holding my head above water...

barely...kind of drowing over here...

sigh

the blog is suffering and I'm bummed.

My 8 month old is on a sleep strike and my 3 year old thinks she's 16.

My husband is working 65-80hr weeks, with a training class on Saturdays or contracts out of town.

Housework is a bare minimum, school work has to be done, couponing is going well and weight loss is underway...

I promise I'm going to be back and have plans to re-vamp my blog, changes are a coming!

Thanks for reading and sticking around!

Oh and Amanda won the movie and yes it's still sitting on the table to go to the post office, but it will go out next week I've signed the 16 3 yr old old up for an art class so I have 2 hrs to get stuff done!

xoxo

An AMAZING referral...

My friend posted this on facebook today and so I checked it out, she later called me and we talked about how awesome it sounds! She was on her way to the grocery store to check it out!

Here's the deal, this website e-mealz offers weekly meal plans, cool right...well it GETS BETTER!

Not only do they have different plans, so family of 4-6 or just 2 people, they have different stores walmart, kroger, publix, etc. You can determine where you like to shop and how many people you have to cook for, we picked 2 people since our other 2 people don't eat much. No more standing in front of the fridge at 4pm going crap what are we having for dinner tonight, or spending time scouring recipe books or recipe websites to come up with a meal. Even better no more searching cupboards for anything that sounds good together...It's all done for you!!


Keep reading...

It tells you what ingredients to buy, the recipe to use AND the prices and where to find the items in the store PLUS coupons. All in a PDF file to print out weekly and take with you to the store, then save the recipes for weekends.

They promise to keep you under a budget, for the 2 people menu its $35-$45 a week, bigger family meals its $75 a week.

They also have fat-free, vegeterian, etc, etc, etc.

AND

it's a mere $1.25 a week...or $15 every 3 months...


What are you waiting for? Go check it out, sign up and tell me how much you love it!

I did today, the menu is easy foods, yummy, healthy and stuff my kids AND husband will eat!!




Okay really I'm not endorsed by these people, and upon re-reading I kind of sound like a marketing gimmick, but I'm just super excited about this, just $5 a month that will save me $$ and time...i'm so excited to try it out!!

Winter Storm Warning

If we'd been in Denver this would mean alot of inches, near feet of thick, heavy snow...but since we're in Atlanta it meant about 2 inches of snow, lots of freezing rain and ice.

 Kaitlyn was ridiculously excited to go out and play...I could barely get breakfast in her she was jumping at the gun to get into her snow clothes and make angels. Mean Mummy forced her to wait until little brother had a nap and Daddy got up (after working a long weekend and getting home at 3am he was exhausted). Thankfully my little string bean still fit into her 12 month snowsuit...it's a bit big I think, Target brand, and well at 3 and a half she's a bit tiny!

 

The snow, freezing rain mess started about 9pm on Sunday and had stopped before we got up Monday morning, total I think we got maybe 3 inches at our place. The snow was excellent snow ball snow with a layer of thick ice over the top. Kaitlyn made about 15 snow angels...Blake wasn't too sure...

 at first but it didn't take long for him to roll around in it! My little Denver baby in his first snow while living in Atlanta...never thought he'd get to play in the snow this year! Thanks to my friend Courtney and her clothing swap (she got K's clothes I got her eldest sons clothes) we were able to deck him out in snow-appropriate gear!

 This kid is for sure my Denver baby, she loved being in the snow and it took a few tries and a promise of hot chocolate to get her inside. We were mildly amused by our neighbors on their ATVs racing up and down the street and incredibly amused by the fact that the city of Atlanta is shut down, no mail, no delivery trucks, no nothing...the ice is real, the city just doesn't know how to handle it and my goodness the drivers...I'm glad we stayed home for the first two days of it!

Like father, like son

My sweet little cold weather babies enjoying the time together. We're loving this Winter Storm!

Project 365

I'm really enjoying this project and while I'm not sure I'm doing it perfectly or according to the 'rules' I'm making it mine and loving it!
Check it out HERE

oh and 30 mins left to enter my little giveaway...see my 100 Posts post to enter...jeez at this rate I'm feeling neglected and might just have to send one to both  Amanda and Kara! :P

100 posts!

I started this blog ages ago, posted here and there, forgot about it, picked it, then finally commited to writing again last year (okay like 6 months ago) and got into the swing of things...I took a 2 week break from writing for moving and getting settled into our house and now it's a struggle to get back into it.

Plus we currently have crap/slow internet which means my pictures take forever a day to load if and when they even do...making posting an annoying task at times...something I never wanted! I wanted this to be a place to share my views, our life and any other dribble that came to mind.

So here I am at 100 posts and should be excited but kind of having a writers block on what to say...

I'm being lame and doing a Friday 7 (idea borrowed from my friend Kara's blog)

1. Blake has decided sleep is overrated, I used to get two 1 1/2 hour long naps out of him at 10am and 3pm, now I'm lucky if he goes for 45mins and yesterday he wouldn't take a second nap. He's also up every 30mins after his 7:30pm bedtime until midnight then he sleep until about 4am, then 4-6 and 6-8. I'm TIRED and not sure what to do to fix it...

2. Kaitlyn is full of sass, I think she's bored, but when I ask if she'd like to do dance again she says no I just want to stay home with you and go to church...I'm thinking library, MOPS and church next week to get out the house and around other kids...hopefully that will put a lid on some of the sass!

3. Hubby is hopefully on his way home soon, I'm hoping we can go out to eat for lunch...7 Tequilas and a nice margarita sounds really good at the moment (and thats the name of the restaurant not the amount of liquor)

4. I'm so proud of myself in the last week and a half I have saved $120 on our groceries! I'm getting better and better at using coupons and finding the sales to combine with them! I'm determined to conquer the coupon battle! Oh and I watched "Extreme Couponing" on TLC...I kind of get why they do it, it's a thrill but really I'd never buy hundreds of toothbrushes or a wall full of toilet paper...I buy what we'll use, then when we use it up or are close to using it up I'll look for the next sale/coupon deal. 

5. Project 365 is going REALLY well! I'm enjoying it, in fact I'm having a hard time picking just ONE picture a day...look for my additional blog page on Sunday with the week's pictures. I plan to update weekly with my pictures and little inserts.

6. I'm adding two goals to my list for 2011...the first one is to read more books (this goes hand in hand with my watch less TV)  the second is to get better at the layout of my blog and understanding the html codes ect. (going hand in hand with my goal to blog 4 times a week)

7. Quick giveaway...I'm at 100 posts, should do something fun huh?
So to enter you must comment here AND be a follower to win a DVD copy of Despicable Me. We loved this silly movie and hope the winner will too! I'll draw the name on Monday morning (1/10/11) you have until Midnight EST Sunday (1/9/11) to enter.

Have a wonderful Friday, I'm off to enjoy a marg!

She's just like you...

it's funny when people see my kids they always exclaim 'oh they look just like you'...then they meet my husband and quickly change their mind...

I think as K gets older she looks a little like me...baby pictures she is the spitting image of her Daddy...

her behavior on the other hand is a constant battle. Hubby is forever proclaiming she's just like me, I'm certain he's just like her :P

Sassy, strong-willed, stubborn, attitude full 3.5 year old, she's definitely her fathers child right?

it's possible...

but she definitely has a lot of my traits too!  This is a hard age, or maybe she's just a challenging child, but she has figured out how to push each and every button her Dad and I have!

She has her care-free side, the kid LOVES to be outdoors.

If I let her she'd stay outside all day everyday...we never fight about going outside, but it's a challenge to get her in, which I'm sure in a few years I will greatly appreciate! Currently with the weather colder and a determined little brother it's harder to always be out as he's into everything but not old enough to play so it's best to run around with her while he naps.

She loves to bake and help Mummy clean

AA (Auntie Andi) and and arts and crafts are two of her favourites!

And truth be told she's a Daddy's girl...

and she adores books

She loves to dance and really does have a sweet, cuddly side...

People always talk about the terrible twos, but for us, two was PIE! I would love two again. Three has been so challenging and I've heard it's not much better til five.

She's just like me, we butt heads quite a lot and I think a lot of my frustration with her is seeing myself and my own irritations with what I do and then to see my child do them is hard.

We both have a type A personality, wanting to be in charge, knowing we're right, determined individuals and everything I love about her I love about myself.

I don't think the age will change her personality, if anything it will just become stronger...she is who she is, I am who I am and she's just like me!

2011 bring it!

This marks post 98 for me...I wanted to hit 100 in 2010 but with moving and family in town and the holidays getting to blog just wasn't in the cards! Ah well the new year brings new posts with a goal of hitting 300 posts before 2012 which is only 3-4 posts a week, definitely doable.

My New Years Resolutions for 2011:

-Lose 17lbs and hit the mark that I've been aiming for since Blake was born...this will be my lowest weight since Junior year in college.
   
-Walk or get outside and run around with the kids/go to the park or whatever outside exercise at LEAST 3 times a week, preferably 5.

-Find a new church and get involved again, I miss my friends at Trinity in Opelika, AL and hope I can find a place just as wonderful in our new town...the hunt begins on this Sunday!

-Blog 4 times a week

-Complete project 365...this is a big one that I'm nervous about simply because I'm forgetful...but the idea is to take one photo a day to see how things have changed. I'm still working out the logistics but plan to take moments, plus one of me and the kids and hubby on our monthly birthdays...I'm hopefull I can accomplish this and excited about fidling with my camera daily, hoping to get better and better at using it!

-Learn how to coupon and do it WELL! I tried and loved the feeling I got from saving, the sense of accomplishment in seeing just how much I could save...I'm hoping to devote more time to it...meaning less time on Facebook :P and save, save, save!

-Turn off the TV...this shouldn't be hard to do as I'm not a big tv person, but sometimes when I want to clean or cook or blog or just take a moment to myself it's nice to be able to stick Kaitlyn in front of the telly and do just that...she's limited to around 2-3 hrs a day now but I'd love it if we could go days without watching anything!

-Graduate...I'm on par to graduate in October 2011. I can't believe I will have my Masters soon!

-Do more, do good...help out at church, volunteer where I can, donate what I can, make a difference where I can...