Extreme Couponing

So who is watching Extreme Couponing tomorrow night on TLC?  I’ve always been curious as to how people go to the store and save hundreds of dollars on groceries.  I mean how on earth do people get $300 worth of food for $12 or something like that???  I am really curious to see this show and how this process works. 

AND WHERE DO YOU STOCKPILE ALL THAT STUFF??? 
I’m imagining their homes probably look something like this….

 Crazy!!!  All this food could probably feed a third world country for an entire year!
Another random:
RueLaLa is having a sale on these babies right now. 
 I LOVE LOVE LOVE Zak! Designs kitchenware 🙂

Happy Tuesday 🙂
Also – go enter a great contest right now over at BlogHer to win a copy of Nothing To Wear Nothing To Wear? By Jesse Garza and Joe Lupo , & one lucky winner will be able to pick an item from the VT-Luxe line as a prize!  Good Luck!

Weekend Wrap Up

The weather has been in the 90’s already in Texas.  I guess we just skipped spring!  I am not the kind of person that likes to sweat at all.  I think 65 degrees would be perfect in my world.  Anyway – so what did we do this weekend???  Here it is:
 We played a lot with toys…
 We walked and walked and walked….
 Ate our weight in Mexican food….
 This cheese dip was SOOOOOO good!
 Ate some Mexican rice….
 We played at the park in the neighborhood…
 Dude loves to swing!
 And slide…

We also went to church.  Connor seems to be in the crying babies nursery.  He was fine when we dropped him off, then the second he saw EVERY.SINGLE.BABY was crying in his room he decided he needed to join in.  It was hilarious!  We watched a few movies on Vudu – which I LOVE!  We also had family dinner with Terence’s family on Sunday night!  That about sums up our weekend! How was yours?

Fun Finds Friday

I know you’ve been asking yourself “What did Connor do while Mom & Dad were away?”  And if you didn’t then I just want to let you know that we did not leave our baby unattended to eat carpet fuzz, play in the toilet, and change his own poopy diapers!  Ha..ha..
My Mom & Dad graciously drove here from Arkansas over spring break to watch Connor James.  I know he had the best time with them and he was spoiled completely rotten.  I think it was a great bonding time for them.  I came home from our trip to find his closet full of new clothes and he now has an insane infatuation with Elmo.  I sure hope Elmo is a girl because there have been some serious slob fests going on with Elmo these days!  I can never tell because Elmo has such a high voice???
Elmo love
We got this cute owl shirt at Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC.  It says “Whooo ate my candy?”
See what I mean???  The dude is in LOVE!
And we even found Connor’s girlfriend while we were in Central Park! 
Look it’s ELMO!!!
I did get frequent text pictures from my parents pertaining to their daily activities…..
 Connor got an Easter “Thing-a-ma-jig”
AKA: Little critters that sing and make noise when you squeeze their arms
Trying to fill Poppy’s shoes 🙂
Loving on Elmo in PUBLIC! Slow down on the PDA Connor 😛
Riding the train with Nana
At the zoo with Nana and Poppy
Connor also got to spend Friday and Saturday with his Grana & Pop (Terence’s parents)
We are very grateful for such wonderful babysitters so we could have a vacation together!!!
THANK YOU!!!
………………………………………………….
I have gotten not one…but TWO free Starbucks this week!
1.  At Kroger they have a Starbucks in the store.  My drink is actually .70 cents cheaper at the Kroger for some reason???  They also scan your Kroger card and you get points and randomly get a free drink.  I GOT ONE.
2. Today I was in line and pulled up to pay and the girl said “It’s free today!”  I have no clue…BUT I GOT ANOTHER FREE DRINK!  Holla!

If you want to be added to the Starbucks wall on the right just email me your lovely mug at beckylbranch@gmail.com

Did you know that Apple and MAC Cosmetics are teaming up to create a new makeup line?  Crazy!

Look at these cuties :

I really want to try GiGi’s Cupcakes in Dallas.  I love Sprinkles, but these just look divine!  And I just got an email with some of their new cupcakes for spring…..droooooool……

Smore’s & Chocolate Cream Pie
Everyone have a great weekend!!!

New York – Days 2 & 3

RECAP THE REST OF OUR TRIP: HERE, HERE, & HERE
Friday Summer took off work to show us around the city.  It was so nice having her with us that day!  We started out at Dean & Deluca.  I’ve always wanted to go there.  I used to watch Felicity on TV and I remember her working there in NYC and the food always looked delicious!
Look at all those fresh veggies
And the chocolate oh my!
Pretty flowers
We also saw ground zero.  It’s a big construction zone right now.  I can’t believe it’s been almost 10 years since 9-11.  It’s crazy how much progress they’ve made and how different everything looks now.  In the museum they had pictures of all the debris after the towers fell and it was a complete disaster!  It was nice to see something positive going up in a place where such devastation had taken place. 
Gone but never forgotten.

New building going up in corner of ground zero

The above is a model of what the memorial will look like when finished.  The two pools are where the towers stood.  Everyone who died on 9-11 will have their names engraved on the site.

A beam from one of the towers in the shape of a cross found after it fell
We also had a carriage ride around Central Park.  We got in the purple carriage….GO TCU!!!

Summer & I

Summer feeding the horse a carrot 🙂
Visiting FAO Schwartz toy store
Next Up :
TIMES SQUARE

Summer & I warming our cold selves with a cup of hot chocolate!
Next Up:
CHINA TOWN / LITTLE ITALY

 Uhm…not so sure I would eat this?
 Fishy Fishy
 Little Italy

 Headed back to Summer & Adam’s to get ready to go to the airport 🙁
 Such a sweet couple

 We love ya’ll!!!!  Thanks for the best trip ever 🙂
This is the view from their rooftop. 
Isn’t it amazing how you can see the Brooklyn Bridge in the background?
 New York we had a great visit….until next time….
xoxo
Becky & Terence

New York Day 1 – Part Two

After we got off the ferry from the Statue of Liberty we met up with my friend Maria.  She took a train from New Jersey to come see us.  Maria and I have known each other since I was in the 4th grade.  I was best friends with her younger sister Jennie growing up.  Her Mom used to drop us all off at school together.  It broke my heart when they moved back to New Jersey from Arkansas 🙁  It was so good seeing a familiar face and I so enjoyed our visit with my little Italianista Maria!

Meeting at Madison Square Gardens
Maria suggested we eat lunch at Eataly
It’s a restaurant that Mario Batali started and it was such a cool place!

 

There were seven different Italian restaurants/eateries in Eataly to choose from.  We ate at the pizza and pasta one.  It was delicious!

Flat Iron Building
Empire State Building
30 Rock

The famous Magnolia Bakery
walking…walking…walking…
View from Top of the Rock

Central Park


Terence finally building up the courage to look over the ledge…he’s a weenie!

This room was pretty cool!  When you moved and danced the colors on the walls and ceiling would jump around.  I felt like we were in a Nintendo game!
The next Apprentice 🙂
I don’t own any Tiffany, but maybe someday! ha..ha..
Look at these Louis Vuitton shoes???
They were all hatching out of eggs.  It was a pretty cool window display.

The Plaza Hotel
The Apple store
I thought this was a cool shot!  You go underground in a clear elevator to get to the store.
A chocoholics dream I tell ya!
The staircase to Heaven….
Of course we HAD to have some frozzzen hot chocolate from Serendipity3
But wait there’s more…..tomorrow…..
Love ya’ll!!!!
Thanks for all the sweet comments on the pictures!

New York Day 2 – Part One

I am going to split day 2 up into two parts.  Our second day in New York was probably one of the busiest.  We got up early Thursday morning, got coffee, then headed to Wall Street and to see the Statue of Liberty.  Here are some of the pictures from the day….
(Note: I am still recovering from all the walking we did and getting back home from vacation.  I know we wore poor Summer out on this trip! ha ha!  We are all plum tuckered out!   I think I did 5 loads of laundry when we got home.  It sure was good to see my Connor boy though and next time hopefully he can come too and meet the B’s future kiddos  🙂
Wall Street was actually a lot smaller than we both had imagined.  It’s a very cute cobblestone street full of people hustling and bustling about.  I imagined a four lane freeway or something like that, but in reality it was a narrow, quaint little street that just happens to be a financial capital in the world.  Lots of $$$ on this street and major businesses stood side by side.
Trump Tower

New York Stock Exchange
American Express Building

Terence with the bull on Wall Street
I’m not sure how I got the back end here….everyone was blocking the front!
The Sphere that used to stand in the World Trade Center

A hot dog cart
Terence tried a hot dog and said it was “okay”.  I had a pizza filled pretzel and it was pretty good!

The entrance to get on the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty
On our way…

 There she is 🙂

Inside the base of the Statue of Liberty
Life size model of her face
The evolution of Lady Liberty
Life size model of her foot
192 steps to the top of the base of the Statue of Liberty.  I was huffing and puffing 😛
One of the bolts that holds her down

Ellis Island
It was COLD on the top of that ferry ya’ll!
It was a great day and we had a great time exploring the Statue of Liberty and taking lots of pictures!
On the way back to the city….
I love this guy 🙂
Tomorrow:
Serendipity3
Dylan’s Candy Bar
Top of the Rock
Meet up with Maria – dear friend from New Jersey
And more exploring of the city

New York Day 1

We had the best time in New York!  The B’s were the best hostess and host in the whole wide world!  I know Terence and I would have been running around the city like two chickens with our heads cut off if it weren’t for them.  They have such a cute apartment and live in a great little neighborhood in New York.
Sum and I have been blog friends for almost 4 years now.  It meant so much to finally…after all these years meet her.  It should have happened a long time ago, but I’m just glad it happened at all!  She’s just as wonderful and awesome in person as I thought she would be!  She’s my triplet and I love her so much!  🙂
Terence and I started off the morning at 4:00 am to get to the airport in Dallas on time.  Our flight left at 6:00 am.  I thought I was going to literally die because there was NO Starbucks in the airport and it was so early!  Hello???  What airport terminal doesn’t have Starbucks these days?  When we finally landed in Chicago there was a Starbucks there.  Unfortunately we had an hour and a half delay and then found out our flight was re-routed to Pittsburgh for GAS!  Oh boy!  When we finally landed in New York we had our first experience in a cab and it was crazy!  Terence just kept laughing at the way they drive.  He said “Staying in your lane is not the law here it’s a suggestion.”  It would be our first of many cab rides….
This is like 2 minutes after we walked into the B’s apartment….I think we were both in shock that we were finally meeting each other 🙂 
They took us to a fabulous pizza place that night.  I’m telling you this pizza was SO good!
I don’t know why I look like a doof in this picture, I was just being silly!
The B’s
Okay….now I am really really missing this pizza……
After dinner we got cupcakes and walked home in the snow and hail.  It was a full blown hail storm with lightening and everything!  It was CRAZY!  Thankfully that was the only night the weather was koo koo and the rest of our stay in New York it was just cloudy and cold.  The sun peaked through the clouds occasionally.  I am telling you I ate my weight in cupcakes on this trip!  We walked a ton, but I don’t think it did any good because I ate so many sweets!

Day 2 coming tomorrow…..
These are going to be some LONG posts because I think we took around 300 pictures! Yikes!
Thank you B family we had the best time and we love ya!