McKinnley Leann Perry

McKinnley Leann Perry was born Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 3:30 am.  After a some what rough end to my pregnancy my tiny angel was born.  She came into this world weighing 4 lbs 7 oz and was 17.5 inches long.  We thought she was only 3 weeks early, but after she was born and the nurses had evaluated her, we were told she was really 6-7 weeks early.  She was so very tiny, but had the strongest lungs and could scream!



I had no idea that such a tiny little lady could change my whole life like she did in the very second I first heard her cry and saw her for the first time.  She was absolutely perfect.  From day one she had her own idea of what she wanted, when she wanted it, and her own little opinion of things.  Over the last four years we have been blessed to watch her grow from a tiny baby into a beautiful, smart, strong willed, caring, loving, dramatic, imaginative little girl ( I could go on and on, but I'll stop there).  While she can test our patients, as any young child can do, she brings so much joy, laughter, and happiness into our lives.  She has truly been a blessing to our family and I can't remember what our life was like before Kinnley was born.

She will be starting school this August and I am sad, excited, worried, and hesitant, but then I watch Kinnley with her brother and friends and I know that she is going to do great in school.  She is kind and caring to others.  She is eager to learn and loves to read.  She will firmly stand up for herself in most situations (while that's good, there are times she puts what little weight she has into her stance, if that makes sense, so I'm praying we don't get a phone call that's she's hit somebody because they wouldn't pretend like she wanted them too).

I see so much heartache in the lives of friends and others that I have never met and I thank God every day that He chose me to be McKinnley's mommy and has allowed me to raise such a beautiful little girl.  I pray that He will continue to guide us as she grows older and we face new obstacles and that Kinnley will continue to grow in her faith in God.  For being so young, she never ceases to amaze me at what she understands about faith and God. 

McKinnley Leann (in case you read this one day) I love you to the moon and beyond.  You make me so proud every day and I am so thankful that God trusted me and blessed me with you.  You are an amazing little girl that I know will grow up into a beautiful young lady (although if it were up to me, you'd stay 4 years old forever).  You make me smile just by smiling at me.  Every time you tell me that you love me, my heart melts.  You are my pumpkin doodle and I love being your mommy.  I hope you had a very happy 4th birthday and I love you bunches and bunches, forever and ever!

Happy Birthday McKinnley Leann! ~ Love Mommy

Father's Day Gift Ideas

Father's Day is this weekend and I have had my thinking cap on for what to do for Ben and Narly.  I have found some of the cutest ideas and can't wait to get Kinnley to help me with them.  Here is one that I wanted to share with you that I found over at The Idea Room from Amy.  It's Father's Day Soda Bottle Covers!  They are too cute and easy to do.  I am going to print off the FREE template, white out the arrows and then copy it onto scrapbook paper so it has the lines like in the picture.  Then just cut, tape or glue and slip onto your dad's favorite soda bottle.  How cute are these???

Another idea I found is for a Father's Day Treat Bag.  All you would do is have your kiddos put the following snacks in a paper bag or some other cute container and attach the following note explaining the significance of each.

Tootsie Roll - to show the big "roll" you play in my life.
100 Grand Candy Bar - to show you how much you are worth to me.
Bag of Popcorn - to let you know that without our "Pop", our family would not be "corn"-plete.
Bag of Peanuts - to tell you I'm "nuts" over you.
Hersey Kiss - to show you how much I Love You!
Mint - to show my appreciation of your commit-"mint" to me.
Roll of Lifesavers - for how you protect me from danger and show me right from wrong.

Ok, some of it is a little 'corny', but coming from a 3 year old, I think her daddy will love it.  Plus, those are some yummy snacks to go with his cokes!

I've got a couple of other things up my sleeves that I will share later.  If you have any ideas for fun, crafty Father's Day gifts, comment and tell us about it.

Have a great Wednesday!

And I saved.....

I had Thursday off from work, so I decided to sit down and make a list of what I needed from the sales ads and see how easy it is to price match at Wal-Mart.  I created a spreadsheet so that I could write down the prices of the items we usually buy to watch for in upcoming sales ads.  I wasn't sure how far out Wal-Mart would price match, so I stuck with stores in Mineral Wells, Graham, and Jacksboro.  I did find out they will match up to a 30 mile radius, so next time I'm going for Weatherford sales ads also!

Here is a breakdown of the items that I bought (that I needed, or we used), what their original price at Wal-Mart is, the price match price, savings per item and grand total of savings.  I had a few coupons, not as many as I wish I had, but they saved me about $4.

Item - Reg. Price - Price Match - Quantity - Total Saved
Dole Salad -   $2.78         $0.99                  1              $1.79
Red Potatoes - $0.99 lb    $0.59 lb             5 lbs          $2.00
Lunchables -    $1.58        $1.19                 8               $3.12
Pantene Pro-V - $3.78     $3.00                 2               $1.56
Doritos -          $2.50       $2.00                 2                $1.00
PP Chicken Thighs- $1.20 lb    $0.79 lb     5 lbs           $2.05
PP Chicken Drumsticks - $1.33 lb  $0.79 lb   5 lbs       $2.70
Bush's Grillin' Beans - $1.62    $1.50         2                 $0.24
Bush's Baked Beans - $1.62   $1.50         2                 $0.24
Kool Aid -        $0.20     $0.09                16                $1.20
Dr. Pepper & A&W - $4.38  $2.50        4                   $7.52

Total Saved with Price Match: $23.42
Total Saved with Coupons:     $4.00
Grand Total Saved: $27.42

That beats my goal by $17.42!!!  Not bad for the first time I've done the price match.  Now, the next time will be better, or at least I'm going to set my goal to save more.  There are some things that I learned this first time.  I will probably take two baskets with me.  While it will be annoying dragging two carts, it will help me keep the price match items separate from the regular priced items.  I was stressing at the check out trying to make sure I caught all price match items before she rang them up.  If you price match, make sure to tell them the price match item and price BEFORE they scan it.  They don't require you to show them the ad, but I made a list of the items, their price, and what store's ad they were from so that if they did ask, I was ready to show them.  I also marked the item in the sales ad with a star so I could scan the ad quickly to find my items.

There is absolutely NO way I could have done this shopping trip with Ben and both kids.  It took me a little over 2 hours, but I was also taking my time to compare prices, write down prices of our frequently used items, and double check sales ads.  I know that the more I do this, the more efficient I will become.  the money I saved went to buy everything I needed for Kinnley's birthday invitations, so I wasn't out any extra money.  Hopefully, I will have an even bigger savings to share with you in a couple of weeks!

I will take pictures of Kinnley's invitation tonight to share with you.  Me and my bright ideas of making her invitations!  Oh well, she loved them so that's all that matters to me.  I hope everybody is having a great week!

Grocery Shopping....

I have started getting the Sunday Fort Worth Star Telegram for one reason and one reason only...coupons and sales ads.  I have tried, in the past, to cut and use coupons, but I've never really saved a lot of money.  At this point, any money saved is a good thing.  So, with that, I have sat down, gone through the sales ads to find the items we need or I use, make a list with the sales cost to go along with my grocery list.

I have created a spreadsheet to write down all of these items, their regular price at Wal-Mart and then the sales price to see if the sales price is really a good deal or not.  I have some coupons to go with some of my items, but not as many as I would like.  Hopefully, by writing down regular prices I will be better able to see if a sales price is a good deal or not.

Fingers crossed, I am going to set a goal of saving $10 dollars tomorrow.  We will see if I can do it or not.  No, it's not a lot, but it's a starting point.  I will have a couple recipes to share that I will be cooking next week with what I'm shopping for tomorrow.  I'll let you know tomorrow if I was able to make my goal or not...wish me luck!

Mama Bracelets...I heart them!

I have made two purchases from Mama Bracelets, one off of their website found here, and one off of their Facebook page found here. 

I ordered a bracelet for a dear friend a few months back and the customer service I received was AMAZING!  I ordered and within 10 days had the bracelet.  They quality was better than I expected and the design was beyond beautiful.  All items can be customized the way you want it.  They began offering Nursing Bracelets, a bracelet that can help nursing moms remember which side to start on at the next feeding, but their business has grown to include so much more.  They now offer other designs of bracelets, as well as a men's collection, hand stamped jewelry, and necklaces.

I ordered this necklace off of their Facebook page a couple of weeks ago and I am so excited to wear it.


Photos Courtesy of Mama Bracelets

The 'E' is for Easton, and the 'M' is for McKinnley.  It's simple and I can wear it with basically anything.  I just have to watch out for Easton...he likes to chew on any necklace he can get his hands on! (Actually, he likes to chew on ANYTHING he can get his hands on.)  I ordered this necklace one evening, paid within 30 minutes for it through PayPal, and it was shipped two days later.  Mama Bracelets has the BEST customer service and I have been beyond happy with the quality of their work. 

I really like their Lost and Found collection and will, hopefully sooner rather than later, be ordering one for Kinnley girl.  It is a bracelet that is customized with your phone number, so if your child is lost, others have a way to know how to contact you.  Mama Bracelets also offers 'Mini Mamas', which are bracelets for little girls to match with their mamas. 

Right now they are running a special for 10% off of their Men's Collection, now through June 30th.  Also, they are planning on giving away a $50 Gift Certificate to Mama Bracelets when they reach 500 fans on their Facebook page.  All you have to do is go like them on Facebook.  Their bracelets, necklaces, and keychains make the perfect birthday, Father's or Mother's day, Christmas, or just because gift.  They can be customized to fit the person you are buying for.

Bite Size Pieces of Amazingness!

Ok, well they are actually a little bigger than just bite size, like 4 bites maybe, but they are absolutely, amazingly wonderful.  We like burgers at our house, but we hardly every make them on the grill, unless we're having a cook out.  Ben only likes to cook with charcoal, and his grill is huge, so to just cook a couple of hamburgers and hotdogs costs too much in charcoal.  I am in search of his father's day gift that will help fix that problem.

(Photo from Pioneer Woman)

Anyways, so when I saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman, I fell in love with the easy simple deliciousness that she called Big Fat Bacon Sliders.  Who couldn't love bacon wrapped mini hamburgers?  Ok, for those of you that just raised your hand, you have NO idea what you are missing! 

I had to make a trip to Sam's last week and while I was there, I grabbed a humungo bag of wheat dinner rolls to use for our sliders.  I also got the hamburger meat, six pounds of spaghetti noodles (we like our pasta), two jars of sauce, 222 Pampers size 3 diapers (Easton Wayne you better not grow out of size 3 dipaers until every last one is gone!), 2 dresses, 2 three piece outfits, strawberries, grapes, and a partridge in a pear tree...just kidding about the partridge and pear tree.  I love Sam's.  It's a store full of amazingness.  Where else can you go to buy a box of 6 pounds of spaghetti and at the end of the aisle find the cutest Carter clothes for your kids?  I get in trouble when I go to Sam's.  I buy entirely too much stuff and then, when we get home, have absolutely no where to put it.  Wonder if I could sneak it into Ben's closet without him knowing?  Hum....

Anyways, back to the recipe.  I got everything I needed at Sam's except for the bacon.  I figured I'd have to make a trip to our local hometown grocery store before I cooked the sliders, so I'd get it then.  Well, I didn't go, so mine were baconless.

Oh, tear, this made me sad.  Oh well, they were still yummy with the sauteed onions and mushrooms I added.  I did it a little different than her recipe, but for Ree's version you can go here.  I put my hamburger meat in a bowl, added my seasoning, made small round balls and flattened them slightly.  I used a broiler pan and baked them in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  We put BBQ sauce on some and left the others plain.  I used provolone cheese and the mini wheat dinner rolls.  It was pretty quick from start to finish getting them ready.

We're going to be grilling out tonight and having a small bonfire to make smores with some friends.  Kinnley is having a hard time waiting until it gets dark to start the fire.  Ben and a couple of his friends went and took down the pool at my parent's house to move to our house today, so we should be ready to swim by next weekend.  We hope!  I have cleaned 3/4 of the house from floor to ceiling today, so now I have to finish the rest and then start laundry.  I've got to get it all done today so I can sit on my toosh all day tomorrow, guilt-free.

Hope everybody is having a great weekend!
Caramie