San Diego – Flight, Temple, and Mormon Battalion Site

We went on our very first family vacation (we’ve gone places with family, but not our own) to San Diego!  I’m going to break up the posts by activity so stay tuned for LOTS of posts and pictures!

Adam was SO excited about the plane ride.

He spent most of the flight playing the iPad.  Oh, how I love the iPad!!

Abigail did pretty well also and spent the flight climbing all over us, eating snacks, and also playing the iPad or Nat’s Xoom.

I don’t know if it shows up very well on here, but she has beautiful green eyes when she wears green!

Our first full day there was on a Sunday so we took a trip to see the San Diego Temple.  I was almost 10 years old in 1993 and living in Rancho Santa Margarita (Orange County) when the temple was dedicated.  My Dad sang in a stake choir in one of the dedication sessions so we were able to be in the Celestial Room for the dedication.  I remember how beautiful that room was with the staircase where the choir sang.

It was a cloudy, cold morning!

Adam got to touch the temple which has been one of our stake goals in recent years.

I love how you come up a hill on the freeway and all of a sudden see the temple.  It is VERY close to the freeway!

We walked around the grounds and the kids had fun running around and I had fun taking pictures of all the flowers of my “homeland”!
By the way, I lived in San Diego from about age 3-5 and Orange County from 5-10 so most of my young childhood was spent in California.

Poppies and Agapanthus
We had both of these in our backyard in California
There are more flower pics to come! :)

True to Coastal California, the sun came out in the afternoon and our next stop was the Mormon Battalion Historic Site.  A couple weeks before we left, a man in our ward bore his testimony about this place that he visited while on a business trip in San Diego.  I’m so grateful that he did because we wouldn’t have known about it and it was awesome!

They had a really neat interactive movie experience where we went to different rooms that were decorated like a campsite, army outfitter store, and old court house.  The Sister Missionaries were great and Nat and I really enjoyed the history.

Adam was our Mormon Battalion member fitted for duty.

At the end, they had a kiosk where you could search for any ancestors who were members of the Battalion.  My Mom reminded me before we left that my 5th Great Grandfather, Thomas Karren, served in the Mormon Battalion.  He got sick and stayed the winter in Pueblo, CO, and then went to the Salt Lake Valley, rather than continuing on to San Diego where the Battalion helped build homes and establish the city.  It was neat seeing his picture and biography there.
We had our picture taken as “Honorary Members of the Mormon Battalion”

Outside, they had a place to pan for gold (which many of the members did once they arrived in California).

Our big haul of gold!

Adam had a blast playing in the water

And Abby loved running around and building with bricks.

More flower pictures

Bougainvillea!
We also had this in our yard and I’ve always loved the hot pink color!
 

It was a great first day!

More posts to come….it might take me a few days to get everything posted.   Last week was filled with laundry, cleaning, errands, and a sick baby girl and I’m still playing catch-up on real life!

6 Years Ago Today….

I married my best friend!

It’s amazing how fast 6 years goes by!  I love the life Nat and I have created together, even with it’s ups and downs and daily stresses of kids, homemaking, work, school, and church callings.  I couldn’t ask for a better husband and I’m excited to see what the next year will bring!

We are spending our anniversary in a very romantic way.  Flying to San Diego with 2 kids, 3 bags, 3 carry-ons, 2 car seats, and a stroller, and then sharing my bed with a 3 year old.  I guess other than Nat, there isn’t any other guy I’d want next to me! :)

I love you honey!

Abby Elizabeth is 15 Months Old

Abby is now 15 months old and had her check-up today.  Here are her stats:

Height:  30 in. – 50%
Weight:  20 lbs. 2 oz. – 15%

She gained over 2 lbs. in 3 months!  Technically she is big enough to switch to a forward facing car seat (according to the old regulations) but I’m a little hesitant now that the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests they rear-face until 2 years old.  I couldn’t wait to switch Adam and he hit 20 lbs. right at 12 months so that is when we switched him.  He was so frustrated being back there alone but Abby doesn’t seem to mind since she has Adam to look at and interact with.  Her feet touch the back of the seat, but so far, she doesn’t really have to bend her legs, so she’ll stay in her infant carrier for a few more months and then we’ll probably buy a convertible car seat but keep her rear-facing for a while.  I’m not sure we’ll make it another 9 months though.  It seems strange to have an almost 2 year old rear-facing but if it’s the safest way to go…we’ll do it.  Anyway…..

My little Abigail is becoming so fun!  I wrote a lot about her last month so I’ll do a little recap.

She signs about 25 words and says probably the same amount.  Her doctor said she could be putting 2-word sentences together any day with how large her vocabulary is already.  My new favorite signs that I just taught her are “up” and “down”.  It’s SO much better to have her sign and say “uh!” when she wants up rather than just yelling about it.  Another favorite is “thank you”.  She signs it and says “tay-tee” (or something of that nature) whenever you give her something and even when she gives us something!

She now loves to build towers, but more often than not, she just takes the blocks out of the box and puts them in, out and in, out and in.  She likes to take them out and hand them to Adam while he’s building.

She LOVES cars!!  Every single time we get her out of her crib in the morning or after nap, she emphatically says, “cah, cah!” and we have to open her blinds and let her look at the cars driving by.  And every time we take her out of the car she has to yell and point to the cars around us.  She will also go to the corner where Adam’s big wheel of cars are and stand on it and yell, “cah!” until we open it for her.  She frequently sounds like a crow through out the day!! :)

She is still in love with her Wubby and also her lovey that she calls “dah-dah” (dog-dog).  I fear the day that the binky has to go bye-bye.  In fact, she recently found just a plain binky and walked around the house all morning with one in her mouth and the other in her hand, switching them back and forth constantly.

She is a fiesty little thing, but happy, and absolutely adores her Daddy.  Many mornings are spent standing at the front door crying for Daddy.  And the second she hears the door unlock at night she squeals “Da Da” and goes running for him.  There are many times when she refuses to come to me, in favor of Daddy.  Which is ok, because I have my Mama’s Boy to keep me company.
There really is something about Daddy’s Girls and Mama’s Boys.  It must be an opposite sex thing.

Only 3 more months until she gets to go to Nursery!!  I have a feeling it’s going to be a much more difficult transition than it was with Adam.  She is NOT a fan of strangers!

My “Extreme Couponing”

Have any of you seen the new TLC show called “Extreme Couponing”?  I love it!  Except there’s no way I would want to spend 20, 30, 40 hours a week couponing.  Still, I manage to get some good deals when I do.  We’ve been getting the Sunday paper for about 6 months and I tried clipping out all the coupons I thought I would use and filing them into categories.  WAY too much work!  I’ve discovered that if I leave my coupon inserts in tack and file them by date, I can scan the weekly sales, match it with a coupon, go to that insert, and just clip it then.  I LOVE the website Pinching Your Pennies for this!  It’s all done for me ahead of time!

Now, in all honestly, I don’t do this very often.  Sometimes I will take the time to look through the store ads and price match at Walmart.  And sometimes I will go all out and score big time like I did on Saturday.  This was a fluke actually because I had my grocery list done and just ran upstairs to see if I had a coupon for a couple of times.  30 minutes later I came out with a game plan to shop at Smith’s and also Walmart (my regular grocery store) and to get some stuff for FREE!!  I’ve never been able to get anything for free and that’s mainly because the stores in Utah (or at least up here and at least to my knowledge) don’t ‘double’ coupons.  That’s how those crazy people on the show save so much money.  Anyway…..the stars aligned on Saturday and I was able to get all of this for free:9 boxes/bag of pasta
2 bottles of men’s body wash

My full shopping order from Smith’sWith the 9 free boxes plus 10 bags of American Beauty pasta, I’d say we’re pretty well stocked up on pasta!  And you can’t see it, but I also bought some make-up remover for full price that I needed (and that Walmart was out of) so that skewed my ‘cheapness’ a little.

My total was $81.15 but with $37.76 in promo sales + $16.29 in coupons, plus tax, I only paid $27.10 for a total savings of 68%!!  It’s not 98% like the crazy people on “Extreme Couponing” but it’s my best savings ever and I’ll take it!

I also saved about $15 just by price matching a few items at Walmart.

So although it does take time, it can be worth it.  It’s motivated me to be better at it.  I don’t want to have to change my shopping habits drastically by going to multiple stores every week and spending hours preparing to shop, but if I can cut my grocery/household budget down by $50 a month and only spend an hour a week preparing, I’ll be happy.  I’d like to cut it down even more but I’m limited on space and to really save, you need to stockpile.  I’ve also learned a lot from the website Money Saving Mom.  Anyway, sorry for bragging but I’m excited! :)

Abby’s Big Girl Hair

I attempted pig tails today.  It took FOREVER but when they were finally done, I was pretty impressed!  She looks so grown up!

She has a very prominent natural part and her hair just doesn’t want to go the other way….hence the wacky part line.

Trying to get a picture of her is almost impossible.  I thought this one was funny.  She’s so serious.

Of course it lasted all of an hour before she threw a fit on the floor and messed it up.  Oh well.  I have some other ideas but they require precise parting and placement and she just won’t sit still! :)

Any suggestions of styles or tricks my fellow mom’s of little girls? 

Easter 2011

A little late, but here are some pictures from Easter this year.

Dying eggs with Aunt DeeDee.
Nat was out of town the week leading up to Easter, so we dyed eggs at my parents’ house one day.

The Easter Bunny visited our house on Saturday morning and Adam had fun finding his basket and the eggs hidden around.

Adam’s basket included a Boggle Jr. game, a book with a collection of old “Little Golden Books” stories, a little tiddlywinks frog jumping game, and of course, candy.

Abby’s basket had a book, a Hide & Squeak Eggs toy, bracelets, and candy.

Growing up, we always rolled our eggs down the driveway to crack the shells before eating them for breakfast.  No need for that this year.  Abby started banging eggs together and was quite intrigued when they smooshed and broke apart!

 

 

 

Saturday night we read a book about the Easter story and made Resurrection Rolls.  You place a butter/cinnamon sugar coated marshmallow in the middle of a crescent roll to represent the body of Christ in the tomb.  After they bake, you open up the roll and marvel that the marshmallow is gone, just like Christ’s body on Easter Sunday.  After that, Adam kept talking about how Jesus was like the marshmallow and how he disappeared from the tomb.  I wish I took some pictures!

Easter Sunday

I thought this was cute of Abby….Adam is making a weird face in the full picture, but it’s cute that he’s holding her hand!

Happy Easter!

Tot School–Easter Theme

- Adam is 41 months and Abby is 14 months old -

The last 2 weeks were spent on a few Easter themed activities.  We’ve been really busy so Tot School has been very infrequent but I’m hoping to get back to “full time” this coming week.  It’s always a trade-off, one week I’m gung-ho about it and wind up exhausted, the next week I slack off and am driven crazy by a boy who obviously needs some structure in the day other than just playing.  Either way….I’m tired!  I have a sneaking suspicion that that will not change any time soon. :)

Lowercase/Uppercase Letter Match
from Musings of Me

Missing Number from Musings of Me
Adam had a hard time figuring out which number was missing unless he started counting from number 1.

Letter Ee Sort, also from Musings of Me

Jelly Bean Counting from Confessions of a Homeschooler 

Easter Egg and Flower dots pages from Mama to 4 Blessings

Sound Matching game
I got this idea from a couple of blogs.  I put pennies, bells, beads, and nothing in 2 eggs and then Adam had to match which eggs sounded the same.  I didn’t expect this to be hard for him, but it was.  I think he really just didn’t get why I was asking him to listen to them!  He just wanted to open them up and see what was inside!  Maybe we’ll try this again next year.

The kids had fun tossing, dropping, and chucking plastic eggs around the house….for days.

Water Colored Easter Eggs
We did this a few months ago and I thought it’d be a great Easter art project.  I cut coffee filters in egg shapes and then we dropped colored water on them with droppers.

Mostly Adam just likes playing with the water!

The finished product up in our window

Marshmallow Egg
Again, this idea came from somewhere in the blogosphere (I really need to be better at giving credit for art ideas!)
I made the shape of an egg with glue and we stuck white marshmallows on the outside, then colored marshmallows to decorate the egg.

Adam’s free-form art.
I was visiting with a friend and didn’t see just how much glue he dumped onto the page!

Here are just a few things Abby has done for Tot School lately.

Laugh & Learn Piggy Bank

Magneatos

Coloring

And the ever-present Baby Signing Time.Every time we walk downstairs she signs baby and says “Bee-bee…..bee-bee!” to let me know she wants to watch Baby Signing Time.  She is picking signs up like crazy though!  Just today she saw a doll in a book and signed doll.  Another new favorite is wind and rain.  Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE sign language for babies?  And how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Baby Signing Time to help teach them?  Here’s a link if you’ve never checked them out.

We didn’t get to a few other spring/Easter related activities so I may try and sneak those in this week before moving on to the Transportation Preschool Pack from Carisa at 1+1+1=1 and Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations. 

Stop by 1+1+1=1 for other great Tot Schoolers!