Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours-May the Lord richly bless you and your families today and throughout the year as we celebrate His birth. May the true meaning of Christmas be ever present in your daily lives when the decorations are put away and the holiday sales long gone. Merry Christmas!

Aunt Doris

It was a tradition at our house that we got to ONLY open the gifts from Aunt Doris on Christmas Eve. Aunt Doris and my cousins and my Uncle lived in California, and she always sent packages for us that arrived well before Christmas. My Mom would put them under the tree as a form of torture, making us wait until Dec 24 to open them.

I'm happy to say we're continuing the torture/tradition. Today's the day they can open what Aunt Doris has sent for them. Here's what they got:


The game is "Apples to Apples" and both boys were SUPER excited when they opened it; I guess they've both played at school on indoor recess days. We've already played it once. It'll see a LOT of use.

Plus, we'll take a family field trip . Aunt Doris sent a check to get a "family game" and the money left after the purchase of the game will take us to The Henry Ford for a nice day together. Nice one, Aunt Doris!

Photo Gifts

I saw this cute idea on another blog I like to read and thought-AHA! Perfect (last minute) gift for everyone. WHOO HOO!

I normally give out photos of the kids to all our family when we see them at holiday time. This, however, is a bit nicer than just handing a 4x6 photo to someone. I printed off nice candids of each of the kids as well as a group shot of them. Brad purchased a 1" x 6" of MDF and cut it into 4" x 4" squares. I cut my photos to size, painted the edges of the wood blocks black, and glued the photos on.

WARNING---this could be YOUR Christmas present. Act surprised when you open it.








I also like to have the kids make everyone a craft each Christmas. Brendan was supposed to be knitting a little something for everyone, but he kind of underestimated the time for each piece. We ended up making tree ornaments, which was actually a project I did with my Tiger den. It's felt, cut to size and glued (I like Alene's Tacky Glue)on an old CD. I wrote the year on the back of the CD in Sharpie. Again, this could be your gift; act surprised.

A Visit With Santa.

We've been making an annual trip to Dixboro General Store each December to visit with Santa since Brendan was a baby. He's the REAL Santa-he even brings reindeer! It's a nice setup; Santa is outside if the weather is unseasonably warm. Otherwise, you'll find Santa sitting inside the store looking like an amazing window display. Did I mention this is free?

Anyway, we made a few mistakes trying to go visit Santa. First was that we did not feed Bryce his lunch before leaving. Second was we were waiting for Santa when Bryce would normally be winding down for his nap. Third was that while we thought it would be a good idea to arrive a little early before Santa's arrival, it meant that we were early and had to entertain a hungry, tired 22 month old. Fourth was we thought our 22 month old would actually sit and smile and "talk" to Santa.

Since we had to wait, I thought, "Hey-this is a good place for a nice holiday photo of the kids!" (the link takes you to our last holiday photo attempt/disaster)



Bryce started screaming when Santa merely walked in the room (seems that we had the same idea as about 8 other families-arriving BEFORE Santa to try to be first in line. We were 8th.) Bryce screamed and screamed and screamed. We didn't even try to sit him with Santa.



Santa was doing something new this year. He was asking families to each pose with him for a photo. The nice family behind us in line took this shot.



Our visit with Santa actually yielded us a Holiday Photo. Even though I'd like to take it again (without me leaning over like that!) THIS is the holiday photo I've been trying to achieve. Thanks, Santa Claus!

Holiday Photo...Or Maybe Not.

Holiday photo time has arrived!

The boys don't have matching sweaters this year, sadly. The biggest reason is that Brendan is far too big to wear clothes from my favorite matchy-matchy store, The Children's Place. That was so easy-walk in, find 3 sweaters that either match or coordinate, use coupons, walk out. Not so anymore.

I ran out of time, tweaked my back, was sick and honestly, just didn't feel like chasing around, trying to find 3 sweaters for the boys that coordinate.

Good thing.

The holiday photo-well, it was ugly. Really ugly.

I put the boys in nicer sweaters and set them up in front of our tree. Well, I set the older boys up, told them how Bryce was going to be situated, and then forced them to just pose and smile.

Easy, right? The big boys look great!

The problem was Bryce wanted NO PART of holiday photos. I knew it was over when I heard these words come out of my mouth, "Just restrain him long enough for me to get one picture!"

Honest. I swear that's what I said.

Brendan kinda stormed off, muttering under his breath that, "I want no part of torturing Bryce for one picture."

Silly boy. It's not a picture. It's a HOLIDAY PHOTO!

Here's what I got. Is any of it salvageable?

Bryce, just sit in the chair. That's all. Just SIT.









Almost!!! The 2 restraining arms, however, are blocking Bryce's face.








Perfect. Nothing blocking Bryce's SCREAMING face. Nothing at all. If only you could hear how upset he was.













One last try. This is the money shot, people. Maybe not.

The Best Night Ever!

Brett declared that last night, December 19, 2009 was "The Best Night Ever!" He even wrote his declaration out & dated it, leaving a spot for him to declare "The Best Day Ever!"

Really? It was a nice evening, mostly because we had a casual dinner (um, cold cereal) and had nowhere to go. We don't often eat cereal for dinner, but once in a while, it's nice to break things up.

So, what did we do that was so amazing?

1. Ate cold cereal for dinner. (we're prepping them for life in college, I think)
2. Played a game of Uno Attack, which Brett won.
3. Played 2 bracketed rounds of Connect Four; I was the winner both times.
4. Made popcorn (on the stove-they love this)
5. Watched TWO episodes of Survivor.

This made up "the best night ever" as declared by Brett. I think it was a nice evening for all of us.

Digital Nicotine-Update!

I'm pleased to report that my "digital nicotine" (thank you, Brendan) is really paying off. My daily reading of several couponing blogs is really saving us a lot of cash.

I should warn you-I'm addicted to this. You might get addicted, too. Saving money is FUN!

Brad went to Meijer today for our weekly grocery run (yes, seriously, this is what he does! I'm so lucky!) Between coupons and in-store savings, we shaved $100 off our total! Granted, our out of pocket costs today were $191, but that was including some Christmas gifts and more expensive items (like hair color) for me.

Had I not been privy to these couponing blogs we would've saved some off our total, as we always shop the ad and buy what's on sale & try use coupons where we can. Where these blogs have paid off is showing me where to print additional coupons for items that are on sale so I'm paying rock bottom prices on things we would already buy. The blogs also align the ads to past coupon fliers, telling you the date and which flier to get the proper coupon. It's all about maximizing the coupons and sales.

For example, Kellogg's cereal were 5 for $10, plus you got free milk ($2). That's a good deal, BUT the blogs gave me a link for $5 off 4 boxes of Kellogg's cereal! So that meant 5 boxes of cereal were $5 PLUS THE MILK WAS FREE.

I did spend about 2 hours yesterday during Bryce's nap going through the blogs, printing coupons and making a list. Saving $100 off our total means that 2 hours was worth $50/hour. I think I'm worth $50 an hour!

Today I did a small Kroger run, buying diapers, laundry detergent and Diet Pepsi. I spent $16.09 out of pocket and saved $14.00-that's amazing savings for stuff we already use and will need.

Then I got another blog update with coupon links for free orange juice at Meijer. I printed the coupons and handed them off to Brad, as he was going to Meijer (again) anyway, to make some returns. So we actually saved $102.50 today at Meijer. WHOO HOO!

The Wise Men Lead!

Bryce has enjoyed playing with our two children's nativity scenes. I have 2 for little kids and one Playmobil set for the big kids. Bryce has been playing with the pieces, mostly picking up the baby Jesus in his manger and signing "baby". Today, I watched quietly while he lined up a lot of the pieces in a nice line, Wise Men leading them all. It was quite sweet. I expected him to then knock them all off the table and was surprised when he just left them alone.

School Holiday Party

Brett's class holiday party was a success! The kids had 4 stations to go through: cookie decorating (which turned into a "let's see who can pile on the most frosting on one cookie" contest), gift bag decorating, puzzle pack and a colonial craft-pin punch ornament (they just finished up a colonial unit in social studies).

The next day (the last day of school for 2009 as my kids will tell you), the entire school went bowling and came back to school for a pizza lunch. This was a nice ending for both boys-they were hyper before school, they were probably all wound up at bowling and when they came home off the bus they were practically bouncing off the walls.

Christmas Program

The boys were part of the annual Christmas Program at our church. This is Brendan's last year and honestly, it was his best. Both boys did NO complaining about going to rehearsals or working on their lines (which honestly, they really only read through them once at home and had them memorized).

Brendan was Joseph and Brett was Melchior. What amused me was when Joseph and Mary were together-they were actually about 5 feet apart from each other. Tweens!

My temporary camera is not capable of good telephoto shots, so here's a staged shot of the two boys in costume before the production:


The program was great, the kids were amazing and we had a nice fellowship time afterwards with cookies and coffee and lemonade.

Bobcat!

Last night was the Bobcat ceremony at our Pack meeting. We had 17 new Bobcats to give out and Brett was one of them. The ceremony our Pack does involves a little face paint, each symbol representing an aspect of Scouting.

I was not prepared for Brett to freak about the paint; he does NOT like lotion or sunscreen on his face, so I guess I should've realized he'd not prefer face paint on his face. He managed to hang in there for the ceremony (you can see his new rank badge, Bobcat, peeking out under his red vest), and then he made it through photos, then he immediately went to wipe off his face.

Nonetheless, he's very excited about his new Bobcat badge and was bouncing around with all the other 11 Tigers last night after the Pack meeting. He's officially a BOBCAT!

Bundled Up.

Here's the boys, dressed for the bus at 7:01AM today. It was raining cats and dogs and it was cold, so that necessitated raincoats over winter coats. They weren't thrilled. The bus stop is closeby and they wouldn't have to stay dressed as sausages for long. We just didn't them soaked in the 5 minutes they wait for the bus!

Can A Cow Eat A Pig?

Here's Bryce, stealing a little bit of Cow's breakfast, which consisted of a sippy of water and 2 pieces of bacon. Bryce swiped the bacon, leaving Cow the sippy. Which leads me to my question, "Can a cow eat a pig?" In Bryce's world, yes they can!

Cow.

Cow is Bryce's companion. He sleeps with him (well, on him), he drags him all over the house, he tries to take Cow with him when we go places. Lately, Cow has been quite the playmate to Bryce.

Cow likes to jump, to ride the plasma car, he gives "5", and he sits in a high chair while Bryce eats. Cow also is fed from Bryce's bottle and likes to eat the same foods that Bryce does.



And here's a bonus shot of Bryce signing "please" (you kind of rub your hand on your chest):

Digital Nicotine

I've been bitten by the couponing bug. The SERIOUS couponing bug. Ever see those women on TV news shows with their huge binders of coupons and when they buy their groceries, it costs like $3.28 for $127 worth of grocery items? I'm aspiring to be like that.

A Facebook friend got me sucked in, all the way from South Carolina. She kept writing status updates like "I just paid $12.50 for $89 worth of groceries!!!". Every week, she is saving so.much.money! She was kind enough to search the web for me, find a few blogs with stores located in Hockeytown and sent me a bunch of couponing links. The very first time I used the blogs to align my coupons with the sales ads, I was able to stock up on things we regularly use, I spent $14.02 on items that would've been $40.02. I was hooked!

While I'm not quite to the savings level my friend in SC achieves, I am learning so many new techniques and we are definitely spending less on groceries. I'm reading couponing blogs so much that Brendan now calls it "digital nicotine". Nice. True, but still-digital nicotine? I am addicted. Addicted to saving money!

He's Cute, But He's TROUBLE!

Toddlers are funny creatures. They know no limits, no boundaries and can't tell the difference between a Sharpie and a pencil. They also can't tell the difference between a sheet of paper and the refrigerator. Hey-they're both white, right?

I caught Bryce in the act of turning our fridge into a Picasso. Or a Bryce. With a SHARPIE. Whatever. He didn't get too crazy with the Sharpie and it came off, luckily. (And the drawer that the Sharpie came out of? yeah. It has a "child safety latch" installed on it, which translates into "I-can't-open-this-stupid-drawer-because-I'm-not-a-child-latch")

Anyhow, here's the fridge:



And here's what we found in our Christmas tree the other day:



Bryce evidently feels that Christmas ornaments should be big bold booties. Pooh booties, that is. He likes taking different things and chucking them into the tree.

See? He's cute, but he's trouble!

Bus! Bus! Bus!

Bryce is a frequent topic in this blog. While I try to balance it out amongst all the boys, I'm home with Bryce all day and quite honestly, toddlers are funny creatures. He's a constant source of comedic material.

I took him with me the other day to a middle school in the city next door to help sort & gather the MathCounts tshirts for the big boys' school. I forgot about that school district's bus depot being located next door to the school. I only wish I had a video camera for what I saw in my rear view mirror. I caught his hand waving over his head, and when I flipped my mirror down a bit I could see what he was doing.

Bryce was FRANTICALLY signing "bus" over and over and over. He was going totally crazy signing bus. Then he started "counting" them. He just cracks me up. I got a repeat performance when we left the school. Cute stuff.

Bryce signing "bus" while watching the boys get off their bus: