All in a Day's Work

Darrell has the whole week off of work so we are putting him to good use around here. First project: storage shelving in the garage. We got everything off the floor and up onto the shelves. The garage is so clean now!
Collin didn't like the loud banging.

What a great helper!

Nearly done....who's that hot guy?

Ta-da!!! Looks great!

Merry Christmas!

Here are a few pictures (in no particular order) of our Christmas morning. Brody was so excited to finally get his train set! We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Finally a Good Coupon Day!

I got some pretty good deals yesterday, and I am very excited about it! I am going to get back into going to Walgreen's and doing their Register Rewards, as well as figure out CVS's reward system. I have never shopped at CVS before so that will be a new thing.

Here is what I got at Target for $10.xx. I had a $5 gift card from a couple weeks ago so I used that to bring my total down. Those Frosted Flakes are the HUGE boxes, 27-28 oz size! And that meat is some really nice steaks that we have tried before. They were delicious! Notice the JUMBO box of Qtips. That's for you, Darrell. Yes, I do love you. :) The man can't live without them so I am hoping that 700 of them will make him happy.

Here is what I got at Walgreens for $25.xx in 3 transactions. The thing about Walgreen's is that you have to make an initial investmest and then you can roll your Register Rewards from week to week after that. I actually ended up with $22 in RR for next time.

Before coupons this would have cost about $62! Have you ever tried John Frieda products before? They are my favorite, but they are also $6-7 a bottle so I rarely get them. So out of pocket I saved about 40%, but I have $22 in Register Rewards left to use another trip. Yay for Walgreens!!

Bake Sale Success!

Today was Collin's Bake Sale. I baked all day yesterday, and I think that everything turned out great! Collin earned $13 and was very proud of it. He was a very good salesman. He showed his customers around and told them all the prices. It was very cute. The reason he is trying to earn money is to earn enough to buy THIS Transformer toy. He has been saving his money for the last few weeks. He wanted to start a paper fan business, but I told him there wasn't a very big market for paper fans in the winter. He even charged Amber and the girls money to come over. :) Gotta love a 5 year old. Darrell has some big helper jobs lined up for Collin this next weekend. Hopefully he will be able to earn all the rest of the money he needs through slave labor. I love my little entrepreneur.

Here is Collin's sign that he made. You can't see it very well, but it says, "Collin's Bake Sale." Very cute.

Brody helping with the sugar cookies.

Collin packaging the cookies.

This is the lid of my brand new pot! I was making mashed potatoes for the cinnamon roll recipe, and I had just put the potatoes in to boil. All of a sudden BAM! The lid shattered! I was so upset! I loved this pot. Oh well.

Cooking and Baking Day

Collin is having a bake sale at our house tomorrow so I am getting everything ready today. I figured if I was in the kitchen all day I might as well try a freezer recipe too. I cooked the turkey last night and started the chicken (turkey this time) tetrazini recipe. Here is the agenda for today.

Make mashed potatoes for cinnamon rolls
Brownies
Turkey soup
Banana chocolate chip muffins
Fudge
Rice Krispy treats
Snickerdoodles
Chocolate dip pretzels
Prepare sugar cookie dough
Waffles to freeze

Sounds like a big day! I am very excited! Pictures to come!

Public School Ain't Free

I am so thankful that Collin can go to school and have fun every day. It's great for him, and it's great for me. Holy smokes though! He has been bringing home tons of notes every week! This picture is all the notes from one day, a couple weeks ago. Today he brought home about the same amount! He is always needing money for one thing or another! Since I can't remember what all the notes are about in the picture I will tell you what he got today that I had to do! I call it MY homework.

-Reminder to bring $5 for pics with Santa, due tomorrow

-2 small books from our book order

-Special note thanking me for my book order, because every order we make one book is donated to his class

-New book order form

-Note that says I need to get 2 pictures for Collin's special Christmas project, one of him with me, and one of him with Darrell. Top secret as to what it is. :)

-Note saying that if we want to participate in the Christmas book exchange to bring a wrapped book to school by next Monday

-Note saying that if we would like to help fill the kids Christmas goodie bags to bring 18 small toys, crafts, or treats to school by next Friday

-2 paper plates stapled together with a note that says we need to make this into snowman and bring back to school by Friday. We could decorate however we want to. (What do they do at school all day?)

-The monthly lunch menu.

-Oh and some district newsletter that I didn't read yet.

That covers it for today. I am scared to check Collin's backpack tomorrow!

Growin' Up

My little boy is three years old today. Time really does fly. We are so glad to have Brody (aka Bro, Bro-bro, Dee, D-Dawg, Dee-dee, Bro-man, etc) in our family. Even though he has been a stubborn little boy lately, he is still my little sweetie. He loves to huggle and snuggle and kiss. He is growing up too fast, and he wants to be just like his big brother. Happy Birthday, Bro!

This last picture is just proof that Brody can smile. He never smiles for pictures anymore. Stubborn!