Thanksgiving and Snowballs

For Thanksgiving this year we made the trek to spend the long weekend with my family, with the added bonus that A's Dad came with us as well so we were able to spend the holiday with both sets of parents. I was even able to get a great picture of K with all of her grandparents (great grandparents included). We also celebrated my brother's birthday (K was a big help opening his gifts and blowing out the candles). It was a great time :)

We also went to a local ice cream shop that's been around for over 50 years. They make their own ice cream and it's so delicious! We try and stop in there every trip. This particular time K decided to pick a blue and red ice cream called Superman. I have no idea what the flavor was (even though I tried it) but she loved the fact that it made her tongue blue.

Last night we had our first snowfall of the season. It was very wet and didn't stick much but as K pointed out, it looked "magical". That first snow truly is beautiful. She wanted A to make her snowballs SO bad (I can't believe she remembered that from last year!) but the snow that was left this morning was too icy and there really wasn't that much that actually stayed on the ground from the night before. However, she was able to at least smash one on Daddy's head (something she learned to do last year). This time though, Daddy smashed one right back on her head! She loved it =D

Ugh :(

Normally I only make posts if I have some fun pictures to share but that isn't the case today. I am on the verge of a hormone-induced breakdown and all I want to do is curl up in bed and cry myself to sleep. Thank God for my husband. He is upstairs with our little girl who for two days now hasn't taken a nap and doesn't even seem the remotest bit tired when it's nap time. Yesterday she seemed tired early so I put her in bed about an hour and a half earlier than usual. After 2 and a half hours of being in bed and not napping, I decided she isn't going to sleep so I let her get out of bed to read. Today I put her in bed at her usual time and after an hour and a half of not sleeping, again I let her get out of bed to read because otherwise she would be sleeping too late in order to go to bed at a decent time this evening. However, when this kid doesn't nap she turns into a screeching, whining, crying, kid who throws a fit over every little thing screaming, "I CAN DO IT MYSELF!!!" Some days  I have the patience to tolerate it but no tonight. And now I'm thinking, "how in the world am I going to do this with two kids?" Honestly, right now, I feel like there is no way I can do it. I guess from now on the only way to get through the day is to start going to bed at 8:00 myself so I'll have the energy and patience to handle these meltdowns. But for now, like I said, thank God for my husband because he is being so wonderful handling her.

A Girl and her Daddy

Today after returning from a trip to the grocery store, K asked Daddy to play with her and her Buzz Lightyear and Woody toys. He happily obliged her.

There was a LOT of running (Daddy and Buzz were chasing her and Woody) and tons of laughing.

The picture of A mid-run cracks me up. It was a gorgeous day and I'm glad we were able to take advantage of it.

Sliding fun!

Yesterday when Daddy got home from work K wanted him to take pictures of her while riding down her slide. As you can see from her face, it was a lot of fun =D

There is nothing better in life than the happiness of a child (and her Daddy). I am a very blessed Momma.

After Halloween Deals

One of my favorite blogs does a "Thrifty Finds" feature where she shows you the cool things she found at various thrift stores in her area. Well, this is kind of like my version of that but it's from big chain stores and it's After-Halloween deals instead of cool thrift store finds. I waited until today to go to the stores so there was very little left but I still found some neat things that I thought would be fun to share with you.

(Sorry, it's not the best picture)

From left to right, top row: Carter's 2-piece Ladybug costume for New Baby $5.50 (down from $22.00). "Itsy Bitsy Spider" onesie for New Baby $1.25 (down from $5.00). "Here Comes Trouble" witch t-shirt for K $1.25 (down from $5.00). Cute spider knee-high socks for me $0.99 (down from $3.99).

From left to right, bottom row: Stiffened felt die-cut jack-o-lantern placemats $0.49 each (down from $1.99 each). I got three of them to stitch together to make a table runner. I'm copying off my Mom who did something similar with snowflakes for Christmas. Skeleton fake Crocs for K $1.74 (down from $6.99). Jack-o-lantern and owl glasses $0.99 each (down from $3.99 each). Glitter 3-D die-cut candelabra $1.24 (down from $4.99). I've seen these in blogland in pink and thought they were cute but I like the green a little better because it looks more "Halloween-y" to me.

Total savings from Meijer: $46.50


Animated singing/dancing puppy for K $10.49 (down from $34.99). She fell in love with this puppy the first time she saw it at the beginning of Oct. but there was no way I was spending $35.00 on it. So when we saw it again today for 70% off, I decided it was a good enough deal. The only problem with it is I've heard the same small segment of the song Bad to the Bone that it plays about 100 times today. It's really cute though. Its head moves back and forth and its ears flap up and down while it plays the music.

Total savings from Jo-Ann Fabric: $24.50


4-in-1 Carving Tool $0.59 each (down from $1.99). I bought four. Flickering pumpkin LED lights $0.89 each (down from $2.99 each). I bought four. 350 Halloween stickers $0.99 (down from $1.99). Pumpkin Scraper Scoop $2.09 (down from $6.99). I bought two.

Total savings from Michaels: $24.80


All in all I'd say it was a pretty impressive days worth of savings. Now arguably someone could say that if I didn't buy anything that I would have saved even more but what's the fun in that?!? Besides, I would have missed this little Goofball hugging her new puppy all day.

Today was a good day

Actually I was feeling quite lousy this afternoon but I can never feel bad when I have such an amazing little girl to brighten my day. Today K and I were talking about Uncle S and how his birthday is coming up. I was mentioning that he is an artist so K decided she wanted to paint a picture for him. I put on some music (woot, Queen!) and she got to work. It started out innocently enough and then she decided finger painting would be more fun. Well, I wasn't going to be out done so I started painting her hands so she could do hand prints. Then we just resorted to smearing her hand on the paint palette to finally just letting her wipe her hands on her shirt. I remember when I used to be *that* Mom that would get an eye twitch if my kiddo got a speck of dirt on her. I'm SO glad I gave up that persona because today was way too much fun =D

She was saying "cheese" and supposed to be smiling but instead it looks like she is grimacing at the paint brush.

I mentioned that purple is a favorite color of Uncle S so she used plenty of it.

Yeah, it was a fun day =D