Seth's Birthday

Well, well, well. Today I have had a lot of flashbacks to last year on Halloween. I was hugely pregnant, and ready for Seth to be born, but I really didn't want a Halloween baby. Anyway, the kids went trick or treating, and I ate some of the candy with peanuts and peanut butter in it (not because of allergies, but my kids just don't like it- which is good , or not so good, for me). Anyway, in the middle of the night, I began dreaming I was in labor, only to slowly wake up, and realize that the pains weren't really in my dreams. It was such a fast labor. Really it was only about an hour when I was really awake and alert before Seth was out. Maybe if/when we have other kids, I'll eat a lot of candy with peanut products in it, that might make for super fast labors. ha ha ha.

Anyway, I thought I would dedicate this post to our cutie pie Seth. He has been so fun. He is saying quite a few words. He will say, Mom, Dad, juice, hi there, drink, mmmm (as in mmm that's good), Matt, Kara (I think that is what he is saying, it is more like a dudu, but it is when she is around), and maybe some others I can't think of. He is really a good baby. Here are some cute pictures and movies.

Here are a few movie clips of Seth waving.

What I've been up to.

So, it's be soo long since my last post. I've been trying to figure out the coupon game, so I have been spending a lot of time on different websites and blogs. I've listed a few on the side because a few of you have asked about what sites that have been recommended to me (thanks Shannon and Linda) and that I have found. Anyway, it has been fun seeing how the Wags anc CVS games work. I am excited about next weeks, Buy 1 Get 1 Sale off Almay, which is the item free after rebate (Walgreens has Free after rebate items every month). I have a $2 coupon for the mascara, then I'll get a free Almay product, then, I'll get reimbursed for the full amount of the mascara. Then, to top that off, if you go to this website, you can get a free moisturizer, and a coupon for $5 off your next Almay purchase. Hopefully it will work out that way. It seems like sometimes, I try to get some of the deals, but they are sold out or something. I'll keep you posted.

The other thing I have been doing is going grocery shopping on double coupon days at our grocery stores. I look at the Pick'N Save add, and the Sentry add. Then, I see which one has better deals, and that is the store I shop at for the week. If there were amazing deals at both stores, I might go to both. I also look on the internet for coupons for the sale items. I do this two ways. I google it (Prego Coupon) and see what comes up. There is also this amazing website, couponloop.com that seems to have a pretty comprehensive list of the coupons on the internet. It has them listed by product name, so it is easy to search for the product and see if there is a coupon. So far, I've saved $15-$35 a week on groceries. Plus, I mostly buy things that are on sale that I have a coupon for. Last week I saved $80 on sale items and coupons. This week, wasn't as great, but I guess it goes that way. Anyway, if you have any questions, let me know.

New picture

Hey, I just wanted to let you know that on the "Conference and Jon visiting" post, I added the "after" picture to what we did with the lawn and front railing. Anyway, I know it's late, but better late than never.

October 12, 2008

After all the pictures and exciting posts, this one will be pictureless, so maybe a bit more boring. We thoroughly enjoyed conference last week. This week, we are back to regular church meetings. I am looking forward to it.

This week really raced by. I have been walking with one of my friends in the mornings after I drop Matt and Kara off at school. Lindsay and Seth seem to really enjoy our walks. Kara's teacher talked to me one day as I was picking her up. Kara is really getting used to the routine and how things work in Kindergarten. She seems to be doing very well. I am so happy. They went on a field trip this week to the Boerner Botanical Gardens, and they learned about trees.

Matthew has been doing well at piano praciting. I don't have to ever remind him. He seems to enjoy playing. He is also not so much bored at school. We are going to see what types of testing they will try this week. I am hoping to really get the ball rolling with this, so he will really enjoy school and be challenged.

Lindsay is getting so independent. I don't even have to ask her very often to get dressed in the mornings. We are just getting used to dressing for the weather. Shorts are not very appropriate when the temp is 50, and it is cloudy and a bit windy. She is happy about changing though. She is a very happy girl.

Seth is getting so good at walking. He loves to practice. He can walk across the room now. He also is getting good about sleeping through the night. He was starting to wake up two times a night instead of one. I let him cry it out two nights. The first night, it was about an hour he cried, and the second maybe a half hour of not hard crying. Then the past couple of nights, he only mildly calls for maybe 15 minutes, and then goes right back to sleep. In the mornings, he doesn't even act really starving. I was worried (of course needlessly) that he was hungry or thirsty. But, he really is fine. He is such a good happy baby. I can't believe he is almost one. I got out some of Matt's baby clothes, and they already fit Seth. It is funny because I remember Matt being so big when he was this age.

Brian is doing well in school. He is very busy with it. He has been busy with scouts too. He has some training meetings to go to. Hopefully he will get some good information from them. We also have been slowly but surely getting our house ready. We still have more little projects to work on. Hopefully we'll get all the outside stuff done before winter hits.

I am going to try an experiment. I have a friend who really does well with budgeting. She only spends 200-250 a month on groceries, diapers, TP, medicine, and stuff like that. I spend way more than that, and it seems like it has been increasing exponentially. Anyway, she says her secret is that she only buys stuff that is on sale that she has a coupon for. She also only goes to one grocery store and then CVS and Walgreens for pharmacy and diapers. That seems like it would be doable. It seems like people that I've known before have done the coupon thing and gone to twelve different stores, and it would take so much time. Her plan seems simple. We'll see how it works. I know it will take a few weeks to build up coupons, but hopefully I'll get the hang of it, and it will save us at least a little money every month. I doubt I will get down to her level, but then I have two more kids than she does. Anyway, I will let you know how it goes.

Conference and Jon visiting

Well, Conference this weekend and last weekend (with General Women's Meeting) was so nice. I always seem to hear just what I need to hear. I am looking forward to making new goals and putting into practice some of the things I felt like I should change. One thing that I need to do (and I probably will always need to do this) is keep my faith. Don't loose hope, and don't get discouraged. It is funny, I was reading in 2 Nephi 4 on Friday, and then the first few talks that I really got ot pay attention to seemed to talk about hope. I also need to be better about praying. I enjoyed Elder Bednar's talk on prayer. I also enjoyed Pres. Uchdorf's talk on Saturday about his mother and the train station and losing her children, but not giving up hope and finding them. I also really enjoyed Pres. Eyering's talk about becoming a Zion people. There were many that I really enjoyed. I look forward to rereading them.

I worked on painting the front porch. We had old nasty carpet that we took up, and then I scraped and repainted the porch. It looks nice. I also painted the railing that Brian and his Dad put up awhile ago. I painted the back porch, too. I think it looks clean and nice now. I'll have to post a picture. You can't really see the front porch (or the back), but you can see the railing. Ok here is the before picture. I took an after picture of the front porch, but you can't really see the house in the dark. I must have deleted the after picture of the house. I'll take another one tomorrow to put on here. Oh yeah, we also have been working on filling in all the dead patches on our front lawn (because I had to weed it).

It is funny how the Do Not Enter Sign glows so much from the flash.

We talked to both sets of parents/grandparents today. My Dad says he's feeling stronger than he has in a long time. That is good news. He has one more week of Radiation. Then, he'll hopefully get to go to Monticello and hopefully get to stay there awhile. I am hoping to find some time to get out to see him once in his last few months. We'll have to see how that plays out.

We also tried to figure out how to play "button, button, who's got the button" game. We finally did get it figured out. The hard part was remember how you get the guessing going. You just take turns. We played it tonight for FHE, and kids had a great time playing it. Lindsay was really cute because she was pretty obvious who she gave the buttons to. Kara and Matt did really good. I really couldn't tell who Kara gave it to some of the time.

Brian's parents gave us an update on their trip to Europe. They really had a great time. They saw a lot of place, Italy, lyublyana (sp?), Chechoslovakia, and other places I can't spell either. But it sounds like they had a lot of fun. They even met a couple from Wauwatosa, and we are going to try to get together with them one of these days.

This past week, Brian's brother Jon was here. The kids had a really good time with him. He walked Matt and Kara to school a couple of times. They really enjoyed that. Brian took a day and a half off Thursday and Friday. Friday Brian and Matt rode with Jon to Iowa/Illinois for a job interview. They also stopped to visit an old friend from Chicago. They really enjoyed the trip. Matthew had a great time, too. It would be great if Jon got a job in Osh Kosh or anywhere close by. We would love to have Jon and Cami and the cousins close by.

During conference, I finally put together some of the kid's scrapbooks. I didn't do anything fancy, just glued pictures on papers like crazy. Kara and Lindsay helped me with some of theirs. It will be nice to have that done.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from my last entry. Matthew has been into frogs lately. Here is a picture with Matt, Kara, and their frog/toad (I can't tell the difference). He actually gave that one away. Then, we caught some other little frogs from a pond. We keep taking them back and letting them go and catching more. I think next time we will just let them go. It is starting to get cold, and I want them to have a chace to survive the winter.

Here is a picture of Lindsay and her preschool class. Just a quick note about her outfit. When we went school shopping for Matt and Kara, we got Lindsay a preschool outfit. I wouldn't let her wear it until preschool started, so I would say, "Those are your preschool clothes. You can't wear them until preschool." Now she thinks she can only wear them to preschool. If she isn't going to preschool that day she can't wear them, and if they are clean on Wednesdays (which usually they are), she wants to wear them. I guess it is a good think we rotate houses. If it was always at the same place, the other moms might think Lindsay only had one pair of clothes.

Here is Lindsay in a cute dress she got from her Grandma Taylor and Ann (I am sure Granpa had something to do with it too, but I think Grandma and Ann picked it out).
Here is a picture of Lindsays new haircut. I don't know if I mentioned that she started the haircut, so I had to finish it. I ended up cutting more than I had to off because I made it uneven. I think it is cute enough though. Here is another with Kara in it because she wanted her picture taken, too. You can't really tell, but there is a weird short spot on the top of her head, but it kind of blends into her bangs. It is just weird if you look closely at it. I think my girls are so cute. They really do well together. I don't know if I mentioned Matthew loosing his two front teeth. Here is a blurry picture of him. The tooth fairy is really forgetful at our house. It is pretty lucky that on the nights that he lost his teeth, he stayed up late, so the tooth fairy had an excuse to miss him becasue the tooth fairy doesn't come at our house until kids are asleep. Ha ha ha.
I love to hear him talk. It was really cute to hear him talk the first couple of days. He lisped a little bit, and spoke carefully. Now he is more used to talking, and you can't really tell he is missing his teeth.

Seth Started Walking

Hi Everyone,

Well, today Seth really started walking. Friday and Saturday, I could coax him into walking a step or two if he was holding a toy. He would also dive towards the couch if he was a step away or so. Anyway, today we got a few pictures of him really taking off.

Here is another one with it right side up. Not quite as good, but not sideways either.