Target Man as Elvis

The elders quorum had to put on a skit for the ward Christmas Party. This is what they came up with.

Awesome Shopping Week

Target Man thinks I'm really weird, cause I occasionally take pictures of my shopping trips, but I'm really excited about the money I saved this week. This is a picture of my stuff from Target, Kroger, and Martins. I usually don't do both Kroger and Martins, but this week had deals at both that I didn't want to miss, like free yeast and .30 per container Dannon yogurt (we don't like store brand). I cut my Kroger bill by 82% this week, that's a record for me. I also had an awesome CVS trip (without the boys, YAY!!) so thats the second pic.

Target, Kroger, Martins total: $48.11 (plus $4.00 off my next Kroger trip)

CVS total: 4.31 (and still have $5.00 in Extra Care Bucks)

I am addicted to this extreme couponing thing, but you know what, our Christmas candy cost me 0.79 and I bought diapers and wipes for the new baby for a little over $3.00. Also, we don't ever have to buy shampoo, razors, toothpaste, yeast, and after the next couple of weeks, probably toilet paper ever again, so I say this is a good addiction!

It's Christmas Time

That is what Target Boy says everyday. He also asks if Santa is coming everyday, and then answers, with, "No, he is getting the toys ready."

Target Man and I are really excited for Christmas this year, because its the first where Target Boy is really excited about everything. The boys love the tree and although, the bottom half is no longer decorated, its so relaxing to turn off the living room lights and just have the glow of the tree.

Yesterday, Santa came to visit Target for a United Way thing, so Target Man went to make an appearance. Target Boy was so excited to see Santa, he ate dinner faster than I think I've ever seen. Target Baby took his own Santa figure with him and held on to him for almost the entire time.

Target Boy really wanted to talk to Santa, but was in no way, shape, or form going to sit on his lap. He made this very clear all day long. So when it was his turn to talk to him, he walked right up, stopped more than an arm's reach away and pretty much shouted that he wanted star wars toys, trains, cars, and more star wars toys. Then he shoved Target Baby closer and pretty much repeated everything again. It was pretty funny. We did eventually get him to shake hands with Santa and pick out a special candy filled ornament for our tree.

When we got into the car to go home, Target Boy realized that he forgot to mention ScoobyDoo movies and so now keeps telling me that he needs to talk to Santa again. Letter writing is not helping, so hopefully Santa will show up at our ward Christmas party, so Target Boy can scream more things at him!

Crazy Family

Thanksgiving morning, some of my crazy family decided it would be fun to participate in the YMCA's Annual Turkey Trot Biathlon. Two of my sisters, and my brother-in-law, decided it would also be fun to drag Martha and I along with them to count laps at 7:30 in the morning.



My sister Genevieve runs marathons, triathlons, climbs really tall mountains, and generally loves this kind of stuff. She is the one to blame for all the excitement. This was April and Jeff's first event and we are so proud of them. Genevieve killed the other 4 participants in the swim portion and then headed out into the freezing cold for the run. Jeff didn't drown and so I was happy not to have to use my CPR skills.

The start

Booking it down the road

After the swim was over, Martha and I jumped into the van and yelled motivational things from our nice warm, cushy ride. I think the other runners thought we were probably crazy. After it was all over, Genevieve was interviewed for a local news program, and we all headed home for FOOD!

Frozen Hair, didn't her mother teach her not to go out with wet hair?

Crossing the finish line

Our Star Participant, trying not to pant

Gross

We just got back from the library and park. As I was unbuckling Target Boy's carseat, I asked what he was eating. His response, "My boogers!"

Think Pink

We had our ultrasound today, and... can you guess? We are having a little girl! There has only been one girl born in Target Man's family since his grandmother's generation. Yep, she had boys, who had boys, who had boys... but now in February a little pink will be added.

We are excited and I really want to go buy something cute and girly, like shoes! It means we might actually have to buy some things for this baby, if we don't want her confused for a boy. When Target Baby was born, I didn't even get anything out until the day after I was supposed to be induced (busy hospital, nasty ICP, long story). Anyway, I might need to be a little more on top of things this time.

In other even more important news, the baby looks healthy. Heart, facial structure, etc. look great. Currently, this baby is right on track and weighs in at 15 oz. She was being very modest for the entire ultrasound and had her legs pressed together and feet crossed at the ankles. She kept that position the entire time, even though she was tumbling and doing cartwheels. She was even holding the umbilical cord in her hand right at her legs. The wonderful tech had me stand up, roll over, all that kind of stuff with no luck. Finally, she sent us over to my Dr and told us to come back after and we'd try again. Thankfully, she had uncrossed her legs and we are pretty definite that this baby is a girl. Anyway, I'm glad we know, and she finally decided to cooperate. Now, I will just have to retrain my brain from calling my kids, "the boys".

Pumpkins

I love Tuesdays. They are our family's little private Saturday during the week. Target Man is off on Tuesdays (Christmas season of course varies a little) and we reserve the entire day for family. Yesterday we headed to a local pumpkin patch.

It wasn't the greatest time to go as this place has all of its big festivities on the weekends, and the pumpkin patch was really picked over. But we got to explore without anyone else there, and the boys had a great time. Target Boy came home with 4 little white pumpkins that he wouldn't let anyone else carry. He kept dropping them every couple of steps, so it took awhile to actually get out of the patch.

After we left the pumpkin patch, we headed over to our local farmer's market to check out their selection. Because Target Man and I always seek out the perfect pumpkins for carving, we figured the farmer's market, which boasts having over 60 different kinds of pumpkins all of which are locally grown, would be a good alternative to the patch. It was great. We found our perfect pumpkins, watched Target Boy continuously load pie pumpkins into the wagon, and kept Target Baby from throwing to many of the little ones. We had Target Boy narrow his selection to two little pumpkins and then we headed home.

It was a perfect pumpkin Tuesday.

Healthcare Customer Service

I just had the most incredible customer service phone experience in my lifetime. And get this, it was with a health insurance company! Target Man destroyed his ankle in July and we had to take him to the ER. Well, in the past months I have been getting denied claim statements, due to the insurance company not having the medical records to show it was an emergency. I have been putting off calling for awhile, but decided today, mostly cause I actually got a bill yesterday, that I would devote all of naptime tracking down what I needed and resubmitting the claims.
My first call was to United Healthcare's Optimum Choice costumer service line. In under 15 minutes everything was completed. That included hold time. They took my info, resubmitted all claims, have already paid the hospital, and called the two offices that have sent me bills. I am completely impressed and ready to tell everyone that if you have this insurance as a choice, go for it! We owe what we should for the ER visit, $150 as a copay! I think I may actually write the company and tell them they did an awesome job, that's how impressive it was.

Now, I have the rest of naptime to do whatever I want (or at least get the floor mopped!)

$2.54

I just spent $2.54 at Target and got:

4 - 8 oz Horizon Organic Milk single serve cartons

2 - Instant Carnation Breakfast, 10 packets in each (to fatten up Target Baby)

1 - Big/Normal (its upstairs, I'm not checking the size) Crest Toothpaste

1- Fun Size Snickers bag

The only thing I paid for was the Snickers. It was Target Boy's special treat he got to pick out for being amazing (meaning he actually told me he needed to go "brown poopy" and then went all by himself) this morning.

I LOVE COUPONS!

Answer to a Question

So to those of you who don't know, yes I am pregnant. We are having baby number three sometime during February. I am due Feb 22 and am 19 weeks this week. Our ultrasound is scheduled for Oct 16 (two weeks from tomorrow) and hopefully this baby will be more cooperative than Target Boy and we will know what we are having!

Finally, Birthday Pictures

I know its been over a month, but here it is, the long awaited post about Target Boy's Birthday.

Target Boy turned three on August 15th! I decided maybe I would actually try to throw a party together and hold it on a weekend where Target Man could actually make it. I got most everything together, sent out (meaning emailed) invitations to the three little kids his age (plus Emerson) and amazingly both Target Man's and my parents were going to be in town. But, the boys got sick, and then I got sick, and then Target Man got sick. So instead of having a Monster Truck Birthday Bash, we had a lay on the couch and try not to die Saturday.

My awesome cake/monster truck track!

So two weeks later, minus all the grandparents, and two of the three little kids his age, we had the party. Target Boy was so excited about his cake. I made it the day before and he just kept pulling his stool over and staring at it, saying, "Its soooo cool" and "Is Emerson here yet?" He had such a hard time waiting. Saturday we had a great time making cool Monster Truck shirts, pinning the tire on the truck, beating the heck out of the pinata I made, and most of all, finally playing with the cake. I say playing, cause I think Target Baby, Emerson, and maybe Grace were the only ones who actually ate the cake. (Three days later, after hours of playing, and crumbling to pieces all over the kitchen, I finally threw it out during nap time!)

Target Boy is such a cheater at this game!

My paper mache pinata, which I was so done with it got wrapped in tissue paper like a present.

Caleb showing off his loot (which I think his mother confiscated shortly after this was taken!)

Adventure # 2

So first of all, Happy Birthday to Me! Second, for my birthday one of my wonderful visiting teachers watched my boys for a little over an hour yesterday evening, while Target Man was working. Instead of doing anything really exciting, I went grocery shopping by myself for the first time in my married life. I got to stroll through the aisles of Martin's without threatening anyone's life. It was peaceful.

I came prepared with my list of items, coupon binder, and envelope ready to go. I had a mission. This was the result.



After all was said and done my total was 94.42. Then I scanned my bonus card, off came 30.50. Then I handed in all of my coupons, off came 23.35. Final total with tax: 42.46! Plus, this is the really awesome part, I earned rewards for $0.90/gallon off an entire tank of gas! We are taking my dad's van to Kentucky next week and this will save us 27.00 when we fill it up!

One more thing to mention, I actually bought expensive laundry detergent for our new adventures into cloth diapering (another post, for another time), and decided its not what I want, so I'm going to return it. So, subtract 6.99 plus tax from 42.46.

I spent under $4o for 6 boxes of cereal, 12 boxes of hamburger helper (not so healthy, but great for when I feel icky, like the past 4 months, and the coming 5), 8 boxes of scalloped/mashed potatoes, 4 boxes of toaster strudels (personal breakfast favorite), 2 bags steamer veggies (free!), 2 lbs apples, milk, 2 dole salad bags, toilet paper, and 1 yoplait yoplus yogurt!


I'm addicted!

My First Adventure into "Extreme Couponing"

After reading and searching so many blogs/websites/forums about saving money, I finally took my first adventure into the world of "extreme couponing" today. Three weeks ago, I subscribed to our Sunday paper (which, by the way, is really poorly written), and started gathering coupons and printing them from online sites (http://www.coupons.com/ is good). Two days ago, I finally organized all my coupons into a binder so I could see what I had.



Money Saving Mom has great info on several different methods. I like this one because I can easily see what I have. Oh, and trust me, go with a zipper binder, Target Baby has already thrown mine across the room several times, he thinks its really cool!


So after scouring the weekly ads and forums, I headed to Rite Aid and Target today.



I bought all of the above for $1.79 plus tax!

Here is the break down:

Rite Aid

2-Bic Mark-it Ultrafine 2pk sale 2/.33

1-Bic ReAction Ballpoint 2pk sale .33

1-Pantene highlighting Expressions Conditioner reg 4.99

1-Crest Whitening plus scope (with free travel size crest prohealth, oral rinse, and floss) sale 2.49


total: $8.47

-2/.50 Bic Mark it coupons (you can only print two, but still can get three items for FREE)

-1/.75 Crest coupon (P&G 8/31)

-1/2.00 Pantene coupon (P&G 8/31)

-1/1.00 Rite Aid Pantene coupon

-1/1.74 Crest Rite Aid Single Check Rebate(SCR)

-1/1.99 Pantene SCR

total: -$8.48

total out of pocket after SCR = -.01 (after tax its .41)


Target

4/ 12 count Pop Tarts sale 4/$2.25


total: $9.00

-4/.50 target pop tart coupons

-10% (sorry guys, get a job at target)

+ $5.00 gift card offer (see ad)


total: $1.80 (after tax 1.85)


Total with tax for the Day: $2.26 for 9 items! Not bad for my first trip.


Obviously I'm excited about this. I mean I could have posted pictures of Target Boy's birthday, but this was more exciting!

Seriously So Blessed

I am now addicted to this blog. Its probably the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Thanks Heather for introducing me. For the mormon mommy bloggers who haven't read it, you should. For those that aren't LDS, you probably won't understand why its so funny, I'm not sure. Anyway, check it out, you will be seriously so blessed.

The Monster Truck Rally

So, thanks to my brother in law who started it, and my husband who made it an obsession, Target Boy loves monster trucks. He knows lots of their names and I think we have about 11 of the hot wheels toys now, simply because Target Man likes to play with them too. Well, Target Man was looking at what was coming to our little expo center and saw a monster truck rally. So Saturday night we loaded the boys up and headed into redneck land.

It was actually a lot of fun. We came totally unprepared and should have brought a cooler, blanket, and camping chairs (now we know for next year), but luckily we had a tarp in our car emergency kit and used it instead. Both boys loved it! Target Boy was a little afraid when they started to race and watched from behind Target Man. Target Baby was just amazed by the whole thing.

Kay, I tried to post some video, but as a warning, I'm not a great videographer. This is Target Boy after he first saw the trucks moving.

Aiming for a Kid Free Room

Last night, I decided it was time to move Target Baby into a bed other than ours. Those of you in shock, please understand that we are a somewhat co sleeping family and Target Baby had some serious life threatening issues as an infant that required him to be in our room. Target Boy slept with us for awhile, but was definitely out before he was Target Baby's current 16 months. Target Man is fine with the boys in our room. He loves when they are snugly and now that they aren't infants he misses his snuggle time. So when Target Boy wakes up in the middle of the night, Target Man just brings him to our room. Well, for me, its time for a break. I would like to sleep without little feet on my back or a head slamming into mine for at least a few months.

A Sunday morning, after I got out of bed to take a shower.

So last night, I put Target Baby to sleep on the other side of Target Boy's twin bed. They are both so tiny, they love to cuddle, and Target Baby has never slept by himself so I figured it might be better to just put him in the same bed as Target Boy. After probably an hour of screaming with me beside him he finally went to sleep (This really didn't interfere with Target Boy's sleep, because he has now started a new "I'm terrified of the dark and my bedroom in general" thing). Well, it lasted until about 3:30 in the morning, after about 4 times of waking up (totally normal for him), Target Man finally just brought him into our room. At some point, Target Boy ended up with us too, but I don't remember that. He was just there when I woke up.
I actually felt that it went better than expected. Today, though for nap time, I am having second thoughts about the sharing a bed thing, and concerns about sharing a bedroom (though I'm determined to make it work).

So for all of you mothers of more than one child out there, how do you handle sharing a room at bed and nap times? Also, anyone else have a 16 month old that has never slept through the night? Target Baby wakes up an average of 4-6 times a night screaming? Any thoughts?

We got Crushed...literally

So last night was another soccer game...and we got slammed. Target Man and I disagree on the score, those that were there feel free to correct us, but it was something like 11 to 3. Regardless of the actually score it was pathetic. I mean good job trying guys, but get it together. Anyway, right at the end of the game, Brett got the ball and was running to the goal and fell to the ground. He kind of laid there for a second and then crawled to the edge of the field. I waited to see if he would get up, and he didn't. He tried to stand and then fell down and started crawling again, so I ran over. He declined a trip to the ER, and we went home and iced it.

Later, however, when he still couldn't walk, and was crawling up the stairs on his hands and knees, I told him we were going. Only then, we realized neither of our cell phones had service. I drove around to see if maybe it was our tower or something, but couldn't get anything. We didn't want to take the boys with us, and so we needed to call someone. I finally gave up on our phones and actually found a pay phone. Let me tell you, that was GROSS! I felt like I needed to bathe in bleach. Anyway, our wonderful relief society pres came over and stayed with sleeping Target Boy and sometimes sleeping Target Baby, while we were in the ER for 3 hours.

Everything was going really fast and they sent us directly to X-ray. Then we had to wait for a doctor. The ER was slammed with truly sick people. They had people in the hallway on gurneys, they transferred 5 people to a bigger hospital, two by helicopter. Anyway, the end result is, he didn't break it. He severely sprained both his foot and his ankle. He is supposed to be on crutches for at least 3 days and he is to wear an air cast. If its not significantly better in 5, we were told to head to an ortho, cause they see things ER doctors don't. Anyway, I took pictures, so if you have an aversion to feet, don't look.

Guess which one he hurt?

Isn't it pretty?

Catch Up

So we have had a lot going on it seems and now I need to catch up on everything. In May, we took a quick weekend trip and went to my sister's house in KY. Our really good friend, Martha, went through the temple for the first time and we were privileged to join her. It was nice to see everybody and have a night out with just the grown ups. Before we went to the temple, my sister made me a hair appointment. It seems the only time I get my haircut is when I go visit her. Anyway, I got 7 inches cut off, and I love it. Though its now going to be July and maybe I should go get it cut again! Okay, onward, the day after the temple, we drove to Tennessee to attend my cousin's wedding. We haven't seen those guys in forever, meaning about 5 years, so it was nice to renew connections. Then after the whirlwind weekend, we headed back home.

We had a nice fairly quiet week, with only swimming lessons (by the way, Target boy took two sessions at the YMCA and is now a water maniac, more later!). The next week, though, was more chaos. We were home for Memorial day and the Tuesday after, when we had Erika take our family pictures (if you go check them out, you will need a password, if you can't guess it, I will laugh at you). Then early, meaning like 5:30, on Wednesday Target Man headed south for a work trip and I headed to DC with the boys to see my parents, since they were in town house hunting. We got to go to the National Zoo and see elephants and hippos, which were by far Target Boy's favorites. I also got to go through a few houses, which is one of my favorite things to do. I came home early Saturday morning and we spent an uneventful weekend as a family.

The next week, brought a new addition to our house, a new HEAT PUMP! We had been without air conditioning in the 90 degree weather and not enjoying it. We now have an energy efficient Carrier Heat Pump and a really cool programmable thermostat. The next week, however, it stopped working, they came a fixed it only to have it stop again. They had to replace the entire outdoor compressor and it worked for about a week. Now after, four times of it working and stopping, we have made it through another week and hope that we don't have anymore issues and the real problem was identified. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

During the whole heat pump issues, Target Man started his soccer league and so on Tuesday and Wednesday nights we pack up and go watch him. I don't really know their record, but they have won at least 3 games, which is better than I thought they would, since they are playing in the Premier league. Anyway, he loves it and usually comes home with some new injury. The latest is a 3 x 5 oozing grass burn or something on his thigh. Its really gross.

During all of this madness, we have headed to our local national forest a few times and played in the lake. The boys love to play in the sand and both of them have no fear of the water. Target Boy will walk out until his mouth and nose are almost covered with water and just thinks he is so cool. He also doesn't mind putting his head under the water. The strange thing is, if he falls under, he doesn't struggle to come up, he stays under long enough for me to get panicky and want to pull him up. Target baby doesn't mind going under either and doesn't sputter or cough. I can't wait for them to really know how to swim so I can stop freaking out every time them go under.

So now we have made it to the second week of June, and my parents came to visit. Dad had to head up to DC for job stuff, and they stayed in town for a little while and did projects around my house, well Dad did. My over the stove microwave is finally finished being installed! Its been a job in progress for about 2 months with Target Man buying lots more power tools. I found the microwave for fairly cheap on craigslist, but with all the new tools we had to buy, I think I could have bought a new one and had Lowe's install it for less. But its all about the learning experience I guess. Also, the hole in the trim by the roof is fixed, so no more noisy birds living there. A side note, apparently one lived and died there and luckily it was high enough that we didn't smell the decaying bird in our house, how gross, glad I didn't find it. We also finally have a door handle on the back door, its actually kind of weird to use it and not just push on the glass, but it makes me feel safer. The coolest project that was done, is that dad and I made a picnic table. It was originally for the boys, but its actually big enough for all of us. I was in the DR office with Target Baby (gross toenail fungus, he gets the weirdest things), and found a cool picnic table with instructions in Family Fun magazine. Its made completely out of one sheet of plywood, and comes apart so you can store it flat or take it places. Here are the instructions. We still need to paint ours, but other than that its done. I learned how to use a jigsaw and now I want to do more, it was so much fun!








So after that exciting week, my parents left on Sunday and then I went to town cleaning and doing laundry for our next adventure. On Tuesday, this is June 17th, we packed up and headed to the airport to fly to Salt Lake. Target Boy was so excited to be on an airplane again and both he and Target Baby did great during the flights. We stayed in Salt Lake with my sister and her family until Thursday, when we headed for Bear Lake for a family reunion. It was the first time that all of my siblings and complete families were together. Target Man was only there until Thursday night when he flew home to go back to work (and for the 3rd year in a row we weren't together on our anniversary, Happy number 5!). We were still able to get pictures of the entire family together, even though we were all together with Brett for only about 2 hours. While Target Man went back to work, the rest of us spent the week jet skiing, boating, and playing on the beach in the really cold water. We had a great time and enjoyed watching all the cousins playing together. Target Boy loves his Utah cousins and keeps talking about them. I miss the fact he had someone who would play with him constantly. But, nevertheless, we had to come home, and by Tuesday my boys were on vacation meltdown. We left Salt Lake at 11:15 pm and amazingly the trip by myself with the boys was completely uneventful. Well, I guess not completely, the TSA women in the Salt Lake airport we sooooo rude. I mean you would think that if you have a job where everyone is already going to dislike you, you might try to at least be friendly right? Wrong. My dad got an escort pass to help me get through security and the woman did not recognize what is was and starting screaming at him to leave the area. He tried explaining and showing her where on the pass it said what he was doing and she just kept screaming. The two other women working were rude in so many other ways too, I was just appalled. If it didn't take so much effort, I would write a really nasty letter and send it to their boss, but instead I'll just complain about them! I mean really did I look like a terrorist completely exhausted and dragging my two really tired little boys through the airport in the middle of the night? I mean really, give me a break. Anyway, Target boy was asleep before we left the ground and was still out when we got to New York. Target baby slept most of the time too, although that was partially because I pretty much nursed him across the country, so much for the weaning process. What I will do for a little peace.

This is a snow ball in June

This is a snowball in June down Aunt Kelsey's back!

By the way, for any future plane trips you might take, Jet Blue is awesome and the extra leg room is worth the little extra money! For the flights when the boys were awake, having Nick Jr and Cartoon network kept Target Boy completely happy, I mean when else does he get to watch endless TV with mom's okay. The extra space let Target Baby roam around the floor and kept him happy. I think I will fly Jet Blue whenever possible! They definatly won me over. Oh, they also still have a good selection of snacks, including yummy real chex mix and really yummy chocolate chip cookies.

So we made it home. Target Man had switched days off so he was able to collect us from the airport and let me take a three hour nap. I was still zombie mom for a few days, but I think I'm over that. So now we are home and ready to head into July which will be equally as busy with another family trip, family coming to visit, and my parents moving to DC. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with updating so I don't have another marathon post to compose.

One last thing, this week marks the year anniversary of closing on our house and next week marks a year of living here. I am happy to say, we still love it here. As of now, I have no desire to move. So happy anniversary to home ownership, we still have a lot of work to do on you baby!