I Heart Faces - Smiles Entry

For the first time, I'm entering a photography contest over at I Heart Faces! Here's my entry for the "Smiles" theme.

Saturday Savings

Before I get to the deals, I have a favor to ask of my readers! Yesterday was "Dress Like a Cow Day" at Chick-Fil-A. Each person in "costume" received a free meal! In addition to the fun you could submit your picture to the Chick-Fil-A website and enter a contest to win a year's supply of Chick-Fil-A. Sounds good to this cheap family!! Below is the picture we submitted and here is the link to go vote for it! You can only vote once per picture and you will need to confirm your vote via a confirmation e-mail they send you (watch your spam folder, that's where Yahoo sent mine). Thanks in advance for your vote!!


Alright, on to the deals now (not that free food isn't a deal itself)! Everything you see below cost $71.09. Here's what it includes....


Aldi:
Whole Milk - 1 gallon
Skim Milk - 1 gallon
Bananas - 5.7 pounds
Ice Cream Cones
Flour Tortillas - 2 packages
Cream Cheese
Tomato Paste
Parmesean Cheese
Tuna - 2 cans
Diced Tomatoes - 2 cans @ 28 oz each
Bread
Peanut Butter
Bag of Chips
Dozen Eggs

Hy-Vee:
Butter - 2 packages
Digiorno Pizzas - 2
Bendy Straws (on clearance!)
Barilla Whole Grain pasata
Hy-Vee Mac 'n Cheese - 5 boxes
Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats - 2 boxes
Kellogg's Special K - 1 box
Wonder Bread Hot Dog Buns - 2 packages
Corn King Bacon - 2 boxes @ 1 pound each
Hy-Vee Pepperoni
Head of Lettuce
Peaches - 2.6 pounds

Price Chopper:
Ricotta Cheese
Kraft Shredded Cheese - 6 bags
Lasagna Noodles
Blueberries - 4 pounds total
Cherries - 2 pounds

The Deals: Price Chopper's sale on Kraft Cheeses ended up being even better than I thought! The cheese was on sale for $1.25 each and then at check out a coupon printed for $4 off my next shopping trip to Price Chopper. I had no idea that was coming and don't know what the minimum number of packages needed was to get that. The blueberries were also a great deal at $1.88 a pound. I had been planning on picking my own berries at a nearby berry farm but this special 3 day sale price was cheaper than picking myself!

At Hy-Vee I also scored some checkout coupons for my next trip. For each Digiorno Pizza I bought I got a $1 off my next shopping trip coupon. These were already a good deal at $2.49 each (after sale and coupon) so the coupons just made it sweeter. The cereals were all .99 each after sale and coupons and the hotdog buns were .66 each.

I was a little disapointed to see that the price of milk is continuing to climb at the Aldi closest to my house. In the last couple of months the price of whole milk has climbed almost .50 a gallon! Considering I average 12 gallons a month that's quite the hit to my already small budget. For some reason milk tends to be cheaper at the Aldi on the other side of the state line, so from now on I'll be picking up my milk there.

Total Before Sales, Tax and Coupons: $134.96
Total After Sales and Coupons: $67.55 (50%!)

My Mom Logic

Mom Logic can be a funny thing. I don't know this because my boys look at me funny when I do or say something, but because my husband does or because friends do or even because strangers do. Occasionally I will try to explain to them why I am doing or saying a certain thing, but often I'll just shrug their looks off and say "It's a mom thing".

Now Mom Logic is not a "one size fits all" type of thing. My Mom Logic is often different from other moms and has even know to be different from my own mother's Mom Logic. Sure having multiples brings in a whole new aspect to Mom Logic, and while I find myself often "in line" with other moms of multiples we do not have the same logic in all situations.

For those confused as to what on earth I'm talking about, let me break it down for you. (And for the record, when I say "Common Logic" I'm generalizing - I know not EVERYONE believes that, it just seems most people I come into contact with do.)

When it comes to Potty Training...
Common Logic: Wait until kids are 3 or 4 and show zillions of "readiness" signs.
My Mom Logic: Why wait? The boys can sign "potty" and I'm sick of spending $100 a month on diapers! Let's train 'em now!

When it comes to making bread...
Common Logic: Let your bread rise in the kitchen like normal people.
My Mom Logic: The guest bathroom is the warmest place in my house so why not let my bread rise in there! I don't have the luxury of waiting an extra hour or even two for my dough to finally rise. Don't worry, I make sure no one uses the bathroom while there's dough rising on the sink counter.

When it comes to using leashes on children...
Common Logic: That's terrible! Your kids aren't dogs!
My Mom Logic: Try managing a pack of wild monkeys by yourself and you may feel differently mister!

When it comes to insane coupon clipping and grocery shopping...
Common Logic: I don't have time for all that! My savings would never be worth all that time and effort.
My Mom Logic: I don't have enough money to NOT be a master shopper! Besides, I like to think of it as my "job". In the last 2.5 months alone (since Feb 1st) I have saved $558.94!

When it comes to my husband doing more than his fair share of the housework and being great with the boys...
Common Logic: You're just lucky.
My Mom Logic: I guess, but shouldn't every man be like that? I'm determined to raise my boys to be the same way with their future wives.

When it comes to keeping our boys rear facing in their car seats well past 12 months of age (and 20 pounds)...
Common Logic: You're crazy! Don't you know you can flip them at 12 months and 20 pounds?
My Mom Logic: When reading recent research and seeing a crash test video on You Tube how could I not keep my boys as safe as possible? Today will be the first time they get to ride forward facing - they're just shy of 20 months old and at their doctor's visit almost 2 months ago were between 26 and 28 pounds.

When it comes to hair...
Common Logic: Either keep your hair nice and long so you can pull it back in a pony tail or cut it really short so that it requires no maintenance.
My Mom Logic: I'm lazy by nature and having three toddlers makes me want to retreat into that laziness even more. However, I don't want to be too lazy with my looks - jeans and holey t-shirts are good enough for me in that respect, so this past weekend I went with a short hair cut that will require me to actually blow dry and then flat iron my hair. Yay for style!

When it comes to having triplets...
Common Logic: So you must have used fertility drugs or had triplets running in the family, right?
My Mom Logic: Um, no. I like to think our triplets are the result of a funny joke by God and some Disney magic. (Before you think I've gone all TMI on you, the egg did all it's splitting while Nick and I were visiting Disney for a conference.)

When it comes to being seen in public with our crew...
Common Logic: Wow, you've got your hands full.
My Mom Logic: Yes I do, but my heart is full too and I couldn't be more blessed!

Burritos!

We've found a new favorite food of the monkeys! Burritos!

What? You don't believe a 19 month old can eat a burrito? Just look!

Tyler

Jackson

Chase

I promise he's not choking here... this is just his oh-so-strange way of showing his excitement!


So there you have it. The boys and their burritos! We tried this a couple of weeks ago when Nick and I were eating bean and rice burritos and the boys were just eating bowls of beans and rice. The boys kept wanting pieces of tortilla so Nick decided to try wrapping small burritos for them. They loved it! Last night the three of them mowed through 3 whole burritos and they wanted more!

I finally looked at Jackson and said "No more! You've eaten as much as Mommy and your stomach is much smaller than mine!"

Thanks to all who nominated me for the MomLogic Mother of All Bloggers contest! I'm on to the next round now. You'll notice the badge now says "vote for me". It's a little misleading as you can't actually vote for me yet, but MomLogic said to put it up as soon as I got my 10 nominations and who am I to argue with the judges of the next round?

Where Did It Go?

Like a skittish rabbit, spring keeps appearing and then darting off again not to be seen for several days (or weeks even!). I'm not a fan of this set up as the boys are dying to go outside and can't understand why we can go out without jackets one day and the next we have to stay in because it's raining and 35 degrees out. Madness I tell ya!

On Wednesday spring came back into our lives for a whopping 24 hours. I decided to take full advantage though and we met Aunt Laura at a park at about the halfway point between our homes. The boys had a ball going down such big slides - I'm sure to them they seem just enormous!







Later that night we let the boys eat dinner outside at their brand new picnic table (thanks Meme and Papa for the Christmas gift)! They loved it :)

Now, I need my fellow moms to help me out with something! MomLogic is having a sweet contest called The Mother of All Bloggers. The Grand Prize winner gets a new laptop, blog redesign and the lead story on MomLogic on Mother's Day. Good stuff! In order to even get qualified I need your help though... If you're on MomLogic (and if you aren't, you should sign up here), then please go to my profile and leave a note on my wall saying you nominate me. I need 10 nominations by April 19th in order to move on to the second part of the contest. Thanks for your help! I'll stick this button on the sidebar too so that you can come back and nominate me later on.

And the winners are...

The winners of the Huggies coupon contest are....

Rachel and Zoie! Send me an e-mail ladies with your mailing address and I'll get them right into the mail for you. If I don't hear from you by noon tomorrow I'll have to pass them on to an alternate winner. discjockeyhelen(at)yahoo(dot)com

Speaking of contests, The Meanest Mom has an AWESOME March Madness contest that just started! Check it out here.

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!)

Not Cute Enough

My boys aren't cute enough for print. It's true. At least that's what the folks over at BabyGap think. This fall I took some pictures of the boys to enter into a BabyGap contest. The finalists would be flown to San Fransisco for 5 days in November for a photo shoot, and then those photos would be posted online so that people around the country could vote who should win (I don't remember all the prize details but I know there was a $3,000 BabyGap gift card involved).

The pictures could only contain one child, so I couldn't take a super cute group shot and submit it. They couldn't be taken by a "professional", so I had that covered. The picture was supposed to show off the personality of the child. Done! Oh yeah, and the picture couldn't have been publicly displayed anywhere which I concluded would include my blog. Seeing as the boys did not win, I am now free to show off these pictures! I loved the shots so much I had them blown up into 8x10's and bought frames for them. They were the first pictures of the boys we hung on the wall.

Jackson

Tyler

Such a "model" pose!

Chase