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Advent Calendars

I think for me, one of the things I love about the advent season is the Advent Calendars. Each night we gather as a family for devotions and to open our advent calendars together.

It’s fun, because receiving a gift every night for a month is fun. But more importantly, it’s great family time. Everyone is eager to get together and see what each night will bring.

My boys are just the right age for Legos! This year One had a Guardians of the Galaxy and the other had a Star Wars. I learned very early on not to get anyone the same advent calendar, especially when it comes to the lego ones! They love building (or having me build) their little item each night and they have so much fun playing with the legos throughout the month and early into the next year. It’s the gift that keeps going!

For girls, one of my favorites is Ipsy. I love getting their products throughout the year and their Advent Calendar is amazing!

I also tried the Fab Fit Fun advent calendar this year and discovered that it’s only 12 days and not 24. It did have some awesome stuff in it though. So, depending on what you’re looking for, it’s pretty great!

Because both of these are available through a box/discount group, the value for what I pay is terrific!

To go with my advent calendars, I received a couple of tasty beverages to review. This first one is some delicious Sumatra coffee from Indonesia. It’s organic and fair trade, which is terrific!

This coffee from Pure Origin is delicious! And I always feel good about drinking a fair trade coffee. Not only do they taste amazing, I’m doing something good for my community at the same time.

My kids love tea! Actually I love tea too. This Boost Tea from Red Pantz is super delicious but not that great for bedtime – whoops! My kids liked it too but we did have to make it a morning tea just so everyone can sleep at night!

We love including some tea or other hot beverages with our advent calendars and just kind of extend our family time together until everyone has opened their calendars and drunk their warm winter beverage.

 

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prAna Clothing Review

I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com), May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms Meet blogger, I agree to use this product and post my honest opinion on my blog. The opinions posted are my own.

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I was so excited to try out prAna clothing! First off, I’m expecting my 4th child and being as it takes me a while to show, I’m forever in that awkward stage where my regular clothing doesn’t fit but maternity clothing is too loose. I’m just at 20 weeks pregnant and still fit in my jeans for the most part.

prAna clothing looked comfortable and attractive. Plus since most of the pants have an elastic waist, I can probably wear any of them for my entire pregnancy. How could I pass up great looking AND comfortable!

As an added difficulty, I’m tall, and for pants to be long enough I have to get a tall size. prAna clothing doesn’t come in talls, but since I was getting it for free to review, what did I have to loose? I picked out the Mantra Pant in Black Herringbone because it looked comfortable, nice, and long enough.

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I’m 5′ 10″ and these pants are the perfect length! Not to mention, they’re incredibly comfortable. They’re also easy to dress up – I wore them to a company dinner with a nice shirt and they worked great.

They have an elastic waist, relaxed fit, and straight leg. Perfect for now and for later after my baby arrives.

And the soft hemp fabric is oh, so, soft! It’s very comfortable against my skin. Breathes well, and overall a great pair of pants. Perfect for when I’m active or for when I want to look nice and be comfortable at the same time.

Honestly, these pants are so comfortable I almost feel like I’m wearing pj pants out of the house! Even though when I look in the mirror they look very professional.

Shell: 53% hemp / 44% recycled polyester / 3% spandex

Trim: 53% hemp / 42% organic cotton / 5% spandex

I love these pants! I may just need to purchase them in all the other 4 colors 🙂

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Of course, I have to show off my baby bump, and my new shirt from prAna. The Cleo Tee in Vortex Blue.

I told you that the Mantra Pants are soft. This Cleo Tee takes soft to a whole new level. It’s definitely going to be one of my favorite shirts once the baby arrives. Not only is it a great color and one of my favorite styles. It’s also so soft, and I love wearing soft shirts when I have a newborn to snuggle.

This shirt is long enough and loose enough I’ll be able to wear it for a bit longer, and then it’ll be perfect for when I’m nursing.

76% polyester / 24% cotton

It goes great with my new pants! And I’m very happy with my new outfit.

prAna products are made with sustainable materials and support Fair Trade and Renewable Energy initiatives. So, while you’re enjoying looking great in your comfortable new outfit, you can also be happy knowing that your clothing supports some great causes as well!

Get 15% off your entire prAna order with code: MOMSCNC

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#prAnaMama

 

 

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Green Mountain Coffee

My latest bzz campaign was for Green Mountain Coffee. I love coffee and this was such a fun campaign for me!

They sent 4 different flavors to try, but Green Mountain Coffee has tons of different coffee flavors.

Green Mountain is a Fair Trade company so their coffee tends to be a bit more expensive than my usual folgers or maxwell house, however Green Mountain has more flavor to it. I honestly don’t buy products just because they’re Fair Trade but I have noticed that Fair Trade products tend to be a lot like organic products, they just taste better. And sometimes, the extra flavor is worth the higher price. The varieties are produced with care and it shows. Of all the 4 flavors I tried each of them was delicious!

Vermont Country Blend – This one is a blend of light and dark beans, not too strong, not too weak, perfect for any morning. I think it’s pretty much just a straight up regular coffee.

Columbian Fair Trade Select – This one was really good, nice and strong without being too strong. You know, how some strong coffees are kind of bitter, there was no bitter in this coffee. It was strong but still smooth. Good for a busy morning or a nice afternoon pick-me-up.

Wild Mountain Blueberry – This one smells so good when it’s brewing! It’s almost enough to wake me up without having to drink it…almost. It’s a nice medium/mild coffee with just a tad of blueberry flavor in it, just enough to taste but not enough to make me feel like I’m drinking blueberries instead of coffee. I honestly, will buy this one again just because I like the smell of it so well!

Sumatran Reserve – This one is my favorite of the four. A nice bold coffee, perfect for a morning when the kids get me up early. It’s nice and strong without being bitter, It’s now on my list of must have coffees.

And for more fun info on Green Mountain Fair Trade you can follow Grace Potter and Michael Franti’s Fair Trade source trips, and check out the live stream of their concerts via the Green Mountain Coffee®Facebook page!