Mail's Here

I love getting goodies in the mail! I don't care if it's a pair of Nikes, a free sample or just a coupon. I love them all! Here's a few things I've received the past couple of weeks.

Sample of Tide detergent and washing machine cleaner with $1 coupon.
NFL/Lays reusable bag and Gatorade coupon.
Sample box of Kleenex, which is coming in quite handy in this snotty house right now. Coupon for a FREE Yoplait yogurt and coupon mailer from Dillons including a coupon for a FREE bag of Lays chips.

Thanks Dr. Oz

Dr. Oz and Nike gave away 2011 free pairs of Nikes to kick off Dr. Oz's 11 weeks to Move It and Lose It. I had read on so many blogs about the giveaway. It began at 3 pm EST. In order to win, you had to be one of the first 2011 people to fill out the information. This info had been posted on a buttload of blogs, Facebook and who knows where else. So I sat at my computer a few minutes before it was to start and waited.

The form finally came up. I hit the submit button and got an error message. Yeah, because how many thousands of people were trying to submit the same info. I kept trying to refresh to get back to the form page and kept getting error messages. The same error message all the thousands of others were getting. I sat at the computer for about 15 minutes irritated and ready to forget about it when the form page came back up.

I thought filling it out again would be a big waste of time, but this time when I hit submit, I got a thank you message. I still wasn't sure if I'd get a free pair of Nikes, but at least I got in. After the contest, people were ticked off all over blogs and Facebook because of all of the error messages. And so many people didn't get in.

That gave me a good feeling, but I still wasn't sure I had won anything. About 1 1/2-2 weeks later, I saw a post on a blog I follow that a reader had finally received an email about the free shoes. Still not having my hopes up, I checked my email and sure enough, my email from Nike and Dr. Oz was there! I was so excited!

I went online to the Nike store and picked out the shoes I wanted from the selections they were offering. Five days later, the UPS man brought my new Nikes.
I love them! They are so comfy! I haven't worn Nikes in years because they always hurt my feet. I should know. I worked at a shoe store through college; I tried on plenty of them. But these are awesome! And orange is my favorite color!

Marshmallow Snow

My boys LOVE marshmallows! It's one of their favorite snacks. So before they ate their snack the other day, I let them use them as snowballs. Big Brother had a good time making a snowflake.
Marshmallow snowflake
I helped Baby Jaws make a snowman, but it disappeared pretty quick. I think he inhaled it.
Marshmallow snowman
This loved this activity! It was a great way to work on their fine motor skills and they enjoyed the end result of eating them.

Snotty Kids

Big Brother woke up in the middle of the night last night crying that his ear hurt. He was up a lot even after I poured some Tylenol into him. So this morning, he stayed home from school and I called the medical clinic in our town. It's closer and usually quicker than our pediatrician for little ailments.

I HATE going there, not because of the doctor by any means. He's always been great. I hate the waiting room. It is so small and always filled with sick people. Go figure. But there are never normally sick people when I go. It always seems to be filled with people hacking up a lung or choking on a dog bone. I don't know which. And then there are the snotty kids. Not snotty as in attitude. Snotty as in snot running the 3 inches from their nose to the bottom of their chin.

What irks me the most is when the little Snot Balls come over to check out my boys, completely all up in their personal space trying to grab the toys they've brought along to keep themselves entertained. And the little Snot Ball's mom always thinks it's so cute. Yeah, my kid is sick but not as sick as yours. And whatever your little Snot Ball has, I really don't need it in my house. I'm not a germaphobe at all. I do plenty of disgusting things I probably shouldn't, as do my boys. But use a little common sense. It's not cute for your little snot nosed, germ infested, barking like my German Shepherd kid to be spreading their love germs in a doctor's office like that.

And get well soon my little double ear infected boy!

Creamy Chicken & Rotini

We tried a new recipe tonight. I have so much free pasta, I needed to find some way to use some of it. I searched my favorite recipe site, Food.com, and found Creamy Chicken & Rotini Casserole. It was a great warm dinner that went well with steamed broccoli.

Place the noodles in a baking dish.
Place cooked chicken on top of the noodles.
Pour the cheese sauce on top.
Sprinkle cracker crumb mixture on top and pop in the oven.
It looked so good when it came out of the oven.
Be sure to stir it up to cover all the noodles and enjoy!

Snow Birds

Snow Day

Nike Score

At the thrift store over the weekend, I also found Baby Jaws some Nikes. They won't fit him until probably next fall, but they were like new and only $4.98. I don't usually buy used shoes unless they're great name brands and are in great shape. Another great score for me!

Lego Score

On a few of the many coupon blogs I follow, I found the Walmart deal on Duplo Legos before Christmas. Hubs and the boys are Lego Maniacs. Legos are one toy that does not lose much value and go for quite a bit on Ebay. I've found them at yard sales really cheap and have even scored a Lego table.

So the Walmart deal was the 71 piece tub for $29.99, which is regular price, but it came with a $20 Walmart gift card so it was like getting the tub for only $10. This was one of Baby Jaws' gifts and we used the other $20 to buy Big Brother some Legos too. This was a great deal on something we would have bought anyway.
Fast forward to this past weekend when Hubs took all four kids to Bass Pro. I told him to just drop me off at the thrift store and to have fun. Muhahahaha! I walked the aisles finding a couple of books for the boys. I had went through the entire store and called Hubs to tell him I was ready to go. While I was waiting for him to come back to pick me up, I walked back through a couple aisles. I looked up and saw the exact big green tub of Duplos we had just bought for Christmas. I picked it up and found the price $4.98. That was a great deal for a $30 tub of Legos. I wasn't sure if it had ALL 71 pieces, but it was pretty full. I counted them on the way home and all 71 pieces were there. I was a little shocked, but very happy.
Now Baby Jaws has 142 new pieces of Legos plus the bazillion pieces he already had.

More Snowmen

Today, we made marshmallow snowmen with some edible markers. So much fun!

Teacher Gift

Big Brother gave his kindergarten teacher a really cute gift this year. I found the idea here. It's a 12 Days of Christmas for the teacher. I used some of the poems found on this site and some of them, I made up myself. This was really fun to make and his teacher really loved it.

Melted Snowmen

Yet another idea I've seen all over the internet and we had to try them ourselves. They turned out really cute!

What A Nativity

Our Christmas program at church was last night. My little wise man said his line so well. I was so proud of him. My little sheep, on the other hand, could have used a shepherd. He wouldn't stay on the stage until I bribed him. I told him if he'd go back up on stage and sit down that I'd give him a Kit Kat. As soon as Kit Kat came out of my mouth, he jumped off my lap, walked up on stage and sat for the rest of the program. He held up his end of the bargain so I guess I owe him one.

Sweet & Salty

I love sweet and salty! I found a recipe for chocolate covered saltines here and thought what a quick and easy way to satisfy a sweet and salty craving.
You may think I'm pretty boring, but all I only added the chocolate chips and some peanuts that I had crushed in my food processor. I also didn't use an entire cup of butter and they turned out great!

He Came To Get Messy

Super Nanny

Super Nanny came on last night and the boys pulled up a chair. I was cracking up. They were in a trance watching the little fit throwing boy on tv.

Where's The Line To See Jesus

Cookie Painting

I found the cutest idea for painting cookies here and thought it would be a great activity for the boys to do for Christmas. So after stirring up some cream cheese cut out cookies (I love these), the boys got after it with their paint brushes.

Big Brother tried his best to cover every last inch. He was slopping "paint" everywhere.

Baby Jaws was not near as thorough, but still had a good time decorating his cookies.

Here are Big Brother's finished trees.

And here are Baby Jaws' cookies after baking.
They loved this activity and it really was pretty quick and simple. Messy, but what boy doesn't love a mess?

Advent Calendar

I found lots of cute cookie sheet advent calendars on so many different blogs. The boys and I decided to make a couple. Ours are not near as elaborate as some I found, but they were quick and easy for two little boys to make, something I look for in crafts.

We started out with a cookie sheet I picked up at the dollar store. We're using magnets, so the cheap steel sheets work. Hubs drilled two holes in the top so we will be able to hang it up.
I painted them with acrylic paint. Here is the first coat.
I wasn't sure what I was going to use for the actual countdown. As I said, there are so many different calendars out there and they're all cute. I found a pack of erasers at the dollar store. I found another pack at Walmart. Each pack had 12 erasers so I took it as a sign to use them. 24 was the perfect amount for the countdown to Christmas. I picked up two packs of each so both boys would have enough for their own calendar. I let them choose which eraser they want each morning and just place a self-adhesive magnet on the back.
I found a printable advent calendar here to use which made our project even easier. I put magnets on everything including the calendar. If we want to make a new one next year, we can just remove the old one and use the same cookie sheet.
I also printed off a photo of each boy with their names and "Christmas countdown". I may be weird posting pics of my boys, but never using their names on my blog. That explains the blackout. We tied a Christmas ribbon at the top and hung up on our wall. The boys cannot wait to add their eraser each day.