I have to share

I have a few things to share...first I just want to thank my MOPS friends today. We had a meeting, and honestly...I didn't feel like going. I wasn't ready, we've been busy a lot and not home much, the girls obviously both wanted to stay home, however I am a table leader and I had to be there. For some reason, on the way there, all my emotions started welling up inside me, and by the time I got Nicole in the nursery, I had tears in my eyes. Why? Who knows??? I cry a lot. I think though it's just my way of getting feelings out of me. Most of the time when I cry it's something very small that brings it on. However, I feel better almost every time I cry. Anyway...sweet Jennifer was at the door and I walk up with huge tears in my eyes explaining that I didn't know why I wasn't crying...hahhaa. Anyway...the point was not that I cried today, but that I enjoyed being with other moms who are supportive and encouraging. I'm thankful I get to be a part of the group. I have no idea why I'm a table leader because I am always frazzled, and never put together, and I feel like I don't have much to offer anyone. I always walk away feeling blessed by everyone else and I just pray that somehow someone else walks away feeling blest my be in all my craziness! hahaha.

Hannah is spitting up like a champ....it's getting so bad that I am seriously considering taking major items out of my diet to see if it's the milk doing this to her. Those of you who know me know this is big and it must be bad, because I've never been willing to do this before. I think after I eat my brownies tonight I'm going to do some research and evaluate what I need to get rid of (or maybe add). She also has a rash were she got her vaccines. I'm pretty sure those are the last vaccines she's getting for a long long time.

Finally, I went to Publix today because I needed to pick up brownie mix and supplies because (I thought) I was going to be making a pie today. I used a few coupons and got some great deals I just had to share!

My total was $36.56. I used $9 in Q and about $12 in sales and BOGOs so I saved a little over $21. My total out of pocket was $14.89. Here were the great ones....

College Inn Chicken and Beef broth $2.79

BOGO and 2 $1/1Q made them $.79/2 or $.40each:-) (bought 4)

Nestle chocolate chips $2.50

BOGO and $1/2 Q made them $1.50/2 or $.75 each:-) (bought 4)

Glade whisp refill $3.50

Clearance $1.75 and $1/1 Q made it $.75

Organic Dark chocolate candy bar $2.99

$1/1 Publix Q and $1/1 Mfct Q made it $.99

I had to buy my brownie mix and pie crust full price :-( and an unexpected pear because nicole was hungry and took a bite out of it:-) I was pretty excited though about my beef broth and choc. chips. Woohoo:-) So...if I didn't buy the pie crust (which I don't need now) or the pear, which Nicole ate, then my total out of pocket would have been about $10...that would have been great.

OK...my brownies smell good, and I need to go. Have a super day!

Who for President?

Nicole has her own special endorsement:-)

I put the pack n play up in the kitchen and Hannah sat and played long enough for me to do the dishes. My dad has been telling me to do this since Nicole was born. Why didn't I listen to him sooner?

A silly daddy/daughter moment

I hate vaccines!!

ok...I guess that's not totally true because I am honestly glad small pox and polio aren't around much anymore...but I hate what they do to my kids! Poor Hannah has had a fever since early this morning....and been crying a good portion of her awake time. She's also (hopefully) cutting teeth very soon. I have not touched my house in two days because I've been so tired I've had to take a nap...or try to anyway when both were down at same (short )time. I thought I was done with waking in the middle of the night. As my dear mother in law always reminds me...this is such a short season in my life...so short in fact that probably in a few weeks I'll have forgotten about it:-) I just want my poor baby girl to feel better.

On a different note, I voted today, did not wait in line & nicole sang her abc's for everyone in the poll booths. I'll take a picture of her when she wakes up...she has a cute shirt on for today.

Hannah's 6 month check

Can you believe little Hannah is already 6 months old??? The time has went by much faster than it did with Nicole. Hannah went to the Dr. today for her check up and a couple of vaccines. First of all...Hannah is perfectly average, with height and weight anyway...she's hanging tight in the 50th percentile. (of course we all know in intelligence she is extremely advanced! haha). Hannah was 15lbs 8oz and 25 inches long The Dr. was happy with how she is sitting up, "flying" on her tummy and "talking". I told her that I was a bit concerned because Hannah doesn't bare her weight on her feet when I stand her up. She did this and commented that she CAN bear her weight, but she is to lazy too. Hannah wants me to do all the work :-) She gave me a few little exercise to help encourage her. Hannah also spits up ALL the time. She gave me a few things to try to help ease this, so we'll see. We could also see two teeth getting ready to cut through very soon. Perhaps this explains the fussiness and not sleeping much in the past few days.

Nicole went to the Dr. with me and she commented on how tall Nicole is. We measured her and she was about 37 inches and 33 lbs. Oh....Nicole went to the bathroom while at the Dr. office and took a cup and asked it to be filled with water because she was thirsty. A few minutes later we discovered it was actually a urine sample cup!!! Un-used of course, but still a bit gross anyway. It gave us a good little chuckle before Hannah's shots:-)

Then, we went to the mall and had pizza. I went to get shoes for Jeremy and my mom took Nicole to get ice cream. Nicole knew exactly what she wanted and pointed at the chocolate sundae (that's my girl!). I ate a double doozie...oh....I just love those things. It was much past nap time, so we came home and here I've been listening to Hannah, and at times Nicole, cry for the past hour and a half. Grandmas....please don't let me stay out past nap time. It simply isn't worth it. My poor mom kept trying to hurry me along and remind me of the time, but I was just having a good old time eating and shopping. I thought the girls would be fine...really, I should know better! So...I have to be home by 1 every day, no exceptions!!!!

Well, Hannah is finally asleep, Nicole I think is on her way, she's fighting it pretty hard though.

Don't forget to vote tomorrow if you haven't already!!!
Yes on Ammendment 2

Money Saving Monday

I had a much better week at the grocery story yesterday. First of all, I went ALL BY MYSELF!!!! You other moms of young children I'm sure appreciate that comment. It is so much easier to go grocery shopping alone. Most other things I can do with them without much of a problem, but for me....grocery shopping is much easier when no one else is with me and I can concentrate. Jeremy spent the morning with them (of course with a promise from me that I would make French Toast when I got home:-) I think he had fun with them. When I drove up, Nicole and Hannah were both in the little kiddie pool outside playing. Yay for fun daddy!

OK...on to my shopping. I was $10 under my budget which was GREAT! I've been way over my budget lately, so this gives me hope that a change is in the future. However, I must admit I didn't buy my meat at Publix...I went to Sams later, so that blew my budget a bit. Here were my savings at the big P.
Coupons..$21.45
Advertised /Advantage buys...$34.74
In store savings... $4.77
Total Savings...60.96!!!

Woohoo! Here were some of my best purchases. (Q means Coupon, BOGO means Buy One Get One free)
Green Giant Veggie steamers - 50% off, minus $1/1 Q= FREE (bought 3 packs)
4 Uncle Ben's Rice dinner/sides - BOGO $1.59 /2 minus $1/2 coupon = $.56/2 or .28/1
2 cans Muir Glen organic dice tomatoes $2.67/2 minus $1/2 mft Q and $1/1 Pub Q = $.67/2 or $.32/1
Stouffer frozen family size lasagna reg price $6.49, sale $5.00 minus $.75 Q = $4.25
Brailla pasta sauce BOGO $2.83 minus 2 Q $.60 = $1.63/2 or $.81 each (bought 2)
Clearance deals (wouldn't have been able to do this with kiddos in tow, to many distractions...)
Beachnut baby cereal. Reg. price $2.39, on clearance for $1.30...minus $1/1 = $.30 per box (bought 2)
Triamic Vicks Formula (cough and cold syrup) Reg. price $3.99, on clearance for $2.00 minus$1/1Q = $1.00

Those were my best deals...other BOGO items with no Q
Arnold Whole wheat bread
E.L. Fudge cookies (Jeremy doesn't know I have those yet....I was going to break them out for a special occasion....hmmm...he'll be reading this post soon oh well)
Lays potato chips
Olivio butter spread

Hallelujah Night

Our church has a big festival called "Hallelujah Night" as an alternative to Halloween. They had over 65 game booths, pony rides, hay rides, laser tag, bounce houses, food....just about everything you could think of (except I couldn't find the Kettle Corn this year:-( So...that's what we did last night. I have so many pictures....are you ready??? Hannah was about the silliest, cutest clown you have ever seen....and Nicole LOVED her braids and face paint for her Indian costume. Seriously....there is nothing cuter than this!

The girls with their little friends, Peyton (spider man) and Caulder (lion)

This would have been a great family picture if it wasn't a bit blury. Oh well....I still love it.

The end of the night. Nicole is almost asleep, and Yaya is trying to warm her under her sweater.

Bonfires and photo shoots

Good morning to you! I have so many fun pictures to share, I hope I can get them all uploaded:-) I'm excited to dress Nicole up like an Indian today and Hannah like a clown. However, I'm having problems with Nicole...now she wants to be a clown like Hannah:-( I think this stemmed from yesterday....
We were making Nicole's feather headpiece for her costume. It was finished and on her head, and I told her to run into her room to look at it (she has mirror closet doors). She ran alright, and tripped and fell right into the corner of the door. I was fully expecting a smashed nose and blood everywhere...she hit THAT hard. However, she wasn't hurt that bad, a small fat lip and several minutes of crying. poor thing. Anyway, I think she's afraid to put that head piece back on. GREAT! I'll try to post pictures tomorrow of the little cuties.

Well...bon fire season for us is in full force. Jeremy, Nicole and I sat outside last night for an hour, then Nicole went to bed and Jeremy and I stayed out for another couple of hours. Nicole sat on Jeremy's lap half the time and mine the other half. She just loved it! She wanted to fall asleep out there:-)


Nicole and I had a photo shoot with Hannah the other day. Hannah is fully sitting up now, no problems at all. She is growing up so very fast!



Then, this morning Nicole and I had a photo shoot. She got a bath this morning since she smelled like bon fire smoke and I dried her hair out while Hannah napped. Then, we had fun taking silly pictures.


We also carved our pumpkin the other day. Here are a few pics. Nicole wasn't as "into" it as I hoped...maybe next year. The carving session ended with Nicole sitting and watching and Hannah crying from her crib. hahaha...oh well. I also tried to roast some seeds, but I think they are burnt.


The past few days have been great. Nicole and Hannah both have been very happy and content, for the most part. I think it's because we haven't been busy. We haven't really gone anywhere for several days. Life at home is better this way when we are home a lot.

10 Things I love...

10 Things I LOVE about our cool weather right now (70s High, 50s low)

10. Softball season for Jeremy
9.Hot Chocolate (and soon....fudge....)
8. No more hot car seatbelts for Nicole to cry about
7. Being outside every possible moment
6.Crawling into bed with cold sheets and a warm fuzzy blanket on top
5. The girls took longer naps (yesterday at least)...I think because of the fresh air and being bundled in their blankets
4. The house automatically feels cleaner when the windows are open and a cool breeze rushes through.
3. Putting on the few long sleeve clothes I own...it's a nice change
2. Wrapping up in a warm blanket
1. Bon-Fires!!!!! (the first one in 6 months was last night...and I still smell like smoke, well, that's because I haven't gotten a shower yet! ha!!)

OK, you northerners...you can't make fun of me because I drink hot chocolate and wear long sleeves in this weather...I'm a Florida girl. I always have been, and I guess I always will be:-)

I had to add this picture. AVI took Jeremy and the crew out to Iguana Mia's (Mexican food) for his birthday and his co-worker/friend's birthday a few weeks ago. Here is their silly picture. These two can't ever be serious in a picture.

Apple Smile

Regular ole' update

Posting of pictures will be few and far between right now. We just bought a camera in August, and one night I left it outside for the sprinklers to hit it! Yikes...I know. Anyway, it still works, but there are some water marks on the screen, so we finally took it back to get it repaired. Hopefully they will do it. In the meantime, there won't be many pictures. We do have our old camera around, so maybe I'll post some anyway.

OK...We had a busy and at times crazy weekend. Oh sheesh...now I can't think of what we did! I know we carved a pumpkin...which was fun, for me and Jeremy anyway. Nicole wasn't totally into it:-( Maybe next year. We carved hearts all over the pumpkin because we really aren't into celebrating Halloween...but there are just a few silly traditions I can't give up. So, our pumpkin is totally not scary:-) perhaps a picture will come later.

Publix had Edy's ice cream Buy One get one free this week. So, I bought a flavor I wanted to try, Girl Scout Cookies Samoas....oh boy...I have a new favorite. I'm not a huge ice cream person because it tends to hurty my belly....but the cookie bites in this ice cream made it declicous! Yummy....do try:-)

Nicole spent the night at Yaya and Papa's Saturday night. Here are some good pictures.

And...I got my hair done Sat. morning (Thank you Jeremy for watching the girls...he did great, fed them lunch AND put them both down for a nap, at the same time without much crying...I wish I could do that:-) This is kind of a weird picture...but you can see my hair. It's nice to have most of the grey gone:-) And, I think I like my bangs short

I think perhaps that is it. We had a nice weekend with the family. The weather is perfect right now, so we are enjoying being outside.