Shave for Steve

This handsome, but mean looking soldier is Jeff's brother Steven. He became a soldier in the United States Army on June 14 of this year. I know this couldn't have been an easy decision for him, his wife, or three young girls. He is still in boot camp and will graduate boot camp later this month. While in boot camp, Jeff and the boys have been keeping their heads shaved to show support for Steve. Here are a few pictures of my cute boys sportin' their short dews.

What a spaz!

This video is really good, a good reminder for each of us to remember and to thank those who either have served or are serving our country. I know you can't read this Steve, but thank you for your service and thank you Tricia for supporting your husband in his service. I hope Mason and Cooper grow up to be as outstanding and honorable men like their father, their uncle Steve, and both their grandfathers.

Station 95 Open House

Yesterday was Station 95's open house. This is the fire station that Jeff volunteers at. They had lots of different fire engines, the Med Star Pediatric ambulance, and a police car there for the kids to sit in and explore.

Jeff with all but two of the fire fighters at his station.Fellow fire fighters: Captain Perkins, Jeff, Brooks, Phil

Mason with Smokey. Or should I say "a human inside a suit", as Mason would say.Here we are with Smokey the Bear, AKA Jeff. Cooper didn't want anything to do with Smokey. Of course we didn't tell him until later that it was Daddy inside the suit. I wonder if we had told him right away if it would have made any difference.Maybe Cooper saw Smokey doing this to the poor fire fighter and this is way he was afraid.

After visiting with Smokey, it was off to take a look at the cool stuff. The engines.

Inside the pediatric ambulance. Both Mason and Cooper though this was really cool!

Inside ladder 91. The ladder on this truck is 95 feet tall. It was hard to convince the boys that they couldn't climb the ladder unless and until they become firefighters.Cooper driving engine 99. Safety first you know!

Observations of Cooper

While at the grocery store, Cooper was very observant....a little too observant.

There was a lady wearing a halter top, with hardly any back to it. To this he said, "That lady is naked!" Thankfully the lady was really far away from us and so I don't think she heard us. I tried to explain to him that not every one like to be modest like us, I don't know how much he understood, but that's okay.

Then there was another lady who had TONS of tattoos and even more piercings in her ears. It was a wonder that her ears were not sagging down to her toes with all the weight on them. I only noticed the ones in her ears at first. But Cooper must have noticed them all because he just had to say, right in front of her, "that lady had lots of stuff on her!" loud enough for everyone in the isle, and probably the next five isles over to hear. To this the lady said, "yes, I'm more decorated than a Christmas tree". At that comment I looked at her, with a "I'm sorry" kind of a look. It was then that I noticed the 20+ piercings on her face and the 10+ piercings on her chest area. In my head of course, I was thinking of tons of sarcastic comments I could have said about her body being decorated like a Christmas tree, but refrained out of fear that Cooper would repeat them in front of the lady. I didn't have any "lesson" for Cooper on this one. Although I guess I could have told him that sometimes it is best to keep your thoughts to yourself.

Cereal deal

It has been awhile since I've seen any really good deals at the grocery stores that I couldn't pass up. I could have passed this one up, but our cereal supply was getting dangerously low...like 20 boxes, so I figured I better take advantage of it. You too can still take advantage of this! Until this next Tuesday for every 10 Kellogg's products you buy at Safeway, a coupon good for $10 off your next purchase will print out at the register. All the items I bought were on sale for $1.99, with the only exception being the Frosted Mini Wheats at $2.99. So if you just took advantage of this deal, without any coupons, once you apply the $10.00 off coupon, you could get everything for $0.99 (or $1.99 for the FMW). That's an okay deal. But I also have kept my coupons that come in the Sunday pinch (a free paper that comes with all the coupons and some store ads from that weeks Sunday paper). I LOVE the pinch, it gives me just what I want, the coupons, while leaving out what I don't, the paper AKA the one sided, only report the bad, news. So each product I bought I was also able to put a $0.50-$1.00 off each item coupon with the product. My final bill you ask? I paid $25.29 for everything in two seperate trasactions. AND I have 1 $10.00 off my next purchase coupon, so you could say I paid $15.29 for all this, an average of $0.76 per item. 12 boxes of cereal, 5 boxes of Pop tarts (for Jeff, I find them less than tasty), 3 boxes of Nutri-Grain bars, and 1 gallon of milk.

I also ordered more coupons off ebay yesterday, so my ceral supply will soon be back up to the levels I like!

Garage Sale

Friday and Saturday we had a garage sale. I am surprised at how much we really had that we didn't need or want anymore. My main goal was to make enough money to buy Shiloh a different dresser than the one we had, and paint for her room. We reached our goal, with just a few dollars to spare, seriously!

We sold some pretty high priced items like my vanity and the dresser we had for Shiloh, and tons of smaller things. So why did we sell the dresser we had for Shiloh just to have to go out and buy another one? Well, since we had to get a new crib, the dresser did match AT ALL. The new crib is dark wood, and the dresser was very light wood. Plus the dresser had really small drawers and so couldn't fit very much in it. The dresser wasn't very sturdy, I have visions of it falling on top of one of the kids when trying to pull out a drawer. Not good.

Mason and Cooper also had a sale of their own. They sold lemonade, cookies, banana muffins, zucchini bread, and zucchini from our garden. They did really well with their sale too. They had some people just giving them a dollar or two, just for the heck of it. Or people who would give them a five dollar bill for just one or two cookies. They made about $30! They are saving that money (and any birthday money they get) for a Wii.

Cooking it up!

What do you get when you start with fresh peppers...

Throw them in a pan with onions and saute...

Add in your favorite meat (Beef in my case)...

And throw the some shredded Colby-jack cheese on top?

FAJITAS!

Now I know what you may be thinking. Why is Jeff telling us how to cook. Or for that matter why is Jeff cooking. Well since I have been laid off and even prior to that I have been cooking dinner. It started out by me cooking dinner on Sunday nights. My treat to the family. But with Crystyne being so sick initially with the pregnancy, I have picked up some hours in the kitchen. (Wish they were work hours at a place of employment, but I digress.) Any who, it was either cook or starve for the boys and me.

I wasn't to confident in the kitchen with cooking. But it turns out, that I am actually not that bad of a cook, and not just Top Raman or BBQ burgers. It shouldn't be a surprise since my grandfather and grandmother owned a restaurant and cooked all the time, it must flow in the blood.

Some of my favorite things to cook are Fajitas, Arroz con Pollo (Azteca Style), Breakfast (I love making seasoned fried potatoes with fresh peppers and onions in it.), Sauteed Chicken with Broccoli over white rice and Shish-ka-bobs. I am learning more recipes and I actually find it somewhat relaxing. (Shhh. Don't tell Crystyne, or this could be a permanent position.)

Now if only I enjoyed cleaning up the dishes that much......

Baby check up

This morning I had another Dr. appointment. I gained one pound so I am now just one pound more than I was before being pregnant. I have technically gained thee pounds total, but I also had lost two pounds when I was so sick. So would you say I have gained three pounds? or just one? My uterus is measuring a little small now, which does not surprise me because I'm am beginning to have back pain, like I did with Cooper's pregnancy, so I'm sure Shiloh will sit farther in my back just like Cooper did. Oh joy! How I loved having the back pain with Cooper! Her heart beat was 152 bpm. At my next appointment, at 27 weeks, I am scheduled to go back in for another ultrasound to make sure my placenta has moved up. My Dr. is very positive that it will have moved up by then. He said that it wasn't extremely low at the last ultrasound, so I guess I have marginal placenta previa, not complete placenta previa.

I am 23 weeks 3 days pregnant.

I'm wondering

Now that we have made our blog private, does anyone read it anymore? No one has commented since making it private. So either no one reads the blog, or nothing I write is interesting enough for anyone to comment about.

So does anyone read my blog anymore?

5th Birthday Party

We had Mason's 5th birthday party today. We were lucky enough to get permission to have it at the fire station Jeff volunteers at. I made this fire truck cake. It was my first attempt at decorating a cake. I didn't have the right cake decorating tips, so I made due with what I had. I know, I'm no Cake Boss. I think I'll stick to what I do best, cookies. Mason supervising the cake decorating process all dressed up for the party.
Cooper finishing off the frosting.

Once we were at the station, Jeff and Mason gave the party guests a tour of the fire truck and all the cool tools on the truck.

Then the kids got to sit in the fire truck.

Zachary

Mason with his cousin Hannah Mason's friend Brennan

Jeff-all dressed up with no fire to respond to. Ethan in the fire gear

Diggin' the hat dude


Cooper trying to walk in Daddy's fire pants and boots.

After all the kids who wanted to try on the gear got a chance, we sang "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy and ate cake and ice cream.




Then Jeff took the kids on a ride in the fire truck.

The birthday boy on his ride in the engine.

Here is the first group as they were backing into the fire station after their ride.

Cooper in the fire truck, telling Daddy to turn on the sirens.

Then we all went back inside to open presents.
Nascar
A cool bubble machine from his cousins Ashley, Megan and Hannah

Happy Birthday Mason!

Today is Mason's 5th birthday! I can....not....believe....it....! Time has gone by fast with this big guy. He has been such a blessing to our family. He is lovable, caring, helpful, and funny. I love him more every day. One thing I love about him is that he will tell me several times a day that he loves me and give me a hug or kiss.

Birth
One year

Two years

Three years

Four years

Five years

We will be having a birthday party at the fire station this Saturday with his friends and some of his cousins. We wanted to have cake on his actual birthday though, this is the cake he wanted for that.

Strike a pose

Last night our YW group had a "What Not to Wear Modesty Fashion Show". There were 12 models who all dressed in ways that are not modest or other non-appealing "trends". We had everything from tight clothing (the model was wrapped in plastic wrap) to plunging neck lines (the model wore a really low cut dress, with an undershirt on too and put a (clean) plunger down her shirt). We had a fashion show hostess, who introduced each model with a clever little poem stating why these trends are not OK.

I was the tattoo model. Jeff drew tattoos on me with washable marker. Here are a few of the tattoos. Jeff is so proud of his work, he thinks he missed his calling in life as a tattoo artist.

Flame sleeves

Arm band with the name "Rick" in the heart. You know my ex boyfriend who I thought I was going to be with forever....yeah, we broke up two weeks after getting his name permanently inked on my arm.

Cooper and Mason had to get in on the tattoo action too. They got to have this cool tattoo put on their arms.

Potty Training

Just after Jeff was laid off, we decided to potty train Cooper. What other time would we have to potty train him together? Cooper has done really well! He had just a few accidents, the last one being almost three weeks ago! Cooper will now go in and go potty by himself without being reminded (even the pooping too sometimes). He has been wearing underwear at nap time for a week with no problems. We are now out of pull ups, so we are going to see how he does at bed time, he wakes up dry 6 out of 7 days a week, so we'll see.

Awww no kids in diapers. Finally. For a while anyway. This is the first time we have not had a kid in diapers in 5 years. It's so nice.

Crib

A while back I got an email from Baby Center saying that there was a major crib recall. This is the picture that was on the email.

Sure looked like our crib, so last night I checked into it further and the notification said that ALL cribs with tubular metal mattress-support frames from this certain brand were recalled. Sure enough our crib was recalled. In the email it said that the manufacture has gone out of business so to take the crib back to where you bought it and the retailer would either give you money back, store credit, or exchange the crib

This is what the notification said can happen: The crib's tubular metal mattress-support frame can bend or detach and cause part of the mattress to collapse, creating a space into which a baby or toddler could roll and become wedged, become entrapped, or fall out of the crib.

Here are some pictures of what can happen. Yikes! Not something I would want to happen while my baby is in the crib.

Today we took the crib back in to Shopko and the customer service gal tried to give us the run around saying: we don't handle recalls. Are you sure your crib is part of the recall? What is the model number of the crib? What is the name of the crib? (Me) I don' know, the crib is in our vehicle, would you like us to get that info for you? Well, when did you buy the crib? (Me) In 2005. Well we stopped selling that brand of crib in 2002. (Me) No you didn't. Then after re-looking at her recall notification she realized that they were selling that brand of crib in 2005. Gee it looks like IF your crib is part of the recall that we can only give you $100 for the crib. (Me) So I'm suppose to replace my crib with $100, I don't think so. Then she looks at our boys are says, well do you even use the crib anymore? Are you really going to need to buy another one? (Me) Yeah! I am pregnant and will be needing a crib in about 4 months. During this whole time of her trying to give us the run around she also called several different employees up to the CS counter to get their take on the whole recall. To say this lady was a pain would be an understatement. After she asked us again what crib exactly we had, I remembered that I did have the original receipt, so I asked if that would help her figure out what crib we had. Yup it would. She then confirmed that our crib was part of the recall and that Shopko was suppose to take the crib back. She said that they could only give us store credit, but since we had the receipt, she could give us the full purchase price back, not just the $100! Yeah for keeping receipts!

So this is the crib we got to replace our old one with. We still had to fork out some dough (but not as much as we would have if we didn't have the receipt) since cribs have gone up in price in the last five years and there weren't any cribs for sale for the price that we paid in 2005.
I am really happy with the outcome even though the lady was a pain. This crib is way nicer than the one we had and I really wanted a darker crib to better match the bedding I want to get for Shiloh's room.

Moral of the story: Keep your receipts until you get rid of bigger priced items like a crib, even if it has been 5 years since you bought it. It could save you some money.

Fire 9 family BBQ

Sunday was the annual Fire 9 Family BBQ. They always have fun things for the kids to do. Bounce castle shaped like a fire truck.

A pinata filled with lots of candy.

They also had water balloons for the kids.