I guess the joke is on me...

I recently discovered that Valspar is giving away paint samples on their FB page. The box includes a sample of your choice of paint, a roller, and a paint tray. I have been wanting to paint Hailey's room for a long time, but just don't want to spend the money (I realize painting is not that expensive, but I always seem to spend the money on something else first), and I don't know when I would actually get it done with Robert's crazy work schedule...not really something I want to do w/ 2 little helpers especially since there is stuff in the room. Soooo, I had the brilliant idea, what if I sent samples of the same color to several houses and then I would have the paint for free and maybe I would be more motivated to paint! So, I sent a sample to myself, my Dad, my Mom, my sis, my father-in-law, and my F-I-L's bro in law(they are neighbors), thinking from the look of the pic that I might actually be able to paint the entire room for free! Well, turns out it is only a 7oz can of paint and a mini roller and tray. So now I have lots of cans of the same color of paint but not enough to paint the whole room. Kinda wish I had sent different colors to everyone to have lots of new craft paints for the kids, but oh well. At least it is a pretty color-Plink.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

These are from Hailey's first St. Patty's Day, obvilously...I love these pictures and decided today to try to get a new version of them, easier said than done...

I did it, I did it, yeah, I did it!

That's a Dora the Explorer, just in case you aren't familiar with Dora :) It is Hailey's new fave thing to say and she even does the little dance to go with it. Hahaha.
Anyways, on to what I did...

I made my first dress, from start to finish. My mom is a very good sewer and several times I have asked her to teach me, but we never seem to get all the way threw a project, mostly because she wouldn't let me actually make something. She always just wanted me to practice with scraps, and I wanted to have an actual finished product at the end so I would get frustrated and she would get frustrated and we got nothing done, but not this time! :)


Happy Monday everyone! I think I am caught up on everything now :)

Legos and a new twist on an old fave

At the end of February, like literally the 28th, I found out that Lego stores do a free mini model build the first Tues of the month, the 1st of March was a Tues! So, being that we have never been to the Lego store, since we still only have Duplos I thought it would be a fun thing to do with the kids. We got there 10 mins after it started and the line was crazy long. Apparently just because I am slow on picking it up lots of others in the area were not! The line seemed to be mostly parents with reading books, playing on phones, ect, while their kids were spread out on every bench and seat within sight doing homework. I was not expecting this, but since we did drive the 40 mins to get there we waited in line. It took 1hr 15min, but we got our free mini models, it was a little bird, I think maybe it is supposed to be a woodpecker? The kids did extremely well waiting, especially since it was right at dinner time. I don't think we will be going back to this event anytime soon. Between the drive, the time of day, and the wait it just isn't worth it to me. I think we will just stick with our Sat morning builds at Home Depot and Lowe's!
Waiting...



The final product


One night last week I had steak and shrimp on the menu, and was trying to decide what kind of shrimp to make. I ended up making basically a scampi sauce and sauteing the shrimp in it and then to add some extra color to the plate served it on top of a pile of fresh baby spinach, it was sooo yummy! I don't know why I have never thought to do it before but I will definitely do it again. The warm shrimp and their sauce slightly wilted the spinach and it was like a wonderful light little warm shrimp and spinach salad.

Have you tried these yet?....

I picked up 2 of these new Philly Cooking Cremes a couple weeks ago(for free!) at HT. We tried the Savory Garlic the other day, I made the recipe that was on the package, Chicken Florentine. I topped it with some roasted tomatoes, fresh shredded basil, and shredded parm. I was very happy with the way it came out and would recommended it. Plus it made WAY more than the bag meals in the freezer section, which chicken Florentine is one of the few that I actually buy. There was enough left overs for me to eat it the next 2 days for lunch.

My Baby Girl is 2!....

A month ago! Uggg, slackest mommy ever here! I can't believe my sweet baby is 2 already. It really seems like just yesterday I was sitting at work in the middle of the night watching my belly bounce as she had her nightly hiccups :) We didn't do a big party, just family on her actual bday for cake and ice cream. Here are a few pics.



I had bought the tutu several months ago at Costco thinking I had plenty of time to find a "Happy Birthday" or "Birthday girl" shirt to match, turns out they are hard to come by! So, I ended up with a black leotard from Old Navy and ironed on a sparkly cupcake I found at AC Moore. I also made a new hair bow to match with cupcake and purple ribbons :)

Apple a day project

I am way behind on my postings again, but I wanted to share this idea. I saw it on another blog and it seems like a great idea. She writes to one company every day, something good or bad depending on her family's experience with each product. In return she gets lots on nice emails back and about half the time high value coupons and or free stuff! Seems like a great plan to me. So, I have decided to start doing this also, however, due to my severe lack of organization I can't seem to remember to do it everyday. I have done several though. So far I have written: Goody's Hair products, Oscar Mayer, Nestle, Vaseline lotion, Ivory, Lance, and Hefty. I have gotten a couple emails thanking me for my feedback of the products so far. I am hoping that this coming week maybe I will get some coupons or even free products in the mail. That would definitely help me keep it up!

Also, I discovered that if you "like" Valspar Paint on FB you can sign up to get a free paint sample w/ a roller brush and pan! All packaged up and sent right to your door, how cool is that! I have been wanting to paint Hailey's room, and even though it is not a super expensive thing to do we just don't seem to have the money at the end of the month to buy the paint and supplies so....I sent samples of the same color(plink) to myself, my Dad, my Mom, my Sis, my Step MIL, and her bro's house!! I am hoping maybe possibly it will be enough to paint her room and if not, at least I won't have to buy pans and rollers and such and the samples each come with coupons to buy more paint at Lowe's :) So if you are thinking about changing up a room color you might want to check it out and get your sample and coupon before you shop! The store "re-opens" everyday at 10am eastern time, and they only do 1000 samples a day. They are giving away a total of 100,000, I am not sure how long this has been going on so if interested jump on it and try to log in right at opening, the samples seem to be gone with in 2 hrs every morning.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! We have beautiful weather here :)