Outing

I've always heard crazy stories from mothers, mostly my own, about how hard normal everyday things are with kids. I always got a pretty good kick out of them until yesterday. I realized that those stories are not just stories anymore. They are my life.

Of course the grocery store is always difficult. At Macey's, they have these huge carts with a car on the front and those are wonderful. James sits in there the whole time, pretends like he's driving, and doesn't make a peep. Sometimes, I forget I have two kids. However, Albertson's is not so wonderful. I usually go to Albertson's a few times a week to take advantage of great deals, but boy, is it rough. Noah sits in his seat quiet as can be, but James is a different story. If he's walking around he is either begging to be held or ripping things off the shelves. If I put him in the cart, he tries to rip open all the packages of the things I'm buying. It's a lose-lose.

Yesterday, I thought I would be brave and go to the mall on my own to try to find something for us to wear to Marissa's wedding this weekend. I love my double stroller, but it sure can be difficult in the mall, especially when none of the handicap buttons by the doors work. I was feeling pretty accomplished after finding some new khaki pants for 5 bucks at Children's Place for James. Then I moved on to find something for myself. I walked into a store, found what I was looking for and made my way back to the dressing rooms (so difficult with a double wide stroller). I had to stop a few times on the way to pick up the clothes that James had ripped off the racks. While in the dressing room, James opens the door over and over and over again (he has a strange obsession with doors). I finally got him to quit that and he started crawling underneath the door. So here I am, half naked, dragging James back into the dressing room by his foot. Needless to say, the shopping trip wasn't near as productive as I had hoped it would be.

I got home and crashed on the couch, completely exhausted. Then I got to thinking. What on earth am I going to do when Noah can walk? That's a scary thought!

Bragging Rights!

You'll have to excuse me, but I feel the need to brag for just a minute. I get a little excited about grocery shopping these days and I want the whole world to know what kind of deals I'm getting.

#1 - Yesterday, I went to Wal-Mart and came out with 7 bags of groceries and only paid $17 (down from $49 before coupons). That included Kraft salad dressing for $.08, Duncan Hines cake mix for $.61 and McCormick seasoning packets for FREE!

#2 - I also hit up Albertson's in the afternoon. After buying six boxes of Raisin Bran, the store actually owed me $0.57. That's right! They paid me to take home a bunch of Raisin Bran.

#3 - Today, I went to another Albertson's and spent a total of $6.78. I walked away with 6 3-packs of Treetop juice boxes, 6 boxes of Ronzoni SmartTaste pasta (the good stuff), and 3 boxes of Red Baron French Bread Pizza. Can you believe it? I actually had to do that in few different transactions, but for one of my transactions, I only paid 9 cents!

I'm still in awe at how incredible this is and I still feel like I'm doing something illegal. It kind of does feel like a full time job, but hey, it's worth it.

Technical Difficulties!

Ok, so I'm a bad blogger, but I have a good excuse. Our computer was in the shop once again (fyi, if you ever buy a mac, be sure to buy the protection plan). Also, our camera is still having issues. It still takes great pictures, but I can't load our pictures onto the computer for some reason. I've been putting off posting because who wants a post with no pictures? Well, it's been long enough and it's time for an update with or without pictures.

My boys are both getting big and gearing up for the summer. James has an obsession with the great outdoors and throws a major tantrum every time he is forced to come inside. He just figured out the childproof door handle in nursery and spends most of the time letting the other kids out. Can you tell that he is Hans' kid? He also loves his little brother to pieces, sometimes a little too much.

According to the pediatrician, Noah is tall and skinny. He just started smiling about a week ago and can't get enough of it. We're counting our blessings that we've made it into the spring without him getting sick. We were quite paranoid. We blessed him on March 29 and it was an incredible day. We were surrounded by lots of friends and family and the experience was just amazing.

Hans is as busy as ever. He's doing a lot of little projects on the house because it is officially on the market. We're hopeful that we'll be able to sell in the next month or two so we can move into a house that fits us a little better.

I spend my days chasing James around, cleaning up his messes and feeding Noah. I recently picked up couponing (I don't think that's really a word). You can make fun of me if you want, but it's actually kind of a rush to spend 50 cents on 6 boxes of cereal or getting free cough drops. Not to mention all the money we're saving. It actually keeps me pretty darn busy.

So there you have it, a complete update on our lives. Boring, I know. But we're loving it and we couldn't be happier. Oh yeah, and it's snowing outside. A lot! Bummer!

For Real?

Normally, I pretty much agree with the American Idol judges, but I'm pretty sure we aren't watching the same performance when this guy steps on stage. I feel for Randy Travis and of course, the great Johnny Cash. At least this week, Simon got it right as opposed to singing his praises like the week before. Sick! If you don't watch American Idol, check this out. You'll understand what I mean.

Family of Four

I meant to update this a lot sooner, but we've had computer problems and we had to take it in to get fixed. Also, I have tons of cute pictures of the boys at home, but my camera seems to be having problems and I can't upload the pictures to my computer. Lucky for all of you, we took the boys to get their pictures taken on Saturday, so I can at least post those. James was great for about ten minutes and then it was all downhill from there. We didn't really get any great ones of the two of them together, but we got a few great individual pictures. Too bad Noah looks dead in this picture and you can see the hand of the lady trying to keep James in the picture.

This first month has been great. James is slowly adjusting to being a big brother. We're dealing with a lot more tantrums and he is spending a lot more time in time out than he used to, but he keeps getting better every day. He loves his brother, but doesn't love the lack of attention.

Noah is growing super fast. He's gained about 2 lbs since he was born and has more gas than any kid I've ever known (I guess he inherited more from his dad than just the dimple in his chin). He is such a good baby and I'm trying to enjoy every second because this time around, I know just how fast it goes by. It's so fun, but not without it's challenges.

Question!

How is it that baby boys can manage to pee through a onesie, an outfit, and a crib sheet while still keeping their diaper dry? One of the great mysteries of life!

Baby. . . Finally!!!

Ok! He's finally here! On Tuesday, February 10th at 3:17 pm, little Noah was born. It was so wonderful! My labor was only about 2 1/2 hours and it took 3 pushes to get him out. I feel great and he's doing wonderfully. We're so excited to have him home.


This is just before we went into the hospital. James has no idea what is about to hit him.

Just a few minutes old!


Proud Daddy!


Is he a Boshard, or what?

This is the first picture we got of both of them together where James actually acted somewhat interested in his brother. He still doesn't really know what to think about all this, but at least he's being nice so far. We'll follow up in the next few days with more pictures and hopefully good news about a brotherly bond.

Getting ready for baby!

Well, it's just about baby time.  My due date is 2 weeks away and this baby's about ready to come.  The most important thing we had to do to get ready for baby was to get James sleeping in a toddler bed and I'm happy to say that it was a success.  He's been sleeping great in his new bed for about a month now.  It took a few nights of transitioning and eventually a lock on the door, but everything worked out and now he's sleeping as great as ever.  

He is also trying to get as much daddy time as possible.  I think he's definitely going to miss the attention from Hans more than he'll miss it from me.  We're trying to let him get his fill before the baby comes and hopefully we'll be able to still give him the attention he needs after.

Other than that, the crib is ready to go, baby clothes are washed and we have a plan in place for babysitters for the big day.  The only thing we don't have is a name.  Kind of important, I know.  We've narrowed it down to Hiram, Thomas, and Noah, but we can't quite pin one of them down.  We're both giving this a lot of thought and hopefully we'll have made a decision in the next two weeks.  Other than that, it's just a waiting game.  I can't believe how this time has just flown past and that James is about to be a big brother.  We are so excited and can't wait to watch our family grow.

Explosion!

Ok, so this is a little morbid, I know, but it is one of the strangest things I've ever seen, so I felt the need to share.  This morning, James and I went outside to get in the car.  As we were walking to the car, I noticed a few fuzzy things on the ground.  I thought that was strange because there are no trees near our house that produce fuzzy things.  I was about to forget about it, but then I noticed feathers.  I looked around and there were fuzzies and feathers covering the driveway, part of the lawn, and my car.  I concluded that it was a bird, but how on earth could something like that happen?  I looked around and then glanced up and noticed the power lines.  I called Hans, being my electrical expert, to see if it is even possible for a bird to be electrocuted by power lines.  Apparently, it is.  Rare, but possible.  My next question was, "What would happen if a bird was electrocuted?"  The answer:  It would explode.  So there you have it.  This morning a bird exploded in my driveway.  Strange!

St. George and Halloween

It's been awhile, but I thought I should post a few pictures from our most recent adventures.  About a month ago we went down to St. George to do some swimming, hiking, and relaxing.

Hans towed down his land cruiser for some off-roading.  This is the first time he was really able to take it out and he loved it.  Here is James sitting in the back of the land cruiser.  He loved it.  He bounced around all over the place and got a big kick out of it.

We went on a short little hike up to Weeping Rock in Zion's National Park.  James did not love this adventure, but he sure loved being on Daddy's shoulders.

James found this stick when we took a bread for lunch.  He hardly ate anything because he was so preoccupied with it.  Amazingly, he pretty much only hit the ground and not other people.  That is until Marissa taught him how to sword fight.  Thanks, Riss.

We had a really hard time getting a good picture for Halloween.  Ironically, both James and Hudson were dragons.  It was so difficult to get both of them to look at the camera at the same time, so this is the best we could get.

It's a. . .

Ok!  I realize it's taken me forever to get around to posting this, so for those of you who haven't heard the news yet.  IT'S A BOY!!!  We are very excited and I'm sure if James understood what was going on he would be excited too.  It will be so fun (and exhausting) to have two little boys running around.  They'll only be about 19 months apart, so hopefully they'll be great friends.

The ultrasound was a few weeks ago and we found out that everything looks great.  So far, we seem to heave a healthy boy!  If you can decipher this picture, it's a little creepy.  Good luck trying to figure it out.

Beware! Political Meanderings!

My personal notes to liberal celebrities currently in the news.  (You may want to stop reading now if you're a democrat or otherwise offended by conservative ramblings.  Also stop if you are a Matt Damon lover.)

Dear Charles Gibson,

You are a biased idiot.  I find your patronizing facial expressions offensive and your manner demeaning.  You may think you're just being a good journalist, but you don't have to be a condescending jerk.

Sincerely,

A disappointed viewer

Dear Matt Damon,

I liked you, but your entitled attitude upsets me.  I wasn't aware that when dinosaurs lived was such an important political issue.  I will not be basing my vote on a candidate's beliefs regarding dinosaurs.  I believe there are much more pressing issues to follow in this campaign, ones that are actually relevant.  Oh yeah, and I think your comments are "absurd."

Sincerely,

An ex-fan

Dear Lindsey Lohan,

Are you serious?  Since when did you believe that anyone took you seriously?  I don't even know what to say to you.  I think you're crazy.

Sincerely,

At a loss for words