Hamburger Helper Coupon

As the holidays approach and schedules get hectic, Hamburger Helper skillet meals provide a quick and easy weeknight meal that your whole family, from picky eaters to hungry adults, will enjoy!


Click the link to get a coupon for Hamburger Helper.  The coupon is good through November 30th, so while you are out getting your last minute shopping for Thanksgiving done or out this weekend for Black Friday Deals grab some, eventually you will be "turkey(ed)" out!


Click here for a coupon from Hamburger Helper


Enjoy!

It's Turkey Time _ Crafting that is!

As I stated in a previous post I searched high and low in the stores for different Thanksgiving stuff.  I love, love, love the foam stickers.  They are clean and easy and the kids can do as many of them each and every day as they would like too!  I bought these blue finger paint trays too for them. 1 - An attempt to keep Junior's coloring at bay.  2 - I bought a few foam crafts that were not stickers so Katelynn could do some gluing and didn't want to risk the glue on my table! 

Here are a few of the turkey's that we made

  .  

Poor Little Man

Last Saturday we were having a great day.  Dan made us a delicious breakfast and the kids were being good all morning.  Everyone was helping to pick up and clean and we had a quick shopping day ahead of us.  Our goal of the day was to buy the kids their winter coats and snow pants.  I had already breezed through Osh Gosh and Target and didn't really see anything that I wanted.  Osh Gosh was too high priced even at the Outlet Mall and Target's quality didn't seem very good.  If we spend a fortune on these items I better be able to re-sell them or hand them down I figured.  So we decided to head to Kohl's.  Lucky for us (okay, really for me!) Kohl's was having a sale and Kohl's cash.  Dan and Junior found a jacket for him and Katelynn and I found a great set for her.  They were both on sale too.  I also found a few Christmas decorations and Dan found a few items for himself.  Katelynn even brought her purse along and bought herself a book with her own money.  When the kids received their flu shots this year the clinic gave them each a certificate for a free scoop of ice cream.  We hadn't cashed them in yet, so I told them if they were good we were close enough to the ice cream place that we would stop after shopping.  They were both well behaved in the store so off to get ice cream we went.  The ice cream store doubles as a coffee shop as well.  We got in and me and the kids started looking at the different flavors and Dan went over to the coffee side.  Katelynn found a coloring contest and sat down to start coloring her page.  I was standing and ordering the ice cream.  Junior was behind me and was walking towards Katelynn.  The next thing I hear is a stumble and "CRACK".  Junior had tripped on his own little feet and smacked his little nose right into the wrought iron chair that Katelynn was sitting in.  Tears and crying from Junior.  One worried Mama.  The staff at the ice cream store were great and brought me a towel with some ice in it.  I knew right away that his nose was probably broken.  Katelynn then of course was screaming because I said we had to leave and get Junior home to check out his nose.  We took the ice cream and out the door we went.  Junior is really a tough little boy.  He would barely let us get near his nose for the next couple of days and was clearly upset if anything bumped it.  We kept up with Tylenol for the pain and any on-coming head aches.  What a little trooper he is.  A week later he is fine and the nose is back to the size that it should be.  My poor little man. 

Professional Photos - Why is it so Stressful?

Why is it so difficult to find a good place that stays open to take pictures?  I have still have an issue with Portrait Innovations and it seems to start irking me about this time every year now.  They herd them in like cattle to take the pictures and then make you wait 2 to 3 hours to view them on a computer and decide what you want to order.  This is even with an appointment.  I have been taking our pictures this year at Sears Photo Studio and I have like the service they give and when there are issues on-line their customer service is very prompt and treat you nice, always a big plus in my book.  There is still an issue though.  They seem to take one picture of each pose and if it isn't perfect, oh well, on to the next pose or outfit.  They also charge a lot for their "enhancement" photos that only take them minutes to create.  At my last sitting I wanted a head shot of Katelynn in an 8 x 10 photo and the photo was a little off centered so I asked them to fix it. The manager helping me stated that it would be an enhancement to the photo and they should charge accordingly, but she would do it without charging.  I kept my mouth shut, but wanted to state the fact that it was the photographer that took the shot and it wasn't centered.  So, I have yet to decide which is better, option 1 where the photographer takes 100 pictures for you to weed through and you get a couple of good shots or Option 2 where they take a few specific poses and you still get a couple of good shots?  I also have noticed that all the photographers that we have used in the last couple of years have not positioned us for the photo.  They may tell us where to sit and who should sit where, but as far as, chin up, look a little left, fix the hair that is out of place.  What happened to that or is that now only if you pay a really large fee for that photographer that may make us go broke when we want to buy all the prints?
We will be gearing up soon to go and take our Christmas pictures.  We do have a plan as a family that we follow now.  We take two vehicles and when the picture taking is done Dan and the kids head for home and I stay and take my time going through and picking out which is the best for the Christmas card.  Wish us luck for 2010 photos!

Halloween 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Congrats to My Girls!

I know that I have not gone back and finished my posts from my 2 week trip home this summer. Here is a picture of my 2 best friends from high school. We had such a great night. It was so relaxing hanging out, eating supper and enjoying a few glasses of wine. We talked and talked and talked. I just wanted to give a shout out to both of them of Congratulations! They both have gotten engaged! I love you girls.

Thank you Cheerios!

For being part of the Cheerios Blogger Circle, Cheerios and General Mills sent us a few items. The kids are loving them. My kids feel the need to eat immediately in the mornings as soon as we get in the car, even though they know they get a full breakfast at daycare and it's only a 10 minute drive. Since Cheerios gave us a few boxes of cereal I have been letting them snack on the way there.

Here is a picture of Junior and his bag of Cheerios!

Katelynn of course is in love with all of the other fun items they sent.

She has never really been one for eating cereal in the mornings (at least at my house!), but ever since she got her cereal mug from Cheerios she has been eating them like a trooper. It makes for some nice, easy, and healthy breakfasts too!

She also thinks her little Cheerio snack container is pretty cool too!

What Happened to Thanksgiving?

The kids and I were on our own this past weekend because Dan headed out deer hunting. I love those weekends when they are planned of just the kids and I. I always pick one day to go shopping (of course!) and a day to hang out at home.

It was time to take down the Halloween decorations and switch gears to Thanksgiving. For some reason I do enjoy stripping items down to put away. It must be that cleaning feeling I get, a little bit of serenity when everything is put away and in its place. I do like that some decorations stay up from one holiday to the next. It feels like I am saving a little bit of money on it. Fall colors and pumpkins still stay and you add a couple of turkeys.

So this weekend we were on the hunt for Thanksgiving decorations and Thanksgiving crafts for the kids. We ended up going to three different stores trying to find them.

Seriously, did every store forget about Thanksgiving?

• Target had one flimsy set up of only cups, plates, and napkins and one decorations for the windows.
• Safeway had all the fixings for cooking a Thanksgiving meal, but no decorations.
• Michael's had two places to find Thanksgiving items in the store, but both were small and not much there and was hard to find after weeding through all of the Christmas items out. I had to ask someone finally if they had any. The worker asked, "Like turkeys and pilgrims?" "They are on an end shelf over there." We were successful here though in finding our crafts and some Turkeys and a sign that says Give Thanks.

I know that stores want to make money and people are out already Christmas shopping, but c'mon people let's not skip over Thanksgiving! I heard Christmas music in two of the stores we were in already. I heard on the radio station people calling in and saying they put up their Christmas trees already. This is the time to be thankful. Let's try and slow down a little bit and not forget this holiday and everything that we are thankful for this year.

Trick or Treat - 2010

Although my family and I were still on the mend from being sick and getting rid of colds we were still excited to head out and do some trick or treating. After the Vikings game the kids were bouncing around the house, or at least Katelynn was, to get on costumes and get ready. Dan had to a lot of the work this year of getting the kids ready, I was just too worn out from the funeral, being sick, and traveling that morning. Junior was not thrilled to be in his Mickey Mouse costumes; he would have much preferred to see someone else be Mickey so he could look at them. I was able to get some pictures this year before we headed out. Dan and I had costumes that I bought for us, but with everything going on we weren't up to it. I will save them for next year. The neighbor girls were outside waiting for us and we all set out. Junior got the hang of trick or treating after the 2nd house. He started running up to the doors and would say knock, knock and then was in pure awe that people would answer the door and put candy into his basket. I wonder now if he thinks when we go to people's houses and knock on the door if he is going to get candy or if he understands that they were dressed up and this was a special occasion day? We all went for a few blocks and then Junior and I headed back to the house so we could hand out candy to the trick or treats. He thought that was fun too and would get excited every time the doorbell rang or someone knocked. Dan and Katelynn came back a little earlier than I thought they would. It seems the three girls were got into a little tiff at each house about who was going to get to knock, but she had plenty of candy. She had fun after that handing out candy to the other kids, although I did have to tell her to limit it to two pieces per kiddo because she was wanting to give out handfuls to each. Everyone had a good time, it wasn't perfect or how I was envisioning, but that is just the way life is sometimes.