Mama's Little Loves

Thank you so much for reminding me how awful I am at posting, Esther! :) I have a good excuse though...the girls and I were on a mini vacation over the weekend. We went up north with Jeff and my mom and her girls. We went on a ferry boat ride, shopping, water park, hiking, swimming, etc. So much fun! I do have TONS of pics to show. I'll try not to show too many at once.

Here is Piper sitting on the picnic table waiting for Jeff, Ambry, Rosie, and myself to get done eating lunch before we went hiking. Do you think she's enjoying herself?

The best of friends...

This is how I "held" Piper all weekend. That backpack has been a lifesaver and to this day is probably the best five dollars I ever spent at a yard sale. I love that thing!

Beautiful, miss Rosie posie...

Here is mom and the girls waiting for the ferry ride to take us to the island.

It was like a step back in time once you got off the ferry and stepped onto the island. There are no cars or motorized vehicles allowed on the island except for one fire engine and snowmobiles during the winter. If you are staying on the island, your luggage is taken to the hotel by "taxi" which is really a guy on a bike that balances your luggage on his handle bars and off he rides.
Here are Kasey and Rosie on Lookout Point. Check out how clear the water is!

Mom, this last picture is for you. She thought that this was a ridiculous picture to take and I thought it was so funny because I don't ever remember seeing a "don't feed the birds" sign on a beach that I had been at. So here is a picture just for you Mom! :)

Labels: Ambry and Piper pics, vacation

// posted by Sharon @ 9:26 PM 2 comments

Have a good Thursday! :)

Labels: Ambry pics

// posted by Sharon @ 9:54 AM 3 comments

1. 3 tubes of Aquafresh toothpaste
2. 2 cans of Raid
3. 2 packs of Pledge wipes
4. 2 bottles of Lysol toilet bowl cleaner
5. 3 tube things of Lysol Sanitary wipes
6. 1 bottle of Shout
7. 1 Windex
8. Bubbles for Ambry

After coupons, I paid $29.11. Not quite as good as I was thinking. Apparently I need to work on my adding skills. I will get $7.00 back in rebate form though. So I will end up spending out of pocket $22.11. Not near as good a deal as I was thinking. Oh well. Live and learn. I guess for the amount of things I got, it wasn't a terrible deal.

At Rite Aid, I got these items:

1. 1 7UP 2 liter
2. 1 Lady's Speed Stick
3. 1 Duct tape
4. 1 Clairol Nice 'n Easy
5. 1 Colgate Total
6. 1 Garnier Fructis Conditioner
7. 1 2-pack GUM toothbrushes

After coupons, I paid $13.69. I enrolled in their online rebate form offer, which is so easy and the rebate will come back twice as fast. The only thing about Rite Aid that is different than Walgreens is that they won't let you use more coupons. What I am trying to say is that they won't let you make money basically on a product. Anyway, after I receive the rebate check from them, I should spend out of pocket $3.71. This was a little bit of a better deal at least.

For next time, I now have a better idea of prices of things. I think I will stick to Target for my cleaning supplies. It is still a better deal there with coupons and then I don't have to mess with any mail in rebates. Now I just need to get to CVS and see how their program works out.

Labels: walgreens

// posted by Sharon @ 11:03 PM 2 comments

Labels: meijer

// posted by Sharon @ 10:26 PM 0 comments

1. Clairol Nice 'n Easy haircolor. Ad in Rite Aid paper for $1.50 off and coupon in Sunday paper for $2.00 off and with single check rebate makes it FREE.
2. FreeStyle Lite Meter FREE with single check rebate
3. Prepaid Visa or Mastercard for $9.95 is FREE with coupon and single check rebate
4. Duck Brand EZ Start Tape is FREE with single check rebate
5. Soft White Light Bulbs FREE after single check rebate
6. Garnier Fructis Sharompoo or Conditioner FREE after single check rebate, plus with coupon, I get $1.00 back from this.
7. Breath RX has buy 1 get 1 Free. With $5.00 off Sunday coupon, I will pay $2.50.
8. One 2-Liter of Diet 7-up FREE with coupon.
9. Speed Stick FREE with $1.00 off coupon from ad and $1.00 off coupon out of Sunday paper
10. Colgate toothpaste $.25 after $1.50 coupon in ad and $.75 coupon from Sunday paper
11. GUM toothbrush $.25 after single check rebate and $.75 coupon from Sunday paper

So after all of that, I should spend only $7.50. Hopefully my math skills pay off and I added everything up correctly. Even if I didn't that is still a good deal...at least to me...for all that stuff.

At Walgreens these are the deals going on:

1. Lysol Sanitizing wips 3/$3.00 after Mail in Rebate. Coupon in Sunday paper for $1.00 off makes it 3/$2.00.
2. ALL detergent is $3.99 , then after coupon for $1.00, $2.99 and then they have $5.00 in Register Rewards at checkout.
3. Lysol Toilet Bowl cleaner is 2/$2.59, minus coupon for $.50, makes it 2/$2.09
4. Prepaid Visa or Mastercard has a $5.00 mail in rebate which makes it FREE
5. Aquafresh toothpaste is on sale with coupon from ad for $.99 with a limit of 3. With coupons from the Sunday paper, I have $2.75 off, so out of pocket wiill be $.25 for 3 tubes of toothpaste.
6. Duracel batteries have a $3.00 mail in rebate and a $2.00 off coupon from ad. I don't know how much these are normally, so I'm not sure how much I will pay.
7. Vicks Early Defense foaming hand sanitizer is FREE after mail in rebate
8. Raid Wasp & Hornet has $1.00 mail in rebate and another $1.00 off with coupon from Sunday paper
9. I can't remember how this deal goes exactly, but I think it is a $1.00 mail in rebate on each product with a limit of 4 products. They give you a list of the products you can choose from and I am getting 1 Shout Laundry stain remover, coupon for $.75 off, 1 Windex, with a coupon for $1.00 off, and 2 Pledge products, with a coupon for $3.00 off.

I'm not quite sure what my out of pocket will be for this one, since I will be buying stuff I don't normally buy. But if I had to guess, I think I will spend around $15.00, but then I will be getting money back with the mail in rebates. So after I hit the stores later I will see just how much exactly it came too.

If you want really good guides to how to use these deals really to your advantage, visit Biblical Womanhood. She always has awesome deals that she shares on her site. Hopefully, I will be able to find some web coupons today and save even more. I'll share with you later how it went. I've done the Walgreens mail in rebates before, but have never done any with Rite Aid. I am going to go to CVS and start doing their program too. I have heard and read from Biblical Womanhood that they have really good deals there too. Either way, it is so much fun to try and see just how cheap you can get items for. Have a good Friday!

Labels: rite aid

// posted by Sharon @ 8:33 AM 1 comments

Grandma and Grandpa came over to say "Happy Birthday" to her and for some icecream cake. Can you tell the girls were happy to see them?
Look at those eyes! She just can't wait to dig in!
When I first put a piece on her tray, she just poked it with her fingers for a little bit first. I made an icecream fudge cake since it was so hot. I thought everyone might like that a little bit more...and they did. :)
Here she is digging right in now that she realizes how yummy it is. I love how she just grabbed as big a piece as she could and just shoveled it right on in.
Look at the messy little cheeks!
This picture didn't turn out all that well, but you can see just how messy she really got. She had chocolate in every single neck roll, all up her arms...it was everywhere! It's a good thing she likes her baths too! :)
I am so thankful we got a whole year with her. Lord willing, we will have many more with her.

Here is the recipe for her cake. It is called Orea & Fudge Ice Cream Cake. I got the recipe out of Kraft Food & Family magazine.

1/2 cup fudge ice cream topping

1 tub 8 oz. Cool Whip whipped topping thawed, divided
1 pkg (4 serving size) Jello-O chocolate flavored instant pudding & pie filling
8 Oreo Chocolate sandwich cookies
12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches

Pour the fudge toping into a medium bowl. Stir in 1 cup of the whipped topping with a wire wisk. Add the dry pudding mix. Stir until well blended. If it looks a little too thick to spread, add 1/4 cup of milk. Chop the Oreo's roughly into chunks and pour into the mixture. Then take a 24X12 piece of foil and spread out. Arrange 4 ice cream sandwiches side by side. Layer with half of the pudding mixture. Repeat the layers. Top the pudding mixture with the remaining 4 ice cream sandwiches. Then frost the top and sides with the remaining whipped topping. Bring up the foil sides. Freeze at least 4 hours before serving.

This cake was sooo yummy! I will definitely make it again. The only difference is I will buy a larger tub of whipped topping just because it didn't quite cover the whole outside of the cake. Other than that, I thought it turned out really well. Yumm, yumm.

Labels: Piper pics

// posted by Sharon @ 8:18 AM 2 comments