Road Trip

Last Wednesday I was checking out what the weather was supposed to do for the upcoming weekend. Since I had the weekend off I was hoping to get outside and get some yardwork done or work on remodeling our half bath. Not to my surprise the forecast was calling for rain...rain, rain, and more rain. I sent Eric a text and said "Gonna rain this weekend" and he quickly texted back "Road trip?" ABSOLUTELY! That's just what we need! A weekend out of the house, whether it's raining where we go or not at least we won't be cooped up in our own house for another weekend of dreary rain! We got ahold of our friends who live in Virginia, who just happen to have a baby Ava's age ;o). It sounded like a perfect weekend ... they know just the boat we're in when it comes to maintaining a social life with an infant (quite difficult to balance the two:). We all thought it would be a blast to hang out and chill together for the weekend and see our two babies together -- and was it ever! :) We ate wonderfully...enjoyed the company...loved watching our babies together...and came home refreshed! (Even though Ava wasn't a great sleeper...we'll let that slide:) Can't thank those two enough for their wonderful hospitality ;).

Sometimes its fun to just get together with another mommy and talk nothing but baby (oh, and hair!:). Our babies were due 2 weeks apart, but Ella came 8 weeks early. So they are pretty much at the same point developmentally, even though Ella is 7 months old and Ava is only 5 months. As different as all babies are from one another they are also so similar! The same goes for mommies:). It's comforting hearing another mommy talk about the same kind of struggles as well as delights that I'm experiencing with Ava (not sleeping through the night...not a great nap taker...how difficult it is to clip those little baby fingernails!...babysitter struggles...maintaining a social life, etc.). We had a good time. The next time we get together these babies will be mobile and keeping us even busier!


The mommy's went shopping after lunch and the daddy's took the babies home. This is what we found upon our return...priceless.



Ella & Ava



Ava's other buddy for the weekend, Marley:)



Ava checking out that bald head of Ella's :)






The Coen's :)



So SILLY!



Check out her amazing eyelashes!!



The babies checking on another out :)



Ready for their mini road trip.



On top of the mountain overlooking Roanoke. Pretty cool view. A little windy out though!


We only stayed out for about 5 minutes...would've been neat to walk around a little more but the wind was whipping and taking the babies' breath so we thought we better make it a quick trip!


Ava's new favorite activity...bouncing in Ella's bouncer! She was showing Ella how to do it...Ella's a little too short yet to reach her little toes on the floor to jump...but Ava was a maniac in this thing!


Sweet Cheeks Ella

**Check this lil booger out in this jumper! She LOVED it ... we're going to trade her Einstein's jumper in for this one...she just really enjoyed this one!!

Practicing for the Riverdance ... hehe

Bounce, Bounce, Baby!

We've noticed Ava getting more and more interactive and playful lately! She really gets excited in her doorway Jump & Go! It is hilarious (to us anyways:)! She has a Baby Einstein's jumper/activity center too, but the seat isn't deep enough for her to sink down into so she kind of wobbles around in that one. I got a little video of her trying out her jumping legs ... Enjoy!

P.S. This one's for you Jennifer R.! :) Hee, hee!




**See J.R., Ava can do more than flap her "wings" ;)!**
(For those of you who are wondering, a coworker of mine jokingly commented on my video posts and said that all my videos of Ava capture her doing the same thing over and over... like flapping her arms...and it must be a mom-thing that these moments are so special. I said "Heck yea they are!" haha. ) So here you go Jen, not only can she imitate a bird, she's a pretty good frog when she wants to be too!=o)

Silly Cereal Time

I was feeding Ava some cereal the other day about mid-afternoon when a serious dose of the sillies hit her. It was cracking me up! Here's the evidence. ;)

Happy 5 months Ava!

Seriously? It's been a month already ?? Oh my, where is the time going ... really. Since I've gone back to work the days and weeks just fly by! I feel like Ava grows and changes everyday. I go to work and come home (especially after working two 12's in a row) and feel like she's grown so much! Our days are filled with routine and busy-ness. :) As a mom to this squealing, babbling, wiggling 5 month old I have to say that its not possible for me to love my life with her any more than I do right now! She is a ray of sunshine to us... our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. :) I love being her mommy!

We started green beans with the munchkin ... this is her first food since rice cereal. She gives me the bitter-beer-face with almost every bite, hehe. We do cereal in the morning and green beans in the evening. I think we'll move on to peas next week.

Ava naps about every 2 hrs. She takes a long nap in the morning (about 1 &1/2 hrs) and then 30-40 min naps the rest of the day. She is super crabby without her naps. :) I LOVE rocking her for her naps. Its our time to really cuddle and we both enjoy it. I love watching her eyes drift into a sleepy slumber ... and I LOVE how she reaches her little fingers up to my face and "talks" to me as we both rock back and forth. I will never forget the one time when she put her hand on my chin and started cracking up laughing ... it was kind of a, I'm-so-sleepy-I'll-laugh-at-anything chuckle ... cutest thing ever, just out of the blue started laughing as she held onto my chin. Silly girl.

She has recently discovered her thumb. :) She doesn't really suck on it, but gnaws on it with her toothless gums. She doesn't suck on anything really ... occasionally she'll take her binky for naps but not often.

She's been talking up a storm lately. She's throwing in some consonants in her babbling ... I'm hearing some m's and b's in all that gibberish. :)

Here are some pics for the month ... can't wait til this weather breaks and we can enjoy the outdoors a little more!!


Smiley face!!



So serious ...


Silly girl



Gnawing on her thumb ... :)





Cutie pie ...



Green bean deliciousness :)

This months's coupon savings ...

I tried to save all of my grocery shopping receipts for the past month since I just got into this coupon craze. I'm pretty sure I got an adrenaline high this past week at Kroger while grocery shopping ... my neck and chest got all red and blotchy (and those of you who know me well know that I wear my emotions on my neck! haha) as my excitement hightened when I saw all the FABULOUS deals they were having ... who knew that was possible!! haha. I looked like one of those stereotypical die-hard grocery shopping, deal making, money saving moms frantically wheeling my grocery cart up and down the isles flipping through my coupon book as unexpected great deals grabbed my eye and I couldn't pass up the savings. My heart rate is rising as I talk about it ... haha. No really, I got some items for FREE ... that's something to get excited about. Now if I were a really good couponer I would've gone home, printed off more coupons, and went back to the store to get more for FREE. The best items I could've gotten for free were airwick airfreshners. They were on sale for $1 and I had a $.50 off coupon (which is doubled at Kroger), so there you have it, the item was free. :) Okay I'm going into way more detail than I planned on for this post ... I just wanted to tell you all how much I saved using coupons this month and look where it took me. :)

I'm proud to announce that I saved $ 191.36. This was 28% of my total spent on groceries for the month. I included diapers and formula in my total spent. So the savings percentage would be greater if I did not include those items, but I don't really feel like doing the math for that right now. ;) Not bad for a rookie couponer. :)

Now that I have an idea of how much I can save (I'm sure I'll become more of a strategic shopper as I get more practice with it ... which means saving more $!) I'm trying to decide what I should do with the "extra" money ... more $ in Ava's college fund? Christmas fund? Vacation fund? Savings? Investments? The possibilities are endless! hehe:) This is really neat.

First Family Photo Shoot

We had our pictures taken a couple weeks ago at Target. It was a combination of Family Easter pictures and Ava's 4 month pictures. I wanted to wait until Ava was able to smile 'on command' before her first official photo shoot, and she's doing that very well these days! :) It was a fun time. Ava did wonderful. A little worn out and tired of the camera in her face by the second outfit change, but overall she was a peach. :)








My Favorite.






My goodness I love these footsies.

Portia's New Look ;o)

We have hardwood floors on the entire first floor of our house. We really didn't think about how Portia's nails would affect this floor when we first bought our home ... nor did we think about it when we were buying area rugs -- or they would've covered a larger area. We've lately noticed that Portia's nails are doing a huge disservice to the beautiful hardwood flooring in our living room. We keep her nails clipped pretty short, and she loves to chew her nails anyway (I know, weird:), but despite our efforts to protect the floor, her 130lbs of chubby love are continuing to chip and scratch our floors.

Here's our solution ...



Paw-tectors :)

~They're even rubberized so she doesn't slip and slide on the hardwood floors. C'mon, it was a good idea! :)

Organic Food Coupons

Just found this one ... its going to be one of my favorites! I like to buy a lot of organic products but I find these items a little pricey if I don't really hunt around for good deals. So here's a good coupon site for organic products ... if that interests you :)

• www.mambosprouts.com
  

Ask and you shall receive :)

Many of you are asking about my couponing sites so here's a list of the ones I like to go to. Keep in mind that to print a coupon from pretty much all of these sites you have to install the "coupon printer" ... so do that when you're prompted. I listed some sites here that you can just load the coupons onto your grocery card, too. I really like those! :) Also, read 'Coupon Mom's' pamphlet about saving money with coupons. She's a serious saver and her strategies are neat to read about. :)

• www.couponmom.com


• www.coupons.com


• www.couponsuzy.com


• www.cellfire.com --> neat one b/c you can upload the coupons onto your grocery card instead of printing them!


• www.smartsource.com


• www.shortcuts.com -->another one you can upload to your grocery card.


• www.bettycrocker.com --> this one sends good recipes to your email, coupons as well.


• www.hotcouponworld.com


• www.p&gesaver.com


• www.eatbetteramerica.com


• www.eatingwell.com

So, as far as baby coupons ... you can go to Similac.com and sign up to receive newsletters in the mail where they'll occassionally send you similac coupons. Pampers.com does the same thing ... although there are a lot of coupons out there for pampers. I've also found that you can go to ebay and search for coupons. A lot of times you'll find people getting rid of their similac coupons ... its usually something like, $25 or $30 worth of coupons for $5 bucks or so ... and free shipping of course, so there's a little savings there.

These are sites for non-grocery coupons & savings :

• www.slickdeals.net


• www.fatwallet.com


• www.couponcabin.com

Enjoy! :)

P.S. I've been slacking on my blogging lately, but I have some SUPER cute pics of Ava to post ... its been crazy around here for the past week, but I'll try to get those on here soon!

Happy St. Patty's Day! :o)

Feeling lost ... ;-)

Well ... it's Monday ... usually right about now I'm getting swirlies in my belly thinking about what's going to happen next on my favorite show that would normally start at 8pm tonight.

Sadly, The Bachelor is over... sniff, sniff. I'm not even excited for the upcoming season of The Bachelorette (Jillian was not my favorite). Although I am very disappointed in Bachelor Jason for his lack of commitment to Melissa (because I picked her as the girl who would win his heart from the FIRST episode!), I suppose I'm happy for his happiness... even though I liked Melissa better than Molly. I will admit ... I was slightly obsessed with the show ... and might've had a little crush on the bachelor. ;)

On the upside ... American Idol will surely feed my need for reality tv! :) PLUS, it's on 2, sometimes even 3, nights a week!! I'll keep you posted on my picks of the week!! Don't be fooled, my husband loves the show as much as I do ... maybe more? :)