On the bright side...

As I've mentioned before, we go through A LOT of diapers. We have two kids in diapers, and we probably will for a while. One bonus to using a lot of diapers, and having to use the more expensive, name brand diapers is the rewards that go with it.  

Since Kayden was a tiny baby, I've been collecting Gifts To Grow points from Pampers.  On every pack of diapers or wipes, there is a code.  You go online and enter the code, and earn points. There is a catalog of rewards to choose from, and I'm working on earning this for Tyler's birthday or maybe this.  To date, I have collected 3,499 points.

If  you use Pampers, and don't collect the points, I highly recommend starting.  You can earn anything from prints from Shutterfly, to magazines to books to puzzles to spa treatments to Sam's Club gift cards.  If you're not going to use them, I will accept your donations ;) 

Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for:

....Girl Scout cookies!

....a little boy turned big boy thanks to his 1st haircut!

....no trips to the clinic

....a clean car, thanks to my hubby(even if the complained the whole time about how messy it was---when will he understand that I chauffeur 3 kids around 5 to 7 days a week????)

....a predicted warm up from these frigid Minnesota temperatures(this morning, my car  thermometer read -20)

....Monday night volleyball with a great group of girls

....dinner out with the girls

....Auntie Mazih's basketball games

....the hil-a-ri-ous things that come from the mouth of an almost four year old and almost 2 year old!

*Pee*

We currently have two kids in diapers. Anyone who is a parent these days, knows how expensive diapers are.  Plus, my boys apparently pee A LOT because we aren't able to use those generic brand diapers.  Major leakage.  So, we spend, I would say, at least $60 a month on diapers.  This drives Mike nuts.  He has been randomly putting Tyler on the potty, and yesterday, he finally went.  Maybe I'm weird, but I am not nearly as excited about this as I should be.  I hate potty training.  It's such a process, and a pain.  It's so much easier to just put a diaper on a child, rather than worry about making sure they go potty every 10 minutes, cleaning up the mess when they forget or choose not to use the potty, cleaning up the floor after they use their new-found toy to spray urine all over my bathroom, find a potty in a store within 5 seconds, before we have a mess, driving frantically down the freeway when a little voice from the back yells, "I gotta go potty!!!".  

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

But, hey, he did it.  

Wahoo.  

I think. 

Tyson::9 months

Tyson had his 9 month appointment on Friday.  His ears were clear of infection, his breathing was back to normal, and he is a healthy 21 pounds!  I don't have all of his stats handy right now, but he was in the 50th-60th percentile in everything.  I was kind of wondering about his weight, because he has really gotten kinda chubby in the past month, but I guess he's normal :)   

He also is pushing his second tooth through, which has made for a couple sleepless nights!

A date?

We had a pretty low-key weekend.  Not a lot happening.  

BUT.....

When Tyson was born, Mike's parents gave us a gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings and said that they would like to babysit while we go out to dinner some time. Well, it's now almost 10 months later, and we're finally using it.  We started looking at our calendar, and realized that we needed to get Kayden's birthday present (we wanted to get him a bike, and I wanted Mike to help pick it out), and our schedule was filling fast with birthdays, basketball games, Mike being on-call, etc.  We didn't have much planned for this weekend, so we figured we'd go.  

So, Friday night I got home from work, fed the boys supper, and then when Mike got home, his parents came over, and we headed out.  Our first stop was Toys R Us, I had a few coupons for there, and I knew they had a good selection of bikes, even in the winter.  We were able to find one there, and--to my complete embarrassment--Mike even rode it around the store to try it out.

After Toys R Us, we headed to BWW's to eat. The place was packed, but it was nice to be able to have a meal with no kids to feed, mouths to wipe, spills to clean...I could go on and on. We took our time eating, then headed to Target.  We wanted to check their bike selection (just in case), and we needed to pick up Tyson's latest prescription, and some diapers, etc.  We ended up being in Target almost until they closed!  We got home and all three boys were asleep.  We visited with Mike's parents and his sister for a while, then they headed home and we were off to bed. 

Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for:

**a birthday celebration with family---and others

**kids who seem to be on the up-swing of recent illnesses

**a weekend ahead with no major plans, which means time to get my house back in order

**a great dinner out with great friends---and no kids in tow!!!

**an awesome family weekend 

**Desitin

**Cherry Coke

**coupons

**slightly warmer temperatures (I think we'll climb into the teens today!)

**babies who sleep all night---or most of the night at least!

**monkey piles

15???????????

My baby sister is 15 today.  

15.  

Seriously?  

Where did the curly-haired 2 year old go? 

Oh yes, she turned into a 5 foot 8 inch basketball playing teenager.

Don't worry.  She isn't driving.  

Yet. 

So, "Happy Birthday Amazih".  

Thank you for being my extra hand with my boys when I need it. 

Love You!