Lukus at 4 months old
It's a little blurry but here is a smile!
All three of my handsomes. No matter how hard I tried all 3 wouldn't look at me at the same time, let alone smile.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Little behind
I am a little behind on my posting. Not a whole lot has went on since I last posted, a couple illnesses but nothing super major. Lukus had his 4 month check up a few weeks ago and was 9#15oz and 22 3/4 in long. He is growing great just at his own rate. It really is a perfect growth pattern though. His length and weight are both in the 1st percentile but his head is growing very fast. It started out in the 1st percent, by 2 months it was 4th percent, and by 4 months it was 8th percent. :) Lukus has started giggling and smiling like crazy. He is teasing mom already. He rolls front to back. He loves to grab fist fulls of moms hair. His tummy issues are going away. We still have issues but not nearly as bad. This little 4 month old stinker has stolen my heart.
William is in the full blown terrible 2's and is really trying moms patience. He can be the cutest sweetest boy though. At the end of the day I really do love him to bits despite how much he tests my patience at the end of the day.
Shawn is a pretty well behaved boy. He is almost 4 years old. He loves to make up stores and play imagination. It is so fun watching him create stories. He has an "imaginary" pet dragon that he goes on adventures with. He is a smart little stinker too. He already knows how to properly heat up Lukus' herb bag for me. I love him so much!
Shem is doing well in his job and everything is going well for him. He is loving the warmer weather and being able to ride is motorcycle. He has fun playing with his 3 little boys and is such a great dad to them.
William is in the full blown terrible 2's and is really trying moms patience. He can be the cutest sweetest boy though. At the end of the day I really do love him to bits despite how much he tests my patience at the end of the day.
Shawn is a pretty well behaved boy. He is almost 4 years old. He loves to make up stores and play imagination. It is so fun watching him create stories. He has an "imaginary" pet dragon that he goes on adventures with. He is a smart little stinker too. He already knows how to properly heat up Lukus' herb bag for me. I love him so much!
Shem is doing well in his job and everything is going well for him. He is loving the warmer weather and being able to ride is motorcycle. He has fun playing with his 3 little boys and is such a great dad to them.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
2 Months old
Lukus turned 2 months old on the 18th. He had his check up and is now 7# 7.5oz and 21 inches long. They discovered a heart murmur that we will be having looked at. They don't think it is a hole in the heart and that is more likely that his blood is just hitting the wall of the artery as it leaves. They also might think that the slow weight gain could be caused from a hole in the heart, if that is what the murmur is, or possibly Pyloric Stinosis. We will probably have an ultra sound done of his belly to check his stomach for that if the heart comes out clear. In the end it might just be him being a slow gainer.
Anyway, here are a couple cute 2 months pics of him.
Anyway, here are a couple cute 2 months pics of him.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Lukus is already a month old!
Where did that first month go? Okay I know I am a little late posting this blog post but hey I have 3 energetic boys to tend to, you can't expect me to be perfect. ;) Anyway, I have no idea what his size is for sure, weight, height, etc. But I can tell you that he has grown! I took pictures of him at a month old, I have done it with the other 2 so figured I should do it with Lukus as well. I will post some of those. We are also blessing the cutie on March 25th. I can't believe how fast the time has gone!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
another tip for saving $ grocerie shopping
I should have included this in my last post but I didn't think about it until a few hours later.
One thing to make sure you do, especially when buying bulk, is do a price break down. Figure out how much you are actually paying per ounce/pound. You may be surprised to find out that getting the same amount in several small packages is actually cheaper then getting the bulk items. WATCH THE SALES!!!!!! No you can't save as much shopping just the sales vs shopping the sales WITH coupons. BUT you can still save a fair amount of money sale shopping, especially if you just can't figure out coupons or you wont ever use the items you get coupons for. Because really, what is the point of saving money with coupons on items you will never use, is it really saving you money in the long run? Shopping sales you can actually get items you need for a good price and you know you will use them.
One thing to make sure you do, especially when buying bulk, is do a price break down. Figure out how much you are actually paying per ounce/pound. You may be surprised to find out that getting the same amount in several small packages is actually cheaper then getting the bulk items. WATCH THE SALES!!!!!! No you can't save as much shopping just the sales vs shopping the sales WITH coupons. BUT you can still save a fair amount of money sale shopping, especially if you just can't figure out coupons or you wont ever use the items you get coupons for. Because really, what is the point of saving money with coupons on items you will never use, is it really saving you money in the long run? Shopping sales you can actually get items you need for a good price and you know you will use them.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Groceries for $150 +/- $50 a month
So a friend asked me to write a blog post on how we only spend about $150 a month on groceries for a family of 4. First off it's easier when you have kids that don't eat much. ;) Just kidding. Though my boys don't eat a ton yet. I am sure we will have to figure out a different way, once they are older and eat more, to spend less money. But as of right now we, a family of 4-5, can spend about $150 a month for groceries.
So how do we do this? Honestly I am not sure. lol. We are sale shoppers, we do not coupon (we could never figure out how), we just buy what we need when it's on sale. If it's not on sale, we don't buy it, unless it's an absolute necessity. Simple as that. Now keep in mind this is ONLY groceries. This does not included toiletry items and baby items. JUST food items and the first couple months might cost a little more till you find what works for you and get a stock pile built up.
This will be hard for me to figure out because we have shopped like this from day1 of our marriage so it is second nature for us.
An example of what our pantry and fridge holds:(the basics until we built up supply and had a little more wiggle room to get more interesting things)
*meats; chicken, pork, ?beef?
*pasta
*western family sauce mixes, alfredo, spaghetti, taco, Italian dressing mix, gravy mixes.
*canned diced tomatoes(with sweet onion)
*cereal
*milk
*eggs
*soy sauce
*rice
*frozen veggies
*potatoes
(*cream soups if we find them on sale)
*blueberry pancake mix
*butter
*cheese
*bread
Okay those are the basic items that get us through a month. This is nothing fancy or extravagant. Just the basics. Once we get a good stock pile of the basics we will venture out and get ingredients for curry or other nicer meal items. Oh and nothing we buy is boxed or "just mix and cook". We cook only from scratch minus the sauce packet mixes and pancake mix.
So now for our menu. This will be particularly difficult because we don't follow a menu. We look in our fridge and freezer and create a meal with what we can find.
Dinner
*Chicken and veggies; either grilled or fried but always marinated(keeps the *chicken more moist when cooking) and veggie of choice (we like broccoli, *cauliflower, and spinach the best)
*Chicken and potatoes; Chicken is the same way as the previous one. Potatoes; *shredded and fried, diced and fried, boiled with garlic salt, mashed, baked, baked *french fries, or diced and baked in olive oil and seasonings in the oven.
*Chicken and alfredo
*Chicken and pasta with marinara(our own home made marinara sauce)
*Pork and veggies; see previous
*Pork and potatoes; see previous
*Pork and alfredo
*Pork and pasta with marinara
*Beef and veggies; "
*Beef and potatoes;"
*Beef and alfredo
*Beef and pasta with marinara
*Tacos; any ground meat will work, we have used beef, pork, sausage, and elk so far
*Spaghetti; ground sausage, and our own marinara sauce that we make
Breakfast
*cereal
*Pancakes, bacon (sausage links if we can find them on sale)
*french toast, "
*eggs, "
Lunch (this is the kicker)
*left overs
*hot dogs, mac and cheese if we have it and the boys want it
But it's almost always left overs because we make enough food that we almost always have left overs waiting for lunch the next day.
Some of our specialty foods consist of, curry, enchiladas, chicken soup(or any soup really), lasagna, and any meat item we might find on sale that is out of the norm IE steaks or sea food items, or anything that isn't chicken or pork chops. lol.
Seriously though, we really do just eat a lot of boneless skinless chicken breast and pork chops. There are so many ways of cooking with these that we hardly ever venture away from them because they are the cheapest meats available. When we get bored and can find steaks on sale we buy some steaks. Same with fish.
Our marinade is just soy sauce, olive oil, occasionally liquid smoke or Worcestershire sauce or A1, and seasonings (garlic salt, montreal chicken or steak seaoning,black pepper, used in what ever combo you want or different seasonings then what I have listed. This is just the main ones we use)
Marinara/spaghetti sauce; diced tomatoes pureed, spaghetti sauce mix, extra seasonings.
We really never follow recipes we just create our own meals. We eat a lot of chicken or pork and pasta mostly, then veggies, then potatoes. Beef is only when found on sale.
Once we got our food stash up we were able to include, toilet paper, and paper towels in the $150 as well as a few other items BUT only if we didn't need food items. We usually just try buying food items with the $150.
Our monthly list is always changing but a few things are almost always on there, meats, eggs, milk, and veggies.
So how do we do this? Honestly I am not sure. lol. We are sale shoppers, we do not coupon (we could never figure out how), we just buy what we need when it's on sale. If it's not on sale, we don't buy it, unless it's an absolute necessity. Simple as that. Now keep in mind this is ONLY groceries. This does not included toiletry items and baby items. JUST food items and the first couple months might cost a little more till you find what works for you and get a stock pile built up.
This will be hard for me to figure out because we have shopped like this from day1 of our marriage so it is second nature for us.
An example of what our pantry and fridge holds:(the basics until we built up supply and had a little more wiggle room to get more interesting things)
*meats; chicken, pork, ?beef?
*pasta
*western family sauce mixes, alfredo, spaghetti, taco, Italian dressing mix, gravy mixes.
*canned diced tomatoes(with sweet onion)
*cereal
*milk
*eggs
*soy sauce
*rice
*frozen veggies
*potatoes
(*cream soups if we find them on sale)
*blueberry pancake mix
*butter
*cheese
*bread
Okay those are the basic items that get us through a month. This is nothing fancy or extravagant. Just the basics. Once we get a good stock pile of the basics we will venture out and get ingredients for curry or other nicer meal items. Oh and nothing we buy is boxed or "just mix and cook". We cook only from scratch minus the sauce packet mixes and pancake mix.
So now for our menu. This will be particularly difficult because we don't follow a menu. We look in our fridge and freezer and create a meal with what we can find.
Dinner
*Chicken and veggies; either grilled or fried but always marinated(keeps the *chicken more moist when cooking) and veggie of choice (we like broccoli, *cauliflower, and spinach the best)
*Chicken and potatoes; Chicken is the same way as the previous one. Potatoes; *shredded and fried, diced and fried, boiled with garlic salt, mashed, baked, baked *french fries, or diced and baked in olive oil and seasonings in the oven.
*Chicken and alfredo
*Chicken and pasta with marinara(our own home made marinara sauce)
*Pork and veggies; see previous
*Pork and potatoes; see previous
*Pork and alfredo
*Pork and pasta with marinara
*Beef and veggies; "
*Beef and potatoes;"
*Beef and alfredo
*Beef and pasta with marinara
*Tacos; any ground meat will work, we have used beef, pork, sausage, and elk so far
*Spaghetti; ground sausage, and our own marinara sauce that we make
Breakfast
*cereal
*Pancakes, bacon (sausage links if we can find them on sale)
*french toast, "
*eggs, "
Lunch (this is the kicker)
*left overs
*hot dogs, mac and cheese if we have it and the boys want it
But it's almost always left overs because we make enough food that we almost always have left overs waiting for lunch the next day.
Some of our specialty foods consist of, curry, enchiladas, chicken soup(or any soup really), lasagna, and any meat item we might find on sale that is out of the norm IE steaks or sea food items, or anything that isn't chicken or pork chops. lol.
Seriously though, we really do just eat a lot of boneless skinless chicken breast and pork chops. There are so many ways of cooking with these that we hardly ever venture away from them because they are the cheapest meats available. When we get bored and can find steaks on sale we buy some steaks. Same with fish.
Our marinade is just soy sauce, olive oil, occasionally liquid smoke or Worcestershire sauce or A1, and seasonings (garlic salt, montreal chicken or steak seaoning,black pepper, used in what ever combo you want or different seasonings then what I have listed. This is just the main ones we use)
Marinara/spaghetti sauce; diced tomatoes pureed, spaghetti sauce mix, extra seasonings.
We really never follow recipes we just create our own meals. We eat a lot of chicken or pork and pasta mostly, then veggies, then potatoes. Beef is only when found on sale.
Once we got our food stash up we were able to include, toilet paper, and paper towels in the $150 as well as a few other items BUT only if we didn't need food items. We usually just try buying food items with the $150.
Our monthly list is always changing but a few things are almost always on there, meats, eggs, milk, and veggies.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Lukus Alexzander's birth story
Lukus Alexzander
Born January 18th, 2012
12:35 am, at home in the water
5pounds 2oz, 19 1/2 inches long
At my appointment on January 13th I decided to have my midwife check dilation and effacement as I was having her look at something anyway, rather than her checking she had her student midwife check. I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced and baby's head was at 0 station. After the check I knew I probably wouldn't be much longer before I was holding baby. The only thing I really wanted to wait for was my yeast infection to clear up and my group B strep test results to come back. All weekend I was having bloody show and each day it would get a little bit more red rather than just pink. Sunday night I had a round of contractions that got my attention they were coming about every 8 minutes and were about 50 seconds long. That went on for about 7 hours with an hour and a half break somewhere in the middle. They stopped at around 3 in the morning and I got some rest. Monday afternoon one of my midwives was down in the area and asked if I wanted her to do another check. I decided to go ahead and have her check. She discovered that I was now 3 cm dilated and could be manually stretched to a 4 if encouraged to but I was still 80% effaced. That night I had another round of contractions that I thought for sure was labor starting but it never turned into a pattern and then died off. I was exhausted. Tuesday I talked to my midwife and she instructed me to take a warm bath and a bendaryl to try and sleep. If it wasn't active labor it would stop. I did just that and my contractions never went away but they just wouldn't get into a good pattern. That evening she called me up asking how things were going and to ask if I wanted her to come down and check me and see if they could finish sending my body into labor. I said yes to that, honestly thinking there wouldn't be anything she could do to help things along and I would just be waiting it out longer. She showed up at around 8:30 that night with one of the other midwives and all of her equipment. When I saw them bring that stuff in I started to think that maybe I would be holding my baby in a few hours. She then proceeded to check me and I was 3+ and still 80% effaced. She then proceeded to manually dilate me to a 4+. After we had to decide if they were going to break my water or do an herbal oil message and pressure points and then send me out on a walk, see if we could get labor going that way, and if needed break my water. Or just continue to wait it out. We opted for the oil message and walk. The message was wonderful and smelt so good. The midwives told previous birth stories while doing the message and we just laughed. My contractions picked up again during the message and we found I would have 1 big contraction every 10 minutes with 2 smaller ones in-between. After the message hubby and I bundled up and went out walking around the neighborhood. This was around 9:30p.m. While on the walk we were lucky to make it a full block before I had to stop and sway my hips through the peaks of the contractions. We were out in the cold for a little over 30 minutes and I could tell the contractions were intensifying. When we got back to the house Shem changed his dusty clothes (he was working in his wood shop trying to finish a towel rode) and then the midwives checked me again. I was now 5cm dilated and we went ahead and broke the bag of water, this was around 10:30p.m. Within 15 minutes my labor kicked into full gear. I have no idea how close my contractions were or how long they were lasting but I knew I needed to moan through them as it helped relieve the intensity of how they felt. My mom and our friend showed up at some point as I was down stairs in the front room on my knees, rocking on my birth ball. Lol. They both showed up while I was in a contraction or going into a contraction. At some point one of the midwives put pressure on my hips since they were really bothering, and that was heaven sent! When the pool was ready I went up to the bathroom and got ready to get and my body started clearing my bowels so I knew I was getting close. (I don't know times after they broke my water. I lost all track of time and didn't care to know either) When I got in the pool it was so wonderful! I only had a couple contractions in the pool before I got the pushing sensation. So listening to my body I started to give light pushes, and the best part is the midwives encouraged me to follow what my body was telling me to do. After several pushes sitting we discovered I had a posterior lip that I could push baby over but he kept slipping back up. Then they discovered an anterior lip that my midwife held back for me to push Lukus past. Through this whole labor and pushing phase the midwives never once told me when or how to push. It was great! I started out pushing, sitting in the pool and then baby?s HR dropped to the 90?s and my midwives had me roll over onto on my hands and knees. His HR came right back up. I knew that was a better position anyway because the pushing sensation got a lot more intense. While pushing I said several times, "I am so tired." "I can't do this" and everyone just kept reassuring me that I was doing great. Then the crowning came and I got really vocal. I never really screamed but I moaned very loud. I still never felt "the ring of fire" but there was so much pressure and it was SO intense, of course the whole labor was intense, and all I wanted to do was get him out of me and that is what my body was telling me to do anyway. Once his head was out the rest of him slid right out of me as I was trying to turn around and sit down and I heard my midwife tell the other one that was taking the notes that he came out posterior. No wonder he was so hard to push out and my body was having a hard time going into labor, and why I felt so much pressure in my hips! He came out looking at the world and it took him a minute to take his first breath, he just casually looked around and took things in. Which was so different then either one of his brothers. His apgar at 1 minute was 8 and at 5 minutes was 10. It was so cool just letting my body detach and deliver the placenta on it?s own as well. Such a different and better experience. Once I got out I was checked over while they looked at Lukus and I had one second degree tear and a couple other small single stitch tears. Took me a little bit to get Lukus to latch on because his mouth is so small. I started out having to use a nipple shield. But so far everything is going great and I had an awesome birth experience! I wouldn't trade it for anything. Total active labor time was just over 2 hours long, from start to holding baby. Turns out it was a good thing we had the midwives finish encouraging my body into labor because the placenta was calcifying.
Born January 18th, 2012
12:35 am, at home in the water
5pounds 2oz, 19 1/2 inches long
At my appointment on January 13th I decided to have my midwife check dilation and effacement as I was having her look at something anyway, rather than her checking she had her student midwife check. I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced and baby's head was at 0 station. After the check I knew I probably wouldn't be much longer before I was holding baby. The only thing I really wanted to wait for was my yeast infection to clear up and my group B strep test results to come back. All weekend I was having bloody show and each day it would get a little bit more red rather than just pink. Sunday night I had a round of contractions that got my attention they were coming about every 8 minutes and were about 50 seconds long. That went on for about 7 hours with an hour and a half break somewhere in the middle. They stopped at around 3 in the morning and I got some rest. Monday afternoon one of my midwives was down in the area and asked if I wanted her to do another check. I decided to go ahead and have her check. She discovered that I was now 3 cm dilated and could be manually stretched to a 4 if encouraged to but I was still 80% effaced. That night I had another round of contractions that I thought for sure was labor starting but it never turned into a pattern and then died off. I was exhausted. Tuesday I talked to my midwife and she instructed me to take a warm bath and a bendaryl to try and sleep. If it wasn't active labor it would stop. I did just that and my contractions never went away but they just wouldn't get into a good pattern. That evening she called me up asking how things were going and to ask if I wanted her to come down and check me and see if they could finish sending my body into labor. I said yes to that, honestly thinking there wouldn't be anything she could do to help things along and I would just be waiting it out longer. She showed up at around 8:30 that night with one of the other midwives and all of her equipment. When I saw them bring that stuff in I started to think that maybe I would be holding my baby in a few hours. She then proceeded to check me and I was 3+ and still 80% effaced. She then proceeded to manually dilate me to a 4+. After we had to decide if they were going to break my water or do an herbal oil message and pressure points and then send me out on a walk, see if we could get labor going that way, and if needed break my water. Or just continue to wait it out. We opted for the oil message and walk. The message was wonderful and smelt so good. The midwives told previous birth stories while doing the message and we just laughed. My contractions picked up again during the message and we found I would have 1 big contraction every 10 minutes with 2 smaller ones in-between. After the message hubby and I bundled up and went out walking around the neighborhood. This was around 9:30p.m. While on the walk we were lucky to make it a full block before I had to stop and sway my hips through the peaks of the contractions. We were out in the cold for a little over 30 minutes and I could tell the contractions were intensifying. When we got back to the house Shem changed his dusty clothes (he was working in his wood shop trying to finish a towel rode) and then the midwives checked me again. I was now 5cm dilated and we went ahead and broke the bag of water, this was around 10:30p.m. Within 15 minutes my labor kicked into full gear. I have no idea how close my contractions were or how long they were lasting but I knew I needed to moan through them as it helped relieve the intensity of how they felt. My mom and our friend showed up at some point as I was down stairs in the front room on my knees, rocking on my birth ball. Lol. They both showed up while I was in a contraction or going into a contraction. At some point one of the midwives put pressure on my hips since they were really bothering, and that was heaven sent! When the pool was ready I went up to the bathroom and got ready to get and my body started clearing my bowels so I knew I was getting close. (I don't know times after they broke my water. I lost all track of time and didn't care to know either) When I got in the pool it was so wonderful! I only had a couple contractions in the pool before I got the pushing sensation. So listening to my body I started to give light pushes, and the best part is the midwives encouraged me to follow what my body was telling me to do. After several pushes sitting we discovered I had a posterior lip that I could push baby over but he kept slipping back up. Then they discovered an anterior lip that my midwife held back for me to push Lukus past. Through this whole labor and pushing phase the midwives never once told me when or how to push. It was great! I started out pushing, sitting in the pool and then baby?s HR dropped to the 90?s and my midwives had me roll over onto on my hands and knees. His HR came right back up. I knew that was a better position anyway because the pushing sensation got a lot more intense. While pushing I said several times, "I am so tired." "I can't do this" and everyone just kept reassuring me that I was doing great. Then the crowning came and I got really vocal. I never really screamed but I moaned very loud. I still never felt "the ring of fire" but there was so much pressure and it was SO intense, of course the whole labor was intense, and all I wanted to do was get him out of me and that is what my body was telling me to do anyway. Once his head was out the rest of him slid right out of me as I was trying to turn around and sit down and I heard my midwife tell the other one that was taking the notes that he came out posterior. No wonder he was so hard to push out and my body was having a hard time going into labor, and why I felt so much pressure in my hips! He came out looking at the world and it took him a minute to take his first breath, he just casually looked around and took things in. Which was so different then either one of his brothers. His apgar at 1 minute was 8 and at 5 minutes was 10. It was so cool just letting my body detach and deliver the placenta on it?s own as well. Such a different and better experience. Once I got out I was checked over while they looked at Lukus and I had one second degree tear and a couple other small single stitch tears. Took me a little bit to get Lukus to latch on because his mouth is so small. I started out having to use a nipple shield. But so far everything is going great and I had an awesome birth experience! I wouldn't trade it for anything. Total active labor time was just over 2 hours long, from start to holding baby. Turns out it was a good thing we had the midwives finish encouraging my body into labor because the placenta was calcifying.
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