What the . . .

At Cole's 9 month appointment last week, Dr. Thompson and I were talking about our spring break plans. Rachel kept saying, "Mom!" "Mom!" "Mom!" and I kept ignoring and shushing her. She kept at it until finally I said, "What Rachel?" She then proceeded to say, "Every time lately when I have to have a toot, a little bit of poop comes out with it." I looked over at Dr. Thompson as he started to crack up. I just buried my head in the back of Cole's head and said, "Well, Rachel, thanks for sharing that in front of Dr. Thompson." And then she replied, "Well, it just happened!" Oh my! The joys of parenthood! I've never seen Dr. Thompson make a quicker exit from the room than after that comment! Mind you, this is not only the man that delivered my baby and cares for my family, but someone I work with. How embarrassing!
On to Cole. He is definitely my "smallest" baby! At his appointment, he weighed 22 lbs and was 28.75 inches tall. That would put him 67% for weight and 57% for height. I have NEVER had a child below 85% on either! I guess this boy does have some of me in him after all!

Elephant Foot Update...

...At least that's what Jason calls it. Jason took these pictures with his 'work' camera and emailed them to me a few weeks ago. I just have to laugh at them. Seriously. Okay. Here they are:

I believe that these pictures were taken after surgery #2. I had to stick my other foot up there next to E.F. so that you could get an idea of just how DANG swollen it was.

So, how is it now you ask? Well, minus the stitches and bruising, it looks pretty similar to that after working a 12 hour night shift (3+ pitting edema). Other than that, it's still swollen but only about 1/3 that amount. It still hurts to be in a regular athletic shoe (good excuse not to exercise, right?) but it fits well into most of my other shoes.

I'm thinking it won't be normal again until I get the pins and wire out. I have an appointment next month to see about that. Until then...

p.s. If you see me limping, tell me to knock it off!

Cole, Cole, Bo Bole . . .

I just realized that I haven't checked my 'blogs' for 5 or 6 days. Only took me an hour to read through them. Note to self: Don't do that again!

Anyways, I haven't really been doing much, just trying to keep my house in order and care for my ever needy 9 month old. That's right, I said 9 month old! I thought I would update you on what he's been up to.

Mr. Cole:

• Loves his Mama (but who doesn't? I mean ME, not your Mama)
• Doesn't want is Mama out of site, or for that matter, not touching him every waking second
• Is FINALLY rolling over (he has been for about 3 weeks now . . . better late than never)
• Thinks he wants to crawl now but can't figure out how to not go in reverse
• Pretty much hates baby food and wants what we are eating. Thanks to my new toy: he CAN eat everything we are eating! That's a blender people, not a different kind of toy.
• Loves to jump in his jumper

• Claps is hands and jigs his body when he hears music
• Is fascinated with his tongue
• Loves is binky, but not so much his bottle
• Still can't hold his own bottle
• Is a giggly little thing and thinks that his brother and sister are hilarious!

So, I'm a BM and just 1 minute ago made his 9 month doctor appointment, so I have no idea how tall he is or how much he weighs, but I'll tell you this much, he's big!

The other day I was getting ready for the day and I put him in his play saucer. Suddenly I heard him laughing and jumping, so I peeked my head around the corner and this is what I saw:

Rachel had dumped the "to be folded" sock basket and put Cole in jail. He thought it was hilarious! A few hours later, she got her hands on him again. She was just trying to make him look like "Fancy Nancy". What's the big deal?

I just hope these two are friends in a couple of years and not enemies!

Flashback Friday at it's best!

Alright, you have already seen my "Les-by Friends" hairstyle (Jessica's brother even felt the need to sketch it).

I've sported some pretty different hairstyles in my lifetime. Some are bad enough to have earned names. Here they are:

Super Blonde
Super Long

"The Wall"

"The Claw" . . . okay, who didn't sport this one?

The hair isn't so bad in this picture, but my dress says, "I hope to be a sister wife someday!"

"The Rat Nest"

And I saved the best for last, "Little Orphan Nanny"

Random Pics

Rachie got this cute little baking set from her friend Abby for Christmas. She loves pretending to cook with it!I was trying so hard to get a picture of him smiling and he was like, "What Mom? I'm not gonna smile so just give it up already!"
This is kind of a freaky picture, but it shows his Vampire teeth. Shhhh don't tell Jason about me and Edward!

My mom made these cutest sock monkeys for ALL her grandkids for Christmas. They turned out great and the kids all loved them!

One of the things I love about St. George winters is that it isn't too cold to go out for the day on the 4-wheelers. These are my two little riders-in-training excited to hit the sand dunes. I love how cute there are in their motocross outfits!

Couponing 101

Sorry to those of you who are already in the loop. I had a lot of you ask more about it. So, I will dedicate this post to your coupon education . . .

A few nights ago, as I was preparing dinner I started calculating how much I spent on the entire dinner. I was shocked when I figured out the total. Ashely said that she feels like a rock star when she goes grocery shopping, and so did I. I AM a rock star! So, here it is.

Macaroni Grill Garlic & Herb Chicken Penne dinner (I had to add my own chicken), green salad, and french bread. Any guesses?

$2.50. That's it! A dinner for my entire family.

You can see Jason's excitement about it . . .

And Rachel's . . .

So, how did I do that? Well, coupons of course. The Mac Grill dinners were on sale 2/$7. I had (8) $1 off coupons making them 2/$5. Then, when you bought 2 of them Albertson's threw in $2 worth of chicken. The chicken happened to be on sale buy one, get one free. So, since I had (8) $1 coupons, I bought (8) Mac Grill dinners . . . and got $16 worth of chicken FREE! Then, the salad was on sale for $.99, I happened to have a coupon for $1 off . . . F R double E! Then, I completed a survey at the bottom of my receipt a few weeks ago and got a coupon for free french bread. Wa La. Our dinner cost us $2.50. Then for dessert, my boys enjoyed some free ice cream that I got from another deal. Sweet huh.

I get 6 Sunday newspapers so that I have multiple coupons. I don't clip them, I just write the date I got them on the front and file them away. Then, the grocery smarts website helps me match my coupons to sales. You have to have a passport #. St. George is g84cso, but you can google it and get your own city. Then, select the store you shop at. You can even print your shopping list from there by using the "start", "shrink", and "print" feature. This website also links you to online coupons that you can usually print two of each coupon desired. The red starred items are great deals and that's what I usually buy.

Also, if you live in St. George, you can visit http://sgcouponclub.blogspot.com for other local deals.

Anyways, I'm a self proclaimed nerd and this is my new hobby. I hope this information was helpful.

Where'd she go?

I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I really don't know what is wrong with me. I'm just completely unmotivated. I haven't even checked my blogs that I follow for several days. I usually check them everyday or ever other day, but I just haven't wanted to. I love you all, don't get me wrong. I'm just not feeling myself.

Thank you all for your concern about Cole. I self-diagnosed him with Roseola . . . the rash appeared the day after my last post. It's kinda sad that I knew more than the dumb ER doc (okay so he didn't have the rash when I took him in, but he didn't even tell me to look for one to appear). Nanci Braithwaite, RN, BSN at your service!

So, my new thing is couponing. It's slightly addicting and thrilling. Weird word choice? Just try it and you'll see what I mean. Lindsay told me a few years ago about the pinching your pennies website and I've checked it off and on. But now, thanks to Ashley, I know the system. I know how to save major bucks and it's not too hard either. The worst part about it is looking out on my driveway Sunday mornings to see 6 bright yellow newspapers sitting there. My neighbors probably think I'm CRAZY! My last trip to the grocery store, I spent $60, saved $112! And that was with just one week of coupons. Just wait until I have a few months saved up! See what I mean? Thrilling and addicting.