Life, Love and Being a Mom

Emily's First Birthday Party

2013-04-03T12:34:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I have posted, but it's because life has been extremely busy! My sweet little baby girl turned one two weeks ago... Still can't believe it!

Her party was a vintage garden party. I wanted it to be a sweet backyard party that was filled with vintage furniture of my own and sentimental furniture from Matt's grandmother. It was a lot of manual labor, not a lot of money, and lots of love.

I have been asked why I go all out on my children's parties, why so "over the top". And the answer is because I want to! I know that I only have a few short years to do their parties the way I want to. Soon, like this year for Conner, they will decide the type of party they want. They will want a bowling party, pool party or a sleep over, and I won't get to spend late nights sewing banners or have all day baking marathons. And I fine with that, but I want them to look back and see how cool their birthdays were and how much I wanted them to have an amazing party.

My great aunt said it best at Emily's party... She said it was a labor of love. I love that that she saw that and I love that answer. I am not in a competition with anyone to have the best party and I don't look down on people who don't go all out like I do. This is what I enjoy doing and it is so much fun to do it for my children.

So here is my labor of love for my sweet, precious baby girl! Hope you enjoy!

Date Nights

2013-03-01T23:41:00.001-06:00

We are so truly blessed to have such a loving, caring and supportive family that lives close by. We have such a great support system that we are never short of a good babysitter. And I do not take it for granted, because I know families that are not as fortunate to have reliable free sitters.

So when my mom this week said that they wanted to watch the kids on Friday night and us not pick them up til noon the next day... I said sure! She said that she wanted to be supportive of mine and Matt's marriage and knows that date nights are so important. I appreciate and love that she said this and WANTED to watch my kids for that long.

As many of you know, raising children can become a job. You and your spouse work together and get babies fed, bathed and put to bed at night. And by the time everyone goes to bed it is a little after 8, which doesn't leave much parent time. Matt and I alternate who goes to the gym and don't get home til after 9. So it doesn't leave us much time to do anything but talk about the important day to day things.

Of course on our date nights, we mostly talk about the kids. How fast they are growing up, funny stories about what they did and how proud we are of how they are turning out. But we also talk about our hopes and dreams for our family. Things that we want to accomplish and achieve. All of which is done over a glass of wine and a nice beer ;)

I truly love and adore my children, but am I allowed to say that I enjoy time away from them?! I think it is good for our marriage, which in turn is good for our family. So I want to say a special thank you to my Mom, Dad, Cindy, Mike, Memaw, Papa and Marty. This is my crew and without them, I have no clue how we would survive.

Growing Up

2013-02-28T08:29:00.001-06:00

This week has been a giant whirlwind for me. Emily started walking and Conner started serious potty training. That is a lot of change for any family, let alone both happening in the same week.

On Sunday, Emily took her first steps and is a walking machine now. I have been working with her everyday and have only gotten two steps out of her. She has been strong enough to walk for about a month now. You would see her just standing and not touching anything and when she held your fingers, she would walk but would sit as soon as your fingers left hers. So Matt tries on Sunday while I am in the shower and she takes eight steps... And I wasn't even there to see it! I was very disappointed that I missed it, but Conner did the same thing to me. Oh well!

It is amazing and sad how fast this happened, she just turned 11 months! Conner didn't walk until he was 13.5 months old and it took him a couple weeks to walk to other things besides us. Not Emily! She will pull herself up on something and take off walking for a toy or food. She is going through all the major milestones way too fast for this momma. I need her to slow down!!!

On Monday, Conner went under the dining room table to do his business and I asked him if he wanted to go use the potty... He said yes! For some reason, he has been terrified of the potty and his underwear. I don't know why, but something changed on Monday. He pooped in the potty and let me put underwear on him and we haven't looked back since. I am so proud of him. We are going every 25 mins and he has only had one accident a day. I have nothing to compare it to, but I think that's great!

This week is so full of changes and big milestones. It makes me realize that my children are growing up so fast and that it all is happening in the blink of an eye. It makes me sad, because I love the stages they are in now. But it also makes me excited for the future and for all the fun things we are going to experience with them both.

Lemon Rosemary Cupcakes

2013-02-14T17:30:00.001-06:00

I know the combination sounds weird... Believe me, I tried talking myself out of attempting this. But one night I was cooking dinner, using lemons and rosemary in two different dishes and I thought the smell was heavenly. I told Matt right away, that I was making that into a cupcake.

So I made a basic buttercream frosting and added some very finely minced roaemary, shaved lemon peel, and lemon juice and voila... It's a masterpiece!

Conner Loves Emily

2013-02-13T14:05:00.001-06:00

When I found out I was pregnant with Emily, I had a crazy sea of emotions. And one of my biggest fears was how Conner would handle it. Up until that time, all of my time was devoted to him. He was the center of my universe and I didn't know how either one of us one handle sharing me.

When Conner came to the hospital to meet his baby sister, I was very apprehensive of his reaction... They are only 21 months apart and you never know at that age how they will react period, let alone meeting someone who is going to take time away from momma. But it couldn't have been more perfect. He was truly excited to meet her. Had the biggest grin and wanted to hold her right away.

We definitely had our issues with sharing momma in the beginning. I spent a lot of time breast feeding Emily and he didn't understand why I had to hold her all the time. It was sad and broke my heart. I tried to make him feel special and when she was sleeping, we cuddled and spent one on one time with each other. He eventually got better about it, not sure if it was getting used to it or him getting older and being able to reason.

With all that said, Conner adores Emily. Truly, he is in love with her. He wants to play with her, kiss her, hug her, hold her, rough house with her and make her feel better when she is hurt. He likes to keep her in line and tell me when she is getting into something she shouldn't or tell her no when she throws her food on the floor and laughs.

He is an AMAZING big brother to her. And I am so glad for it, and pray that their love continues to grow. I want them to be best friends and for him to protect her when we aren't around. I want him to watch out for her and make sure no stupid teenage boy messes with her (even though she will never date 😬)

Funny and sweet stories between Conner and Emily:

He will randomly tell me that he loves Emily. Even when she isn't around, he will ask where she is and then say he loves her.

Conner wouldn't say her name for the longest time, he would only refer to her as baby. But over the past 4 months he says it, but it comes out as "omilee" or "oddily"

Every morning, Conner asks where Emily is. She usually sleeps a little past him, and I tell him that she is asleep. When she wakes up I bring her to bed and we all cuddle for a little bit, he says "good morning Emily" and plants a big kiss on her head.

Conner constantly asks for Emily to come and play in his room. But momma can't come. Just him and Emily.

He likes to rub her head and say that she's cute. (About six months ago, it came out as "cuke")

Conner loves to hug Emily. Sometimes he is too rough, but today they rolled around on the floor hugging onto each other and laughing hysterically. (This makes my heart so happy)

Today she dropped her pears on the floor and laughed and said uh-oh... Conner comes running up to her and said, "No, Emily. We don't throw our food... It's not funny, Emily!"

Cupcakes

2013-02-06T23:09:00.000-06:00

Some of you know that I have a love affair with baking. Especially baking cupcakes. I truly think they are the prefect dessert. They are the perfect portion size for a dessert, they are delicious and utterly adorable.

So one of my ambitions is to own my own bakery. It is a far fetched dream that I hope will someday come true. But until that time I am just going to bake away in my home, for fun and a little extra spending money ☺ One of my goals for the new year is to bake one thing a week. I want to build a repertoire of desserts and sell them. So I am going to use this as my outlet to share with the world my lovely desserts!

This past weekend was the Super Bowl. So I racked my brain for a cupcake that any guy would like. Then I started thinking of all the things that Matt likes (which isn't much, he isn't a huge dessert person) and I start thinking about candy bars. He loves snickers, so I made a snicker cupcake. Who doesn't like Snickers? Man or woman alike, it is a yummy treat and top it off with some caramel... Yummy!

So here is my Snickers Cupcake! In the future I plan to show pics of the process and the recipe, but to be honest I am too lazy for that today. Hopefully a picture will work for this week!

Parental Advice

2013-02-05T15:55:00.000-06:00

When you have your first kid everyone gives you tons and tons of advice from breast feeding to swaddling to sleeping... whether it is wanted or not, people will give it to you. And as a expectant parent you try your best to take in all the information. You think you know you will be up all night and you will get little sleep. You think you understand that when you breastfeed, it requires a lot of time... but you don't realize that you will truly be exhausted, your body is no longer yours, you will be very concerned with what your kid's poop looks like and you will smell like milk at all hours of the day. But when that baby is cuddled in your arms and you smell the top of their head, all the craziness goes away. You fall so in love and can't imagine how you could possibly love another human being so much.

I have learned that each child is born different and unique. They have their own quirks and you just figure them out as you go along. And I would also say that the second one grows up so much faster! In the blink of an eye they start smiling, sitting, eating table food, crawling and then you are planning their first birthday party... Gulp! I have to make myself stop and appreciate all the little milestones and realize that this very well might be the last time that I get to experience it.

So when people say that the second child is easier, they are partly true. With the second child your life has already made major alterations. You are used to having little people depend solely on you for their care, but you just adjust and now take care of another little person. You also learn that someone is going to cry. It's just the way it is. You can't make everyone happy and you have to prioritize needs. You are going to lose sleep. It is inevitable, there is no way around it. As soon as your baby starts sleeping well they will get sick or start teething, and it is so disappointing. My final tidbit of advice, go ahead and realize that coffee and wine are your best friend!

... And I am Back!

2013-02-04T16:03:00.000-06:00

So I have been off the blogging world for some time now. There are several reasons for this, but the main one being a had a baby... almost 11 months ago! Two children under the age two is no joke! It isn't hard, but you stay constantly busy. Even though I had a baby, I should have blogged. Oh how I wish I had. I wish I wasn't being so lazy and took the time to document my sweet children's life.

Since I have last written in this blog I have begun staying home with my two darling children. I think I thought that it would be realtively easy. That I would play with my kids all day and then be refreshed for when Matt got home.... Umm, not exactly! You are not only staying home to just be with your kids... you are staying home to feed them at every meal, change every wet and poopy diaper, entertain them, put them to sleep, put them to sleep, put them to sleep (did I already say that? yes, that's because 75% of my day is convincing them that sleep is a good thing), cleaning up after them... constantly, laundry, dusting, sweeping about twenty times a day (especially with a crawler who eats everything on the floor), cooking, grocery store, errands, and the list goes on. So long story short, being a stay at home mom is tough work!

I am by no means saying that a working mom doesn't have a tough job, because she does. I truly believe that as moms we all struggle daily with balancing work and home life. And one of the tough things about staying home with your kids is that in a sense, they and the house are my job. And I don't like feeling that this is the situation, but it is. So I feel like since I stay at home, my house should be immaculate. When this is not what my primary job description is... that isn't even my title. My title is stay at home MOM. So I am going to do my best to keep a clean house, but not stress out if I have a ton of laundry and Conner wants me to play rockets with him. I am going to play rockets with him and the laundry can wait.

So with all that being said... I am going to start blogging again. And it will truly be about Life, Love and Being a Mom!

Back in Business

2011-06-27T10:14:00.000-05:00

So I have been out of commission for some time now. I have been ridiculously busy with LIFE! Conner just celebrated his first birthday this past weekend... It was bittersweet. I am so sad that this first year has flown by and I already miss the babiness, but I am so excited of what is to come. He is developing such an adorable personailty day by day. I LOVE that sweet boy!

I will finally get back in the groove of things... posting about crafting projects, money saving deals, delicious recipes, and much more about being a mom.

Up for this week, pictures of the First Birthday Party, Cake Pops and Bunting!

Until next time...

Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T10:18:00.000-05:00

I am a sucker for a wedding, but I am obsessed with the Royal Wedding. I think it is such a special thing that a regular woman walked down the aisle in a beautiful dress marry her Prince Charming (literally) and walked out as the Duchess of Cambridge. Can you imagine what that must feel like? I was a nervous wreck to walk down the aisle to the 150 guests we had... I can't even imagine what it felt like to do it in front of millions of people!

In honor of this momentous occasion, I am throwing a party! A Royal Wedding Viewing Party to be exact. I am gathering all the girls at my house and we are going to enjoy an English breakfast as we watched the DVR'd wedding.

I made a very girlified table runner, pulled out all the fancy serving ware and am going all out on the food. I am going to make blueberry scones, crumpets (hopefully, this seems very difficult and if I screw it up we will be having store bought English muffins... fingers crossed!) with clotted cream, lemon curd and raspberry preserves to top it with, pomegranate mini muffins, and fresh fruit salad. This menu is more of a "high tea" accompaniment, but I just wasn't in the mood for bangers and baked beans! This seems more dainty...

I will post pictures of the party, wish me luck. I have worked 2-12 hour days in a row, so I only have from 8pm to 9am the next day to get all this done!

image source

Family Update

2011-04-22T11:43:00.000-05:00

I will be the first to admit that I have been a bad blogger recently... and of course I have excuses. The family has been sick, including me this time, busy with family functions and house projects.

A few things going on...

Conner's first Easter is this weekend, yay! We have an extremely busy weekend planned, so I hope he is ready. On Saturday, we are going to have an Easter Egg Hunt with my husband's family, which should be fun. Church on Sunday, followed by brunch with my parents and dinner with Matt's parents. Whew, I am just tired thinking about it all!

I am working on Conner's First Birthday Party. I just finished designing his invitation, which is absolutely adorable. I have worked out all the details for decorations and such, so now I just have to get busy and start purchasing things.

Still working on re-decorating the house. I have painted and decorated my living room and I am in love with it. It is so light and airy, it turned out perfect. I have had a bucket of paint sitting in my bathroom for 3 weeks now, so I need to get busy and start working on that room. But again... how do I find time?

And my personal news... I have lost 10 pounds! I am so excited. I have been working so hard this past month, trying to diet and exercise. But it is finally paying off. I have about 40 to go, but I truly think I can do it. I am dedicated now!

I can't resist putting a picture of Conner up. We have been truly enjoying this beautiful weather we have had. He loves the park and stroller rides...

Have a Happy Easter!!!

Wild Rumpus for My Wild Thing

2011-04-08T14:50:00.000-05:00

So I have been struggling with Conner's Birthday party for a while now. Matt and I both have large families that are very involved and we wanted to make sure that all the famiy would be able to come... so we are not going to have it at our house. I am very sad about this, but excited at the same time. We were worried about space and the heat. Conner will be one on June 24, which is in the middle of the summer and we have no shade in our yard.

The party is going to be... drum roll... at the park! We think that this will be a nice place for a large group, lots of parking, shade and free entertainment.

The theme is going to be... drum roll... Where the Wild Things Are! I absolutely adore this Children's Book and think that it is perfect for my "Little Wild Thing"

I am just in the early planning stages, trying to get ideas for decor and such. I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions that you might have.

Shrek Birthday Party

2011-03-31T09:27:00.000-05:00

So as promised, I am posting my nephews adorable Shrek Birthday Party. He turned two years old last week and his parents threw him an amazing party. His mom did not miss a single detail. I took hundreds of pictures, but I am going to post the ones that show all of the creativity that went into this party... Enjoy!

Sick Baby

2011-03-29T09:51:00.000-05:00

I have had one sick baby! Conner ran a fever of 103 all last week and was just plain pitiful. He has finally overcome it, but is still having trouble sleeping. So needless to say, I have been way to busy and way too sleepy to blog.

I am planning on posting pictures of my nephews amazing Shrek birthday party. It was absolutely adorable, my sister-in-law did not miss a detail. I can't wait to share it with everyone.

Hope all is well with everyone. Until next time...

Coupon Break

2011-03-23T11:12:00.000-05:00

As you may have noticed, I have put a break on couponing... GASP! There are many factors that have gone into this, but the main being that Matt and I have to start leading a healthier lifestyle. We both have decided that us saving $40 a week is not enough of a "deal" to continue to eat processed foods.

Another reason being that Conner is really eating our table food now and I want him to eat healthy. I don't want to prepare a healthy dinner for Conner and then fix us a not so healthy meal just because it was on sale that week. That is just ridiculous to me. You can tell by my previous posts that I did buy healthy items like fresh produce, dairy and meats... but the majority of it was boxed, processed crap.

I am reverting back to my Whole Foods and Trader Joes shopping (mostly Trader Joes). Before we started couponing, I was driving to GreenHills on the weekend and doing my weekly shopping... so I know that it can be done and it is not that big of a deal. Also, I thought that it would be fun to make a morning of it with Conner. We could go to the Farmers Market and then to GreenHills. It is a great way to expose Conner to an abundance of fresh foods and produce.

If you are not familiar with Trader Joes, you need to check it out. I LOVE this store!!!!!! They have gourmet, natural and organic foods for a very reasonable price. I think that the produce, dairy, and grocery items are comparable to Kroger, but the meats are a bit more expensive. They offer organinc products, but everything is not organic. If it is not organic, it will usually note that it is free from additives and/or hormones. Which are the two main things for me anyways. You definitely need to check it out, I wish there was one closer!

So to sum up what the price difference is going to be... This past weekend I spent $90 at Trader Joes and got Bfast, Lunch and Dinner for 7 days, but it did not include formula. Two weeks ago, I spent $80 at Publix and Aldis forBfast, Lunch, Dinner for 5 days and Formula (the other two nights were for dining out... again, we are changing our ways!). So we really are going to save money and be healthier in the process.

Great Baby Deal This Week

2011-03-17T09:09:00.000-05:00

For all of you mommas out there that use formula, here is a deal for you... $12.50 for a can of Gerber Good Start Formula. That is right, $10 off! This sale is at Publix and is running through next Tuesday.

Here is how to get this amazing deal:

1. Go to All You and find the Gerber Good Start Coupon for $5.
2. Print the coupon.
3. If you wish to buy more than one container, hit the back button and it will print another one. The limit is 2 prints from one computer. So if you would really like to stock up, find another computer.
4. Go to Publix and get a flyer at the front of the store with the Sales Ads. Flip to the back of the ad and you should see an instore coupon for $5. You can get as many of these as you want.
5. Pick up the large can of Gerber Good Start.
6. When you check out, give them the Publix coupon and the Manufacturer's Coupon (printed from All You). At Publix, you can stack a Manufacturer Coupon and a Store Coupon.
7. Then jump for joy that you saved so much money!

Conner's Birth Story

2011-03-16T08:38:00.000-05:00

I have been inspired to post Conner's Birth Story. It was a very traumatic experience for me and I hope that it may help a mom be empowered to take control over their birth and go with their maternal instinct. It is kinda long, but here it is:

Conner came into this world with a rough go of it. Let me preface this story by saying that I was seeing an OB at the time, which was great at the beginning but then turned into a bad decision.

About a week after finding out I was pregnant, I started to have some spotting and all of my symptoms disappeared (breast tenderness was the biggie). I just knew something was wrong. I called and talked to the nurse and she said that it was just implantation bleeding, but I insisted that I be seen. After about 15 minutes of trying to convince them to see me, she finally agreed for me to come in. I went in and had some blood work done. The next day I get a call to come into the office immediately. Apparently, my progesterone levels were that of a non-pregnant woman and they wanted to do an ultrasound to see if the baby was even alive.

This was one of the worst days ever. But sure enough there was a very faint heartbeat. The heartbeat was very slow and by the estimated DD and his size, it was slower than they would have liked. So she sent me home with a prescription for some oral progesterone supplements and wanted me to come back in one week to make sure the baby was still alive. So I stressed out all week thinking I had a dead baby inside of me. I went through this two more times, all to see that I had a very hard headed baby that wanted to survive. Once I hit the twelve week mark, my placenta took over producing the progesterone and all was well. I had a wonderful pregnancy, gained too much weight, but I learned and will make smarter decisions for baby number 2 ;)

During the entire pregnancy, Conner kept measuring large. My original due date was July 13 and by the end of the pregnancy it was officially moved to June 20. I continually tried talking to my OB about the measurements, and tried to inform her that my family and Matt’s family all had very large babies. I am 5’10 and Matt is 6’0, we were both over 9 pounds when we were born. But she insisted that I had my period date wrong and he was further along than we expected.

At about 8 months, I started to have high blood pressure. I work at a hospital and work long 12 hour shifts and they had started to take a toll on my overweight self. My blood pressure was getting too high, so she put me on bed rest for the duration of the pregnancy. This was miserable. I hated just laying around all day and this is when I really started to pack away the pounds. ;)

This is the point where I have my heart broken. During the entire pregnancy, I was convinced that I was going to have a natural birth. I took a birthing class, studied endlessly on how to be successful with a natural delivery, and even had Matt talk to me and encourage me that I could do it. But the last two visits we had with the OB, were not in favor of that. I had an ultrasound three times within that last month and Conner’s measurements were right on track for June 20. He was measuring in at over 8 pounds at 38 weeks and at 20 inches. The doctor convinced me that he was too large, he was ballotable (when she checked me, his head would bounce back up), and he had passed the point of descent. She said that the chance of me having a vaginal delivery was only 10% and that I should have a C-section.

I was truly devastated! I tried asking her what the harm would be in waiting another week and she said that he was too large and that it could cause undue stress on him. I should have went with my instinct, but to a point you trust someone who has delivered hundred and hundreds of babies. So when she said that it would harm Conner, I agreed. This was a very BIG mistake.

We went to the hospital; we had our entire family in the waiting room and were so excited. I let go of the vaginal birth, I made peace with the fact that it didn’t matter how Conner came into the world as long as he was healthy… He was born and he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Matt and I started crying and we instantly fell in love. All was great… until he wouldn’t stop gasping for air. They told us that it was normal, that sometimes after a C-section the baby didn’t have their lungs squeezed out. So they took him to the transitional NICU/NN for some monitoring of his oxygen level.

I was an absolute wreck. I was back in the recovery room with my mom, listening to the lady next to me breastfeed her baby. I wanted that so bad and I just cried and cried and cried… which really hurts after a fresh C-section. Matt stayed with Conner and would come back every 30 minutes and give me updates. Nothing was changing, Conner wasn’t getting enough oxygen and they decided that he needed to be admitted to the NICU. It was awful. I went into the OR with the hopes of holding my sweet baby within 20 minutes and now I couldn’t hold him at all, I had barely gotten to see him.

They wheeled me back to a holding room while they tried to get a postpartum room available. Again, I was a wreck! We had our entire family at the hospital and I requested to see no one, except Matt and my mom. Finally, after 2 hours of waiting and my legs moving again I got a room. When I arrived to the room I requested to see my baby. They told me that I needed to wait and get some rest, that they do not normally get patients up and walking until they are 6-12 hours out. I stood up and said that you either help me get there or I will do it myself. Sure enough, she helped me. (I had a ton of issues with the nurses and doctors during my stay. That is another story in itself!)

My husband was amazing. I could have never imagined how he would have reacted to the situation, but he was beyond belief. He was so supportive, understanding of my emotions, and so loving towards me and Conner. My love for him grew exponentially! We were also flooded with family members and friends. We could not have survived without our families love and support for us.

Conner was in the NICU for 5 days. The doctors said that based on the measurements of his breastbone and feet, he was only 37 weeks when I delivered and his lungs weren’t quite ready. I was heartbroken that I was the reason that he had to struggle.

When I talk about Conner’s Birth Day, I say that it was the best and worst day in my life. I was so excited about my new baby, but scared that I had lost him. He is great now. Conner is in the top 90^th percentile for his height and weight and is developing wonderfully!

After that experience, I have gained a better sense of empowerment and know that a mother’s instinct is always best, even while you are pregnant. I should have stood my ground with my doctor. I have finally worked through it and realized that I thought I was doing what was best for him at the time. I have now switched to a Mid-Wife and will never look back. I plan to have a VBAC for my future children and am hoping for the best!

Envelope System

2011-03-12T07:41:00.001-06:00

Anyone who has read the Dave Ramsey books, has heard of the envelope system. Matt and I have recently decided to give this a try... and let me tell you, it is so much harder than I imagined it would be.

Now Dave probably would not approve our system, but so far it is working for us and that is all that matters. He says live on beans and rice and rice and beans... well easier said than done. We have set a certain lifestyle that we feel comfortable living with, so we have tried to work around that.

For example, Matt works overtime almost every week. He enjoys eating out for lunch on those days. Dave would not approve of that, but I feel like if he is going to make a sacrifice like that for our family, he can go out and treat himself to something as small as lunch away from the office.

HOW TO GET STARTED

To start, Matt and I sat down and looked at our checking account to see where all our money was going. Then we looked at our Budget spreadsheet (yes, I have a spreadsheet with our bills and savings information... I am a nerd!) to decide how much we can afford to live on to save the maximum amount each month.

I took how much we could afford to live on and broke it down to decide how much to put into each envelope. Our envelopes are: Groceries, Matt Gas, My Gas, Dining Out, Matt Spending, My Spending, Conner Spending, and Miscellaneous.

The reasoning behind the individual spending envelopes for Matt, Me and Conner was to allow room for us to buy the things that we needed and/or wanted. If I need make-up or wine (I do need wine) it would come out of my spending money. I gave Conner an envelope so if I was out shopping and spotted a good sale on clothes, I could buy them without cutting in to our groceries or such.

I gave ourselves a Misc envelope for several reasons. One, we have big family that has a lot of Birthdays and social gatherings. So I wanted some wiggle room for presents, money to buy a bottle of wine to take to dinner, etc... Also, I wanted to have money in our account for things that you can't pay with cash. Matt rides the train to work, but occasionally he has to drive in and pay for parking. So instead of him using his money, I have the Misc fund in the checking account so he can just use his debit card and not worry.

WHAT WE DO

Every Friday I go to the bank and withdrawl cash for our weekly expenses. I then divide the money up into the envelopes. We have tweaked this a bit, our Gas money stays in our checking account. I leave it in our account, because that is the one thing that we really don't overspend and it really sucks to pay cash at the pump with a young child. I have to get him out of the car seat, walk inside to pay, walk out, put him back in the car and pump while he is yelling at me... NOT FUN!!!

The hardest part of this system for us has been eating out. I never realized how much money we actually spent on this. We really enjoy going out after church or eating Mexican with the family, so we allotted ourselves a small portion each week to eat out at a restaurant.

SUMMARY

Overall this system works!!! It has made us very accountable for what we spend and how we spend it. I also feel like it has brought Matt and I closer. We have to communicate about what is going on with our finances, instead of getting to the end of the week and trying to figure out what happened to our money.

I would love to answer any questions you have about doing this!

Wonderful Weekend Wishes

2011-03-11T10:07:00.000-06:00

So I have been a terrible blogger recently. No excuses, but... I have been extremely busy! I painted my stairs and den this past weekend and have started redecorating my house. My husband is going to kill me during this process, but hopefully he will learn that is natural for a woman to change her mind! ;) When I finish the redecorating, I will post some pictures for you to see.

My other project has been trying to narrow down a theme for Conner's First Birthday! I know, it is only 3.5 months away. But I am an OCD planner and I have to get started. There are so many adorable ideas to choose from, it is hard to decide on one.

Anyways, here are my Wonderful Weekend Wishes...

To take a nap here...

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To convince my husband to make me a table like this...

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To one day truly believe this...

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To have these magically appear in my house...

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I hope you all have a Wonderful Weekend!

Finding High Value Coupons

2011-03-11T09:38:00.000-06:00

If you are new to Couponing, or maybe just New to the world of Online Coupons then it can be tough to figure out where to find the best coupons. Some people are hard core Newspaper Insert people while others tend to skip insert coupons and stick with Printable Coupons. In reality there is probably a fine balance somewhere between the two extremes so I wanted to give you a crash course in where to find the best High Value Coupons. I’m going to start with Newspaper Inserts today and I’ll cover Online Coupons and Additional Resources in future posts.

NEWSPAPER INSERTS

Within your local Sunday Newspaper you will find several different inserts containing coupons. There are 3 main types of Coupon Inserts that I wanted to cover since these are the ones I reference the most in my store matchups.

The SmartSource Insert is abbreviated SS and is typically a weekly insert. In a Matchup you will see the abbreviation (SS 10/17/10) This means that the coupon was located in the SmartSource Insert from the October 17th, 2010 Newspaper. I always save my inserts by the date they were in the newspaper to make it easier to go back and find the ones I need.

The RedPlum Insert is abbreviated RP and may also be referred to as the Valassis insert depending on what part of the Nation you live in. This is the other main company that does Newspaper inserts and typically you can find some of the same coupons available on RedPlum.com – This newspaper insert is not available in all areas to find out which Newspaper carries the Red Plum Insert in your area you can Check out this Locator Tool at RedPlum.com.

The Proctor & Gamble Insert is abbreviated PG and typically is included in the newspaper around the first of each month. This insert offers high value coupons for products such as Tide, Pampers, Gillette, Charmin, Herbal Essence, Swiffer, Febreze and More.

Typically when it comes to Newspaper Inserts the First Sunday of the Month or the First Sunday of the Quarter tend to be the best days for coupons. I always purchase additional papers on those days. I go between Krogers and Walgreens, one of the two will usually run a sale on the Sunday paper for $.99. If you want to Subscribe to the Local Newspaper in your area then check out Discounted Newspapers.com or Call your local Newspaper and see if they offer a Quantity Discount or have any Special Promotions Going On Right Now.

FINDING COUPONS IN YOUR INSERTS

One of the most common questions I get is in regards to the abbreviations used in weekly store matchups on Southern Savers and occasionally here. I will try to cover this in depth in the near future but here’s a crash course in understanding Matchups.

Here is what my typical Matchup looks like:

Lipton Soup Secrets, $1.18$0.75/2 Lipton Soup Secrets, exp. 2-27 (RP 01/30/11) <— NEWSPAPER COUPON
$0.80 ea. wyb 2 after coupon!

The Coupon listed is from the newspaper and the most important part is listed at the end. This is what tells you how to quickly find the coupon.
The First 2 letters of the section in parenthesis tells you which insert the coupon was located in.

SS = SmartSource Insert
RP = RedPlum Insert
PG = Proctor & Gamble Insert
GM = General Mills Insert

Following the Abbreviation for the Insert is the Date the coupon was in the newspaper. So if the date is 01/30/11 that means that this specific coupon for Lipton Soup was in the newspaper on January 30, 2011.

ORGANIZING YOUR NEWSPAPER COUPONS:

I always store my insert coupons in a folder with the date they were in the newspaper written on the front. That way when I see a matchup for an item I want to purchase. I can go directly to the folder from that Date, choose the SmartSource or RedPlum Insert I am looking for and quickly flip through to find my coupon. It saves me a lot of time because I don’t have to clip every coupon each week and I can easily find coupons that I want or need.
That’s the basics on how to find and organize Newspaper Insert Coupons.

Another tip for organizing multiple inserts is to staple them. I normally buy 2 newspapers. So, if I have to Procter and Gamble Inserts I will staple the pages together to make one insert...

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-02-28T10:30:00.000-06:00

I had a very productive weekend. I got my entire house cleaned and all of my laundry done. It may not sound too impressive, but with an eight month old and me with a bout of the stomach bug, it is!

We also enjoyed the beautiful weather we have had in Nashville. I was able to take Conner outside and play for the first time since he was a baby. He loved it! I really hope this weather stays like this, it is so nice to get out of the house and play.

I hope y'all had a great weekend too!

Wonderful Weekend Wishes

2011-02-18T12:08:00.000-06:00

My Wonderful Weekend Wish is going to be a bit different this week... I wish that you will go out and score some great deals! My last post was about how great of a sale Harris Teeter was having. So here it is, here is what you can get for only $7!!!

I spent only $7 and saved $55! I feel like I got some great deals on items that I can never get great deals on, too.

I plan on going back again to score some more. If you remember, in my last post I told you that they are only taking 20 coupons per day while they have this Super Doubles Week going on.

I hope that this gives you some motivation to go out there and save some money. Let me know how it goes!

Great Sale at Harris Teeter

2011-02-16T11:00:00.001-06:00

If you live near a Harris Teeter, you must go this week (2/16-2/22). It is super doubles week... meaning that they will double couopns up to $1.98! This means that you can get a ton of free items and a lot of really cheap stuff. Amzaing, right?!

The rules:

1. They will double 20 coupons per day per card that are $1.98 or less

2. You can only use 1 coupon on a B1G1 deal (if they are purchased together… remember if purchased separately they still ring up on sale half price).

3. You must buy all (5) items in a Buy 2 Get 3 Free deal at the same time.

Here is a list of all the items that I think are a great deal. You can create your own shopping list and include many more items at Southern Savers

Free Items

Muir Glen Tomato Paste, 6 oz., $1.55 -$1 off Muir Glen product printable
-$1/2 Muir Glen products printable or printable

Chi Chi’s Salsa, 16 oz., B1G1 at $2.99 ($1.49) -$1 off Chi-Chi salsa, SS 1/16
-.50/1 Chi-Chi salsa, SS 1/16

Coffee-mate, Original, 32 oz. $2.99 -$1 off Coffee-mate liquid or powder printable
-$1/2 Nestle Coffee-Mate liquid creamer, December All You magazine or RP 1/30

Coffee-mate 16 oz., $2.19 -$1 off Coffee-mate liquid or powder printable
-$1/2 Nestle Coffee-Mate liquid creamer, December All You magazine or RP 1/30

Muellers spaghetti pasta, 16 oz., $1.25 -$1 off Mueller’s pasta, printable (limit reached)
-$1/2 Mueller’s Pasta printable or printable
-.55/1 Mueller’s pasta product printable

Wholly Guacamole or Salsa, 7 oz., $2.29 -$1.50 off Wholly Guacamole Product printable
-$1.50 off Wholly Guacamole, Salsa or Queso printable

Kotex Pantiliners, 18-22 ct, $1.45 -$1.50/2 Kotex products printable
-$1.50/2 Kotex liners, SS 1/16

Johnson’s Baby Powder or Oil 4 oz., $1.75 -$1 off Johnson & Johnson Baby or Natural product, SS 1/09

Reach Dental Floss Clean Burst Waxed Icy Spearmint $1.65 -$1 off Reach Dental Floss or Access Flosser, RP 10/10

Dean’s Dip, $2.15 ($1.07)
-$1/2 Dean’s Dips, (register) printable
-$1/2 Dean’s dip, 12 oz +, SS 1/23
(makes it 7¢)

Hefty Storage or Freezer Bags, 13-22 ct. at $2.99 ($1.49)
-$1 off Hefty product, Kroger home mailer
(makes it FREE)

Green Giant Frozen Vegetables Includes Asparagus Spears, $1
-.50/1 Green Giant Frozen Product printable
-.50/2 Green Giant valley fresh steamers frozen vegetables, SS 1/02
-.50/2 Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers frozen vegetables printable
-.60/3 Green Giant frozen boxed vegetables, SS 1/02, SS 2/13, or printable
(use .50/1, makes it FREE)

L’Oreal Vive Pro Shampoos & Conditioners, $2.50
-$1 off L’Oreal Vive Pro shampoo or conditioner, RP 2/20
(makes it 50¢)

Aussie Shampoo, Conditioner or Stylant, 8 oz., $2.50
-$1 off Herbal Essence or Aussie product, Proctor & Gamble $110 booklet
-$1/2 Aussie or Herbal Essences product, excl trial, PG 1/30
(makes it 50¢)

Herbal Essences Shampoo, Conditioner, or Styling Products 6-12 oz., $2.50
-$1 off Herbal Essence or Aussie product, Proctor & Gamble $110 booklet
-$1/2 Aussie or Herbal Essences product, excl trial, PG 1/30
(use $1 off, makes it 50¢)

Tampax Cardboard, 20 ct., $2.99
-$1 off Tampax product, 20 ct +, Proctor & Gamble $110 booklet
(makes it 99¢)

Old Spice Deodorant, 3 oz., $2
-$1 off Old Spice deodorant, Proctor & Gamble $110 booklet
-$1/2 Old Spice deodorant or body wash, on product
-$1/2 Old Spice deodorant, on product
(makes it FREE)

General Mills Cereals, $2
Cheerios Cinnamon Burst 10 oz., Golden Grahams 12 oz., Whole Grain Total 10.6 oz., Fruity Cheerios 12 oz., or Wheaties 10.9 oz.
-$.75/1 General Mills Golden Grahams Cereal printable
-$1/2 General Mills cereal, Kroger home mailer (EXP 02/18)
-$1/2 General Mills Cereal printable
-$1/2 General Mills cereals, SS 1/30
-$1/2 General Mills Cheerios cereal, SS 1/09 (EXP 02/19)
-$1/3 General Mills cereals, SS 2/13
-.75/1 General Mills Golden Grahams cereal printable or printable
-.75/1 General Mills Cinnamon Burst cereal, SS 2/13
-.75/1 General Mills Cinnamon Burst Cheerios cereal printable , printable or printable
-.50/1 General Mills Total cereal, SS 1/23
-.75/1 General Mills Wheaties Reg or Fuel cereal, SS 1/09 (EXP 02/19)
(use .75/1, makes it 50¢)

Ken’s Steak House Dressing, 16 oz., at $3.39 ($1.69)
-$1 off Ken’s Dressing, 16 oz., SS 1/09
-$1/2 Ken’s dressing, 16 oz, SS 1/09
(makes it FREE)

Smart Balance Popcorn, 12-14 oz., $3.19 ($1.59)
-.60/1 Smart Balance popcorn printable or printable
-.75/1 Smart Balance popcorn, SS 1/16 or printable
(makes it 9¢)

Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough Ultimates, 16 oz., $1.99
-$1 off Nestle Toll House Refrigerated cookie dough printable
-.75/1 Nestle Toll House Cookie or Brownie dough (Facebook) printable
-.75/1 Nestle Toll House Refrigerated Cookie or Brownie Dough printable
(use $1 off, makes it FREE)

Horizon Organic Half & Half, 16 fl. oz., $2.19
-$1 off Horizon Organic item printable
-$1 off Horizon Organic product printable
(makes it 19¢)

Breakstone’s Sour Cream, 16 oz., $1.50
-.50/1 Breakstone’s sour cream printable
-.55/1 Breakstone Sour Cream printable
-.55/1 Breakstone’s sour cream, 16 oz +, SS 1/23
(makes it 40¢)

Land O Lakes Butter with Olive Oil, 7 oz., $1.50
-.40/1 Land O Lakes Spreadable butter product, SS 2/06
-.50/1 Land O Lakes Spreadable butter product, SS 2/06
-B1G1 Mail in Rebate WYB Land O Lakes Butter with Olive Oil printable
(makes it 50¢)

Sargento Shredded Cheese, 8 oz., $1.89
-$1/2 Sargento shredded cheese products, SS 1/30
(makes it 89¢)

Kraft Natural Shredded Cheese, 8 oz., $1.99
-.55/1 Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese or Natural Shredded cheese, Kraft Food & Family booklet
(makes it 49¢)

DanActive or Activia Yogurt 4 ct., $2
-$1 off Dannon DanActive product, 4 or 8 pk printable
-$1 off Dannon DanActive, 4 pk or 8 pk, SS 1/09
-$1 off Activia dessert, 4-pk, SS 1/30
-.55/1 Dannon DanActive, 4 or 8 pk., in store dispenser
(use $1 off, makes it FREE)

Kraft Single Wrap Cheese 12 oz., $2
-$1 off Kraft 2% Milk cheese singles printable
-$1/2 Kraft Regular singles, SS 2/13
-.55/1 Kraft Singles or Deli Deluxe slices, Kraft Food & Family booklet
-.75/1 Kraft 2% or Fat Free singles, 10.7 oz +, SS 1/09
(use $1 off, makes it FREE)

Philadelphia Cooking Creme 10 oz., $2
-$1.50 off Kraft Philadelphia cooking creme printable
(makes it FREE)

Simply Lemonade 59 oz., $2.50
-$1 off Simply Juice, 59 oz printable
(makes it 50¢)

Yoplait Yo-Plus Yogurt, $1.50
-.75/2 Yoplait kids yogurt, Fiber One multipk, Yo-Plus 4 pk, Delights 4 pk multipk, 32 oz yogurt or Original yogurt 4 pk, Kroger home mailer
-$1 off Yoplait yogurt , 4 pk. (says do not double) printable
-.50/1 Yoplait YoPlus Yogurt 4-pack, SS 1/02 or SS 1/16
(use $1 off, makes it FREE)

Yoplait Yogurt Original 99% Fat Free or Light Fat Free, 4 pk., $2
-$1 off Yoplait yogurt , 4 pk. printable
-.50/2 Yoplait Original or Light yogurt, 4 pk, SS 2/13
-.75/2 Yoplait Original yogurt 4 pk, Kroger home mailer
-.75/4 Yoplait light yogurt, 6 oz. printable
-.75/4 Yoplait Light yogurt printable
(use $1 off, makes it FREE)

Buitoni Fresh Pasta, 9 oz., $2.59
-$1 off Buitoni refrigerated pasta or sauce, SS 1/02
(makes it 59¢)

Campbell’s Soups, 10.5-11.5 oz., $1
-$1.50/3 Campbell’s Classic Favorites soups, excl chicken noodle, tomato, and great for cooking printable
-$1.50/3 Campbell’s Taste Sensations Great for Cooking soups printable
-.25/3 Campbell’s Condensed Great for Cooking soups, SS 1/09
-.25/4 Campbell’s Condensed Great for Cooking soup, SS 1/09
-.30/4 Campbell’s Condensed Great for Cooking soup, SS 1/09
-.40/2 Campbell’s Condensed soup, printable
-.40/3 Campbell’s Condensed soup, SS 1/02
-.40/4 Campbell’s Condensed soup, SS 2/13
-.50/3 Campbell’s Condensed soup, printable
-.75/1 Campbell’s soup printable
(use $1.50/3, makes (3) FREE) Delete

Uncle Ben’s Boil-in-Bag Rice 14-15.8 oz., $2
-$1 off Fresh beef WYB Uncle Ben’s Plain White or Brown rice, RP 2/13
-$1 off Uncle Ben’s White or Brown Rice, RP 1/09
-$1/2 Uncle Ben’s Plain White or Brown rice product, RP 1/09
(use $1 off, makes it FREE)

Betty Crocker Specialty Potatoes, $1
-$1/2 Betty Crocker boxed potatoes printable or printable
-.50/2 Betty Crocker any flavor boxed Potatoes, excl Potato Buds and Betty Crocker Pouch printable
-.50/2 Betty Crocker boxed potatoes, SS 2/13
(use $1/2, makes it FREE)

Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Chicken Helper, or Tuna Helper, $1
-.50/1 Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper printable
-.75/3 Betty Crocker Hamburger, Tuna or Chicken Helper printable or printable
-.75/3 Betty Crocker Hamburger, Tuna, or Chicken Helper, SS 2/13
(use .50/1, makes it FREE)

Better Oats Oatmeal 5 ct., $1
-.55/1 BetterOats product printable
(makes it FREE)

Mariani Vanilla Yogurt Raisins or Cranberries 6-8 oz., $1.50
-.75/1 Mariani Dried Fruit snacks, SS 1/23
(makes it FREE)

Gain Dish Liquid, 24-30 oz., $1.99
-$1 off Gain dish product, Proctor & Gamble $110 booklet
-.20/1 Gain dish soap, PG 1/16
-.25/1 Gain dish soap, PG 1/16
(makes it FREE)

Dawn Ultra Dishwashing Liquid, 10.3 oz., 99¢
-$1 off Dawn product, February Ebony magazine
-.25/1 Dawn Ultra product, Organize in Style home mailer
-.50/1 Dawn product, Proctor & Gamble $110 booklet
(makes it FREE)

Scrubbing Bubbles Power Spray Extend A Clean Starter, 25 oz., $4.94
-$3 off Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer starter kit printable
-$5 off Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer starter kit, SS 1/09 (EXP 02/20)
(makes it FREE)

Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls, 8 ct., or Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, 8 ct., $1.67
-$1/2 Pillsbury Reg or Grands Sweet rolls printable or printable
-$1/2 Pillsbury crescent rolls printable
-.40/1 Pillsbury crescent dinner rolls WYB Italian meal bread, SS 1/30
(use $1/2, makes it 67¢)

Pillsbury Sweet Moments Bites 5.2-6.1 oz., $2.50
-$1 off Pillsbury Sweet Moments desserts printable
-$1 off Pillsbury Sweet Moments Refrigerated dessert, SS 12/05 or SS 12/12
-$1 off Pillsbury Sweet Moments refrigerated desserts printable or printable
-$1 off Pillsbury Sweet Moments WYB (3) refrigerated Pillsbury products (Facebook) printable
-$1/2 Pillsbury Sweet Moments Refrigerated desserts, SS 12/05
(use $1 off, makes it 50¢)

Valentines Day

2011-02-15T14:29:00.000-06:00

I spent the entire Valentine's Day with my baby and the evening with my husband. Conner and I had such a wonderful day. We went shopping for Daddy's card and present and then got a drink and a banana and ate it outside in the beautiful weather. It was a wonderful day!!!

Later that evening, my husband cooked an exquisite dinner... tapenade on french bread and peppered shrimp alfredo. I loved the meal, but the dessert was beyond amazing... CANNOLIS!!!

My camera was dead, so this is not the best picture.... but look at that sweetie pie!

Great Procter and Gamble Coupons

2011-02-15T14:14:00.001-06:00

P&G: Everyday Solutions

Sign up for these great coupons which include: Pampers, Tide, Charmin, Head and Shoulders, Swiffer, Downy, CoverGirl, Oil of Olay, Febreeze, Crest, Always, Puffs, Gillette and Secret.

There are some great deals here. You should definitely sign up as soon as possible. Just enter your information and they will mail the coupons to you in about 4 to 6 weeks.

I don't know about you, but these are products that I can't live without!