I had a tough decision to make this weekend in regards to my weekly shopping trip. I had $9 left in my grocery budget for the month of February. March begins tomorrow. Should I just shop on Sunday or Monday so that I could brag that I'd come in under budget for February, meaning I fed my family for just over $300 ($301) or should I go buy some milk and eggs and try to make it until next week, thus giving me more of a head start budget wise for the month of March?
Oh decisions, decisions!
I finally decided it would be more beneficial in the long run for me to try to make it further into March before diving into my grocery money. This morning I headed to Aldi to buy 2 gallons of whole milk (I had some milk here at home still from last week's trip), a dozen eggs and some tissues for the 3 runny noses currently residing in my house. I only spent $6.80 on all of that (hallelujah the price of milk keeps dropping!) so decided to stop at Price Chopper on my way home. They had bags of frozen veggies on sale for only .49 each - normally $1.79 each. I snagged 4 and finished off the $9 I had left for the month of February.
I'm excited to now be able to wait 5 or 6 days into the month of March before having to dip into my grocery money. I guess this is where having that stockpile mentality with grocery shopping comes in handy! I have plenty of chicken, ground beef, pasta, sauce (homemade), rice, beans and fruits and veggies on hand so it shouldn't be a problem making it to next Thursday or Friday.
In addition to almost coming in under budget for the month of February, I came in under budget this month in the diaper department! For the month of February I spent $90 on diapers and wipes for the boys (our budget is $100). It's amazing me what several months in a row of super saavy shopping will do for our budget. I'm looking forward to March and am going to try hard to come in under budget again, both in groceries and diapers.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Saturday Savings - Decisions, Decisions
Friday, February 27, 2009
Officially Toddlers
Today my little men turn 18 months old. 18 months! How did that happen?! I feel like 18 months is the official mark of becoming a toddler, which is frightening.
Their special half birthday started with a trip to the doctor, but not for a well visit. Yesterday morning the boys all woke up coughing. Then Jackson had a mild fever. They all spent much of the day rolling around on the floor with blankets, looking like they wanted to go to sleep. By bedtime all three were running fevers (100, 101 and 102) and the coughing fits after I put them to bed were heart wrenching!
At about 5pm a friend called to tell me her daughter (whom we had a playdate with last Saturday) had just been diagnosed with Bronchiolitis and her symptoms had started on Sunday. Suddenly a cough and fever I was just going to "wait and see" on was possibly a little more serious, so I got an appointment for the boys.
Considering the boys are not wheezing (yet), the doctor could not diagnose them as having Bronchiolitis. She is hopeful that their immune systems kicked the bug before it really could get to them. Fevers are gone but the coughing is still there. Oh and Tyler had an ear infection that we didn't know about!
The one good thing about our impromptu trip to the doctor, is we got official 18 month weights out of it! We have little monsters on our hands! Jackson comes in at 26.4, Tyler at 24.6 and Chase at 27.6. At this rate I won't be able to keep them rear facing in their car seats much longer!
Keep the boys in your prayers that they really did kick the bug and the cough won't turn into anything worth. Have a great weekend!
Delay of Game
We have a doctor appointment for all three monkeys in less than an hour. I suspect I will have things to share from said appointment, so will write a "normal" post later on today. For now though, I leave you with this...
I think we need to raise the counter height... or stop feeding the boys so much! And yes, he was able to grab one.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
A Giveaway!
I have decided it's time to jump into the world of blog giveaways. I've wanted to do it for a long time, but up until now didn't have anything worthy of giving away!
The Prize? 4 Huggies coupons - each for $1.50 off ANY package of Huggies. Coupons expire May 23, 2009.
I have two sets of these coupons to give away!
Here's how to enter:
1. Leave a comment on my blog!
2. Earn a bonus entry by announcing this contest on your own blog and mentioning that in your comment.
3. Earn a 3rd bonus entry by announcing this contest on Facebook and mentioning that in your comment.
Contest will end at 8pm CST on Sunday night. Check back Monday morning to see if you've won! Winners will have 48 hours to get back to me. In the event that a winner does not contact me on time, an alternate winner will be chosen.
Good luck!
(Note: Coupons are only good in the US. Sorry to my readers from other parts of the world!)
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Reflections
Sunday night as I lay in bed, trying to fall asleep I suddenly became very reflective. I was thinking about how crazy it is that I have toddler triplets. How crazy it is that I have triplets period! Then I thought about what Gammy and Pop Pop (my grandparents on my dad's side) would have said had they been alive when I found out I was pregnant, or what they would say now when they saw three energetic boys.
I'm pretty sure Gammy would have been saying a lot of "oh my land" or "oh my stars". Pop Pop would have been giddy with excitement, much like he was after my sister won the Miss Shrimp Princess Pageant when she was a little girl (that's right Laura, I found a way to mention that).
As I thought more and more about my grandparents I thought of a story that most people don't know...
When I was 19 years old Gammy was admitted to the hospital. She had been there for a few days when I finally had the opportunity to go see her. I didn't really want to go as I'm not a fan of hospitals, and my dad had told me Gammy was going to be fine and should be home soon. However, my dad repeatedly told me that Gammy would love it if I stopped by so I grudgingly did it.
I arrived at her hospital room to find that she was about to head to a test of some sort. I walked with her, Aunt Susie and a nurse to the elevator and rode down a few floors with them. I remember her asking me how work was going as well as how that young man I was dating was doing (the "young man" was Nick!). As we were chatting something struck me. I couldn't ever remember telling Gammy or Pop Pop that I loved them nor could I remember hearing it from them. It was just something that was known.
We stepped out of the elevator and paused in front of the room Gammy would have her test in. I leaned down, kissed her on the cheek and told her I loved her. She said she loved me too. Then she, Aunt Susie and the nurse entered the room. That was the last time I saw Gammy. That night she unexpectedly died in her sleep.
I used to think about this story a lot. I feel so blessed that I was nudged to tell my grandmother that I loved her. I still cry when I think about it - yes, even now while I type this. From then on I was very conscience about telling people close to me that I loved them. I told Pop Pop all the time until he passed several years after Gammy.
It goes without saying, but please make sure you tell those that are close to you that you love them. You never know when it may be the last time you speak to or see them.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Button Pushing
Button pushing is common in this house. Usually my buttons are the ones being pushed and the pushee is any one of the 4 "boys" who live here. Late last week though a button was pushed and for once it wasn't mine! The victim this time was Jackson.
I am quite certain this is only the beginning of the button pushing that will go on between the boys and I feel grateful to have witnessed the beginning. Tyler and Chase were quite clever and knew exactly what to do to make Jackson upset. They stole his blanket.
The game of blanket stealing went on for a little while. Each time I would take the blanket back from the thief and give it to a very distraught Jackson. Finally I tired of the game and told Jackson to get it back himself. So he did.
Then I told Tyler and Chase to stop bugging Jackson. So they did. Instead they started to wrestle each other.
Then later on in the day all three were happily playing together!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Saturday Savings
It was a good week of shopping here in KC, but I'm most excited about a purchase I'll be making later on today. More about that later!
Here's what $49 will buy you this week.
Whole Milk - 4 gallons
Fat Free Milk - 1 gallon
String Cheese - 12 pack
Flour Tortillas
Bananas - 3.25 pounds
Bread - 2 loaves
Eggs - 1 dozen
Wishbone Salad Dressing - 2 bottles
Wishbone Salad Spritzers - 1 bottle
Pasta - 2 one pound bags
Gala apples - 3 pounds
Grapes - 2.45 pounds
Deli Ham - 1 pound
Flour - 5 pound bag
Hunts Ketchup
Manwich Sloppy Joe Sauce - 2 cans
Saltine Crackers
Kraft Mac & Cheese - 4 boxes
Minute Rice - 1 box
Chicken Nuggets - 2 packages
Nectarines - 2 pounds
Split Chicken Breast - 3.58 pounds
Total Before sales, coupons & taxes: $81.88
Total After sales & coupons: $46.68
The deals: So my biggest and most exciting deal will be purchased later on today. There is a store here that I rarely shop at because their prices are routinely higher than the competitors. However, it was brought to my attention recently that this store doubles coupons up to .50 which is something no other store in our area does. I've been anxiously awaiting a sale worthy of my coupons and it finally has happened! Tonight I will venture to Hen House and buy 7 cans of Pillsbury products (1 biscuit, 2 crescent rolls, 2 cinnamon rolls, 2 pizza dough rolls) and pay less than $2! Normally all 7 of those cans would run me over $12. Understand my excitement now?
I had a few other decent finds in the produce sections - bananas for .45 a pound, grapes and nectarines for .99 a pound and gala apples for .83 a pound. None of my other deals compares to the excitement of the Pillsbury deal! I will say this though, I'm so pleased to see the price of milk coming down. When you're buying 4-5 gallons a week that .25 a gallon savings really adds up.
Extra Laps
The life of a stay at home triplet mom can be frustrating at times. Most of the time it's great but there are three distinct times that stand out in my mind: When the boys are all sick, when they all have dirty diapers and there's no one to say "it's your turn to change them" to and when all three insist on sitting on your lap for story time.
Story time is supposed to be a fun bonding experience, but usually there are whines, pushes and hair pulled. Once in a while we'll have a nice moment like this one Nick managed to snag..
Other times I rejoice in having extra laps in the house! Last Friday I had the privilege of picking my parents and grandparents up at the airport. They didn't return home until Wednesday. As you can see, the boys thoroughly enjoyed being read to by their great-grandparents!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
A Few Minutes
A lot can happen in only a few minutes.
Yesterday afternoon I apparently did not securely shut the door to the boys' bedroom. Suddenly I looked up to see all three pairs of the boys' swim trunks in the middle of the living room floor. I didn't bother taking time to ponder how they might have traveled from the dresser in the boys' room to the living room floor, instead I bolted for the boys' room.
Oh dear.
Amazing how much progress three almost-18 month olds can make in only a matter of minutes, isn't it? I was lucky I caught them before they could haul all of the sheets and blankets out of that Pooh Bear toy box.
At least they had fun!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Video Clip of the Week - Dance Lessons With Chase
Sure to make you the hit of your next party... crank the music up and do "The Chase"!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Mom Revolution
Bonus post for today!
It's been a little while since I plugged my other blog, Mom Revolution. Today though I wanted to encourage you to check it out... I just blogged about a way your family (yes, even you with young kids!) can do to serve the homeless in your area.
Swimming
This past weekend the boys experienced the joys of swimming in a pool... for the first time! The deepest water they'd ever been in was a whopping 3 inches until Saturday.
My parents and grandparents are in town visiting and staying at a nice hotel just up the street. That hotel has a nice, indoor pool! Nick and I loaded the boys up Saturday morning and headed over to the pool.
Tyler and Chase weren't so sure about the water... for this picture my dad and I were both in the pool already trying to get them to come to us. I finally had to physically grab Tyler to get him in.
There was a lot of excited and nervous trembling at first, but pretty soon the boys had warmed up and were having a blast!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Q and A - The Answers (Part 2)!
This is the second (and final) day of answers to last week's Q&A post. I'll be back to regular posting tomorrow! This Q&A was fun, and I'll definitely do it again in the future.
22. If you were to have another child what would you want the gender to be?
- Obviously gender isn't something that is in my control, but I would love to have a girl. I hate walking by all the cute dresses at stores and not being able to buy them!
- In an ideal world I would buy products made in the USA. Not only do they seem to be safer but it supports US jobs. However, that being said I can't afford most US made items on this budget. Hopefully in the future I can do that more often. For now I try to not worry about it unless I see a recall for a specific item.
- I'm not entirely sure what you're referring too except that stories frequent the Internet about such things going on (sometimes I'm not entirely sure the "story" is true though). Either way my response would be the same as the previous question.
- Considering I've lost 30+ pounds on Weight Watchers in the last year I would say "yes" I eat healthy food! Because I don't have money to spend on ice cream, cookies, candy, etc I send more time focused on lean meats, veggies, rice and pasta. I also make a lot of soups and the majority of those are quite healthy. I've never understood the argument that it's too expensive to eat healthily.
- Again, I'm not one to predict where we'll move to next but I'll go out on a limb on this one and say I doubt it.
- At this point I would love to have more children. In an ideal world we would have another baby and then adopt one more. I never saw myself as having a "large" family (I had planned on 2 or 3 kids), but I just don't feel done. As for the when, Nick and I had agreed when the boys were very young that we wouldn't even discuss it until the boys turn 2, so I guess we'll find out this coming fall how Nick feels and if I feel the same way still.
- That is so hard to nail down! The very act of just watching them grow and learn is amazing. Sometimes I find myself just sitting at the kitchen table and watching the boys play together or plot together on how to tip over the slide. It's just amazing to watch!
- I was 12 weeks along. My doctor had offered to order an early ultrasound for us because she knew were excited to be having our first. There was zero thought that there could be more than one baby in there!
- Disbelief I think! We had thought it was just twins for about 90 seconds before the ultrasound tech found baby number 3. At that point I started to cry (tears of joy and fear) and Nick started to laugh. I was in shock for about a week after that and then the shock would just come in waves. Our parents didn't believe us at first. It didn't help that we told my parents 2 days before April Fools Day (the day of the ultrasound) and Nick's parents on April Fools Day!
- Yes, I believe I could.
- Five for sure, but probably more. Nick, my sister, my parents and myself all can do it pretty quickly. I suspect my inlaws would be able to as well, but they don't get out here very often so I can't "test" them! Others are pretty good at picking Tyler out or picking Jackson out. The people who have the easiest time are the people who either spend a lot of time here (Nick, my sister and I) or people who spend a lot of time studying the blog (grandparents).
- This is a common misconception that there are companies out there just dying to help out a family with higher order multiples! There are a few companies out there that offer "freebies" if you send them copies of birth certificates. For example I sent copies of the birth certificates to Huggies and received some coupons to be used towards diapers. They weren't for free packages but they were decent coupons that helped defray the cost of some of the diapers we bought for a couple of months. Pampers does the same. Enfamil (the formula we used) sent us several cases of liquid concentrate formula - that lasted us all of a month. It was helpful but certainly wasn't what many people think we receive!
- More, for sure. I was semi-organized before but I feel like having triplets forced me to take it to another level. If we don't pick up the house every night things would spin out of control very rapidly. If we don't stay on top of the laundry it would become a mountain. If I wasn't organized in the kitchen our budget would never work.
- I'd say we average 5 loads a week for the entire family. It's not as terrible as most people think.
- I think there would be moments of panic. Like, how do we sell our house in this market in order to move to a bigger one? How do we afford to buy a van now? The panic would only be fleeting though. I had the same panicky thoughts when I was pregnant with the boys and yet things continue to work out.
- I wouldn't call it a strain, but it does stink! We definitely miss having that time alone together and wish we could get out more. At the same time we know the boys will only be this little once and before we know it we'll be free to go out a lot more often.
- I don't get annoyed by the questions. I feel like I'm in the minority with that... I read a lot of whiny posts on the mom's of multiples message boards I frequent. It seems like most MOMs are annoyed by comments and questions. I honestly don't care. I will tell you this that it amuses me to no end when someone asks me if the boys are close in age! I actually had a bagger at the grocery store ask me that a few weeks ago... It was hard to not laugh right there.
- Yep! I love showing my boys off and feel like I don't get to do that very often, so when someone wants to ooh and ahh over my boys, I let 'em.
- That's a tough one. I think a lot would depend on what they were looking for exactly... a one time show special or a series? How much time is actually spent filming in the house? How easily could we get out if we wanted to? Are we in desperate need of financial assistance and would this provide that? There are a lot of things that would need to be discussed and considered. Regardless, unless I have multiples again (see question 36) that's not likely to happen!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Saturday Savings
I despise paying full price for anything. When I shopped this week I had to do just that and it drove me crazy. I'm sure I visibly cringed when I picked the bags of frozen veggies up and put them in my cart. Why did I have to pay full price for something if I'm such a Master Shopper? Well, my freezer has been chock full of meat, bread, pancakes etc and so when there have been good prices for veggies I haven't been able to do a true "stock up". I figure it's more important to have big savings on meat than it is to have big savings on veggies. Even with this logic it still broke my heart to pay full price for frozen peas. Maybe someday I'll be lucky enough to be the proud owner of a chest freezer!
Ok, enough venting... on with the savings!
This week I spent quite a bit more than usual. $14 dollars of what I spent went towards buying the items I needed to fulfill my Cans for Comments commitment. So of the $76 I spent total, only $62 of it was for our family. That's a little bit more than I wanted to spend this week, but there were some meat deals I couldn't turn down. As a result I'll have to be extra diligent in the coming weeks.
This is everything I bought, including the Cans for Comments items.
Here's the bag and box of 39 items I'll be dropping off at the food bank ministry at church this weekend! Thanks for making the comments - we'll do it again in the future!
Whole Milk - 2 gallons
Ramen Noodles - 12 pack
Condensed Soups - 12 cans
Stuffing Mix - 2 boxes
Cream Cheese
Crescent Rolls - 2 cans
Bananas - 2.5 pounds
Red Delicious Apples - 3 pound bag
Long Grain Rice - 3 pound bag
Pasta
Cinnamon Graham Crackers
Frozen Sliced Strawberries
Frozen Blackberries
Kellogg's Raisin Bran - 2 large boxes
Ragu pasta sauces - 2 jars
Herbal Essence Shampoo - 2 bottles
Kiwi - 6
Deli Turkey - 1 pound
Frozen Veggies - 3 bags
Freschetta Pizzamore Thin Crust
Canned Veggies - 6
Mac 'n Cheese - 10 boxes
Brown Sugar - 2 pound bag
Bagged Garden Salad
Green Grapes - 1.8 pounds
Tomatoes - 1.45 pounds
Whole Chicken - 3 for a total of 9.82 pounds
I had a couple of really exciting bargains this week...
Kellogg's Raisin Bran - boxes normally sell for $4.09 a piece, but with sale and coupon I paid only $1.29 a box!
Herbal Essence Shampoo - bottles normally sell for $3.69 a bottle, but with sale and coupon I paid only $1 a bottle!
Tomatoes - normally $2.48 a pound and with the sale I paid only .68 a pound - that's 73% off!
Whole Chicken - normally they are $1.18 a pound, but they were 50% off for only .59 a pound.
Bagged Garden Salad - normally $1.49 a pound, but with coupon I paid .69.
Total Before Tax, Sales and Coupons: $118.38
Total After Sales and Coupons: $72.36
I also feel the need to share with you how obsessive I can be with finding a deal. Last Sunday I headed to CVS to buy Nick deodorant and me some Diet Coke. In the last several months I've seen Nick's brand of deodorant with .55 cent peel off coupons on them. The brand was on sale BOGO, so I was already getting a decent deal. I didn't notice any of the .55 coupons initially so I dug through the rack until I found a couple way in the back! In addition to the coupons I also had $5 in Extra Care Bucks to spend. After purchasing 2 sticks of deodorant and a 12 pack of Diet Coke I only paid out of pocket $1.27! Score!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Q and A - The Answers! (Part 1)
Wow! You guys had a lot of questions on your mind! So many questions in fact that I've decided to do this in two segments... On Monday I'll answer the second half of the questions.
Here are the answers to the questions in order received. We'll do this again in the future, so don't worry if you didn't get to ask your question(s).
1. Have you ever mixed the boys up for longer than a couple of minutes?
- I think the longest I've ever had them mixed up was for about 5 minutes. Tyler wasn't even home from the NICU yet when Nick came out to the living room early one morning to find me crying. I was pretty sure I had mixed Jackson and Chase up! Nick smartly remembered that only one of them had lost the plastibell (sp?) from their circumcision, so we just checked for that. Turned out I hadn't mixed them up after all!
- For the first 5 months or so we used a Sharpie to put dots on the bottom of their feet. Jackson got one dot, Tyler got 2 and Chase got 3. At each bath time we'd renew the dots. At about 5 months old Chase developed a small birth mark and Jackson had a herniated belly button so we stopped doing the dots as we had other ways to tell if necessary. Now I'm not entirely sure how I tell them apart - I just do! Sometimes I slip and call one the wrong name, but what mom doesn't do that? I notice different facial expressions, different laughs, different cries, etc.
- Excitement for sure! Why bother being fearful? It's not like I can stop the future from coming...
- I almost always get to go grocery shopping by myself once a week. I also get out every Monday night for the high school girls small group I co-lead. I try to attend the monthly triplet mom dinner in town and also lead the monthly scrapbooking night at church! Nick is very good about pushing me out of the house when opportunities come up. During nap time I will occasionally drag my scrapbooking stuff out too, which is nice "me time".
- I occasionally miss the work I did, but not enough to go back right now. Ideally I'd love to freelance, but that requires a lot of promoting I don't have time for right now. I am currently looking into substitute teaching once a week though in order to get out and supplement our income a bit (I would sub on Nick's day off).
- Now, hands down!
- That's not something Nick and I are talking about for a little bit still. If you asked just me, I would say "yes" but it's not a decision to be made by just me! If I had my way though we would start trying for a 4th by this coming fall. And it better be a girl!
- Yes and yes! Anyone want to donate a tummy tuck?
- I've learned to not try to "predict" God's plan. I never thought we'd live further away from "home" than Michigan.
- We currently have a Sam's Club membership, so I doubt we'll switch to Costco.
- I have no idea! My goal will always be to keep it as low as possible. I feel like even in the last 6 months I've become a lot more savvy with my grocery budget and like to think I'll only continue to improve.
- Absolutely! It hadn't been my first choice initially, but when I found out I'd need a Level 3 NICU it was a no-brainer to switch.
- The Grocery Game is a huge help in keeping my grocery budget so low, as is the chain store Aldi. I also keep my eyes open online for coupon and sample offers.
- We've been out to eat once as a family. We virtually never order take out either (although I'd sure love to once in a while!). So yes, I do cook every meal for the family. I also bake a good deal of the "snacks" consumed here (cookies, bagels, bread, english muffins, etc).
- I'm a fan of anything that involves my crock pot. The ability to just throw stuff together in the morning (or even the night before and stick the crock in the fridge) and then not worry again until dinner is the best! I make chicken a variety of ways in my crock pot.
- Yep! I get a couple of hours of blissful silence in the afternoons while the boys nap, I get to go grocery shopping and a variety of other "activities" that were covered in Question 4.
- As more and more of the story comes out I find my opinion on the situation changing. At this point I feel terribly for the children, especially the older 6 who now have to watch all of this unfold. Even though I did not undergo IVF, I have heard from many friends that the doctor who implanted 6 embryos was crazy and doing something that is not at all close to the norm. I feel that's terrible. I feel terribly that her parents feel they have to continue to care for all of these children and based on the interviews I've read, I think the grandma is pretty bitter about the situation. It's just sad. I pray those babies do well and am beyond impressed that the mom carried them as long as she did.
- Absolutely. It would have been rough not having those meals for the first few weeks the boys were home, but we would have survived. It also was nice those first 4 months to have a couple of afternoons a week to grab a quick nap, but again I would have survived without it.
- I'd say about 30 minutes or so if I'm really focused - the includes scanning fliers, making my lists and pulling coupons.
- I would love to go someplace warm and tropical with Nick, for just a couple of days. While away I would want to spend a day at the spa!
- Well Nick, seeing as you keep bugging me about this I think you will be delighted to hear I am going to plan a fantastic costume for you for Halloween and you will be forced to wear it while you take the boys around the neighborhood next year.
On that note, I'll end for now! Check back Monday for the rest of the answers and of course tomorrow for Saturday Savings!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Be Prepared To Cry...
Bonus post here...
I just read the newest post on Tripled Pink and knew I had to encourage all of you to read it too.
I will warn you right now, it will make you cry as it talks about the 1 year anniversary of the death of one of her girls.
Add Keira's story as one more reason why I walk in March for Babies. No mother should ever have to go through that!
Tripled Pink
The Zoo
A couple of days ago I took full advantage of the gorgeous weather we were having and took the boys to the zoo. The last time we had been to the zoo was about a year ago and they hadn't been all that impressed.
We met up with a couple of other triplet moms and their kids (2 years and 9 months) and had a ball!
Here's the group of kiddos:
The boys' favorite part I think was a place called the Discovery Barn. I let them out of the Choo Choo in there and they loved running to the different monkey exhibits. At one point Chase was standing right next to the glass and a little monkey came over to him. Chase leaned down and tried to kiss the monkey through the glass! (Everyone now... "awwwww!") Oh how I wish I'd had my camera ready to go at that very instant!
Here they are playing in the Discovery Barn:
The boys' second favorite time came at lunch. The kids sat around a picnic table, which they absolutely loved! Then we let them all play in the little playground area.
It was a great day and we can't wait to do it again!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Video Clip of the Week - Fun with Sharing
As promised, here is video footage of the boys enjoying their Step 2 Coaster! As you will see, Tyler is not a fan of sharing...
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Signs of Spring
Spring has sprung here! Just look at this....
Yep, those are my spring bulbs popping up already! A few of the trees in my yard are starting to work on buds too. I normally love spring, but this year I think I love it even more.
We've been stuck inside all winter for which I ultimately am thankful! The boys hadn't been sick since Thanksgiving until I had to take Chase to the Dr. yesterday because of a double ear infection and even then he wasn't "sick", just tugging at his ears a lot. Keeping the boys home this winter for their health has taken a toll on my sanity though.
This past weekend was gorgeous, so Nick and I jumped at the opportunity to let the boys play outside. Friday we took them to the park and Saturday we just played in the backyard. After the boys' nap on Saturday we set up the Step 2 Coaster that was handed down to us. The boys had a blast on it! The Video Clip of the Week tomorrow will feature clips of them using the coaster, so watch for that.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Q and A
A week or so ago (it's hard to tell for sure because I seem to have no concept of time anymore) I saw a fellow blogger (Rachael at Little Bites of Heaven) do a Q & A session on her blog. I thought that seemed like fun and a good idea, especially considering some of my newer followers probably don't know a lot of our background story, pregnancy stuff, details of the boys' early months, etc.
So here's how it works - you ask the questions by commenting on this blog post and later this week I'll answer them all in a new blog post! There are only a couple of things that are off limits: middle and last names and where exactly we live (Kansas City area is all you need to know). Don't be shy, and ask away!
You'll also be happy to know that I got some excellent video footage this weekend so we'll have a fun "Video Clip of the Week" on Wednesday!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Saturday Savings
I managed to enjoy about 90 minutes of "alone time" at the grocery stores yesterday and here's what that resulted in… I went to several stores yesterday but they're all on the same road, within a half mile of each other. I went to CVS, Hy-Vee, Aldi and Price Chopper. Earlier in the week I went to Target to buy some ground beef and will probably do that one more time today (ground beef is on sale for $1.49 a pound this week). My total yesterday with tax was $57 even. The breakdown: Dove deodorant – 2 Whole Milk – 2 Skim Milk – 1 Bananas – 3 lbs Cream Cheese – 2 Margarine Flour Tortillas – 2 packages Diced Tomatoes – 6 cans Parmesan Cheese ½ Gallon OJ – 2 Barilla pasta – 2 boxes Tomato Paste – 1 can Dried Kidney Beans – 1 lb bag Canned Tomato Sauce – 3 Bread Frosted Mini Wheats – 2 boxes Colgate Toothpaste – 2 Hot Dogs – 2 Sausage Bounce Sheets – 120 count box Grapefruit – 18 lbs (that's not a typo!) Potatoes – 5 lbs I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Clementines – 5 lb box The exciting deals: There were a few things that got me excited yesterday, one of which was my purchase of large boxes of Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats for only .94 a box! Normally these boxes are $3.78 a box, but when combining the sale prices and a coupon I was able to save 75%. Other notables were getting 5 pounds of potatoes for .99, large tubes of toothpaste for .75 each, Bounce sheets for $2.99, two sticks of Dove Deoderant for $3.08 (normally they are $3.49 each) and the 18 pound bag of grapefruit for only $6.88. I bet there are at least 25 grapefruits in the bag, which means I'm paying about 25 cents each! Lately the stores around here have been trying to sell grapefruit for .50 to .80 a piece. Total before tax, sales and coupons: $100.13 Total paid before tax, after sales and coupons: $53.96 I saved almost 50% overall again! 
Friday, February 6, 2009
When Mommy Is Away...
The children (all four of them) will play!
The other night I returned home to find an interesting assortment of pictures on the camera... apparently while they were all playing in the bedroom the boys (I'm still unsure if this was instigated by the older one or one of the younger ones) thought it would be fun to "wear" some of my clothes. Huh. For some reason I thought my manly husband would fight that a little harder!
He claims the boys were playing shepherds in a Christmas play.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
New Game?
I'll give my boys this... they sure are creative when it comes to entertaining themselves! Being stuck inside for much of the winter will do that to you though I suppose...
A couple of days ago I observed the boys pushing the basketball hoop around the living room and then out into the kitchen. I guess it's a new version of keep-away. Instead of keeping away the ball they keep away the hoop!
Not 10 minutes later I looked over to see the hoop on it's side. Chase thought that was pretty neat so he started to try to flip the slide. Tyler nicely decided to help him out with that one. As soon as the slide was flipped Chase ran over to the turtle and flipped it over. I decided at this point to distract the destructors with something else before they attempted flipping something bigger like an end table, or the sofa. 
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
17 Month Pictures
Nick and I have been terrible about remembering to use the video camera, and for that I apologize! As a result of our laziness (or forgetfulness) I don’t have a Video Clip of the Week to show you today. I told Nick this morning we both need to make more effort to use the camera. Hopefully I’ll have something for you soon.
To make up (somewhat) for the lack of video fun today, I have some new pictures to share with you! The boys turned 17 months last week and I thought it was time to take some new “portraits” both for printing and for changing up the header picture.
When my own mother commented yesterday that she loved the new header but couldn’t figure out who was who I knew I had to post these pictures along with captions! My mom prides herself on always being able to tell who is who, so to hear she couldn’t tell was shocking.
Enjoy!
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