As promised...

The Kesler Crew took a quick trip to see Shane's Grandmother, Aunt, Uncle, and cousins in FL. This trip was long overdue! We were very excited to introduce our little guys to Shane's family and about taking the boys to ocean for the first time. We were just thrilled to be there and able to visit with family and vacation at the same time. Shane's Aunt cooked us some GOOD food, my mouth still waters when I think about it! We had such a great time seeing everyone, but were super excited to introduce the boys to their Great-grandmother.

Shane and the boys walking around Shane's Aunt and Uncle's property. Our boys fell in LOVE with their dog. I wanted to bring him home with me, but we couldn't find the extra room. Maybe on our next trip? :)

Mom and the boys sitting by the pond.

Shane's cousin-in-law and 2nd cousin helped us out getting to the beach. That's all the guys in the photo. It was this perfect little spot that Shane's cousin told us about. The water was shallow enough for the boys to play in and the water from this area ran off in to the ocean. The boys had a blast playing in the water and the sand.

The boys playing in this great shallow area that Shane's cousin told us about. It was the perfect size for us. It ran right in to the ocean and so did Clay! Shane had to keep chasing after him. He LOVED the ocean and had no fear of just running in to it. It was hularious and scary all at once!

Dad and Clay

Seth and Paul having such a good time!

We were WORN OUT when it was time to leave the beach. We did have some help getting to the beach, but it was just us (the Kesler Crew) playing and then leaving. IT WAS SO HARD!!! We will definately have an extra set or sets of hands the next time we take the boys to the beach. It was so fun watching them play, they were really having a good time.

Our silly guys at Shane's Aunt and Uncle's house. The boys LOVED being outside and roaming around at their beautiful home. This photo was taken the night that we actually left to come back home to MS. Shane's family cooked out for us and it was YUMMY!

We found this great playground not very far from where we were staying. This was probably the first time that the boys have been to a real playground and played. They had such a good time running around, but it was SO HOT! They were NOT happy when we had to load up.

Sweet P, what else can I say?

Silly Seth, he just makes us laugh. He's always acting so goofy!

Curious Clay, he's not afraid of anything. He loves to look around and discover new things.

Back at home....Here are the boys with their Dad playing in their very own water park at our house. This toy is awesome! It's too bad that Seth was more interested in running around the yard, Clay was more interested in playing with the water hose, Paul really the only one that "played" at the water park.

Super Savings - 2 weeks worth

All of the items in the photos below were items purchased last week before we went on our vacation. I decided to go ahead and stock up on some things so that we would not have to buy much while on vacation and so that we would not have to buy much when we got back home. So far, so good. The only shopping that I have had to do so far this week was for fresh fruit and milk.

Pictured above was my BIG spending shopping trip at Kroger, but I got some really great deals.

All of the meats that I purchased were on sale.

Cheese B1G1 - still on sale this week.

Ketchup - paid $1.00.

TP - paid $.50 each.

Kraft BBQ - paid $.25.

There were also some great 10 items for $10 deals.

I purchased a total of 53 items worth $80.49.

Total money that I spent: $44.21!!!

This photo includes some great deals that I got at Walmart.

My sweetest deals were the items that I got for FREE:

4 ice cream sandwiches

snickers bar

travel size lotion

travel size contact solution

Reach dental floss

1 pack of TP

My other great deals from this trip include:

2 Eggo bake shop apple twists for $.94 each

Bandages for $.50

Another 4 pack of TP for $.50

Toothpaste for $.25

Soy milk for $1.73

That's just a list of my SUPER sweet deals. Everything that I purchased was on sale, plus I had a coupon for something additional off of each item. All together I purchased a total of 27 items that were worth $34.96.

Total money that I spent: $13.96!!!

Ok, this was my FAVORITE shopping trip. I had a TON of coupons for this trip and I knew that I was going to be a little hassled. So, I went to Walmart later at night and tried to let people in front of me. Let me tell you about these sweet deals.

All of the juice pictured was purchased from Kroger, I got 8 jars of organic juice for $.50 each.

Everything else you see what purchased from Walmart.

MY GREATEST DEAL THUS FAR has to be the 40 blue bunny ice cream sandwiches that I got for FREE with my coupons. IT WAS AWESOME! I also got the snickers bar for FREE with a coupon! So, if you're heading to my house any time soon, come prepared to eat a yummy ice cream sandwich! :)

My other great deals from this trip include:

2 Eggo bake shop muffin tops for $.94 each

3 bx of HH for $.96 each

Bag of Tyson Chicken Nuggest for $4.75

All said and done, I purchased 57 items worth $105.33.

Total money that I spent: $15.33!!!!

THAT'S A GRAND TOTAL SAVINGS OF $147.28 ~ pretty awesome huh? :)

I would also like to make note of a GREAT savings that I happened upon at Walgreens this week. Our boys have pretty sensitive skin, inherited from your's truly I'm sure. Anyway, we have to use Cetaphil lotion on them which is usually pretty expensive. It normally costs $13.49/jar. Walgreens is running a great sale on this Cetaphil lotions this week and you can get it for $7.99 - what a great sale price. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL - There are some of that jars of lotion that are packaged with the bar soap, which is great, but it normally sells for $4.79/bar. Because of this deal I was able to get the lotion and the soap, which are normally valued at $18.28 combined, for ONLY $7.99!

I will be posting pictures from our recent vacation soon. In the meantime, tell me about some great deals that you've come across recently.

And the winner is.....

The Buki Family! We've spent right at $1,600 over the last 12 months for diapers. I should note that our guys are partial to Pampers. We have tried many other brands, but Pampers work the best for us. I have hopes that Pampers will just send me some for free, but no such luck. I'll keep dreaming.... We go through about 25/day!

I will email the winner and send your prize. Thank you all for the GREAT responses! There will be more awesome giveaways to come soon.

Weekly savings - giveaway

My new goal is to post at least once a week about our family and once a week about our weekly savings. I am finding out more and more that I am really enjoying researching the best bargains out there. I've always been somewhat of a bargain shopper, but since I've been blessed with a healthy hungry husband and 3 hungry little boys I have found that I really don't have a choice in the matter. I am just thankful that this is something that I enjoy and that I feel comfortable sharing with all of you.

I would also like to say that we can NOT wait until the boys are out of diapers. Whew, those things are expensive - we go through A LOT! That being said, I did not post an earlier shopping trip where I stocked up on dog food, diapers, and milk. We are also having to buy 2 kinds of milk right now, Regular and Soy. We have a suspicion that one of our guys has a milk allergy. We'll know for sure next week.

Would any of you readers care to guess how much money ($$$) we spend on diapers in a 12-month period? Leave a comment on my blog page and I will randomly pick the person who gets closest without going over. The winner will receive a pack of 6 of my handmade Daffodils & Dragonflies greeting cards, shipped to you FREE anywhere in the United States. So, come on leave a comment let me know what do you think?


I should note that some of my items in this photo were a gift. (Thank you, you know who you are.) Most of these were items that we needed to have and I believe that every item I purchased was on sale. My Super Sweet Deals
High efficiency Laundry detergent ~ $3.24
4 containers of organic juice ~ $.50 each

This trip was probably my favorite, most of the items in this photo were given to me as a gift as well. (Thanks you, you know who you are!) My favorite part is that I got the 4 containers of ORGANIC juice for a total of $.45 - that's $.11 each people!!! These normally sell for $3.99 each, but they were on sale 4/$5. These were not ringing up right, so by the time the cashier discounted and used my coupons I only had to pay 45cents!!! It was AWESOME!!!

I did not pay full price for any of these item, but here are my Super Sweet Deals:

2 Lysol spray, 2 wipes ~ $.50 each

2 shave cream ~ $.99 each

2 travel body wash ~ $.10 overage

1 toothpaste ~ $.75 overage

Total savings this week (includes only items shown in photos):

Retail value: $88.10

Total spent: -$23.30

Total savings: $64.80

Don't forget to leave your comment for the greeting card giveaway! Winner will be chosen Saturday, June 27 by 7:00pm.

All about the pictures

We've been having a great summer! Clay, Paul, and Seth are growing up so fast; it's so hard to believe that they are almost 18 months old. We took them for their last shots about 2 weeks ago and our pediatrician is very pleased with their progress. They are right where they should be in their growth and development, it's hard to believe that they were born 2 months early! We are preparing to take a short vacation next week to FL. We are so excited to introduce them to Shane's Aunt, Uncle, Grandmother and cousins. I can't wait to see how the boys react to seeing the ocean and beach for the first time. It's going to be a hoot for sure!

The boys playing in the dirt at a friend's house. They were having the BEST time! I should note that our friends have 3 year old twin boys, so our little guys felt right at home.

Your truly, feeding the boys lunch at a friend's house. We love their wagon, it's a easy way to contain and entertain the boys.

Paul, making a mess with cookies.

Clay, making a mess with cookies.

Seth, making a mess with cookies.

Our first picks from our garden. Aren't they pretty? I have NO idea what I'm going to do with all the peppers. I'm sure I can come up with something. I welcome any suggestions.

My new hobby

Since the “Kesler Crew” is on a super tight budget, I have begun clipping coupons and searching for the best bargains. My new goal in shopping is to purchase items, only when they are on sale. This week I snagged some great deals at Walgreens.

All of the items that you see in the photo:
2 Schick Quattro razors
2 packages of Schick Quattro Refills
1 Reach toothbrush
1 Dry Idea Deodorant/antiperspirant
3 Right Guard Deodorant/antiperspirant
2 cans Maxwell House Coffee, ground

All of these items retail for $64.12. Wait for it…I paid $14.73, that’s a savings of over 77%!!! I saved $49.39 by waiting for deals and using coupons.

This week I also went to Kroger and had some pretty significant savings. I was able to purchase $71.33 in groceries for ONLY $34.29, which is…. wait for it…. $37.04 that I was able to save waiting for deals and using coupons.

This is one of my new hobbies; it’s like a game. I love clipping coupons and researching where the next “deal” will be. What do you all think?

PS – If you have any coupons that you don’t use, especially from your Sunday papers, please feel free to send them to me. The more I have the happier I am! Feel free to contact me if you need my address. Thanks!

Time

I have no idea where my times goes these days. Oh yeah, my time is spent chasing these 3 sweet boys around! :)

Clay, Paul, and Seth are all walking. Actually, they are running every where. They are also climbing on to everything! Their new favorite past time is moving furniture around so that they can crawl on to it and turn "on" and "off" the light switches. It's pretty funny to watch because they work as a TEAM to move whatever furniture they may need.

These guys are keeping us on our toes for sure. We went through a "biting phase" where they were biting each other to get toys that they wanted. Clay was probably the worst about it, but they just kind of stopped. I asked around to get some advice about how to stop the biting and just about everyone that I talked to said that we should just bite them back. Well, we didn't really have to bite them back they just kind of stopped one day. Although, a few days ago we caught Clay biting Paul because he wanted Paul's toy, so Dad just bit Clay pretty gently and that was the end of that. So far, no more biting!

We've been working with the boys to teach them sign language. So far, they know how to sign "eat" and "drink" we will work on "more" next. It is obvious that they want to communicate with us and we can tell that they are getting frustrated. They are very good at pointing at things and sometimes they will try to repeat things that we say. I am sure that I hear them say "Chester", "dog", "hot", and "fan". They know their Mom and Dad too. As soon as their Dad comes in from work they run to him and say, "Da", it's the cutest thing.

They also understand what we are saying very well. If we ask them to bring us a certain toy, they usually can. For example, if I ask for the blue ball they will bring it to me. If I ask them to give me a hug and kiss, they will. Our biggest problem now is getting them to understand "NO". It seems like when we tell them no that they do the exact opposite. Maybe we should just start telling them "yes" and see what happens?? :)

I have some new pics to post soon, it just takes a while to down load them on to our site. We have got a HUGE garden going this summer, we hope to have a lot of produce to chose from. The boys have been having a big time outside while we work on our garden. They LOVE to be outside!!! We are VERY fortunate they we don't have picky eaters. Thank goodness these guys take after their Dad in that respect; you all know how picky I can be! Clay, Paul, and Seth will eat just about any veggie that you put in front of them. I can't think of anything that they don't like.