Turkey Hunting 2012

Turkey hunting was finally successful this morning.  I drove to Chucharas Canyon yesterday afternoon and hunted the evening.  It was a 45 minute walk down to the canyon bottom.  I had one tom come within 60 yards, but then he turned and I watched him walk up the canyon and fly into a tree to roost for the night.  I also so one other tom roost and could hear another one; which made me optimistic for the next morning.  On the walk back to the vehicle, in the dark, in a place I wasn't familiar with, I got caught in a thunderstorm and actually got a little nervous about the lightning.  I made it back to my vehicle a little wet, but not too bad, played my guitar for a bit and went to bed.

This morning I was up at 4:10AM so I could get to my spot before any light.  The roosted turkeys would be able to see me walk in if it was light so I didn't want to mess that up.  The turkeys were gobbling all morning long and I would call back to them.  A flock of five flew out of one roost tree and landed 150 yards away.  I could see them milling around and three walked away from while two others walked towards me, but disappeared behind some relief in topography.  It was quiet for a little while, but then I saw two red heads pop up from behind the relief and they started walking my way.  The started to strut in front of my decoy, only 11 yards in front of me so I waited for them to separate a bit, and took this tom at 5:49AM.  A good hunt.

Charlie's New Room

We moved Charlie over to his new room at the end of April. I love how it turned out! The transition had some ups and downs, but I think we have found a groove. We now read books in bed (instead of on the couch) with Charlie before praying and saying good-night. Charlie gets up anywhere between 6:20-7:15 which is a lot earlier than when he was in the crib. Naps have been shorter, too. I've had to hold the door shut for a few minutes after I lay him down (at night and at nap); he cries for about 3.5 seconds (literally), and then either settles into bed or builds himself a nest between the beds. This - the nest - is where we find him at night 75% of the time. We just pick him up and transfer his nest to the bed where he sleeps the rest of the night. Sometimes he'll be back on the floor in the middle of the night and we can't decide if he's falling out (which we don't ever hear) or just climbing out. By the looks of the covers, it appears he's just climbing out - silly guy! He fell out a handful of times in the first couple weeks after switching to the big bed. I didn't buy a bed railing for him thinking that he would just get used to the space after a while, and he did. No worries! Charlie loves to be on his bed, pointing out the different car decals and shapes on his walls. Cars and trucks are perfect for our little boy!

 How many times can these IKEA mirrors be repurposed? Several!

 Decals from Target.

 Charlie looks pretty little on that big bed, even if it is only a twin!

 We kept the guest bed up instead of storing it. I flipped the comforter over and though it's not a perfect match, it looks pretty good with Charlie's comforter. I spent $5 on navy pillowcases to match the curtains and Charlie's bedskirt to try and tie it all together.

 Car fabric stapled to canvases purchased at Walmart. Car fabric is amazingly hard to find. :S

 Ribbon for window treatment tie-backs. Apparently I was in a hurry when I fastened them in the picture!

 The car/hook wall thing was a TJMaxx find. I need to teach Charlie to hang up his jammies in the morning.

There are a few more decals and a clock above his dresser, too. I kinda felt like Charlie never really had a cute, put-together nursery (like the kind you see in magazines), so I was excited to do that for him in this room. Mission accomplished!

Alanna's 6 month stats

At Alanna's 6 month doctor visit, she weighed 14 pounds 2 ounces and was 26 inches long. Looks like she's about the 20th percentile for weight and 70th for height. Her head is just over the 50th percentile (just under 43cm). Done with that for a few months!

Since when does Charlie know letters?!

Last night, Charlie was holding a puzzle piece and kept saying "ooo" over and over. When I looked at the puzzle piece, it was a U! He was telling me the letter! Since when does Charlie know letters?! I thought it was a fluke, but it totally wasn't. I asked him later where the U was and he searched it out. He also knows a few others (B, D, E, M, O, and W - a very strange combination!). I think it's because of this letter puzzle that we're borrowing from Drew and Tanna. I think Charlie is picking out the pieces that he likes based on the picture underneath. Under the W is a whale, and he LOVES to say whale, so he has known that one for quite a while now. There's an egg under E, a duck (quack quack) under D, and a moon under the M. What's funny is that I really don't sing the ABC's to him that much and haven't been pushing the letters at all...

April

Alanna likes the new viewpoint from the Bumbo and has for a while now. What (who!) does she watch? Her brother, of course! Also, this was the day (4/20) she got her first tooth - bottom left!

4/19: I put Charlie's new Twins outfit on him and his hand-me-down one on Alanna and started snapping pictures! Pretty sweet, huh? I could have used a red pair of socks or bow or something for Alanna, but I think she looks cute how she is. Go, Twins!

 Hilarious.

 4/13: Having a mid-afternoon snack at his new table and chairs (from his birthday, compliments of Grandma and Grandpa Legge).

 4/12: Charlie's first fat lip. I'm not sure what happened because I wasn't home, but I know it had something to do with Charlie holding a baseball straight up in the air and looking at it while he was running. Inevitably, he tripped and his face met the cement. It's actually not nearly as bad as it could have been!

 4/11: "Oh, Brother!"

 4/10: Sunglasses in my baby girl's Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa Legge = crazy adorable!!!!!

Coupon Love

I have really gotten some fabulous deals lately using coupons, so just to toot my own horn a bit, I wanted to post all of my great deals in the last week alone. Here we go!

1. $31 at Safeway: 4 gallons of milk, 4 lbs of carrots, 1 dozen eggs, 1 avacado, 13 boxes of cereal (mostly Cheerios and Chex - the actual Cheerios and Chex, not the generic kind!), 12 rolls of Bounty paper towels, 2 packages of tortillas, 2 tubs of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, 1 32oz. carton of plain yogurt, 1 24-pack of 16oz. water bottles
My total before coupons/discounts: $80! I saved 71%!!! I was soooo thrilled with this transaction. I used store and manufacturer coupons, plus a $10 off a $50 purchase coupon. Considering the milk was $8 (total) and the paper towels were $12-20%-$1 ($8.60), that leaves only $15 to pay for the rest of the groceries. I was getting Cheerios cereal for $0.50 a box! And that was for the medium-sized box (14oz.)!

2. A few weeks ago, JCPenney had a deal on winter coats for kids, and I ordered 2 and had them sent to a store in Colorado Springs. I'm counting it with this last week's deals because I just picked them up today. The coats rang up at $79.99 each, and I paid $5 each. FIVE DOLLARS. One is a size 4T for Charlie and the other is a 3T to stick away for Alanna. Better yet, the jackets each came with mittens and a hat or scarf. $160 down to $10. Beat that. :)

3. Speaking of JCP, I picked up Alanna's 6 month pictures this afternoon. Per usual, the sales associate asked me if I would be interested in buying the three extra promotional sheets for $18. I said, "They sure are cute, but I say no every time. I hate that you'll just destroy them, but I'm not going to buy them." The sales associate nodded and then just started packing up my pictures - the promo sheets included! She gave me a whatever kind of look, saying 'I don't really care, just take the pictures!' with her eyes. I said thank you a hundred times and left with a big smile on my face. Free pictures? SURE!!

4. I scored the following deal on Nivea products at Target today: 1 Nivea cream $0.87, 1 Nivea lip care $2.24, 1 16oz. Nivea body lotion (with a free lip product attached to the lotion!) $5.39. Total: $8.50. I used a $2 manufacturer coupon off the body lotion and stacked a $1 Target coupon off the body lotion, bringing my total down to $5.50. When I checked out, I got a $5 Target gift card for buying 3 Nivea products, bringing my total out of pocket expense to $0.50 for all three products. Crazy good deal, huh?

5. I almost forgot this one!! I recently got a Food Saver Vacuum Saver for free. I literally paid $0.78 in tax for the thing and it retails at $19.99. I simply stacked a $10 Target Food Saver coupon with a $10 off any Food Saver manufacturer coupon to score that sucker for free. I watched the price become zero dollars with my own eyes - definitely a satisfying moment!! It's a nice, small hand-held appliance that will come in handy for various (tasty) animals that make it into our freezer!!

I freaking love coupons and this is why. I'm not bringing in a whole lot of income (piano lessons only!), so this is a great way for me to help stretch the money that Matt brings home. It hardly takes any time at all and I just love getting things for free. I'm all about free and/or cheap things when it doesn't affect anyone else, meaning I'm not going to ask other people for stuff for free if I can help it. However, when things line up and it's perfectly within "coupon ethics" to score free things at stores using and stacking coupons, I'm all about it. :)

Grandma came to see us!!

Jean came for a visit April 25-28, and we so enjoyed having her here with us! We had a few bonfires, went to a few parks, and played, played, played. It was so nice to have her to ourselves, just as it is with any visitors! Matt and I were able to sneak away for a date; well, it was time alone, anyway. We drove to Pueblo to buy a twin bed for Charlie's new room, stopped at Chipotle for lunch, and grabbed some coffee from Starbucks for the road home. It was nice to get that task done, and we enjoyed a few moments to ourselves while doing it. The kids had way more fun staying home with Grandma, too! Win, win (win - if you're an Office fan ("Oh, even I win!"))!!

Alanna's 25-week picture - she tipped over, but I still thought it was so cute!
While Grandma was here, Alanna had her first taste of veggies. (I think she would prefer her cereal, but she does better with the veggies than fruits now! Maybe the fruits are too tart and tangy for her yet? Anyway, she started with squash, then peas, sweet potatoes and green beans, doing two nights of each before moving on to a new food. I then did pears, an apple/banana mixture (but accidentally left half the jar out on the counter overnight - drat!), and apple/apricot. I think I'll do maybe one more fruit before going back to more veggies. For now, she eats solids once a day, around supper time.)

Oh my goodness was this ever FUN! Charlie was rolling cars off the table and Grandma was catching them. Both kids were a pile of giggles! Charlie was laughing at Grandma, Alanna was laughing at Charlie, and Grandma was probably laughing at all the chaos! :)