Sleep over

Kenzie had her cousin Melanie spend the night on Friday. They had a lot of fun playing, although Aydan was trying to tag along, which really annoyed the girls. Isn't that what little brothers are for? Below are some pics of them playing with Play Doh. (um, yeah, Aydan is trying to put it up his nose, the girls were disgusted!)

Aydan rolling up some Play Doh into snakes, worms, who knows.

Kenzie and Melanie smiling for the camera.

I didn't get any other pictures of them, but they had fun doing other stuff too. We played outside and went over to the park. They played dolls and drew pictures. At night, they watched a movie and ate some popcorn in Kenzie's room. Sleepovers were always so fun... Ah, to be a kid again :)

Its official-my baby's all growed up

We decided to take the big step of switching Aydan from his crib to a toddler bed. He was getting to the point where he would cry everytime I would go to lay him down for bed so I was starting to wonder if it was time to move up to a toddler bed. Well, so far, he loves playing and jumping on the bed, but he still has the same reaction when its bed time. Our current routine has been to just let him fall asleep on the couch and once he's asleep I will lay him down in his bed. This is very tricky to do w/out waking him up in the process and is not working out the greatest. I think its showing him that he doesn't have to sleep in his crib which is why he cries when I try to put him in it. So we've only had one night with the new toddler bed. He layed in it fine as long as I was there by him, but as soon as I got up, he would cry. So, I have been giving in to his demand of laying with him until he falls asleep. I need to figure out something new for his bedtime routine because we went through this same thing with Kenzie for the longest time. She just eventually grew out of it, but I don't want to wait that long. Does anyone have any suggestions to make bedtime go a little more smoothly so I don't need to lay by him until he falls asleep?

Aydan

just thought i'd throw in a picture of Aydan because he's so darn cute!!

Hope you enjoy your birthday Dad!!! Love Kim

Kenzie's new look

Kenzie asked me to straigten her hair for her today and this is how it turned out. She totally loved it and I think it looked nice too. It gave her about another inch or two of length! She looks older too. She always is talking about wanting "long, smooth" hair like so and so from her class. Most people would love to have curls like hers but of course you always want what you don't have. I think she's beautiful either way, but I'm sure she will want me to straighten it for her whenever we have time in the mornings!

Things NOT to skimp on

I heard them talking about this on the radio this morning and I thought it was interesting to hear what people had said. They were talking about how during this recession we are having that people are obviously trying to save money any way they can, but there's always something that people don't want to go cheap on. Everyone has at least one thing that they always buy the good name brand instead of the cheap generic stuff. Here's a list of some things that I usually try NOT to buy in generic form:

• Toilet paper-there really is a big difference in quality here. We use up the generic stuff twice as fast so I just get the better brand because it lasts a lot longer.
• Dish soap-again, I end up using the generic up faster than I would the better brand so it pays off to just get the better kind. Plus, I think it works a lot better!
• Bread-sometimes the generic bread gets hard the next day so I usually will splurge on getting bread that lasts longer and tastes better. Although, the generic does make good toast!
• Garbage bags-I just hate it when my garbage bags rip when I'm trying to get them out of the garbage can so I try to buy the stronger ones that hold more and last longer.
• Make-up-I once bought generic powder to save a couple bucks, and I when I put it on, it ended up looking orange. Yikes!!

I buy generic whenever fitting, especially if its just as good or better as the brand name. But, sometimes it really isn't as good of a value as the name brand and if it doesn't last as long, then in the long run, you're not saving the money you thought you were.

What are some things that you prefer to buy brand name, if any!