Family

Every memorial day weekend since john and I have been married (or at least that I can remember) we've gone to the cemetaries to clean the head stones and put flowers on the graves of family members. Over the years we've learned that I have family at two of the cemetaries where johns family is. It has been fun to clean the head stones and explain to the kids who each person is. Its a family tradition that the kids look forward to and enjoy.
In the picture thr kids are sitting with the grave of my grandpa and grandma Anderson. Charles was named after my grandpa Anderson so its always nice to remind him of that when we see the head stone. It makes him feel special.

Matchy Matchy

You may never see this again....

John and I are not really into the whole matching outfit thing but this year I decided to do it. Well I decided because my mom bought the girls matching dresses. Then the day before Easter I realized that Charles' pink tie would match their dresses and then I remembered that my dad has a pink tie that matches Charles' (they were worn in my brother's wedding a couple of years ago.) Then I figured I could find something in my closet that would go with their matching. 

So here it is.... 

Take a good look, you may Never see it again.

8 Months

 

Claudia turned 8 months on Wednesday! She is such a big and happy girl. She is growing by leaps and bounds and turning into a moving machine. She crawls so fast now and pulls herself up to standing on anything and everything (even your leg if you let her or don't stop her fast enough, she holds onto your skin it really hurts.) Her favorite thing to do these days in blow raspberries. She does it ALL the time. It's a little embarrassing sometimes when someone says hello to her and then she just starts blowing raspberries. But she is cute so they forgive her. 

Just last week she also started the open and closing of her hand like a wave whenever you say Hi or hello. 

And the dreadful day has come....she found the stairs!!! She wants to be up them because everything if funner upstairs. Today she got herself up to the 3rd step. Not sure what we are gonna do now. The gate I have will only work starting on the 3rd step. We'll have to think of something or break down and buy a new gate. 

Also on Friday her 1st tooth popped through. I thought it was coming since she has been chewing on EVERYTHING like a puppy. It seems that she reaches milestones or things to remember right around the month marks. She sat up about 6 months crawled about 7 months. First tooth at 8 months. Ooooh that could be bad, the only next first we have is walking. Maybe that will be my next report at 9 months. Yikes!!!! 

Here hair was getting a bit shaggy looking so my 

sister gave her a trim on April 22nd. Now looking back on her other pictures she looks a little bald. But I think it looks a TON better then before.

What I"ve been up too!!

Besides raising my family, keeping the house clean, and couponing I've been staying busy with a few other projects too!

 I made homemade flour tortillas. They are YUMMY!!!! And they freeze really well too!

 I now make my own hamburger buns that double as sandwich rolls.

 I made this totally cute swim cover up for my niece using a towel.

 And made this cute twirly skirt for another niece (Her daddy is a HUGE Patriots fan.) It was a really simple tutorial with great instructions. I think I am going to make one for each of my girls.

I've also planted a garden!!! I've never had my own garden but decided since our family LOVES tomatoes so much why not try to grow our own. (Plus they are super expensive to buy the good tasting ones.)
We have 3 different kids of tomatoes, zucchini, and strawberries. Hopefully our garden will be fruitful!

 

Made a few flirty aprons for gifts and one for myself!

And I am still training for my 1st Half Marathon! The training is going really well despite my irritated IT band. But I am babying it so I should be able to make it through the race.

Madison's Fall

On Saturday when John was doing the yard work Madison tripped while running on the sidewalk and banged up her lip pretty bad. Luckily she did not cut through the lip or hit any teeth. But she did look pretty beat up for a few days.

Day 1 

 Night of Day 1 
(after bath and all ready for bed)

 

Day 2

Now it is all scabbed and looks worse.

 

Day 7

(Looks so much better! She's been picking off the scab but let's me put Vaseline on at night so that should help with the scaring.)

Swimming

On Monday night my parents stopped by on their way home from Vegas. They enjoyed some yummy dinner with us and then we all went swimming. (Well they went swimming, it was too called for Claudia and I.) The water was FREEZING!!! My dad jumped right in and so Charles followed. He is still wearing a life jacket these days, and Madison is too! It is great, they can be totally independent in the pool without me worrying about them especially now that I have Claudia too. The pool started feeling a little too cold so they all got in the hot tub. John told Charles to take off his life jacket since the hot tub is shallow enough for Charles to touch. After some convincing he finally took off his jacket. He figured out that we were telling the truth and he enjoyed walking around the hot tub. John suggested he try swimming across the hot tub to grandma with his face in the water. He did and it was too hot. So he jumped out of the hot tub and ran to the pool (instinctively because that's what he does) and jumped right in. NO LIFE JACKET ON!!!! We all freaked out a bit and started running towards him. The distance between the pool and hot tub is about 10-15 feet. My mom was the first one to get there and before she even jumped in he was already at the top of the water paddling around as if nothing was wrong. Well she jumped to get him and the water splashed in his face and he freaked out because we all were freaking out. He didn't even notice that he did not have his life jacket on. I think it is time to start working with him so he can swim with NO life jacket. I know he can do it. He proved it to us (unintentionally of course.) He is just scared!

LOVE/hate

I have a LOVE/hate relationship with couponing. Sometime I feel like I spend way too much time trying to get the BEST deals. Sometimes it totally stresses me out and I wonder if it is even worth it. Sometimes my kids DO NOT cooperate in the store making it even more difficult to make sure I am getting what I planned on getting to make it a great deal. 

But then there are shopping trips like the one yesterday that was AWESOME!!!! The kids did great. We were in and out quickly and I saved over $60!!! Woo Hoooo

I got all the above items for only $14.88. 

6 bags of Snyder's Pretzels (the best pretzels but usually out of my price range.)

2 jars of mayo

4 lbs. of strawberries (oooh they are soooo YUMMMMY!)

and 12 boxes of pasta (I actually got paid .12¢ to take the pasta home!!)

We even went to Rite Aid and got paid 75¢ to take home 3 tubes of Crest Pro Health tooth paste.

Ok, maybe it is really worth all the time and stress!!!!