Christmas Tree is up!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. DH's brother came to visit and we had the standard Turkey Dinner. Then the kids and I got the tree out. Always a highlight! Yes, the bottom of the tree has very few ornaments on it. That's because I have small children.

Luca

The other night Luca had this cute stocking hat on. I took a picture of him and he started posing for me. So i kept snapping pictures. Here are a couple super cute ones.

Baby shower.

My sister had the first of her baby showers recently. I thought I would post a couple cute pictures from that day.

Diaper cake with super cute pink boots.

Rory (with vampire teeth) and Gioia (with Rosa the stuffed guinea pig).


Elaine, Melaine and Jaime

Max the rodent hunter.

This is our dog Max. He was born in April and we got him in June. He is seven months old. He is a super dog and recently he has been killing our rodents. At first we thought it was the cat bringing the mice up. Then I actually saw Max catch and kill a mouse. Another day I saw him digging in the mole hill and he came up with a mole. So i wasn't shocked to find a mole on our front porch this morning. This dog is earning his keep.


Our deceased critter, the mole.

Christmas deals!

When I was a kid I never had any money. As soon as I had spending money that amounted to anything I would blow it on candy or other junk. I would occasionally save enough to buy books. Books were the only thing I loved equal to candy. This would be why my Mom wisely stuffed away all our birthday and Christmas money into a savings account. We never asked to get that money out ever. At least I don't remember it. We knew it was off limits for frivolous things. I am carrying that tradition on with my own kids.

Anyway, all that to say that in my wiser older days I am now good with money. I am good at saving, but what really makes me excited is getting deals and using coupons. So i thought I would talk about some of the great deals I have gotten lately.

A totally "me" thing I bought recently is a Roomba. A Robotic vacuum that you turn on and it goes back and forth and all over the room to sweep the carpet and hardwoods/tile too! They are awesome. It even goes under my bed in the bedroom. I got it off Woot.com for half price. It was a refurbished item but it works perfect.

For the kids Christmas, so far I got 3 board games on sale. I got Dominic Hi HO Cherry O game for $1.00 after rebate. I got Gioia Monopoly and Scrabble for $7.00 each after rebate. I ordered the Christmas Calendars for my family and I got Buy One regular price, get all the rest 50% off. Then I used $10 off coupon and got free shipping on top of that. WOO HOO! I got the boys matching Organic Cotton Hoodies and socks for $7.00 each on the Hoodies. I split the shipping with a couple other Moms and only had to pay $5.00 shipping for my order. I also got some other things for gifts for other people.

I have a couple other things on my "to get" list. I am checking out the Black Friday stuff and watching online sales to see what else I can score on.

So things I save on regularly is I do the Frontier brand coop and I plan to start the Azure Standard group soon too. It saves tons on the food I already buy.

My big guy is feeling much better.

I just wanted to update on here about a success we have had. I know I had talked to many of you about Dominic not sleeping well and waking up crying 3-4 nights a week.

Background: He sees an ENT for his hole in his ear drum. We monitor it every 6 months and he has seen her other times for drainage and infection. We are unsure why he gets more drainage. He also makes a funny noise in his throat. We ruled out tonsils and adenoids. We also had him food intolerance tested with a Naturopath.

So we were trying all kinds of things, but he is 5 and still waking up crying and not consolable.

Anyway, after finally talking again with the Nurse Practitioner at the ENT she suggested we "try" Prevacid or something to rule out Reflux. We did that and did a 14 day treatment, then I stopped because it didn't seem any better. BUT he did have poison Ivy on his poor face during that time. So now the poison ivy is gone and we stopped the Prevacid.

It has been 2 weeks and he has slept through the night, no crying or anything every single night. I am so happy!!!

The general consensus is that he must have had something going on that the Prevacid helped heal. Time will tell if this sticks. We also notice him doing the throat noise thing less to none at all. It is also helping his daytime meltdowns and other things. One huge improvement is that he can now take a nap and wake up and be pleasant. Before he would wake up and be a raging bear! I guess he is getting better sleep at all times of the day.

My sisters Maternity pictures.

I took some great pictures of my sister and her husband this weekend. They are both very photogenic so I can only take partial credit. I think they turned out very nice for a quick 15 minute photo shoot.

Halloween Weekend

Halloween weekend we got out to Trick or Treat. Luca decided he didn't like the Giraffe outfit so he went as a Scarecrow. He was the cutest little thing out there. He wouldn't let go off his candy until he was at the next house. Then he would put it in the bag and say to the person, "Trick, Treat, Halloween!"
We also got more work done on the Perreca Deluxe Chicken House. We got the 2nd coat of paint done and the human door installed. We also got about 1/2 the inside walls painted.