Hello, I’m Janel!
I was born in Washington state and lived there up through high school.
After graduation, I spent a semester abroad in Wuhan, China teaching English to 3-5 year old children. It was a crazy adventure, and I spent a lot of time homesick, but also learned so much about the world and a love for the people I met while there those 4 months.
Then, it was off to college for a few years.
Our Family Story
I met my now husband on a cruise! He says he knew he was going to marry me the first time he saw me… I wasn’t at all interested. But we quickly became best friends and talked every day.
I moved to Phoenix, Arizona between semesters at college and he followed me there, bought a home, and for some reason wouldn’t take no for an answer. We’ve been married for 19 years and I’m happy he stuck around long enough to convince me.
Kids quickly joined the picture, and transformed our home to a busy household. All of our boys are 2 years apart and all born in the fall. I went from pregnant to nursing and back to pregnant again for nearly 10 years straight, and I’m happy to now be done with the pregnancy phase!
We’ve have 5 beautiful boys together – Nathan, Tyler, Andrew, Eric, and Chris. They’re a handful, but also a blessing.
All About Our 5 Sons
Nathan is 18. He is kind and compassionate. He is the first to volunteer to help and rarely complains. He tries really hard to be funny, but mostly comes off as goofy. He loves music, comedy, magic tricks, and rubik’s cubes. He recently got into record collecting as well.
Nathan is sensitive and considerate. I will often find him requesting the last treat, until one of his brother’s asks for one too, and then he’ll give up his for someone else to have it because he doesn’t want them to feel sad.
Tyler is 16 and full of spunk. He’s fascinated by everything and very curious. He loves to learn about the world and is always down for a documentary. He tends to get along best with adults and can carry on long conversations on just about any topic.
Tyler was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 6. He is an amazingly strong child that rarely complains about all that having diabetes entails.
Andrew is 14 and my non-stop talker! There is hardly a minute of the day that my little chatterbox isn’t talking, even if it’s to himself. He is incredibly smart and excels at anything he puts his mind to.
Andy is a big sweetheart and very affectionate. He still gives me daily hugs, back scratches, and tells me he plans to take care of me when I’m old. (phew!) He wants to be an airline pilot for a career and is determined to do so. He’s very proud to finally be taller than me!
We lost our son Eric when he was just 2. We miss him incredibly, but greatly cherish the special moments we had with him. He always wanted to be with his big brothers doing whatever they were doing.
He was daring and adventurous. He loved his baby brother and spent most of his time talking about and helping to care for his little brother. We feel so blessed for the time we had with our favorite Eric and know he is watching over us from heaven.
Chris is 10 and the baby of the family. His older brothers insist that he is the favorite and is treated differently. Chris doesn’t want to miss out on anything. He started walking at 9 months and running by 10 months and has kept up that pace every since always trying to keep pace with his older brothers. His favorite animal are fox and he loves all sports.
Living in Raleigh, North Carolina
We moved to a suburb of Raleigh, NC from Phoenix and love the change in climate, extra square footage, all the lakes and greenery, and especially the opportunity to explore the east coast after living in and traveling throughout the west coast our entire lives.
We moved here for my husband’s work and I have continued to work through A Mom’s Take from home and spend my days with my crazy crew of boys.
Work Portfolio & Past Partnerships
I have been blogging for over 14 years! It has been an adventure learning the ropes of the blogging world and transitioning throughout the changes over the years. I have loved the opportunity to partner with a wide variety of brands including ambassador positions. Here is just a small sampling of a few of my favorite partnerships.
Bridging the Gap Between Formula and Breastfeeding
I’ve been thrilled to partner with Similac as both a Brand Ambassador and on one-time campaigns. I love their brand message of supporting moms, no matter what their family scenario and choices look like.
Creating recipes are some of my favorite campaigns! This fun projects was all about getting into the kitchen with your kids with Uncle Ben’s rice and we had a great time as a family cooking this ethnic dish our family enjoys.
10 Genius Tricks of Babyproofing Against a Toddler
With this partnership with Jet.com, I was challenged to support baby proofing month and their store of products. It was so much fun sharing some of our hacks at tackling babyproofing and the post is one I’m really proud of.
100 Mix-and-Math School Lunchbox Ideas
This campaign for Nude Food Movers lunch containers gave me the flexibility to create something unique and creative! It made it easy to focus on the product in an evergreen way.
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