Stocking up

So every once in a while, I have to share my shopping adventure and exploits. This one of those times.

My sister-in-law, Katie, taught me the ropes on how to shop ahead for your kids clothes. I've heard of it, I've wanted to do it before, but I've always been faced with the delima that my kids needs clothes for now... how am I suppoed to afford clothes for now and for next year?

This year, my kids are pretty well set for now. So I shopped for next year instead. At Old Navy I shopped their "Additional 50% off winter clearance" sale. Apparently it happens the mid-month January weekend every year. At Old Navy, I was able to get $519 worth of clothes for just $62. Apparently the real trick to this sale is to shop before hand (up to 2 weeks before) while selection is good, then go back with your receipt during the sale and get a price adjustment.

For Allison: 3 pairs jeans (one of them for right now), 2 pairs fleece pants, 1 pair black pants, 1 pair brown cords, 1 fleece half-zip sweater, 1 chunky white turtleneck sweater, 1 hooded pink sweater, 4 turtlenecks, 5 longsleeved t-shirts, 1 velour dress, 1 puffer vest, 3 skirts.

For Carter: 1 puffer coat, 1 shortsleeved t-shirt, 1 long sleeve polo, 1 sweater, 1 pair jeans, 1 paid khakis, 1 pair black cords, 1 set PJs

At JC Penney I shopped their 75% off year end clearance, which happens every January. Not all the prices were fabulous, but I was still able to get some good deals.

For Allison: 1 Sunday dress (for now... it was so cute!), 1 denim skirt, 3 longsleeved t-shirts, 1 half-zip fleece pullover, 3-in-1 systems coat, brown shoes, Ugg-style boots (these are actually from ON)

For Carter: 1 pair khakis, 1 longsleeved onesie, 1 longsleeved all-in-one outfit, 3 long sleeved shirts

The The Children's Place, it was the Monster Sale, but not until very near the end. I waited until this week and all clearance items (except winter coats) were marked down to $2.99. WOW!

For Carter: 1 zip-up hoodie, 1 fleece jacket, 3 longsleeved t-shirts, 2 sweaters, 3 pairs pants. I also got a pair of cords and a hooded cardigan sweater for Allison there too.

In total, I got nearly $1000 ($985) in new clothes for my kids for next year for just $175. That represents an 82% savings off the retail price. WOW!!!

Now, provided that my kids actually fit into my estimates of how big they'll be in 10 months (I'm mostly worried about Allison... I bought her 2T because I just can't image her being over 30 pound before the end of next winter), we should be all set for next year's winter clothes.

Oh, and lets just say I'm hooked, and I know how I'll be spendingmy kids' clothing budget from here on out. Can't wait for the summer version of those sales come July! =)

*Disclaimer: Yes... I do realize that I'm a complete and total nerd. =)*

An Adorable (Magnetic) Accomplishment!

And an alliteration to boot...

My mom visits this site called One Pretty Thing, a dailky round up of pretty things found online in various and sundry categories. The other day she found this adorable tutorial for magnetic dress up dolls on One Pearl Button. A-DORABLE!

My immediate thought was "I want that for Allison" followed almost immediatly by "What a great church/car/airplane toy!" As luck would have it I happen to need airplane toys, and have nothing but time on my hands in the evenings now that all of my worldly possessions are on a 53 foot semi headed for Syracuse.

I followed her directions pretty close and heres how they turned out...

Love it, love it, love it. And hey look... thats one thing marked off my "Wanna Do" list. Maybe someday I really will conquer it. Maybe.

Something I want to do...

A little background info: I was in 4-H for 10 years. And for most of those years I was a fairly active 4-Her. I didn't show horses or dogs or raise pigs or cows... I was involved in the domestic arts side (bet you didn't know that 4-H had a non-animal side). I sewed, did arts & crafts, photography, cooking... that sort of thing. And every year I entered lots of projects in the county fair, and a few in the state fair.

Today, while trying to get packed up (again) I came across a box labeled "Rosie Memorbelia" (yes, apparently I'm famous enough or novel or enough or just plain cool enough to have my own brand of memorbelia! Check a gift store near you...). Inside the box? 10 years worth of 4-H ribbons. Two bundles of blue awards, a bundle of red awards, a smattering of whites and several stacks of those cool special award championship type rosettes (yep... they let us non-hosre kids have those too).

I feel like, at age 27, 9 years after the fact, I really ought to be able to let go of these... I mean what are they going to do besides sit in a box? But they represent so much hard work, and the just look cool!

So I hit google. And I found this...

and this...

Photos from www.Showthrow.com

and a whole bunch more. Quilts & quilt wall-hangings made of of award ribbons. WOW! I want to make one of my very own. But I'm pretty sure the last thing I need is one more project on my "Wanna Do" list (which, for the record, has more than likely surpassed Brian's "Honey Do" list in length. I know... its long).

So tell me... yay or nay? Take the ribbons with me and put one on my to-do list (it would live in my craft/sewing room...), or leave them behind... in the garbage. What would you do?

2009 in Pictures

January

Allison started Nursury (HALLELUJAH!) and fell in love with the Nursury Manual.

February

Brian continues to stay home mornings with Allison while I worked... and he even learned to do her hair. =)

March

Carter joined our family.

April

Maternity leave! My mom came to stay and help with Carter. It was wonderful to have her (and yes, for some reason is the best photo of I have of Mom and Carter that isn't in the hospital... oh well!).

May

I worked my last day as a junior high school teacher to stay home with the kids full-time. As an added perk, I started enjoying sleeping in again... I have a great husband! =)

June

Nice weather and a stay-home mommy mean that Allison learns the joys of feeding the ducks (frequently!) at BYU's Botony Pond.

July

Allison turned 2... is that possible?

August

Brian walked at BYU commencement for his Master's Degree. Allison (and the rest of us) was very proud of him.

September

Carter moved from infant-blob to playing baby, and started solid food, which he loves. The spoon has become one of his favorite toys.

October

We had a fun Halloween. Allison loved being dressed up at Cinderella and really understood the whole trick-or-treating concept this year.

November

Emily got married. I was sick that weekend (and the week before it and the week after it too), but she made a beautiful bride, it was a beautiful wedding and she and David are so perfect and so happy together.

December

We took the kids to see Zoo Lights at Pt. Defiance and we all enjoyed it, in spite of the cold weather.

To Do List

• Book visual estimates with moving companies & pick a company.
• Find & book space with an auto-transport company.
• Pack the stuff in the house back up into boxes.
• Find a real-estate agent to help us find a rental.
• Buy 4 one-way plane tickets to Syracuse.

Yep... thats right. Brian got the job. We're moving to New York.

Decorating for Christmas

There are two two-year-olds living at my parent's house right now. And they love Christmas trees. We started decorating today, and my mom loves her granddaughters enough to give up her pretty, perfect tree and allow them to "help" her decorate it, which means no breakable ornaments, lots of ornamnets placed down low and pretty poor ornament distrubution. They had a blast. Here are just a few pictures of Allison and her cousin Emma decorating the Christmas tree.

They had a favorite branch...

They were very particular about their placement...

Reach, reach, reach...

I really do think that the holidays only get more fun and more magical when children join your family and start to understand and enjoy the season themselves.

An Almost-Crawling Carter

Carter is so close to crawling! I'm actually a little surprised he hasn't figured it out completely yet. He's got a crazy fast army crawl and can get into crawl position and move his knees... he just can't figure the hands out yet.

Lately he's been pushing up into downward-facing dog position... I think he's trying to build strengthen in his arms.

Its a little hard to tell in this photo, but he's on his toes, not his knees.

Isn't he a handsome kid?