Dinner for 4 under $5

I am a HUGE fan of Hamburger Helper, just b/c it's so DARN convenient!  I like the chicken helper as well, but don't tend to cook it as much just b/c it's more work to cut up all that chicken.  We also usually have our freezer stocked with ground beef.  Today I tried out the Whole Wheat Chicken Helper.  It was pretty good for a cheap meal.  It might not feed 4 adults, but for 2 adults and 2 kids it  worked well. It looks kinda like a mushy bowl of stuff, but the hubs exact words were, "This is PRETTY good!"

Bought the mix last week on a 10 for $10 special

Chicken cost me $3.23

Sibling Love

My two toddlers are so in love with each other:)  Marissa wraps her arms around her "brudda" several times a day and says, "I LOVE you Ryan!"  Ryan will nestle up to her and give her hugs too, it is sooo freaking cute!  Marissa has her Daddy's sleeping habits and you about have to drag her outta bed if ya want her up before 9:00.  Ryan LOVES waking her up, he runs into her room all giggly and excited.  I hope they always love each other as much as they do today:) 

I CAN do it, I WILL, I WILL!

Friday was payday, which means I took a little look at the budget and made sure all the bills were paid then decided how much money to divide into my envelopes!  I've done this for the last month and each time I've ended up taking money out of my 'envelopes' for other things.  I am determined to make it through the next 2 weeks WITHOUT overspending!

A few of the envelopes that I've created to set aside for the future include: Property Taxes-Both House and Car, Christmas, and Vacation.  These things come up at the same time every year and I plan to be prepared for them!

Thank You Cards

Here's the Thank You cards that I made this week.  I was pretty excited to try out my new set of Thank You stamps from CTMH!

Baby Boy Cards

I've spent Wednesday evening in my scrap room making cards.  I had no particular occasion in mind.  I was in the mode for card making after helping my best friend make invites for her baby girl's first bday, she's the Miss Kayley Marie that I recently posted pics of:)   I LOVE to make cards.  I am hoping to get a booth at the craft fair this November to sell cards and pre-made layouts.  I made these baby boy cards, but now I want to add something to the big empty space on the right side.  ANY suggestions???

The Kiddos

I am a complete sucker for kid's clothes!  Oh how love Gymboree and long to one day be able to afford everything in their store!  I will have to wait for grandkids before that day comes or maybe even GREAT grandkids.  For now I am content shopping the clearance rack.  I set out on a mission to find my kids coordinating outfits for a wedding last weekend.  I think I spent 20 minutes total in the mall before I checked out.  That's after a quickly browsing through baby gap, children's place, and then Gymboree.  I paid 16.99 for Marissa's dress and I think 11.99 for Ryan's shorts and another 11.99 for his shirt.  They looked SO adorable for the wedding.  Marissa may have gotten more comments on her dress than the bride, who by the way was looking beautiful too.  I snapped these pics in our yard before we made the 2 hour drive. 

All the editing I did on these was just on my camera screen, except for the last one, I think I forgot to edit it all together.

Ryan Swimming

The beginning of the summer I was overfilled with joy at the thought of taking my babies to the pool every day possible!  We've gone at least twice a week all summer and sometimes more, well except for Ryan.  He didn't quite get into it, just got cold and mad.  I started waiting til he was napping, then having my sisters or Grandma watch him while Marissa and I went to the pool.  A couple weeks ago I decided that I was taking the kids swimming in the evening.  At 6pm the pool is usually pretty quiet with only a handful of kids, I LOVE going at this time even though it sorta screws with supper time.  The water was SOOO nice that night and Ryan LOVED it!!!  I was so excited!  Marissa has ALWAYS been a water baby and I was worried I was gonna have a boy scared of the water.  He's not scared, he just doesn't like to be cold and who could blame him for that?  Now if I could just get him to stop trying to drink the water.