Everyone likes a good deal!

Awhile ago my friend Erryn sent me an email for this company for cosmetics http://www.eyeslipsface.com/. I have placed a few orders with them and just did again this afternoon. Most of their products are $1. Yeah, a buck. But that is only the half of it. Since I first started ordering from them I have used the same coupon code ("carolina") for 50% off everything. So I get eye shadow, eye liner, concealer all for 50 cents a piece. The "portions" are a little small, but heck, order two! I especially like their eye shadow. I am going to try their bronzer this time too. The shipping is 6.95 too, but I still think it is worth it. Even at Walmart, make-up can really add up and this way you can even try stuff you may not otherwise try. So if you try to be as frugal as possible, like me, and especially on things for yourself (why are we like that?), then try out this website and see if you like it!

FINALLY!

Thank goodness we finally have a good night under our belt. I am trying not to get too excited about this because it could go sour again tonight. But at least I have a glimmer of hope and I know it can be done. He went to bed at 7:30 then woke up at 9 and screamed for 30 minutes, then fell asleep until 4:30. I fed him and back to bed and he is still asleep! Horray!

This and That

I'm not going to lie. It's been a little rough at the Anderson household the last couple weeks. We've been trying for 2 solid weeks now to get Grey to sleep in his own bed. This means hours of listening to him cry. Sometimes he will go down okay, sometimes not. Often he wakes up every 45 minutes to maybe 3 hours. He still is wanting to nurse several times a night. I don't think he is wanting it for food, but comfort instead. But what if he really is hungry? I don't want to deprive him of nourishment. Thank goodness Elliot has been a champ through all this and sleeping most nights without interruption. The doctor says to bulk up the solid food throughout the day especially in the evening. But funny enough, Grey hasn't taken to solid food real well. He likes his rice cereal with apple juice in the morning and I have found that he likes most fruits and yogurt, but getting him to eat meat or dinner type foods or vegetables has been a real challenge. I just keep trying. He doesn't nap well either (like 45 minutes at a time) so by the evening he is tired and cranky and doesn't want to have anything to do with solid food. We are getting pretty desperate over here and not sure what else to try. I just keep hoping that a light switch will go on in his little head. In the meantime this is us:

I know that this too shall pass though and he will sleep and we will sleep once again.

Last week Grey had his doctor's appointment and here are the stats: 27 3/4 inches long and 19 pounds, 3 ounces. He got his 6 month shots and I think had a little reaction to them. He had a fever that night and into morning and a bad runny nose. Then to make matters worse, he burned his little hand on the space heater that night and fell off the couch the next morning. I know, Mother of the Year, I am not. I ended up staying home with him on Wednesday instead of going to work, maybe to try to redeem myself. He has seemed to forgive me (except when he is SCREAMING in his crib).

On a lighter note, I have mentioned before that we have started doing better with Family Home Evenings and we have had a lot of fun with it. We keep them very simple and short, but Elliot loves it and frequently asks during the week if it is Family Home Evening tonight. You can find lots of fun lessons and things, but it is sometimes hard to gear it towards the really little kids. In the February Ensign there is an article about the new nursery manual, Behold Your Little Ones, and how to use it. They suggest that it be used in the home not just on Sundays. I found one in the closet in Primary on Sunday and borrowed it. It is FANTASTIC!!!! Anyone with little kids should get one from the distribution center. The lessons are easy and there are pictures and coloring pages and everything all included. I was so impressed. So last night we had our FHE lesson on prayer as Elliot is trying to say prayers herself. We had things in a sack labeled "We Thank Thee" and in another sack labeled "Please Bless Us." We pulled things out and talked about how we can pray for these things. And we sang "I Pray in Faith" which is one of my favorite primary songs.

(No Grey in this picture as I think he was upstairs crying in his crib...go figure).

One last thing...I wanted to give a shout out to my husband. I was reading an article in a parenting magazine last night about griping about your husband and it was basically women complaining about their husbands and how they have to do everything and he never contributes. I will admit that sometimes I feel the brunt of the things of keeping the household running, plus I work 2 days a week outside of the home. But I feel like Justin works pretty hard for us too and he is very generous with giving me time for me. He let me leave for 3 or 4 hours on Saturday to go to a cricut class, plus an hour early to run. He makes sure I get those runs in as I am training for my marathon. He spent ALL day yesterday (his MLK Day off no less) working on fixing our tub drain only to find out that it didn't work and he has to start over. He helps a lot with the kids and is very hands on with them. I just am very grateful for all the he does for us and that he loves me so much.

First Prayer

We've been trying for quite awhile to get Elliot to say her own prayers either at bedtime or before dinner, but she always wants help. Last night as I was tucking her into bed though she said she wanted to do it herself. I said okay thinking that she wouldn't really do it, but she actually did. It was pretty darn cute as all kids' prayers are. She was looking around the room trying to think of what to be thankful for- her Dora blanket, her light, her barbies. But then she said mom and dad and grey, Lucy, grandma and grandpa, uncle aaron (why just him I am not sure). Then I said that she should move on to blessings. She basically said to bless then same things that she was thankful for. The funniest was she says, "Please bless my new baby and cradle from Grandma Jill, I mean, Grandma Jana." I was trying so hard, but unsuccessfully, not to laugh. When she was done, she was so proud! She wanted to go tell Justin herself. It was pretty cute. We'll see if it was just a fluke last night or if she will continue to say some prayers on her own.

Tag

I was tagged by Shana.
I was suppose to show my 4th picture in my 4th folder and here it is:

It's from October 2008 and look at that mop of hair!
I tag Heidi, Tiffany, Amber, and Adri...and anyone else who wants to. It was kinda fun!

Revisiting Christmas via Jingle Bells

So Elliot learned Jingle Bells I think at preschool and was singing it the other day and hasn't really stopped since. The funny thing is her take on the lyrics:

She gave us a lesson on the words when I tried to teach her the real words. This is the way she says it is suppose to go:

"Jingle bells, jingle all the way. Odis hide, dester ride, open slade." Boy, she makes us laugh!

CHRISTMAS!!!

WARNING!!! THIS MAY BE A VERY LONG POST AS IT HAS BEEN A VERY LONG TIME SINCE THE LAST POST!

What a wild week and a half or so it has been. I can't believe that it is all over and done with! I have to back up a little bit and mention Elliot's Christmas program at preschool. They were lucky to have a program at all given the snow and cold weather we have had, but Grant County seems to luck out in the snow department and I have yet to see a snow day yet here. Unfortunately, I had to work, but Justin (bless his heart) went over to see her program and took some pictures for me. Like the Thanksgiving program not much singing from the kids and Elliot spent the entire time with her hands in her eyes so much that she had a wound between her right eye and nose afterwards. In the pictures though you will notice that one girl is on the floor, many are looking all around and one is crying. So maybe Elliot wasn't the worst.

We spent Christmas this year at my parents' house in Arlington (40 miles north of Seattle) and it was a real treat because all my brothers were home and we don't know when that will be happening again. It was so much fun to have us all together. Justin loved the chance to have someone to play video games with and this was a common site. One, two or more in front of the video game, some times a baby around, and treats usually not far.

This is a picture of all my brothers (and Justin of course):

From the left is Justin, Michael (a junior at Western studing business), Mark (a senior at BYU studing mechanical engineering), Aaron (a freshman at BYU and getting ready for a mission this spring/summer), and David holding Elliot (works at Hartford of Conneticut in NYC as an actuary).

Christmas morning was exciting with all the presents and everything, especially for Elliot. She got her swim baby that she despretely wanted and it is pretty cool. It really does swim!

But this was where we found Elliot for the next few days, literally...at the kitchen table playing with her barbies and a polly pocket.

Grey, of course, liked the paper more than anything. As a Christmas gift to me though, he started sitting up a couple weeks ago. He loves being able to sit and play with toys and I love having him content for a little while.

My little man, ready for church!

I was lucky enough to get a Cricut from my mom and Justin gave me some tools and cartridges to go with it. I am so excited to get working on some scrapbooking. I feel behind as Grey is almost 6 months and I have nothing to show for it. I know that isn't as bad as it could be, but I need to keep up or else it feels to overwhelming. Besides some spending money, I got some running stuff to help me with my marathon, a magazine subscription and plenty more. Justin got some great gifts as well and we feel so blessed. I was excited about the things that we were giving this year as well. I made a lot of my presents and I really felt like it meant more. A lot of thought was put into them. I made this star for my mom and mother-in-law (and I have to give a shout out to my friends Shana and Kreanna for the idea- check out their blogs...they have cute stuff!):

I've also been working on knitting hats. My friend Leslie (check out her blog too, Miss Crafty, I tell you!) told me that you can learn on youtube how to knit. And sure enough I was able to learn how to make a simple hat. So I started with my kids and then made one for each of my neices and nephews (8 all together). It's been fun to learn and really not as hard as it seems.

These are my nephew, Brooks, and neice, Faith, and their mom, Annie.

Before I go any further I have to mention the snow that was on the west side of the mountains. It is always a pain when it snows over there because no one is used to driving in it and they don't have the equipment to take care of it in a timely fashion. We made it over the pass in no time but as soon as we got off the freeway it was a nightmare. At major intersections it was like we were off roading. I was so grateful for the four wheel drive. Everyone was stuck everywhere. I didn't want to drive anywhere. Snow plows were not seen very often, but I praised them when I saw them. It was awful. Bless Justin for all the extra driving he did simply because of the bad weather.

On December 30th, my cousin Lauren got married and Elliot was the flower girl. I held my breath, not knowing if she was actually going to do it, but thanks to Grandma Dolma helping with a nap that afternoon and my cousin Brookie for helping hold her hand down the aisle, she made it. The ceremony was beautiful and I wish Lauren all the happiness in the world.

Finally on New Years Day, we made the snowy drive to Spokane to see Justin's family. It took an extra hour to get there, but worth it to see our family. We only stayed one night, dug our car out again and drove home. Again, thank goodness for 4-wheel drive.

Grandma Jana and my nephew, Kolby:

My nephew, Ryan:

Grandma and Granpa got Elliot a leapster and I am not sure who is more excited about it- Elliot or me!

Grey got his own rocking chair to match his sister's:

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday too. I am actually looking forward to getting back to normal life. I spent most of the day today clean up and putting away and it felt pretty good. I think majority of this week will be doing more of the same.