This Valentine's Day, Mommybloggers is thrilled to feature our dear friend Amanda. Amanda first came to our attention at BlogHer 2005. We'll admit, it was her gorgeous smile and glorious hair that drew us toward her. Once we were caught in her tractor beam, we were delighted to find that she is a mommyblogger after our own hearts. Her writing is open, eloquent and full of love for her husband and children - even on the bad days.

Her wit and poignant stories about raising her two beautiful kiddos can be found at MandaJuice. Amanda also finds time to share her financial know-how and the trials and tribulations of trying to stick to a budget at her ClubMom blog - The Naked Ledger. We adore Amanda's honest, hilarious, and often touching portrayals of her family life.

We put a call out to some of her fans, and they flooded our inbox with praise for Amanda -

Elizabeth Table for Five, who knows a thing or two about good blogging herself, has this to say:

What I like best about Amanda's blog is the way she writes about her children. She celebrates every milestone, no matter how small, and you can feel the depth of her love for them in every post. And she posts lots of photos of them, and they are outrageously adorable! I met Amanda at BlogHer '06, and in person she is just as sweet and cool as she is on her blog.

It was love at first read for Jenijen of Not Calm (dot com):

I met Amanda at BlogHer in 2005, and have been reading her ever since. Not only is she a master of the enjoyable-to-read conversational style that I really like in a blog, she takes gorgeous photos. (Course, given her subject matter, you could say she's cheating a little.)

At last summer's BlogHer, I got to talk with her a little bit and discovered that she is very much the way she seems in print: funny, quick-witted, and down-to-earth.

And she's right; you can never talk too much about boobs.

Mary Tsao of Mom Writes appreciates Amanda's honest and affectionate take on motherhood:

I love Amanda because she's so down to earth and honest. She loves her kids and she loves being a mom; that shows clearly in her writing. It shows in real life, too, and I've had the pleasure of meeting Amanda through our participation in BlogHer and other mommyblogging events. I also appreciate the fact that Amanda isn't afraid to reveal the downside of motherhood in her posts when the situation warrants it, and yet she's generally an upbeat person. As a fellow mommyblogger, I can relate to about 99.9% of her posts with the exception of her history with gastric bypass surgery. And that's another thing! She isn't afraid to talk about the fact she's had surgery and how it's changed her life. In so many ways, she's an inspiration to many women bloggers. I hope she knows that! Thanks for featuring Amanda.

JenB of Jenandtonic sums it up perfectly:

Amanda is one of the loveliest people I have ever met. For serious. Before the first BlogHer (’05), we had spoken a bit in chat and email and we both decided to go to the conference. Amanda immediately offered her home and a pick up and delivery to the airport. I ended up staying at the hotel, but she chauffeured me around San Jose and it was like we had known each other forever. We lamented we weren’t neighbours. She let me touch her glorious hair as much as I wanted. She took me shopping! She is smart and witty and friendly and funny and fabulous. I really do wish we were neighbours, somewhere where I could avoid snow.

Check back later this afternoon as we share our recent chat with the lovely Amanda!