Fluttering

I have been "Fluttering" for about 4 years. For those of you unfamiliar with Flylady www.flylady.com, fluttering is where you do just bits and pieces of her program but never fully commit. About two months ago, I got serious about starting again. One of the things she does is a new habit every month. November's habit is menu planning. This week I did my first menu plan. It has been so nice to know what I am going to fix for dinner. When Cadence was Henry's age, I cooked every night and tried out new recipes. For the last year or so, I have just been cooking the same things over and over and lots of stuff from a box. I forgot how great I feel about myself as a mother and wife when I cook! Last night I made Mexican shells and we had none left over. Tonight I made Jambalaya pasta. Cadence has started to become a picky eater, especially here recently. The last two nights in a row, she cleaned her whole plate and told me I was the best cook ever. This is high praise from her!

With the onset of menu planning, I decided to also start planning outfits for the kids for the whole week. I was doing it the night before, but the last 2 Sundays I decided to lay out everything for each day based on the forecast. This has also been incredible! Henry still spits up so he has to wear a bib every day on top of everything else. This has made my life so much easier! And I love anything that does that. I am really trying to get back on all of Flylady's programs. They have always made such a difference in my life. Go check out her website!

Weekend

This weekend, Ben and I were supposed to go to OKC for a "Stock the Bar Party" for Holly & Austin. We had babysitters, hotel, everything.... except enough money to do it! So we had to cancel and are now staying home this weekend. Ben is going to the Hockey game tonight with his dad and some friends and my lovely mil still wanted the kids so I am planning on hanging out with Rachel, one of my closest friends that I don't see enough! However, this morning it appears that both of the kids and possibly Ben and I have a touch of the stomach bug. Hopefully this will go away as the day goes on.

This week, I have really been struggling with some issues at work. Henry goes to work with me and he is just getting to the point where it is just not working anymore. He is mobile and there is no way to child proof an office enough. He is not napping as well, and gets tired of being in his play pen. I won't get into specific issues, but there is the possibility of some changes being made at my work and if they are, I will get to fulfill my dream of working from home doing what I love and not putting Henry in child care. Friday I got the opportunity to work from home. I just had a few things that "had" to be done and really needed a day at home. Henry slept for 2.5 hours for his first nap! At work, I am lucky if he sleeps for 45 minutes. I got everything I had to do done by 11. It really made me see that I can work from home and how great it will work for us. Now, I am just praying that all of the pieces fall into place that need to in order for me to transition to home. Hopefully by January they will.

Halloween

This was a big Halloween for us. First, we had 2 children to contend with for the first time (and dress up!) Second, it was Cadence's first year to really get Trick or Treating and want to do it. We headed over to my in-laws for dinner with Katie and her kids, Mimi, Kay, Grandma, Grammie, and Grandpa. This year Cadence decided she wanted to be a horse. Henry was a very cute skeleton. Bella and WIll were there and Bella was a bumble bee and poor Will slept through the whole thing, but he was a cow! After eating, we headed over to Holly and Austin's (who live in my in laws neighborhod) and chatted for a while, then went out to trick or treat. Bella is a bit young and we carried her most of the time. Henry was in the stroller and we left Will at Grammie and Grandpa's. We did two whole streets and Cadence was done! I will say though, the streets in this neighborhood were super long. Not just a block, but maybe two. Everyone we went to was giving out "good" candy: Chocolate! So we got lots of good candy and had fun. We went back to Holly and Austin's for a bit and then headed home. Here are some of the best pictures.

HomeLand

I just did a small couponing trip to HomeLand (small because that was all we had in the budget!) and I got some pretty great deals. I am still not where some people are, but I am getting there. I spent $32 in all and saved 40% off of my bill! I was wanting to spend less, but considering in that were a large box of trash bags, hair putty, 4 packages of meat, 4 boxes of Helpers, and 4 cans of soup, I think I did a good job!

Fall Break

Last week was Fall Break for TPS so Cadence was off Thursday and Friday. I took those days off too so we could spend sometime together. Here is an overview of our 4 day weekend:
Wednesday night
My little sis came over to spend the night with us and also to get her belly button pierced. I went with her and mom to do that. I don't think she expected it to hurt so much!
Thursday
Cadence and I had eye doctor appointments in the morning. KK's school had done a screening and suggested she have her eyes checked. Sure enough she has an astigmatism and is near sighted. I was kinda bummed she needed glasses at such a young age and also that she has my bad eye sight. The doctor said her nearsightedness will only get worse with age, as mine has done. However, I am thankful to get the glasses now instead of in having problems learning to read. She loves her glasses and looks great in them. It really looks like she was always meant to have glasses, like her face was waiting on them! After about an hour, she took them off for a minute and was having to squint to see, so I know they must be helping her. After the eye doctor, we went and got Henry and Liv and met Ben at McAllisters for lunch. Then Liv, KK, Henry, and I went to my favorite thrift store and found 15 items for the kids, 8 books, and one toy for $46! We then drove Liv back to C-more for a football game, stopped by mom's store to see her and headed back to Tulsa. As soon as we got back to town, I got the kids ready and picked up Ben and we all headed out to Oktoberfest.
Friday
I actually slept in a little bit, which was amazing! My goals for the day were to clean house, do laundry, and grocery shop. We decided to meet Ben for lunch, but he got caught up and after wasting two hours, we finally ate chinese at home. I spent the rest of the day cleaning and laundry (no groceries :( ). As soon as Ben got off, he headed out to Oktoberfest to work. I enjoyed the quiet and put the kids to bed early and relaxed.
Saturday
The kids and I joined Katie and her family at the Carmicheal's pumpkin patch. This was a really great one; KK and will got to ride a camel! That evening the 4 of us went to a friend's house for a birthday party.
Sunday
Our family along with mom and Liv went out to Oktoberfest for the last time. Mom and Liv had never been and they both had a lot of fun.

Today I am headed out of town for a women's retreat with my sis and mother in law. I am very excited for the retreat. I have not been out of town without both of the kids or without Ben since Henry was born. I can't wait to fellowship, nap, and just relax. And not cook!

Infancy

Its amazing how fast a baby changes in the first year, especially that last half of the first year. Henry is now 7 months old. He started crawling not 3 weeks ago and as of today he can crawl VERY fast, sit up by himself, get himself into sitting position, and pull up to a standing position. These are all great and fun things to watch and experience but they all come with a price. My floor has to be much cleaner than before, which means that I have to clean my floors once a day. If KK is being extra messy, or Henry is spitting up alot, or one of the dogs spent alot of time inside, then I have to mop once a day also. Pretty soon I will have to figure out how I am going to corral Henry. When KK was little, our living room was the perfect set up and shape. I had two baby gates on the entrances leaving the living room. The enterntainment center had lower shelves that I filled with toys for her. Now my living room has three entry ways to other rooms and one of those would require an extra large baby gate. We have a different entertainment center with no room for toys. But I do now have KK. She is a life saver because I can have her check on him, or tell me if he is getting into things. She is not too keen on entertaining him though, because tv is much cooler than her baby brother for more than 5 minutes.
Pulling up to standing is actually one of my least liked periods of infancy. Don't get me wrong, this is such a great and exciting time and I know this is part of the process. But during this time, babies fall. ALOT. Henry already has a huge bruise on his forehead that I don't think will ever go away because he keeps falling. Also, he has learned to stand up in his crib, but hates to get down. Last week he did not even know how to get down. Now he knows, but that requires him to fall, which he is not too keen on. Ben walked at 9.5 months, and I have a feeling Henry will do the same. He is going through these all a lot faster than KK did. He does not yet have any teeth though, although the doctor said he could see some "buds" so it will probably be any day now. He is getting so big and growing so fast. He lookds nothing like he did as an infant and as of today is only 2 lbs lighter than KK was on her 1st birthday! He really is not a chubby baby, in pictures she actually was chubbier, so he may just not gain any more weight. We will see. Let's just pray for now more bruises this week!

Hootie

Does everybody remember Hootie & The Blowfish from the 90's? Well, the lead singer, Darius Rucker, has a new single out. A country single. You can't even tell it is him, and it is a pretty good song. It's called, "Don't think I don't." But its just weird. I guess going country is the cool thing to do know. I like country music, so this doesn't hurt my feelings, but usually country is not "cool" music in the mainstream music media. If you find his song, see if you like it!

Today, I plan to do my first big coupon/sale shop at Homeland. This stores doubles your coupons and had a sale start yesterday, so I am very excited to see how good I can do. I was planning on doing this anyways and when I got on myspace this morning, a girl I went to high school with posted a blog and she had gotten over $77 worth of groceries at Homeland yesterday for $11! And she got alot of the same stuff I am getting! So now I am really excited and am going to see if I can do as good as she did. I'll let you know!