Minty Fresh

Josh hollers from the bathroom last night:

"MOM! Instead of brushing my teeth can I chew a piece of gum!?"

Of course our answer was "no", but I have been laughing ever since.....

* Yesterday morning they did not brush their teeth before we headed on over to grandpa's for the day. Their breath was terrible, so I asked them if they wanted to chew some gum....

Too funny.

Tattletell

The following is a conversation between Josh and me:

J: Mommm, Jacobb called me a tattletell!

M: Well, are you tattling right now?

J: (thinks for a sec)....yes.

M: Okay, then.

CUTE HUH!!

(I should totally be blogging about Jake's birthday party(back in February) and Easter but I'm not....... Maybe next time! )

Check out our "new" landscaping! I love it - it is so cute! I cant wait to get LOTS more flowers to go in my flower beds. This is only part 1 of the front of the house. We have another project to the left that we need to work on - oh, and also vegetable garden. I think that is just going to be tomatoes this year....I dont have the energy right now to plant anything else.

BEFORE

AFTER

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!"