Shopping for a Mixer

This is one of the most

exciting

purchases I am about

to

embark on.

A dream come true of sorts!

My very own

big

girl mixer!

It will sit on my counter top

in all its glory.

First off I need

to select the right one.

I think I am pretty much set on

a Kitchen Aid.

They have a few different versions

out there and I am not

sure what one to get.

Then once I get that figured out

I will need to

pick a

COLOR!

Seriously!

A color is a HUGE commitment!

We have tossed around the idea

of moving.

One day we will need to.

When we do I

want the kitchen to match

the mixer.

Ugg!

Platinum.

Red.

Black.

The choices!





Great Clothes Deals!!

Hubby and I try to decide how or what we are going to do

on Saturday to make the best of our time.

The weekend goes by so quick.

We love love love to go out

to breakfast.

Our favorite place is

Bob Evans.

I think that if they didn't see us for an

extended period of time they

would be worried.

As a matter of fact there was a time I wasn't feeling

well while I was pregnant.

Hubby went to pick up breakfast for us and they thought

we had Miss J.

Anyways. Once we are done eating we then ran to the mall.

I returned this back the mall.

Yes, tis a shame. But I had found a better deal at Kohls. 

While I was there I was looking for clothes for my

stepson.

I found some jeans that were $8.

Hope they fit.

Once we left the mall we headed to Kohls.  

A few weeks ago I had found a coat/snow pant set for

the girls at Kohl's

that was by Carter, which were

originally $85. I had turned down buying that in the fall

because of the price.

On sale they were about $25.

Hubby needed some

new shoes. Oh did he ever!

He had an every were pair.

Every were we/he went he wore them.

Parting will be such sweet sweet sorrow!

They are being replaced with

2 new pairs - dress pair for work

and

more casual every day shoes.

Then we headed over to the kids section.

Oh my!

$1.20



Matching. Well there are slight difference.



$4.00 and $4.80

I normally wouldn't buy this at regular price. Even on sale this was expensive - $8.00.
I thought it was too cute to pass up though.



PJ's marked down to $6.




Holiday dress marked down from $40 to $8.

I would like to say that overall this morning was a huge accomplishment

considering how much we

will save once next year comes.

I love to hit up year end sales to stock up

for next years sizes.

And we ended up saving more than we spent.

Crazy!!



Huge Accomplishments

So hubby has put in

a ton of hours

this week

at work.

Most of it has been on the road.

While he was busy so was I.

The girls were not

feeling too hot this week.

And I have been putting some work

into my shop.

I am loving it more and more.

I made this!!

A new banner.

I had thought about having a contest

to come up with a new design (maybe another time),

but this one just happened.

Check it out here.

And I made a template for matching cards

to attach my bows/accessories

to as well!

Im way excited about it!

Can you tell?



Squeaky Shoes

These shoes are super wonderful! I'm not sure how I came

across these, but they are

super adorable.

Everywhere we go we get comments

on them too.

Shoes. Big deal. Oh no! They squeak too.
You can keep track of your little one.
These have been great when we have gone out of
town on trips with hubby.

We get so many comments/compliments on these.

Some people say those are SOO cute!

Others,

well

say the squeaking would drive them nuts.

To the neigh sayers

I say its no different

than all the other

noises, playing and

other things that accompany having a little one.

Really ...

when its quite something is not right.

Mom's are you with me on that?

My youngest is the one that is on the constant go.

When she is quite I am alarmed.

You can find them here and here.

They have adorable shoes for boys as well.

I have video of them squeaking, but I don't know how to transfer
the video onto here. :(
Once I figure that out I will get it up to show you how they
work.



In The Making

One of the gifts my girls

got from Santa

was a musical set

that included a tamborine,

song flute,

and

something else that

I don't know the name of.

Hubby and I were both in band. I think

Miss J is getting a head start.

She is just shy of 1. Oh my!

The big 1!

That gets me a little choked up.

Little G insisted on having her picture

taken too.

She loves her little sister to peices!

I took this picture a few weeks ago.

It is the cutest thing though.

Those little footed pj's.

The diapered butt.

Trying to master walking.

By the time I post this she probably will be.

She is so close to just taking off

its not funny.

She does this little hobble thing.

While on one hip she scootes

using her arm to pull her

forward.

She went from army crawl to her little

hobbling scoot.

Love those baby moments!

Its A Jungle

Today I made a decision to spend some time with my girls.

That meant my time on here was

very limited.

The amount of time I spend on here is

ridiculous. It's terrible.

Both of them have not been feeling very well.

It all started Friday night after they went

to bed.

That is when the coughing began.

As our day had begun it dawned on me that I had told my

oldest that we would need to replace batteries in

some toys.

What was I thinking!

With dead batteries it was a bit more

quite.

It began with the Lion. When he rolls he makes a noise.

Well, I found that changing the batteries did not solve that.

Next was Tiger.

I told her we needed to fix his belly.

Check that off the list.

My trustworthy assistant hard at work!

Next!

Oh her.

She has been so quite.

I do not recall seeing instructions for

open and close on the real ones.

If there are then I am missing something.

I got her back on the road.

It did not take long for me to want to

pop out a battery or two from her.

I quickly switched her to

'try' mode.

That setting she at least took a break from crying.

While I was crossing stuff off my to do list I had a

spot on the carpet.

I had contemplated cutting the spot off.

Thought that it would probably be best to

try to get it off/out with a little effort

first before doing something drastic.

It had a cherry smell to it. Candy? Cough drop?

It was coming out.

Surely I wasn't going to suck on it

until it dissolved. UCK!

Next best thing was a wet paper towel with

hot/warm water.

For back up I used a hair dryer.

I got most of it out until my youngest

became curious as to what

I was doing.

In between all the fussing, meals and checking off a few

minor things we got to play a little bit and read.



Cleaning the Fridge

It was time for me to clean this.

I should have done this last month when

there were challenges at A Bowl Full of Lemons.

It was just time. Past time!

Do you know that with two little ones

it is difficult to clean the

entire refridgerator?

Just to get this clean was a huge accomplishment.

Perhaps I should have done this when my

smallest one was down for a nap.

I squeezed it in when I could though.

We get busy running around

doing things that are more

fun than me cleaning the fridge.

While cleaning I found out what to do with some chicken for dinner.

I made chicken terriaki. One more thing I could use and it

would help in my mission to reduce some of

what was in the door.

I had found the chicken on sale. The only thing was that it was bone it breast.

Normally I would shy away from that, but this time I didnt.

They took longer than expected to cook in the oven.

When they were done they were so moist!

The marinade time was just right. I had added some

pinneapple juice as well from a fresh

pineapple I had cut up that morning.





Shopping for Next Winter

We had a playdate at the mall. Afterwards I went to

JCP to see if they had any good deals. Did they ever!!

I got this sweet little coat for $9.97.

Actually I got two of them. One for

little G and one for Miss J.

This was the only style they had left.

I didn't want to do this to them, but its gonna happen.

Yep, they are gonna be dressed the same.

With a deal that good I would be a

bad mom not to do it.

I think they may enjoy it. Well little G will anyways.

She is the best big sister ever!! She gushes

over her little sister.

Every so often she will go to Miss J in the morning

and give her a kiss.

Just the sweatest thing ever.

She was made to be a big sister!

Oh, I also got a spring coat for Miss J this past weekend.

A little yellow coat for her from

Goodwill. I got it half off better yet.

I love deals! Seriously it is a dangerous

thing for me.

My eyes get all glassy

I get a shopping rush.

It's terrible.



Chocolate for Valentine's Day

Every evening hubby and I like to have something sweet

once the kids are in bed. We don't do a very

good job of planning what we

want though.

Sunday I had mentioned something about

 making blondies for us. He said that sounded really good.

We had Christmas M & M's still. He had

gotten them for free. Note that we

don't eat much candy. I had him sort out

the red from the green M & M's so

I could use them for the blondies

recipe.

Monday I changed my mind.

I had found something that looked

far more appealing than blondies for a

Valentine's treat.

I had to make a run to pick up a prescription

and while doing so I picked up some baker's

chocolate.

That was the only missing ingredient.

Once I got home I began working on our

dessert. It didn't take long to put together, but I needed

time to get dinner ready for us as well.

Ok I have left you in suspence for long enough.

Here goes.

Chocolate Molten Cakes

 6 oz bittersweet baking chocolate

10 T unsalted butter

1 1/2 c powdered sugar

1/2 c flour

3 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

1 t vanilla

1 t espresso powder

 (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425*. Grease 6 - 6oz custard/ramakin dishes and dust with cocoa powder. Place them on a baking sheet.
2. Melt chocolate and butter being careful not to burn the chocolate. If microwaving be sure to only place it in for a few seconds and to throughly stir, making sure all the chocolate is melted.
3. Add vanilla and mix. Add powered sugar, flour and optional espresso powder (I used a tsp of coffee liquor in mine in place of espresso). Mix until well blended.
4. Add 3 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks, beating well until blended with chocolate mixture.
5. Divide batter evenly among cups. There is aproximately 24 oz of batter, which means each cup would have 4 oz of batter in it. I had 4-7oz ramakins and filled each with 6 oz of batter.
6. Bake for 14 to 15 minutes or until edges of cake are firm, but still soft in the center. Let stand 1 minute and run a knife along the edge of the cup to loosen cake. Invert cake carefully onto a plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and raspberries or banana slices or sprigs of mint. Serve along with whipped cream or ice cream.

Makes 12 servings - 1/2 cake each if using 6 cups or 1/4 cup if using 4 cups.

Seriouly? I ate the whole thing by myself! I loved every last bit of that bad boy too! Hubby said it was

too much for him. He couldn't handle it.

The M&M's are still waiting to be made into something delicious.

Top Ten On Tuesday

1. Valentine's Day - Friday hubby scattered notes all over the house for me. He was going to tie each of the notes to a rose, but I was up before he got back from the store with them. It was still a great suprise.

2. Wamer tempatures. That means we are closer to being able to visit the zoo and parks to play. Im so excited about it because little G loves being a big sister to Miss J. She often teaches her things and it is the cutest thing. I think they will both like the zoo and know that little G will do her sisterly duty of filling in Miss J on animals.

3. Not having a boss. Well, I do have a boss or bosses in a sense. But we blew bubbles last week and that would have been frowned upon at a regular job. We have playdates, which too would be frowned upon.

4. A fixed drain. The drain in our tub had been slow for some time. V-E-R-Y slow! Sunday it was resolved. Ahhh!!

5. A budget challenge I set for myself for groceries for one week. I was a bit scared terrified at the thought of limiting myself to $50 for a week. But after sitting down and making out the week of meals I think I have done it. Holy smokes! Well, it was done on about $52. That includes diapers for two.

6. Who says being a stay at home mom is boring, uneventful or not work?! Hubby asked me Sunday night how I managed to stay sane. I dont and am not.

7. Love seeing my 2 yr old learning to count. Last week she took some cheerios into the living room (which I don't typically let her do) and proceed to try to count them. She is showing me how she learns best. That means I need to get on the ball and get more visual aides for her.

8. Chocolate! I made the one of the best chocolate recipes last night for hubby and I. Shortly after he ate it he was asleep on the couch. Coincidence? I think so. I will post more about the recipe later.

9. When my 11 month old sleeps through the night it is absolute heaven for me. She didn't begin sleeping through the night until she was about 10 months old. Last night she was up twice. Uggg. I have a feeling she is going to be cutting her upper teeth very soon.

10. Looks like today might be my Monday. Both of my girls were up at 6am. That is way way too early!

Early Monday's

Like my layout?

Err...I don't.

Im trying to figure out how to remove

the red and blue with wording.

I try and try and try.

Earlier today I was making something and wanted

ramakins. I have 4 and could only find 3 of them.

I said something to hubby when he

got home.

Low and behold he found it -

in the dishwasher!

Crazy right.

I think Im am loosing it.

For the meantime my

blog is going to look

like a hot mess.

Speaking of hot mess.

I look like exactly that today.

My two little ones decided that 7am

was a good time to get up.

As my day got later I began to show it.

While making supper my shirt had

evidence of my work.

I then realized why it was that housewives in

the 60's were in the practice of changing before their husbands came home.

I later noticed that I had chocolate on my sleeve.

MMMMmmm...

That was from desert.

I will post that later for you!



Baked French Toast with Praline Topping

This is so yummy!

It came from hubby. He

doesn't like to cook. I had found it

odd that he would have such a recipe.

We had this last Friday for supper to

change things up a bit.



Baked French Toast

1 large loaf French bread

8 large eggs

2 cup half and half

1/2 cup milk

3 T sugar

1 t vanilla

1/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

Slice bread into 1" slices and place upright in a buttered 9x13 pan.

Combine all other ingredients and beat until blended but not bubbly.

Pour over bread, making sure liquid gets between slices.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. In AM drain excess liquid.

* I didn't drain excess and it

turned out fine.

Praline Topping

1 c butter, softened

1 c brown sugar

1 c chopped pecans

1 T light corn syrup

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t nutmeg

Mix together. Spread evenly over bread. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes

or until center pieces are done. If top gets too dark cover with foil.

Enjoy!

Winter Bubbles

One of the cartoons had bubbles on.

Ding!

I remembered something.

One of the hairdressers on Saturday

had said if you blow bubbles in

negative degree weather that

bubbles crystallize.

I HAD to try it!

I hopped onto a local channel's website

to check the tempature to see if

conditions were ripe.

Current Conditions

South Bend Regional Airport, IN (KSBN)

Last Updated on Feb 10, 9:54 am EST



Weather: Clear

Temperature: -3 F (-19 C)

Relative Humidity: 77%

Wind: From the South-southwest at 12 MPH

Barometric Pressure: 30.16" (1021.33 mb)

Dewpoint: -8 F (-22 C)

Heat Index: NA

Windchill: -21 F (-29.44 C)

Visibility: 10 miles

Well I just wanted to know the temp. I dont know how relevant

the rest of it is.

It was amazing. Something that would seem so obvious though.

Water would freeze at such a tempature.

With that small amount of water it would

freeze quickly.

It was - cool!

They seemed to linger in the air longer than they would in warmer

weather.

The bubbles seemed to float forever. They have went across the street

and floated above some neighbors homes.



There are some there. You can BARELY see them, but they are

there.

I went back to our local channel. They were talking about keeping bundled

up in this weather. And there is a wind advisory until noon.

This had taken place out my side door.

No shoes.

No coat.

Toddler holding door open for me.

Im such a good example!

Cabin Fever!

I came to the conclusion that we have cabin fever.

It may...

just may have something to do with

all that white stuff in the

picture.

I don't mind it.

I'm not going to complain about it.

And yes, that pile of snow is taller than my little G.

Today we had a playdate for groundhog day. A belated

play date. Monday we had a play date as well.

It takes some work to get them out the door to do things when it is cold.

More so when there is a minus 3 (that is with the wind chill).

I planned for us to leave earlier than the planned

play date so we could get some library books.

I try to get to the library every

2 weeks or so. 

This happened to be prefect timing for us. It was a great opportunity for her

to run off some energy.

Afterwards we went to Chic-Fil-A to get some chic chic.

The mose awesome (that's right, I said awesome) part

is that she has been down for a nap for

about 2 1/2 hours. She did that often before she shared a

room with her sister. Hopefully she

will be well rested.

While little G was sleeping Miss J had the run of the place. Yesterday

she was very. unhappy. I took a little time to work

on my Home Organizing notebook. (I will post more about 

that later).

Then it was quite. 

When you have kids you know quite equals not good. I took a peak 

to where Miss J was. I seen her put something in her mouth 

as she usually does. Something did not 

add up though. It didn't look 

right. Oh - well thats because it

was poop!! EWW!!!

It came out the back of her diaper. 

Apparently she did some investigation work. LOL 

I took her to the kitchen where there are hard surfaces 

that clean easy. I had to strip her down.

Prior to doing so I had to clean her hands. 

Then I moved to her back. 

It was on her and me at this point. It

was u-g-l-y. 

By the time it was all cleaned up she was in a new diaper and slippers.

Bunny slippers to be exact.

Today is their laundry day. It happened to be sitting in the hall so it

can go to get washed. She is in her pj's from this morning. 

Let's say she is in a much better mood. 

Perhaps I should have given - 

No ...second thought prunes would have been

way way bad! 

She was cranky on Tuesday, so apparently

that fixed her issue.

I was blessed to have her fall asleep in my

arms!

Isn't that the best part of

being a mom!

Check out how we made the best of a ever
so cold winter day here.

Give Away at Thrifty 101

Do you guys remember when I told you about these?

I admit that I never did a follow up post about them.

*Note to self*

Over at Thrifty 101 they are celebrating

100 followers.

Enter for you chance to win a free set of

these for yourself.

When you enter be sure to include my name

Mindy H in your comment

so she knows

I sent you.

Top Ten on Tuesday

How have I missed this

before??

" />

1. Anxiously waiting for the weather to warm up. I can honestly say I don't mind the snow

but it is bundleing everyone up in order to go some where that

is such a chore. Am I alone in this?

2. The economy has finally his us. Blech! Slow market has forced hubby's work to make some

changes. We are fortunate enough for him to have a job though.

3. How to be more creative with our grocery budget because of #2.

4. I miss wine tasting with hubby. Prior to have kids we would take a short

drive to Michigan. It is about a 45 minute drive. We would

go to about 4 wineries to do tasting. Come home with our favorites.

5. It seems that I have been tapped of creativity lately. In less .... it

involves food. That is dangerous.

6. Monday nights hubby has a bible study group. It is nice to have some me time

but it goes so quickly.

7. I am pretty good about planning meals out for the week. It saves a ton of hassel.

I have to admit something. Yesterday I had hubby do it.

Maybe it is a lack of creativity.

Or laziness?

8. Ugg...my house does not seem to organize itself. When I purchased it several

years ago I should have looked into that.

9. Back to #8 - a maid would have been nice too. Ahhh ... a maid.

10. Shopping for clothes is not as easy as it use to be. It is not

the physical aspect that is difficult since that has always

 been thecase prior to kids. It is the time that it takes to

find something.

Valentine's Decoration

Valentine's Day is near.

Have you decorated?

Little G and I put window clings up.

We had bought them at Target in the

dollar section.

Love that little area.

She go to put them up with some

assistance.

Do you need a little something

to decorate with?

I made this to be printed as a 5x7.

OR

These are avaliable here.

First time customers use NEWCUST to

get 20 percent off.