First Day of School and Cookoo for Coupons!

Here are my babies on their first day of school this year. Peyton was so excited to enter the 3rd grade! She has one of the best 3rd grade teachers this year, Mr. Cahlink! All the kids want him, and the mom's I know who have had children in his class in the past say he is awesome with the kids. Needless to say we are excited about the year as well. Piper couldn't wait to get to school She wanted a special hairdo for the day and made sure we didn't wash off her tattoo the night before. She had so much fun. Her teachers seem to be great. They both taught together in the public school system for 3 years and now have taught at the preschool together for 2 years. We are looking forward to Piper's Pre-K adventures.



Now, you may be asking yourself why in the world does Kristie have pictures of food on her blog...well I'm cookoo for coupons! I got on couponmom.com and called my friend Tiff and got the skinny on this coupon craze and now I'm hooked! See my gems above, 2 boxes of cereal, 1 tube of toothpaste and 9 composition books.........drum roll please........$4.70! The books were free! Crazy I know!

Here is the grand prize, I saved 38% at Kroger getting all this food. That was $59.06 in coupons! Can you believe that! And it's not stuff we won't use. I was very careful not to buy items just because they were on sale or I had a coupon. I can hardly wait til Sunday's paper comes out and I get a fresh stack of coupons. I wonder how much I will save next week?

Cheerleading and Dance have started....

Yayyy!!! Football season is gearing up and that means cheerleading for the Burge household. This will be Peyton's 4th season cheering. My first season in 2, that I'm not coaching! Guess what I'm more excited about....hahaha! I told Jamie I was going to be the mom on the sidelines sitting in her chair and reading her book. All I wanted to be responsible for was bringing snacks on the night we were suppose to and writing the check for the shoes. We are so blessed to be on a squad that both the coaches are friends of mine from church. Out of the 22 girls on the squad, 6 of them are friends from church. Piper is playing the role of mascot again this year. Which consist of cheering when you feel like it and eating alot of stadium food in the meantime.

Tonight also is a kickoff for us...dance. This will be Piper's 2nd year dancing and Peyton's 1st. Peyton chose not to try out for the competition cheering squad this year so she could give dance a try. I'm so excited for the both of them. They both love music and dance around the house all the time. Of course this means we have a busy week now, at least until football season is over in November.

We also have school starting this Friday. Peyton will start 3rd grade and can't wait! She asked me the other day, Mom...don't I look like I should be going into the 4th grade? She is such a nut, I told her to stop trying to grow up so fast. Piper will start Pre-K on Monday. I'm so sad that we will not be at our precious Neva's house anymore. She has watched over my babies for the past 6 years and I'm truly going to miss seeing her everyday. I will still see her at church, just not everyday. I told her I may need to be medicated to make it through my withdrawals. If Jamie would just agree to baby number 3! haha

With all these activities starting up this week, the Burge household has spent a small fortune on shoes! Cheer shoes, school shoes, ballet shoes and tap shoes. Too bad they can't wear flip flops to school, it would be so much cheaper. And don't even get me started on the school supplies I have to buy. What are my tax dollars being spent on? Apparently not school supplies and teacher's salaries.

A few days without kids....

Well 2 days without the girls...so bittersweet. I loved having Jamie all to myself and not having to cook dinner or tell someone why they had to bath. It was fun watching what we wanted to on the TV, I don't even know what Sponge Bob and Patrick did for 2 days! But, I have missed the girls. Peyton went to camp on Sunday and Piper went to my sister's house for 2 days. I think the worst part has been not being able to talk to Peyton....until yesterday that is...someone smuggled a cell phone into camp and she called me at work. hahahaha I said how are you calling me and she said, this girl has a phone and we are all calling our moms. I hope they didn't get caught! haha

We went and picked up Piper on our way home from work on Wednesday and I was sooooo glad to see her smiley face. She was ready to get home too. She was in the car before we were. Tonight we pick up Peyton. We will have dinner at the camp and then they will have an awards ceremony for the campers. I can't wait!

Well not much else going on, I just wanted to jot down a couple of things before the week got totally behind me.

July 2009

Well July has been a busy, yet fun month for us so far. We kicked it off with a 2 week vacation at GamMaw and PawPaw's beach house in Panama City Beach! We had an awesome time, and I highly recommend a 2 week vacation to everyone. Just imagine 2 weeks of no work, no bills, no dance, cheerleading, gymnastics....just beach and puttputt! haha We had a ball. Here are some pictures of our trip. The first week we had my family there, then the 2nd week we had Jamie's family.

I took our blowup pool from our house to the beach, best decision I ever made...the girls didn't want to hit the sand everyday, so this gave them a break.

Yesterday, was a big first for us...we dropped Peyton off at overnight camp. She was so excited! I spent 2 days packing her stuff and making sure everything was labeled. We went to Walmart and bought a funky blanket and sheet set (and a matress pad, a little extra room between my baby girl and a very used matress). We bought a poncho, laundry bag, small shampoos and lotions, all kinds of girly camp stuff! haha I got to hang around long enough to see her take her swim test. Then she was ready for us to leave...I won't get to talk to her til Thursday. I can't wait to hear all about her week! I left her with 2 disposable cameras to take pictures, I hope she figures out how to use them since I forgot to show her.

This is Peyton with my cousin's daughter, Elizabeth. I feel so much better knowing she has a friend from the start.

Two Birthday's in one day!

Well a few weekends ago, Mother's Day weekend to be exact. We were invited to 2 birthday parties on the same day. Luckily they were at different times. The first was for our friend Jaime's little boy Aiden, he turned 1. Aiden's story is an awesome story, he started off as an embryo made by another couple...who was frozen indefinitely. Until this couple found out they could adopt out their embryos. Jaime and her husband adopted their little embryo and he was born in May of 2008! Just a side note...Jaime is now pregnant with Aiden's sister, his sister embryo!

So we started off at Aiden's party, which my girls LOVE Ms. Jaime's house...see Jaime has horses. We fed her horses and played with bubbles and opened gifts. Here are a few pictures from our time there (sorry no pictures of Aiden, I didn't know if his parents would approve):

We left Aiden's party and headed to Seth's. Seth is Ms. Neva's grandson. He was turning 3! Guess what kind of party Seth was having.....yep.....a barnyard party. His grandparents live on a farm and show horses. It rained the first hour and a half we were there, but we still had a great time. The party was in the barn itself, so the kids fed and pet the horses in between games. Here are a few pictures of the party.


As you can see the girls had a blast! We were tired and wet by the time we got home, but it will always be a day to remember.

Cinco de Mayo at Work

Hola! Ok, so I'm up for any reason to have a party. I am a very social person. So last week I thought....we should have a Cinco de Mayo party at work! Why not? So I sent the email out and right now our 2 fridges are bursting with food! I have the best group of guys (and guy's wives), 40 of them! It's the perfect situation...I'm the mothering/coordinating/organizing type and they are, well they are men! Not to worry, no margaritas on the job...although we did think about it! haha

So at 11:00 we will head back and lay all the food out in our new kitchen, make our plates and gather around our 42' lcd (another idea I had) in the breakroom. Then when it's all over, I'll have to guilt them into cleaning up...but that's ok...they'll do it.

A Great Weekend

Oh how I love the weather we are having! I sit by a bunch of windows at work and I can very easily be distracted by just gazing out. I love all the leaves on the trees and the green grass, the flowers pushing up through the ground. I even can say I don't mind the pollen, because we need it to have all this green.

We added to the beauty this weekend...Friday I went to Home Depot and bought 3 buckets of knock-out roses and my lovely hubby planted them for me. They are gorgeous! I wanted some all last year, but just never bought any. We really need to do alot more in our yard, but it can be so stinkin' expensive. So a little at a time is what we have decided to do.

We also had an awesome weekend full of outside activities. The girls finally talked Jamie into getting the inflatable waterslide out and they played on it all weekend. Peyton swam with the girls next door, 72 degree water...but they didn't care! We had an awesome sermon on the importance of "church" and then it was back outside. Oh how I dream of an inground pool. We would so be the family that really used theirs. My girls are little water bugs.

Project Suburban is almost done. Jamie has installed a new water heater and a new front bumper. Just a tad bit more and she'll be road worthy. I can't wait! I don't know who is more excited, me or the girls?!

GamMaw & PawPaw's House

I just have to say that Thursdays are starting to become my favorite day of the week. This is the night that we eat at my parent's house. All of us, that is...my sister's and their families as well. I actually suggested tonight's meal...chicken and dumplings...my fave. Of course, something happened to my husband's southern genes...the chicken and dumpling gene was left out! So my mom fixes him pinto beans and cornbread, one of his faves. The food is not the only fun part of Thursday night's, the hanging out with the family is awesome too. See, I love being around people! I'm so good at hanging out. I even love taking our family vacations with my parents and my sisters and their families. My parent's house growing up was always full of children, friends and family. I never minded it, it was just the way we lived. I don't think my mom to this day knows how to fix a meal for two!

I guess that's where I get my love of people, all kinds. I love helping, coordinating and taking care of them.

Have a great Thursday!

Wow! I can't believe I can blog-on-the-go, who knew? Just checking this out. Pretty neat idea. I'm blogging from my Pinkberry!

Our Easter 2009 Purchase(s)

The new/old Suburban story...the day before Easter I got a call from my friend Shyra. She says over paying insurance on her 2001 Suburban that just sits in her driveway. My first instinct is, "wow" this would be such a great car for our family trips! But, then I thought..."ughhh" Dave would not be happy...Dave Ramsey that is. She preceeded with the details and the deal was such a good deal. But, I kept my cool (no excitement) about it and told her I would let Jamie know. As soon as I walked in the door I told Jamie about it and he said "call her, tell her we will pick it up tomorrow!". We knew it needed a new bumper and grill, she had hit a deer...but the deal was so good that didn't matter. So on Sunday after PawPaw and MeeMee's house we went to Shyra's. I don't know who was more excited...Jamie or the girls. The fact that it has a video system in it for the girls and the fact that it has some special towing capability for Jamie!

If you looked closely to the title of this post you may have noticed the (s) added to the end of purchase. Well, while we were there I went inside to see Shyra's new bedroom suit. We walked past her yardsale pile and I asked her whatever happened to all of Anna's American Girl stuff? Let me back up just a bit...this American Girl craze has not hit our house. Peyton is not one to play with dolls, she's more of a DS, Wii, computer, bicycle kinda girl. Piper loves babies, but didn't know about American Girls. Peyton did ask a couple of months ago about one, but only because a friend of her's that she knows at school has one. I told her she could buy a bunch of DS games for the price of one doll and that's all it took, she was off that subject. Well the Friday before Easter they went to our neighbor's birthday party and low and behold...she got an American Girl. So now both of them are wanting one! UGHHHH! So back to my question for Shyra, whatever happened to Anna's American Girl dolls? She wants to sell them on ebay! Let's go check them out! So off we went upstairs to the attic, and there they were...a Samantha, a Nellie, bitty baby twins (brown hair), a twin stroller, a bitty baby suitcase and a full size comforter bag full of clothes and accessories. She said just give Anna some money for it and you can have it all.....I told her I had no idea what to offer her for it all and she said, $100.00, yes that's right, $100.00 for every bit of it! I couldnt' believe it! How could I say no? So we drug it all downstairs and gave it to the girls! Peyton took Samantha and the boy twin and Piper took Nellie and the girl twin. It was Christmas on Easter! hahaha

So that's the story of our Easter 2009 Purchase(s). I'll post pictures as soon as I take some!

What a beautiful weekend!

We had the prettiest weekend. Saturday, Jamie was going to work in the yard all day and on our new/old car purchase....so the girls and I got up and went to the Sharpsburg Festival. It was a nice little festival. The girls got to ride a pony, play some games and we visited with our Ms. Neva at her BBQ booth! The rest of the day was spent reading in the sun while the girls played and Jamie worked/played with our new/old 2001 Surburban. We let the girls stay outside til 9:00! They thought they were something.

Sunday was church and wow what a sermon. We have started a new series..."reason". What is the reason you are not a Christian? What is the reason you don't come to church anymore? Sunday was the first in the 7 part series and I can't wait til next week. If you would like to hear Sunday's sermon you can find it on our church website....www.southcrestchurch.com.

Our dear friend's the Kuhnes came over after church and we smoked some ribs and played outside and just visited. I just love having good friends over!

That's about it for my post today. Gotta get to work. Have a wonderful Monday!

Easter 2009

I hope everyone enjoyed Easter as much as we did at the Burge home. We started our day off with our annual Easter egg hunt around the house. The girls loved getting their candy baskets, imagine that! Then off to church to celebrate the true reason for Easter, our risen Lord, King of all Kings! What an awesome service. Pastor Jeff reminded us all that we only have today, tomorrow truly never comes. Don't worry about the past, God doesn't! Ask for forgiveness and move on! I have to say that I'm good with forgetting the past, it's the not worrying about tomorrow that I need to work on. After church we headed on to Jamie's dad's house and had an awesome meal. Then a huge egg hunt with cousins. I believe we counted up 585 eggs. Then is was off to Shyra's for a new purchase...more on this later.

Here are a few pictures from our awesome day!

Piper going through the eggs she found!

Peyton and her found goods!

Meme and PawPaw's Big Egg Hunt, 2009!

Jamie and his sister, Lisa.

Spring Break 2009

Peyton at the beach Spring Break 2009

Piper at the beach, Spring Break 2009

Well I've been so bad and not updated this blog since last year! I read my friend Tiffani's blog just about everyday and love it! So, I've made a promise to myself that I'm going to update mine at least 3 times a week.

Last week we went to the beach house (my parent's beach house in PCB). We had a great time. Jamie didn't get to go, he can't take vacation until "boiler season" is over. That was a little bit of a bummer, but we managed, haha.... My cousin Tony and his 2 kids got to go with us and we all had so much fun. His two are 4 and 5 and got along great with my girls. I can't wait til we head back down in June. Our trip will be cut a little short with Piper's dance recital being at the end of the week, but it will still be worth the drive. We have found that the water and weather are the best in early June in PCB. I'll try to get more pictures of the trip up soon. I also have some Easter pictures.