It's the simple things in life

It doesn't take much to make me smile. Logan laughing, his dancing, Sam coming home from work, baby girl kicking, a clean house, water (yes, water makes me smile...it just tastes so good), pretty much anything small and simple. But lately, I've had to add another item to my simple list...saving money! The reality of having two kids has hit me. I've been thinking that we'll have (hopefully) 2 college educations, a mission (possibly 2) and a wedding to pay for. I'm looking forward to all of it. I figured I might as well get a jump start on saving money for the future. It's become quite a fun game for me. How much can I get and for how little? Coupons have become a good friend of mine, as well as all those ads (grocery and others). I have made it a rule that if it's not on sale, I'm not going to get it. And having coupons just adds to the fun of it. It may sounds crazy, but it works, and I've been enjoying watching the receipts come back to me and seeing the savings. Some weeks are better than others, but still, it all adds up. Today for example, I went grocery shopping and bought $98.99 worth of groceries, but only paid $49.14 for it. My rule of it being on sale doesn't always work, sometimes there are things you just need to get and can't wait. But overall, it's worked pretty well for me.

Tulip Festival

Sam had the day off of work today, so since it was nice outside, we decided to head up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. It was absolutely beautiful. The tulips had finally decided to bloom and they were gorgeous. Plus, we had sunny weather! :) Logan wasn't too thrilled with the tulips, he preferred the horses and tractors that we saw. Still, it was fun. Here are some, okay lots of, pictures of the trip.









I just love the look on Logan's face. He looks like he's up to something.


Finally, a family picture! Not the best, but we'll take it. (Logan was looking at a tractor)





Like I mentioned earlier, he just wasn't that into the tulips. He's studying the dirt in this picture.




The ride home.

Spring has sprung

At least, I hope it has. The weather has been so cold lately, I was beginning to wonder if we would ever make it outside. But this weekend has been a good one. It was cloudy, but a little warmer with temps in the 60's. So on Saturday, I put Logan and Sam to work and had them work on the yard. Logan didn't like the idea at first, but he went to work anyway. I think he did a good job of mowing the lawn.





This morning I finally saw a tulip in bloom. We've been waiting a long time for this day. Now if we can only get the rest of them to bloom.

You know something's going on when...

You have a toddler in the house that has been screaming all day and all of a sudden becomes very quiet.

Security Blanket

Logan has his favorite blanket. He takes it with him everywhere. He uses it to let us know he's had enough and is ready for a nap, or for bed. He uses it to play with or talk to. I had always heard that kids can get attached to certain objects, I just never knew how attached they can get.

Here is a picture of him at 6 months with his blanket.



And here he is today at 15 months.



It's what he does, just walks around the house with the blanket over his head. Sometimes he'll even cover his face and walk around, usually running into walls and stuff. We try to stop him, but he seems to enjoy it. It can get a little frightening to watch him run around with the blanket over his head, knowing he can't see. But I know that this won't last forever. One day he'll grow out of his blanket. It's a sad thought, so I treasure each precious moment I have of my little boy, even if the blanket is over his head.

15 Months

Logan had his 15 month appointment and the results are...he's a happy and very healthy little boy! Here are his stats.

Weight: 26lbs. 6ozs. (75th%)
Height: 32.5 inches (90th%)

He only gained 1 pound in 3 months. He's just so active it's hard to keep him still long enough to eat. I was given a list of things to give him to increase his calories, one of them being butter. What?!? Butter? Really? I guess I'm supposed to start putting butter on a lot of things he eats. I'll try, but I'm not one who uses a lot of butter myself, so this could take some adjusting to.

Anyway, other than the weight thing, he's doing very well. He has a pretty large vocabulary, the only problem is, he will generally just say the word once and then we rarely hear it after that. Some of the words he has said are "peaches", "done", "kitty", "bye bye", "fish", "hi", "nap" (well, that one comes out "na"), "nigh nigh" (for bedtime) and just recently "bay is-er" (baby sister). We ask him frequently where baby sister is, and he will come up to me and pat (really hit) my belly. Sam tried getting him to say baby sister and it was so cute to listen to Logan really try to say it. And now, whenever he sees a baby on TV or outside or wherever, he'll pat his belly and then come up to me and do the same. It's so cute to watch him. I'm not sure he understands that another little person will soon be joining our family, but it is fun to watch him around other babies and to see how excited he gets when we bring home baby clothes. (Really, I just think he's excited about the hangers.)