Love It

Yesterday I ordered about $60 worth of product from Amazon and only paid $7.98 out of pocket. Makes me smile! The two products I ordered were on sale totally $27.98. I applied the $20 in Amazon gift cards I've earned from swagbucks leaving just $7.98 to actually pay.

What did I buy? That's the exciting part. It's something that I've thought would be nice to have for a long time, but since I only use them 2 (soon to be 3) times a year did not feel it was worth spending much money on. The hobby is something I enjoy doing, but always get rather frustrated when I do it. Any guesses? I'll post some pictures when I get the "stuff".

Pictures Part 2 -The Beach

These are some pictures from our trip to the beach with Jeremy's family. They are not in order because I didn't feel like posting them backward to put them in the right order. Lovely blogger.

At the sand dunes

Heading to the pool close to our house. Isaiah loved it. Nate wasn't so sure.

Sink or swim!

This little girl, Kassidy, is one of the sweetest babies I've ever known.

The guys spent hours doing this. They made it look so fun and easy. I didn't try it.

Cousins

Fist time at the ocean. Scared at first, but then started to really like it.

Flower Beds

We have been trying to improve the outside look of our house this summer. It's stuff we've been wanting to do since we moved here, but this is the summer we are getting it done. Feels good! One thing that we've talked a lot about is what to do around our screened in porch. The previous owners had white stone around it and planted a couple bushes. I imagine it looked great when they first did it, but I think you'd have to keep adding more stone to keep it looking nice. Plus, I'd rather have flowers/plants to look at instead of little white stones. Another problem was the parking in front of our house. When it would rain we'd get lots of nice mud to drive and walk in. Lovely. We (probably Jeremy's idea) decided to kill two birds with one stone. We dug up the old white stones in the back and filled in the mud hole out front. Jeremy counted something like 12 five gallon buckets of stone that he hauled out. It worked great! Now for the flowerbed in the back. Today Jeremy made a raised bed around the porch. I love it! Now we have to find dirt to fill it in with and then I'm hoping to plant perennials. Is it too late in the year? I hope not. Any suggestions?

We plan to do the same type of thing along our front steps, but Jeremy decided we need new concrete steps soon and it isn't worth building the beds if we're just going to tear them out again. So I'm trying to decide if there is anything I can do to make the front look at least half decent for the summer. I guess I could at least pull the weeds. :( Here is a before and after picture of what Jeremy did today. I can't wait to see it with plants!

Yard Sales

This morning I took the boys to a few yard sales. I wasn't sure how it would go, but decided to give it a try. I was pretty pleased with how well they did. I was VERY pleased with the bargains I found. Here's a list:

-The book "Have a New Kid by Friday", hardback $.50. I've heard so much about this book.

-A pair of Reebok shoes for Isaiah to grow into. They're almost new $1.00

-Two matchbox cars $.25 pc. Isaiah proudly told the man that he likes racers!
-Two hats for the boys -free. They were at the same place as the cars. I think Isaiah made a new friend. I was just going to get Isaiah one since we just realized that he had lost his on our vacation. Then the man told him to just take it and pick one out for his brother too.

-A spring/fall coat for Isaiah $.10
-Two pairs of pants for Isaiah for next year $.35

-A pair of Nike shoes for Nathan $1.00

-A brand new pack (6 pairs) of socks for me for $.75. I think they are the nicest socks I've ever worn! I needed them BADLY, but just kept putting of buying them. They aren't that expensive, but how boring is it to buy socks??!!

Sometimes I come home from yard sales and wonder why I bought what I did. Today I came home with stuff that I have been wanting to buy, but haven't found yet. The hat for Isaiah was great. He loves hats and was so disappointed when he realized he had lost his other one. Also the shoes for Nathan. I have been looking for something for him because all he has is his crocks, which are great, but he needed sneakers. And of course the socks for me made the whole trip worthwhile. Just for the record the socks were brand new, still in the packaging. :)

The only downside to our day, other than saying "No, we don't need that either" about a million times, was that our car sort of died on us. I love our HONDA and trust it so much, but not today. I made it to my uncles shop and left it there. I was so thankful that it was on our way home and it wasn't on a busy road and that we were so close to my uncle's place. He kindly called my Grandma to pick us up and Jeremy picked up the car this evening. Turns out I could have driven it home, but it all worked out. I'm also very thankful for a husband that can fix things! It took about $100 in parts and his evening, but the car is fixed and ready for me to trust with my life again. :) Have I mentioned before how proud I am to have a husband that can fix things?

Here are the boys with some of our finds.

Isaiah wore his hat and his jacket to take his nap this afternoon. I have no idea why he is wearing mittens. He found them in the closet and wanted to wear them. He had to be roasting! I pick my battles.

Here's Nathan with his hat. He almost never wears them correctly. In case you're wondering, yes, he was VERY dirty, but very happy.

Pictures Part 1

I've finally posted a few pictures from when my family was together. Looking through my pictures I realize that I missed a lot of great pictures. They're in my memory, but I can't share them with you. :( Hopefully you'll enjoy these.

Ellie (isn't see cute?)

A favorite pass time for the 3 youngest (They took turns)

Thanks to Rachel, Rhonda or Jenni, we tried the craft that your family did at Christmas. It was fun! I would have never tried it if you hadn't suggested it on your blog way back when.

Anna loved Isaiah's bed. (Like the pillowcase? :))

Not sure why Nate wasn't smiling. I was amazed that they both set there and let us take their picture.

Up

It has been a VERY long time since Jeremy and I have gone to a theater to see a movie. Just seems like a waste of money. However, yesterday we went with Hans and Angela to see the new Pixar movie "Up". What a great movie! I'm not sure I've ever had an animated movie move me to tears (and a lot of laughs too of course). In a world that does not celebrate the beauty of marriage for life this movie is a refreshing change. It also gives you a new appreciation for the elderly and a look at what life is like for them. It's a great family movie, however there are a few places that could be a bit scary for small children. Isaiah is pretty sensitive so he won't be seeing it for awhile. Go here to read Focus on the Family's review. Check it out!

Heeeellllooow!

I am going to post something on my blog TODAY. How many times have I said that? I'd like to just post pictures, but the batteries in the camera are dead so that will have to wait. What have we been up to?

-We had a great time with Brandon, Cindy and Anna and the rest of my family the beginning of May. We switched houses with Jeremy's parents for a long weekend (their house is much bigger that ours) and we were all together for the first time in a year. It was a good time. We now number 8 adults and 7 grandchildren with one on the way. Angel and Riah are great babysitters!

-3 days after Brandon's left and the same day Mom and Dad left Jeremy and I and the boys left for NC and the beach with Jeremy's family. The boys had some difficult moments, but overall we had a good week. The weather was perfect. This was the first time I've been to the beach and actually spent more than a few hours on the beach. I even got a little bit of a tan!! Mostly freckles that make me look old though. :( Isaiah really didn't like the ocean, but he liked the sand and LOVED the swimming pool that we went to several times. Nate was scared of the ocean until our last day there. Then he loved it. I decided it was a good thing we were leaving or our beach times weren't going to be very relaxing anymore. I'll post pictures from both vacations soon.

-Through both weeks with our families I felt really good. I still have moments and often fight a nasty taste in my mouth, but overall I feel like I'm almost normal (whatever that is when you're pregnant!) again. I still can't handle coffee. :(

-This week is the first week since the week before Easter that I have actually felt like doing anything or was home enough to do anything. I love it! Yesterday the boys and I went to four different places. I was exhausted till we got home, but it felt so good to be able to actually grocery shop without worrying about pucking. The boys did great too.

-Nathan just gave me a hug from the back. I love it. He's always into something. Today I found him lifting the lid on the toilet and saying "potty". I thought, yeah right, but we'll give it a try. I tried to stand him up next to it (like he sees Isaiah doing) to see what he would do. No desire to pee at all. He lifted his feet and wanted to get in. Yep, we'll wait until he's 3.

-While I'm talking about toilets and just to gross you out a bit. Here's a conversation I just had with Isaiah about 1/2 hr ago. He was sitting on the toilet:
I: Mommy, did Nathan poop?
Me: Awhile ago
I: No, did he poop right now?
M: No
I: I smell poop
M: That's your poop Isaiah
I: Oh

-Have you ever lost something and thought it was gone for good? A couple weeks ago I realized I was missing the 1/4 c. measuring cup from my beloved Tupperware measuring cup set. I looked everywhere but couldn't find it. It really was bugging me. I figured I must have thrown it out or something. I missed it! I didn't like opening up that drawer and seeing all the other cups cupped together without their littlest friend 1/4. Well, wouldn't you know on Monday I opened up a container of oatmeal and there was my measuring cup. I was/am so pleased!

-I planted our little garden today. So late, but hopefully we'll still get something. We decided against the big one just because we've been too busy to make it happen. Maybe next year. I've been wanted to grow some herbs for awhile so I picked up some basil. Has anyone else grown it? I had no idea there were so many different kinds of basil to choose from. I can't remember which one I picked?? Something like Globe Spicy Basil.

-My mother-in-law gave us some fresh strawberries. (She knows my weakness!) They were so good! Last evening I made a pie. We waited until the boys were in bed (feeling guilty, but I only had one pie) We ate all but one piece of that thing! I will say that I only ate about a 1/4 of it, but I could have eaten more. Sometimes I keep fresh stuff like strawberries just for eating plain because I hate the idea of baking them. (why?) I think I'm starting to see things differently. I plan to make at least one more yet before the season' is over.

-I walked into the living room today and found Nate sitting on the coffee table with with door mat over his head. He does stuff like this all the time. Odd.

-I need to get off. Now that I've made the plunge back into blog world I will try to keep it up. I will try to post some pictures soon.