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Ok-take 2, sorry Kel and Justin, your comments got deleted, these pics worked better! :)

On the Train

The Potty Train! Woo-hoo!

Seems to be the trend in the neighborhood this week I guess. : )

I am very excited to report that Lincoln has made it through the day with no accidents. Hallelujah! Loving this! (and hoping it continues!)

None of my other boys trained this early so I'm doubly thrilled. Maybe he's just making up for his habit of dumping toiletries. (This month's current count 3 full bottles of shampoo and conditioner-3 of each that is-and one tube of toothpaste. Hey-it's still cheaper to lose toothpaste and 6 bottles of the cheap stuff than it is to buy diapers!)

The Tooth Fairy

We are late tooth-losers in our house. Our first child lost her first tooth at 6 1/2. The next one was about the same. We figured that's about where things would continue, but Alaina has decided to set a new record. She waited until 7. Apparently there was something wrong with losing a tooth at 6, so she waited until her 7th birthday for this milestone. Her body wasn't as patient as she was for a tooth to come out, so she is completely skipping that whole toothless gap thing-she already had two big teeth popping through!

(boy is that one of those goofy childhood pictures or what?)

One of the teeth she lost was actually two teeth. When her bottom teeth were coming in, one of them was actually two teeth fused together. Odd little thing. So she lost her double tooth in addition to a regular tooth. Yes, there is no doing things halfway with this child-if you're going to lose a tooth, make the most of it! Get three out of the way at once!

My favorite part of the whole thing was this letter she wrote to the Tooth Fairy. She is desperately wanting to write in cursive, so some of her letters kind of loop together. I guess that distracted her because she is an impeccable speller. (seriously-last May during placement tests she tested at a 5th grade level in spelling-yikes!) Not sure where she got that from! : ) Certainly not me.
Anyway-here is this little gem, digitally preserved for all time. My favorite would be the little picture. Apparently while I was out for a bit Aaron did some fancy work getting that tooth out! And sadly, she was disappointed when the Tooth Fairy left a noet saying that she didn't have a camera so she couldn't leave a picture for Alaina. She drew her signature sparkly silver tooth with wings instead. :)
>a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/catey/DSCN3748.jpg">Her note reads:

Catching Up

It's been too long since I kept up here, so I'm trying to catch up on the things I've missed.

Today's installment...... the annual costume party!

It's been nearly a month, so it's about time!
First, a few things I learned this year-
Amy is quite the limbo competitor.
Cory looks killer in spandex.
Steve brought extra spandex.
Why do our costume parties always involve spandex?
We know who's really in charge at Tiffany and Mike's house.
Kammi has a killer accent.
The Greeks sparkled.
Greg wears skirts. At least it wasn't spandex.
You really can get Rheanna to dress up.
Peter Pan wields a real knife.
A few name changes can really stir things up.
We have some very competitive friends.
It's hard to speak in questions.
And my favorite, if you don't know what to say, go with Steve's default: "I like cheese."

A few pics-sorry, no dancing footage this year. The dancing was a bit slim. But we had a great time, and there were a few ambitious people already planning costumes for next year!

Well, dang.

That stinks.
*sigh* Got the cancellation email. Darn fine print covering their hiney's for "pricing errors". They'd like to know if I'd like to reorder at the correct price of $279. Hmmm, a minor $236 difference? Um, no thank you.

Shoot. Now I have to go find another car seat. Looks like Jacob will get to move up to a booster after all!

Oh well. It was a fun bargain rush while it lasted.

Beyond a steal of a deal

I'm cheap. Sometimes cheaper than cheap. People try to correct me and say "frugal". No, for the most part, I'm just cheap. There are a few things I'll splurge on, because a splurge feels great every once in a while.

Yesterday someone alerted me to one killer deal.
A car seat.
Love 'em or hate 'em, you gotta have them.

We are kind of on a rotating car seat schedule. About every year we do a shift up in the seats. Then we of course replace the ones that hit their expiration date. I will admit that I thought the whole expiration date on a car seat thing was just a ploy to get people to buy them more often until I saw a crash test with an older car seat. Sold. Now we are diligent about that.

So the point is.....??

It's November, and the oldest of the 7, yes, seven car seats that we are currently occupying is hitting it's expiration. It's been a lovely 6 years. Time for a new one. Currently, it's Lincoln's seat. So my option was either buy a new full car seat, or buy another booster, move Jacob out of his seat (he's big enough, I'm just not sure I trust him to stay buckled in only a booster), and switch Lincoln into Jacob's seat.
What to do......

Behold, the Britax Marathon:

(do you hear the hallelujah chorus?)

Why you ask, is the queen of cheap showing you a $250 car seat?

Because she paid $42.99 for it. And the shipping was free.

Another Cute Costume Giveaway!

I decided what I want to do when I grow up. I want to sew fabulous things just for fun. Although how hard must it be to give these things away?!

Nordic Bo Peep and Long Lost Sheep Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!

What do you get?

When you cross


With


???

Ask Aaron.

Well Then....

Does this mean that we get to hear less from the likes of Jesse Jackson? Can we stopped being accused of being a bunch of racist jerks now?

Hopefully he will live up to some of the hype, or then again....hopefully not? Or at least hopefully comedians will now be brave enough to poke fun at him (the way they do every other politician), without worrying about repercussions.

Besides, he doesn't scare me nearly as much as so many others I've talked to. Odd that I feel the same way about this presidency as I did 16 years ago. I'm much more scared of the new First Lady than I am of the new President. It will be interesting to see how that one pans out.

Had to share

So I'm a little behind-still trying to round up some pics for Alaina's bday post.

But I couldn't NOT post this.

Is this not the cutest thing ever?



Charli wasn't anything exciting for Halloween, just a Halloween kind of outfit, so I had to take a minute to dress her up for a few pictures. What is the point of having a baby girl if you don't take advantage of dressing her up? ;)

Eventually I'll get Alaina's bday pics up, along with our Halloween pics (and our wonderful costume party!).