First Bergen Family Adventure of 2011!

We had incredible weather over the weekend! On Saturday the high temperature peaked right around 70 degrees which meant only one thing - lots of time outside! After months of freezing temperatures, it would be downright sinful to stay inside on such a perfect day. For our first Bergen Family Adventures of 2011, we decided we were going to go rock climbing as a family for the first time. Justin goes often, and Braxton and I have tagged along to watch, but this was the first time we would all be going and all be participating. Who cares that I'm 8 months pregnant? Who cares that Braxton is only 1? I'm sure we were a funny sight, but once again, who cares? We had a blast making memories and spending time in the warm sunshine.

Making the hike in. Braxton took his job as "keeper of the rope" very seriously and would exclaim "UH OH!" every time it started slipping off the wagon.

Braxton has been very interested in rock climbing the last several weeks. He loves to watch rock climbing clips on youtube with Justin and we were excited to see how he would react to his first time on the rock. He wasn't so sure at first, but after a few minutes got really comfortable climbing...almost a little too comfortable!

My two climbers

Love <3

Setting up the gear. My job was to belay but since I can't wear the harness (thanks to Kaden :-)), he set up the belay from a tree and then I just had to work the ropes. It was a great arm workout!

Gearing Braxton up. I love this picture.
(and excuse the smudge print. Braxton had been messing with the camera and smudged the lens)

It was more reverse rappelling than climbing, but it was great to see Braxton be so comfortable with the rock. He did push himself up a few times once Justin placed his feet, but he was definitely more interested in smacking the rock with his hands than looking for places to grab. :-)

Then Justin went up. Of course we had to take a picture of the 8 month pregnant lady belaying her husband while her toddler is strapped in his wagon devouring raisins and vanilla wafers.

Before any of you rock climbers freak out, I took this picture when he was off belay.

Braxton giving daddy a "high five" for a good climb!

My little Pig Pen!

Off to explore!

His big smile warms my heart! He always gets so dirty when we do these types of activities, but isn't that part of the fun of being a little boy?

Thing 1 and Thing 2

I'm thinking since I'm going to have two boys close in age, they'll morph into "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" before you know it. I can't wait to see them interact and become buddies. I know we'll have some rough times, but I'm so excited that my first two kids are boys. Even though I always thought I'd have all girls (having boys was just never really an option in my mind, lol), these little boys are perfect for our family and I'm so glad God has blessed us with them!

Update on Thing 1:

Thing 1 (aka Braxton) is turning into one of the sweetest little boys! I love this little munchkin so much! He definitely has his toddler moments and tantrums, but what kid doesn't? Right now, his biggest struggle is hitting others when he is angry or feeling irritated. We're trying to stay consistent with discipline and reinforcing "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:32)

He is starting to put two words together to make short phrases. "Yes, mama/daddy," "No thank you," "More please," "Bye Kitty" and his newest phrase, "Elmo's World!!!" The other night when he was crying in his crib because he didn't want to go to sleep, we very clearly heard a three word phrase "I WANT DOWN!", but other than that, two-word is his big accomplishment. He also is getting very interested in counting and likes to pretend to count everything. I like to think he's brilliant and counting in binary because it's usually just "1...1...1...1...1..."

He is very observant. This kid can spot a Barney stuffed animal in a toy machine at the grocery store or an Elmo balloon clear across the store (yes, that was my kid squealing "ELMO" in delight at the top of his lungs when he saw the balloon). I love taking him to the grocery store produce section and letting him describe all the fruits and vegetables he knows. It really amazes me how much of this world he takes in and notices, even when he's not vocalizing it.

Lest you think my kid is nothing but a Barney and Elmo fanatic, I have been overjoyed to see him become more interested in prayer. We pray every night before he goes to bed and he knows he needs to be quiet and hold hands. It's a part of his bedtime routine that he loves and reminds you to do if you forget. When I'm done praying out loud he asks "pray?" and I briefly explain to him what I told God about. I ask him if he has anything he wants to tell God. Some nights he immitates me praying and some nights he starts pointing out facial features...it's unpredictable but my heart feels so full when I hear his little voice quietly mumble like he's praying.

And last but not least, Braxton is now completely obsessed with animals. All day we review animals and their sounds and he knows a wide variety! He loves playing with the cat that follows us to our apartment when we get home. I can't wait to take him to the zoo next week! Once we sell the house, a zoo membership is at the top of our "must purchase" list.

Update on Thing 2 (aka Kaden)

I'm 33.5 weeks pregnant. Wow we're getting close! Kaden has been pretty chill lately. Not a ton a kicks and punches like I'm used to. I think someone is running out of room. :-) Everything about the pregnancy is going fairly smoothly (minus the puking) and all my test results (gestational diabetes, anemia, etc.) have been coming back perfect.

We've been having fun getting the house ready for his arrival. His bassinet arrived and now I need to work on completing the sheet for the mattress. I almost have his baby towel done. We've been randomly setting out his swing, play mat and bouncy seat to work with Braxton now on not touching them. Hopefully he will lose interest by the time Kaden is actually here. My to-do list of everything that must be completed in the next four weeks is ridiculously long. I'm breaking it down into weekly accomplishments so I don't accidentally save it all for the end. This week's goals: call the pediatrician, finish the baby towel, double two meals for the freezer, and start the bassinet sheet.

We toured the hospital where Kaden will be delivered. Great facility! Very different than the Wesley Birth Center, and definitely more of a hospital feel, but overall we were pleased. We also got maternity/family pictures done a few weeks ago. I would put them up, but JCPenneys changed their format and now you can't download pictures to share on the internet (lame!).

I can't believe how good I'm feeling energy-wise. I still get nauseous, but I'm no where near as exhausted as I was when I was pregnant with Braxton. Choreographing the show, pilates on the non rehearsal days and chasing Braxton all day have all played a huge part in this. Today alone I taught dance for almost 2 hours, hiked and belayed Justin rock climbing all afternoon and then went to the mall with friends for baby shopping! Granted, I'm tired now but I feel so much better when I'm active instead of sitting on the couch watching my stomach explode. :-)

Can't wait to meet our new little munchkin!!

The Reluctant Clipper - March 18, 2011 Edition

March began my 3rd month couponing. I'm finally started to feel like I have a well established stockpile of items we regularly use. You'll notice most of what I bought today doesn't really go together. That's because I only needed a few staples to complete a menu from our stockpile. The rest of our purchases were items to go into our stockpile for future weeks!

Today we only hit two stores: King Soopers and Albertsons. With the rising cost of gas, I have to be careful to make sure I'm saving more than I would be spending in gas to drive to the location.
Total Spent: $45.84
Total Saved: $62.73!!! (Woohoo!!!)

Our spoils

I was excited to finally be able to stock up on some frozen vegetables and juice!
Birds Eye Frozen Vegetables: $0.57/each
Old Orchard Apple Juice Concentrate: $0.65/each
Lays Potato Chips: $1.50/bag
Pace Picante Sauce: $1.50/jar
Powerade: $0.49/each. It's getting close to outdoor adventure season again!
4 Lbs of Strawberries: $4.99. What a steal!! I'm planning to freeze at least half of these so I can get my strawberry fix when they aren't available for so cheap!

My "DUH!" moment for the trip was grabbing the wrong brand of milk at Albertsons. I didn't realize it until I got to the car that I grabbed the $2.99/gallon milk instead of the $1.98. D'oh! I quickly decided that $2 was not worth going back into the store to fix my mistake.

12 boxes of Ronzoni Pasta (assorted styles): FREE!!! That was fun. :-)
Dole Fruit Crisps: $0.49/each. Outdoor adventure season also equals picnic season. I thought these would make fun additions to the picnic basket.

I think I may have to go do the Lays Potato Chip deal again. These two snack monsters love their potato chips (and I paid way more than $1.50 for that bag of "Great Value" crumminess! (Cute side note, Braxton insisted that they sit on the living room floor while snacking. I have no idea why. What a goober! :-) )

Well...That was fun! :-)

This is one of those reasons I'm a reluctant coupon clipper/shopper. I hate irritating people or feeling like I'm a nuisance. Well, at least I had two months to start thickening my skin before getting my first crabby cashier and being made to feel like I was the most annoying person she had seen all day. Tonight, after putting Braxton down for the night, I ran to Target and Safeway to grab some deals (always faster and easier sans Braxton!).

Safeway was no big deal. The cashier was tired, but didn't give me a lot of grief. I mean, I'd be tired too if I had to be on my feet that long. Target on the other hand, Oye! The cashier there obviously needed some coffee...or sugar...or happy pills. Anything to counteract the crabbiness! Granted I had twice as many coupons as items, but I had double and triple checked that they were all legit for what I was purchasing. When I walked to the check out area, there was only one register open. I hate it when that happens. Inevitably a lady walks up right as I start getting rung up. This made the cashier antsy (I remember working retail - you never like a line) and she started not paying attention to the coupons and telling me that because they beeped they wouldn't work. I calmly explained to her that they should work based on the guidelines of the coupon (remember, I had double and triple checked). She was obviously irritated and started hitting the "accept" button every time they beeped without actually checking anything. For my second transaction, when I handed her my second stack of coupons she glumly said "all these too???" "Yup!" I replied as cheerfully as I could muster up. My printed coupons kept beeping and she just kept carelessly punching them through as fast as she could. Both my transactions combined took less than 3 minutes (looking at the times on my receipts), but as I put my bags into my cart, I overheard her tell the lady behind me very loudly "sorry for your long wait!" Really?! Seriously?! Ugh! The final total on my second transaction didn't sound right to me (too low). I'm pretty sure she got going so fast she messed up some coupons and gave me some extra discounts - but she also overcharged me for a few items. The way it balances out between those two errors only makes about a dollar difference, but I still think I'll run back tomorrow and see if they want me to make it up to them (I know I only owe them a dollar and they'll probably just tell me to forget about it, but I'm trying to be honest here!).

Life lesson learned: after 8pm, cashiers get progressively more grouchy!! Even though the shopping trip was not the most pleasant experience of my life, I still scored some major deals on some much needed items.

Here are my totals for the night...give or take a dollar. :-)

Total Combined Target and Safeway Purchases
Spent: $28.68
Saved: $54.09!! :-)

Safeway: I bought 8 boxes of General Mills and Quaker Cereal.
Total Spent: $5.92 ($0.74/box)
Total Saved: $24.20

Target:
Transaction #1 - Total $20.54
Charmin Toilet Paper - I earned a $5 Target Gift Card by purchasing two packages of the Charmin toilet paper. Combining sales, coupons and mentally counting the gift card brought the packages down to $6.24/pkg or $0.34/roll. The goal price for toilet paper I've been told is around $0.25/roll, but since Charmin is the toilet paper brand of choice in the Bergen household and it rarely goes on sale, I had no qualms paying $0.34/roll.
Nature Valley Granola Bars - $0.25 total for 3 travel packages (12 bars).
Lysol Wipes - $1.40/each. Pretty sure they were supposed to be $1/each. Whatever. I'm not going to heckle over $0.40!

Transaction #2 - Total was $1.09 (I used my $5 gift card I earned in the first transaction). This is the transaction that got a little funky as I was expecting the total to be around $2.50 after sales, coupons and gift card.
2 Lysol Wipes
2 Rimmell Mascaras
1 Johnsons Baby Wash - not on sale, but we were almost out and I had a coupon.
3 Nature Valley Granola Bar travel packs

Confused yet? My head was spinning after I left Target. Most days I still don't think I'm smart enough to actually do this. But I got a chocolate milkshake on the way home and that made life so much less complicated. It's the little things... :-)

Now I'm off to try to find a place to store all this toilet paper and cereal!

The Reluctant Clipper - February 23, 2011 Edition

Not a bad week at all! I love weeks when the sales match up with what I'm craving! :-)

Total amount spent for this week's groceries and household supplies: $39.71
Total amount saved: around $55 (I lost one of my receipts, so I remember how much I spent but not exactly how much I saved)

Kraft Mac and Cheese - This has been my biggest craving this whole pregnancy! So of course, I was so excited when they went for a really good deal this week! I got the 5-packs for about $2.50/pack making the individual boxes around $0.50/each!
Bread - $0.49/loaf on managers special. We've been going through a ton of bread lately!
Campbell's Chunky Soup - Around $0.75/can
Hefty zip freezer bags - I can't remember exactly what I paid for these, but they were the same price as Walmart's "great value" freezer bags - which aren't that great of a value.


Chicken Breast - $1.99/lb. That price is pretty standard out here for boneless skinless chicken breasts, but we love it when it goes for $1.99/lb at Sunflower Market. Their chicken is so much thicker, juicier and tastes significantly better in our opinion. Plus I trust the quality of their meats more than the big name stores.

Kraft Cheese Singles - $0.50/package. Can you say SCORE?! :-)
Bar S Bologna - $0.50/package. Justin was pretty excited because now he gets to make his favorite red-neck food this weekend: Bologna Boats. :-P :-)
Ragu Pasta Sauce - $0.75/jar

This deal was fun. I had some catalinas to use up at King Soopers and saw I could get Knorr Noodle Sides for $0.50/package. We were also out of margarine, so I grabbed some on my way to the checkout. After combining sales, coupons and my catalina, my total out of pocket for all of the above items was $0.67!!!

This weeks freebies after sales and coupons were 2 Dove deodorants and 3 Colgate toothpastes. I only kept one of each and gave the other ones away because we don't have room to do tons of stockpiling. You always have to be careful when offering people deodorant and toothpaste - but thankfully nobody seemed too offended. lol. ;-)

This is definitely our kid

Lest you have any doubt that Braxton is the child of Justin and Laura, he proves the running family theory that no matter how bad the mood, Chipotle can turn this...

...into this!

He still had sick eyes from having a cold all week, but that's the biggest smile we had gotten in days.

Baby Shower for Kaden!

Last Saturday (February 19) our church was sweet enough to host a baby shower for myself and another lady from our church who just had a little boy. I think it's so wonderful to have the opportunity to celebrate each little life that comes into the world - although I must say, I was slightly jealous of Gibson since her little boy is already here. :-) It's been a while since I've seen a newborn boy and it made me even more excited to meet Kaden! There is something so perfect and precious about that snuggly little bundle. I get all giddy just thinking about it!

Several ladies from church were able to attend, as well as my mom, Gwen, Shareina and my friend Kristin. I was so excited they were able to coordinate the shower for a weekend when my mom was already planning to visit!

Our adorable diaper cakes and edible cake. Gibson's is on the right and mine is on the left. We still have it all put together in Braxton's room.

Let's face it...

My mom got to meet many of the ladies from church and put faces to the names of the ladies I talk about from Bible Study, church and the musical.

Shower games. Oh yes. We smelled the diapers. I may never be able to eat some of those candy bars again.

Gifts for baby Kaden and Freddy.
We were blessed with new little outfits, sleepers, blankets, hooded towels, burp cloths, and lots of socks (which is good because in KS you don't put socks on your kid until October so we didn't have many! lol). So so fun!! :-)

I love this sweater!! I call it the "little man" sweater because it looks exactly like something Justin would wear.

I love warm fuzzy blankets!
(Gibson, the other lady the shower was for is in the corner)

Gwen, Kristin and SheriLynne surprised me by buying the playmat I had been drooling over (yes, I know - only pregnant moms drool over things like playmats!)

Snuggling little Freddy! He was almost 7 weeks old and so precious!

So glad my mom could be there!

Kristin! (AKA "Auntie Kristin" to the boys)

With Little Miss Katy (even though it took me being a full step above her to be taller than her!). She's in Music Man and sweet as can be!

*sniff* *cough* What a week! *cough* *sniff*

Despite our best attempts to prevent, it got into our house unnoticed. One day we were fine, then over the next few days we dropped like flies. First Braxton, then me, and last but not least even the Bergen with the strongest immune system (Justin) succumbed to the dreaded head cold. I'm so over the snotty little nose that will not leave Braxton. I realize this was part of the package when I signed on for motherhood, but seriously - I'm over the snot!!

Our week has consisted of Kleenexes, thermometers, coughs, cold medicine (for the lucky unpregnant people in the house), voices that sound like lifelong smokers, and overall misery.

Head cold! You are no longer welcome!

We did have a very fun weekend despite our sniffles, and hopefully I can get pictures up soon.

ALERT! Brain is MIA!!

Oh how I would love to have my brain back. That's one thing about pregnancy that I never recover from.

Thursday night, I made Tater Tot Casserole. It had been a while, but I bit the bullet and bought Tater Tots this week. I put the ingredients together and made it extra special by adding extra tater tots. Oh this is going to be good!

We sat down to dinner and I pulled it out of the oven. Mmmmmm...it looked a little different, but I figured it had just been in the oven a little longer. That just means the tater tots wills be extra crispy. Yum! I scooped it onto the plates, we sat down and prayed for God to bless our yummy dinner. Then I took a bite and ...

UGH!!!!! It was sweet. Sickeningly sweet. I had a tater tot in my mouth and it tasted like it was covered in vanilla pudding. I did everything I could not to puke. Justin took a big bite - and immediately spit it back out. What on earth could possibly be wrong? I thought through the ingredients. Pretty straight forward. Beef, Green beans, Cream of Chicken soup (I make my own, so I know that didn't have anything sweet in it), Evaporated milk...ohhhhhh snap. I dug through the trash. I had used Condensed Milk. No biggie - I've made tater tot casserole before with condensed milk and it was really good. Read the fine print, it was Extra-sweetened Condensed Milk. Gag!! No wonder if looked like melted ice cream when I poured it in. Oh it was nasty. Nasty nasty nasty! I've never felt more OK dumping an entire 9x13 casserole into the trash. We had leftovers for dinner. Yummy leftovers.

Well, you can't win every night. :-) The only really sad part was that I had used extra tater tots. What a sad waste of fried tater goodness.

The Reluctant Clipper - February 10, 2011 Edition

Yes! I took a picture of my groceries. lol. I'm a very visual person and when I look at my receipts I can feel discouraged by just looking at the names of the products. So this is my little way of putting a visual to the price. Our total this week for all our groceries was $46.56. Not amazingly stellar, but I accomplished my goal by including all our food, toiletries and household items in that price. Baby steps, Laura...baby steps.

We made a LOT of stops today. 4 Total, which is a lot when you have a toddler with you. We hit Albertsons, Safeway, Sunflower Market and Walmart. None of the stores had knock 'em dead sales (unlike Kroger last week! I could've stayed there all day!) but we were able to find enough deals to complete our menu for the week as well as get lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

Here are some of my favorite deals.

-Tyson bags of chicken nuggets were By One Get One Free at Safeway, plus I had a $1 off coupon. That brought the final price down to $6.99 for two bags or $3.50/bag. I thought that was a great price considering they are big bags of chicken nuggets with no byproducts or fillers so they will be great for quick lunches.
-Nestle Semi Sweet Chocolate chips. $1.49/bag after sales and coupon. That's Aldis prices, people! And I'll betchya these taste waaaay better! :-)
-Ragu Pasta Sauce. $0.69/jar after sales and coupon.

-Grapes were marked down to $0.88/lb at Sunflower Market
-Stawberries were $2.00 at Albertsons. (Combine those two fruits with the cantaloupe we got last week! Can you say fruit salad?!)
-Yogurt. They had a promotion for 10 for $4, plus I had a $0.50 off of 8 coupon. Final price per yogurt was $0.35/each.
-Huggies Wipes. $0.22/each after coupon
-Vaseline Cocoa Butter. $1.97 after coupon. I could've waited until I got this for a better deal, but I'm out of cocoa butter and preventing stretch marks is worth spending an extra dollar in my opinion!

It was past lunch time by the time we wrapped up our stops but Braxton was incredibly good the entire time. I know 4 stops (5 when you include that we had to swing by my OB so I could get a blood test) is a lot for a little guy, and I was so pleased that he behaved so well! I rewarded him with one of his favorite lunches (guilty admission - mine too!), Hamburger and French Fries!! It's been a while since we hit up Burger King so we treated ourselves...and of course we had a coupon! :-)
Can't say there's no fillers or byproducts in this meal, but boy is it yummy!

There's No Day Like a SNOW DAY!!

Who am I kidding. When you don't have kids in school, any day you get flurries is a snow day. :-) The last couple of weeks have been freezing. Literally freezing! Last week we had a day where the high was -3! Talk about nippy! So even though we have had snow, it hasn't been worth the risk of frostbite to get out and play in it...until yesterday. :-)

It's been a dry winter here. I heard on the news last night that we are well below average when it comes to cumulative snow. Our family and friends in Wichita and Newton got almost 18" dumped on them whereas we only got about 3". And of course, we were the ones that moved to CO because we love snow. :-)

Oh well! Once the temperatures hit around 30, we bundled up and made the most of our 3". Braxton still has a love/hate relationship with snow so I tried not to overdo it with him. He seemed to enjoy it until I dumped him over in the sled. But after the dump Justin gave him in the sled (which apparently had snow down Braxton's shirt), he didn't seem too traumatized. :-)

His expression was so funny when he saw the slide. It was like he was thinking "ummm...excuse me! What happened to my slide??"

Clapping for sled rides!

Nothing will keep this kid off the playground. He couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him go all the way up, but it was too slippery and I wasn't going to take a chance since I don't have prime catching abilities.

Our little blessing!