Settling Back in, Just in Time for Chaos!

I finally  have my little monster back! (He was visiting his daddy for the last 13 days!) He had a great time, and Bo got his very first real one on one time with mama. It was nice to be able to focus solely on him, and read with him, and take showers during the day, go to lunch with my mom, and have quiet time at nap time! (I horribly missed Brax every single day, dont get me wrong here!)
So yesterday was preschool, and my errand running. woohoo This morning, I Bo woke me up at 630, which is better than the 540 its been the last few days! We got up, had a mini snuggle sesh, and I decided to make muffins for Brax for breakfast. I was feeling ammmazing. (I have struggled for a very very long time to be that "together" mom) Monster wakes up, comes and gives me cuddles, Bo is eating breakfast, and I tell Brax about the muffins.... just as the oven beeps, he gets way excited. As I go to get them out, they look awfully brown on top, YUP. I.BURNT.THE.MUFFINS. So, there goes my "together" day. LOL. I was feeling brave enough to take both of the kids to the grocery store with me, but not so much anymore. Perhaps I'll see what my mom is doing!
Hope you guys are all having a beautiful Wednesday!

Guest Blogging!

Today I am guest blogging over at Nap Time Is My Time, Head on over and read about my struggle with Postpartum.
Thanks Emily for letting me get my story out there, and hopefully helping someone else not feel so alone!
:)

My First Awkward and Awesome Thursday!!

Awkward:
-Having my 3 (almost 4) year old tell me "Girls dont watch boys" when I went into the bathroom to make sure he hadnt fallen in after 10 minutes.
-Having this cute little old lady glare at me all through my birthday lunch because, well I'll admit it, my children were terrors. :)
-Having two sweet friends come into bingo in the middle of the games, and wish me happy birthday.... I definately get embarassed at any unnecessary attention!


Awesome:
- Waking up to little sheets of paper stuck all around the house singing Happy Birthday, with an LED candle on top of a chocolate chip cookie! (Hubby leaves for work before my eyes tend to open!)
-Aforementioned Hubby winning $205 at Bingo at the elks club... ON MY BIRTHDAY! (and being able to afford to buy Modern Warfare3. yipeee... Lol)
-Winning $25 all by myself at bingo!
-My sweet Brax singing me happy birthday, and all day sing-songing: "Its mommys birthday, Its mommys birthday"
-The number of FB happy birthdays I got.. (lame right, but hey, that 30 seconds it took for all those people to type out Happy Birthday means something!)
-Getting my sewing maching back out, and making some fun new things! (on of which might be an upcoming tute!!!)


So there you have it! My very first awkward and awesome thursday! This week I will focus more on the pictures to go along with the post!
I hope everyones week was just a smidge more awesome than awkward... after all, awkward does make for funnier stories!

Yup. Its here!

So, the mid-life crisis, has been renamed the quarter-life crisis.(i sure hope i make it past 50!) Its been kind of wierd. I dont know why its bothering me. I have 2 beautiful boys, and an amazing husband. We own our home, and life is generally really good. So what is the matter with turning 25? It doesnt change my life, truly, the only thing it affects is our car insurance premium. I dont know when this sinking feeling will pass, but I do know that I am truly blessed, 25 or 24 or 48. Life is good. I will leave you with some pictures of my life up until now!

New Years 2006

6 months preggo with my Braxton Bear

21st Birthday In Monterey, CA

Mexico 2009

Honeymoon in Vegas

7 months preggo with Baby Boden (Big difference with baby #2!)

My Sweet Boys

So Here is to hoping for an amazing next 25 years watching my babies grow, and continuing on with the best husband, and family a girl could ask for!

Happy Birthday To Me and YOU! Check out the shop and enter the code "sillybirthday25" for 40% off all day today! :)

Halloween!

Yes, I am going to admit this out loud. I only took pictures of my oldest at halloween. I feel like this makes me the worst mom ever. In my defense, my little monster's head was too big for his banana hat, so he didnt quite look like a monkey anyways. (I do feel like there will be a "staged" halloween pictures session this week!) But I have to share my little lion with you all! :)

Hope you all had a safe Halloween!

My Crazy Coupon Weekend!

Ok, I am not extreme... yet. But I know that I could be. I'll let you in on a little secret (I have a shopping problem). Couponing, is addicting. Buying things my family needs and saving a ton of money is like an amazing high for me. (Lame, I know)  I Just recently bought myself a plain little binder, and the baseball card holder inserts!
This weekend, the P&G inserts came out, along with the AMAZING Albertsons doublers. So I of course, bought 8 newspapers. ok, i might be a little crazy. But I dilegently clipped, looked at the ones expiring, and made my plan. I will say, I am happy with the outcome. It is definately not TLC worthy, but it makes me giddy. (yes, couponing makes me giddy like a school girl!)
Here is my Albertsons trip:

4 cans of Pringles, 6 jars of Prego pasta sauce, 10 Yoplait yogurts, 6 Gerber baby snacks, 2 Oral B toothbrushes, 4 packages of Bar S hot dogs, 1 2pack of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, 2 Fabreze Air Effects cans, 1 Nature's Valley Granola Thins, 2 Boxes of Triscuits, 1 Saralee 100% whole wheat bread, 1 Challange butter package, and 1 Crest toothpaste. All for a grand total of....

$31.81! I saved $52.62. Which means, my total before coupons and Albertsons card was $84.43! I saved 62% on my grocery bill. 

Then I went to Walgreens. 

There I did a few transactions to get the most out of my Register Rewards. (Check It Out Here) My first transaction there was 2 Crest toothpastes. I Paid $5.25 and got a $5 off my next purchase coupon, so really, $0.25 cents.

My Next transaction was 4 packets of Tide Stain Release and 2 Downy Liquid Fabric Softners. I paid $20.44 and got a $5 off my next transaction coupon so really, $15.44.

My final transaction is the whole reason I went to Walgreens. I bought Crest 3D 2hr express white strips (ON SALE for 49.99, Keep that in mind)  I bought 3 packs of Trident gum, 1 Sunday Mail Tribune, 1 walgreens brand medicine and 1 package of Pretzel M&M's. ( I needed a filler) and my total for that transaction was $35.04 with a $10 Coupon on my next purchase, so really, $25.04. 

So after all of those transactions, My total was $50.73. (I used my two previous rewards on the Whitestrips purchase) I got everything for the price of the Whitestrips. :)

Couponing does take a little bit of research, finding the best deals here and there, and finding the manufactures coupons, but it does save money, and for my family, that is a must. I started couponing because my husband and I have chosen to be a one income family. To us, it was important for me to stay home with the babies, and be there with them. We just bought our first house, and it was a little bit of a shock, (even though I knew exactly how our finances were going to be). So I caught an episode of extreme couponing, and thought, I can do that... and slowly but surely, I am getting there! :)

Happy November everyone!