Teela's first snow!

Today it snowed and snowed. It usually just rains during the winter months here in Rainier (thus the name). But I guess somebody was praying for snow this Christmas because we received a very nice blanket of it. Here are some very cute pictures of my littlest and her very first snow that fell today... She was actually trying to catch some on her tongue! How cute is that?!

Sea Turtles

The Dirty Shirt is giving away a Cloud B Sleep Sheep (ends Nov. 30th) and Seven Dogs and A Baby is giving away a Cloud B Twilight Turtle (ends Dec. 15th) to one very lucky reader of their blogs.

Cloud B is this great company who is dedicated to helping children of all ages sleep better. They have products ranging from a sheep that makes soothing sounds to the Lullabag, a bag sleeper that is safer than blankets for your baby, to a turtle that projects stars on the ceiling.

My very favorite product of theirs is the Twilight Sea Turtle. It is a constellation night light like their original Twilight Turtle with some very cool differences. Twilight Sea Turtle's beautiful shell illuminates in three soothing colors: Ocean Blue, Emerald Green, or both colors together (creating a kind of Aquamarine). It also highlights five endangered sea friends: the Blue Whale, California Sea Otter, Knysna Seahorse, Leatherback Turtle, and Vaquita Dolphin. It comes with a storybook that teaches children about each of the endangered sea animals, a helpful star guide, and an adoption certificate. A portion of the proceeds from buying a Twilight Sea Turtle will be donated to an international conservation organization.

Sea turtles are so cool! I love the sea turtle, Crush, in Finding Nemo. He was my favorite character in that movie. Disney is going to do a coaster named Crush's Coaster for one of their parks. It is the making and soon to be "turtally awesome". I hope to "Grab shell dude!" and try it out when it is done. My other favorite part of that movie was of course Dory speaking whale.

If you are ever in Georgia stop by the Georgia Sea Turtle Center in Jekyll Island, Georgia. It looks like fun! Visitors can explore exhibits on sea turtle conservation, rehabilitation, and their amazing journey from egg to adulthood.

Bitty Braille Review

My daughter, Tatiana, received a Bitty Braille short sleeve tee in lavender with her name on it. These are beautifully hand- embroidered and the lovely purple faceted studs just set it off gorgeously.

Bitty Braille tees feature simple "kid-friendly" words set in Braille type in either sparkly faceted metal studs for the girls or simple metal studs for the boys. The translation is hand-embroidered underneath in a simple print or cursive. They make great gifts for showers, birthdays or whenever a unique gift is needed.

I would change one little thing if I were doing the names on the tees. I would have the first letter of the name capitalized in both the braille and hand-embroidery. My daughter, Tatiana, is totally blind and so I have learned braille by taking courses through Hadley School for the Blind with their Family Education Program. When you write names in braille you use a capital sign in front of the first letter of the name. Tatiana's first name would actually read like this in braille...

My daughter also received a set of their new Braille Alphabet Tiles. These, although smaller than what I expected, are very well made. I am going to use them to teach my other children braille. As a homeschooling mother any opportunity to teach good things is wonderfully received! These are a great teaching tool! If you get more than one set you can spell more complex words with them. I think these would also be great as fridge magnets because of their size.

Bitty Braille donates 10% of every sale to the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB).

You can go to this website by the American Foundation for the Blind and make your name into braille. You can also do whole sentences with punctuation.

Lauren's Hope Review

Lauren's Hope has fashionable medical ID jewelry that combine safety and style! The bracelets are beautiful and some even have matching earrings you can also get to go with them! They are coming out with over 40 different new styles coming soon! Their new Dazzle line of bracelets I love! Especially the Atlantis, Razzle Dazzle, Mardi Gras, and Peacock styles. I also love the: Elizabeth In Blue, Color Changing Mood Bead, Petite Petals, Emerald Splash, The Lily (reminds me of watermelon), To The Beach!, Glow Worm (Glows in the Dark) and Jumble!.

I won Momma Findings giveaway on her blog for the color changing mood bead bracelet with medical ID and she sent me a fiber optic sherbert bracelet to use with the medical ID because she was a little late getting it in the mail. Thanks Sara!

I had asthma as a child and I wish I had one of these! My 4 year old daughter, Tatiana, who will be 5 in January would benefit greatly by having a medical ID. She is totally blind (no light perception) and has: Panhypopituitarism, Diabetes Insipidus, Hypothyroidism, Seizure Disorder, Hypotonia, a g-tube, and developmental delays. She is also allergic to Betalactams, Penicillins, Cephalosporins, Promethazine and Latex. Since she is so medically involved I will probably have to have some help getting it engraved.

Lauren’s Hope donates a portion of their profit on the medical ID bracelets to The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Lauren's Hope is also having free standard shipping and handling on any bracelet over $20 with the coupon code: dazzle. Coupon code expires on November 7th, 2008.