Today...

Coen just saw John for the first time since Sunday afternoon. His face lit up and he ran to John and laid his head down on his shoulder for a minute. Then he started jibber-jabbering away at him and giving him kisses. So cute! (John has been on a another business trip. He got back last night after the boys were asleep and he left before Coen woke up this morning.)

We had Maddie over today for the first time since last summer. She has grown up so much! It was fun to have her over. Marshall and her got along so well, Marshall is really tender with her. Anyway, my mom came over to drop something off and was telling me how grown up Maddie is and what a beautiful girl she is. Marshall overheard and without looking up from his coloring he said, "She sure is!" I swear he is in love with her ;)

Another funny, random thing Marshall said not too long ago: "Mom, I am so lucky I got to live in the T-Rex time AND the persons time!"

Last but not least, I thought of a few more words to add to Coen's vocabulary list: uh-oh, where'd it go?, nigh-nigh, and every time you tell him something, he very seriously says, "oooOOOH" like he is really taking into consideration what you just said.

Marshall's latest...

We've been up to some fun St. Patrick's Day activities at our house during school time! Marshall had fun learning about this Irish holiday. Since he isn't in preschool I get to plan fun activities and projects for him every day. We had a lot of fun with Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year last month too.

Do-A-Dot art

Pot of Gold puzzle

Sequencing shamrocks, biggest to smallest and smallest to biggest. This was really easy for him and took about 10 seconds but hey! we're reinforcing the concept.

lAgain, really easy for him but he loves file folder games, this one was shamrock pattern matching

Marshall absolutely looooved this mosaic activity and asked if we could do another one tomorrow. He is totally my son in the artsy-craftsy way!

Eating Irish Soda Bread (aka leftover sourdough from my Enrichment Activity last night - LOL!)

These were a big hit too. They are pre-writing practice cards, basically just tracing various lines and shapes.

He loves dot-to-dot pictures!

Here he counted out the number of mini-shamrocks that the big card had on it. I had him work on numbers 9-20.

These were some fun dragon cards I made him last month for our Chinese New Year theme. He counted the dots on each dragon then used a clothespin to pin the right number. We read a lot of books about China and their New Year's celebration. We also did some fun Year of the Tiger activities and art projects that he really enjoyed. We took him out for Chinese food, too.


To prepare him for math I found this wonderful curriculum that we've been using during school time. It's very hands-on and each lesson has a book suggestion to go with it to reinforce the concept being taught. I've been getting the books at the library and me reading them to him is one of his favorite parts. He asks for math time every day! He is so bright and loves learning, especially when it's fun! The first chapter is all about concepts like one-to-one correspondence, positional phrases (ie: above, below, etc), the seasons, weather, days of the week, the months of the year, things like that. These pictures are from last month.

He is learning to follow instructions during math time. We had read a book about the 5 senses and the instruction was to draw a line from the word "feel" to where the bear feels things, then color it orange.

Another concept we've introduced is the calendar and weather. Each day Marshall writes the new date and continues the pattern. In February it was pink heart, red heart (ABAB). We also are making a weather graph for each month. Every day it rains, we color in a rainy day (or sunny, cloudy, snowy, etc) At the end of the month we count out the days and talk about what weather we had the most of, least of, etc.

I have also been working on reading with him from a book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I love this book! It tells the parent, in red, what to say and do, and what to have the child do. It really is easy! Marshall isn't as enthused about reading as he is about math, but he still gets it and is actually reading. He does really well, it's just getting him to hold still, sit up, and do it that's the hard part. He has even started sounding out words from cereal boxes and things.

This is the "story" he read today. After he reads it I ask him comprehension questions. Like in the above story I then asked "What am I?" His response "I am a log." Then I reveal a picture depicting the "story" and we practice reading it again.

Part of the lesson includes writing practice. He writes one line of two different letters at the end of each lesson. He likes to trace some and then make his own the rest of the line.


The biggest news is:
The TOOTH FAIRY finally visited our house!!!

About a week ago I was brushing Marshall's teeth when I noticed a permanent tooth growing in behind his baby tooth. We had dentist appointments last week and the dentist was ready to pull the baby tooth so the new one could grow in where it should be. I stopped him with the promise that we would wiggle it 24/7 until it fell out.

Monday night before bed I noticed how loose it had become. I was afraid he would lose it in his sleep and swallow it, that's how loose it was! Well, he didn't lose it in his sleep but the next morning, eating his Kashi cereal, he said "Mom! My tooth fell out!" He was so excited!!

It's funny because I lost my first tooth at breakfast too! It must be an inherent Marshall thing.

So that night we left it under his pillow for the tooth fairy to come. "What does she leave?" he asked as I marched him down the hall to bed. "Money" I said. "But that BOOOOORING!" he whined back. Everything not super duper adrenaline rush exciting has become BOOOOORING to him lately. It's been the cause of much complaining around here. Anyway...I almost forgot to leave anything that night! Luckily as I lay tossing and turning I suddenly remembered to go slip some money under there at 1 am!

Saddly, he had forgotten all about it by morning. "Did you get anything from the tooth fairy?" I asked at breakfast. "I didn't look!" he said and ran into his room. "Nope, she didn't come yet" he said very nonchalantly. "Go check again" I told him, knowing I hadn't dreamt going in there. Finally I went in to his room and sure enough, no money. I pulled his mattress up and there it was on the floor, it must have slipped down there. He couldn't have cared less.

Cue...Why do I even bother moment #? (what number are we on now?)

broverly wuv

Today I took Marshall to an appointment where we met John who had come from work. Coen was at my mom's. After the appointment I went to pick him up while John and Marshall stopped at home to get Marshall's pillow and sleepover stuff. When they got to my mom's Coen got really excited and ran up to Marshall and gave him a big hug and wouldn't let go. It was enough to melt any mom's heart.

Add "iggle-iggle-iggle" to Coen's list of words. (it means tickle, tickle, tickle)

First Haircut!

At church on Sunday a friend told me Coen had a mullet. Marshall's was looking pretty bad too. So I took them in to an old friend ;) today to get them all trimmed up.

Marshall went first so Coen could see how it was done. It didn't help much because the second I tried putting him down on the chair he freaked out. I ended up just holding him and he did alright. He was strangely calm and I think the blow dryers in the salon were lulling him to sleep. She trimmed off his straggly baby curls and he looks like a big boy now! They both look super cute with their new 'dos!

Marshall, before

eek, Marshall, before
the back was looking super-straggly-ragamuffiny

I forgot afters, oops!

before

before

the back, before

the front, after

the back, after

finally, a smile! Thanks, L ;-)

More Coen...

He's at such a fun, yet trying age! I really love the toddler years, they learn and grow so much!! It's fun to watch them develop their personalities more and interact with their world. That being said, they are also some of the most difficult years. I'm sure there is frustration on both our parts when he can't communicate what he wants or needs. While his physical skills are still coming along great, he lacks the great verbal skills Marshall had at his age. Eighteen months is just over a month away, and that is when a huge language explosion occurs, so I'm anxiously awaiting that (and some peace and quiet in relief society)! For now, his words include: mama, dada, Marsh, bruva (brother), ma! (that means I want it. NOW!), ish (fish), us (Jesus), nigh-nigh (night night). I think that's it. Here's some pictures...

This picture says it all.

This picture looks so much like John as a little boy!

Sometimes I* get screamed at all day :(
*I just read that again and thought maybe people would read it and think I do the screaming all day, but what I mean is that Coen (and Marshall) scream at ME all day sometimes.

So cute! Look how fat the headphones make those squishy cheeks!

Cutest smile ever!

One morning I walked in and saw that Marshall had covered Coen in blankies and they were snuggling on the floor together. Marshall is the sweetest big bruva!

Coen has recently discovered the joy of having his hand down his pants (insert a certain cliche phrase here) and thinks it's hilarious when I tape the clean diaper over his hand. What a goofball!

On Monday Coen decided to go into the kitchen, climb up on the table (see, he's my monkey boy!), unclip the bag of chex mix, and stuff his face full. Really full.

I'm surprised he could even close his mouth, full.

And, as he frequently does, he spit them all out and put them on the table.

Here he is folding his arms for the dinner prayer the other night. He is so funny! He sometimes folds them when he is ready for me to feed him another bite and that we need to say another prayer before he can eat. It's so cute :)

My first Target couponing experience...

Move over Coen and Marshall! This blog is now Mama's deal blog! Just kidding. Pictures of my adorable kids are on their way, since I know that's why you really read this blog.

Hefty quart-size zipper bags 6 @ $.50 each
Wheatables Nut Crisps $.99 for one
Oral-B Kid's Toothbrush $.99 for one
Bandaids (done in two transactions) 2 for FREE!
Crest Kid's Toothpaste (done in two transactions) 2 for FREE!
Neosporin for kids (done in two transactions) 2 @ $.89 each
not shown: 2 pkgs Oscar Meyer Deli Meat @ $2.29 each


Not bad! I also got Coen a $4 shirt and Marshall some goggles for the pool this summer. My total was 27.65, then my friend Melissa noticed that they had charged us incorrectly for the baggies. So we went in and got the price adjustment bringing it down to $21.30. At the bottom of my receipt it says I saved $14.95, plus if you factor in the new baggie price, that's a $20+ dollar savings. So basically I saved almost 50%!!

So, my question for you is...would you be interested in me teaching a class on how to do what I do? And if so do you want drug store deals, grocery deals, or both?

I know you're all dying to see what I got at Rite Aid this week!

Welcome to the madness! I took a friend from high school with me tonight to show her the ropes. I think she was a bit shocked! It's always sort of nerve racking when you go to do these deals. You never know what products they'll be out of and if you'll be able to do the transaction scenarios like you did in your head (or paper, below). My heart was racing from the time I started writing down my deals and coupon clipping to the time I got home with the goods! It is really such a huge rush of adrenaline!!

OOP=Out Of Pocket $
OOP: $2.01 with tax, I paid more in tax than in product
Everything in this transaction was free except the chocolate basically. I'm thinking ahead to Easter.

OOP: $.50 before tax $1.11 with tax
But wait! I get a $5 check in the mail for the shampoo and conditioner. Which means I made $3.89. Again, I'm thinking Easter for the candy and Marshall's blonde could use some help.

OOP: $13.56 with a $2 check coming my way bringing the total down to $11.56, which isn't *that* great, but we have about 4 of these razors (free-ish) and NEED refills!

Here's where it gets good again.
OOP: $23.34 (I forgot a $.50 coupon!!) but there's a $10 rebate and another $2 one so my total will be $11.34 for 3 packs of diapers and 1 pack of wipes!!

I've been wanting to get these for awhile now but they are so freaking expensive! Well they were on sale and with coupons and a $10 rebate it brought the total to only $12.04 with tax!!

My friend spotted these in the clearance bin as we were leaving, so I went back to get them for next Valentine's Day. Can't beat $.30! Marshall will love them!

The grand total for all of it was $35.36! The diapers alone normally cost that!

I'm going back tomorrow for more deals on stuff they were out of tonight!

Thanks go out to Slavetosave and Hip2Save for always posting great deals to get me going!