As seen in....

our kitchen

I call this the cleaning station-this section of the kitchen countertop houses baby wipes, Clorox wipes and Lysol spray for routine use. This area over the sink is also the current site of our Easter egg tree with the chocolate bunny figurines...

Above the kitchen cabinets is part of our Americana collection...

This is Buck-a-roo's Bible verse magnet collection. Each Monday at preschool, he is given a new Bible verse, brings it home on a magnet for the refrigerator and memorizes it to recite at school during the week.

And this, my friends, is my 2009-2010 Royal Carribean vacation guide that the travel agent mailed my mother and I once we booked our spot on the MckCruise. We are praying feverishly for Stellan's complete recovery.
I spotted this post idea at 4 Little Men and Girly Twins and decided to give it a try. I like the concept and hope to make it a once-weekly post.

carnival creation

*Update*
I am having issues with posting the Mr Linky portion....I have to get the boys from school, go to Home Depot to pick out paint color, out to dinner with the family, and pop some pills for the horrible head cold that is getting me down. I hope to work on this more tonight. In the mean time...create your post, post the new Coupon Ca$h-In Carnival button to your blog, and speak of your blog post in the comments of this post


Original Post
What do you get when you combine two popular topics in the blog-o-spere, a. blog carnivals and b. couponing, with the real life endeavour of saving money in today's tough economy?

You get the Coupon Ca$h-In Carnival hosted by Vaughn Family Chaos!!

It will be a weekly carnival (I ask that you all chime in on what day of the week works best for you, your couponing, your shopping, etc...) where my blog readers and yours join together to post about your weekly couponing adventures! Where did you shop this week? Where were the best deals? How much money did you pocket? Where others can print the coupons you used? Upcoming advertised savings?

It is fun to post about your couponing rewards and even more rewarding is sharing with your blogging buddies so that they may also reap the benefits. I will start this week by showing you a picture from my visit last Sunday to KMart...

KMart advertised double manufacturer's coupons on Sunday and I was all over it like white on rice. You will see in the picture that KMart breaks down their savings on your receipt into two categories, as do most stores. I saved $15.27 on advertised sale items and $11.75 in redeemed coupons for a total of $27.02.

This is a very general description of my savings. You may do the same in your post or go into more detail for specific items and coupons. Either way...just spread the word on how you saved yourself a chunk of change.

I have posted a Coupon Ca$h-In Carnival button to my left sidebar that you may place on your blog and will post Mr Linky to the bottom of this post so that everyone can link up. Have fun and happy couponing!

Wordless Wednesday

1st weekend of Spring

As you know by now, the boys and I traveled to central Louisiana to my hometown this past weekend to visit my family.

While enjoying the fabulous Spring-like weather this weekend, we had an excellent brunch at my grandparents....fruit tray with homemade grenadine fruit dip, garden pasta salad, baked LA sweet potatoes, honey ham (that my grandmother baked) sandwiches with crisp lettuce from the garden, caramel cake, and a loaf of homemade Amish bread for me to take home. Oh yea...that's my Maw-Maw's idea of an easy, thrown-together Saturday brunch :)

In between our many trips back and forth to the table, the boys strummed us a tune on my grandfather's old guitar. For literally hours, they they bickered over who's turn it was took turns at the guitar.






We even had a practice-run Easter egg hunt. Frank-o even managed to find one egg that was filled with Starburst (from Lord only knows when seeing as my grandmother certainly had not placed them there this year).




On Saturday night, we took my Meme out to dinner and visited with my younger cousins.

On Sunday, my dad returned from the fishing camp just in time for a 30-minute freeforall wrestling session before we got back on the road to return home. Thanks to Papa Cody's wrestling....the boys slept the entire 2 1/2 hour road trip home!!

We hope you all had a wonderful start to Spring as well. I have many post in the waiting....(as seen in, coupon cash-in carnival, guest miracles post, 1st trip to the dentist) that I hope to edit, tweak, perefect, and post this week. Don't hold me to them all....

"Not Me!" Monday

I DID NOT tweet a Twitter message of "Love You" earlier this week. A message that was actually supposed to be a text message sent only to Daddy Buck and NOT to all of my 20+ Twitter followers. {oops!} The responses that ensued were great!







Frank-o DID NOT have lime green, booty-staining bowel movements on multiple occasions during the past week for no apparent reason other than to honor St. Patrick's Day.







I DID NOT at one point this past week truly believe that I could gather, mix, and create an entire four course meal from ingredients found on my kitchen floor. Nope! Not ME! I would never allow the state of my kitchen floor to get that awful! This week WAS NOT noticeably the week opposite that of when my houskeeper comes.



This blog carnival was created by MckMama and I participate weekly every Monday morning. However, I would imagine that MckMama's post may be delayed this morning because she has been in the Emergency Room all night with her baby, Stellan. His heart rate was too high and the doctors were desperately trying to get his rate to decrease. My prayers, as well as, many others are with them on this Monday morning.

i heart faces ~ week 11

After a busy weekend of visiting family for the boys and I, we are home. It is Monday morning 0500 and I am editing my i Y faces post. Typically I have my i Y faces posts complete way in advance and schedule them to post early Monday morning. Not the case this week and that is because I was stumped for a picture for this week's theme!

This week's theme....no flash.

Thank goodness the weekend's activities were all outdoors with bright sunny skies and not a cloud in sight.

Frank-o found this large sombrero in his great-grandfather's work shed. My grandfather uses it to shield his face from the sun when he works in the yard. It shielded Frank-o's entire upper body. {grin!} Hopefully tonight, I will post more pictures from our fun-filled weekend.

This should be an interesting week of entries....check them out here!

Flashback Friday

This weekend last year was Easter weekend and we had a fabulous weekend indeed. The weather couldn't have been any better as evidenced by the crystal blue skies in the following pictures.



I suppose you can now guess what we did on Saturday before our Easter Sunday festivities. The weather was A+ and the wind was quite robust. Papa Cody spent the day kite-flying with the boys.



The boys and I are headed to my parents' house this weekend for a visit while Daddy Buck is going to the deer camp. The forecast for this weekend, the first weekend of Spring, is superb here in the deep South.

Sunny skies, no chance of rain, family, and friends is a combination for Good Times had by all.

The forecast for this weekend looks to be good for most of the country for the first weekend of Spring. Get out and enjoy it....

I would like to take this moment to thank The Academy

oh wait!! wrong award...

In all seriousness, I have been remissed in acknowledging my dear blogging pal Pam (Twenty Little Piggies) and accepting the blogging honor that she awarded me last week.

How cool is that?? And from one of my dearest blogging pals that I am truly hoping I get to meet IRL (maybe on the MckCruise)!

It is now my turn to pass the baton, so to speak.

And the award goes to....

Stephanie (Confessions of a Nursing Student)

Harper (Harper's Waste of Space)

How do you take such spectacular photographs of your smashingly handsome boys utilizing splendid post production techniques?

hahahahahahaha.....

Ok, so that's not exactly the question that many of you asked in the comments of several of my recent posts....but you did question my camera and my software for post production, so you asked and I will share!

Thanks to Daddy Buck....I am shooting with a Canon Rebel Xsi with an 8gb memory card. It is superb!!

I use Picasa3 (free photography editing software from Google) for all of my editing and post production techiniques. I will be honest in saying that not many photographs that you have seen posted on this blog since December have been SOOC (straight out of camera). Most all of them have undergone some sort of post production. The techiniques I utilize the most are sharpening the edges, saturating the color, warming the temperature, cropping and angling.

And just for kicks....one last question that cracks me up!! Are those the "real" feet of your family in your header??

The header is temporaraily gone for the Easter season (though the "feet" picture can still be found on our blog button on the right sidebar), but YES, those are our real feet. It is a picture that was taken by our photographer during our first family professional photo shoot back in October. I had to also convince my grandmother IRL that they were the feet of myself, Daddy Buck and the boys. Why is that so hard to believe and better yet....why would I have a picture of other peoples' feet posted on my blog or scattered throughout my home?!

Any more burning questions? I am here to oblige the readers....

sea of green...

Happy St. Patrick's Day









Last Saturday we attended our city's St. Patrick's Day parade. We took our nieces (I thought I would share a few pictures of them too and hopefully they will be online and see themselves) with us so they could see their parents riding in the parade. Aside from the off and on rain for the entire 3 hours of the parade, we had a fantastic time!

"Not Me!" Monday

Nope! Not me! None of these occurrences really occurred in our family during the past week...

I DID NOT find myself filled with apprehension and anxiety one evening this week when Daddy Buck announced, at that very moment, that we were becoming a sippy cup-free house and proceeded to throw all of the prized sippy cups in the trash can. Turns out, that my feelings of apprehension and anxiety were warranted because the morning and bedtime routines for the following 2-3 days were filled with whining and moaning, a couple of tantrums and several recitings of, "that's not fair! I'm ready to be a grown-up so I can have my drink in the den"!














This IS NOT an actual text messaging conversation between Daddy Buck and I...






Me: tell me that I did not notice your coffee mug on the counter in the bathroom after I already reminded you of it once this morning



Daddy Buck: Not Me Friday







Me: lol...i have nothing left to say because that was really funny!







For more "Not Me!" Monday humor, visit here...

i heart faces ~ week 10

The weekly Monday i Y faces post/contest has become quite an addiction for me. It is has become an outlet for showing off, what I believe to be, good pictures of my boys, practicing what amateur photography skills that I might possess, tweeking post production in my photographs, and viewing excellent close-up photography.

This week's theme.... GREEN!!

This was a difficult selection for me, seeing as we attended our city's large St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday and you can bet your bottom {green} dollar that I took many pictures! However, in the running count of i Y faces entries, it is definitely Buck-a-roo's turn to shine and I believe this picture does that without a doubt.

I am green with envy for those big gray-blue eyes and that tan bridge of the nose (oh, and the green Budweiser cap that was his favorite "catch" of the day at the parade)...

For more wonderful green-themed face shots, visit i Y faces here...

Flashback Friday

Weather permitting, we are headed to our 2nd annual St. Patrick's Day parade tomorrow morning. The boys had a blast last year and this should follow suit once more.

Today, I thought I would flashback to this time, last year...

Because they everyone's shirt still fits, we will be wearing the same attirethis year in our pictures as last year (just all looking one year older)! In today's economy....why not, right??

Happy Friday....Friday the 13th, that is!!

Contest winner announced!

Remember this picture.....

and my first ever blog contest that I posted on Monday??

There were two correct answers; the first being....

Woolverton Girl said...
That looks like Super W! Cute picture! Kids are so fun, aren't they!!
March 9, 2009 9:20 AM

Congratulations to Vanessa at The Woolverton Guys and Girl for being the first commenter with the correct answer.

The show is Super Why! It comes on PBS. It is a terrific animated cartoon that my boys truly enjoy. It teaches them to put letter together to construct words and words together to construct sentences and sentences together to construct a story!

4 year old birthday festivities

busy week::Mommy has sore throat::high probability of rain for the next few days::warmer weather means break out the shorts::St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday if it's not raining::Dad's off this weekend::LSU baseball game on Friday night for Mom, if it's not raining::less blogging this week::date night Saturday night; MIL keeping the boys overnight::Buck-a-roo's birthday was great; need to post pics::American Idol is good this season::Dancing With The Stars new season began this week::we got two new fish (Pillow & Timer)::both boys are sleeping better in their own beds ALL night::no time for sitting, there's work to be done::several friends' birthday parties coming up; need to buy gifts::need to go to grocery store and SOON::still haven't clipped coupons from last Sunday::daylight savings time is great for playing outdoors, but not so great for getting the boys to be at a decent hour::less sleep at night means grumpy children in the morning::overwhelmed::why is LSU baseball team losing::Daddy Buck's dealership is finally beginning to sell cars again is wonderful!; does this mean our economy is making a turn for the better::need to send in my deposit for the MckCrusise::planning trip for work in June to PA; first trip away from the boys and during Frank-o's birthday, nonetheless::Spring school pictures in two weeks::can't eat meat on Friday::sinkhole almost completely repaired; next phase....sodding:: is couponing really getting me anywhere::I LOVE Spring::taking on new responsibilities at work::really need to make a trip to Alexandria to see the grandparents and my brother::Easter is April 12::Mother's Day is coming up::the boys have wet the bed many times this week::laundry is mounting up::what should I cook for dinner tonight?::housekeeper comes today; also, getting first pedicure of the season today and taking my friends' mother out for lunch {aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh}

that was me putting all the various random thoughts that are racing through my head this morning into words....

on Buck-a-roo's actual birthday, we took him to Chuck E Cheese...

(click to enlarge)

his birthday party was 2 days later at a local farm....

(click to enlarge)