Outta here!

Well today will most likely be the last post before our trip. We are leaving Friday afternoon to drive down to Lexington where we will be staying the night. They have an indoor pool there, so we're going early to do some swimming and then dinner. We then leave at 6am Saturday for Disneyland!! Our first day we're going to visit Hollywood, the Disney Soda Shop and maybe a beach. Then Sunday we're spending our first day at Disneyland. It's Super Bowl Sunday so we're hoping the crowds might be a bit lighter that day, plus it may rain some. We're ready for the rain with our ponchos all set to go!!! I actually like it when it rains, because the crowds do thin out a bit. Monday we're going to Legoland and then the rest of the week it's Disneyland. Saturday we'll probably do some sightseeing before heading to the airport. We don't leave until 11 at night, so we still have the whole day. We're flying overnight, actually on two different planes. I'm flying with Abby and Steve is flying with Noah. With the airline points and things, we couldn't get on the same flights. But we arrive within 30 minutes of each other on Sunday morning!! I've actually had to fly with both kids alone before, so I'm not worried about that at all. I'm just hopeful that we'll be able to get a little bit of sleep!!

Today we're going to take the kids out to lunch and then surprise them with a Nintendo DS for each of them to take on the long plane rides. We got Abby pink, and Noah black. We got them a few games to go with them too. I think they are going to be so surprised. They both have been talking about them lately. Even Abby, which surprises me, started asking for one in the last few weeks. We were going to give them to them at Christmas, but decided to keep it until now. I'm excited to see how they react.

We're also going to visit our friends this evening, that just had their fourth baby. They had their third boy last Thursday and his name is Samuel Christian. We're so excited to meet him. He apparently looks just like his two older brothers, blonde hair and blue eyes! He weighed over 9 pounds at birth! I can't wait to see him!

Well our schoolwork at least for Noah has been light this week. He finished his Lifepac in Math and Language Arts either last Friday or this Monday and just has Bible and KONOS to do. Abby still has a full workload though! Today we're going to make a watercolor picture of the solar system and watch a Magic School Bus episode. We're also talking about November, we're almost finished with the months, and adding mini footballs to the tree of all seasons. Abby has learned adding up to 8+1 and subtraction up to 9-2. She's doing really well with the Math and seems to get it right away. She's on lesson 53 of her 100 lessons to reading book. Every lesson has a "story" to read at the end and the stories keep getting longer and longer. Today's was probably 10 sentences. I was very proud of her. She only needed to sound out about 1/3 of the words and just knew the rest. Noah is is doing subtraction with borrowing, linear measuring, word problems, etc.. and I think Math is his favorite. He's doing really well in it. We only have about 12 weeks worth of lessons to finish after the trip, so hopefully done sometime in early May. Well I think that's about it for now. I hope everyone has a great week and I'll post when we get home!

Roller Skating

Here's some pictures from our skating adventure before Christmas. Noah did not like it at all. He gave it a try though and clung to the rail at first. I eventually got him to go around the rink a few times with me, but he did not enjoy it. Not his cup of tea!! Abby loved it though. My mom was there because it was her works Christmas party and my mom is and always has been a very good skater and Abby loved skating with her. My mom let Abby chase her and Abby just laughed and laughed. She really loved it. I got to skate with both kids and I was pretty happy. I didn't fall although the kids tried to trip me up a couple of times! Even Daddy got to skate and he had fun too!! The kids got to see Santa there and he gave them each $15 gift certificates to Wal-Mart which I thought was very generous. Her work paid to give each kid that came and they had two different parties, those gift certificates. I thought that was so nice. We all had a good time! Sorry the pictures are a bit dark, it was really dark in there and I had to take the pictures from the side, Daddy didn't want me to carry it out on the rink in case I fell!!!

CVS

Here's yesterdays CVS trip.

I did the Huggies deal, I got:
2 wipes used two .75 coupons
1 washcloth used 1.25 coupon
3 bodywash or lotions used three 1.25 coupons
1 pack of diapers used 1.50 coupon

The Advil/Robitussin deal:
2 50ct Advil used two .75 cent coupons and one 1.00 CVS coupon from receipt
2 big bottles of Robitussin used two 3.00 printable coupons

I got 2 Stayfree packs (only one generates ECB, but needed to get two to use the coupon I had) used $2/2 coupon
1 Tylenol used 1.00 coupon, plus this added with the Advil allowed me to use 2.50/10 pain relief CVS receipt coupon
1 Arm and Hammer toothpaste used .75 coupon
1 Colgate Kids toothpaste

2 Garnier cleansing cloths used $3/2 coupon
2 Garnier cleansing gels used $3/2 coupon

1 Fusion phenom razor used 2.00 coupon

My total was around $95, I used 10/50, 5/30 and 2/10, plus I had another 10//50 that was a receipt coupon and they let me use as well ( I got another one back!!)
I used a total of 39 ECB's, but got back 42.29 in ECB's ( 5 from Huggies deal, 10 from Advil deal, 3.29 from Stayfree, 2 from Tylenol, 1 from Arm and Hammer, 1 from Colgate, 14 from the Garnier and 6 from the razor) and I paid oop only .42

At Meijer I got NutriGrain bars for .67 cents after sale price and coupon, Daisy sour cream for free after sale and coupon, and Red Baron pizzas are on sale for 2.13 and I used 1.00/2 to get them for 1.63 each. That's pretty much all of the really good deals I got there.

Kroger has nothing really good except they are still doing the Kraft deal I think and we just got new coupons for it yesterday. So if you buy 10 packages of Kraft shredded cheese and use 5 of the .55/2, you'll also get the $6 off your order and that'll make it .90 per package of cheese. That's a great price for cheese. I stopped and got those yesterday too.

I'm going back to do another CVS deal this week since I got another 10/50 receipt coupon that can be combined with the regular 10/50 and others. I'm dying inside knowing I'm going to miss the whole week next week of deals!! Maybe my dear friend BOGO will get the papers for me if I give her the money, please, please!!!! I may take my CVS stuff to California with me since they have them there!!! I already saw the ad for next week and there's a couple of money makers!! I know I'm crazy, but how can I resist!?!?!?!?!!!!!

My weeks deals

Here's my Meijer shopping trip this week. I ended up spending a total of 17.64 for 148.67 worth of groceries. The picture only shows 8 of the 18 canisters of Quaker Oatmeal I ended up with and it also shows only 8 of the 12 Captain Crunch cereals I got.

So in all I got

18 Quaker Oatmeals
12 CaptainCrunch Cereals
4 Life Cereals
6 Boxes of Orville Redenbacher Popcorn
3 2-liters of Diet Pepsi
2 Boxes of Tyson Anytizers
7 French's Mustards (3 regular and 4 spicy brown)
2 Aunt Jemima pancake mixes
2 Aunt Jemima syrups
1 Breakstone Sour Cream
6 cans of Chef Boyardee
1 16ct Kraft Select Cheese
1 Glade Wisp Refill
2 Quaker Oatmeal Simple Harvests


And I still have four quaker oatmeal coupons so I may go today and get 4 more of those free and maybe even some more captain crunch.

At Kroger I did the Kraft deal where you buy 9 items and get $6 off your order. I did it twice in the same transaction and got 2 Kraft salad dressings, 2 bags of Lays chips and 14 packages of shredded or block Kraft cheese. After coupons and the total of $12 off, I got the cheese for around .75 a piece. That's a great deal if you have tons of coupons for the cheese or salad dressing. Also Hot Pockets are .67 after sale and coupon. Check the Old El Paso taco section, a lot of the products are on sale for 10/10 and then on some of the boxes is a coupon for .55 off two products, so you'll get two for a dollar. I actually got a package of shells and then the seasoning packet (which was only .93) for a total of .93. I did that three times. That's pretty much it.

Noah's 1st Basketball Game

Here's some pictures from Noah's first basketball game of this year. He's playing Upward at our church again. I really think that it's an awesome program and one that any of you should try out. It's all about the good things sports should be and also about Christ. They do halftime devotionals and even award kids starts for most Christlikeness (every kid gets an iron on star for their shirt every week, they have best defense, best offense, best sportsmanship, best effort, christlikeness, etc.). It's just such a positive and rewarding experience. They really take the time and effort to make sure that each kid feels special and a big part of the team, no matter how much talent they possess in the sport. I love it!




This is the first shot he made for the year!! I though I got a pretty good pic!!




Check out that defense!!





Dribbling and Passing




Going for the steal!




The halftime devotional




Running out of the tunnel when they announce the names




Running down the court.

Abby's Build a Bear Trip

Here's Abby's turn at Build a Bear. She got a gift certificate from Grammy for Christmas and we had a couple of coupons, so she was able to get the dog, a shirt, a pair of panties, a pair of socks, a pair of shoes, a brush, a bed and a carrying bag for the dog. I think the total was about 70 or 75 dollars and was all covered with coupons and gift certificates. She absolutely loves stuffed animals. She takes one with her everywhere she goes and it always changes which is her favorite for the day. She just loves them. She always gives them obvious names too, this dog's name is Hearts!




Ready to go home with Hearts!!




Giving Hearts a bath




Filling out Hearts Birth Certificate




Choosing Hearts




Stuffing Hearts

On Noah's Birthday

This was Noah's surprise on his actual Birthday. We took him to Build a Bear. Abby had gotten a gift certificate to there for Christmas and when we took her, he saw this turtle that he loved and wanted to make, so we decided to surprise him with that for his Birthday. He was very excited and had a good time. I'll post the pics of Abby's trip soon. I also still have posts of the rest of Christmas Day, our Skating Rink fun, a few New Years pictures and Noah's first basketball game. I also have a pic of this weeks deal at Meijer. It's a pretty good one! I'll try to get those all caught up in the next few days. No promises though!! Well have a good week!





Dressing Mr. T in a planet shirt




Rubbing Mr. T's heart to his head so he'll be smart!!




Cleaning Mr. T




Choosing Mr. T




Stuffing Mr. T

Noah's 8th Birthday Party!

Noah and Abby both love the book from Great Mamaw and Papaw!!




The cake I made for the party. It's supposed to be two lego bricks, in case you can't tell!!




One of the games, pin the Lego Star Wars character into the Lego Star Wars scene!





Noah being sung to and blowing out his candles.




I thought this was a cute picture! Sammy was so cute sitting beside him the whole timee and reacting to everything as much as Noah did. I loved it!




I love Noah's expressions when he opens the presents!




A gift from Mamaw and Papaw




Sammy's gift was a big hit!!




Sammy playing MARS: Mission, Mars Surface Search (the names were the coolest part of the games!!)




The results of the pin the character game. I blew up that picture and covered it in clear contact paper, then cut out characters (all things I found on the internet) and laminated them. It turned out cute.




Noah and Sammy working on their skyscrapers for Lego City.




Noah digging in the Mars surface, searchiing for Lego blocks and trying to avoid aliens in order to win an energy crystal necklace.




The kids always love going up on top of Noah's bed!!




All of our Lego City Architects!

It was really a nice party. We had enough kids to have a lot of fun. The food was so easy this time, just Papa John's pizza, a veggie plate, a fruit plate and the cake. It all went very smoothly and I think everyone had a good time. I think Noah enjoyed his party, at least I hope so. He seemed to be very happy. I'm glad I was able to give him the special day he wanted. I feel so blessed to be able to give fun parties like that for my children. It's something I hope they'll always remember and think of fondly. On his actual birthday, we gave him another little surprise and I'll save that for another post!

Eight is Great!

Happy Birthday to my dear sweet boy! You bring more joy to my life than you'll ever know. I am so blessed to be your mother and I love every second of it. You mean the world to me. I love you so much and can't wait to watch you continue to grow. I love you!

Postest with the Mostest

Besides from my to do list, I thought I'd put up a real post too!! Has anyone seen the show on PBS called Word World? I absolutely love that show. It's a cartoon where all the characters, buildings, etc.. are made up of the letters that spell what they are. For instance frog's body is made up of a f, r, o and g. It's so cool, I really love it. They just put out a ton of toys and other stuff at Target for it.



I love duck, he's my favorite. We watch it almost every day now. I think it's very entertaining and funny, but also very educational. It's my new favorite!!


I'm feeling so much better now that I have so much done as far as cleaning and everything for the party. Friday is Noah's actual birthday and I didn't want to have to do much that day so we could just concentrate on having fun! That boy is such a homebody though! I told him he could choose dinner and he chose for me to make 3-ways at home and to not go out for them. He says nearly every time we're out that he can't wait to get home. He's so much like his Dad it's scary!! I remember posting last year on his birthday and I just can not believe another year has come and gone again. Wow, it's so scary how short the time seems to be.

I'm also excited because as soon as the last guest leaves the party on Sunday, I'm starting to pack for our trip!! I can't wait. Noah wants to go to Legoland right away, but I think we'll wait until Monday. The Sunday we are there is Super Bowl Sunday so we're hoping that means really light crowds. We'll see though! I'm excited because last time we were there it was incredibly hot and now it's supposed to be under 70, just how I like it! Well I guess that's all I got for now. I'm gonna look for some cute pics to post. Here you go! These are from Christmas Day at Steve's mom. We must've all been loopy by this time, because we though it was fun to stack Noah's webkins on out heads and pose for a pic. I'll save most of the family from public humiliation and just pose my crazy kids and poor Chewie!!

Thursday to do

1. Math Lessons DONE
2. Bible Lessons DONE
3. Language Arts Lesson for Noah DONE
4. Reading Lesson for Abby DONE
5. KONOS: a. Add Mini Umbrellas to the tree of all seasons. DONE
b. Sing "Rain, Rain Go Away" DONE
c. Fill in April Calendar DONE
d. Coloring Sheet DONE
e. Read Seasonal Poems DONE
6. Make Lunch DONE
7. Dishes DONE
8. Make Dinner DONE
9. Wash, dry, fold and put away 2 loads of laundry
10. Clean my desk area
11. Wash glass doors, mirrors, windows, etc. DONE
12. Straighten pantry DONE
13. Clean up Family Room
14. Make final list for party (groceries, games, etc.) DONE
15. Go to Kroger DONE
16. Noah has karate DONE
17. Give Noah a haircut DONE

almost done this time. the laundry is washed and dried, just not folded and put away! Oh well, there's always tomorrow!

Wednesday to do

1. Math lessons DONE
2. Bible lessons DONE
3. Language Arts lesson for Noah DONE
4. Reading lesson for Abby DONE
5. KONOS: a. Discuss St. Patrick and Ireland DONE
b. Sing "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" and "Let's Go Fly a Kite" DONE
c. add clovers to the tree of all seasons DONE
d. Review month song DONE
e. Do St. Patricks Day worksheet DONE
f. Discuss March in/out with lion/lamb and draw them DONE
g. Read book DONE
6. Clean all 4 Bathrooms DONE
7. Clean up my Bedroom DONE
8. Clean up Classroom DONE
9. Wash, dry, fold and put away 2 loads of laundry DONE
10. Make lunch DONE
11. Dishes DONE
12. Make dinner DONE
13. Pay bills on internet DONE
14. Put kids to bed DONE
15. Email Sonya Ideas for Noah's gift DONE


WOOHOO 2 DAYS IN A ROW!!

Tuesday to do

1. Math lessons DONE
2. Bible lessons DONE
3. Language Arts lesson for Noah DONE
4. Reading lesson for Abby DONE
5. KONOS: a. make hearts for the tree of all seasons DONE
b. discuss Washington and Lincoln (President's Day) and do worksheets DONE
c. Draw silhouettes of Washington and Lincoln from penny and dollar, and do coin rubbings DONE
d. review month song DONE
e. read two library books about seasons or calendars DONE
f. sing "Love the Lord" and "Jesus Loves Me" DONE
g. do valentine worksheet DONE
h. fill in February calendar DONE
i. Groundhog Day wordfind DONE
6. Take Abby to dance class DONE
7. Clip coupons while waiting at dance class DONE
8. Make lunch DONE
9. Wash, dry, fold and put away 4 loads of laundry DONE
10. Move Noah's second bed to basement DECIDED NOT TO DO
11. Organize Noah's room and make room for Legos (with Noah's help!) DONE
12. Clean up playroom (with both kids help!) DONE
13. Make dinner DONE
14. Do dishes, including handwashables DONE
15. Clean up counters in kitchen DONE
16. Pick up Abby's room (with Abby's help!) DONE
17. Put kids to bed DONE
18. Finish clipping coupons DONE

YAY ME!!!!!!


I have so much to do before the party that I hoped I would be able to keep on track if I posted my to do lists. Hopefully I'll get all that done today because I have lots more to do tomorrow!! Wish me luck!!!

Yesterday

Yesterday the kids and I were sitting in the little section of our church where they have tables and chairs set up to sit down and eat the free donuts and bagels that they have out every week. This has become our Sunday morning ritual. Daddy goes on to the nursery where we work for the first hour of church, and I take the kids to get donuts. Well we were sitting there and at the table next to us, I heard the people, an elderly woman and man, not married or anything, just friends, discussing that she was a twin. She said she was a fraternal twin and that her twin was a brother. He asked about the twin more and she said that he had passed away 16 years ago. She said when he died, she lost her best friend. She said she had no children and I couldn't hear her say whether or not she had ever been married, but if so her husband was gone as well. She said she was alone as far as family now. It took maybe two minutes for her to tell this story and as I sat there, I found myself tearing up thinking of her and how she must truly be lonely.

Two weeks ago, I was in the nursery working and usually I'm on the side of the crawlers, but this time they needed me in the infants and I was there holding the tiniest little baby and the only other person in there was this little old lady who comes in every week, usually as a group of old ladies, who like to sit in there and hold the tiny infants and chat. Well her friends weren't in there for some reason, so it was just us. She started telling me a similar story of how she does have family but they live far away and her husband has passed on and she was telling me how the other day, she got up around 6:30, went out to the chair in the living room and fell asleep, not waking until after 9. She said when there's no one there, you don't have much to get up for. That just hit me so hard. I really need to appreciate all the different people and things, I do have that are reasons for me to get up. Both of these ladies, probably enjoyed happy lives, but now find themselves living it alone. I really need to remember how grateful I should be to have kids climbing all over me, a hungry husband, a crazy doggie, chores to do, school work to do, other family and friend obligations to tend to. I really have a lot and usually I complain about having so much, like in the last post, and I really need to just sit back and appreciate being needed and having so much to do. Someday I may be like them and just wishing for something to do or someone to be needed by.

I hope someday my kids will think of each other as true friends like the first lady. They don't have to be best friends, but I so want them to be a part of each other's lives and be supportive to each other.

Well I've learned so much from the ladies at church lately, usually I only learn stuff during the sermon. I guess that's why it's so great to have a church family to learn from. Their life experiences are examples to us, whether good or bad. It's great to have that to look up to.

Sorry I haven't posted. I guess when I get overwhelmed, the blog is the first to go. I will post soon, I promise. Christmas just was so awesome, but the mess it left was just too much. I have had the hardest time finding our house again among the mess!! And then we have Noah's party coming up on the 20th and then we're going to California on February 2nd. I don' t know why I do this to myself and schedule so much at one time, but oh well. I try to work so hard to give my kids parties they love and have so much fun at and this one has just drained me of ideas. I finally came up with the three games last night and have to work on them, I went out to party city today and got some of the paper products and ordered the balloons. I'm making the cake and have the mixes for that already. I just really have to concentrate on the games and cleaning the house. Cleaning is the biggie. Noah's legos have pretty much taken over our home!! They are everywhere and I'd love to tell him to take them to his room, but his room is filled to the brim with them already, plus I know he's getting tons more for his Birthday. And he loves them so much, that I would never ask people to not get them. I would never deny him happiness over my sanity!! SM I have a few ideas about how to clean out some things in his room to make more space for them, I just have to get my booty up there and do it!! I did at least choose to just order pizza for the food this time instead of the very labor intensive made to order omelettes and pancakes, which were a hit, but stressful for me, Steve and my Mom.

After the party comes the packing, cleaning up from the party and tying up loose ends such as where the dog will stay?????, the mail, finishing up our unit in school, all that fun stuff. I just can't wait to get to California and Disneyland and LegoLand. It's going to be great. I gotta keep my eye on the prize!!

Also this whole deal thing is taking over a huge part of my life and I was kind of glad to see that moneysavingmom did a post on this topic. I really have to reign myself in and set limits on when I go out and how often. Because right now it's like a new passion and it's all I think about!! I even dream about it!! I'm trying to get myself down to shopping just two days a week and that's it. But of course when there is a huge sale at CVS or something and I want to go like 8 times, what can I do??? SM Like the free batteries one!!! Oh well, I'm sure I'll work it out!! Well I just wanted to ramble on for awhile and since I probably won't comment much I'll take this opportunity to say:

Sonya: I absolutely adore the photos you got and can't wait to see them in person. You have such beautiful children and should be so proud of them. They are just gorgeous. Those pictures are worth every penny. I also love the cousin pictures, very cute!!

Crystal: Your niece is such a sweetheart, I bet she just melts you when you see her. I'm so glad Dawson is doing better and didn't have to go to the hospital. How's the moving going? When will you be in the new house? Can't wait to come visit it!

Lura: Great job on the deals, I definitely think you can do it on $40. I know I could if I wanted to, but when something is cheap I feel like I have to get 10 of them or something and that raises my bill up. Oh well, maybe once I reign myself in, I'll make an actual budget that I stick to. I love the preschool things, especially the cheerios A, very cool!!

Carrie: I can't wait to see the basement finished, I bet you can't either!! I love the mural with the trees the best, I bet it'll look so adorable. That is so exciting about the free trip, how awesome!! Can't wait to hear where you are going! I also loved the partyware you chose for Olivia's party. I cannot believe she's almost one, that's just crazy! Wow the time goes so fast!! She is such a beautiful girl! I can't wait to see her grow in the next year!

Charity: Love the new curtains. I think they will look great with that wall color! Those picture frames are so cute! I love it when my kids make something for me, it instantly becomes my absolute favorite!! That spinning frame is cool too, I'd love one of those! I can't believe that kid and his mother at the library, how rude. Don't they know it's a library!! I hate it when the parents just let there kids be crazy, it's ridiculous. Hopefully you won't have to deal with that again.

Amanda: I don't know if you can read this, but I am praying for you, your mother in law and your friend. I hope your Christmas went great. I can't wait to see pics of the kids with all of their new stuff. Let us know if you need us.

I think that's it. Love you all!!