January Picture Highlights

Arianna and her first "big girl bed". She has since upgraded to an actual toddler bed, but you'll have to wait for those pictures... :)

A look of mischief. Somehow this look reminds me of my dad. Anyone else?

Playing with Sesame...Arianna style. Basically, this meant piling toys up on top of Sesame. And look how patient Sesame was with the game! These are the kind of things that make us think Arianna really needs a sibling...and soon... :) (Though I do hope she wouldn't take to piling items up on top of her little sibling...)

Being silly! Arianna can definitely get into some very silly moods. This particular day she put her winter hood on backwards, and began running around the table (probably singing, too - I don't remember for sure, but there generally is a song involved with her) like a crazy girl, laughing hysterically at herself. She cracks me up! :)

For more pictures from January, don't forget to check out our Flickr account.

December Picture Highlights

Arianna & Zoe

Arianna always loved getting together with her friend Zoe. We were very sad when they moved to Utah. :( In fact, looking at these pictures again the other day, Arianna told me she wanted to visit Zoe, and that she misses her. Now she wants to go to Utah to visit her. :)

Arianna has always been a little obsessed with inspecting between her toes. When it first began (a few months before this picture was taken), she seriously was constantly taking her socks and shoes off so she could inspect again. It was a very serious thing for her. Now she still does it, but is thankfully not quite so obsessed with the whole thing. I love in this picture how Zoe is so interested, too. :) Aren't kids awesome?

Joanne's Christmas Box

Here's the special box Andreas sent Joanne for Christmas. It was full of a bunch of thoughtful gifts, along with comments about them. He had us give it to her with specific instructions that we build a fire on the back porch and make some hot cocoa for her. I must say, he's a pretty sweet guy. Who would've known? :) Seriously, though, I've learned a lot about him since he fell in love with Joanne...

Christmas in Indiana

We were able to visit Jeremy's family in Indiana to celebrate Christmas. Ken and Kendra and Richy and Kyra (and their respective children) were there, too, so we had some great times together!

First stop: indoor swimming pool! Arianna had a great time swimming with her cousins!


Arianna and Amelie (Ken & Kendra's daughter) were very cute together. I wish they could get together ALL the time - I think they would be awesome friends. Hopefully we will at least be able to manage getting together every year somehow...

A big highlight of our visit for Arianna were these two large bowls full of peanuts. They were constantly stocked, and she just thought they were the coolest! She LOVES peanuts, and could often be found munching on them while we were there.

Christmas Eve, all dressed up in new pj's. :)

Christmas morning!

Arianna's stocking, overflowing with goodies from Santa. :)

Arianna and Amelie (and all of the kids) had an awesome time playing in the ball pit Santa brought for Kaylee!

Cutie

Cousins!

<----Kaylee

Jordan--->

Christmas at Home
After having a wonderful time celebrating in Indiana with Jeremy's side of the family, we came home and celebrated with my side. Santa was kind enough to visit both locations. :)

Christmas morning #2! What Santa brought. :)

Can you tell she was having fun?

<---Our Little Photographer

All Dressed Up!!--->

(One of my favorite gifts we gave her; a set of Sarah's Silks. So cute!)

So, these are just some of the pictures from our December adventures. To see more, check out our Flickr account. I'll be adding highlights from each month as I continue adding to Flickr (finally)... Enjoy! :)

Updating Flickr

I knew it had been a while since I'd added any photos to our Flickr account, but was genuinely surprised when I got on yesterday and realized the last pictures I'd added were from Arianna's 2nd birthday party!! Whoa! Here we are only a week away from her 3rd birthday party!! So, I've been busy trying to get caught up. I could've just skipped to now, but I don't want to miss some of the great times we've had over the past year, and so I began with last November. It's been fun going through all the pictures and remembering the adventures we've had. :)

If you're interested in seeing what I've added so far, go check out our Flickr account (the link is at the bottom of our blog). Here are just two pictures from November... I'll add a few highlights of each month to our blog, but there are LOTS more on Flickr!

Thanksgiving '08 - Visiting with Jeremy's sister, Danielle,

and her hubby (J.D.) and boys (Caleb & Logan).

Arianna looking out at the ocean at Virginia Beach.

Arianna and her imagination...

Just thought I'd share this little clip of Arianna. We thought it was cute how much fun she was having playing with all of the various items I had lined up on the couch for pictures. She thought they were just the greatest! I guess you just never know what kids will go for, do you? After this video she took everything to the kitchen table and created "a train". Seriously, these random items occupied her for about 30-45 minutes! I LOVE her imagination! :)

In the realm of couponing

A few months ago we had a Stake Preparedness Fair at our church, and one of the booths was about learning to use coupons. I was amazed at some of the deals these women were displaying -- I never knew couponing could be SO incredible! They impressed me so much that I actually looked at the blogs they recommended when I got home, and have been trying to learn the ropes. Over the past couple of weeks, I finally feel like I'm starting to understand some of it, and our basement shelves are quickly filling with things I've gotten for free or REALLY cheap. It's quite exciting!

I thought I'd share with you some pictures of my free "purchases" over the past few weeks:

Week 1:

Week 2:

This week:

- 1 Simply Saline Cold Formula nasal spray
- 2 Simply Saline Cold Formula for Children
- 2 Sinus Buster nasal sprays
- 2 Breathe Again nasal sprays
- 2 bags Bee M.D. organic honey throat drops
- 2 boxes Children's Throat Cooler
- 2 packs Beyond BodiHeat disposable heat pads
- 2 boxes Sucrets sore throat lozenges
- 2 boxes Comtrex max. strength Cold & Sinus
- 1 Aussie Hair Insurance leave-in conditioner
- 1 Vaseline Sheer Infusion lotion
- 1 Emergen-C Immune-Booster 2 pk.
- 2 Allergen Blocks
- Victoria's Secret panties

- Bath & Body Works travel size aromatherapy sleep lotion
- 3 Loreal nail polishes
- 1 Skittles chapstick
- 2 Neosporin Lip Health
- 2 Carmex Moisture Plus lip balm
- 1 3-pk. Carmex lip balm
- 1 ChapStick Fresh Effects
- 4 ChapStick 100% Naturals

If you're like I used to be, you're probably thinking, "Wait a minute, how did you get all of that for free???" Pretty cool, huh? It really is excited learning all of this! And, just so you know, all of those free things were from Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens...now my favorite stores! If you want to learn about this kind of stuff, there are tons of blogs out there about it. Two of my favorites are: http://www.dealseekingmom.com/ and http://thekrazycouponlady.com/. They'll teach you everything you need to know. Sometimes it can take some time printing off all the coupons and planning out your shopping trips, then actually going to the stores every week... But I figure it's worth it when I've literally gotten a few hundred dollars worth of products for FREE over just a few weeks!!

Entering the World of Blogging Again... Hopefully for good this time!!

After months of absence from the blogging scene, here we are again! I need to make this a regular habit of mine, because I am missing out on recording some really great memories. So, this is going to be my journal now... and for those of you who haven't already entered into the world of blogging who live far away and I really want to stay in touch with (ahem, Springer and Kendra...and so on...), now's your chance to join me!! Seriously, it would be really cool if we all just did even one entry a week, and knew a little more about what was going on in each others lives, don't you think?

AND, I just figured out how to use Feedburner to put that little widget in the upper righthand corner, where you can just enter your e-mail addresses in and voila, you get an e-mail of my newest posts when they're posted! I think this is really cool, because I like keeping up-to-date on friends blogs, but it takes forever going through them to see who's posted anything new... So, if you haven't done this yet for your blog and you're reading this right now, you should definitely do it! :)

Anyway, those of you who I'm trying to convince to start your own blog... Your posts don't have to be anything time-consuming or fancy; just a little thought, or moment from your day that you'd like to share. And suddenly we'll feel like we're actually a part of each others lives again, even though we're so far apart!

Have I convinced you? Well, if not, then maybe once you subscribe to my blog and see how nice it is getting little updates from me in your inbox all the time, you'll decide you're interested afterall... :)

The Adventure Begins

Naomi and I decided to take on an important project for the benefit of posterity. I have borrowed the old family videos from my parent's house and am now beginning to convert them to a digital format. This is just one of those priceless clips that makes all of the work involved worth it! WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.