I lied

I said I would be a better blogger and I haven't posted in 2 weeks. The truth is, I haven't had much time these last couple of weeks to do anything at all except for do my holiday baking and take care of the boys. My holiday baking is finally done though and now all I have to do is get this house super clean by Christmas because we are hosting again this year. I love hosting but that means I am super busy around this time. So I guess I am popping on to tell you why I am absent. But hey, I bet the same thing is the case with you, right? This time of year is so crazy. You prepare for weeks and stress overall that needs to be done. On the go all the time and then once the 25Th passes it is eerily silent. Like listening to snow fall on a quiet morning. It all just abruptly ends and I don't know about you, but it is almost depressing. You go back to being holed up in your house for the winter and make your plans for when the weather gets warmer. At least that's how it is for most people I know. So right now I am cherishing this wonderful, crazy, stressful bliss. Because it will be over soon and then I will be little sad...and bored.

On another note, I want to say congrats to a fellow blogger Summer for finally getting her BFP! She is 7 weeks pregnant and deserves this so much after 2 years of trying, after an etopic pregnancy resulting in the loss of her tube and I think 5 failed IVFs. Summer just recently has been trying to recover from her last failed IVF and death of her father and got pregnant naturally. This is such an amazing Christmas blessing and I pray the Brownies have a wonderful pregnancy because...they deserve this. Congrats Brownies! You have made my month! Nothing makes me happier than a fellow infertile getting that beautiful BFP.

Am I living in the stone age??

Am I the only one out there who doesn't have a smart phone and doesn't want one at all? Please tell me because I am starting to feel that way. Everyone I know has a smartphone or Android...including my dad! I am starting to wonder if I am the only one out there not made of money. I mean these things have a $30 a month data/internet plan on top of the already expensive phone plan and texting. Thats riduculous! A couple of people have told me recently that they "need" it for school or work. Need? Really? They haven't even been around for the mass public that long so what did you do before they came out. There is no way I am going to pay $30 for internet at home and $30 for internet on a phone. There is nothing that is that important for me to look up when out that justifies paying $30 a month, or $360 a year. I didn't used to be the only one who felt this way but I am having a hard time finding anyone who doesn't have a smartphone these days. I guess I am just having a really hard time wrapping my mind around this when the economy is so bad. Don't get me wrong, it's cool all the things you can do from a phone now. But I don't feel the price justifies it. Feel free to chime in whether you agree with me or not. I would love to hear other opinions on this.

On the same subject, what age should a child be given a cell phone? Just curious what others opinions are on this. And no, I am not thinking about getting Tristan a cell phone. I have been seeing very young kids with cell phones lately and I wanted to hear others thoughts on this.

courtesy of google images

I just wanted to pop on today and say that I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We spent ours with Kens family and I reflected on how lucky we are. One year ago yesterday during the dinner toast we announced that Tristan was going to be a big brother. It was such a hard journey to become pregnant and it was finally time to announce the news we had been praying so hard for. This year I got to look at my boys, my family and thank god that he answered our prayers. This year I was thankful beyond my dreams. But I also was sad because there are so many people out there that haven't had their prayers answered yet. I pray everyday for these people but today I pray harder with a heavy heart as I reflect on the blessing that we were able to announce 1 year ago this Thanksgiving.

On A softer note, are you venturing out this black Friday?? We are this afternoon. Call us crazy but we do every year. We more look forward to the movie prices and since blue rays are going to be super cheap today we are taking advantage because we can't really afford them any other time. So have fun and be safe if you are. When I say be safe I mean be careful that no one tramples over you or knocks you over the head with a basket. Because folks, it does happen!

The gift of giving from Shutterfly!

Is it really Christmas card time again? I feel like it was just yesterday I was down stairs on the computer making our Christmas card on Adobe Photoshop for hours. And yet here it is again. The big difference this year is we have a new addition to add to the card and I don’t have time to be creative this year. I have been a little stressed thinking about where I am going to find the hours to create a card on Photoshop this year. The fact is, I just don’t have the time. I was really excited when a fellow blogger posted that Shutterfly is having a Christmas card give away for bloggers. They are giving 50 free cards out and you can enter here! One thing I like about shutterfly is they are affiliated with Target. So, now that I don't have to use my creativity I have to chose a card. There is so many to chose from though. Here are several of my favorites:

Peace & Love

Elegant Modern Collage

Scrapbook Style Blue Christmas

Seasonal Chic

With Love Blue Christmas

There are a few more I like too. There is so many to chose from that it really makes it hard. I have to decide on how many pictures I want to put on it too. Do I want to do a family and a couple of the kids? Just the kids? No idea! What I do know is that I am very excited to order some Christmas Cards from Shutterfly this year!

Couponing. The new trend

I am trendy. Not in the fashion sense as anyone who knows me will tell you. I don't have too many clothes because having my boys looking cute and trendy is more important to me. Anyway, like I was saying, I am trendy. Since I have returned back to work from maternity leave in September I have jumped on the couponing band waggon. I have noticed it's really a trend lately. A good trend though. I mean anything that saves you money in this economy is a good thing, right? With help from my IRL friend Carol at Coupon lovin mom I started to clip coupons and stack them with store coupons and match them with a sale. Since September I have literally saved hundreds of d0llars. I have scored A LOT of free stuff and even gotten free diapers. But the more I have started to coupon and follow diferent deal seaking blogs, I have noticed that some people aren't abiding by the rules. I'm not sure if it's an ethics issue or actually breaking the law. For instance, if there is an online printable coupon for something that you could get for free at say Rite Aid, how many of the coupon would you print of that? How many is too many? I have been known to print 2-3 of a coupon but there are some people who print 10-20 of a coupon. Is that fair? Especially since a lot of these prints are limited to a certain amount. Free is awesome but how far is taking it too far. Do you think it's fair to clean out a store so the rest of the shoppers can't take advantage of a sale too? I will use chapstick as an example since they had coupons in the sunday paper a month ago for $1 off and also a $2 off 2 and they were on sale for a $1 making it free chapstick. I had two papers so I got 6 chapsticks for free. Way more than I NEEDED so I gave some to my sister who was in need and put some in the diaper bag for the kids. But I have seen a couple of people actually "buy" at least 30 of them. Is that fair? I would be angry if I went to get my chapstick and found the lady ahead of me getting every single one of them. If there were a couple left and she took them all thats one thing, but if you clean out the last 30 or so that is completely wrong in my book and it also seems like coupon abuse. I have also noticed people using coupons for items not included in the coupon INTENTIONALLY. So tell me, is this an ethics issue or coupon fraud? How does it make you feel that there are people out there abusing the coupon system? It makes me very angry because they will ruin it for all of us honest couponers out there. I know this for a fact because Carol has already reported that VD's in Fenton, MI has stopped allowing coupons for coupon abuse and fraud. Just wondering what everyone elses thoughts are on this. I also wanted to make sure you be careful of whose footsteps you follow in because there is a lot of dirty couponing out there and I don't want to see you fined because someone was giving you bad advice.

courtesy of google images

Where have I been...

Wow, has it really been since Feb since I blogged? I was half way through my pregnancy at the time and raising an almost two year old and I was so incredibly tired. I vowed I would get back to blogging soon because even if no one read my blog (I'm almost sure no one does now) it is an outlet for me. But the months rolled by and I couldn't muster the energy for much and I still had a nursery that wasn't even a little ready for our soon to be baby boy. That nursery actually got painted 2 weeks before he arrived. Anyway, Jonah Reece arrived 2 weeks early and I severely under estimated how busy life would be with a newborn and 2 year old. Tristan was learning what being a two year old was all about and really started talking and exploring the wonderful act of temper tantrums. Jonah discovered that he had colic genes and screamed a lot during his first few months of life. It was a stressful summer. I am honestly telling you that I had no time to get on the computer. Actually, I still find I don't have time to get on the computer when I am home. So my blog fell by the way side. It wasn't too terribly active anyway but it completely dropped off. I really wanted this to be regular when I started it because like I said, it is an outlet for me and a way for me to reflect. I would say now that I am going to keep up with it but I don't want to feel like a failure so I will just say "lets just see how this goes".

So whats new now in my life you ask. Jonah is now 5 months. It's really quite amazing how time flies when you have kids. His colic is now gone. I was worried it would last forever because Tristan had SEVERE colic and he was fussy for most of his first year of life. He is actually still fussy...can a two year old have colic??? Anyway, I am happy to report that Jonah is a very happy boy. He rolls all over the room and can sit all by himself. Although it doesn't last for long because he is always moving around and putting EVERYTHING in his mouth. Did I mention that he has an extraordinary amount of hair? I mean it is ridiculous! Everyone things he is either a girl or much older than he is. We will just let it grow and see what happens. I will post pics soon.

Tristan is 2 yrs 8 months and everyday is an adventure with him. He is talking so much and using 3 and 4 word sentences. Some of the stuff he comes up with really amazes me. He is growing so much too and I really don't think he is behind anymore in his weight and height. I could be wrong but it seems to me that he has really caught up. He has just recently started to lose his baby face :( I definitely have a boy on my hands too because he jumps, climbs, and wrestles all day long. He is so in love with his baby brother and really can't wait until he can play with him. I am so madly in love with these boys. My journey though infertility was worth every heart ache and tear and I would go through all of it and more to have these boys in my life. They are nothing short of amazing. Don't let me forget to mention my amazing husband who cooks every night for us. Seriously ladies, he does. And I don't mean mac n' cheese. He has been really helping me with Jonah these days as far as putting him to sleep too. I know, you don't have to tell me what I already know, I am a very lucky girl.

As far as me, when I am not working, nursing, taking care of the boys, I have been baking and couponing. They are both my new obsessions. This Thanksgiving I will be making pumpkin cupcakes. Some will have Cinnamon butter cream and the others will have pumpkin butter cream. Baking is so rewarding when you have 2 guys in your life who always want to eat your creations. Soon that will be 3 guys to bake for.

That's all I can think of at the moment. I am a bit tired this morning as I get up at 5 am every morning. And on this particular morning I cleaned our bathroom at 5:30a because I can't seem to find any other time to do it no matter what I do. So please excuse me for not being at the top of my game. I will try to be more consistent with my post, more so for myself but we shall see. Actully I will try and post later again today. This post was more of a update in a super small nutshell.

Please Fire me...

Have you seen this website?
http://pleasefireme.com/

I seen this over at Summer's blog and had to share. There was a couple of these that I had to ask myself..."Is someone here posting on this site?"

I have a very quick update and will update better soon with ultrasound pics. As of yesterday I am 20 weeks. We just found out we are having another boy. Yay, Tristan will have a baby brother! We have no clue on names yet but I will let you know when we have chosen one. So far everything seems to be looking good and I hope it continues for the second half of my pregnancy. I will update more in bit.

P.S. I am praying very hard for a couple of friends on PAFC (Parenting After Fertility Challenges message board) who are in their 2ww (two week wait), and also for a dear blogger that I have come to know and love this past year, Summer, who is embarking in her 4th IVF. If you have a free second please send a prayer that this month will be the month that these wonderful women become mommies.