10 on Tuesday

1. Brrrr baby it's cold outside! Breakin' out the hats, scarves and mittens!

2. There's lots of beautiful snow to go with the chilly cold! At least the scenery looks pretty:)

3. Joe taught Ethan how to paint 'stories' and Ethan went crazy with it! In a good way of course...he drew some very elaborate pictures with equally elaborate stories to go with them.
4. The recurring story line was that there was a 'pirate ship in the deep blue sea with a sea gull that flew to the perch...'5. Then he added 'a comet came and got the sea gull!' LOVE IT.

6. He wanted to display ALL of his artwork so our breezeway door is now covered with beautiful paintings!
7. Mr. Judah is talking up a storm now! Most people could interpret 60% of it but Joe and myself can get about 99%! Hooray for being fluent in 'judah-nese!' (Judah's own little language; we're trying to convince him to convert to English)

8. THREE weeks left for Joe's schooling! Then he's done! Graduated! Hip Hip Hooray!

9. I've been filling in my December calendar (I use one of those ginormous paper ones on the fridge; call me old fashioned but I like it!) and my month is filling up sooooo fast! It's going to be 2011 before I know it!

10. Speaking on months and years - I cannot believe that tomorrow is December 1st. Seriously? Oh man. Maybe that means summer will come faster because winter sure did!

Thankful

I have so much to be thankful for! An awesome husband, two adorable kids, wonderful extended family and great friends!

For 'preschool' this week, Ethan made some super-cute turkeys to hand out at our Thanksgiving gatherings.I cut out the parts and Ethan glued everything in place, drew in the eyes, glued on the 'fuzzies' and colored the feathers! He really got into it:) He's my little artist!I got the idea from the YMCA - they did a similar craft the week before Thanksgiving; I just tweeked it a little to fit the materials we had at home. We went to both sides (mine and Joe's) for Thanksgiving this year so Ethan got to hand out his projects to both sets of grandparents! He was very proud of his creations.

In other creative news: Ethan discovered that he loves to paint!He created quite the painting with those watercolors!Look at that concentration - I love it!

We pulled out our garage sale kitchen from the sunroom for the boys to play with recently....hours of fun!p.s. I LOVE the red sweat-suit Judah's wearing here - it's a hand-me-down from Travis (who's now 7!!!!); Ethan wore it and now it's Judah's turn:) 3 boys and still looking mighty cute!

The other day, Judah thought it would be cool to take his drink and layer a few more cups around it! I thought it looked funny:) It reminded me of the book "Caps for Sale" for some reason...maybe all the cups stacked up like all the hats? who knows. Judah is a funny kid:) I love it. Ethan saw it and of course had to do it too!

I am so thankful for my happy, healthy family!

10 on Tuesday

1. Thanksgiving is this week! Wow that came fast!

2. We get two thanksgiving meals this year - lucky us! Good thing Joe and I LOVE thanksgiving food!

3. I'm making a new sweet potato casserole with gingersnap crumble on top...hmmmm. Along with my delish Cranberry-Orange Relish!

4. We have all of our Christmas shopping done!!

5. I finished ALL of our Christmas wrapping last weekend! Now to sit back and enjoy the holidays:)

6. My boys are in a mood....I really hope they'll snap out of it soon! Ethan mainly and then Judah just follows suit. We've been talking a lot about our 'happy voices' and 'kind words' around here.

7. I heard a rumor we are to get more snow tomorrow - I say rumor because I can't remember the last time I watched the weather so I really don't know what's happening...

8. I DO know last weekend was ICY! I'm glad I didn't have to drive in it much!

9. I can't believe 2010 is almost done! Here we come 2011 whether we like it or not!

10. Ethan painted with watercolors tonight and I think he was a hidden talent....it's beautiful!

What a MESS!

Yesterday morning I was doing some normal cleaning around the house (clean up after breakfast, laundry, etc...) and the boys were hanging in the living room playing nicely. It was kinda quiet so I went in to check on them....

...this is what my sweet Judah was into:
He had successfully taken EVERYTHING off the shelf under the coffee table (which was unfortunately jammed packed with stuff....) and then proceeded to play with a puzzle on top of all of it.

I asked him: Judah what are you doing??
Judah: Puzzle! Judah puzzle!

Well, he was doing a puzzle. I guess that puzzle must've been on the very bottom of the shelf...or something.

I finished my original cleaning and let Judah play in his mess for a while. Then he 'helped' me put it away:)

This, my friends, is why my house is never completely cleaned all at once. I clean one part of it while the boys (mainly Judah) is messing up a different part. It's a phase...I keep telling myself that....soon enough they will clean too! *Ethan is an awesome 'picker-upper'! He will actually pick up his toys; now to teach Judah that....

10 on Tuesday

1. Snow and cold are here. boo.

2. At least Ethan l.o.v.e.s. to play in the snow - that makes it a little more bearable:)

3. Judah is warming up to the snow...he will now sit in the snow (vs. on the front step) and watch us play! That face plant really did him in...

4. I made a pumpkin-spice-cheesecake for Christie's 30th birthday party on Saturday...YUMMY!

5. I made pumkpin-chocolate-chip bars fro ECFE today...YUMMY again!

6. Can you tell I like pumpkin? I love baking with it around Thanksgiving (which is next week mind you)

7. I did ALL of the laundry in our house the other day....all the forgotten towels or random red shirts and all! FIVE loads. Oy. Then I folded them all - Joe should've taken a picture of me sitting on the floor surrounded by all 5 loads!

8. I washed/dried/folded all 5 loads...how is it possible that I have another load to do now??? It's never ending!

9. Judah slept till 7:45 this morning! WOW! Too bad Ethan was up and running at 6:30... now if I can get both to sleep in we'd be in business!

10. Joe and I did most of our Christmas shopping online this year and I'm expecting a large package of goodies this week! Hooray for wrapping presents and having them DONE by Thanksgiving!!

Snow is here!

Today it SNOWED! A lot! My boys were so excited for it:) After a lot of anticipation we finally made it outside...at 9am. You have to understand that we get up early around here so they had to 'wait' till 9! Ethan was SO pumped! Out we went! (me and the boys...Joe had to get new tires pronto!) Ethan ran out into the snow with a squeal of delight! Judah followed suite and ran out into the fresh snow - and then landed FLAT ON HIS FACE! Poor kid...didn't know what hit him! He spent the rest of the time outside sitting on the front step watching us - he was very happy though! He loved watching all the snow fall and talking to Ethan and myself:) I pulled out our summer sand castle molds and Ethan and I made 'snow castles'! It was the perfect sticky snow for it - we also made a snowman:) *our snow castles are in front of him*Ethan was my snow buddy! So fun! We went in after an hour and had a snack of hot cider and brownies (at 10am....ah well) Then we did a winter-y craft; we drew on black paper with white crayon a picture and then used a glue stick to show where the 'snow' would be in the picture. I got out some old (really old) baby oatmeal and we sprinkled it on our glue and shook off the access! They loved it!
We hung out inside for the rest of the morning; ate lunch; had our rest time and then went back out in the afternoon! I taught Ethan how to make snow angels - he's a pro now!
I normally strongly dislike winter (I hate the word hate) but I feel like this winter may be different - my kids are old enough to 'enjoy' the outdoors and I get to as well! It truly was fun to make snowman and snow angels outside! Now, if only I can keep that attitude in the middle of February....I'm sure Ethan will help me:)

Tortellini Soup with Spinach and Tomatoes

I was given the "SOS! Six O'Clock Scramble" cookbook a few months ago and I love it! I made one of our favorites tonight and actually remembered to take some pictures to share. We love the Tortellini Soup for many reasons: #1 it's tasty. really tasty. #2 (for me) it's easy and quick! #3 my kids like it!

Without further rambling here it is (my modifications in RED)
Tortellini Soup with Spinach and Tomatoes
SOS! Six O'Clock Scramble

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic (about 2 cloves) *I use my micro-plane to finely shred it*
1 box (32 oz) reduced-sodium chicken or vegetable broth *I use chicken broth*
1 package (9 oz) whole wheat or regular cheese tortellini (sold refrigerated) *I use the dried, shelf variety -Spinach/Cheese, 8oz*
1 can (15 oz) no-salt-added diced tomatoes, with their liquid *I use Ro'Tel diced tomatoes with chilis for an added kick - 10oz*
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano *I use Mexican Oregano - a little bolder*
3 cups fresh baby spinach *I use about 4 cups...I like my greens!*

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Saute the garlic for 1 minute, then stir in the broth. Bring it to a boil, then add the tortellini, tomatoes, pepper, basil and oregano.

Reduce the heat to keep it at a low boil for 7 minutes, then add the spinach. Simmer it for 2 more minutes, *if using dried tortellini - use cook time on package adding the spinach in for the last 2 minutes* Remove soup from heat and serve immediately.

*Scramble Flavor Booster: Stir in crushed red pepper flakes at the table for an extra spice!
I serve this to my kids minus the broth - I use a slotted spoon to get out the tortellini and spinach and they gobble it up (well, they gobble the tortellini...the cooked spinach takes some convincing; I don't care though - there's spinach hiding in the tortellini!)

One thing I always forget to do is to DOUBLE IT! We eat up the whole pot at one meal and always want leftovers....I won't forget next time!

10 on Tuesday

1. I can't believe it's already November. November 9th the be exact. This year is flying by so fast! I know I say that all the time but it's so true:)

2. My boys loving getting new library books and DVD's - it's a great way (and free) to rotate new stuff through!

3. I am LOVING this weather! I mentioned it last time and it's still true - close to 70 today - mid-November I remind you:) Tomorrow it starts to drop though...

4. I ordered some new clothes from OldNavy.com the other day with a discount code (25% off) and can't wait for them to arrive! I hope they fit:)

5. I was doing good folding laundry right when it was dry for a while. opps. not anymore - I have a load sitting in the dryer from like 3 days ago!
6. How cute are my boys? I love Ethan's arm over Judah:) sweetness. They were watching the big boys make a bon-fire the other day.

7. Ethan and Judah love to pick out new toys from the ECFE resource center (aka: toy library from ECFE) I love that they get new toys to play with and they don't stay in our house (aka: clutter)

8. Daylight savings has been kicking my butt this year - my kids haven't caught on to the time change in the morning so they are waking up at 5:30am!! ouch!

9. Joe colored my hair the other night: I love it! Just a little darker and more uniformed:)

10. I am counting down to Joe being down with school! I'm so excited to have more time with him (he's been putting in a lot of hours for studying) YEAH!

Time for cards...

Christmas cards that is!

I found out about a wonderful deal through a fellow blogger (Extraordinary Love) that Shutterfly is offering this season! *Bloggers to get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow this link*
We did Christmas cards last year and got a great response to them! It was so fun to have a mini photo shoot with my hubby and kids to get that 'perfect' shot for the card.

Yesterday, we did just that: had our (seemingly annual) photo shoot to get that perfect shot! It was so fun and the weather was absolutely beautiful! I browsed through some of Shutterfly's card options to see what we could do with that photo...and boy do they have a ton to choose from!

I started looking at their Christmas Card options... and found some really cute ones! It's going to be hard to decide which one to choose for this year!

Then I got drawn into their Wall Calendars - how fun are those? I love that you can personalize the dates - like mark in your wedding anniversary or birthdays right on the calendar! What a great gift idea!

Shutterfly also has Canvas Wall Art on their site - What a neat gift idea for Christmas or wedding or even a new baby! It looks so professional!

This was my first time browsing around Shutterfly and I definitely not my last! I'm looking forward to creating our Christmas card this year with them.

32...

...percent is what I saved on my grocery bill last week! woo-hoo! Thank you CUB! I did a bunch of buy-one-get-one-free deals and walked away will bagfuls of MEAT and other yummy goodness:)

Spent: $65.66
Saved: $28.14
Percent Saved: 32%

Oh how I love coupons. :)

Gain an hour?

Yeah right! Last night (or rather this morning) we ended daylight savings...so 'theoretically' we gained an hour of sleep. Whoever thought that up apparently didn't have young children who don't read clocks or understand the idea of 'sleeping in'....

Needless to say: we were up at their 'normal' time but that sweet little clock read 5:30am. boo.

Why does it seem harder to be up when the clock says 5:30 vs. 6:30? Even when your body says it's 6:30? stinkin clock:)

Hopefully my boys will get the memo soon that we had a time change...

10 on Tuesday

1. There's been some wonderful sunshine outside lately! A little chilly, but still sunny!

2. I made a chocolate-cheesecake+vanilla mousse for a dinner party on Friday....such a hit! It was delish!!

3. I taught Ethan how to fold towels the other day and he caught on so fast! I have a new little laundry helper now:)
4. Judah is growing up so fast...he will be TWO in 2 months! (less than that actually....12/27)

5. I'm growing my hair out and it's actually getting long! It's past my shoulders now and almost to my shoulder blades:) Normally when I 'grow my hair out' I get impatient and chop it off. I'm LOVING the long hair though!

6. Joe's in the final stretch for school....7 more weeks! WOW!

7. I went to Saver's today and found snow-pants for BOTH boys!

8. ....and some cute shoes for myself:)

9. I also got myself a new winter coat (kelly-green-pea-coat!) and some winter boats at Old Navy!

10. I'm trying to be prepared and be ready for winter but I really don't want it to come.

Last week's savings

I just finished writing my grocery lists and getting coupons ready for this week and realized I never recorded LAST weeks stats...oops.

I went to Target last week with an armful of coupons (and kids) and here's how it went:

Spent: $41.94
Saved: $15.79
Savings: 27%

woot. I win:)

Up deck this week is Cub - I'm hoping to go Wednesday or Thursday; it takes time to gather and organize all my coupons so I do it a few days in advance (or at least the night before). Our printer is out of ink so I had to go with my mailer from Cub and manufactures coupons I already had printed for this week:) Added challenge right? Makes it more fun!

Happy Monday everyone!