Savin' a little cash....

Soooo....we are going to an all cash system, trying to save a little cash so we are going to the envelope system. Our envelope for eating out has only a small amount of cash so, I am going to be doing a much better job with meal planning. Here's a little glimpse into what we are having....

(numbers are aprox. of course)

Lunch Ideas (not super healthy, I know :( )

Burritos, Carrots, Ranch, Me-Smart ones $5.76

Frozen Pizza/Carrots/Ranch $4.90

Mac n cheese/Apples $1.94

Dinner Ideas (I was thinking ease, somewhat well balanced, and cheap!)

Steamed Rice & Pot Stickers (my kids new fav) $13

Breakfast for Dinner (my kids old fav) $8.79

Sgetti Dinner/baguette/steamed zuchini&squash/salad-$11.97

Poppyseed Chicken/Homemade mashed potatoes/Corn- $18.02

Chicken Tenders/Pasta Salad/Green Beans-$8.66

Hot Dogs/Chips/Clementines-$7

Bal-uh-lay Season TWO

Look at the show of support....you think anyone loves this girl?!?!

My Little Ballerina had her second annual recital.....

Her cousins came out to show support....
Mim came to cheer her on as well...
Of course, mommy was there....
As we were walking into the building she said "Mommy, I can't do it....I just can't do it." I gave her a little pep talk about how her friends were counting on her and she came to her senses :) and did a fantastic job.

Oh so graceful....



Surely no one will notice if I just sneak this in real quick......

Her adoring fans....

Miss Alex, one of her teachers...

Aunt Bekah came to cheer her on as well

Mrs.Missy (as a side note, Mrs.Missy is my inspiration to do p90x.....check out those guns!)

Summer Book Plans

Alright...warning.....BORING post.

One thing that is so fun about summer is going to the LIBRARY!!! In fact, we celebrated our first day of freedom (no more "school"!!!) today. That kind of makes me laugh in that although we won't have "school" we will probably do just about as much "school", it will just be disguised :)!!

Okay, I want to keep track of the books we read this summer and what better place than this?!?!? So, this is where I will keep my running list. I will have a list of books we want to read and a list of books we have read. Sorry, this way I know I won't lose it and don't have to keep up with a sheet of paper.

Books for "Biggie":

Balto and the Great Race

The Night the Bells Rang

Taste of Blackberries

Barry, the Bravest Saint Bernard

Stone Fox

Tornado

Lots of Nate the Great

Lots of Beatrix Potter

Lots of Frog and Toad

Amelia Bedelia

The Mouse and The Motorcycle Series

Books for "Bitty" and "Roos" (and Biggie too, of course):

The Little Engine That Could

New Coat for Anna

Ox Cart Man

Miss Tizzy

Stone Soup

Story about Ping

The Giant Jam Sandwich

A Pair of Red Clogs

The Lonely Doll

There's no Such Thing as A Dragon by Jack Kent

Lots of Tomie dePaola (Shout out RC:)

How To Make A Cherry Pie and See the USA

Mei Li

Mrs. Wishy Washy

They Were Strong and Good

The Little House

Eric Carle Unit Study

Finders Keepers

May I bring a Friend?

Owl Moon

Lots of Raggedy Ann

Rapunzel

Hot Air

The Napping House

Velveteen Rabbit (Late Night Read Aloud)

Alice in Wonderland (Late Night Read Aloud)

Pinocchio (Late Night Read Aloud)

Books for Mama:

The Count of Monte Cristo (Shout out KW:)

Same Kind of Different As Me

I Wish for you a Beautiful Life (Letters written by Korean Birth Mothers to their Children)

Get Out of That Pit-Beth Moore (Shout out ND:)

Adopted for Life

Redeeming Love by F. Rivers (I totally forgot about this one from my friend Heather that Jessica reminded me of!!-Thanks!)

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn (Also one that I had been told about before but needed my reminder, thanks Joy!!)

Some good historical/convicting/biblical fiction (any suggestions???)

Finish reading Fearless (Max Lucado)

Books we've Read (Starting 5/25):

(edited 6/6-I've realized I'm pretty terrible at keeping track of books we've read, no matter how hard I try but I am doing better than usual)

Circus Boat

Money, Money, Honey Bunny

Owl Moon(*)

Tale of Peter Rabbit (C) (*)

Each Orange Had Eight Slices (Great Counting Book!!!)

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? (Bitty reads this every single night)

Funny Bunny Hunny Bunny (*)

Romeow and Drooliet

Stagestruck by T. depaola (*)

Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs by T. d.(*)

A Pair of Red Clogs (*)

Charlie Needs A Cloak (*)

Mother Goose by T.d.

The Tale Of Mr.Jeremy Fisher (*)

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food

Truman's Aunt Farm (* SUPER CUTE)

Raggedy Ann & Andy and the Camel With the Wrinkled Knees

The Berenstein Bears and the Trouble With Commercials

Five Green & Speckled Frogs (*)

Papa Picalo

The Little Engine that Could (*)

The Very Last First Time (*)

Angus and the DUCKS

Ish (*Very cute, along the lines of Harold and the Purple Crayon)

Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems (*HILARIOUS)

Nate the Great and the Owl Express (C)

Story About Ping

I Wanna Iguana

The Ox Cart Man

Wiggly Tooth (C)

Mat (R- YES! She is READING-YIKES!!! Bob book)

Sydney's Star

The Doorbell Rang

Lon Po Po

Crysanthemum

Plaidypus Lost

Appelmando's Dream (AMAZING...may be one of my top 5 favs of all time)

Babushka Baba Yaga (Again, amazing. I love Patricia Polacco, she's one of my all time favorite authors)

So Few of Me

I Can Hear The Sun

Sydney's Star

Just Plain Fancy

Climbing Kansas Mountains

The Napping House

Miss Rumphius

Babushka's Doll

Don't Let the Pigion Drive the Bus! (*)

The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! (C)

Mouse Soup (C)

Betty Doll

Ginger and Petunia (*)

Music for Alice

The Relatives Came

Knuffle Bunny (*)

Knuffle Bunny Too

In Enzo's Splendid Gardens (*)

When Lightning Comes in a Jar (*)

The Keeping Quilt

Fortunately (*)

Tall Mother Goose

Big Anthony

The Song of Francis

Nate the Great and the Stolen Base (C)

Oliver Button is a Sissy

Nicolas, Where Have You Been?

A Color of My Own

Grumpy Bird

Shells!Shells!Shells!

A House for Hermit Crab

Pink and Say

"Mia do dat!"

Bitty calls himself "Mia" when he wants to say "me". We were driving up to Biggie's (my new name for my eldest child:) school and they had these huge inflatables to play on. Bitty says "Mia DO DAT" as clear as day. I have been so worried about his speech and it's like he is taking off this last month and it all the sudden clicked. Granted, I am very specific about what I call a sentence or a word, it has to be understandable to the world before I count it :) and "Mia DO DAT" was clear to the world.

Another one is "Dat BOKE"....His pacifiers. They are apparently all "Boke." I even bought brand new ones and they are "boke" too. So, guess what!!!???? My bitty is done with paci's...just like that, he gave em' up cold turkey. That was wayyyyy easier than I thought. In fact, I was still trying to force them on him and he was pushing them away. Weird. This kid's like his mama I guess. Wooah Boy.

He finds himself quite funny lately as well. He does all sorts of things that he knows will make us laugh. The other night we were in our small group and he walked by some friends of ours and started doing his funny walk where he holds his shoulders down and lets his arms hang (take my word, it's cute). I saw him in that moment, trying to get attention, with a little smirk on his face and it was literally like I was re-living biggie at that age. He's so much like his brother. WOOOOOOAHHHHH Boy.

Babies Galore!

My new baby nephew!!!!

He's precious and I already love him so. My sister Kels did an amazing job during labor, she rocked the house and look at the result...isn't he adorable!?!?

More pics to come, of course!

"Noonah, I poop, down."

One of Jee's first sentences.....

Translation: "Noonah"= Sissy, The rest I think you can figure out for yourself. It was true by the way.

Church Musicale' in photo

My little rule follower always looking at the teacher and doing each song with such precision and accuracy. Not to mention bringing praise to the Lord.

Proud Dada.
Proud Bubba.
The epitomy of my eldest captred in a photo.
This was the "freestyle" portion of the worship experience. When looking through our photos of the evening he couldn't believe that the other boys in the choreography were just "playing their guitars" during the freestyle portion.

Woh boy, contrast this with my little rule follower. Hilarious how God designs kids who are in the same family oh so drastically different.Although the freestyle was all fun and games, he really is a worshipper. It makes my heart happy to see him worship unashamed. I pray that he keeps that passion as the years pass.

The whole fam.Proud Mim.