Is It Christmas Or Is It Summer ?!

Can you believe it, Christmas is just around the corner! It is hard for me to keep in mind that Christmas is a week away. Especially when it has been in the upper 70’s here. The other night I found myself grocery shopping in a short sleeve shirt, capris, and flip flops. Can you believe it, summer cloths in the middle of December! Well that is beside the point. Ya’ll (yes that is considered a word down here in the south) probably want to see all the festive decorations around and about in our home. This year has been lots of fun decorating. Mainly because I have a house to decorate, and it helps that Valerie is starting to understand the holidays. She gets excited every time she sees Christmas lights on a house or a Christmas tree. She always says “ooooo predy”. This year Caleb and I started a new family tradition for us. We went out and cut our own tree. Well okay not exactly. We did go to a tree farm but it never dawned on us that the elevation and heat here are not conducive to the type of Christmas tree both Caleb and I were used to. They all looked like Charlie Brown trees or over grown juniper bushes :( Luckily for us the tree farm goes up into the mountain in North Carolina and cuts down North Carolina Frasher Firs, and they look and smell like Christmas. What is nice about this is the tree cost just as much or a little bit cheaper then going to one of those parking lot tree shops. Even better is our tree was cut down the Monday after Thanksgiving, and all the parking lot trees are normally cut in the end of October!!! So enough jibber gabber here are the pictures of our festive house. . .

Us at the tree farm

Caleb cutting off the stub so we can put the Christmas tree up. Fallow the pictures. It wasen't hard at first but because the tree was so fresh as Caleb was cutting the sap would stick to the saw.

Here is our grown up Christmas tree (live tree). It is decorated in jewel tones. My mom decided that jewel tones wasn’t fun enough sounding so she has nicknamed it the Mardi Gras tree. Hints the brightly colored Peacock ordainment she sent me.

Here is our kid tree. Since we got a real tree this year we had our old fake tree still. I decided to put it to good use. The inspiration did come from all the Hallmark Cryola crayon ordainments my mother-in-law collected every year for Caleb since he was born. I went out and bought a box of 64 Cryola crayons and hot glued them to hangers. I then used the box they came in for a tree toper. If I can say so myself it turned our really well.

Finally here are some of the decorations around the house. I will have to admit I caught on to my mother-in-law’s love of the Christmas holiday. We were the first in our neighborhood to hang Christmas lights, and the Monday after Thanksgiving I brought out all of my Christmas decorations and decorated the house.

View of the Mardi Gras tree from the Entryway

If you click on the picture it will get bigger and you can see it better :)

Honk Honk Beep Beep. . . Crash!!

Tuesday late afternoon I was sitting in my living room trying to figure out what was bugging me about the picture arrangement I just hung up. The more I tried to think about it, the more heavy hearted I got. I thought it was weird to be so distraught over such a silly thing. I then decided to stop and take a quiet minute to think about the way I felt. No more than a minute later I got a call from Caleb. As soon as I picked up I knew something was wrong and this is the reason why I felt so bogged down. Caleb then proceeded to tell me that he had been in an accident and then said he had to go. He then called me a second time to let me know where the car was and told me I needed to pick it up. Every time he called me back he sounded more and more disoriented, and just wasn’t himself. The third time he called he told me because he didn’t feel good ,his neck hurt, and that his head hurt really bad he was going to the emergency room. Later I found out while he was talking to me the EMT’s were putting a neck brace on him and putting him on a back board. Luckily I was able to get a hold of my friend who was able to take me to the car so I could pick it up and then take Valerie to her home while I went to the hospital to get Caleb. When I got to the hospital Caleb was already being discharged. All he had was whip lash and a concussion. Boy did I count my lucky stars and thank my Heavenly Father for listening to my prayers every morning when I ask him to protect Caleb as he drives to and from work.

Apparently what happened was that Caleb was stopped at a stop light when the car behind him (a mid size pick up tuck) wasn’t paying attention and hit him going about 20 ish miles an hour. He was then thrown forward where his seat belt caught him, throwing him backwards causing him to hit his head on the head rest of the seat really hard. As of next Monday our car will be in the shop being fixed, while we get to drive around in a rental. Whoo Whoo!

New Crazy Obsession

Coupons! Coupons! Coupons! That word gets me excited and puts a smile on my face every time. You might find it weird but it is a ton of fun especially when you get the store to pay you to take the product off their self. I got into couponing just after we moved to Charleston. Here food prices are expensive. Our grocery bill jumped up about 60%! It was ridicules. Luckily for me, my good friend Wendy introduced me to coupons. Every Wednesday night a bunch of us girls get together and we coupon. We each bring our spoils to share with everyone. That means any deals we heard about or any of the extra coupons we found recycle bin diving. Yes you read it right, we go to our local recycling bind dumpsters and look for all the Sunday papers people have dumped. We then bring them home and then clip the coupons. In the past few months I have cut our grocery bill down by 50% and we have at least a month of food storage if not more! My favorite day every 3 months is when a local grocery store Harris Teeter triples coupons up to .75 for 3 day’s only, so a .75 coupon is now worth $2.25! Can I just tell you all of us girls that coupon go hard core shopping for 3 day’s getting amazing deals. By the end of the three day’s you have been in the Harris Teeter stores so many times that you know each of the stores like the back of your hand. Just writing about couponing gets me excited. . . help me I think I’m addicted to coupons :)

Valerie and I on one of our Harris Teeter adventures

My coupon book that is in a 2 inch 3-ring binder alphabetized

First adventure to Harris Teeter, September of 2008. Over $300 worth of grocery's for about $60.Second Harris Teeter Adventure November 2008. One of the transactions I made this trip my sub total was $0.00 then you added the tax and I only had to pay .34 for $40 worth of grocery's! In this picture I spent $34 for $300 worth of grocery's.

In this picture I spent $40 for about another $200 worth of grocery's.

*Happy Halloween*

So we have had a really busy week. Between Young Mens activities, painting the house, Halloween parties, decorating a Superman birthday cake for a friends son and just life in general I have had barely enough time to breath. We didn't get to carving our pumpkins until last night about 2 hours before trick-o-treating. Valerie was being a girl and didn't want to touch the pumpkin goo, so she made daddy clean out her pumpkin. I don't think he minded. On the other hand she loved helping him carve out the design.

Valerie was a Lady bug this year. I made the tutu and Grandma Tracy got her the Dorothy ruby slippers. I couldn't find the antenna I made for her before we moved, so we decided we would make her a pretty lady bug. I don't think she minded one bit. She loves it when I fix and curl her hair. Probably because I let her watch me fix her hair in the mirror and I let her play with my perfume. I think it turned out pretty good. She loves being pampered. She is 1 1/2 and already prissy. Hummm. . . If you ask Caleb he would probably say she is a lot like her momma. LOL!

Caleb took Valerie out trick-o-treating while I stayed home and answered the door. She was so excited to go that the last picture I took of her before they left she was crying because dad had her trick-o-treat bag and she wasn't trick-o-treating yet. I thought they would only be out for about 30 min. As it turned out she loved it so much that they were out for over an hour! Caleb said by the end she was saying "tick treat" "tank you" and "bu bye" all by herself without any prompting in the right order. When she came home she was so excited to see all the candy. Every time she would find a piece she thought was fun looking she would look up at us and put her mouth in an "O" shape, open her eyes as wide as they could go and start jerk her arms in excitement. Lets just say she had tons of fun!

Leelou Blogs

Leelou Blogs is my favorite placy to get free layouts, and free linkys. Monday through Thursday Leelou Blogs will be having a Re-Launch Party were there will be TONS of givaways. You should check it out!!!!

New Family Members

I don't know how I did it but I did. I have been begging Caleb since before we moved to let me get a cat. I love animals and have had them all my life. It wasn't until I was on my own that I realized how much animals are apart of my life. Caleb finaly said it was okay, and before he could change his mind I started looking for a kitty. Just my luck a gal at church was trying to move and needed to give away her cat. Well it turned out to be 2 cats, a brother and a sister. At first Caleb was not going to let it happen but I kept on telling him would be better then getting a cat from the shelter. If we took these cats they would be free, they would come with all the items you need to have a cat including the first month of food and liter. These cats are already house trained, well behavied and have all their shots. After about a week of begging ( or you could call it nagging) Caleb said YES! As it has turned out I was RIGHT, I WAS RIGHT, I WAS RIGHT! These cats are the purrrrrrrrfect new additions to our family. Funny thing about it is I think Caleb has enjoyed having them just as much as Valerie and I have. He even came up with their names. Chuck and Norris. But if you ask him if he is enjoying them he wont admit it. What a silly boy.

This is Chuck, and he is very freindly to everyone.

This is Norris, the girl and she has attaced herself to Caleb. She has a lot of brown under tones to her fur. That is one of the only way's you can tell them apart.

Free Hnadbag!

Handbag Planet is going to celebrate their October 15, 2008 launch, by giving away a free handbag every hour for 24 hours on the day of the launch. You should check it out! Who doesn't like a free hand bag :) http://www.handbagplanet.com/

Our Girly Girl

Valerie is all girl, she loves doing girly things! Last Sunday she let me fix and curl her hair. It was so percious. After I was done I let her look at herself in the mirror. She stood there ohhhh and awwwwing herself. It was one of those moments that melts your heart and makes you thankful to be a mom. She also loves accessorize with hair bows(thanks to Auntie Sarah http://www.beccasboutiquebows.com/) and nail color. I don't mind this at all. It gives me an excause to paint mine and to buy new colors. As you can tell pink is her favorite. Every time I let her choose the color it ends up being pink. What a girl. Valerie also has picked up a love for helping me clean. Can I just tell you it actually helps me out. I hand her the Swiffer or a dust rag and she goes to town. If you watch her you can tell she is trying her very best because she gets her serious face on. She is so much fun. She has grown in leaps and bounds these past few weeks. She has become our little parrot. Everything we say she tries to say. A funny story about that, the other day Caleb was getting after Valerie for doing something. When he was telling her why she was getting in trouble, she looked up at him with these big round innocent eye's and said "Why?" It was so hard not to laugh. Lucky for us when she wants something her favorite word to use is "PEESH" (please). But not so lucky for us her other favorite word is "NO" when she doesn't want to do what we say.

Other Pictures of Valerie Being Cute

Valerie and the ever famous ducky "BANKY" . If you look you can see some of the curles she let put in her hair with the curling iron!

Valerie has a love for purses. She will put things in them and then fave at you and pretend to go "BU BUY"

Valerie Playing in whip cream. She was upset when it was all gone because she at it all :)

Diaper Tug of War

Earlier today while I was cleaning upstairs I heard Valerie whining. I ignored it giving her a little time to figure out the problem herself. About a muinet later I heard ERRRRR, MOMMY, MOMMY, EEEERRRRR, whimper, whimper. So I went down the stairs to see what the matter was. This is what I found.

I am such a mean mom. Instead of helping her right away I took embarrassing pictures :) But we all have them and embarrassing baby pictures are a right of passage. Don't worry after taking the pictures I helped her out. What had happend is Val was sitting in her carseat and her diaper got snagged by one of the hooks you use to clip the carseat into the car. She had to have been trying really hard to unhook herslef because she had ripped one side of her diaper right off herslef. Poor little girl (that is what her GrammE would say).

Long Time No See

Sorry that it has been such a long time since I updated our blog. In all honesty it isn't because I have been so busy traveling or unpacking, it is because forgot my password :( As you can tell we as a family had one grand adventure for a summer. We moved across the United States. Valerie and I first drove from Utah to Indiana with my mom. We made a pit stop here for about a week and a half were we had lots of fun playing and spending time with my family. Valerie and I then drove from Indianapolis to Newport Rhode Isalnd with my mother-in-law. That was a long drive. I think Lisa and I were ready to run over all the orange construction signs in Ohio and New York!!! All the silly construction added on about another 2 to 3 hours on to our trip. Once we got to Rhode Island we were able to see Caleb for the first time in about six weeks. I can't tell you how happy Valerie and I were to see him. While we were in Newport Caleb graduated form ODS (Officer Development School) as an officer in the US Navy. He is now Ensign Tracy. Can you believe it!? I can't. From Newport we as a family started our journey to South Carolina. We stoped in Washington D.C for two days. I have never been to D.C, so it was really a lot of fun to see all those historic sites. Unfortunatley while the packers were packing my apartment in Utah they packed our camera. So I don't have any pictures of our trip to D.C. Oh well. It is only 8 hours away we can go back and visit when ever we want to. From Washington D.C we drove the last leg of our trip to Charleston South Carolina. Which is now our new home town. Valerie and I drove a total of 3287.85 miles. She was such a trooper. She didn't complain about being in her car seat until we were driving from Washnington D.C to Charleston. We now are offically in Charleston South Carolina, and we love it here! It is beautiful and filled with so much history. The only way I can describe it is that there is a charm to Charleston that bewiches you. After living on base for about 3 weeks we were able to buy our first home. It is everything we wanted plus more. It backs up to a pond, has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, fire place, laundry room upstairs, master suite, formal living room and dinning room, and the kitchen and family room is one big room, also know as a great room. To top it all off it has pretty dark hard wood floors. If you want to see more pictures I have those posted to my facebook page. Since we have been here we have done lots of fun things. We have been to the beach, which by the way is only twenty minutes from my house. We also have been to a few historic sites. One was Boone Hall Plantation. This is the plantation that has the famous row of old oaks with spanish moss hanging in the branches. This was also the plantation that they used in the movie the "The Notebook". We also have been to historic downtown Charleston a few times. Some of the buildings here date to the late 1700's! Needless to say we love it here and hope some of you will come and visit!

Summer of Change

This summer is going to be a mile stone for our family. Lots have happened and lots more is going to happen. I guess this is the reason why I started this blog. To keep me busy and to keep all you friends and family informed on what is happening in our lives. The first big mile stone this summer happened in May when Caleb got his degree in chemical engineering from the University of Utah. . GO UTES!!! The second big stepping stone happened last Friday. Last Friday Caleb was commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy. . . HURRAY!!! The biggest step so far happened this morning when Caleb left for ODS (officer development school) in Newport Rhodes Island. He will be there until July 25th:( Valerie and I already miss him. Luckily there is going to be a lot of things for me to do getting ready to move to Charleston South Carolina. Hopefully this will keep Valerie and I busy enough so we don't have time to stop and think about how much we miss him.