First coupon trip

I bought all the items below
Plus hamburger meat for $20.01 I saved $34.49 with coupons! Some items were even free! Yay me! I'm addicted now! Thanks Brandi!


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If you can't beat 'em join 'em!

I have heard so many couponing success storied lately that I decided what the heck, might as well try it. Lord knows we could use the help on our grocery budget. SO tomorrow my friend Brandi is going to try and explain the whole system to me! I'll let you know how it goes. Until then how do you save on your grocery bill?

The rest...

My sweet little Krews at 11 months, he is a tiny little thing, especially compared to Bulldog who is quite the hoss! I know I say tis every time but he is a wonderfully, happy baby! He is always smiling and laughing. He loves to eat, don't let this tiny little frame fool you, boy can eat! He has taken a few steps here and there but doesn't seem too interested in walking, which suits me fine! He refuses a sippy cup but will take a bottle from time to time. He adores his Nana and Grandpa and his sill older brothers. He is delightful and I am so glad he's mine!!

Tuesday's photo

i know, I know I said i was only going to show one but I could not resist!!

Photo of the day!

Last night I ventured to my dearest friend Heather's house to take some of the pictures for Krews's first birthday invites (sniff), her house is becoming one of my favorite "shoot" sites, which is great because not only is it close it gives me an excuse to see her and her kiddos while I am there! Anyway, the pictures are super cute but I am only going to share one for now. This isn't anywhere near the cutest one but I wanted to save the others for his cards/birthday post. Notice the curls starting to appear?? Yay for curls and Yay for this 11 month old darling baby boy!!

WOW, I'm glad thats over.

The last few weeks have been one disaster after another, but I am happy to say (knock on wood) that things are looking up. It all started when Sunshine came down with the flu, he wasn't too sick so no big deal, I thought. Next I got the flu, and I was horribly sick for a week with not only the flu but a secondary bacterial infection and the stomach flu. Next Bobcat, Bulldog and Krews got it, the flu part wasn't so bad but then they all developed bronchitis/pneumonia and were all VERY sick with that. Luckily during this time there were two snow storms so there was no school anyway. So after two weeks of everyone being sick and being trapped in the house, I thought things were getting better, I was wrong. Next the dog had a seizure, Buttercup got the flu and I for the first time ever had a kidney stone.

For those of you who have never had a kidney stone, let me tell you they are 1000 times worse that labor!! As a matter of fact I would rather give birth to Buttercup, the size she is now than ever have another kidney stone! It was horrible and oddly for me it came with no warning, well at least no typical warnings. I woke up that morning feeling nauseated, but just thought I was still battling the stomach flu. A went on about my day and a few hours later, I vomited and then was struck by the most excruciating pain ever. I began crying and screaming, I grabbed the phone and called Kevin. He came right home but in the 10 or so minutes it took him to get home I had collapsed on the floor and was writhing and screaming in pain. He called my parents to come stay with the kids and knowing I could not wait any longer called an ambulance. It may sound silly but I am so thankful I was able to receive morphine in the ambulance and not have to wait for a car ride and long ER wait time. Shortly after I arrived at the hospital I passed the stone. I still have a smaller stone in my kidney, ugh.. Oh well, this is my life! But things are slowly getting better, the kids, minus Buttercup are all well (she is on the mend) and even the weather is looking better!

I know that these were all small things and our lives could be much worse but in the midst of the last few weeks, I found that hard to imagine. I am so grateful to have a loving husband who has really stepped up and taken care of us all and parents who have been Godsends!! My mother came up several times stayed for days at a time and helped keep the house running. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and the rough times really prove that to me.

Happy Love Day!!

Cookie Monster

Since this little guy has been so sick lately, I decided to give him a treat the other day. He got his first chocolate chip cookie and as you can tell, he really enjoyed it!!

Sadly we are entering week three of flu/bronchitis here:( Most everyone is over it but a Bulldog and Krews are still fighting it. Poor guys they feel so crummy. It makes my heart ache for them and also all the other precious babies around the world that feel this way with no medications and or parents to help.

First Snow

Today I felt well enough to take Krews outside to experience his first snow. I look awful, but this is the first day I have been off the couch in a week, so forgive me! LOL. He seemed to notice right away that something was different and was all smiles until his bare hands touched the cold snow!! The Buttercup, Sunshine and Bulldog were out as well but Bobcat is running a fever and feeling sick so he stayed inside with Nana. The snow has actually been nice since most of us have been under the weather. It has given us all time to slow down and recuperate.

Christian and slightly crunchy

When people see we have five kids they often ask things like"are you Catholic" or "are you trying to tie the Duggars" or some other very clever question like that. And my reply is always "No, we are Christian, we love kids and God has choosen to give us five, the end"
It is funny that people seem to want to push us into some catergory based on the number of kids we have. The truth is we never set out to have or not to have a five kids, it just happened and we are in love with each one. On the other hand we do not feel the need or desire to have 5 more. We truly feel this is a personal decision that each couple should make with God's guidance.

Often people try to push me into other catergories as well, like attachment parent or crunchy or something like that. The truth is I don't think I fit into any of those catergories very well. That said there are a few things from each of these catergories that I do embrace. I do breastfeed exclusivly to at least a year, I do wear my babies in slings, I do co sleep, I do not practice baby wise parenting. I suppose all of those things would lead you to believe I am in fact a "crunchy" mom, but there are several things from this school of thinking that we do not follow, the main being that we do choose to vaccinate our children. I read a lot of blogs of women whom I admire greatly that have different opinions than mine on many of these things but for us, for our family these things work.

I guess our family is just a one of a kind, doesn't fit into catergories kind of family! How about your family, what catergories do you fit (or not fit) into?

Blah

So I know you all are on pins and needles to know what is going on around here. So here it is. It snowed, a record amount, it's Canada cold and I have been sick, sick, sick. In the 10 years we have been married, I have asked Kevin to take complete control of all the kids only twice, this week was number two. I am on day four of being sick as a dog with the flu and a bacterial infection to boot and let me tell you it is horrible!! If this is only a small tingling of how it feels to have your tonsils out, I will keep mine forever no matter how much they need to come out. God bless all of you who have had to have yours out as adults, I have no idea how you survived it.

It's hard to be a mom and sick. Because no matter how good the other caretaker is, kids just want their mom and they find it difficult to leaver her alone no matter how bad she looks. Even though Dad is in the kitchen cooking dinner, they still feel compelled to come and ask Mom (who is sound asleep) whats for dinner!! Oh. well tis the life of a mom.

Kudos to my husband for taking care of all five who were out on snow days for the last three days while I pretty much slept, nursed the baby occasionally and whined. Thank God he was off and could help.