My New Stroller

So... Can I just tell you... I LOVE MY NEW STROLLER!! I am completely an utterly in love with it. I've realized that I'm now looking for times to get out of the house, just so I can use my new stroller... Ahhh... I love it. So let me tell you all about it, and maybe THEN you'll want to run out and get one all for yourself!!

This little baby is quite the contraption. It is a total of 55 lbs and is by no means a lightweight stroller. It is however incredibly sturdy, and easy on the eye. It's a dream to push, and honestly I can push it one handed, holding another child on my hip.
The things I love about it: It's super easy to push. I love all the random seating options it has, the kids can both face forward, they can both face backwards, you can have one facing back & one facing front, you can have them face each other!! The possibilities are endless!! Also, the recline feature on the seats are to die for... SO SMOOTH. You can do it one handed, and you can so easily recline a sleeping baby (majorly important). The basket!! Ahhh the basket... It's so large!! Roomy!! Wide open!! I can fit a lot of stuff under there, and I think it's a fabulously easily accessible basket too... So nice. Another really neat feature, see in the picture that little red 'hook'? Know what that is? It's a handle!! For your older kiddo to walk alongside and hold onto!! No more holding onto the side of the stroller for William, he actually has his very own handle!! And there's actually 2 of them, one on each side. So smart.
Now of course, in a perfect world, this would be the PERFECT stroller... But we all know that everything has flaws...Even me. :)
The things I'm not wild about: You have to remove the front seat in order to collapse the stroller down flat. With that being said, Kolcraft made this so easy, it barely seems like an inconvenience. But, it's still slightly annoying (only slightly though). Before I bought the stroller, the common complaint amongst owners was that the seats were a bit too shallow. I agree with this assessment. My girls are very small, petite even, but they do seem to look occasionally like they're sliding out of the seat. No big deal though. The only other problem I have currently, is due to the "shallow seat". It appears that the crotch strap will adjust improperly and start to irritate the inside of the babies leg. It rides up oddly and then looks painful. Neither of the girls has complained a bit about it, but I notice it and it seems a little off. I'm sure there's something i just need to tweak in order to get it all moving in the right direction...
So that's it!! I needed to let you all know how it was going, and to give you all the 411 on my new ride... Hope you all love your strollers as much as I love mine... But I doubt you do :) I think I'm going to start carrying a picture of it in my wallet... hee hee...

**For those of you who are interested in this stroller, please go see it HERE. I bought mine through Target.com, and waited for one of their sales where Free Shipping was included. It saved me a bundle since the stroller isn't light, and must be heavy to ship!! Sorry I didn't include that information earlier!! Happy Shopping!!**

The True Studio

Last week, I dragged my entire family off to have professional pictures done. I'm sure you've gathered by now that I have a deep passion for photography, I've gotten so many wonderful compliments on my 'work' here. My family keeps encouraging me to begin my own business... That's a WHOLE other story. Unfortunately always being behind the lens leaves me little room for actually being IN the photos. I have very few shots of me with my family, and I have zero photos of my whole family. I finally got everyone in the same room, and most everyone was cooperative. We went to The True Studio where we met Janie Stockton. She was LOVELY. The shoot took 1 hour total, which was so important. Then the viewing of my proofs was very smooth, she helped me to adequately weed through all the shots that were just ho-hum, and of course then delivered me these GORGEOUS photos in such SPEEDY time!! We saw her on Monday... Today is Thursday, and my pictures arrived... Wrapped beautifully in ribbon and tissue... They are gorgeous. I hope that you all enjoy them as much as I do...
And stop by Janie's website, see her work... It is breathtaking.

The Perfect Cup

As a Mom of Many, I'm constantly searching for the perfect products that make my life easier. Things that don't slow me down, and most importantly things that don't piss me off. My boys have been using sippy cups since they were about 9 months old. We decided early on that we would introduce them to the straw type of the sippy cup. Not for any reason other than they seemed to like them more, and seemed to have a bit of difficulty tipping the traditional sippy cup backwards. I've tried pretty much every cup on the market. I've gotten slightly neurotic about it. I saw a recent picture of my Cousin's child, and feverishly emailed her, questioning where it was she purchased this cup, who made it, and most importantly, did it leak?!!? I am on the mad and constant search for the perfect cup. I had come the the drastic conclusion last week that the perfect cup simply did NOT exsist. It didn't. They all had flaws. They ALL had SOMETHING wrong with them. All of them. Most of the cups had some sort of a valve in the straw that the kids would chew away over time, and thereby allowing water to flow freely. If it wasn't the valve, it was the seal on the cup itself. Madness.
I had given up. Until, last week. While perusing the local gorcery store (in my free time...hee hee) I spotted a new item in the baby aisle. It was a cup, not just a CUP, a straw cup! A beautiful perfect straw cup.

I bought it and I had to share it with you all... Here it is, in all of it's perfection. It's made by Gerber, it's called the Gerber Cool Twisties. I bought them last week, and put them through the test. We dropped them onto the asphalt from the roof of the van (multiple times), left them sitting upside down on the countertop overnight, threw then onto the playroom floor at least 25 times... NO LEAKS. The only thing that I found to be slightly 'wrong' with them. Is the protective cover on the top is just a little flimsy. It hasn't broken yet, but it might. With that being said, if it did break off, it wouldn't hurt the integrity of the cup. I've shopped around and Drugstore.com seems to have the best price around at $3.79 with no tax. If you find a better deal, or if you just want to send me some to thank me for finding you the BEST CUP ON EARTH, let me know!! Either way, enjoy!