Here are a few more photos from the week:

Nothing like a tutu and a truck! She still loves Christopher's trucks. I think it's cute!

Here they are having milk and goldfish for breakfast while watching Franklin. This is Chrisotpher's perfect way to spend the morning and I thought I'd see if Sophie could handle it, she did pretty good.

This year we knew we had to do something about our finances, as everyone else in the world is too, and we knew we couldn't trust ourselves to just write it down and follow it. We need very strict rules. So, we decided we'd try the envelope system. For some this may not work b/c spending cash is much easier than not, but for us we hate to see it go. So far we have done really well. I spent about $65 at the grocery store the first week and $75 the second. Now, I'd already stocked up on meat, which is always my down fall when it comes to grocery shopping. That and not planning meals well enough. I was completely surprised at how well I was doing. This has been very hard for me b/c groceries are the one place I can't say no. I don't go in without a list, but I do tend to buy something b/c it looks good, which is never on my list, and that's where I fail. This time I stuck to the list. Unless it was on super sale (like the premarinated steaks I got for $.99 a lb.!). Today was hard though. I went to Target. (dun, dun, duuuuunnnnn!!!!!) Like most women, this is a source of weakness for me. I could spend hours and hundreds of dollars in there if ever given the time and money. And I could do that every week! When we lived in Huntsville there was a Super Target 10 minutes from my house and I would go twice a week, sometimes just to walk around. But now that we live in FL I have to drive at least 25-30 minutes away to get to one. You would think this would help our budget, but no. I just buy more thinking I won't get out here for another month. But this time I was going only to buy a few things, what was on my list. Let's just say I failed. But in my defense, I am about to show you why I did and what I got. Now, Sophie's birthday is next week and we are having a small party, so I needed a few party favors. Thanks to the dollar section I got these items there. (Not bad, it's the dollar section after all.) Then I go past the clothing, I knew this was dangerous, but I just couldn't resist. I did grab one of those pretty, light weight scarves that you see people wearing, and I don't feel guilty about that. I have a budget set for clothing and I hadn't spent one dime yet, and this was only $13. Then I grab another tank b/c I loved the first one I got, but I'm going to take it back. I don't need two, even though I want two. I went to get the diapers and of course, the sale was for the small packs. Now honestly, who need a bag of only 30 diapers? That's a week's worth! So I bought the store brand box with 92 in it. Next I go to the kids clothing section to hit up the sale section and this was where I got excited. I found a tutu (really it's a skirt and a 3T, but whatever!she'll grow into it!), a sweater and a coat for Sophie, all to wear next year. Now this is why I'm excited, the tutu was $2.50, the sweater was $2.25 and the velvet coat was $6.25!!!!

I dug and dug and dug for more goodies, but didn't find anything I liked. Christopher kept trying to help and was grabbing bathing suits and pj's saying they would be cute for Sophie or that he needed them, but I kept putting them back. I also grabbed a b'day gift for my sis-in-law and b'day cards for family (everyone on both sides, except 2 people ,were born between October and March, it's crazy!) and a pan for making quiche (so I don't have to keep buying frozen crust, you know the whole spend money to save money thing), some face wash and makeup remover. It was a lot for me, considering my shopping trips have been small lately, but it's been done. It hurt handing over that cash, but we survived and then went to Chick-a-Flay (as Christopher calls it) for lunch. It was a good day, but this budget stuff is hard. I'm trying and it can actually be fun, but let's be honest, we all know it would be fun to have an endless supply of money and never have to worry about making payments, wouldn't it? Or would it?????

We have been trying to teach Sophie sign language. We did a little of this with Christopher and it was fun, so we thought we'd try again. It's funny b/c "milk" is the first one we tried to teach Christopher, but the last one he picked up. We tried it with Sophie and within minutes she got it. (Probably b/c it has to do with food.) I thought "more" (point finger into other hand which is open) would be a good one to teach next, but she kind of claps so you never know if she's just excited or actually wants more. Maybe both. I tried to teach her "please" (pat your chest) the other day while she was in her booster seat and I could tell she couldn't quite figure it out. Later when we were on the floor I tried again and she actually crawled over to me and pat me on the chest instead of herself. I laughed so hard! No wonder she was confused before, she couldn't get to me to say it! Every now and then she'll get it, but if you are holding her and ask her to say "please" she pats your chest instead of her own. Tonight I was reading her a book and I thought she'd lost interest so I closed it when we finished. I was speechless when she opened it back up and started signing "please."

Here are my two favorite photos that were taken today while the kids were playing outside.

I want to thank Lindsay (a.k.a. Ole Miss Mom) and Lori for helping with my blog! I could not have figured this out without you! I'll be using the info you gave me from now on to help with with any future problems I know I will have. Thank you ladies!!

VH1 has a show that I love called "Best Week Ever." They talk about the funny and crazy things that happened in entertainment that week as told by comedians. I think it's hilarious! We had a very good week at our house, so I thought I'd share some of what happened. I don't have photos of everything, but in my defense, I knew that I'd miss the moments if I ran inside to grab the camera.

Monday morning Christopher wanted to ride on his tractor, surprise! It was really nice out so I didn't mind. He rode around for a while and Sophie was in the swing, so I thought I'd put him to work. I had a bag of mulch that needed to move from the front yard to the back and I asked him to come help me. He was more than willing to haul some "dirt" in his trailor! He wanted to keep some in his trailor, so not all the mulch ended up where I wanted it to, but that's fine. He's happy and so am I.



For some reason, Sophie is always trying to put Christopher's underwear on her head. Whenever we put it on there she starts snorting and laughing. She was trying to put his pj bottoms on her head the other night so we helped her out and Christopher ran to grab another pair for his head. We still had our tree in it's box b/c we weren't able to move it yet (due to Bran's surgery) and they chased each other around it for like 20 minutes laughing their little heads off. It was great! The next two days Christopher would come up to us saying, "Me and Sophie be silly around the box!" We finally put the tree away last night, but that didn't stop them from trying.



Sophie went poo poo in the potty! Yes, our 11 1/2 month old pooped in the potty. Christopher is not at all interested in doing this, so I have a lot of poopy underwear to wash. After dinner the other night, Sophie was trying to go #2 while sitting in her booster seat and well, there's not a whole lot of room down there to add anything else when you are strapped down, so we thought we'd just put her on the potty and see what happened. She pooped! Yup! We'd heard of people potty training babies, but never thought we'd try it ourselves. The best part was, Christopher wanted to try. No luck, but at least he tried.

As you learned from our previous post, Pillow Island has become a part of our lives now. It lasted all day the other day b/c I didn't really care to put it away. I knew it was free entertainment and I was out of ideas, so it stayed. Christopher loves to stand on the chair and fall into the middle of it. Sophie climbs on top, gets on her knees, puts her hands in the air and falls over laughing. It's adorable! After we put Sophie to bed Christopher trying climbing up on the arm of the couch and diving off. Thankfully he hasn't tried that anymore. It was a special treat for that point in time.

One morning I walked in to see Christopher had colored on my rug in the kitchen. He said he wanted to make it pretty for me. I really appreciated the thought b/c it IS very boring. It was meant to go somewhere else and didn't work, so I just stuck it in the kitchen b/c it fit and was inexpensive and I didn't feel like dragging the kids all over town looking for a new one. Thank goodness for washable markers and indoor/outdoor rugs!

Friday, Christopher had MDO and didn't wet his pants the whole time. I was so proud! Sophie and I ran a few errands and had some great Mommy/daughter time. She was in the best mood all day. We went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and she just laughed and ate and tried to talk to the other babies that were there. She always seems to draw attention to herself, which I don't mind. I think she's pretty funny too!

Saturday, Brandon decided to wash the cars. They needed it really bad, so I was excited about this. Christopher always wants to help b/c water is involved. About halfway through the process he got distracted with the puddles that had formed. We didn't have anything to do later, so we didn't care. Sophie woke up from her nap a little while later and once she realized what was going on she wanted to join in. I took her pants off and let her walk around a little. The water was freezing, but they didn't care. Before we knew it, she was crawling around in it. Sort of. She wouldn't put her knees down and walked on her hands and feet like a monkey. It was too funny! They had so much fun, but once Christopher started shivering we took them inside for baths.

It has been a really great week! For that I'm incredibly thankful!

Ok, I've been trying to figure out how to put a picture on our header for weeks and can't seem to get it to show up? Is there anyone out there that can help me????? I go to the Layout page and click on the Edit part of the Header section, select a photo from our computer, save it, yet I still have no photo on there. WHAT'S THE DEAL???? I love all the fancy ones people have, but I change my mind so much on the background that I know it'd be a waste of money to pay someone to make it for me. I'd change my mind a month later and have to do it all over again! SOOOOO... I decided I'd just put a photo on there with our name in front. I begging, will someone please tell me I'm an idiot and then tell me how to fix it? Even if you dont know me and happened to come across my blog and know how to fix it, PLEASE HELP ME!!! This is driving me crazy. I'm not THAT computer challenged, but I'm obviously doing something wrong.

We went back to Montgomery last weekend to go to our best friends' son's 1st birthday party. They are very special to us and do so much for us and we didn't want to miss the fun.

When we got there Saturday morning, Christopher and Nicholas ran around playing with all the cars and toys and Sophie just tried to figure out what to do first. Joshua, the birthday boy, was napping, but not for long. The rest of the party guests arrived later and everyone played outside before coming in for pizza and cake.

Joshua wasn't sure what to do with his smash cake at first, but then he got into it. It was great! Then it was time to open presents and all the kids wanted to help at that point. No surprise. I did everything but sit on Christopher to keep him from unwrapping the presents. After everyone left we but the kids down for naps and the grown ups (if we can be called that) played Wii. We finally had to wake up Christopher so we could put Sophie down for a nap and Melissa woke up Nicholas so he'd go to bed that night and the dads decided to take the boys for a walk to explore. Nicholas grabbed his new scooter and Christopher was on the tricycle. It was really cute! I remember when they were just born and all they could do was lie on a blanket and stare at each other. Boy, how time flies!

Burt started grilling the steaks for dinner and we gave the kids some snacks and waited for dinner to be ready. Sophie saw Joshua had some raisins and quickly crawled over to join him. (Have we mentioned how much she loves to eat?) She recently learned to give kisses, but would only give them if you mentioned the persons' name. We told her to give Joshua a kiss to see if she'd do it, she tried, but he wasn't having it. They decided to hold hands instead. It was adorable!

After eating, Nicholas and Burt wanted to show us what they do most evenings to burn energy, it's called Pillow Island. We ran around grabbing pillows from all over the house, threw them in a huge pile on the floor and the kids took turns jumping and diving into the middle. Brandon and I even took a turn. The kids weren't the only ones who enjoyed it!

The kids were all sweaty so we threw them in the tub, opened Christmas presents and then hit the road. It was the perfect day! We love spending time with the Khan family and it's never a dull moment when we get together. Hopefully we'll see them soon and do it all over again!