CVS Score

Some of you may know that I am a couponer.  I'm not one of those crazy people that clear off shelves and buy 20 of one item, but I do stockpile up on some items that I know we will use, such as cereal, soups, toothpaste, etc.  I use a couple websites to match up coupons with sales each week.  My favorite is www.hip2save.com.

The week of Thanksgiving, CVS had some awesome deals.  I was able to get all of the following for $3.36!

(Yes, there are a few things that I don't need in this pile, such as the glucose tester, but I made $10 off of this, which I then used to basically pay for the soda.)

This was one of my better trips.  I can usually do very well the week of Thanksgiving.  Probably one of my top 5 trips in the almost 2 years I have been couponing.

Thanksgiving weekend

For Thanksgiving this year, as we often do, we went to my parents' house.  The day before Thanksgiving, my mom had Katelyn over to do a craft.  They made place-cards for each person who would be at Thanksgiving.  They also made a couple of pinecone Turkeys.

Katelyn's placecard turkey.

On Thanksgiving day, I tried to do a couple of activities with Katelyn.  Inspired by Pinterest, I tried to have her make a thumbprint turkey - she was just more interested in making thumbprints all over the page in random patterns and colors.  We also made a scavenger hunt turkey.  The girls enjoyed looking for the feathers and I kept the pieces and plan to use it again in future years.

This is from the blog I got the idea from (http://thecharmedmom.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-craft-fingerprint-turkey-cards.html), not mine as I forgot to take a picture.

I made a turkey very similar to this one and then Katelyn hunted for the feathers.  Pic from http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2012/11/turkey-feather-hunt-gross-motor-game.html.

It is so fun now that she is getting older and can participate in these types of things.

I, of course, spent most of Black Friday shopping.  My mom and I met up at 5:15AM and I didn't get home until about 2:30.  Fun times!

On Saturday morning, Kyle & I dropped the kids off at my parents and we headed down to San Diego.  We took our bikes along and biked around Coronado.  We stayed in the Gaslamp District, which was pretty interesting, although we aren't too into the bar scene, so after dinner, we went to the movies and saw 'Lincoln'.  The next day we ate an AWESOME breakfast at a local restaurant.  I wish I had taken a picture of Kyle's breakfast.  It was a massive cinnamon pecan pancake thing.  Even he couldn't finish it.  We might be making future trips to San Diego just for breakfast.  After breakfast we headed to Old Town for a couple hours and then headed home to pick up the girls.

We had a great Holiday weekend. 

School Harvest Festival

This fall, my Aunt Lisa, who is a teacher, invited us to go with her to the school's annual Harvest Festival.  This takes place at my high school and was the festival I went to almost every year growing up.  It was Katelyn's first experience with this type of environment.  She had a lot of fun playing the games with Aunt Lisa, and of course playing in the bounce house.  Brooklyn mostly hung out in the stroller, but I am looking forward to next year, when she can be a little more involved.

Carnival Games!

Jumping in the toddler jumper/obstacle course.  I had a hard time getting her out of it. :-)

Thanks for inviting us to come along with you Aunt Lisa!

Halloween 2012

Ok.  So, I think we can establish that I'm not very timely at publishing my blogs.  It has now been well over a month and one major holiday since Halloween.  However, in an attempt to keep things in some semblance of order, and because my kids were way too cute to pass it up altogether, I am still going to post about our Halloween.

Halloween was on a Wednesday this year, so on Monday night, we carved our pumpkins.  We carved them in the garage this year, which worked out a lot better than in our kitchen last year.  It was a lot of fun because the girls both were able to help as it was on the floor.  They both loved to help too.  Brooklyn thought she was in charge of the big spoon and wanted to scoop out the seeds with me.  We bought one big 'family' pumpkin and the girls each had a smaller pumpkin (see the previous post on the pumpkin patch).  Katelyn enjoyed using the marker and drawing pictures on hers while we were working on the details of the big pumpkin.

Tips that worked well for us to remember next year:
1.)  Use a washable marker to draw the face as it wiped off really easily
2.)  When cutting out the top, include a large section of the back so it is easy to scoop seeds out.

Supervising Daddy

Scooping out the seeds.  Big Helpers.

The finished product (and the two small pumpkins).

On the evening of Halloween, we first took the girls over to my parents for their first trick-or-treat experience.  Then we had a couple of friends over with their kids, so it was fun watching 4 toddlers walk around our neighborhood.  It was also a little comical.  Katelyn would usually be the first to get the candy, but then didn't want to clear out of the way and let the other kids get close.  Brooklyn tried multiple times to walk into the houses when the doors were open.  We have never been home on Halloween before (even though this was our fourth year in our house), and it was interesting to see who came around to our house.  There aren't too many trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood.

I chose these costumes because Katelyn has been called 'Lady Bug' since she was born and Brooklyn is often called 'B(ee)'.  I love my little girls.

Fall Festivities - Oak Glen & Pumpkins

We enjoyed our fall - even though it may not have cooled off until the last few days.

The first weekend of October, we met my family up in Oak Glen.  We went to one of the apple farms and picked apples and pears.  After that, we headed into town and walked around for a while, took a train ride  and ate dinner.   Overall, a good day.  I think that if we go again, we will just opt to buy pre-picked apples, although the pears that we picked were VERY GOOD.

Katelyn picking a pear with Daddy's help

On the train with Daddy

The next week, the four of us headed to Tanaka Farms, a large farm and pumpkin patch in Orange County.  We went through the corn maze and then rode on the tractor around the farm and to the petting zoo.  Both of the girls like the idea of a petting zoo, but for the most part were scared to death of the animals.  We finally found a similarly scared sheep in the corner and Katelyn and Brooklyn were ok petting it as it was just laying there and not moved towards them.  Kyle's favorite part of the morning was the pumpkin canon.  The girls each picked out a small pumpkin and we bought one large 'family pumpkin', which we later carved.  Katelyn was very proud of the pumpkins and kept showing them off to anyone who would come over.  It was a huge pumpkin patch and I am guessing that we will probably go back again in future years.

Corn Maze in California!

+

The Family Pumpkin

Since we were already in Irvine, we decided to bring our bikes along and we went biking along the Back-Bay in Newport.  It was a really nice area.  There were a lot of hills and we got tired pretty quickly because of the heat, but I definitely want to go back and do more of the path and surrounding areas.

View of the Back Bay from where we parked the truck.

Stay tuned for our pumpkin carving and Halloween costumes!

Katelyn is 3!

Last Thursday, we celebrated Katelyn's 3rd birthday!  I can't believe she is that old.  And she looks and acts old too.


The Saturday before her birthday we had family pictures with my family.  After the pictures Katelyn opened her gifts and went to Chik'fil'a for dinner and celebrated her birthday. She loves it when we sing happy birthday and of course sings along. :-)

On the actual day of her birthday, we played it pretty low key, but we did a few of her favorite thinks like going to the park and the library and then making a fort to read her new books.

Katelyn picked out a balloon and ice cream at the grocery store.  Popsicles are new to us and she is just getting over her dislike of ice cream because 'it is cold.'

Fun days!

We love to read

My girls absolutely love to read.  We make regular trips to the library and we have quite a few books at home.  If I can't read to them, then they are usually quite happy to sit and read to themselves for a while.  Brooklyn's favorites right now are 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear,' a Sesame Street colors book, and 'Peek-a-who.'  Katelyn switches favorites about every week.  She also likes to look at toy and birthday supply, etc. catalogs and calls them her 'magazines.'

A shower for Sam

My youngest sister Samantha is having a baby!  Along with some of my family members, we threw a small shower for her at my house. 

 Sisters!  Laura, Sam & I

We had a headband/bow making station, which resulted in some really cute bows.

Diaper Cake, cute cupcakes & cookies

It was great to see the family.  I can't wait to meet little baby MacKenzie (due in November)!

Great Grandparents & A Shuttle

Kyle's grandparents came out to visit us shortly after Katelyn was born, but had not yet been able to meet Brooklyn.  They drove out from Iowa with Kyle's dad to visit our family.  They did lots of reading to the girls, as they are always looking for someone who will sit and read book after book.

While they were here, the shuttle was being flown into LA, so we decided to head down to Long Beach, which was one of the places it was scheduled to fly over.  It came a couple of hours later than we had expected, but it was pretty amazing when we actually saw it.  There were tons of people at the same park as us, This was the last time the last shuttle was being flown.  It will later be in a museum in LA.

After we saw the shuttle fly over, we went to the aquarium.  The girls really enjoyed it.

I threw a baby shower for my sister while they were here (see later post) and so Kyle and family went to a small local zoo and park.

This is a photo of 4 generations - pretty awesome!

County Fair

Our little family of 4 recently made a trip to the local county fair.  It is a HUGE fair.  We didn't even make it to a quarter of the areas.  Shortly after arriving, we met up with some friends in the farm animal area.  The kids love looking at all the animals.  Katelyn, as she usually does in this type of place, kept asking to go see the next animal.  Brooklyn on the other hand, grabbed onto the chain-link fence and wouldn't let go until I pried her fingers from the fence.  Kyle took them into the petting zoo, but that was still a little too intimidating and he ended up carrying them both.

 We were able to see some pig races, sharks & stingrays, and some 'safari' animals, such as zebras - which Katelyn was pretty excited about.  Kyle had to get a massive turkey leg for dinner.  I think it was a one time only type of thing.  Kyle & Katelyn went on the huge slide and the entire family went on the Merry-go-round. We started Brooklyn on her own horse and she held on super tight and looked frightened, then she burst into tears.  I think that this was the highlight for Katelyn.  It was the first thing she mentioned in the following days when we talked about the fair.  Also, that she got a new hat that she wore to the fair.

 

Already looking forward to our day at the fair next year. :-)

Camping in Big Bear

The last weekend in August we took a short family vacation and headed up to the local mountains and went camping by Big Bear Lake.  We were brave.  We went tent camping for the first time with two toddlers.  We had tent camped in Sequoia when Katelyn was about 10 months old, but last year, we opted to do the cabins when we went to the Monterrey area.  Tenting overall went pretty well.  It was sooooo nice that Brooklyn was walking as we had done the crawler in a tent once before and I DO NOT recommend it.  The girls seemed to enjoy being outdoors.  They also liked sharing a room in the tent and the first night it took them quite a while to go to sleep - we heard a lot of giggling.

We brought our bikes up there and our campground was right next to the bike trail that goes along one side of the lake.  We were also able to walk around town one afternoon (and of course get some yummy ice cream).

S'mores around the campfire!

The girls were able to get some reading in while we were camping:

Kyle & Katelyn out on a dock when we went to town:

I think we might have to make this a yearly tradition.

A Bike Trailer

At the beginning of August  - yes, it was a busy month - we purchased a bike trailer.  We really wanted to have it by the end of the month when we went camping in Big Bear (more details in a later post).  The girls (especially Katelyn) really enjoy the bike trailer.  We haven't been able to use it as much as we would like because it basically hasn't been below the 90's since we bought it.  We were able to use it in Big Bear and we went for a ride with some friends on Labor Day.

This pretty much captures how the rides go.  B is usually trying to take off her helmet or Katelyn's while Katelyn sits and enjoys the ride.  We have learned to put lots of distractions (books, toys, snacks, etc.) in the trailer so that they don't bother each other too much.

The curtains are done!

I finally finished my project!  I only had the material for about 9 months.  The nursery has never had curtains, although I always had good intentions.  The thing that really threw me was the top window, which as an arc, and I was having a difficult time trying to decide what to do with it.  The bedding in the room has pinwheels and I found the perfect window curtains that are the same blue and brown with pinwheels.  There are also pink pinwheels to make the room a little more girlie.

B is walking!

Brooklyn starting walking the first week in August, just after she turned 14 months.  It has been great to be able to set her down and we are able to go outside more frequently now.  She loves being able to walk around and play with her toys.  She also frequently drags her blankie everywhere.

This is her typical blankie pose (sorry the lighting isn't great).

2 fingers in the mouth - she has done this since she was about a month old.

Love this girl!

Mammie & Poppa

Mammie & Poppa came to see us a week after Micah was born.  They stayed at our house, but visited baby Micah several times.  The girls of course loved the attention of having someone read to them whenever they wanted.  The weather was very hot, so we were a little limited in the activities we could do, but we did make it to the local outdoor mall, where the girls could ride the train with Poppa & Mammie.

We stopped at Bass Pro Shops on the way to visit Dan & Laura.  Katelyn was in awe of the boats and all the stuffed animals.  This was a typical reaction :-) .

Brooklyn was just learning to point at objects.

We also made it to the Orange County Swap Meet, but it was so hot, we didn't stay too long.  We are looking forward to when Mammie & Poppa visit again, hopefully in early December for the birth of my niece.

He's Here!

Well, this might be a little late, but my nephew is here!!! Micah Joseph arrived on August 9.  He was 9.3 lbs, which we were not expecting.  He's a cutie and his cousins love him - wanting to touch and kiss him as much as they can.  We attended his baby dedication when he was one month old on September 9.  We love Micah!

The morning after he was born:

Cousin Love!

Deja Vu

So many times lately I have seen Brooklyn doing the same things that Katelyn did.  I love it!

Katelyn:

 Brooklyn

 Katelyn

 Brooklyn