I've been waiting 4 years for this

It's Leap Day!

("you know how mormons are about leap day" - alec baldwin, 30 rock)

I was anticipating this day for the past couple weeks - surely other people were waiting for this day to bless us with wonderful deals and freebies right???

I guess not.  I just tried to find deals, and none of them are too appealing to me.

Staples has 29 items on sale.
Banana republic is offering 29% off with use of the promo code: BRLEAPYEAR online (similar deals for 15% are available for old navy and gap)

I missed chick-fil-a's deal as it ended at 10:30am for free chicken mini's

I don't drink caribou coffee

I'm not close enough to Disneyland to enjoy one more Disney day

Body Shop online: LEAPYEAR

And i don't really need any new shoes from zappos that I would want to return within the next 4 years...

but i might take advantage of my 101 free prints from shutterfly, and perhaps the free cookie you can get with your sub at Subway today..

But I really am disappointed!

But Leap Day never disappoints, as MY GREEN CARD FINALLY ARRIVED IN THE MAIL (in pheonix) but still...

we're loving leap day over here!

Kind of great...

Maybe because I am always wondering how I am doing as a Mom, 

I saw this on a blog - and it brought tears to my eyes...

I like to think that Tracen would say this to me

Family Bowling

Yesterday we decided to do something fun as a family.

We decided to go bowling (well Luke decided - and then convinced me)

It was great going as just the two of us with Tracen, we were able to finish 2 games fairly quickly.

My wrist was killing me after the first round, turns out that I was using a heavier bowling ball than Luke.

Well.. we decided to try to use our camera and so we could have home videos of fun things we did as a family.

Sorry for the bad quality of video and pictures - i'm not yet a pro at focusing my 50mm lens.

Tracen: The Faces

It's no secret that I am obsessed with Tracen.

Here are some of the faces he makes lately

Lately he's started to stick his tongue out all the time. 

He has some Asian in him afterall...

we just can't get enough of him!

Yesterday we decided to take our stroller out for a stroll... it was sunny but a bit windy (as per usual in Rexburg) but it a great day for bundling up for a walk.

A little bit of everything...

Turns out that taking 14 credits and being a wife and mother all full time is not as easy as I had once thought.

But these two sure help to make it easier.  

Tracen sure has started to notice everything, and he recently sat quietly and observed while i made cookies.  He took it all iin and listened to me as I told him what we were doing.

(This picture reminds me of a time that Angie and I were filming something for christmas, and talking about christmas baking - the video would probably be really embarassing to see now, but we made sure to have flour on our faces and maybe in our hair)

Tracen sure loves his time with Daddy.  I love these pictures of them reading together.

 I had got some pictures printed, but due to lack of funds I had yet to display them.

So I took a trip to D.I. and that was huge for me, as I am one that never has enjoyed thrift shopping.  The smell of those places always makes me cringe and feel sick, but I wish i loved it. Turned out - I could handle it when I had a purpose.

I picked up some frames for $7 total.  

 Then I headed to Wal-Mart and got some black spray paint, and some white also for about $7.

And the next day, we put this up on our wall...

I even sprayed the matting that came in some of the frames. It feels nice to make our apartment more of a home.

Tracen is getting more and more personality, and loves to eat his toes. 

Life is constantly busy, but we have had so many blessings and are enjoying visitors almost every weekend.  We somehow always manage to have things workout and enough time to get things done, and enough sleep to get by.

Why we shop at Costco

I have always wanted my own one of these:

I was delighted when I got married to get one from Grandma and Grandpa. 

But seeing as Luke and I were living at his parents house, where his mom had one, I didn't need to open the box yet. 

Last year when we were at school we decided we weren't here long enough (just over 3 months) to justify digging into our wedding presents and bringing gifts down.

I made cookies with a hand mixer that ended up dying when i was trying to mix them once, and dreamed of the day I could finally have my Kitchenaid.

Luckily, when we came back down this time, we brought it.

I used it and it sounded a little strange while i used it.  But it worked good enough.

Then i made sugar cookies, and Luke was going to make the icing, and it wouldn't turn on.

I was sad.  

Well.. seeing as we had just barely opened it - 2 years after purchasing, i didn't think there was a lot that could be done, no reciept either. 

Well - Luke decided to take a risk and drove the 1 hour drive to Costco in Pocatello, and was ready to explain the situation (we have only used it 2 and a half times and it doesn't work), but there was no need to.

We weren't sure who's Costco card it was purchased on, so they looked up everyone's.. 

Turns out my Dad has had a Costco card for a LONG time and impressed the staff there, and apparently he is a very loyal customer.

They found the purchase, and returned the money to us in cash.  And we got to get a new one, that was on sale, and so we ended up making a few dollars too! 

Also - Luke ended up going back there this week to buy a couch ($200 off) for our apartment that has be couchless for the past month!!  We certainly are happy!

And we are becoming more and more loyal to Costco.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!! 

I got spoiled (within our budget) by cinnamon candy's and flowers. 

Which was an actual total surprise because Luke doesn't understand giving flowers (he says "why give someone you love something that dies"... ), and I recently informed him that he was the only person I had ever dated that had never given me flowers. He informed me that he was the only person that got to marry me though. 

But none-the-less, he caved and got me flowers!

This little Valentine got measured and weighed yesterday...

he's 17.5 lbs

and 26 inches long

and a bundle of joy

who loves his toes, and loves to make noise and wake up early and chat

he just tried peas, and to my dismay made no funny faces and ate them happily

photoshoot (and giveaway)

I have been fortunate enough to live next door to my best friend... 

the reasons i'm so fortunate are endless...

(she's my best friend, she makes good cookies, gives us someone to play games with, she can recommend good food to eat, they have things to borrow if we need to, etc etc)

one of my favorite reasons lately though, is that she loves Tracen, and she takes amazing photos...

like these taken impromptu when we barged into her house:

i look at these all the time

 well valentines day is coming up, and i wanted to spread some love from Tracen, and do some valentines shots, but i don't know much about taking pictures... 

Luckily - Kandice lives next door...

and we got a few (thousand) shots

Well Kandice decided to spread the love and is offering a giveaway for valentines day!

all you have to do is follow her blog, and you could win a free shoot... (if you live in Idaho, or plan on visiting in the future)

be sure to check it out!!!

or go look at some great photo's at http://kandicestewartphoto.blogspot.com/

pictures and video to go with yesterday's post

Did i mention that most of Tracen's latest advancements have happened while I have been at school? (sad sad for me) 

Luke may have sent me these pictures and video's and I might have sat at in the Library and cried about it too... anyways..  check this baby out

he's starting to really like his rice cereal and know what he needs to do to get it in his mouth..

drinking his bottle 

Playing with his feet. Oh... love him

Visitors

Tracen loved having Jamie and Jenelle here to visit.  We loved having visitors. 

I loved all the time we got to spend together... getting our hair cut, nails done, taking pictures, eating food, going to Park City, shopping, visiting the Gathers, drinking smoothies.. it was a good time.

Tracen seems to have grown up SO much even since they left (no pictures of that with this post)

But he is enjoying all his toys a whole lot more these days... 

he takes it pretty seriously

This is how he usually looks, fingers in his mouth and a drool soaked shirt. 

But in his growin up news: he held his bottle by himself for the first time yesterday (meaning he fed it to himself), he found his feet and loves to grab them now, he loves to take sips of our water when we are drinking it (looks like we need a sippy cup), he's really getting the hang of eating rice cereal and really like I said is finally noticing (and loving) his toys.