We are excited to release our long awaited Moment Garden iPhone/iPad app! So many of you have requested an iPhone app, and it’s now available for free in the Apple app store:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/momentgarden/id499969127

The Moment Garden iPhone app lets you save photos, videos and stories to your child’s existing garden directly from your iOS device, and re-live the memories from anywhere at anytime. 

We are particularly delighted to have the Moment Garden app selected by Apple as New & Noteworthy in the App Store! It’s all thanks to our loyal users who have provided us tremendous feedback, ideas and app store reviews!

Don’t risk losing any of those stories, pictures, videos or funny things your children say. Get the app nowfrom the Apple app store for free!

If you see ways we can improve the app, please let us know at support@momentgarden.com. If you love the app, please give us a good rating to help spread the word to other parents.

Many parents upload photos of their children to Facebook, since that’s a great place to expose the pictures to family and friends. 

However, Moment Garden provides a better organized and more beautiful space to collect, save, and share these same photos within an interactive timeline.

We’re happy to announce that you now have the best of both worlds!

Moment Garden has launched new Facebook importing functionality, which lets you import photos from your Facebook albums right into your child’s Moment Garden. And best of all, it’s super simple!

1. From the “Add Moment” menu, click the “Import from Facebook” button.

2. Once connected to Facebook, you can navigate through your Facebook photo albums.

3. Finally, choose one or more photos you’d like to import and click “Import”. 

It’s that easy! So go ahead and import some photos, then let us know what you think!

Hi Shannon, how about we start by you introducing yourself and tell us about See Baby Grow (we’re big fans!).
 

Hi there!  My name is Shannon and I’m a mom, wife, teacher, doggie-lover, and entrepreneur.  I was born and raised in New York and have since relocated to Florida, where I love to visit the beaches and hang outside by the pool under the palm trees.  Life is good!  I am currently taking a break from classroom teaching to pursue my dream of doing something on my own and being my own boss.  It’s awesome! Finding my way through the marketing, advertising and retail industries have been nothing short of intimidating, to say the least, but heck, it’s working and we’re moving forward! 

How did you come up with this idea?  By the way, great new website design!

Thanks!  See Baby Grow, LLC was created in 2010 after realizing how precious every little stage is in a new baby’s life. When my son turned one month old, I neatly typed up a sign that read: “I am 1 month old!” and placed it next to him while I started snapping away (and away, and away, and away!).  This monthly tradition continued throughout his first year of life, as I was blown away at how fast time really does fly.  As he became more and more mobile, his photo shoots were becoming a bit of a challenge for us.  After countless efforts of trying to remember it all and add captions to pictures, we decided that something needed to be done! I knew that there had to be an easier way for parents to document these extraordinary monthly milestones.  Soon after, See Baby Grow, LLC was born.

What is your favorite part about being a parent?  

I’d be lying if I said ‘everything.’  I LOVE watching my son grow into his own person.  Seeing his individuality form on a daily basis is probably the best part for me.  

Now that you’ve been using Moment Garden for a while now, what’s your favorite aspect?  

Living out of state from my family members, it has to be the component that allows me to share my garden with my family.  My mom receives updates each time I input a moment.  

If you could add one thing to the site, what would it be?  

Hmm…I am pretty satisfied with how it’s going so far.  You guys rock!

What other parenting related websites do you visit every day?  

Parents.com, Daily Candy Kids, Babble, and Cool Mom Picks.

What is one tip for new parents that you wish you knew when you started? 

My son just turned two this month and I am by no means an expert.  We take things one day at a time around here, as each day is a new day with new challenges.  I am much more relaxed than I was during the very early stages, thank goodness!  For some crazy reason, I was under the impression that I was going to hurt or damage my son if I did something ‘wrong’ such as not swaddling him correctly, not inclining his head in the bassinet properly, putting his diaper on too tight or too loosely…  I am laughing now looking back, but we were paranoid about the littlest things.  Advice—-relax : )  Makes for a calmer mommy and a much calmer baby (oh, and daddy, too!)

What did you use to save your children’s quotes, stories and pictures [before Moment Garden]?  

It was pathetic, but with the lack of sleep, I would write little things down on sticky notes next to my night-stand and date them….Now, I have a permanent (neater) place to document his early beginnings!

My Moment Maker Tip

Well, I’m a bit bias here, but I’d have to say—-Invest in some apparel from See Baby Grow!  You can easily document each moment, starting with the first day of life with our newborn beanie hats.  When I look back on our day 1 shots of Ryan wearing the icky hospital beanie, I WISH I had these then.  There are plenty of photo ops in the early days and why not, do them in style!

Today we are excited to announce Family Moment Gardens!

What is a “Family Moment Garden?”

A Family Moment Garden is a unique view showing all your children’s moments in a single timeline view.

How do you view your Family Moment Garden?

Click on the following icon at the top of your gardens:

Then in your Family Moment Garden, we’ll show all of your children’s moments (for whom you are admin) combined into a single view.  Each child’s moments will be identified by a unique color in the timeline, labeled at the top:

We hope you enjoy this feature as much as we’ve enjoyed creating it!

Hi Meagan!  You have been using Moment Garden for a while now, so I’m really excited we get to do this!  How about we start by you introducing yourself and what you do.

My name is Meagan from www.SunshineandSippyCups.com. I’m a new mom, and love to share all of my fun & frugal finds with other busy momma’s on a budget! 

I post about a lot of different topics. I love to review companies, services, and products that I think are unique and helpful. I know a lot of other moms are trying to get the most of their family’s dollars, so I post fun new freebies, great deals, giveaways, and opportunities to earn money from home or get free products to test.

Anything that I find helpful, I share with my readers too!

Your fairly new into Mommy blogging, right?  How’s it going so far? 

I LOVE it! This has been such a fun experience, and I have learned so much, and met SO many great people. I plan to continue learning so that I can help my blog grow into a really fun and helpful resource for all busy momma’s on a budget!

 What is your favorite part about being a parent?

Seeing her big gummy smile, and feeling that completely unconditional love. That’s amazing. Making her giggle, that can brighten any day! I also love watching her as she discovers something new; that is so amazing.

How did you get started using Moment Garden and what’s your favorite aspect?

I honestly don’t remember where I first heard of Moment Garden, but I am SO glad that I did! So many people buy adorable baby books with the best of intentions for keeping them up-to-date. But the first year can be so overwhelming, especially if you are a new mom.

Moment Garden provides an amazingly simple way to record those memories and events that you want to remember. It gives me an easy way to save “firsts”, stories, photos, and more, so that I don’t lose track of those special moments during the crazy new-mom sleep-deprived haze….

What did you use to save your children’s quotes, stories and pictures [before Moment Garden]?

I have a “Dear Abby” notebook, {my daughter’s name is Abby!} where I write letters to the future her… I also have scrapbooks, baby books, and photo albums. I’m a super-crafty type, and I also save everything! So I have lots of memories saved for her.

But Moment Garden is such a great addition to that! I love that it helps me appreciate smaller events, since I try to post daily. And it is so much easier to keep track of things this way… Often, I add a new “first” to her Moment Garden, then later when I have time to update baby books, I go back to Moment Garden to find dates/times/events to add!

If you could add one thing to Moment Garden, what would it be?

I really don’t have any suggestions! I think it’s pretty amazing.

How do you connect to other parents online?

When I was a brand new mom, at home, struggling to figure out this new life, I would often turn to Facebook to ask questions, so that I could get advice from other mom’s that I knew and trusted!

Also, since I’m a blogger, I follow a lot of other moms-with-blogs, and learn a lot from them too. It helps so much sometimes just to read a story that someone else has posted, and realize that other people are going through the EXACT same things that you are 

:-)

What is one tip for new parents that you wish you knew when you started?

That while it’s great to listen to the advice of others, YOU are the mommy of YOUR baby, and ultimately, you are the one who knows which decisions are best for your family. Every baby is different, and you are the expert of yours…. Whatever feels right is probably the right thing to do!

My Moment Maker Tip: I want to get more consistent in utilizing Moment Maker… I think that this is such an amazing idea, and love that I get emails with questions that remind me to add some new posts, and encourage me to share fun memories!

My tip would is: Be Consistent! Being a new mom is such an incredibly beautiful experience, yet is also a very overwhelming time. Already, as my baby girl is approaching a year old, I’m realizing that I wish I had captured more…. Written down more memories, taken more pictures, recorded more milestones, and captured more video. By logging in to Moment Garden just once a day, you will have an incredible record to look back on baby’s first year, which is one of the most memorable.

An extreamely popular request.  I guess our cameras and phones aren’t perfect yet!

To rotate an image or movie, first click to edit the moment from the timeline or slideshow.  From the edit screen you should see the option to rotate the image:

Click the desired rotation and then click “Save.”  Note: Movies can take a up to 10 minutes depending on the time it is submitted.

If you have any questions or problems, please let us know at support@momentgarden.com and we’ll respond right away.

Hi Rebecca!  Thanks for taking the time to talk to us!  How about we start by you introducing yourself and what you do?
Hi Chris!  My name is Rebecca Madan Kollaras and I have spent nearly 20 years as a travel PR professional, traveling all over the world, working with big hotel companies, convention and visitor’s bureaus and independent boutique brands alike. This life has afforded me all sorts of insight and opportunities into branding, travel, marketing, relationship management and most of all, the importance of getting out there. I’m a single mom and it’s by far the most challenging and the most rewarding thing I do. Being a mom makes me better at everything.  I love my life as a professional and I love my life as a mom, so much so, I’ve joined the two worlds in my blog Uncommom (www.uncommom.com).

Wow, That is impressive you can manage all of that! Being a mother is very rewarding.  What is your favorite part?
The laughter. My daughter Zoe has a really funny take on life. She’s very verbal, always has been, and sometimes it takes me a few seconds to register that a six year old just said “hold on mom, I’m getting to the point.” The best is when we laugh uncontrollably together. Those are the times I really treasure -  the perfect times for the verbal garden.

How did you get started using Moment Garden and what’s your favorite aspect?
I found Moment Garden on Twitter and clicked through to the website. The design is darling and it’s perfect for people like me who either have no time or skills to do something polished and lovely like scrapbooking.  It’s so easy to use, it essentially takes the work out and brings the fun in.

If you could add one thing to the site, what would it be?
I would like to be able to print books from my gardens.  Given the aforementioned lack of time and skills, it would be nice to upload to Moment Garden and create printed books for events and/or moments we want to really commemorate. Then I could be a pseudo-scrapbooker.

What other parenting related websites do you visit every day?
I like to check in at Dr. Becky Bailey’s Conscious Discipline site (consciousdiscipline.com) for guidance and tips. Her books have really helped me understand responsible parenting and how to achieve it without total madness. Another blog I read about parenting is Confessions of a Mean Mommy (www.confessionsofameanmommy.com/) by my dear friend Denise Schipani. She offers a very compelling and genuine take on sometimes having to do what’s hard. That, and she’s remarkably funny.

How do you connect to other parents online?
Well, the nature of my business is communication and that allows me to be plugged in socially. I do a lot of connecting through social media portals like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.  

What is one tip for new parents that you wish you knew when you started?
Ask for help when you need it. I had this conversation yesterday. When you have a child, your entire universe changes. Your body, your hormones, your attitude, your sleep schedule, your work, your relationship - everything. In addition, you have this little love muffin who depends on you for everything - and that person cannot speak, so you have to interpret. It’s stressful. It’s not all champagne and roses. It’s ok to say, “You know, (fill in blank), I need a few minutes to myself. Can you babysit?”  A $15 manicure and an hour off will change your world view sometimes. Happy mommies raise happy children. It’s as simple as that.

And of course, finally, do you have a “My Moment Maker Tip” for our readers?
I surely take a photo of my child every other day, at least, on my mobile phone - at a Food Truck Roundup, at the grocery store, at the park, everywhere. I always wondered how to save them accordingly? What I do now is email them to Zoe’s Moment Garden email address. The display gives me a running timeline of our daily adventures. Sometimes your memory card fails or your phone just dies and uploading your mobile images to Moment Garden as you take them, saves those memories forever.