Santa Claus Lane

While driving home yesterday, listening to Christmas music on the radio my sweet Austin asks me a rather humorous question. "Mommy, is Santa Claus in our family?" Not sure what he is thinking I answer, "No." "Are you sure?" To which I assure him that I am positive. Little did I know that he is smarter than me with this one. You see, the song playing on the radio was "Here Comes Santa Claus"...

Ramblings

Okay, there are several things that are pretty much pointless that I think I am going to blog about. Not all at once, though, so don't get too excited. Some of you may be wondering, "How does she have time to blog?" (I know you are thinking about me all the time, right?) Well, I don't. But what I do have time to do is multitask. Since I have a 4 month old that likes to be fed 37 times a day, it keeps me from falling asleep (which then puts me in a horrible mood.) Also, I thought I would stop reading everyone else's (is that a word? my computer is telling me its not) blogs and blog myself. That also keeps friends and family updated that are always wanting me to email pictures of the kids. (Why is that so much harder than this?) Anyway, I forgot what I was going to say...

Oh yeah, Playlists. Do you like listening to music while reading others blogs? I usually keep the music on mute for several reasons. First, I don't want to draw any more attention to myself if I actually have a moment on the computer. If my kids hear me doing something, then I suddenly have them all in my lap frantically trying to see what could possibly be taking all my attention away from them. Second, I'll be doing something like balancing the checkbook then pretend to still be busy doing something important and I don't want Barry to know I am playing because then its his turn on the computer and my turn to do something productive.

So people sometimes have a you tube video or whatever on their blog that when I turn the volume on to listen to all I hear is John Larson going in the background because my blog is still open in another window. Its really annoying. SOOO, I think I'm going to delete my playlist. Anyone have any thoughts of their own about this? Yeah, I warned you it was going to be pointless...

Cousins

We spent Thanksgiving at the lake this year with my family. My mom got all the grandkids matching jammies as an early Christmas present. This was our attempt to take a picture of them.

Check out the hair on my sweet little niece who isn't even a year yet and has already had a haircut!

Kid Quotes

Today at nap time I was putting Jacob down and saw that he had a ginormous booger. I thought I would help him out and picked it for him. He leaned forward, pointed to his nose and whispered to me, "Mommy, put it back." OK, it was hilarious at the time...

Hannah Reese

My sweet Gracious, 4 months old already.

Thanksgiving Fun

Friday we had some Thanksgiving fun at a friends house. Several of our homeschooling friends brought their kids over and we made Indian hats, vests and necklaces. Here's a picture of Kendal stringing her noodles.

After all the crafts were done, they put on all their creations and each one of them told what they were thankful for. The older ones had written up some pretty impressive lists and shared it with the group. Austin volunteered to go first and was obviously a little confused about what we were doing. He thought he was supposed to be telling everyone a story and started into his recently thought up one titled, "The Chicken and the Snake." You can see how that one ends.

Here's Austin telling everyone what he is thankful for... Me!

Here's the group acting like Indians.

To end all the festivities, the kids gathered around and ate some Friendship Soup. Everyone brought a can of vegetables and we poured them all together and enjoyed with some cornbread. It surprisingly was very delicious.

Mondays (Yes, I know today is Tuesday)

Mondays are a little stressful for me lately. For whatever reason I like to go grocery shopping on that day. I find that if I have designated a day for that then I am less likely to go twice during the week and spend more money.

Yes, I actually enjoy going grocery shopping. I love Target. If you ask where I got something 99% of the time the answer will be Target. I can get EVERYTHING I need from there. Yummy food, they got it; cool toys, they got it; clothes for the whole family, that's right, they got it. We have a routine down there - I wear Hannah in the sling, Jacob rides in the cart, and Austin and Kendal each have their own side of the cart they ride on while eating the popcorn and drink we get from the cafe ($1.50 to have a peaceful trip, well worth every penny).

SO, I recently have been trying to save money on our groceries. I usually spend $100 a week there and that is if I am only getting food. My new goal is to only spend $50 a week and that means I have to break my Target addiction. (Yes, I am still having withdrawals.) So, last week I actually achieved my goal at Publix. I only spent $47! (This week was not as impressive.) HOWEVER, it was really stressful with all 4 kids. We are out of our routine. No popcorn, no drink. They enjoyed pulling the coupons out of all the little coupon machines a little too much. Then while putting the kids in the van, my cart makes a mad dash down the parking lot heading straight for a busy road with nothing to stop it. It's amazing what adrenaline will do for you.

After getting home and all the groceries up, I clean the house because its Small Group night and we have 10+ kids over with a babysitter while we go to that. Cleaning is easier said than done with all of them making messes faster than I can clean them. Last Monday Austin must have sensed I needed some help, little did he know that I needed the laugh more...