Tried and True Little Lady Gift Ideas

Monday, December 7, 2020

This post is sponsored by BabbleBoxx. All opinions are mine alone. 



Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you have all been able to cross fun things off your bucket list and have been able to spend time with those you love! We're in full blown holiday mode over here and it is such a blast. It's true, this really is the most wonderful time of the year. The girls get excited every morning to see where the elf is hiding, to hang an ornament, to get an advent treat, and to see how many days are left until Christmas! I have a few more gifts to buy and a few more to finish making, but I thought I'd share with you guys some little girl gift ideas that every little lady will LOVE! This guide includes gift ideas and stocking stuffers from each of these brands: Candlewick Press, Kid Trax, Open the Joy, Beloved Bath, Baby Alive, and Play On! 

First Up: Will You Be My Friend? by Sam McBratney, Illustrated by Anita Jeram from Candlewick Press

My little Cambria LOVES books. She asks to read them every single day, multiple times a day. I often find her just sitting off by herself making up little stories that go along with the pictures in her books. It's adorable and I love how much it sparks her imagination. Will You Be My Friend is the sequel to the adorable book Guess How Much I Love You. I made sure to read this book alone before reading it to my girls and it is absolutely darling. It is exquisitely illustrated and the message is warm, lyrical, and playful. I love that Will You Be My Friend is a storybook adventure with friendship at its heart. 


Second: Silly Skaters Unicorn Inflatable Ride-On Toy From Kid Trax

This particular toy happens to be Cambria's favorite. She seriously rides all over the house in it, it's awesome! If I ask her to go grab her shoes, she rides down the hall to grab her shoes. If it's time to get ready for bed, she rides to the shower. If she wants to pretend her dolls are riding a horse, she sits them down and scoots them around. She cannot get enough of this toy! The Silly Skaters Unicorn is made for ages 1-3 and trust me, your little girl will be more than thrilled to receive it. This soft, inflatable unicorn on roller skates is so stinking cute, but also perfect to ride around on or push around for the younger kiddos. The skates also include activated LED's so they light up as your child rolls! I'm telling you, this unicorn has it all! Make sure you head too KidTraxToys.com to see and learn more about all the fun toys they have to offer!

Receive $5 Off Silly Skaters With Code: Babble5 Offer Expires December 14, 2020



Third: Grab-n-Go Conversation Cards/ Let’s Joke!/ Let’s Think!/ Let’s Talk! From Open the Joy

Sometimes stocking stuffers can be daunting. Every year my kids end up with stuff that is fun for a second and turns into junk lying around the house the next day. Either that or just a bunch of candy and we all know that's a recipe for disaster! These Open The Joy Grab-n-go conversation cards are absolutely perfect for stocking stuffers! They are loaded with 109 questions that are thought-provoking conversation starters.  The deck of cards encourages meaningful discussions that promote bonding, self-expression, and nurtures emotional balance in kids. They are the perfect ice breaker for talks at the dinner table, road trips, and bed time. The portable conversation cards include: Let's Joke! Let's Think! and Let's Talk! (each sold separately). These pocket-sized cards are easy to transport no matter where you are headed. They also have a handy clip that makes it easy to attach the conversation card game to your purse or bag helping you to be ready for any moment. 




Fourth: Box of 4 Assorted Soaps from the Best-Selling Kids Collections and Hand Cleansing Spray from Beloved Bath

Raise your hand if your kids love bath time more than practically any other time!! I'm raising both of my hands because my kids would choose to take a bath at any point in the day. Personally, I find it easier for them to shower but they love bath time SO much. Let's be honest, I love a good warm bath myself! That's why a gift from Beloved Bath is the perfect gift for your girlies. The box of 4 assorted soaps comes from their best-selling kids collections: building block soap, heart soap, glitter lips -with eco glitter, and elephant soap. All soaps contain: phthalate free fragrance, and natural colorants. The hand cleansing spray is perfect for travel and school, skin friendly, sustainably sourced, non GMO alcohol coxed with a citrus essential oil blend and deonized water. Beloved Bath's mission is "meaningful employment for people with autism" and they proudly partner with vocational programs and hire those with autism. These are feel good gifts that make a real social impact! 

Enter the code: babbleboxx at checkout and receive 15% off your entire order now through December 20th! Limit one per customer. 


Fifth: Tinycorns from Baby Alive

I wish you all could have seen how happy Oaklyn was about this Baby Alive... oh man! It was the cutest thing! She carried the box around with so much joy and was squealing with happiness when I took the doll out of the box. She has hardly put it down and is loving being a little mama. The Tinycorns baby doll comes wearing a dreamy, hooded unicorn dress and includes a sparkly cup for her favorite drink! Oaks is obsessed with all things rainbow and unicorns so she was thrilled to see a Baby Alive decked out in her current obsessions! This Baby Alive Tinycorns doll really "pees" like a baby, so make sure your cutie is wearing a diaper! Honestly, that is one of Oaklyn's favorite parts about the doll, haha! I think it makes her feel more like a little mama to change her bum. 




Lastly, but certainly not least: Play On! from Bay Area Children's Theatre

I know we're all looking for ways to keep our kiddos occupied this Winter... this is the perfect gift for that! Play On! is a screen-free audio-musical adventure with a storytelling kit. You can get it as a subscription series or as an individual kit. Once you help your kids download the soundtrack, off they go on their adventure where they will run around, make choices, and solve puzzles! 

Here are the two different series and the one special edition:





I hope you enjoyed these gift ideas and I especially hope you have a wonderful Holiday season!
All my love,
Aleigh Joy

Christmas Family Traditions

Monday, November 30, 2020

 Woohoo! Tomorrow is December 1st! Can you believe it? This year is a weird mix of fast/short days, weeks, and months. I keep feeling like each day just creeps by with how different everything currently feels, yet I also keep saying "I can't believe it's already ____." We decorated for Christmas the first week of November 😅  So, we've been in the Christmas spirit for a while now... buttt now that the rest of the world is starting to celebrate, it feels even more festive! We were out of town for Thanksgiving so December really snuck up on me. Now I'm realizing some of our Christmas traditions start tomorrow and I thought I'd share with the rest of you in case you're looking for a few more things to add to your list. This first post is just all the traditions I like to do during the month of December. A few of these things may look a little different this year but I'm sure there are ways to make them fun still!


A Few Notes:
-I'll be doing a whole post on the Elf on the Shelf! Honestly, I just started this last year and I love it soo much. I know people have mixed feelings about it so my goal is to help you love it!
-25 Days of Christ is seriously the best! We started this a couple years ago after I started realizing my kids were focusing much more on gifts than on the real meaning of Christmas. Sure, the gifts are fun. The lights are pretty. The cookies are yummy... but I really want them to feel the REAL Christmas spirit which comes from Christ. When I wanted to start this tradition the real sets were completely sold out. Soo I decided to make my own! Personally, I think you should just buy it because it was a ton of work and their ornaments are so classy. My kids love my homemade ones for now but at some point I plan to purchase them here. Each night you learn a new story about Christ and it's just the best. I HIGHLY recommend.
-We like to make our lists in November because I do a lot of early shopping... but we love to address them to Santa and stick them in the mailbox. When the kids go to bed I take them out and hide them so I have them and they have the magic of their lists really making it to Santa!
-We usually look at lights about a week before Christmas. I love to plan out our route and give the girls a few Christmas treats. We listen to our fav Christmas tunes between streets and get out to look at the lights on really festive streets. When we get home, we make hot chocolate and watch another movie on the list.
-My mother in law thought of the tradition to go caroling and I think we'll keep with it! In my church we are assigned a few people to "minister" to so we usually do them, but I love the idea of deciding as a family who you go see. I like making a few different types of treats (Oreo truffles, peppermint cookies, and Christmas crack) and putting them in treat boxes. We also make cards for the families.
-Each year me, Oaks (cam would've come this year for the first year), my mom, and my sister all go see the Nutcracker by the California ballet. We all get dressed up, curl hair, and I even let Oaks wear a little makeup! Oaks gets to pick out a new ornament for her tree and she loves it! Afterwards we go out to eat and just have a fun girls day. This year I can't find a single showing of the Nutcracker so we may have to get creative and watch it on tv or something.
-I love finding little wood crafts that the girls can paint each year. They love to decorate for Christmas but I'm very particular about my decor so they both have their own mini tinsel trees (here's where the Nutcracker ornaments come into play) and their painted wood crafts from each year that go in their room so they can "decorate" too. 
-Christmas Sunday is a special day for us (The Sunday before Christmas) It's the day our church services feel extra Christmasy. I remember being SO excited when I found out Oaks was a girl literally for the sole reason that she would get to wear a Christmas dress, ha! When I found out I was having a second girl I got even more excited for matching dresses! The girls loveee getting all gussied up in their Christmas Sunday clothes. That evening we have a fancy meal. We spend Christmas Eve with Hunter's family and Christmas Day with my family so I love using Christmas Sunday as a day for me to do what I want for Christmas. I love making a special type of meat and lots of fancy sides like Ruth's Chris potatoes au gratin, rolls and cinnamon butter, balsamic asparagus, etc... I also love to create a fancy centerpiece from fresh Christmas tree clippings. This is also the day we make and decorate sugar cookies. It keeps them fresh for Santa on Christmas Eve!
-When the girls wake up on Christmas Eve Hunter brings festive donuts for breakfast. Then they find a present under the tree from our elf on the shelf. Inside is our matching family jammies with a goodbye letter to the girls since she goes back to the North Pole with Santa that night. Hunter's mom always does a family Christmas Eve party that evening with a special dinner, we all act out the nativity, we do a few games, and do a gift exchange. It's always so much fun! Once it's time for bed the girls get in their new jammies and Hunter reads the story of Christ's birth. Afterwards Hunter looks up where Santa is (Just look on google) and the girls do their "Santa Dance" because they're excited. After that we set out milk and cookies plus carrots for the reindeer and send the girls off to bed. After everyone goes to bed I make my Christmas morning soufflé so it's ready to bake in the morning. Hunter and I also set out the Santa present, make a letter from Santa to the girls, make his footprints, eat part of the cookies, etc... I love the feel of Christmas Eve!
-Also, this year I want to go through the girl's toys and have each of them find at least 10 toys to donate to kids in need. 

So there ya have it! There's our traditions! Let me know if you have any more questions and let me know what your favorite family traditions are! 

All my love,
Aleigh Joy 



2020 Christmas Cards

Thursday, November 26, 2020

It's no secret that I love Christmas Cards, like a lot. I basically couldn't wait to send and receive Christmas cards for so so long. While Hunter was on his mission, I straight up made a fake Christmas card of the two of us because I just desperately wanted to be a part of the Christmas card making club, ha! I was so excited the first year we got married that I could finally send out a REAL Christmas card. I loved every part of designing it, stuffing envelopes, going to the mailbox to send them, and of course the best part... opening the mailbox each day to find new cards! I just love this time of year so much and seeing everyone's beautiful families and how they've grown just adds to the Christmas joy. 


This year, I used a new company for our cards and I am SO happy with how they turned out! We used Paper Culture and the cards are beautiful. They have an awesome variety of design options with all sorts of color as well as simple cards. Each card has so much character and you are sure to find one that you love. The design process was incredibly easy. Uploading photos, placing them, adding and removing text... it was such a breeze! They printed both the recipient addresses as well as the return addresses on each envelope so I got to completely skip the hand cramping and smudged addresses, ha. The cardstock is so incredibly thick and the photo quality is perfect! I honestly could not be happier with our card!


I'm also super thrilled with the company's mission. All of Paper Culture's products are made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Meaning, no new trees are cut down to make your cards! They also do little things in their office like print on two sides of a paper, recycle, compost, and choose to build offices near public transportation. Not only do they do all of that... but they also plant a tree with every single order! they have planted over 1,000,000 trees! Their employees literally pick up shovels and plant trees within their communities. SO cool! 

All around, I am so impressed with Paper Culture and everything they are doing to create a better world and a better way to keep the Christmas card tradition alive. Their cards are currently 50% off until 12/10! Make sure you take advantage of this awesome deal. Trust me, you will not be disappointed!

All my love,

Aleigh Joy 

GIRL NUMBER THREE!

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Thank you to Sneak Peek for sponsoring this post.

 Can you believe it?? We're having another girl!

Honestly, I can totally believe it... but for some reason reading the results still took me by surprise! We are thrilled to be adding another little girl into our family! And, if you've seen the video of us telling the girls, you know they're beyond excited! Having girls feels so natural to us and honestly, I hardly have to do anything to prepare, ha! Another girl will fit so easily into our family. For whatever reason though, from the moment I saw the positive pregnancy test, I thought we were having a boy. If I'm being honest, I really had to mentally prepare for that. Having two girly girls feels really natural to me. Over time I mentally prepared to have a boy and started to warm up to the idea of a little Hunter running around. Then, came the ring test... Have you heard of this? If not, look it up on Google. Basically if you hold your ring over your hand with a piece of hair or string, it'll either move back and forth or move in a circle and that supposedly tells you the genders of your children and how many you will have. This test appeared to be accurate for every person we tried it on. My test said this baby would be a boy. So, here I was thinking we'd be welcoming a little boy into our family. I got super anxious and wanted to really actually start preparing if it were a boy because hello, we have ZERO baby boy things! Need dresses, hair bows, barbies, and pink nursery decor... I got you! But boy stuff... I have none of that. So I desperately wanted to find out the gender of this child, and fast! That's when I heard about Sneak Peek...

I have a few friends that have done Sneak Peek so I was really interested in it. The more I read, the more I really wanted tot try it! Sneak Peek is the only at-home early gender DNA blood test with results that are 99.1% accurate. It can also be taken as early as 8 weeks into pregnancy! Can you believe that?? You can now find out the gender of your baby at 8 weeks! That is 12 weeks earlier than the anatomy scan. Sneak Peek is also the safest, earliest, most accurate way to determine your baby's gender. 

I received my test in the mail and was so excited to take it. I had my mom help me because blood often makes me feel a little queasy. Luckily, my mom was super calm and helpful and it literally took us like 20 minutes. The instructions were very straight forward and I was surprised at how easy it was. You don't want male DNA to come in contact with the test so we had my dad stay downstairs and I used disinfectant  spray on the entire bathroom... I may have sprayed my moms hand after she touched her phone too... haha sorry mom. Once you mail the test back you can find out the results as fast as 72 hours after! I was alone when I opened the email and I was literally shocked! I told Hunter and he was soo excited. When I called my mom to tell her we both felt like we should go get an ultrasound just to make sure. I found a place that would take me the next day and sure enough, after looking for like 30 seconds, she confirmed that we are having a little girl! Once I received both results I felt like I could finally breathe and start really feeling excited about another girl. We're 98% sure we have her name already picked out and each passing day I get even more excited to see my three girls together. 💗💗💗

I would totally recommend doing the Sneak Peek test if you are wanting to find out the gender of your baby early. They ship everywhere in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK. If you are wanting to try the test you can use code SPINOV11 for $10 off the standard test or $20 off the FastTrack test. The code is valid the whole month of November!


If you have any questions feel free to ask me! 

All my love

-Aleigh Joy

Halloween Fun!

Friday, October 9, 2020

 Hi Friends!

Happy October!

What a weird year... The last time I wrote in this blog was April... woah. It feels like so much has changed since then yet somehow it also feels like so much is still standing still. This year has been, well, hard. As I'm sure it has been for most of you too. I guess maybe a better word would be different? And sometimes different feels hard. Especially when it's abrupt. I've spent the past six months thinking things would go back to "normal." any day now. As you can probably assume, that got exhausting and lead to several hard days. I finally feel like I've kind of let go of that idea and instead have just decided to try to do things as "normal" as possible in my home. We LOVE holidays around here. Like so much. I started to feel pretty bummed when I realized the holidays would look pretty different this year. I sat with that for a little bit and then just tried to figure out what I CAN control and what activities my family can still do to make the holidays fun. I wrote down all of our usual traditions and tried to figure out what we can still do, what we can't do, and what we would have to adjust. I then created an October calendar and started to schedule everything in to make sure we watched all the movies, ate all the fall foods, had costumes done on time, etc... I feel soo much better now and we are already making October such a fun month. I'm planning on doing this same thing for November and December so we can still have tons of holiday fun. I encourage all of you moms that are feeling in a rut to do the same thing! I promise it'll bring happiness to you and your family. Holiday traditions are such a blast and your kids will be so happy to have a little normalcy in their lives! Just make or print out an October calendar and start filling in fun fall activities! I made little graphics with some of my personal favorite activities! I hope this helps make your October a little more fun, a little spookier, and a little more normal. 



A few other things I didn't put on the graphic are: 

-Halloween family home evening. I made a highlight with ideas on my IG page! Doing themed FHE is something my kids love! It makes it so fun for them!

-We use a little spider called Spooky Ooky to promote good behavior. I literally just printed out a cute spider, laminated it, and called him spooky ooky. In our house he takes toys to his "cave" (haha just a drawer) and keeps them there til the girls earn them back. He also talks to the girls each night about how they are doing behavior-wise and gives them a hug before bed. At the end of the month he gives them a "Halloween surprise" if they have earned it. They love him so much. Britt from The Holiday Co. does a fuzzy spooking spider. She has a super cute book for it too and shares a lot about him on her IG page. I started doing my version before I knew about hers but I definitely would recommend checking hers out! It's put together so well! 

-Decorate cookies! The first year we moved to San Diego I was so bummed that there weren't very many fun family activities for the holidays since I was used to living in Utah where there is something to do every weekend! So, I threw a little mommy and me playdate where the whole concept originated from the idea to decorate Halloween sugar cookies. It got a little bigger as I started planning... but it was so fun! Since then I haven't thrown that big party but have still made an effort to decorate cookies! Here's a link to the party post! 

-A Spooky Halloween dinner/breakfast. Pinterest has soo many fun ideas but honestly, Trader Joes will be your best friend! They have so many awesome Halloween/Fall themed treats and foods from shaped pasta to pumpkin spice everything! You can also use food coloring to literally dye anything. Black pasta is super fun! I love doing orange pancakes with Halloween sprinkles for breakfast on the 31st. 


Again, it the little things like this that will make holidays soo much fun for the whole family! Figure out a few things that work for your family and run with it! And message me if you have any questions or suggestions!! 


All my love,

Aleigh Joy

Sour Cream Banana Bars

Sunday, April 19, 2020

We had some overripe bananas the other day. Like most people I use my overripe bananas for banana bread or muffins. However, a few years ago my life was changed forever when I tried to make banana bars. Guys! These bad boys are so yummy! I combined a few recipes and tweaked things where I thought needed and I'll tell you what, these things are soo good! The sour cream makes the bar soo moist and the brown sugar glaze just ties it all in perfectly. The glaze was a concoction I made while pregnant with with Oaks because I was craving something with the salted caramel flavor. I'm telling you, my best recipes come when I'm pregnant and craving things haha. Anyways, these bars are soo yummy and I hope you love them as much as we do! Let me know if you make them!

All my love,
Aleigh Joy




Sour cream banana bars 
-3/4 c white sugar 
-3/4 c brown sugar
-1 c sour cream
-1/2 c softened butter
-2 eggs 
-2-3 overripe bananas (mashed) 
-2 tsp vanilla 
-2 c flour
-1 tsp salt 
-1 tsp baking soda 

Brown sugar glaze 
-1 c butter 
-1 c brown sugar 
-1 c powdered sugar
-1 tsp vanilla
-dash of Salt (Just like a shake or two from your salt shaker. If you're using salted butter just do one shake but if you're doing unsalted you might want more. Just taste test it!)

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line jelly roll pan with parchment paper (or grease and flour a jelly roll pan) Mix sugars, sour cream, butter, and eggs in a stand mixer (or with a hand mixer) until well combined. Beat in mashed bananas and vanilla. Mix until combined. Slowly add in flour, baking soda, and salt until combined. Pour into the pan and bake until golden. (20-25 minutes) Let bars sit for about 10 minutes and then poke several times with a fork and pour glaze over the top. 

To make glaze:
Melt butter in saucepan. Add in brown sugar, vanilla, and dash of salt. Continually whisk until smooth. Let boil for 5 minutes whisking occasionally. Slowly add in sifted powdered sugar in 3 increments whisking each time. Pour glaze over banana bars and use a rubber spatula to spread evenly. Let cool for 10 minutes. Cut, and enjoy!


A Little Life Update

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

I used to do these often and then just kinda fell off of it when my life got insane. Last year I decided to coach cheer at my old high school. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and it ended up taking over my life, ha. In a good way... most of the time! Blogging is truly one of my passions and something I love doing, but there just weren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. Sooo blogging ended up getting cut from the lineup. Sad. I'm really hoping to make more time for it now though because I love and miss it! I've been getting quite a few messages on Instagram asking how we're doing and if something happened to make me stop sharing and posting as much. The answer is that nothing happened but life just got a lot busier. So, here's a little catch up post to hopefully answer my most asked questions as well as share just what we're up to!


Hunter
-Working at GA still and excelling. I never doubted or worried about him but he just keeps getting incredible performance reviews. Good job Hunter!
-Working from home during this quarantine and being so good being patient with the little ones running around crazy all the time, haha. 
-Teaches Sunday school to the 12 and 13 year olds at church. I've had the opportunity to sit in during a few lessons and he is a wonderful teacher. I'm so grateful he's the one helping me teach our children!
-Coached the JV basketball team at our old high school last season. I didn't get to go to many of his games since I was coaching at the varsity games but from the few I did get to see and the practices I got to see him in action at, I can tell that's yet another thing he's a rockstar at. 
-Wakes up around 6am even when he doesn't set an alarm. Ha, he gets most everything done before I even wake up!

Aleigh
-Finished up my first year coaching varsity and competition cheer. We actually got cut short due to the quarantine. I was sad to have things end so abruptly but still made lots of wonderful memories over the year. Yes, year. Cheer is completely year round which makes it much different than other sports. We started in May and would've gone til April if the quarantine didn't happen. Tryouts are ion the Spring. We practice over the summer, start competition practice in the Fall. Cheer for football in the Fall. Work on halftime routines and pep rally routines in the Fall. Compete in the Winter. Cheer for basketball in the Winter. Finish with any school performances in the Spring.
-Got called to being an advisor in Young Women's at church. I was really enjoying getting to know the girls and spending time with them. Hoping we can return to that soon!
-Doing little homeschool lessons with Oaks to fill our time up now that preschool is done.
-Remembering how much I love cooking now that I have time to again!


Oaklyn
-Finished up her second year of preschool. It obviously ended sooner than we thought it would but we're looking forward to her starting Kindergarten in the Fall. She made some really awesome little friends and learned SO much!
-Taking hip hop classes and honestly... not totally loving it, ha! I thought she would since it's faster paced but she just keeps saying she wants to be a cheerleader. I can't blame her since she was surrounded by it constantly for the past year. She's currently doing her classes virtually and we are really hoping the recital will still happen this June. 
-Turned 5 in February. (WHAT)
-In CTR 4 at church and we are LOVING seeing her in Primary Programs. 
-Acts like a teenager and is definitely giving us a run for our money. But, she is also very thoughtful and kind when she wants to be... ha. 



Cambria
-2.5! She will be turning 3 in August and I literally cannot believe it. These last 2.5 years have actually flown by.
-Grows an inch of hair each day, I swear. Her hair is gorgeous!
-Such an active little squirt but also such a snuggle bug. She loves to be held and snuggled in a blanket next to anyone she loves.
-Working on potty training. She's doing amazing with pee! Poop however has been quite a struggle...
-Still taking a nap but figured out how to climb out of the crib. And how to open doors... I may or may not have found her in the backyard during nap time. Don't worry, we figured out how to contain her 😓 
-She's still an easy, happy go lucky child with a hint of sass now. She's such a funny little stinker and her vocabulary is becoming hilarious. 


As for a family update... we are still living in San Diego but are planning on moving next summer! Where? Not totally sure yet. We're pretty sure we know where but nothing is set in stone. We'll definitely share more during the process of moving and are getting really excited for a change! As for now, we're enjoying where we're at and are trying to take things day by day rather than wishing time would speed up. There's a lot to be grateful for right now so we're trying hard not to be too anxious! I feel like the most asked question I get is, when will there be Baby Moore #3? Haha! The answer is, we absolutely want more kids! We're very excited to have more kids but it just hasn't felt like the right timing. We definitely don't feel done at two, but we're also not in a rush for three. I guess time will tell... ha! Sorry there isn't more exciting news there. 😉 

Here's to hoping this isn't the last post for a while... I'm going to work on posting more, yay! Let me know anything you guys want to see more of!

All my love,
Aleigh Joy

Dresses were found at my local Marshalls. They have the best and most reasonably priced dresses!