HotSlings Baby Carrier Giveaway!

I am honored to announce that I've been able to team up with Hotslings.com to give away one of their most popular slings! I've used Hotslings for over four years now, for my newborns, infants, toddlers and even preschoolers, and I absolutely LOVE them! In fact, almost every time I go out in one, someone asks me where I got it.

Recently, Hotslings developed a new line of slings, which are adjustable. One of the reasons I love my Hotslings so much is because of the unsurpassed comfort on the shoulder and hip. Hotslings new adjustable slings will be even MORE comfortable, and I can't wait to try one with my new baby boy coming in March. This is the one I'm going to get...

It is called the La Vie En Rose, and I love it because the muted browns and rose colors go so well with a fall wardrobe, brown leather boots, and chilled rosy cheeks!

So guess what? You, too, can win this sling, or, if you'd like to choose another pattern for your sling, you can! Just go HERE to see the other gorgeous fabric swatches.

Don't have any young children or are not expecting any? This sling would make an absolutely FABULOUS Christmas gift for someone else! You will be honored and revered for gifting this, I promise. I know, believe me!

To enter, just post about this giveaway on our blog and let me know you did in a comment on this page. If you're too busy, confused, tired or lazy to write your own post, here, I'm written one up for you. All you have to do is copy and paste the following HTML into a post and publish it. I am that nice.

11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven is giving away a gorgeous Hotslings baby carrier!<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://i943.photobucket.com/albums/ad274/jenwhet/hotslings.jpg" /><br /> </div><br /> To enter click <a href="http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/2009/12/hotslings-baby-carrier-giveaway.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">HERE</span></a>.

This is what your post will look like...

"11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven is giving away a gorgeous Hotslings baby carrier!

To enter click HERE."

For additional entries, do the following...

-Become a Facebook fan and announce this giveaway in your status, linking back to this post, and leave a separate comment that you did.

-Follow Hotslings on Twitter and Tweet about this giveaway, linking back to this post, and leave a separate comment that you did.

-Retweet about this giveaway, and leave a separate comment that you did. (You can retweet once each day. Just leave a separate comment for each retweet.)

See? Easy, right?

Last chance to enter is midnight, December 19th (for U.S. residents only). Thanks for playing along and good luck!

Increase Your Blog Traffic by up to 40% with The Blog Frog!

Hi Guys!

Something people often ask me is how they can boost their blog traffic, especially if they want to start earning money from their blog. I recently wrote a post about a few things you can do to get more visitors to your blog (that's HERE), but I would like to focus on one thing in particular today.

It's called The Blog Frog and it is probably the one single thing I've done that has increased my blog traffic exponentially...

"What if there was an easier way to grow your blog?"

The Blog Frog is a place where people can join social communities and meet other bloggers who have similar interests. When you join a community, and there are hundreds of different communities, your blog posts and twitters show up on their feeds and that is one way traffic is generated. Another way is to make comments in their community forums. This is not only a fun way to boost traffic, but I have made many dear internet friends via these communities and I have even used them as an effective way of sharing my religious beliefs. To me, that has been the most amazing part, but I like the traffic increase I've gotten to my blog as well! To see my social forum, just go near the top of my blog on the right and you will see my Blog Frog widget. I'd love it if you'd join the conversations there or start one of your own!

Right now, The Blog Frog is offering a premium membership to anyone who wants to get an even HIGHER traffic boost. This membership will expose your blog on hundreds of blogs in the blogosphere with at least 10,000 impressions a month. That is really something! It will also get your blog more attention when posting on social Blog Frog forums by showing a little tidbit under your blog's name telling readers what your blog is about.

To me, though, the biggest bonus about signing up for the premium package is that you will receive newsletters teaching how to have a better blog. This is the thing I'm most excited about! The Blog Frog editors will discuss blog layout, content and much more. Who doesn't want to know how to have a better blog?

You can get this premium package for $4.95, but if you sign up now, you will get the first 14 days FREE! Hope you love this as much as I have! Let me know how it goes~!

The Activity Bus by Plan Toys

I'm a toy tester, and it's the greatest job in the world, according to the 9-year-old boy! A toy website called ebeanstalk has a group of child experts that help select great learning toys and toys for kids of all ages, from baby toys, toys for 1 year olds, toys for 2 year olds, etc. They were kind enough to send us the Activity Bus from Plan Toys who makes green developmental toys and here's how much we enjoyed the bus!

Almost everyone in the household wanted to be in on the review of this toy. Here is the capable 14-year-old girl opening the package with a sharp knife...



Here, she takes it to the entry way and is beginning to open the box. Look at the look of anticipation on Twin A's face...


(Not. He just doesn't understand the significance of what's about to happen here.)

...and the look of expectation of the 3-year-old boy...


(Isn't he an angel?)

Ah! Now the toy is finally opened! These are two little people who ride the bus. The twins loved them...


...but we quickly realized that this toy is meant for children 3 years of age or over, as there were little tiny wooden books for the little bus people to read. There is no photo of those, because they went away instantly, in order to avoid a choking hazard.

Because all three little ones liked this bus - A LOT, we had to separate them and allow the 3-year-old boy to play with it uninterrupted. We placed him and the bus and the bus people on the kitchen table to accomplish that task. Here is the bus, with it's removable bus driver's seat, bus people, desks for the bus people and a chalk board, so that the bus people can learn while they are riding the bus...



Here they are, ready to learn...


...and with 3-year-old human propulsion, this bus goes fast!



While this bus in and of itself is a cool toy, what I REALLY love is that it is only part of a set of a whole learning village!


If I were to purchase this bus, I would definitely plan on making the investment of purchasing the whole village along with it. When I showed the 3-year-old boy the potential of what we could have in addition to the bus, he began jumping up and down and saying that he wanted the really, really tall thing, which appears to be an apartment complex.

Overall, the kids definitely enjoyed this toy and they continue to fight over it a lot. I love the fact that it's wooden, kind of German-esque, and that it is a toy that has the potential of fostering creativity. On the downside, it does come apart easily, so I'm often having to put the bus halves back together, which is inconvenient, but once the pins are put pack in place properly, I can hand it back to the children to fight over once more.

I would definitely recommend that you go to plantoys.com and check out all the great learning toys they have there! Thanks for listening!