Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #Fall4Phones #CollectiveBias

You may remember last year, when we allowed Julia to get her very first phone! It was almost one year ago today and I still think it has been one of the best decisions we have made. Walmart invited me to become a Walmart Family Mobile brand Ambassador, I and happily agreed. My experience with their service has been great and I was thrilled to help them promote Walmart Family Mobile Unlimited Talk Text & Web. at $34.88/month for Unlimited Talk, Text, and Web. It has been the perfect way for Julia to stay in touch with us when she is babysitting.

As the year has passed, her phone has come in handy so many times. She has called me from youth group to let me know that she is getting out early. She has called me from a friend’s house just to say goodnight.

When I accepted being a Walmart Family Mobile brand Ambassador and found out that we would receive a new phone in the mail, we decided to keep it a secret and surprise her!

As soon as she unwrapped it, her dad helped her get it all set up and for the rest of the day, she was looking for a phone case! I would say we have a big hit.

This summer, we’ve been researching how to keep our kids safe on the web. Now that we have found a few apps that we are confident will help us with web safety, I feel comfortable with her having a smart phone. There are so many lessons and questions she needs to look up for school. This will certainly help with homework time!

What we are very excited about is her having a phone at the fall festivals that are coming up! She will be allowed to walk around with friends a little bit, and this will give us both the peace of mind that we need. She will have boundaries about how far away from us she can be, but this will give her just a little more independence, which I know she will appreciate.

Right now Walmart Family Mobile has a two special Buy phones; the Samsung Galaxy Exhibit Smartphone-$99.88 and the Walmart Family Mobile LG Optimus L90 Smartphone- $149.88 (on rollback from $179.88).

Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing with you how this program is working for our family.

In the meantime, Julia will be having a blast picking out her phone case!

Thank you so much Walmart Family Mobile ( @FamilyMobile ) for allowing moms like me to play a part in giving feedback and opinions on your products.

Happy Fall everyone!

Kate