Saw this video play on my screen saver and had to go find it. What a happy memory!
Anna – 3 1/2
Maggie – 1
Jackson – 1 1/2
Hudson – itsy bitsy
Remembering Happy Times
Filed under Everyday Stuff
Festivals and Big Boys
We went to a family festival today at the county fairgrounds. Found out about it on facebook. Amazing, huh? $10 per family minus a $2 coupon… then we bought pizza. Still, it was totally worth the $20 we spent today for a much needed holiday! Every “vendor” table had a candy or toy or activity for kids that was free. You could purchase tickets for a bouncy house or other games, but we had plenty of fun getting faces painted for free, building a lowe’s craft for free and then eating pizza while watching a silly man do a science demonstration for us with dry ice.
I thought at first that we’d have to leave early, because Jordan was immediately overwhelmed by the sights and sounds in the large, packed fair building. I tried the ergo (again) but this time pulled the hood up to cover his head and then bounced and bounced and bounced. He did calm down then and put up with us wandering around. There was really loud music playing over where we were eating and I was worried about him at first too. But we set him down on the floor… right on the edge of the big floor where a good 20+ children under the age of eight were dancing and stomping freestyle. And he was happy! A bit overwhelmed, perhaps, but not upset by it. He watched and crawled around. He didn’t eat a bite, which didn’t surprise us; his willingness to eat is pretty closely tied to his comfort level. All in all, it was a lot of fun. We forgot our cell phones and our camera…. sorry!
Here are the girls playing with some of their loot:

One person there gave us a card about public alerts. If you don’t have a home phone any more, if somebody wanted to contact people in your neighborhood about a public alert, they couldn’t. Well, unless you sign up your phone number to be associated with your address. Go to www.publicalerts.org. It works for the Portland, OR general area… not sure what you do if you live somewhere else.
Look at Jordan! He is standing up in the middle of the room… of his own initiative and at random times more often! He was really on a roll this evening, standing up three or four times in an hour. (I mean, he could just crawl around or balance on the couch, but he… well, he just decides to stand up sometimes!) It’s wonderful. His balance is really excellent. He can stand completely upright (not just bending over balancing) and he rarely “flops” onto his bottom when he’s tired. He knows to put his hands down first or to bend his knees to a partial crouch before sitting. We love to see our little boy learn.
(please forgive the funny bare legs here – we changed his diaper and didn’t put him all back together right away)


We went to our first midwife appointment on Friday! This is one of the few appointments Brian will take time off work to go to and it was a pleasant visit and nice trip. It’s good to reconnect with my friend/midwife who we only know during pregnancies! haha We got to meet her new apprentice and we both liked her. I do miss my old Kelly though. Kelly… if you read this… hello and I’m going to miss you each time! Anna even asked about you. ๐
Things here are going well. I’ve struggled with this morning sickness quite a bit, so you can pray for us. I was given some sweet quiet time alone this morning and it was so encouraging to spend time in prayer and the Bible, remembering that God loves me, God is good, and God is able! A friend suggested that the book of Joshua was about encouragement and so I read the entire book. It is! Joshua believed God without hesitation and: Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)
Here’s a short video of Jordan standing:
Filed under Everyday Stuff
Frugal Tips Friday – Saving Money on Groceries – part 4
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
February’s Shopping Trips
February’s Meals
February’s Meals Photojournal
September 2013 budget update
Here’s just a list of my regular use stack. Probably 75% or more of the meals we eat are off this list. That makes it easier for me to shop and stock up on ingredients that I know I’ll be using. Feel free to request recipes. I’ll type them up when I have time. When I need inspiration for a new meal, I ask friends or peruse Pioneer Woman awhile. I think I gain weight when I read the Pioneer Woman blog…
Anyway, this is the end of my little grocery series! I will continue on with photojournaling my meals this month. I’m remembering to take pictures of my meals so far too, so you can see what it looks like. All normal stuff in a normal house.
Without further waiting, here is my regular use stack for meals:
Dinners/leftovers for lunch
Turkey & Pasta with Peanut Sauce
Lasagna
Steak & Potatoes
Salmon & Rice Pilaf
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Tacos/Burritos
Pork Roast BBQ & Rice
Meatloaf & Fries
Stroganoff
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Spinach Parmesan Linguine
Chicken Enchiladas
Glorified Salad & Bread (lettuce, carrots, celery, cheese, nuts, fresh produce, etc.)
Chicken Javanese
Hamburgers
Beef Roast & Potatoes
Teriyaki Chicken Sandwiches
Chicken Rice Casserole
Fabulous Fajitas
Pizza
White Chili
Feta Chicken & Pasta
Chili
Shepherd’s Pie
Skyline Chili
Pork Chops and Rice
Baked Potato Soup
Chicken Alfredo
Meatball sandwiches
Pita Bread with hummus and Greek Salad
Sweet & Spicy Chicken Fingers
Amy’s Chicken Fingers
Breakfast meals
Yogurt with Granola and/or blueberries
Toast & Peanut butter & freezer jam
Oatmeal & Nuts & blueberries
Eggs
Other Staples
Sandwich supplies (bread, mayo, mustard)
Baking supplies (flour, salt, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, yeast)
Juice (100% juice so it counts as them eating some fruit)
Filed under Everyday Stuff
Second Shopping trip of February
Spent $16.80 on groceries
Bought:
$1.59 – 1 dozen eggs
$3.75 – 1 1/2 gallons milk (half gallons were on sale)
$11.46 – 10 loaves of bread (some $.99, some $1.25)
I froze all but one loaf of bread. I immediately made a cup of carnation instant breakfast with the milk. Go away morning sickness! (Actually, I am doing much better lately. Have my ups and downs during the day, but I’m moving again!)
Filed under Everyday Stuff
Picture Blog Time!
Click on the first photo and then click on that one to see the next. I did caption them to make the blog more interesting. ๐
- What it looks like when Mommy is morning sick and Anna is bored.... movie time!
- There are also lots of pajamas when mommy is morning sick...
- You'll often see Jordan up on his feet these days! Yesterday he stood up in the middle of the room from sitting.... just like that!
- Silly playtime with Papa!
- That Maggie is the wildest of the bunch. (The black thing on the floor is a pad)
- Anna, Maggie and Friend J watching for friends to show up to play.
- I was SO grateful for this stroller last week when I went to a doctor appointment. All three kids contained and comfortable!
- And then.... spontaneous beach trip! Here is Anna with Cubbie Bear. She is SOOOooo excited to have Cubbie bear staying with us for a whole week between Cubbie nights. (Google Cubbie AWANA)
- Jordan was happy and comfortable in the Moby until I sat down and he got bored. Maggie was adorable.
- See!? Adorable! Actually, she was quickly overwhelmed and was crying but didn't know why. Poor little thing!
- Poor Alex and Lindsay - hit by a wave after a few minutes there. (And Ana and the rest of us too, but they got it the worst.)
- The wind was only light... But look at the excitement and joy in every line of Anna's body!
- Success!!! (for a moment!) Maggie was very happy in the ergo!
- Jordan did really good. But the whole time he sat in the sand he just kept touching the sand and putting his hands in his mouth. Eating sand. Yuck.
- Anna and Trey are such great buddies. Isn't it funny how Anna's in a swimsuit and a warm hat? lol
- Now, that's a MAN! I am a lucky lady!
- Pretty girl.
- All the babies went back to the car a little early. They got cleaned up, dried off and snacked. And Lindsay and I enjoyed the peacefulness of hanging out at the vans. ๐
- Then we went to Mo's! Fantastic! And the kids didn't melt down... not one of them! Or spill a drink or pee their pants. It was good food and good company.
- Loaded up with salt water taffy to go home.... was a great trip til Maggie woke both Jordan and Anna up. Gah!
- Packed for church!
- Home last night.... my silly girls.
- And my boys... Jordan is fast asleep. He skipped his nap and made it through one bite of dinner. hahaha
- Really good buddies.
Playing wrestle with Papa:
Jordan hanging out. I’m posting this because hanging out for him is so different than it used to be. He used to roll his head around to see things out of the corners of his eyes and he rarely crawled anywhere, made eye contact, looked up when we said his name, etc. After just two months home, look at him now!:
Hanging out 2:
Hanging out after two WEEKS home, for comparison:
And this is just too funny not to share – falling asleep at dinnertime:
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