Target 75% Christmas Clearance!
Whoo Hoo I hit another Target Christmas clearance sale...wish I could say Mr. B is as excited as I am LOL!!
I almost missed it too as I've been so busy with the kids out of school that I hadn't even checked on it. Luckily my friend, J, called me today from Target to let me know!
Here's my scores:
Several 2 pks of Bounty paper towels for 74¢/pkg
2 pkg of Kleenex for 49¢ each
Ziploc container sets for 99¢
Kids Bop Christmas Cd for $2.50
2 Table clothes that we've been desperatly needing $5 each
Target tape for 34¢ each
Ribbon for 34¢ each
Name tags for 25¢ each
Christmas cards for next year $1.74, keep a look out for those next year ;)
All of that, plus a few extras not mentioned (but pictured) for $43.49!!!!
I saved a whooping $115.25....although Mr. B says he wishes I didn't have to spend so much money to save him money, LOL!!
Places We've Traveled
I decided to start a map so I can keep track of the places we've traveled, that way I can see where we still need to go :) I've only marked the places we've visited/lived as a family since moving to Alabama in 1999. We still have a LOT of ground to cover ;)
View Larger Map
List of Places Marked:
Overseas:
Japan - several areas
Iceland- several areas, I hope to start blogging about our Iceland adventures soon!
England
Germany
France
Austria
Luxembourg
Stateside:
Alabama
Georgia
Florida
Mississippi
Virginia
West Virginia
Idaho
We've drove through several other states but since I don't think a rest stop constitutes visiting the state I'll leave them off for a real visit.
Friends from Far Places
Last Tuesday we were lucky enough to be able to visit with some friends we made in Iceland. While it was great to visit and catch up with them it really made me miss our good friends from Iceland and Japan :( I hope one day we'll be able to visit with them again too!
That's the downside to being a military family, you move and then make amazing friends & memories and before you know it the time has come for either you or them to move again. Thankfully we've been able to meet several wonderful families but the downside is that we have no idea when (or IF) we'll see them again :(
Thankfully email, internet (myspace, facebook, ect), Skype and Miltel have all be successful in keeping us in contact over the thousands of miles, and we'll just keep being thankful for those we are lucky enough to visit with again.
Christmas 2008
Christmas morning was both exciting and tiring! The kids were allowed to get up at 6 am and come get us up. Then we had to get them dressed in their new PJs from Christmas Eve (they don't sleep in them in case of any accident, ect) and make sure hair is combed, lights on tree on, music playing, ect before they head out to see what Santa has brought. I looked and this year it took a whole 13 minutes and at 6:13 am we were heading to the living room, but I guess when your little 13 minutes seems like a lifetime! LOL!
The kids were so excited to find that Santa had brought them an iMac! They were also happy with the gifts from family. We also open presents a certain way, they all go get one for everyone then we open them one at a time starting with the youngest child and work our way to the oldest, then after the last person is done the kids go get another present for everyone. It's a great way to make sure the kids know who the gifts are from and for everyone to see what they all got.
Funny enough the one thing that Bubby wanted most this year was a TUXEDO!! And I'm not even kidding. He's been on a HUGE spy kick lately and decided one day that he needed a Tuxedo to be a 'real' spy. I decided that with the $ from Poppie & Omah I would get him a Tuxedo (from online of course) and the expression on his face was PRICELESS!!! Who would've guessed the joy a Tuxedo could bring to a little boy?!
We didn't get our normal family pic of us all in our PJs since as soon as we were done Bubby had ripped off his PJs and had his brand new Tuxedo on, which he proceeded to wear until that evening. (Today the day after, he's in it yet again)
And today my arm is SORE from a Wii game that was sent to the kids...darn those Wii games!!!
Here are some pictures from Christmas Morning
Bea getting her hair done so they can go check out the presents!
Bea literally running out to the living room, Bubby in right corner (arm) has already beaten everyone else, LOL!
The kids waiting on the stairs
Boo with his Laser Tag, it's been a hit! Thankfully there are multiple guns so there is lots of ambushing going on around here ;)
Bea with her Swim Baby
Bubby opening a box, and YES that is a butter knife, and YES with our luck lately it should probably be a spoon!
The pure JOY a Tuxedo can bring a boy!
Can you tell he's happy about the Tuxedo?! LOL!
Bubby in his Tuxedo
A little Spy action going on! We call him Double O8
Christmas Eve
We have a couple of traditions that we do on Christmas Eve, in addition to Boo's birthday. We normally celebrate his birthday during the day and around dinner we transition to Christmas Eve starting with our Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup we make each year for dinner.
After eating the yummy soup we let our kids open 2 presents, these are 2 presents specifically for Christmas Eve, as every year they get an ornament and a pair of Pjs. We write their names and year on the ornament and when they move out and start a family we'll be able to send the ornaments with them.
As for the PJs for the last several years I've enjoyed getting family matching PJs from The Children's Place but this year was the end of that. Mr. B and I were only wearing the PJs once, Christmas Eve, although the kids did wear theirs a lot. Plus with Boo getting older I didn't want to get something that would embarrass him. I ended up getting an ADORABLE Disney Princess nightgown from The Disney Store online for Bea and Little Ms. T, while I shopped at Old Navy for the rest of us. I got the boys matching flannel pants but different shirts, then I picked out PJs for Mr. B and I that we would continue to wear. After opening them I got the stamp of approval from both Mr. B and the boys so it looks like Old Navy will be my new source of PJs for Christmas Eve.
Truthfully the ornaments were almost forgotten this year with the whole move and everything going on but amazingly enough I happened to stumble onto a super sale and some cute ornaments a week before the event and the problem was solved! I normally buy these after Christmas on sale and save them for next year if I can.
Here are pics of the ornaments:
Bea and Mr. B, her's is an angel that was too cute to pass up
Bubby & Boo showing off thier super cool Hedgehog ornaments!
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas From Our Family!
Please excuse our absence of snail mail cards, I hope ya'll enjoyed the email one! If I missed you it means I don't have your email so send it to me :)
Happy Birthday Boo!
Yes, Christmas Eve really is Boo's real birthday, he turned 12 today! So as you can see we are SUPER busy this time of year :)
Here are some pictures from today:
Boo with his presents
Ready to shop with his gift from his WV Auntie
Cheesing with Bubby
Posing with Bea
He's been begging us to take him to Hibbett's, now he has a reason to go, thanks to Paw Paw and Grandma Donna
SO EXCITED!!!!
He REALLY wanted an iTouch and was hoping 'Santa' was brining one so the look of excitement on is face was priceless!
Boo with Mr. B
Boo & I
Thanks to Poppie & Omah he's adding songs and applications to his iTouch right now!
Boo Hand Update III
It's been a few weeks since my last update so I figured it was time for another. So far Occupational Therapy has been going well. He's getting motion back in the fingers although we are having to work on getting them straight. If they are still not straight when we go back Jan 6th he'll have to wear individual finger splints on them.
He's also excited because in 2 more weeks he won't have to wear his splint, aka the claw, except during high risk activities like PE, jumping on the trampoline, ect until 12 wks post surgery and then he'll be done for good.
Here are some pics I took today of it:
Wearing "the claw"
Another view of "the claw"
Side view of "the claw"
View of fingers and scars
Another view
His fingers fully straightened, see why it needs work?
His fist fully closed, we've still got to see how much functioning he'll get with this pinky and the tendon not being able to be repaired....
Gnomes
Do you ever get the feeling that your not alone? Every year around Christmas time I feel like I'm in the land of Travelocity, or Gnome city! Mr. B has a collection of vintage gnomes that he got from his grandma growing up, and every year we take them out to display. When he was a kid they looked forward to every Christmas and seeing which new gnome they would get, they now reside here in our home, and every year I chuckle taking them out of the box.
Wondering what the gnome fascination was I looked up some Gnome facts from this site
and here is what I found:
~Male gnomes are identified by their red caps, looks like we have a few of those
~There are 3 types of Gnomes: Workers, Leisure, and Culture
~Gnomes have a life expectancy of 400 years...so looks they'll be around for our kids kids, LOL!
~Gnomes love practical jokes and are pranksters
This is by far the the funniest of our gnomes
Islamorada Fish Company
Last night we headed back to the Bass Pro Shop to try out their restaurant The World Famous Islamorada Fish Company Restaurant and use our free kids meal coupons we got visiting Santa the other night.
The place is neatly decorated with large fish and sharks all over the walls and hanging from ceilings, the lights were hung from mock fishing poles.
It was interesting to see alligator on the menu as an appetizer, and no we did not sample it. I stuck with chicken pasta (which was yummy) while Mr. B had coconut shrimp. They also served bread with the meal which no one but Mr. B liked because it had a sugary paste on top.
The food was good but the service was SLOOOOOW! I'm glad we weren't in a hurry to get anywhere! When they were making Boo's milkshake I swear they had to go find the cow and milk it in order to make the ice cream!
Overall it was good but unless we're looking for a long, slow meal I don't think we'll be heading back anytime soon. Plus even after the 2 free kids meals it was $40!
Serving the Community
I had such a great time serving the community last Saturday with our church. We had tables outside of the local Walmart and we wrapped people's Christmas gifts for free! We weren't even taking donations and people were surprised we would not take their money and that it REALLY was free!
It was so funny to watch people come out of Walmart and try to avoid the table thinking that we wanted something (donations, ect). I mean think about it, I know I have often tried to avoid those who are trying to solicit me for something as I enter a store. Imagine their utter surprise when they realized there were truly NO strings attached?! It was such a great feeling to give knowing that we were doing it only to help others!
I look forward to helping out next year and helping with other free events throughout the year.
Santa Visit!
We took the kids to the local Bass Pro Shop to go see Santa. I figured it would be less crowded here. It was also our first visit to the store and boy were we blown away! The decor was amazing with stuffed wildlife everywhere and a Ginormous fish tank with waterfall! I want to go back with my camera! We were also surprised to learn there is a restaurant there as well.
Back to the Santa visit, we took the kids over to Santa and found that they provided FREE pictures with Santa...whoo hoo! Plus they gave us 4 pictures (one for each kid, even though they took a group picture) and 4 free kids meals at the restaurant...guess what we'll be trying out soon?! Then the girls wrote a letter to Santa and put it in the mailbox while the guys played the free arcade games. I mean really the whole set up was amazing!
Mr. B is itching to get back and check things out when he can look around without a pack of kids tagging along. I seen some neat stuff in there I'll have to go back and check out...and no D it's NOT camping stuff! The North Face and Columbia stuff caught my eye :)
