Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year. We missed the O'Brien Family Christmas this year so the kids got to open their presents from the O'Brien Family on Dec. 23rd.

Then we hosted the Fritz Family Christmas Eve this year. It was kind of nice having it at our house since they kids had their toys to play with and we didn't have to deal with the snow :)

The kids had a great Christmas morning. They were both so excited to open presents. In past years, they wanted to take every present out of the box and play with it as soon as they opened it so opening presents dragged on forever! But this year, they meant business and ripped open those presents so fast. The favorite gifts this year were Legos and FurReal Friends. It was so much fun seeing how excited they were. And Santa was super nice to me. He sent me to the spa the day after Christmas for an aromatherapy soak, massage and facial, then a night at the Embassy Suites by myself! It was so peaceful and relaxing :) Thanks Santa!

$10 Bonus for Amazon.com

It's time to dig up all that change you have sitting around. Coinstar has a promotion right now where you earn a $10 bonus when you cash in at least $40 in change for an Amazon.com e-certificate (or other retailers such as Lowe's and Borders).

How it works:

1. Bring your coins to a Coinstar machine. They have them at Wal-mart and Shop n Save, but check the Coinstar locator at www.coinstar.com.

2. Choose e-certificate from Amazon.com (which gives you full value for your coins). You can spend your coin pour right away at Amazon.com

3. Your $10 promo code will be at the bottom of your Coinstar/Amazon.com receipt.

4. Go to www.coinstar.com and submit your promo code online.

Rumor has it you can do multiple transactions, but you have to enter different email addresses when you enter the promo code online. I'm heading to Coinstar today!

** I tried a couple Coinstar machines that didn't have the option for e-certificates. The new Shop n Save on K & Mexico Loop Rd. has the option. Hurry, the offer ends 12/22.

Say Cheese!

What do you notice about all of these pictures?.......

Maggie is looking at the camera! This is only made possible by our new Canon Rebel XS DSLR camera and we LOVE it!

Happy Black Friday...I mean Thanksgiving!

We went to Chicago for Thanksgiving. We left on Wednesday and the drive up there was awful. It rained the whole way and we got stuck in traffic in Chicago (imagine that). We finally made it to Terry's brother's house and had some delicious italian beef for dinner, then hit the sack. Thanksgiving morning was spent doing what I love most...checking out the Black Friday sales! Those of you that know me well, know that I love Black Friday. My friend and I have been doing our Black Friday shopping for about the last 7 years with a year or two missed. However, this year it turned into Black Thursday/Friday. It kind of cramped my style. I had my list of things I wanted from each store. I was able to order everything online that I needed from Kohl's on Thanksgiving morning with 20% off and free shipping. That was a relief. I attempted to hit Toys R Us around 10:15pm on Thanksgiving since they opened at 10, but the line to get in was wrapped around the building so I went back to my brother-in-laws and ordered online. Again, I got just about everything I wanted. Then I found everything I wanted from Old Navy online at the Black Friday prices. Then I waited up until 2am since that is when Wal-mart was going to list their Black Friday prices online. I got everything I wanted from Wal-mart and finished my shopping at Amazon. So I did all my Black Friday shopping online this year. I stayed in a warm house in my comfy pj's, didn't have to wait in line, got all the good prices and didn't have to pay any shipping! So I'm starting to wonder if I need to rethink my plan for next year :)

Thanksgiving was fun! Terry's mom made a delicious dinner for everyone and the kiddos had a great time with their cousins. Terry and I also got to go see a movie by ourselves by sneaking in through the side door (thanks Tommy!). Ok, we really aren't that shady. Terry's brother is a security guard at the theatre as a side job. So overall, it was a great weekend of family, fun and shopping!

Now I get to wrap up my semester and count down the days until Christmas break (15 school days by the way).

Happy Halloween!

The kids had a great time trick-or-treating on Halloween. Maggie, our candy queen, wanted to unwrap every piece of candy as soon as it was put in her bucket. Suckers are her favorite. She probably had 3-4 suckers just while trick-or-treating. At one point, she was trying to unwrap her sucker while riding in the wagon in the dark and says "someone turn on the light." Too cute.

Jack was literally running from house to house. He had a great time and actually said "trick or treat" and "thank you!" He was so shy last year, but this year he was totally into it.

Silly Maggie

In case you can't hear it...

Mommy: "Go to sleep."

Maggie: "Wake me up."

Mommy: "Wake up."

Maggie: "Ahhh...ok, last one. Ahhh...ok, game's over."

This is for Ikea lovers

I just heard about a website that will do your Ikea shopping for you in Chicago and bring it back to St. Louis for you. There is a price calculator on their site so you can see how much shipping costs. It is definitely cheaper than having Ikea ship it. Here is the LINK

Jack's 5th Birthday

Jack turned 5 on October 19th. We had his party at Pump It Up. Pump It Up has inflatable slides and bouncy houses. He absolutely loves bouncy houses. He is into Sonic and Mario right now so he insisted on having a Sonic cake. And of course, my camera battery died just in time for cake and presents. After a long night of jumping, cake and presents, the kids crashed. He had a great birthday and is proud to tell everyone that he is 5.

Big News!

Jack scored his first goal yesterday at his soccer game! Woo hoo!!

Who wants free money?

There is a company out there that is trying to develop a service to compete with PayPal. It is called PayBox. They are in the process of trying to launch their service and in the meantime, they need input from customers and they are rewarding you with FREE money! Just for signing up, they give you $50. Then you earn money for checking their blog, filling out very SHORT surveys and for referrals. It might not turn into anything, but I figure if it does, I'll take $50 for free!! Sign up here if you're interested: http://www.paybox.me/r/amomommy1

And while we're talking free money, I'm up to $120 in FREE Amazon gift cards just for searching the internet. If you're interested in learning how, let me know!

Best Birthday Present Ever!

Happy Birthday Mom! You know you miss him :)

Book Review

If you're looking for a good book/series to read, I highly suggest The Hunger Games series. The third book, Mockingjay, came out at the end of August. The Hunger Games is a televised competition where 24 teenagers fight to death in the arena until 1 person remains. The Capitol is the government that runs the Hunger Games and they are constantly showing their power over the 12 districts of Panem adding many twists to the story. When I finished the first book, The Hunger Games, I had no idea where the story was going to go. I enjoyed the first book so much that I didn't think the second book could be nearly as good. And boy was I wrong. It was a great series!

Go Cards!

We have a Cardinals credit card and we used some of our points last year to go see a Cardinals game in one of their all-inclusive suites. We had such a great time, we knew we had to do it again this year. So we saved up our points and had enough for 4 tickets. And we thought it would be a great birthday present for my sister. Well, getting the tickets from the company was the biggest pain in the rear end and we finally got the tickets, 2 days before the game. And to our surprise, we got 8 tickets instead of 4!

We made sure to get there early this year because they start serving food and drinks about 45 minutes before the game. We got there about an hour before the game started. We walk into the suite and there were only 4 other people there...2 of which were Kyle McClellan and his woman "bodyguard". So that's right, we hung out with Kyle McClellan for about a half hour before the game started. And it was just us. So we got some pictures and autographs. And a nice guy who was in the suite with us gave Jack a baseball in a case for Kyle to autograph. So between an autographed jersey, hat and baseball, I think Jack is set.

The game was a ton of fun. Free food and drinks and awesome seats. Jack had such a good time (we left Maggie at home with a babysitter since our original babysitter came to the game with us since we ended up with so many tickets). He loved cheering, getting autographs, watching the game, playing with Andrea and her friend, serving everyone Pez, eating more nachos than you can imagine, and laughing at the fireworks.

And as Jack would say, "my Kyle got the save tonight."

Just Some Updates

I've been falling behind on blogging! Here are some random updates from our life.

1. Jack has become a soccer player, not a soccer bystander. His last couple games he actually kicked the ball (19 times in one game as he told everyone) and ALMOST scored a goal!

2. Maggie is still our little motor mouth. She loves feeding and changing her babies diapers...over and over again. And she also loves brushing mommy's hair. That's great and all, until she whacks me on the head with her wooden brush. Not so fun anymore.

3. Fantasy football has started so we know where we will find Terry every Sunday and Monday night.

4. I'm changing jobs...again. I REALLY hope this is the last time for a loooong time. I've loved working part-time, but the late afternoon/evening hours have been difficult for our family. And my hours have been very inconsistent for a few months now. So I accepted a job with Fort Zumwalt School District. It's full-time again, but it will be great because I will be working in the same district (and building...even though I'll have about 6 buildings to go to) that Jack and Maggie will go to school. I will be on the same schedule as them when they are in school. And the best part.....drum roll please.....I will have my summers off with the kids! YAY!!

Happy Birthday Maggie

My baby is 2 today! I can't believe it. It's very cliche, but time flies! We had a party for her yesterday. She wasn't too sure about it all, but she sure looked like she was having a good time. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

Someone needs to teach her to chew with her mouth closed!


Birthday bags for all our guests

First Day of School

It was Jack's first day of Pre-K yesterday. This is his second year at the same school. He was very excited to go back. We went to Meet the Teacher night earlier in the week so he got to see his classroom and meet his teacher. This year he has a pretty big class. I think it is 15 students. Last year, he started the year with 3! But it got up to about 7 by the end of the year. I think most of the kids from his class last year are in his class this year so that is good. He said he had a good day and wants to go back. His favorite part...playing on the playground. Of course!

Mario backpack again

Attention Moms - Parents Magazine

Amazon has a 1-year subscription to Parents magazine for $4.00 until August 14th. Click here to get your subscription.

Stitches

A few hours after we got home from Kansas City, Jack was running toward the steps in the backyard to go inside to the kitchen. He tripped on the bottom step and hit his chin on the edge of one of the steps. He freaked out, of course. Even though it didn't bleed too much, as soon as I saw it, I knew we were headed to the ER. Terry wasn't so sure and Jack actually calmed down pretty quickly so we thought he might be ok. But paranoid mommy talked to everyone she knew trying to decide if we should go to the ER or not. And mommy instinct said we needed to go.

We got to the ER and Jack did not like all the doctors and nurses coming in. He is not a big fan of doctors, at all! As soon as the doctor saw him, she said he needed stitches (mommy instinct was right!). They put some numbing gel on his chin and we waited about 45 minutes for it to work. Then they put him on the bed, cleaned it out (gross!), put a towel over his eyes (poor kid, but the doctor said the needle would freak him out more) and started stitching. He ended up with 5 stitches. Surprisingly, he laid very still and tried so hard not to cry. He did such a good job.

So in 4 years, we've had 3 trips to the ER. No wonder he doesn't like doctors. Here are some pictures. If you don't like blood, don't scroll down.

Kansas City

We went on our mini-vacation Aug. 5-9th. We went to Kansas City and stayed at the Holiday Inn with an indoor water park. We were disappointed in the hotel. It was pretty dirty. Maggie's feet were so dirty from walking on the carpet in our room and she wouldn't keep her shoes on! Yuck! The water park was decent. It had some smaller water slides that Jack was able to do and he loved them. He even did a couple that were dark.

We arrived in Kansas City on Friday, checked into our hotel and got ready to go to the water park. After a couple hours of swimming we went to eat at the hotel restaurant. The buffet was disgusting and Jack was complaining of being tired so it was not a very enjoyable dinner. The kids both fell asleep pretty early, but that didn't mean they stayed asleep. Our first night was terrible. Both kids were up a couple times and I probably got a total of 3-4 hours of sleep. So vacation was off to a great start, yeah right.

Saturday we went to the Crown Center and shopped for a little bit. We went to the big Crayola store and Jack wanted just about everything they had. We left with some 3D sidewalk chalk and sidewalk paint. We went to eat at Fritz's, a restaurant that has a little train deliver your food. Both kids loved the restaurant. It was actually enjoyable going out to eat, which isn't the case very often with a 4 year old and 1 year old. After lunch we played in the fountains at the Crown Center for a little bit, then headed back to the hotel for some swimming. We had a MUCH better night of sleeping. Both kids slept through the night and until almost 8:00!

Sunday we went back to the Crown Center to play in the fountains, then went to the T-Rex Cafe. This restaurant was awesome! Well, the food, not so much, but the atmosphere was great! The kids had a blast. Then back to the hotel for some more swimming.

We came home on Monday. And a few hours later, we ended up in the ER. More on that later...

Christmas in July

Now that the July toy clearance is over, I'm set. Well, almost. I've never started Christmas shopping this early. But there is a first for everything! Jack and Maggie both have birthdays coming up...done. They are almost done for Christmas. Just a couple other things. Secret Santa for Christmas...done. So just a few more things for Christmas and I'm done. My goal is to finish my shopping on Black Friday. I can't imagine what it will be like not running around at the last minute trying to find Christmas gifts. But I'm definitely looking forward to it. A stress-free Christmas, could it be?

And the final total for the July toy clearance (after a few returns and sales to friends):

Total spent: $221.25 (for 2 birthdays and a good part of Christmas!)

Retail price: $625.90

Total saved: $404.65!

Ok, enough about toys. Time to move on.

Newsflash

Jack doesn't like blue anymore. He likes green.

Vacation is planned!

We finally got our mini-vacation planned. We are headed to Kansas City. Believe it or not, I've never been to Kansas City to visit. It's so close to us and has a lot of things to do so I'm not sure why I've never ventured over to the other side of the state after living in St. Louis most of my life. We are staying at a hotel that has an indoor waterpark. With the kids being so young, this seems like the easiest thing to do because Maggie can take naps while Jack is playing at the waterpark. The hotel looks really cool. Here it is: Coco Key Resort Kansas City

Can't wait for a little getaway!

I Love Amazon!

So I'm starting a love affair with Amazon, specifically their gift cards. I've already earned over $50 in Amazon gift cards through Swagbucks (see side bar for info) and now I just learned that you can trade in your textbooks for Amazon gift cards. So I had a couple textbooks that have been sitting on half.com for a couple months and haven't sold yet. So I looked them up on Amazon and sure enough, they will buy them for about the same price. Sold! So I thought, "well maybe Amazon will take some old textbooks from undergradute." Yeah right. That was almost 10 years ago. Well what do you know, 2 of my books have been accepted by Amazon! One of them got me $70 in Amazon gift cards! So I traded in 5 textbooks and should be receiving $229 in Amazon gift cards! Yay!!!

Kmart Toy Clearance!

This is an all bargain post. July is the time to buy toys. Kmart has all their clearance toys marked an extra 50% off. With 2 birthdays and Christmas coming up, it was time to stock up on toys. Here's what I got:

Beware of the Dog game: $8

Trio King's Castle: $15.50

Tonka Bounce back race car: $14

Dora Dominoes: $2

vTech vSmile Cyber Pocket Learning System: $26

5 vSmile games: $7.50/each

Play Doh Fun Factory (4): $2/each

Talking ABC Apple: $5.50

Elmo Giggle Microwave: $13.00

Hannah Montana Girl Talk: $2.50

Hannah Montana Doll: $7.50

Rhino Rampage Game (2): $2.50/each

Trio Police Station: $6

-$5.00 Trio Coupon

=$145.50!!!

Regular Price would have been $447.30. That's a savings of $301.80!

Busy weekend!

Wow, what a fun weekend! Friday we all went to Grant's Farm. It was a really nice day which also meant that it was really crowded. Jack's favorite part was the water mister. So much for the animals.

Saturday we went to O'Fallon's 4th of July parade. We never had to worry about candy with Jack. He never liked it and still doesn't like much of it. Maggie on the other hand, LOVES her candy! I swear, she had suckers unwrapped before they hit the ground. She probably had 6-7 suckers during the parade. Saturday night we had the Stephans 4th of July party. We only see my dad's side of the family a couple times of year, but the kids kept us so busy that we hardly had time to talk to anyone! Thanks Aunt Diane for all the fun toys for the kids!

On the 4th of July we went to a friends house to watch their neighbors set off fireworks. Ok, I know kids will be kids, or whatever, but my kids will NEVER have 2 on 2 roman candle fights. Scared me to death. Then to find out that a house down the street from us burned down last night from fireworks, we are never doing our own fireworks, EVER! The kids enjoyed it though. A few of the fireworks were a little too loud and close for Jack's liking, but otherwise, they enjoyed it. We left around 9:00 because the kids shut down....fast. But overall, a great weekend.

We are in big trouble!

Maggie: I need to go potty

Me: Ok, if you go pee pee on the potty, you can have a piece of candy. Do you want candy?

Maggie: No, I want money

She's not even 2 yet! Man we're in trouble.

New Recipe Blog!

Anyone who knows me well, knows I'm not a great cook. I'm starting to enjoy cooking a little more, but I still need a recipe right next to me and I usually follow it exactly as written. I have recipes all over the place and want to get them in one place. So I started a blog of all my recipes. I figured it would be a good place to have them all and I can share them with people. I don't have that many recipes on there right now, but I will be slowly be adding more. Here is the link: www.stlobriensrecipes.blogspot.com. It will also be listed on the sidebar. Enjoy!

And if anyone has recipes they want to share, I would LOVE them! I love trying new ones!

Hello Summer!

Seriously, why does it have to be so darn humid in this city. There is nothing like stepping outside and sweating instantly. We need a pool.

Jack started swim lessons with his friend Maria last week. He can't wait to go back today. During his first lesson, he went underwater (not by choice), hated it, but was so proud of himself. I say that's progress. Now if only we can get him to enjoy going underwater.

Not much new here. We are just enjoying the start of our summer. I'm just thankful I get to spend time with the kids this summer. Now we just have to start scratching things off our "Fun Things to Do This Summer" list.

Bargain Post:

So we go through baby wipes like water. I use baby wipes for the obvious reason, to wipe down counters, wipe faces and hands, etc. There is a $2/1 Pampers tub of wipes out there and Wal-Mart has them for $1.97. So that's right, you get them for free and technically get .03 back. We have about 7 tubs right now and I still have at least 3 coupons to use.

Melt my heart

Jack: "Mom, I want you to give me my bath."

Me: "Ok, as soon as I'm done with Maggie's story."

Jack: "Because I love you. You're my best friend."

It's moments like these that help me forget the times he sprayed his sister with the hose, he dumped water on the floor of the bathroom, well....you know what I mean.

I love you Jack!

Hot hot hot!

Wow...it was HOT today. There is nothing like a 3:15 soccer game on a 90 degree day! But it was well worth it since Jack probably played his best game. He touched the ball 8 times (or so he tells us)! He actually ran to the ball and kicked it. Maybe he's starting to get it. Just in time for the season to end.

Bargain post:

Need soda? Head to Target.

5 Pepsi brand 12-packs for $15, plus you get a $5 gift card. So it's like paying $2/12 pack. Not bad! We're stocked up on Mountain Dew for a while.

Bargain Time

I think I'm going to post some of the deals I find so if anyone is interested in saving some money, feel free to ask how! It will involve cutting some coupons so if you're not interested, skip over this post!

Target:

(3) Green Works laundry detergent

(2) Ortega taco sace

(2) Ortega taco seasoning

(1) Sure deodorant

(1) Schick Hydro Razor

(2) Bounty Paper towels (single rolls)

(1) Toy Story Band-Aids (20ct)

Total before coupons: $34.73

Total after coupons: $12.98

Taco Time!

This is a first in the O'Brien household. Everyone ate the same thing for dinner! It is almost a guarantee that the kids (Jack specifically) will end up with something different on his plate than the rest of us. It's usually not drastically different and he's getting better with trying new foods. Yes, I know I shaped this behavior, but that's alright. I'm dealing with the consequences. Anyway, just had to share our first Taco Night at the O'Briens!

Back to the Coupons

I love having the time to get back into my couponing. I think I just made up that word. Anyway, yes, I'm a dork, but it is unbelievable how much money you can save if you have the time. People think I'm crazy and wonder how I have the time. Yes, it is somewhat time consuming but once you get a system down, it becomes pretty efficient. And when I can save hundreds of dollars, it is worth it to me.

We were on our last pack of diapers a couple weeks ago and I came across a diaper deal where I got Huggies for about $4/pack. I've done better, but we were desperate for diapers so it was a deal to me. I've also started stocking up on some free stuff to have on hand. Body wash, packing tape, shaving cream. I love getting stuff for free! Even if I don't use it, I'll either re-sell it or donate it.

Good times.

New Job

I started a new job a few weeks ago. I'm back to working part-time and I'm LOVING it! I am finally starting to feel like I have time to enjoy the day to day things. I love spending more time with Jack and Maggie. It's long overdue. I was in way over my head with working full-time and dealing with everything else.

Jack started soccer a few weeks ago. It's 3 on 3 and the field is super small. I don't think Jack had ever seen soccer before so his first game was rather interesting. He's the youngest and smallest on his team and most of the other kids have played before. Jack was pretty good at skipping around the field and sort of running in the direction of the ball. So we've been practicing soccer ever since. This last weekend he got rid of the skipping and was running fast, but nowhere near the ball. I know Jack, it's a lot to think about it. He'll get it.

He's the one in the middle - the littlest one

Ready for Changes!

I'm so ready for spring! It sure seems like it is on it's way. We've been lucky enough to have beautiful weather in the 60's this week. I'm ready to spend days outside, at the pool, the park, the zoo. You know, all that fun stuff that summer allows. And to make it even better, I'm going to be able to spend more time with Jack and Maggie. I'll be quitting my job at the end of March and going back to work part-time. Working full-time proved to be more challenging than expected. I missed my kids and we finally decided it was more important for me to be able to spend more time with the kids than be at work full-time. I'm excited for the change!

Here we go again!

Yeah, yeah...it's been a while. We've just about made it through the most chaotic few months ever! Between both Terry and I working full-time, me working on my master's and Terry coaching wrestling, we've had no time for anything! Wrestling is almost over and there are some changes on the job front coming up so things are starting to look up.

Jack is in his 3rd semester of gymnastics at The Little Gym. He looks forward to Tuesday nights. His cutest quote was when he asked me when is gymnastics and I told him it's on Tuesday. He responds with "I want it on Onesday!" And totally off topic, he had a pretty funny quote today too. He was stomping his feet in the snow saying that he was digging. There were 2 small dogs behind him which he didn't see. Once he realized they were there he asked, "Did those dogs come out of the snow?" I'm pretty sure he thought he dug them up.

Maggie is growing up much too fast. I was just looking back at my (very) old blog posts and her language is so different than Jack's was at her age. She is 17 months and she seriously has a huge vocabulary. She constantly asks "What's this?" You can just see her curiousity about the world.

Now if only I could teach these two to play together instead of stealing each other's toys and making the other one mad. Maggie tends to be the instigator. I don't know, maybe they'll be friends when they're 20.