Happy 2nd Birthday Peyton!

Our sweet angel turned 2 years old!!! I have always heard parents say, "they grow up so fast," but I never understood until we had our Peyton. Anyways, for his REAL birthday we decided to have an entire day of fun for him starting it off right with cookie cake! Then we went to the children's museum and finished it off with the circus! He LOVES elephants so it was perfect! May 5th, 2012

Cookie cake for the big boy!

We told him to dig in and he DID!!  

The sugar really woke him up!

Admiring the damage done.

Birthday boy ready for his BIG DAY!! 

Having a blast at the children's museum!

His FAVORITE thing to do! Brooom-Brooom!

Fishies ma-ma!!

He did not want to stop!

My two loves. 

Peyton loves the turtles!

On our way to the circus!!!

He kept asking when the elephant was coming.

Waiting very patiently for the El-Phant. (elephant) 

Mommy and Peyton. My birthday love!

Peyton was SOOO excited!

Front row seats.

Oh Boy! Oh Boy!

Peyton is now twenty-one months old and extremely full of energy!!! My child is going through a phase (I'm hoping it's only a phase), where he refuses to play with an actual toy and would rather play with the fireplace, DVD case, toilet paper, pens, lamps, tums bottle...and the list doesn't stop there. His latest hobby is head butting mommy and daddy. Peyton won - Mommy got a busted lip. :( Jeffrey's idea of breaking this habit is head butting back, but personally I think it just helps encourage it! While Peyton can be a handful, he is the sweetest little boy ever! Any time I have a sad look, Peyton hugs me, gives kisses and my favorite thing of all is when he lays his head on my shoulder and rubs my back. It is so cute! My favorite thing is when Peyton says "Ma-Ma," in his little southern draw. It melts my heart. :) He also calls milk, or anything in his sippy cup, Moo-Moo. I have no idea where he got that from but it is precious! I love my little boy so much and love the new adventure we have together each day! Today we are going to his favorite place; the library. Like always, we will come home with 10 or more books. :) Love my sweet angel. :)

On Your Mark, Get Set.....COUPON!

It is not a secret that I am an avid couponer. As a stay at home mom I wanted to help my family with more than just cooking, cleaning and child rearing. (Famous quote from my mamaw) So, after seeing TLC “Extreme Couponing” I decided to give it a shot and it actually worked!  I started coming home with free toothpaste and paying a fraction for detergent! What many people do not realize is it takes a lot of time and organization to do it on a widespread scale. For example, surfing the internet for coupons, cutting inserts out, organizing the coupons, reading coupon blogs for the best deals, and scouting stores are all necessities for an avid couponer. I must admit I do not do everything as often as I should, but spending time with my family is much more important than saving a buck. When people see my stockpile (very small compared to the ones on EC) most of their expressions are “OMG!”  I never pay even a penny for soap, body wash, contact solution, razors, shave cream, toothpaste, toothbrushes, cosmetics, hair products, most over the counter medicines, candy, dish soap, and deodorant! It is so nice when the hubby runs out of something, he doesn’t complain about it, he just goes to the cabinet and gets a new one! Aside from saving a lot of money, it is such a rush when you check out and only pay a fraction of the total. I haven’t quite gotten good at getting food for free but I’m taking it one shopping trip at a time! One of the most frustrating things about living in Moline IL is there are NO grocery stores that double coupons, therefore I have to work twice as hard for good deals! I thoroughly enjoy it even when it gets overwhelming!

Here is my "stockpile." I barely paid anything for all of this, but it has taken me months to aquire everything.

One store I get many free items at is from CVS by using their "Extra Care Bucks."  Here is an example of things I got for free and made money on a few items. On Thanksgiving day, all of these items were free after ECB and I used coupons on top of that which made everything free!!! (Aside from tax which no one can get away from! haha)

Back to Blogging!

It has been A WHILE since I have posted anything. Thanks to Heather Tullos for getting me back on track with my posts!  My new life in Illinois has been a huge change for us and makes me realize how good people have it in the south! Southern living, cooking, and good hospitality are missed terribly! So far, I have managed to survive and spread a little southern charm along the way, but I miss my family everyday. New blog will be posted very soon now that I FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY have internet connected.

Garage Sale STEALS!

This past Saturday I participated in one of my favortie activites....GARAGE SALES! The 1st Saturday of every month is when there are tons of sales, and this past Saturday there were two neighborhood sales. Neighborhood sales are my favorite because you aren't having to steadily reset your GPS for the next house. Waking up at 5:00 was totally worth it! Anyways, I found TONS of things at practically nothing! Here are just a FEW:

    I spent $20 for the 3 fabulous stools. I looked   them up and they retai for $70 a piece. That is a  $190 SAVINGS!

One house I went to was a lady with TONS of serving items at rock bottom prices. I got this 15" Oneida

sterling silver serving tray for $2...yes, TWO bucks! It was brand new in the box!

Peyton's Sock Monkey Party!

Well, I did exactly what I wanted to do for his party. SOCK MONKEY! I absolutely love how vintage sock monkeys are and that fact that Peyton gets a huge smile on his face when he holds it :) The party was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but totally worth it in the end. I ended up making just about everything including  Peyton's special sugarfree cake ( I didn't want my 1 year old consuming so much sugar). It took a lot of time, but I ended up saving a ton of money! I used PDF files online for the food labels, cupcake toppers, and goodie box tages and spent a few hours modifying them to fit his theme and personalize it. The party was a success and almost all of the food was gone! Here are a few pictures, and feel free to ask me any questions. I will post the recipe for the cake later on.

Goodie Boxes for Girls and Boys

These are the tage I made using the PDF.

Made the sock monkey banner with a PDF and  ribbon from Hobby Lobby ($2 for ribbon)

Some of the food table. (for the napkins at Walmart for $1 each)

I made the cupcake toppers on my computer and hot glued popsicle sticks.

This was a HIT at the party!

Peyton's sock monkey

Gift table with a pic of Peyton and his sock monkey.

Peyton's special birthday cake.

My New Project!

I picked up this little beauty in disguise at a garage sale for 10 bucks! I did a little research and it appears to be a vintage jewelry box, but nothing came up exactly like it, so we aren't 100% sure. I thought it would be perfect as a side table to hide away magazines and put coasters in the shallow drawer. The box part isn't attached to the rot iron stand. So far, Jeffrey and I have sanded it down and stained the lid. I had no clue how difficult and how much work sanding stain off would be! It will be so cute when we finally get done. I am so excited! I also picked up a mirror at an antique flea market last weekend for free! I will post new pictures of our work in progress with the table. More posts soon!