Service project

Thanks to the Cub Scout program we have a lot going on at our house every week.  We are always looking for ways to complete the requirements that Victor needs to accomplish to get his achievements.  It has been so fun working with him as well as challenging.  He has his own mind and ways to do things and will not listen to advice or ideas but in the end he can see the results and realizes that I can give some good advice.  He has been doing great and this month he was able to fulfill the requirements for the Leave no Trace Behind award.  He was so excited to get it. He also got a couple of academic belt loops and his first red bead.  He made a poster about the guidelines for the Leave no trace behind award and shared with everyone what he did to earn it.  He also brought pictures of the service project we did for our neighborhood.
Our service project consisted of picking up trash around the neighborhood. We put a plastic bag on the wagon and just walked all over and pick up trash as we go.  It can be fun and annoying some times, the first time we did this project Victor insisted on wearing gloves so he would not get yucky stuff on his hands, this time we picked up mostly news papers and plastic bottles so he thought he was safe...





 Here is Shayna trying out my bike while pulling Kahlan in the trailer.


 Kahlan was sleeping inside the trailer during the entire thing.

So he keeps progressing and getting recognized for his progress and that is a great thing for him, I think he likes the spotlight.

My version of "Extreme couponing"

While living in Utah I had the opportunity to experience what it was like shopping with coupons.  I had done it in the pass with not a lot of success but after finding out that you could save up to %50 of your grocery bill I decided to try it out.  I did save lots of money but found that it took way too long to match the adds with the coupons and I had to pay $5.00 a month to get access to a website that would tell me exactly what coupons to use and when... I missed out on a lot of deals because I didn't always get the Sunday paper.  After moving to Texas I found a better way to shop for me that worked just fin (dollar stores/Walmart and Kroger).  Now with the new show that came up I decided to try it up again but this time I am not willing to sacrifice all of my time to work on coupons so I am concentrating on two stores mainly and it worked great this week.  I had close to $100.00 worth of free products and brand names which was a plus.  Here are my best deals and I got them at Walgreens and CVS of all places :)  Even Dan made a trip to the Dollar General store with me and saw me in action.  I feel good about my savings and the thing is that on top of all the savings I got extra coupons to use on my next purchases, $13.00 all together which will get me free paper towels and some much needed razor refills.
Here are my best buys:

*The Nivea body washes (2 for Dan and 1 for me) are like $5 or $6 but they were on sale for $3.88 and I had 3 coupons for $3.00 off so I got them for $0.88 at CVS and then I got one more at Walgreens for $0.78
*Aquafresh toothpaste for kids was $2.99,  two coupons combined for $2.00 off and I got it for $0.99
*The Head and Shoulders was on sale buy one get one 50% off so I got two sets because I had two coupons to buy one and get one free which meant all 4 where $5.49 instead of paying $21.96 for all four.
*By getting the 4 hair products on the bottom (which I use all the time) for $14.00, they gave me a coupon for a future purchase of $4.00 which I later used to get my razor refills for $1.25 instead of $12.00 (those things sure are expensive)
*The razor was on sale for $8.99 and I had a coupon for it so I was able to get it for $4.99 instead of $12.00

 *409 cleaner is usually $2.99, I had an in store coupon for $1.00 off and a regular coupon for $1.00 off so I paid $0.99
*The Ajax and the gloves were both 2 for $1.00 (Walgreens coupon)
*The can goods were pretty much either two for $.50 or $.25 each and the Jello two for $.50 too.

This was at Dollar General, they had the Lysol products 3 for $5.00 ($1.66 per product) and then I had 6 different coupons for each item that were $2.00 off on one set and $2.50 off on the other set so each item was like $0.90  or a little under that, that was for the Clorox wipes too.  The tooth brushes where awesome, a two pack that sells for $2.00 and I had two coupons that gave me $2.50 off on a purchase of two and two coupons for a $1.00 off when you buy one.  I got 6 sets and instead of paying $12.00 I paid $5.00, it was not free but a good deal non the less.
The diapers were on sale for $9.00 instead of $11.00 and I had a coupon for $2.00 off, so I got them for $7.00, not bad either.
I still need to go and get my free paper towels since they were out of them but seriously it was a good day for me.  I wont have to buy a lot of cleaning products or shampoo for a while, probably the next 6 months.  I don't feel the need to go and buy hundreds of items like the crazy people in the show but every once in a while it feels good to save over 50% or more of your purchases.

I don't like it when...

People are really nice most of the time, when it comes to babies you pretty much hear how cute they are and how they are changing and growing, how they look like you or how they are a good mix.  I don't mind people saying all those things but why oh why do I get so irritated when they tell me how small Kahlan is... seriously I have seen smaller babies out there.  Friday night we had our ice cream social at the church and I was really excited to go, it was so funny that everybody would see us with Kahlan and immediately say how cute she was and how tiny, almost everybody said the same thing, after the third time I was like OK I know my baby is small.  Then there was this one sister that commented how small she was, then while somebody was commenting on how small Kahlan was once again this same sister said "she is extremely tiny!!!"  by that point I was really annoyed and said "she is not extremely tiny, I know she is small"... she kept saying it over and over...    I guess she has no clue that I hear it all the time but it really made me uncomfortable.  After that I just kept thinking about my own issues with height that I have had all my life and it made me sad for Kahlan because she is probably going to go through the same thing all her life.  Shayna was also a small baby, even family members told me that there had to be something wrong with her because her size was just not normal at all and when I took my concerns to the doctor he would tell me that there was nothing wrong with her and that as long as there was progress on her growing chart that was good and that most of the American people think that rolls and heavy babies equal good health and that's supposed to be normal when in reality my babies have the perfect size.
I would never go to a person with a fat baby and say "what is wrong with your baby he is so fat". 
I do appreciate the nice comments :)  I think my baby is perfect just the way she is and that if she were any bigger it would really kill my back, hey I am small, she takes after me and like my mom used to say to me when I was little "the best fragrances come in small bottles".

P.S.  I have nothing against the above mentioned sister, she is really nice and always saying nice things about my kids... she just touched a sore spot.

We went camping... finally!

After many many many times of begging Dan to go camping he finally told me to go ahead and get everything ready to go.  Last time we went camping was close to five years ago when I was pregnant with Aaron, we had a great time camping with the Arizona Browns that we really wanted to do it again.  We already had the tent and some sleeping bags, our cool outdoor stove and folding chairs so we were pretty much set up and after getting some last minute things and food we loaded up the van and off we went to the Houston Lake State Park just to be told they were full.  I had no idea that so many people were going to be there that weekend.  Then we tried last week again but this time I made a reservation ahead of time and got a spot for a Friday night.  This meant that I was going to be the one setting up the tent and that I was going to be by myself with the kids for a couple of hours before Dan got there. 
Our tent all set up, we did a good job :)

Thanks to Shayna who is really smart we were able to set up the tent after an hour and a half.  We got the perfect camping spot way way in the back away from any other sites and we pretty much could not see them at all.  
The only bad thing was that I did not have cash for the firewood and they promised to deliver it anyways and then collect the money after Dan got there but they didn't. 


 The kids were in 7th heaven running around and exploring as much as they could, basically running wild without that much supervision. 

Dan and I took care of dinner and soon after did some marshmallow burning (they literally caught on fire), it was fun to see Dan teaching the kids how to do it right.
Victor had to pass some Scout requirements so we made a couple of smores but nobody liked them so we ended up just eating the marshmallows.
Just before we went to bed the kids ran around some more in the dark and chased fireflies.  Kahlan only had one crying fit that night and after that she stayed asleep most of the night, we slept with one of the window open so we could enjoy the nice fresh air.

I have to say that all the kids slept just fine and surprisingly enough they did not wake up when some creature out there was howling like crazy (I was scared for a while).  The noises finally quieted down and I slept just fine.

Our tent is so big that it even fits our pack and play.




 We used the buddy system the entire time we were there, Victor was supposed to stay with Aaron and Shayna was always attached to Tristan (or most of the time).


Kahlan sleeping like an angel in my sleeping bag after her morning feed.

After we all woke up, cooked some breakfast and started to clean up our site a little bit.  We went on a nature walk looking for sticks, bugs, leaves and rocks (at Victor's request) and found some cool spots to throw rocks and sticks in the water.

 Shayna even found one of her favorite animals... a cute little frog.

 

 

 Dan was trying to teach Victor how to take the bark off the stick they found while on our walk, too bad we left soon after... Victor was sad he didn't get to finish it.

It wasn't perfect of course because with kids it never is but even with their crying and whining in the end they told us that it was really fun and want to do it again.  I guess we will have to try it in the winter next time and see how it goes.  I love being outdoors and enjoy nature, I am so glad we were able to do it before it got really hot and humid.


This face says it all, they had fun!

It's the simple things...

Oh what a joy it is to have my sweet little baby go to sleep on her own for the second afternoon in a row, will it happen again tomorrow?  Probably not but today it makes me happy :)

Yesterday at the store I notice this old lady looking at me and my kids, at first I thought she was annoyed at me for having two kids (people do get annoyed when they see me walk around the store with a 4 year old and a crying baby), after I got out of the store I noticed the old lady standing there and she started to walk towards me, I started to walk faster and trying to put my now sleepy baby in the car.  The lady was quicker than I thought and made it to my car and asked if she could see "my sweet baby", I was surprised by that and said sure, why not?  Then she told me how she noticed me in the store with my kids and she looked for me because she wanted to see the baby and she thought she was the cutest thing, then she asked if she could kiss the baby, I agreed and she kissed her.  She was so grateful and had tears in her eyes, it made me wonder why.. but I will never know.  Anyways the family seemed to be grateful to me for letting her kiss the baby, I thought she was so sweet and it totally made my day. 

I am telling you it's the simple things that make my life happier.