This weeks shopping

I won't be doing much shopping this week because I had to buy my dogs food (its expensive because she has to have special food due to her allergies). So after spending $50 of my $100 a week allowance then another $25 filling up my gas tank, that doesn't leave me with much money. But thats not a problem because I have stocked up on enough groceries to last me through next week without a problem. I also made a trip to Walgreens and bought the kids 6 packs of Wrigleys gum (they love gum more than any other treat and I got a good deal on it), Chris some deodorant, and a box of cereal and only spent $.16 out of pocket plus earned another $2 register reward. I still had $2 left over from a few weeks ago.
Other than that, I won't be doing much more shopping. I wish I could find good deals on my dogs food! After I buy two more bags I do get a bag free so that helps a little.
Updated: today me and the kids walked to the produce stand and bought a few fruits and veggies we needed for meals this week and spent just under $9.

My good deals this week

I have been getting some really good deals lately so I'm going to try to keep track of them and see if I can get even better. With the economy as bad as it is and the constant fear of Chris loosing his job, we have been trying to save as much as we can.

For groceries, I have my budget set at $50 a week. I usually do my Shop n Save shopping on Wednesday night after I get off work. I still get my $10 off Thursday coupon plus I don't have to take the three kids with me, which is a huge help. This past Thursday I had an extra bonus $10 off coupon that I earned the week before. I always do my weekly menu planning off of what is on sale along with the coupons I have. This week I did awesome! I saved $60.03 which was 78%! I only spent $16.97. Here is my receipt:Then I got my bread, butter, fruit, and a few other things at Aldi's and spent right under $15.00. My last trip was to Costco for milk, eggs, and a few more things. I spent just under $20.00. So I was able to spend under my $50 limit and I had over a grocery cart of food between the three places!!! Not bad! Oh yeah, I also went to Target with my mom and bought two packages of hot dogs for $.39 after coupons!

My other good deal was on an IPod. As most of you know I have been training for a half marathon but have no music other than Chris' to listen to while I'm running. I've been wanting an IPod so I can use my sister's downloads to load it up for free but I didn't want to spent the money on one. Well I found some at the stores for around $50 but that was still more than I was wanting to spend so I started looking on EBay and Craigslist but didn't want to get a used one. I've been bidding on some for a couple weeks now but they always go more than I would want to spend. I finally won one last night for $31! Its a 2nd generation 1gb (which has plenty of room for the songs I have to download on it). I paid with Paypal which I already had almost $10 on the account from this website: http://www.youdata.com/. After the money I earned off that website, the IPod only cost me out of pocket $21.65 and it was brand new in the box!

Also, I've been wanting to get the kids some swim shirts to help keep the sun off of them since we've been swimming so much. I didn't want to pay too much money so I went to Old Navy for their swim sale. I scored several swim shirts for all three kids plus a couple of swim shorts for Chris for $5 each plus I had a 15% off coupon. I spent about $25.00 for 4 swimshirts and 2 swimsuits. I went back again with my mom who bought all the grandkids some swimsuits plus my dad some. She spent over $50 so she got a coupon for $20 off $20 on a future purchase that she gave me to use, so I'm sure that will be on a future post of good deals I score ;)

So that is it for this week! I will try to do this on a regular basis, more so to keep track for myself than for my two followers of this blog ;)

Joey's 18 month checkup

We went to the doctor yesterday for Joey's 18 month checkup. Here is his stats:
Height 34" ---97th percentile
Weight 27 lbs-----75th percentile
He is a big boy. I asked about his weight because he is so heavy and eats all day, but the doctor said he is perfect because he is so tall. His weight is still under his height so no issues.
We did another iron test and it finally came back normal so no more extra iron meds, just stick with his polyvisol vitamins. Other than that he is a perfect healthy little boy!
I forgot to write in here the words he is now using:
mommy daddy sissy
hi bye more
tractor weeee uh oh
mawmaw dog meow
hot

Joey's 18 month pictures!

Today I had Joey's 18 month pictures taken. I've been really slacking on having this poor kids pictures taken so I figured I had better get on it. They turned out really cute! Here is a few of the pictures.

This is the life!

I have to admit I have a pretty wonderful life right now. We've been spending our summer poolside during the morning hours then heading home for a quick lunch. Joey crashes quickly and the other two are worn out and veg for a few hours. Its pretty nice being able to get things done around the house without entertaining the kids all day. Then run a few miles in the evening to kick start all those wonderful feel good endorphines! I'm loving it!!!!

Happy Birthday Chris!

I want to wish the love of my life a very Happy Birthday!!!!! I love you with all my heart!!!!

I'm signed up!

I did it, I'm signed up for the Lewis and Clark half marathon in September! There is no turning back now! Let the torturous training begin ;)

Joey's first haircut!

Last Friday on Joey's 18 month birthday I took him for his first haircut. I have been dreading this as this is our last baby and I've been trying to keep him a baby for as long as I could plus I was really loving his little curs in the back of his head. But I knew it was time to finally get his hair cleaned up a little. So here are the pictures from his first haircut (I forgot my camera so these were taken with my camera phone so forgive the bad pictures.).
Here is Joey before the haircut, happily playing with the train set. Notice how red his hair looks. Joey getting his haircut. As you can tell from the look on his face he is NOT a happy camper!

Still a very unhappy toddler getting a haircut!Ahhhh! And the final product plus a happy baby! And look all the red is gone and he is now a blond.....boohoo!!!! I really liked his red hair :(And a happy baby picture!!!!

I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast :( I'm really not ready for this yet!!! But he does look so cute and so much older!

Fun at Silver Dollar City!

We spent two of our days on vacation going to Silver Dollar City (one of our very favorite places to go!) The kids had a blast and the weather was perfect. The first day it was a high in the low 70s and we actually had to wear jackets the first few hours there. The second day was in the upper 70s which was perfect to ride a few wet rides.
So here is a few of the pictures of our days at SDC. As you can tell we spent a lot of time riding rides.
Here is Adriana and Andrew on the frog ride. This was the first year Andrew was brave enough to ride it and as you can tell from the picture he was loving it! Adriana and Andrew on the butterfly ride.

Andrew was even brave enough to ride the roller coaster this year. Momma wasn't cool enough for him to ride it with so he wanted to ride it with Kaitlyn instead. In front of them is Adriana and Jacob riding it.The boys playing in the ball area.Andrew winning one of his basketballs (yet another obsession of Andrew's is sports!!!)Time out for a quick nap to re-energizeAdriana and Jacob riding the pirate boat ride.The boys drinking their lemonades.Jacob, Adriana, and Joey playing with floam.

Jacob and Andrew in the school. Andrew wearing a hat he made in school.

And Joey playing with some colored sand.

It was really a lot of fun and we can't wait for our next visit to Branson in the fall!!!!!

Vacationing on the boat!

Last week we went on vacation down at Table Rock Lake with my mom and dad, sister and her kids, and my family. It was so much fun! We spent several of the days on my parents new boat in the Lake, spent a day in Springfield at Bass Pro Shop then eating at Lamberts, and spent a couple of days at Silver Dollar City. The week went by so fast and we stayed busy everyday having a blast!

Here is a few of the pictures we took out on the boat.

The three kids sitting at the front of the boat guiding the way!

Daddy and his boys driving the boat (everybody off the lake!!!!!)My mom and Joey on the raft floating around.Looks like it was too boring for Joey as he fell asleep!Andrew fishing off the boat (as we all know this is one of his favorite things to do!)Andrew and Jacob fishing off of the dock.Paw Paw and his co-captain Joey!I was daring (I mean crazy!) enough to take three kids out rafting with me. Thats me in the raft with my niece Kaitlyn, nephew Jacob, and Adriana.Here we are going at speed. I'm not sure its a good thing when all the kids are yelling to go faster and I'm trying to hold them all in the raft.....crazy kids!!!!!And finally we are so proud of my niece Kaitlyn who learned to water ski this week!!!! Way to go Kaitlyn!!!

So instead of catching up on the million things I need to do, I spent the day playing with the kiddos. First a walk to the library to check out the next set of 20 books that they can't seem to reduce to a smaller amount. Then we went to the pool and spent a couple of hours there playing with some neighbors. Next came home for Joey to take a nap. I read several of the books to the kids then got dinner made. Finally since it was such a beautiful night out I took a walk with the kiddos to Fritz's ice cream for a yummy desert! Wow what a day, now I'm exhausted! Will have to wait until tomorrow to catch up on things........unless, its going to be as nice as they say then I might just have to play hookey again from all my chores!!!!!

Learning to roller skate!

I know I'm way behind on my posts lately so I am trying to catch up. A couple of weeks ago we meet up with a playgroup friend Sarah and her daugher Lily at great skate for a learn how to skate lesson. All three of the kids did reall well and were skating by the end of the session. Then the got to play a few games and stay after for the public session. It was a lot of fun and my kids keep talking about the next time they get to go skating.
Here is a few pictures of them roller skating.

Great Grandpa's birthday!

On Saturday May 30th we celebrated Great Grandpa Weber's 94th birthday. We all went as a big family to the 5:00 mass where the great grandkids were all able to help be a part of the mass. Great Grandpa was very excited to have all his grandkids and great grandkids helping out with the mass. After mass we went to Aunt Evelyns house for food and cake. It was really a great time. I did remember to take my camera into mass, but completely forgot to take pictures. I did get several pictures of the party afterwards.

Here is Joey talking about the good ole days with great grandpa. Here is the three kids with Great Grandpa.Here is Andrew and cousin Gabe having fun wrestling each other.......boys will be boys!!!!Baby Joey hanging out with cousin Angeline.Baby Joey giving Andrew a ride on the tractor.It was a great time! Happy 94th Birthday Great Grandpa!!!!!