Sail away...

My mom is on an extremely well-deserved Mediterranean cruise right now with my aunt and she's hardly paying a dime! My aunt won the employee of the year award at one of her companies and received a $10k gift which she got to pick. She decided to take my grandparents on a panama canal cruise, but since my grandpa passed away before this could happen she had some left over money. She booked a the cruise for herself, and then asked my mom to go, my mom was reluctant because she didn't think it was fair to leave the other 3 sisters out. Well the sister's talked and decided my mom should go... and i totally agree with them- she totally deserves this trip as she is my dad's primary caregiver. She definitely has a lot on her plate and i am so happy she is able to take some time away and travel somewhere she never thought possible!

I have so enjoyed looking at all of the wonderful places she is going and watching her ship! If you need a little adventure in your day... you can see her itinerary here and watch the bridgecam here, she's on the emerald cruise ship!

busy bee...

busy busy busy!! it's been come and go all weekend and has no signs of slowing and the house shows it!

Lis is here and baby Eben is on his way! It's going to be an exciting week!

baby eben's mommy is waiting it out at home until the hospital calls her back! so a little selfish on my part, but maybe she could wait until morning so i don't loose anymore sleep :) (i don't know about you, but i think you get a little selfish with sleep when your a mommy!)

exciting stuff, but it's off to dreamland for me...

Making your own baby food

Making your own baby food is a great way to save some cashola and even better yet keep your little one's nice and healthy! I've been making baby food for the last few months, and we have saved so much money and can feel confident about what we are feeding our cuties!

Here's the low-down...
(we go organic- which is the only way to go but that's a whole nother rant!, but obviously it would work for non-organic too)

• A bottle of organic baby food costs about $.50-$.90 a jar, by purchasing organic equivalents of the same I am able to make about 4 jars of baby food for $.50!!!!
• I know EXACTLY what is going into that mouth- and don't have to worry about the hidden extras they put in baby food (any food at that!) I broke out a jar of applesauce the other day and the SECOND ingredient was high fructose corn syrup- I'm sorry but applesauce tastes fine without the poison thank you very much! (I'm really not that fanatical, ok maybe i am, but if you pay attention they add that stuff to EVERYTHING now!)
• Did I mention it is WAY cheaper!?! cause it is!
• It is SO simple

Here's how it's done...

1. buy your food of choice
2. cook it by your method of choice- (we usually boil the foods on the stove) until it is soft
3. throw it in the blender with the water from boiling and blend it!
4. when you have the right texture, pour it into containers- we use empty baby food jars and ice cube trays. that's right ice cube trays! if you don't have enough trays to store all of the food cover them and pop them in the freezer, once frozen pop the cubes out and store in an airtight container- we use gallon sized bags and suck the air out :)
5. food stores for about a month in the freezer, 48-72 hours in the fridge.

I do buy some jars of baby food from the store to see if they like the food and for on the road. You do have to be a careful only make a little bit to start out with- they loved winter squash in the jar, but gagged when they ate mine! The website wholesome baby foods is a WONDERFUL resource for this and can answer pretty much any question you can think of.

This really is SO easy, I'm gonna pull the mom-of-twins-card here- if I can do this so can you!

Pay it forward...

Here's the best Vegas story ever as promised :) as mentioned in the previous post, thanks to our high-roller friend, Frank, the 12 of us had the best dinner of our lives plus $700!

Here's how it happened...

We split up prior to the show we were going to, my great aunt decided to play some slots, but my grandma didn't want to so she sat on a bench in the lobby waiting for her sister. While she was sitting there a man in his 40's (who was very friendly as the rest of my story will prove, but honestly if i had run into him he's the kinda guy i would've tried to get away from as soon as possible, clean but yeah just the kinda person you wouldn't spend a lot of time talking to) came and sat down next to her, asked her why she wasn't gambling, told her she reminded him of his grandma and pulled out $100 bill and tried to give it to her saying, "take this and go have some fun." My grandma refused to take it so he left after setting it on the bench next to her, she got up as well, but then got to thinking if she didn't take it who would and what would they do with it... so she went back and picked it up.

She went to her sister and said "you'll never guess what just happened to me" but her sister replied, "I bet i can!" the same man, Frank, had done the same to her. Tried to put $100 bill in her machine, machine wouldn't take it initially so she talked to him for a couple minutes, and finally the machine took it.

We meet up for dinner before the show and they tell us this wonderful story... but it doesn't end there- we went to the show and laughed and laughed and learned a lot more about menopause then any of us younger one's cared to know for now! We made a bathroom pit stop after the show, a few of us waiting in the lobby for the others- so a few minutes later a few of my aunts and grandma walk up to us, one of them with a $100 bill stuffed in her bra (my aunts are the coolest!)

3 of my aunts, my grandma, and my great aunt ran into Frank AGAIN! He stopped to talk to them giving my grandma a hug and telling everyone how much she reminded him of his grandma- he gave them each $100 AND said he wanted to take them all out in a limo to get dinner- long story a little shorter- they were a little skeptical so they asked one of the casino security who was standing nearby and he said it was totally legit, telling them Frank likes to do this every so often. He suggested the steakhouse in the hotel saying it was the best in town (i doubt it was the best, but we can pretend cause it was still AMAZING he was being such a good employee! wink wink!)

So here we are up $700 AND getting ready for the best dinner of our lives. We met Frank briefly and were then treated to the best dining experience of our lives. The food like I said was AMAZING, the presentation of the meal was great, the service was great, and we received bundles of roses from Frank during our meal.

It is an experience I will never forget and sorry for tyson, but he will have his work cut out for him, the steak seriously melted in my mouth (i'm salivating just thinking about it!) and I actually ENJOYED a bite of shrimp (normally i can't stand it!). I followed the steak up with the Chocolate Fantasy for dessert and I'm pretty sure I'm still having fantasies about it!!!!

This was definitely a pay it forward experience, we were so gracious for his generosity and in return will all be praying for him as he seemed to be a lonely man. So thank you Frank for making a trip a little cheaper and allowing us to have such a special treat!

Boy do I miss this guy...

Our house sure isn't the same without him...

**one of the bonuses of my mission for the day is more pics from us!

mission of the day

Today's mission is to organize all of my pictures on the computer... this includes picking the best shot and deleting the 10 repeats of the same shot! Wish me luck!

Good times in Vegas...

We stayed at an AMAZING place...

We played games...

We laughed...

We slept in...

"ohhh...a whole pot of coffee for me :)"

We had a great massage... (I went with Swedish and it was AMAZING!)

I had a wonderful uninterrupted bath...

We sat by the pool and soaked up the sun...

We swam...


We saw a show...

We gambled a whole dollar...

We walked the strip...

We ate delicious food for free... free?!? you ask yup that's right, thanks to our high roller friend Frank we had the best meal of our lives for FREE! Stay tuned for one of the best Vegas stories ever...