Weekend

We had a great weekend!! Even though the temperature dropped, the sun was shining.

Friday night, my cousin and his family were traveling to their new home in Mississippi so they stopped to stay with us for the night. We haven't seen each other since my sister's wedding three years ago. It was great to catch up instead of just following each other on Facebook. Hopefully we'll be able to go visit them in their new place!

So hard to get a picture of these three! Drake - Carter - Jack

my cousin, James, and his youngest son, Jonathon

After they left on Saturday morning, we went to a friend's to see their new baby boy. Drake had so much fun playing with their older son and didn't want to leave! (sorry, no pictures)

Then, on Sunday, Drake figured out how to get on and off his ride-on toy all by himself! Poor kid! He has short legs just like his momma so his feet are just now hitting the floor. But, it won't be long, and he'll be moving that thing all over the house!

(Sorry it's so shaky.)

I'm looking forward to the month of April and the great plans that we have! Hopefully the weather will warm up a little so we can get outside, too!

Sleep

I'll start this off by saying that Drake has been an AWESOME sleeper! We started BabyWise around 10 weeks old, and he did great. He was sleeping all night at 12 weeks, and we never looked back, even when teething or having a growth spurt.

However, he seems to have been a little off schedule the past few weeks, and I wonder if it might be that he wants to transition to one nap. Last Wednesday, he would not take an afternoon nap for our sitter. He wasn't crying. Instead, he was just "talking" away and would not close his eyes. On Thursday and Friday, she gave him a short nap (1 hour or less) in the morning, and he did great for his afternoon nap. We tried this over the weekend, but we didn't get the same results. On Saturday, he might have slept 30 minutes in the afternoon, but he didn't sleep at all yesterday afternoon. You can imagine what he was like last night at dinnertime! I don't think he is quite ready for one nap yet based on yesterday.

So, for those of you who have done the transition to one nap, how did you handle it? Did you just shorten the morning nap for a while or go straight to one early nap? How long did the transition take?

The Great Grocery Challenge - Week 23

 

CVS: spent $1.17, saved $41.01!

Walgreens: spent $5.30, saved $23.79!

Target: spent $10.05, saved $27.55!

Best Deal: bought 6 tubes of diaper rash cream for $0.99 each!, 6 pairs of socks for free!

Meijer: spent $45.09, saved $48.27!

Best deals: 4 Stove Top Stuffing for FREE ($0.50/1 manufacturer coupon + $1/2 mPerks), 8 Clorox toilet cleaner $1 money maker, 5-40oz Heinz $0.99 each, 6 tubs of wipes for $.89 each. (I had a second trip so not everything is pictured.)

 

Weekly total: spent $61.61, saved $140.62! 
70% savings

ABC's of Me

Fun blog post for the day. Thanks Jamie!

1. Age: 33
2. Bed size: king
3. Chore you hate: all of them...okay, really, it's cleaning the bathrooms!
4. Dogs: Yes, we have one, but we won't be getting another if I have any say.
5. Essential start to your day: Kiss from the hubby and seeing my little guy with big smiles!
6. Favorite color: purple
7. Gold or silver: I like both, but gold really does look better on me.
8. Height: 5’ 5"
9. Instruments that you can play: none
10. Job title: Program Coordinator (think...meeting planner) and Mom
11. Kids: Drake - 1
12. Live: Illinois
13. Mom’s name: Lynette
14. Nicknames: AP, Ambular
15. Overnight hospital stays: 2 - surgery as a toddler for removal of hemangioma and for the birth of Drake
16. Pet peeve: negative nelly's!
17. Quote from a movie:I rarely watch movies and even when I do, I can't remember quotes from them.
18. Righty or lefty: Righty
19. Sibling: Two - Chad & Michelle
20. Time you wake up: 6:00am
21. Underwear: bikini
22. Vegetables you dislike: lots! Better off going with the ones I like - green beans, peas, corn, carrots
23. What makes you run late: Trying to do too much in too little time.
24. X-rays: Arm and Leg
25. Yummy food you make: I'd have to go with some of the casseroles we used to eat when I was a child. Not much of a chef.
26. Zoo favorite animal: Panda bear

If you blog. fill out your own ABC’s and leave me a link in the comments so I can check out yours.

BEAUTIFUL Weekend!

After two crazy weeks with work, it was so nice to have some great weather for our family time! We have been outside every day since Thursday.

On Friday night, we went to our neighbors to watch the Illinois game. It was nice to just hang out and Drake didn't do too bad going down to sleep at their house.

My parents came into town on Saturday so we met them for lunch and then headed to the zoo! The last time I took Drake was about a year ago, and he slept the whole time. This time he loved looking at the animals, even if a lot of them were sleeping. :-)  

Walking like such a big boy!!!

After the zoo, Drake took a nap and then we grilled out steaks for dinner.

I was in the nursery at church this morning and then Jason, Drake and I went to the Sr. High service because our niece was getting baptized!

 

It was such an exciting morning!! This is Kali's boyfriend, Shawn, baptizing her!

The Great Grocery Challenge - Week 22

 

Walgreens (2 trips) - spent $11.22, saved $84.90

Walgreens was pretty awesome this week!

Reach toothbrushes: $1.59 each, used $2/2 manufacturer coupon, got $4 RR = $1.64 MONEY MAKER!
Right Guard Deoderant: on sale B1G1, used 2 man. coupon B1G1 = 4 free!

Irish Spring Deoderant: on sale 2/$6, $4 RR, used $1/1 man. coupon = 4 free!

Quaker granola bars: on clearance for 50 cents each, used $0.75/2 man. coupon = 12 cents each!
Sinex: on sale for $5.49 with in ad coupon, used $4/1 man. coupon + free Puffs w/ purchase of Vicks =  $4.47 for 3 Vicks & 3 Puffs

CVS: spent $11.66, saved $51.02

Target - spent $4.29, saved $8.74

Meijer - spent $50.75, saved $27.90

Needless to say, not my best week at Meijer. 2 Gallons of milk at $2.79 each and $14.99 for beer certainly didn't help.

I did get a few awesome deals though:

Puffs: on sale for 99 cents, used $0.50/1 coupon = free!

Hot Sauce: reg. 99 cents, used 2-$0.50/1 coupons = 2 free!

Dial Hand Soap: on sale for 99 cents, used 3-$0.35/1 coupons = 29 cents each!


Weekly Total: spent $77.92, saved $172.56

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had so much fun tonight!! I got home from a conference this afternoon after 8 straight days of busyness! I was so excited to pick up this little man and get a little time to play outside. It got up to 70* in Central Illinois today! We ran around outside and even tried out the swing. He freaked out! Hopefully next time we try it, he will like it. He loved it last summer. I'm really looking forward to spending some time with him and Jason this weekend!

The Great Grocery Challenge - Week 21

This week has been crazy!! Our sitter was on vacation, Jason traveled to Atlanta for work Monday through Wednesday, I had a large conference in Thursday through Saturday, and then I was at a meeting all day today. Luckily, I was able to get a little shopping done last Sunday though...couldn't miss the deals. :-)

CVS - spent $0.07, saved $37.42!

Used $3/1 Revitalens, 2-$2/1 Wisk, & 2-B1G1 Trident coupons plus ECB (got a free ind. cereal and Propel, too!)

Walgreens: spent $2.37, saved $26.05

Used: $0.50 Wags coupon for salt, $5 off Wags coupon for PediaCare, $0.69 Wags coupon for Orbit gum, 2-$1/1 Jimmy Dean, Free Propel coupon, $1/1 Always, 2-$1/1 PediaCare, and B1G1 Orbit coupon

Target: spent $5.43, saved $18.22!

Meijer: spent $3.56, saved $5.28!

Weekly Total: spent $11.43, saved $86.97 (88% savings)!

I'm not sure about you (particularly those who coupon), but I used to not care too much about paying an extra dollar or two for something. Okay, I'll admit there are still a few things I'm willing to spend a little more on (like jeans, some shoes, etc.). But, now that I have been spending so much time reviewing websites for deals, printing coupons, clipping coupons, organizing coupons, planning my trips, and actually going on those trips every dollar matters to me. This week, I had two issues with the cashiers. One was at Walgreen's where the cashier didn't scan all of my coupons. I noticed before I paid and got it correct, but come on. The second happened at Target, and I didn't notice until I was looking at my receipt at home. Ugh. It's really not a big deal, but it is just frustrating. Hope you all got some great deals this week, too!

My new {favorite} picture!

The Great Grocery Challenge - Week 20

Walgreen's: spent $14.78, saved $50.07

 CVS: spent $1.74, saved $24.16 

(ugh...forgot my CVS gift card again!)

Kroger: spent $23.35, saved $8.74  

(I'm still learning here, and I purchased dog food.)

Meijer: spent $31.21, saved $43.58

Weekly Total: spent $71.08, saved $126.55 (64% savings)

There is one cabinet we haven't babyproofed in the kitchen, and Drake has found it! :-)

(yes, it's time for another haircut!)

He likes to pull everything out,but today he actually put a few things back and managed to crawl inside the cabinet! Love this kid!!