I am embarrassed that I haven't posted a blog post since JUNE! We have definitely been busy with playdates, the garden, vacation, etc. Let me recap the past few months...Alex turned 4 in July, we had a little family only party at home the day before her birthday. We drove up to Seattle to visit Blake and Britney for the weekend and Britney made ice cream and put a candle in it for Alex-which she thought was the best! It was a fun weekend! We got our puppy Bailey in August and she has been a fun addition to our family. She is 16 weeks old now and is learning to sit and lay down. Alex started a dance class in September and LOVES it. She does 20 minutes of tumbling, 20 minutes of ballet and 20 minutes of tap once a week. Logan hasn't done much besides eat and get into mischief. He drove his little car down some stairs and bruised up his lip, nose and forehead. He still loves to snuggle and now comes up to Ty and I and says "I wuv you." Our garden went nuts and I have a nice stock of frozen tomato sauce, vegetables and fruit. Our tomato plants are still getting flowers on them, go figure. We had lots of fun making dinners out of our peppers, eggplants, broccoli, snow peas and tomatoes. We planted some honeydew melons which Alex and Ty loved. We are about to pick our watermelons, hopefully they are ripe now. We tried one a few weeks ago and it wasn't ready :( Our baby pumpkins did very well and so did our blueberry bushes. Ty's plant got up and running this summer and they are producing foam insulation now. I've been hosting a scrapbook night with my playgroup once a month and I really enjoy it. We also started a book club so I'm back reading consistently again. Overall life is hectic but lots of fun and we love where we live. The weather has been awesome here lately and I find myself wanting to spend all afternoon in the back yard enjoying it. I love fall and the smells that come with it.

It has been very busy around our house this past month.  I haven't had a lot of time to sit and do a new post.  We've had visitors, went to my cousin's wedding, and been generally busy keeping up with the house and yard.  Lately this has been taking up my time:

We have a big strawberry patch and we were told that a lot of the plants were old and therefore might not produce fruit.  Well, they had no problem producing fruit!  I go out every 2-3 days and pick for at least an hour and then come in and cut them for another hour (at least).  Lately I have been cutting them and freezing them and then putting them in food saver bags.  I have already made 8 small jars of freezer jam too.  So I'm up to my ears in strawberries, and will probably be eating smoothies all year long.

I've done some fun stuff with the kids lately too.  We bought a pass to the zoo for Alex and I (Logan is free) and we have gone twice already.  Much to my surprise, Logan wanted to pet the goats this year and actually did it!  It's a nice zoo and we never get to see all of it in one trip so it's fun and they are currently building new exhibits too.

Kids and Their "Loveys"

It's funny how children are attracted to certain items that bring them comfort.  I often wonder what is so attractive about the items my children have picked as their "loveys" (as I would call them).  As a child I had a favorite stuffed polar bear named Snuffy.  I still have Snuffy and he is with the kids' stuffed animals.  I liked him because he had a fuzzy brown nose, which eventually wore off.  I decided to take some pictures of the kids and their "loveys" because they are just so cute with them.

Since Alex was about 6 month old, she's sucked her thumb.  It morphed into putting her fingers into the holes of her favorite crocheted blanket and holding it to her face.  We figured out she was smelling the blanket, although I have no idea why.  It was a gift from one of my friend's mother and I wrapped her in it since she was very small.  When she began to talk it was called "mammie."  As she began to speak better it was "manket," "mankie," and now  "blankie," or "blanket."  It is her trusted friend and she always takes it into the car and to bed.  It's now got some extra holes in it and isn't as white as it used to be, even after I use bleach when I wash it.

Logan likes bears as his "loveys."  His first favorite was a blue bear that was given to us by one of Ty's co-workers.  His second favorite is a dark brown one my mom gave him.  He recently found another one that he likes too.  The first two have to be in bed with him at night and he carries them throughout the house during the day so I have to go search for the bears every night.

Happy Birthday Logan!

Here are a few pictures from Logan's birthday.  He was really excited about the cake which is no surprise since he loves sweets.  He kept pulling on my legs when I was trying to write Happy Birthday on the cake, so that's why the lettering is so bad.  Oh and in case you are wondering what his shirt says, it says "Notre Dame Fighting Irish."  I know, I'm shameless :)

Our Yard

The other day it was actually sunny so I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of my favorite things around our yard right now.  Our yard is changing daily and it's so much fun to walk outside and see what's new.  

Rhododendron:

These cute little bell shaped flowers:

I don't know what the next two are called, but they are the same type of tree, just different color flowers:

Elvis' favorite plant, the catnip:

This is our garden, it isn't much yet, but it should be fun this summer:

Erin's Confession...

I must confess...I am a couponaholic... I have been wondering lately if I should share this with the readers of our blog and today I got such good deals, I just had to. It all began last year when I realized our local grocery store matched coupons up to $0.55 and it was an everyday deal. So I started buying the paper and keeping coupons. Pretty soon I was online figuring out how to make the most of sales and coupons. Needless to say I now have a great stockpile of toiletries and am working on the food pantry as well. Now it does take time to get great deals, but luckily I have found a website where they post the ads early and others go through it and match up the coupons to the sale items. It makes it a lot less confusing for me. So below are the deals I got today:

These items I got at Rite Aid.  They have a rebate program that runs every month and you get a check in the mail (after entering your receipts online, etc.  etc.).  Before coupons my total was $32.47, I used $13.25 in coupons and will get $17.72 back in rebates, so I essentially paid $1.50 for everything pictured.

This stuff I got at Walgreens.  They have what is called "Register Rewards", which are like coupons that print out after your purchase and can be used on your next purchase.  Of course there are rules and conditions to using them, but not too hard to learn.  My total was $43.95, I used $14.00 in coupons and got $27.00 in "Register Rewards", so I essentially paid $2.95 for everything.

It's amazing how much you can save when using coupons.  Some of the items I bought today I actually got paid to take them home.  For example the box of Mini Drops from Rite Aid was $6.49 and it had a $2 off coupon on the box, plus I'll get back $6.49 in rebates.

If I have piqued your interest with this, send me an email and I'll answer any questions you may have.  Happy shopping!!

Busy Bees

To say we have been really busy lately is a huge understatement.  Two weekends ago I drove to Idaho with Alex and Logan and then flew out of Boise on Monday to coordinate movers at our house in Illinois.  They got everything packed and loaded without incident and I then flew back to Idaho where I picked up two kids and two cats and drove back to Oregon.  We moved out of our apartment last weekend and into our house.  It is so quiet and dark out here, it's amazing.  The movers showed up on Wednesday and unloaded all of our stuff and we have since been busy unpacking.  So far only minor casualties from the move, one of which makes for a funny story...  Ty has a bear rug and when they were done uncrating him, I noticed his tongue was missing.  So I told the gentlemen this and they said it might have fallen out of his mouth and they would look in all the paper he was wrapped in and I should keep an eye out for it in case the movers found it and threw it in a box somewhere.  The people crated the bear the day after everything was boxed up, so I figured if it did fall out before reaching the crate it  would most likely be in the garage stuff or a desk drawer.  So Ty and I were tackling the garage and I saw it on one of the shelves.  Now it's a very odd sight to see a plastic tongue sitting on a shelf.  I don't know what the movers thought when they saw it.  So the next day I get a courtesy call from the company that did the crating and the lady asked me how everything went with uncrating and I say it went fine.  I then said "This is going to sound odd, but my husband has a bear rug and they noted on the paper work that it's tongue was missing.  We found it, so we don't need to make a claim for the tongue."  The lady proceeds to laugh, and I'm trying not to laugh too.  I said "You will probably never have this conversation again in your life."

We are thrilled to be in our new house and we got a nice weekend without rain to do some yard work and look at all the plants outside. Logan loves to walk outside and begs me every day to go out even when it's raining.

Portland Children's Museum

I bought a pass to the Portland Children's Museum and we went for our second time a couple weeks ago.  They have a traveling "Bob the Builder" exhibit which Alex loved.  The kids have a great time exploring the museum and they have classes too.  Alex really wants to paint so I'll probably sign her up for the painting class.  This trip Alex really explored her future career possibilities:

Maybe a Dentist....

Or a Grocery Clerk...

 Or a Bulldozer driver...

No, a Draftstman...

Possibly a  Plumber...

Alex had fun in the "Water Works" area.  Logan didn't have fun there, he wouldn't come anywhere near the water and stood in the corner.  Logan did have fun in the "Dig Pit."  It's a pit filled with chips of recycled tires that are coated in color.  There are lots of dump trucks and shovels and they both love playing there.

Children...

The other night I was wide awake thinking "this is one of those things they don't tell you about before you have children."  The reason for this thought...I was wide awake at 4 a.m. with a 21 month old in my bed with a runny nose.  No one tells you that when your child has a runny nose and can't breathe, they cry and want your comfort and only sleeping with mama will do.  Inevitably you take the child to bed with you thinking maybe that way you and the child will get sleep.  But you don't get any sleep because a) you are worried the child will fall off the bed or you will roll over on the child, b) the sound of the child snorting and rolling around, c) the child wakes up when the medicine has worn off and after the action of giving more medicine, the child is wide awake and wants to talk, play and touch your face-at 4 a.m.

Ah the joys of children.  All you can do is shake your head and laugh at the situation.  Which I have done many times, several of which were this week and involved Logan.  He is a little too curious these days...

My new favorite quote...

"Martin Luther King walked so that Barack Obama could run," said one boy. "Barack Obama ran so that all children could fly," added another, standing a few feet away from the first African-American ever elected president.

This was said at a morning church service in Washington D.C. where children recalled the life of Martin Luther King Jr.   and Barack Obama and his family attended services.

The Oregon Coast

We loaded up and headed to the Oregon Coast yesterday.  Ty and I haven't been to the coast for 8 years.  The last time we went there, he proposed to me on the beach.  It was a little chilly down on the beach, so we didn't spend too much time there, just enough to get some pictures.  We drove down the coast and stopped in Garibaldi where Alex saw some trains.  She is fascinated by trains, so we let her climb on them and took some pictures.  It was a beautiful trip and we can't wait to go back.

Oh how life changes....

Ty and I have always wanted to live in Oregon.  We have sacrificed the last 3 and half years living in places like Missouri and Illinois so our dream could come true.  We recently moved to Oregon  on New Years Eve.  We arrived to very wet weather, but were excited to finally be here.  We are in a small 900 square foot apartment with very minimal furnishings, anxiously awaiting the call from our realtor that we have an offer on our house in Illinois.

The journey here has been an interesting one.  We loaded up two adults, two kids, two cats, a boat and a truck and headed out  at 3 a.m. a few days before Thanksgiving.  We made it to Idaho where we spent Thanksgiving with family.  From there Ty travelled during the week and the kids and I were living with my parents.  I know all the grandparents were glad to have the kids around so much (even though it meant they lost some sleep!).  The cats are having a grand time exploring the acres of land owned by Ty's dad.  Christmas came early in Idaho and we went over to my parent's house and had tamales and rice and beans for dinner.  Oh and there was Marie Callendar pies for dessert, YUM!!  The kids opened lots of presents.   For Christmas we drove down to Utah.  We made a snap decision to leave earlier than planned due to storms and it proved to be a good decision...it snowed the whole next day-the day we were going to travel.  We spent the next week with Ty's family.  Alex was very excited for Santa to come and set out cookies and milk for him.  She was so excited to open more presents.  We then drove back up to Idaho for a couple of days.  We made another snap decision to leave on New Years Eve due to snow storms and since we couldn't find one of our cats (she showed up 30 minutes after we left) we left them in Idaho.

So that's how our life has played out for the last couple of months.  Below are some pictures from the holidays.