Breaking a Habit

The only time Hannah sucks her thumb is when she is sleeping. There really isn't any waking moment that she does it. To this point, I must say, its been kind of a mother's dream. Hannah doesn't suck it any other time, but she has a way to sooth herself and go to sleep. But her poor little thumb has started looking cracked, sore... and almost raw. So we figured it was time to work on breaking the habit. I was a bit worried about it because Hannah is such a great sleeper. The last three nights we have put bandaids on her thumbs. So far so good! She hasn't stuck them in her mouth and she's been sleeping well! We'll keep the bandaid routine up for a while to break the habit... and hopefully heal that poor little thumb.

Signing Sensation

Well we still haven't heard from Signing Time and no, we haven't gotten our clothes back either... but I know my little Bean is a signing sensation! We could have gone on and on, but here are some of the signs Hannah knows:

Hannah and the ABCs

I've been wanting to record Hannah and some of the things that she is doing and knows at this stage in her life. She continues to amaze me, how much she knows and remembers. There are several reasons, I believe, that Hannah is doing so well. Many people say its just because she's a 'first child.' I know that is probably part of it. We get to spend lots of one on one time together, that the next one just won't get as much of, no matter how hard I try. We also read lots of books and she enjoys it. Although, I'd like to take the credit, these things are only minor compared to Hannah herself! Her personality, memory, and love for learning is really what makes her who she is!

Just for a few examples of this memory of hers:
We were taking swimming lessons and met a little girl named Megan. We didn't play with her extensively or anything, but the next time as soon as we saw this little girl, Hannah said "Megan!"
Also we just we visiting teaching yesterday. It was only the second time we'd been to this house. Hannah said, "Where cat go?" I looked around, wondering what she meant, then remembered last month there was a cat in the yard.

Hannah knows all her letters (not all in order, to sing yet). We started out by learning the letters on cereal boxes (KIXS). Sometimes I'd have to take the boxes away because she'd be so interested in it that she wasn't eating breakfast. We also have 2 alphabet books we read... a lot! And I recently got these foam bath letters we play with.

I often sign the ABCs when I sing them to Hannah. One day I had her say them while I signed and I was amazed at how many she knew. After working on them a few times, I think she pretty much knew them all.

I'll be recording more. These may be the first of many.

Family in Town

Nic's brother, Aaron, and his family were in town from Washington this last week. I had to finally take a picture last night. I guess we've been playing so hard that I didn't take time to take any before! We really did play hard and had loads of fun. We got lots of visiting in, went on a walk and to the park a few times, went out to eat a couple times, went to the pool, laughed, giggled, and played, played, played. Hannah loved having her cousins here. We are especially excited to know there is going to be another Roach cousin coming just after ours! We sure wish we could play more often. We love you guys!

Here's a picture of Roach cousins. Although they aren't smiling, its not blurry from movement and no one is crying!

Diaper Deals

I've been trying to stock up on diapers... since before long I'll have two kids in diapers. Here's my latest diaper deals. (If you didn't think I was crazy already, you will now!)

First to explain, you can use one manufacture coupon (q) and one store q on each item.

Albertsons
Promo: Buy $25 of participating product (before qs) and receive a $5 coupon to use on your next shopping order (OYNSO).

What I did:
Pampers big box, size 3 (100 count): 19.99
Pampers refill wipes (231 count): 5.99
Total: 25.98
Used a Target competitor q ($5 off when you buy diapers & wipes): -$5.00
Manufacture (mfr) q ($2/2): -$2
Total: $18.98 (+tax)
My OYNSO coupons didn't print out, the manager didn't know why, so gave me $5 cash.

Target
Promo: Buy 2 big boxes of Pampers, recieve $5 gift card (GC) at check out.

What I did:
Pampers refill wipes (2@ 385 count) 2 @ 7.99: 15.98
Pampers big box, size 1 (2@100 count) 2@ 19.99: 39.98
Total: 55.96
Used 2 Target store qs ($5 off when you buy diapers & wipes): -$10
2 mfr qs ($2/2): -$4
Use $5 cash from Albies: -$5
Total: 36.96 (+tax)
Plus, I was given a $5 GC

Next transaction:
Pamper swim diaper (18 count): 9.99
Used Target store q: -$2
mfr q: -$2
Target GC: -$5
Total: $0.99 (+tax)

So I spend $56.93 (+tax) for 300 Pampers diapers, 18 swim diapers, and 1001 wipes!
If we estimate that the wipes were $0.015/each (which is great for name brand),
Then that would mean the diapers (including swimmers) were less than .14/each.
Whew! Did that make any sense?!

What Great Dads!

Although this post is extremely overdue, I couldn't pass up posting about our great dads!

First, Nic! We love him so much! He is such a great dad to Hannah. For example I was sick over the weekend and didn't go to church. Nic got Hannah up, breakfast, a bath, dressed for church, hair done, and himself all ready and out the door for our 8:30 am church! Later that evening he made us dinner and continued to care for both of us! What a good man! He loves us so much and works so hard to provide for our little family. He is already gone for work in the mornings before Hannah wakes up. Hannah always says, "Daddy working. Daddy work hard." And he does! He also makes her giggle and giggle. Hannah loves to play with Dad.

Nic got to pick out his Father's Day gift, which we got a couple weeks early... a new grill! We've put it to use a few times already and are loving it! On Father's Day, Hannah and I made Nic some eggs, gave him a brand new MOP (he is usually the one that does the mopping... which shows how great he is!), some Dr. Pepper (for being a great 'Pop'), and a grill cover. We sure love you Nic... Dad!

We also love our dads and grandpas! We have so much to be grateful for! What wonderful examples of love and support. I wanted to do a 'tribute' to each of them, not that any of them look at my blog... including Nic, but it would be nice for history sake. Although that isn't part of this post, I hope to do it soon. We sure love them and are grateful to have them in our lives!

Signing Time frustration!

Ug! So as many of you know we love Signing Time! and were extremely excited to have Hannah picked to come participate in filming! We told everyone we know! I practiced and practiced... and practiced with Hannah. Some of the signs were really hard for her, but after so much practicing she got them down (at least as much as a 1 year old... almost 2 year old can, in my opinion). We went up to Midvale for a wardrobe fitting (and left 2 of Hannah's cute summer outfits with them), arranged our schedule for filming, etc. But our filming day was canceled due to rain. Of course, it was the last day of filming! And the other kids on our day had been scheduled another day previously to come up... but for some reason we had not. I had to contact them, telling them to PLEASE not forget about us. We kept being told we would be contacted and rescheduled, but it never happened. The saddest part is that we weren't acknowledged or apologized to. Err! It has been so frustrating to know what is going on, how we are going to get our clothes back, and what, if any, the next step is. I am the one initiating the contact (emails and phone calls) and I seem to be ignored. Brother.

I have tried to stay positive and nice... and yet demanding. I want to keep it on good terms, because if possible I would still love to have Hannah participate. We really do love Signing Time! (And thats not just me, Hannah loves it too!) If not this time around, I hope they would say we get to be in it next time they film.

I sat down to write this... and I finally got a phone call back from them! I called up yesterday and the person I needed to talk to was on the phone. I left a message, being told she would call me right back. It never happened. So today I called again. She was in a meeting. I left a message on her voice mail, but immediately called back, telling them I needed to talk to someone to get this resolved. The receptionist, said she knew about the situation, and knew this person was planning on calling me today... she was working with one of the owners to figure out what to do. Anyway, she did call me back just now. She was very nice and apologetic. They are still doing editing and plan on doing some "pick up shots" (filming for things that didn't work out or that they need more of) and will contact us for that. She also said they will mail our clothes back to us. She'll find out more information and get back to us in the next couple of days...

So we'll see if anything really comes out of this. I'm bummed, but still optimistic.

Summer

We have sure been enjoying the summer. Although the weather continues to be unpredictable, we have been having a lot of fun with the things that come along with summer.

Watermelon:
Hannah discovered watermelon and loves it. This day for lunch I stripped her down to her diaper and let her have at it! She did a pretty good job.

Parties!
We have been able to have lots of fun get togethers with family and friends. Our firepit has had some good use! Some of my family came down for a brat roast and a couple high school friends Molly, Dorothy, and their husbands have been out. We celebrated with Tiffany after going to the temple. Carter Lanenga had his 1st birthday party! And my best friend from high school, Rachael, came out from Omaha and we had a fun friend get together! Party, Party, Party!Strawberries!
Oh do I love strawberries! And one of the best things about them is homemade jam! I went a bit crazy making freezer jam. My plan is to give them away as Christmas neighbor gifts. I'm trying to plan ahead since I will have just had a baby... You may be impressed, but let me just say that last year I had all our neighbor gifts ready to go with a cute poem and everything... and well, hardly any of them got delivered. So although I'm planning ahead we'll see how it really goes once December comes! If they don't go out, we'll sure be eating a lot of strawberry jam!

Pay It Forward-Cards

There's what I made for my "Pay It Forward"...Homemade Cards! I really enjoy doing this sort of thing and wish I did it more often. For those of you I mailed them to... they really are coming, sorry I'm slow! Enjoy.

One word tag

My sister, Ashley, tagged me... I hyphenated a few of my answers to make them seem like one word (ha, ha). Anyway, here goes:

1. Where is your cell phone? bedroom
2. Your significant other? Nic
3. Your hair? blah
4. Your mother? great
5. Your father? perfectionist
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? card-making
8. Your favorite drink? raspberry-lemonade
9. Your dream/goal? successful-mom
10. The room you’re in? office
11. Your children? Hannah+one
12. Your fear? imperfection
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? savings
14. Where were you last night? mutal
15. What you’re not? good-housekeeper
16. Muffins? yum
17. One of your wish list items? basement
18. Where you grew up? Indiana
20. What are you wearing? pajamas
21. Your TV? cartoons
22. Your pets? none
23. Your computer? yea!
24. Your life? good
25. Your mood? happy
26. Missing someone? Lisa
27. Your car? Jeep
28. Something you’re not wearing? well...
29. Favorite Store? Roberts
30. Your summer? baby-prep
31. Like someone? Mom
32. Your favorite color? red-(okay-and-yellow)
33. Last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? Mothers Day

I tag Molly, Sarah and Joanna.