Soup's on.....

Being Furgal minded and on the Dave Ramsey plan, we decided to make Olive Garden Copycats.

Here is Zuppa Tuscana, my favorite. 

Pasta E. Fragioli - DaddyO's favorite

Recipe here - Pasta E Fagioli 

DaddyO said the only difference was the pasta. 

Here are our Sugar Cookies!  

Made for a good furgal night at home for much less than we would have spent at Olive Garden.

Dearest Ronnie Man

Son,

Four years ago today, my heart grew again, when you came into this world.  God only knew that my life was changed forever in so many ways.  Ways that never even crossed my mind.  He has brought us thru some hard times together, times you shall never even know happened to our little family, you, me and your big sister.  You were born in North Carolina but came to Texas when you were 10 days old.  God knew that deep in your heart you are a true Texan.  When you were 10 months old, we met the man you call Daddy.  He captured our hearts, even though Mommy was quite a bit protective.  God knew who we needed, he sent Daddy.  Daddy and I met in November when he called your Aunt Gigi to see if she would ask if he could call me.  Aunt Gigi and I worked together at the time.  Being shy at the time, I figured it was time for Mommy get out a little bit, I said yes.  Daddy called me, and the first thing he asked was how you and your sister were doing?  Well, that melted my heart right there.  I was glad to hear he felt my children were important.  He took me out on a date a few days later to Logan's Roadhouse and to see a movie, Walk the Line.  At the time Daddy was working Tennessee building a church with Grammy and Papa Bill.  He had drove in for the weekend.  We had a great time at dinner, he asked if I wanted anymore children?  I said Yes if the Lord decided to bless me with more.  My birthday was two days later and he sent a birthday cake made of flowers to me at work.  What a sweet heart!  Christmas came and Daddy spoiled us rotten.  He bought you and Julie so much stuff.  You got Buzz Lightyear, Camo and denim overalls, CUTE outfits and Bass Pro Shop hat.  He bought Mommy a TV and DVD player.  Daddy moved back to Texas in January, 8 days before your birthday.  As you know Mommy and Daddy were married on September 2nd, 2006.  You were 20 months old, and the cutest ring bearer we'd ever seen.  When the doors opened for you and Tyler to walk down the isle, you called out DADDY and ran down the isle to see him.  I was waiting to go in and did not see it.  But everyone who did especially Daddy loved it. 

Mommy worked full time at AmeriCredit and Daddy worked as a plumber.  You and Julie went to daycare, you had a lot of fun there.  In October 2006, we found out we were going to have another baby added to our family due in July.  We moved to Burleson in January 2007 and had your 2nd birthday party at our new home, the first home Mommy had ever owned.   Cody was born July 11th and after that Mommy became a stay at home Mommy.  For the first couple of weeks you had a little bit of a hard time not being the littlest anymore.  But you and Cody have a great time now that he's getting bigger.  Right now you go to school two days a week, you are so smart.  This year you have learned how to ride a bike, go to the bathroom like a big boy and you know how to sing your alphabet and count to 20.  Daddy and Mommy signed you up for baseball this spring.  Daddy is going to coach your team and Julie's team.  WOW, he's such a GREAT Daddy!

   

Birthday Cakes - For your 2nd birthday you had a buzz light year cake, Mommy drove to Arlington at the Red Oven to pick it up.  On your 3rd birthday, Daddy made you a tractor cake.   He did such a GREAT job.     For your 4th birthday you wanted a Batman cake, this time we left that up to Wal-Mart. The funniest thing is that you don't really care for cake anyway.  You take two bites and then you're done.  Which isn't a bad thing.  You love healthy foods, like brocolli, salad, lettuce, tomatoes, you like ice cream but that's about it for sweets.  

I love you Ronnie Man!  

Funny things you say -

When I ask you  Do you want to do this or what - You always say What.

You used to say - I don't want to do that AnyMORE.  

You would make puppy, elephant and alligator noises.

You always want to pray at dinner and nighttime.  

You always want me to sing you songs at bedtime, your favorite is Close your eyes.

I'd better go, I'm making your favorite dinner tonight.  Spaghetti and Meatballs.

LOVE YOU FOREVER AND ALWAYS,

YOUR MOMMA

What a GREAT Weekend!

Happy 4th Birthday Fireball!

We had a blast this weekend, it was very busy and took some hard work but it was well worth it.  Friday night and Saturday morning were spent in preparation for our 4 yr olds birthday party.  During the week I had worked on getting my kitchen up to par and the living room picked up.

  Friday night we finished cleaning the living room, from putting things away and organizing the dvd/movie collection to Daddy O steam cleaning the floors.  The carpet looks brand new.  Big THANKS to Daddy O for staying up until 2 in the morning cleaning them, which included a run to Wal-Mart at 11:30 for morning carpet cleaning solution, having to stand in line behind two women and there shopping carts full - total of 650 before their coupons then down to 430 - I love that they used coupons, I HATE that they didn't let my HUSBAND go in

 front of them even though he only had ONE item!!!!!!!!  And HATE Wal-Mart for only having one lane open!  He didn't get home until 1 o'clock!  Again thank you Daddy O for cleaning our carpets! Oh yes, he also touched up the paint in the kitchen and dining area, all of the spots were about 2 to 3 feet high!  Must be our 1 and 3 year old. ; )

Saturday morning came with the thought that with all the people here we may just have need for more than excess to one bathroom.  Hence the need for our Master Bedroom to be cleaning ----- yikes!  But we did it and it's worth it.  Fireball's birthday was GREAT.  We had dinosaur plates, cups and napkins (from the dollar tree), a Monster Truck Pinata (9.95 at Wal-Mart) and he wanted a BATMAN cake so we coughed out the 19.96 for that at Wal-Mart too.  But we only had one piece left after the party.  We had great time, he got a new bike from Grammy and Grandpa (which I told my mom about at WalMart right after Christmas, it was 25 bucks!),

 Aunt Becca and Scott got him a helmet with flames for his bike and a pop gun.  Sassy sister got him a batman that Fireball and Goodtime both love.  

We gave him a Lighting McQueen Tv I got from disneyrewards.com and an Art crayola set and DaddyO picked out Darth Vader's light saber.  Aunt Gigi and Uncle Chris got him a Dr. Sues book and giraffe .  Grammy Cyndi and Papa Bill gave him some money, he bought his new baseball helmet, and they gave him two pairs of tractor PJs.  He got a couple of nerf guns and a remote control jeep from his friends.  I think he made out pretty well.  We played pin the tail on the donkey, put some of those capsules that turn into sponge animals in water.  Oh yes and DaddyO put Monster Jam on Tv from the DVR.  They all had a great time. 

Sunday we spent time with our kids, took them outside to ride their bikes and then we came inside and watched Star Wars IV, ate crockpot Chicken, potatoes and carrots followed by ice cream.

I woke up this Monday morning and stripped our bed, wash, dried and made the bed- loaded the dish washer, picked up the living room all before 9 am!  It was great.   The boys woke up at 9:10 I let them sleep today because we stayed up until 9:30 watching the movie.  Usually bed time is 8 o clock.  

In the midst of all that I still went to Albertsons twice, Kroger and CVS once and Walmart a few times.  I stocked up on Spagetti sauce, fruit snacks,  canned tomatoes at Albertsons, along with four packages free salsa.  Kroger I stocked up on Velvetta for 3.49 a box, Miracle Whip, pizza rolls and 2 Free frenchs mustard. CVS was my indulgence of Starbucks Frappacinos, buy 20 dollars worth get 10 ECBs back. 

This trip was 8.48 at Albertsons. 8 jars of spagetti sauce, 8 cans of tomatoes and 4 free packages of salsa.