It keeps getting better

My good morning has turned into a great afternoon. I just found out that I won a $20 gift card to the Creme Brulee consignment sale in Issaquah on February 12-13. I won it through the Thrifty Northwest Mom blog. Although I don't know if I want you to know about my secrets, since I also won a gift certificate to the Sassy Mei show last year. In February the two sales are combined, how fun!

I'm excited to get some clothes for Lauren. There are usually lots of good baby clothes. I might get lucky and find something for Kaylin too. Yea!

A good morning

Guess how much I spent on this:

I normally don't look at the grocery store ads. When I check my mail, which is about once a week (have I mentioned my LOVE of locked mail boxes), the grocery store ads normally go straight to the recycling bin. Sometimes I will glance at the first page to see if they're having a sale on Pepsi. I pretty much never buy pop, but I'm sure that drinking Pepsi makes the world a happier place. Lucky for me, my in-laws and my parents stock Pepsi by the case, so I make sure to drink it for them while I'm visiting. Why don't they sell Pepsi Vanilla anymore? That stuff was amazing. Way better than *the other brand*'s version. I digress... where were we? Ah yes, grocery store ads. I normally ignore them and just shop at Winco. I'm not an ad chaser who goes to all the different stores to get the deals. Although I am now a proud Costco card holder (for anyone keeping track of my blog). But this week one of the deal blogs I read (sorry, I don't remember which one), mentioned a huge sale at Albertson's on Quaker products. So I checked the Albertson's ad. This morning we took a trip to Albertson's and bought the above products for a total of...

$18.16

Are you kidding me? I "saved" $40.74. I put that in quotes since I wouldn't ever buy those items at that store at their regular price. Plus Eric doesn't believe in the concept of "saving money", you still spent money. Anyway...

Here's the breakdown:

All Quaker items (2 boxes of Life cereal, 6 boxes of peanut butter chocolate chip granola bars (a required food for Eric), and 2 boxes of Dipps granola bars) $1 each. You have to get these in multiples of 5 for the deal.

2 cans of Ragu for $1 each. They were on sale plus there was a coupon in the ad.

2 jars of Skippy peanut butter for $1 each. They were on sale plus there was a coupon in the ad.

The popcorn was buy one get one free and then you also got 2 free 2-liters of either 7-up, A&W, or Sunkist. It ended up being $0.80 for each item.

5 pounds of potatoes for $0.78. That's only $0.13 less than their regular price, but I needed them anyway.

I think I might need to start shopping the ads more often. I totally scored. Now, go to Albertson's for some granola bars!

Also, I'm normally not a fan of the clientelle that Albertson's usually attracts. But today there were quite a few friendly old men who all talked to us, it was very nice. I think they were excited about the granola bar and oatmeal sale.

The weather was super nice out today, sunny and 50 degrees! I decided to take the girls to the park by our house. Kaylin liked to "help" push the stroller as we walked. This was Lauren's first trip to the park and I uncovered her so she could get some air and sun. I think she liked it.

For some reason Kaylin loves the baby slide at this park. She didn't go down the bigger one even once.

This is one of Kaylin's favorite park activites:

Gathering rocks and bark. At least she didn't try to stuff her pockets full and bring them home this time.

We got home, Kaylin ate lunch, and now she's actually SLEEPING during nap time. Now if I can just get Lauren to take a nap.

Overall, it was a good morning.

Kaylin's Fashion Corner: These Boots Were Made for Walking

Don't break your ankle.

Handmade Christmas Gifts

Since Christmas was nearly a month ago, I figured I'd better post the gifts I made.

Remember that craft night I had with some of my friends back in October? We ordered vinyl kits from Windmill Lettering. They were easy to work with and the kits were great. I definitely recommend them.

Picture board and magnets. I added a picture of Alyssa (my niece) and Lauren from when they visited us at the hospital.

Same as above.

Christmas Countdown blocks. I made three of these, one for me, one for Kelsey, and one for Shaunna (my brother's wife).

Picture board for for Eric's mom. I added pictures of the girls.

This one was for my mom.

Now for the sewing:

Luggage tags (based off this tutorial) for Kelsey, my mom, Eric's mom, and Shaunna.

Pillow for Macey (niece). Ryanne (niece) got a similar one with an "R".

The back of Macey's pillow. Ryanne's had different fabric.

Tag blanket for Miles (nephew). Jack (nephew) got one with a "j".

Birth information block. Jack got one too. The other three sides have the birth city, birth date, and last initial.

Scrunchy scarves for Mom, Kelsey, and Shaunna.

This next one is actually a birthday present for our friend, Evie.

Tutu and wand.

Crafty friends: If you want more information about any of the crafts, let me know.

80s Party

On Saturday night we donned our 80s best and went to Dale's 30th birthday party. Sadly, I didn't get many pictures.

Here is Kaylin before we left home. She picked the shirt. I put her hair in a side pony tail and she's wearing baby legs scrunched down as leg warmers. She loved wearing a costume. At first when I mentioned that we were going to wear costumes, she wanted to be a chicken, which is what she was for Halloween. Thankfully I was able to convince her otherwise.

I didn't get any pictures of Eric, Lauren, or me at home. Here's the only picture of Eric and me at the party:

You can't see it, but I have on black leggings and lame leg warmers that I made by cutting off the foot of knee-high socks. I'm going to turn them into baby legs for the girls. The skirt is from high school. My friends and I used to dress-up for dances. Somehow, I still fit into it 6 weeks after having a baby. I'm pretty sure it was too big when I was 17 :-).

Here's the group shot I stole from Kim's blog. Thanks Kim!

I love how Carter is the only kid smiling. Kaylin has changed from her skirt and leg warmers into pants and a tutu. She decided to pee her pants at the party. Lovely. Laura won the prize for most authentic 80s costume (there weren't really prizes, I just made that up). She's the one in the blue dress. Her sister actually wore that dress to the prom in the 80s. The sleeves were quite puffy. We had a great time at the party and it was so fun to catch up with some of our Marysville friends.

If you want to see pictures of the awesome decorations and PacMan cake, go check out Kim's blog. While you're there, check out her amazing crafts. She rocks.

LBS Blog Party

Do any of you live in Western Washington and read Little Birdie Secrets? Do you want to go to their blog party in Lynnwood on Thursday, February 4th? Let me know because I do and I need friends to go with!

The Glare

The day after Christmas (our 6th anniversary!), we had some family pictures taken. Kaylin has an evil glare which she decided needed to be captured on camera.

She squints her eyes so much that it looks like she has a unibrow.

Kelsey did tell me that Kaylin isn't glaring (as badly) in some of the other shots. Yea for digital cameras that can take 100s of pictures!

Also, my cousins (the photographers) decided that Eric was too tall. So in the picture he's sitting on a podium. So now he looks like the shortest guy there. It's funny to see Eric that way :-). I also just noticed that the knees of my jeans look white. That's weird.

AND... While I was typing this post, Kaylin looked at the picture and said, "Macey is happy. I am not happy." Yes, Kaylin, I know that you weren't happy. It's pretty obvious.

Halloween, part 2?

The more I hear the logic of a 3-year old, the more I love it. On our way to the store this afternoon Kaylin and I had an interesting discussion.

K: Can I have a sucker?
(sometimes I bring a sucker to the store to keep her QUIET and STILL and SITTING in the cart)
Me: Not today, we don't have any more suckers.
K: Can we get more suckers?
Me: Yeah, maybe.
K: I can say, "trick-or-treat".

And that my friends, is where candy at our house comes from. Once the Halloween candy is gone, all of the candy is gone. I'm thinking I might dress Kaylin up and send her out into the neighborhood trick-or-treating. We'll see if she comes home with any suckers.

Christmas Afternoon

We met my mom's family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and cousins' kids) for dinner. Lauren and Miles enjoyed hiding out in their car seats.

Lauren also enjoyed hanging out with Papa (my mom's dad).

We went caroling in my grandparents old-people neighborhood. I think we frightened most of them.

Kaylin loves her Uncle Christopher and his sweet Christmas "sweater".

Kaylin was an awesome shepherd in the nativity.


The girls with my dad's parents.

I think that's the last of the Christmas posts. Yea! We had a great time with all of our family and we were so glad that so many people were able to come to Bellingham, especially my sister and brother and their families.

I finally got brave...

I was finally brave enough to let Kaylin go out in her underwear and not a pull-up. As you might recall, we had Kaylin's one-day potty party back in September. She has done great. Of course she has had a few accidents, but overall, I still consider the method an overwhelming success. Since then, she has worn only panties at home. But when we go out, she has worn a pull-up. I've been too nervous that she will pee on someone's couch or in the cart while I am grocery shopping.

I finally got fed up this Christmas and New Years when it was quite obvious that she was purposely going in her pull-up. She would use the toilet sometimes, but if she was busy playing she wouldn't bother. After New Year's Eve I told Eric that that was it. From now on she would wear panties to other people's houses. That quickly turned into ALWAYS. Yesterday we were out for 3 hours and she did great. She didn't have an accident and she used the public restroom twice. Today she wore her panties to church. I consider that quite the feat since church is 3 hours long and we are not with her for 2 of the hours. She's still wearing a pull-up for her nap and overnight, but that will come with time.

Now that her mom isn't holding her back, Kaylin is truly a potty training champ. She will even use the potty by herself if I'm feeding Lauren or in the shower. She won't wash her hands if I'm not helping, but at least she's not peeing on my floor.

And sometimes she does nap without a pull-up. But not during official nap time.


In case you're wondering, yes, she did pee all over the pillows. And that cute furry pink one isn't machine washable. Lovely. Also, yes, she still sleeps with a pacifier. Don't judge. She loves it so much and I couldn't bear to take it from her before Lauren was born. Maybe next month...

One month old

Yesterday, Lauren turned one month old! She was 4 weeks on Sunday. Why can't all months just have 28 days? It would sure make things a lot easier. Anyway... Here she is:



Lauren is such a sweetheart and we are so blessed to have her in our home. She is so mellow and barely ever cries. When she does cry, it lasts for about 2 seconds. Maybe. When she's hungry she just makes little noises. She still sleeps in our room and I am afraid to put her in her own room because I don't think I could hear her hungry noises on the monitor. I guess then she'd really learn to cry. So far she's a total mommy's girl. But what one month old isn't? I think I just got her first "real" smile. So sweet. It brought tears to my eyes.

Christmas Morning

After presents at our house, we went up to Bellingham for Christmas morning. My sister, Kelsey and her family and my brother Christopher and his wife, Shaunna, were all in town from Utah.

Macey and Kaylin with their juice.

We had our traditional egg stuff for breakfast, I think it's real name is egg souffle. I love it! After breakfast we opened our stockings from Santa.

Then we opened more presents.

I made these scrunchy scarves for my mom, Kelsey, and Shaunna. I also made one for me and smaller ones for Macey and Kaylin.

Eric got a bike helmet. Yea!

Lauren was excited to meet her cousin Miles.

Christmas Eve (aka get your bowl on)

For Christmas Eve we always go bowling with Eric's family. We all go once a year, so we're usually pretty fabulous. I think I bowled somewhere around 60 on our first game. I know you're impressed. I redeemed myself the second game and bowled 132. I was ahead of Eric for almost the entire game, but he beat me by 7 points. The secret is "speed bowling". We didn't have much time left (we paid for an hour) and had to bowl fast. We did end up getting an extension for the last frame. So here's my professional bowling tip... just go FAST.

Eric has great form. I guess. I don't know much about bowling.

Kaylin and Ryanne took a reading break.

Grandpa loves to play with Bratz dolls.

Kaylin bowled a few frames too. She LOVED it.

After bowling we went to Eric's parents for dinner (potato soup, YUM!), a reading of the Christmas story in Luke, and some musical performances. Then it was time for the presents.

Kaylin was thrilled with her Fancy Nancy book from Aunt Carly and Uncle Parker.

Yea! Clothes! (That's my excitement, not necessarily Kaylin's :-).)

Lauren enjoyed hanging out with Grammy and our friend Taylor.

Once again, another wonderful Christmas Eve. Thanks everyone!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

I didn't get around to putting up the Christmas tree before Lauren was born, but I really wanted it up. Eric had the week off after Lauren was born and let me sleep in most mornings. One of those mornings he put up my tree. I was so happy! I seriously started to cry when I came downstairs and saw my tree. I'll blame post-partum hormones and a lack of sleep.

When my mom came to help out for a couple of days the week after Lauren was born, we decorated the tree. Mostly, Kaylin decorated the tree. I did put on the more fragile ornaments, but Kaylin did a big chunk of the work.

There were many clumps of ornaments. This is one example.

Lauren was so excited about the tree.

Kaylin by the finished product.

I thought about rearranging some of the ornaments, but ended up leaving them where Kaylin put them. Her clumps were so cute and I really didn't have the energy to redecorate. I also didn't add my red and silver balls this year. The tree was a little bare this year, but probably my favorite.

And yes, I made the tree skirt :-).