The Royal Review

We've moved!

2012-04-03T10:43:00.001-07:00

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Nursing clip winner

2011-07-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

Well, there weren't many entries (I guess I'm not the only chicken about feeding in public? but I swear you can use these for SO MUCH MORE). Any-who, here it is!


Katy

Crowning Lotus nursing clip Review & Giveaway

2011-07-13T17:40:00.001-07:00

At the tail end of my pregnancy I was contacted by Julie, who offered me a nursing clip to review. Since I always planned on breastfeeding, I agreed happily. Back then I had these thoughts of how I would be brave and nurse in public.

This never happened.

Peanut was born and I chickened out. I was barely comfortable feeding her in front of my family, forget whipping it out on the street. To those of you who can do it - I bow down.

I did, however, keep the clip in my diaper bag. You know, just in case one day I woke up and decided that I was brave enough.

That also never happened (well, yet).

But while I kept waiting to use the nursing clip in the way that it was intended, I found myself using it almost daily for many other reasons.

It makes just about the cutest pacifier clip.

This is especially handy to us since Peanut’s new favorite activity is to pull the paci out of her mouth and drop it. Then watch as you scramble to pick it up and wipe it off.

And as we’ve embarked on our new solid food adventures, it’s also served as a pretty awesome sippy cup leash.

Then, a coupe of weekends ago, the nursing clip served its ultimate (for now) purpose to me.

Jon and I were chatting happily in the front seat as we made the long drive to Cape Cod. About a half hour prior to our arrival, I thought it’d be a good idea to pump so I could help unpack, hang out with my friends, and otherwise not lock myself in a room for 20 minutes. I looked around and found nothing that would cover me up and protect wondering eyes of passing cars.

Then I remembered that I carry my nursing clip with me at all times. I grabbed my sweater, clipped it with my handy-dandy nursing clip, and went on my merry way.

My hands were free, my pumping parts were covered. I was a happy camper.

Now here’s the awesome part! Julie volunteered to let you have some of her awesome goodies!

The Giveaway

6 Mama Munchies Lactation Cookies (Dark Chocolate Cranberry)

1 Nursing Clip

1 Bib Clip

To enter

Leave me a comment and let me know what you love about breastfeeding
Visit http://www.crowninglotus.typepad.com/ and leave me a comment with something that you either like or have learned from this site
Visit www.facebook.com/crowninglotus and “Like” the page; leave me a comment and let me know you did it

Anyone can enter!

The Giveaway will be open for 2 weeks and I will pick the winner on Thursday, 7/28.

What helps me sleep at night

2011-06-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

When Peanut was still in my belly, we thought that we didn't need a lot of extra gadgets.

I'm going to go ahead and say we were wrong.

Especially about this little gadget:

picture from amazon.com

We received an old, but totally awesome baby monitor (the one that just has audio) from our neighbors and we were positive that it would satisfy our needs.

When Peanut was about 4 weeks old, I started walking on the treadmill in the basement during Peanut's naps. While walking, I turned on the audio monitor and set it up on the treadmill. And every time that Peanut made any kind of sound, I bolted up the stairs and into her room (now that I think about it, this was probably a better workout anyways). So I talked to Jon and we decided that it might be worth it to invest in a video monitor.

I wanted all sorts of stuff from it - like the ability to see Peanut in the pitch black room, being able to move the monitor around the room without walking into her room, zooming in and zooming out. I wanted to be able to adjust the volume and to hook up the monitor on the wall. Basically, I wanted my cake and to eat it too.

Guess what? This guy does it all!

Which means I get to spy...

Jon, feeding Peanut

and spy,

This doesn't happen often, but when it does, I spy

and watch my baby girl sleep.

Addi, sleeping like a little angel

And not miss moments like this.


Addi, learning to eat her toes.

This post was not sponsored by anyone. I just wanted to share my favorite monitor with you.

Evenflo - Exersaucer SmartSteps Walk Around Review

2011-06-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

This is not a sponsored post.

This activity center is awesome. Peanut has recently decided that she prefers to stand rather than do pretty much anything else. This isn't as fun as it sounds when you're trying to run around and get ready in the morning. Here's where the exersaucer walked comes in. We've set it up in the dining room and plop Peanut in while we try to pack her bottles, our lunches and feed the dogs (we prefer to keep her in our view t all times). She's very happy to be in it.

We received ours as a Baby Shower gift - it's from Walmart.

Here's what we love about it:

It's super light and easy to move around from room to room.
It has height adjustments that fit our tiny little Peanut around 4 months of age. She is able to reach the floor and move around.
The seat portion is super easy to move in so Peanut is able to turn from activity to activity on her own.
There are lots of entertaining toys like the birds and bees, rattles, and even a singing/talking tree.
It can turn into a walker that pivots at the center.

Here are some things that we're not big fans of:

There are a couple of spaces with no toys and I feel like it's a waste of space
Most of the toys are kind of out of her reach because she is so tiny.
There is a snack tray that we would never use and it takes up a bunch of the room.
The seat portion is made for bigger babies - this is something that most of you will probably love, but for our tiny itty bitty Peanut, it's too big. We solve this by sticking a towel or blanket in to keep Peanut from toppling over.
I could do with more entertaining toys - things that Peanut can pull and push or even move around.

Braylabee's Winner

2011-04-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

Congrats Anna! Just shoot me your e-mail and we'll contact you to claim your prize.

Brayla Bee's Giveaway

2011-04-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

My bloggy friend Jennifer started an embroidered and custom gift shop - Braylabee's.

And because she's sweeter than pie, she sent Peanut some adorable embroidered onesies.

Lucky for you, she also volunteered to give away an outfit of your choosing (shirt or onesie and matching pants or shorts).

Here's how to enter:
You can have up to 5 entries - just complete any one of these actions and leave me a comment for each entry.

1. Go to Braylabee's website and tell me what you like

2. Follow Braylabee's

3. Liking Braylabee's Facebook page

4. Blogging about this Giveaway

5. Tweeting about this Giveaway

The Giveaway will be open for 2 weeks(ending 4/25 midnight) and a winner will be chosen on Tuesday, 4/26. You will have 48 hours to claim your prize.

Best part - anyone can play!

So whatcha waiting for?

Amazon Gift Card Winner

2011-02-21T08:09:00.001-08:00

And the winner is...

Hillary- the gift card should be coming your way in minutes!

Now, can I please tell you how much I loved reading your memorable events from the past year? LOVED it. Feel free to share more.

1 Year Bloggaversary Giveaway

2011-02-15T06:42:00.000-08:00

With all the Valentine's Day excitement, I almost forgot that today is officially 1 year since the very first post on Living Like the Kings. So, to celebrate, I'm going to walk you through some of my fav early posts and then feature a giveaway. No peaking ahead - I'm watching.

The very obvious - first post ever!

How we met - Part 1 of the love story

And this one because it's happening again.

My treadmill is trying to kill me

This one because I love the pictures of the pups in it.

Don't wake the beast

And this one last but not least because I want them...anyone want to make some and ship them to me?

Cream Cheese Brownies - recipe

Now, on to the part you've all been waiting for. The Giveaway.

By popular demand, I'm going with an Amazon.com Gift Card. So here's the deal.

The Giveaway: $20 Gift Card to Amazon.com

I will e-mail the card to the winner so, dear non-US residents, feel free to enter as long as you know you can use it!

Enter here:
Living Like the Kings - 1 Year Bloggaversary Giveaway

You can enter up to 5 times (each comment will count as one entry, so you must leave a comment for each action):

Leave a comment: what's something memorable that happened to you this past year?
Follow me on Google Reader or RSS feed & leave a comment letting me know you follow
Tweet this giveaway & leave a comment with a link to your twitter
Put up a Facebook message linking to this giveaway & leave a comment with a link to your message
Blog about this giveaway & leave a comment with a direct link to your post

Christmas gift review - Canon 50mm lens

2011-01-18T07:10:00.000-08:00

I'm still showing off my Christmas gifts. Next up is my new and shiny Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 Camera lens.

Guess who got to be the guinea pig for my new toy?

Poor Travis - I wonder if he even has eye sight anymore after all the pictures that I take of him. I'm sure he does.

Once I got bored of taking pictures of the dogs, I realized that I have all this fun baby stuff that I can take pictures of.

And pretty little girlie bows.

Isn't life exciting?

Perhaps I need to get a new life.

Anywho...

Let's talk about the lens.

It's so freakin' tiny! And cute! Now, I know this isn't the reason to go and buy a lens but it's just so darn cute! I love it.

Here's what I do like about it:
Pictures of objects up close come out super sharp and the settings allow you to choose how much you want to blur the images in the background. Check this out:

Pretty sweet! I'm still learning about the settings and choosing my focal points, but it's a start.

This lens is not super expensive, which is appealing. But it does allow you to take great pictures of objects up close (i.e. tiny little baby fingers and toes). It's also great for portraits or some sharp and creative weddings shots.

The down fall is that it's only good for one distance. This can be hard to face when you spend $$ on a lens, but after doing a bunch of research on what was right for me (portraits, weddings, baby toes), I decided this was a perfect fit.

Christmas gift review - Telephoto Zoom Lens

2011-01-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

For Christmas I got a new lens for my Canon Rebel Xsi: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 Telephoto Zoom lens.

To test it out, Jon and I went outside to throw the ball to Cailey.

It's her absolute favorite activity.

She could fetch for hours.

But we try to keep it to about 20 minutes. Anything more usually makes her legs wicked stiff and she ends up falling over. It's pretty funny. But also mean. That's why we don't do it (anymore).

A little about the lens:

It is amazing! Obviously I'd prefer to be able to afford the EF 70-200mm f/2.8, but for the dollar, this one's pretty darn great. It has the capability to take action shots that my EF-S 18-55 f/3-5.6 lens couldn't even imagine doing. The zoom is also pretty ridiculous, allowing me to capture my little family running all over our yard from the safe comfort of my front steps. The shots come out sharp regardless of the action or distance of the object.

Some things that aren't great is...I don't know yet. I'm still learning but I think for someone starting out in photography that wants a little more than the starter lens, this is a great purchase. I'm very happy.

As always, this review is not sponsored by anyone. I just like to ~~brag~~ share about my gifts.

Presto Griddle and pancakes

2011-01-09T07:14:00.000-08:00

This is a story about a girl, a griddle and pancakes.

Every Saturday and Sunday morning I wake up, roll over (this is a way bigger deal than it seems with a big belly), scratch my husband's back and ask him where my pancakes are.

Jon usually pretends to be asleep. So I poke him. Over and over again. Then ask him where my pancakes are. Eventually, he realizes that there is no getting away from me and ends up getting up to make me pancakes. I've perfected the art of being annoying.

Before this Christmas making pancakes was a huge deal. We would have to heat up 2 or 3 skillets and I'd have to wait about 30 minutes to have pancakes. But not anymore.

This Christmas my wonderful mother-in-law got us this Presto Tilt 'n Drain Big Griddle.

Now making breakfast is easy, quick, and fun!

Just plug and turn on the griddle, make some pancake batter and pour it on.

You can make a bagillion pancakes at once! With chocolate chips of course.

There's even still room for sausage,

and eggs.

Jon and I can have all the breakfast we want in one shot!

It's incredible. And the best part is that I don't have to wait very long for my pancakes anymore.

This was not sponsored in any way. I just really like pancakes. And maple syrup. And my new griddle.

Your holiday gift guide - a DSLR camera

2010-11-17T07:15:00.000-08:00

Have I ever told you how much I love the Holidays? Seeing the decorations in the stores makes me giddy. I know that it's still early and Thanksgiving is still around the corner and many of you are probably walking around the stores, sighing deeply and wondering why there are already Christmas decorations and Christmas items around the stores. But me? Nah uh. I'm excited!

So to celebrate the stores putting up Christmas decorations, I am going to start an annual holiday gift guide. I'll just review the items I own and love and if you're struggling to find the perfect gift for your loved ones, check it out. I'll add all the items to this here handy shopping guide:

And I'm going to add a Linky Tool at the bottom so if you want to pitch in and give your ideas - Link up!

Today I'll start with my love, my heart, my DSLR camera.

I did a lot of research before finally settling on my Canon Rebel Xsi. The reason I chose this camera above others is its ease of use, the price, and its capabilities.

I really wanted something that would allow me to get started since I've never had a DSLR before, but I also didn't want to buy a "start up" camera that I would have to replace not too long after.

I actually settled on a Canon Rebel XS which is currently significantly cheaper but when I was finally ready to purchase the camera, the Canon Rebel XSi fell in price so much that it was only about $50 difference! I couldn't say "no" to that. (ps- I recommend putting your "wish list" items in your shopping cart on amazon.com because you get notified anytime it decreases in price - that's how I caught my deal).

So let me tell you what I love about my camera.

First and foremost, I LOVE the picture quality.

Picture with digital camera

Picture with Canon Rebel XSi

See? It's impressive! And that's on an automatic setting. That's right.

Which brings me to my second favorite thing about this camera - it takes incredible pictures even on an automatic setting. One of the things that really scared me about getting a DSLR is that I would never know how to use it. But this camera has made things super simple. I think the best part about this auto setting is that it also lets you know what settings are on during each shot - i.e. ISO, etc. I use that to practice later on on my own and try to mimic the settings and then veer off a bit.

Then, once you get the hang of it, it's super easy to start trying out some of the other settings. I'm still looking for a book or two on DSLR's and photography (*hint hint*) but in the meantime, I've been using the wonderful Google to get hints and advice and learn about this amazing new hobby.

Some things that I think aren't all that great about this camera is that it is big, as are most DSLR's. I was ready for that though. But I do wish I waited a bit longer because just a couple of months after I bought my camera a new one came out with HD video capabilities. I'm not sure that I would pay the price to get that, nor am I sure I want them all in one, but I would like to have had an option. Overall though, I really have 0 complaints. Nada. I love it. It's my baby.

2010-11-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

Right around the time Peanut made her presence known to us via a positive pregnancy test, I started experiencing a lot of back pain. It was kind of "fun" at first because it was my first real pregnancy symptom, but it got old pretty fast. On top of it, I totally stopped sleeping.

By about 4 months it got so bad I actually started seeing a Chiropractor to help me out. It helped so much with the back aches, but I was still having trouble sleeping.

By 5-6 months I was feeling much better with the help of the chiropractor, but I could never really get comfortable. At night, I tossed and turned like crazy. I spent an hour or two each evening laying around in the dark, hoping to fall asleep but rarely succeeding. On top of it I woke up multiple times each night, unable to ever get comfortable.

I know that many of you who are or were pregnant probably experienced a lot more than just some back aches and lack of sleep, so I never really thought too much about mine. I figured I was getting off easy. Yet, by 6 months I was pretty annoyed with the lack of sleep and the tossing and the turning. And Jon was too. One night we were both super annoyed with my new habbit of tossing and sighing and turning that Jon suggested I look up a body pillow that many pregnant women buy. I didn't waste any time and read every review online. I finally settled on this pillow:

The reviews were pretty good with the exception of the pillow taking up too much of the bed space. I asked Jon if he would mind but by that point I think he was willing to sleep on the floor if only I would stop waking him up in the middle of the night. He urged me to buy the pillow. After a little hesitation, I finally gave in.

The pillow came in just in the nick of time. Jon was gone on another one of his work trips for the whole week and the pillow arrived the first evening I was home alone. I eagerly unwrapped it and put it on the bed.

Okay, so it took up a lot of space. I guess it was a good thing that I was home alone?

That first night was the most amazing night of my life. Or at least my pregnancy life.

Not only did I fall asleep almost as soon as my head hit this gigantic pillow, but I didn't wake up until my alarm rang. I'm not even sure that's ever happened to me before I got pregnant.

On a side note, I've been getting up to go pee 2-4 times each night starting around 2 months. That night was the first night I didn't get up to go pee in the middle of the night - that's how deep my sleep was. By 6 am I bolted out of bed and barely made it to the bathroom. I guess getting up in the middle of the night was probably a good thing at least for that reason.

The rest of the week went by smoothly. I slept like a baby. I woke up feeling refreshed. My back was feeling great. But I was a bit nervous about Jon coming home.

On Friday, the hubs returned from his trip and finally saw the new addition to our sleeping arrangements. He laughed, but seemed to be okay with it. We had to adjust a little the first night but generally it worked out really well.

Then Saturday morning I woke up early, refreshed after a great night's sleep, and decided to take the dogs for a walk. I got back to this:

Somehow I don't think the hubs minded the pillow all that much.

In fact, it took me over an hour to get him out of it and to get going.

Needles to say, the pillow's a hit.

On a more serious note, here's some pros and cons about the pillow.

It is pretty big and takes up about half of our queen size bed. This isn't so bad if your hubs is willing to share (mine's a keeper). It's also kind of bulky on all accounts so if you're into really thin pillows (which I am), it takes a bit to get used to. It's also super hard to get all the blankets wrapped up around yourself when there is so much pillow around you. And the one thing that really does bug me about it is trying to get in and out of it. When I was a bit smaller, it was no big deal. But each evening it gets harder and harder. Now in the middle of the night I find it to be a huge pain.

On the plus side, it is amazing. If you find yourself tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable, this might be a good solution. I just love how it contours my entire body from head to toe. I feel like it hugs me from ever angle. The fact that it's all around you is also super helpful when you want to turn around in the middle of the night. No matter which way I face (there are only 2 options by this point), the pillow is always there for me. I love the thickness because it aleviates the pressure on my back, allowing me to sleep even better.

Overall, if I had to do it all over again I might go for the pillow that's on one side of your body like tihs one:

I think it'd be easier to get up in the middle of the night.

But I don't know if it would allow me to sleep as amazing as I do now. I do love my pillow and I'm super glad I gave in and bought it.