Elf on The Shelf & Advent Calendar ideas

This is our first year doing Elf on The Shelf so I've made a list of ideas I've come up with from browsing Pinterest. These are in no particular order, besides the first and last day.
1.Arrival- Hanging out in the advent calendar with a candy cane
2.T.P. the Christmas tree
3.Sugar snow angel
4.drinking syrup with a barbie
5.hanging from ceiling fan
6.fishing for gold fish
7.taking barbie for a ride in the barbie car
8.using a sock as a sleeping back in drawer
9.having a bowl of cereal
10.using a T.P. roll as a swing
11.Decorate kitchen with sticky gift bows
12.coloring a page in coloring book
13.making a can mountain by pantry
14.having a tea party
15.doing a slam dunk in the basketball goal
16.reading christmas books
17.has a cold, surrounded by tissues,halls,medicine
18.working out with marshmallow dumbbells
19.hanging out in jewelry box wearing jewelry
20.hiding in the fridge eating red jello
21.hanging out in Christmas village
22.sitting in chair playing xbox
23.building a house out of blocks
24.marshmallow bath
25.bag of elf kisses and note saying goodbye


We're also doing an advent calendar, I got a big stocking one at wal mart for $17 but you can make your own , or even check out target, I saw several different ones for $3 . These are also in no particular order, I'll put them in order when I figure out our schedule.
1. make hot cocoa and read first Christmas book
2.decorate gingerbread house
3.watch a christmas movie
4.go look at christmas lights
5.make candy cane pom pom ornament
6.make gingerbread cookies
7.Christmas at stockyards
8.go see Frozen
9.deocorate paper Christmas tree
10.go ice skating
11.pick out toys to donate
12.make paper snowflakes
13.make christmas sundae
14.write Santa a letter and mail it to the north pole
15.make jingle bell bracelet
16.make grandparents oven mit gift
17.Check out Christmas books and movies at Library
18.Dance party-jam out to some christmas music
19.Christmas movie and popcorn
20.yesterland farm
21.color Christmas pages
22.Breakfast for dinner
23.Go on the train ride at the park
24.open Christmas eve gift

October Advent

I'd seen Advent calendars on pinterest, most are for Christmas but then I found some for Halloween. I thought this was a great idea! I love Fall and I'm so ready for all the fun things it brings. So I started working on the list of activities,crafts and baking we'll be doing.
We'll be gone til the 6th of October visiting family in Oklahoma so ours will only be 25 days.

1. Decorate the house for Halloween
2.Craft- Egg carton bat
3.Food- Mummy Hot dogs
4.Activity- Pumpkin Bowling(use the pumpkin as a bowling ball and pins can either be "ghosts"aka toilet paper rolls or cans you paint to be monsters)
5.Craft- Paper bag scarecrow
6.Activity- Fall Scavenger Hunt
7.StawBooooRies
8.Spider Hands
9.Ghost Hunt
10.Halloween wreath
11.Cottonball Ghost
12.Mummy Wrap(wrap them up like a mummy!!!)
13. Pumpkin patch/decorate pumpkins
14. make Halloween cookies
15.Checkout halloween books at library
16.watch Halloween movies
17.Pumpking potato stamp
18.Make a monster
19. Boo at the Zoo(halloween theme day at local zoo)
20.Yesterland Farm
21.Ghost Feet
22.Fall picnic at the park
23.Make trick or treat bag(get a cheap tote bag and decorate!)
24. Make Treat hands to give out on HalloweenTreat hands
25. Go Trick or Treating!

There's Always Tomorrow.

Today I woke up with a list of things I wanted to get done, like finish my last load of laundry, start washing all the bed sheets, organize Audrey's clothes, clean out my fridge and scrub my microwave.
Now ask me how many of those things I got done?
ZERO.
Audrey has recently starting saying "mom play" and it's hard to resist her. Audrey begged me to play puzzles with her, then wanted to read books, then we colored with markers for the first time, she of course marked all over herself. Then she wanted to play outside and we played with chalk and I decided it would be the perfect time to do the hand print flower pot gift for her great grandma, however this did not work out as planned, she wouldn't put her hand flat so the print came out as a glob, I decided to give her a Popsicle stick since we had no paint brushes and just let her have at it. She picked me flowers and then played in the dirt, got dirty from head to toe, chalk, paint, markers and dirt just all over her. Of course next I gave her a bath, I filled it up with extra toys and even put some bubbles in which I usually don't do since getting her OUT of the bath is already hard and she refuses to get out when the water is gone but the bubbles stay, but I knew she would love it so in the bubbles went. Most of the time baths are quick , in, scrub down and back out but tonight I let her play longer and just enjoy a nice bath.
After bath time I thought I would put on some cartoons for her and make the cabbage casserole I had planned, but once again Audrey had other plans, She wanted to play "Mouse" as she calls it, ABCMouse.com which is an online place for kids with lessons, puzzles and games and since she doesn't know to move a mouse, especially on a laptop I have to sit with her and move the mouse, she loves to playing and I love seeing her laugh and name animals and numbers . By the time I realized I had never started dinner I didn't feel like cooking much so I just made a turkey burger patty and broccoli . After Dinner Audrey was getting pretty cranky and I knew she needed a nap, but she wanted to lay on me watching a "vie" as she calls her movies, and well once she was asleep I just didn't have the heart to move her . So I layed there watching Word World for what was probably the 200th time, and I realized I hadn't gotten a single thing done today, then I looked at my sleeping little girl and smiled to myself and thought, no I got plenty done today, I spent the entire day with my daughter and while yes I spend everyday with my daughter being a stay at home mom, I don't always spend all of my TIME with her, She'll only be 2 for a little while, much too soon she won't beg me to play with her , to read her stories, or fall asleep on my chest.
So no I didn't do much housework today but I did my job as a mother, Audrey won't remember if I kept up with the laundry or if I made a big home cooked meal every night but she will remember all the time I spend WITH her, she will remember the times I read to her, she will remember the days we spend getting dirty in the backyard and the time I spend helping her learn and at the end of the day what else matters really? I don't think any mother looks back and says "I wish I would have done more laundry" because I could have forever to spend with Audrey and that would still not be enough, so why waste the few precious years I have, because there is always tomorrow to do everything else.

Coupons

I've had a couple people ask me how I coupon, so I figured I'd make a post with today's run, not my best one but oh well! So first I always get two papers, I keep my stash built up because most coupons last a month, sometimes two. The key to coupons is to match the coupons with the sales and have a plan, don't just go in and look for stuff and hope you have a matching coupon. I make a list and know pretty much what I'll spend.
Mostly I shop and use my coupons a Walgreens, CVS and Albertsons.
Okay, so Here is my CVS Trip.
GM Cereal 2/5$- I had a coupon for 1$ off
Dawn dish soap-Regular 1.60 on sale for .99
Colgate Max White Toothpaste -Regular 3.79 on sale for 3.00 + in store coupon for $2 off
Purex Detergent was Buy One Get One Free-5.99 for 2
I also bought a photo frame for a dollar, a birthday card for 3.50(this was something I cringed at when I looked at my receipt, I would normally never pay that much for a card!) and a 10 pack of sponges for $1
I also had a 20% off purchase thanks to my rewards card savings from a previous purchase which came out to 5.80 off.
I paid $13.15
Total savings in all was 21.42!

Getting into it is really easy, it's so fun and addicting!
Just remember to not buy things you don't need, want or normally would never buy just because you have a coupon for it!
I'm in no way an expert and I've only been doing it a few months, and I'm not an extreme coupon lady, just wanted to give some pointers!

It's been one of those days

As a mom we all have those days where we just wanna lock ourselves in the closet and pretend not to hear the kids right?
Today was one of THOSE days
Audrey woke up cranky, we were out of milk and had zero motivation to get dressed and put makeup on to go to the store so we had dry cereal for breakfast.. which she of course dumped ALL OVER THE PLACE, and can't forget to smash some in the floor and my bedroom happens to be only 1 of 2 rooms in the entire house with carpet.
She basically cried over every little thing today, she couldn't open the cabinet door, which completely constitutes a melt down of epic proportion, tomatoes for lunch? sure why not!
I felt like crap today and all I wanted to do was nurse my headache and nausea and watch bad tv.
Audrey had other plans for me, after I picked up the living room for the third time today she brings just about every toy she owns and begins throwing them at me. Dinner was mac n cheese because momma had no patience or energy to cook a real meal and since I'm trying to make her use utensils more she had a serious freak out over not being able to get the noodles from the spoon into her mouth without dropping them on herself, and when I say freak out I mean " lets scream then hold our breath til we almost pass out and make mommy have a heart attack then lay on the floor thrashing until I get what I want" type freak out. Today was just not a good day at our house.
But we all have these days right? Those days where we think "my god if I could just have a moment of silence" because lets face it, you can only hear "Mom! Mom! Mom!" " WHAT?" " NOSE!" so many times in a day before you wanna pull your hair out.
That takes me back to when I couldn't wait for her to talk and now I just wish she'd be quiet for 10 minutes.
Now don't get me wrong, I have an awesome kid, 90% of the time she's pretty well behaved, but she's a child and they will eventually drive us all to the loony bin.
And you know what I hate, when I read those tear jerking super sad stories about babies dying on facebook and I cry so hard and think " you should feel so ashamed of yourself, here you are acting annoyed with your precious baby and these parents don't even have their baby to hold!"
Yes, I get annoyed, frustrated and overwhelmed with being a mother sometimes, but not even for a single second do I take it for granted, I love my little girl more than life itself and I would not trade a single day with her for any amount of time of any other life.
But I'm not perfect, and neither is she and we will have our bad days and I will send her to bed early and I will have a glass of wine because tomorrow is another day and much too soon she will be grown up and I will miss her yelling and screaming and stepping on toys and all the messes she makes.

Potty Training Update!

I totally meant to do an Easter post with all the things we did, but I forgot and well now it's too late.
so I decided I would give an update on Potty Training!
I had started for the third time and it just wasn't working, she was just refusing to do it so I gave up and decided I would just wait until summer to try again, when to my surprise a week after I gave up she decided she was done with diapers and did it herself! She loves going to the potty and wearing panties and even hates wearing a diaper at bedtime, She's terrified of the big potty so we haven't been able to use that yet, or a public restroom but hopefully soon! She's only had one accident in three weeks and that was because she was playing outside and just forgot. We used a sticker reward chart, which she LOVED and was so excited to be pick out the stickers. Sometimes she would try to trick me though, tell me she had to pee just to sit on the potty and then try to get a sticker. I'm so proud of her! After all the frustration I had trying to do it before she was ready was pointless because I just had to let her be in charge and do it when she wanted to do it.
She's really growing up, and as happy(Ecstatic) as I am to be done with diapers for the most part, it's bittersweet because that's just one more "baby" thing we're done with.
Also she is saying new words every day, last month she said 32 new words! Her talking has really exploded and she's now trying to say full sentences, even though I can't always understand exactly what she's saying.
2 is really starting out to be a fun age, hopefully we skip being "terrible" .

Sesame Street Party!

We survived the Oklahoma trip! Audrey had a blast at her birthday party and all my months of planning paid off! The cake was amazing! It looked so cute and tasted super yummy. Almost everyone I invited was able to come, so we had a full house filled with good friends and lots of happy children. Here are some Photos!(they aren't great because I forgot to pack my memory card, and DH is not good with the focus on his phone)
I got these letters and numbers at Hobby Lobby and just spray painted them and then added the fuzzy little ball things with regular glue to the number 2

Elmo had "goldfish" and Cookie Monster of course was guarding the cookies.I had also planned a bubble bath punch with rubber duckies with Ernie.. but I messed it up and it turned out red! I got the adorable paper flower banner for 1.50 at Wal mart!

This adorable (and very yummy)cake was made by Takes The Cake By Brooke I picked up the cupcakes at wal mart for the smaller kids.
This was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, luckily though it came with like three of every number for the sign so I used the extras on the walls around the rooms!

Everyone wanted a photo in front of Sesame Street!

My awesome friend Melissa made this! Audrey loves it and it was a big hit at the party as well.

The Party Princess!

I'm adding these last two from her birthday shoot earlier last month so you can see her birthday shirt better.

Audrey's adorable shirt was made by Nancy at Little Bow Dazzle I get all of Audrey's custom shirts done by her