A Little Getaway... Part 1

Last week we left Ella and Cameron with Andrew's parents and Andrew and I, along with Ashlynn, snuck away for a week in San Francisco.  Neither of us had been there, which we both found surprising since we both grew up in California.  We've really wanted to visit and the opportunity presented itself when Andrew's mom offered to come watch the munchkins for a week and Andrew's brother who lives in San Francisco offered to let us take over his apartment.  So even though I was very anxious about leaving my two older munchkins (this was really the first time I'd ever left them except when I go to the hospital to have a baby, but even then I get to see them every day), Andrew and I decided that it was a great chance to get away and spend some time together.  Of course Ashlynn and I are sort of a package deal and don't really go anywhere without each other so she got to come with.  Fortunately, Ashlynn proved to be a great traveler and I was even more thrilled to find out that at least one of my children sleeps while on vacation.  While we were there we pretty much did all the touristy things like the Golden Gate Bridge, Baker Beach, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39 Sea Lions, Ghirardelli Square, Alcatraz, Botanical Gardens, drove up through Napa, rode the Cable Cars, visited the Cable Car Museum, lots of shopping and we ate lots of yummy food.  We also took a couple of days to go up the coast to Mendocino, which was gorgeous.  Surprisingly we still had some downtime to rest as well.  So there are a lot of pictures and I'll probably actually have to do a few different posts.  Okay, here it goes...

 Mmm... sourdough bread

Have You Seen This?

You have got to watch this video.  It is amazing!  I don't have a lot of musical talent, but I can definitely appreciate other peoples musical talent.  Josh Wright has a new CD coming out soon and I look forward to hearing more of his music.  I've heard he has a music studio in Salt Lake where he teaches music lessons.  I wonder how long the waiting list is...

Another "Frugal" Post

Here is my shopping trip this morning that I was so excited about and just had to post because I'm lame like that.  

I bought 55 items, saved $115.63 (72% savings) and only spent $47.50.  Needless to say I was a little excited about this.  I told you I was lame.

Since I'm doing another post about my frugal "adventures" if you can call them that, I thought I'd show you some of my thrifting trips lately as well.  I have always enjoyed thrift store shopping or "dumpster diving" as my dad so lovingly would call it.  Even as a teenager I thought it was tons of fun to go and by clothes and try to transform them into something else.  Lots of fond memories.  But, once I got married and was in college I felt like I didn't have time to go and really kinda forgot all about it.  Then once we started having munchkins the thought never even occurred to me to check out the thrift store.  I'll be honest, I sorta thought you couldn't by stain-free, still in decent shape, used munchkin clothes.  But holy cow, have I been wrong.  Of course with one child it didn't really phase me to go by clothes for her, but then the second came along and I started feeling that sense of dread when I had to buy clothes for both munchkins, it suddenly seemed very expensive and then of course with a third it's a whole new ballgame.  So I've started scouring the thrift store as often as I can to find super cute, name brand, clean clothes for my munchkins.  Now admittedly you have to dig through a lot of crap to get the goods, but when you do, it's totally worth it.  And now I don't feel like having a stroke when Miss Ella decides to drag her feet along the concrete scuffing her shoes to death while I'm thinking that I just spent $20 last week on those shoes, they're already yucky looking and they're never going to make it to Missy Ashlynn.  Of course, I still hate when she does that, but at least now I've only spent $2 on them.

 $11.00

 $20.00

 $3.00

 $8.50

This was bought at a consignment store during one of those sales where they give you a bag and everything you can fit in that bag from certain bins is only $8.50.  The total consignment store price for everything would have been $50.00 so I can only imagine what the original retail price was.

 My little model... this shirt was also from the above loot.

$21.00

The cute Osh Kosh jacket was $5, everything else was $2 a piece including all four brand new boys jeans from Kohl's.

It's definitely worth taking the time to scour the thrift stores in my opinion.

Stocking Up On A 'Few' Things...

I've mentioned before that I recently started couponing.  Now let me be clear that I'm not one of those coupon clippers who will be stocked up on everything under the sun for the next fifty years, but I do like to make sure I stock up on things that we use everyday.  So here are a few pics of some of my loot just for my sister who has recently gotten into couponing as well.

Total $7.00

Total $23.00

Total $15.00

I've heard that if you store your cleaning wipes upside down it keeps them from drying out.

Andrew considers our linen closet to be a store... haha

We've got a pretty good supply of toothpaste don't ya think :)

Here's my food storage closet... it's kinda out of control right now and in need of some serious revamping.  It's one of the spaces that we've just used what we had to make it work, but it doesn't really work.  You know what I mean?  I'm sure we're not the only people who do this.  Anyways, I'm contemplating on making some changes here soon.

I don't even have room for the stuff I've stocked up on anymore and our basement is starting to look like a grocery store exploded.  My one and three year old think it's great though.  I've caught them down there several times getting into fruit snacks or juice boxes.  I definitely need to do something.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

We are huge fans of Dr. Seuss at our house.  So we had to celebrate his birthday today.  It really was pretty low key, but fun nonetheless.  We started the day off with a little "Cat In the Hat" cartoon marathon this morning.  After naps we made some fun hats and we finished off our day with some delicious green eggs and ham.  The munchkins loved it and thought it was so much fun making their hats.  I think they look too cute with them.

This picture makes the eggs look like they're glowing.

We just might have to make this a yearly celebration at our house.

How'd I Do... February Goals

Well let me just begin by saying that February was a huge flop as far as my monthly goals go.  We ended up having an incredibly busy month and to make things even worse, the munchkins took turns being sick for three weeks straight, sooo we didn't really leave the house last month.  Talk about feeling trapped.  I'm definitely a homebody, but I have to leave the house several times a week at least to keep my sanity, even if we're just getting out to window shop.  Pathetic, but true.  Anyways, so lets take a looksee...

February's goals:

Homemaking-

Decorate the toy room - I got a couple projects done, but I can't find a stupid curtain rod.  Everytime I get to Target or Wal-Mart they don't have the one I want in the size I need.

Finish decorating the munchkins room - I made progress, but it's not done.

Add finishing touches to living room - Didn't even start, but I do have a few ideas floating around that require a trip to IKEA {yay!!!}.

Cooking-

Try three new recipes - This is about the only place I excelled this month.  We tried five new recipes, tweaked a couple of oldies but goodies and only one of those recipes ended up being  a complete disaster.  Here are the recipes: Sweet and Sour Pineapple Meatballs - pretty tasty, although they needed a little something more, not sure what yet, but I will definitely be making these again.  Homemade Oreo Cookies - a fun little Valentine's treat.  Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies - oh so good.  Creamy Au Gratin Potatoes - these were much better than boxed Au Gratin potatoes for sure, although I would have liked a little more flavor to them.  Tomato Basil Soup - this was terrible and the worst part was I spent way too much money on the ingredients, spent way too much time trying to make it and made a huge mess of my kitchen when my blender exploded while blending the soup {I'm still finding tomato everywhere}.  I also tweaked my Pot Roast recipe, which ended up being the best pot roast I've ever made.  It literally was falling apart it was so tender.  We also tried a new kind of butter gold potato with our pot roast and just seasoned them and baked them in the oven like a red potato.  They were so good and definitely tasted like butter.  

Clean out freezer - Um, yeah this still needs done.  It's gettin' kinda scary to open the door of the freezer... you gotta watch those toes for falling unrecognizable frozen things.

Mix up a large batch of cookie dough and freeze into individual balls - I ended up making a double batch of the Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies.  I now have 120 frozen cookie dough balls in the freezer.

Mothering- 

Continue practicing patience - I certainly had my fair share of time to practice this this month.  Let's just say there were good days and bad days.

Go to the library at least twice this month - We were actually able to make it once for storytime... anything more was not an option with sick kids for the first half of the month.

Involve Ella and Cameron in the kitchen when cooking - Didn't happen as much as I was hoping, but that's cause they were sick {don't want to go spreading those germs}.

Creating-

Finish sewing nursery curtains - Um, I'm tired.  Maybe they'll be done before she has to share a room with her big sister.

Paint and hang beadboard picture frames for munchkins room - Haha, I actually got it done.

Sew something for Valentine's Day... not sure what I want to make just yet - Um, no.  I'm thinking I want to sew matching skirts for the girls for Easter though.  How cute would that be!?!

Financing-

Purchase new desk for front room - We just haven't had time to get it, but it's on the calendar for this weekend.

Make a list detailing how to allocate this months household budget to stay within my budget - I didn't make a list, but I did pretty good.

Enriching-

Blog once a week - I think I did pretty good this month all things considered.

Go back to the gym - Okay, so this may or may not count, but I did get back to the gym once at the very end of the month.  Again with the sick munchkins and lack of sleep excuse.

Read a book - I'm pathetic!  What more can I say?  I checked out "The Happiness Project" from the library again and made a little more progress on it last month, but didn't manage to finish it.  It really is a good book though and I really do enjoy reading, but by the time we get the munchkins in bed all I really want to do is crawl in bed {I can't even take a bath lately because I just fall asleep in the tub}.

Get together with the girls for a craft night - Nope.  But I did make some super cute clippies for the girls.  I'll have to post some pics.

Okay, let's try this again.  Here are my goals for March:

Homemaking-

Decorate the toy room

Finish decorating the munchkins room

Tweak a few things in the living room

Cooking-

Clean out the freezer

Prepare five different freezer meals

Try three new recipes {I'm really enjoying this}

Mothering-

Take some time for myself each week to go and do something I want to do

Practice Patience

Go on a walk once a week... weather permitting

Creating-

Sew something

Alter one piece of clothing in my closet {get creative}

Sew curtains for nursery

Financing-

Get our new desk

Enriching-

Blog once a week

Read a book

Spend some time with my hubby

{A Little Fondue Fun}

For Valentine's Day we've sorta started a tradition of going to the Melting Pot with friends.  This was actually our third year going.  In case you've never had the sheer pleasure of sampling some of their delicious fare, you are truly missing out.  It is so good and it's a lot of fun to go with a crowd.  I think this is what makes it so good.  We've commented a couple of times that it wouldn't be nearly as fun if it were just us.  Anywho, this year we had four couples and let me tell you, we were all a little giddy to be at the Melting Pot and out of the house without our children.  Not that we don't adore our children, but it sure is nice to enjoy a good meal when it's still warm and I don't have to worry about wearing that meal {Cameron has been known on more than one occasion to throw his food at you}.  Anyways, it's a four course meal.  We started with our cheese fondue, which is to die for, then moved onto salad, then comes the meat and a million little sauces and to really just top of your night you finish with some heavenly chocolate.

 Waiting for our various meats to cook...

 We were a little anxious to eat so I kinda forgot to take pictures until it was mostly gone... but we had filet mignon, sirloin, lobster, shrimp, duck, chicken and ravioli.  I think that's all.

Scott and Heather

 Brad and Sheila

 Andrew and Me... not really sure what he was laughing at.

Abe and Andrea

 Can you tell that we were all a little excited to be there?  Thanks for a great evening everyone.

Oh and I almost forgot, funny story about that night... our poor twelve year old babysitter who had all three munchkins and will probably never come back again had an interesting night to say the least.  The power went out, so of course the munchkins freaked out {this was made even worse since it interrupted Beauty and the Beast}.  Of course I didn't tell her where any flashlights were because who really thinks about that and really the only reason I knew the power went out is because one of our friends babysitter called them asking for a flashlight.  So I had to call her dad and tell him where to tell her to look for a flashlight.  Then on top of that Missy Ashlynn had a blowout while the power was out and she didn't want to take her bottle, so she was pretty fussy... I still don't think I got the full story on how upset she was cause I know how worked up she gets when she's hungry.  Then one of our neighbors brought candles over and knocked on the door, but someone knocking on the door just freaked everyone out even more.  Fortunately, this poor girls mom came over and helped calm our munchkins down until we could get home.  I felt really bad for her, but it really is kinda funny to think about now.

{Random Munchkin Pics}

Here's a few random pics of the munchkins for their grandma's, grandpa's, aunts, uncles and cousins.  

 Look at this cutie

 Kinda funny how quickly her smile gets turned upside down

 Bedtime stories

 I love my baby girl

 I think Cameron enjoyed his chocolate pudding

 My goodness!  He looks so old in this picture.

This kid is so stinkin' photogenic

 Enjoying one of the few decent days outside

 Hehe... she spied me taking pictures from upstairs

 This girl loves the snow...

 Her daddy tries to convince her it's bad...

 But, she's not buying it.

Oh how I love these munchkins!!!

Cabin Fever

For the last three weeks, we've been trapped at home due to this nasty cold that's been going around.  And I've gotta be honest, I don't think my munchkins will ever be healthy again.  Andrew was the first to get it and he had it for what seemed like an eternity a week and a half.  Unfortunately, my little man caught it next and had it for about a week.  He seemed to be better and I thought the rest of us or as Miss Ella calls us "the girls" would be spared, but no, we wouldn't be so lucky.  Ella got a mild case of it a couple days later and then my poor poor baby got it.  Missy Ashlynn has had it by far the worst of the three munchkins.  It's been about a week and a half now and she's still coughing a little, but seems to be almost completely better.  Of course when they are that small there is nothing that you can give them to help except some saline drops {which in my opinion, don't seem to help a whole lot}.  On the bright side though she was sleeping great.  Oh and now that Missy Ashlynn is just about better Cameron has decided to go for round two.  The coughing is awful and I can't keep up with the runny nose... poor little guy.  So between the sick munchkins, the mountain of laundry that comes with the sick munchkins and the need to constantly be holding a sick munchkin, I haven't done a darn thing lately.  The toy room is sitting in shambles, the laundry room looks like an explosion took place and my library book {that I've checked out for the second time now} is sitting on my nightstand half finished and due back in two days and I'm just way too tired to clean one extra thing or even attempt to finish reading my book even though I'm very much enjoying this book.  Oh the joys of mommyhood...

I did manage to make a fun treat for Valentine's Day though.  Homemade Oreos... mmm mmm mmmm.

I got this really yummy recipe from The Sister's Cafe

Enjoy!