Merry Christmas Eve

Well it's Christmas Eve morning and I'm wide away at 5:45am!! Why? Who knows. Everyone is sound asleep and here I sit. So I figured I would do a blog entry. It has been a rough week but I am hoping today the kids will be good for Santa to return tonight with their gifts. We are going to track Santa on NORAD, which I have already been doing! Also on my phone too! We are going to make sure we set out cookies and milk for Santa, head up to my parents for an early dinner, then go to Christmas mass at church, back up to my parents to open gifts there. After that we will all head back home to sleep at our house, put out cookies, say farewell to Murry, our new adopted elf that will watch over us next year and report to Santa himself. Then off to bed for the little ones.

We will then work our 'elfy magic' to help Santa put out gifts, and put a few together. Which reminds me we better go get some much needed batteries and garbage bags! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with their family and friends. I do miss my family up north and can not wait to see everyone next year when we visit. I also miss performing in the Nutcracker too! I watched a 2000 video last night and felt 'CFB homesick.' Well time for family now and can't wait to see the kids faces tonight and tomorrow!! I am very blessed with the family that I have, even when I complain that they are bad.

With much love, have a wonderful Christmas!!
Picture/video will come soon!

Formal Christmas Pictures

Well not the best family Christmas picture but it will do. It was very cold this day and we took pictures really fast!! Michelle is great at getting the kids to smile and takes amazing pictures. Thank you Michelle for getting the pictures that you did in such a short amount of time, what like 5min!!

Brinlee was sick and freezing, so was Bella (that's why she is hunched over.) Brinlee would not take a picture with the twins, her poor lips were turning blue and she was shivering so bad!

Pictures with Santa!!

Today wen ventured out to get pictures taken with Santa like we do every year at Downtown Disney. I wasn't sure how well it was going to go, one the weather was iffy, and the kids were in a mood, but we went anyway. The line was short, surprisingly! Brinlee starts crying once she see's Santa around the corner and my heart sunk but said to myself 'Oh well she's taking a picture anyway!'

Santa was very nice and talked to Brinlee first while I held her. She told him what she wanted...Minnie Mouse stuff. She did give him a 'high five.' (While giving her Brinlee face as usual) Quinn walked up to him and told him his name and what he wanted for Christmas...a bike. Quinn was very brave and did awesome!! Bella wanted Daddy to hold her, she was very frightened but told Santa her name and what she wanted too...a bike. We were able to get Brinlee's hands out of her mouth and her to smile big!!

After that Santa asked Bella if she would take a picture with him by herself so he could show Minnie Mouse. She wasn't too sure but she did it with flying colors!!

Quinn also took a picture with Santa by himself and looked so proud too!

Brinlee of course was not going to take another picture with Santa, she did the picture that she promised me...taking one picture with Santa and telling him what he wanted. Smart 2 yr old haha! Bella and Quinn did take a picture with Santa together, the neat thing about this is that when they were 6mo old they sat on the same side!! Here are the 2 pictures. Ok do you see a trend starting here once again? Yes I am going to get a picture of the 2 of them each year with Santa and on the same sides.

2006 - 5mo old

2010 - 4yrs old

12 Days of Christmas...Nanny Style

My Mom started a new tradition with the kids, it's the 12 days of Christmas and it's call the 'Hot & Cold Game.' They really like it, basically it goes like this. Nanny buys them little gifts for 12 days. She creates clues and puts them in the little tins in the 12 days of Christmas wreath that she made. Each day one of the twins opens the tin, we read them the clue of what the gift is and then they have to find it! We tell them if they are getting cold or hot when they near the gift, wherever it is hidden.

I will update this post with each day...enjoy looking!

On the first day of Christmas Nanny gave to us... Some really fun lights!

 

On the second day of Christmas Nanny gave to us... some really cool Christmas Socks!

On the third  day of Christmas Nanny gave to us.... yummy Skittles Santa candy.

On the fourth day of Christmas Nanny gave to us...A fun Christmas book!

Brinlee doing I have no idea what?!?

Quinn didn't want his picture taken, but the girls did!

On the fifth day of Christmas Nanny gave to us...some fun grabby things and a writing pad.

On the sixth day of Christmas Nanny gave to us...sock for entire week!

Quinn said, 'More socks?'

On the seventh day of Christmas Nanny gave to us...some huge bags of candy! (Mommy and Daddy keep out!) 

On the eighth day of Christmas Nanny gave to us... fun punching balloons!

(For some reason these pictures disappeared from my camera!)

On the ninth day of Christmas Nanny gave to us... a matchbox car to play with.

On the tenth day of Christmas Nanny gave to us... yummy cookies to eat!

On the eleventh day of Christmas Nanny gave to us...some more matchbox cars! Cool!

Brinlee was a little excited, this was her pose.

On the twelfth day of Christmas Nanny gave to us... a fun tool set, some diapers for my dolly and some blinged out dress up shoes!

LOVES her new shoes!!

Just Keep Saving, Saving, Saving...

Yes I know I haven't posted on here in a long time! Better late than never, busy times here. Anyway had to share my wonderful savings today!! Are you ready? I had to go to Publix for a few things, mostly the BOGO and did extremely well, you gotta love those BOGO deals topped with coupons and then those that also have competitor coupons as well...A STEAL!

For everything you see in the picture, minus Bella and Brinlee my total was:
Without in store savings/BOGO/coupons total would have been: $99.62
Special Price Savings: $41.09
Vendor Coupons: $16.65
Store Coupons (Competitors coupon from Winn Dixie for $5 off $50 or more): $5
Total Savings: $62.74
I had a giftcard as a gift: $20
So my total OOP was: $16.87!! Still without the giftcard my OOP would have been only $36.87

My items in my cart were:

(* = Coupon, BOGO= BOGO offer, ^= Sale)

Hot Dog buns

2 Bic Lighters BOGO **

2 6pk Orville Popcorns BOGO **

2 Ritz Munchables BOGO **

1 Danimals yogurts *^

2 Ragu pasta sauces ^

2 Jimmy Deans Sausages BOGO *

19 Yoplait yogurts ^ ***

2 Chex Mix Cereals BOGO *

2 Lays Potato Chips BOGO

2 Crisco Oils BOGO **

2 Mulluers Pastas BOGO ***

4 2ltr Publix Sodas ^

2 Musclemanns Applesauces BOGO

2 Publix Sweet teas BOGO

1 head lettuce

2 Sunmaid Raisins ^ *

2 Fantastik Cleaners BOGO **

I want to thank my most amazing, talented, thoughtful boss, Jamie for the Publix giftcard, it was put to really good use!! If you want to know how to save like I did here, saving more than you spend, sign up for one of my Cre8tive Couponing classes or ask about holding a Cre8tive Couponing Party! Believe me it's worth it, don't believe me ask those that have taken my class, you can save more than you spend. My pantry and stockpile is STOCKED, I think I need another pantry to hold even more!

Getting Tubes and speech Therapy

I wanted to update our family and friends on what has been going on with Quinn. Since he started talking I thought there was something different. He could never completely sound out words correctly. Some he could and some he couldn't. I know boys develop slower than girls so we waited. After talking to the pediatrician she suggested he see an ENT and get a Speech Evaluation done. After waiting forever to get an appointment we have some answers.

The outcome is after seeing an ENT specialist he was given medicine to try to clear out the fluid in his ears, which he didn't want to take at all. We went back for a re-check and his tympanogram (sp?) in his right here was flat line, and the left was just a hump. They are supposed to show a huge spike. Basically the way they explained it is that he hears things muffled as if he is under water but much thicker fluid, or when you are in an airplane. The ENT Dr. said that after 2mo the fluid in his ear should have gone away if it was just an ear infection, but with it being there still, and this test showing this it's not going away with any help. So he will have surgery on Nov. 11th to get tubes put in. We hope this will help as well as help his speech.

Quinn had to go twice for the speech evaluation. The first time showed that he was right where he needs to be, but the specialist in the articulation wasn't there so they wanted to bring him back to be screened again and more thorough since she couldn't understand him when trying to get him to talk in sentences. So we went back and the articulation test showed that is his below average for his age. She had to ask me, or look at me to see what he said. She was very good with him! His speech evaluation through the school board (ESE)shows that he is slurring his words and leaving off the endings. As well as the middle of the words not being correct. This could be due to his ears as well, she said that the tubes will help with therapy too! So we are waiting to hear about our meeting with the zoned school, and he will have speech therapy in addition to VPK. So another appt. to work into the week. At least we caught it early enough and with the tubes being put in we hope to see a HUGE improvement. (I'm hoping this will help the meltdowns we have too!) Other than that Quinn loves school! He goes there very shy but comes out with a smile ear to ear!!

I will keep you all posted on how the surgery goes and the speech therapy. We hope it all goes well!

Sarah's 30th B-Day Minute to Win It Games

OK so here are the games we are going to attempt to play...If you are lucky enough to be reading this before the party, you can see what game you'd like to play. Alright got all the videos embedded. I can't wait to see if we can actually do these. Ready for a good time and laughs? You bet!!

*All of these games are from the NBC Minute To Win It Site*

Don't Blow the Joker


Keep It Up


Spoon Frog


Face the Cookie


Extreme Hanky Panky


Scary Cherry


Stack Attack


Johnny Applestack


Keep the Change


Tweeze Me


Bulb Balance


How's it Hangin'


Penny Hose


Suck it Up


Noodling Around


Separation Anxiety


Chocolate Unicorn


Dizzy Mummy


Movin' on Up


Elephant March


Nose Dive


What a Racquet


Office Dominoes*We will do this one with CD cases, 15-20 of them and a garbage can*


Caddy Stack


Hangnails


High Strung


Magic Carpet Ride


Matchmaker


Stick the Landing


Rapid Fire

Please help me win! I entered the Glade design a candle contest. Please help me WIN!! Follow the link and vote vote vote for my design. I called it 'Presence of Peace' definitely what I need around here some days. If I win they will make it for purchase in all stores. Woo Hoo!!
Please vote everyday, I need all I can get!

VOTE HERE 

2 Days 2 Rooms

Yes in 2 days we painted 2 rooms and swapped the kids over. The girls got Quinn's room and Quinn got the girls rooms. Took 1 can of primer to cover everything in each room. I really didn't think we would accomplish this in 2 days, with most of the work today on Labor Day. Thanks to the help of our good friend Derby we got it almost all done. Our house is a complete mess again, but just because I have to put all the toys back into their rooms. At least the girls will have more room, and more closet space, it looks really cute.

We aren't done with the girls room yet we want to add crown molding above the stripes that we painted, but no money for that. In time that will come next. Quinn's room still needs specialty paintings on the walls by me and both rooms need the curtains yet. My mom should be finished with those this week.

Yes I do have pics, I will post them later this week when I'm not so exhausted! The twins came by today, they were staying at my parents house so we could get things done, but they stopped by to take a 'peek' at their rooms and seemed to really like them in the 'in progress' stage. It will be nice to see their faces tomorrow when they see them done, well 90% done.

OK better go finish organizing toys, and picking up so I don't trip over things in the morning and kill myself!

Kids Update

A quick note, check out the kids school blog to follow their first time through VPK. I have scanned and posted the papers that they have brought home so far. They think it's neat to see them up on the blog. I am going to update what they do weekly, adding what they tell me that is new each day to a weekly post, but check it as often as you like. And when they bring home papers and projects I will add those too their 'Papers' pages.

Gotta think of something for Brinlee so she doesn't feel left out. Ok enough for tonight, I'm not feeling well and need to go get some rest. Enjoy their blog!

You can find it here: http://www.coneschooldays.blogspot.com