Menu for September

Jennifer requested that I share my menu for September....I'm a bit embarrassed to do it because it's so plain and boring BUT, I'll do it anyways! A lot these are repeated so I'm only going to list them once. I'll include about how much each meal costs me to make, not including condiments because that would be about impossible for me to figure out. These numbers are pretty dang close though! If the Great Value brand is available then that's what I buy. Here goes, starting on Wednesday September 1st:

• Chicken breasts cooked in olive oil (I only have to cook two chicken breasts for a meal because I split mine with the kids), family size can of green beans (I put a chicken and herb bouillon cube in the pot for extra flavor) and white rice-- $3.16
• Chicken thighs baked in the oven, cream corn mixed with whole corn and white rice-- $4.10
• Tacos (inc. lettuce & cheese) and re fried beans-- $4.74
• Chicken Breasts, fresh sauteed carrot slices, family size can of green beans-- $3.28
• Chicken thighs, half a bag of  frozen mixed veggies, can of sliced potatoes-- $4.04
• Casserole: layers of ground turkey, french style green beans x2, mashed potatoes topped with the shredded Velveeta cheese--$5.22
• Chicken breasts, can of corn, mashed potatoes-- $2.59
• Hot dogs & fries-- $3.25
• Chicken thighs, white rice, family size can of green beans-- $3.94
• Taco salad (left over taco shells, lettuce, cheese)-- $3.18
• Grilled cheeses and soup-- $1.90
• Meat loaf, family size can of green beans, mashed potatoes-- $4.09

So there ya have it. I imagine as the weeks go by I will get more creative with my meals, but this is a good start! Only one meal is over $5.00 :) Happy Monday!

First 16 days...

So I made my menu out for the first 16 days in September and then made my grocery list. Russell was a little fussy (extra early) this morning, the bigger babies were still sleeping, and Jared was working at home for a bit so I loaded Russell up and went to the store at about 6:30. I refuse to go on Saturday morning just to avoid taking the kids, so this worked out. I really stuck to my list which is hard for me to do, I only added 3 things to my basket, and honestly they should have been on my list to begin with. So now for the grand total: $69.23! This is for lunch and dinner through September 16th. I'll probably have to go back for more milk, but hopefully that will be it. I have pretty much all the breakfast stuff that I need here already. The menu is pretty boring, lots of chicken, lots of vegetables...but don't forget that we are trying to lose a little weight as well! Time to nap the babies so I'll have a more interesting post later today :)

My personal challenge

I am challenging myself to feed our family on $200 worth of groceries for the month of September. FOOD ONLY, and formula isn't included in this $200 limit. I know it sounds ridiculous but I have done my homework. I know how much milk, bread, chicken, cans of veggies, etc. that we go through in a week. I've done lots of calculating. $200 isn't as crazy as it sounds, and I'm going to prove it. I'm doing this for a lot of reasons:

• We want to have one last baby at some point next year, so if I can start cutting back now then we will be THAT much more prepared to bring our last bundle of joy into this world.
• Jared and I both want to shed a few unwanted pounds. I'm giving up a few guilty pleasures not only to save on groceries but to help lose some weight as well. See ya later Dr. Pepper...thanks for helping me stay awake through the day. So long Blue Bell, I love you more than I love my husband sometimes.
• I want to see just how little our family can survive on. I don't mean little amounts of food, just how little can we make our grocery bill. If I feel like I have cut back everywhere that I can and there just isn't enough to go around then I'm tossing that $200 limit out the window and we will just see how much is realistic for our family. But $200 is a start.
• I don't work, I am so fortunate to be a stay at home mom. I'm not lucky, luck has nothing to do with me getting to stay home. We sacrifice a lot for me to raise our kids here at home and not send them to day care, and I wouldn't have it any other way! Since I don't bring home a pay check every two weeks I can do my part by saving our family as much money as I can, however I can.
• Formula is NOT cheap, even the cheap kind isn't cheap. Russell is gonna cost us about $120 a month in formula. And that's just the start of it...once he starts eating more, that number obviously will go up.

If you have any tips for me, I'm all ears. Don't tell me to go to Aldi...there isn't one anywhere near Paris. My plan is buy the basics and keep the menu simple, which will help our wallets and our waistlines!...Right?

And just because a blog is stupidly boring without a picture....here are a few photos that are in no way relevant to my post but who cares because kids are fun to look at!

I don't where she would have learned to multitask like that...

Yeah, she's ready to be a stay at home mom for sure :)

Looks like someone has a future at NASA...and it also looks like someone else has a bit of a "phone problem"...I see a trend in these pictures.

Really? Its been 22 days since my last post?

I guess 3 kids have made me a little busier than I had thought....who would have guessed? I do have LOTS to update you one though since the 3rd.

1. I quit nursing Russell last Monday because despite the Dr saying that he is perfectly healthy and to stick with it...a momma just knows ;) I took Russy-poo back to the Dr last Monday to be weighed again and he was still 6 lbs 8 oz. He didn't gain (or lose) a single ounce in a whole week. Our goal was to put on an ounce a day. So I said to heck with nursing, lets get this baby some formula! And I am PROUD to announce that when I took him to be weighed again on the 23rd (my birthday) he was a gigantic 7 lbs 3 oz!!!! We are finally heading in the right direction. If you recall, his birth weight was 6 lbs 15 oz.....and after 5 weeks he finally caught back up to that weight. He looks so much better...finally getting some meat on his scrawny little preemie bones :)

2. Poor, sweet, adorable little Wylee girl had to get a tooth pulled....on my birthday (so far that's 2 different Dr.'s offices on my birthday if you're counting). She's only 20 months old and her front left tooth is missing, and not because it hasn't come in yet :( Her and her big brother were "playing" on our bed in Paris and all the sudden I heard a "smack" and a bunch of crying. I turned around and Wylee's mouth was bleeding and Jared kept saying "I'm just really sorry". She somehow hit her mouth on the porta crib. Lovely. I finally got her mouth somewhat cleaned up (I couldn't get the bleeding to stop long enough to see what damage had actually been done) and I hoped and prayed that it was just a cut on her gums. Wrong. I called Jared and had him come home (he was coming home for lunch anyways) and the first thing he said was "Oh yeah, that tooth is gonna fall out". I was SO upset! Partly because my first thought was "Great, now shes gonna have all these baby teeth and one GIANT permanent tooth till shes like 7!" just picture that for a moment. Haha, ok. That's not how it works. Instead, that adult tooth will take even longer to come in so she will be toothless until shes about 8 or 9. Talk about one depressed momma over here!

3. I had my 6 weeks check up (after having Russell) on MY BIRTHDAY (that makes 3 now). Basically Dr. Nelson said "Do you even want to bother with birth control?" to which I replied, "Nope. Not really", to which he replied, "Great, see ya in January!" I can't tell you how great it is to have an OB that respects the fact that yes I have 3 kids and I want more. The OBGYN Place (the Dr office that I went to with Wylee) asked me at every SINGLE visit if I was going to tie my tubes. And every single time I said no, we want to have more kids. And they ALWAYS replied with, "Why, you have a boy and your about to have a girl?". So annoying, believe it or not our goal isn't to just have a boy and a girl, we want more kids to love and take care of no matter sex they are. So thank you Dr. Nelson! After allllllll the doctor visits were over we ran home and grabbed our stuff and our dogs and we headed back to Paris for a two week stretch. Jared made me a birthday cake and we went and got Taco Bell, took it to the park and had a picnic and played for a little while, then Jared took us for sno cones (my FAVORITE treat) and then back to the house for some birthday cake!!

I can't really think of any other updates for now...so how about some pictures to look at!!

This is Russell a few weeks ago, you can't tell how skinny he really was...

This is Russell on my birthday (the 23rd), hes the biggest that he has been so far and look how small he still is!

We love our Sonic drinks :)

I wish this had turned out better....but still cute!

I don't know why this picture is sideways...It won't rotate and that isn't how it looked when I uploaded it :)

3 of my 4 loves

Yep, that's a choke collar around his head.

Nap time is the best (for me) :)

Jared's forehead also wanted a taste of my birthday cake...

There it is....the toothless wonder.

She is still a cutie pie no matter how many teeth she's missing :)

Baby Feet

Little Russell is more like "tiny-premie Russell". I think he's lost about a pound since the hospital...a pound that he really couldn't afford to lose. BUT we'll see if we can't fix that. He would just rather be sleeping most of the time and isn't real interested in nursing, he'll do it but he'd rather eat from a bottle...it's easier for him, he doesn't have to do so much "work" I think lol. Lazy little baby. Other than that he's doing great! His nights and days are kind of mixed up I think, but we're sort of working on that too.

I attempted to take all 3 kids to Hobby Lobby by myself this morning...I may not be doing that again for a LONG time, at least not without the double stroller! LOL! That was a little bit much. Especially in Hobby Lobby, Jared and Wylee have NO business WALKING around in that store. Yikes. It had to happen sooner or later though, maybe I just should have waited for the later...oh well. I survived, and they did too.

This is a short one, all 3 kids are napping so this mama needs a nap too! Night night!