Stay away winter!!!

The last few days here have been unseasonably warm, so we've been enjoying the nice weather! The trees have changed color and most of the leaves are still up, so it is really beautiful here right now. Jason is well into school and is very busy between his teaching assistant position and the full-time course load he has this semester. Imagine grading 30+ papers while trying to write your own! Here is the typical view we have of him with the computer (ooh, behind him is an owl that Ellie made out of paper plates and decorations):

The kids are both really happy playing and learning together. Ellie can make Rowan laugh like no one else, and she enjoys "taking care" of him. It's so nice that they can play together now! Although, they are beginning to plot trouble together too. Rowan usually is the one to figure out how to get into something, and then Ellie helps him. Here they are putting colored pencils into each hole of a notebook:

I don't know if I have mentioned this before on our blog, but Ellie started going to a nearby preschool 2 afternoons a week. It really stretched our budget, but we thought it was worth it for her to have friends to play with, especially over the winter. Luckily we have found out that we will be receiving some funding available for student families that will make it very affordable for this semester. We have to pay each month, but then we'll receive a lot of it back at the end of the semester. Ellie LOVES going to school, and they do such fun things there. Tomorrow morning they are going on her first field trip, to a pumpkin patch. It's nice for me to have a short break from her (about 4 hours a week) and it wears her out too! Here she is taking a rare nap on the couch:

I'm allowed to brag about my kids here, right??

This is the one and only place that I feel comfortable completely bragging about my kids, since it's my own blog. So, here I go... :)

Last night I took the kids out to dinner after church (Jason was beyond busy grading papers, so he didn't go). We went to Old Chicago and shared a 3 course special; I highly recommend it! Anywho, more than halfway through dinner an older couple finished and was leaving the restaurant when the lady stopped and told me, "Your children are so well-behaved and just a delight to eat next to. You did a great job!" I just told her thank you, and basked in the delight of the complement :) I distinctly remember this exact thing happening to my family at Denny's one night while I was growing up, and I'm pretty sure it happened more than once. As I thought about this last night, I realized that someone has told us how well-behaved our kids are after every single flight I've ever taken with them. I guess Jason and I lucked out with kids who are easily entertained! Oh, and let me make the disclaimer that everyone who knows them more than superficially knows that they are definitely not perfectly behaved children. Far from it! Just ask our family or our neighbors (hi Sarah if you are reading this!).

Here are my well-behaved children standing on their activity table :)

Don't they have the same smile?

Ellie's thoughts on marriage...

This video is long, but watch it if you want to see a little bit into Ellie's head, how she thinks.

What does Rowan want?!?

Quick update

Ellie has her cast off, yippee! She was very excited about going to the children's hospital (where her orthopedic surgeon is) to get it off. The clinic was very busy and we were there for 2 hours, but she finally got it off, and the pin removed. She cried while the cast was removed, as it was loud and scary, but it didn't hurt her. However, she SCREAMED when the doctor removed the pin, because it hurt her. They don't give any pain relief, just a 1, 2, 3, pull! It bled a couple drops, but he wrapped it up basically to keep her from looking at it. It was kind of freaky to look at her finger with the pin in it; it was about 45 minutes between taking off the cast and taking out the pin. And afterwards, well, Jason couldn't look at the hole in her finger for too long without feeling sick :) Here is a picture of it for those who like that kind of stuff...

She can bend it fairly well and is starting to write with her left hand again. We thought that maybe she would switch to being right-handed, but nope. There you go, Aunt Nichole, she's a lefty!

The kids are sick (barfy, crying sick), so I can't write a long post. Maybe sometime this weekend :)

My latest hobby

Buying as much stuff as I can with as little money as possible. Otherwise known as couponing :)

As of now, Walgreens is my favorite store. Does everyone know that they give away products free after rebate (known as FAR in the couponing world) every month? In that alone, I have enough make-up and shampoo to last me for a long while. Even with just these products, if you add in coupons, you can actually make money off of this. How great is that? A store is PAYING me to take their products! Above and beyond FAR items, many items go on sale for equal or less than coupon value. For example, take a look at this picture of stuff I just bought last night:


Exedrin PM, 6 (yummy) candy bars, a bouncy ball, and 2 decorative flowers (for Ellie's room). I "purchased" all of this for a measely $.92. Almost all of that was tax. The excedrin and candy bars were free with coupons, buying the excedrin gave me a coupon for $1 off your next order, and I used that to buy the decorative flowers (which were on clearance for $.50 each). The bouncy ball was also on clearance for $.25, and I threw that into the first purchase so my total wouldn't be negative, because Walgreens doesn't allow negative balances before tax (this is called a "filler item" in the coupon world). Catch all that? Isn't it fun? I'm not even going to share the bundles of stuff I "bought" from Walgreens last weekend when they had a $10 off your purchase of $40 coupon.

Here is last night's grocery run. I had gone "real" grocery shopping earlier in the day and saved over 50% on my bill, but this was a late-night run with some coupons that I didn't bring earlier. My grocery store doubles coupons with up to $1 value (so $2 doubled) on Wednesdays (with some rules and stipulations). This is what I bought last night:


6 boxes of Cleanteam flushable wipes
10 refills of Cleanteam flushable wipes
3 loaves of Sara Lee 100% whole wheat bread
1 gallon of Deans skim milk
3 Reach dental floss
1 Aquafresh toothbrush
1 Pillsbury crescent rolls

My total before coupons? Over $60. After coupons, $6.78. Amazing, right? Do you see why I am so into couponing? (Did I just make a noun into a verb?) Usually I'm not able to acquire mass amounts of something, like the wipes, but someone gave me a bunch of coupons for them.

I have a lot of help from various websites where people gather to share deals. If anyone is interested in me helping them get started, let me know! I won't bore everyone with my methods. As long as no one lives near me and takes all my deals, I will be happy to share ;) It's just a great way for me to productively use my free time after the kids go to bed, and save our family some needed money!

Summer is over :(

It's official. By the end of today, our summer will be over. It seems the weather agrees with this, because today and tomorrow the highs will be near 90, and then 71 and 66 for Wednesday and Thursday. Please hold off on the snow for as long as possible!

For our summer's last hurrah, we drove up to Pennsylvania. In hindsight, I think we were more than a little crazy. The trip was a blast, and we had so much fun seeing family, but 16+ hours in the car with 2 kids? Not something I would recommend! On the way there, we drove through the night. It was okay. Ellie was able to sleep pretty well, but Rowan kept crying and falling back asleep. At first it was every hour, then every half hour, and eventually down to every 5 minutes. At that point, I pulled over and brought him up to the front seat to nurse him, hoping that would keep him asleep for a while. Well, as I put him in my lap, he threw up all over me! Then again. And again. But after that, he went back to sleep and stayed asleep for a couple hours!

We drove to my sister Nichole's new apartment where she lives with her boyfriend Warren. They were so gracious to let us stay there with them. Not only us, but also my other sister Tara and her husband and 2 children. So, there were 6 adults, 4 kids (3, 2, 1, and 8 months old) and 2 cats living in their 2 bed, 1 bath apartment for 3 days. Sound like fun? Actually it went pretty well. :) We also had a big surprise. My mom and Mike flew up to visit too (they stayed at a hotel)! Here is a picture of all the family:

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of other pictures, because everyone else took them for us :) Jason and I were even able to drive up to New York City for a day/night, while my wonderful, kind, amazing sister Nichole watched our kids for about 26 hours. Did I mention she is wonderful? (Rowan woke up at 3:30am and would not go to sleep. So, no sleep for Nichole!) But Jason and I had lots of fun with his sister and her fiance'.

The drive home, we decided to drive during the day, since we all had to be somewhere at 9am the next morning. So, we left at 9:30am and returned to Madison at 2:00am. The trip wasn't really too bad. We just stopped for 1 1/2 hours each for lunch and dinner. And, we turned Rowan around to face forward, because I thought maybe he was car sick on the way there from facing backwards. He didn't throw up, so maybe it helped? (I switched the seat around again once we were home again. He'll be rear-facing until he outgrows it.)

So, we didn't get many pictures from our trip, but here are a couple that I haven't shared yet because of my blog-slacking.

Ellie's last ballet class:

Ellie can still draw/write with her cast on! (She had to get her cast extended while we were in Pennsylvania, because her original one was falling off. So, the tip of her finger is broken, yet she has a cast up to her shoulder!!!) If you look closely, you can see the word of the day. Ellie picked it!

Sorry, no pictures of Rowan this time.

Ellie's finger saga :(

Last Friday night, Rowan and I were in my bedroom and Rowan went over to close the door. He pushed it closed, but neither of us realized that Ellie's finger was in the hinge side of the door (she was in the hallway just outside the room) until she started screaming. I whipped open the door, and she held her hand out to me, still screaming. To make a long story short, we took her in to urgent care Saturday morning because she wouldn't move her finger or use that hand, and it was bruised and swollen.



The doctor there doubted that it was broken, since it was a one-year-old that closed the door, and obviously one-year-olds can't cause that much trouble. I don't think he has kids :) He sent us to x-ray just to check, and after looking at the x-rays, it was definitely broken. He put Ellie's finger in a splint, and told us to make an appt. with an orthopedic doctor on Monday.



So, after another LONG story, we finally saw a pediatric orthopedic surgeon on Monday, who said that Ellie needed surgery on her finger. Surgery! For getting her finger shut in the door! It wasn't lined up to heal right, so they needed to get it fixed before it started to heal. So, on Wednesday morning we went into the hospital for outpatient surgery. Ellie was in fine spirits, and actually enjoyed being there, since she was able to watch t.v. to her heart's content :) I went in with her as they put her under anesthesia, and she did wonderful, so they escorted me out. About 45 minutes later, everything was finished. They ended up being able to push it back into place, but it wouldn't stay that way, so they inserted a pin into the bone that they'll take out in about 4 weeks. They brought us back to recovery to be there as she woke up. That was horrible! She was just flailing around and inconsolable for a good half hour. And for the next hour, until she was ready to go home, she was just miserable and would scream at anything the nurses tried to do :( But, no worries, as soon as we left her room to go home, she was her normal, happy self. When we arrived home, instead of crashing in her bed as I was sure she would do, she ran around showing all her neighbors her new hot pink cast.


So, for now, the ordeal is over. We begin driving to Pennsylvania tonight to see all our sisters. And in two weeks we'll take her in to have another x-ray done, to make sure it is healing properly. I believe her cast can come off in 4 weeks, but maybe a little longer. Wish us luck trying to explain to her why she cannot go swimming until then!!!

We are not afraid to put our kids to work!

Check out this video: Putting the kids to work

Even our blog received a makeover!

I know it's been a while since I changed the look of the blog, but doesn't it look awesome with the new header at the top? Thank you to Claire at hotgraphix.net! And Carinna from the same site made the beautiful pictures of Rowan and Ellie underneath it.

Is anyone doing anything fun for the 4th of July? We aren't really, although I did buy some sparklers and snakes to play with. I'm not sure if we'll wait until the kids are asleep, or if Ellie can be trusted with them. Although if Ellie has one, you can bet Rowan will want one too! He has quite a temper on him. It's surprising, since he was such a mellow baby, but he can hold his own against all the older kids here!

Ellie is LOVING her Spanish and pre-Ballet classes that she is taking at the YMCA. She gets so excited when she is able to go to "school." Jason takes her to Spanish, and I take her to dance, so she gets special time with both of us. It's so cute to hear her say, "Adios!" whenever she is leaving the house, and of course she is adorable trying to leap across the floor in her ballet class.

Both kids (and parents too!) are really enjoying the nice weather and being able to play outside. All of the neighbors get together in the evenings and just talk while the kids play. And our garden is finally starting to produce food! We've been able to bring home handfuls of strawberries for a while, and now there are some onions coming out. Can't wait until everything else pops up!

Guess what we did today?

Before

After

BeforeAfter (I buzzed it at home)

And Mommy too

Happy Birthday Rowan!

Our little buddy boy had his first birthday yesterday. He's no longer a baby :(

Playing with birthday presents

His carousel birthday cake

Digging in, with a fork

Now he's really eating!

Ellie wants to try it with her hands too!

We went to a local hotel yesterday that has an indoor "waterpark." We had never been there before, but I had a coupon that I was saving for a special time. So, we packed up the kids after Rowan's morning nap and went to the "waterpark." After we bought the tickets, we walked into the pool area, and I saw that the children's area was closed. Which was ridiculous, because that was the entire reason we went! I couldn't believe that the girl at the front desk didn't even mention it to us, when she saw that we had two young kids. I walked back to the front desk, where the girl told me that the pool was drained that morning and might reopen later that day. So, we played in the big pool, which had a large slide that we could go down holding onto our kids. It was fun, but not worth the $26 we paid to swim there! So, we stayed for about an hour, and then I went to the front desk again and managed to get free passes for us to come again when the kiddie pool is open. Good thing, or I wouldn't have been a happy customer!

So, even after sharing cake with our neighbors, we have lots left. It's a really yummy (and extremely healthy, except for the frosting) carrot cake! Anyone who wants some, just fly right over!

Watch this!

Here he comes!

Tomorrow we leave for Arizona!

Yippee! Tomorrow we head to Arizona, to the sweltering heat. Ellie is very excited, and I'm sure Rowan would be if he knew :) We can't wait to see some of our family. I'll be sure to post pictures when we get back.

Here comes trouble!

Rowan has been crawling for quite a while now, and he is really speedy. But yikes, he is beginning the journey to walking! He walks quickly along the furniture, and now he's beginning to stand. I'm so glad he didn't follow in Ellie's footsteps (no pun intended) and walk before 10 months; I'd be happy if he waiting until he's over a year!

Our kids are crazy!

What does a 3-year-old buy?

So, Ellie received some birthday money this past week. Her first money was a $10 bill from Grandpa and Gigi. Ellie was so excited to have her own money! I asked her what she was going to buy with it, and here was our conversation:

Me: Wow Ellie, what are you going to buy?
Ellie: I think I'll buy some groceries.
Me: Well, you don't have to do that. Mommy and Daddy can buy our groceries. Maybe you could buy a toy? Some books?
Ellie: Actually, I want to buy some sugar for my birthday cake.
Me: It's okay Ellie, we already have sugar for that.
Ellie: Maybe I can buy some presents.
Me: That's a great idea! What kind of presents do you want?
Ellie: I can buy Christmas presents for Rowan!
Me: Aw Ellie, that's sweet

Finally I convinced her that she could spend the money on herself, so we went to the dollar store. After about an hour of browsing the aisles, putting things in the cart, and returning some things to the shelves, she finally had 10 items to buy (I paid the tax). Here is a list of what she purchased:

helium butterfly birthday balloon
bouquet of fake daisies
a snake book
a frog decoration for our garden plot
toy cars for Rowan
pad of paper
Mickey Mouse puzzle
bag of decorative rocks
chapstick
tinkerbell nightlight

Quite a collection! She was so proud to give the cashier the money herself. However, she will not be doing this with all of the money she received!

Whew, glad that's over...

It's amazing how many hours are spent planning and preparing for something that is over so quickly! Ellie's birthday party took a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. I think it went better than I could have expected, with 9 kids between the ages of 10 months and 5 years old. The theme was "Ellie's Garden Party." We played a couple of games - "stick the bee on the flower" (like pin the tail on the donkey) and "find the critters," a hunt throughout the play area for little frogs, snakes, and caterpillars that Jason hid. They LOVED finding all of those. I had another craft planned involving gluing pieces of tissue paper, but it was just too windy and the kids were having fun just playing, so we skipped it.

The food (my favorite part!) was awesome. We had water and lemonade to drink, and the lemonade was in a watering can instead of a pitcher. Our lunch consisted of fresh fruit and veggies, tortilla chips with guacamole and salsa, and sandwiches cut into flowers and butterflies. But the best part was the cake! I made a chocolate cake, with chocolate butter frosting, and decorated it to look like a garden. I used a garden trowel to serve it, which was really cute, but it didn't really work very well :) I also made a cupcake caterpillar because I was afraid of running out of cake.

Here are some pictures:

Ugh, I spoke too soon!

All the signs were here. Green grass, sunny skies, children playing outside. We even contemplated transplanting all our indoor plants to our garden plot. Good thing we didn't! Yesterday, it began to rain, which has not been unusual for the past couple of weeks. It became unusual when it began to snow! Lots of it too, not just little random flakes. Hopefully it was just the "last hurrah" of winter, because we don't need any more snow!

It's birthday season in our house! Jason just celebrated his a couple days ago, he is first out of our family in our 2-month birthday season. I made him an ice cream cake (like a jelly roll but chocolate cake w/ice cream rolled up inside), and our neighbor watched our kids so we could go see a movie. Tomorrow we're having a birthday party for Ellie. This will be her first "real" party, with little friends and everything. The theme is "Ellie's Garden Party" so I really, really hope it's not too cold to be outside! The forecasted high is 62 degrees, so hopefully it won't be too chilly. I can't wait to see how her cake turns out; I'll be sure to put pictures up on here!

Hmm, is spring finally here?

After snowing one last time a week ago, I do believe that spring has arrived in Madison. Yippee! Yesterday was a really warm day, with a high of 73(!) but it's mainly been in the 50s. We're starting to work in our garden plot, which is a lot of hard work, because it had dead plants all over it. In order to plant, we have to get out all of the roots, so that means lots of digging. In fact, my wrist has been hurting since I last went out there two days ago. Too much spading! We can finally plant some things though, so that will be exciting. Right now we have some plants indoors that we started from seeds. Jason has an acorn squash plant that is HUGE and needs to get into the ground. Here is a picture of our highchair garden :)



The kids are great; Rowan is cruising on everything, but I think we're still far from walking. He can walk using a push-toy, but he doesn't have the balance yet to stand on his own. Thank goodness! Ellie is having lots of fun now that it's warm enough to play outside with the neighbor kids. I've also started watching two girls (different from last semester) in our house about 20 hours a week, so the kids are having fun with that. And, our neighbor kids come over every once in a while too. We've been busier, but it's mostly been fun :) Here are some pictures of the kids. I need to work harder on getting a good one of Ellie!

Rowan "helping" with his diaper laundry


A good belly-laugh


Ellie's beautiful outfit


They love each other!