Hungry?!?

I am sure nearly everyone out there reading this blog knows: a) we are in the process of getting our house ready for sale; and b) I am an avid couponer!  I have always used coupons, but a little over a year ago I discovered coupon blogs and I have not shopped the same way since!  About a month ago I got all of the items in the above picture for FREE!  (Plus, several more items not in the photo.) 

As a stay-at-home-mom I believe part of my job is to stretch our dollars as far as possible.  Some (husbands) may consider my methods a bit extreme, but the numbers don't lie!  It is well known that the way to save the most money on groceries is to stock up when you can get things cheap to even free when you can combine sales + coupons.  I have always stockpiled.  I like to blame it on genetics.  My mom did it...her mom did it.... But again, I think I have taken it to another level.  I spent several hours on Saturday cleaning out my pantry and packing up most of my stockpile to help make our house appear spacious.  This was a very difficult task for me.  Below is a picture I took of some of what I packed up.  This doesn't show everything nor do I think it conveys the full scope of what was there.  I had already boxed approximately 75 canned and jarred goods.  I think Scott counted about 76 boxes of cereal!  (Nine of which were open, and most of those nearly gone.)  I try not to pay more than $1.50 per box...with the exception of Scott's absolute favorite, Honey Bunches of Oats, which is difficult to find for less than $2.50 a box.  Now, we eat a TON of cereal for a family of 4.  We probably go through at least 4 boxes a week!

This is the "after" picture of my pantry.  A huge improvement from when things would fall out at you if you were not careful.  As you can see, I still have quite a bit left after I packed everything above. 



I am very proud of my stockpile.  I spend many hours trying to get the most for our money.  And you can't deny, no one can ever say that there is nothing to eat in our house!  Although, I am going to have to be careful of the effect this has on our children.  I was working on cleaning out last night while Ethan was eating his bedtime snack.  As he watched me take things out of the pantry he kept saying, "Don't take my food!  Don't take my food!"  

P.S.  There are times when I definetly can get more than our family needs of an item for pennies or less.  For example, the 16 boxes of pasta I got for free last week!  In those cases, I donate!

A few new pictures...

Kissing Boo-Boo's

Scott is on spring break this week and yesterday we experienced a bit of a role reversal.  I went to work while he stayed home with the kids! He had a good day with the kids and did a great job getting laundry and taxes done while I was gone.  He even had dinner ready when I got home!  This is the conversation I had with Ethan after I got home last night.  Ethan: "Mommy, you went to help people?"  Me:  "Yes, I went to work to help people."  Ethan: "Mommy, you kissed the boo-boo's?"  Apparently, Scott told him that I went to work to help people who are hurt....and what does this mean to a 3-year-old?  Kissing boo-boo's!  I love the mind of a child!  (That is, until that mind is figuring out excuses to get out of bed!)

The New Spring Line

Alli spent a little bit of time this morning modeling a few of her spring/summer clothes that I picked up last year.  She already loves clothes (a trait she picked up from both sides of the family...mom and Grandma Lawrance!) and likes to carry them around the house.  She's got the runway walk (sometimes run) down, and occasionally manages to "strike a pose"!



A summer wardrobe would not be complete without the bathing suit and matching cover-up!  She's ready for the beach!  (or lake!)

And of course the suit has to have a cute bow on the back!



Time Flies When You are Having Fun!

Well, it's official...Alli is one-year-old!  It amazing how quickly the past year has gone by and how much has happened during that year.  It's hard to believe that a year ago Scott was still working on his doctorate and had not even interviewed for his position at UIndy yet.  Over the past few days I have really reflected on how many highs and lows the year brought.  Despite all of the sadness we have experienced, I am truly thankful that Scott's mom got to meet her first granddaughter.  I believe that the timing of the births of both Allison and Josh was part of a Greater Plan because the joy they have brought into our lives has helped ease the pain of the entire family.  Peg lives on through her grandchildren.

Here are a few of the pictures from Alli's First Birthday party!  She loved her cake!  You can see more pictures here.

Say "Cheese"!!!

I can hardly believe it but Alli will be 1 year old in 10 days!  Time flies when you are having fun!  The big news is that she is walking!  Not just a few steps at a time, but full fledged walking!  She can even stand herself up without holding onto anything.  I will try to take a video of that and post it soon.  She also has a new "cheese" face.  Everytime we point the camera at her she give us a silly smile!

 She also thinks sitting on Daddy's shoulders and banging on his head is great fun!

Dad got to stay home with us a few extra days last week due to all of the ice!  Ethan really enjoyed having Daddy around...he likes to cuddle with him after his nap!

Walking!!!!

Happy 2011!

Well, it is pretty safe to say that we are WAY behind in our blogging, as well as pretty much everything else, around here.  In fact, I just downloaded all of the Christmas pictures last night!  Things are changing quickly in our house...Alli is up to 20lbs and ready to walk any day.  In fact, she even takes a step or two on her own a couple times a day.  We fully anticipate that one of these days we are going to look up to see her walking across the floor.  We have all been sick over the last week with a nasty cold.  Alli was not too interested in eating for a couple of days so I put some apple juice in her sippy cup to see if I could entice her into drinking something.  It was the first time she has had juice, and the resulting faces she made were hilarious!  She seemed to be saying, "This stuff is AWESOME!" and "I can't believe you gave this to me, Mom!" 

  

Now I'm really going to put my money on Alli...

Here's Alli beating up on Ethan a little bit. He's a good sport about it and even makes things right with a hug and kiss.

Sibling love

Ethan and Alli in her crib sharing a little love. That is until Chloe the cat comes in and Ethan decides she is "his" cat re-naming her Mr. Pettybone. For those of you with kids into Mickey Mouse, you know Mr. Pettybone is Goofy's kitty.

Evidence that TV melts your mind...

Ethan watching Curious George this morning (notice the irony that he's wearing his George PJ's).

Who's going to win this one? (my money's on Alli!)

Happy Birthday Ethan

Three years ago Scott, my parents and I were at the hospital waiting, waiting and waiting for my scheduled c-section.  After nearly 7 hours of getting pushed back later and later and later Ethan was born 5 pounds 6 ounces and 18 inches long.  We kenw our lives were changing, but like all new parents, we had no idea just how much things would change.  He was a tiny little thing who immediately took control of our lives, our house, and our hearts.

Here is a little of what Scott wrote in his first blog post after Ethan was born...

"The delivery was amazing and I cannot do it justice in words so I won't try. Ethan was born and came out kicking and screaming for the first 20min or so. The nurses took him away for their assessments along with the standard weights and measures. We'll post all the vital statistics in the future. After that, they let me be the first to hold him and while I wanted to be able to pass him onto Megan, it was such a trill to be able to hold my son and meet him for the first time."

You can read the full post here.

When he was almost one I started a tradition of taking fall photos with our pumpkins in our backyard every October...

At nearly two he would not hold still long enough to pose with the pumpkin

This year he thought it was really funny to eat grass...

...until he couldn't get it out of his mouth!

We had a birthday party for him on Saturday and his Great Grandma Pearl made him a Thomas cake.  He loved it!

He claimed two pieces as his own...and he ate both!

He was very happy with all of his gifts.  When the window is open he loves to line up all of his trains to play.

He was a happy camper after dad got his new train table put together...too busy to look at the camera!

This morning I asked him what he wanted to eat for breakfast on his birthday and he replied, "A piece of cake and a fork!"  I replied, "A piece of cake?"  Then he shook his finger at me and said, "And a fork!"  If you look closely you can see he had a guest for breakfast...Buzz Lightyear!

Happy Birthday baby boy!  I can't believe how quickly 3 years has gone by.  We love you!

It has happened...

Well, it has happened and as a result, pandemonium has ensued at house.  That's right...Allison has learned to crawl.  We are not talking just army crawling or scooting, but full fledged, up on all fours, crawling.  Needless to say, Ethan is none too thrilled with this development because, of course, Alli always heads straight for his toys!

This video is missing a crucial part of life with our crawling girl...Ethan was napping so you don't get to hear his screams when he realizes Alli is messing with his stuff!

Around the lake and through the woods....

Scott is on fall break the first couple days of this week so we decided to take advantage of the great weather and go down to Brown County for the day.  We spent a couple hours in the morning walking around Nashville, then headed over to the park for a picnic lunch (accompanied by swarms of bees), some playground time for Ethan, and a hike.  We walked a 1.5 mile trail around Ogle Lake and it was beautiful!  The kids did great.  Ethan walked the most of the time while Alli rode on Dad's back.  After about 2/3 of the trail, Ethan was getting pretty worn out, so I carried Alli in the backpack and Ethan rode on Dad's shoulders. 

Scott's self portriat of himself and a sleeping Alli!

In other news, last night was Alli's first night in her own room!  It has taken much longer than anticipated to get Alli out of our room, but so far so good.  Our original plan was to have Alli share a room with Ethan, but plans change.  Ethan is so great about staying in his bed (sometimes for hours) even when he is not asleep we really did not want to mess that up, so we took down our spare bed and moved Alli's crib into the guest/computer room...so it is now Alli's/computer room.  We knew she would have to share a room, we just didn't plan on her sharing with the computer!  She's also not crawling yet, but she is definetly on the move!  Alli has her ways of getting around.  When on her belly she can scoot backwards and turn in all directions and she is REALLY REALLY close to crawling on all fours.  When she is sitting she can scoot forward pretty easily...something that has been termed "butt walking" by family members.  And this morning, when Scott got Alli out of bed she was sitting up!  It is the first time she has gotten herself from lying down to sitting!

Baby Love

As always, I am way behind in my blogging!  Hopefully I will do a little catching up over the next couple of weeks, but I am not going to hold my breath!  As always, we have been keeping busy around here.  Scott has been busy with work and trips to his parents and the kids have been keeping me busy.  Alli had a cold that we battled for about two weeks.  During that period she started waking up 1-2 times a night and has decided to stick with that schedule.  As I have mentioned before, I like my sleep!  I am really ready for her to start sleeping better again, however, I doubt that will happen.  I am expecting a tooth to pop through any day now.  We took her to the doctor last week for her cold and they weighed her at 16lbs 9oz (with clothes).  That means she gained more than a pound in a month!

This past weekend we all went up to the lake for the weekend.  It was the first time we have really gotten to see Alli and Josh interact, and it was a lot of fun! 

They spent hours on the floor together and there was a little bit of toy envy...

...plenty of sharing of toys and slobber...

....and LOTS of baby love!!!

All that lovin' resulted in them knocking each other over a few times, but neither seemed to mind.  (And the Dads enjoyed keeping score!)

P.S.  Watch out ladies!  As you can see in the pictures, Josh already likes to kiss the girls.  This might give his parents some headaches later in life!