Preschool

Benjamin started preschool this year. He goes twice a week for 2.5 hours. He couldn't wait to go to "school". He was a little dissapointed that he didn't get to ride the yellow school bus, though. Other than that, he absolutely loves it. He carries his backpack around and wants to take it everywhere we go. It's so fun to see his be so excited about school and learning. I'm so proud of him. Just the other day as we were stoped at a stop sign, he asked me what the red sign said. I told him it says "STOP". He goes, "it says (spelling it), S-T-zero-P". I couldn't believe it. Did he just spell it out? Did he learn that in preschool? I have no idea but, apperently, my three-year-old can spell.

All ready for preschool
He was pretty excited

Off he goes...

Update...finally

Has it really been 4 months since the last time I posted? What can I say, life's busy. I don't really have a good excuse. I'll try to do better, though. Here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to lately...

1. Benjamin turned 3. No more terrible twos, right?

2. Andrew is just barely starting to walk. The kid is sixteen months now. I don't think he really felt the need for walking since he is a super fast crawler and a crazy climber. How is it that I got two monkey boys? They are always climbing something.

3. I turned twenty seven. Here's to being yet another year older! But that's ok, my Beehives thought I was twenty one. Love those girls!

4. We've been going to Gunlock and going on a lake as much as we can. Not nearly enough.

5. We went to California and hung out at the beach.

6. I've been training for a half-marathon coming up in the beginning of November. My first 5-mile run felt like my biggest accomplishment ever. I've been really enjoying running lately, which is weird because I've always hated running.

7. Scott and I just celebrated our 5-year anniversary. We drove down to California to see Wicked. It was WICKED AWESOME, it's all I gotta say about it.

So here we are,

5 years ago...

...and now
Haven't changed a bit, right?

Happy Birthday, Andrew!!!

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY!!!

...

My little boy turned 1 this Thursday. I had to work on Thursday so we celebrated on Friday, which is Aunt Jamie’s birthday as well. So we had a little combined celebration for them.

The best gift ever… the quiet book made by grandma Hardy. Thank you, grandma. It’s priceless.
The best part of the day… All the boys got in the spa together and had some wild wet fun.
Daddy with his little boy

My little Loch Ness Monster

Grandpi with his boys

The Hardy girls

We had a great time. We had to forgo the cake and ice cream because of Ben's diet. We'll have to make up for it next year.


Happy Birthday, my little man. We love you!!!

Lovin' a great deal

I have heard before about the couponing craze and how people are saving tons of money by clipping coupons. It always seemed hard, confusing, overwhelming, and, most importantly, time consuming to me. It just didn't seem like something I would do. But a friend of mine was holding a couponing party/class and invited me to come. Reluctantly, I went. Boy did she change my mind. I decided to give this couponing thing a try. Yesterday I ventured out to CVS to see how much money I can save.

Here’s what I bought…

2 Crest Pro Health Toothpastes
1 Edge Hydrate Shave Gel
1 Bayer Aspirin Quick Release Crystals
4 Dove Skin Vitalizers
1 TREsemme 24 Hour Body Shampoo
2 TREsemme 24 Hour Conditioners

All the above items where on sale.
Their original price total would have been $81.09 + tax.
Their sale price total is $36.65 + tax (not bad).
I paid out of pocket $9.51 + tax, and got $5.00 to use for next purchase (even better).

I haven’t done any grocery shopping yet, but I’m excited to see how much I can save. I think this can get addicting. Who doesn’t like a great deal?

Easter Fun

We had a fun Easter this year. Scott's sister Jamie and her little family were in town. Benjamin and Jaxon had so much fun together. They had the best time tackling each other and just roughhousing like nothing else. They're two tough little guys, getting hurt didn't seem to bother either of them.

My cute Mom and us

After the egg hunt, boys had a great time in the sandbox. I love how both of them are just laughing their heads off.

I had to post this picture of Jaxon. I love it. He's completely covered with sand and loving it.

Eczema...

I've read on someone's blog that some people hate blogs because they think they're fake, because people only write about the good and exciting things in their lives and make it appear like their life is bliss. I would have to disagree. I might carefully choose the pictures that I post, and only post the ones that I think are the best. But it doesn't mean our life is bliss. Although, we have been blessed tremendously, we have our own challenges that we have to deal with. So for those who want more than just happy and exciting blog posts, here's one challenge that we're dealing with right now.

Benjamin has had Eczema, which is dry, inflamed, irritated skin, pretty much since birth. He has these dry patches all over his body. They're really itchy and he is constantly scratching it. Sometimes he scratches it so hard that it bleeds. It's not contagious but poor kid's skin looks like a dinosaur skin. Some days are worse than others, but it never seems to completely clear out. His pediatrician and dermatologists just tell me that it's genetic and that there is no cure for it. Some people outgrow it, some don't. They put him on a steroid cream, which seems to relieve the rash a little for a very short period of time, but then it's back full blast. Steroid creams are really not good for you, and are definitely not intended for long-term use (which neither of the doctors bothered to mention to me). So in an attempt to, somehow, help my little boy, I turned to alternative medicine. I took him to a homeopathic doctor, who put him on a remedy and ran a food allergy test. He believes that a lot of eczema problems are caused by an allergic reaction to a certain food. His results came back yesterday and the kid has food sensitivities to almost everything you can possible think of. Now, that doesn't mean that he is allergic to everything, but in order to figure out what is it that could possibly be causing his skin problems, I need to eliminate all the high-sensitivity foods from his diet for 4 weeks. Then, introduce those foods back one at a time. Here's the list of foods he CANNOT have: cow's milk or any milk products, beef, eggs, barley, oats, wheat (that's nothing that has flour in it), rice, nuts (none), garlic, lemon, lime, orange, pinto beans. The most overwhelming part for me is that he cannot have any sort of grain, except for corn. How many meals can you prepare with corn meal?

The next four weeks are going to be a challenge. I pretty much have to cook everything from scratch for him and read all the labels. Most of the canned or prepackaged foods have either garlic or lime in it, neither of which Ben can have right now.

The hardest thing is having to tell him 'no' when he's asking for yogurt or crackers or whatever else he's used to and loves eating. How do you explain to a two-year old that his buddy can have a cracker but he can't?

Sorry if this picture is disturbing to you. It's is not Ben's hand, but during his worst flare-ups, that's exactly how it looks like.

My latest obsession...

…the P90X fitness program (http://www.p90x.com/)

I love it. I first heard of it from Scott’s sister a little while back and it seems to be taking over the world. So we decided to give it a try. I absolutely love it. It totally kicks your butt, but makes you feel great afterwards. It’s a 90 day program so we’ll see if we can stick to it for that long. Scott is doing it with me, although we have to do it at different times most of the time because of his work and church responsibilities. I’ve actually done three weeks of it a month and a half ago but something happened, I got off schedule and didn’t get back into it. I’m ready for a clean start now. Today is only day 2, I’ve done my workout for the day and I feel great.

I’m hoping that posting this will keep us motivated. Please don’t send me any hate mail. I know I’m skinny enough. I’m not really trying to lose any weight here. I just want to be toned, healthy, and have more energy. I’ve already gotten some rolled eyes when I’ve mentioned P90X. It is just something that I enjoy doing. It’s fun and it’s challenging.

So I’m extending a challenge to everyone who is reading this. Find something that will challenge you and go for it.

You’re it.