Father's Day DIY Revealed

A few weeks ago in this post, I blogged about a great Father's Day DIY I was going to try.  I had to act fast because I came across Twinkle Toes' idea on a Wednesday afternoon and Father's Day was the following Sunday.  I knew this was what I wanted to do so I halted all plans for the remainder of the afternoon, bathed and dressed Mackenzie in one of our favorite GAP sundresses and made a quick trip to JoAnn Fabric's for some D's and an A.


While Twinkle Toes bought paper mache letters and spray painted them for her shoot, I decided to go the easier, cheaper (and in my personal opinion) cuter route.  I bought pre-painted white letters for our shoot so as to avoid spending the extra (messy) time spray painting, not to mention the extra money on spray paint.  Since I was doing this project without my husband's help, I didn't think spray painting with a 2 year old sounded like much fun.


In all I paid $2.99 per letter, .80 cents for each picture to be developed and $11.99 for the frame from Bed Bath and Beyond (Originally $16.99 but I used a mailed $5.00 off coupon).  Total for this gift was approximately $20.00 (give or take a little with tax).


Our photo shoot went well.  Although, I must say I overestimated my daughter's attention span.  By the end of our twenty minute film session I found myself (literally) begging and bribing her with cookies to pose for one more picture.  I even did a second session later in the evening to get a better D shot.


Here's what we ended up with:

Cute? I think so!  JB loved it and at some point we plan on doing a matching "MOM" session so that our home doesn't look like our daughter favors one parent over the other ;)  This project could also be cute for a Grandparent's Day gift or with multiple children holding letters like this one...

Well, obviously these aren't children.  These are the fabulous Baker boys who posed for a photo shoot for my aunt as a gift one year.  But I love this too.  Props to my beautiful cousin Maddy for these wonderful pictures and her excellent photography skills!

Hope some of you can use one of these ideas for a gift down the road!

Our Memory Wall

In 5 years of marriage JB and I have moved 5 times.  Just call us nomads.  At some point our lives may settle down permanently but until then I pride myself on having become an expert in the arts of packing and purging.  Maybe all of our nomadic tendencies have served us some good because I have begun to develop a philosophy on home life and style that I believe goes largely against what the average American family lives by.  


My philosophy is this: 
Our home should be a place of ultimate familiarity and security, a safe-haven for our family.  I want to rid our home of all junk, decor and "stuff" that only serves the purpose of "being". Every single thing that we own should hold meaning to us as a family and should serve as a reminder of where we have come from, who we are and what we mean to one another.  


Which is where our family memory wall comes in.  When I first came across this decorating idea on Young House Love, I wasn't quite sure what to think.  I loved what I saw but wasn't sure if we could actually pull it off and make it look good.  I've never been risky in decorating.  In fact, my decorating style has been downright boring.  I generally stick to clean lines and I steer away from clutter--I like safe. But, if there's one thing this past year has taught me it is that taking risks can be a good thing.  And so, we decided to take a risk. Actually, JB decided for us when I showed up home from work one day and found a kitchen table full of new frames.  


Regardless of how we got here, this wall has only helped to further my philosophy on home.  It has become a place that I can look to when I need a reminder of our history or on a day when I am feeling extra sentimental.  Everyone needs one of these walls. On our wall are significant song lyrics, a special piece of jewelry, a love letter, newspaper article, a marathon medal and various pictures marking important moments we have shared together over the last 12 years.


Here are some of the inspirations we used to draw from:

H G T V 's Emily Gold

Young House Love

A Wall of Veterans

These men have a special place in my heart because 

they are now the 90 year old seniors that I work with every day.

So, here's what we came up with:  

To the (bottom) left is one of Mack's 3 month pictures.

 To the right, a hand written letter that JB wrote to me when we were 14 yrs old.  

Highlighted are the words, "I don't know what God has in store for us but I can't help but think that it might be something special."  

 Here is a newspaper article written about us while we were in college.

 The top frame here holds my first marathon medal and a picture of the Wilson Avenue "hill" in Chicago where my training runs first began.  To the bottom right we framed a family portrait of us visiting a Key Largo beach last year for Mack's first dip in the ocean.

And, if you've followed me this long and are still interested you can check out the story behind this frame.  It's under the post "Puzzle Pieces".  If you are a momma, I think it's worth a read.

While I would normally do the exact math and tell you how much this project cost us, the frames were a surprise from my husband so I didn't think to look at how much he spent.  I would guess that he spent $70 on all of these frames.  If you wanted to do this project cheaper you could absolutely search for frames from thrift stores and garage sales that you could re-do yourself to make this a very inexpensive project.  With that said, who doesn't love a surprise from their husband every once in a while?  I'm not complaining.

We will continue to add along the sides and we still have an empty space waiting for a picture of Belmont but for now this is our memory wall.  I think I love it.

What do you guys think?

No Peeking!

JB, This Means YOU. I've found the perfect father's day gift for my husband.  And since he is a daily follower of my blog he is going to want to check this out.  So in part, this is a post to tease him.  It is also to show the rest of my readers what a great idea this is in case they want to steal the idea for themselves.  Check out this father's day gift idea (everyone is allowed except you, JB).  Can't wait to post pictures and show you how it turns out!

Happy 1st Birthday Belmont!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with who Belmont is, check out my storybook characters post.  It will tell you everything you need to know.  And, after you read about Belmont you may think that we are one of those crazy "treat your pet like a human" families. I promise we really aren't that family.  

We wanted to celebrate Belmont's birthday mainly so that we could begin to get Mack excited about her own big birthday celebration that is coming up in a few weeks.  JB and I thought that this would be a fun way to celebrate Belmont 
while also teaching Mack a little more about celebrating life
...and presents, treats and candles.  

So, last night after putting Mack to bed I slaved in the kitchen, poking and prodding at cookie dough attempting to create "Belmont" face cookies.  After configuring my first kitty head out of cookie dough, I popped my pan into the oven.  
Ten minutes later to my horror, this is what I found.

Not quite what I had in mind.  

Luckily, some restructuring of the "Hello Kitty like" ears 
finally brought me to these.

I thought they turned out decent.  Enough so that Mack was appalled when we suggested tonight at Belmont's party that she take a bit out of her kitty head.

Now, on to the celebration...

Pre-Party Pictures!

Clearly, Belmont is thrilled to be present at his party 
and wearing his 1st birthday hat.  This was after we chased him around the house for ten minutes trying to tackle him to put on the hat.  Like I said...clearly thrilled.

Eating his birthday present while Mack 

watches enviously hoping to blow out his single candle.

We love you Belmont!  

Happy 1st birthday to our little man. 

And yes, I realize that now I do in fact sound like a crazy cat person.

A Picture Perfect Day

Mack and I packed our day today with fun in the sun. 

We spent several hours at the park where I relentlessly tried to snap photos of her smiling or just being still...anything that wasn't blurry.  Here were our best shots.  

My serious girl.

Scarfing down her Scooby Snacks.

And the best one of the day--

Being chased by geese.  

This was right before I snatched her up myself and ran screaming bloody murder.  

It was necessary, we were surrounded by dozens of hungry geese and

...we were out of food. 

I will be the first to admit that being a mom has not been the easiest ride for me.  

But, these last few months have been so rewarding as 

I have watched my little girl blossom into a sweet and caring little being.  

I am loving everything about this stage of mommyhood.  

Most days I wish I could freeze time and make her stay this little forever.

Couponing: Drug Store Style

Couponing "drug store style" has proved to be one of the most lucrative hobbies imaginable.  I still haven't quite figured out why but drugs stores literally GIVE away free products every week.  And if you know me, you know I don't turn down anything free.


Here's an example of a deal that I did that landed our family a stockpile of (better than free) Dove shampoo and conditioner.  Last spring Walgreens was running one of their Register Rewards deals.  The deal was this: 


Buy Dove shampoo/or conditioner for $4.99 get 4.99 Register Rewards back.  Yes, you are reading this correctly.  That means you pay for the name brand shampoo or conditioner and are handed a Register Reward coupon for a cash value of $4.99 to use on your next purchase at Walgreens thereby equaling free shampoo and/or conditioner.


But wait, it gets better!  I found through following coupon blogs like Mashupmom and Bargain Briana that there was an online coupon floating around for $2.00 off Dove shampoo or conditioner.  I was able to print this coupon multiple times from different online sites.  This allowed me to do this deal and actually make money to use towards my next drugstore purchase.


For example:


Dove Shampoo or Conditioner  - $4.99 get $4.99 rewards rewards
$2.00/1 manufacturer's coupon 
Final Price: $2.99 get $4.99 reward rewards 
So basically, free Dove Shampoo and a coupon that not only paid for my purchase but gave me an extra $2.00.  


AND.... to really take full advantage of this deal (as I did), you will shamelessly make several trips through the checkout line and stock up on this product (while also gaining the extra $2.00 in Register Rewards each time thereby racking up the extra money to use on future purchases). 


Here are some tips to keep in mind when Register Rewards (RR) are involved:
You can't do multiple register reward deals of the same item in the same transaction.  So for example: had I tried to buy two Dove shampoos in the same transaction I would have only gotten one register reward coupon back for the shampoos.  So, if you want to do the deal multiple times you have to make multiple transactions.  


You can't roll your register reward coupon and use it towards the same product on your next purchase and expect that you will get another register reward.  For example:  I could not have taken my RR from my Dove purchase for $4.99 to use to buy another Dove shampoo expecting to get another register reward. You can use it to pay for another Dove shampoo but you won't get the register reward a second time.  


What you CAN do is: Use your register reward to pay for other items that you would normally spend money on.  You can also spend your register reward on OTHER items that are producing register rewards (just not the same product).  


I'll leave you with a few easy current deals going on: 


Walgreens deals week of 6/5/2011
- Gillette Fusion ProGlide, $9.99, get $5.00 RR. Use $4.00/1 from the 6/5 PG and it’s $.89 after coupon+RR. 
(So this is usually a $10.00 razor that you can get easily for $.89.  We did this deal a few weeks ago and my husband was thrilled!)
- Sobe Lifewater, $.99, get $.99 RR.
(free flavored water anyone?)


That's all I've got for tonight.  If you have followed this post in it's entirety then it will be helpful to you when I post on the CURRENT register reward deals that are going on this week.  I will try my best to do this tomorrow.  Stay tuned for ways to get free or almost free drugstore items!


As always, post if I need to correct anything or if you have comments/questions!

Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya

As I've already stated in our Family Recipe Favorites, JB and I love to cook. One of our proudest dishes is this New Orleans Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya.  A while back I tweaked a friend's chicken gumbo recipe and came up with this.  It has quickly become one we love. I've had quite a few friends ask for the recipe so, here it is.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do! Be forewarned, if you aren't a spicy food person this is not your meal to try.

1. Chop approximately three large pieces of Italian Sausage (mild or spicy according to your liking).
2. Brown the sausage in a medium to large stove pan.
3. Add 2-3 cups of chicken to the sausage pan (I use pre-cooked chicken from a Rotisserie).
4. Chop 1 medium red pepper, 1 medium green pepper and 1 medium onion.
5. Add the chopped veggies to the pan with the cooked sausage and chicken.  Let the veggies saute for a few minute in the sausage grease.
6. Add about 1/2 to 3/4’s of a box of chicken broth to the pan.  
7. Let the veggies and the meat simmer until the veggies have become tender. Add about two cups of frozen, diced Okra (can be found in the frozen veggie aisle).
8. Add 1 can of diced tomatoes and 1 small can of tomato paste, stir and continue to allow the brew to simmer for about 10 minutes.
9. Add 3-4 cloves of chopped garlic.
10. Lastly, add the key ingredient which is 1 to 2 tablespoons of Weber New Orleans style Cajun seasoning. I love this seasoning because I believe it makes the entire meal.  So as ET would say… BE GENEROUS.
11. Cook a pot of rice— white or brown— you choose.  That’s the beauty of it.
12. And finally— Pour the sweet goodness over the rice and enjoy! This has definitely become one of our favorite family meals!

Potty Training Turned Ugly

You know on tv, or in the movies, when a poor unsuspecting soul is suddenly slammed in the face with a giant cream pie leaving them covered in whipped cream and looking completely dumbfounded?  Well, our twenty-three-month old has creamed us yet again.  Metaphorically speaking that is.


Mack has been strong willed and stubborn since the beginning of her existence.  And, although I ultimately believe that these two traits will help to make her successful later in life, they have consequently made some (or most) of our parenting experiences thus far seem like we are on the losing end of a tug of war challenge-- being won by a blonde haired, blue eyed dwarf.


Let me start at the beginning. At 30 weeks when we went in for our 3D ultrasound, our tech told us that our daughter was in the perfect position for birth.  She was head down and ready for delivery.  Fast forward to a month later and we find ourselves bewildered as our OBGYN tells us that she is now breach and chilling out in a pike position (butt down and feet up...like she's lounging on the beach).  Turkey.  This turn of events brought us two weeks later back to the hospital to attempt the version procedure-- an expensive way of saying, "We'll move her if she won't move herself. " Surely this would work.  Nada.  Instead, we found ourselves seconds from being rushed to to an operating room for an emergency c-section.  Each time our doctors attempted to move her she would flip back into her pike position and her fetal heart rate would plummet.  Stubborn, stubborn child.


Fast forward to her first year of life.  Breastfeeding was a nightmare.  After 6 weeks of battle  and a hospital stay later we waved the white flag of surrender.  Her digestion problems (to put it eloquently) showed up at 2 weeks old and have stuck around since.  Surely she had to give us some points somewhere.  Maybe in the sleeping department?  Naaah.  While other new momma friends had babies sleeping through the night by 3 months or 6 months, our daughter was up nearly every night for her first full year of life.  And yes, we tried the "cry it out" method.  At least twice. She wasn't having any of it.  


At fourteen months we finally decided to switch her from a bottle to a sippy cup.  When she realized that her "baaa" wasn't being offered anymore she decided to boycott liquids of all form and we spent a week stressing over whether or not she was going to dehydrate herself.  At eighteen months she finally picked up a sippy cup on her own, and hasn't put one down since.  And to prove her point, she continues to this day to call any and all liquids "baaaa".  
Also right around eighteen months she decided to boycott food.  This has led now to a seemingly never ending battle in trying to keep the weight up on an already thin child.  


My point is this--our daughter has a mind of her own.  She knows what she wants and won't accept anything less. So why in heaven's name did we think potty training would be any different?  Just when we thought she might actually send an easy parenting experience our way...Pie. In. The. Face.  


Last week I made the mistake of announcing to you all the Mack was successfully potty training.  And it did go well--for all of four days.  And then the novelty wore off and instead of our daughter running eagerly to the potty throughout the day, she began to slam the bathroom door in our face and then pee on the floor.  And so here we are again.  + 1 for dwarf,  -1 for mom and dad and the little green potty.  Yet another win for our strong willed child.  God love her.  


So for now, we have halted all potty training and have decided that until she becomes interested again we won't force the issue.  Personally, I like my bathroom floor urine free. We'll continue to cloth diaper and hope for a more successful go around sometime this summer.  With our luck it will probably be more like a fourth go around. Stay tuned.  Any advice out there for parents who have run into a regress in potty training would be much welcomed!