{Teach Me Tuesday} - Letter Sounds

Being a math teacher, it is really easy for me to focus on numbers, shapes and colors. What four-year-old knows what a quadrilateral is?? MINE! But teaching them to read....now that's a whole new bag of tricks! I am a teacher - but I teach middle schoolers. Kids who should know basic tools to learn.

It's easy to get frustrated with your own children when you tell them for the twenty-millionth time to NOT write their name in ALL CAPS.....

Then I found Starfall....

And they LOVE it!

Letters, letter sounds, beginning reading and advanced reading.... Now they'll be ready for Pre-K!

Makin' It Monday - Vacuuming

 Yes, that is my FOUR-YEAR-OLD vacuuming.... If you meet him, you'll quickly learn that his love language is acts of service. He is a helper. He feels loved when you allow him to help you around the house. The reason I know this is because he is constantly asking to help. He gets hurt when he's not allowed to help. Ever since he was a little more than 12 months old, he has had a plastic vacuum that he would follow me around the house with when I vacuumed. Last week he asked if he could try the "big vacuum".

I said yes.

And he smiled the biggest smile on his face.

And he vacuumed the entire downstairs all by himself with the proudest little "swagger" in his step as he did.

I'm so thankful for my helper - he is such a blessing around our house. He'll make some lucky girl really happy one day. :) Until then, I'll be encouraging his sweet, gentle spirit.

I tried to get all four kiddos at church amist the beautiful green backdrop and pre-Easter egg hunt.... but this was the best I got....

I still think they're stinkin' cute! Gotta love trying to get four little munchkins to look at you when all they are pre-occupied with is finding eggs! hahaha

Camera

Can you tell who took my camera??

Five Months....

 I can't believe my "baby" boy turned five months old last Saturday. I remember people telling me that time flies when you have kids, but I think that was an understatement. I find myself thinking more and more often the thought "Please, slow down, Life! I want to cherish this moment!" But, alas, it doesn't....days turn into years it seems like all in the blink of an eye. I am so content and happy with what has been dubbed the J CREW and am a proud wife and mom.

Jayden is almost half a year old and he has been accomlishing SO much this past month. Now that he's five months, here's some stats on him:

• 26" in length
• Weght - I still have to weigh him!! :o
• "Army crawls" backwards
• sits up for about 2 seconds unassisted
• Rolls ALL OVER the house, including out of the bouncer and off the couch
• Is a "talker" and a laugher
• Eats cereal, Stage 2 baby foods and wears 6 month clothing!
• Loves to be interacted with - especially by big brother Joshie :)

I am so thankful for our little promise, Jayden. He reminds me constantly that God's promises are not only remembered, but His timing is SO much sweeter than mine. He is the best baby in terms of ease and personality. I am so blessed to be the mom of four, sweet little ones!

Four, four and under really isn't all that bad....in fact, I rather enjoy it!

Easter - Snapshots

It's Easter weekend. A weekend that has been over commercialized by chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chickens. A weekend that has much more meaning than bright colored eggs

Don't get me wrong - I love the bright eggs hiding away and witing to be found. I love the Cadbury Creme Eggs that are a tradition between my grandma, dad and I. But it's all about the "Reason for the Season". And I love that we get to celebrate with my family and have a joyous celebration in unity.

We actually already had our "family" fun day since my brother-in-law will be going into the Coast Guard - so another Easter post will be up after Easter. But here's a view "through the lens" of how we celebrate as a family. Be warned - if you fall asleep, confetti eggs will be hidden on you!

And if you fall asleep, you'll be left out of the excitement of craking confetti eggs on each others heads!

Thankful Thursday - Extreme Couponing?

Being a math teacher, I think in numbers....I see the world around me in "math language"... so when I shop for groceries, I am ALWAYS on the lookout for the best possible savings. And then I started watching TLC's "Extreme Couponing"......So I bought TEN newspapers this past Saturday.....and sorted the coupon inserts.....

Normally, our family of six can easily spend $200+ at the store getting our basic grocery needs for the week. The cost includes of course the necessary items that companies KNOW you need, so charge more than an arm and a leg for like diapers, baby items, and lunch snacks. I have been trying for a while to find a good way to get the things we need without having to spend SO much money. I hate money...there's never enough, and there's always that stress of needed a little bit more to get by. Then there's the fact that my husband is soley commission, so it's very hard to make a set budget every two weeks. But I'm learning....

After watching the show, I learned a few techniques on saving money.

1. Shop the sales
2. If something is on sale, or the store has a promotion, AND you have a coupon, stock up on that item - store sales for that item happen about every 6 months
3. Do not take all the kids - they can get restless and will cause you to loose your concentration on "how many" you need, and like to pick up things they want (that we don't need!)
4. Buying more than one newspaper allows you to maximize your savings and use coupons for each item you purchase :)

So, I went to Kroger last weekend after buying my hoard or newspapers...and Jason went with me to see what I've been talking about. He took the big kids and I took the little kids. We needed some items that weren't on sale and didn't have coupons (lunch meat), BUT we bought a lot of other items that I had coupons for and could stock up on. There was a promotion too for General Mills cereal - you buy 4 boxes and you get a $5 gift card. I also had a $0.75 off per box coupon...so four boxes cost me $8, and I got $5 for the next trip! We saved 50% that night!!

And then I went yesterday..... I shoped for our family of six for two weeks, AND bought supplies for our small group, which is coming to our house next Friday.... This would normally total almost $400 worth of groceries and items... What did I pay??? LESS THAN $200!!!! The awesome part is that if you shop at Kroger, you also get 1 point for every dollar you spend there. Your points accumulate and you get 10 cents off per gallon of gas at their gas station or Shell for evert 100 points you have. After loading the van, I went and filled up - and I got 80 cents off per gallon! Here's what we loaded up on:

Some highlits of my shopping trip:

• 4 bottles of Mayo
• 16 boxes of cereal (which gave me a total of $20 off my next shopping trip)
• 14 bottles of Gatorade
• 3 bottles of juicce
• 3 packages of Huggies diapers
• 4 boxes of Wheat Thins Stix
• 8 bottles of baby shampoo/body wash
• 8 packs of yogurt (that will be gone in two weeks with four people who love yogurt!)
• 8 boxes of Nature Valley Granola Thins (plus another $10 off my next shopping trip)

Needles to say, today I am thankful that God has made me to think in numbers...... I can't wait to see if I can make the percentage go even higher!

Stick Family

What do you think of the stick family I created? I put it at the bottom of the blog for new peeps to see.

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

Oh man!

I'm sure people are reading and thinking "Where the heck is Jaime?" At least I'd hope you'd be thinking that....LOL... It's been a CRAZY couple of weeks, and I've got SO much to write about. I am editing pictures from grandma's visit, Julianna's party, weekend with sister, fun times with family, Jayden's 5 months, and Easter.... I thought I'd have a minute, but it seems that there's so much going on around here...although I do like being busy! :)

I promise you'll like the pics - and patience pays off :) I'll be blogging tomorrow - I promise!