Changes.

Yesterday was my Will's 3rd birthday. 2:05 pm on February 24, 2008, after 12 hours of natural labor that crazy little cutie pie entered our life and made us parents. It was the most surreal and frighteningly fantastic moment all bottled into one. I wouldn't change that moment for the world.... except..

To start over. My blog is going to officially be about my kids not just kid anymore.... Yep, we are pregnant and super excited. I went to the doctor Wednesday and sure enough... What made me laugh, is that the doctor walked in, looked at my chart and we started talking about when I stopped birth control... 1 week to be exact. So he laughs, turns to me, and says "Give me a high five", then proceeded to give me a high five for being super fertile. He cracks me up.

We waited to tell our parents until Will's birthday. His last present was a Big brother T-shirt, which he threw on the floor to move onto all the cool toys he got..Meaning my Mother in law picked up the t-shirt and read it. Watching their faces as they read the shirt and it sunk in... priceless. They were crying and laughing and hugging. We are so lucky to have parents that are so supportive and around to help!!

So we are going to have a pumpkin. Our due date is October 21 (ish). So if this one comes late, like Will did... Pumpkin!!

So here comes the twist, you all get to watch as my cravings come out and if you dare.. try the same recipes that this baby is going to want. Plus I'm pretty sure you guys are going to want to hang around to see what my hormones do to my husband...

Someone else had done this, and it just made me laugh. So just in case you didn't get it...

I'm Prego!!!! hehe. I know clever right... or stupid. Either way, it made me laugh, and apparently I've got a stupid sense of humor. So go with it, humor the pregnant girl for a while.

Party preparation = quick dinner

Yes. I've been lazy about posting. But we've been eating a lot of recipes I've already posted. So instead of reposting them, I've just been having dinner.

Except tonight. Tonight since I'm trying (trying is the operative word there) to finish as much of the food prep for tomorrow. Since I've been on the go since this morning. Tonight we are trying an easy meal. It's a Chicken and Dressing Casserole from EatatHomeCooks.com. I haven't figured up the point plus value for them. The only thing I would have done differently with this recipe is probably used a little less milk, b/c the stuffing was a little mushy and I like mine a little crunchier, maybe leaving it uncovered the whole baking time too would have done it. I'd definitely make it again!!

Chicken and Dressing Casserole

(makes 6 servings)

3 cups Cooked chicken (I used the Tyson ready Chicken strips I got on sale)

1 box of cornbread stuffing mix

1 can chicken broth (99% fat free)

3 Tbsp butter (I forgot to add)

1 1/3 fat free milk

1 can cream of chicken soup (99% fat free)

Put chicken in the bottom of 9x13 pan. In a large bowl mix the stuffing and broth. Set aside while you mix the rest. Melt the butter in the microwave. Mix butter, milk and cream of chicken soup together. Pour soup mixture over chicken, then put the stuffing over the soup. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes- 1 hour.

Birthday Cakes.

One thing I love about Birthdays are the cakes. Last year I did a firetruck. This year Will decided on a Cars Theme.

So immediately I knew I was doing a KaChow cake. KaChow is Will's name for Lightning McQueen. You know in the movie when he's acting like a jerk, he goes "KACHOW" and shines his lightning bolt into other cars eyes. So he's always been KaChow in our house.

My little dude turns 3 next week. I know, 3 years where did that go. His party is Saturday with a bunch of his friends at his house. So with everything else I've got to do this week. I knocked out the cake today.

Did you know that an iced cake that hasn't been cut can last up to 2 weeks. Now I don't know about any of you. But I've never known an iced cake to last that long in our house.

So here it is. Will's Lightning McQueen Cake.

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Picture 1 of Lightning McQueen Cake.

Picture 2 of Lightning McQueen

The top of Lightning McQueen.

The tires for Lightning McQueen (chocolate donuts with piping).

Will thinks its pretty cool. So that is good enough for me!!!

Valentines Day 2011.

Today has been a great day.

I woke up to an almost 3 year old munchkin climbing in bed, turning on the T.V. and watching Finding Nemo on at 6:30 in the morning. Then Michael came upstairs after eating his breakfast to get ready for work. Surprising me with a gift certificate for a massage at the YMCA! Which I've been pining over but couldn't bring myself to spend the money on myself.

Going to the gym, running a couple errands. Then home to eat lunch and let my mini valentine take a nap. 3 hours later!! (Score for me) We got to go outside and play for the first time in months and it was wonderful. 60+ degrees outside is perfect weather for February if you ask me.

Then DH gets home and we made dinner together, of my 5.00 Filet Mignon (2- 8ounce steaks), Roasted asparagus and baked potato. It was delicious and better than any restaurant steak to be found in the state of Alabama. The only steak that has ever come close to Michael's is Morton's Steakhouse.

For dessert we each got to choose a cookie that Will decorated yesterday.

Tomorrow we are going out on a date night, to The Melting Pot, where we will pay way to much to cook our own food. But we will be doing it minus Will. So it's worth it for the time to ourselves!!

All in all, a great Valentines day. No flowers or expensive overpriced chocolates a great dinner with my husband and munchkin. Hope you had a great Valentines too.

Swagbucks is awesome!

If you've looked at my blog, which I'm guessing you have, because your reading it right now. You might see a banner for Swagbucks. A friend turned me onto the site, and boy am I glad she did.

Just in case you guys don't know what it is, let me share a secret. It's totally free. When I say free, I mean I get free stuff... completely free, no spam mail, no catches, nothing.

It's actually pretty easy. If you sign up for Swagbucks, you can "Like" them on facebook.

Then instead of searching Google or Yahoo or Bing, search on swagbucks and you have a 1 in 6 chance of winning swagbucks. They also give out free swagcodes that you can redeem for swagbucks. The swagcodes that they hide on pages, in their blog sometimes involve scrambling words, or just looking. It's pretty easy. Plus if you did like them on facebook, they will alert you to when there is a code out there.

Here's the great part, when you earn enough swagbucks you can buy stuff. The best are giftcards to iTunes, Amazon, Starbucks, and a bunch of others. So far I've earned 50-60 dollars in giftcards for free. Which comes in handy for buying Christmas or Birthday presents!

If you guys aren't already doing swagbucks, click on the banner at the top of the page and sign up. It's super easy and who doesn't love FREE stuff!!!!

BTW, It's Superbowl Sunday! My prediction is Packers are going to win it.

B1G1 plus Coupons = Free.

Couponing is so fun when you get a really good deal. It almost feels like I'm cheating the system. When in reality I'm working the system better than most consumers. Yesterday was one of those days at Kroger for me!! Every single item I bought I had a coupon for. Plus they were on sale!!

Here is how it played out

Kroger has great deals like buy 10 participating items get 5 dollars instantly off. And you can still use coupons on top of that. Check with your customer service desk and find out what coupons they will accept. The Kroger and Publix here will take competitor coupons. So I'm able to use 5 dollar off a purchase of 50 dollars or more that come in the school fundraiser books here. So usually walking into any grocery store I know I've got an instant 5 dollars off.

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Wholly Guacamole/Salsa/Dip is having a B1G1 Free and on some packages of the queso it had buy this queso get the salsa free...

They are normally 3 dollars. So with B1G1 they were 1.50 each.

Now with the coupon on the package of queso you get the salsa for free.

Now print: (you can print several *hint hint*)

http://www.eatwholly.com/getofftheranch/assets/WG_Coupon.pdf

Then add this $1.50 coupon for the queso dip. And you get both for free!!!

Did all that make sense??

With that deal I bought 12 packages 6 salsa and 6 queso. Since it is Superbowl Sunday this week! Can't beat free stuff.

Also Target has coupons on their website at the bottom of their homepage. Some will print out Manufacturer and some will print out Target coupons. The target coupons you can add on top of Manufacturer coupons which is how I got free Kraft cheese slices for Will's lunches.

With all of that and my other sales & Coupons.

I spent $46.35 and saved a whopping $69.36