My best DEAL yet!

6 jumbo packs of Huggies
2 jumbo packs of Pull-Ups
4 bottles Children's Tylenol
1 bottle Children's Motrin
1 bottle Extra Strength Tylenol
3 bottles Dove Men's Body Wash
2 Gillette Fusion Razors
16 Valentine Eraser-topped Pencils

And the Grand Total I payed for this is $44.95 (with $6 left in Register Rewards)! That's great and all, but what really blows my mind is what I saved... $129.51!!!!

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh MY!

We went to the zoo yesterday and had a blast! The weather was sooooo nice! It's hard to believe it's winter here because we have been having such nice weather! And a bonus is that the animals were very active and fun to watch! We ended up spending the whole day there with no naps, but Porter and Hudson LOVED it!

Out on the Farm

Giddy-Up Horsey!

It looks like a sheep, but it's actually a goat.

Lunch Time!

Lunch time didn't last very long b/c they wanted to go play.

It's hard to tell, but this is Porter looking at the lions. There is one male and two females lying on the rocks.

Tigers- we got to watch them playing together and rolling around. Usually they are napping when we come visit them.

Mesmerized by the Sea Lions (Our fav animal of the day! We spent a lot of time here.)

And a trip to the Portland Zoo can not be complete without playing in the huge sandbox!

What a fun day!

Catching up...

I've been behind on my blogging lately because January was just a crazy month for us. On a sad note, I found out that I had a miscarriage. It was a very early miscarriage and I had just barely found out that I was pregnant. The week that I found out was an emotional roller coaster ride, but I am doing okay now. My Dr. said that 1 in 5 pregnancies ends in miscarriage, so it is very common. I am so glad that this did not happen when I was further along. It would have even been harder to deal with. I just try to keep focused on the fact that I have two healthy babies and I need to enjoy my time with them. I do feel so blessed to have my boys and my husband, who has been a huge support to me, also.

On a happier note, this is what I woke up to this morning:
These two are so funny together!

On Monday, Porter had his 3 yr check up and Hudson had his 15 mo. check up. Both are very healthy. Hudson is only 3 in. shorter and 4 lbs lighter than Porter. I think they will be wearing the same size clothes by summer, unless Porter has a huge growth spurt!
Porter is in the 10-15% for height and weight and Hudson is in the 60% for weight and 90% for height. The Dr. has had Porter using an inhaler regularly for his asthma. Yes, Porter has juvenile asthma. It is something that he may grow out of, or it could be something he deals with all of his life. Only time will tell. His inhaler has been so nice, because Porter is a VERY active child, and pre- inhaler he would get coughing so bad that he would throw up! Now he can run his little heart out with no coughing!
Hudson is jabbering like crazy. He will tell you an entire story if you let him. He also says some words that you can understand like: nana (his favorite food), bye-bye, momma, dadda, uh-oh, that? (for what's that?). He signs "Please" while saying "eeeese". He also signs "finished", "thank you", and "more".
Another thing I've had to deal with lately is Hudson's desire to be pants-less and diaper-less! He takes off his pants ALL THE TIME now! And once the pants are off, the diaper usually comes off, too! I've already cleaned up two poopy messes from him taking his pants and diaper off during nap time! Today, he kept taking his pants off and I got tired of putting them back on, so I put him in footie jammies. These are the only things that he can't take off! (I'm waiting for the day when he learns how to do zippers) Any advice, though, on what I can do? He can't wear jammies all the time! And when the weather gets warmer, I won't be able to put him in those, anyways. Help!

This is another thing I have been busy with: saving more money!
Last weekend I went to two stores and this is what I ended up with:
1 box of Ritz crackers, 2 boxes of Lucky Charms, 6 cans diced tomatoes, 4 cans beans, 2 salad dressings, 2 cans of soup, 5 lbs of ribs, 4 packages of cheese, 4 boxes of ziploc bags, 5 bags of Doritos, and a tube of toothpaste. With a $5 rebate and a $2 catalina the final price for all of this food was under $20!!!! Pretty good, huh?

Porter & Peyton's Party!

Porter and Peyton's birthdays are right in a row, so we had a combined birthday party for them.

We had a "Summer" party to get rid of those winter blues that everyone usually has this time of year. Here are the ice cream cup cakes I made. They were super easy and so cute!

One of the birthday boys.

Porter and Peyton are the same age, but Porter is small for his age, and I really notice it when he's around Peyton!

To go along with the "Summer" theme, there was fishing for prizes,

basketball,

golf,

Red light, Green light,

and of course any Summer party would not be complete without a BBQ!

Present time.

Cake time.

Thanks Tish for all of your help! It was nice having another person help with the planning and executing of a birthday party!

Happy Birthday, Porter!

MY BABY IS 3 TODAY!!! I can't believe it! Where has the time gone? I guess it's been spent building towers, doing somersaults, climbing up fridges, wrestling, throwing balls, playing with friends, doing gymnastics, singing made-up songs, making balls and snakes with play dough, going to story time, reading books over and over again, taking bubble baths, crashing cars, jumping off furniture, playing super heroes, riding bikes, making cookies, doing karate chops, rocking and snuggling at bedtime, and lots and lots and lots of hugs and kisses!

Porter is ALL boy! This is how he shows how old he is: (For those of you with only girls, that is what Spider Man does to shoot webs out of his hands. It works, though, because it's 3 fingers!)

We have late church, so we gave Porter his present this morning when he woke up. He was so excited to have lots of tools, like daddy!

Since he was the Birthday Boy, he even got to eat a cookie for breakfast! (that was after he had already eaten 3 buckwheat pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream, yum!) He took the rest of the cookies to church to share with his friends in Nursery.

When we got home from church, we had homemade pizza (canadian bacon and pineapple was his request) and ice cream. Then we opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Perry! He doesn't look excited at all, does he?

Look at that form!

It was a great day and we are so lucky to have this little guy in our family!
*Still to come: the friends party!

I'm Addicted.

To couponing, that is. I'm still a beginner, and right now it is very time consuming, but I love it! I love not breaking the bank when I go grocery shopping and getting food for my food storage! Today when I went to the store, this is what I got:
10 boxes of Life cereal, 2 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, 2 frozen pizzas, and 4 Breyers ice cream cartons. And the grand total for this purchase was...... $15.94!

Beautiful Day

We had to take advantage of the beautiful weather today. Sunny and mid to high 50's is pretty good for Oregon in January.

Fresh California Oranges are here!

I have been trying to get into couponing to save $ on groceries and other house-hold items. I finally found a couple of local blogs that have been a good help. Right now, it is very time consuming, but I think in the long run I will see that all my work is paying off. Anyways, on one of the blogs, they had advertised that we could order fresh California oranges 40 lbs / $20! I split the box with one of my friends. When I went to pick up the oranges, the guy said that they were still hanging on trees on Friday!!! That's about as fresh as you can get, and they are oh so good!