Weekend fun

We had a really fun weekend with my mom and dad in town: playing outside, family walks, yummy food, reading books, watching movies, and just enjoying being together!

Grandma figured out how to get Joshua to smile:

tickle him!

These two are best buddies :)

As I was working on honey wheat rolls

yesterday afternoon, I looked out the windows

into the backyard to see my mom up in the

club house, playing with Joshua...I've never

even tried to get up there for fear I'd hurt

myself! Grandmas have no fear :)

Grandma enjoyed snuggle time with Joshua

before naps and bedtime...she's the official

story reader/singer/rocking chair rocker

when she's here!

Much to my mother's joy, Joshua constantly

asked her for kisses all weekend long.

Love, love, love these two :)

Grandpa is already wrapped around Leah's

little finger! As soon as she'd make a peep

after finishing a nap or waking up in the

morning, he was on his way up the stairs

to get her.

Leah smiling at Grandma and Joshua eating

breakfast. Leah's become quite the champion

eater as well...she's working her way through

all kinds of fruit and veggie baby food and cereal.

She also loves to play with her tongue, as seen

here. 3 pictures with no fingers in her mouth--

hooray! Must be Grandpa's doing :) We love

when family comes to visit!

Peace signs on foreheads and hands on cheeks

When Leah woke up from her morning nap on Saturday morning, David went up to her room to get her. I heard him laughing as he came down the stairs with her, and I soon saw why. Apparently Leah had fallen asleep with her hand under her forehead, and she was giving a peace sign in her sleep--can you see the imprint?

She seems quite concerned about all the attention.

But then she remembered that she absolutely

LOVES to be the center of attention ;)

What a little ham :)

***
Joshua's had a cold all week (almost every Sunday he is

in nursery, he's got some kind of bug the rest of the week),

so it has been even more difficult to get a smile out of him.

On our way to his cousin Janie's birthday party

on Saturday afternoon, we got him laughing by

putting our hands on our cheeks and yelling, "Cheeks!"

When he copied us, I caught a quick picture,

runny nose and all.

And yes, I realize he needs a haircut. We don't want to use

the clippers again because they cut his hair way too short.

A friend from church is planning to teach me how to give

him a scissor cut, but we may have to take up Great Clips

and their $6.99 haircut special this week to help us bridge

the gap until then!

Provident living rocks :)

Anyone who knows me knows that I love couponing and spending wisely. I've been looking for more ways to be self-reliant and do more things myself, which goes right along with other aspects of provident living in our family. A favorite website of mine, 5dollardinners.com, has been such a great resource for me. Not only are there a ton of delicious and healthy recipes for my family that allow me to make dinner for around $5 or less (and since our family is still small, these meals often stretch to feed us for 2 dinners), but there are a number of different how-to demonstrations.

I've typically been a boneless skinless chicken breast kind of girl because there's no prep needed before cooking. I only buy them when they're at their lowest price, and then I really stock up, but I've still wanted to branch out to other cuts of chicken, which are even less expensive. Harris Teeter had whole chickens on sale this week for $0.59/lb, which is a great price, but I had never cooked a whole chicken in my life. With a little help from my website tutorial, I cooked the whole chicken in the crockpot, shredded the chicken, prepared 2 meals for the freezer for nights later this month using the meat, and then made 10 cups of chicken stock for free for the freezer as well! This may not be super-impressive to anyone else, but I was really proud of myself. I also batch-cooked some sweet potatoes (also on sale at HT this past week) and we've got 3 dinners' worth of mashed sweet potatoes in the freezer and some baby food for Leah. I love being productive!

And anyone who knows David knows that he loves bread more than almost anything in the world, so he is loving all the homemade bread coming out of our kitchen. I've got a great whole wheat bread recipe from my friend Melissa in our ward that is AMAZING, and the honey wheat roll recipe that I've started using is like heaven in your mouth--seriously. This weekend, I'm planning to make some homemade hamburger and hot dog buns to freeze for future use, as well as some other things. My sweet friend Maria gave us a huge stand-up freezer that she wasn't using anymore--I have been wanting one of these forever! The extra space not only lets me stock up on sale items that I buy at the grocery store, but allows me to batch cook some items, freeze breads I batch bake, and store meals that I double or triple when I have the time. There are also 5 more whole chickens bought on sale in there just waiting for me to get them into the crockpot :)

It is really rewarding to be able to do things yourself, save money, and have really yummy food for your family :)

Joshie Bieber

Since I have no good pictures to post of Joshua, I thought I'd share a funny story from recent days.

I don't remember when this started, but one day we saw Justin Bieber singing "Baby" on some television show or commercial (it must have been a weekend, because David was home), and although I don't know any of the words besides the chorus, I started to sing that, and David joined in, thinking Joshua would laugh and like it since he loves when we sing songs. Boy, were we wrong! He flipped out and started begging us to stop singing it. Every few days, I'd try it again, and he'd pitch a fit and I'd say, "No, sir...we don't act like that." Last night, after laying Leah down for bed, I walked by his door and heard him talking/singing in his crib. I put my ear to the door and this is what I heard:

"Baby, baby, baby, oh like, baby, baby, baby...NO SIR!"

I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing out loud! He cracks me up sometimes :)

Funny "hats" and magic prunes

Let me start off this post by explaining why there are no pictures of Joshua: he's going through a strange camera phase. He constantly wants me to take his picture, but he refuses to smile. His face goes completely blank and nothing I say or do will get him to smile. This drives me crazy because Joshua has the brightest, sweetest smile and it lights up my heart a million times a day...except when the camera is on him. Oh well...this too shall pass.

Leah likes this little tag blanket my mom got her, and Joshua likes to put it on her head:

Funny Leah-bug :)

On another note, we celebrated a long-awaited accomplishment yesterday--Leah had a poopy diaper! As funny as that sounds, it is true. She'd gone WEEKS without a dirty diaper, and we were starting to get really worried. She'd been wetting diapers like normal, but that was it. I found some baby food prunes in a bag of baby food a friend from church had given us, and I hoped they'd be the solution. This was Leah's first solid food, and I'm not sure how much of it even ended up in her tummy! As soon as I would put a spoonful in her mouth, those little fingers would pop right back in her mouth, and the food would get all over her hand...which she would then wipe all over her face, bib, outfit, and chair. What a mess! Eventually, I had to hold both of her little hands in my left hand and feed her with my right hand to keep the food from getting everywhere...and then she decided it was fun to blow raspberries and get the prunes all over the place that way.

***

It seems that she got enough food in her belly because after eating some prune baby food Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, and Wednesday at lunch time, we had a VERY full dirty diaper yesterday afternoon and another one this morning--hooray! Baby Leah's not stopped up anymore :)

***

And in the last couple of weeks, one of her bottom middle teeth has broken through the gum, so she beat her brother's first tooth by a few weeks (she'll be 6 months next Friday).

Even though the thought of tasting prunes seems

pretty gross, I could still just eat her up :)

(Look at all the food on that bib!)

My two little valentines

I came across these two pictures this morning as I was checking the camera--David must have taken them while I was doing some cleaning on Saturday morning. Surprise pictures are fun to find...especially when they are of my two little valentines!

Leah loves to stick out her tongue these days!

I love those big brown eyes and long eyelashes :)

Leah's upping the ante recently...while she still
loves to suck on her pointer and middle finger together,
sometimes she'll shove in her ring finger for good
measure! And the other day, I found her with all
four fingers crammed in her mouth--I think if
she could figure out how to fit her thumb in there too,
she'd do it! Silly Leah-bug :)

Sunshine!

After battling the stomach flu all week long (it started with Joshua, then came to me, back to Joshua, then to Leah, and finally to David), we were grateful to see a warm (for this time of year) and sunny afternoon that allowed us to spend some time outside after naps today. David's still recovering after being extremely sick Friday night and yesterday, but the kids both seem to be getting back to normal. Leah seemed to enjoy the swing (she went into the "zone," just like Joshua used to do) and those little fingers went straight into her mouth!

A single shot sans fingers :)

(Note the adorable Tar Heel hoodie--on loan

from my friend Katherine...gotta start 'em young!)

Joshua was over the moon excited to get outside!
(Although you can't tell it from this picture...

we're back to the blank stare face in most

pictures these days...oh well.)

Joshua loves climbing up the ladder to the

club house all by himself.

And he LOVES the slide!

"Mommy say: Ready, set, go!"

Leah was ready to go inside at this point...

So Joshua leaned over and said, "It's okay, baby girl."

Haha...guess he's heard me say that a time or twenty!

***

Today reminded me yet again how grateful I am for a big backyard and a wonderful playset given to us by our friends the Saunders. I am so over winter weather and SO ready for spring!