Curling

So I forgot to mention in my last email that on Sunday Preston and 3 friends drove all the way to Dallas for the day to try out Curling. If you've watched much of the Olympics you might have seen it. Here is a picture of the US curling team. Preston said he wasn't any good but I'm sure that he was as good as these guys. :)

The Sweater Vest

Here's Chase all dressed up for Church on Sunday. I thought he looked quite handsome.

Here's some more fun video...

A few people have said that they would like to hear more about my store brand products that I'm trying out. Whether they are good or bad, etc. In that case, I'll continue the "Tightwad Update".

Tightwad Update:
Target (Market Pantry) Cheerios = yes (they are a little different but are still good...I'm going to start Chase on these so he won't ever know the difference)
Target or Wal-Mart frozen chicken breasts = not a big fan but they're OK (I may stick with Tyson)
Wal-Mart Nutragrain bars = no
Milk at Wal-Mart, Sam's, or Target = yes (it's cheapest at Sam's)
Target (Market Pantry) frozen popcorn shrimp = yes (mmmmmmm)

Friday

Hey everyone. I've been getting in trouble lately for not updating this blog often enough. Sorry about that. But if you were wanting an update...get ready b/c this is going to be thorough. :)

Today is Friday...which is generally not my favorite day of the week. Every other day of the week Chase and I have somewhere to be around 9:30. Friday...not so much. I'm kind of a busy body so I like to get out of the house and have something to do most of the time. We'll get out and do something later...I just don't know what yet. I have decided to document Chase through photos throughout today....they may not be super exciting but hey, some of you said you wanted to see more pictures! :)

Leslie, this one is for you:
Click to see the picture. (Read on Leslies blog for a little back ground...)

Update on Chase:
* He likes to sit on the floor with a bucket of toys and has fun taking them out or dumping them out.
* He likes to sit in his Exersaucer and watch Baby Einstein videos.
* He likes to babble saying things like "dadadadadada" over and over. I don't think he quite associates saying dada as his daddy's name.
* He's not crawling just and doesn't even seem to be thinking about it much. He does not like to be on his stomach so it's hard to learn. (See the video link later in this list to see how he's getting in position to crawl.
* He eats lots of different baby foods and rice cereal. He's gotten a lot pickier since I starting letting him have fruits. Now I have to mix apple sauce with anything that is not sweet (like meats) to get him to eat it. Little stinker! He'll also eat a few things off of my plate if I offer it. He does not pick food up and put it in his mouth. Any suggestions on what he should or could be eating right now?
* He's been working on learning to drink from a regular cup first and now he's just warming up to the sippy cup. I try to let him do it himself but he seems to always pick it up upside-down and try to put the wrong end in his mouth. I even set it in front of him facing a different direction and he still tries to do it the wrong way! haha
* He still has no teeth.
* There are a few words that he understands what they mean when we say them: dada, Lucy, bite (like a bite of food), bottle (and maybe mama but he doesn't hear it as much as the others...I need to start talking about myself in the third person more.)
* He claps! See video...
* And the best news of all about Chase is that he is sleeping all night with out waking up to eat! Woo-Hoo! For those of you who don't know, this is not the same as "sleeping through the night" which just means 6 hours of sleep at a time or more before having to eat. He goes to bed at 9:30 and gets up at 8:30! Or at least he has for the last week and a half or so. (There is one exception...see below.)

A Sad Story:
Last night we could tell Chase was getting tired so Preston was going to give him his bottle and put him to bed. Chase was getting so mad while Preston was feeding him. He would just cry and put the bottle in his mouth then spit it out and cry some more and do this over and over. We thought maybe it was that he wanted to me so I tried but the same thing happened. Then we thought maybe he was teething and the bottle was hurting his mouth. Finally he went to sleep and I put the bottle in the frig. Later a light bulb went off in my head and I went back to the bottle and quickly realized that the opening in the bottle nipple was closed shut...it was a new one and sometimes you have to make sure they are open. Poor kid. He was hungry and we kept teasing him with food that he couldn't get to. So needless to say he woke up an hour later and I fed the starving kid.

Lucy Update:
Lucy played in the mud yesterday and tracked it into the kitchen...then she was mad at me when I put her in the sink and sprayed her off. haha. She's over it now and has been playing in the floor with Chase and me this morning. I recently took her to the groomer and they left the fur on her head and face a little longer than I like (she looked like a lion) so I trimmed it up myself. Disaster. Thankfully it has grown out a little and I've managed to make it look fairly normal. (Hey dad, remember when you did that to your daughter, Leah. :)

Preston and Sara Update:
Preston and I are doing great. We all traveled to Abilene last weekend for Sing Song and it was really fun getting to see friends and family. Sorry, I took no pictures. We're still in our Financial Peace University class. It's going well. We laid out a plan to save for several things including a new stove-top! Don't laugh at me for being excited about this...I only have one burner that works right now! Preston's class at OU is going good. He can't seem to make it to class on time though. :) He's likes the project that he's working on for the class. His work is great too. Busy busy. I'm enjoying working on a few new websites for clients. They are coming along great. I'm also still working on my card business that I'm going to start. I made some major headway in my web programming for it in the wee hours of the night last night. Yay! We're still going to the gym. It's a lot more fun now that we have several friends that have joined or rejoined. (Too bad I was the only one there last night...come on guys...what happened?)

Tight-wad update:
Here are a few store brand things that I have tried just to let you know what I thought -
White Cloud diapers = no
Target diapers = still yes
Sam's brand baby wipes = probably not (don't pop up well)
Wal-Mart (Great Value) blue box mac cheese = no (neon orange)
Target (Market Pantry) blue box mac cheese = yes (excellent)
Target facial cleanser (equivalent to Neutrogena) = yes
Wal-Mart Dishwasher liquid (equivalent to Cascade) = yes
Sun laundry detergent = yes

Happy Valentines Day!

A Fun Weekend

Preston's parents (aka Mimi and Papa) were here from Wednesday to Saturday and we had a great time. Too bad Preston still had to work but we did go eat lunch with him on Friday. Me, Chase and the Wattersons had fun running errands and we even went to Affair of the Heart at the fair grounds. It was really fun....kind of cold of course. Chase came away with a nice measuring stick to hang on the wall so that we can track his growth through the years. Thanks Mimi and Papa! We went out to eat and just enjoyed being together in the evenings when Preston was home.

Preston and I went out for Valentine's last night while Aunt Leah baby sat. We went to my favorite restaurant...the Olive Garden and even splurged on my favorite dessert of all time....the Black Tie Mouse Cake. After that we saw Firewall at the movies. It was really good. It was nice to have a full fledge date night with a sit-down dinner and a movie.

BTW - Chase turned 7 months old yesterday!

Today was just another Monday. Preston went to work and Chase and I did the usual Monday stuff. Another week is off and running.

Hey There

Sorry I haven't posted in a while...at least not anything interesting...you know...besides budget stuff. I have two new websites that I'm working on right now so that's taking up every second that I can be at the computer. Things are going great...not a lot of new stuff to report. Preston and I went to a Hornets game on Saturday night. It was really fun. They played the Lakers and it was a sold out game. Good times. Preston's parents are coming this week so we're really excited about that. Chase hasn't seen them in a while so he's anxiously awaiting their arrival tomorrow. They offered to keep Chase so that Preston and I can go out for Valentines some time while they're here! That will be fun. (Maybe I can get Budget Nazi to take me some place nice. We'll see! :) Preston is changing jobs at work (still at the same place, just a new title) so he's really excited and busy with that. Lucy is in desperate need of the groomer (her absolutely least favorite place). I gave her a bath earlier and the poor thing can hardly see b/c her fur is so long in her face. haha. Chase is of course getting bigger and bigger all the time. I put away one of his 6-9 month outfits yesterday b/c he's too tall for it. He's so tall! (If 27 1/2 inches can be considered tall.) Here's a picture of him in the big bath tub for the first time. Hope you all have a good week!