(Frigidaire ad from 1959, during the time our grandfather worked there.)

In that post, I told you how all my appliances are Frigidaire, out of a sentimental homage to our grandfather, whom Emily and I never got to meet. From what everyone says, he was a very quiet man. Kind of serious, and shy. But I am betting, despite that, he would get a kick out of his two goofy granddaughters and their blog. I sure hope so!

Because we kind of owe him even more thanks now.

In September, Frigidaire and Mom Central opened up applications for phase 2 of Frigidaire’s Test Drive Team, a group of bloggers who get to try out Frigidaire appliances and blog about their experiences with them.

So Emily and I applied!

And…WE’RE IN!!! We’re Frigidaire Test Drive Moms!!

And I am more than a little bit sure that our family history with the company helped us out in our application. So, thanks, Grandpa Laton! Forty years after your death and you are still helping your family out. We are grateful.

So here’s the fun part: Emily (because she is SUCH a good cook! I mean, look at her pumpkin cake, and her crock potting skillz) will be receiving and keeping and reviewing the Frigidaire range & microwave from their professional line as a member of Team Range/Microwave!

Because I tend to wait to do laundry until everyone in the house is wearing their last pair of underwear, and because my hubby does most of his own laundry we are both super excited to announce that I am on Team Washer/Dryer!

I will be receiving and keeping and reviewing a washer & dryer from Frigidaire’s gallery line. I am hoping they will magically transform my entire basement into looking like this laundry room:

Well, maybe it won’t look exactly like that, because mine are going to be blue. But I am pretty sure the rest of the room is going to magically take shape.

Ok, I am getting off topic!

We also want to tell you about Frigidaire’s Make Time for Change site. Frigidaire is working with Jennifer Garner (I always KNEW I had a lot in common with her – we could totally be BFF!) to raise money for Save the Children! You can spin the wheel on the site and have a chance to win a sweeet Affinity Washer & Dryer (like the ones I’ll be receiving! YAY!) – and every day you spin, Save the Children gets $1.

So go check that out, and stay tuned for more fun appliance-related updates from Emily and me! She should be getting her range & microwave really soon! SO stay tuned for lots more cooking adventures from her. I’m getting the washer & dryer in the spring, but I’ll try to entertain you in non-laundry related ways in the mean time.

Here’s a short video of my Joshua and Sophie demonstrating my FAVORITE kids product on our gift guide this year: a custom super hero cape and tutu from Cutie Pa Tutus! Check out the cuteness!

As you can see, Joshua’s cape has a “J” for Joshua. Sophie’s tutu has jingle bells on it that she loves. You can build your own Cutie Pa Tutu or choose from many of their pre-made designs – what a great gift!! Both my kids love to dress up and pretend so they have had a lot of fun with these. Sophie’s tutu also came with a Poofy Pompom magic wand that is adorable and lots of fun for her to cast her sweet spells with. These items are a really sweet, special gift! Cutie Pa Tutu is offering a special deal for Mommin’ It Up readers – get $8 off all capes and $5 off all tutus in the store until Nov. 30th. You can redeem this offer by sending an email to info@cutiepatutus.com.

The rest of our kids gift guide we’ve broken into age groups for your convenience!

Gifts for Little Kids

Baby Alive Whoopsie Doo

I am particularly excited about this little doll because it “goes pee and poop” when you “feed” it – and I am really counting on it to get Sophie interested in the potty! Because I cannot seem to get her excited about pee & poop, I am hoping Baby Alive will take care of that for me! It’s a cute little doll and it kicks, cries, and wiggles! Great for your little girl who loves to play “mommy”.

My Little Pony So Soft Sleep & Twinkle Star Song

This is another great gift for your pre-schooler who loves to pretend. I loved My Little Pony when I was a girl and I am so glad they are back! This baby Star Song is a great friend for your little one to cuddle with! She talks and sings, and comes with several accessories for your child to use to care for her.

Strawberry Shortcake Berry Cafe Play Set

Another character I loved as a child is Strawberry Shortcake. (Perhaps you’ve seen the famous picture of Emily and me in our matching Strawberry Shortcake outfits!) Sophie got her first S.S. dolls this summer and I’m so glad she can enjoy them as much as I did as a girl. This play set is lots of fun – little girls can help Strawberry Shortcake make smoothies in her cafe and can put her to bed in her home above the cafe when her day’s work is done!

Learning Resources Melody Express

This fun toy combines two of my kids’ favorite things – music and trains! Your kiddo can be the symphony conductor and the train conductor at the same time. The engine plays music when it chugs clockwise and is silent when it chugs counter-clockwise and comes with 44 musical note tracks!

Green Toys tea set

Pretend play is huge in my house right now; I love to see Sophie playing with her toy kitchen and dollhouse. Pretend play is being made even better by this tea set from Green Toys. Green Toys are made in California with recycled milk jugs as the main material! How cool is that?? Eco-friendly toys made in the USA that help our kids grow and learn. I love it!

Holly and Hal Moose from Build-a-Bear Workshop

Holly and Hal Moose are back at Build-a-Bear this Christmas! These cute moose come in many different variations or you can create and dress your own. I love these two in their “Winter Adventure” outfits pictured above. They’re a great Christmas tradition gift for a little one. When I was little one of our local department stores came out with a different version of the same teddy bear every Christmas season -we always had to have one! Holly and Hal are the next generation’s holiday stuffed toy for kiddos to collect!

Bear Hands

This is actually a gift that is available for big AND little kids – but I like to “give” my little kids things they NEED for Christmas! And Sophie needed a good pair of mittens, and these are GREAT. Not only are they cute and fun with the bear paw design, but they are really, really, warm, lined with waterproof Thinsulate, and they stay on really well. Plus, there are matching hats and scarves available to complete the warmth and cuteness. Love these!

Mega Bloks Build’n Go Table

We love Mega Bloks at our house, and this new table is a great way for little ones to enjoy them. It comes with 22 colorful pieces, including a bridge, a truck and a boy. The legs of the table fold for storage and portability, and the blocks can be put away under the tabletop make for easy clean up and organization. Love it!

Yo Gabba Gabba DJ Lance Boombox

Speaking of Mega Bloks, make sure to check out the Yo Gabba Gabba DJ Lance Boombox. If your child is a fan of the show, he will love this! Characters sing and dance, and like all good Mega Blok products, kids can build the stage any way they want to. All the parts fit inside the boombox for easy storage, which means Mom will love it as well!

Chuck My Talking Truck

This is bound to be a hot toy this season for the little guys! Chuck says more than 40 phrases and sounds, and get this – he drives to you when you call! This is a great interactive toy, and toddlers will love loading up Chuck’s truck bed. It’s made from soft plastic and is bound to be “loads” of fun.

That wraps up our little kids edition of our holiday gift guide. Stay tuned this week and next for gift guides for Big Kids, Baby, Mom, Dad, and anyone else on your list. We’ll have some great gift guide giveaways to go along with these that you won’t want to miss, too. Happy Holidays!

I am a girly girll (have you noticed?) and I do looooves me some accessories, but I don’t wear a ton of jewelry every day. However, I always wear earrings cause seriously my naked ears are not a pretty sight. A couple of years ago for my birthday my cousin Anna (Emily’s fabulous younger sister) gave me a really pretty pair for my birthday. She explained to me that they were the best present ever because they were made by NightLight. Eh? I had no idea what she was talking about. She then further explained that NightLight is a jewelry business that was started as a way to provide employment opportunities and job training to women who were “employed” (aka trafficked/enslaved) in the sex trade in Thailand. As of January of this year 72 women who used to work in the sex trade were working for NightLight and receiving life skills training as well as job training.

The jewelry is beautiful and the cause is great – so go to NightLight’s website and check out all they have to offer. (They have a great selelction – much more than just earrings!) Consider buying yourself some bling and helping give a better life to a woman who needs it – if we had been born in Thailand, it could easily be any one of us searching for a way out of that life.

For more Things I Love Thursday goodies, go visit my bloggy BFF Jill at the Diaper Diaries!

A few months ago, at the Sony Mommy Blogger Event, I was the only LEE-OOOSER without business cards. What a DORK! Em and I have been meaning to get some for a long time but never got around to it. Then, Christina, who was at the event, showed me her very cool business minicards from Moo.com. I came home and ordered Emily and me some immediately! They are so cute, hip, and memorable and you can buy these great little holders for them that go on your key ring! That way, you’ve always got your cards, whether you are battling your way through IKEA, waiting in line with a bunch of vicious bargain-hunting moms at a consignment sale, or just making your bi- tri- weekly run to CVS. Here is the package Em and I got, it comes with approximately 15 different designs. The pre-made designs are awesome, but you can also use your own photos if you want to! How cool is that? I’ve really enjoyed my Moo cards and I think they really do work for me! So go check ‘em out! And for other great Works for me Wednesday ideas, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

CHEEZ-IT DUOZ Cheddar/Parmesan!!!!! And I LOVE them.

They are the bestest cracker I have ever tasted, EV-AH!! For realzies. No one is payin’ me to say this. Nobody sent me a free box. I bought them because they were on sale at Kroger and I had a coupon. And today, my kids and I consumed practically an entire box. I think these are not crackers but crack-cocainers, cause I am seriously addicted. (And you all know I never get addicted to anything, ever.)

So, go buy a box. And then another. And another. ‘Cause these CRACK-ers are gonna become a permanent FIXture in your pantry!!

Last June we took a trip to Disney World. Kate had just turned three. Being the giant dork I am, I was researching everything I could. You should have seen the notebook in my purse with maps, the order in which we’d ride each ride, “must see” tips and more. It made Jenny and her coupon binder seem well adjusted.

But anyway! Right before we left I found out about Tottoos. They are, as you might imagine, tattoos for kids. Here’s what they look like:

Yes, I planned to tattoo my cell phone number on my child’s arm! We were about to leave on our trip, and I wasn’t sure I could get them in time, so I called the tottoos people and they were SO nice and sent my order to me with time to spare.

Tottoos aren’t like the regular temporary tattoos you’re used to. They are more plasticky (yes, that is the technical term) and you have to use their special remover to get them off, so they are water proof and will stand up to a long day at the amusement park or whatever.

They also have a medical alert variety that can be used to warn people about a child’s diabetes, allergies, etc.

I took a lot of razzing when I told my friends at work that I was going to order these (paranoid much??) but they were great. Having been lost in Disney World myself as a child, I really wanted to make sure that we would be quickly reunited with Kate should we become separated. She couldn’t be trusted (and still can’t, really) to remember a phone number, especially if she were upset, so this was perfect. I just told her that if she couldn’t find us, she should find a Disney worker or another mom with kids and show her Tottoo.

Fortunately, we didn’t need to put the Tottoos into action, but I was very glad to have them. And many, many moms stopped me throughout our trip and asked me where i had gotten such a thing.

Keeping kids safe – that works for me. For more Works for me Wednesday fun, head over to Rocks in my Dryer!

I just got an email from the nice Tottoos people and they are offering our readers 10% off – just use the code MOM10.

These are an alligator-style clip and they have kind of a foam in the middle that keeps them in your little girl’s hair. I tried them in Sophie’s hair for the first time on a windy day and after plenty of outside play, the clip stayed in! I didn’t have to adjust it for several hours, and Sophie left it alone – it wasn’t bothering her at all. Here’s a photo of her playing outside that day:

Isn’t that a cute clip? I am really pleased with the quality and the cuteness!

These Babylegs are something I had heard of but never seen until I saw them at Target. They are basically legwarmers for babies. At first the concept seemed silly to me, but once I got a pair, I found them very useful! We all have those occasions where we don’t want to get baby dressed until we are ready to leave the house, just in case he or she would pee, poop, or smear food all over their outfit. On a cool morning, I let Sophie run around in a onesie and her Babylegs until I am ready to get her dressed. Since she will be two in November (ack! typing that makes me want to CRY!!), and we will most likely be potty training around that time, I am planning to get another pair or two so I can keep her in the Babylegs instead of pants during training times, since it will be too chilly for her to be in just underwear or a diaper. So, despite being skeptical at first, I loves me some Babylegs! And I am so glad they are available at (say it with me now!) Tar-zhay!

Soon, Emily is going to be telling you about some other products she has tried that are also part of the Parent Inventors Line – but until then, you can check out all the products offered here. There are tons of products invented by moms and dads that I wish I had thought of myself! And now, I must go, unless someone has invented a product to remove a screaming toddler from one’s leg while one is trying to finish a blog post!

If you order your list of baby care items from most important to least important, the Itzbeen timer comes right after carseat and right before… well, everything else.

The Itzbeen Timer is the perfect solution to the lack of brainpower that comes with parenting a newborn (or a toddler… or a teenager). It’s so simple, yet so useful! We all know that we’re supposed to keep track of the last time the baby ate, had a diaper change, or how long he’s been asleep, but really, all that math is a little much for my fuzzy brain to handle.

Until now… because I have this:

The Itzbeen Timer keeps track of all of that for me – and on which side I last nursed the baby. Pretty cool. All I have to do is press a button each time I change or nurse the baby, and the timer keeps track of how long it’s been since the last time.

If only I had had this when we brought Sam home from the hospital! My sweet husband created a chart on our dry erase board, but that wasn’t very portable and didn’t help me much in the middle of the night. Not to mention the fact that it required me to do subtraction when really it was all I could do not to fall asleep with half my body draped over the bassinet and half of it in bed. Not that that happened or anything…

In addition to the diapering, feeding and sleeping buttons, there’s an extra one for random things. This button makes the timer useful even after the first few weeks. I can see using it for keeping track of things like giving medicine or taking temperatures.

The Itzbeen Timer is part of Target’s line of parent-inventor products, and you can buy it there for $24.99. It would be a great shower present! It definitely works for me.

For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, click over to Rocks in my Dryer.