Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Who’s Who?

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Our boys when they were both less than an hour old.  Can you tell who is who?

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These are pictures of both Austin and Kaleb at 10 months of age. I have always thought that these two boys looked very different from each other.  When I put their pictures side by side, I was surprised at how similar they look.  It’s so fun to watch them grow!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

A Snowless Winter In Rexburg (well…almost)

It is January 26th and we are just barely breaking out our snow gear.  It has been a crazy winter!  Crazy but Awesome! It has been uncharacteristically warm for Rexburg this year.  Just last week we had a high of 55 degrees.  Last year at this time we had several feet of snow and the temperature rarely got out of the negatives.  The only one who has been complaining about the unseasonably warm weather is Austin.  He has been wanting to build a snowman for months.  We have had a few little snow storms but nothing that stuck.  Well, today was Austin’s big day.  When Vance got home from work he and Austin got all bundled up in their snow gear and went outside to shovel the driveway and build a snowman.

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Austin was CRAZY with excitement!

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We have a big driveway, so shoveling is quite a project.  You can tell by Vance’s crazy shovel patterns that he didn’t know where to start.

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Austin got this book called “The Biggest Snowman Ever”  He wants us to read it to him almost every night.  When it snowed he kept saying, “Let’s go make the BIGGEST SNOWMAN EVER!”  Vance is went out to help him and this is what they came up with.  Obviously his heart wasn’t in it.

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I was worried you wouldn’t be able to see the little thing in the picture, so I had Austin stand next to it to show how little it really is.

Vance was worried that Austin was going to be disappointed in their sad, pathetic little snowman, but he was hungry and tired from work and wanted to go into a warm house and eat dinner.  Can you blame him?  When they finished the snowman Austin exclaimed, “Yeah, it’s the BIGGEST SNOWMAN EVER!"  Whew! Crisis averted! Maybe someday we will show him what a real snowman looks like.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Kaleb at 10 months

Kaleb is now 10 months old.  He is such a joy!  We love his sweet spirit.  He is such a social baby.  He loves to play with his big brother and follow mom around the house.  He is never content to sit and play on his own.  He wants to be were the action is.  Speaking of action, you should see the kid eat!  One of his favorite places in the house is his highchair because that means he is getting fed.

Here are a few things that Kaleb can do now.

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He has 6 teeth.  3 on top and 3 on bottom.  All the better to eat an apple with.  Yes…he can eat a whole apple!

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Kaleb is not quite walking, but he likes to push around his little walker.  Do you see his little double chin in the picture on the right?  So cute!

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One of Kaleb’s favorite toys is the dishwasher.  Clean or dirty, he loves to pull out the silverware faster than I can load them.  He is such a good little helper.

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His second favorite toy is the pots and pans cupboard.  He loves to bang those things around.  At least it keeps him occupied while I cook dinner.  I guess I can’t complain.

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Kaleb and I have this little game we play with each other.  I put the dish towels on the oven handle…and he takes them off.  It is so funny to watch him crawl over to the oven after I hung the towels and throw them on the floor, as if to say, “how did those things get back on there?”

It is so fun to watch our little guy grow and develop a little more each month.  Every day is an adventure!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Coupons Rock!

Words cannot describe how much I love couponing.  I started couponing a couple of years ago with my friend Katie in American Fork.  We went to a couponing class to learn how to do it right, and after that, we were sold.  We started getting multiple Sunday papers, and clipping coupons till we couldn’t clip any more.  I was amazed that I could get toothpaste, body wash, deodorant, and several other everyday essentials for FREE!!! 

When we moved back to Rexburg I didn’t continue my couponing endeavors because the strategy is a little different in Idaho.  Different stores, different papers and I hadn’t found a great Idaho based website to keep me up to date on all the deals going on.  My good friend Kathryn is living here in Rexburg too and she is an avid couponer.  She informed me of a good website and got me hooked up with the Sunday paper, and I have been addicted ever since.  I love couponing.  It’s really become more of a hobby for me.  I love to challenge myself to see how low I can get my grocery bill.  Few things can get me as excited as walking out of a store with a bunch of free stuff.  The other big perk is now I have somewhere to put all my bargains.  Our new house has an amazing food storage room.  It’s been fun to watch it slowing become stalked. 

Here is a little example of a weekly trip to Albertson’s.

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5 Wish Bone Salad Dressings- FREE

25 Softsoap hand soap- FREE

45 Zone Perfect Protein Bars- FREE

2 Pace Salsa- $1 each

3 Rosita Refried Beans- $.66 each

2 Eggland’s Best dozen eggs- $1.50 each

Grand Total= $6.98 plus tax

LOVE IT!!!

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This is my awesome food storage room.  It is getting stocked slowly but surely.