Funny Friday post (AKA: pinterest fail)

A friend came over today to take some newborn pictures of Paisley.  She told me that days 6-10 are the best time to take newborn pictures because they sleep constantly, which allows you to put them into some crazy positions.  Before she came over, I fed Paisley to ensure that she would be sleeping during the photo shoot.  But instead, she was awake the whole entire time!  

I'm sure the pictures will turn out great, but I was so bummed that Paisley wasn't sleeping... she constantly sleeps.  So it was hard to position her and she kept moving and trying to escape the cute positions we put her in. 

Anyways, after all the pictures were taken, Paisley decided to take a nap (of course!)  So, I turned to pinterest and found some cute newborn picture positions and got my camera ready.  I mean, how hard could it be, right?  ha!  This was no easy task... as you will soon see.  

I had 3 inspiration pictures that I wanted to mimic.  Here they are:  

Pinterest inspiration:

My picture:

Pinterest inspiration:

My picture:

Pinterest inspiration:

My picture:

Oh... and just in case you ever wandered, If you feed your baby and then lay her on Psalms 139, 

they will spit up in the crease of your Bible :(  

This was my best pinterest effort... do you have any funny pinterest fails?

A Summer of Amazing Food!

This summer our family has taken taken advantage of some great fresh food!  My family has fun going to the local farmer's market on Saturday mornings, we have a box of fresh, organic fruits and veggies delivered to our house weekly, and have had a friend share her crop-share with us.

We have eaten so many foods this summer that I have never eaten or heard of before.  And I've had a blast sharing my "firsts" foods with my kids.  Recently, a friend gave us some swiss chard and beets.  I have never eaten either and didn't know where to start.  But we had a great time learning new recipes and how to incorporate these new foods into our diet.  

Here's what I've learned this summer about eating habits:

If my kids are involved in picking out the food and preparing it, they are much more apt to try it.  

If I act excited to try something new, they are too.    

It's true what they say... it takes about 10-15 times for a child to try a food before they like it.  So, don't get frustrated, just try again and again.

Have you heard of Easy Eater 2?  If not, like them on facebook!  They have some great resources to help your kids build healthier eating habits and I love that they have a passion for fighting against childhood obesity.

I will leave you with some pictures   :)

picking strawberries... and eating a lot off the vine!

Eating a dapple fire pluot

Made this for dinner recently... roasted chicken legs with carrots, potatoes, and brussels sprouts drizzled with olive oil, sea salt, and Italian seasoning.  Initially, I wasn't going to add the brussels sprouts, but my son requested them!!! 

What are the new foods you've tried this summer?

Frugal Friday!

This week's frugal accomplishments:

1) I cut Warrick's hair... Aldi's had clippers on sale for cheap and so I'm planning on saving LOTS of money on hair cuts over the years :)

2) This week, Warrick had his first ever dental visit (I know... he should've gone long ago)  Since we don't have dental insurance, it was expensive.  But the receptionist said if I paid in cash, rather than with a debit card, I would get a 5% discount.  I know it's not much, but I'll take what I can get :)  Both kids are going back in Feb and so I made her give me a very detailed price so I could start budgeting for it now.  I'm sure she thought I was silly, but I don't want to be surprised!

3) My friend got me a GALLON of coconut oil in Amish country for $10!  Here's a link for 101 uses of coconut oil if you are curious.

4) My friend sold me her food processor for $5!

5) I received some similac formula in the mail, along with $20 worth of similac coupons.  I traded them on an online maternity site for 3 packs of wipes, some size 1 diapers, and a cute newborn sleeper.
 
6) I sold a pair of Warrick's shoes online that didn't fit anymore.

7)  I registered for Indy Kids Consignment sale to sell Warrick's old clothes.

8) The weather has been fall-like around here, so we've had a lot of days with doors and windows open!

9) My friend is going out of town this weekend and said that I could have her crop-share!!!!  :)

10) Matt and I took the kids to $2 Tuesday at the state fair... admission, rides, and food were $2.  And there was a lot of great company as well :)

   The girls :)    

 

Tynnley was tuckered out!

 

eating a fried oreo on dad's shoulders :)

11) I received a text from Redbox for a free 1 night rental, so Matt and I had an at-home movie night after the kids went to bed.

12) On Saturday, I went to the farmer's market with my sister-in-law and I got 2 huge yellow squash for 50 cents a piece and 2 free apples.  And she brought me a free frappuccino from Starbucks!  

13) Tonight we are going to have "family pizza movie night"  We have papa murphy's coupons and we will either borrow a movie from the library or rent one from Redbox.  I saw on facebook earlier that there are only 940 weekends between your child's birth and them leaving for college.  We want to be a family that is intentional about making the most of those weekends, especially when our kids actually want to hang out with us.  I've heard a rumor that when they are teens, they don't wanna do family movie night with mom and dad anymore :)  

Hope your week was great!!!  What did you save money on this week?  I would love to hear!  

Frugal Friday!

Happy Frugal Friday!  

August is just around the corner!  

Before Matt and I do our August budget, I wanted to take inventory of all the fall/winter clothes I had bought for Warrick this summer at garage sales so that we could budget for clothes if needed before preschool starts.  

So I went through all the clothes I had bought for him this summer.  And it turns out, that he has a lot more than I thought!  I bought him 10 shirts, 1 pair of khakis, and 6 pairs of jeans.  And many of his clothes still fit from last year.  

I got all of these clothes pictured below for $11 total!  And most of them are Gap or Children's Place.  I love garage saling :)  So all I will need to budget for is new shoes and school supplies!!! :)    

  Warrick modeling a cute outfit for me :)  

How do you save on Back-To-School?

Happy Frugal Friday!  :)  

Frugal Friday!

I can't believe it's friday already... these weeks are going so fast.  Which means Paisley will be here before we know it!!!  6 more weeks unless she comes early, which I'm hoping and praying for :)  

Here are my frugal accomplishments for the week:

1)  Got this watermelon at Meijer for $0.09!!!

2) Got a bunch of celery and 7 bananas for $0.60 at target (via mobile coupon)

3) Today is Cow Appreciation Day at Chic-Fil-A, which means if you dress as a cow, you get a free meal.  Of course, this is one of my favorite days of the year :)

4)  We were paying $25 a month for AT&T internet for the past year.  The promotional 12 month offer is now over and our bill was raised to $47.  I wasn't happy about it, but I knew that we couldn't get internet cheaper than $47... I checked around.  (If you know of something cheaper, let me know!)  So I called to see if they could offer me anything that would be less than $47 a month.  They said they could lessen it by $5 a month making it $42 for the next 12 months.  I know that's not a big difference, but because of a 7 minute phone call, we saved $60 this year :)

5)  I joined a few groups on facebook where you can buy and sell kids clothes and have made $13 this week selling some of Warrick's baby clothes... and I'm making more per item than I did at the garage sale.

What are your frugal accomplishments for the week?  I would LOVE to hear them!!!!

Meal Planning Monday :)

I went to the grocery store today and this is what I got for around $80... I went over a little.  

Along with this, GreenBEAN delivery comes tomorrow and in it will be:

3	Apples, Pink Lady
28 oz.	Local Potatoes, Red
1 Pound	Grapes, Red Flame
1 8 oz.	Greens, Salad Mix
1	Peppers, Green-
1	Onion, Sweet Yellow
32 oz.	Local Squash, Green Zucchini
4	Peaches, Yellow -
1	Local Cucumber
1	Avocados
1 Bunch	Local Greens, Kale
3 pcs.	Bananas-

Here is what we will be eating for the next 2 weeks:

Breakfasts:  cereal, eggs, toast, fruit

Lunches: pb&j sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, veggies, and fruit

Dinners:
Whole chicken in the crockpot... this will be 2 meals:  Chicken with veggies and then chicken salad
chicken thighs with penne
quiche
Chicken fajitas friday for Matt's birthday... they are his favorite.  And I'm making this dessert in lieu of a cake, going to attempt to "clean" it up a bit :)
zucchini pizza
2 meals at church
steak on the grill with broccoli, salad, and watermelon
3 meals with just the kids and I... something simple and meatless I'm sure :)
chicken drumsticks with veggies
something with ground beef... any suggestions?  We have 32 lbs of ground beef in the freezer and we're not huge fans of spaghetti or meatloaf.


A few of these were on the menu for the last two weeks, but I didn't make them since Matt was gone in the evening and didn't eat with us.  I usually do something super easy when it's just me and the kids.

What are you having this week?

Frugal Friday!

Here are my frugal accomplishments for the week:

1) $1 flip flops at Old Navy!  I got there hours after they opened, but was still able to get a pair for Matt and a pair for me.

2) $1 off fresh fruit and $1 off fresh veggies at Target (via mobile coupon).  I got a bag of carrots a large cantaloupe for $1.08.

3) Saturday afternoon I went to a half-off garage sale.  I got 8 clothing items for the kids for $2!

4) While looking through tubs of baby clothes, I came across some plain white onesies.  Since I had a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby, I got this cute iron-on applique for cheap and made this:

5) Since it didn't rain on Wednesday, I was able to sun-dry Tynnley's cloth diapers instead of using the dryer

6) We played at home a lot this week as to not waste a lot of gas and when we did go out, we made sure to combine errands we needed to run.

7) When we were at PBS kids at the park, I signed up to receive info regarding energy efficiency.  This week, I received a complimentary box of CFL bulbs in the mail!  

8) Matt was gone 2 nights this week for dinner, so the kids and I ate on the cheap.  One night we had spaghetti without meat and another night we had corn, potatoes, and strawberries.  I know it's not the healthiest, but don't worry... he had other green veggies earlier in the day.  :)  

What were your frugal accomplishments this week?