Christmas Card Outtakes

Lest you think it is easy to get a decent photograph of two wiggly, ornery children for the annual holiday photo, here are a few outtakes from this year's photo shoot to dispel such notions.

"You can't make me stand in one spot!"

"See?! Haha! I run away from you and your silly camera!"

"Now stand still, baby, and stay here for the picture..."

"Ok. I'll stay in one spot. But I will only look at you with ONE EYE!"

---

Because I Love You

I am giving you this. Behold! Shy Ronnie!



Happy, happy to you and yours!
---

Love Me Some Deals

I should really start a separate blog for this kind of stuff, but since I am lazy, I'm just gonna put it here (for now?).

Here's my Vons trip from yesterday. Props to my mom who came and stayed with the girls thereby making my coupon-printing and kid-free shopping possible.

Coupon Deals

4 jars Classico Pasta Sauce, $1.99 each (if you buy more than 3)
-used 2 x $1 off 2 printable coupons
= $1.49 each

4 boxes Kleenex tissues, $1.29 each (if you buy 4)
-used $2 off 4 in-ad store coupon
-used 2 x .75 off 1 printables (first one doubled to $1)
-received $1 off my next order coupon at checkout
= .41 for 4 boxes

2 loaves Nature's Pride bread, $2.00 each
-used 2 x .75 off 1 printables (first one doubled to $1)
= $2.25 for both loaves

2.5 lbs pot roast, $1.67/lb ($4.28 total)
-used $2 off printable store coupon
= $2.28 (under $1 a pound!)

2 bags Pillsbury ready-to-bake cookies, $2.99 each
-used 2 x $1 off 1 store coupon
-used 2 x $1 off 1 printable coupon
-used 2 x $1 off 2 loadable e-coupons
=FREE! (+2 cents overage)

Non-coupon stuff that was just on sale:

2 1lb. boxes Barilla Pasta, $1 each

Ground Turkey, $1.99/lb

Raspberries, $1.50/pack

Oranges, .47/lb

Potatoes, .49/lb

Other stuff that wasn't on sale but I still needed:

1 Gallon 2% Organic Milk, $5.49 (wish I could get coupons for this!)

1/2 gallon skim milk, $1.99

2 packs frozen sausages, $2 each

Bananas, .67/lb

Carrots, .79/lb

Organic Salad Mix, $5.99

Total Before I scanned my store card: $86.20
After store card and sale prices: $54.25
After coupons: $40.75

Got back:
$1 off your next purchase (from Kleenex)
$10 off your next purchase (from Vons, for having spent way too much money with them over the past few weeks)

But look at all that stuff! For $40! I was stoked. And as much as I fall off the wagon with couponing sometimes... man, when it is good, it is SO good.
---

One of Those Days

Everyone is sick today. And I'm about to lose it.

Savannah wants to sit on my lap and hear book after book after book after book. When I finally get up, she follows me around crying and wipes her snotty nose on my pants.

Since we're not going anywhere, I let Chelsea park herself in front of PBS Kids all morning. After 3 hours of preschool programming, they switched to fund-raising and she started to cry. This is a kid who usually watches about 3 hours of TV in a week, so I have no sympathy for being upset about watching only 3 hours of TV in a day.

By 11am, I needed a break. I went into my bedroom, locked the baby gate behind me, and put the covers over my head.

Then I listened to them scream at me and each other for a few minutes. And then? It got mysteriously quiet. Too quiet.

In the 5 minutes of solitude I allowed myself, they managed to create a 2012-like path of destruction through the rest of our tiny abode.

They pulled all the drawers out of two storage shelves and dumped out all the contents in another room. They upended the empty storage units and tried to climb into them.

They pulled a pile of clothes out of the laundry and another pile of clothes out of drawers, making it impossible to tell which was which.

They broke a lamp.

And left the lamp turned on, lying with the hot bulb in a pile of blankets. Surrounded by giant shards of broken glass.

So much fun to clean up!

I finally came out, did a power clean-up, and made lunch. Which Chelsea refused to eat. (Who refuses quesadillas? Made with delicious Trader Joe's homemade tortillas? I don't geddit.)

At the end of my rope, on my last nerve, I decided to console myself with a generous handful of Hershey's Kisses leftover from a baking project (peanut butter blossoms! yes, they're all gone now!). I know, I know. I watched the Biggest Loser finale last night, I'm not supposed to deal with emotional issues with food, thank you Bob and Jillian. But what else am I supposed to do?

Oh. I guess I'm doing it right now.
---

Self-portrait FAIL

Actually, the self part of these portraits is fine. You'll note that I look almost exactly the same in each picture, my entire head is in the frame, and I am actually looking at the camera with my eyes open.

If only the same could be said for my children.

Strike One!

Strike Two!

Strike Three!

And we're out.

PS Yes, I do like to dress them in matching outfits. So sue me.

---

The Butt Farm

Disclaimer: No butts were actually farmed in the making of this post.

Last month, we were invited to visit a ginormous pumpkin patch called Bates Nut Farm.

Or as it is known affectionately in our family: Nate's Butt Farm. Or simply, the Butt Farm.

Despite having grown up in this area, I myself had never before visited the Butt Farm. My husband and his parents responded to this news with much horror and audible gasping, so we all set off out into the desert to remedy the situation.

Upon arriving at the Farm, we were greeted with everything you would expect from such a place: hay rides, barbecue sandwiches, hay mazes, and piles of pumpkins. We were also greeted with unrelenting sunshine and 90-plus degree heat. (I did mention it's out in the desert, right?)

We all flipped a collective bird to the heat, and got our tickets for the hay ride.

After a yummy lunch (in the shade) we set out to pick some pumpkins. Some of us might have started to get a bit cranky.

Aaaaaah! I don't wanna stand by these pumpkins!

Waaaah! Me neither! You can't make me look at the camera!!!

Pumpkins were purchased and we retreated to our air-conditioned cars for the trek home. And five minutes after leaving the Butt Farm...



---

The Day Savannah Fell in Love with a Llama

No, I am totally not making that up.

Last month, we needed some pumpkins and some evening entertainment, so rather than head over to our nearest mall parking lot, we drove out to the middle of nowhere to an adorable little pumpkin patch.

Despite its small size, there was a lot to see and do. We found three mazes (hay bale, corn, and bush), dozens of toys to play with, and many animals to look at and/or feed.

Among the animals, was a llama. THIS llama, to be precise:

And with that brief meeting, a love affair for the ages was born.

After that day, I kept hearing Savannah say, "Mama! Mama!" but it was clear she wasn't talking about me. (I have a much shorter neck and I typically go by "Mommy.")

She'd point to a goat in a story book: "Mama!"

Or a baby deer on a matching game: "Mama!"

Or a toy giraffe on a toy catalog: "MAMA!"

Now the hunt is on for all things llama. At the library, she now has a knack for digging out Is Your Mama a Llama? from the board book bins. She often asks to wear her llama shirt (I guess it hasn't dawned on her yet that she does not currently own a llama shirt, nor has she ever seen one).

In the car, before we can turn on Chelsea's kids' music, Savannah shouts: "MAMA! 'ONG!" (Translation: SING ME A LLAMA SONG!) To which I dutifully reply, "How much is that llama in the window...."

And although they are not listed on the official map at the San Diego Zoo, look who just managed to find her favorite animal anyway:

Ok, so that might not actually be a llama. Do you think she cares?

Now all I have to do is find a llama shirt and maybe a little stuffed llama for Christmas and fervently hope that she doesn't find some new obsession within the next month.
---