Avery is 4 Months!

Avery turned 4 months old yesterday! Here are her stats!:

Height: 27 inches (the nurse even rechecked it because she was only 24 inches at her 2 month appt and she thought maybe she measured wrong... nope)
Weight: 16 lbs 7 oz

For her height she is over the 100th percentile. For her weight she is 95th. For her head size she is like 60th (little head!) The doctor said she is the biggest tallest baby he's seen in a long time. I am trying to picture her as a supermodel in 20 years and not a WNBA star. :)

She is not rolling or anything yet. She smiles and laughs at pretty much anyone who looks at her. She likes her new little bumbo chair we got her and still likes to be wrapped up at night. She still sleeps all night from about 8:30 to 7:30 am. She is the best baby I have ever seen. Even the doctor (as he checked her ears, eyes, etc. and she just laughed and smiled away) was like, "She is pretty easy going huh?) I just hope she stays this easy forever!

Now, just for fun, here are Gabe and Caleb's stats:

Gabe:
Height: 50.5 inches
Weight: 60 lbs
Shoe size: 1
Size: 7x or 8
Age: 6 years, 8 months

Caleb: Height: 45 inches
Weight: 56 pounds (4 less than Gabe!)
Shoe size: 13
Size: 6
Age: 4 years, 5  months

When Gabe and Caleb held their feet up to each other's tonight, Caleb's was seriously practically the same size. Maybe only a cm less. He is definitely a big boy. Gabe is tall for his class too but when Caleb comes out of his preschool in a little line with all the other kids, it is like, "What is that 1st grader doing with the preschool kids?"

Here are some cute Avery pics and some of the boys:

I also wanted to brag about my latest coupon adventure. I am definitely not going to win any awards from the extreme coupon ladies who save like, 97 percent on each purchase, but I am still pretty happy. We go through crackers like crazy at this house, so that was something I wanted to stock up on. I ended up spending about $43 and the retail price before coupons that I added up from my receipts was over $150. I got 53 items, so an average of $.84 per item. Some of the items I didn't even have coupons for, I just needed them for Thanksgiving and they were on a good sale. This is what I got:

3 Mayonnaise (Best Foods/Hellman's) (about $1.50 each!)
4 12-pks of Dr. Pepper ($1 per box!)
3 Cool-whip (for my Thanksgiving pies)
5 Powerades (for our 72 hr kits)
12 boxes of crackers (Club, Ritz, Cheez-its) (about $1 each!)
8 cans of Cream of Chicken or Mushroom soup (.29 cents each!)
5 Cans Swanson chicken broth
5 bottles of soy sauce (.39 cents each!)
6 Pasta Roni's
2 Kraft Ranch dressings (.99 cents each!)

I probably at this point have not lowered my monthly grocery bill, but I am getting a TON more for my money and for my food storage, which was my goal. So it's going good! Even though I might be turning a little crazy about saving money! I actually think it's kind of fun to sit down with the ad and my coupons and do the math to figure out which deals are the best. Am I a nerd? Yes.

Caleb-isms

Here are some funny momemts I have had with Caleb lately. He always makes me laugh!

Caleb was sitting in the recliner and rambling on and on about something as usual, but I wasn't really paying attention and was playing pee-a-boo with Avery. Finally he got so frustrated that he went, "Arrrrgggg! Mom! You're not even listening!! Now I am NEVER going to tell you how bouncy balls are made AGAIN!!!" My loss on that one I guess.

Caleb had been telling me and Josh about a game of memory that they had played at preschool. You know, where each player takes turns trying to flip over 2 cards at a time that match? So, Caleb is telling this story and he's really giving us every detail, but the premise was basically  that he was kicking everyone's butt in memory. Now, I was right off the bat, thinking, "Well, a lot of the kids in Caleb's class are handicapped to he probably WAS winning, because he does't have a developmental delay, so that probably wasn't quite fair.... but anyways, then Caleb says, "And I just kept getting matches! And do you know how I did it???" and I thought he was about to say, "Because I remembered where they were!" But no. He exclaimed, "Because! I COULD SEE THROUGH THE CARDS!!!!" *Big grin*

When we were watching Curious George, Caleb said something about the man in the yellow hat being George's dad. I tried to explain, "Well, he isn't actually his DAD... he is more like a really fun friend that helps take care of him..." Caleb looked at me and said, "Ohhh.... so he is his GRANDPA!" haha

Then last night before bed he randomly said, "Mom, Thank you for pushing Avery out of your tummy cause I really like her!" That's good to hear!

How cute is this girl???

Diane (Grandma Rhodes) took these pictures one day while babysitting. Soooo cute!

Halloween!

This year for Halloween, Gabe was a "cowboy sheriff", Caleb was a red Samurai Ninja (why???), and Avery was an adorable butterfly/caterpillar. I made her costume myself based on the idea of her little bedtime blanket/wrap that she loves. The wings wrapped around her and turned her into a caterpillar. Caleb's costume was bought at Wal-mart, and Gabe's was real cowboy clothes borrowed from his cowboy/indian cousin, Orrin (seriously... if you know us you will get that.)

So on Halloween day I went into Caleb's preschool for their party from noon to 1:30 then I went to Gabe's party to help from 1:30 to 2:15. Kristy watched Avery for me. (Thanks!) Then we came home, Josh got home from his K-9 training at about 4:00, then we ate dinner and went out trick-or-treating from about 5:30 to 7:30. We did our street with all our neighbors and then went to one other neighborhood in the Willowbrook subdivision. I would say the boys had fun but also didn't get totally obscene amounts of candy, which was good. They actually have it pretty much gone already! I reached in their pumpkins for a piece and came out with a handful of empty wrappers! :(

The other exciting news....
Josh had been looking online for mini vans for the past few weeks. We had kind of discussed it and decided that our time for a van was coming, but I wasn't in any hurry just yet. Our Highlander is all paid off and I was not looking forward to having a car payment again... and driving a van. But Josh kept looking online all the time and we were planning to spend about 16,000 on a 2008ish Toyota Sienna, so one day he saw one in Idaho Falls priced at $12,900 for an 08 with low miles and we got all excited. We jumped in our car and sped down there ready to buy it. But then.... we saw it. And it was not pretty. It was pretty UGLY! It was totally trashed inside and out. We were depressed. So then we decided to go get some Chick Fil A and call it a night. However, on our way there, we passed another car dealership that had a white Toyota Sienna parked off to the side. I told Josh to pull up so I could just quick run in and see if it was for sale and what the price was. Well.... four hours later.... we were signing paperwork on our new van. Crazy. I must say I am a pretty good negotiator though. We ended up driving out of there in one of their vans as a loaner so they have a few days to get our new van cleaned and ready. It was just traded in the day before we saw it so it hadn't even been detailed yet (and it was still cleaner than that other one we looked at!) I am excited because we are still not going to have a car payment. We basically traded our Highlander for a one year newer, 15,000 miles less Toyota Sienna van that will fit our family a lot better. After all the negotiations.... we are only paying about $700, including all the fees, taxes, registration, etc. So we are pretty excited. It isn't an 08 like we were planning on, but it's still really nice and it won't cause us to go into debt! Yay.

I need to find my camera now so I can post some pictures!