A Perfect Weekend!

Our trip to visit relatives in Alabama this weekend didn't happen since our relatives canceled their plans, so we ended up having a free weekend. Chris is rarely off work on a weekend, and since he had these days set aside I honestly thought he'd just want to hang out at home and do as little as possible in order to enjoy his free time~~and he totally deserves to~~but instead my hubby completely surprised me by sharing his alternative plan to go out tonight to see ICE! at Opryland, featuring A Charlie Brown Christmas! How great is that?! Very great!

Hubby totally deserves to have some time off that he doesn't have to work or chase our kids around, so I found it very thoughtful that he gave up his resting time for some additional family time! This was perfect because our kids' admission FREE and it was a fun, family-friendly event that we all got to smile about! Of course my special guy did get to have some "hang-out" time--we couldn't go anywhere until we watched the OSU vs Michigan football game, the kids had naps, and we had the pleasure of dropping off some baby clothes to some friends for their small child. Then eventually this evening we went to Nashville to enjoy ICE! and some shopping at Opry Mills.

I had a coupon for Build-A-Bear that I realized expires before Christmas, so although we've been done w/ holiday shopping we hit up the cutesie store. We let Josiah find an animal of interest, and we let Kyleigh stuff it for her baby bro as a Christmas gift...she even kissed the little heart charm before it was sewn inside! (Oh, and we only paid slightly over $5!) We are helping some friends fix up their home (repairs, painting, etc), and since we're unexpectedly going to be around town this weekend we hope to spend Sunday continuing our commitment to that house. It has been a treat to get to have our regular Friday night "Family Night", to then enjoy a mellow Saturday together, and to maybe serve others on Sunday. Could our weekend get any better??? To see what it's looked like so far, see the video on the previous post and photos below:

(Yeah, that's Kyleigh cheesin' & Josiah trippin'!)

(End of tour...kids were bundled in 2 coats ea, hats, & gloves,
but began to feel "coldy-woldy"...good thing we were done!)

(This is a Nativity scene made of ice)

(Josiah @ Build-A-Bear)

Lil' Ohio State Fan!

Long ago we taught our daughter the O-H-I-O motions, and taught her the exclamation of "Go Buckeyes!", and she came up with the cheerleader-style arm movements all on her own! Here's our little Ohio State fan enjoying
the OSU vs Michigan rivalry game today:

All You Have To Do Is Ask...

My homegirl, Cayla, asked to see pics of my kids using their new high chairs. I'm honestly surprised 'cuz I'm certain I bore the daylights right out of readers with my obsessive picture-posting. But she asked, so I'm posting pics of Josiah and Kyleigh using their new high chairs!

The kids seem to like their new seating, which is great! Josiah dropped a few pieces of corn...but they landed on the "rug" below him (a carpet remnant, so it matches the overall flooring, but look carefully and you'll spot it!). I don't know why this house has carpet in the dining area, but for some bizarre reason it does, and the carpet's new so we want to protect it for the homeowners as much as possible. Now that Josiah doesn't have a tray to catch his "dropsies", I have a plan in mind for carpet protection...once I find a great deal on it I'll show ya what it is!

Alright, so here they are, my half-dressed toddlers eating in their new high chairs!

Deals & Freebies!

Here are some of my favorite finds this week:

@ Walgreens:
Typically each of these pkgs would've been $8.99-9.99, but with coupons and a store deal I got 'em for $5 each (had to reach $25 subtotal after using coupons in order to get a $5 off $25 deal, but I was only at $23 after coupons, so the candies were fillers!) I typically buy boxes of Pampers approx. 60 ct for $18.99, but I switched brands for this deal--it saved me half the cost this time, and the pull-ups are for overnight for KyKy...she's toilet-trained, but it never hurts to be careful overnight or while traveling! Using coupons and a store deal, I got all these for $20:



@ Target:
Just buy using coupons and peelies, I got all of these for FREE:


Since my family's dorky enough to love to play games, and since Target now does price-matching (like Walmart has for years, you just have to bring in the competitor's ad), I snagged a fun deal! The two games below are reg. price $23.99 at Target. But Kmart is selling these games for $14.99 this week. I took the Kmart ad to Target, I had a $5 manufacturer coupon + $5 Target coupon for each of these specific games (so $10 off each), so I got to buy them for $4.99 ea rather than their regular Target price of $23.99 each! The Kmart ad lowered each by $9, my coupons lowered each by another $10, so I saved $19 on each game...I spent approx. $10 and saved $38 on these games:



@ Toys R Us:
What a steal...family-friendly games, including some serious classics, were on sale for $3.99 each. With $25 purchase, customers received a $10 gift card for a future purchase. So Chris and I chose 7 games, spending $27.93 + tax = $30.58. I had a $10 discount already, so I spent $20.58. On top of that, each of those games we purchased offers a $2 mail-in rebate, so we'll be getting $14 back, leaving our total ultimately only $6.58. Yup, that's it, under $1 each for 7 board games! (Now, I realize that most of you who try to snag this deal may not have the $10 break I had up front, so your total spent would be $16.58 after your rebate---but that's still really amazing for 7 games, it's like $2 ea + tax! And ya get a $10 gift card for your next shopping trip!)


Ya know that $10 gift card we received for purchasing the games above? Well, I was totally done shopping for my kids' holiday/birthday gifts, but I had to go back this week and get just one more thing w/ that discount! I put the gift card to use along with a $10 Playskool coupon to get my kids a Christmas gift virtually FREE (I paid tax of $1.89). ToysRUs has the Sit & Spin on sale from $24.99 down to $19.99. The $10 coupon and that $10 gift card canceled all but the tax! Woo hoo, great deal!


*I just added up the game prices w/ tax, to find that I got

1)Clue,Secrets & Spies
2)Pictureka Flipper
=$10.93

3)Candy Land
4)Chutes & Ladders
5)Hi-Ho Cherry-O
6)Memory
7)Ants In The Pants
8)Cootie
9)Don't Break The Ice
=$6.58

+ the Sit & Spin toy
=$1.89

...all for only $19.40! Amazing!
+ $20 diapers/pull-ups
+ Free wipes, lotion, chapstick...
I got all that stuff for about $40! Wow, better than I knew!
The diapers, etc. should have cost that much alone! *Yay*

Seating and Savings

In order to move into this small rental home, we had to downsize our furniture, including parting with our beautiful dark cherry pub-height table that seated 8 people. Now we have only a small round breakfast table which can seat 4--but we only have 2 chairs with it. So, with each of our 2 kids in a booster seat, well...umm...where are Chris and I supposed to sit??? With my hubby's previous work schedule, it honestly didn't matter because he wasn't really home for meals and I'd just eat at random opportunities! Now our family schedule is a little different and we're excited to eat meals together!

Chris and I decided to get 2 high chairs for the kids so he & I could use the dining chairs. We decided on wooden restaurant-style high chairs because they will last our kids (and visiting nieces/nephews) a few years, and I found 2 brand new high chairs for $59.85 (incl. tax and shipping). That's about what one Space Saver High Chair can cost for one kid at a time (we have one that KyKy used then passed on to JoJo!), so this price was a great deal. Oh, and the best part? Even though I actually budgeted $59.85 for the two chairs, I only had to fork over $11.37 out of my budget! HOW??? I went to pay our invoice via PayPal and discovered that somehow we'd accumulated $48.48 in our PayPal account without even remembering how it got there (I think from back when Chris had sold some old school books online). I ♥ unexpected cash! So yeah, $11.37 sounded super great! Here's what our new high chairs look like:

Neither of the kids could wait to sit on the new chairs...

...even though they weren't yet assembled!

Chris assembled the high chairs after bedtime,
can't wait to see how the kids like them in the a.m!

This and That

I guess I haven't posted in a while, eh? What's been going on around here? Well, let's see...

For the last week or two Josiah's FINALLY been using sign language a bit, and that's been a big help in our communication. He gets easily frustrated when we don't know what he's trying to express, and finally he came around to the idea of using signs and it's been a fabulous change!

(Josiah asking for "more" apple slices!)

Oh, and a few weeks ago I freaked out 'cuz JoJo randomly stopped eating his vegetables (which is a staple around here!)...remember that? Well, after a few days of stressing and trying to figure it out on my own, I turned to online moms for suggestions and encouragement and got lots of both--and that very night he started eating veggies again and hasn't stopped! I think the Lord knew I needed that!(Josiah & Kyleigh sharing a snack of green beans!)

Kyleigh's been able to play outside just a little bit, and enjoyed every moment she could squeeze in before dark! And yesterday she got to try two new foods! One was steak (not like fabulous fancy steak, just something we planned to throw on the G5 and add to a salad...we don't eat a lot of steak around here). She wasn't sure about it, I guess it was the new texture. The other---and most exciting!--was a TORTILLA! We found gluten-free corn tortillas and last night Kyleigh got to try one. She wasn't too sure about it, but when we asked her if she'd like to try some more tomorrow she said, "Sure!". LOL Works for me! After keeping a watchful eye all evening, we saw no evidence of any negative reactions, so that was awesome! Of course we read the packages, did online research, then bought the tortillas, then waited and agonized for a week over whether to let her try one, then did more online research, read the ingredients again (for hidden forms of wheat/dairy/eggs/oats), then finally gave the girl a tortilla to eat! Sound neurotic? Well, judge if you must...but until you've watched your child suffer inside and out and have to be pinned down by 4-6 nurses in the ER trying to get an IV into her while she's throwing up and turning purple, don't say a word to me about how cautious I am about her food intake! *Thx*

Trying some bites of steak

KyKy trying her first tortilla!

Yay!

Proud Bubby gave his sister a high five!

Lately I've been more aware of my attitude toward my husband and I've been improving my reactions and responses toward him, and he has done the same toward me as well. I am so fortunate to have a God-fearing, family-loving, hard-working husband who is also my closest friend. We talk through things and figure things out together and I'm so glad for him in my life. It seems after a few years of marriage it may be easy to become lazy and complacent, and we certainly don't want that so we're making sure we keep up our efforts with one another.

I guess the only other thing going on is that I'm going to try to see a doctor about my lack of rest soon. When I got sick in mid-September, I couldn't breathe well when lying down. I then got meds for the bronchitis/pneumonia, but the medicine kept me awake. Even though I've felt well for a few weeks, my sleep pattern is still not right, and I'm usually only sleeping about 3 hrs ea night. Driving to a birthday party this weekend, I was getting groggy (which isn't like me, I love driving!), and had to call people to help keep me awake and safe while on the road. That's scary. My body aches, I feel lousy, and I'm just doing the bare minimum to get by each day. I think it's beyond just being "tired", I think it's exhaustion in the truest medical sense. Hopefully a doc can help...I think a Rx for a Hawaiian vacation ought to do the trick (oh, and the airline ticket to get there!). Hopefully I'll be back on track soon!

Monday Is For Saving Money!

Today I had GREAT savings with my shopping excursion. Coupons + list in hand, the kids and I headed out at the same time my hubby left for work. In fact, gentleman he is, Chris helped me get the kids strapped into their car seats before heading out (Thanks Babe!).

This morning we shopped at Walgreens and Rite Aid.

I purchased $77 worth of items...

...and I paid only $27.64 (incl. tax)!
*Thx to reminder of a rebate, knock $5 off that total for $22.64!

Woo hoo! My goal was actually $25 (& it was so before tax), but I know why the total was higher than I'd hoped...
customers must have more items than the number of coupons they're using, and I had lots of coupons, so at the register I had to toss in a few lil' $0.39 candies--but it was worth it for the $50 savings!

Here's what we got for $27 (*$22):













20 AA batteries
4 bags Chex Mix
Glade PlugIns Warmer
2 Glade PlugIns Refills
1 Glade Sense & Spray
3pk of Mach3 razors (disposable)
1 Herbal Essences Shampoo
1 Herbal Essences Hair Styler
1 Gillette Body Wash
1 Gillette Deodorant
1 Oral-B Power Toothbrush
1 Almay mascara
1 roll Scotch transparent tape
(and candies for coupon quantity)