Where's his tooth?

So, this afternoon we were all playing outside and Austin freaked out because he accidently pulled his own tooth out and couldn't find it. I don't think he expected there to be blood involved either. Austin was standing in the driveway when he lost it, so imagine looking for something the size of a pebble amongst little pebbles. Barry found it after about 10 minutes. Austin calmed down once I told him all the cool things he could do with food and spit now that he has a window in his teeth. Somehow, he knows about the Tooth Fairy. Actually, Kendal brought it up...

My Publix Trip

Here's my recent trip to Publix. That's Austin giving me a high-5, Kendal hiding (maybe I'm embarrassing her), and Hannah thinking I'm crazy. My total was $75.94 and I saved $93.19!!! I was able to stock up on some items and picked up some rainchecked items from last week. I know that most of that savings is because Publix is higher to begin with, but I would be spending at least $100 at Target buying store brand and never stocking up.

More pics/stories of the kids for those family members who read and think I'm crazy for taking pics of food!

Back In The Swing Of Things

I have been SOOO behind on clipping coupons and getting them organized, so I haven't been frugal shopping the past few weeks. After throwing down around $100 at Target for groceries a couple times I was motivated to get back in the game. Here's how I did:

CVS

I spent $5.08 on the items to the left with $9.99 ECBs. Not bad.

Publix

My Grand Total was $26.89 with a Savings of $49.63!!! I was very excited to find that $5 off $30 coupon in the Wed. paper that comes in the mail. I also got some rainchecks for the deals they were out of.

CVS (again)

Bounty 8 roll and some Crest Pro Health toothpaste for a Total of $1.69 and left with $3.49 ECBs earned in that trip and I still have $2.99 ECBs from the earlier trip.

Which leads me to the topic of paper towels. Not all paper towels are created equal. I really love Bounty. I've tried others, they just don't do it for me. I know the Strategic Shopping Lady from church says to NEVER buy paper towels, but I just can't quit them. I've cut back, though, by using the cloth napkins we received as wedding presents and have yet to use. My mother in law bought me some recently, also. (Thank You, Kathy!) But I have this thing against sponges and dish rags. They just scream germs to me, and Bounty is tough enough to use when you need to hand wash dishes. Select-a-size basic white is my preference. I also am blessed with a glass kitchen table which gets Windexed and Bountied at least 3 times a day. I'm just not ready to part from it. I tried using newspaper once to clean the table off with; that lasted one day, not for lack of efficiency, just mainly convenience. As for Windex, I saw that Glass Plus is BOGO this week at Publix. We'll see if it measures up.

What are some thing that are just not worth being frugal over for you?

Doodlebug

Here's Hannah crawling at the High Museum of Art. She started doing a few 'crawls' when we first got to Atlanta, then I looked down that day and there she was crawling all over the place. Of course she does it when we're away so Barry misses it. Kendal did that with walking. At least I got them on video.

It seems that she has been changing a bunch lately. Still no teeth, but she has discovered Cheerios and loves them! Last night I found her STANDING up in her crib holding on the rail. She is branching out in vocabulary from "Mama" and "Dada" to "Bye" while turning her little hand toward herself and waving it. She also started signing "All done" by lifting her hands up and saying "D". 

Spring Break

We went to Atlanta for Spring Break to visit with Barry's aunt and uncle. I wish Barry could have gone with us, but it just wasn't possible with his current schedule. We have been in the habit of going to Atlanta every year, but it was always Atlanta's Spring Break. I thought that since we were going during B'ham's and not Atlanta's it wouldn't be so crowded; not the case. We got the City Pass and did it in 7 days.

FRIDAY: We went to the zoo. It was almost perfect weather. Every time I've been there it has been VERY warm. This time it was a little cool. It looked like it was going to rain all day. I suppose that kept others from venturing there because it was not crowded at all. My friend met up with us there with her son. The kids had a great time. They enjoyed petting the animals, watching the lion roar (the lion at our zoo is always sleeping just far enough away to where you can't see it, so this was neat), and playing on the playground in the children's area.

SATURDAY: We went to Fernbank. This is one of Austin's favorite places to go. They had a dinosaur exhibit there and the kids love the playrooms. No pictures. Sorry.

SUNDAY: To the Dollar Theater we went to see Bolt since it was raining out and we were trying to avoid downtown that day. There was a guy in the mall making balloon swords and flowers for the kids. They had a blast. There was a stage set up and all the boys were sword fighting and then there's Kendal in the midst of them skipping around with her flower. 

MONDAY: The Aquarium! This is the one place I was really looking forward to not being so crowded, but no such luck. Kendal's favorite part was when, "Billy swam in my mouth!" We saw the 4-D movie and the little fish, Billy, looked like it swam in her mouth. Here's Aunt Jenny and the kids petting the sting rays and sharks.
This is inside the shark tunnel where the kids are riding through the tank.


TUESDAY: Barry's cousin and her son came to play with us that afternoon. We headed off for a local park we had been to when Austin was a toddler. This is what we found instead: a new city hall with cute little shops surrounding a big grass field. After a few round of tackling each other we found another park. There was a trail that was next to the park. We thought the kids would enjoy that. ONE HOUR later we found our way back. 
WEDNESDAY: The CNN studio tour and The World of Coke. The CNN tour was interesting. They have an escalator that is 8 stories high. We ate lunch there then walked over to The World of Coke. The kids really enjoyed that. Here they are sitting on the American Idol couch.

In the tasting room:

THURSDAY: The High Museum of Art. So, we had a hard time finding the place and parking issues, but when we finally got there it was worth it. It was Toddler Thursday and they had an impressionist painting for them to look at in the gallery, there was someone to read them stories (we missed that), then they got to paint their own version of that piece using polka dots. It was really neat. I need to look into our art museum to see if they offer any programs for children. They also had an interactive play room for kids. I think Austin is an architect in the making.
No pictures please!
Hmm... I had more picture uploaded and now they are gone. More to come. Its my bedtime.

My Girls

Kendal had her dance pictures today. She looked so cute in her costumes. When we got there some of the moms were putting mascara and lipstick on their girls. I just don't want to start all that at 4. She already has told me recently that she is not beautiful and that Ariel is beautiful. She wants red hair so she can be beautiful like Ariel. She said it so seriously and sad that I wanted to cry. I need to make a point of building her up more now.

This first one they are tapping to E-I-E-I-O. The pigtails make it...

Here she is in her ballet costume. I wish I got a picture of her hair. It was so sweet all pulled up with little curls hanging loose.
Hannah on Sunday after watching The Sleeping Beauty ballet. She got her first bump on her noggin the other night when she pulled over a wrought iron candlestick onto her forehead. She is mobile and curious. Her crawl right now resembles that of an inch worm. Up on all fours, lunge forward, repeat...
I never got a chance Sunday to get the girls picture together in their matching dresses. There was another girl at the ballet wearing the same dress. She saw my girls and noticed the dresses and did not look very pleased. Somebody told me she thought the other child belong to us because she matched (and I have so many kids already, I'm sure.) You'd be surprised at the comments we get when we're out. "Are these all yours?" "You know what causes that." I even had someone tell me that we needed a tv in our bedroom! Well - Yes; We have it narrowed down and if its what we think think, we aren't stopping; We do have one.

Curly Kendal

The other night Kendal found some curlers my mom gave her and wanted me to put them in her hair. When I went in to check on her before I turned in found her sleeping like this:

Family Fun Weekend

We have had a fun filled weekend for the Lanes. We were all out playing Friday afternoon when Barry came home early from work. That made my day! He had plans for Family Fun Night to go to the movies. So we cleaned everyone up (when they play outside, they PLAY), loaded them in the car and headed off. We had planned on going to a certain Mexican restaurant on the other side of town near the dollar theater only to find it gone, so we got out the iPhone and used Urban Spoon to find another one near by. Lets just say that just because 100% say they like it, doesn't make the food good. However, we secretly enjoyed watching the soap opera on Telemundo. (I'm not being silly either. Barry and I wanted to know what happened to the bride whose groom was smooching on someone else in the courtyard.) Then it was off to the movies to see Bolt, which was really good. I can't recall anything in it that was questionable. The dollar theater ROCKS! $4 for all of us to see a movie! (Jacob and Hannah were free.) 

Today started off great. Barry let me sleep in some and he made everyone breakfast. He's so sweet. Then we were off to the zoo. We thought about going to the science center, but since it was beautiful out we opted for something outside. So did the rest of the city. Here's some pictures of our day.

That last one is for you, Katie. Well, tomorrow is going to be just as busy. After church we are going to see a ballet of Sleeping Beauty featuring sisters from our church. Kendal is going to love it. Their Grammy got the girls new matching dresses the other day, so they are going to be all dressed up at the theater. I am now going to turn in because after pushing 2 kids around all day in a stroller, I am exhausted!

More Pictures

Here's some pictures from last week. Hannah is about to crawl! She gets up and her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. Most of the time she scoots around backwards, but she can get wherever she wants by scooting and rolling. I'm not ready for her to be mobile!

Here's all three of them. I can't remember which one I was specifically trying to get, but the rest jumped in there saying cheese!
My sweet girls:
My handsome little man:
Still wearing his space helmet!

Snow Day

On Sunday we woke up to snow! The kids had a blast playing in it, well Austin and Kendal did. Jacob didn't like his hands being cold and Hannah just really wasn't sure about it all. It was really cold with the wind blowing. I did realize that we are not well eqipped for snowy weather, so we had to do a lot of layering. They had fun throwing snow balls, building a snow man, and making a snow angel. Austin went and played with a neighbor sliding down their steep front lawn. He was soaked! After awhile of that he was done for the day. It was sad when the sun came out that afternoon and started melting it all away. Here's some pics from our day: