by Heather
0 comments

Sisters

I wasn’t fortunate enough to have any sisters while growing up, but I did get two when my dad remarried :) Gabby and Danielle, far more girly than I’ll ever be and two of the most lovely ladies! And Kate, she’ll be my sister some day if my brother ever gets around to popping the question! This past weekend we spent an afternoon together visiting antique shops and thrift stores :)

Gabby

Danielle

Kate

by Heather
0 comments

Happy Father’s Day

For Andy’s first Father’s Day we took Ben swimming at the YMCA camp’s outdoor pool. I didn’t take any pictures because honestly, I was just focused on getting there and enjoying it. Ben was pretty scared of all the screaming and splashing from other kids and I don’t blame him. Andy said “Everyone else brought their spawn to the pool on Father’s Day too!” There was a little kiddie area with sprinklers and a small wading area that he enjoyed much better. Poor kid looked kind of dorky in his hat, surf shirt, shorts and spf50…if he’s anything like his mama he’ll burn real good and I didn’t want to take a chance.

I bought Andy this child bike seat, not a gift totally for him…but he loves riding bikes and we didn’t do it last year because I was large and pregnant (read unsteady and even more clumsy than usual). So this year I wanted to make sure we were able to get out as a family and do it. I guess you’re not supposed to strap your kid in a bike seat until they’re a year old, but Ben sits up fine and didn’t seem bothered by the bike helmet so I think it’ll work out well!

I’m so thankful for Andy and how awesome a daddy he is! Hope you had a nice Father’s Day too :)

My dad with Ben a few weeks ago.

by Heather
0 comments

8 months

You’re turning into such a sweet little boy, smiley and squishy. Happy most of the time, unless we put you down. You’ve figured out the pack ‘n play is the place we leave you sometimes and you don’t like it one bit. You’re crawling really well now, we may have to put the baby gates up soon.

You’ve tried a bunch of foods and like them all. Carrots, apples, bananas, rice, oatmeal, squash, corn, green beans, peas, potatoes, pears, avocado, whole milk yogurt and grapes. You’ve started grabbing the little flavored puffs and grapes I’ve cut up and put them in your mouth. Mechanics of it are still kind of awkward but you’re definitely starting to feed yourself. You’ve also got two teeth, your front bottom ones.

You say “Dadadada” all day and “Eeeeeee!” when you see the kitties. And you pant like a dog when you get excited, silly boy!

by Heather
2 Comments

The Colby Spot

A few months ago the vet found a heart murmur at Colby’s check up. We went to a specialist and he got an echocardiogram which showed he did have a little hole in his heart. He went back this week to have it checked again and they found the hole hadn’t gotten any bigger, so it may just be the way his little heart is. It doesn’t seem to bother him, but they did have to shave his side :) We call it the Colby Spot, so soft!

Ben loves the Colby Spot! Actually he just loves the kitties. Jack isn’t so much a fan of the squealy baby, but Colby really seems to like him.

by Heather
0 comments

Geocaching

We went Geocaching last night and I wore Ben in the baby carrier. Normally I wear him up front, but I tried him on my back for the first time and he did pretty well.

I dyed my hair red last week too, but rinsed the dye out sooner than 25 minutes because I was a chicken and thought it might be blotchy (I’m not great at it yet). It turned out fine, just not as red as it was supposed to be had I left it in the whole time.

Andy making a silly face. He also hiked his socks up to avoid the poison ivy. I wore pants ;-)

Andy found the cache.

We went to a local park afterwards. Ben tried out the slide and made a new friend!

He didn’t exactly know what to think about the swings.

by Heather
0 comments

Couponing

Not the crazy lady, bowl you over with her cart, steal every last deodorant on the shelf kind of couponing. Just the normal, save a few bucks here and there type. A few people have asked so I thought I’d write a little bit about it.

First, I follow a bunch of bloggers on twitter and let them do the work for me. They post their coupons and I just scan tweets instead of going to all their blogs separately. Some I follow are PennyPinchinMom, MojoSavings, AFewShortCuts, CouponsDealsandMore, FrugalCouponMom, Hip2Save and MoneySavingMom.

Coupons.com and Target.com have printable coupons that are usually pretty useful.

Slickdeals, BabySteals, KidsWoot and BabyCheapskate usually have some good deals going on. Not coupons really, but if you’re looking for something and they happen to post it you can get it pretty cheap.

Finally, we don’t get the Sunday paper…but I stumbled on a tip to check out the library for older papers that they’re just going to recycle anyway. It may not work for huge city libraries, but the librarian at our little local one was more than willing to set aside the coupons for me. I just pop in once a week to grab them, kind of cool!

I don’t really have time to do the drug store side of couponing (using their member’s card to rack up points towards future purchases). I usually just use them at Wegmans and Target. Wegmans will double coupons up to a dollar and if you plan it right you can use manufacturer AND store coupons to bring down the price of something. Pair that with an in store special and sometimes you can get a pretty great deal.

Do you guys use coupons? Where’s your favorite place to find them? Any tips or hints for me? I’m kind of new at this whole adventure!