An oldie but I don’t care LOL This picture was taken in 2008. It is one of my favorite pictures of my baby girl. I can’t believe how much she has grown in ack two years! Time sure if flying by.

The weather yesterday was gorgeous. I was stuck inside most of the day slaving, I mean cooking away. But after I was all done the kids and I went outside for a bit to play. Shawn was napping but no worries, I’ll have some pictures of him later this week.

Making wishes

Jr’s first attempt at jump rope

And I apologize for that. With Jr on Spring break I have been trying to keep the kids busy. Also on the 23rd was my husbands and my eights Anniversary. I wanted to pop on here and give an update on how we are all doing.
Jr is doing good. Enjoying his break but getting antsy and believe it or not counting down the days until he can return to school. We had an appointment with the Allergist/Immunologist on the 18th of this month. I requested to see her after a test result came back saying he would not be able to fight off bacterial pneumonia if he ever got it. Which of course freaked me out. I am so happy we saw Dr. Garcia. I have seen her twice before for my kids allergies and she is a wonderful Dr. Not one that pushes you out the door, she actually makes sure you have all questions answered. So the final result. Jr will be able to fight bacterial pneumonia. When he was tested they tested him based off the adult vaccine, not the pediatric version. The difference, well the adult version has fourteen forms of the virus and the pediatric version only has seven. And out of those seven he reacted normally to about five of them. The other two the Dr. said not to worry about because you can’t expect someone to react perfectly to everything about and it’s rare if they do. That was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders to say the least. Now onto his asthma. Since Jr had been sick twice since he was put on his new meds to help prevent asthma flare up and he had asthma flare ups throughout being sick she wanted to switch him. She said she also wasn’t comfortable with him being on a steroid (thank goodness, I hated that!) so she switched him to Flovent inhaler. And also prescribed him Singulair. This will work to help his asthma along with his allergies. She also prescribed him Flonase and Claritin. Those are to help him during allergy season. He is only allergic to the two major types of grass and mold. Now I know when you think mold you think like black mold but he’s actually allergic to airborne mold and natural mold that is in the ground. And of course he is on the regular Albuterol inhaler as needed and also before any type of physical activity.
Now I am all for Jr not being on a steroid inhaler but I hate that I have to give him four different meds every day. I don’t like putting crap into my kids bodies. I don’t care if I get flack for it, it’s personal preference. The Dr. did say she knows it is a lot of meds but what she is trying to do is to control the asthma so when he’s older he wont need all the meds and his body will be able to do it on his own. I’m just hoping these help my little man and that will happen.

The princess, Samantha is doing good. Talking up a storm every day. She is such a princess and loves anything princess but she is also a tomboy and boy do not mess with this girl cause she wont take anyone’s crap! I guess that comes from having two brothers lol But she can be quite feisty. I’m trying to get that under control because this last week she has been very cranky and getting agitated easily. Her and my youngest, Shawn were fighting over a toy and she hit him with it three times leaving him with three scratches on him back 🙁 Not acceptable in this house. If anyone has any suggestions on how to keep anger under control I am all ears cause imo time outs don’t work. And don’t go jumping to conclusions thinking I just throw her on a timeout without talking to her. I sit and have a long talk with her about, possibly too long but even though she’s young I want to explain to her how wrong hitting is! Other then that she is doing great LOL She loves to color (yay) which I love because I love to color also and Jr could care less about it. One of her favorite things to do is change her clothes five times a day. Cute yet holy laundry batman!
Onto the baby. I don’t care that he will be two in two months he is still my LITTLE baby. So there LOL He is doing great also. Also talking up a storm, saying new words all the time. He weighs as much as his sister is not more. He’s only like four inches shorter then her. I’m expecting him to be taller then her soon. Yes my “little” man is quite the opposite. He will be two on May 30th. Where has the time gone? Seriously where has it gone! I swear it was just the other day I gave birth to him. He has now learned to jump and omg it is the cutest thing. I need to take video of it. He runs, full speed ahead, as fast as his little legs can go. He tries so hard to keep up with his brother and sister and it’s so cute to watch them race around the house. He still has his scar on his tummy from his surgery. The Dr’s said he would more then likely loose it with age but I am weird and want it to stay. It’s out little reminder of how lucky he is and to never forget that. Yes I am sentimental in a weird kind of way like that.
So as you can see (read) the kids are all doing well. As I mentioned before Steve and I celebrated our anniversary on the 23rd. Eight years baby! We went out to Soup Plantation and then to a movies. And go me the whole night only ended up costing us 30 dollars. Yay for coupons and free movie passes. We stopped at Barnes & Noble after dinner, grabbed some oh so yummy coffee and of course I had to get a book. What’s going to a book store without getting a book! I wish we were able to spend more time out together. It’s rare when we get to go out by ourselves but I am so happy we got to go out at all.
Well that’s my “little” update on how the fam is. Off to get ready for our fun filled day! Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Shawn has always kept me on my toes. From the time he made his early appearance in this world, and he still does today. He has to be watched like a hawk or he is seriously into everything! We have baby gates to keep the kids out of the kitchen but I’m almost to the point of not even bothering to use them anymore because they don’t sure as heck don’t prevent my kids from entering the kitchen. I get that thing as tight as I can possibly get it and they simply knock it over. Even the baby knows how to do it! Perfect example would be this morning. I run to the bathroom and come back to see this:

Hmmm, I wonder which kid did this???

Well there yah go. It was my littlest of buggers, Shawn.

He emptied the whole loaf of bread and very neatly laid it on the floor while he shoved as much as he could in his little mouth.

Now here’s my second complaint about these so called child protectors. My pantry door has a child lock on it. Well not so much a lock but one of those tabs you have to push in in order to get the door open. It doesn’t really work so well in my opinion if you can still open in two inches which is just big enough for little hands, say little 1.5 year old and little 3 year old hands to squeeze in there and grab what they want. Today it was the bread and on the way the bag caught on the door and ripped as he pulled it out.
While I did find it funny that he went to such lengths to get a piece of bread, and of course I had to take pictures, it annoys me that we have all these “child safety” products that aren’t worth a damn in this household. As I type this Shawn is working on trying to knock over the gate yet again. I’ll give him one thing, he is a determined little man LOL

With flowers that is. At least it’s an obsession that is free! I have always loved flowers, I don’t know a single person that hates them. But lately all I want to do is take a picture if I see one. Point and case:

This will eventually have a flower

Okay I am sooooo bummed that I didn’t notice I had a huge smudge on my lens until I got home and uploaded the pictures! Hmmm maybe I’ll have to take a trip outside tomorrow to find some trees exactly like this one LOL Oh and these are straight out of the camera seeing as my CS4 trial has expired (ahhhh).
These are just a few of the flower pictures I have. Flowers have a special meaning to me. One in particular, the Orchid. It was the flower I chose for my wedding and I ended up getting a tattoo of three orchids on my calf. The meaning behind the orchid is Love, Beauty, and the Chinese symbol for many children. So naturally I have one flower for my husband and one for my two older children. I need to go back and get my fourth flower for my youngest.
So I hope I don’t bore anyone with flower pictures because with Spring approaching I might post a lot of flower and well any nature related pictures that I find beautiful.

1. Why do you think you spend too much money at the grocery store? I see things I like and just throw them in the cart instead of sticking to my list.
2. What are your weaknesses when grocery shopping? Something on sale LOL I also stock up on lunch items for my kids lunch and we go through dairy really fast so I stock up on that also.
3. When/how often do you normally do your grocery shopping? I typically shop every two weeks. Sometimes I will forget an item and run to the store to buy it and never leave with just that item.
4. What products do you shop for most often? I buy chicken, milk, cheese, veggies and fruits the most.
5. Are you brand loyal on any products? Not. I usually look for the cheapest brand/off brand.
6. At what grocery and drug stores do you normally shop? I shop at winco and occasionally Walmart Super Center and Costco for bulk items.
7. Do you currently have a grocery budget or an amount to which you would like to get your grocery spending down? My grocery budget is $200 every two weeks. I try to stay under and usually manage to keep it around $150
8. Do you cook most meals at home or do you mostly eat out at restaurants? I cook at home
9. Do you currently get the Sunday paper? No

I am very excited to hear all of her suggestions on being frugal, thank you Amy for helping all of us that are frugal challenged out.