Couponing

I had this brilliant idea this morning and wonder why I hadn't thought about it before! I don't remember what I was dreaming about, but I woke up this morning with a new idea for Jayla. I know she will love it!

I've been saying for a long time now that I want/need to get into couponing because it saves so much money and we'll always have food. One of my good friends IRL has a huge stock and gets much of it for free or very cheap! So my idea that I apparently thought of in my sleep.....I'm going to teach Jayla how to coupon! The whole nine yards!

She is not very good at reading yet, so to start with she will mostly just be clipping the coupons for me. She will have a blast doing that! I can teach her how to organize them pretty easily. (This will help her with reading too!) Then once she gets that down, I'll teach her how to look through all the store ads that come in the paper. Eventually I'll have her check various web sites and blogs. I'm sure her brothers will help some too, but this is something that I can really see her loving and being very good at! She will learn how to manage finances, make menus for the week, all kinds of things!

Anyway, just wanted to share. Why didn't I think of this before, having her do it???

Kittens :)

They will be 4 weeks old next Monday! We are down to 5 now. There were 7 born on May 4th. The kids only knew of 6. I woke up before them the following morning and found a 7th baby that didn't survive. :( Then last night the kids thought they'd try sleeping with the kittens (I was already asleep when they decided this), and one of my kids unknowingly smothered one of them. :'( They were sad, but at least they will listen to me next time when I tell them the kittens are too small and too young for things like that! My kids are very sound sleepers too!

So here they are, 2 girls and 3 boys. Aren't they pretty? The one that is the most colorful (a girl) Jayla has already named Tigerella, and we may end up keeping her (though I am fighting it hard.....I love cats, but I need a break from POOP, for Pete's sake!!!! So we'll see.) The other girl they named Gloria. :)

They are laying boy-girl-boy-girl-boy.....anyone want to claim one?

sleeping HARD after filling up his belly

Jayla's dance studio pictures

These are her professional pictures taken at the dance studio the same day I took my own photos of her. :) This package, 2-5X7's and 1 group picture, was $10. I didn't think that was too bad and was glad they offered something for that little since our money tree is not producing these days! I like them okay and I'm definitely glad for the group picture, but I'm glad I didn't order any more. I kind of like my own shots better! But these are standing up, and with a white background, so that's cool. :)

(The quality of the prints is much better than what you see here because I do not have a scanner!)

Jonathan's tooth!

It FINALLY came out! It was really bugging me! Haha! I actually pulled it out, but I was just trying to see how loose it was. I knew it was loose and has been ready to come out for a while, but it hurt him when he wiggled it. Well, I decided to try something different and I pulled down on it rather than out like he usually did, and it just popped off! We were both shocked!

So now his mouth looks weird because he has this "just-pulled-a-tooth" hole sort of on the front of his gums since his other tooth was pushing it out, and you can already see his new tooth in its proper place. Dangit! I was really wanting to get some professional pictures of him with no front teeth, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. :(

If this kind of thing grosses you out, then don't look at the next pictures, at least not too closely. This was soon after it was pulled, but it has already stopped bleeding. Oh, and he had been swimming, so he's all wet and shiny. :)

Re-homing the pups

Now it's time for the hard part. The puppies have been fairly easy to care for so far, but the challenge is in getting them to their new homes. We already have tears. It looks like Jayla's favorite puppy of them all (the one in the picture) will be the first to go. :'( I had warned her it could happen because she is the only one with a spot on her head, so she is unique.

At least she has the rest of today to play with her! Life can be hard sometimes, and my kids, especially Jayla, get so attached to animals. They usually recover quickly though, but it is still hard to say good-bye. I'm just trying to focus on the positive about how she will have a great home and be very happy. Also, this person is right on the way to my brother's house, so there is a possibility we could stop by sometime to see her! I'm not going to tell her that part though!

Puppies are 6 weeks old today!

We are trying to find new homes for our puppies now, so I've created a new blog just for them! If you know of anyone looking for a Red Heeler / Australian Cattle Dog, send them HERE!

Incredible Pizza with Uncle Craig and Aunt Amy!!!

My little brother Craig and his wife Amy came up last week on Monday. They didn't bring their kids because they were coming for something else that ended up being cancelled, but it was good to see them anyway! I hope to see my niece and nephew soon though!

They took us out to Incredible Pizza and spoiled our kids rotten! It's not a cheap place, so it's just not something we do often. Everyone had such an INCREDIBLE time. :)

The big shoe slide in the toddler play area.

Bumper cars!

Jacob was a hair too short for the bumper cars, so Uncle Craig took him over to play some mini golf. He loved it!

Jonathan won!! I think this was his very first go-kart race!

You had to be here, I'm sure, but this was cute. Jack LOVES music and dancing, so he saw the lights and heard the music on this game and couldn't resist trying it out. It kept him occupied for several minutes!

I failed to get pictures of their prizes they each chose with the 200 tickets each that they had! I also somehow didn't get any pictures of their uncle Craig and Aunt Amy, but you can see them on their own blog. :)

We really did have a great time. It was good to see them again. We're hoping and sort of planning a visit to their house soon, and we're really looking forward to it!

Thanks for the good food, fun and fellowship, Craig and Amy! :)