Thursday, April 9, 2009

Happy Birthday Neal!

30...30...30...30...30...30...30...30



Oh no Neal is the BIG 3-0! You finally caught up to me, old man!





Don't worry with age comes...bills, responsibilities and grey hair.





No murder mystery dinner - instead Neal and I are sneaking away next weekend to Vegas. (Thanks to wonderful sisters who love to watch our children for us :-)





Top 3 things I love about Neal:



1. His sense of humor.


2. His intelligence.


3. Being his best friend.





(Oh and I love the gray hair!)





Happy Birthday, My Love!












Sunday, March 29, 2009

Monster Jam!


About a month ago we went to Monster Jam. The boys LOVE monster trucks. We have acquired nearly all of the hot wheel monster trucks. Even Morgan plays with them.

This year instead of buying tickets, we waited to see if we could get free tickets at a meet and greet the day before - we scored!

Here's who went: Devon, Neal, Eli, Dylan, Grandpa Rick, Grandma Pam, Renea, Erin, Charles, Zach, Ethan, Riley, Grandpa Doug, Grandma Karen, and Jen.

Monster Jam is a very entertaining event. They play into the crowds and make sure no one goes home sorry they spend (or in our case didn't spend :-) money on tickets.
We took up nearly a whole row, but our seats were in two separate rows.
Eli at the start of the show.
Dylan and mom having fun at monster jam!
The Steinhour's happy to experience the thrill of monster jam.
Dad, Eli, and Dylan...father/son bonding time.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Counting My Blessings for today

1. Watching the kids eyes sparkle and hearing them laugh as they blow and catch bubbles.

2. Lying in the grass and watching sharks, jellyfish, and ice cream float by.

3. The weather. Is there a place were the weather is always 78 with a slight cool breeze...perfect for shorts and enjoying outside? If there is..."I want to go to there!"

4. Saving money...another great savings day for me. (more on that later...if I get to it)

5. Eating peanut butter M&M (one of my favorite!)

6. Pictures. They make me smile. This is one of Neal as a little boy...Eli is a spit'n image, but you can see some of Dylan and Morgan in this picture!

Now...count your many blessings!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Not to toot my own horn...

but I'm gonna! Coupon update. Here is my year to date savings at Publix. This is the store I shop at 90% of the time...I do hit up CVS every week, but it's a lot harder to track my savings b/c of the way their receipt reads. I also go to Target, Wallie world, and BJ's every so often to get things that don't go on sale or to check prices on expiring coupons that I'd like to use.

As of today (remember just Publix here):

Merchandise Total: $899.35
Out of Pocket: $372.53
Saved: $526.82
That's 59% savings on my groceries so far this year!

It's so good to have most of the food we use regularly on hand plus some. We easily have 1 1/2 - 2 months worth of food in the house and our goal is to have 4 months. I generally spend $150 every 2 1/2 weeks - including diapers and baby stuff I still need.

Sorry for those of you who don't live in J-ville. You can still use coupons and I'm sure there are sites out there that will help you. Just start using Internet and newspaper coupons.

Today's shopping trip was the best in a while:

Merchandise Total: $124.54
OOP: $35.82
Saved: $88.72
Percentage: 72% savings today!

And here's what I got: 2 Lysol All Purpose; 2 Spray and Wash land detergent; 4 Yoplait kids yogurt; 1 ice cream; 2 24oz bags of frozen broccoli; 6 poptarts; 2 Kraft deluxe mac and cheese; 2 Life cereal; 2 betty crocker brownie mixes; 4 Muellers spaghetti; 3 Air filters for AC; 1 Tropicana OJ; 6 8oz Kraft shredded cheese; 1 Electrosal dish det; grapes; onions; strawberries; milk; sour cream.

COUPONING IS WONDERFUL!


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

"It's not a fun party without cake!"

Happy Birthday Dylan! He turned 4 yesterday! We've been celebrating all weekend. Yesterday we had ice cream to celebrate and Dylan says, "Where's the cake? It's not a fun party without cake!" I agree, but we had eaten cake Saturday for a friends party, Sunday for Dylan's family party, Monday for his friend party...and I just didn't want to make another cake.



Sunday we had family over. Dylan's party was.....Pirate themed (he didn't get a pirate party last year when the rest of us had our pirate party.)

The top 3 things Dylan wanted this year:
1. Orange Monster Truck
2. Orange Underwear
3. Orange Shirt
*The monster truck could not be found!


Thanks everyone for all the nice presents!



Monday was our mom swap day, which also happened to be my turn so we just had a small party with some of his primary friends. There are 12 Sunbeam age kids and they all partied at another party on Saturday, so instead of a party with everyone we used the mom swap time as his party.


Then yesterday we did stuff Dylan wanted to do...Hardee's for breakfast, Target to spend his birthday money, and dinner at Moe's.

I know he had a great birthday! He keeps asking me (as I type this) if it's his birthday today and if he's 4.

Happy Birthday to our sweet Dylan!

Monday, February 9, 2009

She walks in them better than I do!

Morgan loves shoes! It's a girl thing! She got some play shoes for Christmas which she loves wearing around the house. But...shoes are shoes and she'll wear dad's, Eli's, Dylan's, and any shoe she finds at Chick-fila not in a cubby. (I've actually had to wrestle a pair of pink rubber boots from her once.)

She's wearing my shoes and her feet fit perfectly in the toe part...that girl can walk better in those shoes then I can.








Friday, February 6, 2009

Your Vote Counts!

So, I need your help....vote for one picture of Morgan and one picture of Dylan.

I know I'm a little bias, but I do think I have the most adorable kids! So I saw an add for a baby contest and the winner gets a college scholarship, so it's worth at least an entrance photo! How hard could taking a photo of them be? Dylan was great, smile and ham it up for the camera. Morgan, however, had a different approach. The first few pictures she'd look up and smile, then she started running from me. For weeks now I've been trying to take a picture of each of them. Seriously, she runs when she sees the camera. She refuses to look up and she runs. It actually makes me laugh.

Remember - one picture of each! I must submit the pictures next week.

Thanks!

Dylan #1



Dylan #2


Dylan #3


Dylan #4


Morgan #1


Morgan #2

Morgan #3


Morgan #4