Valentine's Day!

I would venture to say this has been the best V-day yet! I normally go for the whole dinner date, gift giving, romantic kind of thing, but I just didn't have it in me this year. So, this is how my great day went...
First, Micah woke up early. (boo) but, my great hubby got him breakfast and let me sleep in a little longer!

I had set up the table the night before for the kids, just little things.

After we got ready for school, we stopped off at a few of our friends homes to leave a little treat.

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Then on to a fun preschool party! Sorry no pictures for this one

We stopped off at grandma's house to give her a homemade card and ended up going to lunch with her! She gave the kids there favorite character cards, with a little bonus.



We came home for nap and my mom dropped off some goodie bags and my brother gave his old comics to the kids




Plus my wonderful in-laws took the kids to lunch yesterday and gave them little goodie bags. They also got to Skype with their auntie Natalie, just look at the adorable cards they sent, their hugs!


We finished off our with a daddy daughter date and some pictures, then the kids where off to bed and mom and dad had a nice quiet dinner at home! Perfect day hope you all had a blessed day too!

Couponing

I know couponing has mixed reviews. Some love it, other's can't stand it and thanks to T.V. some people will think I have turned my garage into a pantry with 8 cases of cheap shampoo and a lifetime supply of cat food. I LOVE coupons! Over the last year I have learned how to coupon the right way and have saved a ton of money without buying a lifetime supply of anything! I buy the Sunday paper for the coupons, I read blogs on saving time and money and I make my rounds online a few times a week. It sounds super crazy to say this, but I get a rush from coupons. If I can get something for free or for less then a dollar I get a weird type of high. Today was a great day I went to Target, Raley's and Winco and shopped around for deals I left with a ton of stuff at a great price. I had my 2 year old with me, the cashiers took every coupon I offered and when all is said and done it probably only took me an extra hour total to coupon (looking for, cutting and printing and shopping).

Here is an example of what I got at Target for $8.08



Any mom would know about how much these products cost at full price. Here is what I got them for...

*The Kandoo wipes normally are around $5.30. They were on sale and I had a coupon I got them for $2.49
*Huggies wipes discounted to $2.19. I had a coupon for .50 off so $1.69 is what I paid for 64 wipes
*The soup I would not normally buy but they discounted it to $0.59 add the coupon buy 3 get .40 off and I paid what you pay for one can at some stores.
*The corn was on clearances for $.68
*The muffin cups were clearanced for $.89
*The Jergen Lotion was on sale for $2.96 for 12.5 fl oz I had a $2 coupon so I got it for $.96
*And the sample size jar of yes to carrots body butter was FREE! Go to there Facebook page and like them and you get a $2 coupon the sample is $1.99!

So before you throw away those coupons think about how much you could save!

p.s. I don't buy things with coupons if I won't use them. That is just a waste of money, but if I can give it to someone or donate it to my church to give out, that's a great way to bless someone for pennies!

Groundhogs Day

Today is groundhogs day and seeing as it's one of the weirdest holidays, I knew my kids would love it! I told them the story of groundhogs day and then we took predictions as to what Phil would see today. Then we watched the video of what happened this morning.

We can now add Groundhog's Day to the list of exciting holidays in our home!

Sprouting Up

Did you know that sweet potatoes and yams don't grow from seeds? You have to sprout new plants from the finished product! So we are trying our hand at growing some sweet potatoes. Wish us luck!

In home studio work!

I LOVE babies, who doesn't right? There is just something in me that makes me stop and stare at newborns everywhere I go. My husband has learned to live with this little habit and loves me all the more for it, but if you see me drooling over your baby at Target one day, sorry :s I recently moved and after the move I started opening up my home as a studio for sessions. This little lady come over a few weeks ago and I just can't stop staring!!! Oh Lord help me!

Re-Do Wednesday

I love buying cheap junk and trying to make it cute! I say try because it doesn't always work, but when I saw this frame at an antique store for 9 dollars I thought I had to have it!



Yes has had to glass or backing and it was an ugly color but I got it anyways.



My goal was to spend as little as possible and make something I could use. First thing to go was that color! I had a bottle of white and gray paint so I mix them together and roughly painted the frame.



After it dried I sanded and distressed the paint so more of the teal color came through. Then I tea stained the whole thing including the stains canvas. Thankfully it did the trick!



So far I hadn't spent anything to re do this frame, but I decided I would rather have a bulletin board instead so I bought some cork and really cheap burlap. I wrapped the cork in the burlap glued it to a piece of cardboard and then nailed that into the frame. I even found some cute old keys I had in a drawer to finish it off! Over all I think I spent around $16 to buy and redo this board not bad for the first re-do wednesday!

Kittens

Once upon a time three little kittens made their way into our home. And just as one of my babies finally gave up her bottle we went out and bought three more!




Now our home is bottle free and a little more fun.