Accidentally catching some ZZZZZZs...

I sent Jackson to his room this afternoon to take a nap before it was time to go camping (the only motivator to the nap!) & he played around in his room forever! I kept saying from the other room, "Jackson, are you in your bed?" & he never would respond, but since he was a quiet busy, i was rolling with it. Well, a little bit later, it was quiet in there so i went in to check & in fact, he was NOT in his bed BUT he was ASLEEP! Whooo Hooo- that is NEVER a guarantee around 1:30 at our house, so i am always thankful when BOTH the boys sleep at the same time.

Where's Jackson? Look Closely.....

There he is! He was surrounded by a mess of toys & used a floor pillow to prop up on....

And he pulled the comforter part way off the bed to cover up with!

Harris Teeter Triples!

Okay, so i told myself that i wasn't going to post pictures of all my savings on this blog because lets face it- that is kinda geeky. But laugh all you want because i will be laughing all the way to the bank! I am so excited over this weeks bargains at Harris Teeter. I don't usually shop there because i think... no, i KNOW, their prices are higher than average for most everything. But i have been shopping at Lowes Foods for the past 6 months because they double coupons up to .99c everyday & combine this with weekly specials & my grocery budget has been cut in half. So i couldn't pass up the opportunity to hit Harris Teeter since they were tripling coupons for 3 days only. You could only use 20 coupons per order & only go through the line one time with them, so we (Rebecca, Jana, & myself) hit two different Harris Teeters in order to maximize the savings! It was loads of fun! The goal is to use mostly .75c coupons (2.25 after tripled) & 50c coupons (1.50 after tripled) to pay less than 50c or $1.00 at worst for most items. MANY items were free with overages & many were less than a quarter!!! So seriously, this is what i got:
(2) boxes of Tide detergent (32 loads each)
(5) bottles of Excedrin 24ct (actually purchased for FREE at Walgreens with $2/off coupon as they were on sale this week for 1.99-regulary 4.99)
(1 )box Reeses snack mix 100 calorie packs
(1 )64 oz bottle of Welchs 100% White Grape Juice
(1) Dukes Mayo
(1) Daisy sour cream
(1)Frozen Grands biscuits
(1)Betty crocker cake icing
(2) Alexia potato nuggets (tater tots)
(2) fat free Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
(2) Frenchs Friend Onions
(2)Harris Teeter brand shredded cheddar cheese (actually used no coupons here, they were just on sale & we needed them)
(2) boxes of Totinos Pizza Rolls
(5) bags of Steamfresh Veggies
(4) smart choice ramen
(1) Betty Crocker Oatmeal cookie mix
(3) boxes Nutrigrain Granola Bars
(4) boxes Nutrigrain Cereal Bars (actually- no coupons here either- they were on sale & we needed them)
(1) box of Texas Toast
(1) box of Uncrustables Sandwiches
(1) bag Snyders Multigrain Pretzel Sticks
(1) bag of Eat Smart Veggie Crisps Chips
(1) bottle Mrs Dash Hamburger Seasoning
(1) box Hungry Jack Pancake Mix
(2) boxes of Uncle Bens Long Grain Wild Rice
(2) cans Cream Mushroom Soup
(2) cans Cream Chicken Soup
And how much did i spend?????...................
Drum Roll Please.........
I spent right at $20!! That is a little more than i would have paid for the 2 boxes of Tide alone or for paying for 4 boxes of Excedrin at full price! It was crazy fun (& crazy tiring)! So, thanks for tolerating my long post about frugality. It made me feel good to share my savings!! And lets face it, if you could get all this for 20 bucks, you'd do it too!

Vroom Vroom....

Eli loves to get into Jackson's things for sure. Wednesday the "thing" was to wear Jackson's "lightning mcqueen" house shoes all day. It was quite cute & he couldn't understand why i kep following him around with the camera. He actually got frustrated with me before it was over with, but he looked so cute & silly at the same time that i couldn't help myself! It was pretty funny to watch him walk in them because he had to really pick up his feet to be able to move in them & so he practically marched all day.

He was pretty sick of me taking his picture at this point! What a face!

Could they be any more handsome?

Here are my cutie pies Easter Sunday. Nanny got them the most adorable outfits- they matched, but not exactly. They each had striped button down shirts with brown linen pants. Eli got a dinosaur tie with matching socks & Jackson got a whale tie with semi matching sailboat socks. But the best part was the shoes- they got too cute brown & creme saddle oxfords! So sweet! It was incredibly difficult to get a great shot of them together though..... Aunt Becca happened to get a GREAT one with her new camera so maybe she will send us a copy (hint hint!)

Egg Hunting & Such...

The boys had no problems putting away all the food & sugar before the big egg hunt Sunday. They got to decorate the cookies they cut out the night before (and Eli especially enjoyed the icing!) & we all participated in an egg relay which the kids did great at! Eli even wanted to try it- but he needed a little help of course. The egg hunt was his most favorite part (and he was a man on a mission!) & in fact when we were done, he placed his bucket down & started signing "More" to us! So Emma, Leah, & Jackson were super sweet & hid more for him to find. Once again, the kids did great & played so cooperatively. It was so nice to be all together with no bickering amongst the little ones (these 4 seem to do that when they get together- thus the age i guess!)

Easter preparations....

Here are our Easter Photos! This was the night before easter over at Aunt Becca's house (very late i might add....) We dyed easter eggs, cut out cookies, & filled plastic eggs for the hunt on Sunday. The kids had a great evening (ordering pizza certainly added to the fun) & got along so well together considering that Eli had a short nap, Jackson had NO nap, & at 10pm we were still going at it! They crashed pretty hard on the way home & slept right through the Easter Bunny's visit!

Fun in Music

This morning was one of our last few music classes of this semester. We are so lucky to have our Aunt Becca who is a certified Kindermusik instructor- so we get to learn all kinds of new music & movement exercises. Here are a few shots from this mornings class courtesy of Theresa & baby Aedon (pretty soon we won't be able to call him a baby anymore!)

here is Aedon & Eli playing with their cups and/or sponges that felt like "dew" - the curriculum is called "dew drops" & is all about spring, flowers, etc......

today they also got to go for a swing in a "hammock"- Aedon & Eli both loved it.....

Eli gets pretty cozy sometimes during the "quiet time"

And he loves to hoard his favorite instrument- the egg shakers!! (by the way- i wet his hair down twice this morning & it STILL did this...)

One of those dreaded talks.....

On the way to preschool this morning, Jackson & i were playing a little game in the car. I would see something, point it out (I see a crane!) & the other would look for it. Everytime Jackson did it to me, i would look for the named object & he would say "OOps, you missed it!" Well, because we were playing this game, he was looking VERY intently out the window as we drove down the road. Well, we passed a cemetary & this is how the conversation went:
J: what's that?
R: What?
J:What them? What them for?
R: (thinking "do i give an honest answer or do i fluff?") Well...when people get really old and really sick, they die, and we put them there.......
J: (Looking really concerned & eyebrows frowning)
R: (Recovering.....) But they really aren't there, they are with Jesus, people just go there to remember people they loved.
J: but WHY?
R: Well..... that is just how the world works (I am fully aware that this wasn't really an answer)
J: I going to learn about this at school tomorrow!
R: I will be sure to tell ms missy that for you, Jackson!

Once we got to school & i told Ms. Missy, she laughed so hard & said, "GREAT! We will have to learn about graves now!"

Another cute thing jackson said to me this morning before the graveside discussion was really adult like- we were still playing the "spy game" & everytime i would look & he would say "You missed it" i would say "Jackson, you are such a booger!" Well, once he said "No i not. I am jackson." So i said, "well you are jackson, but you are also a booger!" And he said, "i not a budder (booger), i am jackson ACTUALLY!" He is so funny to me sometimes!

Daddy's projects

Well as everyone knows, Randy builds mandolins as a hobby & sometimes we sell one & make a little cash. Well his latest project has been to build a guitar for the son of a man who he built a mandolin for years ago. It has been quite the project since all the equipment Randy has to build a mandolin is set up for a mando, which is much smaller than a guitar (and quite honestly, more intricate). He has had to adapt all his equipment as he has gone along which has been frustrating for him (he says he will never do another guitar), but nonetheless he is almost done... Here's the proof....
starting the staining process...
the head stock- this time he used curly maple for the Moss logo inlay (rather than the mother of pearl he uses on the mandos) & i like the vintage look it gives the guitar
here is the back - no staining here, just varnish to bring out the woodgrain & seal/protect...
here is a shot of the guitar once he laid the pickguard & saddle on it to get an idea of how it would look just before stringing it up.....And while this is getting ready to go, he has also just listed one of his mandos for sale. He has been playing it since the end of 2006, so now it is considered a "used" instrument, but hopefully it will go into good hands. It really is a beauty.... Isn't Randy just so talented?!

This picture is cool to me because the mando is so shiny that you can see jackson's reflection on the bottom left, & the refection of Randy taking the photo with the tripod....

Imagination Station...

Today I noticed that Jackson has really been using his imagination! He had about every small toy he owned spread out in the living room, but this time i didn't fuss because he was actually using it all. He had his train set up (a very LONG train) with cargo in each car, stations to stop at with the train (and he used regular matchbox cars here), & then he did the cutest thing. He set up the canvas totes that we use to hold toys as a garage. He would take the train there or a tractor & drop off cargo & animals. It was pretty neat to watch. So i of course got out the camera....

this was my favorite train car... he used a penny for the cargo- i want the money train to stop by my house!

this was the full long train...

here are the train stations...

the garage with unloaded cargo...

parking the tractor in the other garage...

He was very proud of his little train town!

My SWEET boys

I got out my camera the other day & figured out how to take some pretty decent close ups of two of my favorite people......

Eli now loves to stick his tongue out.... he is getting 3 new teeth right now...


For some reason i love Jackson's ears in this picture (along with his great smile of course)...

Oh those baby blues....
More of those baby blues... compliments of their daddy of course!
My fussy face...

Look!

Eli's new favorite pasttime is to point (interject a grunt with this here) & to wave to everything outside. He will stand in one spot & point to every noise (i.e. every squirrel) in the yard. And if it runs away or if a car happens to pass by.... well then he gives a sweet little wave. Before you look at these pictures, know too, that i am WELL aware of the fact that he needs a haircut terribly! These pictures show that off too!