Friday, October 31, 2008

Here is the link to a video of my dad and Jackson when we were at the pumpkin patch the other day. It was near the end of the day, so we were really the only people left in the pumpkin patch. That would explain (kind of) why my dad is pretending to sleep on the pumpkins. Also, you can tell in the video that my dad has encouraged Jackson to call me "Bobby" in a very frightening voice. Turn up your volume.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1MFsjNyguA

Also, little Garrett is saying Ma Ma!!! He has been saying it for awhile, but I wasn't sure that was what he was saying. This morning as the boys were playing in the living room, I was walking in and out of the room. Every time I left the room I heard "Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma." So, finally I realized that my little baby is saying Ma Ma! Now that one is saying Ma Ma and the other one is back at calling me "Bobby."

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Random Thoughts and Stories...

  • I posted an election poll over on the left. It is completely anonymous and just for fun! No cheating...only vote once.
  • Speaking of voting -some guy running for something keeps calling our house. His recording sounds like he is probably a nice, well educated man. However, I don't understand why they can't make their little recordings identify if the person answering the phone is male or female. Every time I answer the phone I hear, "Hello Aaron, sorry I am calling again, but I noticed you are a registered voter and haven't voted yet." Can I get a "HELLO KELLI?!" I am now a registered voter too!!!
  • My witty Grandma Lynn...anyone who has met her knows her personality and loves the woman. Her answering machine right now has the normal recording about not being home and then at the end she says "I'm Lynn **** and I approve this message." How funny is that!? I love it!! (The **** are because I don't like using last names on here)
  • Some political issues on my mind today....

#1. Obama - I thought it was if you make under $250,000 you would not see a dime increase on your taxes? Now it is if you make under $200,000 you will not see a change. Why is this number going down and will it continue going down?

#2 McCain - I just heard if Obama is elected, Oprah will have a 16 million dollar tax increase. If McCain is elected, she will have a 9 million dollar tax cut. Does Oprah really need a tax cut?? In my mind people like that having a tax increase is the same as them giving to charity.

I said negative things about BOTH candidates, so no yelling at me please! Remember I am a voter virgin, so take it easy on me!!!!!! :)

  • The other night we were sitting at the kitchen table having dinner. I was trying to get Garrett to say "Ma Ma." I then told Jackson that when he was little he called me "Bobby." (For the longest time we always thought "Who is Bobby?," but finally we realized that "Bobby" was "Mommy." Then it was shortened to "Bob," then "Bomb.") I guess we apparently made a mistake by telling this to Jackson the other night at dinner. Now, when you ask him what Daddy's name is, he says "Aaron." When you ask him what Mommy's name is, he says "Bobby" and smiles. He knows that is not my name, but he thinks it is funny.
  • Garrett is getting ready to be on the move! No, he is not crawling yet, but Jackson is becoming very frustrated with his interest in all of his toys. It used to be that Jackson could pick and choose which toys Garrett could have. Jackson would bring him a toy. Now, if Garrett sees a toy he wants....he is going to do everything he can to get it. This may mean pulling Jackson's shirt to get the toy he has in his hand, reaching a little farther, trying to scoot to a toy, pulling the toy out of Jackson's hand, or screaming at Jackson until Jackson gives in. It is actually pretty comical. I enjoy watching the battles....for now anyways.

Okay....Garrett is down for a nap, so I should be cleaning! Happy Halloween Eve! :)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Little Pumpkins!




























Sunday, October 26, 2008

FORD Frustration. (updated pics at bottom)

I got my Explorer in June 2007. If you're doing the math, that is 16 months ago. The week that we bought my car, I started to hear a weird rattle. My car was not used....it was brand new. It was not a normal rattle that you would expect in a SUV, but a strange, annoying, loud rattle we would only hear when our foot was on the break or the car was in park. It sounded as if it was coming from the dash board on the passenger side, which means that the rattle was very near to our ears. Very pleasant indeed. If you have been in my car, I know you have heard me complain about it while at a red light and you have most likely heard the rattle yourself.

I should have taken my car back to the dealership the very first week that I heard the rattle, but I didn't. Going without a car is a pain and I just avoided it....not to mention the whole car seat issue. A month after we bought my car, I found out I was pregnant with Garrett.....so this gave me a reason to put it off even more. When you are pregnant, you are tired and on my days off of work, I wanted to sleep. I didn't want to have to deal with my car. I always knew it was still under warranty, so no worries. However, if I would have taken it in the very week that I heard it, I think they would understand my frustrations a little more. I DIDN'T CAUSE THIS RATTLE. If I did, I could be mad at myself which would be easier. I bought a brand new car with a rattle and Ford should be doing whatever they can to fix it.

We brought my car to the dealership a few months ago to have them fix the rattle.....the next day, the rattle was back. Long story short....we are are about to take my car back for the not second, not third, not fourth, but FIFTH time.

The hard part is having the boys and dealing with not having their car seats or moving their car seats from car to car. It's a pain in the butt. Luckily the dealership is by my parent's house, but it is still a hassle. After they didn't fix it the second time (said they did, but the next day the rattle was back), they said I needed to leave it with them for a full day and they could find the problem. So, last week I went down to my parent's house. We arranged it so Mom could watch the boys, while my Dad and I brought my car up to the dealership to drop it off. (Aaron was working) My Dad and I dropped my car off around 2:30PM. They said they couldn't work on it right then, but we told them to just keep it over night so that they would have it first thing in the morning to get started on (I made plans to spend the night at my parents). They called the next day around 3:00PM and said my car was ready and the rattle was gone. YEA! Finally, it is gone!!! My mom watched the boys and my Dad takes me up to the dealership. I get my car and I start heading back to my parent's house. I stopped to get gas and as I am pulling out of the parking lot, I hear "the rattle." I called my dad and asked him to meet me back up at Ford. As you can imagine, my dad and I were very irritated. We walked in, I threw my keys on the counter, said it is still not fixed, and reminded him that this was now our fourth time. Dad went and talked to the manager.... (but I am trying to make a long story short)

They looked again for the location of the rattle. They tightened something under my car and the rattle was gone. We left the dealership, I went back to my parent's house, loaded up the boys, and we drove home. That was Wednesday. We drove my car Saturday, no rattle. Today we went to Harleigh's birthday party and what do you know.....the rattle is back. This is not a quiet rattle. This is LOUD. I have 2 kids and they each know how to scream and cry very loud in the car. I can deal with quiet rattles. This isn't one of those. This is loud. This is annoying. And now, this will be my FIFTH time taking it back to Ford.

We are so mad about this whole deal. We have worked very hard to get ahead on my car payments and to almost have it paid off already. I plan to be in this car for awhile without a car payment. I should like this car, but no.....every time I am stopped at a red light or at a stop sign and hear the rattle, I get angry. I wonder, if I had taken my car back to the dealership the week I got it, would they have taken it more seriously? Would they have given me another Explorer if I took it in that week? Does this classify as a lemon or are the mechanics just dumb?

Remember those stickers with the boy peeing on the Ford sign? I am considering putting that on my Ford....(not really). That is how I feel about Ford right now.

I miss my non-American made car.

On a happier note - here are some pictures from Harleigh's Birthday party at the bowling alley....


Jackson would clap and yell, "YEA JACKSON'S BALL!!!!!!"

Garrett and his Ge-Ge (My Grandma)


The picture below isn't really a good picture of anything, but look at Garrett down in the corner looking at the camera. If you click on it to make it bigger, the way he is looking at the camera makes me laugh!

Harleigh blowing out the candles....look at Jackson trying to help.
Jackson was a little hyper after having pizza, cake, and my sister was sneaking him her Dr. Pepper. He has never had a coke in his life....she got in trouble for that.
Happy Monday!....I'm calling Ford. Yipee. Perhaps they will offer me some coupons to cheer me up. haha.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Coupons

I have never been a coupon type of girl. Who has time for that?! Well....a few weeks ago I saw a lady on Oprah that uses coupons and it made me realize how much money you could save. Brookshires has been having this thing called "GasMoney." (I think that's what it is called) For every $10 you spend on Brookshires name brand products, you get a $1 coupon for gas or groceries. Today, Aaron and I were at the store and I made sure we bought whatever we could buy that was "Brookshires Brand." I wanted to see how much free gas/groceries we could get. It really became fun...........well, fun for me......Aaron could have cared less. We ended up getting $5 in free gas. I know that is not a whole lot, but five dollars is five dollars. Plus, I do the Pampers Points on pampers.com (for those who know what I am talking about) and I used my points for a free jumbo pack of diapers! To sum that up.....we walked away with $5 AND a jumbo pack of diapers. Impressive huh?!

So, this made me realize how fun it is to save money, yet still buy what you need. If I had so much fun with this, imagine how much fun I could have with cutting coupons. Aaron's job is to make the money and my job is to budget the money, right?! So this is part of my job description. :)

Now, I am still new to this coupon thing so I need some advice. How do I go about getting all the coupons? We only have Wal-Mart and Brookshires where we live. I went to coupons.com and found several for items we normally buy. It is fun....it is like printing off free money!!!! :)
Yeah, I know....I'm a dork!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Garrett is now 7 months old! Can you believe that? 7 months....that is closer to 1 year than it is to a newborn. Where does time go? I want him to be a little baby forever....I am not ready for him to grow up.....


Jackson having a serious phone conversation....
Jackson helping his Daddy lower Garrett's crib. Jackson is using his little Handy Manny tools. (Grandma Lynn, he LOVES those tools!)
Jackson likes to wear funny things sometimes. Since the weather has changed, I have been going through all of Jackson's old things to see what I have and what I still need to buy for Garrett. Jackson pulled this hat out and wore it all morning the other day. And his new shoes....he wants to have the shoes on all day....
And what was his outfit choice today.....LAST years Halloween costume.
He was crawling around cracking up.

This is just a video of Jackson pretending to read. As you can tell, he is not saying real words, he is just pretending. I just thought it was a cute video because of the kangaroo costume. He really wore it all morning like it was just another outfit. The outfit in the video makes me laugh.
I really need to figure out their Halloween costumes for this year. I know, I know..... Halloween is in ONE week. I admit, I am being a slacker. They do each have a cute little Halloween shirt that lights up. Could that be their costume? I am just not in the Halloween spirit this year. Again....I know, I am being a slacker. I will get my butt in gear, don't worry. They will each have a costume, although I am sure all the good ones are sold out by now.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

YEA! Go Rays!


Saturday, October 18, 2008

"It's a DAD thing!" Really?? Did everyone know this?

We went down to my parent's house yesterday. My dad and I used to always carve pumpkins together around Halloween time. Since Jackson is getting older, my mom bought a pumpkin at the store and thought it would be neat for my dad, Jackson, and I to all carve a pumpkin together. Aaron had a sprinkler repair job to do at one of their neighbor's house, so we decided to wait for Aaron to finish the repair so he could see Jackson dig into the pumpkin. My dad even said "Yeah, Aaron needs to be here." Well, it got later and later.....we had dinner.....dessert.....and it was time for us to head home and get the boys to bed, so we brought the pumpkin home with us.

This morning after breakfast, Aaron and I decided it would be a good time to carve the pumpkin. So, I picked up the knife and I as I am about to cut the top off, Aaron looks at me and says "Kelli, what are you doing??? That's a Dad thing!!" I looked at him, kind of laughed, and tried to continue what I was doing.......but he was serious. He said "You do the Easter eggs and I do the pumpkin." Dead serious.

So, I handed him the knife. I guess since I was always the little girl carving the pumpkin with my dad, I never thought of it being a "man" job. ????? Even my dad didn't think it would be right to carve the pumpkin yesterday without Aaron there. Do they give dad's some kind of manual when their children are born telling them what jobs they are responsible for!? I never knew he was in charge of the pumpkin and I was in charge of the Easter eggs..... hmmmmm. I got the memo about Santa Claus, but I guess nobody ever gave me the memo about the pumpkin and Easter eggs.

He did allow me to do the face, however he thought he needed to give me advice along the way.

Aaron with "the knife" doing "the Dad thing!"
Jackson looking inside of the pumpkin for the first time....
Happy Halloween!
Jackson was singing "Happy Birthday to Jackson" and trying to blow out the candle.

The wagon is FULL....no more kids for us. Jackson was being silly when I was trying to take a picture of them. Look at his eyes.

Garrett is still a little sleepy. He has trouble waking up from his FOUR hour naps...
Look at that long hair blowing in the wind. ha! Grow hair, grow!

No worries....the lawn mower is turned off.

Garrett is amazed with his socks! Garrett was born in March, so he really only wore socks when he was a newborn. There was no need for socks during the summer since he doesn't wear shoes yet. Now that the weather is getting cooler, I have been putting socks on him. He thinks they are so funny! He will look at his socks and just smile and laugh at them. Then he likes to rub them. It is like he has new little friends on his feet!

Poor little Rigley...Thank God he is good with the boys.

Apparently Jackson has seen his Daddy with his feet up and relaxing after mowing the yard....

Jackson showing Garrett his new shoes.