Casey (2) and Charlie (10)

Normally I don’t respond to these kind of campaigns when they hit my inbox. But my eyes perked up when I saw this one was about something for my original babies – especially the one who has been around long before diapers hit my house – my cats! Considering that they get the shaft on my blog most of the time, I was excited to give them their little slice of attention on here.

So if you aren’t a cat owner, you can let your eyes glaze over and look away. If you have cats, you can keep reading.

For this post, I tested out Arm & Hammer’s Ultra Last Clumping Cat Litter. I’m gonna preface this post but saying I’ve never even used non-clumping litter (not even sure how that works?) so I can only compare this litter to other clumping litters that I’ve used.

But there’s definitely a difference in clumping litters and that biggest difference is smell.  It’s no surprise that a product that comes from Arm & Hammer and is made with baking soda is great with smell control.

I’ve used brands that don’t mask the smell at all and this is not one of them.  I have two cats and I should scoop every day, but I don’t.  And my litter box is on the first floor so it needs to not smell.  I love that the Ultra Last Arm & Hammer Cat Litter controls the odor so well and encourages my lazy scooping habits!

So now you can check out the Arm & Hammer Ultra Last Clumping Litter for free with a rebate coupon available on the website!  A 20lb package too which is kind of awesome!  Print out the Coupon here.  You can find Arm & Hammer’s Ultra Last Clumping Litter at Target and Walmart.

Disclosure: “I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf Arm & Hammer and received a product coupon to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

It’s a stylus and a paint brush and the reviews are incredible for it.   Nomad’s Compose RED dual-tip says “Happy Valentine’s Day” on it and can be purchased on NomadBrush.com for $39.

They also have iPad paintbrushes for kids!  Check out Nomad Play for $18.

In no particular order:

These CAbi Johnny Crop jeans ($98) are new to the Spring 2012 line at CAbi and I’ve been back on their page looking at these several times these week. I want.

This adorable blue dress from the Jason Wu for Target line which will be debuting in-store and online on February 5th.   The new Jason Wu line promises to be as popular as the Missoni for Target line was when that first launched (products sold out in hours!) so get there early!

Doesn’t this Favourite Jersey Dress from Boden ($139) just scream out sunny weather & a happy spring day?  Love it.

And this Edie attache bag from J Crew ($288) in flame color is just dreamy

Coming back to reality (and the fact that we still have a few good weeks of winter – 6 if Puxatony Phil has anything to do with it!), Ill at least feature one practical dress that can be worn winter or summer – this dress from Banana Republic.  Some things just look better in person. Had I seen this Annie faux-wrap dress from Banana Republic ($98) online first, I probably would have thought it was okay but passed it by. But recently I was in-store at Banana Republic and this dress was hanging up over in the side of the store and it was calling to me.

The movie is based on a true story from the late 80s – a family of three whales trapped by ice in Alaska and the media blitz and huge rescue that ensues to save the family from death.  Sounds interesting but not like it would be floor-stopping, right?  It was incredible.  Drew Barrymore and Jon Krasinski star.

You can check out more about Big Miracle on the official website but seriously, if you have kids of an appropriate age, it’s a must see.  It comes out February 3rd.

(Regarding age – personally I’d say at least 5+ should be the age for this movie and that’s even if you have a 5 year old who finds nature interesting. It’s rated PG and there is some mild swearing.)

Kids learn about state capitols, state geography and so much more.  (Which state houses which National Park and so forth.)

Nate (8) played this pretty much all day yesterday as he was in bed with a bad cold.  You play to “earn” states and he’s earned 45 of his 50 states and I can’t tell you guys how much he’s learned in just one day.  He can identify almost all of the states by shape alone, knows many of the capitals now and knows which states border one another.

Oh and you have to “stack” your states which can get pretty precarious!  If your stack topples over you are starting over, so it’s not only educational but fun. (Because that’s the best type, right?  The ones where my kids learn and they don’t even realize they are doing it…)

You can get a Lite (Free) version too but we only tried the paid version – get Stack the States for $.99 for the iPhone and $1.99 for the iPad on the iTunes store.

I noticed the reviews ae kind of mixed on these because of the rubber tip but I have the rubber tipped pen and it works great for me.

Get the 3-pack of Universal Touch Screen Stylus Pen (Red, Silver & Black) for $1.99 with free shipping on Amazon.

Date: January 26th, 2012 – Thursday night

Where: On Twitter

When: 8:00 PM (EST)

Who: Join hosts @ClassyMommy , @AudreyMcClellan, @VeraSweeney, @WhitneyMWS and @DisneyBaby

No RSVP required. Just join in the fun and use the hashtag #DisneyBaby. Prizing eligibility for both US & Canadian residents.

I know I’m especially enamored with the Super Fun Packs. These are not just Valentine’s Day cards – depending on which you pick, they are scratch and sniff, or pop-out race cars, Fairy Bracelets or more. Get a Super Fun Pack for $13 – each box comes with 28 Valentine’s. Adorable, right?

Check out this pack that my son’s going to use.  These Valentine Airplanes can be punched out and shaped into a paper airplane to fly!

Giveaway: One lucky Mommies with Style winner can receive 2 Valentines Packs from Peaceable Kingdom!
Note – You can enter up to 4 times (the only required entry is the first one to leave a comment! All the others are additional entries):

1) Leave a comment on this post. (Note: Scroll to the bottom of this post and click Post Comment. You must be on my site you can’t do this through a reader.)

2)Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter & follow me on Twitter @WhitneyMWS:

Enter to win adorable Valentine’s Day cards on Mommies with Style via @WhitneyMWS http://bit.ly/aatNRf

3)Like Mommies with Style on Facebook (if you already do, promote this contest on your page) as well as Peaceable Kingdom

4) Subscribe to my feed or email newsletter and stay on top of all of my daily posts! If you already subscribe, please leave a separate comment letting me know that you are currently a subscriber (thank you!).

This giveaway will run until end of day January 31st.  One winner will be selected and notified after that time.

They are encouraged to pull themselves up and stay standing at the table while they play. I already have the Baby Einstein Discovering Music Activity Table by Disney for my infant and can’t wait to watch her interactions with it as she grows. The Baby Einstein Activity Table even has pull off legs so that babies can play on the floor. The table helps babies learn colors, shapes, and counting to five in three languages and plays five classical melodies. The light up colors and sounds attract babies’ attention and are just fun.

You can buy the Baby Einstein Discovering Music Activity Table at Target for $39.99.

Image via Google. Click for a bigger image & explanation

I think I may have been in denial for awhile about SOPA.  I heard about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) peripherally and didn’t pay too much attention at first – I mean, fighting online piracy sounds good to me.

I’ve been blogging here on Mommies with Style for almost eight years now and I’ve been in online media for over fifteen years.  I’ve seen a lot of pirates steal a lot of content in my day.  Online Piracy is a huge issue and as a content publisher there’s always the risk that someone, somewhere is stealing your content and images which frankly, just isn’t nice and should be stopped.

But as I’ve recently learned, SOPA & it’s counterpart PIPA (Protect IP Act), go beyond just stopping online piracy.  They would allow the government to censor everything that’s published online.  We’re talking major Big Brother here.  Now I happen to love fiction dystopian society novels but there’s no way in hell I want to live in one.

CNN has a video up about SOPA that explains a little more for those interested.

Today, many websites have gone “black” to show their feelings against SOPA.  Some of these sites include Google, Wikipedia, Wired and many more names you know and don’t know.

While I haven’t gone quiet or black today, I am anti SOPA and I have signed the petition.  I don’t want to go black or be quiet.  I want to be able to continue to have my freedom of speech here on Mommies with Style, and continue to encourage people to comment and share their own opinions and thoughts.  I don’t want to be told what I can and can’t say – or worse, have to shut down my website and say nothing at all.  Frankly, even the possibility of that scares the crap out of me.

Read up and make yourself aware of what these bills could mean to you.  While SOPA has been “shelved” that doesn’t mean it’s gone.  If it passes, it could mean serious implications to hundreds of thousands of jobs and companies like AOL, Facebook, eBay, Yahoo, Twitter and many, many more.