Shutterfly rocks the cards!!

I can't say enough about Shutterfly's Holiday cards! They have such an amazing selection of cards to choose from, and their print quality is SO top notch! I have never had any problems with quality when I have ordered anything from Shutterfly, but their cards totally rock. They are printed on premium card stock and the color is so bright and vibrant! They not only offer holiday cards, but they have wall calendars at a great price! They make GREAT gifts!!! Shutterfly also offers up some really cute birthday cards. I just can't say enough about Shutterfly! Their customer service rocks, shipping is VERY reasonable, and super quick! Their website is VERY easy to navigate and it's so very simple to create your cards or whatever you decide to create. Everyone who has received something I created has always raved about the quality and how much they loved the item!!

I have to say my favorite card design is this:



How cute is that?!? I also love this design:



I'd say the only "problem" with Shutterfly is trying to pick one design! And to prove how great they are, Shutterfly is offering 50 FREE Holiday Cards if you are a blogger!! Sign up here. Trust me, you will NOT be dissapointed!!

Yummy!!

This weekend I finally got a candy thermometer and decided to try making some candy for the first time.....peanut brittle!!! I've been wanting to make this since I tried the recipe last Christmas....Z finally got the recipe for me and I couldn't wait to try it! Let's just say it is a HUGE hit.......



I seriously can't stay out of the container! I want to do up a few goodie boxes this year as gifts and was hoping this would turn out yummy so I can send some........now to try the orange fudge recipe!!!!

Our tree is up!

Yesterday we finally got the rest of the tree out and up.....it looks SO pretty!! Ty and Chase love it......now to figure out how to stop Chase from messing with it.



I wasn't going to much else, but I did get the boys stockings up. With us being in a smaller home I didn't want to clutter it too much with decorations, and for me that is SO hard, as I love to decorate for Christmas. I may still put a few things up here and there, but for the most part I think the tree will be it.

Thanksgiving is over....

Hope everyone had a fantastic Turkey day! Our Thanksgiving was nice....we got a really nice surprise; Z's paycheck went into the bank a day early!! We had plans to take the boys to Bass Pro Shop to get free pics with Santa and weren't going to do any shopping, but with his check going in early we got in on a few deals yesterday! Pics with Santa went good.....poor Chase cried!




The santa was AWESOME!! He was so patient and sweet.....they were offering one free 4x6 print, but we got 5! And that included a family pic! They were all so nice. While at Bass Pro Shop, we got Chase an adorable footie sleeper........



And in case you can't see what it says at the top left:



My dad would SO approve!!! LOL I'll be sure to get pics of him wearing this sleeper........

So last night Walmart started part of their black friday sale at 12:01am, and what we wanted was in that sale so Z decided to run out while the boys and I stayed home. (they had pj's for the boys for $4 a set and sleep pants for me for $4 also, adn we always get the boys new pj's for Christmas) I woke up right around 11:30 to pee and it was pouring outside!!! Z had already left for Walmart, so Idecided to stay up and see if I could find some deals online. (didn't find any) Z got home right after 12:30am and had almost all of what we wanted to get! They didn't have any footed sleepers for Chase, but he did get Ty two pairs of pj's; Spongebob and Toy Story. And he got a pair of sleep pants for me. He said the store was crazy!!! People were tearing into the pallets of stuff before midnight to get toys and clothes and stuff was everywhere!! Plus add the rain to it and it was a mess.....but he said he was glad he went. I tried to order some things for Chase online at Walmart since they were offering some things for the sale prices....and of course the sizes I wanted were all sold out....and to top it off, Walmart didn't start their sale prices online until after 3am!! Oh well......at least we got the footie pj's yesterday. All in all we had a great Thanksgiving......now bring on Christmas!!!!

Getting ready....

So i've been slowly coming around to the idea of Christmas....ok who am I kidding, i'm SO excited that Christmas is coming!!! I have almost all of the boys gifts wrapped and hidden, and all we really need to do is get a few stocking stuffers for them and we are done. (I keep saying this and I keep picking things up for them.....) This past weekend I decided to work on pics of the boys for Christmas cards.....yeah, that was fun. I'm not going to post any of the pics here as I still haven't ordered cards yet....let's just say i'm going to work with the pics I did get and leave it at that.


I am really looking forward to this Thanksgiving.......bring on the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies and of course pumpkin pie with tons of Redi-Whip.

Wow, how is it possible?

2 weeks from today is Thanksgiving?!?!? How did that happen? I'm actually looking forward to eating some yummy food, especially pumpkin pie.........



Wow, before I know it it will be time for Christmas!!! Not that I am rushing time at ALL, but I can't wait to start getting Christmas decorations out!

WOW, what a freebie!

I had signed up for a freebie from Natrelle through a Facebook freebie they were offering but I honestly thought I didn't sign up in time. (especially since I had seen so many have received their freebie the past few weeks) Well, Fedex just left an amazing package on the doorstep!!! It's my freebie from Natrelle!!! This is the cute bag......



And here are the goodies inside!!!!



The blue book is a beautiful journal. This was such a shock to get!!

Cookies!!!

So I had mentioned here that we had bought Krusteaz cookie mixes from Krogers. We had peanut butter and sugar, and the sugar cookies ROCKED!! The peanut butter were ok, just kind of blah tasting. Well, we went back to Krogers and got several more boxes of sugar and a box of Chocolate Chunk. (and we got an amazing deal on them!! They were on sale for $1.49, and the 4 boxes we bought had a coupon peelie on them for .55 off....so less than $1 a box!!!)



So today I made the Chocolate Chunk and let me just say.......YUM!!!! They have such an amazing taste.......I just can't get over how easy they are to make, just like the sugar cookies!!!

Days like this.....

This morning has been so flippin' rough. Chase was wide awake at 4:30am.......when I got up to make him another bottle to see if that would help him go back to sleep, I stepped in something wet. Great, one of the dogs or cat got sick on the floor. Brought Chase his bottle and laid back down to see if I could go back to sleep....started smelling something and got up to see one of the girls had gotten sick again. Nice. I finally just get up to get my day started. I had thought Chase went back to sleep but he didn't.....he was at the end of the bed chatting away. I decided to get him up so he wouldn't wake Ty too early. I was getting Ty's lunch together and Chase grabbed a Cheeto cheese crunchy off the table. No biggie, just one isn't a big deal. A little later on he came up to me to pick him up and I notice something white on his face.......then I could smell it. He had gotten sick, but only a little bit was on his outfit so I figured that was it.....WRONG. I go into the living room and there are 3 places where he got sick. *sigh* How in the world did I not hear him?!?!? Get him and the carpet cleaned up, then got some Febreze sprayed. Put everything away and I hear Honey cough a little.....no biggie, she's had that cough for about a week but it's getting so much better now that she's on some meds..........I looked and she had gotten sick. I got the carpet stuff out again and scrubbed the carpet. All of this happened before 6:15am. I sat down at the computer to relax and Chase was walking around saying "mom, mom, mom.......mom, mom, mom..." That totally made up for the crappy morning I was having.......

Yum, yum, yum!!

This past weekend to went to Krogers, and they had a really good deal on boxed cookie mixes made by Krusteaz.



I had heard they were fairly decent, but were a little pricey. Well, Krogers had them for $1.45 a box, so I got 2; peanut butter (of course) and sugar. I decided to make the sugar cookies today......it was SO simple!!! Just add 1 egg and one stick of butter or margarine (I used margarine because we are out of butter). The dough smelled oh so yummy, and I couldn't wait to bake some!! Let's just say these bad boys are going to go fast in this house!!! They have such an amazing taste, considering they came from a box! (and considering how EASY they were!) The recipe can be changed to make the dough ready for cut out cookies, and I am so going to try that for Christmas!!!

Here is the end result........minus a few cookies



Also, this past weekend we went to Dollar Tree and I found something I had been looking for for years.....a cookie spatula!! Z saw it and said "Who in the world would want a cookie spatula....you don't flip cookies over!" I saw what he was talking about and squealed!!! I told him you use it to take the cookies off the cookie sheets and he just looked at me weird......I had one of these a long time ago but it broke and could never find the right "spatula". And here it was.....and for only $1!! I only bought one, but I am definitely going back this weekend to get several more.......



I love this thing!!!!

ENT follow up

Yesterday's appointment went great!! I got the all clear and was officially released from his care. In fact, he said my throat healed so well it looked as though I never even had tonsils! I did ask about the adenoids and he said they usually do go away on their own. He also said the labs came back just fine on my tonsils, and he thinks the right one was hard because at one point it developed a cyst/bad infection and the scare tissue made it hard. But all in all he is very happy with how things went, as am I!!! I am SOOOO glad I had those nasty tonsils out!!!

Some new kicks!!!

This weekend the boys got some new shoes!! Chase got his very first pair of shoes, and we didn't have to spend a small fortune on them!!! When we first put them on him he hated it....he kept sitting down and trying to undo the velcro! LOL But once he got used to them, he LOVED them!!



*sigh* He looks so grown up. Ty got some boots for the winter, but he wouldn't let me get a pic of him wearing them. :( He was grumpy this weekend!!! Hopefully i'll get a pic of him in his boots to share soon......

Monday rolls around again

Boy did this weekend go by fast. We were so busy and on the run that it just flew by! Friday Z went to the bank and got our Christmas fund out so we could start getting things for the boys. We got some really great deals, and they are just about done! It feels so good to be able to say that, knowing that we don't have to worry about where the money will come from for the boys gifts. Money is tight all year long, but it's usually extra tight around the holidays! For Ty we got him:

- a Penguin Pillow Pet. He wanted the pig, but everytime I went to order it it was either sold out or kept going up in price!! He said he also liked the penguin and puppy, so we got him the penguin.
- a Spongebob Lego set, plus a starter Lego kit.
- a Leapster 2. he has the original Leapster but we feel he is ready for the next one, but not quite yet ready for more expensive handheld gaming systems....so far the Leapster can take his abuse! LOL
- I Spy Leapster game....He just LOVEs those I Spy books, as do I!!
- a 5 pack of Hot Wheel cars....like he needs more....he has SO many of them and they are always laying everywhere, but Kmart had them super cheap so we couldn't resist.
- 2 Matchbox play sets that hook together.

I still want to get him a few Chapter Books, since he loves to read so much.....plus we still need to get him a few more things for his stocking. And for Chase we have gotten:

- an Elmo play set. Kmart had a huge markdown on toys a few months ago and we got an amazing deal on it!!
- an Elmo alphabet bus
- a Monkey Pillow Pet. Of course I had to get him the monkey....he is, after all, my little monkers!!!
- a 5 pack of Hot Wheel cars...we are such a gluten for punishment.
- Yo Gabba Gabba dvd
- Spongebob hat and mitten set.....I saw this at the store last Friday and tried it on him....he looked ADORABLE!!!!



We also need to get him a few more things for his stocking. Not too bad, huh?!? I am SOOOOO ready to get started with decorating for the holidays.....ok, is it wrong that I already have our first decoration up?!?



Ok, to be fair I had to hang it up because the little wooden thingie broke and I need to keep it flat so it wouldn't break any worse.....that's my story and i'm sticking to it!!!