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?