Park Day...

Christopher and Monica both love the park but for different reasons. Christopher loves the slides and Monica loves the swings. Here is a couple pictures of my little Miss Monica.

Christopher's symbols...

My son takes after his father in his inclination to art and drawing. One of his favorite symbols to draw as well as his first is "Jesus," a cross. He also follows in his Father's footsteps in his admiration of Superman! See below his artwork using a package of Costco Baby Wipes...these little minds are so amazing and make me marvel at God's creations.

Picnic ...

AT THE DMV!!!

Jason had to go to the dmv to get his motorcycle lisence and do some other paper work for our car. As in DMV fashion, he forgot something they "needed" so he called and asked me if I'd bring it to him so he could keep his place in line. So, off we went to meet my charming man. It was about 5PM and Jason was still in line, so I ended up leaving Christopher with him and Monica and I went to bring our men some dinner. We returned bearing hamburgers and frenchfries just as Jason was finishing up. So, we went outside and had a "picnic" at the DMV!!! Here's a picture Jason snagged with his cell phone. Christopher has SODA in his bottle...it's awesome how kids enjoy the simple pleasures in life.

Ohhh...Yummy....

So, tonight I'm serving an early supper at 4:30 and then we are packing up the kids for a family trip to Cold Stone Creamery!!!!! Here is why....

Cold Stone Creamery: Free Icecream--September 25, 2008

On Thursday, September 25, 2008 from 5:00-8:00 PM, all guests to any Cold Stone Creamery location in the nation will be treated to a 3 oz. serving of icecream. Donations will be accepted to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The two free flavors available are: Marshmallow ice cream with OREO® Cookies, Chocolate Chips and Fudge or Nutter Butter® ice cream with White Chocolate Chips, Kit Kat® and Yellow Cake. More details here.

My little Miss Monica cut her first tooth this morning! AH HA! Now I know why last week was such a difficult week for her. Not only did she have the cold that was passed around our family...but she was working hard to push this razor sharp tooth up through her gums! She just turned 9 months old and out popped this shiny pearl.

Last week all four of us were sick with colds. Poor Monica just wanted to be held, Christopher just wanted bottles and "Nino (nemo) please, Mommy." Both of them were up alot at night and Christopher would sleep in pretty late each morning. I didn't get a whole lot done, but we cuddled alot.

Last week I sent an e-mail to Breyers ice cream. We never get ice cream now because prices have just gone up so much in the food department. In my e-mail I told them that we've had to cut out things like ice cream from our shopping list and asked them if they might have a coupon I could use to get us a special treat. Yesterday I got a whole envelope of various coupons from them - including one for a free package of Breyers Ice Cream (up to 7.00)!!! Safeway often has Buy 1 Get 1 Free on Breyers Ice Cream, so I'm going to wait till that sale comes back and then I'll get two packages of Breyers Ice Cream for free! Jason's Patron Saint's feast day is September 29th (Feast of St. Michael) so maybe we'll celebrate with ice cream!

Also, yesterday was my little Sister, Mary Therese's, birthday! Happy Birthday and may God grant you many more, precious sister! I'm reminded of you quite often as Miss Monica reminds me allot of how you looked when you were her age.

Gotta get to bed now - more tomorrow...

Christmas...

I walked into Costco 2 weeks ago to find...

Christmas Lights
Christmas Wrapping Paper and Bows
Christmas Decorations
Christmas Tree Bulbs...

All right in front of me! At first I panicked...it's still September, right? Yep...date on my phone still says September 4th...

But, as I thought about it, I decided to start my shopping now and have everything done before Thanksgiving. I really want to enjoy the spirit of Advent and Christmas without having to go out into the Christmas Shopping Rush. So, while I was at Costco I looked at their toys. I found this cool set for $29.99


I looked online when I got home and everywhere I found was selling the exact same set for $79.99. I felt like I got a pretty good deal. Then I found this other set for $19.99 at Costco, but 49.99 everywhere else. Monica doesn't have any dolls yet and spends more time playing with Christopher's train set, so I decided to get them both and give one to her for her birthday (December 18th) and the other to her for Christmas. Now all I need for her are some stocking stuffers and finish her Christmas dress!

Money Saving Mom...

With the rising costs of food, especially here in the Bay Area, I've been consumed with trying to figure out a way to lessen our food bill. I stumbled across this SAHM's shopping blog and it's been amazing. There are alot of free samples out there if you only spend a few minutes to sign up on websites. I figure the free sample along with coupons they send, I'm actually saving us alot of money.

For instance, last week Cascade was giving away a free sample so I went to their website and signed up. They sent me 4 all in one cascade squares - thats 4 loads of dishes for free. Plus they sent me several save $1.50 off any cascade product coupons. Now I just need to watch Safeway and Walgreens and when their cascade products go on sale, I double up this coupon with the sale to save the maximum...pretty cool huh? It's going to require some effort and time on my part, but I've already scheduled Wednesday night as my night out to work on this. I'm going to go to Starbucks with my laptop and just delve into Money Saving. :)

Here is the website that has really helped me. There are also links from her blog to others, including blog giveaways. www.moneysavingmom.com

I hope to post more about this in the future, but please keep me in your prayers as I delve into this project. Saving dollars is important! :)

P.S. Has anyone checked out any of these books? www.biblicalwomanhood.com/supermarket.htm

Guess who found a cookie...

MONICA!!!
She found a cookie and enjoyed every bite!

Trip to Costco - I love the big brother look on Christopher's face!

The beach!
Monica LOVES sand...ughh...and Chrisotpher can't stand it staying on his hands!

My handsome son!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!

My little brother is 8 today!!!!!

I love you Jacob and am praying for you today! I have your 2 year old picture hanging on my fridge...how the time flies!!!

May God bless you and grant you many more years filled with joy and blessings!

Christopher - Cute Words and Happenings...

This past weekend we had a party for Catholic Married Couples in our area. With 13 adults and 7 kids we had a blast! The theme was Mexican Fiesta...and it was so yummy!

Breaking from the Mexican side, I picked up some Chocolate Chip cookies from Costco (they make the best ever!). Christopher munched on them for several days following the party. He'd come ask me for a Kee Ko! I finally figured out he was asking for Cookie when he led me to the box sitting on the counter. I tried to teach him to say Coo-kee, but he kept saying his own version. Finally, he came to me and said, "Kee-Ko please?" I laughed and said, "you want a kee-ko?" He looked at me and gave me a "you finally got it right, Mom" look! I'll treasure that always!!!

Another one...
My little Christopher takes after his Father in enjoying the variety of life. His most popular phrase throughout any day is now, "'nother one, Mommy?" From toys he's playing with, food he's eating, movies he watches, books we read... (Another one = different one!) It's been a challenge sometimes, especially if he can't have something different at the time, but we are both growing through it and I'm filled with awe each day as I see my little boy growing into a boy with distinct desires.

Peanut butter and Jelly...PB&J

This is just more of a comment, but what's up with Mom's loving PB&J and kiddies not? I remember growing up, my Mom's favorite lunch (and not just for the ease and convenience of making it, but because she truly enjoyed eating it) was Peanut Butter and Jelly. ALL of us children detested it! I remember watching her enjoy her sandwich with a tall glass of milk and think . . . yuck!

Well...now I'm a Mom and this is one of my favorite lunches! Ever since Monica's pregnancy I've really enjoyed anything peanut butter! When pregnant with her, I'd crave apples with peanut butter on them.

But, I've been given a son who is allergic to Peanuts!!! I recently tried making him an almond butter and jelly sandwich and received the same "you really want me to eat that?" look that I'm sure I gave my Mom more than once. I still indulge in the pb&j goodness though and remember my Mom each time!

Busy days...

I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I last posted! I will try to do better now that summer is over. It's been a busy year...

Nothing really spectacular has happened, but the day to day happenings of a Mom of two have kept me on my toes! It seems like every day is filled with making children happy, cleaning house, making bottles, feeding baby food, doing laundry...and then doing it all again! Rewarding in it's own way, but it doesn't leave much time for blog posting.

In good news, I've started seeing a chiropractor who says in a month or so I'll have no more back pain!!! Ever since my pregnancy with Christopher, my back has been hurting more and more. It had gotten to the point where I could only sleep on my side at night and even then I would wake up several times a night. I can't wait to have this fixed!!!

I've been really trying to keep a very neat and orderly house. Each night after the kids go to bed, I breeze through picking up anything leftover from the day. It's SO refreshing to start the day in a nice neat and orderly house!

Lately we've been going on a lot of play dates. Christopher is a very social child and I'm learning that Monica enjoys getting out as well. Two weeks ago we went to the San Francisco Zoo. Christopher and I had last gone there when he was about 10 months old...too young for him to really notice the animals. This time was SO much different! He LOVED the animals! We ate lunch while we watched the muskrats and prairie dogs. Christopher had so much fun watching them dig in the dirt. Then we spent alot of time watching the grizzly bears "play". The area for the Bears was SO cool. I took some pictures with my phone, so I'll post them as soon as I figure out how to get them onto the computer.

Monica is now MOBILE!!! Very Mobile! She's standing up to everything...can even stand on her own for a few seconds. She LOVES food...must be the McCaffrey blood in her! She is a mix of both sides of our family, but in all the opposite ways than Christopher is. She is such a little angel and I love her so very dearly! Her favorite foods so far are pizza crusts, oranges and banannas. She had her first bite of fish last night and seemed to enjoy it too. She's (finally) beginning to realize not all things small are food and some things just shouldn't enter a human beings mouth (such as fuzz balls lying on the floor). She's also determined she doesn't like bell peppers at all, but her older brother insists they are quite good!

Lately I've really been trying to find ways to cut food costs...it seems like even the beans and rice staple is getting way out of hand in terms of price. I do almost all of my shopping at Costco and only get chicken and fish when it comes to meat. I've been doing some research into coupons and have found alot of other stay at home moms who have coupon tip blogs for each week. I'm gonna try to do more research into that area and see if I can save more money on food.

Tomorrow I'm getting an Elliptical!!! I've been looking on Craig's List for some weeks now because with two small kids I'm just not getting to the gym like I used to when I only had Christopher. I was jogging with the double stroller, but since Monica's gotten more mobile, she's decided sitting in the stroller while Mommy runs for an hour is not her cup of tea...so this way she can play on the floor - doing what she loves best, while I burn calories! Win/Win all the way around!

Well...I'm off for tonight, but I promise to try and do better with posting here more often. God bless you all!