Our Christmas Tree

I assembled the tree the day after Thanksgiving. Got it lit & decorated the next day. Then Dad added the star the next day after that!

Black Friday

OK, here's the deal - the outlet mall opened at 11pm Thanksgiving night!

Carter's had already sent me an email about their sale starting at midnight - 50% or more off every item in the store. Shoppers arriving between midnight-10AM got a coupon for another 10% off your entire purchase... while the coupon supply lasted. And on top of that, I found a coupon from the Star-Telegram for a $10 gift card to any store in the outlet mall, while supplies lasted. So...

MawMaw, Aunt Jana & I headed to the outlet mall at about 11pm while Dad stayed home with the sleeping kids. I found a green jacket marked 70% off and a thick green vest for 50% off. (then add another 10% off!) Put them together and we have a versatile coat for a little boy who loves green!

The jacket & vest, two little shirts for Elizabeth, a dirt cheap skirt for next summer, a pack of truck underwear, and an adorable pair of tights = about $20 after all discounts.

My first midnight sale & keeping MawMaw out way past her bedtime = priceless.

So then I came home & napped... because now I didn't need to be at WM at 5am fighting the crowds to get a cheap WM brand coat that may or may not have lasted. But because I love my husband, and we saw that Target had the game he wanted for half the usual price, I got up again at 4:45 and headed to the Wax store.

I arrived in the parking lot at 5:30. They opened at 6am. The line waiting to get into the store was down to the garden center doors at the Lowe's next door. So, I parked over there & got in line. Everyone seemed to be chipper. As people started pouring in behind me, I heard them talking about how awful their experiences were at WM earlier.

Then a guy came down the line giving everyone in line a coupon for a free chicken biscuit from Chick-fil-a. Don't you just love them!??!? Then some Lowe's employees came out into the garden center getting ready for their opening at 6am. One of them hollered out, "You know, some of y'all could come over to our store!" The other hollered, "Hey, one of you guys pull me out a TV & save it for me, OK?"

5:55am - The frigid air becomes filled with drizzle. A crowd starts to form close to the doors of the store. People who've been waiting in line start to get agitated. The lone security guard is loosing.

6am - The doors open. The line starts filing inside and a pack of about 30 people who were not in line bolt toward the door. People are more agitated & start hollering things I won't repeat. People from the back of the line started sprinting, passing people who've been waiting longer. I got in as quickly as I could. No, I did not run. I went straight to electronics.

The game was all gone. The game system was all gone. I left empty handed.

My sleep-deprived, pregnant self was about to start crying when I remembered the free chicken biscuit. I was starting to feel better with some chicken & Diet Coke in my system. Then Silent Night came on the radio, I sang along & enjoyed the rest of my morning - I sang Christmas carols with the radio all the way home, I thought about how blessed we are and how I know I am more blessed than the people who ran & pushed & shoved & grabbed up what my husband wanted. I enjoyed the beauty of a deserted county road with fall colors and falling leaves, and the fact that I was going home to my own house. I moved all the boxes that were still stacked where the Christmas tree will go.

A couple of hours later, when everyone else got up, Dad & I decided to try another Target for his game. They were also out, but I was able to get a rain check, so even when the game goes back up to full price, I can still get it for half-off. The checker at that store mentioned that another store that was just 4 miles up the road was rumored to still have the game system. So we went on.

I'm happy to report that after Dad had saved for the game system for 2 years now, I got the last one they had at the 3rd Target of the morning! And that it came with a free $60 Target card... which I can now use when I go back with my rain check... making Dad's game absolutely free, with gift card to spare!

So overall, Black Friday was a success for me! And guess what - the system came with Pac-Man! And 2 kid games that I've already listed on eBay!

Tease...

This is just a teaser... but Black Friday started already around here! : ) I've already come back home! And yes, the time stamp is correct!!! Stay tuned for more details...

Advent Calendars

I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but bear with me for just a moment...

I've been wishing for a kid-friendly advent calendar for a few years now, but have never found one that I just fell in love with. Growing up, we made a countdown chain out of construction paper every year. Here's the chain we made last year, but with preschoolers, it usually end's up being Mom's chain. Making it & tearing off just one loop every day didn't seem to hold their attention.

This year, all these great homemade ideas have just fallen into my lap... so I may start thinking about making one! Not sure when I'll do that with boxes to unpack, Christmas presents & curtains still needing to be made, decorating & baking to be done! Here's a few links for those of you that may be wondering what you're going to do for yours:

• Kids Craft Weekly has ideas for advent calendars you can make with little ones.
• The Crafty Crow shows a sample & links to 17 beautiful calendars, most obviously mom-made, but kid-friendly.
• Martha Stewart, of course, has some ideas, too.
• My sister made a cute one last year using matchboxes & family photos. I keep thinking maybe she'll post a tutorial... hint, hint... Hers was published in Somerset's Holidays & Celebrations magazine this year! Here's a picture of it with my niece pointing to Elizabeth & me on one of the matchboxes!
  

So what does your family do for advent / countdown to Christmas?

Tiny Talk Tuesday: Thanksgiving Edition

OK, so the only 'Thanksgiving-y' song I could actually remember when we were in the car was to sing "If you're thankful and you know it, clap your hands!" It's now one of Elizabeth's favorite songs. As she requests songs:
"ABC!!" and we sing the ABC song
"Clap Clap!!!" and we sing If You're Happy/Thankful

I told Aunt Sissy last night that Elizabeth is amazing - I have another genius on my hands! ; ) She knows her colors pretty good, she can count to 10, she can recognize many of her ABC's and gets about half of the song in the correct order!

In between verses of If You're Thankful and You Know It I always ask, "What are we thankful for today, David?" Here are some of the answers I've gotten in the last 2 weeks:

songs,
monster trucks,
animals,
good food to eat,
our family,
Mom & Dad,
guns,
cars,
sticks,
the moon,
our cats,
my game,
our church,
my backpack,
our new house,
paints

For more Tiny Talk, visit Not Before 7!

I'm Finally Doing My Job!

I feel like, after almost 2 years, I'm finally doing my job again - Domestic Engineer. And it took me all week to write this post because I've been so busy!

Unpacking & getting settled in is still an ongoing task (NO, we're not settled in yet!), but now that we're in the house, all the tasks of running the house are also in full swing.

This week, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a meal at Uncle Bubba's house. And I finally tried my hand at Minestrone. I found this great minestrone recipe, but used chick peas for the white beans and Wacky Mac Veggie Shapes for the macaroni. See mine here. Next time, I'll try a different bean, or less beans. We also had to add more salt. We had our first supper guests for this recipe & it was well received by all! Even though I couldn't find the spoons....

I also tried a new muffin recipe for breakfast: Healthy Harvest Muffins. We just call them pumpkin muffins. David helped me with this recipe & we changed it up just a bit from the link by using all purpose flour, the individual spices, and 2T wheat germ instead of all the flax stuff she used. While I was adding the wheat germ, David asked, "What's that?" I told him it was healthy stuff. Then while stirring, he said, "And I'm stirring in all the healthy stuff." All 4 of us loved the muffins - another keeper!

Thanks to this stinky hard water, I discovered that vinegar in the dishwasher works even better than Cascade's rinse agent! Next, I'm going back to using vinegar instead of liquid fabric softener in the wash before my whites turn permanently dingy! And I finally found the silverware! I was so excited to see it, that I took a picture of the silverware in the dishwasher!

No more sharing one spoon for us!

We finally got our verses written out for Aunt Sissy's Christmas project, whatever it may be, and will try to get them mailed soon. And we assembled the Happy Thanksgiving Banner that she sent us:

Gluing the letters to the tickets.

A couple of days later, I found my hole punch,
and David threaded the tickets onto the ribbon.

This was fun and good for his fine motor skills!
Plus it looks cute hanging up.

I finally dug out the dining table! That was my goal for Saturday. By Saturday night, it was all clean, we put all the leafs in to create the super honking table, and decorated it for Thanksgiving. David & Elizabeth were both excited about sitting at the big table. Who knew? David kept asking, "Is it Thanksgiving???"

Sunday (today) we celebrated our Thanksgiving meal with Grandpappy's side of the family. Dad was on duty, but David & Elizabeth fit in better than ever before. When we got home, David said he wanted rolls for supper. Um... we don't have any rolls, sweetie. "We can make some," David tells me. Perhaps I've made too much stuff this week!!! So I dug around & found a recipe for Easy Yeast Rolls. Indeed they were easy, and tasty, too! I had no idea how big to make the balls, so some of them ended up pretty tiny, but perfect for little hands.

Wow, I just realized that I also made chili, chocolate chip cookies (again), and bread this week! And that my son now thinks I can make anything. : )

Tune in Tuesday for Tiny Talk! I won't miss it this week! I've already got it set to post! : ) It will be all about Thanksgiving!

Sonogram Says...

There's really no need to show the other view of Baby #3 - there's nothing there to see. Dr.B couldn't find anything either. Conclusion: It's a girl!

We saw her heart fluttering. She waved. She kicked just a little bit. She's got a brain, 2 arms & 2 legs. I was pleased that he let us see her so thoroughly and explained everything we were seeing as he went along. Based on the measurements he took, the computer came up with a due date of April 6, 2009. Since the original date was April 12, he said they'd leave it at the 12th, give or take.

Now to start thinking of girl names...

Beautiful Play Silk Giveaway!

The fun blog, Kiddio, is hosting a Fairy Silkies Giveaway this week! Based on my experience making them, I know David & Elizabeth both would enjoy playing with those beauties! These are made by an Etsy seller, Beneath the Rowan Tree.

Besides the beautiful play silks, they also have these amazing wool nativity sets. Absolutely gorgeous. I collect nativity scenes if anyone wants to buy this one for me! : )

Can you believe how beautiful that is??? They also sell wool dryer balls and instructions for making your own wool dryer balls!

Our Babywearing Journey

I've been reading posts about International Babywearing Week all week and realized yesterday, when I used these photos in my letter to Motrin, that I hadn't put my baby wearing photos into the mix this week!

This is Elizabeth in her homemade pouch sling that I got from a fabulous Etsy mom, Drew Baby Designs. Click over to her Etsy shop where's she's got an amazing BOGO sale going on! And her prices were great to begin with! We loved using this sling - it was very portable, beautiful and very well made. Elizabeth attended her first Women of Faith conference in this beauty and we got tons of compliments on both baby and sling!

When I wanted to try out a Mei Tai, I had no idea where to get one. Since I was going all ladybug crazy on Elizabeth's nursery theme, I kept it going and found a pattern, and made this gem. The Mei Tai was very comfortable to wear, but I found the long straps to be a bit cumbersome for running errands with a lot of taking her on & off. I think it would have been great for longer outings, though. We enjoyed using it around the house and even though it was cut small for a newborn, it was strong enough to carry David! Unfortunately, Elizabeth never liked the back carry, so we were unsuccessful using it that way.

The carrier I used most for out & about was the older model Baby Bjorn carrier that I got for a steal on eBay. Since Elizabeth was born in January, I was able to put the straps on at home and put my coat or sweater on over it. Then when I got to the store, I just snapped the pouch on, slid her in, zipped my coat & got out of the car. We always did tummy to tummy, so the leg strain from the out facing position was never an issue.

In the above picture, Elizabeth was in her Baby Bjorn under my coat while I'm carrying David at Christmas lights in the park last year. Now that was a load!

When David was a baby, all I had was a drab gray ring sling that I'd found at Toys R Us. I never really figured out how to use it, and I never thought to take a picture of it. We also had a Snuggli that he didn't like & we soon quit trying. I do have a picture of that, but that was before I had a digital camera & the picture is safely in a scrapbook now. I think with Baby #3 I'd like to try a ring sling again. I know so much more about babywearing now that I think we could make it work.

I know I'm getting in just under the wire here, but I'm going to link up this post to Adventures In Babywearing's International Babywearing Week Contest. This gives me the chance to win an amazing ring sling to try out that would otherwise be out of my price range! Check out Nonny & Boo to see how gorgeous these Mama made slings are!

Motrin's Slam on Babywearing

What the heck were you thinking, Motrin? Obviously you knew nothing about babywearing when you set out to bad mouth babywearing and Moms who choose to do so.

If you experience pain from wearing baby then either the carrier is not adjusted correctly or it's not the correct style of carrier for your body type. There's nothing new or suddenly fashionable about wearing baby (although you can get or make some really cute ones), I mean look at old National Geographic photographs of women in underdeveloped countries with their babies tightly wrapped to their bodies as they go about their work. It's just that Americans are finally realizing how convenient, time-saving, and beneficial for mom & baby it is.

Babywearing was a lifesaver to me when I needed to go grocery shopping with a toddler and a newborn. I was able to belt David into the basket seat while wearing Elizabeth and still have the basket free for the groceries and my hands free to do the shopping & push the basket! I'm sure it will be even more convenient when #3 arrives and I've got 2 kids to keep up with.

So I don't know why Motrin decided to attack babywearing and Moms in general. It's disappointing, but it also shows how little research went into this ad campaign.

Unless they remove the ad, you can view it on their main page or you can view a transcript here. If you'd like to contact Motrin yourself, fill out the form here. We don't use Motrin. And we never will.

My babywearing photos: (top) Elizabeth in her pouch sling that was made by an Etsy Mom. This is how she went to her first Women of Faith Conference. (middle) Elizabeth in her Mei Tai made by me. (bottom) Elizabeth in her Baby Bjorn under my coat while I'm carrying David at Christmas lights in the park last year. Now that was a load! And do I look like I need to medicate myself in any of those photos?

Update: When I clicked on Motrin's site tonight, it was completely down. If you really want to see the ad, it's made it to YouTube and can be seen here.

Yes, I have fallen off the face of the earth...

and I rather like it. I'd like to show you some photos of the new house, but most of it is still covered in boxes, Alan's computer has no photo-working software, and I can't get Grandpa's computer to work. My computer is not set up yet. My first priority when it does get set up - find some new photo software!

In the mean time I can load huge, uncropped photos on my flickr account - so click over there to check out what's been going on in my life. Here's a sample of what you'll see in the neatest corner of my house!


I went on my first "power shopping" trip last night at Kroger. But first, we took a quick ride through Wal-Mart to see if these advertised prices really were that much better... and they were. Armed with the store sale circular, customer reward card, Internet printable coupons and e-coupons, I saved a total of $28.54 off my grocery bill. If I hadn't been a child-toting newbie, I could have saved even more. Tiredness and inexperience go the best of me, though. What I learned for next time:

1. Study the circular even more before arriving at the store.
2. Try to go to the store early in the sale period for the best selection.
3. Make sure to hand over the store reward card to be scanned first! (I think that's why my e-coupons were not deducted.)
4. Go early in the day when Dad is off duty so he can keep the kids!

Now you can go look at my pictures.

Thanksgiving Songs - Know Any?

In the car this evening we were trying to stay awake by singing songs. With the Thanksgiving season now upon us, we sang the Elmo song with the word "Thanks" and then everyone hollered out something they were thankful for.

Mom: I'm thankful for David & Elizabeth! What are you thankful for?
David: Songs!
Elizabeth: Moon!
David: Monster Trucks! Animals!
Elizabeth: Moon!
Mom: Sonic!
David: Good food to eat!
Elizabeth: Moon!

Yes, she could see the moon on her side of the car. So then we called Aunt Sissy, thinking that surely the author of Give Thanks! Thanksgiving Readings for the Family, would know of some good Thanksgiving songs that I could sing with the kiddos. Wrong! ; ) Jordann suggested Turkey in the Straw.

Now I'm in search of Thanksgiving songs that are suitable to sing with toddlers & preschoolers. Know any?

I'm thinking that I'll gather them into an e-book & hope to have it available by Thanksgiving!

I've Been Nodded!

Wow, I've never won anything that gave me a badge to post before! But look here, I made Graco's Monthly Nod for October! How exciting!!! And for being chosen, Graco is sending me something! Don't know what, but I can't wait to get it! : )

It's amazing. I used to never win anything. Now that I blog I've won quite a few things - a Victoria's Secret Gift Card, Bath & Body Works set, & candles; a Camelbak Water Bottle; a memory card for my camera from 5 Minutes for Mom; a vacation from Home Depot (except we haven't actually received it yet) and now this!

Happy Halloween!

October was a busy month! I missed blogging several event because I was so busy, so I've put together a slide show. In addition to working on the house constantly, we also managed to visit a pumpkin patch, visit Aunt Erin in the hospital when Baby Mason was born, celebrate many birthdays, move our stuff into our house, attend a Fall Fest, and go Trick-or-Treating (to one house!).

I got a couple of videos so David's aunts could see his robot walk & robot voice: