fyi

I just wanted to let you all know my phone is broken. It has been broken since Tuesday, so if you've called or left a message and I haven't gotten back to you...that's why. I have such bad luck with cell phones I've got to figure something else out. A house phone would be nice, but Justin doesn't want to do that. So for now e-mail is pretty much the only way to communicate with me. Or calling Justin's phone, I'm sure it would bring him great joy to get all my phone calls. :)

success

Black Friday shopping was a success for me. I was able to get almost everything I wanted. I stocked up for gifts to use throughout the year. I got a few shirts at Old Navy. A few kids movies to hold onto for gifts for the boys throughout the year. We left at 4:30 and got home around 12. I also ordered a few things online this morning. I am almost done Christmas shopping, one person left to buy for plus some things I need to finish making. And now I am stocked up on gifts for the boys for at least valentines day and Easter, plus some gifts for other people.

Judah is going to LOVE this!

Walmart had sleeping bag sets similar to these that I got for the boys Christmas gift. I am not usually into character items, but Judah loves the movie Cars so I have given in quite a bit to it. He will love this. Ours has a flashlight and nightlight so it is a little different from this one but I couldn't find a picture of ours online.

Happy Birthday Cohen

What a great year it's been.

it's a turkey

Happy Thanksgiving!

shopping time

Is anyone else excited about black friday? I have been looking forward to it for months! I've spotted some good deals, nothing big just little purchases.



I found these photos on this website. I really like them and they look like they were taken in Seattle.

We have been trying really hard not to fall into the consumerism trap, and black friday is all about consumerism. I've been working on finding a balance and I think I am doing a pretty good job. I like to find a good deal and usually only buy things on sale. I'm mostly finished with Christmas shopping so for me black friday will be stocking up on gifts for the rest of the year. I figure I could buy it for a good price or pay full price later in the year. :)

take a guess

I haven't been very good about updating on this pregnancy. I am almost 22 weeks along now, I'm finally done with morning sickness, the baby is a little kicker, and my baby bump finally looks like a baby bump not just fat!


These are from Cohen's party. I need to get Justin to take some real belly shots soon.

Our ultrasound is scheduled for December 16th so I added a poll to the sidebar. Cast your vote on what you think it is.

a party

Yesterday we had Cohen's first birthday party. It was a fun afternoon of food, cake, cool birthday crowns (thanks Shalisa it will be used for many years! we love it), and lots of friends and family.

g-deb

My moms birthday was this weekend. Happy birthday Grandma Deb! She even helped me clean my house on her birthday. Thanks mom! :)

a year ago

Judah still looked like a baby!

(It's weird to see Judah in these pj's because Cohen wears them now.)

We were patiently awaiting Cohen's arrival.

am i a big boy yet?

These days when Cohen has gone missing he is often found here:

He loves to copy big brother!

judah ikea

On our way home from Portland we stopped by Ikea. Gotta love tax free shopping. :) Judah is very into identifying letters right now and loved pointing out all the I-K-E-A's he saw while we were there. For some reason now every time we ask him to spell his name (we've been working on it, but he isn't quite there yet) he says Judah Ikea. Somehow we confused the kid! But you know I had to capture it on video!

He gets a little distracted when he sees himself on the screen!

portland

To end our vacation we headed away for one more night of fun. Part of the boys Christmas present was to go on the Polar Express train ride. We stayed at a hotel in Portland near the airport. The boys loved the view of airplanes taking off and the light rail system went right by our hotel so the "trains" were a hit too.

Justin and Judah had a quick swim before we loaded up for the drive to the train ride.



The boys wore their pj's and Judah got to bring his "sissy bear" along too. We were served hot chocolate and cookies, lucky Cohen got a whole cookie to himself! We heard Christmas carols, drove by the "north pole", and santa gave each kid a bell. Judah was pretty excited about santa, Cohen on the other hand screamed when santa tried to hold him.

rest

Wednesday night was my night to go away by myself. Justin had reserved a room for me at Alderbrook. I had a great time. The thing that amazed me most is how quiet it was. I didn't realize how noisy our house is!

I got a massage at the spa. Complete with changing into a bathrobe and sandals and relaxing in the relaxation room first! I think my dream house would have a relaxation room!

The window seat where I spent most of my time.

I took my own snacks, thank goodness! They had a snack basket in the room that was awfully tempting until I saw the prices!

ocean shores part 2

After swimming we got bundled up and headed down to the beach. Judah walked the whole way down there, he's getting to be such a big boy!



Judah had fun stomping in the water.

Trying to get a 2 year old and almost 1 year old to cooperate for photos doesn't always happen. I guess I have to make do with what I did get!





We had sleep issues that night so we were all tired the next morning. I had the whole fiasco typed out but I was afraid it would sound like I was complaining. We know our kids have sleep problems when we aren't at home, so it is the risk we take. We hit the pool as soon as it opened and then headed home. We still had the rest of our vacation to look forward too.

i could be rich

I decided that if I ever own a hotel (cause you all know the odds of that are high) I am going to offer child proofed rooms. Don't all of you parents of little ones out there agree that would be nice? The whole hotel doesn't have to be child proofed but 5 or 6 rooms out of a whole hotel would be simple. I'm thinking light socket covers, no nic-nacky (how in the world do you spell that???) junk out, no lamps on tables, a crib or pack and play in the room, a high chair, maybe a few children's books or toys in the room. It would be so simple to do and everything could fit into a closet in a room so regular guests wouldn't be bothered by it. If we were traveling somewhere and in looking at hotels saw that one offered child friendly rooms, I would definitely choose that one.

ocean shores part 1

We usually spend the night at the ocean at least once during the fall/winter season. We especially enjoy the winter rates and lack of people. We like to stay at the Canterbury because they have an indoor swimming pool plus offer 50% off on weeknights plus they have 1 or 2 bedrooms rooms available. We splurged for a one bedroom for the first time ever hoping it would help the boys sleep better, but I'll share more on the little bit of sleeping that went on later.

When Justin made the reservation they asked if we were celebrating any birthdays or anniversaries so he told them Cohen's first birthday was coming up. They put it out on their reader board, lucky birthday boy!


Monday was surprisingly nice there, it didn't rain at all. We had to take advantage of the nice weather so we sent the boys out in the big grassy lawn to play. I'm glad we thought ahead and got a first floor room, it made it so convenient to play outside and it was quick to walk to the pool too. Judah got tangeled up in the kite tail, had fun kicking the ball around, and did some bike riding. Cohen followed Judah around, ate some grass, and tackled his brother a few times.





After that we headed to the pool. The boys were both very excited to find that someone had left some balls in the pool. One of Cohen's new words is ball so it was fun to hear him exclaim "ball!" over and over again. On the car ride down there Judah kept talking about his race car jacket. We had no idea what he was talking about until we went to go swimming and he grabbed his life jacket. It's definitely a race car jacket! Silly dad and mom.

mater

Judah loves the movie Cars. For awhile we were watching it almost everyday, sometimes twice a day (bad mommy!). I have been trying to handle his night-time habit of needing the light on carefully because I really think he is afraid of the dark. I know this is a common age for that to develop and their little imaginations are going crazy. I don't love the dark, especially when I'm home alone, so I don't blame my 2 year old for not loving the dark. So while I don't want to encourage his fears, I also want to be sensitive to my little boy. All that to say, I had seen this Mater lamp at Walmart a few times and wondered if it would help out the night light situation. So the other evening Judah and I took a special trip to get a Mater light. He's now used it for a few nights and has avoided turning on the main light. He does have another light in his room that we leave on (basically a night light. long story summed up short, we used to have heated ceilings with individual room controls, Justin took out the controls and wired them up to lights so now each room in our house has a smaller light on a dimmer). I guess the light has done it's job.
Judah calls it his Mater flashlight. He really wanted to get Cohen one too, he was very persistant about it. But at this point Cohen is fine with the dark and whose to say he will even want a Mater night light, maybe he'll choose something else. But I love that Judah cares about Cohen so much, he has done a lot of things lately that has really shown his love for his brother. It's sweet. I almost wanted to buy Cohen the light just to encourage Judah's thoughtfulness.

rain rain go away

We need a nice clear day so this boy doesn't have to play in the rain everyday!

potatoes galore

I found a blog that I've been enjoying. Her once a month cooking post on potatoes inspired me. So when Safeway had 10 pound bags of potatoes on sale for $1.99 last weekend, I had to give her method a try. I baked 20 pounds of potatoes and ended up with 4 freezer bags of twice baked potatoes, 1 freezer bag of mashed potatoes, and one pie tin of twice baked potato "guts". Now they just have to be heated in the oven when I'm ready to use them. I had everything else I needed to make them except cheddar cheese, I think my total cost for this was pretty cheap. I will definitely do potatoes again and am looking into other bulk cooking ideas. In the past I've done some things like doubling a recipe and freezing one to use later, I need to start doing that again.

chores

Judah now has daily chores. His chores are: help empty the dishwasher (he puts his dishes away), set the table, put pj's in dirty clothes and throw his diaper away, clean up his bedroom, and he gets extra stickers for doing helpful things that aren't his regular chores. We haven't been super consistent in it yet but are taking it slow and easing into it, at this point I am working on getting him familiar with the things that are his jobs. I have been happy with how it is working so far and he seems to enjoy helping.

I want to start him on a weekly allowance also. I am hoping to tie this into his chores. Maybe a penny per completed chore or something like that. I don't want him to get a lot of money, but I would like to start teaching him about money. It's important to me that our kids have a grasp of money and the concept of working for money. I want them to understand how to save money and donate money and have spending money for fun stuff. I know he probably seems too young to a lot of you to be having chores and getting an allowance, but these are things that are important to us. We want our kids to be a helpful part of our household and I don't want spoiled kids and I think part of that is having kids that understand money and know that mom and dad don't have endless supplies of money but that we have to budget and save for things too. How better to do that than to start at age 2?

vacation

Justin is on vacation this next week. We have a bunch of fun stuff planned.

~A night away at the ocean. Gotta love the winter rates of 1/2 off rooms on weeknights. We're looking forward to playing in the indoor pool with the boys and playing on the beach if the weather is nice enough.

~Our Polar Express train ride and night in Portland. I really hope this lives up to my expectations, because they are set pretty high. The boys should love it.

~And Justin surprised me with another night away. A night at a local hotel with a package including a spa service and dinner at their restaurant. Sounds pretty good right? The best part is...I get to go all by myself! Don't judge me. I love my family, but boy could I use a break! I am going to take books to read and maybe movies. I'm going to get a massage and take 20 baths if I choose to. I'm going to sleep in as long as I went without having to worry about kiddos waking up in the morning or needing me in the middle of the night. I'm going to have someone cook and serve me dinner and I don't even have to worry about the dishes. It was quite the splurge for Justin to plan, and I feel bad that we're spending all that money (that we should be saving) on something just for me. But I've decided my sanity is important too. And that night will be worth every penny to me.


So look forward to some fun pictures over the next week from our adventures!

trick or treat (a little overdue)

This was the year that I decided it was more important for Judah to love his costume than for me to. I have always disliked the cheesy costumes like this, yet I knew he would love to be Thomas. He made lots of train noises while wearing it!

Cohen was going to be the hand me down frog, but we found a great deal on this dragon. He wasn't too sure about having the costume on. He doesn't like things on his head, so I don't think he could move past the fact that he had something on his head that he couldn't get off. He was a very serious boy whenever the costume went on. Maybe he was just getting into character though.

We went trick or treating at some of the downtown businesses, stopped by the grandparents, and went to the church's fall festival. It was a busy, but good evening.