It’s Fashion Friday with an added woof woof today (that means Husky pride, GO DAWGS)! It’s National wear your college colors day.

Today’s purple and gold husky pride outfit is one of my hot buys for under $100. It’s a Calvin Klein dress that I found at the Nordstrom Rack in Downtown Seattle (bottom floor over on the right wall). It was $60 and is super comfy, but thick enough material that the lines of my heavy duty nursing bra doesn’t show through. They have it in a few colors too (if purple isn’t your school color).

Thanks for all of your feedback!!

Go team fashionistas xo

Here’s a behind the scenes video of what it’s like to sign autographs at the Evergreen State Fair. The kids steal the show. I love them. My favorite is the “funny face” the second child does, I need to steal that and use it on my traffic report to wake you all up with a smile lol.

Here is a sneak peek of our No H8 Campaign photo shoot at the W Hotel. I took a picture of the back of the amazing photographers, Adam Bouska’s camera. That’s Brooke Fox from Movin 92.5 and I posing together to help raise awareness. Siena, my 3 month old baby, came with me to the photo shoot too and got to meet the founders, her honorary uncles Adam Bouska and Jeff Parshley. I can’t wait to see the Hogan girls photo together!!

I’m declaring August 23rd, Jennipalooza day!

It’s my Birth4aCause Day!! Thanks to my little angel Siena being born I’ve realized that my birthday is more than a party, it’s about having a purpose.

That’s why I’ve decided the best birthday present anyone can give me is to do something good for someone else and then tell me about it. Big or small.

I have some ideas in case you can’t think of anything to do.

Jenni’s Birthday Wish List (pick one below and I would be the luckiest girl in the world):

The Birth-4-A-Cause I’ve chosen to support is the Melissa Erickson Foundation. She’s my college friend who played UW basketball (GO HUSKIES!!). She’s now got ALS and needs our support.

- Email Melissa and tell her something to make her smile modawg4@hotmail.com

- Buy a ticket to her fundraising event www.ringaroundtheneedle.com (best $40 you’ll spend this year)

- Spread the word and tell people about her event: Ring Around The Needle Pub Crawl, Sat 28th Aug, Queen Anne 1-5pm (tweet or put it on your facebook page)

- Donate what you can to her foundation at this link

Let me know what one you did above and that will be the best birthday present a girl could have.

OR pick your own present to give to someone and call it your little Jennipalooza moment.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (the luckiest woman in the world, with the bestest friends on the earth)

xoxo

p.s. I’ll keep you all updated on how Jennipalooza did (but I’m going to kick it off so even if no one gets me a present through one of the things above, I know Melissa will be really happy just because you now know who she is and are thinking good thoughts for her)

Whit Whoooo my birthday is coming up on Monday!!! But wait…  a birthday isn’t just for yummy cake, presents and singing a fun song?

I’ve just realized my birthday is my birth (space) day. Yes… the day I was born. I know this may sound a little odd but from as early as I can remember birthday’s weren’t about birth they were about McDonald’s birthday parties. Yes, sitting eating my ice cream cake with Ronald McDonald, opening presents and parents smiling and singing to me…. nope, no memory of being pulled out of my mothers stomach in that memory bank. That’s until now, now I’ve seen my own child being born it’s changed the whole meaning of this day to me.

August 23rd, it’s the day I entered the world, just like Siena did 3 months ago. I can’t remember anything about that day I entered but that’s the day I’m celebrating. I now think about what my mum and dad were going through on that day. The smiles I see radiate from relatives when Siena entered the world, were proabably radiating from my relatives that just met me for the first time too. I have never thought about this one day like this and actually feel like I haven’t really had a birth-day celebration because I was never celebrating the right thing. So it’s time to celebrate the day I was born.

My husband asked me what I want for my birthday and that’s when I realized how much being a mother has changed me. My answer… I want you to donate money to my college friend’s charity.

He laughed and waited for the rest of my list. I just kept smiling a big smile. He starred at me waiting for what felt like 10 minutes of silence before he realized that is all I wanted. I was silent for just as long, trying to think of what else I wanted but nothing came to mind, nope I was content with that.

I really couldn’t think of a better present. Monday will be a celebration of the day I came into the world, and I feel like I came into the world for a purpose. What better way to celebrate my purpose for being here than doing something that is purposeful and helping others.

There we go, that’s my birthday wish, in leiu of gifts I want people to help Melissa Erickson and her cause. Mo (as us friends call her) is a former UW Basketball player and helped to really light up my life while I was at college with her friendship, while she lighted it up on the court for all of her huskies that came to watch.

How to help Melissa:

Spread the love and tell all your friends about “Ring Around The Needle” – the best way you’ll spend $40 in a long time (August 28th)

OR Donate to the Melissa Erickson Foundation

OK off to go make sure the hubby knows I didn’t mean “nothing else”… I still want my ice cream cake lol

xo

UPDATE: Holli Harris will give any of my “Jenni followers” 15% off her entire line until the end of August, just put in the code #HotMama when you check out – Thanks Holli!!!! Check out her line at this link.

What’s different about my outfit that I wore today on TV? It’s Peek-a-boobie fashion and my new favorite thing. It’s a name I’ve given to fashion where you can peek out your boobie really quickly at work or on the go so your baby can breast feed (or you can pump) without having to take off your entire outfit.

I had no idea there would be a line of clothes specifically made for mothers who go back to work and need to pump but am very very very happy these items exist. The best part is, they are pretty cute too, and I’d probably wear them even if I wasn’t a nursing mother.

Who is brilliant enough to come up with this idea for peek-a-boobie fashion? Holli Harris! A Seattle mother who found a need that wasn’t being met and decided to fill it. Holli now designs clothing she describes as “well tailored clothes, for nursing, pumping and afterwards” under her label Hadley Stilwell (named after her adorable daughter).

Holli came over to my house for a play date last week where we played dress up barbie. I was super impressed with her outfits, they are items I’d add to my closet even without knowing they have the peek-a-boobie ability.

I can’t wait to show off her outfits on TV the next few weeks. Here’s a new game for you as you watch your morning news…  see if you can tell which is a peek-a-boobie outfit and what isn’t. The one I’ve got up my sleeve for Fashion Friday will really stump you on where the peek-a-boobie part is, it’s pretty tricky. I can’t wait to see if you can work it out.

Cheers to the little things that make our lives easier (and believe me going back to work as a new mommy I really appreciate all of these little things).

I went back to work on television Monday and it was so nice to know I had my support group of new babies watching me. Siena’s friends from our PEP’s group (a mommies group that meets each week) all packed onto a couch so they could learn how to watch me on TV. Siena was very cozy in the middle of all of her boyfriends on the right hand side. I gave them a shout out on TV my first day, you can watch their big TV debut by clicking on this link.

She looked like she was auditioning for Baby Bachelorette at one point.

Siena ended up choosing Evan as her man. They are sooooo cute together.

New mother and great friend Ani and I couldn’t help but take this picture of us and our pumping bras. These unusual looking bras with two big holes at the front are one of the many things people just don’t tell you about before you pop out your little hungry angel.

You see, I’m getting ready to head back to work as a new breast feeding mother. This raises a little challenge.. how to feed Siena when she’s at home and her milk lady is 12 miles away at work?

It turns out I’m not the first or the last that will be experiencing this problem and thanks to many wonderful mommies before me there are some wonderful devices to help keep baby milk drunk. It’s time to share those devices with other mommies to be, because really they not only serve a great function of helping get milk to baby but they are pretty dang funny too, and you can never have too many smiles when you’re forced to look like a cow in a milk farm.

The first device is a pump. It’s the thing you stick on your breast and it sucks the milk out for you, bottles it up and wahlah daddy has some food to feed his little angel. It sounds simple but looking at that thing scared the daylights out of me, it looks like a science experiment machine I got a D over trying to explain in a physics exam back in high school.

For all of you that are breastfeeding newbies, the reason you need to pump at work is because your milk jugs keep on producing even when you’re away from baby. If you don’t empty those jugs, then we’re in for a Traffic Anchor that’s spraying milk all over your morning commute (and it’s not the best milk to use in your morning coffee).

There are plenty of pumps out on the market from little ones, to the mega dual action machines. I tried the single pump and it was a little too slow for me, so I upgraded to the mega pump. It’s the Medela Freestyle, a double pump that does both sides at once and seemed a little more forceful than the single pump. It is the most expensive one out there at around $370 but speed is important to me (make sure if you have a flex spending account you use that for your pump). the mega pump also has a clip on the back so you can clip it to your clothes and walk around while pumping (an essential for a mommy on the go).

With my job on TV it’s critical that I can pump quickly and on the go. You see I may need to pump in between my traffic reports and if you’ve ever watch our morning show I’m sure you’ve heard that “Weather and Traffic is every 10 minutes” so if I have an emergency and need to empty my spray guns, I’m going to need to do it quickly.  I know I call my breastfeeding blog “Baring My Breasts” but I’d really prefer not to bare my breasts at work (sorry male viewers) so next thing on my list of essential items for going back to work is the pumping bra.

Pumping Bra?

Yes I’d never heard of one too before popping out my little princess. It’s a bra with two holes at the front to insert your breast pump into. Without the pump it just looks like a scary mask that someone could wear to rob your house, with the pump it looks like something they’d use on a cow at a milk farm.

I’ve got two that I’m testing. The first is a black one from Medela to go with their pump, after kicking and screaming about wearing it because I didn’t want to feel like a cow, I finally tested it out. It’s actually really great. I don’t have to try holding onto two bottles at once, while holding onto the pump. I can even get things done around the house. The bra holds everything up for you.

The 2nd one I’m testing is the one I think will make the cut for work, it’s a Simple Wishes bra. I’ve inserted a picture from their website to the left so you can see it in action (no that’s not me modeling it lol). Instead of a hole that you can see through all the time, it has a flap that you open that you can insert the pump into. It’s made by a bunch of adorable sisters who just wanted to feel pretty while pumping. It’s true, there is something about their bra that does make you feel pretty. I think it’s the pink, and the nice soft feel.

So there you go, the downlow on pumping at work. My big first day back on air is Monday August 9th. If you have any tips for heading back to work after maternity leave, I’d love to hear from you.

I can’t wait to see all of your smiling faces looking back at me and have my baby girl watch me for the first time (while knowing she is getting fed even though I’m not there with her). Cheers to technology!

xoxo

Here is a blast from the past for you… A friend just emailed me this youtube link of an interview I did about 4 years ago when I was in Portland, OR. It’s soooo cute, you have to see this band I discovered. So happy to google them and see they are still around. I think they could be the next big thing. The songs are pretty catchy. Did I mention they were only in 5th and 6th grade!!! Enjoy  :)