What the Hamm's Have Been up to... {In Pictures}

This Momma isn't doing too well with the heat lately so we've been spending lots of early mornings at the park with some amazing Riverside Bakery donuts...

Allie and I tried canning green beans for the first time this year and it went awesome! We'll be doing another batch soon.

We went to the McHenry County Fair as a family. Allie got to go to her first Demo Derby and saw lots and lots of farm animals.

 I've done a couple ride alongs with this handsome man...

Oh and Hamm Brothers Trucking is now doing a tour over in Afghanistan!

Allie now goes potty all by her self like a pro...

Dad got a new tractor...

and Allie loves it.

Allie learned how to hit a piñata at her cousin Brooklyn's Birthday party...

She's also been climbing trees...

playing dress up...

jumping on the new indoor trampoline I got her for $5 at a garage sale...

She's been sassy,

super cute...

and a major daddy's girl.

As far as myself. I've been washing baby clothes,

and filling out pre-admission forms.

I've gotten some really early Christmas shopping done. $215 worth of toys for under $60 at Target!

And I also purchased Allie's fall photo shoot outfit...

It's been a busy couple of months. I'm now ready for things to slow down so I have more time to relax!

The past couple weeks have gone by so fast. We've been trying canning for the first time, finishing up Christmas shopping, hunting, couponing and getting everything ready for Allie Mae's 2nd Birthday party.

So where do I start? Let's start with canning.

Loren ended up getting called off work last week and my MIL was taking Allie for the day so we used that opportunity to try out our new canner for the first time. Walmart had a great deal going on for Apples. I was able to get about 8lbs for about $4. I went out and bought all the supplies a couple of weeks ago and have been doing some research so as soon as I got the apples, I was ready to go.

It took a lot longer then I thought it was going to, but I think part of that was because we've never done it before so we didn't have a good system down. After setup was over it took us about 3 hours and we got about 14 jars out of it.

PICS

Beside canning, I've been dabbling in a bit of couponing. When I first started I got really overwhelmed really fast. After saving just about every coupon I came across, I decided I would calm down a bit and just concentrate on toiletries and anything other than food. I usually shop at Aldi and can't use any food coupons anyway.

Here are some of my hauls from the last couple weeks...

For my first haul I got all these Fisher Price toys for about $5.

This next haul was totally random, I ended up getting all this for $3.29

I've been couponing for these types of random things lately and have already got a huge stockpile of stuff. It's nice to not have to go out on a whim to buy shampoo or toothpaste. If I stopped purchasing toiletries right now, I would probably have enough to last another year.

Well, besides all that business, we've been getting ready for Allie Mae's 2nd birthday party. We didn't have a party for her last year, so I'm really excited. I just know she's going to love it. Allie is absolutely obsessed with the movie Toy Story so I decided to go ahead and plan a Toy Story themed party! The party will be here in two days and I'll write about it asap!