Stocking Stuffers

Just in case Santa needs ideas!

40 Days of Thankfulness Challenge

https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/event.php?eid=163043507117397

Day 1: I am thankful for family--my children and the purpose they bring to my life, and my husband who works to provide for all of us.

Day 2: I am thankful we have a roof over our heads, and for my parents and in-laws helping us while we are struggling to keep it there. I'm also thankful for all the things in it that we take for granted.

Day 3: I am thankful for being mostly healthy--and that what I do have can be easily taken care of with medicine. There are so many people out there with illness that have no cure.

Day 4: I am thankful that somehow, things always seem to work out okay in the end. When things are really bad, something unexpected comes along and makes it seem okay.

Day 5: I am thankful for mine and Corey's godsons, Baby Miles & Baby Vinnie. And honored that we were asked to be their godparents, in the same week.

Day 6: I am thankful we have a dependable vehicle with a/c (knock on wood!) and for my very generous in-law's for buying it.

Day 7: I am thankful to be spending the weekend with 4 of my 13 brother/sister-in laws.

Day 8: I am thankful for coffee. Hot, cold, whatever.

Day 9: I am thankful for cloth diapers.  Jhett has never had a single diaper rash. And most importantly, they have saved us thousands of dollars.

Day 10: I am thankful for my husband balancing me out. I am too responsible and he is too fun. Sometimes he reminds me to do something crazy like buy something I really want even if we can't afford it. It's nice to do that every once in a while. It keeps me sane!

Day 11: I am thankful for my baby's smile. It helps me remember what's really important.

Day 12: I am thankful for homemade buttercream. I will never go back to that stuff in the can!

Day 13: I am thankful for the weekends when Anniston is home and our whole family is together. There are usually 2 kids laughing and 1 kid crying, clothes and toys everywhere, but it feels right. Such a big difference from all the days where it's just Jhett and Mommy here at home, Anniston is at her other house, Eli is at school and Daddy is at work.

Day 14: I am thankful for coupons!

Day 15: I am thankful for the good people. Just this morning I sold some clothes on facebook, and I knew the girl who was buying them so I shoved some extra stuff in the bag. Well she showed up and handed me a few extra dollars, before I even told her about the extra stuff :) Why can't we all be that nice to each other? Everybody walks away happy.

Day 16: I'm thankful for naptime!

Day 17: I am thankful for the lovely moms online who have been buying our outgrown clothes and shoes, and for the new jogging stroller than we bought with the money.

Day18: I'm thankful for The Wonderpets. What a lifesaver! (Jhett's fave tv show)

Day 19: I'm thankful for my hubby's new job and the first paycheck he got today :)

Day 20: I'm thankful for photos that remind us of good times!

Day 21: I'm thankful for my t-shirt quilt!

Day 22: I'm thankful Eli's school and teacher. I was nervous about him being away from home for the first time, but things are going very well and I'm really grateful and feel like we chose the right school and were blessed with such a sweet teacher.

Day 23: I am thankful for Netflix.

Day 24: I'm thankful for this cooler weather, so we can finally get a little break on our electricity bill.

Day 25: I'm thankful for consignment stores, clearance sales, Swagbucks, and all the other ways I've found to help save us money.

Day 26: I'm thankful that I got a full night's sleep. It was much needed! I miss my babies but I know they are having fun.

Day 27: I am thankful Eli's bus driver. Even though she has shown us her grouchy side, she has gotten Eli to school and back home every day, safely.

Day 28: I'm thankful for bisquick. It makes things so much faster.

Day 29: I'm thankful for the ear thermometer. So much faster than under the arm of a cranky baby in the middle of the night!

Day 30: Coke..it does a body good. Yes, I know, that's supposed to be milk. But milk just doesn't have quite that same effect on me. I always feel better after a coke. Especially when I haven't had one in days.

Day 31: I'm thankful that we had a nice family night--even with sick kids, we had fun watching Gnomeo and Juliet. I was so happy that Corey agreed to watch it b/c he normally doesn't let me pick the movies lol.

Day 32: I'm thankful for our pediatrician, who was able to squeeze us in at the last minute so that my baby boy could get some antibiotics and start feeling better.

Day 33: Today is my anniversary, so I am thankful for the past 5 years that I've shared with my husband and for the family we were blessed with :)

Day 34: I am thankful to have spent the day with my 3 boys, and that we were able to get most of the kiddie shopping done for Christmas. Corey and I made a great team, we had two carts and each took a kid. He got ideas from Eli and snuck the toys into my cart. I distracted Eli while he paid and took things to the truck, and he distracted Eli while I put things on layaway.

Day 35: I had a hot date this morning who took me to breakfast at Shoney's. He colored me a picture, I won him a bear out of the claw machine, and we held hands :) And then he got a haircut, some moonsand, a Don't Spill the Beans game, AND candy! I guess I am his sugarmomma! I'm thankful for getting to spend some time with him--just the two of us.

Day 36: I'm thankful that we live in a quiet neighborhood with nice neighbors.

Day 37: I'm thankful for Bluebell Homemade Vanilla milk shakes. I made a pitcher for all the sore throats in this house.

Day 38: I am thankful for my temper pedic pillow. I sleep so much better with it! And thanks to my parents who gave it to me!

Day 39: Thankful for Netflix and Sidereel...much cheaper than cable!

Day 40: It's the last day, so I have to go out with a bang. I'm thankful for my life, and all the events that have gotten me to where I am today. Even through the times where I thought it was the end of the world...when I didn't understand why things had to happen the way they did. If not for those things, I wouldn't be here now. I wouldn't trade my husband and kids or our life together for anyone or anything else.

More experimenting with coffee

Ran out of espresso...but I had a brand new jar of NESCAFÉ, so I decided to try it out. I heated 1/2 cup of water and put about 3 tbsp of granules in...ninja'd it with hershey's syrup, a little sugar, crushed ice, and skim milk. Pretty good :) I read that you can just add the granules to the blender without dissolving them in water first. Next time I'll see how big of a difference that makes. And nope, no Guinness in the glasses LOL.

Just me and my little man

Since Eli is in school now, Jhett gets more mommy time. Today we walked (well, I walked. He ride on his stroller) about 2 miles, and stopped at the playground for a bit. We had so much fun :)

It's that time of year again...

Candy corn time! Got my annual free bag @CVS last night :)

Frozen Hot Chocolate

I heart my Ninja® Master Prep® ! You can find the recipe for frozen hot chocolate here:

http://www.ninjakitchen.com/recipes.shtml

Pre-k

Well, my big boy is in school now! I'm so proud of him. He rides the bus to and from school everyday. So far he's gotten smiley faces in his folder every day and no time-outs. He claims to make happy plates at breakfast and lunch--I am curious about that and can't wait to ask his teacher at Open House this Tuesday. He comes home singing songs, telling stories, and talking about new friends.

Vacation Pics

Still here!

It was called to my attention that I hadn't updated my blog in quite a while. Didn't think anyone was keeping tabs on me! So, just want to let you all (or at least the one who's checking) know I'm still here! We actually just got back from a nine day vacation. Will be posting pics soon. Also getting ready for Eli to start school soon--that's the big thing going on at our house. He recently had his first dentist trip, which went well (no cavities, YAY!). He just turned the big FOUR, and had his birthday party in Destin while on vacation. Will post pics of that too, of course!

How to call attention to yourself at the grocery store

Jhett and I took a trip to Piggly Wiggly today. There were a few things I had seen in the sale paper that I wanted to pick up. We got a couple really cheap meals:

wings--chickien wings were on sale 3.99 for a 3 lb bag (regularly 6.99) and since we already some free wing sauce in the cabinet, that's a pretty cheap meal for 3.99.

hot dogs--hot dogs were on sale for .99, buns were on sale for .99, can of chili was 3.99 so total for meal is 5.97.

sloppy joes--buns were on sale .99, manwich was 3.29, and i bought a family pack of ground beef that will be enough for 3 meals. 11.33/3= 3.77 so total for meal is 8.05.

sausage and peppers--sausage was on sale 2/$4, bell peppers (green, yellow, red, orange) were 5.50 and we have a leftover onion in the fridge so total for meal is 7.50.

Ok, I know you wanna know how to get some attention at the grocery store. Here's how:

When I was getting the bell peppers, the signs said green were 3/.99, red and yellow were 1.59/lb and orange was 1.99/lb. Then there was a "Stop Light Bag" which had one each of green, red, and yellow, for 4.99, which was supposedly a "special" price. I decided to see how much each pepper weighed. The red, yellow, and orange were a half pound each so for the three of them, it would be around 2.60. Then the green were only .33/ea, so I knew the special stop light bag was just a scam to steal my money (plus you don't get a cool orange on in the bag anyway). Get up to the register, they charge me 1.59 each for the red and yellow and 1.99 for the orange. I also see my chicken wings rang up 6.99. So I go back and double check the pepper sign to be sure. Yep, it says per pound. So I ask the produce guy who is just hanging around....he says the sign might be wrong, he asks the "sign girl," seriously that's what he called her. They come and take down the sign, and say the price is for each, not per lb. Ok, cool, 1.59+1.59+.33=3.51 which is still cheaper than 4.99 right? Again, the special stoplight bag is a giant rip-off-- "Attn customers: If you'd like to be ripped off, please check out our SPECIAL STOPLIGHT BAG of bell peppers in the produce section! Thanks and have a great day!"

So I go to customer service to get my $3 refund on the chicken wings. Here comes the produce guy sprinting up there to tell me that they were wrong, the bell peppers are sold by the pound and they owe me a refund. A manager is standing around and he starts asking the produce guy, and the cashier starts asking another cashier, and so I have 4 employees discussing my bell peppers even though I told them all it was no big deal. So they ask me for one to scan and are trying to figure out whatever in the computer system, when the sign girl comes up and says the price was for each, and that the sign was wrong. Then the manager tells me sorry, and asks me if I noticed the special stoplight bag that would save me money. I kindly told him thank you, but that it was still cheaper to buy them separately. I don't think he believed me! He just kinda chuckled and waved bye to Jhett. I'm sure these people were like "when is this lady gonna get out of the store?" And that, my friends, is how you call attention to yourself at the grocery store.

Army Wives

THis is what I've been  watching on Netflix lately. Yes, this is cheesy, but take a quiz here to see which Army Wife you are, and which of the Army Wives' hubbies is yours. (I got Roxie, although I'd way rather be Pamela, and my hubby is Frank--bummer, b/c I would totally have picked Trevor!) But don't worry BFF, in real life I won't try and steal your man ;)

MPM

This week's recipes are all from the Pioneer Woman.

M- Bowtie Lasagna
T- Killer Club Sandwiches
W- Sour Cream Noodle Bake
F- bbq
S- Beef with Peppers

Insta-Friday



Spicy Dr. Pepper shredded pork. Eli loves to help in kitchen



helping Mommy fold laundry




 

MPM

M- Good Earth Mediterranean Chicken (but I am subbing sausage) mixed veggies, and brownies
T- baked tortellini, mozzerella sticks, and garlic bread
W- sloppy joes and chips
T- Papa Murphy's take-n-bake pizza and salad
F- O'Charley's
S- crab and shrimp boil
S- Corn, crab, shrimp, sausage, and potato bisque

 Don't forget to check out http://orgjunkie.com/ and link up your blog to MPM!

I'm "that" mom!

My description on a mommy forum I belong to:
cloth diapering, extended rear facing, co-sleeping, babywearing eco-friendly momma

Looks like I am "that" mom. I certainly didn't start out that way. Well, co-sleeping maybe. But that didn't start until Eli was about 3 months old. I have enjoyed that very much, but now that Eli is almost 4, he is starting to take over my spot in the bed and I often have to retreat to the couch. There have been a handful of times Jhett was in bed with us, but for the most part I have kept him in his crib from day 1. It was practically brand new, since Eli didn't use it. (insert sticking out tongue smily here)


I had jumped on the ERF (extended rear facing) board long before it was plastered all over the news. If people thought I was crazy before, at least there's more info out there now to prove how much safer it is. I plan to keep Jhett rear facing in his My Ride 65 as long as possible.


He also rides in his camo BabyHawk Oh Snap! with cute green/eco buttons stuck all over it. We recently attended the Great Cloth Diaper Change event and became a part of history by participating. It was the most cloth diapering/babywearing mommies and babies I'd ever seen at once.


I spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on Pampers for Eli, but when Jhett was born I was ready to try out cloth diapers. I had cloth-momma friends before but thought they were a little nuts. Not sure what exactly made me change my mind, but when the second kid came along I decided to be a little nuts too. With cloth diapers came cloth wipes. We have saved soooo much money, and as an added bonus, no emergency midnight trips to the store either! Somewhere in the process I decided we should recycle. Even though our city doesn't offer curbside recycling, it is in the works.


So yeah, I guess I really am "that" mom. My husband calls me a hippie. I usually just stick my tongue out at him (insert another sticking out tongue smiley here).

Insta-Friday

I seriously miss instagram. I miss my iPhone! I'm bummed that I can't have instagram OR netflix on my droid. But, I have some befunky and picplz photos from my droid.



Jhett was very scared of this creepy Mickey at Elemeno Pee's Grand Opening slash The Great Cloth Diaper Change event. He just screamed and screamed!



My wonderful hubby brought home a Cinco de Mayo present for me. Thank you!

Showing off his new hat @ Scott Park



Daddy & his 2 boys



my FAVE diaper ever!

Meal Plan Monday

M- fried pork chops, pasta salad, cupcakes
T- steak and fries
W- payday! will probably go out to eat
T- nachos
F- homemade pizza
S- taco pie
S- bacon, eggs, biscuits

Silly faces

Eli loves making silly faces. I had the camera out today and he goes, "Oooh let me do a silly face!" So I said ok and snapped away. When I thought we had enough and put my lens cap on, he begged, "One more momma please!!!" so I said "okay, just ONE!" And it was the "Tall Bears, Small Bears" face (the last one). Silly boy. I love him so much!

testing...1...2

facebook.com/v/1615240588834

eli the pianist

DIY fabric wall decal

So I've been eyeing vinyl wall decals like this and this to put in Jhett's little play area. But not for $119. I figured I could try to make one myself using fabric instead of vinyl, and came across a tutorial. I found Mr. Elephant here, enlarged him to 20x16.5 with Paint.net, and printed him on an 18x24 sheet at Kinko's. I later realized I wasn't being very green, I could have just printed an outline of him rather than the whole image in black ink, but it would have cost the same $2.45 either way. I was planning to use a fat quarter, but the girl who printed Mr. Elephant was new, and she stretched the image to fit the 18x24 sheet....rather than go back and print him again, I just went ahead and bought a half yard of fabric instead, no biggie. I was planning to make him orange, but didn't find anything I liked, so I went with blue instead.

Voila!







new 'puter!

I am really lovin' my new 'puter. Thanks goes out to my lovely hubby. It's an Acer Veriton all-in-one touchscreen. You can check out the specs here.

No kiddies on this computer, no sir, this one is MINE. Hopefully we won't have any more accidental deletions, and the kids can still use the old PC. Eli thinks it's awesome for us to sit next to each other, each at our own computer. And when MeMe comes over to hang out, she says it feels like we're at the library :)

Couple paper layouts

So......since Eli decided to delete my entire digital scrapbooking collection and I was not able to recover most of it, I have been a bit more interested in paper. I did 2.5 simple layouts this weekend after a quick trip to Create 365. I say 2.5, b/c the last one is waiting for a pic. Hopefully will get that printed this week.

Here are the 2 finished ones:


This is a pic from Jhett's first birthday. He had an early party in February so on his actual birthday we just had cake and a couple presents here at home after Daddy got off work.

While I was trying to dig out my cutter, I found this old pic from before Corey and I were married. It was on a layout I didn't particularly care for, so I ripped it off and stuck in on a new one. I decided to hang it on the wall above my new PC. We were so young!



a couple pages....

I haven't scrapbooked anything in quite a while but I was inspired by Kristina over at One Happy Mama. I had fun with these!

Shabby Princess Happy Go Lucky
Gunhilde Storeide Staple Fun #2
Fonts: Candice and Susie's Hand

iscrap {me, myself &i}
Joyce Paul Designs elegant mess paperpack
Pom's Breathing Room wordart
Gunhilde Storeide stitches
Fonts: Fiolex Girls and Courier New

Michelle Underwood Designs Bright Smiles
Gunhilde Storeide Staple Fun #2 and stitches
Fonts: IFC Wildrodeo, Cry Kitty, Susie's Hand

Oxo Tot

I've had a few Oxo things in my kitchen for a couple years...but I never knew they made baby stuff. I saw this sippy cup at BRU the other day and tossed it in my cart. Jhett has rejected every single sippy cup, so I figured "hey, why not let him throw this one at me too?" With my $5 off coupon it came out to just over $2. But let me tell you what amazing thing happened when I gave it to him. He drank out of it! Why oh why have I tried every cup out there BEFORE this one? Anyhoo...now that I know what he likes I can get a couple more. Thank you Oxo!!!!

Goodbye 2010!

Happy New Year!

Wanted to steal this cute little image from Kristina Proffitt, but she wouldn't let me :( so you can just mozy on over to her blog and check it out.

Now with that out of the way, I just want to say, Happy New Year! I don't normally bother with resolutions b/c I don't like making promises I can't keep, especially to myself, but I am gonna give the Project 365 thing another chance. I think I lasted about 2 months during 2010? Hopefully I can do a better job this time around. There are so many cute (free!) digital 365 things floating around.

Aside from that, I guess I'll just make myself a to-do list for 2011 and will include things like getting Eli and Anniston's rooms re-painted and organized, looking into daycares so that I can get a J-O-B, and convincing my mom to take a road trip to visit my brother and sis-in-law in Indiana. Who needs unrealistic goals? Where is the fun in that?

Hello 2011!