So my husband and I had a discussion last night about money. Money, we really like it, we collect it and guess what?!?! We also like to spend it. Im sure you get that.

Well in our discussion we decided it might be fun, and helpful to our bank account, if we did not spend money.

How does one live without spending money? I'm thinking that they don't, they die of hunger, or exposure to the elements or something.

Well we don't want to die, but we wondered if we could do it...Not buy anything for the whole month of February. Could you do it?

We have to pay bills, so that is spending, but we decided bills do not count, so we are gonna pay those, we don't wanna lose our house, or be without electricity or gas.

But we set a goal to not do any shopping and spend any money in February.

I am sure you may be worried that we might just starve. Do not worry because we are collectors of food, not only do we have lots of food storage in our garage, but we have tons of food crammed in our cabinets, pantry, fridge, freezer, and our outside freezer. Sometimes we find things at the bottom of our freezer we should have eaten years earlier.

So on the food front, we are gonna be creative and try to use up most if not all of the food we have had hanging around for way too long. We are actually thinking this might be fun. Creative meals are always fun, dont you think.

So now that we have this new goal, all I think about is shopping. I wanna buy, buy, buy.

In fact I just thought...What about Valentines? I have to get my kids and husband valentines...My kids need the ones to bring to school too. I guess we are gonna have to do hand made, home made things. Sounds like a lot of work. Hmmm. Wish me luck.

Jan 13th- Here we have a picture of the home made bread bowls I made this night and melted brie in. Oh my goodness were they delicious!!!
Jan 14th- Here is our van door. The handle has been snapped off by me. boo hoo
Jan 15th- This Saturday, Joe and I set out to replace our handle on our car. Joe broke it with his amazing muscles last summer. We have lived with it for awhile, since we could still open the door. Finally the week before this I snapped the whole thing off. So we ordered a new one and researched online how to put it in, and that is what we did on Saturday. It took us about 4 hours, but we had a great time. We love doing projects together and we laughed a lot as we sat in our van and fogged up the windows, while putting in our new handle.
Jan 16th- Here is a picture of Trenton at bedtime, he is sporting a crown that his big sister Jerika made for him. He is really our little prince. Jan 17th- We have a great friendship with our Girls Birth mom and visit with her frequently. I love this so much because I get to see Jonathan our foster Son who was in care with us for the first 11 months of his life. It is great to see him. On this day we picked Jonathan and the Birth mother up and took them to McDonalds to eat and play. I took some pictures, in this one I am amazed at how much Jennedy looks like her brother.Jan 18th- Laundry day. With a family of six we have a lot of laundry, I do it all one day a week. My kids help a lot, each child has a basket and we fold their laundry and put it in each basket. We also have a sock basket, and two pajama baskets for each room. Here is what the house looks like on this laundry day.
Jan 19th- I like to take Trenton and Jennedy to the Mall, they have a fun indoor play area and when it gets stormy, which is very often in Portland, we have to have some place great to go.
Jan 20th- My husband turned 33 this day. I made him brownies and put a recess peanut butter cup recipe filling I had on file, on the top of the brownies, I also dropped chocolate chips on top, Lets just say it was an amazing melt in your mouth taste explosion of yumminess. Jan 21th- Grandma Darling and Pop Pop (what my kids call my parents) sent books to my children. It was such a wonderful surprise. The kids loved the books. They are avid readers.
Don't you love how Trenton is dressed up like a princess, you can tell he is growing up in house full of girly girls.
Jan 22-We went out with our friends for Joes birthday doing our traditional restaurant hopping/ Progressive dinner. We did breakfast and lunch and went to places from the show on food network called "Diners, drive in's and Dives." We watch that show and our mouths water, so we looked for all the ones in Portland and hit them for the signature dish we saw on the show. Here we are at the Arleta Library Cafe and Bakery. Wow, we had their Biscuits and Gravy and it was so so amazing. We are going there again for sure. You can see Joe as a shadow in the picture.
Jan 23-Joseph and Jerika doing her homework. She brings home weekly math homework that requires an adult playing some type of math game with her. Joe enjoys playing these with her and she loves the daddy daughter time. Jan 24- My girls now all have Nintendo DS's and here they are on the couch playing them. Trenton has my new smart phone, the Droid X, which I love BTW. He likes to play all the games. They are truly the electronic generation.

Jan 25- Since I did not take a picture for this day, Yes I got busy. I'm trying ok. So I will put in a picture from this week, one from McDonalds with Jonathan and his sisters.

Jan 26-Here is Trenton again, this time sporting the Barbie sun glasses.Jan 27- Oh my, Jennedy can open her mouth so big. When she asks me to feed her something she opens her mouth wide. I crack up every time. So I decided to capture her amazing mouth. Here it is. Jan 28- I didn't take a picture for this day. So here is the one from our Progressive dinner for Joes birthday. Me and one of my very best friends, Dawn.
Jan 29-I didn't take a picture for this day. So here is another one from our Progressive dinner for Joes birthday. It is of my hot husband and his best friend Micheal.

As I stated last post I am trying to take a picture everyday and blog about it, so here is the latest pictures.

Jan 7- It was bedtime and my adorable husband Joe and I had spent the evening watching Harry Potter, he got the latest two for Christmas. I snapped this photo of him relaxing. I am glad that he gets to relax, he works so hard to provide for our big family and he does so well, I love that I have him and get to cuddle up next to him at night and watch a good movie. Life is wonderful. Jan 8-
The kids have really been into making me breakfast in bed lately. On this Saturday they even brought food down for Joe too as he was still in bed. The funny thing was that they made that orange Juice by themselves and added way more water than you are supposed to so it tasted like water downed OJ. It was still precious. Jerika said she knows how to make it right but added more water so there would be enough for everybody, including the kids. Sweet!Jan 9- I hadn't taken the picture for today and the kids were asleep so I ran in and took a photo of Trenton sleeping. I love looking at sleeping Children they are just angels when they are sound asleep. He is sleeping on the pillow case that his grandma made for him of superman. He is my little Super boy. And that little dog stuffed animal he sleeps with he got one when he got stitches at the hospital, he likes to sleep with it and also a stuffed dolphin. He calls it Goggie, since he couldn't say doggie at the time and the name has just stuck. Jan 10- I read... a LOT. This coffee table is where I keep the books I am reading. I think I read about a 3-7 books a week. It's True! I bet you are asking where do I find the time, hmm. I don't know, I read very very fast, and often times find my self up at two in the morning reading. Currently I am reading way too many vampire and fantasy books because that it what friends are recommending, but I will read anything and everything if it captures my attention.

Jan 11- Here are Trenton and Jennedy doing ballet for me. I woke to find them dressed in these outfits this morning and they said they had a show for me. So then Jennedy picked up Trenton and twirled him around. What made me really fall on the floor laughing was how he bent one leg and did a cute little pose with his leg as she swung him around. These two crack me up daily.Jan 12- The kids after their bath today. When ever I get them out of the bath and wrap them in a towel they say "wrap me like baby Jesus mom" which means they want to be swaddled in their towels, so I do. They walk around like that until I make them get dressed, if it falls off they ask me again to "wrap me like baby Jesus."

Boy or Boy the Holidays were great and very time consuming, so I have been gone as you might have noticed. But I am back and have an idea I am going to try. So my goal is to take one picture a day all of 2011 and blog about them when I have the time. So today you get to see the pictures from this week.

Jan 1,
My girls.
I adore them, they are getting so big, so fast. I wish they would stay small forever but I also enjoy the changes in them as I see them grow up.

Jan 2
I got the girls some nail art stamping stuff for Christmas and after doing my nails I and took a picture to send to my friends phone while in my mini van. It is super fun to do these nail stamps with nail polish and my girls love to have me do their nails.
Jan 3
My two Children who stay at home with me, non school age love the computer. There is a computer right next to mine and they sit there and play online. I have them put on the cute pink headsets we got them in China so as not to disturb me. They are pretty good at sharing but there is often arguing when they are playing.

Jan 4
Our washing machine broke at the end of the year, so we got a new one. I love it, it is so big that I am able to get so much laundry done in a shorter amount of time. It also plays a cute little melody to signal when the load is done which I really like.

Jan 5
Jerika loves to get drawing books from School, she makes us all learn to draw with her, it is fun to see how each persons picture is the same and different even with the same instructions. Here is Joe with his girls working on some monster pictures.

Jan 6
Jacqueline had been growing her hair out to donate to locks of love and today she came down and told me that she was ready for me to cut her hair and donate. So we did, she looks adorable with her new short hair cut.

This year we stayed home with our kids for New Years Eve, Usually we get a sitter and go out just Joe and I with friends. This year we wanted to be with our kids. We had a great time playing games, making 50 egg rolls, and making New Years hats and crowns. Trenton and Jennedy did not last until midnight, but Jerika and Jacqueline loved watching the new year come in with mom and dad and our friends who happened to drop by.