Moo is 2!

March 22, 2006

6lbs, 70z and and an itty bitty 18 inches

March 22, 2007

20 lbs 2 0z, and 30 inches

March 22, 2008

30lbs, 0 oz and 38 inches!!! He has grown just a little bit!

These last 2 years have been almost pure joy. He is such a happy, funny, laid-back little guy. When I was pregnant, I prayed for a baby that I could handle on my home while my husband was in school and at work. I prayed he would be joyful and easy going and he most certainly has been! I have a feeling the times they are a changing as his 2 year old temperament sets in and the time outs and temper tantrums occur virtually daily now.

I can't wait to see what thing 2 will be like!

Oh Happy Day!

Hubbie's test went really, really well. Freakishly well.

We are trying not to get excited because there are still 4 or 5 more steps in the process before a job offer.

Ironically, this is the testing cycle that I have been most relaxed about and have felt incredible peace about. I doubt my husband would say the same.

Ironic

It's Good Friday afternoon and my doorbell rings. Odd, we aren't expecting anyone and most of my friends are well aware that ringing the doorbell during m's nap is forbidden. I figure it's either the neighborhood kids wanting to sell me gift wrap, magazines, or popcorn. Or some random lawn service reminding me that our lawn desperately needs some TLC. Or....

Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

On Good Friday.

Ironic.

I actually did open the door and talk to them for about 10 minutes. However, they didn't seem amused that I knew the principles of their faith well and have chosen (gasp) to follow Christ. Only Christ.

Grocery Game

When I became a full time stay at home mom six weeks ago, we knew we would have to come up with some creative ways to live well on less. We are still living on the same income that we were 5 years ago when we got married as college students. And our family size has doubled :)

I happened across this really cool frugal living blog a couple months ago called Like Merchant Ships and she got me rethinking how we spend our money. I have always been a big bargain shopper and love clearance racks and getting up early to head out to garage sales. I had never thought about our groceries and consumables being a place where we could save money. After all, we shopped at Wal-mart and used the generic brand of everything. I started doing more research on being frugal and found a book called "The Coupon Mom" at our local Jesus superstore for $.99! I decided I would try shopping the way she outlined and see if we could beat our Wal-mart prices.

I have been blown away by how much money we aren't spending! And how much more I have been able to buy! One of the best parts is that items are often free or more than free so I have been able to pass on lots of goods to a local mission our church supports. It's so cool!

The basic premise of the grocery game is that you match coupons with sales and store incentives to maximize your savings.

Just for an example, yesterday I went shopping and bought:
7 bags of Hershey's easter candy
1 venus embrace razor for her
2 3 pack Mach 3 razors for the hubby
2 Colgate toothpastes
2 Kit Kat Candy Bars
all for $.96!!

We don't need more toothpaste or most of the candy, so they got donated to a local mission and to my niece and nephews easter box :)

At another store,
I bought 4- 3 packs of Zest soap and 2 pillows for M's crib (he is old enough) for $5.36 with $12 in credit for my next trip to the store. Not to bad!

Groceries are a little trickier to get a good deal on, but we have switched to using name brands and are paying 30% less than we were spending on the generic version sold at Wal-mart. We also switched to name brand diapers which have turned out to be as little as $2 a pack!

One caveat is that playing the "grocery game" is time consuming. The first couple weeks I spent hours planning and organizing for trips to the store. Now that I have done it for 6 weeks, it's getting easier and we are spending less.

By the way, any coupons you don't want will be happily received at our house. I may even squel with glee... especially if its for diapers!

Just in case you are curious, the above photos are from a great couple shopping trips. Everything in the photo was free after coupons, rebate, or store credit except the cereal, hamburger helper, and paper towels. My total out of pocket expenses were under $30!!! I would have previously spent that on the 3 packs of diapers alone!

Milestone

23 months, 1 week, 3 days

And I finally turned his car seat forward facing! I am a car seat junkie and am generally a little obsessed about using them correctly. M has been close to the limits of his seat for awhile now and I was waiting until after his 2nd birthday to switch him. That is until I got an e-mail for a free car seat check this week! So we turned his seat around so we could install the infant seat and get them both checked at the same time :) I am 99.8% sure I installed them right, but I like the reassurance of having a certified car seat tech double check! If you have little bitty kids, I highly recommend having a tech teach you how to use a car seat correctly. Ok, off my soap box now...

Just another example of how he is less a baby every day and more a little man.