P&G Baby Essentials Sam's Club $25 gift card GIVEAWAY!

Couponing isn't for everyone and lots of people (sometimes myself included) really enjoy the convenience of shopping at Sam's Club for great prices!

Don´t miss out on precious moments by wasting hours at the grocery store and fussing over budgets. Discover an easy way to save on baby essentials from P&G by buying them in bulk at Sam´s Club this February! Purchase all the basics for baby at your local Sam´s Club store to save time and money with this limited-time $10 Gift Card offer.

• Stock up on P&G products at Sam´s Club in February so you can afford to give your baby quality products and a little more mommy time.
• Pick up any two of the following baby products to receive a $10 Sam´s Club Gift Card toward your purchase made between Feb 1st and Feb 29th:
• Pampers Swaddlers or Pampers Cruisers Diapers
• Pampers SoftCare Scented Baby Wipes
• Similac Advance Powder or Similac Sensitive Powder
• Dreft Liquid Laundry Detergent
•  Register for your Gift Card at SamsClub.com/giftcardoffer by March 14, 2012

{GIVEAWAY}

I was given some gift cards to stock up on baby essentials
 and there is some to giveaway as well!

Disclosure: The Sam´s Club Gift Cards and information have been provided by Sam´s Club and P&G through MyBlogSpark. The opinions expressed here are my own and my differ from other's experience.

Baked Mini Donuts. Gluten, Dairy & Soy Free!

Since Katie was born (and then Konny), it's always been kind of a bummer that donuts are out of the question for us. I mean they are just completely horrible for you, but it used to be a fun little treat we'd get for Kelton every now and again. (There are expensive frozen ones, but frugal me hates buying them)

I'm not sure why I didn't think sooner to just make my own! AND I can bake them, which is way healthier anyway, duh!

After we picked up our Azure order last week, we stopped buy Bed Bath & Beyond for donut pans. What do you know, they were out except for the mini ones. Better than nothing, so we got 2.

Saturday morning, Katie and I whipped up some batter. It's easiest to fill the pans if you pour your batter into a bag and then snip the end off.



I ended up overfilling the first batch.
They looked like mini muffins instead of mini donuts.


The second batch turned out great!


We topped some with glaze and sprinkles and others with cinnamon powdered sugar.



They were a pretty big hit all the way around!
Plus I put 2 dz plain ones in the freezer.





Baked Donuts
(Adapted from Wilton)

2 cups Namaste Perfect Flour Blend
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk (coconut milk with a splash of vinegar)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp Earth Balance (soy & dairy free), melted

Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray the donut pan with allergy friendly nonstick cooking spray.

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Whisk in buttermilk, eggs, and butter and beat until just combined. Fill each donut cup until about 1/2 full.

Bake 4-6 minutes, or until the top of the donuts spring back when touched. Cool for a couple minutes before removing from pan.

This made 5 dz donuts, but there probably would have been 6 dz if it wasn't for the overfilling incident with the first batch.

I can't wait to try other flavors! We had so much fun with them!

Happy 8th Bday, Kelton!

Eight years ago today, I was handed 9lbs 8oz of baby and life has never been the same! Overall, Kelton has been such an easy going fantastic guy. We do have a little "talking too much in class" issue, but he's also so smart and we are super proud of him! Not to mention, he's a great big brother who adores his Buggy and Bear.







Since we got our smart phones last year, Kelton has been all about angry birds. He loves to play and decided he really wanted an angry birds themed bday party. Not too hard considering how popular the game is and of course with the help of pinterest.

I made angry birds invitations, a banner, a cake, and bean bags to play real life angry birds! Thankfully I was able to reuse part of Konny's bday banner because the little signs and the beans bags were very time consuming!



Notice in my rush, I put his name up wrong! Oops!


Like always, we made sure all the treats were safe for all 3 kids. I think marshmallow treats and puppy chow have become a bday party staple at our house. Thanks to Mimi for making the gluten free, soy free chocolate sheet cake. YUM!



He received tons of fun gifts. Although he does love his new games for the Wii and DSi, I think he was even more excited that Uncle Pete brought him over some jalapeno cheese deer sticks!


He's sharing angry birds cupcakes with his class today (they're not bake sale material, but the kids will like them) and tonight, we're taking him to dinner at Kobe's Japanese Steakhouse. He can't wait until they throw shimp at him to catch in his mouth!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to the smartest most handsome 8 yr old boy I know!

Play Make-Up!!

Katie is very much into being a girl lately and that includes make-up. I don't so much mind putting a little white glittery eye shadow on her, but I thought she'd be thrilled with her own play make-up. Making it is crazy easy, just old make up containers and nail polish. Yet another pinterest idea!

Since I don't wear make-up everyday, by the time I'm finished with a compact or blush, it's pretty tattered looking, so I picked up some cheap stuff at Dollar Tree.


First, scrape the powder out of the compacts. It comes out really easy, just run a toothpick around the edges and it should come out in mostly one piece.


I was lucky that one of the ladies at work had a lot of old nail polish she wanted to get rid of.


Pour your desired color into the empty make up containers and set it aside to dry.


I put mine in our bathroom with the space heater on for a few hours to get it started but then it still takes days to fully set. This is not a quick project, but your little lady will be so pleased when you're finished!


I can't wait to send some to my nieces for Valentine's Day!

Progresso Souper You Giveaway!

Progresso has 40 delicious soups with 100 calories or less per servings. This large variety of offerings help you beat diet boredom and satisfy your taste cravings, while helping you stick to your weight management calorie goals. Progresso soups are packed with hearty ingredients like pasta, beans, rice, meat and vegetables that suit your taste buds and make you feel good about including it in your meal choices.

The Progresso Souper You Contest will provide three lucky winners with an ultimate makeover experience in Hollywood; this includes a trip for 2 to Los Angeles, California where the winner will receive a head-to-toe makeover including hair and makeup, guided shopping spree with a $1,000 fashion retailer gift card, $1,000 spending money and 2 tickets to this season´s live finale of NBC´s The Biggest Loser.

Visit Souper You and submit a photo with a brief essay about why you love Progresso soups and deserve a makeover. The deadline is February 22nd.

Check back March 12 for the announcement of the top ten finalists, and to vote for your favorite finalist until March 25th.

Here's a coupon to get your started..

$1.25/4 cans of Progresso soups. Don't forget to tune into The Biggest Loser on NBC Tues at 8/7c!

Also check out this video of last year's winners...



{GIVEAWAY}
I like Progresso because a can of soup is always a great quick and easy lunch on work days. Progresso sent me some yummy soups to enjoy and there's some for you to win also! Plus since being healthy means working out, The Biggest Loser workout DVD is included. I can't wait to try it!


Disclosure: The Progresso Souper You prize pack, information, coupon, and giveaway have been provided by Progresso through MyBlogSpark. The opinions expressed are my own and may differ from other's experiences.

Nutella Rice Krispy Treats

I hadn't met nutella before this fall. My friend, Lisa, kept raving about it. She very persistently convinced me to try it. HOLY WOW! It's like how you wonder what you ever did without a cell phone. That's how I feel about life before nutella.

Last weekend was play date time again (slumber party style) and since the girls love the stuff too (Katie's always tell me, "Momma, stop eating MY chocolate!), we made them Nutella Rice Krispie treats and there was nothing to it!


Ingredients

3 Tbsp butter
bag of marshmallows
1/2 cup nutella
6 cups cocoa krispy rice cereal


Melt the butter. Add the marshmallows and stir until melted, then add nutella. Stir in the cereal until completely coated. Press into a greased 9x12 pan. Lick the spoon while the treats cool enough for the children.


Lisa and I had chicken and avocado soup for dinner. Not wanting to let the girls enjoy all the nutella, we made ourselves nutella donuts for dessert! (If you don't own a donut pan, you should!)


Since we'd both just finished reading The Help, we watched the movie. It wasn't nearly as good but still worth watching. We also got started on stuff for Valentine's Day, making these heart shaped crayons! Thank you pinterest!



The girls spent a lot of time dressed as disney princesses!

For breakfast, we made cake batter pancakes. Totally delicious and very easily made gluten free!



This weekend, Beauty and Beast will be in theaters again and we're taking the girls. They both have Belle dresses to wear. It's going to be so much fun!

Hair today. Gone tomorrow.

Finding time to get my hair cut isn't easy. Seems like we're always busy, not to mention, it's one of the few things I really prefer to do without children in tow.

It had started to get long enough that I figured I'd just wait and grow it a little longer so I could donate it again.

I sent away my last ponytail over 5 yrs ago.

GASP! I looked so much younger before
Katie arrived and cried 24/7 for a year!
Just like last time, I was super nervous. Almost sick feeling because I knew this was going to be shorter than my hair has ever been before. My poor pony tail had gotten so thin though from having K2 and K3 close together and following a restricted diet.


My friend Angela said she had a vision.
I love the way it turned out.



It feels so light and bouncy. I'm actually considering keeping it shorter for awhile and maybe even having her take it a little higher in the back!

After 30 comes 31

And doesn't it seem so much older than 30?
I think so.
I was crazy spoiled by my family, as always. I went to lunch, got a pedicure, had awesome soy free, gluten free red velvet cake made by my mom, ate some yummy steaks, and received some hunting boots and great new friends for my kitchen!





In 2011, I managed to cross a couple things off my 30 Year List:

6)Build a fire in the fireplace by myself
29)Attend a Nascar race (with Kelton)

There are also several things I'm in the process of doing:

9)Move towards becoming more self sufficient; grow more of our own produce and continue to rely on venison for our red meat
18)Learn to crochet
23)Learn to french braid
26)Convert my spice cabinet to all organic spices
30)Continue to strive to reduce our carbon footprint

I'd say that's not too bad considering I've got 29 more years to work on it. I'm hoping to check off one of the big ones in 2012!