Great PJ Deal!

Here's the link to a post about some cheap Carter's PJ's at Kohl's. I just got some cute one's for Aubrey and the little man for $4 each shipped! : )

http://hip2save.com/2009/12/kohls-kids-sleepwear-only-4-80-shipped.html#commentform

I'm dreamin' of a....rainy Christmas?

Well the weather's been in the 50's here. Not exactly conditions for a winter wonderland. Not that I'm wishing back the Rexburg snow I have escaped, but a little dusting might be nice for that Christmas feel. : ) We'll see, maybe we'll wake up to a little snow tomorrow! Hope you're all enjoying a happy holiday!

Videos

Here are a few videos I found that I just loved and wanted to share...

Christmas Lovelies/ Things I wish I still had time to make!

Just a few Christmas ideas I hope to find time to replicate for next year's decor...

Kids say...

So today Aubrey and I stopped by Babies R' Us. At the front of the store was a big display for a "Toys for Tots" program with a life-size cutout of Shaq and two overly enthusiastic children posing on it. ( Side note: Has anyone ever googled pictures for Shaq? Probably not...but you get awesome things like this and this and this!)

While we are standing in the checkout line I feel a little tug on my jeans. Aubrey motions down for me and then in a hushed tone begins this conversation...

Aubrey: Mommy?

Me: Yes, sweetie?

Aubrey: It's a GIANT! ( pointing to the Shaq cutout with eyes the size of dinner plates).

Me: Chuckle to self and then say, Yes, that's Shaq, he is very tall.

Aubrey: Mommy, I scared of the giant.

Me: You don't need to be scared, it's not real.

Aubrey: Ok! I say hi to the giant. HI GIANT!

So apparently we're good friends with Shaq now... : )

Also she has a habit of not looking where she's going and bumped right into a display post in the store, to which she very quickly apologized and said, " 'scuse me wall. " and went on her merry distracted way. At least you can't say she isn't polite!

Things I'm currently in love with...

Priority Mail flat rate boxes...

M&M's, Christmas-themed of course...

These adorable Pottery Barn ruffle lamps for Aubrey's room...

A Christmas crafter's best friend...

A welcome sight... Now if they only had "Mother with heavy toddler who refuses to walk on her own in the parking lot" Parking! :)

Mine aren't exactly iced, but definitely just as good... especially since they're are supposed to be saved for the neighbors! : )

A nice thought...

Christmas Chaos

So the countdown to Christmas is currently causing me a little stress/a minor heart attack. I'm trying, as many of you are, to get everything done this week before family comes to town and we get into all of our holiday things.

No, the packages I so loving wrapped a week ago have still not been mailed out to family across the country, my christmas cards are non-existent, and I'm pretty sure at least one of the presents I ordered online is coming late : ) Ahhh...Christmas. Believe it or not people, I started in November this year!

I am so excited though that my sister, brother-in-law, and their sweet baby "C" are coming to visit us here in good ol' Missouri for Christmas. The only problem with that is...I actually have to clean my house, and not just the "company is coming over pick up the front room" cleaning, but the actual, "we're going to be in all parts of the house" cleaning. It's a little different : )

We have great plans though for Christmas including a traditional girls-only trip downtown to see the KC Ballet preform the Nutcracker ( yay!), getting a ridiculously delicious ( aka fattening) piece of fudge at Crown Center, and of course our special Christmas Eve dinner and extended family Christmas party. It should be a fun week. : )

Well, at least the tree is up, 99.9% of the shopping is done, and I'm home for the holidays with my family. Doesn't sound so bad afterall...

Guns and Ammo...it's just what I do

So, Kristen says that I need to finally be a contributor to our ow blog stuff, and I finally have something worth sharing. I spent the week after Thanksgiving in Las Vegas for US Standard Weapons Training. It was absolutely awesome! Because I work to make ammo for standard US Military Small Caliber weapons, they figured I better know in detail how the weapons work. I had a great time, but...I forgot my own camera, so I bought a little disposable digital camera at Walmart when I arrived. Then, the last day of the trip, I dropped the camera and the batteries popped out, and the camera's memory was wiped clean. So, the pictures that I am sharing are what I was able to mooch off coworkers. I think there are some better pictures and some videos of me behind some pretty awesome weapons, but I'll have to do a little more soliciting to get my hands on those. Here is what I can share for now:

Above I am sporting the very trendy "Tavor" which fires 900 rounds per minute (that's 15 ever second). Kind of a future weapon, but it doesn't seem to be as popular as the M4A1 (the modernized version of the classic M16 Rifle). I like the M4A1 better, but most of my coworkers liked the Tavor better. If you enlarge the picture, you should be able to count 4 empty shells in the air, that have been ejected from the weapon. You'll see in a video below how fast this thing actually fires.

Table with 4 M4A1 rifles waiting for us to get crazy at the firing range

This table has 2 versions of the Tavor (on the outside) and the Thompson sub-machine gun (or Tommy gun) in the middle. I shot the Thompson and Tavor on the right. In case your wondering, the Thompson might be the easiest gun to shoot out of all the automatic weapons, and it fires the cheaper ammo than the other rifles (it fires a regular .45 Cal Pistol round). Those gangster folks seemed to have it all figured out.

First day of class, they instructors introduced themselves, and placed an M4A1 on the table in front of each of us. We stripped this and several other weapons down to see all the working parts and learn "how it works." All together we stripped down the M4A1 rifle (.223 Caliber), M249 (.223 Caliber machine gun...AKA the "Saw"), M240 (.308 Caliber machine gun), MiniGun (.308 Caliber Gatling Gun, fires 6000 rds per minute!...do the math...that's 100 rounds every second!), M2 (.50 Caliber Machine Gun), the M9 and 1911 Pistols. At the range we fired all these, along with the MP-5, Mk-19, .22LR with silencer (quieter than a pellet gun!), and an AR-10 (a wicked awesome sniper rifle). This was by far the coolest thing I've done in a very long time! Completely Awesome!

Above, this is truly the tip of the iceberg. They must have had at least 1 of every weapon ever made. Literally, thousands of weapons, including mortars, bazookas, RPGs, Anti-Aircraft, about 50 M16's, 50 AK-47's, and tons of antique weapons. They even own the guns that were used in several films (Pirates of the Caribean, Red Dawn, Swiss Family Robinson, Terminator 2, etc.) They even had the Sword that Governor Schwartzenegar used in "Conan the Barbarian." I'll say it again...AWESOME!

You see above that this isn't a typical classroom. That is the M2 machine gun on the table. Notice the weapons lining the walls...multiply that by all 4 walls and you'll have an idea of what the room was like (and it wasn't even where they stored most of the weapons).

The video above is a Coworker firing the Tavor. He is an experienced shooter. A lot of people who fired the automatic rifles would nearly fall over backwards. It's fun to try, but without a lot of practice, firing a weapon in full automatic is nearly impossible to hit your target more than the first shot.

Here is a coworker firing the M2 Machine gun of the Humvee. The dirt pile he is shooting at is over 150 yards away, so those dust clouds are much bigger than they look. The video doesn't do justice to the incredible noise. Even standing 20 ft back you can feel every one of those blasts in your chest.

The barrett sniper rifle is the reason I was so excited to go to the training. This weapon is incredible. Our instructor (standing in the video) told us that the barrett is so powerful that the shock-wave can detach your retina. He sounded serious when he said it, but that's kind of weird to tell a class of people ready to shoot the thing. Maybe he meant that if you put your face on the scope, then the recoil will bash the scope into your face, and then you could do some damage. The weapon can be used with High Explosive Armor Piercing ammunition to disable vehicles, fighter jet engines, buildings, etc. Basically any target that you can imagine. It is just an awesome amount of power. When we watched others fire this gun, the blast would almost make your knees buckle. The video doesn't do it justice at all.

Well, hopefully you all didn't get too bored from my rambling, but Kristen is probably tired of me talking about the trip, so I am unloading on you all. Have a great day.

Duh da da DAAA!

So I finally have our own blog set up so I can share with those of you who aren't lucky enough to b e privy to the family blogs. : ) I am going to cheat a little though and put some of my most recent family blog posts on so feel free to read back through.

Here's a quick rundown for those of you we haven't talked to in while!

We're pregnant with baby #2! I'm 22 weeks right now and due April 11th. We just found out the day before Thanksgiving that we are having a little boy! We are so excited to have one of each. Aubrey is a busy 2 yr old and loves to help mommy, talk your ear off, and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Steve is a busy mechanical engineer at ATK and is loving his work. He is currently serving as the Elder's Quorom 1st counselor. I am currently the Young Women's President, and although it takes up a lot of my spare time, I'm really enjoying it. We're loving life here in Missouri and definitely keeping busy! : )

Snow Day!

It was our first official snow day today. We had a very light dusting a couple of days ago and a good inch or so this morning when we woke up. It definitely made things look more Christmasy and Aubrey was so excited! First thing she said when she saw it was that she wanted to go ice skating! Who knows where she got that from, but she talked about it all day : ) We scooped up some fluffy snow from our deck, ate a few snowflakes, made snowflake soup, and had a good time exploring our morning surprise. It was very cold though and we didn't venture out. It was fun though to have that first snow of the season...with many more to come I'm sure! : )

22 weeks with Baby Boy

Hey everyone! Just posting some more pics of my baby bump, although it doesn't seem to have grown that much since the last installment, well not at least when comparing the pics, I know I am definitely noticing a change. : ) I think I'm finally putting on the pounds (no thanks to Thanksgiving) and I'm sure the scale will read quite differently at my next appt. For now it stands at 1 lb weight gain, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to blow that out of the water : ) My appetite has definitely come back!

Anyway, feeling great and enjoying feeling those little nudges and jabs becoming much more pronounced. Steve has now officially felt our little man and that's always exciting. I got another p17 injection today and got to hear a good strong heartbeat so all seems well.

Redbox

Here are some codes that are currently working to score you a freebie Redbox movie to enjoy this weekend : )

GANTS9

DVDONME

DVDATWAG ( walgreen's only)

Hallmark Coupon

Hallmark just released a new printable coupon. Just go here to print a $5 off your total purchase coupon at Hallmark Gold Crown. This coupon is valid all the way through December 24th.
Might come in handy for some free cards : )

Prego Update

<

Well, as usual, I've been meaning to post this pics for a little bit, but better late than never. We go in for our 20-week ultrasound tomorrow and we're very excited to get a sneak peek at this little one, and hopefully a hint on whether or not we should be trading in the new big girl bed we found Aubrey for bunk beds! : )

Steve's still pretty sure it's a girl, although my parents and sister think it's a boy. I've got no clue whatsoever! I keep going back and forth, although my odds aren't that bad, I do have a 50/50 chance of being right! : )

Steve has to go into work this morning at 2:00 AM though to run some tests between the night and 3rd shifts, so I'll probably have to be prodding him awake during the ultrasound at 3:30. We have our OB appt. right after that, and then the plan is to go out for a celebratory dinner. More like I just love any excuse to eat at a yummy restaurant. The problem will be deciding where to go. I've been "for sure" about where to go about 3-4 times already, and I'm still changing my mind! ( PS...If it sounds like I'm thinking a lot about this, I am! We don't get to go out to eat very often so I want to make it count! : )

19 weeks

Aubrey kept wanting a turn having her picture taken too. You can see her in the bottom of some of the pics. She was getting a little jealous and wanted to say "cheese" too! This isn't her real "cheese" smile though, this is us asking her to show us her teeth. It produces a much nicer smile : )

She looks like such a big girl in these pics! I think it's the way I'm holding her.

At this angle I don't look like I have a belly at all!

Oh yeah, here it is. 20 weeks!

I swear though that in the few days since this picture was taken I have really popped out, at least it feels that way. Steve even noticed when he came home yesterday. Guess that little baby is having a growth spurt, which is good because I have yet to have any weight gain from my first visit and we're halfway done, but I don't think that will be the case tomorrow! : ) And if not, I'm pretty sure Thanksgiving will take care of that...

Speaking of cravings, I've had an interesting diet as of late. With Aubrey I was really into Fish fillets at McD's ( gross...I know), and cookie dough blizzards from Dairy Queen. With this one I have eaten enough pink grapefruit to rival you Floridians, and been going through quite a few cartons of cottage cheese. You just never know! : )

Well, it has been a good week so far. Aubrey has been great and I've actually been able to get a lot done around the house. I have another 17p shot tomorrow morning ( ugh ), but other than that it looks like a promising day! By the way, thanks for the advice on the injections.

The progesterone shots weren't nearly as bad as I was worried about. I have an awesome home care nurse who is VERY good. She's been doing this a long time and was very gentle. It does take a long time for the oil to be pushed in and that's uncomfortable but not unbearable. Most of the pain comes about 10-20 min. AFTER the shot, which is wierd. It mainly felt like someone had punched me a lot in my hip and then down my leg, just for good measure :) A heat pad for a couple of days helped nicely though and by day 3 I didn't notice the soreness much at all.

I do get a little bonus though: they listen to to the baby's heartbeat with a doppler every time I get my shot so that's a nice little treat! Something to look forward to at least.

I'm also excited for Thanksgiving on Thursday and this year I'm making my specialties: deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce (in the can of course! How else?) We'll be going over to my Mom and Dad's and my brother Jason and his wife will be coming too. We're using the 12 lb. turkey Steve got from work last year. ( Yes, it's been in my freezer all year...no, I do not often attempt cooking 12lb. turkey's for routine dinners!) I'm hungry already!

Steve will be off the day after and I'll be doing some visiting teaching, and then we plan on setting up our Christmas tree and other decorations. I always look forward to doing that. We bought a new pre-lit tree last year at the end of the season so I'm excited to put it up. The only problem is, it's going to take quite a bit more ornaments than our former "charlie brown style" apartment tree...but I know somebody who cuts out a pretty mean snowflake if we get desperate (Steve).

Steve working hard putting up our lights last weekend. It was a beautiful fall day and was forecast to be much nicer than Black Friday so I had him go ahead and get to it. : ) Aubrey loved seeing him up there and it was all I could do to keep her off the ladder too! She actually let me put on her coat and we played outside while daddy strung the lights.

Let's not and say we did, ok?

So, it's waaayyy too late for me to be up but I've been thinking about my first progesterone injection on Thursday. I have to say I'm very nervous and I've really got to stop reading stuff about the shots on the internet or I'm pretty sure the home care nurse isn't going to make it past the doorstep.

For those of you who don't know, because Miss Aubrey decided to grace us with her presence at 35 weeks last time ( with a thwarted escape attempt at 25 weeks), I am now the unwilling recipient of a large injection of progesterone hormones ( to prevent preterm labor) on a weekly basis until I'm term. Fun stuff.

The worst part is that they sent the medicine and needles to my house! Like I really need to be staring those in the face while I try to psych myself up to do this. I'm not typically this big of a wimp, but over the years I have become progressively more "sensitive" you might say, to needles.

It seems that all the research says that it is a safe drug and has proven to be effective, but I'm still not wholly convinced that I'm in need of it. I have so little history to base it on though and I know they're just trying to be safe. So here comes 18 weeks of shots and hopefully a good outcome.

The problem is that it is one of those situations where if I have a healthy birth they'll say it was because of the progesterone ( whether or not it truly was), thus condemning me to progesterone usage in all my future pregnancies. Of course if I don't take it, and I do have pre term labor again, they'll attribute that to me not taking the progesterone. It's kind of a blind thing, but I guess we're just doing it. I'm still on the fence but they start tomorrow so... here we go!

Aubrey's 2nd Birthday!

We've been super busy around here as always, so I'll be catching up the next couple of posts with events from the last little while.

Here are some pics of Aubrey's second birthday. I can't believe she already turned 2! We just had a small family party with a Minnie Mouse theme ( Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is her favorite right now). We had a great time and she got plenty of cake, presents, and candle-blowing.

She has been singing happy birthday to herself and blowing out every decorative candle she can find since about 3 months prior to her birthday. She was very ready for this birthday party to say the least! : ) Here are some (ok, a lot ) of pictures from her special day...

Happy Birthday Aubrey!

Minnie Mouse window drawings ( the green squiggles are Aubrey's addition)

She adored her Minnie cake! We bought the decal separately and put it on ourselves. It was a hit!

Making a wish!

So excited to blow her candles out....again.

Opening presents

New baby doll that she absolutely LOVED! ( Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Redd!)

Sneaking into the presents

"Helping" daddy wrap her gifts

Steve enjoying some Papa Murphy's Pizza

Aubrey, Elmo, and Uncle Jason

Now she's got the hang of ripping those presents open! Christmas should be interesting... : )

"Faux" makeup I made her so she can be just like mommy ( and stop sticking her fingers in mommy's makeup)

I cleaned and emptied out dollar store makeup containers and filled them up with fun nail polish colors for a safe alternative to using mommy's makeup. It was really fun and she loved having it all in her own little makeup bag : )