Just A Few Tears At First

Elyse has only used a pacifier while sleeping or in the car while on long trips since she was 6 months old. Therefore, I knew when the time came where she was going to have to get rid of her pacis was not going to be easy. In fact, I just imagined the worse happening since she does not fight us or cry when it is time to go to bed or nap. With that being said, a few months ago Elyse bit through her paci, so much that we had to take scissors and cut it. I was so afraid it would break at night and she would swallow it and choke. She was then down to one and we often warned her that if she bit it too we would have to cut it and she would be all done with pacis. Well, Monday night Nate and I looked at it and it was hanging by hardly anything, so Nate asked her if she wanted to cut it. She said, "Yes" and did just so. After holding two pieces of paci in her hand she began to cry, "No cut, no cut." I grabbed her (tears filled in my eyes too) and looked at her and said, "Elyse Dada and Mama are so proud of you." Her crying instantly stopped. She then volunteered to throw the two in the garbage. We clapped our hands and gave her so much praise. She then took about an hour to fall asleep, wasn't so much crying as just needed to get use to falling asleep without it. Happy to say she slept through the night, did great at nap yesterday and went down without a problem last night. Besides a few earlier mornings than normal, so far so good. Both Nate and I are so proud of her. I don't know if having her see baby Chloe needing it showed her that babies use it or what, but her attitude towards pacis appeared to change last week. In fact, she would hold Chloe's and give it to Chloe or her doll, but would not use it herself. Positive sign in my opinion. I am aware that when baby boy comes it may result in her wanting a paci, and we won't fully object if she needs one while sleeping again. However, for now, we are hopeful that pacis are done for our little girl, who isn't so little anymore.

My Favorites of the Week

As you can see and probably guessed, my favorite pictures of the week involved only Elyse and my precious niece, Chloe. Elyse just wanted to do everything with Chloe; such things included, taking baths together, holding her, feeding her, burping her, singing to her, reading to her, and we can't forget the constant monitoring of Chloe's paci. Everyone kept saying how she really is going to be one amazing sister and big helper. So much that I might not be able to leave the room because Elyse will probably pick up her brother and put him somewhere else. With that being said, here are just a few pictures and videos that prove what I mean.

A Full House

For the past four days Nate and I had the opportunity to fill our house with people we love. This included, my brother, sister-in-law, and their beautiful and precious daughter. My uncle and aunt who drove up from Nebraska, my mom, stepdad and my stepbrother. We spent the entire time inside playing games, eating, watching football and playing with the two girls. Even though it got loud and crazy sometimes, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I LOVE having my house full of people, especially over the holidays. Nate, Elyse and I really had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Thank you all for coming and spending the holidays with us! We love and miss you already.

Below are just a few good pictures. My favorites are still yet to come!
(picture above really gets me excited for our family pic of four soon)

Thankful For

Thanksgiving is a holiday that tends to be focused on either football, shopping the next day and/or food, instead of thanks. As I am typing that thought, I realized there is so many things I am thankful for, these are just a few...
-Jesus Christ who loves me and sacrificed His life for my sins
-An amazing, patient, leading and handsome husband that I don't ever want to be apart from
-A perfect, beautiful and precious daughter that I love unconditionally
-A little son that will soon be placed in my arms
-A supportive and loving family that's there whenever needed
-Friends that I consider family
-Good health for myself and those around me
-My house that will forever be a home
-Being able to do my dream job everyday
-Laughter, something I just don't do enough of
-Having four seasons, even if the winter season came a little faster than normal this year (coldest Thanksgiving in 21 years)

I could go on and on, but since that perfect, beautiful and precious daughter of mine is calling my name, I am going to go get my everyday morning hugs from her that I am so thankful for.

Wishing you all a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Boxes of Love

Last night Nate and I joined the rest of our bible study to serve at Boxes of Love in downtown Minneapolis (HLIC). If you have not heard of Boxes of Love, it's a Christian run service project which involves boxing up food in order to provide food for the homeless/needy for the holidays. The goal for us last night was to complete 500 boxes in an hour; but with our group's dedication and determination, plus having a lot of people there, we were done in less than 30 minutes. We all were saying how we almost spent more time in the car, than serving. We really would have enjoyed packing up a few more since we were down there. It's always great to serve, but even more fun when you do it with friends.
Back row: Tom, Nate, Joren, Jill, Angela, Sarah, and Nick
Front row: Natalie, Kristi, Kris, Stephanie and Jeremiah
Not pictured, but did serve: Jenny and Ryan

Well, since we were done early and were childless for the evening, what did us adults do? We all went back to Tom and Jenny's for drinks, desserts, laughter and some game playing. Great way to end our night, that's for sure!

Special thanks to our group for stepping up and serving last night. We had a wonderful time and hope you did too. Also, to my mom for watching Elyse so Nate and I could get out and have some grown up fun.

Proud to Represent

Elyse was super proud and happy tonight running around in her CATERPILLAR sweatshirt. It's not yellow, but she still knows what the CAT logo is and what it represents, her Dada. In her words, "Yeah, Dada makes those!"

Coupon Using

For the last few months I have really been getting into using coupons. I ordered the Sunday paper, I weekly print out coupons and am a devoted Target coupon printer. It's perfect when something is on sale, and then on top of that, you use a Target and Manufacturer coupon! I am learning to get many free things, like deodorant, medicine, lotion and even food. The reason I now have decided to do a post on coupon shopping is because of the picture below...

So all the items in the the picture represents things I would have bought and totals $110.53 if nothing was on sale and no coupon was used. The total I spent today was $32.93, I saved $77.60, 70%!!!! I know people spend $0 or $10 on bills, but for me this was a great buy. In fact, the Buffet Warmer/Serving Tray is normally priced at $49.99 alone.

Anyway, I don't think I will do many if any more posts on using coupons and I am not trying to boast in this post if that is what it appears like. All I am trying to get across is that anyone can coupon shop if I can do it. Even a little saved helps; on average I usually only save between $25-$35 a week.

If you have any suggestions or coupon comments that you think are useful, I would love to hear them.