A Pictureless Post?

Well, practically, considering how full the others have been.  We've just been busy with life and forgetting the camera lately.  I had it all ready to go last week for anniversary Sunday, but didn't need it.  Then this week when we had services I forgot it!  Thankfully Brenda had hers, but I don't have any pics to show until she e-mails them to me.  Services went really well.  It was wonderful to see almost everyone there yesterday.  We even had two visitors. They'd come for the Christmas Eve service, but not to a regular one.  We were able to visit a bit during potluck and enjoyed them quite a lot.  They're sisters and I think that they're around 80 or so.  I'll have to ask Sharon, since one is her mother. The weather was beautiful and sunny.  It's actually been quite nice since last Thursday and we're seeing quite a bit of the snow melting.  Yesterday we had 3 awake all afternoon, for some reason they thought that 15 minutes was a sufficient nap.  Garrison on the other hand thought he was Rip Van Winkle and fell asleep in the van.  We had to wake him up for the evening service at 6!  I'm wondering if he's having another growth spurt.  The boys insisted that they weren't tired on Sat.  This is what happened after Scott read them a couple books:

Proof that they aren't too old for naps yet.

 

Today was a busy errand and grocery shopping day.  It was the 15% off day, so we can't miss that:).  I ended up saving $45 because I got up to $100  three times!  I usually only spend $200 at the beginning of the month and save the other $200 for the second half, but there were too many items that were a good price that I decided to get them today and save even more.  One of the best deals was the flour.  It was 10 kg for $5.98!  The normal price has been around $13 lately.  I now have a full flour drawer and will have one in reserve for later.  I'm really hoping to get ahead on my baking in the next couple weeks so that I won't have to do much once it really starts warming up.  It's also a good way to keep the house a good temp without using up the remaining propane.  We're very thankful that the outside temp has been good. I've been able to keep the thermostat at around 15 C.  I had these two sweet, angelic boys help me do the shopping today:).  They actually did pretty good.  Garrison helped me push one of the carts until it got too heavy for him.  Caleb made sure that his favorite foods didn't fall out of the cart:).  Garrison even fetched several items for me so that I didn't have to push both carts down every aisle.  He would forget that he was in the store every once in a while and start singing a bit loud, but it was kind of amusing.  We managed to get everything bagged and almost into the van without incident.  I went to put a bag in and it slipped out of my hands.  The only thing that broke was the carton of whipping cream!  It got on several containers and wouldn't you know, this was the day I didn't pack extra wipes.  So, I had to purchase another carton and THEN we were ready to head home.  The rest of the day was spent putting things away, fixing meals, planting some seeds to keep inside til the weather is right, and snuggling a particularly fussy Kiersten.  I think I can see the top part of her last molar and I'm praying this is the real thing. It's been bugging her for a month off and on and really seems to hurt her.  In between she'll get cheerful, but then she starts to cry.  She also bit her lower lip today when she bumped her chin.  Her new thing is to beep her nose and ours.  I have to remind her to be gentle because she does have a strong pincher grip. She's very good at identifying her nose, eyes, mouth, hair and eyes now. I think we're going to see quite a bit of development in the next 6 months.  Yesterday was her 18 month mark and she's showing more growth every day.
  Well, I think that's about it for today.  Scott heads back to work tomorrow and there's lots of school on the agenda.  The kids have been really great about helping with dishes, laundry and taking out the trash, so we're all caught up on that.  Speaking of which, one more thing.  We cleared all the bags of milk jugs, etc off the porch today.  There were about 10 bags saved up.  We got close to $3 for them, which says a lot because I think they only give us 2 cents per jug.  The bigger reward though was not having them on our porch anymore:).  There might be another bag somewhere, but I'm going to enjoy having a clean porch once the last bit of snow melts.  The boys have been helping with snow removal too, so it should be fairly soon.  Signing off for now.