It's Party Time With A Yoplait Kids Giveaway!!

This has been a busy week for us..two of our children have birthdays six days apart....March 11 & March 17...add separate birthday parties and well...let's just say it has been hectic.

These lovely kiddos are 7 & almost 9..(only 2 days to go for her) and sporting their new bikes that their Oma & Grandma purchased for them!!

In keeping with the celebration theme, I thought it would be more than fitting to do a Yoplait Kids Prize Package Giveaway!!!

Fun...I know, right!

My kids absolutely love yogurt and I love it, especially Yoplait Kids (it contains less sugar than others..shh don't tell my kiddos!) because it is a nutritious snack!! My kids love Yoplait because it tastes good!

The winner of this giveaway will receive a Yoplait Kids prize package (pictured below) courtesy of Yoplait through My Blog Spark.

Leave me a comment about healthy snack ideas you keep on hand for your kiddos. A winner will be chosen randomly on March 22.

You can also print out a 50¢ off one (1) four pack of Yoplait Kids Yogurt here, courtesy of Yoplait and My Blog Spark.

Have a great day all!!!

**I was not asked to give a positive Yoplait review, but since we love it, I figured why not!!!**

Vacation Challenge Week 2

Last week I told you about my vacation challenge.

I need $440.70 to pay for the activities that we are wanting to do.

The previous week I earned $97.34.

This brought me to a new total of $343.36.

This week earnings went down like this..

$15- I won this from our family's Biggest Loser challenge (I am all too excited to share that with you later!)

$50- This is actually in the form of a Visa gift card that I was not expecting. It was a reward card from our bank!!

$47- From writing projects.

The total for the week is $112 Woot!! Woot!! I am at almost $210...getting close to my half way point!!

I am loving this challenge!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We (my husband and I) somehow orchestrated us a night out Friday night for our Valentine's Day. We went to dinner AND a movie. It was so nice.

While the hubs and my Valentine's Day celebration is done since he has to work, I decided to treat the kids tonight to a Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizza, IBC Root Beer, a fave for them & cupcakes.

shhh...they don't know.

In other Valentine's Day news, my eight year old daughter was asked to be someone's Valentine for the first time that was not a blood relative and he asked her to go see a movie with him and his parents.

Say it with me - "awwwwwwwwwww......."


Happy Valentine's Day!!

P.S. If you are interested in making an easy peasy Valentine's Day wreath check it out here.

Introducing Jackson

No...I did not have a baby.

No, we didn't adopt a pet.

Jackson has been a part of our lives for about a year now, possibly longer, possibly shorter. I really don't remember when he became intertwined with our daily lives.

Jackson is my three year old's friend. She says he is her "boyfriend", but I am not to keen on that.

She's only three and he is a bit unruly. (Don't worry I am fairly confident his parents don't read my blog)

He does everything that I don't want my children to do. He is very fond of saying the word "stupid", a word that is considered bad in our house. He pulls Lexi's hair and sometimes hits her in the face. He is just plain mean.
Not too mention that his mother lets him color his hair green...

with paint.

I know, right?

I know it would be best if she didn't hang out with him, but I feel I do not have a choice.

He is with us ALL. THE. TIME.

He sometimes goes to church with us, but believe it or not his family apparently is pretty active in a church somewhere.

I could make a whole scrapbook of just Lexi and Jackson.

I will give you a glimpse into our daily lives with Jackson..

Here is Lexi and Jackson hanging out at the Great Wolf Lodge on vacation...Yes, he went with us.

Lexi waiting for Jackson to go down the slide at the park..

Lexi and Jackson sleeping at the air show...

Ok so as you can see..or cannot see..Jackson is not real.

To us.

He is very real to my daughter, as is his whole family.

They live at McDonald's. His mom is nice. They are churchgoers, etc.

But that Jackson, he is one little troublemaker, at least according to Lexi..yet she loves him.

And I love her.

Happy Friday all!!

Linking up at Amy's Finer Things for Finer Things Friday.

Close Your Eyes & Close Your Ears, Mommy!!

This is what my three year old asked of me the other night when she had a surprise for me.

I knew how to close my eyes.

Wasn't too sure about closing the ears.

So who better to teach me how to close my ears than her, my three year old!!!

In case you are wondering & for your viewing pleasure, this my friends is how you close your eyes & ears all at the same time...


Apparently, shrugging your shoulders as high as possible, results in the closing of the ears.

Let's make sure you got this now....

Eyes and ears open


Eyes and ears closed


Very good!

Now next time you need to close your eyes and ears at the same time, you know exactly what to do.


The things we learn from our children!

Personal Chefs???

Since we are working on being more diligent with our money, we have decided to make eating out a luxery of sorts. Not just because of the money, but healthy eating is hard to come by dining out.

The problem?

I am a sucker for convenience when it comes to food. I like fast food -whether it be at a fast food restaurant or frozen food that I can pop in the oven or microwave. Neither of which are good for you.

I am convinced that my kids could eat pizza for every meal, every day - they love pizza..I, on the other hand, have to be in the mood for it. Having said that my kids know that Little Ceasars pizzas are only $5...see where I am going with this? When they remind me of that all too often, I would give in..geesh it is only $5 and I know they will eat it.

The problem?

It takes more than one pizza to feed my family and you can't have Little Ceasars pizza without Little Ceasars breadsticks and remember I have to be in the mood for pizza, so if pizza it is, then I need Little Ceasars chicken wings. At the end of it all, we have spent more than $5 and we committed the sin of gluttony. Yikes!

The Solution?

Get your own personal chef.

The problem?

A personal chef is not in our budget for sure, but really, we moms are responsible for three meals a day, seven days a week.. that is alot of cooking! Not even counting snacks!

The solution?

My three oldest children - 11, 7 & 5. They are always wanting to help out in the kitchen anyway, so why not utilize that desire to its fullest.

I presented this to them...

One day a week they were in charge of dinner, it could be whatever they wanted within reason. I would be there to supervise, but ultimately it was there job from start to finish, from the main dish on.

They were excited.

We grabbed out my cookbooks and they began their search.

My oldest who actually had her own cookbook to use, decided on something simple, but is a fave for her..that is breakfast for dinner.

My seven year old got her idea from what they have served before at school..it is called a straw hat, basically it is chips with taco meat & cheese. That was her choice, although she broadened it and had all the fixings for tacos.

My 5 year old son, who LOVES to cook, chose lasagna, salad and rolls. I am printing this post out to show his future wife so she can forever be grateful to me that I taught him cooking skills!! Who doesn't love a man that can cook?!

They all did an outstanging job and I am so proud. They have all been thinking about their menu choice for next week, I am anxious to see what their final decision is.

All in all I think that having not 1, not 2, but 3 personal chefs is an absolute finer thing!!

And in case you missed it, we also have our own personal hairdresser too.

Look around you will be surprised at what you really do have!

Check out more finer things at Amy's Finer Things.

What Happens When Your Two Year Old..

Discovers that scissors can pretty much cut anything and that glue is not just for gluing objects..

So the pictures do not really show very well what exactly she did to her hair. In different places she cut her hair. With her hair being so fine, it really is hard to see where it is cut. Apparently at the same time as feeling that she needed a haircut, she must have found some sort of glue like substance that she mistaken for hair gel, thus we have the matted hair look in a couple of spots...








After many a hair washing this morning and absolutely no luck, my only option left was to cut it out. Since my haircutting abilities are about as good as my two year old's abilities, I figured it was best to let the professionals cut it out for me.

Since this would be her first haircut professional haircut, I really thought that she would be sitting on my lap, therefore I did not even bring my camera. However, being the lil' Miss Independent that she is, she sat in the styling chair all by herself. (Sniff, Sniff, my baby is growing up so fast!!)

Anyway, here are the after pics...I think she pulls off the cut quite well...



In this picture of the back, see where it looks thinner, that would be one place she cut..





And because I want to save my reputation as a mommy and because I know that you would like to know how she happened upon a pair of scissors as well as a glue like substance, I am going to go ahead and shift the blame right where it belongs... on her older sisters and brother. I am sure one of them left out their art and craft set they got for Christmas. *I* would never leave anything of that sort out in her reach - OK, OK, I **may** have been blogging when all this went down, maybe she knew I was going to need some new writing material!!!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!

The Mini Eclairs.....

In our other life, the one with two incomes, we treated ourselves to dinner out every Friday evening. It ranged as to where we would go, but even at the cheapest fast food places such as McDonalds or Taco Bell our total would be close to $25. Multiply that by 4 and we have spent $100 in a month on eating out one day a week, add more for those weeks when we went someplace nicer. $100 is almost two weeks of my new grocery budget - yikes!!!

Today as I was waiting to pick up the kids I had pretty much talked myself into letting this tradition continue until I reminded myself that if we are going to make it on one income then some things have to change and this was going to have to be one of those things. We can make the same memories at home eating store bought or homemade food just as well as sitting at a restaurant, actually better, because there will be no memeories of being glared at because your 2 year old is having a hard time sitting still or feeling guilty because as you are leaving you glance down at the floor under where your kids were sitting only to see that all the food that fell to the floor is equivalent to an entree at least... which means that hardly any food made it to the mouth and as soon as we walk in the door there will be cries of hunger. I digress..... I do that alot, don't I?

Kids picked up and off to Aldis we go. I decided this week I was going to do our grocery shopping there since we didn't need a whole lot, mainly fresh fruits and veggies. Wanting to find something easy for us to eat tonight was on the agenda too, since up until then I had thought we would be going out. Kirkwood southern style chicken, fries, mac & cheese and applesauce. Settled - that is what we would have....

Then we passed them, the mini eclairs..

The BEST mini eclairs...

I tried to resist, I promise I did, but something stronger than me made me pick them up...

Then a little voice in my head told me it was alright, no guilt needed. I traded in a $25 meal out for a $5 box of mini eclairs.

Dining out with family.......$25 or more

Southern style chicken, fries, mac & cheese & applesauce.... $7.62 (see, you can eat just as unhealthy at home and for a lot cheaper!!!)

Mini Eclairs with no guilt attached......PRICELESS





That my friend is a finer thing in life!



Visit Amy here for Finer Things Friday!


Happy Friday all!!!

A Little Glimpse

A little glimpse is what I got this week of what is to come. My seven year old daughter is sick with the flu...yuck, so I was off Monday, Tuesday and today. While it wasn't an ideal reason to be off, (who likes to see their baby sick?), it certainly was nice to be home. I was able to get a head start on some of my decluttering and my 27 fling boogies, for sure. Being home these past few days has been yet another confirmation that I belong at home with and for my family. When Ethan my five year old found out I was going to be home the next few days, his eyes lit up and he did the "yes" motion with his arm - priceless I tell you!

I Think We Have ***UPDATE***

Eryn won!! She was 1 of about 10 kids ( I beleive she said) that ran for class representative.. We are so proud!! Congratulations, Eryn!


a politician in our family!! My ten year old, a fifth grader is running for Class Representative - she is so excited and I am equally excited for her.
She has told me who she is endorsed for Student Council President, coincidentally his name is Aaron, she told me that his speech "moved her". How could she not endorse him??
Anyway, she is allowing me to share with you her upcoming speech....

As you already know, I am running for Class Representative in Whiteside's student Council.
First of all, I would like to wish all of my fellow candidates good luck. I would like to represent all of you and contribute my strongest dedication. As your class representative I will voice your ideas and insights to the student council.
I believe I qualify for this responsibility for a few reasons. First, I am an extremely dedicated person, I am willing to cut out whatever time it takes to make Whiteside a better place.
Obviously, I can't promise you everything you wasnt like I wish I could. I still will do whatever it takes to get your voices heard.

and in her best Napoleon Dynamite voice she plans to end it with..
So vote for me and all your wildest dreams will come true.

It Is Getting Close....

I can't believe it, but the time is drawing near for me to put in my notice. I am really excited. I am excited to be able to once again give myself to those that I love the most, God and my family. Far too long have I been trying to juggle everything, only to find that I keep "dropping the balls" . I really envy, or really I should say that I admire, those women that are able to do it all ( I am blessed to be surrounded by many of these amazing women).
I do know that this is the right move for our family, seeing my childrens eyes light up like it was Christmas when we told them our plans, was all the proof I needed!
I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous about the financial aspect of this change, but I know that God has promised to supply our needs and that brings the peace.
I have a whole lot of things on my to do list, things that have been on the back burner far too long...decluttering, organizing, deep cleaning (i.e. windows washing - yuck!)I have even thought about doing a little self cleaning on me and try to lose some of this weight, but hey we'll see..can't do it all at once, right!! LOL

Our Bathroom

is getting a new look! I am so excited!
Brian is putting down ceramic tile in our bathroom. It is going to be nice once he is done. To complete this project, he had to take up our toilet. Did I tell you we only have one bathroom? Did I tell you that this project is about a 2 day project? All I can say is I have never been so thankful to live no more than a mile from my mom. I will post some before, during and after pics once completed. I will also let you know about the Lowes employee that probably thinks that Brian is stalking him considering how many trips he has had to make up there in the past 24 hours - non too happily I might add. Hmmmm I wonder if now is a bad time to ask for the kitchen to be tiled, afterall, we are proud owners of a tile saw!!!