Merry Christmas

from our family to yours!

Eight

Last night when I tucked the boy's in bed, I told them that tomorrow was someones birthday. They guessed everyone they could think of and then I told them it was someone we love who lives in Heaven. Their faces lit up and they shouted, LAUREN! I love when they say her name or talk about her. They have a sister that they never knew but somehow I know they love her.

Evan came home from school one day a while back and told me that he drew a picture of our family. I asked him to tell me about it, and he said, "I made me and Jake and Colin and you and daddy. You were holding Lauren and we were all smiling because Lauren was with us." What a reason to smile. Things like this are a gift to me, I love it. Jacob was looking at a baby picture of himself one day and told me, "Hey I look like Lauren, both our hands are the same." Sure enough, in his three month picture his hands are folded up by his face just like hers were in one of the pictures we have hanging up. Colin is still a bit young to talk much about her but when he says her name "Yo-yen" it gets me every time.

Today would have been her eighth birthday. Sometimes it seems so far away, like it never really happened. But it did happen. I know that on December 23, 2001 we welcomed a little girl into our family. We have hours of video tape of her and hundreds of pictures. So I know it happened. I know we have three sons, but before that we had a daughter. Our sweet, beautiful girl, Lauren Rebecca. I struggle every year to know what to do with this day. It's just hard do do birthday's without the guest of honor. I'm sure we will look through her scrapbook. We may end up going out to the cemetery. Whatever we do, I know we will be celebrating in our hearts this day eight years ago when God gave us Lauren.

Mystery revealed

My sneaking suspicion was right. The pin cushion came from my good friend Sarah! We are going to use that pin cushion together some day. We have big plans.

Thank you for the gift Sarah. I love it and I love you! (p.s. remember what you told me on this day?)

Deals

I've done a few posts about the deals I get couponing but haven't for a while. I had a pretty good shopping trip this week and thought it would be fun to share. I did two transactions at Meijer and spent a total of $23.24. The fun part is that I got $72.45 worth of groceries! When I brought all the food in and told Matt the total, he asked me if I stole some of it! ( I didn't of course.) I used about $18 worth of coupons on top of store sales and scored some awesome bargains. I'll tell you about some of my favorites.

Select Kellogg's cereals were on sale for 5 for $10. Meijer had a promotion, buy 5 Kellogg's cereals and get a free gallon of milk. I had a coupon for $5 off any 4 Kellogg's cereals and a .75 cent off coupon for 1 box of cereal. That means I got 5 box's of cereal and a gallon of milk for $4.25! I am loving that deal!

Mueller's pasta was on sale 3 for $2 (.67 cents each). I had a coupon for $1 off 2. That means I got 2 box's of past for .34 cents (.17 cents each). That is some cheap pasta!

Tropicana Trop50 orange juice is $2.92 regular price. I had a $1 off 1 coupon, which I stacked on top of a $1.50 off 1 Meijer coupon. That means I got it for . 42 cents. Woo-hoo!

This makes me so happy. Weird? Maybe. Budget friendly? Oh, yeah! Hooray for extra grocery money in the envelope after shopping!

I got a package

A little brown box came in the mail on Monday, addressed to me! I never get stuff in the mail so I was very excited. I didn't recognize the return address and had no idea what it could be. I wasted no time ripping into it and found this sweet little gem.

It's a pin cushion. A very cute one at that. It makes me wish I knew how to sew! I looked through all the packaging but there was nothing saying who it was from. A mystery package! The only other thing in the box was a little business card from the etsy shop it came from. Have a look.

I have only one idea who it might be from and why but I don't know. Does anyone want to fess up to sending this sweet little bird my way? Does anyone want to teach me to sew so I can help it live up to it's full potential? Just asking.

Jacob's birthday party weekend

Jacob will be turning five on Wednesday, but we had his party's (two to be exact) this past weekend. The weekend started out a little iffy. (We can't make plans in this family without some type of hitch!) Jake had a fever for three days straight but, thankfully, it took a hike on Friday afternoon so we didn't have to cancel the festivities. We hosted our first "Friend Party" on Saturday afternoon. Five of Jacobs friends came and of course Evan too. It was lots of fun for the kiddo's and also reminded me why I stopped after 3 boys. We played a few "organized" games but I'm convinced that they all would have rather just wrestled the whole time. I think everyone had a good time and Jacob was happy as a lark to have all his buddies in one spot!

We also did a much smaller celebration at my mom and dad's on Sunday afternoon with family. Mom and dad host Sunday afternoon/evenings at their house almost every week (they are awesome like that) so it wasn't much different except we ate cupcakes and Jacob got to open more presents.

He was quite wore out by Sunday night. It was a busy weekend for just getting over a fever and it may have been a case of too much birthday.

I love this boy. I love his heart. I know God has big plans for him.

More Christmas Cheer

The girls in my family had our annual Christmas cookie bake on Saturday and as you can see we were quite busy! It's no wonder I can't take off those pesky ten pounds but boy am I in the Christmas spirit:)