Our Lil' Christmas

Before.....

And after...gotta love it.

My two most favorite boys!

Kaylie's big present from Santa...it was a huge hit (once she woke up enough to realize what it was.)

Gotta love the stick horse and the fact that dad had to show her how to use it. She clopped around all day in her princess dress (not in the shot, obviously), crown and lovely heels (which broke two days later...nice.)

-All in all, it was a very good Christmas considering the circumstances. We just feel very blessed, and are grateful for each other. We're hoping that the new year will bring lots of good news too!

'Nother Funny Story

-Kaylie is at such a funny stage...you gotta love what kids say. The weekend before Christmas while we were in the middle of our move, my mom came home and told me that Santa was at the grocery store. I decided to drop everything because we needed a little Christmas cheer. So I went to pick up Kaylie at her friend's house. Then my sister and I took Kaylie and her friend (Cheyenne) to see Santa. While we were driving there Cheyenne kept calling Kaylie, Lucy (which is Kaylie's cousin's name). It was pretty funny because they had been playing together all day. We got to Santa and Kaylie was too scared to sit on his lap so the more experienced Cheyenne went first. I whipped out my camera and took a picture and then my batteries died...(typical), so no picture of Kaylie on Santa's lap...oh well. On the way home Cheyenne said to Kaylie and I quote: "Hey Lucy, I bet you can't guess your name, I'll give you a hint it starts with a K." (My sister and I are cracking up) then Kaylie replies: "You're crazy Chantell". (Chantell is Lucy's mom.)
-I'm driving through Salt Lake and in a hurry. This lady is driving in front of me and she is super slow. Plus she won't let me pass her. So when she finally makes a right hand turn I say "move it grandma". As we drive past Kaylie looks at the lady and says..."that's not grandma".
-Kaylie's newest thing..."no-kay". I ask her all the time if she needs to go potty just to be sure and she always says "no, I not, I'm okay." So the past few days she's decided that "no-kay" is the short way to answer her annoying mom.
-Coming soon, Christmas pictures. Once I find my camera under all the mess.

On The Move...Again!

No Decking the halls at the Flamm's this year, these are moving boxes.... It's becoming a fact of life for us, every year or so we decide to move and now we're on the move again. This will be move number 5 for us and we haven't even been married 4 years! We're moving back up to Idaho, so this picture was just perfect for the occasion. Why Idaho you ask? Well we need to cut back on expenses and my Grandparents were in need of house sitters (they're on mission number 5!), and the timing was just right. Now we can try to start our business and then figure life out from there.

Just because it's been a while...

I decided to post some new pictures just because it's been a while since I have. Here's Aaron and Kaylie hanging out with dad while he works on the computer. Notice Kaylie's dress, it's the second day in a row that she's worn it. She's really excited about Christmas and Santa Claus, she's at such a fun age.

Aaron's starting to sit up...it's just crazy how fast he's growing, he'll be four months next week! He's quite the talker too, he woke up at midnight last night and talked for a half hour to himself, it's cute during the day but not so much at night.

Kaylie is such a ham. She just can't be left out of a photo.

Here she literally jumped in again....lovely. Sorry Aaron, I just don't think that we're going to have as many single photos of you as you'd like.

Just checking out dad's work, he's definitely a daddy's boy.

One Really Rough Day

This last Sunday Kaylie had one of her worst days ever. We were walking to church, and sort of in a hurry I might add, when she tripped and took a nose dive into the sidewalk. I looked up to see her face flat on the ground and her feet in the air. When we got her up her face was all scraped up and there was a ton of blood in her mouth. Being the paranoid mom that I am, I started to panic. Luckily Jacob was there too take over. He took her back in and got her all cleaned up. But these photos were taken after church.

And to top off her nose dive, she tripped in nursery and skinned her knee so bad that she limped for the next two days.

I love how miserable she looks. Poor kid has had one super rough week, she's been sick with just about everything. Sometimes life just isn't so fun.

Aaron on the other hand has been happy as can be, since we've discovered that he has acid-reflux and we've put him on meds. He's at such a fun stage, where he loves to bat at things and show off his skills. I still can't believe how fast they grow.

Halloween

This year for Halloween we got to go to Jo-Jo's (my mom) house to celebrate. I don't know anyone who is more obsessed with Halloween than her. Here is Stockton in one of his Halloween Costumes. I say one because I guess he has at least three.

Here's Jo-Jo's porch on Halloween night. They spent at least two hours preparing. It's a little much, but that's what makes it so much fun.

Eben though Aaron was a pumpkin for Halloween, we had to put him in his coat because it was so cold. His coat is a Pooh Bear suit, he's such a cutie and growing way too fast.

Cousins posing for Halloween, this was one of the better ones. It was impossible to get all of them to look at the camera at the same time.

So cute!

I know their not looking at the camera, but I thought this was a super cute shot, I love my kids.

Aaron as a pumpkin, thanks for the costume Amber it was perfect.

And life goes on...

Yes, we're still alive and kickin...
I just realized the other day that my blog has been a little gloomy for the past few weeks and I'm just now getting around to posting something a little more positive. I would like to thank everyone of you who have been praying for us, it's definitely helping. No, we haven't found a job yet (we've called just about every Mortuary in the West) and we haven't won the lottery yet either...(kidding, we're not blowing money we don't have on lottery tickets). But we do have a few ideas. And we'll head back to school eventually, not cool, but such is life.

Here's the kids in dad's shades. They love doing stuff together, and it's kind of cute to see how much they like each other. Aaron loves watching Kaylie, he's fascinated by her. But they have their moments, they like to keep each other up all night, Kaylie bit Aaron's eye today and slapped his face a few days ago, so I guess you can say that they act like brother and sister already too.

We made chocolate chip cookies this afternoon while Aaron napped. I have to keep Kaylie quiet some how, so cookie dough worked wonders today.

Aaron is a huge stinker when it comes to sleep period. He especially hates naps. He just wants to be a part of everything. So being a little on the desperate side (like all parents) we've tried everything to get him to sleep. The pain is that something will work for a little while, but not forever. These past few weeks we've discovered that he likes Portuguese music while he's in his swing, it knocks him out cold...so nice to get him to sleep, but I'm at whits end with Portuguese music. My kids get their weirdness from their dad.

Awful News

I hate to announce it and I really don't know how, but we need all the help we can get right now. Jacob was laid off yesterday, completely out of the blue. And no, we're not being let into the family business (there's no room). I'm sure we'll be fine, but if you could include us in your prayers that would be appreciated. Thanks!

Aaron's Baby Blessing

One super cute outfit.

There's a smile!

The whole Flamm Clan...minus Derek (on his mission & almost done might I add) and William (who was taking a nap.)

Yeah, kids never cooperate..oh well.

Jacob and his little man.

Gotta love the random Kaylie in the background...nice. No shoes because Aaron had a blow out and ready or not we had to do pictures right then.

And the icing on the cake...."The Blessing Day Curse"....the blowout. Of course this was after he puked all over it too. At least it was all after the blessing. And for those of you who are worried about the outfit...it came out pretty easy, thank goodness.

One Fun Day

Last Saturday, we got to go with the Flamms and do the Step Out Diabetes walk. After the walk we got to go to the Zoo. Kaylie had a blast.

Grandpa got all the grand kids hats, but Kaylie didn't want a hat she wanted yet another stuffed animal. So she picked out this cute little giraffe. And she had to have mom take a picture of her with it. I swear it's stuffed animal number 35 for her.

Here's Aaron in his hat, it's a little big but he's growing so fast it'll fit him soon enough. Thanks Grandpa!

There was a super cute baby elephant there, he's only a few weeks old. He was Kaylie's Favorite.

It was hard to get a good picture because so many people were there.

Believe it or not Kaylie took this picture. She thought this "monkey" was really weird looking. She's still talking about him.

Measuring up.

Had to have mom do it too.

Striking a pose for the camera.

How do some people sleep at night?

(WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS ME VENTING, YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO SUFFER THROUGH IT.)

Lately, Jacob and I have had numerous experiences with people where we just have asked ourselves : "How do they sleep at night?" It's amazing how few people there are in this world that seem to care about other's feelings. I know that no one is perfect (me being on the top of that list.) But gees, would it really kill us to stop and think about someone else for a change? Below are some instances that have led us to question just how these people sleep at night:

1. What's the fun in taking advantage of others? Seriously, nothing in life is for free. If someone does something nice for you, return the favor, or at least say thank you.

2. If you can't say something nice, just don't say it. The occasional sincere compliment never killed anyone.

3. Sometimes we just have to say things we don't want to say, in those cases...use a little tact. Seriously, chewing people out isn't going to put you on anyone's best friend list.

4. I hate nothing more than empty promises, you don't promise someone something and then never deliver.

5. What happened to good old fashioned listening? I hate repeating myself over and over to people. I understand sometimes people need to be reminded once or twice, but on the tenth time I start to feel like you just don't care.

6. Where are the "please's" and "thank you's"? I swear they've disappeared from most people's vocabulary.

7. Treat people equally, seriously don't play favorites, you're not fooling anyone.

8. It doesn't hurt to do at least one random act of kindness per day for someone you don't know. So instead of being "the jerk who cut them off," you could be "the polite stranger that finally let me pull out onto the street." (This certainly helps me sleep at night.)

9. I don't understand the mentality of "if I can't see it, it's not there." So many people push problems under the rug and never talk about them or try to solve them. Get it out in the open, it'll be messy for a minute but then you'll feel much better and you'll be able to sleep much easier at night.

10. And finally, if you realize that you might have hurt someone else, just apologize, it never hurts to apologize even if it is years overdue.

I enjoy my sleep at night (even though it's not happening now) so if I've ever been less than nice to you...put it on the table, let me know, I want nothing more than to make things right. I don't want anyone to be victims of these instances (or any others for that matter) on my behalf.

One Serious Penny Pincher

I'll be the first to admit that these days are flat out tough financial wise for pretty much everybody. In our household things have been no cake walk either, but I'm one super determined stay-at-home mom and I want to keep it that way. For the last few years I've been open to any way to save a buck or two, if you have any ideas or suggestions, please share the wealth (pun intended)... Cause here's some of my penny pinching strategies.

1. Newest Discovery: Diapers.com

Lets face it, diapers are just flat out expensive. I did a little math on how much money we blew on Kaylie's diapers over the course of her first two years and ....I don't recommend it cause it'll just depress you. Most people recommend cloth diapers, but in my case time is money. So I heard about this website diapers.com. They guarantee to have the cheapest diapers around, and I sat down and did the math (wasted way too much time) but they are right. On average they are at least 5 cents cheaper per diaper than what you can get in stores. That can really add up fast, I figure I'm saving about $25 a month. Best of all, it comes the next day (if you order before 6 pm) and I got a big enough box to last Aaron an entire month! On your first order you can get $10 off. So if you're interested try it out, it's great...and don't forget my referral code: FLAM3859.

2. If you're not using it, unplug it!

I heard about some lady on Opera who unplugged everything in her house that she wasn't using and she saved hundreds of dollars a month (note, she had a lot of electronics)...and I thought I'll try it. I did and I noticed on average that I save at very least $20-$30 a month on my electric bill, Just by unplugging the computer while it's off, the microwave, toaster, TV, DVD player, and especially cell phone chargers (those suckers suck you dry.) Only problem with this one, my husband calls me the "electricity Nazi" cause it drives him crazy to have to plug and unplug everything all the time, but after a while you just get use to it.

3. Make a Meal Plan

I hate the grocery store more than anything in the world, I just don't like going. I feel like I'm always wasting all my money on food. But I've found a way to make it much more bearable, a meal plan. All you do is come up with 14 meals, one per night for the next two weeks. You figure out all the ingredients you'll need to purchase and write it all down (don't forget to add lunch and breakfast items too, and always add extra milk and snack foods, so you don't have to make extra trips.) Then you only have to go to the grocery store twice a month, plus you don't have to fret about what to make for dinner every night, just pick something off your list. With just the meal plan alone we save about $100-$150 a month on groceries. Also another money drainer with food, your hubby's daily lunch (my sis brought this to my attention), if he's eating out everyday that can cost you an extra $200 a month (at least). So make him a lunch the night before, or pack leftovers. And another big saver, resist the urge to eat out, it's not healthy anyway, it can save you a big chunk of change too.

4. Window shop online before you shop in the store.

Who doesn't love shopping? I love shopping, especially window shopping but with two kids it's just not practical. So I've found that I can save time, money and my nerves if I just window shop online. Plus I can compare prices, which...duh! Do this before you go to the mall, that way you know what you want and where to get it. When shopping online (or offline for that matter) always search for coupons and coupon codes before you purchase, you'd be shocked how much you can save with a little effort. And don't be afraid of coupons, coupons are a girls best friend, literally!

5. Pay bills online.

Did you know that every time you send a check to pay a bill, you get charged a hidden fee, plus you've paid for the stamp as well and that can really add up.

Well, this may not be helpful to everyone but hopefully this helps someone out. Again any other ideas are welcome here!

One Crazy Month

It's crazy how fast this little guy's first month has gone. "He's one month already", is all I keep telling myself. It's been an absolute blur (especially with no sleep). And it hasn't been a picnic by any means either. It's a dang good thing that their cute though.

He started smiling at only 3 weeks, but we haven't been able to catch it with the camera yet, he's just coming out of one here.

Aaron loves bath time, he really hates it when it's over.

Kept mom and dad up all night and can't seem to figure out why dad's not talkin' to him the next morning.

Here's a peek at his moody side...super content and cooing.

To super angry in seconds.

Aaron loves the pacifier. The only problem...keeping it in. We're trying to introduce the thumb but he's not real interested. Jacob staged this one, I thought it was pretty funny. But I now see why the pacifier packages come with warnings to not tie something around the baby's head to keep it in...it is so tempting.

Kaylie's been super good with the whole baby thing, but some days I feel like nothing but a broken record...I'm always telling her "Kaylie get out of there you are just too big." Here she is "Busted" in the swing, but I repeat it with the car seat, the bouncer, the baby tub and so on. Oh well, it could be worse.

She's also had to be creative with all her free time. Here is her potty stool, it's now a boat and she calls out "all aboard!" To get all her stuffed animals in. Also, yesterday at lunch, she had talking chips, a mom chip, dad chip and baby chip...funny but at the same time I can't wait until things are a little more settled so she can have more mom and Kaylie time.