Thanksgiving 3 of 3

Thanksgiving at NiNi and Pop's was a blast. There are so many fun things to do there. Like riding tractors with NiNi...

While Cash and NiNi pretended, Stone was hard at work mowing some of Pop's fields with his power wheel. It's hard work!
Unfortunately, all of the mowing didn't totally wear him out and since NiNi and Pops have fancy smancy doorknobs that you can't baby proof with normal techniques, we had to resort to other methods. Not that we've ever done this before...
We played in the mud...
Fell asleep while eating...
And most importantly hung out as a family!

Thanksgiving 2 of 3

We spent Thanksgiving day with our wonderful neighbors (code name Mar-o). Of course, we had a blast!

My Holden tried to take a ride on the back of an Ava-powered trike, it didn't end so pretty!
But the prizes were really pretty...
Unfortunately, when the names were drawn by these two cutie-pies, we didn't win a thing!
But, we did get to hang out with this sweetie....
And this oh-so-handsome Holden.... couldn't you just eat him with a spoon?

Thank you so much, Mar-o family, for opening your home up to us and treating us like family!

Giving Thanks

I am thankful for...

- an awesome, amazing God who loves me unconditionally
- a house filled with laughter, chaos, and spilled milk
- a neighborhood that has become an amazing family
- family (especially NiNi MOPS Mondays, Nanny Thursdays and Aunt B Days)
- cuddles, hugs, kisses and footed PJs
- hot tea breaks when the world gets a little too crazy
- the power of prayer and the four amazing boys/man God blessed me with!

I hope you and your family have an amazing Thanksgiving day!

(format and idea stolen from Amy, a great friend who I am very thankful to have!)

How could you not...

...take obscene amounts of photos of this face on a daily basis?

I'm so thankful for digital cameras!

New traditions

Cooler temperatures call for more time indoors. Time well spent if you have a warm fire, warm PJs and a daddy willing to read to you!


The boys now request a fire every night before bed, and often in the mornings as well. I can't think of a better place to snuggle with my cuties and spend quality time reading and talking about our days. If this is what cooler temperatures mean, then bring it on!

Thanksgiving 1 of 3

We like to celebrate, so this year we're taking Thanksgiving by storm - three times!

Number one was celebrated in Decatur with Heath's family. I didn't get any pictures of the food (it was super yummy) and I missed a group family shot (we were too busy having fun), but I did get some beautiful photos of my handsome boys playing at Nanny and Granddaddy's house.

There were lots of chores to be done, mowing...

Taking Aunt B on tours...

Windmill climbing....

Turkey frying...

Being a caddy for daddy...

We tried again for a group kid photo...

and again, we failed.

But don't worry, we were all smiles again soon. Nanny and Grandaddy's house has that effect on you, the smiling, not the crying!

Stay tuned for parts 2 of 3 and 3 of 3...

A really good day...

...starts with good books and lots of snuggles...

...in the middle, there are lots of opportunities to learn and explore...

If it's a really, really good day, you might get to kiss a few elephants....

... while hanging out with two of the cutest girls on this earth, who happen to be your sweet neighbors.

Good days always come with lots of good brother time...

... but one must be careful not to push your luck.

And every good day ends with a great nap! What a wonderful way to spend such a good, beautiful fall day!

Attention Shoppers, Learning on Aisle One

This past weekend, Heath attended NASCAR as he does each spring and fall. It was also the weekend for the yearly Susan G. Komen 3-day, where my mother- and sister-in-law both walked. On Friday, the little boys and I headed out to cheer Nanny and Aunt B on. We stationed ourselves strategically near two women who were dancing, playing music, giving out candy and blowing bubbles. This location provided prime entertainment for the boys while we waited on the walkers to walk past. Holden and Cash enjoyed clapping and cheering for everyone and they were so excited to see their Nanny and Aunt B. We are SO proud of them!

After our cheerleading stint, we grabbed Stone from school, had lunch with Daddy and headed down to The Can to visit with my parents, NiNi and Pop. We had a blast and it was wonderful for me to have the extra hands since Heath was out-of-pocket at the races. Without extra hands on the weekend, the boys get really crazy. We love structure around here and non-structured weekends keep the boys a bit out of their element. But, since we were at NiNi and Pop's, the weekend flew by and the boys had a blast. In fact, I think it's taken them all of this past week to recover from the fun and the great outdoors!

My parent's house is on a cul-de-sac and the boys have a lot of freedom to roam. Pop also has a lot of fun toys for the boys to play on. There is a Gator, lots of dirt for digging and various work equipment. The boys spent a lot of time on the Gator cruising the streets. Here they are with Mommy and again with NiNi and Pop.

While we were there, my parents purchased three shopping carts for the kids to play with. They pushed them for miles and miles and, now that we're home, they continue to keep those wheels rolling. Since I'm always looking for learning experiences that interest the boys, I decided to focus on foods and grocery shopping and the boys are having a blast! We have some play food, but the boys would rather play with trash the super sophisticated, realistic food containers that I have lovingly collected for them.

Here's our set up. We have milk, OJ, eggs, yogurt,butter, crackers, pretty much everything you need for a good time!

Stone's list. I put all of this together duirng a nap time and haven't had time to do it exactly how I want. Now that I know this is a hit, I'll take photos and laminate and ring them for him to match and make choices. Stone has a hard time matching the things off my drawings. Not because I'm a bad artist or anything…

He found some milk, make sure you check that expiration date!

And, this would not be a Chambers family store if coupons weren't accepted, so here are some coupons for my big boy to use to lower his bills.

I'm sure you can tell, this has been a ton of fun – for both me and the boys! Sometimes the best learning activities aren't really planned out in advance… this one works well for us because the subject is a high attention getter these days. We're learning a lot about colors, nutrition, counting, store etiquette, etc. If the interest stays, I can really see this activity growing to help us learn about food groups, higher level counting, color matching and more. Now, we just need to work on getting some automatic doors installed on the front of our house and Stone will be in heaven!

Catch-up and Coupons (not to be confused with Katsup and Coupons)

I'm behind and I hate it. It seems everything snowballs when you're behind and that's right where I sit today. Well, there and amidst piles of coupons with dates henscratched on the top, but more about that later...

The boys and I had an amazing weekend visiting my parents in The Can (code name for my hometown). The weather was perfect and the boys spent the weekend pushing their new toy grocery carts around the cul-de-sac. My parent's house is amazing (mostly because my dad is a brilliant builder), so I'm missing perks like their shower. Three shower heads and a rain pan in one shower should be illegal, but I'm oh so glad it isn't!

We took pictures on my dad's camera, but I didn't download them to my computer, so I'll work on getting those for you. It's so cute seeing them having fun in the great outdoors!

Daddy spent the weekend at NASCAR, but also found time to grout some tile in our bathroom and clean the house. He's an amazing man! With all that, you would think that I wouldn't be behind, but e-mails, school PTA work and coupons stacked up, so here I sit. I hate being behind without motivation!

My couponing, thanks to Jill, Jennie and Amanda, is going great! And, I thought I would share some small insights with you. You guys asked, and I'm here for you! I did want to mention that our family is also looking into joining a CSA and as of very recently started getting farm fresh milk and eggs. These three things greatly add to the health of our family and while they are still thrifty, their most important value is their nutritional punch, which should never be overlooked.

Back to the coupons, I'm surrounded by circulars dating back to 10/18. I wish I had more, but that's my starting point. What I'm doing is called coupon stacking and there are a wealth of sites to learn from. I get my Walgreens and CVS lists here and here and find Kroger lists here. Target lists are printed here, but I will say that I don't have as much luck there, but it might just be me, and the fact that I love that store and tend to throw extra items in the cart.

Amanda plays The Grocery Game, which is a paid service. They offer several different stores and provide you with shopping lists. It's a great perk, but not absolutely necessary if you are starting bare bones. You are basically matching sales circulars with coupons, which you can do yourself, but help is always nice!

My goal every month is to feed my family on $50/week from the stores (this includes a buffer for the GFCF products), but does not include the CSA and farm fresh purchases. It means more time for me, but I have that, plus my kids love stores and I always find that they serve as great places to practice manners, colors, shapes, textures and patience.

I would love to promise a weekly post showing some of my good steals, but I'll just say that I will try to do posts like this frequently. After all, I'm already playing catch-up!