July 4th

We spent the fourth of July with John's parents in Mentone. We didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are a few:

Joshua is still a big fan of bubbles. Too bad bubble machines don't last too long!

Seriously loves some bubbles!

I think Timothy enjoyed the swing.

This was his first time in a swing. Joshua wanted to swing in this swing too....I wish I had gotten a picture of that! He is a bit too tall but he did it anyway. We had a strap swing but he isn't too sure about that yet.

How funny is this!

Checking out some different toys.

These were our fireworks. Timothy would have been scared if we had gone to see real fireworks, & I didn't want to keep them up past their bedtimes. Of course, being in a different place, they were both up past bedtime the first night!

Our child who never naps.....crashing on the way home. He didn't even seem to mind that baby brother was screaming right beside him. Of course, this only lasted about 10 minutes & wide awake again.

Grocery Challenge Week 2

I know you are all dying to know how I did last week & what the plans are this week :)

Four of the recipes I did last week were new....that was a mistake on my part! The beef stir fry was good & very filling. The Italian Pasta Bake was great & I made two so there is one in the freezer. John was not a fan of the Spring & Summer soup....it wasn't bad. I had it for lunch the next day & I think it was better the second day. I think it would have been great in a bread bowl. I have some in the freezer so maybe I will make a bread bowl & try it again! Neither of us liked the pot pie. It just didn't seem to have much flavor. Maybe it is because I have a great chicken pot pie recipe that I got from a friend that we both love. We did do Milo's on Saturday for lunch but used a coupon so only paid for one meal. That didn't fit in the "healthy" category, but John needed a burger after all the other meals that week :) I also did a small trip to Whole Foods to get Joshua some Back to Nature crackers. I had read on a blog that they were on sale for $1.33 per box & had a store coupon for $1 off. Since Joshua goes through 2 boxes a week usually & I pay $2.99 at Publix, you know I ran out to get them. Of course, they weren't on sale at our Whole Foods. I did have the store coupon & manufacturer's coupon for $1 off, so I did get 2 boxes. I think my total for the week was around $66...don't have my receipts in front of me. Oh, I made 2 loaves of chocolate chip banana bread (1 already eaten & 1 frozen) & a loaf of zucchini bread (which Joshua ate!). I made homemade chicken stock....14 cups! I was in the kitchen a lot!

I will say that while trying to plan for this week I thought I would have to give up because it seemed hard to plan for the $75 budget! Anyway, here is the plan for this week for dinners. Breakfasts & lunches will be the same as last week.

Sunday - salmon patties, mac & cheese, green beans
Monday - chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, fruit
Tuesday - sweet shredded pork tacos
Wednesday - leftover pork tacos
Thursday - taco salad with the remaining pork
Friday - chicken fried rice
Saturday - possibly be with family for dinner so not sure yet

I bought almost everything we need for just under $60 I think....that also includes 12 containers of baby food for Timothy since he still gags on real food! The remaining items should cost less than $10 I think.

Recyclebank

Want an easy to get some great coupons? Register with Recyclebank! You take pledges to "be green" & take quizzes to earn points. Points can be redeemed for coupons or other things. I just started last week & have gotten 4 $1 off Back to Nature coupons (Joshua's favorite is Back to Nature Honey Graham sticks!). If you click on the above link & register, I will get 10 points :)

How I Work in the Kitchen

This is what I see when I look down while trying to work in the kitchen:

Or, he is hanging on the the back of my legs. When he does that, I tell John that I feel like a mommy elephant with a baby elephant hanging on to my tail. He really can't stand to be away from me. So, he walks around the kitchen holding on to my legs....and I remember to enjoy it because it won't be long until he doesn't want to be with me all of the time! (Clarification: no, he isn't walking on his own yet...only when he can hold onto something/someone.)

Joshua's Summer

This picture pretty much sums up Joshua:

He seems to be enjoying his summer. This is his first summer in 3 years to not have therapy most days. He is only doing one class once a week & will start his horseback riding again in a few weeks. I have some other things in mind for him but just haven't made the calls yet. Not sure what would keep me too busy to be on the phone :)

I think his favorite thing about summer is anything to do with water. We don't play outside tons since Timothy is still so little (& he hates the water) but Joshua loves it when we do. He doesn't care if it is the sprinkler, the splash pool, or just his sand & water table....he loves it all. The first time I took the splash pool out was quite an experience. I couldn't find the attachment for our air pump so I had to blow the thing up myself. I carried Timothy out with me to take it out back to fill it up so that the water could warm up a little. Joshua was sitting on the couch by the window most of the time watching me. After I finished filling the pool, I dropped the hose on the patio & the handle busted, sending water spraying everywhere. Water was spraying straight towards the gate on the fence, so I was going to get soaked going through the gate to turn the water off. I decided it was better to just walk through the house & go around from the front. That's when I discovered that Joshua had locked me out! After freaking out for a moment, I grabbed the hose to move it so that I could get out without getting soaked. Unfortunately, when I moved it, Timothy got sprayed in the face by a small stream of water (I was holding him, so I got sprayed too). I took him around to turn off the water & saw our neighbor's adult son in her yard. He let me use his phone to call John. Of course, John didn't answer the first time I called so I had to call again. After he stopped laughing at me, he left work to come let me in. The neighbor's son came to the back door & tried to use a credit card to get me in. Then we found out the dead bolt was locked. Joshua was sitting on the couch by the window smiling & watching tv the entire time! Timothy & I hung out in the one spot that actually had shade where I could still see Joshua too. Luckily John doesn't work too far from home! I take me keys with me now if I walk out without Joshua!

Ten Months Old!!

I know....two posts in one day!

He's excited about Miss Rachel on Signing Time.

His new funny face.

Precious Baby!

I took some pictures of Timothy this evening. He is so funny! Hard to believe we will be celebrating his birthday in two months! He is so expressive & has started making a funny face all the time. He loves everything that Joshua does. He has become a fan of Super Why & Signing Time. We have finally gotten to a point that he can eat puffs without gagging. Cheerios still make him gag though. But its progress! He is such a fun little boy & might be the biggest mommy's boy ever! He still crawls after me crying if I leave the room. He cries in the nursery at church; he cries if someone wants to hold him unless he has had at least 20 minutes to warm up; he even cries when I leave him with John sometimes. But, I enjoy being his favorite person :) I know it won't last....Joshua signs "Daddy" at least 100 times a day while John is at work, so I know daddy's day is coming with Timothy too!

Grocery Challenge

Sorry its been a while! I don't think we have taken any pictures lately, so not much to post! Thankfully things have been pretty uneventful around here. These two boys keep me busy though! I forgot how much babies can get into once they are mobile :) We have been having lots of fun the past several weeks since Timothy learned to crawl!

Anyway, I will post more on the boys later. This post is more of an accountability for me, but maybe it will be helpful to someone else. I entered the All You Grocery Challenge. I read about it on Southern Savers on Friday, which was the last day to enter. Basically, you have to prepare healthy meals for your family for $25/person (not including children under 1 year old) per week for 4 weeks. I had just been complaining to John about how much our groceries cost. I have even started couponing (though not as the Extreme Couponers do!) but I still haven't seen much difference. Now, a $75 budget per week for all meals (at home & eating out) seems impossible to me, so this will definitely be a challenge. I am going to post my meal plans weekly on here so that I can keep up with it. I may not make it beyond this week, but hopefully I will. If you can actually stick to that budget please feel free to share your strategies, recipes, etc! I didn't post this earlier because I went shopping yesterday & I wanted to make sure I didn't go over budget on the first shopping trip! One other thing about this challenge - you can use any food that you already have in your house.

So, here is what we are doing this week:

breakfasts: we can choose from cereals, oatmeal, bacon/egg/cheese muffins, fruit, cinnamon rolls
lunchs: Boar's Head sandwiches, PB&J, a few Lean Cuisine meals I already had, tuna salad, chicken salad, peanut butter & banana sandwiches, or maybe leftovers

dinners: Sunday - leftovers from Father's day lunch with family
Monday - broccoli & beef stir fry over brown rice
Tuesday - Spring and Summer Soup & rolls
Wednesday - roasted chicken & probably squash/zucchini ribbons & broccoli/raisin salad
Thursday - Piled High Veggie Pot Pie (using leftover chicken)
Friday - leftover pot pie
Saturday - not sure yet....probably a pasta dish

We will probably eat out once or twice (most likely using coupons from the coupon book we bought from Joshua's school).

I went to Aldi & Publix yesterday to buy everything I need for the week & spent about $55. I already had a lot of fruit that I had just bought the end of last week but I got a bag of apples & some blueberries. I bought a ton of veggies & my grandparents gave us several pounds of squash & zucchini on Saturday. I haven't shopped at Aldi in a while but I thought I would give it a try again since I needed to pick up some sugar, honey & eggs in addition to lots of produce. I know they have much lower prices & I think their veggies are usually pretty good (I haven't been a fan of their fruit though).

I plan to do some baking for snacks. My favorite lately is this Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. I also plan to bake this Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Bread (thanks to all of the zucchini I have to use up!). For lunch today I made these Cinnamon Sugar Sweet Potato Fries. To my delight (& huge surprise) Joshua liked them & asked for more!! We will be making these again. (click on the link & the recipe is at the bottom of the page...I substituted ground oats since I didn't have any ground flaxseed)

Again, please feel free to share any of your secrets with me!