Christmas tree project

This project was so fun. My husband and I actually made several together (they take less than an hour a piece and all you need is an old magazine). So fun! Click here for a tutorial.

Free shipping on prints

Here's an offer you'll want to gobble right up — FREE standard shipping on any order of $25 or more! So whether you're basting the turkey or waiting for it to be served, get a head start on your holiday shopping and save big.

Hurry and order, this offer will disappear as quickly as the pumpkin pie! Use coupon 1124MERRY at checkout by 11:59PM PST on November 25!*

Toilet Seat for kids

Before we started to potty train Lucy, my sister-in-law gave me a little toilet seat. I asked her if she also used a little toilet when she potty trained her kids. She said she never did because she wanted her children to be comfortable using a larger toilet so if they were ever out somewhere the child would use the regular size toilet. I took her advice and didn't worry about getting a little toilet.

I am glad I listened. Not only does Lucy comfortably use other toilets, but it was so much easier to just flush her "business" once she was done and not have to clean out a little toilet every time-yuck! The seat also takes up much less space in our bathroom. So my two cents says to bag the little toilet and just get the toilet seat.

Canvas Photos

From Amber:

Hello, friends. Canvas photo enlargements are one of my FAVORITE things, and right now, this site is doing free ones (8x10 size-upgrade for $10 to 11x14) just pay shipping (I think around $14). We got one a while back and it turned out great. Thought I'd share.

http://www.canvaspeople.com/freegift

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Workout video coupon

From Porsche:

Hey Ladies! If you are thinking about buying some of Lindsay Brin's Moms into Fitness workout videos, here's a $10 off coupon for you! $2 for me and $10 for you, and we both get her great videos!
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Potty Training Tip

I read somewhere to buy a sheep skin and cut it to fit the seat of your child's carseat when you're potty training them. They said the sheepskin is absorbent and can be washed. We got our's at IKEA for $24 and it was big enough to put one in Lucy and Davids' carseats.

How to potty train a toddler

I think there are a lot of ways to do the whole potty training thing, but here is what worked for us:

1) We talked quite a bit about potty training before we started (read books about it, watched movies about it, she would watch her friends go, etc)
2) She went to the store and picked out her own big girl panties, treat for when she "went" in the potty (she chose Skittles) and the stickers she would put on her potty chart.
3) I chose a 3 day time frame I knew we would not have to be anywhere and we could put potty training as the primary focus.
4) Day #1
-I just let her run around the house with just her t-shirt on and I let her drinks LOTS of milk, water and juice so she would be ready to go when the time came.
-I wore a timer that would go off every 15-20 minutes and then re-set itself it (it's called a MotivAider)
-When the timer went off (a vibrator only I would feel) I would say, "In 1 minute we're going to try going potty". (Lucy seems to work well with warnings of what is about to happen).
-After a minute or so I would say, "Let's go sit on the potty and you can have a Skittle".
-She'd sit on the potty. I gave her 1 Skittle for coming and sitting down and 1 Skittle if she "went" in the potty.
-If she actually "went" in the potty, she got to put a sticker of her choice on a potty chart and once a full row was complete, she got a treat (a popsicle)
-We repeated this process every 20 minutes or so for the whole first day.
5) Day #2 pretty much the same process but I pulled way back on the liquid she would drink and we tried about every 30 minutes.
6) Days #3-6 same process as above, but we tried about every hour (I use the top of the hour just to make it simple for me). We also started wearing panties and shorts. She's not as excited about the sticker chart, so I've just let that fade away, but she does still want a Skittle every time-which is fine for now.
7) We have about 1 accident (or less) a day which I think is normal. So, for what it's worth, that is what worked for us! Good luck!