Garth Brooks "Mom" (and win a trip to his concert!)

I used to get so irritated with my mom when she would say "you'll understand when you're a mom". What teenager wants to hear that? I loved my family and cared about their well being. I didn't understand how the love that I felt and knew, could be different than hers. 

Then I became a mom. 

It's all just different. You're completely responsible for this little life, from the minute it begins growing in you, through forever. You're love is incomparable. Overwhelming. Mind boggling. 

I think part of it comes in their unconditional love for you. They forgive without question and think you're beautiful in your absolute worst state. There's nothing in the whole world you wouldn't do or give for your child. It's just natural. 

There's no greater gift I could be given, than that of being a mom. Garth Brooks new song "Mom" talks about that amazing gift. I'm a huge country music fan, so of course, I love the song. If you're a softie like me, grab a tissue and listen to the clip here. 

If you want the song, you can now download it from GhostTunes. It's a full-service online music platform offering millions of songs, albums, products and creative bundles from artists across all genres. GhostTunes is actually founded by Garth Brooks, to give fans the freedom to listen to purchased music on the device of their choice, while providing artists with a new way to sell their music any way they dream.

In celebration of Garth Brook’s brand new single, “Mom,” GhostTunes is offering one lucky mom and a guest the opportunity to see Garth in concert, complete with hotel and airfare! For more information and to enter to win the contest here!

Compensation was provided by GhostTunes via MomTrends. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions of Ghost Tunes or MomTrends. 

Minecraft Gameband Party!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. 

All opinions are mine alone. #GameOnTheGo #CollectiveBias

A couple weeks ago, we celebrated the release of the new Minecraft Gameband, a cool way to have a portable Minecraft, with a fun party. 

Before I go telling you how cool that little thing is, check out our Minecraft everything party. I seriously had such a blast prepping for this party. I made sure nothing was crazy difficult. It's so often that you see these elaborate parties that have just taken so much time and effort to put together. But, I'm here to tell you, that you can throw a fabulous party, without losing sleep or getting grey hair. 

The "Creeper Juice" was a big hit. They were just Mountain Dew bottles with the labels peeled off and duct tape added. 

A little bit of a simpler take on the cake pop, is the marshmallow pop. A large marshmallow is dipped in melted candy melts and voila. Way easier than making all those little balls! I used some black candy melts and a toothpick to make even more Creepers come to the party. 
 When I was done with the marshmallow pop dipping, I used the leftover green candy melts to drizzle on cocoa rice krispie treats. These made for perfect little grass blocks. 

Other cool things we had, were TNT bundles out of licorice, "water blocks" out of blue jello and a pile of "diamonds" from the wedding department of a craft store. I found these printables for the food tent card as well as the small wall art. This one is for the cute TNT wrappers. They used them to wrap little poppers, which were really cute!

There wasn't an unhappy person in attendance, from the little ones all the way to the teenagers!

Especially Cooper, since after all, he was the one with the Gameband.

So what is this thing? The Gameband, by Now Computing, is the first ever Minecraft wearable. It's a USB that doubles as a bracelet and watch. It's also features customization and that's Cooper's favorite part. His scrolls across and says "Coop Rocks!" You can have it show images or phrases, then choose how you want it to scroll. Cooper thinks he's definitely the coolest kid on the block with his cool tech bracelet.

The greatest feature, is that the Gameband saves your worlds, changes and all your work and backs it up on its cloud-based servers. It makes it so that you can play on your computer at home, grandma's computer while traveling for the holidays, or dad's computer on a trip to the office. (Or wherever else you happen to play!) Cooper loves that he can use it on his computer, or mine and always have his work saved for him. 

The Gameband is available in sizes small and large, to fit every Minecraft fan. I found mine in the mobile gaming department at Target. If you have questions or feedback about the Gameband, Now Computing are the folks to reach out to. They make the Gameband and are affiliated with Minecraft. 

Think your Minecraft fan will want one under the tree this year? They're a hot item for the holidays, so make sure you call ahead to see if your store has it in stock. Happy diamond mining!

You can find more from Molly on StilettosandDiapers.com

Christmas Traditions: New Pajamas

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Joe Boxer available at Kmart. 

I'm a sucker for all sorts of festive clothing. Monograms on everything, personalized shirts for the boys at each holiday and themed clothing for vacations; I love it all. Christmas is one of the best times to squish everyone you love into coordinating clothing. My favorite? Pajamas. We we started a tradition 2 years ago, that includes everyone getting a new pair of pajamas on Christmas eve. We all put them on to watch Christmas movies, then all have decent, hole-less clothing on for Christmas morning. 

Last year was our first good pajama shot of the whole family and it's framed in our house. Makes me smile every time I pass by it.

I love the festiveness the new jams bring to the Christmas pictures. 

I think I've bought every style for each of us, from the old man button ups, to the basic cotton sets. I think my favorite style, though, is the tight leg bottoms. It just looks adorable on those little baby booties and I'm so excited that they are in for women this year! 

Joe Boxer has a large assortment of styles this holiday season, for men, women and kids. Their holiday line, available at Kmart, comes wrapped up cute, perfect for putting right under the tree. 

My favorite, the Sweet Dreams set, has already been unwrapped and worn by the Christmas tree with my favorite snowman mug full of coffee. I love that the set is 3 pieces, with candy cane stripe shorts for the not-so-cold North Carolina nights. They will be worn plenty between now and Christmas! 


Kmart doesn't stop with just cute PJ's. They have really cute commercials for them, too! Check these out. I LOVE the preggo dancers! 

Do you have a pajama tradition with your family? 

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Joe Boxer available at Kmart. 

Easy Holiday Entertaining (and a yummy Christmas cocktail recipe!)

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. 
All opinions are mine alone. #HolidayMadeSimple #CollectiveBias 

I'm a bit of a "go all out-er" when it comes to parties and holidays. I love entertaining and I love to go theme crazy. I also really love when I can do all of those things very easily, with easy recipes and a small amount of clean up. Yesterday, I got exactly what I wanted. 

We had some friends over and I wanted to make it Christmas-y without too much work. I created a colorful winter wonderland in our dining room in about an hour. A simple snack menu included a snowman cheese ball, toffee fudge, a hot cocoa bar for the kids and a yummy "blue Christmas" cocktail for the grown ups. 

The cocktail was pretty delicious, if I do say so myself. I crushed up Wonka®  Sweetarts®  candy canes and mixed it with sugar. After dipping the glasses in some simple syrup, I rolled them around in the candy cane mix for a festive look. 

The drink itself is 1 part vodka, 1 part sour mix, 1 part blue curacao and 2 parts pineapple juice. I think they looked so cute and festive with the bright candy canes!

I had 3 types of cocoa for the kids, 2 types of marshmallows and some whipped cream. Although, I did catch Cooper shooting whipped cream into his mouth, straight from the container.

My friend asked if I made the fudge and was shocked when I said yes and how easy it was! I used the Nestle®  Carnation Famous Fudge Kit for my very first attempt at fudge making and it was SO easy. It's a box that has everything you need to easily make fudge, then I made it my own by mixing in 3/4 cup of toffee chips, right before I spread it in the pan. I used another 1/4 cup of the chips to press on the top. After chilling a couple hours, I sliced it and put it out. All 1.5lbs was gone in the day. Seriously so good. I think I'm going to make more in little packages for friends and teachers this year! 

Snowman cheeseball needed some mini chocolate chip eyes, but no one seemed to mind. 

I used some more of the candy canes to decorate and was glad I snapped a pic before the kids ate them all! 

A couple of my sweet friends. The boys were too busy watching football to get in on the cocktail pictures. 

Pretty much everything I used for the party can be found at Walmart. From the delicious fudge kit and candy canes, right down to the cute little containers and stir sticks. Talk about #HolidayMadeSimple. PS, the fudge is right in with the baking mixes, so when you're in there trying to decide what to bring to your next party, grab a box. You won't be sorry! 

Nestle is giving away $1,600 in gift baskets! Use the widget below to enter! 
Nestlé Holiday Sweepstakes

Tips for Staying Active in Winter with C9

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Target® C9 through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about Target® C9 all opinions are my own.

We're coming into the toughest season for me, and I'm assuming many others, to keep active and healthy. We're no longer motivated to look good in our shorts and bathing suits, the cold weather is making us crave comfort food and there are holiday parties filled with sweets and cocktails. Not to mention we're all super busy traveling, Christmas shopping and prepping for guest, that it cuts down on our time to do the things we really need to do. 

I've learned that I don't have to commit hours to my day, or make huge changes in my life to stay active. I rarely work out for more than 30 minutes, but that's enough for me to feel good, be positive and accomplish my goals. There are a few no fail things that help me stay on track during this time of year.

Schedule - The number one thing for me is a schedule. At the end of summer, I found myself slipping into the comfort zone, skipping workouts like it was my job. I decided that to get my mojo back, I needed it in my face. I printed a blank calendar and it's on my bathroom counter. Does it look great? Not really, but I will look a whole lot better if I stick to it! 


Convenient workouts - I'm a mom and always have a child with me. If I'm going to stick to my workout plan, I need convenience. I spend about 30 minutes a day on whatever workout it is that I'm doing. I usually run early in the morning, or during naptime on the treadmill. That treadmill? Well, it's in the garage. Whatever works, right? If the hubs would get me a TV out there, it would be perfect! Hehe. (Have you ever had your picture taken while running? Not as easy as I thought it would be!)

I do P90X3 workouts with the hubs a couple times a week and Callan usually joins us. My pull up bar is in the guest bedroom door way and the hubs is right across in the playroom. I love working out together because we motivate each other. I'm also a hard core squat advocate. I added a 30 day squat challenge to my calendar this month, just so I made sure I got them done! I get those squats in during a phone call, while browsing social media, or while watching TV. Momma has to multi task!
 

Cute workout clothes - Cute clothes make any event better and a workout is no exception! I have a very colorful drawer of gear that makes any sweat session more fun. One of my absolute favorite brands, is the C9 line from Target®. I can find all the current trends and colors that I see in more expensive stores at much lower prices. I love that it's easy shop for, too. I'm already regularly at Target® and don't need to make a separate trip to find exactly what works for me. I often wear C9 pieces on the weekends because of the comfort, and they're also great for casual walks with my boys around the neighborhood, or a little hike. 

Dry Shampoo - While you're at Target® grabbing your cute C9 athletic gear, grab some dry shampoo. I only wash my hair every 2-3 days because it takes forever to dry and I definitely don't have time for that. Instead of skipping a workout because of sweaty hair, I use a little dry shampoo after a workout to save me massive amounts of time! 

Meal Planning - I don't know what I did before meal planning. It takes so much stress away from my evenings and gives me more time to be with my family. It also helps me make better food choices, instead of eating something quick and not as good for me. 



The reality is, that if I get lazy now, I will seriously regret it come spring. I want to set goals for myself and feel accomplished in reaching them. I love setting a good example for my boys, that being active and healthy is a way of life that is attainable!