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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Success

I think that I have been to Walgreens everyday this week, sometimes twice in one day. Hey, when diapers go on sale, I get to movin'. Here is one of my prouder purchases from today. I would have spent $52.63 on all of this at Walgreens, BUT I only spent $7.64. Woohoo!

Some of you may think I'm crazy spending so much time trying to figure out how to save money and dragging two toddlers to multiple stores, but the reason I do it is to make sure these two little girls get to keep mommy at home, daddy doesn't have to work so hard, and so that I don't have to spend so much on diapers that simply get peed and pooped in.

Hannah and Kate proudly displaying their Huggies swim diapers


New beach chairs at Grandma and Grandpa's house

They are feeling a little bit better so hopefully we will be going camping this weekend!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Under the Weather

We have two little sicklings in our home this week, hoping not to make it 2 little and 2 big. Hannah came down with a fever on Saturday and it continued on into Monday morning. They are both congested and mouth breathing. Hannah has this funny, stinky smell. It's a "sick" toddler smell. I took her to the doctor yesterday and she confirmed that she has a red, pussy throat. However, her strep test came back negative. So for now, we are treating this nasty virus with tylenol, motrin, and lots of TLC. I know they really aren't feeling well because they are not eating well, drinking less than normal, but most importantly, Hannah woke us up about 4 or 5 times last night. I can't even remember the last time either of them has done that.

The doctor actually said that she was more concerned with Hannah's breathing. Her oxygen levels were fine, but she put her on a preventative asthma/allergy medicine, Singulair. I've been so busy couponing (savings lots of $$$$$) and catching up with vacation blogging that I forgot to report on her trip to the allergist. He just did a basic checkup and ordered a skin test and sinus x-ray. So until we do those, he won't be able to tell us much more.

Our mortgage papers have FINALLY went to underwriting. Can we say this is taking way too long? Apparently, our seller thinks so, too. We've run into some snags with her this week. Our contract runs out at the end of this month and she's asking for some compensation for it taking so long since she's vacated the house already. Without giving you all of the details, some of which have become rather nasty, please just pray that our paperwork will FLY through underwriting this week and we will get approval by Friday. I'll keep you updated.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Trip Post V-The Final Chapter

The rain that we thought we were going to have came on the one day that was forecasted not to have any. Oh, well. We had almost gotten all of our outdoor goals done. These next couple of pictures are the sweetest thing. I wish you all could have been there in person to see how cute these pigtails were. I have been waiting for so long to be able to do something with their hair. They are mullet girls right now. Aunt Sarah got creative though and gave them some low pigtails.

Kate
Kate

Hannah

Hannah
While it was still raining in the morning, we headed out to Lone Elk Park. It's really neat. It's a drive thru park with bison, wild turkey, deer, elk, geese, etc. You can get out and picnic or fish, but most people just drive through it. We didn't get to see any bison, but got to see a couple wild turkey and elk. They usually hang out close to the road. Here a couple pictures of elk:

We then headed to a dying mall and let the girls out to play on the playground.
Hannah driving the car

Hannah
Kate

Rachel
Hannah
Hannah
And our final adventure of the day involved going to Suson Park. It was FREE and has a bunch of farm animals.

What happened to Hannah? Wait for her...

There she is! Now, where's Kate? Wait for her...

Almost a perfect picture...one more try

Well, they may not all be looking at the camera, but at least we see 3 heads.


Watching the chickens

Being restrained from sticking her fingers into the goat pen...wanna guess who what was?




We ended the day with one last dinner with family. Our flight to come home left at 5:30 on Saturday so we made it to the airport to turn in the rental van by mid-afternoon. None of us were looking forward to the actual flight home. However, we got very lucky and had some extra seats on the plane. Sarah, Rachel, Kate, and I shared 3 seats. Mom, Dad, and Hannah got their own row, too. Praise God! Anyway, the flight home was much more tolerable then going there. We even had the Rapping Flight Attendant. Apparently, he is a YouTube sensation. He rapped all of the safety information. Kinda neat. Hope you enjoyed all of the pictures. Our next adventure is our annual camping trip over Memorial Day weekend.

Trip Post IV-CHEESE!!!

Thursday must have not been a very exciting day because I really don't remember what we did. I know that we thought it was going to rain all day so we played it low key, especially since we wanted the girls to have one day of normal napping. It ended up not raining so my Dad and sister went over and helped my grandparents do some yard work. We mostly hung out around the house. Dad, Sarah, and I decided we had to do something at night after the girls were in bed so we wandered around Old Navy, the mall, and Target (where I found cute sleeveless shirts for $5 each). Sarah had just paid $8 each at home for the same shirts so with both of us being so thrifty now, I rubbed it in her face several times that I got them for $6 cheaper. (That's the last time, Sarah...promise!)

Here are some random shots of things throughout the week. Kate learned to say cheese on the trip and will actually smile for the camera now. Before I always got blank stares, but now she hams it up.


Stairs (or at least multiple stairs in a row) were a new thing to these girls. Don't you wish Florida houses could have basements and double the size of your house? Anyway, we (everyone on the trip under the age of 30) slept in the basement so the girls loved getting to crawl up the stairs every morning. It was cute!

Hannah-they also have a love of climbing into chairs, which I realized was a bad habit that I am currently trying to break
Hannah
Hannah-all 3 girls learned how to do the Jack in the Box. Therefore, all 3 fought over it. We were all very impressed that they were able to do it by themselves.

Actually, it was a Curious George in the Box.

Rachel brushing her teeth

Kate brushing her teeth

Hannah brushing her teeth

Hannah chilling in her PJs

Hannah

Kate saying "Cheese!"

Hannah using her big girl booster seat and eating off of a plate...wow! Once we get into our new house, I plan on trying out utensils and plates. I just have to dig them out of a box.

Hammy Hannah

Kate

Mmmmm...taste good, Rachel?

Lauren in charge of all 3 girls. We were sitting on the couch watching a Baby Einstein.


Little Dreamsicle Rachel

Kate
Grandma & Hannah

Trip Post III-Grant's Farm

On Wednesday, we woke up to rain but decided to wait it out and by mid-morning the rain was over. We headed down the street to Grant's Farm. It's owned by the Busch family and was something that I enjoyed going to as a kid. This is the first time I've been there that it wasn't crowded so it was really nice to be able to let the girls walk around (supervised, of course) and not have to wait in lines.

Hannah and Grandma on the tram ride
Ulysses S. Grant's home (or one of them I suppose)


Kate & Mommy on the tram ride

Bald Eagle (obviously)

Hannah & Mommy waiting for the elephant show. You would've thought that a 2 ton animal would've been a bit more entertaining to a 20 month, old but apparently not.

Alpaca or Llama (don't remember)


Pretty Birds


This bird was running around on the ground. It intrigued the girls, but I wouldn't let them get too close.

Goats

Famous Busch clydesdale

not sure if this is the wagon in the commercials
Walking through the horse stables

Mommy helping Hannah feed the goats. I wish I had audio of this. Hannah LOVED it! She had a full out deep in the belly laugh everytime the goat would drink from the bottle. It was so funny. You can actually go in the fence and feed the goats, but even as a little child I was scared of them. They would nibble on your shoelaces and clothing. The girls are too little for that and to this day, I would prefer to be on the outside of the fence.


Kate watching Mommy feed the goats her bottle. Kate didn't want to hold the bottle herself. She was okay with standing with me while I did it though. She definitely would not have done well had we gone inside the fence. Just like her mama!


More clydesdale pictures

We happened to be around the stables at just the right time because one of the trainers was moving the clydesdale. He was nice enough to stop and let us take pictures.



After Grant's farm, we headed home for a nap. Then, we spent the rest of the evening with the Schaefer side of the family. We even got to see some of my great aunts and great uncles and some cousins. And, of course, more Cecil Whitaker's pizza. Stay tuned for more...