Ann & Andy & Drew & Cora

As you may or may not know, I am kind of addicted to couponing blogs. There are only 4 on the side of the blog here, but I have about 16 others that I check quite regularly. It’s pretty fun and it feels awesome when I’m able to snag a super deal. Now I just need to control my tendency to buy things I don’t really need just because they’re cheap. I have a pantry full of instant oatmeal, super sugary cereal, and crackers which may all fall under the category of things I don’t really need…I have had to start storing food in Drew’s closet because our pantry is full. Our pantry is pretty dang big too, so that’s a lot of stuff.

I have also been price matching at Walmart and it’s pretty amazing how much money I save that way. I have always hated Walmart, but I quite like it now. I know not all Walmart’s are the same, but the ones that I go to make it incredibly easy to ad match. (you don’t even have to take in the ad, you just tell them how much it is and they match it.) I try to be very careful to make sure I’m being honest and getting the right items and everything.

Anyway, the point of this post is I wanted to show the killer deals I got today. I did my first shopping trip photo shoot today just like on all the blogs I look at. haha.

So the crackers I got at Walmart for 50 cents a box. 3.50 for 7 boxes, I feel good about that.
Then I went to Target and using Target coupons, Manufacturer’s coupons, and clearance, I was able to get all the rest of the stuff for 9.25ish. There is a set with 2 body washes, a loofah (I just looked, and that is how it’s spelled), a bar of soap, and a body spray; 8 tubes of deodorant, and 3 boxes of crystal light. It was amazing.

Thanks for letting me share my triumph.

If you’re interested, my cousin does one of these coupon blogs I speak of. I need to add it to my sidebar, but I just haven’t yet. The website is crave2save@blogspot.com. Check it out.

In case you hadn’t heard, we are having another baby. This little one is due sometime around Aug 25th. I imagine they’ll induce me at 37 weeks like they did with Drew, so that puts us sometime the first week of Aug. I’m 11 weeks now and feeling pretty good. I’ve been tired and super emotional, which is always fun. I haven’t been very sick though, so that’s been nice. The last 2 days I’ve felt pretty crappy, but overall pretty good. We’re super excited, but I’m trying to really enjoy these last months with only 1 child. Drew is really very easy going, and I still get to nap when he naps. Awesome.

I decided a blog update is way past due, so here it finally is.
The last couple of months have been great. Since my last post Andy and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary by kickin it at home while Mike and Jen watched Drew overnight (fabulous), celebrated Thanksgiving and Natalie’s wedding with all the family in Arizona (also fabulous), celebrated Christmas here in Utah with my family, moved into our own apartment (Yay! finally), and celebrated the New Year.

We finally had a big tree this year. Grandma Thorne gave us one of her old trees which was awesome. Willes and Karen let us use all of their Disney ornaments which was really nice since all of our Christmas stuff was packed in our storage unit somewhere not easily accessible. Drew loved the tree and only pulled it down on himself once.

Andy and I made Drew this PVC pipe chair. It’s adorable to see him sit in it. At first he couldn’t figure it out and we would have to sit him in it and then he’d just sit there until we took him out. That was kind of nice. He’s getting better getting in and out of it now and he loves to push it around the house. He’s saying please in sign language in this shot. Probably, “Please get me out of this chair and give me some more candy.”

Drew just turned 18 months on Sunday. For several months I’ve been counting down the weeks until Drew finally hit that landmark and could go to nursery. The day has come and gone, but sadly Drew was sick and wasn’t able to go. Hopefully he’ll be all better for this Sunday. I took him to the doctor yesterday for his 18 month check-up. He wasn’t sick when I made the appointment, but he happened to be sick when he went. I guess it all worked out. Poor little guy has infections in both ears. He’s acted fairly normal though, so I guess that’s good. He’s still just a little guy. Here are his stats: height 30.5 in. 7th%, weight 22.2 lbs 8th%, head 47 cm 26th%.

We got Drew these boots at Kid to Kid and at first he hated them and couldn’t really walk in them, but now he brings them to me all the time and wants them on. Then he walks to the coat closet and wants his coat and then he knocks on the front door. Today he even gave me my shoes too. He likes to go on little walks outside, but it’s been so cold and the air is so disgusting that I don’t like to take him out a lot. Especially since he already has a cough. I’m excited for warmer weather to someday come.

I tried to get back into the Nursing program at UVU this semester, but that didn’t happen. I ended up being the 4th alternate which wasn’t good enough to get in. That’s kind of discouraging, but kind of a relief at the same time. I’ll try again another time.

Andy’s trying to get into an MBA program right now, so if that happens things will be getting busier for us. (at least for him…)

Anyway, I really want to do better keeping up with my blog so it’s not so boring, but we’ll see how that goes. I notice that on a lot of blogs people just put pictures of their kids and none of them, and I always want to see “them” too. Now I’m realizing that I’ve just done that too. There were a few pictures of me recently, but I’m pretty much in my jammies, hair a mess and no make up on so I obviously don’t want to post those. I’ll have to work on being presentable first, and then taking some pictures.

So the other night while I was getting Drew ready for bed I decided to sing to him a bit. “How Firm a Foundation” in case you were wondering. Suddenly his bottom lip began to quiver and then he started crying. I didn’t know what was wrong and I picked him up and calmed him down. Then I started to sing again, and once again his lip started quivering and he cried. Kinda hard. So then I realized he must be crying because of my singing. My self esteem is totally boosted.

I took him out to Andy and showed him. Then I made him try, and apparently Andy has a horrifying voice as well. It was just so hilarious. When I was putting him in bed I tried saying his name in a singsong voice and he didin’t like that either. Humming is also out.

This trick could not be duplicated the next day in front of people, but I have tried again in private with the same sad results. Well, not as sad. Now he just looks sad and starts to yell at me.

(*No babies were harmed in the making of this post…at least I don’t think they were. This is an old picture too FYI. I didn’t make him cry just to beautify my blog.)

For Halloween this year we tried to dress up for the family party.

Andy and I have some super sweet Batman and Robin costumes that we wore last year, but they are somewhere in our storage unit this year and we couldn’t find them, so we had to improvise. I wore a pumpkin costume that Mom and Dad had. It was a bit tight for me, and a bit too short. Sorry to everyone who had to see my pumpkin wedgie all night. Andy wasn’t feeling super hot since he had his surgery 2 days before, but he was a good sport and wore a chef hat that we found. (thanks Willes and Karen) and an apron and he let me throw some flour on his face. Drew was superman. Adorable as always. The party was really fun. Unfortunately I got lazy with my picture taking so I only got a few. Here’s mom hunting wabbits.

Here’s Drew running away from a scary pile of garbage, a.k.a. Jon.

Here’s Cherisse. She’s a pretty pretty princess.

On Halloween we were invited to go to Dylan’s baptism in Logan. That was exciting. It was so fun to see everybody and catch up. Here’s a picture of Scott and Dylan before the baptism.

Dylan was sweet enough to take a few pictures with me. He seems to be pretty shy, but super sweet. He even gave me a couple hugs, although his mom may have told him to.

Here’s picture of Riley. I had to wait for him to die in his game before he would pose for me. It must be an intense game.

I think good times were had by all. Andy did a lot that day considering he had surgery just a few days before. We even walked to some friends in my mom’s ward for homemade donuts. Yum. Andy paid for all his traveling the next day when he could hardly walk. He’s doing much better now though, so that’s good.

I have been thinking for awhile that I need to post something on here, and I have been inspired by Casey and Jen posting, so I’m finally doing it. I’m hoping to inspire Kim as well. (Hopefully she’s reading this.)

Andy had his knee surgery today. It went very well. The Dr. didn’t know if he was going to need to just clean it out, or if he would need to redo his ACL, but luckily the ACL is looking good. Andy’s pretty much a pro at this surgery stuff since he’s already had both knees and one shoulder done, and he’s had his tonsils out. He still has a pretty hard time with anesthesia, but overall he did really well. He’s just laying here passed out by me. My parents have Drew which is nice, but the combination of Andy sleeping and Drew being gone is pretty boring.

Andy actually just woke up, so now I feel like it’s going to be difficult to finish this post.

Anyway…Drew had his 15 month check up this month. He’s up to 21 lbs. He’s all the way up to the 9th percentile. Last time he was 5th, so that’s good. He got 2 more teeth on the top, so now he’s got 4 teeth. There are 2 on the bottom that you can feel, but they haven’t broken through yet. He’s as cute as ever and so much fun.

Andy got a little promotion at work this month, so we’re really excited about that. We’re in the process of looking for an apartment. We found a couple that we liked already, but we just didn’t feel right about them, so we’re staying here for a little longer. It’s pretty awesome here though, so we’re okay with that. Thanks Willes and Karen.

So as I suspected I can’t concentrate anymore because Andy’s talking to me. Later.

I was trying to film Drew and he kept running away from me, so you get to see every room in the basement we live in, as well as Drew. He’s wearing his jacket on his head.

Here is a little video of Drew walking.

Yeah, it’s been awhile, so I am updating everything at once, get over it!

We went to the beach the Tuesday before we left Indiana and it was really fun! Below are some pictures:


This is Drew playing at the beach when we got there.

Drew and Andy at the beach.

Drew in the water.

Drew and his friends Delaney and Easton.

Ann and Drew, after Drew got splattered with sand.

Drew splattered with sand.

Next are some pictures of our move out to Utah from Indiana:

We rented 2 ‘relo-cubes’ and this is Ann and Drew inside of one.

This is that same ‘relo-cube’ after we packed it full of our junk.

This is the second cube with our furniture in it.

Our stuffy stuffs. We put our ottoman, some cabinet doors and my bike into that space.

Patrick let us come stay with him for a few days after our stuff was all packed up, but before my mom and sister came so we could leave. This is Patrick’s monster dog trying to eat Drew.

This is Drew fearlessly riding the monster dog into submission.

We saw these windmills all along they way. These ones were in Wyoming I think.

These are pictures of hanging out with the family once we got to Utah.

Aunt Christi feeding Drew a blue popsicle.

We went to Los Hermanos and everyone wanted a turn wearing the sombrero, except for Drew.

My unemployment mustache and Ann wearing the sombrero.

Everybody (not quite, but almost).

Drew liked sucking salsa off of chips, he liked the chips too, but mostly just sucking salsa off of them.

This is the scooter that I somehow conned Ann into letting me buy from her little brother. It wasn’t running, I had to put a new CVT belt on (I actually know what that is now) and buy a battery. I want to paint it green and white.

Anyways, we’ve had fun these last few weeks here in Utah. I’m too lazy to write anymore.