Keep In Touch in a Special Way with CloudPets #CloudPetsForever #Ad #cbias

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

 I am absolutely in love with my kids' new CloudPets™ Teddy Bear! This is such a genius idea and I totally think it should be at the top of every mom's Christmas shopping list. CloudPets™ are new, one-of-a-kind products that keep loved ones in touch when distance separates them. A CloudPets™ owner can receive and send messages through the toy and synced phone app.

I found this CloudPets™ Bear at Walmart this morning. There were a great selection of cute ones on this end cap in the toy aisle. Right now, they can only be found at select Walmart stores but will be available nationwide soon. Make sure to grab some AA batteries (you'll need three) from the pallet display in your store.

I'm super excited to send messages to the kids next time I'm in England. Even though I'm only gone for a week or so at a time, it's hard for them having me away and a special daily message from me would really ease that stress. Before I left last week, Kynthia said she didn't think I would be her mommy anymore when I was gone. Talk about breaking my heart!

But CloudPets™ aren't just for kids. They're also a special way for long distance friends and loved ones to keep in touch. A CloudPets™ would be a fun gift for a military wife, college student, or grandparent living in a nursing home. It could even be used as a creative way to ask someone to prom or to propose! (Don't get any ideas, Lynzie! Not yet, anyway...)

One thing I really love about CloudPets™ is the option for parental controls so I can choose who has permission to send messages to the kids. Only those I invite will have access to the ability to send and a free app makes it easy to set everything up.

Check out this "How It Works" video for details on making your CloudPets™ work properly.

What creative idea do you have for using CloudPets™?

Home from England!

Lynzie and I in front of the Assembly Rooms in Bath where Jane Austen and her characters danced the night away! Lynzie unexpectedly received an invitation to the Regency Ball while we were there and was able to attend with friends. Such a blessing. This is us preparing to join the Grand Regency Costumed Promenade.

I'm home from England---a wonderful trip with my daughter! Here are just a few highlights from the first part of our trip, in Bath---I'll try to do some more detailed stuff later. For now---sleep! Ha!

Saturday morning, we were up at dawn, walking the still quiet streets of Bath.

Lynzie's first glimpse of Bath Abbey. We attended church there Sunday morning and evening---a wonderful experience!

We took a walk near the famed Pultney Bridge. If you've read Northanger Abbey, you may be familiar with her describing this part of town.

Lynzie made some friends at the Roman Baths!

In which I prepare to sneak up and scare the pants off Jane Austen...

Thanks for linking up with the {Not Just} Homemaking Party!

Capture the Moment- Or Live in It? -- Guest Post

Lynzie and I are gone to England so my friends are running the show! I'm so excited to welcome my friend Shirley as a guest blogger today! Shirley is an excellent photographer who inspires many in our community to get out and enjoy nature and the beautiful things in life.

I take pictures. Lots of pictures. OK, I admit I have a problem. Not only do I love getting that shot (right as I squeeze the shutter release sometimes), but I am so happy organizing, editing, and making things like photobooks and gifts from my photos.

My subjects, before I became a parent, included anything and everything I found pleasing. 

But did that change when my first child was born! I took hundreds of shots (THANK YOU, DIGITAL CAMERA DEVELOPERS!), edited each of the best 20 different ways, filled photo albums and my walls and my focus with images of my daughter. 

Since then I have slackened somewhat, especially on the editing and definitely on the printing, and these days I do get quite a few non-offspring pictures. 

But did I mention I have a problem? I have this sense that if I do not capture that moment, I will lose it somehow. I will forget it happened, the richness and joy will fade, something. My memory is not strong (many of my memories before age 18 are in snapshot form rather than video form, if that makes sense). There is a fear in my heart that many moments will fade to nothingness if not "immortalized" in a photograph. OK, so take the pictures, right? 

But it began to dawn on me as I captured birthdays, explorations, t-ball games and dance recitals that I might be missing the richness of the experience, of being wholly IN the moment, by choosing to be behind a camera. I feel incomplete without some method of capturing the moment, but perhaps I don't need 50 shots of a 45 minute dance class? 

Right now, this is my compromise, along with asking someone else to grab a few shots: get a few photos, take one when it really grabs me, then let the camera hang on its strap, at the ready, relax, and LIVE in the moment. I don't know which way is best, honestly. What is the future use of these thousands upon thousands of pictures I have taken of my daughter? Beyond the occasional photobook, enlargement, gift, memory-booster, what use are so very many minute captured details of a child's life? I don't really know the answer, but I do know that I can't cut back much more without fear whispering in my ear, "What if you forget this moment? What about THIS one? You don't want to chance THIS one disappearing into your history forever..." So I grab a shot. Or two. Or 25.