Generic or Name brand?

I have always been a food snob. Everything I bought had to be name brand. If I was asking a favor of someone, as in I forgot this at the store..would you grab some on your way? I would ask them "please make sure it isnt Western Family" or Great Value or whatever generic brand that certain store would carry. Now that my grocery budget doesn't stretch as far as it used to - I have been trying some generic brands and to my surprise I love them!! I love that they are actually yummy, and/or work the same, and they cost up to $2.00 less. My judgment based merely on the ugly packaging and name was so wrong - in most generic products. Anyway, I thought I would list some of my "favorite" generic products. I guess I am still in shock that the generic thing isnt so bad! The list wont be too long as I am just starting, but here they are:

Western Family Tuna Fish
Western Family Canned Tomatoes
Great Value Taco Seasoning
Great Value Turkey gravy ( I bought this because they were out of the McCormick brand and it made the YUMMIEST! Turkey gravy)
Great Value Garlic Bread
Members Mark Laundry Soap
Member Mark Hand Soap
Target Body Wash - this is the item that made me thing of this post. It was actually really good!
Target cereal
(that's all I can remember.....)

I dont like:

Target Dryer Sheets - they dont smell Downy enough

Lisa told me to stay away from:

Generic Cream of Mushroom
any generic Macaroni & cheese

I have to take Lisa's word because she doesnt buy anything name brand.

Some generic names still scary me, so I will stay away from those. Especially in the milk section.

I am still a meat snob - only Harmons.

Oh! All this saving a dollar stuff has even got me to go to stores that I wouldn't go to before - REAMS & MACY's - I have discovered these stores have super yummy bakeries!

Maybe this list could help someone else get started on saving a few dollars on the generic stuff that tastes the same or better as name brand!

Though this is all in food - I HATE cheap shoes :)

When one is in a goooooood mood....

Sometimes...they can be so sweet! Joshy decided he was going to set the table for dinner tonight -name tags and all! He was so proud of himself:

He also cleaned up after dinner and did a really good job too!

We had turkey pot pie for dinner, the 2nd night in a row (Well..sort of.. since last night we ate out, but we had it tuesday night and then I made it again tonight). Why did I make two times in a row you ask? Well, Joshy seems to be the fussiest eater and doesnt like ANYTHING I make for dinner. He says I "always make gross stuff". Well, with this particular meal, he had fourths. So, I thought I would make it again since i was so happy he actually ate!!!

Happy Belated New Years!

Here are a few pics of us from New Years. We had too many awesome invites, however, we ended up at my brothers house. Of course - right? We had a great time. I was the designated driver so by midnight I was about to fall asleep! And Josh was too.

This pic was taken in 2009. I was sleepy! ~

I randomly took this picture as the new year rang. It looks like everyone is saying "Happy New Year!" ~

Playing super fun games to pass the time ~

I love these girls! ~

New Years Eve dinner at Tepanyaki!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a great christmas! We sure did. My kids woke us up at 4:30 in the morning to open gifts! We told them to go back to bed. They then woke us about 7:30ish and we had no power. It really sucked opening gifts with a flashlight and the light from the camcorder and NO COFFEE! Though really, the only part that sucked was the no coffee part. After we opened gifts I went back to bed until the power came on at 10:30. I was finally able to function with the coffee pot brewing, our heater heating (thank you Bob for the fireplace tip!), the christmas music blaring and food cooking! Santa suprised our kids with a ping pong table this year. It was a bonus gift :) It has been really fun to play though our basement doesn't have any heat. You have to bundle up to play ping pong. It is still way fun.

P.S. Regarding the picture above. I thought my kids didn't really care if they saw Santa or not. I was wrong. Josh wanted to see santa. So we headed to mall on December 23rd for Joshy to see Santa. Jacobb was totally too cool to see Santa. He wanted to sit on a bench in the mall while we waited in line. Anyway, an hour and a half later we finally get to see Santa. Josh gets one look at him and says "NO WAY I am not going up there." So I hurried and grabbed Josh and we all ran up there for a pic and we left. Though after Jacobb told Santa what he wanted Josh mumbled a wish too. Thankfully Santa heard them! They both got what they asked for. We went out to eat after and all Josh could say was "that Santa was CREEPY!"

Happy Birthday Josh!

Birthday parties are always so crazy when you are the host. Well, ALL parties are crazy when you are the host. Joshy had his party on Saturday and he seemed to love every minute of it. Unfortunately, I failed to get pics of all his birthday guests. It was mostly family with a few great friends. I didnt want to deal with the hassle of cake & ice cream so we did cupcakes & pizza. Can you read it? :)

Here is a cute pic of Josh. Can you see the defloated jump thing behind him? I guess it got a hole in it...(duh) anyway, his friend shows up a few seconds later freaking out that the jump thing was collapsing on him.

We are about to sing Happy Birthday ~

It took Josh a few tries to get all the candles out.

I thought this pic was fun. Josh is concentrating very hard on trying to read Grandma Georgia's cursive. He gave it a good effort and got most of the words.

Thanks to everyone that came to Joshy's party. I think he had a great birthday.

I cant believe my baby is 7!

One little funny from the party.... one of Joshy's friends who came to the party brought Josh's gift in a cute little birthday bag. Well, I guess the little boy went up to Jared, after Josh opened his gift, and asked if he could have his bag back so his Mom can use it for other birthday presents.

Happy Birthday to US!

Today was my baby's birthday along with mine. He was my birthday present 7 years ago and it has been one of my best gifts ever!

I will have more stuff up for Joshy's birthday, but I just wanted to say a little bit about my day today. I feel so lucky that I have such a great family and friends. I just love getting together with EVERYONE no matter where it is. It is so much fun and everyone gets along so well. I am so thankful that Bob & Katie can come and hang out with my family and feel just as a part of it. (or atleast they dont seem otherwise)

My brother called tonight from Japan and him and his wife made us super cute birthday cards. They even stayed up until 1:00 (maybe later?) just to wish us a happy birthday. (okay, maybe that wasn't the only reason, but hey, I can think whatever I want - right?)

My Mom took me shopping on Saturday and it was the funnest time EVER! I am so glad we were able to do that. We truly had not done that before and I hope we can do it more often!

My husband went out of his way to make sure my day was a great one and I just love him so much.

I really feel lucky to have so many special people in my life and getting to see them today made my day that much better!

I was bummin' last year for my 30th birthday. This birthday was much better!

I would show pics, but, unfortunately, I forgot my camera tonight - UGH!

Where has the time gone? (Revised about 10 different times)

I have been planning on posting pics from halloween since, well...halloween. I cant believe I am doing it after Thanksgiving!! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We did! We went to my Dad's house with all the family. It was alot of fun!. I was going to take pics of the Thanksgiving football game goin' on, but I was too lazy. It was cute tho watching my kids have so much fun. They really enjoyed the football game.

I am on the computer tonight in an attempt to plan my sons 7th birthday party! My baby is growing up so quickly! The year has really snuck up on me. I usually have his birthday party planned in November - this year I am planning it the week before!

Now, back to the Halloween..... Halloween was a great day for us and we had alot of fun. I hope you had a happy halloween also! Earlier in the day I was in charge of an activity for Jake's class halloween party. Though I was super nervous, it turned out really well. I am planner and everything has to be just right. I only had 2 short days to plan this activity. By Thursday night I was doing a pretend setup on my kitchen counter following the pictures I drew in my notebook. I can be a bit crazy with the planning. Below are pictures of my "examples" I was going to show his class. They had the choice of a witch cupcake or a "dirt" cupcake.

For trick or treating we had Jareds parents over, my brother Robby & Zachary over, my other brother Brian, Lisa, Nate & Ty, and my Dad showed up for a minute. Matt & Teena decided to stay home and trick or treat in their neighborhood and my Mom had to work so she couldn't make it. (We missed you Mom, Dave and Matt, Teena, Bryce & Evie! )

These are pics of the boys before school. They were unknown phantoms...oooh, scary. (You see behind the boys there is an archway and then a doorway and then another doorway? Well, that is our closet and that is how the neighbor boy walked in our house the other day and saw Jared standing there naked...... I dont know if it should be....but it was pretty dang funny! )

This is Josh and Jared's Dad. Can you tell who is who? :)

The kids (& Jared) before trick or treating. The boys' black costumes blend in with each other. I cant tell if I have both kids in this pic or if I cut off Joshy's head.

This is what our trick or treaters got to see when they came to our door for candy. They had to get their loot from these good lookin' men. (In looking at this picture it makes me wonder if they are smiling for the camera under their masks? If they are that would be so funny! I am so easily amused. You did know those were masks right?!? )

There were only a few kids who were too scared to come up and get candy and I dont blame them!

That was a quick run down of our halloween and Thanksgiving.! As mentioned above, I hope that you all had a happy halloween and great thanksgiving!

Now, for everyone who always tells me I need to "update my blog" (Mom, Katie, Anjie....) Enjoy! I hope that I can get Joshy's birthday pics up before the end of the year! :)

Have a great day!