It's a work in progress!!

I'm on a mission to make this room toddler friendly! We painted, I made quilts for the boys, we hung the mural... and then we quit. We haven't done anything with this room in months and it's driving me CRAZY!! I'm making it my mission to have the room available for BOTH boys to play in.

This is the view from the hallway. I just bought that orange lamp at Ikea the other day. It was just too cool to pass up! The TV (that you can barely see on the right) is going to be replaced by an LCD TV so we can get rid of the stand and have the TV up high on the wall so Joey can't get to it. The whole heavy-TV-in-reach-of-curious-child thing has me nervous and it's got to go!!

Cameron's bed (I can see where he put all that stuff I told him to clean up!).

I got this bookshelf at Ikea too. :) I love that store. It works out perfect for the spot I have available and I was able to attach it to the wall with "L" brackets so even if Joey gets the bright idea to climb it, it can never fall on him.

Week 2 Totals (week ending 1/16/10)

I forgot to do them on Saturday!! Here they are a little late.

Spent $105

Saved $ 78

Percentage Saved 43%

Spent YTD $154

Saved YTD $171

Cumulative Percentage Saved 53%

This week wasn't so good. I had to buy a case of diapers and a few other items that were not on sale and didn't have coupons. :( I still think I'll reach my goal of $2,500 saved by the end of the year though!

Cameron's Birthday Party!!

Yesterday we celebrated Cameron's 9th birthday at Xtreme Fun Center and he had a blast! The kids got to play video games, take turns in the batting cages and play 2 rounds of lazer tag! They have the coolest lazer tag set up! I want to play next time we go back!!

Even the adults got in on the batting cage action! Luckily, I'm the one who maintains this blog, so there will be no embarrassing pictures of me in the batting cage... although I will say that I hit the most balls of anyone!! :) I'm pretty proud... and sore today!

Just like Daddy! Cars are in Joey's blood and think he got a potent dose of it!

Cameron, friends and birthday cake! Joe and I are becoming quite the caking team! He made most of the little figures on the cake!

Sunken Gardens

Sunken Gardens is a century old botanical garden in the middle of busy St. Petersburg. It's like a little oasis in the middle of chaos. When you stand in the middle of the garden, you are actually 15 feet below street level. The garden was, at one point, a giant sink hole! It's beautiful! I could spend hours and hours there taking pictures of flowers and plants I'd never seen in my whole life!

Joey immediately burst into tears when we walked into the garden. I don't know what set him off, but he was NOT happy! After a couple of minutes and a realization that he was allowed to run wild, he was happy as a clam!

It was a chilly 46 degrees on the day I picked to go to the shaded garden. It's not often we get to wear our winter coats in Florida!

This was the coolest little tree! It's a little hard to see in the picture, but the fronds grew out of the tree in a spiral!

Me and my babies!

Beautiful peach angel trumpets!

The canopy!

One of the most beautiful roses I've ever seen!

This seems like a chair for two...

Yep, definitely for two!

White trumpet.

One lone Monarch in the dead of Winter!

Joey was so funny! He wanted to pet the flowers and say hi to them all!

Picture taken by Cameron!

Cameron in the Japanese garden.

Joey was really fascinated with all the little pagodas!

And this one I threw in because it was just too funny! Since it's been so cold lately, I've been wearing a scarf. Joey has a love for all things soft and has really taken a liking to my chenille scarf! He's been wearing it around the house lately. He cracks me up!

Week 1 Totals

Saturday marks the end of the shopping week for me. Tomorrow will be all new ads with more chances to shop for free!! :) This week I didn't do a whole lot of shopping, but here are my totals. I shopped at Publix, CVS, Walgreens and Target.

Total Spent = $49

Total Saved = $93

Percentage Saved = 65%

I'm pretty happy with my savings for the week, but I could have done better. At 2 different stores I picked up the wrong item, which wasn't on sale. I need to pay a little bit better attention!!

Christmas!!

Christmas 2009 was a huge success and my house has effectively been turned into Romper Room. I'm considering charging admission for the neighborhood kids to come play! :)

We had a really low key Christmas this year; no dressing up, no big Christmas dinner, no traveling. We stayed home and had our parents over for breakfast. It was really nice. Anyway... on to the pics.

The pic below is of ornaments we made out of clay. I would really like to do this every year with the boys. By the time they move into their own houses, they should have a nice collection of keepsakes and handmade ornaments for their own trees. I still have all the keepsakes my grandparents gave me with my name and year on them. I forgot to take pics of the ornaments I got the boys this year, but Cameron got a Club Penguin ornament and Joey got a Disney Cars ornament. They both went crazy for them! The ornaments below (right to left) are mine, Joe's and Cameron's. I think next year we'll have to make Joe tone his down a bit so we're not so jealous. Show off!!

This is our tree right after Santa came. ;)

The tree all lit up.


Coming down in the morning to see what Santa brought!

For me???

Joey just wanted to carry the gifts around. He didn't understand opening them yet.

I think he likes it!

Daddy helping Joey open gifts!

I always know what to put in Joe's stocking. He LOVES Ferrero Rochers!! Notice he's sitting in Joey's little recliner. I think he might be a tiny bit too big!

Joey wrapped all my gifts in boxes from work. Judging by the pics, I'm going to be doing an awful lot of car cleaning!!

Joey got me cookie cutters. What a smart little boy!

I think this is intermission!

Joey begging for milk. He says "teeee" in the cutest little voice. That means please and there's only one thing he says "teee" for and that is milk!!

I'm convinced he will carry a bottle at his college graduation! He won't even consider the idea of a sippy cup!

Pow - pow- powerwheels!

Great-grandpa Joe will be proud! Joey got his first kitchen when he was just a year old!

Cameron's favorite gift! His PSP!!

I don't know if cooking without pants is widely accepted. We might have to work on that!

Here's the after shot of our house. It looks like Christmas exploded in there!!

Joe's gift was MUCH too big and HEAVY to bring home. I actually picked it up from the store all by myself having NO clue that it weighed 230 lbs! The guys at the store actually laughed a little bit when they saw me! I still managed to wrap it... and yes that is a pallet strapped to the bottom of it!

What ever could it be??

I think I did good this year!

What to do with all those pesky stuffies?? Cook 'em up! Monkey, it's what's for dinner!

And finally, we had to turn Joey around in his car seat. We made it 22 1/2 months rear facing. He finally hit the weight limit and he seems to be a little happier to face forward too.