Party On!

February is a birthday heavy month for our family

Today 6th is my niece M-e

Tomorrow is my SIL Liz

Monday 8th is my Knight

the 25th is a brother of mine

the 27th is Robinhood's Mom and Sister...30 years apart...

Today my favorite cheerleader turned 7! (the makeup is a required part of her costume....trust me when I say she is absolutely a stunning beauty just as her sweet little girl self)This cutie pie is the epitome of a girl. She was my first niece to enjoy girlie stuff like painted nails, barbies and jewelry. Her bedroom is painted HOT bubble gum pink and it suits her to a T.

She is genuinely sweet, but also assertive. NO ONE will ever walk all over her. She's very confident and extremely charismatic. I've never met another 7 year old like her...she's going places!!! Watch out World.....just a few more years till this girl holds you in the palm of her Passion Pink painted nails hand!!!

Happy Birthday!!! We love you and are soooo very proud of you!!!

Oh Gosh....

Someone just found my blog by google searching 'my heart is for two boys' .

Seems like they may have a problem!

And I am no longer in melancholy mood...thanks for checking in!!!

Time in a Bottle

Remember the song 'Time in a Bottle'

"If I could make days last forever

if words could make wishes come true

I'ld save every day like a treasure

and then again I would spend them with you."

In a melancholy state today as I sit here alone waiting for the clock to strike 4 and my sweet boys to run through the door. Actually tears are streaming down my face (...I'm OK just having a moment ;)

When the boys were busy little ones and I would fall into bed exhausted from the day I couldn't imagine that they would ever grow up. They were so needy. Actually part of me couldn't wait for the day when they would both be out of diapers and able to go to school. It just felt like the growing up part was so far away.

But yet suddenly I feel like it's just around the corner. Have I really been a mom for 10 years already?

When I look back the years went way to fast. He was the most perfectly beautiful baby. I couldn't believe he was mine. Actually I still can't. It's like God took the very best parts of Hubby and me and turned them over to this little one. He's so tenderhearted, yet strong and rugged. He loves aggressive sports but still wants to snuggle up and talk. He's handsome and smart. He listens well and gives the best hugs. God gave him a believing heart and a need to serve others. He is good.

The love I have for my boys is like no other. It is a fierce protective love that seems almost instinctual. Hard to describe unless your a mom yourself, and then you just know what I'm talking about.

So here I sit pondering the past and thinking that surely there is no way the next 10 years will fly so fast...but then thinking certainly they will...then he'll be 20.

He is so very excited and ready to grow up. I love the young man he is. Spending time talking with him about school and friends is one of my most favorite things to do. He is my shopping buddy (as long as it's stuff for him!) and is concerned with clothes, shoes and his hair and I am enjoying that. Recently he has done a few art projects at school that were actually frame worthy. He e-mails me sweet messages and the best one ever was simply, "I love you."

Although it is now my greatest joy watching him grow and dreaming with him about the future ....there will always be a part of me that wants to return to his sweet baby days, hold him in my arms and rock him back to sleep just one more time.

?

He is amazing and I was forever changed the day I became his mom.

***I dearly love my youngest son too, but this post was just for my Knight***

The Bandwagon

Have you noticed all the people shopping with coupons lately? Must be the economy. I am always hearing my friends talk about how much $$ they are saving. Sounded like a lot of work for a few pennies to me, just sayin. But what can you do but smile, nod and act interested when all your friends are talking about their big coupon adventures. These girls are SERIOUS shoppers..me, not so much...at least not so much in the grocery store anyway.

But they persuaded me to try TheGroceryGame.com. Who knew I'm a quick learner!!!

I actually got a few items for FREE!!!
Free = 6 tubs of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! (need to donate a few of these)
Free= Quaker Rice Cakes
Free=Bayer Aspirin
Free= Suave Deodorant (will donate it to the women's shelter since it's not my brand)
Free=Lever Soap (may donate this too)




There are a few item's that just didn't make the photo---(cause they are in the freezer or just too big!)
3- 12 packs of Diet Pepsi
4- bags of Green Giant frozen steamable veggies
2- 5lb package of boneless skinless chicken tenders
1- gallon of milk
1- cantaloupe
1- tub of Dryer's Ice Cream (my kids are Blue Bell FREAKS, but this was on sale for 1.77 and BlueBell was about $6)




I paid Randals, Kroger and Walgreens a total of 53.73..
Actually I did use maybe 15 coupons total (Randals and Kroger double up to $0.50 and triple up to $0.35 so that is how I got the freebies) but, my biggest savings came from buying stuff that was already on sale. At Randals I paid 16.67, but saved 31.59 !!!!!!!! At Kroger I paid 24.00 but saved 38.69!!! At Walgreens I paid 13.03 but saved 16.88!!

It took about an hour to make my list and organize my coupons. The website http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ was a huge help in making the lists and they offer a free trial. The downside is that to truly save you have to "stockpile" when items are on sale. That means lots of stuff to store. Not to crazy about that idea, but I did save a ton, and Katy Christian Ministries can always use toiletries and food. So one hour of my time saved me $85....I am going to stash away the extra cash for something fun for the family!

"Mom these are the BEST"

"Mom, you promised we would make homemade cinnamon rolls." Squire reminds me.

"Alright," I reply and take the Pillsbury sweet rolls out of the fridge.

"Moooooooom....No you promised we could make them in your bread machine!!!"

What can I say, I really had promised him. "OK Hunny Bear, let's get the bread maker out."

*One day he's gonna see that I called him Hunny Bear and not be real happy with me ;) * Surprisingly he did really help me.

The dough smelled DIVINE as it rose in the bread maker.

The recipe called for a 10 minute covered rest period after removing from the bread maker.

So we whipped up the easy filling. It's just brown sugar, butter and cinnamon

All rested up and ready to roll.

Squire is very precise and insisted we follow directions exactly. He even measured the dough into the 16x21 rectangle...yep he's definitely got a LOT of Grandpa in him...measuring dough...jeesh!

Laying on the good stuff. Now I would have loved the raisins and pecans but Squire REFUSED to let that poison touch his rolls.

We made 2 batches.

Covered and let one batch rise. The 2nd went into the fridge for tomorrow.

Ready to bake.

What a SCRUMPTIOUS aroma. Just the smell made our mouths water!

While they were baking we assembled the simple icing. As soon as the rolls were cooked Squire tipped the pan over (to let all the brown sugar yumminess run back over the rolls) then removed the pan and poured the icing on right away.

Come to poppa!

"Mom, these are the BEST thing I've ever eaten!"

*We basically used the 'Clone of a Cinnabon' recipe from Allrecipes.com but we did slightly alter the dough and filling and made major changes to the icing. *

Neatness Counts

"Attack of the 50ft wrapping paper roll!" is how I would best describe my hall closet. That was before today. Just take a gander at this.....

...a neatly lined up side wall of the closet wrapping paper party!!!

Best $2.77 I ever spent. A tension curtain rod from Home Depot has become my wrapping paper's new best friend. :)

Take that you wrap monster!!!

Just another Sunday at a gymnastics meet...or

...so it would seem....there was the usual... "So this is our competition?"look....and the usual...

Stretching....and then...

their intro....

POWERFUL performances....

"Pancakes"...

and after the competition there was....

Accepting awards....

Another BIG win for the Team Award.....and T.H.E.N

There was 2008 Bronze Medal Olympic Gymnast Raj Bhavsar (click here for his info) !!!!!!! Congratulating them!!!!!!!

and THEN....

Squire met with Raj and got an autographed picture.

So it wasn't just another gymnastics meet to Squire.

It was more of a, "Wow I can't believe I got to really meet an Olympian!!!" .....kinda day for the little Squire.

I just realized today, when the hosting gym had a handstand contest, that out of 60 boys in his bracket (of 7-9 year old level 5) only 8 were actually 7 years old and 4 of them were from his team. Now I know Squire is the youngest on their team and I would bet he was either the youngest or a close second today...so on top of being the tiniest one there he is also the youngest one in all of the competitions. SO proud of him!