Warren with his cake (aka brownies). He's not a huge cake guy, but these wash down pretty nice.
Books were the theme this birthday. I gave him some luggage (well a card with a suitcase on it) since he wants to pick out his own. Amazing how thrashed his suitcase is getting with flying several times a week for the past 2 years.
I love my Provident Living Group I've been going to. Each month we meet to learn/discuss ways to live with more thrift. Last month was couponing, this month was more of an outline of what we will be doing through the year. But to finish it off, we had a cooking demonstration- different ways to use our whole wheat. My favorite demo was whole wheat crepes made in the blender. They are super yummy, healthy, and are a great way to use my whole wheat. We stuffed them with cream cheese sauce and fresh strawberries and blueberries. I guess they weren't super healthy after the cream cheese sauce, but they sure were tasty! I enjoyed the whole wheat waffles that were made very similar, just with slight variations to the ingredients.
I have been working hard on couponing and price matching lately. We had a really good provident living activity explaining how to get started. I also watched my sister in law in action when we went to visit in November. I've gone in and used a few coupons here and there, and I try to stock up on things when they're on sale. But I've never gone the whole way.
Until today! I decided to go the extra mile- get out all my coupons I've been collecting, all the ads for the different grocery stores and price match. It took me a little over an hour to sort things out. Walmart and Target price match here, so I thought I'd try out Walmart today. I was so nervous going up to the checker- I had all my prices written down from different stores to compare and match. I had 4 different stores I was comparing, so I had to be really organized about what went on the conveyor belt in listed order. My checker was very patient. 
When I came home I compared what I would have spent- I saved myself $53.30!! I am so excited! If I do that every week, that frees up $200/month! So, thank you: Julie, Robin, Shannon, and Melissa for being my inspirations! I am now a couponer!! :) Any of you who want a great deal on cereal- Albertsons has 5/$9 on Quaker brand, plus two $3 coupons in their ad. I got my boxes for $1.20 a piece (5/$6 normally $3.54 a piece)! YAY!!
I don't know what I would do without Cassidy. She is such a wonderful girl. She does so much work around here. I have recently acquired a huge load of piano students, and she is such a sweet little babysitter. She takes great care of Jake- and that is not an easy job. She always does her chores without complaining, gets great grades, and is so much fun to be around. Sure love you, Cass! Thank you, for being so fabulous!
I was rolling at how he put his whole face in the bucket to look for the playdough toys.
Seriously, I'm sure we've taken enough of these. But I will be so sad when this phase is over. I love my Lukee Batman.
Jake was so excited when Luke came home from preschool Tuesday. He ran over and gave him a huge hug! I was so happy to see Luke hug him back. Too cute these boys. Fun to see them become good buds.
Alan does a pretty good Cade impersonation! This is Cade's "I don't know, well" face.
Cute new kitty from Grandma. This girl has an obsession with white cats in pink purses.
Fun with Grandpa!
Luke loves his cars
Doing silly faces for the Johnson's camera
Cass and Grandma
Silly Cade and Grandma
Cade has this crazy habit of adding "well" to the end of a sentence instead of the beginning. Now Luke is starting to do it. For example, "I don't want to clean my room, well!" or "I don't know, well!" or "Luke took my toy, well!" We're trying to teach him that if you're going to say it, you use it at the beginning. For example, "Well, I'd be happy to, Mom!" :) 
Cassidy got her ortho work done. She had an appliance put in to save room for her molars to grow in where she had her extraction. I'm not sure she really needs it or not- her tooth is already breaking the skin. So, my orthodontist friends out there- am I being swindled?!!Cade's first tooth fell out!
2nd tooth lost
1st tooth lost! YAY!!
Cade lost 2 teeth in 4 days. He was so excited! Our poor tooth fairy is going to be broke for sure if he keeps up this pace! He had me feel his first one and it fell right out into my hand. The second one he wiggled for a couple days. He would come check in periodically to for me to see if it was ready to come out. He kept telling me, "I'm afraid you'll forget to see if it's ready to come out!" I said, "You'll remind me." He replies, "I'm afraid I'll forget!" And proceeded to check in. Then during his piano lesson, he told me to take another look, and sure enough- out it came! The tooth fairy even remembered! She was really lucky to have some reminders this time! ;)
Happy New Year!!
We had a great clean up crew.
Playing the Wii- Cade LOVES it when Uncle Alan comes to town!
Playing a new game Grandma brought us called "Blink!" The kids love it.
We partied with the Hess family this year. We were so excited when Alan, Shelley, Chuck and Marlean said they were coming to see us. We started off with some cheese and chocolate fondue for dinner. Then we celebrated with South America at 7pm. (It actually was more like 7:15 because we weren't quite ready on the hour.) We played games, yelled HAPPY NEW YEAR with streamers and poppers, did some New Years kissing, cleaned up and put the kids in bed. Cass got to stay up a little later and play games with us. When the clock struck 12 (this time central time) the adults drank some sparkling cider and called it a night. So fun to have our company with us! Thanks for coming, guys!
