Apple & Pork Festival

After church on Sunday, we headed down to Clinton to the Apple & Pork Festival. We grabbed some lunch and wandered around the vendor booths and then came home. It was a beautiful day to be outside and enjoy the weather.

 

 

The Great Grocery Challenge

 

Walgreens: OOP $3.20, Saved $6.20 (74%)

I must say that I probably won't be shopping Walgreens much anymore. Unless they have some great RR deals, I just don't want to deal with their new Balance Rewards program. I stopped in this week to use up an expiring RR.

 Target: OOP $5.94, Saved $19.88 (77%)

I was pretty excited about my Target trip this week! Haven't had one like this in a while. Go here or here to see the details.  

CVS: OOP $13.55, Saved $38.88 (74%)

Meijer: OOP $29.03, Saved $51.79 (64%)

Weekly Totals: OOP $51.72, Saved $116.75 (69%)

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Colin: 4 Months

Dear Colin,

You are FOUR months old on your Uncle Chad's Birthday! Time is going so quickly and you are getting so big.

We have been very busy with play dates and running errands that your daytime sleep hasn't been very consistent. (bad momma!) Unfortunately, I am pretty sure this is the reason that we haven't locked into a great nighttime sleep pattern. I'm sorry, baby, and am working on being better about this with you.

Thankfully, when you are awake you are pretty happy and love interacting with everyone around you. I love your smile and giggles!

You have rolled over...twice. You went from your back to your belly (over your right shoulder) on September 14 and again a few days later.  I haven't seen you do it again, but I'm trying. :-) You do great with tummy time staying there for a couple minutes and holding your head nice and high. 

You enjoy seeing everything around you and are sitting up really nice in the bumbo seat.

You are drooling like crazy!

You have the longest, fullest eyelashes and everyone who sees them comments on them. :-) 

You still LOVE your bathtime and get very excited when you hear the water running.

You are still nursing every 3 hours and taking a 7 ounce bottle for your 7pm feeding. When I was trying to figure out if you were up at night because you were hungry, momma's friend let me weigh you before and after a feeding. According to the scale, you were getting 4 ounces and weigh around 14 pounds! (We'll get your official stats at your well baby visit on Monday.)

You are still wearing size 1 diapers (except a size 2 overnight) and 3 month clothes. I've washed your 6 month clothes though because I have a feeling we'll be moving into them very quickly. We'll also be moving to size 2 diapers when we run out of these size ones.

Happy 4 month birthday!

Love,
Momma

The Great Grocery Challenge

 

CVS: OOP $23.87, Saved $38.82
*2 Gallons of Milk and Hershey's candy not pictured.

Even though my out of pocket was higher than I normally like, I ended up with some awesome deals on snacks for Colin when he is ready. Did you get a coupon mailer from CVS with lots of baby coupons? I got one over the weekend and it was perfect timing with this week's sale.

Meijer: OOP $29.41, Saved $62.86

Weekly Totals: OOP $53.28, Saved $101.68 (66%)

This turned into a pretty good week considering we had to pick up dog food. :-) Those weeks are always a little high since it's a "big" purchase - close to $18 of my budget. I'm also discovering that I need to buy a lot more snack and breakfast foods since I have two extra kids here 5 days each week. I'm also feeding Drake and I lunch every day at home. Hopefully things will level out soon because we can't keep going over budget.

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Colin!

How is my little guy getting SO big? I feel like I haven't posted too many pictures of him lately since he's usually in the stroller when we've been out and about at activities. Here's a few to show you how much he has changed. 

Trying to get him to roll over! He has done it once, but that is it.

Look how much he can pull himself forward while sitting in the bouncy seat!? He's got quite the abs. :-)

Colin looks like a little scared, but I'm sure it's just the angle. Drake loves his baby brother.

Tummy Time!

Sitting in the Bumbo

I'll be posting his 3 month pictures as soon as I get the CD. He didn't give too many of his great smiles, but there are some good ones in there.

Drake's First Trip to the Dentist

Drake has been complaining about his teeth hurting when he eats. I knew his 2 year molars were coming in but I couldn't tell if they were all in or not so I didn't know if that was causing the pain. It was going on for a while and has made him not want to finish his meals so we decided it was time to get him into the dentist. They got him in yesterday morning, and he did great! I was so proud of him. We talked about it the day before that he would need to let the doctor look at his teeth to see if there was something that was causing him to hurt. He sat up in the chair like such a big boy and opened his mouth right up.

 

 Dr. Sylvester counted his teeth and said he didn't see anything. Drake's upper right molar isn't all the way through yet so that could be what he is feeling. The rest are in though.

The hygienist took him to pick out a toothbrush and toothpaste and then he got to put coins in a gumball machine that gave him two bouncy balls! I swear it wasn't this much fun when I went to the dentist at his age. :-)

We had to get a picture with the doctor. Don't you love Drake's "cheese" face? We really need to work on not squinting. lol!

I was so proud of my little guy. At his 2-year pediatrician appointment, he would not let Dr. Rosa look in his mouth - threw a complete fit, so I am so excited that this trip to the dentist went well. 

Apple Orchard

I made a quick road trip with the boys this weekend to my college roommate's house. We drove up late Saturday and went to Edward's Apple Orchard on Sunday. It was a BEAUTIFUL day which also meant that the orchard was packed. 

 

 

And, here's what it looks like when you attempt to get three kiddos between one and four to look at the camera at the same time. :-)

 

 

 

 

 

It was a quick trip and pretty crazy, but we had a great time! Hoping for a lot more beautiful fall weekends like this one. 

The Great Grocery Challenge

 

 Walgreens: OOP $9.56, Saved $12.18 (58%)

You can see the details of this trip here.

CVS: OOP $7.34, Saved $13.47 (65%)

Meijer: OOP $85.01, Saved $54.23

Weekly Totals: OOP $101.91, Saved $79.88 

YIKES! This week was awful at the store. My month isn't going so well...

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Wordless Wednesday: Grandparents

Sunday was Grandparents Day and my kiddos got to spend a little time with their grandparents because they were in town for Colin's dedication.

 

Colin's Dedication

Yesterday, Jason and I dedicated Colin at church. If you aren't familiar, this is the time when we thank God for the blessing of a child and dedicate our lives to raising him to know and love the Lord. Mike (our pastor) does a short service with families and refers back to the passage in 1 Samuel where Hannah is dedicating her son, Samuel to the Lord - I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord (1 Samuel 1:27-28).

We are so thankful and blessed to have two healthy, thriving boys.

 

 

You can see Drake's dedication here.

The Great Grocery Challenge

 

 (missing 4 Kraft Shredded Cheeses)

Meijer Trip #1: OOP $21.43, Saved $82.56 (79%)
*You can read about this trip here if you're interested.

Meijer Trip #2: OOP $12.71, Saved $111.28 (90%)

Meijer Trip #3: OOP $18.38, Saved $1.00 (Dog Food!)

Meijer Trip #4: OOP $5.44, Saved $0.49

Yes...we really were at Meijer 4 times this week! It wasn't planned that way and it is not normal, but we had Colin's dedication this week and I forgot a couple things and then realized we were out of dog food. This totally destroyed the budget, but hopefully we'll be back on track for a while.

Target: OOP $8.68, Saved $26.05 (76%)

CVS: OOP $0.64, Saved $5.00 (89%)

Aldi: OOP $20.28

Weekly Totals: OOP $87.56, Saved $225.38 (72% savings)

Even though I went way over budget my savings was still pretty good! I'll have to watch the next couple weeks will be lower to offset this overage.  

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Labor Day

We had a great Labor Day weekend! It rained all day Saturday so Jason spent a lot of time in the basement working on plumbing for the bathroom. We went to church on Sunday and then met my parents halfway for lunch.

On Monday, we headed to the Labor Day parade and had lunch at Moe's with our friends.

 

 The Big Red Marching Machine!

 

 

 The Barickman's!!

It was much warmer than we thought it was going to be and we were in the sun so we headed out early. Of course, this means that we missed some of the groups/people we would have really liked to see.

While the kiddos were napping, I got out to do a little shopping at Target and Meijer by myself. :-)