Videos from the Mile High City

Rachel and Tommy in their Easter outfits

Rachel and Tommy swinging together


Grandpa Chatterton tickling Tommy

Our Trip to Denver

Last week we went to Denver to spend some time with the Chattertons. We spent Easter there (which also happened to be Dale's birthday, so that worked out well) and then hung out the rest of the week. We had a great time relaxing with the Chattertons and watching Tommy and his cousin, Rachel, get to know each other better. Rachel was really sweet to Tommy the whole week and wanted to do things just like him. Even though she is about 1 1/2 years older than Tommy she insisted on doing the same things that Tommy was doing: crawling, eating the same foods, and wearing the same color bib as he was. She did a good job sharing her toys and her grandparents with Tommy. We appreciate the Chattertons for watching Tommy while Ben and I went on a date one night and went to the temple a few nights later. I especially want to thank them for taking good care of him while I did my long run that week, and thanks to Dale for coming to pick me up when I hit my 16-mile-mark and couldn't walk another step! We had a great time playing at the park and visiting a museum in Denver, but our favorite times were spent just hanging around the house and chatting. We love you guys! Here are a few pics from the week:

Tommy got really good at pulling himself up to furniture. He'll be walking before we know it!

Tommy and Rachel holding hands in the car.

Tommy and Mommy.

This is what happens when you feed chocolate mousse to a hungry baby.

Grandma Chatterton with her two grandkids.

Grandpa Dale and Tommy bonding over some good old-fashioned tickling.

Tommy and Rachel crawling together.

Tommy in his Easter outfit (he's going to sell some papes later:).

Rachel and Tommy in their Easter outfits that Grandma made for them

Hobbies

As many of you have noticed, our world really revolves around our hilarious baby. He makes us laugh and he keeps us busy all of the time. I thought it would be a nice change to post something other than baby pictures this time, though, just to prove that we do have lives and interests outside of our baby. Here are a few of my hobbies that keep me busy when I'm not chasing Tom Star around the house:

Couponing

Many of you already know that I am a pretty avid couponer so I won't spend too long talking about this one. I've been doing it now for about a year and I have to admit that we have saved mountains of money because of it. Last March when I started couponing we were living in a two-bedroom apartment and I was about six months pregnant. This March we have a house, a yard, and a baby who eats a lot and poops a lot. We have a lot more expenses than we did a year ago, but we are spending about 54% less money than we used to. This month alone I have used almost $550 in coupons and rebates. It's so dang fun! I went to Walgreens this morning and bought all of this for $2.23 (pre-tax) and walked away with 19 Register Rewards to use the next time I shop there!

Below is a transaction from CVS last week that was totally free because of coupons (I had to pay about a dollar in tax). I walked away from this one with 7 Extra Care Bucks to use on my next visit. How can you not think that is fun? They practically pay you to shop! And yes, those are size 6 diapers you see in that photo. What can I say, we have a huge baby!

I have started my own money-saving blog. I just launched it last week so there isn't too much going on there quite yet, but hopefully it will pick up soon.

Gardening

Since we now have a house and a beautiful backyard I decided to plant a garden in the corner. This is the first time I have ever tried to grow a garden and it seems to be going pretty well so far! You can see in the left of the picture some zucchini plants that are growing really well (I don't particularly like zucchini, but I figured it would grow even in Arizona, so I planted it!) We also have a few broccoli plants coming up, a couple of peppers that decided to sprout, and one cauliflower plant that came up pretty late. We even have a row of carrots that are growing in a shady spot (I didn't plan that one very well). There are still onions and some more carrots and a strawberry plant that we are waiting to see. This year was mostly an experiment for me to see what works and what doesn't. I can already see a lot of mistakes I made in planting things where I did, but hopefully we'll still have a few veggies that grow before the summer sun comes and fries everything and everybody. I am hoping to buy some tomato plants this week because none of my tomato seeds sprouted. The great thing about living in Arizona is that there are two growing seasons so we can try again in September if nothing works out this spring!

Canning

I went to an Enrichment activity last year about canning and was so impressed that I told Ben last summer that all I wanted for my birthday this March was a canner and some Mason jars. He was kind enough to comply with my wishes! The day after I received the canner I went ahead and canned six quarts of chicken. Last week I canned about six pints of turkey and eight pints of Jennie-O turkey sausage I got on sale for $0.80/lb. I am planning to can some strawberry jam in April. Hopefully we'll have a few veggies from our garden that I can can as well! My real desire is to make spaghetti sauce and salsa from veggies and herbs we grow in our garden. Hopefully that will work out! It feels good to can stuff and it really isn't that hard. It takes some time, but it works out if I start as soon as Tommy goes down for a nap and then when he wakes up I spread some Cheerios on the floor. It keeps him occupied for quite awhile! (I know, Mother of the Year right here!) Our freezer is already so full of frozen veggies, leftover meals, and shredded cheese that canning allows us to store even more meat and veggies when we find them on sale. Plus, canning allows us to build up our food storage so we will be prepared in case of an emergency!

Running

I am currently training for my first marathon. It's coming up on May 1! Last week my long run was 12 miles so I have a long way to go, but hopefully I'll be ready! Tommy loves to run with me (I pack him in our red Schwinn jogging stroller). He's usually pretty calm and he falls asleep half the time. I'll have to get a picture of us running together because we do it a lot!

Anyway, these are just a few of my hobbies that keep me busy. Needless to say, I am exhausted by the time Tommy goes to bed at 7:30! I need to make that my bedtime, too:) Here is a picture of Tommy in our backyard because no post is complete without at least one pictures of our cute baby:)

Laughing Baby

Studies have shown that if you can view this video without smiling, you are actually a heartless fiend.

Clapping!

Here's the clapping video.

A Trip to the Park

I love living in Phoenix during this time of year! The weather is perfect and beautiful. We've a lot of rain lately which has caused some flooding across the state, but for the most part we have enjoyed lots of sunshine and warmth. Last week we almost turned on the air conditioner! Here are a few pictures of a recent walk we took to the park together. Tommy loves to swing and go down the slide.

Backyard Oasis

For the last couple of weeks we have been working on getting our backyard put in. It took about a week. We are so happy to have a beautiful and green yard to spend time together in. When we first moved in the backyard resembled the planet Mars. We were almost a little scared to go back there since there were red ants, broken glass, and all kinds of spiders. Here are the before pictures:

Our nice dirt patch

This is a really tacky homemade cement fountain being removed from the back corner

We can't walk on the grass yet, but we can walk around it and smell it and look at it, which is good enough for now. I planted a garden this week so we are excited to see that grow in as well. One day when we have a little more cash we'll plant trees and shrubs, but we are just so thrilled to have grass for now. Here is how it looks back there now: