two years

Dear Leah,

You're TWO! Unfortunately, when you try to hold up two fingers, you look like this:We're working on it. If nothing else, you've got "10" down! When I woke you up this morning, I said, "Leah! It's your birthday!" And you said, "Birthday Birthday Elmo!" You were probably referring to your VERY exciting Elmo birthday party that we had here on Saturday. :) Elmo cake, Elmo cupcakes, Elmo presents. It was a dream come true for my little Elmo fan! But we did not have another Elmo party today. Sorry to disappoint. :)

My goodness, what a delightful 2-year-old you are! You are so quick to smile and laugh and just love to have fun. You mostly love to play with your big brother. And your babies! Oh, you love your babies. We got you a doll stroller and diaper bag for your birthday, and you have been pushing the stroller and carrying the diaper bag for two days straight. So has Jack, actually. Which is fine, but you don't HAVE to share with him. I mean, he doesn't let you get into all of his little tiny lego pieces. So you can draw a line too.

You also LOVE swimming. We are taking swimming lessons once a week this summer, and it's impossible to get you OUT of the water when it's time to go home! Both you and Jack are little fish! We've gone to the beach a couple of times too, but you're not as fond of that kind of water. Pools are okay. :)

One thing I love right now is watching you play with your friends. Sometimes it's just the other younger siblings at the park while Jack has t-ball practice. Sometimes it's when our neighbors Cooper and Carter come over to play after naptime. Sometimes it's when friends come over and bring their little people for you to play with. :)(And it's even more fun when you're wearing matching outfits!)

Well, my dear. It's hard to believe that I'm actually writing your two-year letter. Two years ago, at this very moment, I took this picture:

And this morning when I woke you up, I took this:

MY how you've changed! You are a wonderful, beautiful, smart, amazing little girl. And these first two years of your life have been an incredible blessing to our family. We LOVE you to pieces and can't wait to see what this next year holds. Thanks for being such a sweet heart. :)

Love,
Mom

Old friends :)

I graduated from college with five very sweet friends, and eight years later the six of us have twelve children (with #13 on the way, thanks to Jenny)! We got together today and the kids had a TON of fun. We had to get a group shot. It's quite the crew. :)
(Click on the pictures to see them bigger)

That's Jackson, Caeden, Finn, Noah, Avery, Paige, Leah, Isaac, Layla, Abby, Clay, and Sam.

And the moms! Lisa, Holly, Jenny, me, Carrie, and Shannon.

Love you girls!

I'm an aunt!

Tomas Joseph Miller
7 lb 6 oz, 20 1/2 inches
Born at 7:29pm on the 4th of July

When your five-year-old knocks your socks off

Last night, I had to run a couple errands with the kids after dinner. Dan was going to be working late, and I needed to stop at the UPS store and the bank. Getting out of the house was proving to be nearly impossible with a crabby almost-2-year-old. And I realized when we got out to the garage that Jack's car seat was still in the WAY back seat from our earlier trip to the new playground at Elm Creek with our neighbors. So I got Leah in her seat and then fought with Jack's seat to get it back where it belongs, all while dealing with a very odd pain in my wrist that came out of nowhere in the last week.

I finally got the seat taken care of, told Jack he could get himself in, and returned to my side of the car. When I got to Leah's door to close it, Jack said, "Mom, is there anything I can do for you right now?"

Ah! What 5-year-old DOES that? He caught me completely off-guard and I audibly sighed, closed Leah's door, and hopped in the front seat. I told him that was very, very nice of him to offer and that I'd let him know if I thought of something for him to do.

I'm sad that I was clearly frustrated enough for my son to recognize that I might need help. But I'm also blessed that Dan and I are raising a boy who is ABLE to recognize when someone might need for him to do something for them. That's what made my heart melt.

He offered again when we got home last night and I finally cashed in on the offer this afternoon and asked him to tidy up the living room. :)

I can fix that....

Leah will be 2 in July and I've decided that we're going to do an Elmo birthday party. Since I'm a bit of a planner, I found a custom Elmo shirt on Etsy and ordered it. Unfortunately, when it came, I was sorely disappointed in the size. I ordered a 3T because that's what size Leah is wearing right now. She even has a couple regular t-shirts that are 3T, so I was expecting the size to work. But it was like a night shirt:

I mean, it was practically down to her knees and past her elbows. Ridiculous! (Plus, when I paired it with the skirt I had made, it covered most of it and just looked dumb). So I emailed the woman who made it, told her it was HUGE, and asked if she had any sort of return or exchange policy on custom orders. She doesn't. (I then encouraged her to disclose in her listings that the sizes run big--as I perused her feedback, the common thread among neutral and negative comments was sizing).

So I decided I had a couple of options. First, I washed it on warm and dried it to see if it would shrink a little. It didn't. Then, after some encouragement from a couple of friends, I decided to try to take it in. I figured if it TOTALLY flopped, I could cut out the design and sew it on a shirt that fit. So I turned the shirt inside out and grabbed another t-shirt that fits her well and laid it on the Elmo shirt so that the tops lined up. I traced along the sides and under the arms and sewed a seam. Perfect! I could tell this was going to work. Then I turned the shirt back right side out, folded the bottom under, ironed the hem, and sewed it. Excellent. Did the same with each sleeve and VOILA!It fit! I was quite pleased with myself. And here is her whole birthday outfit:

Of course she'll wear some cute white sandals instead of socks. But it was like 48 degrees outside yesterday when I took this picture. We were definitely all wearing socks. :)

I'm a Believer!

So I've always been curious about the grocery store Aldi. We had two locations relatively close to us, but I just never got there. But I always meant to because I have friends who couldn't stop raving about the deals.

Well, a third relatively close location just recently opened up, and it happens to be the closest of the three relatively close locations. :) My neighbor and I decided to brave the unknown together (with our collective four children) and made our debut Aldi appearance on Thursday afternoon.

Since I had already done my "big" shopping trip for the week, I decided just to pick up a few things that we would normal buy and eat to compare prices and tastes. Aldi carries mostly their own brands of everything. Once in a while, they get a big shipment of some overstock of a name brand item. For instance, when we went on Thursday, they had big bags of M&Ms and jugs of Arizona iced tea. But otherwise, everything is an off brand. Now, I happen to buy mostly store brands anyway (unless a combination of sale and coupon gets me the name brands for a better deal). So the idea of off brands was just fine with me.

Just walking around the store, I was extremely impressed with the prices. A loaf of sandwich bread was $.99 (comparable quality to Cub's store brand loaf of sandwich bread, which is closer to $2). A pound of butter was $2.49, which is, unfortunately, a really great price right now. (Just yesterday, Target's store brand of Market Pantry had butter for over $4/lb). The trip was mostly to browse, but I did pick up a few things. Here's the rundown:

Cheese Sharks (like goldfish) $1.29
Honey Nut Cheerio-look-alikes $1.59
Fruit snacks $1.79
Graham crackers $1.19
Flour (5 lb) $1.63
Mandarin oranges (4-pk bowls) $1.49
English muffins (6) $.99
Tortilla chips $1.19
Hot dogs (10) $.75
Hot dog buns (8) $.79
Tortellini $1.99
Fruit strips $1.99
Brats (5) $2.99
Strawberries (8 oz) $1.59
Frozen corn $.65
Frozen green beans $1.49
GRAND TOTAL: $23.53

For comparison, I entered all comparable products on the Coborn's Delivers website. Now, Coborn's is generally a little more expensive than Target or Cub, but I did pick their store brands whenever I could. The total for the same 16 items was over $51. I'd say I did pretty well!

So far, the things we've tried have been great. The English muffins are gone (thanks to a 5-year-old who decided he loved them), the cheese sharks are awesome, the brats were very similar in taste to Johnsonville, and the hot dog buns were amazing for being $.79. Fruit strips, tortilla chips, mandarin oranges, and hot dogs were also all very comparable to other store brands.

Since I'm a person who already shops at Cub, Target, Sam's, and occasionally Trader Joe's, I don't really want to add another store to the list of places I need to go to get what I want. But after just one trip, I'm fairly certain I can cut my Cub trips (which is great, since it's not exactly my favorite place to shop. And don't let Amy Garvin tell you differently). :)

I'm excited to go back with my actual shopping list and try more things. If you have never tried Aldi and would like to, there are a few things you need to know:

1) You have to bring your own bags and bag your own groceries.
2) You need a quarter to get a cart. You get it back when you return your cart.
3) You need either cash or a debit card with a pin. Now, my receipt says that they are now accepting all debit/check cards, but I don't know if that includes check cards that are issued by Visa (like my check card from Wells Fargo, for instance). I'll have to ask next time.

Extreme Couponing

If I was important enough for such things, I'd first change the title of this new show on TLC to Insane Couponing. Because what I've seen in the first couple episodes was just that. Nothing short of completely insane.

For the record, I am ALL for clipping coupons. As someone trying to get out of debt and living on a strict budget, I am definitely dependent on finding sales and using coupons to get an even bigger deal. I am even fine with people stocking up on things that they use when they can get great deals. (I have a very humble stockpile on some shelving in our laundry room and recently bought an extra freezer to help with that storage space). However, I think there is a line between frugal and freaky, and in my opinion, that line was crossed on Extreme Couponing.

A friend on Facebook recently said "Extreme Couponing is just organized hoarding." I laughed and thought, "How TRUE!" Some of these people have very extensive organization systems in a room in their house, and everything (even though it looks like a small convenience store) is very contained. However, some people, like a woman I saw last night, have items stored in every available space in their house. Toilet paper under her kids' beds, 2-liter bottles of soda and rolls of paper towels completely filling closets, and shelves lining every hallway in the house. This woman even said she felt like her house was closing in on her. I can't imagine living like that. This particular family had enough paper towels and boxes of cereal to last her family for three years. But it's not as though she's going to stop buying those things for the next three years and live off her stockpile. She's going to keep accumulating and storing these items, making her house into a veritable warehouse store.

One woman knocked down a wall in her house to make a small closet to keep all of her newspaper coupon inserts. She had crates upon crates full of circulars. This same woman, in her stockpile, had loads of cat treats and cat food. And she didn't even have a cat. I think that illustrates what has been a huge rule for myself when couponing and finding deals. It doesn't matter if you get a product for ridiculously cheap. If the product isn't something you'll use, it's not a deal! The exception to that rule is if you can donate the item. So many times, these people are getting things for free (or being paid to take them), and they end up donating a LOT of it to a local food shelf, which is really great.

I truly think that some of these extreme couponers are actually addicted to what they do. I've seen these people spend anywhere from 35 to 60 hours a week on couponing--planning shopping trips, finding the right coupons, figuring out their transactions (since some stores have rules about how many coupons you can use on one transaction, etc). And sometimes their shopping trips are 4-5 hours long. That's a full-time job! And I guess that makes sense when these people are saving $40-60,000 for their families each year. That's their income for the work they do! But again, there is clearly a level of "thrill" that these couponers are attaining, and I really think it can become unhealthy. One woman last night was shopping for herself, as well as her daughter-in-law and a local food bank. At one point she said, "I am a person who needs to be needed." I sincerely hope this woman's self-worth isn't solely wrapped up in couponing, but after watching her episode, I can't be so sure.

All of this aside, it's hard to deny that the numbers are impressive. The people on the show are consistently saving 90-98% of their grocery bill. One family went through the store and had two different transactions totaling over $1101. Their out-of-pocket amount was $43.92. Another woman paid only $4.53 for groceries totaling $1161.22. She had two transactions--the first transaction actually ended with the store owing her money, which was carried over into her second transaction.

All in all, I think couponing is a fantastic way to save money when you shop. Even better if you can match up those coupons with store sales. And if you have the time and energy to devote to insane couponing, then by all means, have at it. I won't be joining you. But I will be impressed with your 95% savings. :)

You can catch Extreme Couponing on TLC on Wednesdays at 8:00 and 8:30. And I do recommend tuning in at least once. Even if you don't learn anything, it's really fascinating!

Sleep

A few days ago, I watched at TED talk by the composer Eric Whitacre. It was super fascinating, and if you have 15 minutes to spare, I'd highly recommend it. The video after the TED talk is the final version of the song he refers to in the TED talk. (And don't worry--the song is not actually over 9 minutes....it's about 5, and the rest is credits). It's beautiful! Enjoy. :)

five years

Dear Jack,

I am the mother of a five year old! That's a little crazy. Impossible, even. Except that it's true. Gosh, how did this happen? You were just a TINY (well....) baby and now you're a TALL boy. This morning, you woke up and came into our bedroom. "Mommy? Am I five now?" :)

Five years ago, we were blessed with a beautiful, 9lb 8oz, baby boy. And our lives changed, for the better, FOREVER! It was amazing. I remember thinking, "Wow. I can't remember what it was like before Jack was here." And I think that's exactly the way it should be. :)

Before I went to bed last night, I put all of your presents on the kitchen counter so we could have a little celebration this morning. Well, before you saw them, you asked if you could open ONE gift before your party. I said, "Jack! You can open ALL of your presents!" You were a little beside yourself. I'm not sure what you were most excited about--I think it was a tie between the Legos and the knight armor set. You make a pretty awesome knight!

The fact that your birthday fell on a Saturday was pretty fun. It might be the first time your birthday party was actually ON your birthday! Your party was, of course, Star Wars-themed. No-brainer. You are very interested in Star Wars right now. Scratch that, you're a little obsessed. :) You can turn anything in to a light saber! You got some fun Star Wars presents to add to your growing collection of Legos and figures. And I was honored to add to the theme with a very special Star Wars cake!

I think the biggest change this year is yet to come--you will go to kindergarten in the fall. And that's all I'm going to say about that because it makes me sad.

Your sister is still one of your favorite people in the world! Please don't let that change. You two just ADORE each other. I hate to say it, but I'm sure we'll get a few years down the road and think, "Remember when they loved each other?" :) It's so adorable to watch you together. Leah looks up to you so much, and she should. You're awesome! And you really do love playing with her. You know, when she's not stealing your Lego pieces or climbing on your stool when you're trying to eat lunch.

Well, you are just one of my favorite people in the world. I can't believe we've been blessed with you for five years already! I'm excited to see what the next year brings. Thank you for the JOY you bring to our family!

Hugs and kisses!
Love,
Mom :)

Poppa is SO funny

And so are dominoes.

My Jedi Master :)

The obligatory "after" picture

After the ordeal with our deck falling down, the association finally agreed to cover the cost and hired some builders to make a new one. It's all a HUGE blessing in disguise, and as of about 3:00 this afternoon, we have a brand new, beautiful deck! I'm a little bummed that it's still the middle of winter and we can't actually enjoy it right away, but I can't WAIT to spend some time on it this summer!

Meet Jack.

Jack had a friend over today and at one point, Jack came upstairs for something. I was pretty sure it was to use the bathroom, but I wasn't really paying attention until he was headed back downstairs. I stopped him and said, "Hey, what were you doing up here?" (mostly making sure he flushed and washed his hands if he was, indeed, using the bathroom).
"Oh, I was just looking for something."
"What were you looking for?"
"Oh, I don't remember."
"Jack, did you go potty?"
"No."
"What were you doing up here, then?"
"Well.....I just came up here to give you a really big hug!"
I lost it at that point, and he thought it was really funny and said, "Just kidding!"
Finally, I told him that if I went in the bathroom and saw pee in the toilet, he was going to be in big trouble.
"Okay, I'll go flush and wash my hands."
Stinker!
Then he got a time-out for lying. Even though he mostly cracked me up.

eighteen months

Dear Leah,

It has been one and a half years since you have graced our family with your fabulous presence. Sometimes I can't believe it's been that long! It feels like yesterday I was looking at your hours-old face and feeling so blessed. But other days I can't begin to imagine what our family was like without you and it feels like you've been here forever. :) I read your birth story last night, which was magical and surreal and made me remember what a miracle new life is!

Physically, you have grown from a 9-pound 13-ounce teeny tiny baby into a 27-pound toddler! You are very tall (surprise, surprise) and are running around everywhere. You have the most incredible personality and know just how to make us laugh. Sometimes you know exactly how to make me pull all my hair out, too. But that just come with the toddler territory!

Your favorite thing in the WORLD right now is reading books. If I sit down for more than a minute, you run and grab a book and bring it back for me to read. You seem to prefer books with real animals and people in them. I think it's helping you learn some new words (because, let's face it, your big brother does all the talking and there hasn't been a reason to start before now). You love to point out animals in books and make their corresponding sounds. I have to say, when you hear an actual sheep for the first time, you're going to wonder why it's not "baa"ing more quickly.

You are full of kisses. For me, Jack, Daddy, Lucy (aka the most tolerant cat in the world), and all of the puppies and kitties in your books. They started as lovely, open-mouth smooches, but now they're so sweet! Your little pursed lips are just to die for. As are your warm, rosy cheeks when you wake up from a nap. Those are something I can't stop kissing!

I'd rather not be around the day something happens to one or both of your blankets. Because at this point, I'm not sure you could survive without them. It's pretty adorable how you ask for your "deedee" and walk around with it and suck on the corners, but you are HOOKED on this thing! It's actually quite nice that you have a "lovey." Your silly brother had nothing. No blanket, no pacifier, no animal. He didn't know what he was missing. :)

It's hard to believe, in the middle of this freezing cold winter, that we'll be celebrating your SECOND birthday in six short months when it's nice and warm. You have been an immense blessing to our family in these eighteen months. It's very exciting to think about the future of our family of four. Thank you for your sweet spirit and incredible heart! You make me so happy that I'm a mom.

Love you to pieces,
Mama

Timber

On Tuesday, we decided to make a trek to Ikea to buy some new dining room chairs. On our way down our street, we noticed that there was a team of people getting ready to shovel the snow off of all of our roofs. Yay! What a smart thing for them to do (since they spent all summer a couple years ago putting new roofs on every home).

So we conquered Ikea, stopped for some lunch, and headed home to find that they were almost done with the snow removal. As we went on with our afternoon, they re-plowed our driveway and re-shoveled our steps. One area they LEFT, however, was our deck. It was PILED with snow that had been shoveled from the roof. I had noticed some decks as we drove down our street and into our driveway and thought, "Wow, that's a lot of snow for a deck to hold!" Of course, since they had re-plowed and re-shoveled, we assumed they would be back as some point to clear off the deck. Well, they didn't come back on Tuesday. They didn't come back on Wednesday.

On Wednesday night around midnight, Dan was downstairs and heard a huge crash. He looked out the window and, sure enough, our deck had finally fallen from the weight of the snow. Since there wasn't much he could do at that time of night, we called our association contact the next day. The guy came out about an hour later to check everything out, and by that night a team of people had gotten our grill, table, and chairs safely off the deck and into our yard.

The next day (Friday), the owner of the company that had done the roof shoveling came by to look at the deck. He was kind of a bully and said that the deck was in terrible shape anyway, etc. True (the deck is as old as the house--1979), but beside the point. The deck has held a normal amount of snow just fine for six winters and our grill, deck furniture, and all of US for six summers. He left kind of crabby and said he'd be back on Monday. So we'll see what tomorrow brings. But based on people we have talked to, it seems like a no-brainer. This is clearly his fault and we *should* get a new deck out of it. (Which is actually really exciting!)

Here are some pictures of the fallen deck. They'll hopefully come knock it the rest of the way down and haul it all away soon. :)

(Oh, and the same day the owner came to talk to us, his team was back--clearing off every last deck in our development!)

Looking straight out our deck door:

The other side, toward our front yard:

We thought of removing the railings and sledding down. ;)

Merry Christmas :)

Just a few shots of our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities.

The Butterfly Circus

I have to share the most amazing short film with you. Dan went to a discipleship training school in Kansas City with its writer/director, Joshua Weigel. This movie has already won the Clint Eastwood Filmmaker Award (among other 2010 film fest awards), and it is becoming a feature film. I'm sure it will be up for the Academy Award for best short film. It's really incredible! You can learn more about it at www.butterflycircus.com.

Thank you, anonymous commenter, for the link to the official video on vimeo!

The Butterfly Circus - HD from The Butterfly Circus on Vimeo.

Santa, Baby

We visited the best Santa in the world on Saturday. (Mother Earth Gardens in South Minneapolis--take note for next year!) Jack was enthralled. Leah, not so much. Really quite beside herself, actually. But it made for some cute pictures!

And it snowed....

Here in Minnesota, we've just survived what has been beautifully referred to as a "snownami." By the time it stopped last night, the Twin Cities had between 10 and 17 inches of snow. Pretty crazy. It even cause the roof of the Metrodome to collapse!

As it came down yesterday, I watched the depth on our deck continue to increase and got a great idea for a picture. It was literally as deep as Leah is tall, so I wanted to bundle her all up and plop her down in the snow. Unfortunately (well, for me anyway), she didn't sink down more than a couple of inches. So my awesome picture idea was out the window (since I didn't think she'd appreciate being pushed down forcefully), but we set her on top of the snow and still got a few cute pictures. :)

This is amazing

Seriously amazing. A friend on Facebook shared a link to this video. Please watch it and enjoy. :)



After watching it, I noticed another video on the right called "The Making of....." and I had to watch it. Well, it turns out there were four parts of "The Making of...." but it just made the original video that much more amazing! So please, sit back and enjoy. If for nothing else than to enjoy David Crowder's hair. Honestly. Love.