Jack-o-Lanterns

I love these PJs! The bones glow in the dark!We had a lot of fun picking out our pumpkins this year & had even more fun carving them into Jack-o-Lanterns. Jamin had a theme from the beginning & I must say, he executed his plan quite well - his pumpkins were fantastic! David's pumpkin was created using Mr. Potato Head parts (they are bigger & meant for pumpkins) - totally cute! We're working on getting him to say pumpkin correctly. He keeps exclaiming, "Munkin!", when he sees them. But occasionally, I'll get a "Punkin" out of him. My son can say "poop" (thanks to his daddy), but he won't say "pumpkin" .. who knows.Yes, that is the DeathStar! Jamin worked hard on that oneOur friend, Richelle took this last photo on Halloween. The happy face pumpkin is Ashley's.

A Festive Birthday Party

The Saturday before Halloween, we joined up with a bunch of friends to celebrate the 2nd birthdays of two of David's friends, Eli & Rennick. They had a costume themed carnival for their birthday & it was a hit with the kids! David dressed as a lion this year.. it was stinkin' cute! (but he wasn't too interested in keeping the hood on) The outfit was pretty toasty, so he basically wore just a diaper underneath & we changed him out as soon as he let us know he was done with it. I didn't get any good pictures of the church gym, where the party was held, but it was all decked out & super cute! David mostly wandered around watching the other kids. He was very interested in the spider rings that came on our cupcakes too. :)

October was a busy month!

So I was really hoping to keep on top of the blogging in October, but that didn't really happen. So I'll be taking a few posts to share the last half of our month... it was BUSY! But we had a lot of fun!On October 20th, our church play group got together at someone's home to have fun outside & pick out lil pumpkins. There were a lot of little ones! There were a few mom's faces I recognized from church & it gave me the chance to try to get to know some people better. I'm bad with names, so it will take me a while. But I enjoyed the opportunity to enjoy the fall weather & let David run around with others his age. We invited Ashley & Tyson to come along & they seemed to enjoy it too.

Working the Albertsons Deals!

Last night, I made a quick trip to Albertsons to take advantage of a promo sale they had going on. It sure was a good trip I made! Here are the details:

10 boxes cereal (those Cheerios are the big boxes)
4 chickens (approx 3.6lbs each)
1/2 gallon Breyers ice cream
3 steamer bags frozen peas (forgot to snag em back out of the freezer for the picture!)

Total out of pocket expense: $21.12
According to the receipts, I saved $65.79 - that's over 75% savings!
(from the ridiculously inflated full retail price at Albertsons... but still!)

I did this in 2 transactions:
First, I purchased the cereal & frozen peas to get the General Mills promo (purchase $25 of participating products & get $10 off your next purchase). I had a coupon for each item I purchased & used 3 doublers (so 3 of my $1 off coupons were doubled to $2 off!). That made the first purchase a total of $17.56 out of pocket.
Then I purchased the chickens & ice cream & used my $10 coupon. (I had another coupon & doubler for the ice cream, which was on sale - & the chickens were only 68 cents/lb!) It was cool to only pay 3.56 for 4 chickens & a half gallon of ice cream. :D

Chillin' on a Sunday Afternoon

David had a hard time going down for his nap on Sunday, so we let him run off some of his energy before trying again. He & Daddy had some adventures in the backyard & they captured a frog. It was fun watching David examine the frog up close. I love the curiosity of little kids. They find such wonder in the world around them. One of David's fascinations lately is with balloons. He exclaims, "balloon!" everytime we see one & points excitedly. Jamin gave in to his adorable demonstrations on Saturday afternoon & bought him a Halloween balloon when we were at Fred Meyer. He has had fun trailing it around with him while playing & bouncing the string around. I love how such a simple thing brings such joy to him! Just happy times with our little man :D

BiZi Farms

We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday afternoon at a local pumpkin patch, picking out our Jack-o-Lanterns. It was perfect Fall weather, with a slight breeze chilling the air, but the sunshine warming us. The hayride down to the patch was a little dusty, but that's because we were sitting directly behind the tractor. There were pumpkins everywhere! David had a blast wandering around the pumpkin patch trying to pick up the little ones. He did a lot of pointing & exclaiming, it was pretty funny! It was fun sorting through all the squash, trying to find the perfect shaped pumpkins for the designs we wanted to carve. The toughest part for Jamin & I was limiting the number of pumpkins we picked out... we came home with more than a few. For now, they're speckling our front porch with a festive orange. But in a few short weeks, we'll carve them up & have them glowing on Halloween night. David's pumpkin won't be carved though.. we have other plans. Thanks to his Grandma Jeri's collection, David has a little love affair with Mr. Potato Head & all his friends. So I couldn't resist when I saw a kit to turn a a pumpkin into Mr. Pumpkin Head with a Pirate costume! Ca-ute!!

After we loaded our pumpkins into the car, we headed back to wander in the corn maze till dark. It was a fun family day on Saturday!

Happy Fall!

Earlier this week, I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of David. He's such a fun kid these days! He's talking more (we're working hard on please & thank you) & he's ever so curious about the world around him. It's so much fun being Mom to this awesome little guy!
I am loving this great Fall weather! It's been cooler, but we've still had some sunshine brightening our days. More rain is coming, and that's ok. As much as I love Summer, I really love the changing seasons. I love the hunkering down & making plans for the busy winter. It's when my crafting bug really gets biting, I've already had a few craft days with friends with several more planned. I'll have to take pictures of the scrapbook pages I've been working on & share them here! I'm so lucky to have a room where I can spread out my stuff & play while David is napping & then shut the door on my mess & keep little hands safe (& my projects safe from little hands). Jamin has been wonderfully patient with me on those days when I haul stuff down to the kitchen table & play. I do try to have a clean kitchen table a few days a week for him. ;)
Speaking of Jamin, we are VERY excited that his work schedule has changed & he'll have more quality time at home! YAY! He'll continue lead duties, but he's been assigned to another team, where his leadership skills will continue to shine. I have an awesome, hard-working husband & his managers know it. So with the new team, his schedule moves from 9:30-6 Mon-Fri to 4 ten hour shifts on Mon, Tues, Wed & Fri. The sweetest deal is that Monday is a holiday, & he also took Tuesday off... so his first week on the new schedule, he'll only work 2 days! We'll be fitting in a lot of fun family time this extended weekend, that's for sure!

Happy Birthday to you... you live in a Zoo

Last Friday, was David's buddy, Tyson's 2nd birthday. Ashley invited David & I along for a trip to the zoo. We were very happy when the boys were very patient & well-behaved for the fun, albeit long day. We were sad that Jamin had to work while David took his first trip to the zoo.. but I think we'll be going back soon! David & Tyson had the treat of watching the elephants get their morning bath. We saw all the elephants, including the little 1 yr old baby, who weighed in at over 1300 lbs that morning. We loved seeing the new cat exhibit, where there was only a pane of glass between us & the cheetahs. It was really neat to be so up close. The only sad part is that David & Tyson were both quite camera shy. Why don't they understand my scrapbooking duty? :) The fun day was ended with a trip on the zoo train & then a nice long nap for two busy little boys.

Camping

We took the opportunity as summer was closing, to take David on his first camping trip. We skipped the Labor day crowds & met up with my dad & his girlfriend, Lisa, the following weekend, just outside of Sweet Home, OR. It was a nice relaxing 3 day trip, with a few walks in the beautiful outdoors, cozy time around the fire (with s'mores of course! David loved those!), & time around the picnic table, playing games & catching up. It was a lot of fun hanging out with my dad & Lisa. They had a couple fun new toys for David to play with while we were there (& he's still having fun with the bowling set & truck) We took a few group shots, but I think all the good ones ended up on my dad's camera.David was way too curious about his new outdoor surroundings to get a nap in the first day, much to our chagrin. But he slept well that night, cuddled between Jamin & I in our sleeping bags. He enjoyed the tent quite a bit - I see a future fort-builder in him. ;) He also very quickly caught on to the little boy notion of always having a stick in his hands. It was pretty cute. We had a nice spacious camp site near a river & went on a few supervised wanderings with his daddy. I am very much looking forward to next summer when we can take a few more trips with David. Camping & hiking created many favorite childhood memories for me & I am sure Jamin as well. We are looking forward to help David cultivate his own appreciation of the great outdoors. (and a clean shower after 3 days of camping! hehe)

Waiting up for Daddy

Jamin had a late night last night, so David & I caught up on some reading.