December 2013 at an Instagram Glance

I feel as though I blinked and December was over. It is definitely my favorite time of year, we have been blasting Christmas tunes since before Thanksgiving in our house and cars. I feel so sad that I have not done an Instagram Glance post since the summer too so here is a look back at my December, it also makes me sad that the holiday season is over. My husband literally took down the lights and our tree on New Year's Day and I instantly felt a void in my heart.

The biggest hit around our house this month was the Elf on a Shelf. I got the Elf last year and my oldest named him Kobe (after none other than Kobe Bryant of course). Pinterest made it so that the boys were loving Kobe this year. The best part was that I thought my husband thought I was so silly for doing this but he totally surprised me. The second day I was supposed to move the Elf I completely forgot  I was so tired that night I thought I would just move him before I left for work but I was running late and realized it when I was halfway to work. But when I got home he had moved, I just love my hubby I think it was the sweetest most unexpected surprise ever. Enjoy my December with me.

Kobe wasted my printer ink...

Got captured by an army of army men...

He found the only "girl" toy in the house and took a bubble bath with Wonder Woman.

Then he captured some bad guys and became Super Kobe (I made the cape and eye mask out of felt)...

And he ziplined to the Christmas tree on a pipe cleaner candy cane.

In December we also purchased annual passes for Disneyland again, this was our first visit to Cars Land, the boys loved it and Radiator Springs Racers was awesome!

We also took our Godson for his first trip to Disneyland, the boys had so much fun getting on rides together.

This month we also finally got a mantle, I will have to do a post on that soon. We gave the fireplace a facelift last year and I was super bummed we didn't have a mantle in time to hang stockings but this year we barely made it (my dad hung it the Sunday before Christmas) I still have to seal it but I wasn't going to let that stop me from hanging stockings this year.

 

Kobe also switched out those stockings for socks the very next day, sneaky little guy!

Here is a picture of my love and I on Christmas Eve at one of our 4 (yes I said 4) stops. We have a huge family :)

 And lastly a picture I snapped of my little guy sound asleep and so peaceful one morning.

 

It was a great December and so far January isn't looking too bad either!

June 2013 at an Instagram Glance

Well, today is the first day of July (and I am actually posting my June Instagram pictures!!) that means another month an I will be gearing up to go back to work :( but before then I have many things on my to-do list! But lets get to the pictures, June was a very busy month for me and for my Instagram...enjoy! :)

I don't remember where we were going or coming from but he passed out in the car and I snapped a pic :). By the way the shirt he is wearing is ninja turtles and says "So fresh and so GREEN" and he always gets complements on it and he also loves ninja turtles!

I snapped this one while making pancakes one morning, still in search of the perfect homemade pancake recipe... this was was pretty close though!

If I am in the kitchen, my little guy is going to come in and snag something to play with, this day it was a citrus squeezer. He first pretended it was a microphone then put it on his face and said "take a picture of me with glasses," how could I say no to that??

I never thought bowling shoes were cute until this moment...

He went crazy for this superman hand puppet tattoo. He would not let me scrub his hand for days!

I got these and some other great books at an estate sale I went to, I LOVE them all :)

June marked the start of baseball tournaments for my older boy, he is on an all-star team for his league and we have been in non-stop baseball mode all month :)

Who doesn't love a chocolate goatee??? And an old man smile to top it off :)

Celebrating my grandma's birthday, she is 85 years young! By the way she refused to have a drink but I did manage to convince her to hold the bottle for a photo opp ;)

Finally got to slow down and read for fun this month! That also meant using the bookmark my son made me for Mother's day. If you are curious I am currently reading From This Moment, it is Shania Twain's Autobiography, I love her!

Fighting for a spot in my lap one morning, the cat would have won but she was biting him so I had to take her off the sofa haha.

I told my little guy to make a funny face and that's what I got, but never fear my older boy was there to photobomb a funny face, way to go son!! 

My mom hates taking pictures! Here is my boy trying to force her...it didn't work she just got mad at us.

All-Star tournaments mean traveling, this was the first day of what has become a 3 (possible 4) day tournament road trip. If you are curious that is an Angel's rally monkey stuck in the visor that you see in the top of the picture.

One night this month my little guy refused to go to sleep until he had 4 or 5 stuffed animals, he literally made me walk the whole house with him looking for specific ones and then when he finally passed out, this was what I found :)

I hope your June was as fun-filled as mine was :) and here's to a great July...hopefully not a scorching hot one either!

Cheap Coupon Organization

So one thing that I have tried lately (tried with no success I should add) is coupoining. It is difficult to do living in CA because stores don't double coupons here but I figured if I could get thigs for a little cheaper here and there it will eventually start to add up. So I go and get two different newspapers every Sunday and I cut the coupons out and then they dissappear into this

Never to be seen again. I realized a while ago that my method for organizing the coupons was lacking. I originally wanted something that would be small and compact that I could fit in my purse all the time, I have since realized that this system has failed me. The problem was that my coupons were not separated into enough categories so I would be too lazy when planning my shopping trips to go through so many coupons. The original categories I had in this organizer were:

• grocery
• beauty
• health
• home
• restaurants
• entertainment
• misc.

I had actually just given up on the whole couponing situation (even though I continued to buy the paper and cut coupons) until this past week. I was in the dollar section of target and saw these

Organizers with tabs just like the one I originally bought there but bigger. Each have thirteen compartments, and the great thing was they were longer so I also wouldn't have to worry about folding coupons that were very long (something else that bothered me about my old system).

So I got to work cutting today's coupons and putting them into categories. I quickly realized I should get two more organizers and make 4 seperate coupon categories: grocery, health/beauty, household and dining/entertainment.

By the time I was done sorting to take the changes into account this was what I ended up with. Before going to the grocery store (which I usually do most every Sunday) I made a pit stop at target for the other 2 organizers (lucky for me they come in 4 different colors).Then came the part I was dreading...

These are all the coupons that were expired that I recycled :( soooo awful! All those savings gone! Here's hoping my new system will help me avoid this in the future! :)

So this is the end result, 4 different coupon organizers. I am currently looking into buying a new label maker (I would love to have a silhouette but am still working on convinving my hubby) so I just grabbed some Martha Stweart labels I had on hand and the sharpie I used for the categories. So all together this project only cost me $4 (plus tax)!!

(sorry for that glare!)

I have decided that since I mainly go shopping 1-2 times a week I will just leave them at home and take out the coupons I need as I go. This may change, who knows, I may start leaving them in my car or something. So for now they live in this little china cabinet in my dining room.

It works for me beacuse I usually cut my coupons out on the dining room table so it seems to make sense to just leave them in the cabinet. (And in case you are wondering that picutre frame does not have my own pictures in it, we bought the cabinet at an estate sale and the previous owners cut a hole in the back so I grabbed the frame in an effort to cover it as much as possible and still haven't put pictures in it)

Here are all the categories I used for the organizers:
Grocery:

• dairy
• drinks
• breads
• cereal/chips
• snacks
• produce
• cooking
• frozen foods
• cans/jars
• condiments
• baking
• meats
• misc. 

Health/Beauty:

• teeth
• hair
• body
• shaving
• medicine
• first aid
• "lady stuff" ;)
• deoderant
• face
• makeup
• misc.

Household:

• pet
• laundry
• kitchen
• bath
• cleaners
• candles
• air fresheners
• batteries
• paper goods
• misc.

Dining/Entertainment:

• restauraunts
• ice cream
• bowling
• movies
• shopping
• misc.

On another note, my digital camera charger is missing so I used my phone so the pictures are not as good as they could be, sorry :) hopefully I find it soon otherwise I will be forced to buy a new one.

May 2013 at an Instagram Glance

So I am slowly getting caught up on the posts around here. I swear I am going to tattoo the phrase "so much to do, so little time" on my forehead so that people will leave me alone. I kid, I kid, but seriously busy doesn't even begin to cover it. I have so much I want to share on the old blog as well as so many projects and things I want to do this summer and a good amount of "summer cleaning" as I like to call it that I need to do before I go back to work. But I digress... lets get to some of my favorite Instagram photos from the month shall we???

May always starts off the same, a Bday celebration for my oldest son, who turned 7 this year. We went to Legoland in San Diego and stayed in the new hotel. Maybe I will do a separate post about that trip!

Here we are with Darth Vader himself (well in Lego form at least), my boys love them some Star Wars!

My very proud (and handsome I might add) hubby after winning a minion. We call them "Ba-Boys" around here because that is one thing they say in the movie and that's what my little guy thinks they are called. And in case you are  curious, this little guy is now hanging on my entry closet door...not joking, my husband can be weird sometimes.

Being cool with some glasses he got for selling fundraiser items at school. They even glow in the dark, he is still thrilled about these!

One of my Saturday mornings called for a MASSIVE cup of joe :) (plus the only time I get to sit in this spot of our couch is when my hubby is not home, or if he lets me cuddle him).

Went on a shopping spree with my mom and my stroller started to look like its own rack! Sadly I did not like most of these things on me.

Towards the end of the school year one day I had so much grading to do I left my boys with their Grandma and stopped for some Starbucks and sushi to fuel me up on the way home (yes I ate about half of the sushi in the car)

We are still in baseball mode around here since my son made the All-Star league in his division, here are my three boys practicing in the yard one day.

Same day as the baseball, we used our grill for the first time this year. We actually had some BBQ a couple nights ago as well and I made some kabobs that turned out very well (with shrimp, chicken and veggies, I will have to do it again and hopefully take some pics).

I hope your May was as fantastic as mine was and hopefully I will be back with another post soon :).

April 2013 at an Instagram Glance

I know, I know, it is already June. Where has the time gone??? The phrase so much to do, so little time does not even begin to describe my life lately. I have mentioned before that I am a teacher and I finished work a week ago so I was very busy with wrapping the end of the school year up and then it has just been one thing after another after that. 

So here is my very belated April at an Instagram glance post. I love going back through my Instagram pictures and re-living those moments. Most of my pictures have to do with my kids and I have realized in doing this that I very rarely have photos of myself on there! I guess I am not too keen on staring at myself haha. 

My mom always hates that my boys don't get to go out for spring break (because mine is at a different time than theirs) so she scheduled a trip to the LA Zoo for them :)

One day my mom took the boys to the park and I met her there and snapped this pic

Cheering on our Angels!!

A very rare shot of me on Instagram (gasp!) with my little guy at the game

My older boy sporting a red vine mustache at the game (he loves that I am ok with him having them at games), notice my hubby is not amused haha :)

Baseball season was in full swing at this point, I snapped this shot at an indoor training facility where my older son's team was playing, he is wearing number 18

We had a bad bout with bees in front of our house and our cat was extremely interested when the exterminator stopped by

My boy celebrating a baseball win one day :) can you tell he was happy??

Hope you enjoyed this Insta-update, look forward to May at an Instagram glance soon!

Happy Monday :)