I am challenging myself

to fixing dinner at home for the entire month of August. That means I have to plan, purchase and prepare 31 dinners for this month. It's not that I can't do it or that we don't eat at home 75% of the time, it's just a challenge for me to see if I can be more creative with my family's meals and try to save money too. I will give myself a couple of "passes" in that if we are at someone else's house for dinner, obviously I don't have to cook. And leftovers can make up a dinner or two.

Another challenge is for me to not drink soda for the entire month. Normally, I am not a big soda drinker but during our vacations, I started needing a Coke or Rootbeer or something. Anyway, time to cut that out.

And my third and final challenge is to only spend $400 on groceries in the month of August. That will be the hardest challenge of all since we eat mostly organic products and we are a family of five with two (Steve & Wes) big eaters. I have been using a website called thegrocerygame.com which last week saved us $75 using club cards and coupons so it's feasible but I'm not too sure about the outcome.

Wish me luck and any advice you can give, would be appreciated. Plus, I'll update my downfalls and successes. Just promise you won't hold it over me :)

New beauty treatment?

I wish. Lynzy has lice. I am assuming I do too since she has been in my bed the last couple of nights. Until the natural lice product is delivered to my door, we are trying home remedies. Right now, as I am typing this, we are wearing our special hats because of the mayo that is on our hair. The thought is that mayo and olive oil smothers the lice (not the eggs). I'll try almost anything to help get rid of them without the use of pesticides. We just don't feel right with those methods on our kids. So, I'll let you know if my efforts are worthwhile or not. I have the feeling that this won't be our last outbreak. (So far, Brock, Steve and Wesley have been spared...could be their short hair) Got to run, need to do more laundry.....

The last 24 hours

Here's how the last 24 hours have gone for our family.

Lynzy slept in my bed Monday night because she was acting funny. She was very restless, crying out in the middle of the night and complaining that "it hurts." In the am, we figured she was getting sick.

It's now Tues am and Brock has to get to preschool around 8:45 am. I was assisting him in getting undressed when he decided that he wanted to go limp. He then raised his head and head butted me in the mouth causing a small cut on my lip. I was not happy. However, I didn't yell at him since it was an accident but I gave him another chance to stand up and get dressed and he refused. He then went into timeout. Brock screamed, kicked, and came out of timeout three times. We had more than one battle this morning which then ended up with Brock sitting in his carseat naked on his way to preschool. He was mortified. He asked me if I brought clothes for him. I told him that he could have his clothes if he would listen to me. We dressed him in the car and he cried relentlessly as I was leaving him at school. I warned the teachers of his defiance and to call if they needed me. Brock has been testing the boundaries with us since we came back from vacation. Knowing the reasons why my child is acting up is nice but still doesn't help you to solve it.

So Brock's at school and Lynzy is extremely clingy and tired. She falls asleep on the couch with me at about 11:30 am. At 11:42 am there was an earthquake in Chino Hills (150 miles north of us) which I felt. That has to be the weirdest sensation and we weren't even at the epicenter. Lynzy didn't wake up.

We pick up Brock who is the best listener ever after the morning battle. Brock goes down for a nap and Lynzy begins to dry heave and is running a fever. By 4 pm, Lynzy is making me worried because she has eaten very little and almost no liquid. I get half a pedialyte pop down her and then she refuses to eat anything else.

Steve comes home about 6:45 and Lynzy pops up from the couch, starts yelling for Daddy and is the happiest I have seen her all day. She then proceeds to sit down with him at the dining room table and eats and drinks anything he puts in front of her. Thank goodness for Daddy. Here I was ready to head to the ER for dehydration issues and he manages to get her to eat and drink. We get the kids to bed pretty well except Lynzy had another miserable night. Although, she hasn't vomitted and she is definitely better today. But today we have another issue to deal with. I'll be posting about that next.

Camping/Picnic

During the laundry room cleanout, the kids found this popup tent. They played in it for a week straight. They would come in to get books and toys and then head in for the day. They even had lunch in there one day. We love that they play together well.

A home project that still isn't finished

We started on reorganizing our laundry room/storage area. We don't have a garage so we had to build separate rooms for storage and our washer and dryer. It is a project and a half. Mostly because Steve won't let me do it. He has to think about everything multiple times. This day we installed shelves and moved cabinets. We also set up a board for Steve's tools. This was at the end of the last day. It still looks this way today. Someday, it will be completed.

Additional storage room with new shelves and one loan cabinet installed.


Laundry room

Steve's future tool board - We thought of this together and it was a lot of fun! The kids get a kick out of their handprints being on the wall.

Trip to the dentist

This was Brock's 2nd trip to the dentist. He sat with his bear, Jeff, and I held his leg. He was so good at the dentist. Unfortunately, Brock has 3 cavities that now need to be filled. We are now brushing his teeth at least twice a day, flossing with those handheld flossers and using a floride rinse. I feel horrible about his cavities which were most likely caused by the fruit juice he drinks. Oh well, it's not like they aren't fixable and he's didn't lose a limb or anything. Just good ol' mom guilt kicking in.

Funny things my kids are doing/saying

Wesley had a doctor's appointment last Friday. He went in to the exam room by himself and after his exam, he came to get me out of the waiting room to talk with the doctor. So I haul myself, Lynzy and Brock into the exam room. I introduced myself to the Dr. and shook his hand. The Dr. began to talk to me when Brock stuck out his hand to shake the Dr.'s hand. It was sooo cute. The Dr. graciously shook his hand and asked him his name. Brock was such a little man right there.

Lynzy constantly wants to wear her "baby" suit. That's bathing suit to the rest of the world. Makes me chuckle everytime.

Today she was helping me put away folded clothes and told me, "Mommy, I'm a good hupper." (helper) And she was.

I'll post more stuff later. Just can't find the time some days!

Advice please!

Thanks to her older brothers, my 2 year old is saying "You're a poop" to me, Daddy, Brock etc. She is using it in the right context and with conviction. What do I do? If I put her in timeout, she fixates on it and continues to use it. If I ignore it, Brock constantly tells me she is saying it to me and he knows it's not right. Help! Anyone know the right thing to do? Or at least to make it stop?

Vacation in CT

We traveled to Connecticut last week to visit Steve's sister and her family, plus his mom came in from Florida during the same week. We had a lot of fun and it was great to get all the cousins together. The flight there was a breeze but the flight home involved a significant delay in the plane on the tarmac. Brock & Lynzy fell asleep within in minutes of take off but then Lynzy woke up to vomit less than 5 minutes after that. There were no "barf bags" in any of our seat backs. When you need one, there isn't any but a ton when you don't. We made it home about 12:15 am and then both Brock & Lynzy vomitted during the car ride home. Wonder where they get the weak stomachs from???

Here are some pics of our trip. (Can you tell I got a new digital camera? I LOVE IT and my pictures are sooo much better than the last camera took!!)


Wesley (tallest kid in the pic) & Allison at Saturation Station

Lynzy in the ball pit

Wes & Allison again at the water park

Adam & Allison



Prarie Dog exhibit at the Beardsley Zoo (me & Lynz)



Brock & Allison



Allison & Brock playing in the mister - Brock LOVED it



Steve & his mom, Rosalie

Lynzy's 2nd b-day

We have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks. Lynzy turned two on June 27th. We can't believe she is two already. We had our friends/neighbors, the Roses, over for dinner and brownie sundaes to celebrate. I asked Lynzy 3 different times that day if she wanted cupcakes or brownies. She replied brownies 2 out of the 3 times so we went with it. Here are some pics from her big day.

I thought it was a figure of speech but literally Lynzy changed over night on her birthday. She is definitely a toddler and not a baby anymore. I kind of miss the baby part....