Little Church Mouse

My little munchin has turned into a mouse! Lately we have found little Caitlin hiding in the cubbard. We open it to find her mouth full of cereal and all the cereal boxes opened and cereal falling out. Must remember to keep the rubber band on the doors!! Then we started finding little bread trails around the house. We keep our buns and rolls on the counter by the stove, and little mousling has figured out how to get them off! She opens the bags and stuffs her face full of bread, then runs away. Or - if she can't get the bag open, she'll just eat right through the bag!! Crazy girl! Well, this is what I found this morning:

I love my little mouse!

Mini Van Mom!

This morning on my way to take Haley to school, I had a funny realization. I am a minivan mom! What? I know, I have been driving a minivan for about 7 months now. But it finally hit me. I have 3 kids, my life feels like it's complete chaos all the time, and - here's the kicker: I'm driving to school, rocking some Veggie Tales really loud, and harmonizing to Noah's Ark! Here's the picture: After a crazy morning of the baby screaming constantly, the toddler whining non stop, and the older one fighting me at every turn, I get in the car and put on some Veggie Tales to calm us down. As we start driving down the road, Jonah starts screaming ... again. Haley can't hear the music, and asks very politly if I could turn up the music (to mask the screaming), I ablidge her. Haley and I start singing and dancing to the music - all of a sudden, Noah's ark comes on - and I realize I am harmonizing to just about every bit of the song. Now, I have no idea if I am doing that right, I am not a good singer, but I sure think it sounds better. :) I stopped mid song and started to laugh and smile. What a joyous life I have! The hard part of my day is just dealing with fussy kids. While this usually gets me all flustered and crazy - this morning I let the goofy Veggie Tales in.

Thank you Lord for silly songs and for your word! Thank you for loving me when I am nuts and when I don't think I can handle one more scream. Thank you for the hope we have in you!

Couponing!!

This picture has nothing to do with my post, just wanted to throw in a picture of my little man.

For a few weeks now, I have been attempting to learn how to use coupons. My awesome sister told me about this web site (southernsavers). Last night I finally got things figured out enough to make my first big trip to Kroger. At first look, I didn't see much that looked like a good deal. But I started checking the items I wanted to get, and wow - what a list I came up with. Between Sunday paper coupons, ecoupons, and internet printables I was able to come away with quite the loot!!

Ok - here is my grocery cart (minus a few things that I had to get that were not on sale - like chicken, lettuce, deli meat).

My Total Should have been: $227 (wow! What a grocery bill!!)

- $26.55 (my coupon total)

- $72.88 (Kroger sales)

{a total of $99.43 off my bill}

= a grand total of $127.57 (what I actually paid)

That means I saved 43%

In this picture below, everything you see was $.49 each!!! How awesome is that??

This last picture is what got me super excited!!

Can you see all that pasta? Yep - it's 12 boxes of good quality pasta!

Guess how much for all those boxes. $.00!!! TOTALLY FREE!!!!

Now that was a fun grocery trip! I am so thankful I went on my own, after the kids went to bed. There would have been NO room in the buggy for the kids (especially two in the buggy).

So was buying some newspapers worth it? Oh yea!

Will I continue to coupon - I am thinking so!

Thanks Dabney for encouraging me to save my family some money!!

Spring Break

This week is Haley's spring break. I was wanting to try to actually DO something on her break, instead of sitting around the house, wasting the days away.

Day 1: Goal - make something yummy. Check! I had baked a strawberry cake a while ago, and put a small one in the freezer for Haley. So, I got it out and thawed it. Haley got to decorate the whole thing on her own! She LOVED it! She skimped on the icing, but overloaded the small flower sprinkles! It did have to look pretty after all. :)

Day 2: no goal - but we went to McDonald's to eat lunch, and played in the play land for about 2 1/2 hours! Both girls had a blast! We even saw some friends from church there, and an old teacher and his kids! And we had fun with the camera, singing an dancing too!

Caitlin giving one of the hundred kisses of the day! Any time she's fussy - you offer her to kiss her brother, and the world is alright again! She LOVES him!

Me and my girls!

Haley loves Jonah too! Especially holding him.

Jonah - 5 seeks old!

Day 3: goal - Zoo with friends. Well, that didn't work out for today, postponed til tomorrow hopefully. :)

Today we didn't do a whole lot, Caitlin is sick - she slept in this morning til 11. Very unheard of for her. So, Haley got to watch some TV and just hang out.

Day 4: Now we got the zoo with friends day! The plan was for all of us to go, but I ended up not feeling well. Haley got to go with some friends, then spent the day with them. Caitlin took a 6 1/2 hour nap, while Jonah and I just hung out.

Day 5: no goal today. Wanted to go to the park, but it just didn't work out. But there might be a movie night tonight!

So all in all, spring break was not a grand week. Just a week of playing hard and relaxing some. Not too bad. Enjoyed hanging out with my girls and playing.

God and Jonah

There are so many reasons why I love my husband. One of them is that he thinks of things in ways that I would never think of. Take our precious son. Jonah. Most people hear the name Jonah, and all they think of is the guy who didn't get it - the guy who tried to run from God, then finally gave in, just to get mad at God for doing something good - like saving a whole city from destruction. Yes, Jonah was that man. BUT - we serve a mighty and gracious God!! A God who pursued Jonah. A God that did not give up on Jonah. Jonah seemed to try his hardest to anger God, but God continually showed grace to this disobedient, complaining man. This is why we chose the name Jonah. Because of how God did not give up on Jonah. Because of the grace shown to him over and over. May our son find favor in the eyes of God, and may God pursue our Jonah to the ends of the earth and back again!

Photos by Grace Images!

Look at those chunky cheeks!

Haley being silly

Caitlin laughing

LOVE sleeping babies!

A little smile there! :)

His hair!! And highlights too!

So peaceful

Wide awake now!

Adorable little lips!

3 Weeks Old

Well, it's been 3 weeks since our little Jonah was born. What a difference one more kids makes. At first, my sister took Caitlin for a whole week! (awesome sister!!) It was nice to spend a good few days adjusting to having a baby again, when Caitlin came home - she really just wanted to be held, a lot. So the next week was an adjustment to having two babies needing Mamma 100% of the time. (hats off to moms with twins, or just kids really close in age) It really just took Caitlin about 3 or 4 days to adjust ok. At first she tried kicking Jonah or pushing him out of my lap. But we worked it out, and she figured he was here to stay. Now, she has to kiss him all the time. She'll run through the house saying "Nonah! Nonah!" and when she gets to him, "isses, isses" (kisses), then kisses his head and usually smears snot all in his hair. He frequently has pb&j on him too. Haley is continuing to be a really sweet helper with him. She doesn't like to hear him cry at all. She'll stop anything she's doing to run to his side, sing him a song, make sure he's got his paci, or just talk to him and tell him it's ok. She's such a sweet big sister to Jonah!

Last Saturday we went to the zoo. Caitlin and Jonah's first trip. Most of the animals were not really out, but we got to see some. It was really just good to get out of the house as a family and do something outside for a while.

Haley showing Caitlin the swans

Jeff with the kids, looking at the wolves

Caitlin making sure Jonah is ok.