27 March 2010

Elizabeth bowling

This was a faculty outing the day after Elizabeth's 4th birthday. She was having so much fun bowling, even though it almost always went in the gutter (we were just happy if it didn't get stuck!), that James asked me to record. So funny what happened when I did!

22 March 2010

Too Darn Cute


Jeb isn't quite crawling, but he sure can get around!




James is very proud of his new lightsaber and was anxious to introduce Jeb to the ways of the force.

17 March 2010

Monday at the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Blair

Ok, so this is going to have to be all out of order and I'm going to have to do a Part II tomorrow because Google is being stupid about the pictures, but I know if I don't blog about our zoo trip now it will never happen. As it is, I should be cleaning the house.
Grandma and Grandpa Blair took us to the zoo in Waco on Monday. Uncle Darren had to go to Waco to take the GRE, so we made a day of it.



Jeb stuck close to Mommy while Amelia and Elizabeth rode in the wagon that Grandpa custom-built.





Two of Mommy's loves.



This is right after he woke up (napped in the stroller the first couple of hours)



Loved, loved, loved the sea otter slide. This slide went through the exhibit, under the water, and the sea otters could swim over and around the kids going on the slide.


Couple of cool pictures where I missed Jeb, but got his reflection.



Daddy's girls in the Beaver Den. (James was in the Beaver patrol at Wood Badge.)


We spent over an hour at this playground. The girls didn't want to go see the animals or anything. They were just having a blast with the billion other kids on Spring Break.


This slide had a really bad drop at the end and we saw a few scares, but they (especially Amelia) kept going again and again.



Grandma hates snakes, but the girls loved this one!



Once we finally got them away from the playground, they loved this floor to ceiling aquarium.


This was a picture from the start of the day.




More playground pictures.



Elizabeth loved the spyglass at the top of the treehouse slide.

Jeb's not all that's growing around here


3/11 vs 3/17



3/11 vs 3/17

I took pictures of my garden boxes right before we left Thursday and again this morning. It's fun to see the difference in less than a week. The one thing I'm not so excited about when it comes to our trip in NC in May is that I'll be away from my garden for 3 weeks. Plan to hire a Scout to water it, but I'll miss it.

16 March 2010

5 and 6 Month Jeb pictures

5 Months: Jeb and Daddy ended up (almost) matchy matchy by coincidence.




6 Months: after church at Grandpa and Grandma Blair's

03 March 2010

Pantry Challenge Results

Well, how to sum up the month? I spent a LOT less on groceries than I normally do, but not under $100. I realized within the first few days that one of my challenges would be that I'm too disorganized to keep track of what we spent! James stopped by the store after work to get some milk and I kept forgetting to ask him how much he spent.
I did learn that we have a pretty well stocked pantry at this point. Last year there was a month when there were more days than dollars and I was trying to just use what we had and shop as little as possible for a couple of weeks. It was a lot harder last year than is was this past month. My couponing/stockpiling is really paying off. But I also discovered that I've become more dependant on convenience foods than I'd realized. I justified them a lot when we first moved here because of being hugely pregnant and then having a newborn, but it's probably time to wean myself off those luxuries and get back to basics. We always had food to eat, but sometimes I just didn't want to prepare it!
I'm struggling with my meal preparation because James isn't home at least half the nights of the week and Elizabeth is a picky eater...oh, and Jeb gets fussy and wants Mommy all evening.
Anyway, I don't know if this really tells you how the month went. It was kind of a blur. I mostly bought milk and fruit. We spend a lot on both of those areas because James is a HUGE milk drinker and the girls (especially Elizabeth) are crummy veggie eaters, so I make sure they get plenty of fruit. I can't say that I made any thrilling, creative meals but the truth is that the girls would be happy with plain rice or pasta for dinner most nights. Elizabeth got upset tonight because there were sweet and sour chicken nuggets in her rice tonight.
I do feel good to realize that we are closer to having some home food storage. We have a really good supply of hot cocoa, popcorn, crackers, toilet paper, dishwasher detergent, dryer sheets, crackers, and pasta, diapers, and wipes. Those are all things I've managed to get super deals on as well as a lot of drugstore items. Yesterday I was checking out at CVS and discovered that I'd left my wallet at home. Thanks to Texas' coupon-friendly tax laws I was able to just pay using ExtraBucks. That was a really good feeling especially since I was buying 2 gallons of milk.
So this is a lot of rambling, but by the time I get Jeb to stay asleep at night I'm too tired to think straight and I really should be cleaning. Today I keep thinking that if we were still in Pyote and my parents were still in Blythe I would totally be up for the drive. 2 years ago it was an impossible dream with 2 kids, but now I could do it with 3, so I guess I'm making some progress. It's strange to think that Amelia is now quite a bit older than Elizabeth was at that time. Sometimes it feels like I'll be overwhelmed like this forever, but I know it's not true...Jeb is almost half-way to a year!