This post was sponsored by Milk-Bone® as part of a Two-Post Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own. #DogsAreMore #IC

Since y’all seem to love it when we share about our dogs, I’m assuming you’re as big of dog-lovers as we are – or at least close (we’re pretty crazy about our dogs!). There’s so many reasons people love their dogs – or other people’s dogs, since not everyone has the privilege of having one as their own pet and family member. They call them man’s best friend for a reason – because Dogs are MORE!

We have four dogs, as I’m sure you’re well aware by now, and while they each have their own unique (some VERY unique) personalities, they still do things more for all of our family. Seriously, think of all the things dogs just seem to either do or be more of – and often just because they love us so much, not because they get as much in return. Milk-Bone® is helping us to share with you the things I love most about our own four-legged family members!

Dogs Snuggle More

I swear dogs have a radar that alerts them the second we sit down in a couch or chair, because suddenly they’re RIGHT THERE, ready to curl up next to you – or halfway on you, depending on the dog. Hera, our smallest, really enjoys laying partially over hubby’s face when he’s laying on the couch, for some reason. Maybe it’s just to be extra close? Regardless, I love getting to snuggle with my dogs during a movie or while reading a book – as do my kids!

Dogs Play More

Our dogs make us laugh so much, from chasing bubbles in the yard, to keeping a sharp eye on a random fly nearby, or even when we’re trying to clean and they’re oh so ‘helpful’ with the mop. They find joy in so many things, it’s hard to not join in their happiness and goofiness!

Dogs Love More

No matter our mood, they just want to love on us. Whether that’s licking our faces or feet or whatever part of us they can reach, or just being nearby while I’m working at the computer, or even just they’re ultra-happy greeting when we walk through the door, they let us know how much they care. Plus, it’s such a wonderful comfort having such unconditional love and companionship, especially on those days you feel a bit lonely.

If you have dogs in your family, or just share an overall love for dogs in general, join us in celebrating how dogs are more. With the many ways – like snuggling more, smiling more, playing more, living more and bringing more love into all of our hearts, they definitely deserve it. Use this awesome Milk-Bone® Gifmaker to make your own, custom gif that shows the rest of the world how YOUR dog is more!

We made a couple of these fun gifs, and are eager to make even more. You can see how our littlest pup, Hera, plays more HERE…

…or how our Tula pup loves more in this silly (yet sweet) gif with hubby HERE!

Don’t worry, the Milk-Bone® Gifmaker is super easy to use – you pick what your dog does more, then upload a short video clip (3-5 seconds is ideal). They then turn your little clip into a gif, and you can even re-center the image in the gif so your dog is front and center as you’d like. Once you’re done, be sure to share with everyone to celebrate how your special dog does more!

Be sure to follow Milk-Bone® on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more pet fun!

This post was sponsored by Milk-Bone® as part of a Two-Post Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own. #DogsAreMore #IC

As you guys well know, we have FOUR dogs in our family. While some people question our sanity, they need to realize that there’s so many benefits of dogs, and having even just one in your family can make a huge difference in a lot of ways! I always knew I wanted to have at least a couple when I grew up, but even then I didn’t realize just how good they’d be for us and our kiddos.

When people think ‘loyal’ or ‘best friend’, they often think of dogs – and for good reason. Our furry friends are dedicated to us, aim to please by learning tricks or commands, and are there even when we’re in our grumpiest moods. They don’t just sit by us on the couch, they remind us that we’re not alone. When I get upset and my little Hera licks my face, she’s trying to help calm me down. Our Tula is extra great at sensing our feelings, and whether it’s hubby, me or the kids that are sad or upset, she’s right there to be a companion – to let us cry, snuggle, pet her, or just to be near us as a comfort. And now Milk-Bone® is following the example of these incredible animals by making treats that ‘do more’ – instead of just a normal treat time, it’s a chance for us to care for our pets and return all the love they give to us.

To celebrate their 20th Anniversary with Canine Assistants, a non-profit organization that trains and provides wonderful service dogs to adults and even children with physical disabilities or special needs, Milk-Bone created this really sweet video to show us just some of the dogs and pet parents that they’ve helped over the past 20 years – showing us how dogs are MORE.

Just like these incredible dogs are transforming the lives of their pet parents, our 4 dogs make such a huge impact to the whole family. The kids love coming home and being greeted by the dogs, who show their excitement and love for the kiddos with their wagging tails and licks. When the kids do their reading, they enjoy it more with a companion – especially if it’s one of our furry family members snuggled up next to them. I think if I had to choose just ONE of the benefits of dogs that’s my favorite, it’d be that companionship.

When I’m home working all day, it’s a comfort having at least one or two (sometimes all four) of my pups laying on the floor around me while I’m at my computer. It makes a world of difference having that faithful companionship and the selfless love from my sweet pets. They do so much for our family, and we wouldn’t be the same without them – so of course we love treating them with Milk-Bone treats for good listening, or just because we want to show THEM how loved they are!

They’re even great for when you need a good laugh – from silly tricks or just funny poses, our dogs can really give us something to smile about and just feel a little less tense. Even when they completely squeeze and slide themselves right next to you (whether there’s space or not) just because they want to be close to us, or get so comfy that they start slipping INTO the couch, it’s adorably hilarious!

With so many benefits of dogs, from having a snuggle buddy, a door greeter, a warm ‘blanket’, an exercise friend, or a comforter when we’re feeling down or upset, having a dog in your family can definitely make your life ‘more’!

What are your favorite benefits of dogs?

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PurinaPetPack #CollectiveBias

Y’all know how much we love our pups – and now that we have four, it’s even crazier at our home, but still wonderful having these cute and fluffy additions to our family. It’s also a challenge having so many dogs – for example, they go through dog food like crazy! Since I’m not a fan of spending forever shopping – or even getting dressed up enough to go to the store – I absolutely LOVE shopping on Amazon. It’s like my lifesaver and best friend, letting get practically whatever I need without having to change out of my pjs! I can even get my dogs’ Purina on Amazon, with less time shopping and more time with the family. ALL of the family!

You’ve heard me say how much we love Purina® Pro Plan® for our dogs, and now there’s even more great news – you can grab your favorite Purina on Amazon with even more savings! By using Amazon, you not only save time by avoiding the stores – and ugh those long checkout lines – but you also can Save $5 off your first purchase when you use the Subscribe & Save option. Then it’s shipped to you regularly, so you don’t even have to re-order every time you run out!

We use Amazon Subscribe & Save for a LOT of our regular products, not just our Purina dog food. I love that you can save so much money – like 5% when you subscribe for one product, or up to 15% when you subscribe for five products! And yes, we subscribe to several things because it’s just So. Much. Easier! than shopping at a store. And yes, you can also get Purina cat food on Amazon, as well! Use the Amazon mobile app and you can fit in ‘shopping’ anytime, anywhere!

With all that time you save from not getting dressed, hopping in the car, driving over, shopping the aisles, waiting to checkout, loading the car, driving home, unloading – ugh! – you can spend more time with what matters, like your family. I love not having to run errands in the evenings anymore, because I would miss out on family reading time.

Not only is a great time with my kiddos, but the dogs LOVE to snuggle up and join in this quality time together. What’s better, my learning-to-read aged kids LOVE practicing by reading to their pets! It’s adorable to see my almost 2nd grader reading chapter books to our new puppy, as she’s curled up on the couch next to him. Amazon definitely helps with ‘Less Paying. More Playing’!

Do yourself a favor and check out Purina on Amazon, especially their Subscribe & Save option – it’ll not only save you a bundle of time and headache, but also money! You can nab favorites like

Purina® Pro Plan®

• Purina Pro Plan Wet Cat Food, Focus, Adult Urinary Tract Health
• Purina Pro Plan Savor Adult Shredded Blend Chicken & Rice

or Purina® ONE®

• Purina ONE Tender Selects Blend with Real Salmon Dry Cat Food
• Purina ONE SmartBlend True Instincts Real Salmon and Tuna

There’s so many great activities you can enjoy with the time you’ll save by shopping at Amazon, such as reading as a family, going for a walk, playing at the park, running through the sprinklers, cleaning the house (I know, not my choice, either), coloring and so much more. Life’s so busy, we definitely try to take advantage of every minute we can 🙂

Check out Purina on Amazon now to save time AND money!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BetterWithPets #CollectiveBias

Last week I had the great opportunity to attend the annual Purina Better With Pets Summit in NYC, and learned even more about this company that I already loved. We heard from some really great speakers, had a few awesome panels with experts in various fields, and – of course – met plenty of wonderful people and pets! I’m spilling the beans on a lot of what we learned there, and how Everything is Better With Pets!

If you recall, I had the privilege of going to the Nestlé Purina headquarters in St. Louis in June, where I learned quite a bit about the company and it’s procedures. Now, before that I was already a fan of the Purina brand and that’s what we feed our two dogs. Afterwards, I was even more impressed and firm in knowing that I was making the best choice for our pets!

While we learned a lot of information in this fun-filled day, one of the things that stood out the most to me is how Purina calls in experts in various fields from OUTSIDE of their company to ensure they’re making the best, most helpful and safe advancements for the pets in our lives. One of the panel experts – I feel awful but I can’t recall if it was John Bear or Shaun Kennedy – said that you want to look at a COMPANY and their policies and procedures when deciding if working together is best, not the national regulations. It’s great that there ARE national policies in place to ensure safety, but it’s really the company who will (or should) check constantly to make certain they’re doing the absolute best.

One thing about both Purina events that I’ve attended, every time someone is introduced you hear about their pets. Often, about their human families as well, but not one person didn’t have a really close, personal bond with the animals in their life. They’re TRUE animal-lovers who believe that life is definitely better with pets and LIVE that way!

We also heard several heart-warming stories of these families – both 2-legged and 4-legged family members – throughout the day. One that really pulled at my heartstrings was from Roben Harris. Her and her husband, Luke, have 6 children – 3 biological and 3 adopted through foster. You can tell why it really hit home, since we’re going through the adoption stuff right now, right? One of their daughters was born with Spina Bifida, and in her 11 (and a HALF) years has undergone 28 surgeries. She’s a spunky girl full of comedy and joy – and one of her best friends is their Labradoodle named Chocolate Chip Chewbacca Harris!

She spoke about how pets make a miraculous difference in the healing of children in hospitals. It can lift their spirits, giving them hope and strength to recover better. As I learned in June, and in more detail at the Summit, Purina is helping hospitals in St. Louis make it easier for pets to visit with their hospitalized humans. Years ago, it would have been nearly impossible – but I learned that the medical field is now acknowledging more and more the healing affects pets can have.

Okay, so I found this completely hilarious and fun – but check this out….

Yup, the entire Purina team wore red sneakers for the event! That’s a fashion statement I could get behind 🙂

Since they’re always trying to find ways to progress as more information and studies are done about our pets, Purina is now looking at early nutrition for cats to tackle the heart disease issue that affects 1 in 10 cats.

Along with their hospital and community work, Purina allowed us to do a large service project for URI in NYC – they provide services to those escaping domestic abuse and are making headway to provide more options to those trying to escape WITH their pets. Because who wants to leave their furry family member behind? I’m so proud of the work their doing, and was glad to help put together little care packages for those starting their life over with their pets.

While I love so many of the advancements that Purina is making, the one I’m most excited about is their Bright Minds brand, which we learned more about at the Summit….

My friend Lori, from A Day in Motherhood, has been telling me how incredible Purina’s brand Bright Minds for dogs is. It’s designed to help older dogs age 7 and up, fighting the affects of aging so they can have more active, happy and joyful lives even as they get older. She uses it on her dog and the difference from before she started it was like night and day! Another family that spoke to us during the conference had a similar story for their eldest dog, who now has energy to even initiate playtime with their younger pup! For you cat-lovers, get ready because Purina has now developed a Bright Minds that works for CATS!!! It’s coming soon, so be sure to check that out if you have a cat 7 years or older.

I’m thrilled for this, because right now my dogs are playful and active and healthy – but I know as they age that could change. I’m so glad to know there’s a product that will keep them this way longer, as they’re such an important part of our family! They help our lives be happier, crazier, more playful and loving, and BIGGER.

Share how YOUR pets allow you to live bigger lives on social media and use #LetsLiveBig

You can follow and tag Purina on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with @Purina

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MeetPurina #CollectiveBias 

As many of you know, we have two ADORABLE lab dogs who are a huge part of our family. Being such, we really look into the types of things we give them, including their food. I was so excited when asked to go to Purina headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri last month to learn more about the company, the products, and everyone behind it. Now I’m letting you Meet Purina: The People and the Pets. Yes, there’s pets – many, many fabulous pets!

Some of these photos are mine, taken by phone or my DSLR, while others were taken by the photographers at the Meet Purina event that I’m using with permission.

After chatting the evening away with a lot of the staff during our welcoming reception the night we arrived, I was already thinking these people were pretty fantastic. Whether we were talking about where we were from, our own families and pets, even sports, they just wanted to get to know us better. I knew this was going to be a really fun few days – and I wasn’t disappointed!

During our tour of the Purina grounds the next morning, it was fun seeing all the little details that emphasized their love of pets – from the animal-shaped shrubs, to the ‘clean up’ baggies and trash cans complete with little paw prints.

They even had a huge pond (shaped like a duck, if you look at it from the Purina building) filled with Koi fish that swarmed like crazy when we fed them. I could spend a long while just watching them swim in a big pile trying to grab some food!

There’s many buildings as part of the Purina campus, and on the main floor of one of them are two resident cats. Yup, they LIVE THERE FULL-TIME! The set up is adorable, and perfect to make Ava (Avalanche) and Rocky (Rocky Moutains) happy in their home – from the paw-printed surfaces, to the kitty door, even a super cute kitty mail box!

We had several different sessions that were entertaining – but I’ll admit, I sometimes got distracted by all the sweet pets people brought with them!

I’ve conversed with Purina through social media many times, so checking out their social media hub and meeting the people behind the tweets and Facebook messages was neat. They were all sitting at their computers with the live feed, ready to connect with people – so if you have questions for Purina about their products, company or whatever, don’t hesitate to reach out to them via social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We got to meet many of the top people there, and they were excited to answer any questions we had. If they couldn’t answer it, they would find someone that could – we put them to the test and they followed through!

One of the many things I was impressed with was the research and development they put into all their products. We learned the advances of gene studies, the processing so they can ensure their products are the best for each particular breed or type of pet. I would have loved to hear more about the science behind it all – although I didn’t understand a lot, what I did was super interesting! They also do research into animal behaviors by checking for their body signs, even doing heat signature tests and such.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say one of my most favorite parts was when we got to eat at the Purina Kitchen! Chef Amanda was incredible, serving up all sorts of tasty foods. Yes, we ate HUMAN FOOD – but she put real thought into what would work to help us connect with pets at the same time. For example, dogs love liver and that would be like a dessert to them – us, not so much, so she served up a dense, rich brownie! It was apparent that Purina has pets in mind with everything they do!

We got to learn about the incredible charities, organizations and causes they help support – such as campaigns to help raise awareness for adopting shelter pets. Or – did you know that many abused people won’t leave because they’re afraid to leave their pet behind? That had never crossed my mind, but it makes total sense! Purina is helping an organization in New York start offering shelters for people with pets, so they can escape the abusive situation and get the support and help they need.

They even put on a ‘trade show’ type atmosphere so we could learn all about their products and different side-brands in-depth from the specific representatives working on that certain one! We got to go around to all the tables and ask questions, learn more about it, and even try out some samples if we wanted. For example – check out the FABULOUS bag of Just Right with my pups’ photo on it – it’s Tula & Kita’s Blend! This particular product allows you to be specific for your own pet – go to the site and enter their info, any specific needs (weight loss, health issues, etc.), and submit a photo and they ship your pet’s specific bag of food – it’s ‘Just Right’ for YOUR pet! Love it 🙂

Now to the part that impressed me the most – other than the incredible people and their genuine love for pets – the quality assurance! Guys, I’m not kidding when I say that they check the quality and integrity of their products on a way higher level than my kids’ cereal gets! They check everything such as color, texture, moisture level or indents (what is normal in the can, what isn’t) and even SHAPES! When going through a bag, one of the pieces of food didn’t match up to the shapes on the check sheet – so that bag failed. Like I said, a level much higher than even my kids’ food often gets! I was blown away at their commitment to quality and honesty – wanting to be the very best they can in every way.

As one would assume, Purina is a pet-friendly work place – and many people happily brought their pets with them! It was fun seeing them interact, such as when this adorable black & brown guy got bored during a meeting and tried taking his person for a walk. We loved walking through the halls, getting introduced to the people AND the pets equally!

For our last day, Purina was having a ‘Pets at Work‘ afternoon and trying to beat the world record for most pets at work – last I heard, they had about 280 at the one location! After the photo, they had ice cream for the people and even a frozen treat for all the pets – which they happily lapped up in the heat. I also noticed that, before the event, they were taking the temperature of the ground outside – to ensure it wasn’t too hot for the pets. That’s real love right there!

They brought in some of their friends from Purina Farms – which, by the way, is open to the public to come play with animals and even bring your own to play – to show off some tricks. This one was amazing!!!

The talented Aria at the #petsatwork day! @purina #MeetPurina #ad

A post shared by Danielle (@busymomshelper) on Jun 24, 2016 at 11:22am PDT

The three days flew by so quickly and were so much fun – I can honestly say this was one of the funnest events I’ve attended! I loved meeting new friends – both human and animal – and really learning more about the company that I trust with my lovely pups’ dog food. I already thought highly of them and the quality, but now it’s even more so!

Learn more about the fabulous products, services, charities & people at Purina HERE!

More Purina Fun…