Videos

Here are some older videos of the kids from this summer that we were just able to get off the camera. Mick says you have to have Quicktime to view them.

Festival of Lights

We have had a wonderful family filled weekend! Yesterday morning we took the kids to the Santa Clause Parade in downtown Peoria, and this evening we just got home from the Festival of Lights Parade in East Peoria. Danell and her brother and SIL met us there with their little man, Isaac and Janelle joined us as well! The kids had a great time! WE loaded the van up with blankets and movies and laid in the van watching movies and eating dinner until about a half hour before the parade started. Emily loved seeing all of the lights and would lean back against me after a float would pass, but as soon as she saw another one, she would lean forward as far as her little body would let her. It was precious! Luke, of course, loved every minute of it and snuggled with his daddy the whole time. I think his favorite was the green dinosaur and the green dragon that blew smoke out his nose! And of course, it only made it better, since green is his favorite color! Afterwards we headed back to the van to see the fireworks.

CVS on Thanksgiving Day and other exciting news!!

I went to CVS on Thanksgiving Day! It was awesome!!! There were only a few other crazy CVSer's out that morning, but how could I pass up the mega deals??!! I was at home looking at the ads after breakfast and I saw the CVS ad, so of course I go to it and my heart starts pounding!! Literally! I told Mick, I HAVE to go to CVS. So I laid Emily down for her nap and took off! I spent an hour there and left with over $100 in merchandise and spent $32.00! But the best part is that I now have $41.00 in ECB's to spend! So not only did I stock up on toothpaste and make up and Gatorade and lotion and other items, but I was actually paid to shop there! AWESOME, simply AWESOME!



On to the exciting news in our life right now: Emily's first tooth has popped thru! I felt it for the first time on Thanksgiving Day, guess she really wanted to eat some turkey! Hehehe! She has been drooling like crazy for months now, so we knew it was coming, but it still was shock to feel it for the first time. Bittersweet for sure! My little baby has her 1st tooth!



In other news, I am very relieved to say that I FINALLY started my cycle again! TMI, but after 5 pregnancy tests over the last 14 days, I deserve to celebrate! (Wish I had coupons for them!) My doctors office laughed when I called them and told them I was 11 days late, and they asked if I had taken a test and my reply was: "Yes, 5". I am a girl who is always 28 days, and to not have it come when it was supposed to really freaked me out! After the first 3 tests, and still not cycle, Mick and were talking about how the tests could be wrong, maybe a bad batch etc..and we had both pretty much figured I was pregnant, but just a bit too soon to tell or that the tests must be wrong. We knew that we could handle it, but that it would be a lot harder, but also that it would have been our last for sure. With Emily only 9 months old, life is just starting to settle into a fairly predictable routine and something that I can handle with ease. I went and bought 2 more tests, a different, more expensive, digital brand and they both came back negative as well. Relief and confusion...why was I so late? The doctor said it was from nursing, but I have been nursing for 9 months now with a very predictable cycle and for this to happen really threw me for a loop. So with that said, sorry if I seemed a bit out of it that last 2 weeks, but my mind has been VERY pre-occupied!

$5.00

What can you do with $5.00? Here is what I did today. Went to CVS and purchased $20.00 worth of batteries and paid with coupons and ECB's. My OOP was $1.17. I then realized that I forgot to grab the lotion that I needed to purchase, so went back in and purchased my $20.00 worth of lotion and a few other items and after coupons and ECB's, I paid another $2.00 OOP. So after 2 fast trips to CVS I spent $3.00 and some change and purchased over $40.00 worth of merchandise!

This afternoon I decided to re-cover my dining room chairs. If you have ever seen them, you know they were in desperate need of re-covering. After 3 years with kiddos on them, they looked horrible. There was everything from applesauce and play dough to ketchup and...well...you can use your imagination with 2 little kiddos! LOL And all the kiddos that I have babysat for ;) So I was wanting to find a fabric that could be wiped down easily, but was also not very expensive, so that if it got stained or torn I could easily re-cover it again. I was looking at Wal-Mart and checked all of the fabrics for one that was easily cleaned and could stand up to abuse that children bring. As I was leaving, feeling defeated in my search, I saw it! I spent another $5.00 at Wal-Mart for this fabric. I decided to use a tablecloth! It worked so wonderful and I have to say that I am thrilled with the results! And with the kiddos, I can easily wipe them down after each meal. Plus if one gets torn or a bad stain, I can replace it with what I have left of the tablecloth still! I know it is far from Martha Stewart, but hey, she does not have kiddos climbing all over her stuff! And I do not have to feel guilty about changing them out when I get sick of the current color. I can just run to Wal-Mart and get another tablecloth that matches the house and the season!

I wish I would have taken a before pic, so you could really appreciate all that I have done today and the difference looks amazing!

Last night Mick and I took Emily to Target to do some Christmas and birthday shopping for Luke, since he stayed at my mom's house overnight. I can not wait until Christmas and Luke's birthday, so he can see all the cool new stuff we picked out for him! Next week, we are taking Luke shopping for Emily, I can not wait to see what he picks out for her, I am sure it will be interesting.....I will diffently keep you posted....

Happy Birthday mom and Mike

Kristin, Matt, Emily and Jamie

Emily, my mom and Jamie

Luke and Jamie

We went to my moms house last week to celebrate her birthday (As you can see Luke and Jamie are busy putting candles on the cake). It was fun, but a bit strange since my brother was not there. He moved to Texas 2 weeks ago and this was the 1st family get together since he left. But, his girlfriend, Kristin, brought her laptop and her web cam so we were able to talk to Mike and see him thru that. He is living out of a hotel right now, and can I just say that I feel very bad for that maid! LOL...Luke was a bit confused by the whole process and really did not like it much, but I am sure he will get used to it since that is how we will be communicating with Mike from now on.

The kids and I went with my mom and sister last night to see the Rockettes! They were incrediable! I can not belive how perfect each of their moves were and how in sync they were! It was seriously something that was breathtaking. (Well-not so much for Emily, as she fell asleep) but Luke liked it and today he was talking about seeing baby Jesus on stage. Who knew a 2 year old would remember the part about baby Jesus more than the big Santa Clause number? From an adults stand point the nativity scene was pretty amazing, but so was the Santa Clause scene!

Emily is starting to walk now behind her push toys and she started eating Cheerios last week too! She is also wacing now and clapping her hands too! She is completly head over heels for her big brother too! Luke has started picking her up (which I have put a fast stop too!) and trying to carry her around...especially if she gets too close to his Geo Trax.

That is about all the updates for this week that I can think of...but if something else comes up I will let you know! LOL...Oh our close friends The Penrod's are coming into town the 1st weekend of December, so I am pretty pumped about that too!

Kroger-ing

Get out your thinking caps and calculators.... at least that is what I needed to accomplish this shopping trip. Here is what I purchased at Kroger tonight. They have a mega deal happening right now when you purchase any 10 items in the mega deal category you get $5.oo off your purchase immediately. They limit you to 3 mega deals per transaction, so I did make 2 trips. No biggie tho, I just went out to the van and unloaded my first 6 bags and turned back around and went in for transaction # 2. ;) Everything I bought I had a coupon for and was on sale (that is what my goal is now-to never pay full-price and always use a coupon!) So my total for both transactions was $110.00 and after my coupons and 5 of the mega deals discounts ($25.00 off my total) I spent $49.00 for all of this! I averaged .97 cents for each item! Not to shabby! Here is the list of what I purchased:

2 rolls of Viva paper towels

2 boxes of Orville Redenbocker popcorn

2 bottles Listerine

3 boxes of Extra-Strength Tylenol

2 boxes Betty Crocker instant potatoes

2 bags Pizza Rolls

6 boxes of Soft Pretzels

1 box of batteries

1 box of Swiss Miss

1 bottle of Johnson's baby lotion

3 bags of Betty Crocker cookie mix

2 bottles Welch's juice

18 boxes of cereal

1 bottle of Treseme hairspray

4 tubes Right Guard Deodorant

Thanks right, I bought 50 items for less than a buck a piece! Each receipt shows that I saved 69%, so that makes me feel pretty good! Oh and in case you are wondering-yes we love cereal in this house! It makes a great to-go snack and Emily is getting pretty close to being able to handle Cheerios. Plus Mick and I both enjoy sitting down to a bowl of cereal in the evening once the kiddos are in bed every now and again. I can not wait to go back to Kroger tomorrow, as I saw a lot of items that were not advertised in the mega deal that I have coupons for, which I had left at home.

I like to move it move it!

This is one of my favorite outfits that Emer's has right now (thank you AF!) She looks so old and so stinkin cute! We have had a pretty fun week so far! Last night Mick and I went out to dinner with some of my girlfriends from high school and their hubby's. We all had a great time! We checked out this place downtown called Water Street Wine Cafe and it was really neat! It was a very small place tho and with a group of 9 of us we pretty much took the place over! I had a wonderful glass of blush wine that was oh so yummy! We are meeting next month at a local Italian place that will be pretty good (no, not Avanti's). It was so nice to get out and have some nice adult conversation with no kiddos and no worries! Of the 5 of us 3 of the girls are going to the reunion and 2 of us are not. I am happy that I am not the only one not going of our group. On Wednesday night we watched Facing the Giants with some friends from our life group and again I had a great glass of wine! This one was from Kickapoo Creek Winery and it is one of my favorites! I so enjoy a nice glass of wine with dear friends!

The kids and I went to Safety Town on Wednesday morning and had a good time. Luke drove his Little Tykes car around while I pushed Em in the stroller. We were the only one's there enjoying one of the last nice days before mean ol' Mister Winter arrives. Today we are going to see Madagascar 2 at the theater this afternoon, that will be a good time! Luke is pretty excited and I am thinking that Em will fall asleep in my sling.

Oh boy am I am ever excited to head to Kroger's tomorrow morning! They are having some serious great buys right now and when you pair it with the coupons that I have, I think I will get some seriously sweet deals! Can't wait to plan it out tonight once the kids are in bed....some Friday night fun, huh? LOL.....At least it is my idea of fun! I love it and look at it as a challenge to see how much I can save at the store and I LOVE it even more when the person behind me makes a comment about how much I save. It totally makes my day! Have a great weekend and I will be sure to post about my serious deals later tomorrow!

70 degrees on November 2?

It was a beautiful weekend here in Peoria! The weather has been crazy nice the past few days, so we decided to take advantage of it and have some family fun! We went to Detweiller Park on Saturday afternoon and played football and at the playground and then decided to take a hike in the trails. Luke thought it was the coolest adventure ever to be able to run in the woods! We had fun flipping over dead logs and looking for bugs. We found spiders and worms and other little creatures, we listened for "reindeer" but I think we were too loud. Luke thought it was pretty neat that we were at the top of the hill when we came around a curve, and loved being able to run back down. He rode on Mick's shoulders for a bit and liked reaching up and grabbing the trees also. Emily was in her sling and really enjoyed watching the trees pass by. She played in a swing for a bit and thought that was really neat! We ended up stopping for a quick bit to eat on the way home. What a perfect Saturday! Of course I forgot my camera, but after church on Sunday we headed to the Shoppes and had another great afternoon. I still can not believe this weather!

Reason # 1045....why 2 year olds should not have markers:

Luke did "paper work" this morning with me while Emily napped. He ended up with marker all over his hands and face and arms and of course on the table and chairs.....He even had it behind his ears!