What does a snake say?

Jordan learned this new trick today. He doesn't do it everytime I ask what a snake says, but he does pretty good. We'll just have to wait and see if he still remembers how to do it tomorrow.

Hair Cuts Again

Jackson's and Doug's hair was getting long so it was time for me to cut it again... Here's the before and after shots.

I just thought this was a cute picture. It's not really a before or after, although it was before the hair cut so technically it could be called a before shot. But it's not the official one.

Jackson's before. Notice the scared look. He really does fine once I start cutting. It just kind of scares him when he thinks about me doing it.

Doug's before... He's trying to make a scared look too.

Thumbs up to cool hair and glasses. (he can finally do thumbs up. He used to use his pointer fingers to do it.)

Doug's after with Jordan. Jordan's hair isn't quite long enough to need to get it cut yet...

Giggles

Being like Daddy

Doug gave us all father's/husband blessing a few weeks ago to start off the new year. I didn't really think it had too much of an effect of Jack and that he maybe didn't even remember it since it was kind of awhile ago. But today after church Jackson came over to Jordan and put his hands on his head and said Jordan Clay Dance. We didn't realize what he was doing until he came to me and said Stephanie Dance while trying to reach my head. It was so funny. I guess Doug's blessing did have an impression on him.

Today after nursery Jackson was really excited to see me when I picked him up. He ran to me waving his picture he colored and showed it to me immediately. He showed me his name and I asked him if he wrote it and he said 'Sister.... (pause) Sister Maddie's mommy helped me." It was cute. He didn't know her name but he knew it was Sister something. He cracks us up.

Sorry there haven't been pictures of my adorable children lately. I can't find my camera battery charger and it's almost out of battery so I can't upload any pictures. But once I find it... if ever... I will post pictures so you can all know what they look like these days. :)

More Cute things Jack says

Sorry if you get bored reading about all the cute things my kids say... But I want to remember these things when I'm old and have no more little kids to say such and do such cute things...

This morning Jack climbed into is chair for breakfast. He has a plastic place mat (or map as he says it :)) that is two sided. He always likes to have a certain side up and so this morning he noticed it wasn't the he likes it. He took off his plate and cup and turned his mat the other way while saying that I put his mat the wrong way and that I need to listen to him.

I also remember how he often uses the phrase 'next time'. Example:
Jack tells daddy, 'I went to lunch with grandma today.'
Doug says "did you tell grandma thank you?"
Jack "Next time I will. Next time I see her.
They have conversations similar to this pretty often.

Couponing

My sister in law asked if I'd do a blog on how I coupon. Since I love couponing and I also love trying to explain how great couponing really is I will do it. Hopefully I can explain in it a way that doesn't make it sound too complicated or time consuming. It does take time though. I'll try using bullet points to help this to not be too confusing. I've never really been the best at explaining things in easy to understand ways. But I'll do my best...

• First getting coupons. I signed up for the Sunday paper through couponmom.com which gave me a pretty good discount. I also get the coupons from my mom's Sunday coupon inserts unless she gives them away to someone else first... I also try to collect coupons from the coupon dispensers that are in the grocery stores. Coupons can also printed from various websites. coupons.com, my points.com, bettycrocker.com are a few of them. There are also three websites that allow you to download coupons onto store club cards. They don't work for all stores. You'd have to check our the websites to find out if they have stores that will work in your area. The websites are: cellfire.com (this one asks for cell phone number and says it will text you, but you can use you home phone number if you're like me and don't want to give out you cell phone or don't have unlimited texting. I don't think they text you unless you ask them to.) pgesaver.com, and shortcuts.com. You can also get coupons by signing up for different websites and for free samples. I've gotten a lot of gerber and pampers and huggies coupons this way.
• Once you start getting coupons then you can look at all the sale fliers for the grocery stores around you and figure out what sale items you can match a coupon with and you can get a really great deal. It's good to know how much you usually pay for things so that you know when you're getting a good deal. When items are really cheap it's good to stock up. That way you're less likely to run out of an item before you need it. Manufactured coupons can be combined with a store coupon in most places (maybe all... I've never had a place not do it). Some stores don't except internet coupons, but I think most do. Rite Aid usually doesn't. Some stores double coupons. This means that if a coupon is worth $1.00 after being doubled it will be worth $2.00. In my area coupon doubling doesn't happen very often. Only once actually. But some stores do it all the time I think. California seems to be popular for this. There's a blog that has links to other blogs that will match coupons and sales for different stores. I used this a lot when I was starting to help me find the best deals. Now I still usually read some of the blogs, but not as closely as I did before. The site is http://www.becentsable.net/2008/08/becentsables-original-grocery-gathering.html
• Before couponing I never really shopped at drug stores. But I have since learned they have some really good deals on things. I've gotten free shampoo and foil and after a rebate wipes. Drug stores usually have rebates that they offer for certain things (at least Rite Aid and Walgreens do. I don't know about the rest.) These can help get really good deals. For example, I bought two packages of huggies diapers and 2 things of baby soap and will get $14.00 back in rebates and that will bring the cost for them to less than $5.00. You can get the rebate booklets in the stores. Walgreens also has coupons in their rebate booklet.
• Organization is very important. I use a picture album to keep my coupons in. That I can sort them by categories and see them easily. I also have envelopes for each of the stores I go to and I put the coupons I plan to use for my shopping into in the envelopes. That makes sure the coupons for different stores don't get lost. I also make a list for everything I'm buying.
  
• A question I often get about couponing is about name brand products. People say they don't buy those because they're more expensive but that's what the coupons are for. It's true that the coupons are for name brand stuff. But name brand stuff is also the stuff that goes on sale a lot. I'm not very brand picky. I like my waffles to be eggo, but other than that I generally don't care too much. I buy my waffles at Sam's Club since they will always be cheaper there. We used to buy Malt O meal cereal because it was cheaper than the box kind. But now that I coupon I don't really pay more than $1.50 for a box and that's way cheaper than the malt o meal. So really couponing is better for those that aren't brand picky because you can get whatever is the cheapest and still be happy.

That's all I can think of for now.... If you have any questions let me know. I'm always happy to discuss couponing... Since couponing I think we have more food in our house then we did before and I spend less per month on groceries than I did before. So if you try it out. Good luck and have fun!

The Extreme

We've been doing a lot lately to try to save money. It's one of my most recent hobbies. I love shopping the grocery store sales even if it means going to 3 or 4 different stores a week. I love couponing and trying to get things for really really good prices and even sometimes for free. I try to convince anyone I talk to about grocery shopping or saving money that couponing is a great thing and worth the time. At least to me it is. I just really enjoy it. We're being better about saving up for big things, like freezers, instead of just saying we have money in savings so let's buy it. We cancelled out dish network tv and now have an antenna so we can get free tv. We rarely eat out. and pretty much never with us and the kids. We try to find cheap and free things to do for entertainment like getting free movies from the Internet or Redbox. But last week I did something I didn't think I would do. I lowered our heat temperature. Some of you may be very suprised by this. I really enjoy being in a warm house. I like to be able to wear t-shirts in the winter. But one day I realized that maybe we really could save money by turning it down. Maybe I wouldn't freeze if I just did one little degree. and you know what? I've done just fine. In fact right now I don't even have a sweatshirt on and it's not too cold. Maybe I should even go lower. I even lowered it 3 degrees for the time when the kids go to bed and we go to bed. And I lowered it 2 2 or 3 degrees during sleeping time. So I guess what they say is true one degree isn't that big of a deal. Especially when you're going from 70 to 69 :)

Cute sayings out of the mouth of Jack

Today we went shopping with my mom and sister for my sister's birthday and while we were there, my mom asked where we were going to go to lunch. Ashlee said Applebees or Red Robin. As soon as she said that Jack said "Red Robin! I'm going to have mac and cheese!" Then the rest of the time in the mall he kept saying he wanted to go to Red Robin. In the last few stores every time we'd enter a new store he would say "I want to go to Red Robin." Then at Red Robin he ate all his mac and cheese and some of my chicken fingers. When we were leaving he was walking with Ashlee and they were carrying his new balloon and he said "I'm going in my car with my balloon and my mom. My dad's at work. He works at Amazon." I didn't even know he really knew where Doug worked.

Yesterday we were at my parents' house and we put the boys to bed there so we could stay and play games. After we were done we went to get the boys to take them home and I walked into my parents' room and Jack was sitting on the cedar chest at the end of their bed (where he was supposed to be sleeping) and said "I'm ready to go home." It was about 10:15. He's been awake all that time. I wonder what he was doing... My mom said he pushed everything off the cedar chest onto the floor. When I put him to bed I told him he had to be super quiet and go to sleep because Jordan was going to be sleeping in there too. He said "no jumping?" So maybe he jumps when he's in big boy beds...

On Saturday Doug and I dropped the boys off at my sister's friends house (who is also Doug's cousin) because my sister was there and she was going to watch them. All day I was preparing Jackson for us leaving him at a house he's never been to with people he doesn't know very well. He was pretty excited at the prosepect of going. He remembers the little boy that lives there. Even the whole car ride there he was happy and excited. But when I went to get him out of the car he looked at the big house in front of us and said "Mom, I'm scared." But I comforted him and he did great. Ashlee said that when they left he said he wanted to go back next time.

Jack says next time a lot. In the car today he was asking why he couldn't see the stars. I was trying to explain that you can only see the stars at night. He kept saying "what?" (which he says all the time after he asks a question. he'll just keep saying what if you keep saying the same answer...) I kept trying to change explain it in an easier way for him to understand. Then he said "next time I'll see them?" and I said sure. He also says next time when he does something he's not supposed to as in "next time I won't do (insert bad choice here :))"

He likes to play so big with Jordan. When he sees Jordan start playing and I don't see it he says "Jordan's doing so big!" or he'll just say "so big." He also likes to put him arm above his head and likes me to say "Jackson and Jordan are so big."

He calls Albertson's Robinsons. and he loves going there so he can drive.

He loves going to our Farmer Market. Whenever we go he tells me he wants to ride on the horses (little merry go round) and the helicopter. Then he tells me he'll be happy. That's our rule. If he's happy he can play on those when we're done shopping. It works every time :)

He says fisk it for fix it.

I taught Jackson to go potty sitting down. I thought it would be easier and less messy that way. and I still think so. But the other day he said he didn't want to sit down. So he tried to stand to go, but instead of just standing in front of the toilet on his stool, he tried to squat over the toilet. It was pretty funny. I tried to have him just stand in front of it, but then just opted for sitting like normal.

When he talks to Jordan he uses a high pitched voice. Maybe most kids do. But I still think it's pretty cute.

When he wants to listen to a certain song in the car he says in his high pitched nice boy voice "Book of Mormon, please." He usually doesn't say it like that except for Book of Mormon Stories.

He calls the song with the names of books in the the Book of Mormon "Jacob" because he has a friend named Jacob. He calls the Latter-day prophet song "Joseph Smith." He calls I am like a Star "star shining" and usually thinks it's twinkle twinkle when it starts. I love hearing all the song titles he makes up.

He can spell his name. He doesn't have much interest in writing it even though I try very hard to teach him... Maybe I should have done early childhood education in college. Then maybe I would be better at teaching him in a way that would make him think he could do it... or maybe he's still a little young. He loves typing his name on the computer though.

10 months old!

Doug snuck into Jordan's room so that I could have a picture of Jordan on his official 10 month birthday. So here he is sleeping.

My little baby is now 10 months old! In 2 months he'll be one. Crazy! To celebrate his big day we went to his first baby story time at the library. He loved the bouncy songs/rhymes that we did. At first he just kind of watched all the other babies with a serious face but after he while he started to enjoy all the bouncing. He also loved the toys at the end too. Jack stayed by me most of the time during the toys but Jordan just went after the toys and didn't pay any attention to me. They're very different boys. Then we went to three stores, came home, had lunch, and he took a nice long nap. It was a good day for us. Then he got to play with daddy all night long while I was at enrichment. Jordan is so much fun. He loves to play with us. He's getting better at crawling down the stairs. He's done it by himself several times, but it's pretty scary for me to let him do it if I'm not there. He goes down really weird and looks like he's going to fall half the time. But he hasn't fallen yet. He's very good at catching himself. He likes to say lalalalala. He seems to be getting a little bored with baby food. I bought him some baby snacks called crunchies, thinking they were going to be a good healthy snack for him since they were zesty tomato, but instead they were like doritos, according to Doug (but much more healthy I'm sure, and I really don't think that there was cheese on them.) And since those everything else doesn't seem as good. He seems to want our food. He looks at it and grunts. He's a cute boy.

Jordan and his crunchies. Can't you see how much he loves them? Although I do think he was even more excited because I let him have the crunchy container.

Jackson has been playing in the deep cupboard we have in our kitchen. The doorway is really small, but big enough for the boys to get through. Jack calls it the hiding place. Jordan loves to do what Jack does so of course he loves the hiding place too. Whenever the door is left open he loves to play in it.

Jack climbed in with Jordan. I didn't think it would fit both boys... I guess I need to get some more food to store under there.

Leaky Roof

Last week our roof started leaking. But it wasn't leaking in the top floor like you would think. Doug found water in our kitchen. So he put a bowl to catch the water then the next day asked my dad what to do to fix it. My dad said to poke a hole in the ceiling to let the standing water drip. Doug was at work when he got this advice so he asked me to do it. I was a little nervous that I might break the ceiling and the upstairs would cave in on me but I did it anyway. So much water came through the hole throughout the day. My parents came over that night and my dad and Doug fixed the hole. It was raining pretty hard outside so they were getting soaked out there. But now there is no hole or leak! Thanks Dad for helping!

The hole after I poked it to make it bigger.

Here's the bowl with water from about halfway through the day.

Doug looking at the fixed ceiling that still needs to be painted.

I guess we did get it...

Remember a few post ago when I said we went to my sister's house for New Year's Eve and they were all sick and we seemed to be fine except that the boys had a little cough, but nothing too bad? I was very wrong. The boys have been sick this week, although they seem to be getting better I think. Jack's doing better than Jordan though. Either that or Jordan just doesn't like baby food anymore. He hasn't been eating much lately. He didn't want dinner last night, or breakfast this morning, or much of lunch. He didn't even want much bread after he had a little baby food and he loves bread. It usually makes him happy. But not today. The poor kids cough so much. On Monday Jack would just be watching tv and start crying because he didn't feel good. I assume his throat hurt. But he's been better today. He's eaten more and had more engery to play. Hopefully Jordan will get to feeling better soon too.

Stairmaster

Jordan has finally figured out how to go all the way up the stairs. He's also kind of knows how to come down them. He turned around once from the top to go down backwards by himself. He's so scared of coming down forwards. He usually will just go next to the stairs and whine until I pick him up or help him turn around. He makes me nervous when he's on the stairs because he always turns around to look at me when I'm behind him. But he hasn't fallen yet. I think the stairs are his form of rebellion :) he seems to go over to them when he's not getting the attention I think he would like to have. He must know that when he goes over to them someone will follow him and get him or just follow him up the stairs. Tonight I was doing the dishes and Doug was upstairs busy and so the boys were playing by themselves and Jordan apparently didn't like it. He kept going over to the stairs and would start to climb them and then he's turn around and look for someone to come to him. Then he'd climb another stair and keep looking around. Then he'd whine a little. He was really trying to get attention.

Jordy

Here are some cute pictures of our baby...

I just think he's so cute in this picture!

Sometimes I make a funny face at Jordan and squint my eyes and kind of scrunch my face and he tries to do it too. Usually he doesn't have as much of a smile as he has in this pictures. He usually tries to scrunch his face up too.

We taught Jordan how to play 'so big' (we say so big and he supposed to raise his arms... and sometimes he starts the game and raises his arm and we say so big too him.) But generally I think kids play this game by raising two arms. But not our boy. He only ever raises one.

Jordan wore his first tie to church on Sunday. I thought he looked so cute in it. I've been afraid to put him in one because for some reason I thought it would be dangerous since he's so little. But I decided to try it out this week and it turned out to be not so dangerous. He survived his first tie.

Happy New Year!

When I got Jackson up from his nap on New Year's Eve I told him to guess where we were going to go that night. He said "the north pole!" We didn't quite go that far, but I think he still had a fun night. We really went over to my sister's house and played the wii with them. The kids especially seemed to love it. Ashlee and Konrad kicked us out so they could go to bed at around 11:00. They really wanted to us gone by 10 but Doug had to do some work at 10 so we had to stay so he could do it. Ashlee and and her family were all sick. So they were tired and wanted to go to bed. We were a little worried that we would get sick but so far we've been pretty good. Jack and Jordan have a little cough, but seem to be ok otherwise. After we got home Doug and I put the kids back in bed and watched a countdown clock on the internet then said Happy New Year! Then Doug went up and fed Jordan because he never fell back asleep after we got home. It was a very exciting New Year's Eve for us :)

Jackson and Alli playing Mariocart. Jackson was pretty serious when he was playing. and he kept swinging the wheel like a bat. It took them a really long time to finish the race... if they ever did actually finish...

Ashlee and Konrad boxing.

Doug with his computer working.

More Christmas

Last week Jack and Jordan got one more present each to finish off their Christmas gifts. Doug's brother Darrin and his family got them these cool toys: Jordan got a ball popper toy that has spinning things and it makes noise. He loves it. Actually they both do. It's usually the first thing they play with when we come down for breakfast and I'm getting all our food ready.

Jack got a remote control car. It's pretty cool. It can go forwards and turn around. It's kind of loud and whenever Jack plays with it Jordan gets scared if he's not being held by someone. If we forget to turn it off after Jackson is done playing with it and Jordan goes over to the car, it starts making noise and he gets so scared and cries. Then he keeps looking back at it and crying even when he's being held until the car is put away out of his sight.

Thanks Darrin and Shawnee and family!