well it seems like another week has come and gone, Meeka is very much into cooking and crafts these days! I try and get her something structured to do every day to help her. we've been painting halloween crafts, and I picked up some really cool animals to paint at target clearanced out :) I painted some babyfood jars orange and then put black smiles on them to make them look like jack-o-lanterns :) they turned out pretty good. I'm not done I still need to get some stringy stuff to put on top and then candles to put in them :) I noticed when I was doing them I was really happy. It's been far too long since I've actually done crafts and I forgot how much I enjoy doing them. We've also been doing a lot of baking. Now with the cold weather here it helps heat up the house, and plus I love to always have something yummy and sweet around to munch on :) so we've made brownies and cupcakes this week. I got this great recipe for these yummy halloween pudding cup things to do on Saturday!

This week I also re-listed all of our craigs list stuff, I have someone today coming over to look at the co-sleeper, hopefully it'll sell!! ON monday someone is coming over to buy the diapers, I'm still debating on whether or not to sell the swing. I absolutely love that swing!! We need to sell the camera, diaper pail, directv box, and Nixon has some other miscelaneous electric things that need to be sold that he has to take pictures of and post. Or he can take the pics and I'll post. We need to make some money for christmas!!! Last year I think we spent waay too much money. I really couldn't control myself! We got ourselves an ipad, and nixon got a game and many many other gifts, Meeka got so many I couldn't even tell you everything. This year is going to be simple, they get 1 big gifts from Santa, in their stockings they get underwear, goodies, and socks, and then a couple of little gifts from Nixon and I. Meeka's gift I think I'm going to get her the Princess collection from Target. I know that she really loves it and every time we go to the store she stares at it and wants it. There is a coupon for $5 off so I'll have to talk to Nixon. For Niko I still don't really know. I did get him this hotwheels race track for really cheap, but I think I might get him a cool dump truck or something like that. and then maybe some other little things. Both kids are good for clothes and winter gear so I'm very lucky there, we might need to buy Meeka some snow boots, she has nice boots for winter, but they're not snow boots. We'll see what winter has in store for us this year. Last year we set a record for how much snow we had, it was crazy how often Nixon was shoveling the drive way. and ABSURD!!! I participated in a fieldworks study this week also (trying to make some extra $$) it was boring, and a little upseting the government is maybe thinking of doing a tax this april a 1 time tax to make better equipment for oil wells drilled in the gulf of mexico, our tax would be $750. That is too much for our family to do. especially with me not working anymore it would hurt us a lot. I was going to try to get out of debt this year not get into debt!! and we can't take out another extention for our taxes because we already have one, so we would have to pay it in full this year. which would really hurt us. Nixon was talking though and most likely he will be working Saturdays at least until the end of this year, so 2 more months, until the new guy is completely trained in, which is great because it is a lot of extra money for us a month and it helps me not feel so stressed out about everything!! plus it will help come christmas time. Then in the beginning of the year he should have a review and get a raise which will help out too!! HOpefully this year he'll get a really good one, he's learned a lot and has been doing extrememly well in machining. Anyway Meeka monster is getting antsy to decorate the cupcakes.

another Saturday come and gone pas

well,

it was another Saturday, Nixon worked and so I had the kiddos :) I found out last night that I won a tie from Trendy ties, I was sooo excited !! So now the tie that I want for Niko's 1st yr photos I got for free, seriously you can't beat free!. Last night we finally finished moving everything downstairs. I swear we've moved our entire house around. We put all of Meeka's toys in the space where the spare sorta room use to be, we need to make a hole in the wall to make a door, and then we moved the t.v. and the sofa where Meeka's toys use to be, where the t.v. use to be we now have a semi bedroom, so Nixon has a place to sleep )the futon) for now. so it looks pretty good like I said we need some things to still get done but everything is working out. Nixon did a really good job hooking up all the wires, and stuff downstairs so the t.v. is hung on the wall (no wires showing at all!) .

Bedtime here never fails, Meeka throws a fit and Niko stays up. I think she finally passed out, but now Niko is crying andwon't go to sleep. I think it's because he had such a late nap. oh well I'm gonna go put him to sleep :)

fiddlesticks.

I just entered a great contest from oh fiddlesticks if you want to enter or shop their store great place here is the link

http://www.oh-fiddlesticks.com/

weekend came,and weekend gone

well this weekend went waaay tooo quick!! I did manage to score some good freebies, got the grocery shopping done, and yada yada, I did get all the laundry done, Nixon had to work on Saturday so again it was me and the kiddos, nothing really significant. Meeka now knows how to get out of her childproof door, so at night she gets out, and does NOT go to sleep or bed, we have to constantly walk her back to her room and put her to bed, then she always wants something, cheese, milk, potty, whatever, just an excuse to not go to bed. So today we are going to get a locking door knob for her room,this is the only thing we can think of that would keep her in her room at night without us having to stand at her door and hold the knob. it gets pretty old after 30 minutes!!! So hopefully this will work,I'm sure we'll get our fair share of screaming and throwing things but in the end hopefully she'll learn????? At this point I'm 100% glad that we moved NIko into his own room, we wouldn't be able to do this if he was still sharing a room with her, I just don't know what to do with that little monster at bed time. We've always struggled with her and bed time. She is beginning to be very good in other things, brushing her hair, taking baths, getting dressed, picking out her clothes, eating her food at the table with everyone else. So hopefully this bed time thing will get better too :) Especially now that she has her "OWN" room again.

Yesterday Nixon got all the leaves in the lawn picked up and the lawn looks beautiful again!! only 16 bags of leaves later :) and I think it took him about 3-4 hours. Man, but it's wonderful to have a nice looking yard again!, Today the neighbor started doing his yard, and yesterday when he was finishing the other neighbors accross the street started racking his, monkey see, monkey doo :)

anyway hopefully today we're gonna go to this place called burger moe's on monday they do hamburgers and fries for $5, you can't beat that price!! it's like 50% off :) so I figure yay!! I've been really good o n our budget lately and clipping coupons We can go out for $15 :) so out we shall go when Nixon gets home from work :) besides that, life is same ol same ol here :)

Saturday

well it's the weekend, yet it doesn't feel like it.. Nixon has been working a lot of Sat lately so it just seems like another day. Last night we got all our grocery shopping and I'm very proud of myself this week I actually stayed on budget, $100 for 2 weeks. I've blown our budget majorly lately and now need to get back on track!! Luckily for me I have a great husband who will put in the OT to help get us back where we need to be!!! Last night we finally put all our stuff on craigslist, we just need to put the keyboard and the swing. (tear) I seriously don't want to get rid of our swing, and i"m having problems with it. too many memories, NIko slept in it all the time and it's seriously the BEST swing out there right now, I LOVE it!! so it's still downstairs no picture taken and not listed yet..

Yesterday was a good day, I got a lot of free stuff, I got free movie tickets to the new 3 musketeers movie at MOA for 10-20 at 7:30 I'll go with Ashley and the boys and the kiddos can come over here while we go out :) I got a free ipad skin protector :) I got some free stuff from aveda, sephora, and l'oreal so all in all it was a good day. I also got a STEAL on some batteries, and Tide laundry soap :) Now that I'm home I'm really getting more into the coupons and saving money!! getting things free is always good!!! anyway Niko isn't going down for his nap so until next time :)

lots of fun!!

so this past weekend we had a lot of fun! Nixon was a total trooper and agreed to do family pictures :) I won a free photo session with a photographer worth $150. so it was time to get our matching outfits and do some great fall pics. It was Saturday and the photo shoot went really quick, Meeka was really good. She made me a proud mama!! Afterwards we went and ate dinner at Sunsets in Wayzata. We haven't gone there in a LONG time so it was so yummy, I had my favorite Sherry chicken salad. OOOO YUMMM. So I couldn't have asked for a better day!. Sunday was such a gorgeous day we finally got the family together and went to the apple orchard. It is quite the drive for us to go out to Delano, we go to Fall Harvest, it is a local farm. It is much better than the other Orchards that we've been to. Last year we went to Aamodt's and were seriously dissapointed and did not like it one bit. It was too commercialized and not a lot for the kids to do and see. At Fall Harvest it is a local farm (which I love the idea of) it's smaller and more family oriented :) There were baby chicks that Meeka picked up, some cows that I took a picture of. Meeka got to feed the goats and see a bunch of baby animals. Sheep, goats, chicks, cows, piglets. It's just a better experience all around!. She picked out a pumpkin, then wouldn't let us buy it because she wanted it to stay with all the other pumpkins, so I'll be buying her pumpkin at the store. She got a hoot out of the face cut outs that you put your head through and it's different scenes. So all in all it was a really fun day.

NIxon and I have been debating what to do in the basement for a awhile now, we have some free space and would like to kinda move Meeka's play area into the unfinished part of the basement, move the t.v. stuff on the otherside of the basement and make a mid-shaft bedroom down there for him (or anyone else). We've moved everything around upstairs to make the old dining room into Niko's room which looks really good I must say, moved the table into the living area. I love this because now we all sit down as a family and eat dinner. The table has gotten more use in the last week I think than in the 4 years that we've lived here :) Niko and Meeka were just having a hard time sharing a room. Meeka still has a hard time going to sleep on time and staying in her bed, she gets up and plays and drinks her water, and wakes up Niko, and when Niko wakes up in the middle of the night he would wake her up too sometimes. This just over-all was hard on me, so a few weeks ago we moved him into his own little room :) I love the set up and couldn't be more happy.

Last night I actually looked up in our attic. We've been thinking about putting another layer of insulation down before it gets too cold out. The attic could definitly use one, there's hardly any up there. Then it got me thinking, why not actually "USE" our attic, isn't that what people do to store their stuff??? So I'm gonna have to talk more to NIxon about that, but why not put some stuff down for a floor (nothing major) and store our boxes of clothes, christmas stuff, all the stuff that we keep downstairs up in the attic?? This would seriously clean up all our tubs of stuff downstairs. Oh I think I would jump for joy!!! We only dig through that stuff once a year anyway, so I wouldn't be missing it down there. I think it would be great for everyone all around. It's just pretty hard getting up there. The door to the attic is actually in Niko's closet so not too convenient. I'll have to figure something out there. Anyway I have to go put NIko down for his nap. Once I get around to figuring out how to put pictures on here with the new camera I'll post some from the apple orchard and from Sever's from the week before. I got some really great ones. We are absoluetly loving our new camera!!