My Van Adventures Continue

The adventures in my van continue. I'm going to call them adventures to try and help me not keep thinking about how nice a new van would be. Yes some of the adventures I bring on my self like our latest one (because I haven't taken it in to get fixed) but when we sat down and looked at what it cost us to keep our van running in 2009 the bill came to a whopping $7200! That being said I am not thrilled that more money is needed to repair it right now and since the repair does not impair it actually running I've been dragging my feet. So whats wrong with it this time? Here you go:

In December while we were driving around looking at Christmas lights we heard a loud "ping" and then the passenger window just slowly rolled down and would no longer go up. Two days later coming out of church I noticed the drivers side window was cracked open just a little and by the time we got home it was stuck all the way down too. LOVELY, in the summer the windows got stuck up and the air conditioner went out making it impossible to drive due to safety reasons, now in the wettest winter in years the windows are stuck down!!! YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!!! My kids have renamed my van "the cold car" and recently we have taken to riding in full winter gear and when it rains umbrellas inside the car. Yup that's right umbrellas inside the car! Yes I know I should just take the dumb car in and get it fixed but seriously another $1000 bucks on windows? ARGGG!!

Funny story with the rain that just has to be told. Two weeks ago when it rained for days in a row I had to take Alexis to school in the van. I've learned that I HAVE to drive really slow through the gutters and dips in the roads or I will get wet from the splash. I dropped Alexis off at school and went out on an errand with Ariana, umbrella and all in the back seat. We drove through an intersection with a huge puddle and I went nice and slow but the car next to us didn't. SPLASH we all got wet inside the car and Ariana started screaming!! (she can't stand being wet unless she is the bath and ANY amount of moister on her clothes necessitates an entire wardrobe change) Mean mom that I am I just started laughing. (come on it is a little funny, van with the windows stuck down, kid ridding buckled in a car seat holding an umbrella to not get wet, HUGE puddle and another car drives really fast through it and just drenches them all.)

This is kind of what it felt like : )

Oh the adventures of us and our van!

Free or Cheap Diapers @ Albertsons!!

On my family blog I normally won't post the deals I find at the store, I put them on my Saving Made Simple blog, but I think everyone should know about this. Albertsons has packs of Baby Basic Diapers marked down really low. At my Albertsons off College and Horizon the size 2, Jumbo Pack diapers are $3.99 and the big boxes are $9.99. Use this coupon for $4/1 and you can either get free size 2 diapers or a big box of size 3-5 diapers for only $5.99!!!

You might be able to find these deals in other stores and states as well because Baby Basics is changing their packaging and that's why they are on sale. : )

"I'm Not Your Friend!"

This morning I woke up to Ariana crying because she couldn't get both her arms through her dress. I had to pull the dress off and help put it back on. When I pulled it off it turned inside out and Ariana yelled, "Mommy, now its inside out! I'm never going to be your friend!"

So it begins....

Bubble Bliss

Alexis: "Mommy I want to take a relaxing bath."

January 2010

A Photo Session By Alexis & Ariana

You never know exactly what to expect when your little ones get a hold of the camera but it can be fun to see what they decide to take pictures of. Alexis and Ariana got a hold of a camera in the beginning of October and here are just a sampling of the almost 100 pictures they took during their photo session.

Hello Camera! Look at our toys on the window seat.

Notice the necklace on the horse?

What kind of dance pose is this and what happened to Alexis clothes?

Doesn't Sulley looks pretty and Ariana's foot?

umm... ok Alexis : ) Yes they love their clothes!

So what were we doing this 100 picture photo shoot? We were both on our own computers. I'm guessing that I am blogg hopping and Justin is playing a game.

Halloween 2009

I'm still so sad that we lost our original Halloween pictures but thanks to a couple friends I do have a couple and am planning on hopefully one of these days getting a picture of Ariana all dressed up in her giraffe costume so all was not lost for this fun Holiday.

Alexis LOVES star wars. She has her own light saber and legos, she loves to watch the movies and play Lego Star Wars on the computer. So it was no surprise that she chose to be Princess Leia for Halloween. She wanted to be the scandalous Leia (you know the one in the last original movie) and of course I was not going for that so we opted for Leia from the first original movie. Funny side note: Alexis has gotten a little confused with what modesty is and one day made the comment, "that princess is totally modest, only her belly button is showing!" I was rather happy with how I pulled her costume together. Her dress is one of my preschool graduation robes and the belt is one of mine : )

I visited CA in October when my brother and his wife went through the temple and I brought back the skunk fur coat my Grandma Nancy gave to me. It was one of her pride and joys from her youth so I hope she didn't take too much offense in heaven when I used it for my Halloween costume inspiration. I was Cruella Devil.

Ariana was of course a giraffe or a "gaff" as she calls them. This was a lucky find on my part. Costco had giraffe big belly costumes for only $10. I can't imagine if I had actually had to make a giraffe costume. Funny part was on Halloween she insisted she wear her cowgirl boots with the costume. I promise I will get a picture of my little gaff one of these days.

Playing Catch Up

I am going to be playing a little bit of catch up. So her comes Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. : )