Morning Pictures

Hannah is at a really silly age right now. I remember when Nicole was doing a lot of the same things. Putting on as many jewels and accessories as possible and being incredibly proud of all her decorations. It's adorable.

Hannah looked like a gypsie today. She had her cute little shirt on, no skirt, just a diaper, one shoe, a zillion necklaces and a goofy grin. At one point she also had on a pair of sunglasses, but I think they got put away before I got the camera out.





Of course, adorable Nicki wanted in on the photography action.

I love mornings with them. It's the best time of the day as far as I'm concerned.

Coming Soon....

A week from today we'll find out if we are having a boy or a girl:-) I put up a poll....what do you think? Pink or Blue?

FUN night of Couponing

Publix
I had to go to Publix last night after our Clipper Chicks meeting because I didn't realize we were out of whole milk for Hannah AND there is a Fantastic deal on kids yogurt (read FREE!!!)

Here's my bill
2 Organic Valley whole milk 2/$7.00
4 Danonino Yogurt $2.00/1 and BOGO
4 Dannon Danimals $2.00/1 and BOGO
Turkey Pepperoni (needed for dinner)
Sub total $27.67

Coupons used
$1/2 any organic valley product
4 $1/1 Danonino yogurt (found in new Publix coupon book)
4 $1/1 Danimals yogurt (found in new Publix coupons book
$.55/1 pepperoni Q

Grand total $8.45 (almost a 72% savings)
By matching the Dannon Qs with a BOGO sale I got those yogurts for Free. Normall it would have cost me $16.00 JUST for the yogurt:-) Yipee!!!


CVS
Last night after our Clipper Chicks meeting, we headed to CVS. I already did most of my CVS deals on Sunday...but Teri found another GREAT deal that I had to do. Plus...I really needed Tide and there were 3ecb on it. Here's what I got.




4 Always Infinity (regular price $10.29) Sale $4.99/1
1 large bottle of Tide 12.99

Coupons used
4 $4/1 Always Infinity
1 $.35/1 Tide
Subtotal $17.59
Paid with 12 ecb and 5 ecb
Total out of pocket..... $0.59
And 3 ecb back:-)

If those Always Infinity weren't on sale (unadvertised by the way) the four of those alone would have been $41.96.

Camp Out

How do you camp out in hot, humid, bug infested Florida in the summer? Indoors of course. I used to love making tents in the living room when I was growing up. So, since the sheets were out today from our college night girls sleep over last night, Nicole Hannah and I decided to make a tent.

We read books under it, did puzzles, and even ate lunch. Nicole is trying to take her nap under the tent (although, if she doesn't fall asleep soon...I'll have to move her:-) Here are some fun photos.

The nap time tent...darkened a bit from the sun.

Nicole, getting ready for her nap

The girls playing under the tent before lunch time.

Oh...I have a funny story to share. Last night I had a bunch of girls over for a college group sleepover. There were 12 or so, and 6 spent the night. A few got here just before Nicole and Hannah went to bed. They were gracious enough to play with Nicole, because she was sooooo excited all these girls were over. Well, a few minutes after they had been here, the girls (about 4 or 5) were sitting in a circle on the floor talking (they just finished a puzzle with Nicole). When I hear Nicole squeal, "OOOOhhhhhh....we can play duck duck goose!" Oddly enough, no one heard her but me. But, it was adorable. I know JUST what she was thinking. She saw all these girls sitting in a circle. What better game to play??? She's so sweet:-) I Love Her.

Hannah's First Steps

FINALLY!!!! Hannah took her first few steps last night. She did it first to me. She took 3 steps to me on 3 separate occasions. The funny thing is...the look on her face. She was smiling really big, raised on eyebrow that almost seemed to say, "Oh mommy...I already know how to do this. I've just been playing you!"

Later in the night, she practiced a bit more at Jeremy's softball game. Finally, after the game, we got a few tries on video. I LOVE her face about half way through the video. You can tell she's excited, but she also looks a bit ornery. Really super cute!

Enjoy!

Nicole's 3rd year check up

Nicole had her 3rd year check up today. She did great. Hitting age three has changed a lot for her.
1. She was not afraid to get on the scale (this was the first time...usually she pulls her legs up and screams...however, she did look at it quite suspiciously)
2. She was not afraid to have her height measured
3. She opened her mouth and said "Ahhh" for the Dr. (last time it took 10 minutes of heavy crying and much bribery)
4. She was not afraid of any of the instruments and did a great job breathing in and out for the Dr. to hear her heart.
5. She talked a lot to the Dr and obey when she was asked to jump (although when she was asked to jump on one foot, Nicole said, "I don't want to...I want to jump with Both feet).
6. She didn't cry when she got a shot, I think she wanted to...but she didn't remember what was coming. It's been a L-O-N-G time since she's had a shot.

She did great. Here are her stats...

Weight 34.1 lbs (about 80th percentile)
Height was 39 1/2 (about 96th percentile)

We had a great visit. Grammy got to come today. It was her first time meeting this particular Dr. I really like her, and my girls seem to as well. Yay for Nicole being strong, happy and healthy.

The Dr. office always has blocks and trucks to play with, which are kept in these containers. Nicole dumped everything out, got in and said, "Mommy, put Hannah in here to" So...there we go:-)

Double Qs at Kmart

K-Mart is doubling coupons again this week. I didn't get to do the deal I wanted (I'll explain it in a minute) but, I did get to get a few items. Here is my picture (I'm missing one deoderant and one edge gel that I gave to Valerie who so kindly came with us).

2 Kotex 1/$1.29 FREE with Qs

Secret deo $2.49 $.49 after Qs

Secret deo $3.99 $1.99 after Qs

3 Edge shaving gel 1/$1.99 2 were $.01 and 1 was $.49 after Qs

2 Bic Soleil 4pk refills 1/$3.24 Both FREE after Qs.

My total before coupons was $22.80

My total after coupons was $4.29

I splurged on my deoderant because I'm picky. I was pretty satisfied with that.

However, what would have made my picture look better was the deal I went in to do. Let me tell you about it. I wanted to buy (in my first transaction)

5 Pull ups $9.99

1 box of wipes $1.99

Total $51.94

-$5/$50 Kmart Q

- 20 (5 $2/1 pull ups Q then doubled to make it )

- 2 ($1/1 wipes Q doubled)

Total = $24.94

Then I would get a $14 K Mart Q for my next purchase.

My next purchase would have been some of the above items AND 2 garden soaker hoses. I'm pretty sure, grand total for the day would have been around $26. Maybe I'll hit another K Mart tomorrow for the pull-ups...I'd love to get all those pull ups and soaker hoses for free:-)

Nicole's HANDywork

This is Ephesians 6 in Jeremy's Bible. He turned to it a few weeks ago in church, and I had to exhibit much self control when he showed me. I wanted to laugh so hard. I think it's adorable. Nicole traced her hand into her daddy's Bible, AND so carefully filled in the circle of the numb 6. I just wish she had done it in mine:-)

AND....this morning Nicole wrote her name for the first time ever! I didn't help her, as in hold her hand. But, I did remind her to write the letters close together and we erased a few to try over. We've been working on the letter "N" for about a week now. She still needs more practice because she generally goes the wrong direction. Although, the "N" in this picture is beautiful! I was so excited...I had to share.

A little known (ok..well known) issue of mine

I do not handle stress well.

That's not true...I handle REAL stress very well I think. For instance...if someone falls and breaks an arm, I can handle that. I go into get it done, don't panic, and fix it mode. If someone comes to me with blood running out of their head, I can handle that. Again...no panic, fix it, make it better or go somewhere to make it better. I can do REAL stress.

I can not do ridiculous stress. What does this mean? Every day little issues that really aren't really issues at all. Quite embarrassing really, the list of things that get me all worked up.

For instance...We met some friends at the beach today. It was wonderful, I got to have real conversation with adults, my girls got to play in the water. We jumped in the waves, floated around on a sand bar, played in the sand. Fun, Fun, Fun.

BUT....I didn't have a beach permit on my new van, so I had to pay a meter (crazy expensive by the way...I was NOT expecting that! It cost $.25/10 minutes!!! I paid $2.00 and barely got an hour in. Do you know what I could do with $2.00 at CVS???? Anyway...) Here is the embarrassingly stressful part. I had a time limit when my meter would run out. I'm a rule follower and didn't want to be late and pay for a ticket. I had seen city policemen and beach enforcers circling the parking lot all morning, so I knew they were serious. I pack the girls up and happily decline help from my friends, "I can do it...no biggie" I thought.

Yeah, so Nicole is dawdling, looking at ducks and bugs as I'm yelling for her to hurry up. Then, she starts crying because I'm to0 far ahead of her, so I stop and wait, getting mighty irritated and watching the beach patrol dude circle the lot. We make it to the shower, which are surrounded by a large family, I would assume, who are taking their sweet time. I finally get a shower open and the only way the shower will turn on is if I'm continually pushing the button. Not easy to do with a baby on my hip and a preschooler who doesn't like the water because it's to cold. Not to mention that the water does NOTHING to get the sand off...because you need that other hand to rub it off your skin. I am literally pounding on the shower button, trying to get it to work ( and annoyed that NO one is asking if they could help me. In fact, their kids are running around "stealing" my precious water I'm getting from the shower.) All the while, I'm watching the beach patroler, walk past my van, it's probably right at expiration time.

Finally, I give up on the showers, plop Hannah down in front the foot shower and try to wash off her little legs and arms. Then, I try to get Nicole near and she is screaming because the water "hurts" (it was coming out rather hard). I look like "Mother of the year" as I'm pulling her little sand covered arms and legs into the flow of the hurting water telling her to stop crying. I'm totally stressed at this point...but WHY????

We make it away from the showers, still covered in sand and totally stressed, annoyed and irritated. I'm thinking of my letter to the editor to complain about the stupid showers as I'm practically running to my van trying to get back before my meter expires. Nicole starts crying because her sandal came off. I yell at her (which I don't typically yell at her) to stop crying, put her shoe on and hurry up. I keep walking, and I see the beach patroller, walk away from my van. "GREAT!!" I think. I didn't make it, he's to far away to hear my pathetic plea for mercy, and I should just stay longer now with my friends since I got a stupid ticket. Yet...we proceed to the van.

My plan was to change the girls there, in the van, but since the shower got almost NO sand off...that wasn't going to work. Now I'm annoyed that my brand new (to me) van will now be covered in sand and water all because my stupid city can have decent showers (probably because people like me hit the buttons uncontrollably in frustration and break them).

Hannah screams, the WHOLE way home. Nicole asks me the same question over and over and over "Mommy, are we going home now?" and I ignore my poor sweet God-given children because I'm "stressed" and annoyed with them

I just took a perfectly fun and enjoyable day at the beach and made it miserable for everyone. Isn't that a positive trait?

OR (NOT as long of a story) I was "stressed" yesterday because it 4:45, I thought I had to go buy softballs for my husband AND be home in time to put dinner in the oven to then leave again at 6. I was a complete mess because I had to decide if I was a) go get the softballs or b) cook dinner...I couldn't do both. However, it worked out, the game was later than expected, someone else got the balls, and we all got dinner. But...I was stressed out about this silly little predicament.

It seems I get stressed over time. I don't like to be late and I don't like it when others aren't following my time schedule. I get stressed when I have dinner ready and poor Jeremy is home 10 minutes later than expected...the girls are screaming, dinner is now cold and I'm completely worked up when I should be happy my sweet hubby is home. I get stressed when we don't make it to church in time for Jeremy to carry out his duties.

The worse part is...these things should not be stressful. They really are VERY MINOR details in my life. I know this...everyone knows this. But, I turn them into such huge issues that everyone is miserable. There are many many things worse than eating a cold dinner or paying a silly parking ticket (but I would have been ticked!)

AHHHHH...thanks for letting me vent and share my very unlovely trait with you. I feel like I have been working on this for years. I must admit, I have come a long way. But, today...at the beach, totally put me over the edge. I think I acted more like a three year old than Nicole did. Pretty embarrassing and something that MUST be changed.

Any advice? haha

btw...I didn't get a parking ticket. All that stress for nothing.

Nicole's 3rd Birthday

A couple of pictures from Nicole's Real Birth Day.

We went to a minor league baseball game. Jeremy was very much looking forward to this.

Here's the beautiful birthday girl, earlier in the day...right after her hair and nail appointment.