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A Non-Comprehensive List of Things That Have Happened Since 2016

Sooo before last week, it had been a long-@ss time since Emily or I had blogged. I explained why in that post, SO GO READ IT. (Please.)

I’ll wait.

So anyhoo, here’s what you need to catch up on,

  • I went from part time to full time at my job, because I am an insane person and ignored the advice I gave Emily for years.
  • Joshua (mine) and Kate (Emily’s) both turned into TEENAGERS and they are both TALLER THAN I AM and it’s NOT OKAY. They’re both now 14. Also not ok.
  • Kate looks like a freaking model, SUPER NOT OKAY. Gah. At least have the decency to look like an awkward teenager.
  • Kate also loves makeup, hair, and mirrors, so she’s basically more like my kid than Emily’s and this THRILLS ME TO NO END (payback for all those eye rolls at me, cousin!!)
  • Joshua, at 14, no longer adores me like he did at 4. Very not okay.
  • Sammy (Emily’s) just turned 10. The only one remaining in single digits is Jonah (mine).
  • My left eyeball decided it wouldn’t tolerate contact lenses anymore so I got glasses. Which made Sophie (mine), who is now eleven, and I look alike, which is a development I AM on board with!
  • My nephew Drew won the world championships in Pyraminx again in PARIS freaking France, and broke the world record at the same time. It was pretty epic.
  • In other nephew news, my brother Andy & his wife did me a solid adopted a 2-year-old named Jayce, and I am in loooooove with him! #fanaunt
  • Jonah, despite my fervent prayers, continues to have some developmental issues, so we’ve had him at the Brain Balance Center since December 3 hours a week. He is doing SO AWESOME. He’ll be done in June. It’s the best money we’ve ever spent. I mean besides Christian school and speech therapy.
  • Also, Jonah is the MOST FUN KID EVER and I want to FREEZE TIME right now because he’s so fun!
  • I started selling MONAT hair care, because it’s amazeballs and you should totes buy some from me. I started using it because my freaking hairline was receding and that is MAJORLY NOT OK! Fortunately Monat fixed that and now it’s growing back in nicely! TO check it out you can join my FB group where I do lots of ridiculous hair and makeup product testing (anyone can join) or check out my MONAT website here. Or, comment and and ask me about it. I won’t get all salesy and weird on you.
  • I turned 40 and my friend and family brought me like 500 cans of Mountain Dew, which is totally cool, and Emily did NOT turn 40 which is SUPER LAME. She continues to fulfill her role as “whippersnapper” in my life.
  • Emily went to Europe without me, which is STUPID. In her defense she DID ask me to go with her, but she DIDN’T offer to pay for it, soooo…
  • Emily got promoted at her job to Vice President of Everything Awesome and she pretty much runs the place. Also, people are VERY afraid of her. And her office smells of mahogany and leather-bound books.
  • Also, Emily’s husband and I dressed the same accidentally on Halloween this year.  It’s not weird!
  • (Please note: Emily looks like she actually LIKES ME in this photo because she had wine for trick-or-treat. True story.)
  • Some other not-super-fun stuff happened to but we’ll save that for a serious post or two.
  • Both of our husbands keep continually agreeing to staying married to us, which is kind of great (but really who would want to leave THIS?)

And now you’re all caught up! Stick with us, we’re bringing sexy funny back, I swear!

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No, We Didn’t Fill a Baby Pool Full of Slime to Become Internet Famous

mommin it up

Hello old friends, and welcome NEW friends!

Allow me to introduce ourselves. We’re Emily and Jenny, two cousins who have been blogging at Mommin’ It Up since June 2007. We became moms within 8 weeks of each other in 2004, and by 2007 we just HAD to start writing about the ups and downs of motherhood.

Every year our kids (there are five between us, ages 14 to 7) go trick-or-treating together. This is a typical photo of us on Beggar’s Night, or any night, actually: Jenny is the weird one, Em is the normal one.

We blogged super consistently here for about eight years until I (Jenny) had to go and get a full time job and ruin EVERYTHING. My full time job is as editor at ForEveryMom.com, a parenting site. And, since I write 5-10 articles A WEEK (you read that right) over there, my creativity was pretty much sucked dry. So we shelved Mommin’ It Up for awhile, always intending to come back to it when we could. We were also hoping blogging would go back to the way it was in our heyday 2008-2012 or so, when it was really about TELLING STORIES, not about starting YouTube channels and making viral videos. Neither Emily nor I are interested in being talking heads on a video screen. We ARE interested in telling stories through our writing about motherhood and married life with kids. USUALLY funny stories, but OFTEN hard ones. ALWAYS real ones.

We are NOT interested in making viral videos or fantasical Pinterest crafts in the interest of becoming Internet Famous. #sorrynotsorry

And sidenote: It’s harder now that our kids are older. Emily and I both have TEENAGERS now, teens who were THREE when we started this blog. We have to get permission to post ANYTHING about them, much less write an entire post. It’s hard.

BUT ANYHOO, let’s get to the reason for the title of this post.

About a year ago, we noticed that someone else was using the name Mommin’ It Up on twitter. There were TWO of them, just like us, but one since killed off the other and is now flying solo. People were mistaking Emily (@momminitup) for her, so Emily and I tweeted her something along the lines of, “Hey this name’s already taken, how ’bout you get your own?”

Oh wait, here is EXACTLY what Emily tweeted, and I re-tweeted.

mommin it up

She BLOCKED US BOTH on Twitter, and did NOT get her own ORIGINAL name. I mean, RUDE. All we did was ASK A QUESTION.

mommin it up

Though she can pry the Momminitup.com, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram URL’s from our cold, dead, hands, she’s worked around it and just made her own very similar handles. And also, she’s made some “viral” videos that are starting to get her a little internet famous. Twice at least, the Today Show has posted her stuff and people come and like OUR FB page in droves. It’s KINDA GREAT! The most recent one was her filling a kiddie pool with slime IN her house and letting her kids go to town. A kiddie pool filled with slime INDOORS. And then she films it and sends it to the TODAY show? Yeah, clearly she’s just doing that because she LOVES playing with her kids.

mommin it up

When the Today show posted it just a little while ago, they again tagged OUR page. Because, yeah, she has a page, but because she STOLE OUR NAME, it makes it really hard for people to GET IT RIGHT. Seriously, lady? DO you not see how you screwed yourself by failing to be original here?

Look, if you know us you know Emily and I are super-nice, low-drama people.  That’s why we didn’t come out swinging after she blocked us a year ago. We don’t want to cause this woman any harm, but we DO want her to re-brand.

We  planted our flag on the Mommin’ It Up planet in the Internet Galaxy ELEVEN FREAKING YEARS AGO. I love Jesus and He loves you, but Lady, you need to re-brand. You change your name and allllll your followers stay with you. It’s amazing how that works, but we’re not doing it, ’cause quite simply, we were here first.

And thanks to you, we’re also BACK.

Let us know if you need any help with name suggestions.

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Upgrade Your Beauty Products for Fall With the Meijer Beauty Sale

*This post is sponsored by Meijer. All opinions are my onw!

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you know that I am uber-vain and I LOVE my beauty products!! Mascara, blush, lipstick, eyeshadow, BRING IT ON. I want it all! Now, I love to coupon and get my beauty products for cents on the dollar, but I know a lot of you just AIN’T GOT TIME FOR THAT. And, you want the convenience of a one-stop shop, too. If that’s you, I’ve got great news for you: there’s a heck of a beauty sale at Meijer this week. You can get buy two get one free cosmetics and BOGO 50% on almost everything else! And if you DO  happen to clip a coupon or two, there are some great ones in the paper this week and online at coupons.com to help you get even better deals.

A photo posted by Jenny Rapson (@jennyitup) on

Above are some of my favorite cosmetic products that Meijer sent me to review. I have to tell you that that L’Oreal Paris LUMI powder glow illuminator is a real superstar. Not only do I use it to highlight my cheekbones, I also use the darker part of it as bronzer and contour between my jaw and cheekbone AND, in the photo below, I am also using the lighter shade of it as eyeshadow on my brow bone and to highlight the inner corner of each eye. This is such a fantastic multi-tasking product! There are a couple other colors available and I am dying to try them as well.

jenny-makeup-look

Another favorite beauty product, which I’ve never tried before, is this NYX lib butter in Merengue. Here, I used it alone over a neutral lip liner, and it stayed on REALLY well – more like a lipstick than a gloss. I love the fresh, natural, light look of wearing this lip butter with just liner, but you can also wear it over lipstick too, to add some flair and long-lasting shine to your favorite lip shade.

A photo posted by Jenny Rapson (@jennyitup) on

In all of these photos I am also wearing a FANTASTIC pressed powder from Maybelline over my foundation. It’s called Maybelline Better Skin and I love it! It’s really long-wearing, and it’s not heavy but it goes on great – a little goes a long way. Just one pat of the applicator will do it, you don’t have to apply multiple coats. It definitely makes me want to try the res of the Better Skin line.

A photo posted by Jenny Rapson (@jennyitup) on

This next photo gives me the opportunity to showcase another new lip product I’d never tried before: Maybelline Color Jolt intense lip paint. I LOVE IT. It goes on really easily with a soft applicator and it stays on for a looong time. I just applied a small amount over lip liner — a little goes a long way!

maybelline-color-jolt

My super-smooth hair in the photo above should also be commented on. It’s thanks to these three amazing products: L’Oréal Paris Extraordinary Oil Shampoo and Conditioner and the Conair wet brush. This shampoo and conditioner is so amazing, it totally smooths by dry, wavy-frizzy hair. It works SO well that I no longer have to use the smoothing styling products I used to put into my hair before I blow it dry. So by using this shampoo and conditioner I’ve been able to cut a product out of my routine, saving me time and money. PLUS, it makes my hair WAY easier to straighten once it’s dry and helps the straight last longer, too. After two weeks of use, I am a BELIEVER.

A photo posted by Jenny Rapson (@jennyitup) on

The Conair wet brush cuts tangles out of my wet hair like nobody’s business. I have really thick hair and I can’t believe how easy it is to brush out when it’s wet with this brush. In addition, it works great on my daughter’s long hair and has GREATLY improved our relationship when I brush her hair out after she showers! I am not even kidding! How did I not KNOW about the Conair wet brush!! I want to cry for all the years I’ve lived without it.

There are some other notable products that I’m going to cover in a Facebook live video that I’m going to do on our Mommin’ It Up Facebook post tonight. I will embed that video here when I’m done. The video will include Maybelline Color Tattoo eye shadow and Neutrogena MositureSmooth color stick.

I hope to see you on Facebook Live tonight, but until then…get to Meijer for some amazing beauty deals this week, September 11-17th!

Updated with Facebook live video below! Check out how I use the L’Oréal Paris LUMI True Match powder!

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