Monday, June 28, 2010

Summer Days

June was a CRAZY month. We had Little G's birthday then Mr. G and I played Ken and Barbie for Vacation Bible Adventure at our church. It was every day and night last week and such a blast! On average about 500 kids came each night.
Here is a picture of us as Ken and Barbie :)

At the beginning of June we also found out that we are expecting a new bundle of joy due in February. Needless to say food has not been my favorite topic so I haven't really had much to say. There's almost no cooking going on around here - my appetite consists mostly of cottage cheese, salt and vinegar chips, Subway, fruit and toast. Yum!
I've also been extremely exhausted and for some reason looking at a computer screen makes me dizzy. Enough with the excuses. I'll try to be a better blogger.

I've actually started a blog for the baby as well which you can follow HERE.
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day

To my father, the first man who stole my heart. I love you so much, Dad! Thank you for everything you do for my family. You are my hero.

To my husband and the most incredible father to our baby girl. You continue to surprise me every day. I am so blessed to have married a man who would rather spend time with his girls than in front of a television or at a bar. Thank you for loving us and working hard each day to give us everything we need and much more. I love you.


Thursday, June 17, 2010

Putting Mr. G to work

I just buy the decorations, he hangs them. Poor guy, I really had him working last week. I came home with shelves for the bathroom and a ton of frames and he knew right away he was going to be putting a lot of holes in the walls.

Luckily for him I made it very easy. I traced the frames on the Sunday paper, cut out the rectangles and hung them with tape exactly where I wanted the frames to be. All he had to do was put the nails in the wall and hang the frames :)

The hallway was bare but now it feels very warm and I love looking at my favorite pictures of Little G. She's so beautiful :)
Side note- I don't know why the walls look that color in the pictures. They are a dark tan.


I've been meaning to hang these paintings (of our favorite places near our old house) for awhile. I finally picked up some frames for them as well as the shelves (at Target).

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Gardner Grub - it's been awhile.

If feels like I haven't blogged about food in forever! I have been so busy living life, planning parties, and decorating the house. It's been fun, but I'm ready to slow down.
Tonight I made a Greek Salad which was good, not amazing, just good. I'll probably make it again but add a couple of different types of sliced olives. It has Farfalle pasta, spinach leaves, sliced grape tomatoes, feta cheese, chopped chicken, chickpeas and a half cup of greek dressing.


Also on the menu this week is Grilled BBQ chicken with corn and baked beans and Grilled Teriyaki Salmon with rice (Mr. G got a new grill a couple of weeks ago). I hope you are checking up on coupons.com and target.com and saving a few dollars here and there. I've gotten several great free items the past couple of weeks at Target.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Noelle's Toy Story Birthday Party


Little G's birthday party was a blast. I'm a little annoyed with myself for not taking pictures of everything before guests arrived but I was so busy! Don't throw a party at 10am unless you are a morning person or get most of it set up the night before.Here are some pictures of her fun day :)
Me and the Birthday Girl

The front door - I made Andy's room wallpaper. The guests loved it.
Some of the kids playing in the kiddy squirt pool - we had two other pools for bigger kids
Food! We had Frito boats, hot dogs, hamburgers, BBQ beans, my pasta salad, and fresh fruit.

Little G sitting at the table
Plates, napkins, utensils
My mother-in-law makes all of the grandkids cakes :) It was so yummy!
My mom and grandma
She asked to go swimming at Daddy's big pool after her nap so we went.

After swimming in her Buzz poncho!

Monday, June 7, 2010

I love free stuff!

I took a quick trip to Target and Super Wal-Mart today and picked up some great deals.
At Target I got all of this for only .84! The cashier really had no idea what she was doing. I should have paid a little over 2 dollars but all of the coupons I used were worth more than each of the items.
The Pampers wipes were $1.97 and I had three coupons for $2 off.
The razors were on clearance for $2.48 and I had two coupons for $4 off. The Ketchup was on sale for $1.00 and apparently was free as was the .99 Relish. The subtotal is negative 5 cents so i just paid for tax. I found a crisp one dollar bill earlier this morning so really it was all free! Don't you love it?


Other good finds.

Yesterday I picked up a pair of Merona shorts on sale for $10. I used two $5 Target gift cards that I got free last week.
I used two B1G1 coupons for the Old Spice body wash = 2 free body washes
Febreeze plug-ins are usually around $8 but this was on sale at Wal-Mart for only $5. I used a $1.00 off Febreeze refill coupon and my house is smelling lovely.
Welch's grape juice - $2 off coupon
The pudding was also on sale and I used a .50 coupon and ended up paying just pennies for both!

I hope you are inspired to start clipping coupons. It really isn't as time-consuming as you'd imagine. Just pick up a couple of Sunday papers and check Coupons.com & Target.com a couple of times a week and you'll be saving in no time!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Kimmy's Baby Shower

Here are a few pictures from the After Baby Shower I threw for my best friend, Kim. It was a "Sunset Brunch" starting at 6:30 pm which turned out to be perfect on the warm day.

Here is the table all set up with the centerpieces. I got the pompom balls at Michael's with a 40% off coupon.
I made these Rice Krispy Pops for favors.
The centerpieces - floating Gerber Daisies and candles with 4 tea light candles around each centerpiece.
The menu - the food was delicious! I made my famous Amaretto Brie and Asian Chicken Salad.
The food table
View from above - centerpiece
Christopher Adam. Isn't he adorable!!
Kim and Christopher opening up presents.
Now on to Little G's birthday party - next Saturday! Please keep your fingers crossed for a cool day.