands on some more of these goodies.

*Thank you to LakeShore Learning for sponsoring this post. 

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12.18.2018

Christmas Shopping + Present Haul (With Walmart)

Christmas shopping is probably one of the most stressful things about this season -- especially when you are part of a large family. I find myself struggling to come up with ideas when it comes to my parents and my teenage siblings. Why is it so hard to shop for adults?!

This year, Walmart reached out to me and invited my husband and I for a store tour and you guys -- it was awesome! Who knew that asking the managers a bunch of questions would result in finding the perfect gifts for everyone -- it was so fun and so informative to get the inside scoop on what is "in" this holiday season and what all the cool kids are looking at these days. 

The Walmart Holiday Shopping Experience 

Walmart's holiday section stretches into about 10 long aisles filled with gifts, decor and sparkling decorations that get you into the festive spirit as you walk around. There is enough wrapping paper, tape and bows to wrap all the toys in the store!


As I walked around the decor and wrapping paper aisles, I was a bit overwhelmed! There are so many pretty choices to choose from and for someone like me, who needs a theme, it took me a bit of time to decide what the wrapping paper colors for this year would be.

When I finally decided on my theme, it was off to the toy aisles and that was an experience in itself -- Walmart has all the toys and by all the toys, I mean allllllll the toys. Aisles and Aisles filled with toys for kids of all ages. It was hard to concentrate when we were surrounded with so many fun gadgets and play things. I felt like a kid again and my husband even put himself in our toddlers shoes and said things like, "I would have loved this at Felix's age" when looking at all the possible choices.



One of the neat things that Walmart has set up is a "hot stuff" table where they place all the most sought after toys. Legos, Elmos, and LOL Dolls all made the list this year. The most surprising thing on the table was Ryan's World Giant Surprise Egg -- we were told that these items are the fastest selling item next to bicycles. There was only one egg on the table and I felt guilty taking it, so we went to look on the shelf for these eggs and to our surprise, we only found one left in stock.

And that's when Walmart.com comes in! We were told that if you come into the store and find out that they just ran out of an item you were looking for. They have a neat little feature that allows you to purchase online and pick it up in store free of charge. Walmart.com also has a wider selection of toys and gifts, so if no store has what you're looking for, you'll probably find it online.


Another thing that I loved was the gift bundle / stocking stuffer section of the store -- cue shopping for all the adults in my life! They had so many bundles to choose from things like bath spa kits, lotions, fragrance mists, collections of hot cocoa and mugs, cute sets of lip gloss + nail polishes for the little divas and eyeshadow palettes for the make up lover.

I loved going through these aisles and thinking up of cute little bundles and self care packages you could gift. Gifts that have a lot of small things in them alway have made me the happiest because you can enjoy a little bit of everything!

I seriously had so much fun browsing Walmart's holiday section. After two hours of waltzing down aisles, debating with my on what would be the perfect gifts for our kids, siblings and parents, we had finally decided it was time to head to the cash register!


Lucky for us, the lines at the register were short, so we didn't wait long to get all our goodies paid for and to the trunk our car. But just in case you're in a hurry and want to avoid the huge lines, Walmart has implemented an awesome feature called Check Out With Me -- okay get this you guys: you can now ask a store associate to ring up your things from your cart without even nearing a cash register! How neat is that?!

Because this is fairly new, not all associates have the new technology on them, but when I asked a manager about it, he eagerly popped out his walkie talkie and was ready to get me someone who did! The staff at Walmart is seriously so helpful even though I could tell they had a million things going on.

Walmart staff in Tigard, Oregon was beyond friendly and helpful during our time there. They made the whole experience so much more fun!

Christmas Present / Gift Haul

We got home an unloaded the car and it was time to start wrapping all the presents, but not before I made a quick run back to Walmart to grab the gift labels I had forgotten on my first trip because you know, #mombrain.


Don't these just look so fun?! I had such a fun time picking each thing out and I hope the kids love all these toys. Here are some of the neat gifts that I found at Walmart which you can also find online! I've linked them down below.

It was really such a blast to get to work with Walmart this holiday season! I found great gifts at awesome prices and am so ready for Christmas to roll around so I can see Felix, Marcus and my siblings light up when they open their gifts. 

Special thank you to Walmart HQ for sponsoring this post and the Walmart staff in Tigard for making this one of the best holiday shopping experience I've ever encountered -- I'll be back next year! 



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10.29.2018

Review | Contours Options Elite Double Stroller



I went on vacation with two under two and I can honestly say that one of the things that made this trip  memorable was having the Contours Options Elite Double Stroller -- it's a total game changer.

I love that it's extremely light to carry. We went to Disney with this stroller and we had no issues lifting it up onto and off the tram. I saw a lot of families needing their stroller to be lifted by at least three adults, but with the Contours Options Elite stroller, my husband lifted it all by himself without having to fold it.

If it needs to be folded, this stroller does an excellent job by still leaving room in your trunk for other things! We opted to travel to Disney in a van with SIX kids and made it into a road trip and I was a bit worried about there not being a enough space in the back of our van with all our luggage and supplies,  but this double stroller folded up so nicely and still left us a TON of room for other things.


It's trendy and stylish too, but my ALL TIME FAVORITE thing about this stroller is how comfy my boys seemed to be -- especially my 22 month old. Whenever he saw that I was about to place him in, he happily complied which hasn't always been the case.

Even though we were in a super busy and loud place, the Contours Option Elite Stroller gave both my boys enough comfort to take super long naps (2+ hours!) which made me one happy mama.


TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CONTOURS OPTIONS ELITE DOUBLE STROLLER

CLICK HERE 




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8.20.2018

Look Book :: Disney Outfits For The Kiddos


We're going to Disney at the end of this month and I had such a fun time looking at outfits for the boys to wear while we're there. Like always, most stores I looked at had a very limited boy section and I ended up going to sneak a peek at the girl section even though I have no daughters. I just couldn't help myself from looking at their outfits too and O M G you guys, there are some super cute things out there. H&M and Gap are my favorite brands that Disney collaborates with, so here's a look book / catalog of a few Disney items that I loved from those stores! 












Are these outfits just adorable?! Where do you shop for your Disney gear? Let me know in the comments below and check back here in a few days because I'll be posting some of my favorite adult Disney gear in another post!
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8.07.2018

Review :: Lorena Canals Rug


If there's one thing I love, it's items that I can through in the wash because lately my toddler decided that it's okay to use E V E R Y T H I N G as his personal napkin. I was told that kids were messy and that having white / light colors in our home would be problematic, but of course, whites and beige is my dream color palette, so a few warnings didn't stop me.

I was invested in a trendy home, but also in finding things that weren't high maintenance -- annnnnd in swoops of Lorena Canals Rugs. Get this you guys... a rug that you can throw in the washer! I literally did a happy dance when I stumbled upon their Instagram and saw allllll the cute designs.

I love this rug so much. It's eco friendly 100% cotton and it's amazingly soft. I find pretty much any excuse I can to go step on it -- it's that great. Honestly, softness aside, I cannot get over the fact that I've thrown it in the was several times since received and it still looks as amazing as when it came! I cannot get over how happy I am with this product.

If you have a rug obsession like I do -- please please please check out Lorena Canals Rugs!



* product received compliments of brand, but review is my honest and personal opinion. 
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8.02.2018

Linktr.ee :: Why I Don't Use It + What I Use Instead


I bet you're wondering why I would be knocking on the tool that everyone has in their instagram bio.

Don't get me wrong -- the concept of Linktr.ee is absolutely genius. How wonderful to have all the links you want to share with your audience in one place?! It's convenient, easy to use and just smart. In essence, it's a great tool for bloggers except when their servers are down which is exactly why I opt out.

Why I Don't Like / Use Linktr.ee


Reason No. 1 :: when I was using Linktr.ee, I noticed that they don't notify you when their servers are down and in my opinion, that's disservice to it's users. Essentially, you are using their product which has their logo plastered at the bottom of the screen on the free version and it's brand name is in the url even if you pay to use their upgraded services, so you're technically giving them free publicity.

The least they could do is tell you when the service isn't working -- I mean, it's a hinderance to your blog / brand if someone clicks the link and they find a broken page leading them nowhere. It looks unprofessional and you wouldn't even know... possibly resulting in that person / brand not wanting to do business with you or never attempting to visit your blog again each time someone clicks the link in your bio.

Reason No. 2 :: It's an unnecessary step that doesn't help your numbers. I know that I click on a lot of links when I'm roaming instagram and sometimes I stop at the first page it shows me which is usually Linktr.ee. I mean, wouldn't it be nice if that first click contributed to your numbers instead of linker.ee's?

Reason No. 3 :: It's ugly. I know that's kind of blunt and slightly rude, but it's honestly how I feel about it. The page displaying your links is not only bland, but it's color options are boring.

I know that if you pay $5 per month, you have a few font selections and you can tweak the colors a bit, but $60 a year really isn't worth it when you can have the same type of thing for free.


What I'm Using Instead


What if I told you, you could have all the links you wanted to share with your community.. 
  • all in one place, 
  • be atheistically pleasing / look professional, 
  • represent your brand and your brand only
  • and contribute to your blog's -- all at the same time?!  

It would be a dream, right? Well, hold on to your hats mom bosses because I'm going to tell you that such a tool exists ... drum roll please .... within your own blog

That's right, I have a hidden page on my blog with a collection of all my links and I've posted it's url in my instagram's bio -- it represents my brand and my brand only, looks how I want it to look, helps my numbers, and I don't have to worry about servers being down or constantly check if everything is working properly.

It's really that simple ladies. I've listed the steps you need to take in order to get this going on your blog for anyone who's interested down below. 



How To Set Up A Collection Of Links Within Your Blog


Step No. 1

Make sure that your blog is mobile friendly website. 

This is important for the aesthetics of the page, but also because most people access these links from an app on a cell phone. 


Step No. 2

Make a page within your blog. 

Title it "resources," "links" or whatever best describes your collection of links. I'd advise you to keep the title short and sweet because usually the title of the page becomes part of the url you'll be placing in your bio and the shorter it is, the cleaner it will look. 


Step No. 3 

Get Creative & Customize! 

Do this by using buttons, graphics, script / fun font for your list. I used the dimensions 800 width x 100 height for my buttons, but how big you want them is up to you -- there are also a few websites online that can help you make a widget with pre-made buttons if you don't want to start from scratch! REMEMBER... This is a where you can put your brand's personal touch on the layout and really make it yours.  You can add your @ighandle at the top of the page if you really liked that about Linktr.ee -- the possibilities here really are endless. 



Step No. 4 

Link Everything & Make Sure All Links Work.

Because we want everything to run as smoothly as it looks.  


Step No. 5

Publish Page & Add Page URL To Your Instagram's Bio 

& Y O U A R E D O N E  -- see how simple that was? 


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