Birthday Fun

Jackson, Tyler & Chase's birthday party isn't until this coming weekend, but Nick and I wanted to do something fun with the boys on their actual birthday too. We had coupons for free kids meals at Bob Evans (courtesy of the Kids Birthday Club which you can sign your kids up for here) so that's where we headed.

The boys thoroughly enjoyed their chicken strip and smiley face fries meal and of course their chocolate milk.

Tyler - don't be deceived by the "C" shirt - he just likes wearing it because it has a kitty on it

 

Jackson

 

Chase

 

  

Then for dessert we ordered the boys a smiley faced sundae to share!

 

  

When we got home we let the boys open the little gifts we bought them. The biggest hit? A $6 kitty Nick picked up at Target on his way home that night. The kitty was so popular we ended up stopping at Target on the way home from the boys' 2 year appointment on Friday to snag the last two kitties there.

  

 

  

Everyone wanted a chance to hold the kitty so that I could take a picture of it. We got extreme close-ups as you can see!

 
 

  

This astounded us and cracked us up at the same time... We swear we never taught the boys to "feed" any of their animals, and yet Jackson plopped himself down on the floor, grabbed a plastic milk bottle (from their new bowling set) and proceeded to "feed" the kitty. He even had sound effects!

 
 

For those that are curious as to the pant-less appearance of our boys, yes we do clothe them. When we got home from the restaurant we rushed them all into the bathrooms and stripped them down. By the time we were done in there it was so close to bed time we didn't bother wrestling the pants back on them.

Oh and a kitty wasn't the only thing Nick brought home Thursday night! He also brought me flowers in honor of the boys' 2nd birthday and for the 6 weeks of potty training "fun" I've been through. What a sweetie :)

If you don't check in again all week (even though I know you want to), be sure to stop by on Thursday and Friday! I'll have two awesome prizes to give away!

 

Multiples and More Question of the Week

Every once in a while (usually when I have time) I like to answer the Question of the Week over at Multiples and More. This week's question is what was your favorite children's book. Tough one!

Growing up I loved to read. I think I got it from my mom. I remember watching her get sucked into a book and hear that she'd be up half the night because she couldn't put it down, and I'm the same way now! Boy if I had $10 for every Karen Kingsbury book that I finished off in 24 hours or less I'd have enough for a massage. Enough about that, this is supposed to be what I read and loved as a kid!

I know as a young child I loved the Dr. Seuss book Hop on Pop. I'm not sure why I loved that one so much, but I vividly remember reading it over and over. As I got a little older any American Girl book became my favorite. This was before there were dolls to match the books even! I loved those stories and I think my mom loved that they taught me a little something about what life was like in different eras. Too bad I won't be able to pass my love for those books on to the boys... I suspect Nick would have a fit ;)

Saturday Savings - I Love Free Stuff!

Yesterday I had one regret about my shopping. I wish I had started at Price Chopper! The Price Chopper in Belton was having a Friday/Saturday Meat Truckload Sale. It was unadvertised of course, and by the time I stopped at PC I had spent most of the remaining money for the month of August. Darn! Price Chopper disappointment aside, I did get some great stuff - including 5 freebies! Here's what $20.23 bought me yesterday. (Note: my purchases did not include the little boys you see in the picture! They are worth far more than my budget allows.)

 

 Aldi:

Eggs - 1 Dozen

Bread - 1 Loaf

CVS:

500 Count Q-tips

Diet Coke - 20oz bottle

Hy-Vee: 

V's Frozen Ravioli

Ritz Crackerfuls

Ritz Crackers - 2 boxes

Artisan Wheat Thins

Diet Coke - 20oz bottle

Green Grapes - 2.34 pounds

Price Chopper:

Tony's Pizza For One - 2

Robert's Orange Juice - 1/2 gallon

Farmland Jumbo Hot Dogs - 2 packages

Baby Carrots - 1 pound

Toilet Paper - 4 pack

Gala Apples - 3 pound bag

The Deals: I know you're all wondering what my 5 free items were this week! Both bottles of Diet Coke, the Q-tips, the Ritz Crackerfuls and the Wheat Thins were all free this week saving me $9.49 right off the top. The Diet Cokes were free because of the My Coke Rewards points I had collected. The Q-tips were free because of my CVS Extra Care Bucks. The Ritz Crackerfuls and Wheat Thins were free because of some coupons I had (buy a box of Ritz and get one of the above items for free). 

Other good deals included the Tony's Pizza's for .50 each (70% off), grapes for .88 a pound (40% off), hot dogs for $1 each (50% off) and the Ritz Crackers I had to buy in order to get the freebies were 2 for $4 (45% off). 

I am finishing the month about $1.50 under budget ($310 for the month including groceries, toiletries and paper products). Yay me! Tuesday or Wednesday I will make a quick milk run and then we should be good to go until next Friday.

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $43.83

Total After Sales and Coupons: $19.26 - 56% off!

2 Year Well Check

The boys had their 2 year well check appointment this morning, which is why this post is so late today. I don't remember most of the percentiles for the boys, but two did stick out in my mind - Chase and Tyler's percentile for weight.

Jackson: 27.5 pounds - 34.5 inches tall
Tyler: 25 pounds (12th percentile) - 33.75 inches tall
Chase: 29 pounds (62nd percentile) - 34.5 inches tall

Chase is a beast compared to Tyler! I mean, I knew he weighed more but I didn't think it was 4 pounds more. The biggest spread between them in the past has only been 2 pounds at most. Speaking of Tyler, there's a bit of a concern that he's not really gaining weight like his brothers are, despite eating the same as them and sometimes more. In the last 6 months he's only gained about half a pound, where as his brothers have packed on 2-3 pounds each. As a result, the doctor wants me to bring Tyler back in a month for a weight check.

The boys escaped having any shots this time around but did need to have blood drawn to check for Anemia and Lead (standard checks at age 2 at our office). Jackson went first and was pretty upset by the whole ordeal! Tyler went second and whimpered a bit but that was it. Then Chase was up and the poor boy had to be pricked twice because his first vein collapsed before they got enough blood! The little man didn't really cry though - just whimpered and kept saying "uh oh", "no, no" and "all done".

The blood draw for Tyler is also going to be checked for any glucose issues. IF anything is wrong with any of the draws I'll find out on Monday most likely. Hopefully there's nothing there to worry about. Send some weight gaining prayers Ty's way this next month!

The Monkeys Are 2!

Two years ago today, at 6:11, 6:12 and 6:13 in the morning Jackson, Tyler and Chase entered the world. I only saw a brief glimpse of each boy before they were whisked away to the NICU (they were premature at 33 weeks and 3 days) and then I only held Jackson for a few brief moments later that morning. I did not see my children again until the next day when I was well enough to be wheeled upstairs to the NICU, but it is one of the most memorable and poignant days of my life. In fact, I remember details so vividly it seems hard to believe that 2 full years have passed already.

Before I get all teary eyed at my babies no longer being babies and instead full blown toddlers (which also tends to make me teary eyed but for entirely different reasons), let me share with you the past year in only 3 minutes.

Family Walks

This week's Video Clip will be seen tomorrow! Watch for a special clip in honor of the boys' 2nd birthday!

The boys have a new favorite activity and I must admit it's quite enjoyable for Nick and me as well. The excitement lies in the .3 miles around the block our house sits on. Now we've taken the boys for walks in our neighborhood and the nearby trails since they were only a couple of months old. They've always loved the walks in the jogging stroller or the Choo Choo wagon, but I think they especially love these new walks around the block.

 

Yep, they get to walk themselves on our little journeys! It takes a solid 20-30 minutes to make the loop, but the boys love it. They get excited when they see dogs or cats in people's yards and they love to pick up little "treasures" (sticks, rocks, leaves and "prickly's").

It'll be sad when winter sets in here and we have to stop taking our after dinner walks!

2 Year Pictures

Friday morning Nick and I loaded the boys into the car and headed towards The Plaza and the Kauffman Memorial Gardens.The boys had a ball running around the gardens and I took hundreds (333 to be exact) of pictures in only 30 minutes.A huge thanks to Matt for letting me borrow his camera again!

Jackson

 

Tyler

 

  

Chase

 

  

The Boys

 

For those of you that are hard core fans of pictures of the boys, here's a slide show of some of the other good pictures taken during our photo shoot on Friday!

 

Jackson's Embarrassing Picture

Before I dive into today's post, I want to thank those you that left such kind comments on my post last Thursday. It's so wonderful to know we aren't the only family making sacrifices and it was even more wonderful to read so many words of encouragement - especially from people I don't even "know" beyond the blogging world. Thank you, thank you!

We had a busy weekend of fun, chaos and screaming. More about the chaos and screaming in future posts I'm sure... The most fun though was taking the boys' 2 year old pictures! Tomorrow I'll highlight those.

About an hour before heading out to take those 2 year pictures though I snapped these beauties of Jackson wearing a dress and carrying a purse. Can we say blackmail?

Ok, so technically that isn't a dress he's wearing... It's actually a romper we found in the closet and he wanted to wear but wouldn't let Nick snap closed. Nick and I were dying of laughter though at the site he made with his "dress", socks pulled way up and his new sneakers.

We now have our blackmail picture for Jackson and we already have one of Tyler from earlier this month. What embarrassing thing can we catch Chase doing or wearing?

For those of you who can't get enough stories about the boys, today Nick put up a rare blog post on his blog and it's mostly about the boys! You can check that out here.

Saturday Savings

I feel like the deals were only mediocre yesterday, especially in the meat or produce departments. Normally that wouldn't bother me so much, but there hasn't been a great meat sale (especially chicken) in quite a while and my stash is dwindling! Here's hoping we're due for a great sale next week. For now, check out what $50.83 bought me yesterday.


Hy-Vee:
Yoplait Fiber One Yogurt - 4 pack
Tony's Crispy Crust Pizza - 4
Dove Body Wash - 2 bottles
Dove Deodorant - 2
Hy-Vee Cheerios - 1 box
Sunmaid Raisins - 2 packs with 6 boxes each
Danimals Yogurt - 4 pack
Farmland Whole Ham - 5 pounds
Pork Chops - 1.6 pounds

Price Chopper:
Kellogg's Fruit Snacks - 2 boxes
Wonder Bread - 2 loaves
Eggs - 2 dozen
Peaches - 3.5 pounds
Red Grapes - 2.22 pounds
Blue Bunny Ice Cream - 2 cartons

Aldi:
Diced Tomatoes - 2 cans @ 28oz each
Tomato Paste
Whole Milk - 1 gallon
2% Milk - 2 gallons
Skim Milk - 1 gallon

The Deals: At Price Chopper the fruit snacks were .95 each after sale and coupon ( 67% off), the Wonder Bread was .99 each (63% off) and the Blue Bunny Ice Cream was $1.69 each (55% off). At Hy-Vee I did some nice stocking up on beauty products for me! The Dove Body Wash was $1.49 (69% off) and the deodorant was $2.03 (56% off). The frozen pizza's (which are the perfect size for the boys' to share) were only .49 each after sale and coupons (67% off), the raisins were .99 cents (49% off) and the Hy-Vee Cereal was also .99 (57% off).

Grocery Tip #1: Keep your ears open for stores involved in pricing wars! When I was at Aldi (135th and Antioch for you locals) yesterday the cashier mentioned that their milk is so much cheaper than milk found at some other Aldi's because they're "in a milk war" with the Sam's Club next door. I hope that pricing war continues! (For those curious, I paid $2.08 for the whole, $1.96 for the 2% and $1.83 for the Skim.)

Grocery Tip #2: If you have Hy-Vee in your area, check out their website! They've started producing a list each week of the coupon match-ups (including internet coupons) for their weekly sale items! Do keep in mind when looking at the list though that it isn't always wise to use a coupon with a sale item - sometimes it pays to wait until a better sale rolls around.

Grocery Tip #3: Look through your newspaper early in the day on Sunday. If it has lots of coupons that you're likely to use, go buy a second paper! I did this a few weeks ago and it has paid off in a big way.

Total Cost Before Coupons, Sales and Tax: $100.64
Total Cost After Coupons and Sales: $46.19

For those of you wondering where my post was yesterday, so sorry to have left you hanging! We ended up having a much busier day than I anticipated, including taking the boys' 2 year pictures! They came out great and I'll be sharing a few with you all next week.

Bitterness, Party of One

My life is not all cupcakes and roses, in fact rarely are those items even present in my life. Yes, I'm blessed with three healthy, hilarious and adorable boys. Yes, I have a wonderful husband who does way more work around the house and with the kids than it seems most husbands do. Yet even with those tremendous blessings I allow bitterness and discontentment to work it's way into my heart every now and then.

I'm bitter about driving 2 small cars, one of which is very old, when families with fewer kids (or even the same number of kids!) get to drive sweet minivans.

I'm bitter about not having a nice camera to take pictures of my kids with. Photography is something I am so interested in and yet I can only do so much with my little point and shoot and Photoshop. It kills me to hear of people with a nice DSLR sitting in their closest for months, still in the box because they just haven't gotten around to opening it. Kills me! (And yes, I heard someone say that.)

I'm bitter about wearing clothes on a regular basis that are 8-10 years old. Yes I have a few newer pieces but obviously not enough to prevent me from wearing old, holey clothes still. I only have a few things that are suitable for leaving the house in.

I'm bitter about constantly mopping pee off the floors and cleaning poop out of underwear. It's been almost 4 weeks now of potty training and I've had enough. Thankfully Chase is "done" and Jackson rarely has an accident but Tyler will probably be a long trainer like Jackson was, so it's depressing to think I probably have another week of mopping pee off the floor 6 times a day.

I'm bitter that Nick and I don't get to out alone very often.

I'm bitter when Nick gets to head off to work, complete meaningful tasks, have the satisfaction of completing those tasks and gets to engage in adult conversation.

I'm bitter that we live what seems to some people as "so far away" from the church and most of our friends. (It's only 10-15 minutes but when a variety of stores are only 5 minutes away I guess 10-15 is an obscene distance to travel.)

I'm bitter that I have to come up with something for dinner every single night. What I wouldn't give to just be able to have pizza delivered or say "let's just go out" once in a while!

Ugh. What a downer of a post. Let me try to bring some perspective to my life...

• Last month we paid off the remainder of my student loan - 4 years early!
• We're making headway on paying off Nick's student loan and when that's gone the only debt we'll have will be the house.
• We have money in savings and don't need to freak out over dumping $850 into a car one week (which we did 3 weeks ago).

Because we don't have a texting plan, cable, a new car, a bigger house, eat out, order food in or have new clothes we don't have to stress about money like many people do. I guess I'd rather whine about not having those things once in a while than to whine about not having enough money to keep the bill collectors away.

Video Clip of the Week - Sneaking Drinks

A couple of weeks ago I caught Chase rummaging around in the bottom of my buffet/hutch. He (and the other boys) know that's a no-no but before I could say "Chase, that's 1" he did something utterly hilarious!

He picked up this oil jug (which was empty), popped the top off it, swung the bottle to his lips and then when he brought the jug down he let a long, loud "ahhhhh" fly. It was all I could do to not bust up laughing and instead remind him he shouldn't be playing in there!

Over the last couple of weeks I've secretly been hoping I could catch him doing it on video, without of course letting him catch me catching him - don't want him to think it's cute behavior or anything. He's done it several times and it wasn't until a couple of days ago that I finally saw what he was about to do and grabbed my camera in time. Now you'll have to watch closely, as it's only a 12 second video... and I'm sad to say that in this video he does not finish with an "ahhhh". It's enough though to give you a glimpse into the hilarity that can come with raising my boys (always a nice reminder after the trying day I had yesterday).

The Music We Love

I've fielded lots of questions lately about what music the boys like listening to and doesn't make Nick or me want to pull our hair out. The boys' musical journey has not always been an enjoyable one for me. Early on they loved a Baby Einstein Sing and Play CD. While a decent CD over all, it drove me nuts hearing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" 15 times in a row (no joke).

The boys' current favorite music is much more enjoyable for adults to listen to! One of the boys' very favorite CDs even touts itself as "Great Music For Kids That Won't Drive Parents Bonkers" and I totally agree! I have no problem listening to most of these songs over and over again. So here are the boys' favorites.... run right out and pick these CDs up or head to I-Tunes and load a couple onto your i-pod!

Go Fish - Fun musical group that has a nice mix of original music and remakes of "classics". The boys' favorite CD of theirs is "Superstar" and when the boys were younger they used to fall asleep to the "Snooze" CD. I suspect they'll thoroughly enjoy the new "Party Like a Pre-Schooler" CD when we finally get around to picking that one up. Go Fish is the band most often heard in the back ground of all the dancing videos we've put up here. On their website you can listen to samples of their songs and they have music videos on their You Tube Channel too! If you're ready to buy, head to their site and when you buy one CD for $15 you can buy as many as you want for only $5 more each! Go Fish also travels around the country doing concerts and if they're in your area go see them. They were at our church last August for our fall kick off, but the boys were a little on the young side for it so I missed it. Nick says it was a great show and tons of fun watching hundreds of kids "rush the stage" when Go Fish came out.

Phil Joel - Phil Joel (formerly of the Christian band The Newsboys) offers music that's fun for the boys to listen to but at the same time is fun for older kids to listen to! Phil Joel's music was actually the music used during our church's VBC this summer and the kids all loved it. The music is all original and has fun, yet meaningful lyrics. You can check out song samples on Phil Joel's Deliberate Kids website and order the CD there.







Rob Biagi - Rob Biagi also writes original kids music and depending on the CD you buy you may find your younger kids like it more than your older kids or vice versa. I had the privilege of seeing Rob live several years ago when he was booked for the fall kick off at our church. The kids loved him and his music is catchy yet not annoying. You can listen to his music clips on his site and buy CDs there as well. Also while you're there you can see how he and his 4 year old daughter are doing with their Leukemia battles. Yep, both of them have been diagnosed with it. Talk about a family being hit hard...

Weekend Highlights and Lowlights

We had a fun, family weekend here and it was filled with some great things and some not so great things... welcome to the randomness that is our life!

Highlight #1 - I took Tyler grocery shopping with me on Friday so that we could have some one on one time.

Lowlight #1 - Tyler was great until we left the last store - he didn't want to get out of the car cart!

Highlight #2 - I had my monthly scrapbooking night at church Friday night! I love "me time" :)

Highlight #3 - We took the boys to the park Saturday morning and they had a great time running all over the place and Jackson even tried pushing his brothers on the swings.

Highlight #4 - Jackson had his first accident free day on Saturday, including spending time in the church nursery! This was also the first day in 3 weeks that Nick or I hadn't had to mop pee off the floor.

Lowlight #2 - Sunday afternoon I discovered the milk we had been giving the boys all weekend was 8 days past it's expiration. Everyone now: Ewwwwwww! No wonder poor Jackson was saying his belly hurt :(

Highlight #5 - Yesterday both Jackson and Chase were accident free all day! Woohoo! That's 2 days in a row for J-man!

Lowlight #3 - We started PTing Tyler (take 2) yesterday and that boy is giving me a run for my money. He's stubborn! He wants to use the potty but then as soon as I get him there he changes his mind. Or he'll happily sit there forever before naptime or bedtime... the boy is trying to play me!

See? Mostly highlights! All in all, a great weekend! Now here are some pictures for your general amusement.