HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADDIE!

Our little baby Adelaide Grace turned 1 this week. We can hardly believe it. Just like Alison enjoys being the baby, Addie is the big girl. She climbs the stairs, she walks & runs after the other kids, she doesn't sleep well, liking to stay up late with the big kids and loves to be held (probably because she was spoiled by grandma when she was here-grandma is the only one who could get her to fall asleep in their arms,not even mom). Even though, we love and adore her so much. She is so darling. It is so fun to watch her interact with the other kids. She get's so excited when Sam, Natalie or Alison enter the room. She tries to copy everything they do. She loves to talk to daddy on the phone and get's excited when we show her his picture. I am sure it will be a big adjustment when he comes home, she probably won't know who he is, but it is fun to think she does.

Happy Birthday to my little angel!

COUPONS

Don't worry I'm not bored, but I do like a challenge and something to occupy my mind while hubby is away, so....
I have been very impressed with Camille and her deal skills and last night we had a great Enrichment at church all about being prepared, they had little 5 min (which wasn't long enough) classes and one was about coupons. Know, I have been cutting coupons for a while know and then I saw on someone's blog they kept a total of how much they have saved, so I am going to start Sept. 1 and keep track of how much I can save with coupons and special sales. Check back to see how good I do, hmmm, what will I buy with the savings?

UPDATE ON THE COUCH

I guess that Scotch Guard really does work. I took the cover off the couch cusion and washed it, it came out great. I took the cushion scrubbed it a little (although nothing had soaked through), sprayed it with Febreeze and put it outside in the hot TX sun all day and it was great. NO smell, no stickiness, no water spots, nothing. I also bought a couple cans of Scotch Guard to re treat, they say to reapply after you wash or about 1 a year. It came pretreated so I think I will re treat the cushion I washed.

On another note, the reason Natalie got sick in the first place is we had a little water issue over the weekend. I guess DPW here on the post decided to flush the water system without telling Housing. Someone screwed up and the chemical levels weren't right and we were getting bad bad (green) water. They kept saying run your faucets it will go away, the longer we ran our faucets, the worse it got. The worse part was no one told us not to use our water, so people were getting sick, etc. (me included). Luckily the problem has been fixed and we are all fine.

Nate

Here are some pictures of Nate in Iraq & Iran. He got to go on a little field trip to the Iran Border, their guide was comfortable enough to let them put their toe over the border for a picture, know he can say he has been to Iran.

New Couch

So, when we moved from Oregon to Texas in December last year we buried our wonderful, loved thanks Noelle for the great couch) hand me down of a couch in Oregon. We were so excited to be able to buy a new couch, you see we had never done that before. So, I new exactly what I wanted, a big brown comfy leather couch, like Merrie or Julie have. So, I shopped all the big dept stores, all the furniture stores (I knew all the salespeople at Ashley), Costco, Sam's Club & Ikea, but I couldn't find that perfect couch and I wasn't spending all that money on a couch that wasn't perfect. Finally frustration got to me and sitting and nursing a baby on the floor and we bought a great comfy set at Sam's club. It was alot cheaper, a good color to hide dirt and really comfortable.

Natalie just threw up all over my new couch and shaggy rug!!!!
Why the hell (heck) didn't I buy a leather couch?

Hmmm, I know it is a waste of money, but I may just be doing a little shopping sometime soon (just kidding, not really but right know I am really upset, how do you clean really stinky, nasty throw up off your couch cushion?)

ipod

So, Nate is in the middle of nowhere and bored stiff, which actually is a good thing when you think about what that means, no fighting or serious injuries near him. Some of you will find this hard to believe but we don't own an ipod. So, I am going to get him one and fill it up with music so he has something to listen to. The problem is, I know nothing about them.....So please help me. Which one do I buy, nano, shuffle, classic, big, small, pink, red, ha ha just kidding. Do you have one? which one and what are the good and bad about it.

Thanks

PHOTOS OF THE HEART

Here is a slide show of some of the pictures that Dana took for us before Nate left. Know we just need to do it again when Nate get's back and I've lost 50 lbs.

GULFPORT/BILOXI PICTURES

WHAT A MONTH!

What a crazy six weeks this has been. My parents were here for all of July. We got to do lot's of fun stuff like go to the Texas Rangers Museum (you know like "Walker, Texas Ranger"-I know you have all watched it), go to the zoo, go to Austin to the Natural History Museum and take a tour of the Caverns. Grandma and I did alot of quilting, well, grandma did alot of quilting, getting a quilt for Natalie pieced together and another quilt for someone cut out. My goal this year is to make big quilts for all the kids.We also drove 10+ hrs (with 4 kids, 1 grandpa, 1 grandma and me in my minivan) to Gulfport, MS where we met my sister and her family. We stayed in a great condo on the beach, spent lot's of time in the swimming pool, visited a Casino for the Buffet so Uncle Josh could get his fill of Seafood (I think all he ate was crab leg's), saw lot's of hurrican damage, played with our cousins for hours, went to a childllren's museum, spent more time swimming, did a little shopping at the outlet mall (why is the outlet mall so much fun on vacation, even though we all have them close to home, going to a different one is so exciting), got a great picture of Forrest Gump's boat, swam some more....you get the idea.

I also had to call pop-a-lock (say that 10 times fast with a Texas accent), 4 times (2 flat tires, one lock out of the car, another lock out of the bedroom (stop laughing) Alison locked my bedroom door which I didn't know had a regular lock with a key which we and the management company didn't have......

To add to all the chaos, I moved.....yup, I decided since my husband is deployed and I haven't had enough excitement in my life I needed to stir things up. Actually, an opportunity to move onto post came up and I took it. It has been really great. It is old housing, but bigger and better set up for kids (plus they pay your utilities which is great!!) The most important thing is we have great neighbors and lot's of kids who play outside. And I did this the day after my parents left. I am almost organized, having a great time going through things and getting rid of them, which I thought I did a great job of 6 months ago. I just hope we don't move again for 2 years, ha ha.

School starts in a week so we are going to be spending this next week spending as much time at the pool as we can and trying to adjust the kids bedtime which I have been horrible about the last two months.

Alison turned 4 and grew up. She is very excited about going to Pre K which is all day. I think it will take a litte getting used to but should be fun. Addy is walking and getting into everything.

We are also very excited because two of our Oregon neighbors, the Claires and the Woodbury's have moved to TX this summer. And lucky for me, I live in the middle of the two, The Clares about 2 1/2 hr south and the Woodbury's about 3 hrs north, hmmmm, meet in the middle????

(have you seen where you decoupage a picture (or wallpaper) onto framed artist canvas?) I think I might have to do this with Forrest's Boat.

Stay tuned for more pictures...........