We really haven't been up to much lately. Matt finished up finals and I'm back at work after a glorious 3 week bed rest. We did go to a hockey game, and we had some pretty good tickets. Some people in our ward have season tickets and let us use theirs last week. They were pretty good seats.

Our never-ending garden also keeps growing. I planted these watermelon plants in January, and they are just now growing. Who knows.

And we also have pumpkins. I planted them in the summer hoping they would be on in time for Halloween, but they are a few weeks late. Now we have a few good looking pumpkins.

What does your baby look like?

I don't know what your baby looks like, but this is what our baby looks like. He has a pretty cute face, don't you think?


And here he is in 3D. Don't mind the hands in the face. He wouldn't put them down.

And look, he even gives kisses. He also stuck out his tongue and opened his mouth wide so we could see his skills.

Fun Stuff

There are a few fun things we have that you might like to see. First is this:

Our stroller and car seat! We wanted this stroller frame instead of a whole big stroller, and we found this beauty on Craigs list! The people that had the frame maybe used it twice. It's in perfect condition. We bought the carseat brand-new, and it's great.

And then this:

My young women made me this cute diaper cake! Our mutual was "How to Plan a Party" but when I got there, they were doing this! I was so excited! Cute, huh? Way to go Beehives!

We won the lottery!

Not really, because we don't buy lottery tickets. I always see elderly people in Sun City buying them at Albertsons and wonder if they really win or not. We did, however, win the rotation lottery. In medical school, some really important things are based on lottery, one of them being rotations. When we decided to come to school here in Arizona, it was said that there would be plenty of spots for many of the students to do rotations in our area. The closer we got to the day rotations were assigned, we were discovering that there weren't quite as many as we thought. Many people were going to have to go elsewhere--California, Tucson, Ohio. We didn't really want to go anywhere, so rotation assignments, or this lottery, was becoming stressful. But when they did the spin, we got "West Valley." Now we won't have to move, and Matt won't have to travel to the east side of the city or Tucson. Thank goodness. We are discovering, though, that many people didn't get west valley, people who have houses and jobs and the like. We feel bad, but are really glad that we get to stay.

Couponing

A few years ago I watched an episode of Oprah and watched about a lady who saved all this money using coupons. I was inspired. I wanted to find out how to get some cheap stuff using coupons. We subscribed to the paper, and after perfecting my system, I think I can say I've finally figured it out. There are tons of websites around that you can subscribe to where you receive notices and such about what to use and where, but I kind of think paying for that service kind of defeats the purpose of using coupons.


I've lucked out on some things, though, when it comes to using coupons. Nearly every grocery store here in Phoenix takes all coupons for $1, no matter what the face value of the coupon is. This is fantastic. Also, our school librarian has a subscription to the paper and I get a bundle of Sunday papers every week. I look forward to the day the papers are delivered because I go through them all and take the coupons out. Here's my stack of coupons from the last few weeks. Glorious, aren't they?




Well, over the last few weeks, I've been exceptionally proud of my endeavours. I've gotten some pretty good stuff with coupons in the past, but these last few weeks were all about free stuff. Here's my loot! This was all FREE!


I guess I still have to pay tax, which is lame. There were some limits on how many items I could get in one transaction, so I visited nearly every checker Saturday to pay .20 cents for a handful of great stuff. We're going to be the cleanest people you've ever met. Maybe if you come visit us I'll let you use one of our toothbrushes.

The Holidays are Coming!

I realize I've been a pretty bad blogger and haven't posted anything in a while, but I'll post some interesting stuff here soon. I just wanted to put this one post up today and when I think to bring my pictures to school where I actually have internet, I'll upload them.

The Scentsy Holiday collection is available to order on September 15th! That's a whole month earlier than last year. Yikes! That being said, if there is anything you like, let me know! The holiday warmers go fast, and when they're gone, they're gone. I don't want anyone to miss out, so I've been sending emails to everyone. Here are some pictures of this year's holiday warmers. If you like what you see, let me know! I can email you the whole brochure. I can't upload it here, but I can definitely send it to you.

I'm sending in an order on the 15th, but starting that day you can order them on my website. Check it out!

Because of this...

Because of this...

I got one of these in Idaho...

where I got to see my cousin's cute triplets (this is only one of them)...

and where Hannah put up lots of streamers.

This is also why my favorite person in the whole world did this...


so we'd end up with this.

But don't feel bad if you didn't know until now, not very many people did. But because of our visits to here

and here

we finally figured out what would work to stay this

Summer Projects

While I was up in Idaho we got a little crazy with the sewing machine and made a ton of stuff! It was fun to spend the time with my mom and sister and take over the basement with our yards and yards of fabrics and multiple sewing machines. I'd say we were pretty productive. Here are some of the things we did...

With the help of my mom, I pieced, quilted, and finished the binding on this quilt! We got it all done in one week. Way to go us. The fabric took forever to find, though. We searched every fabric store in Idaho Falls and the surrounding areas, but nobody had navy blue fabrics that didn't have flowers or something dumb on them. We had to go all they way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to get this fabric. Luckily we were already there for dinner. : ) Isn't it cute?! I love it. I saw a quilt at Pottery Barn that I liked, but I wanted a better one. So this is my Pottery Barn knock-off quilt.



Here it is up close. I did some "decorative" stiching. Fun.




We got a lady at Porter's (a fabric/craft store) to give us a pattern for these receiving blankets. They had the pattern in a bunch of kits to buy, but we didn't want the fabric that came in the quilts. I think we asked the right person. She didn't make us buy it. Thanks, lady!


I used the same pattern to make a car seat cover. Aren't these dinosaures the best?



Hannah and I made some new bags. This one is remarkably smaller than the other bags I have.

And Hannah spent hours and hours cutting fleece and made the most amazing quilt. She worked so hard. Go here to see it! Thanks Hannah! We love it!