He's Here!

Kort Leland Fenton

Born 12.31.10

8:41 p.m.

9 lbs. 2 oz. 22 inches

We are SO in love with this little guy! We went in at 7:00 a.m. to start being induced, and I had progressed so much that things just went fast. By 2:30 they gave me pitocin, broke my water, and 2 hours later I was dilated to a 9.5 cm (it was a 4 at 2:30). I quickly asked for my epidural which I could barely handle my contractions.  Boy, is that thing ever a lifesaver for sure! I was able to start pushing at 7:15 and a hour and a half later, Kort was welcomed into the world.  Our lives have totally changed over these last few days, obviously, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  Yes, it already has had its challenging times, but what new parents don't go through them?! We'll see how well I keep up with this blog now that I have something to brag about everyday :) ha ha Of course I am biased, but isn't he just the cutest baby alive!?!?

extreme couponing

I can't help but get somewhat angry over these extreme couponers. If any of you watched TLC's Extreme Couponing last night, let me tell you why.

First off, this is the Krazy Coupon Lady. I...love...her...blog! If you don't know her background, intentions, etc. of being a couponer, you will definitely get the wrong vibe from her part in the show. BUT, the first lady, I believe from Ohio...she is a hoarder.  She has like a 150 year stockpile of crap. Ok, so maybe good things like body wash, whatever, but 150 years??? Ridiculous. But no, she buys 100+ candy bars - because she-can-get-it-for-free. What's wrong with this picture? Candy bars = NOT healthy, especially in that amount. Most of it will go bad before they even make it through half of them...also the fact that it's being stored away and probably isn't touched much BECAUSE she just likes the thrill of getting them for free.  Her husband even calls her storage "garbage".  Anyway, I could go ON and ON about her and what I don't agree with.  

Another lady, from outside Chicago...she gets up at 6 a.m. everyday and walks 7 miles to go pick up extra inserts from newspapers...from friends that collect them for her, to recycle bins.  Good exercise.  Once at the store, she's constantly helping her fellow shoppers find the best deals, making sure they're using a coupon, etc.  She's been couponing over 35 years! She ONLY buys what she uses! This I like.

Now on the the "dude".  I was a little annoyed by him at first.  He's at the store and "buys" like 100 toothbrushes, 100 deodorants, etc.  One thing I liked though is that he pre-ordered the cereal he bought.  Granted, there were about 1000 boxes :) At the end of his trip though, he told the show that he donates most of the stuff to shelters, etc. which is one of the great points of getting things for free...to help those out in need.  

Ok, my cyber friend, Joanie, aka THE KRAZY COUPON LADY!  Words of mine just can't tell you how great she is of a couponer.  Just visit 16 Questions and Answers that she had during the show. Her blog helps me tremendously and actually got me started with couponing. I can say, that without her help and her blog, I wouldn't be cutting our grocery bill down, or saving a little here or there.  I am no couponer like her, however, I love finding deals on things that I use and can stock up...um, but no more than a year's worth!!! Like hygiene products - I love being able to stock up on body wash, deodorant, because I hate paying full price for those.  Once I'm to the end of my stockpile, I start looking for the sales again.  I have mentioned on here a while ago that I was able to get 50 boxes of cereal...for $4!!! Now some ask WHY the heck do you need that many? Well, first off, I did the calculations.  How much cereal I ate a day, how many boxes I went through a week, and when the next big sale would be.  NONE of the cereal went to waste, some boxes were donated and family was in town so we needed the extra anyway.  RARELY do I ever buy what we don't use.  Even if I can get it for free, it's just going to go to waste if we don't eat it, don't like the brand, etc.  I suppose we could be more flexible.  For example, we only use Crest toothpaste.  For me, it seems like this is the hardest brand to find for free.  I have seen Colgate be free several times, but, we don't like that kind, so why stock up if we won't use it.  Get my drift? Anyway, I hope this helps you couponers out there, or those who have had the misconceptions of it and have procrastinated on jumping the bandwagon that you'll never be able to get off once you get started :) I just thought this was too interesting to not post. Oh, and probably because I have too much time on my hands waiting for this baby to come. :) 2 days until the new year...cross your fingers!

thanksgiving catch up

We "moved" back home the weekend before Thanksgiving, and thankfully, we were invited for a Thanksgiving dinner by the Harrison's!  We had nothing planned and were expecting to spend it alone with a bunch of sparkling cider (like alcohol for me - ha ha) but were blessed with this invitation.  We each joined in and put a dinner together.  I stole Alisa's picture from that day (thanks Alisa:)

It was soooo yummy! I definitely ate way too much pie (go figure) but the rest of the food was absolutely delish! In Minnesota, there was this lady in our ward that won the State Blue Ribbon Bread Making Contest and she shared her recipe with us Relief Society ladies.  Mine surely didn't compare to hers as she also went to Culinary School, but someday I will have it down like her.  They are called Cottage Cheese Dill Rolls.  Yes, doesn't sound appetizing, but oh-my-heck, they were to die for! Better luck next year. 

I wasn't planning on doing any Black Friday shopping because there were no deals I had to have, except I have been wanting these 3 mini trees that Michael's just so happened to have them dirt cheap for sale on Thanksgiving DAY! So, Alisa and I hit the road for Michael's after dinner.  We got there like an hour early and there were only 4 other cars.  No one was getting out of their cars and once someone did for a second, we all got out thinking it would be chaos. Nope. And just our luck, Michael's opened their doors 1/2 hour early so there was no problem getting our trees :) 

Oh, I'm just in love with them! I am dedicating these trees to our baby, so he has his own tree(s) this year! I found these adorable little mitten ornaments at Hallmark so this will be his first ornament and then the Willow Tree ornament with the mom and baby.

Here's a close up of those.  I love them :)

That concludes our Thanksgiving festivities. Hopefully I can catch up on everything else before this baby comes!

mn and id adventures

I'm bummed that I took practically zero pictures while we were traveling so much these last months.  So as I get pictures from others, I'll post them. As for now, here's the (hopefully) short version of our travels.

We left Minnesota a week before Halloween and headed for Rexburg. We had plenty of time to relax with family, visit friends, and for Clay to do his usual work at the house - which he loves doing and can't do here in WA since we aren't the ones who take care of the yard.  Tyler and Caeli came up from Utah the two weekends we were there, so we went to Wingers for dinner.

(Ok, so bad picture. But one of the few that I got. :S )

The first weekend Clay's family/cousin Roy, threw me a baby shower! It was so much fun catching up with old friends and getting advice on what to expect! HA! Thanks so much again Roy! (pictures to come). We also hit Clay's parents' ward Halloween party/dinner and I made these cupcakes for their cupcake walk.  We joined in and won some awesome cupcakes too!

(I saw these on one of the blogs I follow, I think Little Birdie Secrets.)

I was a little bummed that we weren't home for Halloween because, oddly enough, it's one of my favorite holidays.  Someday...someday I will have enough decor to deck our house out and have huge parties :) There's just something about Halloween decor that I absolutely love! Well, that just about does it for Rexburg.  Clay had also been super busy with work and helped for a couple of days with his boss doing interviews at the University for their company for internships.  There was an information seminar one night that he helped speak at, followed by a cazillion boxes of Craigo's pizza! The next day he was doing interviews all day long.  Sunday, Clay and Quinn drove me to Burley to drop me off at my parents.  Clay had to fly back out to MN to finish up his training.  Oh gosh, I hate good-byes/see-ya-laters with that guy.  I probably bawled like a baby for the next few days. And back to Rexburg did they go as Clay flew out the next morning.

Burley, well, that was fun. Ha. I was sad to be away from Clay so really I had no motivation to do anything and was a bum all week long. Jared was going to the Temple for the first time Friday!!!! He finally got his mission call to RUSSIA!!! I'm so excited for him.  He's going to be the coolest Russian missionary :) So Janelle, Tom and Shay met us at the Twin Falls Temple and went through with Jared.  Wow. What an awesome experience.  It truly is the House of the Lord.  You know it just is - you can definitely feel His presence there and know He walks those halls. 

That weekend felt like a time of miracles as I found out more news.  One of my brothers had gone back to church for the first time after 14 years.  He went with Jared, wore a suit, and was welcomed with open arms.  I can't express the gratitude I have for the Gospel and for being able to go to church each week and worship together and renew special covenants.  The church is a place of sinners to be cleansed.  None of us are perfect, therefore none of us have room to judge others.  So I'm so thankful that my brother felt comfortable and was welcomed.  Bro, I doubt you read this, but THANK YOU.  You make me proud.  Stick with it.  The path back to Heavenly Father is hard, but WORTH it.  

Moving on.  The next day, Saturday, Janelle and my mom threw me a little shower while I was in town.  Thank you all for coming! It was so great catching up with you! (Fe, Jaimee:) After that, I was off to Boise with Janelle!  To shorten things up, I stayed with Janelle and her family for about the next few weeks.  I was able to see all my brothers and their family so it was already great!

(Jason, his girlfriend Violet, and the kids came for dinner and a movie:)
 We also got to go over to Jeremy and Brooke's and have dessert and chat!
We had lots of time to hang out, go shopping, do crafts, go to water aerobics at the Y :), watch the Lion King over and over again with Shay, and get some prego shots together! These are my favorites!

(Photos courtesy of my brother, Jordan Byington.)

Well, FINALLY, Clay was able to fly back to Boise! We all went to dinner that night to Texas Roadhouse! Oh how I miss that place.  Washington has ZERO of those restaurants. :( We rented a car and drove back to Tacoma the next morning.  It started snowing that morning in Boise and looked like it was suppose to all the way back, especially through the mountains and passes we had to go through.  We decided to take the less mountainous way back (through Portland, not Snoqualmie Pass :S).  We were so blessed with the weather.  The snow stopped once we hit the Oregon border and only rained off and on for a little bit.  Sun was on our side that day. It was so nice being back home! So this concludes our adventures away from home. Hope you enjoyed the long/short version :) ha ha

slacker

ok. wow. i feel like i'm behind on life. so much has happened these last couple of months. left minnesota, vacay in idaho, clay back to minnesota, finally drive back to washington, thanksgiving, and now trying to catch up on life.  we're going baby shopping tomorrow to get basically everything! but, i've got so much on my plate that i don't even have time to put pictures up yet, so eventually i will get to that. so bear with me. i have ONE more month to go (hopefully a little less) until this baby comes and i'm starting to fReAk out! i've got about 95% of my christmas shopping done so i don't have to worry about that. i'm hoping to sub a few days or so in the next two weeks to get a little bit more dough for the baby bills :S anyway, i'll catch you up soon with the rest of the details!

3 is a good number

 (our very first picture together. after rafting outside boise with my sis' in-laws.  clay knew no one but me and was instantly put on the spot asking if i was 'the one'. 

good thing i was :D)

Today is our 3rd Anniversary!!!  I can't believe how fast time goes by.  It really does seem like yesterday we were newlyweds (although some still call us that).  This has been our best year by far and it's only getting better.  A lot has happened in this past year of our lives but we do expect it to still be crazy busy as time goes on!

*Had Thanksgiving with my family in Boise and also attended a much needed JAZZ game :)

*Spent Christmas alone :( However, Clay's family came up and stayed with us for New Year's!

*Road trip to IDAHO!

*Picked Clay's brother up from SLC airport

from his mission in England

*Clay's older brother, Tyler, married Caeli

in the Draper Temple

*Found out we were expecting our first baby!!!

*Camping trips

*My sis and her family visited for the 4th of July

*Clay's dad and brother came up to go Salmon fishing

out on the ocean

              *Clay's brother stayed with us for a month to work

*Moved to Minneapolis for 6 weeks for Clay's work

Now, Clay's back in MN for a week to finish things up after taking a break in Rexburg and I'm here in Burley with my fam.  So, as you can see, we are apart for our special day :(  However, Clay did spoil me and surprise me with a pre-natal massage in Rexburg! I also sent a package off to him and he got it yesterday when he checked into his hotel :D Oh how it made his day...and mine!

I love Clay so very much though.  He is perfect for me and always pushes me to do better.  He is such a hard worker and sacrifices so much to make our family better and support us.  I have been incredibly lucky to find such a great guy (oh, and lucky to have a friend like Kylie who hooked us up :) - THANKS!). 

 He is the BEST!

Here's to Forever with you!

I LOVE YOU!

what i'm loving most . . .

There's 3 things that I'm loving most right now.

1. This baby boy kicking all around inside of me.
I absolutely love the feeling of him moving around and the fact that I can see him kicking and pushing my stomach out.  This has brought me to the realization that there is a human being growing inside of me, and what an absolute miracle it is! 
2. HGTV!
Our hotel tv is stuck on this channel for most of the day.  I am in love with House Hunters, and oh boy, I can't wait for the day that we will have our own home, give or take 10 years. :)

Last, but definitely not least,

3. CLAY!
This has been a tough situation living out of our suitcases and having no oven to cook in :(, but I'm so proud of my hubby for working so hard during this training session.  It's been great getting to spend every free minute of his with him and being able to explore this part of the country.  I'm one lucky girl!