Flowers or Lollipops?

So over the past year I have had several friends having babies! I love babies! My babies are tweens now so it is so much fun living through my friends from time to time.  I have a great friend that is having her second baby this summer! Tess is welcoming a baby girl to join her big boy (my God Son) Blake and her husband into their home!

So my other great friend Nikki asked if I could help with her baby shower! And of course yes! So we decided to do some cool invites that I saw that looked like lollipops.

Nikki came over to help me get started. It actually is pretty simple. We used different round objects to get the 3 different sizes of circles.

I used a hot glue gun to glue the sticks to the back of the "lollipops"

Well, maybe not lollipops but they look like flowers to me! I thought they turned out super cute and actually pretty easy to make. 

A big shout out to Nikki to get this baby shower going and together. The pictures below are of her baby shower that Rene, Mindy, and I threw for her last summer!

Co-ed Baby Shower favors were shot glasses filled with candy.

Rene did a fabulous job on the cupcakes. She even made ice cream cone cupcakes! I was totally amazed! Mindy did an awesome job on the diaper cake! These women are amazing!

We focused on pink and brown. We used pink and brown candy, flowers, and ribbons!

To add a personal touch I mailed their parents and had them sent baby photos of both parents and we did a little clothes line with their baby pictures and baby onesies.

We had a book that everyone could give their advice to the parents and a note to the baby about their wishes for her!

We had a BBQ styles buffet line with pulled pork BBQ and fruit kabobs (yummo!)

Bobbing for Nipples anyone?

Sweet Tea and Pink Lemonade! Lots of yummy chocolate and pink candies too!

Cheers! Beer in Baby Bottles? It was a hit!

Rene made this cupcake! It was so adorable!

Great times!

Check out Shaklee and the Earthday Special! Non-Toxic, Healthy, and SAFE!

Cleaning the Fridge - Ugh!

Don't you LOVE cleaning out your refridgerator? I am laughing as I type this because I dislike this task with a firey passion (that is why Haley says because I do not like her to say she hates anything because we have always said that hate is too strong of a word!)

Well I tackled this along with my kiddos and I was so glad we did after I had switched over to Shaklee because as I cleaned out  my fridge with my Basic H2 cleaner I knew it was non-toxic, totally safe, so I didn't have to worry about putting my food and produce back into my fridge and having it contaminated with any harsh chemicals.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Basic H2 Organic Cleaner? LOL I know you are probably so tired of hearing me say it!

Here is my fridge - eewww it was not terrible but it really wasn't great at all!

Everything was just crammed in. And YES there are bottles of water in my fridge. And YES I am trying to go more green but from time to time we need bottled water. Especially my husband with where he works he has to take everything with him. But I do have my water bottle I refill through the day. (don't judge hehehe)

Crazy huh?

See that disgusting rust stain? I try to clean this every so often but I have had a big struggle on finding anything that works on this. I even tried those harsh lime, rust, removers that seriously are so hard on my to clean with because of my asthma specifically but the chemicals they contain are not good for anyone.

I thought oh super this is a great chance for me to use my Get Clean (R) Scour Off.

As my husband stood and watched me use this new product we had (he has been a bit skeptical the entire time) I thought I will try a little bit at first to see if I need more. I promise see that little teenie tiny amount? That is all I used.

Seriously check it out above, you can barely tell that I even used any of the Get Clean (R) Scour Off.

I took the rag and wiped it over the hard rust stain. I am 100% serious I didn't scrub I wiped. Even as my husband stood there he said seriously babe you need to make sure you emphasize that you didn't scrub any! He was astonished but I wasn't. I knew this product would work wonders! My best friend had raved about it and I knew she would never give me a bunch of rubbish. Seriously this stuff is wonderful!

CHECK IT OUT Shaklee is trying to make 50,000 homes healthier and safer during the month of April. It is Earth day this month! Just check it out - seriously it costs you nothing to just check it out! Feel free to Contact Me if you have any questions.

Quick and Easy

As I struggle try to make healthy changes in our house, finding a snack food that is healthy, easy, and enjoyable can be tough from time to time

However, Haley and my hubby man love pasta salad! I tried to make this snack (mini meal) as healthy as possible.

I chose to go with vegetable pasta. This Garden Delight pasta has a full serving of vegetables in a 4 oz. serving. Then I picked up an Italian dressing when I was at Trader Joes today.  I couldn’t fathom understand why people would really wanted to shop at Trader Joes but as I try to turn a new leaf I understand how important it is to live a more healthy lifestyle.

Haley tried the sundried tomatoes in her pasta salad at Trader Joes and loved it so I figured I would go ahead and splurge to add these to the recipe. Michael loves feta cheese and this was already seasoned – he said it is fabulous!

So here it is – the final product. One box of Garden Delight Pasta, One bottle of Tucson Italian Dressing from Trader Joes, One cut up cucumber, One bag of Sun Dried Tomatoes, and half a container of crumbled Feta Cheese from Trader Joes. Cook the pasta, drain, cool, and throw all the stuff in and shake it up!

It is THAT easy! And I have heard it is great! (You know I would never eat it! I am the pickiest eater ever and I can’t stand for my stuff to be mixed!

GREAT Grocery Deals!

Hey all! If you live in Arizona check out this blog! There are the Fry's Grocery Deals listed out for this week starting today! No need for me to do more work when Kellie at Dashing for Deals has already done all the hard work. Check it out! She also has posts for other stores like Safeway you just have to click on the Stores tab at the top.

http://dashingfordeals.com/favorite-frys-grocery-deals-03-30-through-04-05

For those of you that shop at Krogers please check out Coupon Divas and they have a posting about the Kroger deals.

For Safeway Deals please visit http://www.savingforsomeday.com/safeway-deals-330-45/

I hope you get some great savings!

Two Peas in a Pod

Remember when you were a kid and you had your brother or sister and you just thought one minute they were the worst person and then the next minute what would you do without them? Well I have an older sister and there were many times I thought me might not make it out of our teen years without killing each other. One time when I was really little she made me eat a bar of soap (gag), there were many screaming battles with each other.

However, the older we get the closer I think  know we are. Since I turned 18 we pretty much haven't lived in the same area, pretty much not even the same state. The first several years she was in college and I was living the young married life so we didn't get to talk too much. Then we both started having babies. One a year for 4 years.

We probably talk almost every single day at least once, on the phone, via text, or email. Back in the fall we were planning a girls weekend to Scottsdale with some girlfriends and we were able to get her flown out from Kentucky to spend some time together. One of my other friends (Tess) went with us and we had a blast.

Brooke flew into Tucson and got to spend almost 2 days seeing my kids and spending time with Michael and me. And then we headed up to Scottsdale to enjoy some relaxation!

Brooke and my kiddos at our community park

My sis works so hard and she is also going to graduate school while running a household, helping her husband through graduate school and raising to kids herself! I decided since it was girl time we would stop at Ulta and have a makeover and get our brows waxed.

Nice Southern Arizona

I took Brooke down to Tombstone, AZ (yes the REAL Tombstone)

We went to the cemetery in Tombstone which is a must do stop if you ever visit. It's a donation to get in.

                               

My super awesome man took us down to eat some awesome Mexican food! Yummo!  Talk about the real deal, we could see the border from the restaurant. It was delish!

On the way to Scottsdale we first ran into a BIG monsoon and then we ran into this dust storm (for the record I am terrified of dust storms and I was driving)

Our resort

It is so beautiful and the service is unbelievable! And I snagged a super good deal on priceline for $50.00/night

Living the life!

We headed out for some awesome Japanese food and entertainment at Benihana's

Ever hear of Sprinkles? Well Brooke hadn't - so we had to make a stop!

They are unbelievably delicious!

This was how my sister started her relaxing mornings.

What's vacation without heading to the casino and checking out their awesome food!

Oh yeah did I mention we stopped to get pedis?

I told everyone to step outside the box and go for a crazy color!

More yummy goodies at the casino

This is me at Dave and Busters - super good food and fabulous games!

We had a great weekend! I had to take her to the airport and drop her off and I sobbed teared up as we said bye. It has been 6 months since I have seen my sister. I hate living so far away but I am grateful for technology and the fact we get to talk and provide support to one another. I can't wait till June when I get to see her again!

I hope each of you have a brother or sister that you get to experience life with as I do!