Weekend Vacation

Last weekend we decided to go on a little family vacation before Pila starts his rotations.  Even though the beach is only about an hour away the kids love to stay in hotels so we got a room for 2 nights and headed to a party for one of our friends that graduated from PA school.  From there we drove to our hotel room then Walmart to stock up on food for the weekend.  We got a room that had a little kitchenette so we could eat there and store milk and stuff in the fridge. (I think Misi and Mana would think they were dying without their milk) The next day we loaded up the cooler, and headed to the beach. Here's a few pictures of our adventure!! (I don't like that the pictures are so small but they were taken with a phone so I'm not sure how to enlarge them)

We found this beach by default. We missed our exit and decided to drive up the coastal highway to Newport, but found this beach along the way.  We were one of only about 10 families, there were bathrooms, showers, and a really nice playground right there by the beach. The sand was nice and smooth, not to mention the parking lot was practically connected to the beach (most of the other beaches we saw you had to walk kind of far to the beach and with five kids, food, chairs, toys, etc we were quite excited about this feature) plus whenever I needed to feed the baby I could just sit in the car. The water was kind of choppy so Pila took the kids one at a time into the water.  Mana loved it the most while Misi preferred to stay on the beach.  We decided that this will definitely be a favorite beach and we will go back again and again!!

Free Pantene Shampoo

I don't profess to be an extreme couponer, (there is no way I would ever go to the store and buy 50 bottles of mustard) but since we've been in school and on a tight grocery budget for the past 11 years I started couponing about 6-7 years ago, and since then I don't think I've ever paid over $.10 for a tube of toothpaste, or any toiletries for that matter!! I know there's a million blogs out there that have the good coupon deals posted, but I haven't seen this deal anywhere!! So here's what you need to do to get Pantene Pro-V shampoo for absolutely free!! This deal is good until the end of the month, so hurry up and order your coupons, my favorite place to order coupons is www.couponsthingsbydede.com, but since these are pretty high value coupons you'll probably find it a lot cheaper to order them off of ebay. You're going to need 3 coupons....a Buy 1 Get 1 free (Pantene shampoo), a $3.00 off 2 (Pantene shampoo) and a $1.00 off one bottle of Pantene shampoo Target coupon.  (you can get these anywhere for cheap with the first 2 coupons, if you don't have a Target by you, but if you do have a target by you use the third coupon and get them free, plus money back) You'll need to give the cashier the b1g1 free coupon first so the other 2 don't beep. You can use 1 manufacturers coupon and 1 Target coupon per product, the shampoo is $3.79 (think of this deal that you're actually getting 2 bottles) the b1g1 free coupon makes one of the bottles free, the $3.00 off 2 takes another $3.00 off the second bottle and then the $1.00 off 1 Target coupon makes the bottle free and you'll get $.21 that will go toward your tax. The taxes here in CA are pretty high so if you were doing this in a different state you'd probably pay even less.  Since I get 10 newspaper every Sunday I was able to use 10 sets of coupons, getting 20 bottles of shampoo or conditioner for $5.56, I have an on going stash of Target gift cards that I recycle (more on how to do that later....if you want to know:)).  Anyways, I used a $5.00 giftcard and paid $.56 out of pocket.....saving $75.24!!
*one thing about Target is, they only let you use 3 sets of coupons per transaction (some stores care, some stores don't) so if you're buying a lot you might have to break this up into multiple transactions.

 Doesn't she looks so cute sleeping like that? She's getting so big, the rolls on her arms and legs are getting fatter, not to mention her triple chin (that she was born with!!) 

She's getting so heavy that when she lays in her bouncer her little bottom touches the ground, it used to be so easy to lay her in her bouncer, turn it on and bounce the chair with my foot.  Now she doesn't like it very much because every time I bounce it, it bounces her:)  We may have to do something about that soon!!  So now the only place she really likes to lay is cuddled up on my chest.  I know when she's tired because she leans her head into me and snuggles up to my neck.  Her favorite place is to nestle her head in the side of neck and then I'm supposed to rest my head on top of hers (or so that's what she thinks!!) My problem is, it is so hard to put her down and get anything done when she cuddled up like that, she is by far our cuddliest baby, and we LOVE it!!

In other news, Pila is done with school until June 4th, which doesn't really mean much because he still has to study for his boards that are coming up in July.  He definitely doesn't want to mess up that test, since it determines so much, not to mention it costs $900.00 to take!!

The kids only have 3 more school days left, and we are sooo happy, because it is getting harder and harder everyday to wake them up. We can't wait for the summer to sleep in, go to Richfield, and hang out.....I'm scouring Pinterest for cheap ideas on how to entertain them all summer:)

Knottsberry Farm

While my family was here for Meilani's blessing we went to Knottsberry Farm.  When Ofeina was baptized we tried to go but got rained out, we were lucky that it was good weather this time!! Knottsberry Farm is pretty much a smaller version of Disneyland, but with the Snoopy characters, not as many crowds, and costs about a fourth of the price.  The kids were able to go on almost all of the kids rides. This was the first time they had ever been to an amusement park and they loved it!!  I love rollar coasters so I was looking forward to going on a few but Meilani had other ideas.  She thought she needed to either be in the baby carrier or eating the whole time, which was fine with me, I'm sure this isn't the only time we will go to Knottsberry Farm. Pila got to stand in line with the kids and put them on the rides and then he would duck out the exit gate. Pila's not much for rides, he went on the kiddie rollar coaster and had a killer headache for the rest of the day.  Misi takes after him and went on one fast, spinning ride and was done for the rest of the time. (which is why I have so many pictures of him, because he followed me and the babies around most of the day) Here's a few pictures of our adventure!! 

This is one of the first rides Mana went on. He had to pump the lever back and forth to make himself move, I was a little worried that he wouldn't understand it, but he got right on and started pumping and the ride attendant had to hold him back so all of the other kids could get on the ride.

 A family picture after a long day at the park, I love our little family and the time we get to spend together!! (and it was especially fun that my parents and sisters were with us)

Meilani's Blessing Day

Last weekend my parents, and 2 little sisters came to California for Meilani's blessing.  We had a fun filled weekend and as church approached I started to get a little nervous.  Meilani is still pretty attached to me and at times if she doesn't see me she will cry endlessly until I come back in sight.  I was really hoping she would be good for the blessing and the night before Pila warned me that if she was crying her blessing would be short and sweet.  Even before the blessing started she was crying, Pila was conducting in sacrament that day and I'm sure he was probably thinking...."OH NO!!" as he announced the blessing. What do you think she did?  Cried the entire time!! She has the same "holding her breath" problem that Mana does when he cries, and she cried that bad at times.  Her dress was very slippery and when I handed her to Pila I handed him a blanket also, at one point in the blessing she almost slipped out of their hands and they had to readjust her flailing-crying-slippery self. I'm sure I was cringing the entire time as was Pila, but he made it through and of course did great.  After the blessing Pila got back up to the pulpit and commented that he hoped this wasn't a sign of things to come with this little girl.  I took her to the mother's lounge to feed her and as I took her dress off she calmed down immediately, maybe it was too itchy on her legs, and maybe she just doesn't like to wear dresses:) All in all it was a good day and this will give us something to talk about and remember as she gets older.

Obsession

This boys latest obsession is with the condiments and his sippy cups and anything he can find in the pantry (i.e. cans, syrup, peanut butter, pretty much anything and everything.) He unloads the fridge, lines everything up, knocks it down, moves to a new location and repeats. This can entertain him for up to an hour.  When I finally decided to take a picture of this little obsession he was using the bike pump as a microphone.....singing to his condiments:)

Random

Days have been flying by since Meilani was born, and nights even faster!! She can't seem to remember that since it's dark, I need to sleep and she doesn't need to eat every half hour from 4:00am-6:00am!! The good thing is when she wakes up and looks at me with those big dark eyes I forgive her. (pila has the computer so I'll add pictures when he gets home) A friend gave us some outfits and diapers for Meilani on Sunday night, the outfits were absolutely adorable, unfortunately they were all size newborn. Yesterday, I couldn't help myself and put one of the outfits on her, most of the day was spent pulling the shirt down over her big belly!! The newborn diapers wouldn't even fit around her belly or chucnky legs, I was complaining about it to Pila last night and he said "well, she's not a newborn anymore" so sad!! We waited so long for her to come and she's already growing so fast!! Anyways a few other things that have been happening at our house lately.... *we have been learning a few lessons, such as.....last night at dinner Ami went to pick ip the juice from the bottom shelf of the fridge, he picked it up by the lid and as you can guess the lid came off and half of a full bottle of juice spilled all over the kitchen floor. Lesson learned, I made him clean it up all by himself because I have told him hundreds of times not to drink out of the juice bottle and to always screw the lid on tight. It took him almost 30 minutes to clean it up and even after that I made him mop the floor 3 times in order to get all of the stickiness (i will definitely need to mop it again today) hopefully he learned his lesson.....although I highly doubt it:) *is my house the only one where the kids come down in the morning complaining that they have nothing to wear? Even though I did about 5 loads of laundry the day before. At our house the formal dining room table has become somewhat of a laundry folding station, I wash the clothes then fold them and the kids are supposed to take them up to their rooms, yesterday Ofeina came downstairs wearing a very fitted shirt with white stretch capri pants, hot pink underwear showing through the stretch pants. I told her she could absolutely not wear that to school, everyone would laugh at her...I heard the same old line, I have nothing else to wear. So, what was my reply? Check the white table. Lesson learned....put your clothes away!! Mana is climbing all over me trying to get ahold of thr iPad so for now I will be done, but tonight when Pila gets home I'll add the pictures and the rest of the blog.....plus fix any grammer or spelling errors:)