Circus

My parents and sister took Parkes and Abby James to the circus on Saturday which was a much needed break since Brandon has been traveling almost every weekend to do the Alabama interviews and I am definitely about worn out right now. Parkes had so much fun and has shown me the book he got there about 30 times to tell me what all he saw there. Thanks Grammy, Grandad and Aunt Hayley!!!!!!

Free Photo Album

I just ordered my free photo album from HOORAY. Click here to find out details from www.mommysnacks.blogspot.com. It was valued at $42 and I just paid $7.99 for shipping.

It's cold outside...

and we are staying inside. This has been where Parkes has stayed since Monday afternoon with perks of getting up when the medicine has kicked in and his fever goes away for 30 minutes or so. The good news is that they don't feel it is anything contagious just from extreme constipation...yes potty training has been a fun year and a half experience with Parkes and he is very stubborn and it has finally taken it's toll on his body. The bad news is his fever still isn't going away. So hopefully he'll get some relief soon. We aren't used to him feeling bad for so long as when he gets sick he usually gets over it in just a few hours.

What a Year

We had the boys yearly check-ups today and with that in mind and the fact I have cleaned out almost all the pictures from the computer onto disks and have few to chose from I put a picture of the boys from a year ago for your enjoyment. Cash looks great and is doing everything he should at this point and I'm sure will be walking before we know it or he'll decide to enjoy being carried around a little while longer who knows. He weighed in at 23 lbs (55%) and measured 28" (still below the curve). Parkes had a traumatic doctors appointment as he is having some tummy issues and was in a lot of pain this morning and a low fever, but luckily with the magic of some medicine is doing better this afternoon just not 100% yet. But he weighed in at 36 lbs (75%) and measured 39" (25%). So what the doctor did predict is that Parkes is going to be the giant and be close to my brothers height about 5'7" (yes this is very tall for us) and Cash is going to be the short one and probably be shorter then Brandon, but Cash has the personality to pull it off. It's been a crazy year with adjusting to life with two boys, Brandon working for himself and me starting to teach preschool....I can say I feel completely worn out most days trying to keep up with the boys energy, but that's just life as a mom and it's so worth it.

The Big 1st Birthday

Another picture from Mary Alice. Cash turned one yesterday and even though we did his bday with Parkes we woke up the morning and had some cinnamon rolls to celebrate the occasion. We had our first day back to school so Cash got tons of attention on his special day and lots of singing which I made him clap the whole day in delight.I can't believe he is a year feels like such a fast year. And with how Cash spent his first few months with us he definitely has become a different child. He is now very laid back and happy, and he cracks himself up all the time which is so funny and really makes Parkes laugh. He started out rolling over at 6 weeks and trying to pull up and scoot at 5 months, but now is very content with crawling and doesn't make any attempts to walk on his own and really doesn't like to walk holding my hand because he would rather just crawl by himself. He does not want to be rocked or cuddled which can make it harder at night when he wakes up becasue if we pick him up he thinks it is play time, but after a few trips to put his paci back in he finally usually settles back down. He loves food, most anything unless it is plain veggies he prefers them seasoned to his taste. His favorite game right now is "How big is Cash?" And his favorite toy is a ball...he could spend hours throwing from one side of the room to the other. He has defintely brought so much joy to our family especially Parkes who doesn't understand he can't hug and kiss him all day long. Parkes believes Cash is "his baby"...it will be fun to see what happens as Cash gets bigger and can really tell Parkes what he thinks about the nonstop hugs.As for Parkes since he just turned 4 and never wrote what he was doing now, he too is quite independent and has become quite the chef. He loves to cook and watch the Food Network which works out well for me so we can compromise on shows. He loves Power Rangers and Transformers. I was told by him yesterday after he told me he had to sit in timeout at school yesterday for the first time that the reason was a boy was running by and his "tiger powers" just got him. The things that he says are so funny and he asks questions all day long. He is overly affectionate...I get at least 200 kisses and hugs a day from him. He doesn't sleep near enough, but when he comes out of his room for the 7th time at 10:30 because he "just had to give us a kiss" it makes us smile and forget that we are frustrated. He will talk to whoever will listen to him even if it is the person walking their dog down the street. So that's the boys this year. Brandon too celebrated a birthday on the 6th, but I think he'd appreciate it if I didn't tell what he's been up to and saying....could be pretty funny though.

Savings for 2009

I've been asked several times about the coupon lessons I have learned from my sister when she went to a class given by a local friend of hers and if it really saves that much well according to my cvs receipt I have saved almost $700 for 2008. Of course if you don't have young children in diapers and eating formula then your savings would be less as I buy all that good stuff there with my extra care bucks (ECB - their savings program that print off at the end of the receipt when you have their store card). So as I start over for 2009 with no roll over ECB since I used them to buy some household staples before Christmas I added a sidebar that shows what I am buying at CVS. If you look at the pages of deals on the webpages they can be overwhelming so this is just a easy way to see how you can make it work for you (don't know why it went italic there, but I can't fix it). I will show the coupons I use from the newspaper inserts (there are two in the Sunday paper, Red Plum (RP) and Smart Source (SS)). So it will show a date and then which insert which saves you from ever clipping a coupon until you are actually going to use it.