My First Year As A Mother :: {Animoto Video & Giveaway}

Now, tell me that video didn't make you cry.. Go on, tell me. Oh, it did, did it? You and me both. At least eleven times. I'm not sure if it's all the extra hormones surging through my body or the nostalgia that comes creeping up on me with my very second Mother's Day just right around the corner- just one month before the arrival of our second sweet son- but whatever it is, it has my mom-heart overflowing with blessings. 

In less than two  months, I will be a proud mother of two. Two amazing, incredible god-given blessings. I cannot wait to meet sweet M2, but I will always remember that it was my first baby, Carter, who truly made me a Mommy. 

I could be here all day if I tried to express to you the emotions evoked while watching that video. I  swore Carter was born yesterday and here I am just three months away from celebrating my passionate, rough-and-tumble, sweet-as-pie two year old. 

If you're anything like me, you've always been intimated by the idea of putting together a video to commemorate a special occasion. Many times I thought about compiling something sweet and sentimental for Carter's first birthday but never got around to it because every time I sat down at the computer, I was completely overwhelmed at the idea of uploading and organizing pictures, streaming music and doing so successfully as to produce something that looked less Girls Gone Wild and more Mommy Documentary.

Enter the fine folks behind Animoto. Animoto is a video creation service, both online and mobile, that makes it easy and fun for anyone to create and share incredible videos using their own pictures, video clips, words and music. 

Simply upload your pictures and video clips, choose your background style, add words if you wish, music too and click the "produce video" button. Animoto will then work it's magic to bring it all to life with a beautifully orchestrated production you can share with family and friends. 

Animoto lets you easily select photos and videos from Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Instagram and others. You can always upload photos from your computer as well. 

In less than forty-five minutes, I not only uploaded each of those photos from my personal Facebook albums but also organized them and set them to one of my favorite Elizabeth Mitchell lullabies, "You Are My Sunshine." In less than forty-five minutes, I produced an amazing video and was able to share it with family and friends! You just can't beat that! 

Currently, Animoto is a subscription-based service which let's you choose one of three membership "plans," Lite (free), Plus and Pro. You can click here to read through the features offered within each tier. 

Please use this coupon code "CleverFL" to create a FREE, feature-length video!

And if that isn't enough, Animoto and The Clever Girls are giving ONE lucky ILYMTC Loyal a ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to Animoto Plus! Ummm.. AMAZING! Be sure to use the Rafflecopter Widget below to enter the giveaway. The winner will be announced no later than May 7th, 2012. 


Visit Animoto to create your own video slideshow as easily as I did! I was selected for this opportunity by Clever Girls Collective, and all opinions expressed here are my own. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway