Halloween

Madison had so much fun trick-or-treating, she didn't want to stop. Even though she was a ballerina this year, she kept calling herself a princess.





Sunday we went to see Disney Princess on Ice with Oma. She was waving and clapping the entire time.

Pumpkin Patch

I've totally been slacking on my blogging lately. I've been completely consumed with my coupon deals and knitting for my annual holiday boutique in a few weeks. I'm also really slowing down these days. I can't believe I'm almost 7 months pregnant. Baby can come any time now. Here are a few pictures from the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. Madison had so much fun she wanted to go back every day for a week.

Big Deals

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately about weekly bargains and coupons, etc. It's a little overwhelming at first. There is so much information. I finally decided I'd pick a few things and try it myself. I went out and bought these items:



Regular price (depending on what store you normally shop at) is around $30.00. I got all of this for $8.75! I was so proud of myself. It was kind of fun to see how much I could buy and how many coupons I could use. I can't wait to do it again next week.

I used the following websites for reference:

http://www.fistfulofcoupons.com/

http://www.abundantfoodsavings.com/

http://www.thebargainjargon.com/

Almost Fall

Fall is almost here and I can't wait. My annual craft boutique is coming up and I've been knitting and crafting a lot over the past few weeks.



Last weekend we had Mike's birthday party and we had fun playing Cornhole Toss. Nicole and Rob were the big winners.



Madison had so much fun showing everyone her room and the yard and posing for pictures.




Madison also had her first haircut a few weeks ago. She was a little scared at first but as soon as she got a toy phone to play with, she was fine.

Baby Heidi

Lisa sent me some pictures of Heidi taken just two weeks after she was born. I couldn't resist posting a couple of the pictures. Quite possibly the cutest pictures I've ever seen.

Back Home

It's been a very long week and a half. I went to Seattle to stay with Lisa for a few days and then helped her fly home with all three kids. We got home Wednesday night and then it was the saddest three days of my life. We went to Travis Airforce Base where John's body was flown in and it was amazing. The amount of respect and the ceremony for John was more than I could have imagined.

We did manage to slip in a few happy moments. Friday was Brycie's birthday and even though he doesn't look happy in this picture, he had a great time and made everyone laugh.



It was also a good week because I got to see my brand new niece, Heidi Vi Hallett. She is four weeks old and I took advantage of every free moment I had to hold her.



Madison had her first limo ride and got to play with Jackson and Brycie all weekend.

1979 - 2009

My brother-in-law, Cpt. John Louis Hallett, III, died this week while fighting overseas. He left behind a wife, two boys and a daughter he never got to meet. He was the funniest man I've ever met and we will miss him.





A donation page has been started if you are interested.

We're Having...

Another girl! Yay! Sidney Ragusa. I'm so excited. I was going through all of Madison's old clothes and I would have been so sad to give it all away. I thought Mike was going to cry when he found out, he wanted a boy so bad, but he'll get over it.

August 2009

Another month is almost over and I don't know where the time has gone. During the first weekend of August my mom and I were in Florida. We went to Disney World and Epcot Center. I had a lot of fun at Epcot. Who knew there was so much to see there? I thought Disney World was smaller than Disneyland in California and they didn't have a bunch of rides I was hoping to go on.



The day after I got home, we started moving. It is so nice to finally have a yard and a garage after being stuck in an apartment for so long. Everything was really easy and we were unpacked in a few days. We had a lot of help.

Comcast came to set up our cable/internet/phone the first weekend we were in the house. I had the worst experience! I don't know about anyone else, but I thought this was a totally unacceptable way to set up someone's internet. It felt like a bachelor house.



I had to set up my computer on the kitchen table because they said there were no other internet outlets in the house. I was on the phone with Comcast (practically yelling at them) and they finally agreed to come back the next day. Of course they sent the same guy that initially set everything up and he fixed it so that no wires are showing anymore. Why couldn't he have done that the first time around?

This past weekend we took Madison to a birthday party for her friend DJ.



Fed the ducks.



And went to a family reunion.

Our Summer Fun

We have been very busy lately. July has been packed full every weekend so far. For the 4th we went to the singing flag in Concord and Madison was jumping around and waving her flag the entire time.



We also went to a wedding and Madison made friends with all the kids and danced all night.



Last weekend we were in Tahoe and we had a lot of fun at the beach.



Eating out.



And playing video games.



And we are still not slowing down. Next weekend I'll be in Florida, the weekend after that we are moving (again) and lots more.

Hope you're having a great summer.

Hello

It has been quite some time since I've updated this blog. The morning sickness has kicked in and I have had no desire to do anything. No scrapbooking, no knitting and no blogging. The actual sickness part seems to be gone, but I am still constantly tired. I didn't have that with Madison. I can barely get up in the morning, barely make it through work and then I'm usually out by 8:00. Hopefully it will be better in the next couple weeks. Next week I'll be three months pregnant. Boy, times flies.

We haven't been doing much around our house, but we did manage to get Madison potty trained. The first two days were a nightmare, but the third day was like she'd been potty trained forever. She's been doing great and hasn't had any accidents, but we are still working on the night time thing. She's getting better.

Hopefully I'll be back to my usual self soon so I can start knitting and scrapping and posting something on here. Until then, it will be pretty quiet.

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Today is the Papertrey Ink blog hop and it's my first time. I loved this month's challenge, which is to use yellow in a project. I love yellow, so this was pretty easy for me.



Supplies:
Paper: PTI Kraft Cardstock, PTI Lemon Tart Cardstock, PTI Vellum, My Mind's Eye "Blossom"
Stamps: PTI Butterfly Kisses and PTI Little Lady
Other: PTI Hibuscus Burst Buttons, Bazzil Self-Adhesive Jewels and Stamp-n-Stuff Yellow Embossing Powder

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #7

I've been doing a lot of crafting already this weekend. I have another challenge entry and a couple of scrapbook pages. I'm only ONE page away from finishing Madison's first year scrapbook! I am so happy, it's been a huge project and I can finally put it behind me. Almost.

Here is my challenge entry for this week:



And my scrapbook pages:

Finally Friday

This past week has been so crazy at work, I was ready for the weekend on Monday. Today was especially bad, and I left at 3:00 to get a head start on my weekend. I had a great surprise when I got home, more free stuff and the new stamps I ordered from Papertrey Ink. I made a few pages today:




I also made reservations this week to go to Florida. I'm really excited. I was in Miami for a few hours on the way to our honeymoon, and it was a little scary. This time my mom and I are going to Orlando. On a whim I called her and asked her if she wanted to take a trip and she said sure. We will be going to Disney World for a few days and I will be going to the craft and hobby show.

And finally, I actually have some knitting to show you. I've been working on this scarf since February/March and I'm almost half done. I think I'll finish this just in time for the cold weather.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge - Week 6

I haven't done much this week except sleep. At least I don't feel sick like I did while I was pregnant with Madison. I managed one scrapbook page this weekend and I did it as part of a challenge:

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a very eventful weekend. On Friday we found out we were having another baby(Yay!) due in January. On Saturday night Madison woke up screaming and vomiting so bad that we had to call 911. It was so scarry. She would not stop throwing up and then she kept choking on it. This lasted almost 10 minutes. Of course as soon as the paramedics arrived she was quiet and asked them if she could watch Barney. They said she might have had a feberal seizure, which I've never heard of, but it happens when the body tempurature rises too high too fast. Luckily she is just fine.

Mother's day was really nice. I got to spend some time scrapbooking and we went to visit my mom.






I'm not crazy about this one. It just seems to be missing something, but I don't know what to do.

Big News

Baby number two is on the way!

Free Stuff March and April

I have a talent for getting free stuff. Finding, winning, earning (I know, technically not free, but if I can earn it while I'm in my jammies, free enough), whatever, I can find it.

You know when you listen to someone winning on the radio and they say, "Oh my gosh. I've never won anything before!" Well, that's not me. In fact, there was a point when I won so much, the DJ's started to recognize my voice. The best stuff I've won? $635.00, a night on the town including limo, drinks, dancing, and food, concert tickets, and of course, lots of CD's.

In March and April, I got a lot of free stuf.

1. From www.freegrabber.com (If you decide to do this, I would suggest opening a separate email account that you don't have to check because you'll get a lot of spam):

Coffee
Ziploc baggie
Body wash
Lots of shampoo/conditioner

2. Things I've won:

1 dozen cookies from The Cookie Connection
Mini Scrapbook

3. Things I've gotten from surveys/testing:

3 full bottles of sunscreen
Box of Kleenex
Can of Pringles
2 boxes of Hostess cupcakes
Can of shaving cream
2 rolls of paper towels
Sweet and Sour Marinade
Package of Pampers Cruisers
Cash

This one is my favorite because I'm always finding packages in the mail, and I get to keep everything I test. Besides testing and keeping the products, I actually get paid for it!

If you want me to send you some links to the survey websites feel free to leave a comment with your email and I'll send them to you (that way I get referral points). Again, I would sign up for a separate email account because if you are consistent with this, you'll get a lot of surveys. I've done this for several years now, and I haven't gotten any spam from this, so you could use your regular email if you wanted to.

Happy Weekend.

A Weekend With Oma

My mom came up and stayed with me for the weekend. We had big plans, but they all got rained out. I can't believe a little over a week ago it was 95 degrees and this weekend it stormed. On Saturday we went to a bridal shower and then went shopping. Today we were going to take Madison to Fairytale Town, but it was still raining. So we did what we do best, we went shopping. I got myself a new purse, a pizza crisper, new clothes for Madison and a new step stool. She carried that step stool around the house all day. It has been so long since I've done any shopping, it felt like I was out of control!

Here are the scrapbook pages I finished this weekend.

Not Going to Make It

I'm not going to make my deadline for Madison's scrapbook, but I did manage to get a few done this week.





I have about 7 more pages left, but I'm in no mood to finish them. I've been trying really hard to get to the gym after work every night and by the time I get home, I just want to go to sleep.

I'm working on a scarf I started in February, but the yarn and needles I'm using are so tiny, it's going to be a few months before I'm finished with it. So, tonight I started a new sweater with much larger needles, so hopefully I can have it done in a few weeks.