Haute Pockets Diaper Review and Giveaway

*THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED*

I must admit, I use to be one of those moms that cringed at the thought of using cloth diapers and would snicker at other moms who do. Then when I had my 3rd baby in 2008, I was once again faced with the big expense of buying disposable diapers.

When my son was about 3 months old and after much prompting from a friend, I decided that maybe I should give cloth diapering a try. After all, cloth diapers had evolved over the years and pocket diapers seemed so easy to use! So, I humbled myself and became a cloth diapering mama from that point on. Even my skeptical (and anti-cloth) husband soon changed his opinion on the matter. He has even made comments to me that he likes using cloth better than disposables. He says that disposables feel like he is putting our son in plastic! I couldn't agree more. Not only has using cloth saved us money, but our son has literally NOT had diaper rashes. When we were using disposables we were having to apply diaper ointment on him at least every other day.

So this brings me to my review:

I was introduced to Haute Pocket diapers through a friend at Church. She had given birth to a daughter only 3 days before I had my son. She told me about Haute Pockets and let me see one of her babies diapers so that I could see for myself the quality and function of the diaper. I was impressed.

I then placed an order myself and was so excited to try these diapers out!
I have tried a few other brands of pocket diapers over the past year (and like quite a few) but so far my favorite has been Haute Pockets. After a whole year of wear, my sons diapers still look and function great!




Features I love:

• Haute Pockets diapers as so trim fitting! No big bulky butt with this diaper.
• Each diaper comes with two micro-fiber inserts, a small infant insert and a larger baby insert. An awesome feature with these inserts is the fact that they snap together, creating an extra thick insert for night time use.
• Comes with either a snap or velcro closure. I have equal amounts of both. I love velcro for ease of use (esp. at night when you are trying to diaper your baby half asleep). And I love snaps beacause they do not create a diaper chain in the wash and my baby can't get them off! He is getting pretty good at opening up his velcro diapers.
• Big selection of colors! I need variety..I get bored of seeing the same colors in my diaper stash and Haute Pockets offers 10 bright and fun colors to choose from.
• These diapers are SO Easy to use! There is no reason to use disposables with such an easy to use cloth diaper on the market.

Other Haute Pocket Features:

• These diapers are one-size. This means they will last your child from his newborn days, up until toddlerhood (from 8-35 lbs). You simply adjust the front snaps to fit your child's size.
• Haute Pockets are made with a waterproof outside (100% polyester with a polyurethane coating), soft microfleece lining that wicks wetness away from your baby's skin and are so comfortable!
• Generous pocket opening makes insert stuffing and removal simple.
  

Enter to WIN!
Happily Domestic is purchasing (1) one size "Haute Pockets" diaper to giveaway to one of my lucky readers!
Here is how you enter:

• Visit Haute Pockets and tell me which color diaper you would choose if you won, also if you prefer snaps or hook and loop (velcro) closure. Remember to leave your email address in your comment! * This first entry is MANDATORY*
  

After you have completed your first entry you are eligible for additional entries. *See my giveaway instructions here for more information. * Remember to leave a separate comment for each additional entry and include your e-mail address.

• Follow my blog- current follows count too!
  
• Blog about my giveaway and link back to my site- leave the URL where you blogged.
• Grab my button! Leave the URL where it is posted.
• Follow me on Twitter and Tweet about this giveaway- you may Tweet daily and gain an extra entry each day that you Tweet-limit one per day. Leave the URL where you Tweeted.

Giveaway ends Friday, August 14th at 1:00 p.m.(MST) Winner will be drawn by a random number generator and will be notified by email. Winner will also be announced on this blog. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.
*This giveaway is open to USA residents ONLY. Must be 18 years old or older to win.*

*THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED*

How to Enter My Giveaways

Entering my giveaways is real simple and you will have multiple opportunities to win. I will give you step by step instructions below. If you still need additional help with this process, please feel free to e-mail me at: HappilyDomestic09@yahoo.com. I will be happy to offer help.

How to enter:

Your first entry will always be something related to the product being given away. I will put in the giveaway instructions how to complete your first entry. Example: (product is Crazy Suds Bubble Bath) I will say, " go to Crazy Suds and tell me your favorite product. You would then click on the Crazy Suds link and go to their website. Browse around and then come back to my site. Click where it displays the number of comments below the giveaway post.
Example: 20 comments
You will then be able to view all the comments. Scroll down and you will find a comment box to leave your own comment. Your comment is your entry. Be sure to include your e-mail address with your comment, so I can contact you if you win. After you complete your first entry you will be eligible for additional entries. I will post the extra ways to enter with each giveaway, so please read each individual post for rules. You must leave a separate comment for each entry in order for them to count. Here are some of the other ways you can enter:

1. Follow my blog- simply click on the "Join this Site" bar under my "Followers" heading on the right hand side bar. Once you do this leave a comment saying, "I follow your blog" . This will get you an additional entry in the giveaway. This counts also for those of you that already follow my blog.
2. Blog about my giveaway- If you have a blog, post about my giveaway with a link to it and come back and leave a comment saying, "I blogged about your giveaway" and leave the link to your post. * To get a copy of a direct link simply right click on the time at the bottom of a post, scroll down to where it says "Copy link location". Now you just past the link code into your post or comment.*
   
3. Grab my button- If you have a blog you may copy the html text under my button and add my button to your site. Then leave a comment saying, "I grabbed your Button" and this will count as 1 entry for the giveaway. * Remember to leave the URL to your blog so that I can confirm that you did indeed grab my button.*
4. Follow me on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway- Go to twitter and create an account (if you already don't have one). You can then click on my "Follow me on Twitter" button, which will direct you to my twitter account. When you "tweet" ie-comment on Twitter about my giveaway please make sure to give the direct link to my giveaway. Then come back and leave a comment saying "I follow you on twitter and I tweeted" with the URL to your tweet. You may do this daily, so that gives you an extra entry every day as long as you tweet every day.

Remember , the more ways you enter the better your odds of winning are!
Winners will be selected by a Random Number Generator to keep the giveaways as fair as possible. You will then be contacted by me. Winners have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn. *You must be 18 years old or older to enter and a resident in the USA.* *Sorry but at this time my giveaways are for USA residents only unless otherwise stated on giveaway rules.*
Good Luck! ;-)

Haute Pockets Cloth Diaper Review and Giveaway, COMING SOON!

I am very excited to be offering a giveaway on my blog! I wanted to try my hand at doing a review and give away and so am sponsoring this giveaway myself. You read that right... I am buying one lucky reader a one size "Haute Pockets" cloth diaper. I will be purchasing the diaper from one of my favorite diaper stores, Nicki's Diapers and it will be shipped directly to the winner. Check back later to see how you can win.

Wordless Wednesday #2

Life is short, have fun!

My one year old son enjoying his dinner.

My First Gratituesday Post

For those of you who do not know what Gratituesday is...at Heavenly Homemakers each week readers tell what they are thankful for! Simple as that.
Here is what I am most thankful for today:

~A God that is full of mercy and grace
~A wonderful husband who works hard to provide for our family
~My awesome children
~I am thankful to live in a country that allows me to home school my children.
~Thankful that my husband has a job and that his career path has always
allowed for me to be at home with our children.

Silly Safeway

This was too funny.... a few weeks ago when I started the Grocery Game I had called all the grocery stores in town to find out if anyone does double coupons (no one did by the way). When I called Safeway the woman even laughed and said, " No, we haven't done that in YEARS!" She kind of acted like I was a little nutty for asking. So then a few days ago I went to Safeway to pick up a few things I needed for dinner and there on the front of the store was a HUGE sign that read, "Now Double Coupons EVERYDAY". I couldn't help but smile and laugh. I guess I am not the only one living in the dark ages....they HAD to have had other requests.
I am also excited about this...they only double coupons up to 50 cents off...but still If I can save a dollar every time I have a 50 cent off coupon, that adds up!

Free Nutrition Materials for Homeschool

2 years ago during my first year of homeschool I discovered on the MyPyramid.gov
website, that they offer a free nutritional theme unit for kids. It was free and so I ordered the kit. It came with a huge poster of the food guide pyramid for kids, worksheets, color pages, a computer game, and a book of lesson plans for teachers to use. We used the theme unit over a one month period and I taught my children all about nutrition. They LOVED it. They kept food journals one week to keep track of how well they were eating. We did a fun game where I drew pictures of different activities such as (running, jumping, riding a bike, ballet dancing, etc.) on index cards. I then played some fun music for the them and held up one of the cards. They had to act out that activity until I switched cards. It was a fun and easy way to get their bodies moving and for them to get exercise on a cold day.
Another thing I did to go along with this theme unit was make up a kids grocery list. I wrote down about 20 items (and drew what the items looked like beside it) and then took each child on their very own shopping trip. I took them to Vitamin Cottage because it is less crowded and they could push their very own child size shopping cart. They loved it! Oh, and I didn't write down any specific brands on the list so they had to decide what was the "healthier" choice (course we were at a health food store, so that was kind of a no brainer). When we returned home they had to categorize their list into all the 5 food groups.
This was probably one of the best lessons we have done as a homeschool. They learned so much, thoroughly enjoyed it and even now 2 YEARS LATER... still tell me which foods are from which food group, ask if certain foods are "healthy" and actually want to eat healthier themselves! I highly recommend trying this out with your children...plus, it's free!
I did notice that you can no longer send for the kit but it is still available for download and the kids computer game is on their site. Here is the link:
http://www.mypyramid.gov/kids/index.html

Give Away

Softclothbunz is having a giveaway this week for a free wet bag, cloth diaper laundry soap,and a one size diaper cover. Giveaway ends tomorrow, so hurry and enter!

Recommendation- Oxy Clean Spot Remover

For those of you who have been around my daughter when she eats, you know the condition she leaves her clothes in afterward. Being a mom that is pretty anal about having spotless clothes, I had to find the best spot remover on the market. I tried MANY different brands and was not happy with the results from most of them until I found Oxy Clean laundry spot remover. It is not the annoying powder that you have to mix but rather a liquid spot remover in a spray bottle. It is awesome and I have faithfully used it for about 5 years now. I go through almost an entire bottle a week! (Most of it on my daughters clothes) It will take out blood, chocolate, grass stains, grease and just about anything! I do recommend that if you are spot treating a blood stain to not leave it setting too long or it will bleach the spot. Also, on whites don't leave on more than 24 hours or the fabric may yellow. For grease spots or chocolate stains I usually let set overnight, but in general I only have to leave the Oxy Clean on a stain for a few minutes and it still works great.

Shopping Tip

Before you shop online or even at a store in town or restaurant, If you Google in coupon code (or coupon) for that store, you will most always find one! I have saved as much as 20 dollars off an order by doing this. As most of my friends know I am a self proclaimed "Coupon Queen". If there is a way to get something cheaper, I do it!
My favorite site for online retailer coupons is RETAILMENOT.COM
I always seem to find what I am looking for on there. Try it!

Wordless Wednesday #1

Thinking about my new baby boy today!

Feeling blessed.
Can't wait to meet you little one!

Baby Food Recipe

CHICKEN WITH SWEET POTATO AND APPLE

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
4 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast, chopped
1 large sweet potato (12 ounces), peeled and chopped
1/2 apple,peeled,cored, and chopped
1 cup chicken stock


Heat the butter in a saucepan, add onion, and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken and saute for a couple of minutes until it turns opaque. Add the sweet potato and apple and pour in the stock. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Puree to the desired consistency.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My baby boy really likes this recipe. I got it from the cookbook "Top 100 Baby Purees" by Annabel Karmel and highly recommend it.
* Also shown are Baby Cubes* I love these!

Menu, week of July 20th

This week my menu plan is FAR from impressive. After throwing my oldest sons birthday party on Saturday, paying a dozen bills (no joke), and putting gas in our cars there was very little left for groceries. I decided to see how I could do on my $70 goal amount (see previous post about the Grocery Game). I put a lot of hard work into it...printing off store sales, going through my coupons, figuring how to make it all work with what we have at home and then making my menu plan and grocery lists. It wasn't easy since we do not have a stockpile built up yet, but I did it! Here it is:

Monday
Breakfast: French Toast, Orange Juice
Lunch: Hot Dogs, Chips, and Baked Beans
Dinner: Spaghetti and Ceaser Salad
~
Tuesday
Breakfast: Cereal and Juice
Lunch: PB&J Sandwiches, Bananas
Dinner: Lemon & Butter Baked Talapia, Green Salad and Brown Rice
~
Wednesday
Breakfast: Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes and Banana Milk
Lunch: Tuna Sandwiches, Kettle Chips, and Watermelon
Dinner: Pinto Beans and Corn Bread
~
Thursday
Breakfast: Cereal and Fruit
Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwiches, Chips and Cherries
Dinner: BBQ Chicken Breasts, Baked Beans and Salad
~
Friday
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs and Toast
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Tuna Noodle Casserole and Green Beans
~
Saturday
Breakfast: French Toast and Juice
Lunch: Lunch at Church
Dinner: Leftovers
~
Sunday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Tuna sandwiches and Fruit
Dinner: Pizza and Salad

And here is a picture of what I bought with the $70 dollars (actually it totaled $69, I went under!) My best buy was the Kashi cereal. I had 2 coupons for $1 off, a coupon for buy 4 get 1 free, and then a couple of the boxes were on sale. I spent only $1.69 per box! Kashi is expensive stuff too! I saved $43 dollars at Safeway, almost as much as I spent. I spent $47 at Safeway, so that ended up being a 48% savings. Then I went to Rite Aid and only spend $22 and saved $13 in coupons alone and then some of the items were on sale (Rite Aid doesn't tell you the percentage on the receipt). I love deals! :-)

Huggies Pure and Natural Coupon

Right now at SmartSource you can print a coupon for $3off Huggies all natural diapers. Most natural disposable diapers will run you anywhere from 12 to 15 dollars a pack. You can get these diapers at Wal-Mart for $10 and with the coupon they will be $7! Great deal for a natural diaper option. I bought one pack of these for the new baby and will be stocking up on more. I use cloth diapers, but during the first month (Since I have cesareans) I use disposables. You can also get a free sample of these diapers directly from Huggies here and for your coupon click here.

Save $3.00 on any one (1) HUGGIES® Pure and Natural Diapers Discover the pure bliss of a diaper that includes gentle, natural materials.

Free Pie Server

Follow this link to get yours! (No shipping cost)

http://edendreamssalon.com/promo.html

It's that time again

Although it seems summer has just begun, it is already time for me to start preparing for

SCHOOL

There is so much for me to do to start preparing for the coming school year.
I was looking forward to summer break SO MUCH but unfortunately as the teacher
of my children...my break time can only be minimal.
I suppose this is how most teachers feel in the summertime.
We will be starting home school again on August 10th.
We are starting early this year due to the fact we will be taking the month of November
off for the new baby.
Here's a list of some of the things I need to accomplish in the next few weeks:

• Find a Science Curriculum
  
• Go over science with my husband (He is going to help teach Science this year)
  
• Find a history curriculum to use with both Children
• Complete both Children's Individual Learning Plans, for the Vision program we are in
  
• Purchase curriculum for the coming year
• Make a list of items and supplies needing to be purchased for the coming year
  
• Create school schedule
• Call and get class schedules for extra curricular activities
• Clean school area...removing all last years work and storing in boxes
• Plan out new disciplinary techniques as well as reward systems
• Purchase prizes for prize boxes
• Call Scholastic and get on their book sales list again
• Have a mental breakdown and check myself into the local funny farm (J/K)
  

My New Button

I am very excited to have a button for my blog! Thanks to Stefanie at Bloggy Buttonz, I now have a beautiful button and it only cost me $5.00. Need a button? Visit her blog here for more details.

Now...go grab my button, what are you waiting for???

Aren't these adorable??? I found them at Michaels for only 1 dollar a piece!

*Click on images to enlarge*

Pad for writing out my grocery lists

Weekly Menu Pad

Coupon Holder
(And it fits perfectly into my purse, and the colors even match!)

Gooseberry Patch Offer

Go here to request two free recipe booklets from Gooseberry Patch.

I heard about this offer from MoneySavingMom

The Grocery Game
*Click on title to be directed to the Grocery Games website*

A couple weeks ago I signed up for a free 4 week trial of the Grocery Game.
I learned about the GG from another mom's blog.
I don't know about you...but I am tired of paying high prices for groceries, all to end up with nothing by the end of the week. The GG teaches you to stockpile and then buy what is on sale at local stores plus using coupons to hit all the best deals at the right time. Each week you print a list of the local sales and the GG will show you how to get the best buys. They even show you how to get items for free! It does take work on your part if you want to have the best savings and you will need to get the Sunday paper for the coupons. The only draw back in the town where I live is that none of the grocery stores do double coupons and there isn't many stores to shop at. Last week and this week I spent a big chunk of my morning clipping coupons, figuring out sales and then planning our weekly menu and grocery list accordingly. But....when I went shopping I saved around 100 dollars (last week) and this week I saved 120 dollars. Both weeks I came home with SO MUCH MORE than I usually do. We ate well last week, didn't run out of food...in fact, we didn't even use it all up!

Another website that has been a real teaching tool for me this week is:
Money Saving Mom
*click on title to be directed*

This website is in blog form and is put out by a young christian mom who loves teaching others how to save money. She & her husband and 3 children only spend $40 a week on groceries (including household goods!). She posts her menu plans too and they eat healthy! I am inspired that a family of 5 can survive on so little. This mom teaches you how to stockpile, menu plan on what you have along with local sales, she posts great coupon deals and unadvertised sales and how to best take advantage of them. She also shows you how to create a budget and has a TON of other encouraging articles on how to save your family money and live abundantly.
My ultimate spending goal for my family is to start spending only $70 a week on groceries (including household goods), not counting the $32 we spend each month for fresh goats milk. But even at that....that is only $312 a month. Currently we have been spending around $700. That is a $388 a month savings! In one year alone that is a savings of $4,656!!!!!
For now I am setting the weekly grocery budget at $100-$150 until I get the hang of all this and we start somewhat of a stockpile. Even on the grocery game she talks about how it takes around 12 weeks to start getting the most savings and to get a stockpile built up. I am excited to start saving our family money!

I have to share what I bought (saved) on one of my shopping trips last week:
This was from Safeway:

• Sweet Baby Ray BBQ Sauce
• 3 jars baby food
• can of olives
• 1 box pop secret popcorn
• stove top stuffing mix
• sliced cheese
• 2 gallons milk
• 2 packs Oscar Meyer turkey hot dogs
• 4 1/2 pound chuck roast
• 6 pounds ground beef
• green leaf lettuce
• broccoli
• 5 pound bag potatoes

All this for only $32 dollars, and I saved $34!!!
~
This week my best savings deal was:
This also from Safeway

The store had General Mills cereals on sale for 3 for $6
I used a .75 cent off coupon on my box of Total
and a .55 cent off coupon on 2 boxes of cheerios (each cheerio box also has a $1.50off Pampers coupon on the box)
Then I used a $1.00 off 3 boxes of GM cereals coupon
Those combined with the store sale, made all 3 boxes of cereal only
$3.70.
Then... When I checked out they gave me a coupon for a free jug of milk for buying 3 general mills cereals! :-)
Can't beat that...what a deal!


How do you save your family money? I would love to hear about it. Plus, any tips you would like to share with me would be most appreciated.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

Mix together in large bowl:

3 cups whole wheat flour (I used Bob's Red Meal Brand)
3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

Make a little hole in the center of the flour and add;

3 eggs
3 cups buttermilk

Mix gently. Batter will still be lumpy, but don't worry! Pour onto pancake griddle.
Let bake until bubbles form and pop, then turn over and bake the other side.
Serves 6. (My batch made 12 good sized pancakes)



For blueberry pancakes add blueberries as soon as you pour pancake batter on griddle.
I like doing it this way as each pancake gets a good amount of blueberries.

This recipe is from the book:

you can purchase this cookbook at
Love To Learn
I have really enjoyed it. All sorts of healthy, whole food recipes (not a bunch of weird ones either)

Welcome

I am excited to have a blog as I feel I have much to share with other homemakers. I hope you will visit often and that you will find my blog to be informative, helpful, and encouraging to you on your journey as a wife and mother. With this blog I plan to post recipes, recommendations on products (I feel are note worthy), inspiring poems, helpful hints, deals, contests and more!