Our "Wishlists"

Rather than e-mailing out Birthday Lists, and Christmas lists, we have created Amazon "Wish Lists" for each member of our family. There are links to each of our lists on the right side of our blog. We are going to try to keep them updated so if you are a family member and are wondering what sizes the boys are wearing, what we need for the boys, or just what we would like for a holiday, now you know!

Little Man Ice Cream

Our favorite Denver Ice Cream Place is Called "Little Man Ice Cream". We love it because all of their ice cream is made there from scratch, It has a park across the street, and it has awesome views of the city. Today after our ice cream we took a little walk downtown.

Grand Lake

Yesterday we went to Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park for our annual Fall visit. Here are our pics from last year, and Here from the year before. Can you believe we've lived in Colorado long enough to have a 3 year tradition! Every time we go back there, it makes us want to own a cabin there. Hopefully someday we will!

Jackson LOVED trying to run off the dock. Thanks to a few quick moves from Matt, Jack never made it into the water.

Again we attempted a picture of the boys together, we should have learned our lesson a long time ago.



We saw lots of HUGE elk. It's the closest Matt will get to them this year, since he's not going to get to go hunting this year.

The Basement "Guestroom"

Back in our townhouse, we had a guest bed in Jackson's room, and when we had guests they got his room and he got a pack and play in the laundry room. Everyone thought it was funny that we put him in there. Now, we're putting our guests in there! I already told you all about my awesome futon find, now I'll show you the basement laundry room/guest room reveal.

I added a curtain to the window for some privacy. I hung a long dowel rod for a closet where a short one used to be. (This is for overflow because our master closet is tiny). I also hung a few sheets over the unfinished walls and put down a rug to make it a bit homier. Mason is really enjoying the new futon!

I was able to do the entire thing for a total of $20! You already know how I got the futon for free. The rug was $15 at Target (75% off clearance). The curtain was 1/3 of Jackson's nursery curtains that I hemmed. You can't see them but on the sides of the futon are two curtain panels from old curtains of ours.The stars were extra from another project. The closet brackets were free from my dad. I think he took them out of a house they remodeled? The dowel rod we put on the brackets was left behind in our house from the old owners. The cream futon cover is just a fitted sheet. I did pay $5 for the brown sheets covering the wall (75% off Target clearance).

I won't show you the other side of the laundry room where I store my excess pantry items and everything else under the sun. You'll only get that pleasure if you are one of the lucky guests to stay in the laundry room/guest room. Now we just need two sets of guests!

A Hidden Gem- Eldorado Canyon State Park

Today we discovered a hidden gem only about 30 minutes from our house: Eldorado Canyon State Park. We took Mason on his first hike in the backpack, and Jack went on his first hike not in the pack!

Jack was a little afraid of hiking on the trails and over the bridges at first, but after a little while he really starting having fun. He loved dipping his fingers in the water, running on the trail, and looking up at all the rock climbers! His favorite part of the day though was when Matt carried him from rock to rock in the river!

Awesome, and more Awesome!

Awesome: A few days ago I told Matt that we should sell our ottoman that we don't use anymore. I was thinking for about $50. Then a few days later we decided that we would put a futon in our laundry room so that we can accomadate two sets of guests at a time. (It is the biggest laundry room in the world, I'll try to share some pictures soon). So, I got on Craigslist and realized that we couldn't afford even a used decent futon. Then, a miracle happened, I came across the nicest futon I have ever seen, listed for $300...or willing to trade for a brown leather ottoman!!!!!!!! I e-mailed the guy some pictures, and he said yes! So, we now have a beautiful futon in our laundry room at absolutely no cost to us!

That, for this! (but just a black mattress)

Even more Awesome: Just in case you're wondering why we would want to accomadate two sets of guests, it's because my sister and her husband are moving to Denver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are going to stay in our guest room until they find jobs and an apartment though. (here is their blog) We just don't want to have to turn away other guests while they are here. So just in case all of you out of towners were thinking that we don't have room for you anymore, now we have this great futon so that you can still come!

P.S. I am so excited that my sister will be living in the same town as us. That hasn't happened for 7 years!

Mason Sitting/Jack's Body Parts!

Here he is, the little sitter, he is a bit tippy, but he's doing it all on his own!

Jack LOVES going through all of his body parts and pointing them out. My favorite is his elbow, or in his words his "bow-bow". Last week when he fell and skinned his elbow I couldn't help but laugh as he kept saying the words "bow-bow" though his cries.

Grabby Hands

Recently Mason has become super curious, and grabs at anything he can. Matt was trying to send a text message the other night, and Mason was not going to let him do it without a fight!

I might be biased, but I am pretty sure he is the cutest baby ever. This is his "I'm innocent" face!

Mason

Mason is SUCH a good baby. Today he opened his mouth and we realized that he had just popped not only 1, but 2 little teeth!

We couldn't believe that there had been no fussing, drooling, temperature, or any of the signs of teething.

We're just going to hope the rest of his teeth come in just as easily!

The Playroom

Jack's playroom was filled with too many toys, and bare walls. Recently we decided to slim down on the toys, and add a bit of life to the walls.

With some string, clothespins, scrapbook paper, and flash cards I was able to make some cute decorations. We also hung some cute storage bins with eyes from the ceiling. Now that there is room for Jack to move, and enough storage for all of the toys hopefully we will be all set for lets of playtime down here when the colder weather hits!

4 Dishes, $21, 6 meals

Lately life has been crazy, and we are always looking for anyway to streamline anything. Today I was able to make us 6 meals, using 4 dishes, and $21!

Poppyseed Chicken
8 packages chicken breasts (cubed)- $12
4 Bouliion Cubes- $?
8 cans Cream of Chicken soup- (from the stockplie, $.27 each last year)- $2.15
3 24 oz. containers Sour Cream- $4.50
1 jar poppyseeds- $2.50
2 cups water
pinches of salt

Boil the cubed chicken with the boullion until cooked, Mix all ingredients, Put into 6 freezer bags, make 1 for dinner for us, 1 to bring a friend for dinner, and freeze 4.

When ready to cook defrost, put in casserole pan, cover with 2 tubes of crushed ritz mixed with a stick of melted butter. Cook at 350 for 35 minutes.

The best part was that it only involved 4 dishes. I used the pot to boil the chicken, the bowl to stir it all, the spatula, and a measuring cup to scoop it into the freezer bags.

$72 and 2 Hours

2 Hours of couponing + $19 at Safeway + $53 at Target=

4 packages butter
4 PF Changs frozen meals
6 Mayos
4 Miracle Whips
2 Gallons Milk
2 Gallons Orange Juice
1 Bunch of Bananas
4 Tums
10 Kraft Singles
2 Frozen French Fries
1 Frozen Sausage Patties
1 Loaf Bread
1 Frozen Folded Eggs
4 Pillsbury Sweet Moments
2 Edge Shave Gels
2 Smuckers Jellies
2 Bags Dove Chocolates
1 Bag Hershey's Kisses

The amazing thing is that Matt is the one who went out on the coupon shopping trip and he took both boys, and still managed to do great!

Also, last week I was able to get this Chicken x 30 at Target for 1.50 a package totaling $45. Typically they are $5.99 a package!

Scooter/Towels

Can you believe our baby boy is riding a scooter!  I picked it up at a sale a few nights ago, and when I brought it in the house Jack was sleeping so I left in the living room. The next morning I was woken up by Jackson scootering down the hallway into my room! He figured it out without anyone even showing him how!

Matt's mom got Jack a towel when he was born, so now she got Mason a matching one. We took these right after they both got done with their baths.

Parade/Pics/Coloring/Trains

Yesterday we went to a "Patriot Day" Parade. Jackson loved seeing all of the trucks!

In my never ending attempts to get a good picture of both boys looking and smiling, I took a few pictures this morning. Here are a few of my attempts:

Recently Jack has been coloring a lot. Thanks to the triangle crayons from Grandma Debbie we no longer have to chase after every crayon that rolls of the table!

For Jack's Birthday he got a Thomas the Train set from my parents. Now he just has to figure out how to put the tracks together on his own!

Funny Boys.

Today we went to the mall, and for Diane's last full day in Denver it was our goal to get a good picture of her with both boys. Here is what we got:

When asked to smile, this is the face Jack gives:

So we gave up and went out for dinner. Mason would not let Diane drink her beer without getting his hands on it first and it was so funny. Every single time she would grab her beer, he would too. We might be in for some trouble with this one!

2 year and 5 month stats

Last week we took Jackson in for his 2 year appointment, and Mason in for his 5 month appointment.

Jackson weighs 32 lbs (90th percentile). He is 34.5 inches tall (50th percentile). They said that he looked great and that we should start bringing him to the Dentist now that he's two!

Mason weighs 17lbs 9 oz. (75th percentile). He is 26.5 inches tall (75th percentile). His head is 17 3/8 inches circumfrence (75th percentile). He had to get 4 immunizations but did great. As a comparison at Jack's 4 month he was 27 inches and was 20lbs. At Jack's 6 month he was 22lbs. and 27 inches.

They told us that Mason can begin eating baby foods so we started rice cereal this week! I can't believe our little newborn baby is on to real food!