Daniel's Favorite Christmas Gift

Out of all of Daniel's Christmas gifts, this ball was probably his favorite. He had the cutest reaction to it. He liked all of his gifts and has played with some more than others. (Other favorites include nesting blocks, magnetic blocks, and cars that take off when pulled back.) He definitely wanted to play with each gift as he opened them, much to the chagrin of his sisters who wanted him to keep opening! Daniel ended up opening gifts all day, one or two at a time. In the end, Livy and I opened his last couple because he just wasn't into it anymore. (Most of his gifts were toys I had picked up at yard sales or were given to us from friends throughout the year - I just saved them in a box downstairs and then wrapped them up for Christmas morning.)

Random Picture Challenge

I decided to take part in the Random Picture Challenge by 4 Little Men and Girly Twins. It seems like fun! This is the 8th picture in my January folder. Yes, a bit strange, huh? Well, I had been meaning to blog about this anyways. Since the New Year, I have been working hard to try and save us money. I can't really work outside the home (except for my occasional sales job), so I needed to find something I can do at home. I decided a great first step would be lowering our grocery bill. I don't know about you, but ours can get unreal sometimes. So I set a budget ($100/week - includes formula, diapers, personal products, meds, etc.) Many of you know that we live with my parents so my mom also contributes a percentage on top of the $100. In order to get our budget down to this, I have begun getting serious about coupons and sales flyers. Hence the above picture.

That was my first trip to Walgreen's, using coupons and sales. I spent $20 on all the products above. I'm not convinced it was the best I could do. I definitely learned some things - for instance, the toothpaste and toothbrush was not the deal I thought it was. I bought it anyways, but regretted it later because I know I could have gotten a better deal. The Tylenol PM that you see is $14.99 all by itself normally, so spending $20 on everything isn't too bad. The Garnier Fructis was probably the best buy of the day. Walgreens had it on sale for $2.99. Then they had a store coupons for -$2.00. Then I had a manufacturer coupon for -$1.00. So they ended up oweing me a penny for each product you see. (Yes, you can combine manufacturer coupons and store coupons on a single item.)

Here's an idea of how I have started out. First, I sit down with all the local sales flyers. I go through them one by one and circle what looks good to me. Then I go through my coupons to see what I have that matches what's on sale. I probably won't buy an item just because it's on sale (unless we really need it) if I don't have a coupon too. The first time I did this I went through all the flyers and then through my coupons. It was too confusing because I couldn't remember which store had which product on sale. Going through one flyer and comparing the coupons then tackling the next is much better.

This does involve going to multiple stores, which takes time. But I just look at it as a part time job. Jobs take time, right? And I try to go to some of the stores when Garr can keep the kids. Also, you have to be careful to make a list and stick to it or you will be three or four times as likely to impulse buy (depending on how many stores you go to)!

This is my third week and although it does take quite a bit of time, I am excited about how we are sticking to our budget and even have extra food at the end of the week! There are also some good coupon sites where someone else does the work for you - you just read on their site what the deal is and which coupons to use. I think my friend, Danielle, has that info on her blog. You can check it out there. :)

Homemade Frozen Yogurt

My MIL gave us some of her homemade cherry frozen yogurt and I fell in love. :) Sure enough, the next time I was at Target there was an ice cream maker in the clearance section - we got it for $7. However, once I got home, washed it, and froze the canister, life got crazy again. Finally after two or three months, we made ice cream for the first time. Abby doesn't like the cherry kind too much so we made strawberry instead. I had a bit of trouble. Usually I am all about reading the directions, but I thought

"Oh how difficult can it be? You pour the ice cream in, plug the machine in, and turn it on."

So, that's what I did. Then my mom pointed out that there ought to be a paddle in there.

A paddle?

Yeah, for churning the ice cream.

Oh.

So she went through the box, and sure enough, there was a paddle. At this point, the ice cream was already frozen to the sides of the canister (but still liquidy in the middle). So this meant the paddle didn't fit and wouldn't turn. So I'm scraping the sides and trying to get that paddle to move! After a while it did move a little, but it was so much work that the thing eventually overheated and shut down.

Oops.

In the end, we did get to have frozen yogurt, it just wasn't so frozen. More milk-shaky. It was still yummy though. So if you decide to try this - put the paddle in and turn the machine on before you add the ice cream! :)

VERY BERRY FROZEN YOGURT

2 cups low-fat yogurt (we use Stonyfield!)

1-12oz bag frozen berries to your desired consistency (whole, chopped, diced, pureed, strained)

1/2 cup whole milk

1/4 cup sugar

Combine all ingredients.

Turn on your machine :)

Pour ingredients in.

20-30 minutes and voila!

Frozen yogurt!

I'm back!

So I am finally getting back to blogging. We had a great Christmas (except Garr was very sick) but the rest was fun. I have had a bunch of blog ideas, but we have been without a computer so...no blogging. Now that we have one again, I am going to be catching up. :) For starters, here are some photos of the last two months (with captions.) :)

Christmas Eve - Abby, Daniel, Emelyn, Olivia

Christmas morning - Daniel was still sleeping
Garr insisted I put this one on

Daniel shaking finger and saying "No, no!"

Posing

Checking out the Christmas tree ornaments - a favorite game

Another game - He grabs his head like he has an awful headache and puts it down on the table. Then looks up at everyone and laughs. over and over again.

Here's the famous "uh-oh" game.

Garr's Mom and her friend, Buddy, came for Thanksgiving. We had a great time.

Making Gingerbread Cookies with the girls

One of the finished cookies

We used premade gingerbread dough and then rolled it and cut out shapes -

the kids still had fun and it saved me some time!

Olivia, Abby, Emelyn

"Mom, you think of everything!"

Said after I brought out the food coloring so we could make red and green icing!

Just had to throw this cute face in!

He climbed on a stool and pulled cookie cutters down and

made a general nuisance of himself to his sisters!

And it begins!

Facebook

So I haven't been on blogger in awhile. Everyone who told me about facebook is right - it is addicting! I love catching up with old friends and keeping up with new also. So don't start telling me how great MySpace is because I don't need another online addiction! :) Seriously, I'll get back to posting real soon. I have tons of great pictures of Daniel you'll all enjoy. Besides, I still love blogging - since I have no time to literally scrapbook - this is my virtual scrapbook! And it will transfer to a 'real' scrapbook someday in the future.

Hope everyone is getting excited about Christmas! I will be doing some secret Christmas things this week, baking cookies (choc chip with m&m's), and of course, finishing up my wrapping! Oh and mailing Christmas cards! I got them all addressed last night. And honestly, they did turn out pretty well after all. Next year, I'll just be better prepared! :)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card Tips

So this is the first year that I am sending out Christmas cards with pictures of the kids on them. (Actually this is the first year I am sending out Christmas cards, period, in a very long time!) At any rate, I have learned some things along the way.

What NOT to do when sending picture Christmas cards:

1. Don't work until you are sweating to make your card perfect and then get to the online checkout and find out that it will actually cost you twice what you expected because you aren't buying 800 cards and the shipping cost for the measly 75 cards you want to order is 35% of the total price! (Rather make a lame card first and go to checkout to see what actual cost will be.)

2. Don't go to the next site mad because of previous hassle and just choose the first card you see because you will realize later (after it arrives) that the card doesn't actually portray the joy of the season that you had dreamed it would.

3. Don't scour every Christmas card that comes in your mail and think, "Oh! Why couldn't I come up with some clever little sentiment to put on our card?" ... "What? I didn't put the date on it - how are people going to know that these are my kids in the year 2008 when they are rummaging through old shoeboxes of cards 20 years from now? How am I going to know??" ... "Should I have put our last name on the card? Can't people see it on the return address on the envelope? Am I sending this to anyone who wouldn't know us without our last name on it? Why am I sending it to them anyways?" Don't do this. It will only upset you further.

4. Don't think that just because the card looks good in the tiny little preview they give you online that it will look that good when you actually receive it. Note: blurry pictures look amazingly clear in the preview, and the fonts do seem to match.

5. Don't take a picture of the fancy expensive picture you bought and then use the copy you took to make your Christmas cards out of. You will realize later it could be a copyright issue. You will probably feel guilty and then you won't enjoy your Christmas cards at all. And you might secretly worry that Santa will put coal in your stocking as penance.

6. Finally, don't let yourself stress about Christmas cards. Just stuff and send. The worst that can happen is your friends won't put your kids on their fridge. You'll get over it.