And They're Off!

Tonight we had a race to the finish line with all of our wind-up Easter toys. Emma loves them! She follows them around saying "hip-hop" rather than "hop-hop". Nick thinks its either because she thinks it sounds like hippopotomus or because she has a fascination with hip-hop music. Either way, it is pretty cute. The bunny took off like a crack addict the first time and won while the big chick (hey like me!) won the second time around. All around, screaming, clapping, and laughing happened. Oh what wonderful memories we create when we are stuck inside during the winter months!

Just Laying Around

Nick took this picture today while he was home on his lunch break...isn't it just too cute? I love Emma's little arm under Calvin, holding him up. This picture pretty much surmizes our Monday's around here: relaxing around the house, trying to get our bearings on how the week is going to go. I have been doing laundry and picking up the house while Emma has been playing on her own and watching Mr. Rogers.

How Our Weekend Went

So this weekend was one of those strange surreal weekends where nothing that you had been expecting happened. Saturday we were planning on visiting Nick's sister and her husband, then Sunday was planned to get cleaning and relaxing done. Friday evening we got a call when we got back from our Valentine's night letting us know that Nick's sister had been called into work. So unfortunately we didn't get to see them; we miss them so much! So instead we decided to get things done around the house. We got the cleaning done that you always find yourself putting off: changing outdoor lightbulbs, hanging things, sorting the kids clothes that are now too small. However what I didn't find myself doing was the normal everyday cleaning...that still needed done. Saturday night I baked chicken breasts with a crunchy onion topping. I made the pieces nugget sized for Emma and she LOVED them! We finally have chicken that she will eat!

Sunday we went to church and then off to lunch with friends visiting from Florida. It was very good to see them and thank them for the wonderful care package of clothes they had sent for Calvin. Unfortunately after we returned home from lunch we didn't get much done as we were all so exhausted. Emma refused to take her regular nap and Calvin had been up for most of the night before, so Nick and I were wore pretty thin. I did manage to get dinner made and the kitchen cleaned up, so we have that going for us. Tomorrow I will get started on laundry and try to get everything back up to speed in our household. It was nice to have a weekend to just leisurely relax though.

Our Valentine's Day

Here we are on date night! Nick said he isn't going to take me out anymore if I make him stand for pictures everytime!

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day and I hope that you all did too! Nick bought me beautiful roses and he brought Emma a Valentine's balloon that she absolutely adores. She drags it around the entire house saying "bawoon", so precious. I gave Nick the gift of a happy thought...there will be a message from me everyday for a year on his blackberry...what I love about him, happy thoughts from us dating, funny things that happened, stuff like that. He seemed impressed I had the time to do it. Frankly I was too. Last night my mom and Lacey watched the kids so we could go on a date, a real live date! We went to Main Street Grille and had a fantastic meal. We held hands, we laughed, and I fell in love with Nick more and more. I love how much of a gentleman he is: holding his arm out to escort me everywhere so I don't fall, helping me in and out of my coat, opening doors, etc. I'm just glad I wasn't taken to Wings or something; I mean this kids got class! We were supposed to go to a movie, but in taking our leisurely time over dinner we missed the showing time, so we went browsing which was heavenly. Then we made it to a quiet dessert bar where we nestled into a corner with our coffee's and rich decadent desserts and laughed some more. All in all we had a wonderful Valentine's. Oh! And my mom and sis watched the kids in the afternoon before our date as well so I managed to go get my hair cut...I love it! I am so happy I found such a great stylist and my salon. I am holding onto them for dear life! Plus my mom got us Valentine's gifts (which by the way she did not need to do!). Emma got a bear, Calvin got a charm for his mommy's bracelet (hee,hee, sorry Calvin), Nick got a really neat car radio thing that I don't know how to describe to you. Its not a car radio, its a radio that is shaped like a car, it was supposed to be kind of a gag gift but he actually likes it! And I got a Breakfast at Tiffany's record...love it! By the way that is my all time favorite movie, I don't care if she is a prostitute. Ha! Anyway, we had a great Valentine's and I hope you all did too! Drop a comment if you wish and let me know what you did to celebrate your love!

Here are my flowers from my sweetie pie!

Here is a cookie I decorated for Nick!

I Love You Baby

This is my husband. His name is Nick and he is amazing. He is one of those people that everyone loves; he is hilarious, kind, generous, trusting, and just genuinely a great person. His mom and dad did such a phenomenal job raising him that he had no choice but to turn into a phenomenal human being. So I just wanted to publicly (I don't know how publicly since I think about 5 people read this thing!) thank him for all that he is to us:

Thank you for being such a great dad. You are never hesitant to play horsey, build block towers (or cities since you are a city planner!), change a diaper, give a bath, get a baby for a feeding in the middle of the night, or babysit so I can simply have a break. You are a fair disciplinarian and you have such a soft heart when it comes to your children and their feelings. Listening to you reading to Emma with all of your silly voices and making her belly laugh while playing have been the greatest joys of my life (so far, we've still got Calvin!).

Thank you for being such a wonderful husband. You are one of those husbands that friends tell me how lucky I am to have. And don't I know it. We've both messed up in the past, but you've always been quick to forgive me or quick to make things right on your part. I am so glad that we are in this marriage together. I love that you still make me laugh as hard as you did when we first met and were awkwardly shoe shopping. And everyday when you play with our children, you are more and more handsome to me. You truly take my breath away. Thank you for caring so much about your family and friends...you show that so much everyday through your actions and through your prayer time. I love you and like I've said before, I survived before you but I had never really lived. Thank you for making me live.

Thank you for being a best friend. You are so Christ-like in your ability to forgive and love and understand. I love how many friends you have and how they all think you are the greatest guy. You are so much to so many people and I want you to know how love and appreciated you are. Thank you for being you. I love you!

A Quiet Road in the Middle of Nowhere

This is my calm in this restless world of children, cleaning, cooking, bills, and the anxiety that hormones have laid upon me this past week. This is what I think of when I need to try to quiet my mind. This is a windy dirt road down to a covered bridge that my mom and dad introduced me to, and I have since introduced to Nicholas. We took this picture on our last trip to Brown County. Nora Jones played on the radio and Emma slept in the back; it was a heavenly serene time between Nicholas and I. This is what I think of when I am washing dishes with Calvin crying and Emma tugging on my leg. Or when I am woken at 4 am by the cries of a hungry baby boy. I think of our secret spot away from hustle and bustle that comes with raising two children.

Um...there's something on your head

This picture was one of them from one set of our Engagement pictures. It is of us freezing in the snow so I thought it would be appropriate for today, as it is sooo cold outside! I was looking at this photograph thinking how young we looked even though it was just a couple of years ago...and then it hit me, wait a second, this was six years ago! How can that be? Six years ago we weren't even married...we were just two young kids who had just gotten engaged! So funny to think of it in that way! And now here we are, two kids later, living in our home (thank God for no more apartments!), and coming up on our fifth wedding anniversary! Just incredible to me! This isn't a spectacular picture of us, mainly because we look like two goobers standing in the snow, but that is also one of the reasons that it is one of my favorites of us...it just epitomizes our relationship together. We have always been so fun together and so hilarious. I still am kind of kid-like and silly when I am around Nicholas; somehow he still makes me feel like a goofy teenage girl out on a date wearing his letter jacket. Nicholas has that dry sense of humor everyone knows him for and he makes me laugh so hard with all of his impressions of people. And so I think this picture does our relationship justice. It shows who we are, and who we were because seriously folks, we act like this all of the time!

Jump on the Coupon train!

Lets talk coupons...or should I say, tiny bits of paper that make the world a better place? For those of you who don't clip coupons, you should be ashamed of yourselves!

Before Nick and I married, I wasn't very money saavy, to say the least. I wouldn't even know how much I was paying for gas; I figured I needed it so I would drive up and pump. After we got married, that all started to change. Not only were we dead broke being newlyweds still in school, but I suddenly felt an overwhelming responsibility to shop smartly. After all, this wasn't just my money anymore. If I bought that new Coach purse I wanted, I wasn't the only one who would be dining on ramen noodles to make up for it. So I began to think.

Coupons seemed to be an answer for us. I don't know how I began to clip, but clip I did. The laundry area for our college housing even had a coupon exchange box where you could deposit coupons you didn't need and take ones you needed. I must say that I LOVED that!

Over the years of our marriage, my couponing has evolved. I now have a coupon folder system that I love and never go shopping without. I am in constant pursuit of a new coupon book as mine seem to become worn our fairly quickly and need updating.

I clip coupons every weekend in the Sunday paper. This is a great way to pass the time next to Nick on Sunday afternoons while we watch a football game. At Meijer they double coupons up to $.50, so I can save a buck with a little piece of paper that says $.50 off. Pretty cool. There are also other local super markets that occasionally offer double and even triple coupons, which really make items great deals. I have also gotten the word out that I am a couponer so my MIL passes on their coupons to me. My cousin Jaime, who is a fellow couponer, passes on her diaper coupons to me as she doesn't need them (because she is the luckies person in the world, diapers suck!).

I am now into "clipping" coupons online as well. The best coupons are the ones in which you can get an item for free. This is a little trickier. I visit our local papers' website every Sunday. They, like practically every other newspaper, are linked to Boodle, a coupon site where you can download additional coupons. Kroger's website has tons of coupons and they now have e-coupons that you can download onto your discount card. I also sign up at every site I can think of for products I love. They often mail or email coupons. An example of this is Coffeemate. I will admit it I have an obsession with coffee creamers. Nick teases me that I like creamer and sugar with a little coffee mixed in for good measure. But by signing up at coffeemate's website, I have gotten offers for free creamer. The only thing sweeter than coffeemate is FREE coffeemate. There are tons of websites you can go to. Just google coupons and gazillions will come up. You can even buy coupons on ebay. I have not resorted to buying coupons yet, but it isn't something I have completely thrown to the wayside.

So that is my money saving tip for the day. Does anyone have any advice for couponing? Any wonderful sites or ways to pilfer money saving? Happy Monday everyone!

I made it through today!

I must be honest, today was one of the hardest days of my life. With Nick on bed rest I had to take care of the kids alone, which I know, I know, I do every day. However usually N comes home around 5 and helps until he leaves for work the next morning. But not this time. I have the greatest husband in that during the night he goes and gets Calvin for me to feed him. But since he isn't supposed to move and he can't lift more than 10 pounds, I was doing that all night. That's no big deal except Calvin didn't sleep. So I didn't sleep. I finally gave up about 6 this morning and just started my day. Around 1 this afternoon though my energy just ran out. It was all I could do to not just lay on the kitchen floor and sleep. So I had to just press on. Somehow I managed to get almost all of the laundry done and folded, a pot roast with mashed potatoes made for dinner, and both kids bathed and in bed, ready for church tomorrow. I didn't get everything done I wish I would have, I still need to make the batter for cookies for Valentine's Day, but there's tomorrow. Lets just pray that Calvin sleeps tonight!

You've been Vasectomized!

So today Nicholas is playing X-Box in bed with a bag of peas for companionship because yesterday was the great Vasectomy. I must say that it really is not a big deal and Nick agrees with me whole heartedly. Compared to a woman getting her tubes tied, this was a walk in the park. I do feel so bad for the guy and also so happy this is done. We know that two children are enough for us and we wanted to not have to worry about anything. I must tell you too how thankful I am for our insurance. We only had to pay $30.00 to get this done, can you believe it? Compared to the cost of raising another child, I think we got a bargain! When he was leaving the nurses gave Nick a Spongebob sticker that said "You're da man". I thought it was so funny and I think its so cute that its still on his jacket.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This being the third year in our house, I am thinking that I should really get this whole gardening thing under control. Does anyone have any pointers for me? Last year my mother in law and I purchased flowers from the local conservatory and all of mine died, I mean, DEAD! Hers were gorgeous so obviously we were not sold bad flowers (the thought did cross my mind, although I am not sure that is possible). I am thinking of planting tomatoes, berries, and tons of flowers but don't know where to start. So if you have a favorite flower, type of tomato, or piece of gardening advice, please post!

All because two people fell in love

Around Valentine's Day I tend to get mushy gushy and think about all of the wonderful times Nicholas and I had dating, how deeply I fell in love with him and how madly in love I am with him still. The picture above is of the gazebo where Nicholas proposed to me. It was one of our spots in college. Behind it is a little hill that leads down to a grassy field. We would go out there sometimes on nights and spend hours talking and lauging hysterically over nothing. Those nights are the nights I knew I would never be able to survive this world unless I was this man's wife. Nick brought me back to the gazebo one night in late November after we had gone out to eat. It was about 10:30 and the first snowfall of the year had just begun. It was so cold and wet he practically had to pry me out of the car to "take a walk" as he put it. And then he got down on one knee in the gazebo and asked me to be his wife. What a wonderful memory! I am so happy I said yes and so thankful he asked me in the first place. For those of you who know Nick you know that he somehow always seems to make everything hilarious; on the way home he told me that his friends had asked him what he was going to do if I said no. What was his response: "I'll punch her in the face and leave." Still makes me giggle. I love him so much!

Thought I would update you on the kids:

Emma is really getting the whole manners concept under her belt. When we ask her something she says "yes please" or "no thank you". She had also been picking up the habit of saying "yeah" but we started teaching her to say "yes" which she now says very pointedly. Nicholas also taught her to do the robot which I must tell you is hilarious! She even maker "err, err" noises while she does the moves. She is beginning to count more and more now, she can help up to 18 (the number of stairs in our house!) which is incredible to me as the child isn't even two yet! We are getting away from signing except for things outside (fence, garden, pond, sidewalk, etc) and thank you she will sign lots. I am really just amazed at how smart she is.

Calvin is lifting his whole head and body up off the floor. He is also getting so big it is just incredible to me. He isn't even a month old yet and today I had him in a 3-6 month outfit. He is smiling and beginning to experiment with his hands, which is fun for us but not so much for him, as it has been resulting in him hitting himself in the face. Unfortunately Calvin has been projectile vommiting a lot and spitting up tons so we have an appointment this upcoming week. All signs are pointing to GERD like Emma had. Hopefully we can the problem corrected so he won't stop eating or anything. Please be keeping us in your prayers.

That is all for now, hope you all are doing well!

Diapers and Wipes, Diapers and Wipes

I am really beginning to feel that diapers and wipes are taking over my life. I went to Target to get the necessities and couldn't help but feel like Sparky in the Griswold Family Christmas movie loading up on Old Roy dogfood. I had to strategically manipulate everything into the cart. For those of you who are into caring about diapers and wipes, the best deal I have found on wipes is at Target; I got 465 Target Brand wipes for $7.99. The other companies max out at about 362 wipes for that price.