We have a winner...

Wow! What a great giveaway! It's always fun to see so many people interested in winning cloth diapers. Welcome to all you new followers, thanks for joining us here and participating in the latest giveaway! I just love being able to share with readers here, so if you love giveaways, be sure to follow along with us in your favorite way, just click on the circular watercolor icons on the left to subscribe to blog posts, follow on instagram, twitter, and facebook! 

{images property of Buttons Diapers}

Of course, there is only one winner for this giveaway, and that would be Sarah Hayes! Rafflecopter randomly picked her entry as the winner of the Buttons Diapers trial pack. Sarah has 48 hours to reply by email and claim her prize. If the prize goes unclaimed an alternate will be chosen and notified by email. 

Now do me a favor and comment below with the answer to the following 2 questions so I can make sure to keep the fun posts and prizes coming. 1. What are your favorite giveaways to enter? 2. What products do you actually take time to read through the reviews to learn more about? 

Thanks again for your participation, I love being able to interact with the little community here on my teensy corner of the internet. 

Have a great week, and thanks again to Buttons Diapers for the opportunity to share cloth diapers with BnG readers! 

Another Way to Read

Ever since Google Readers shut down last summer, I've been a Feedly convert. However, I figured I might as well stake my claim on Bloglovin' as well for those of you who read there.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Ever since the switch, do you use a reader? Which do you prefer? Or do you just hop around to websites, perhaps using bookmarks the old school way? No shame in that!

And if you use feedly but don't follow there yet, just click on the first watercolor button under my photo on the left to get started.

Happy Reading!

I can't believe it!

People- Thank you! Some of you lovelies out there nominated me for The Bump's 2nd Annual Mommy Blog Awards. I was so honored.

Today Ben texted me that I made it to the next round for voting and I. am. shocked.

SHOCKED!

If you want to share the love (I'm totally feeling it right now) please vote for me in the Stay at Home Mom category each day this week through Monday Nov. 15th at midnight.

You don't have to sign up for an account or anything, just click on the button next to Breaking New Ground and hit submit. Super simple.

Here's how to get there

I added this handy little button above as you can see. It'll stay there through Monday as a reminder :)

Again, thank you!

following

Alright lurkers, I'm calling you out. Yes, YOU!

Seriously though, I do know there are a lot of readers out there that aren't "following" around here. I'd love to know who you are. I'm not asking you to comment if you don't want. It would just be nice to see your lovely little faces on my page.

What's stopping you?

to my new readers: family + "real life" friends

For those of you just discovering this blog and wondering why I haven't publicized it until now, please don't take it personally.

I started this blog when I was about 4 months pregnant with Malakai. It began as a sort of personal journal for Ben + I to keep track of our journey to meeting our first child. Eventually it became a way to keep up to date with friends I made on a pregnancy message board.

Once Malakai was born I of course wrote about being a first time mother and started to go more into our day to day lives. Mostly still blogging to keep track of his firsts + our lives as new parents.

Then I acquired more readers and was approached about doing a giveaway for them, which has recently led to more product reviews + giveaways. I've also been doing some really fun shop features, which I love.

As this space grew to be a bigger part of my life it made sense to include my family and real life friends. So, welcome new readers, glad you're here.

Now go enter my current giveaway before it ends tomorrow!

launching new design!

Hello all:
Today is the day- take a look around at my beautiful new blog design!

I'm very excited to finally unveil the new look and many many thanks to Lisa for creating the header, blog and email buttons for me!

Please be sure to check her out at

Don't forget to leave me a comment and let me know what you think & grab my new button!

new location...

update your bookmarks, readers, dashboards, etc. I'll be moving my blog from the old "www.shanleann.blogspot.com" to "www.breakingnewground.us"!

I'm so excited!

This isn't the end to the updates around here. More to come soon!

giveaways

I'm working on hosting additional giveaways in the near future. I've made some good contacts but will keep them to myself for now.

I've also received an offer for an discount code exclusively for my readers to a great clothing site.

I've already said too much! More details to come in the near future, stick around!

about me...

There are a lot of new readers/followers around this space so I thought I'd have a little fun and do some "about" posts. I did Malakai's for his 7th month post last week. So here's a little bit about me-

My first name doesn't have a significant meaning. My dad wouldn't let my mom name me Tiffany or Porscha so I didn't have a name at first. My mom's sister babysat a little girl named Shandell and suggested it, they both liked it and ta-da!


My middle name "LeAnn" however, is my Dad's middle name, Lee, and my mom's middle name, Ann. All the women on my mom's side of the family have Ann in their middle name. This started because we are relatives of Shakespeare's  wife (not the Princess Diary's) Anne Hathaway.

Last night I had a dream about going skydiving. It was a lot of fun and I kept going and teaching all my friends and family. In real life, I wanted to go for my 18th birthday but couldn't afford it and so I've never been. I'm not sure if I'd still do it now that I'm a mom.

follow Friday

Since I just posted all my photos for the week when I wrote about Malakai, I'm sharing the  "Friday Follow"  Blog Hop instead of my usual photo Friday post.

Here's how YOU can join the celebration:

• * Link up your blog name and URL using the MckLinky below. Only need to add to one blog linky.
• * Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots.
• * Follow as many blogs as you like
• * Comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow
• * Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow

The Blog Hop is the same at each of our three hosts blogs so you do not have to add your blog at each site. Just one - but you can follow each host blog.  

joininng the mama blog, bloghop