Fashionista Friday

My mom got this outfit for Elizabeth.  Today was the first day we tried it on.  It's almost too small on her and it is 0-6 months.  I have to be honest, I had yet to put her in this outfit because it is ridiculous.  I'm glad I waited, and I'm glad I own a camera.

The front...

The back.

Target gameday

I hit up Target today for some game deals that I saw on Southern Savers.
I wanted to get a few Easter basket things for Elizabeth and some Easter basket fillers for Ben (and myself). 

I picked up some hair bows and pacifiers for Elizabeth but the best deals were on the games and that's what I wanted to share.

What I got...

Sponge Bob Memory Game

Cootie Game: Break the Ice

Yahtzee Flash

Bop It! xt

 Card game: Monopoly deal

Card game: Scrabble Slam!

The Sponge Bob Game was $7.04, I had $6 in coupons, so I paid $1.04

The Cootie Game was $7.79, I had $6 in coupons, so I paid $1.79

Yahtzee Flash was on sale for $15, I had $10 in coupons, so I paid $5 and got the card game: Monopoly deal for FREE

Bop It! xt was on sale for $15, I had $10 in coupons, so I paid $5 and got the card game: Scrabble Slam! for FREE

Total before coupons:  $78.59

Total spent: $12.83

Total saved: $65.76

Sunday Savings

This is my shopping from Sunday.  I haven't had a chance to blog until now, but I did well with triples at Harris Teeter and Easter candy at CVS.

First up, Harris Teeter...

Harris Teeter was tripling all coupons under 99 cents.  When I went on Sunday they were out of a bunch of stuff that I wanted (I also went back today, but they were still out of all the good stuff).  Most of the things I bought were on sale except the lunch meat and bananas.

I bought: baby wipes, napkins, pasta, pasta sauce, lunch meat, bananas, bread, OJ, butter, yogurt,

meat balls, milk, pasta sauce, biscuits, and frozen vegetables.

Total before coupons: $66.63

Total after coupons: $41.77

Second up, CVS...

I bought 4 Snickers eggs and a bag of Jelly Beans.

Total before coupons: $4.72

Total after coupons: $0.04

*That's right... I paid 4 cents, the tax!*

I also got back $2.99 in Extra Care Bucks

Happy Birthday Nana!

Dear Nana,

I wanted to wish you a very happy birthday!  I hope you have had a wonderful day!  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.  Happy Birthday!

Love,

Elizabeth

Favorite things

Being on maternity leave allows me certain "benefits" that I don't normally have while I'm working.  Namely, free time to think about random things.  While I was thinking of some random things today, I began to think about some of my current favorite things.  Things I absolutely use every day and cannot make it through a day without.  (Okay, I could probably make it through the day without, but who wants to see that?  Not me!)

Bath and Body Works Vanilla Lotion.  I use this everywhere.

My hands, my legs, and my stomach.

Vanilla is my favorite scent and I stock pile this lotion when it's on sale and I have a coupon.

The only breakfast I have time for before Elizabeth wakes up.

Nutritious, I know.

Because who wants to have smelly breath?  Not me!

I always have a package of ice breaks, only the blue ones.

I don't like the other flavors.

Because I don't like coffee and I have a new born.

Every morning with my pop tarts, I have a diet coke.

Go me on being the good healthy example!

My clinique pressed powder.  I don't wear a lot of make-up, but I do use this every day.

One Month Old

Dear Elizabeth,

You are one month old today.  I absolutely cannot believe you have been here for a month.  The expression is true - time flies!  Words cannot express how much you have stolen my heart and your dad's heart.  We are head over heals in love with you and each day we spend with you, we just love you more and more.  I check on you all night to make sure you are breathing, and warm, and happy; and after I have checked a million times, I send your dad to check.  Yes, we have a baby monitor, but who really trusts that?  Not me.  :)

Not only are we totally in love with you but so are your grandparents, great grandmother, your two uncles, your aunt, and so many more people.  You have had a lot of visitors this month and received a lot of gifts from people very far away that couldn't make the trip.

This week you have started to smile at us and even talk to us a little.  Every morning you wake up with a little cry to let us know you are ready to eat but then you are happy, happy, happy.  We are so blessed that you are such a happy little girl.  You like to be held up high and look around at everything that is going on.  You also like to lay on your changing table and kick your legs. 

You are back to your birth weight: 9 pounds, 14 ounces and you are now 21.5 inches long (the doctor told us you were 20 inches when we took you in at 5 days).  You wear a size 1 diaper and 3 month clothes.  You love to wear bows in your hair.  This month you wore mittens before I could cut your finger nails.  You love your pacifier and like to hold it and wave it in the air.  We started tummy time two weeks ago, sometimes you are a fan and sometimes you cry 30 seconds in.

You have started to enjoy your baths but you do not like getting dried off.  We have moved your baby tub into our big tub and seem to enjoy that more.  You sleep in your room every night and nap in your pack and play in the living room. 

You eat 4 ounces, 5 times a day.  6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, and 10pm.  After your 10pm bottle, you sleep until 6am.  Daddy and I love that!  You go back to sleep after your 6am bottle until 10am and then you are up most of the day.  You may take a short nap after 10am or 2pm but not more than 1 hour. 

You have grown so much this month and met so many people.  We love you Elizabeth.  More than you will ever know.

Love,

Mom

When you were born.

Laying next to mommy in post-op.

Grandmother

Nana and Pap Pap.

Uncle Adam

Cousin Jessica

Pari

Uncle Andy

Anuja

Getting ready to go home.

In the car, on the way home from the hospital

Great Grandmother

Going for a walk

Aunt Anna

4 generations: Great Grandmother, my Mom, my sister, me, and my daughter

First time going to Church

Hanging out with Daddy

Today!  You are 1 month old!

I love you!

Sunday Savings

Today's shopping was AWESOME!  No other way to describe it.    Okay, I will stop wasting your time with saying how awesome my shopping was... and just show you!

First up, CVS...

I "bought" 3 packages of diapers and 1 package of wipes...

And... I got the stroller for FREE!

Now I say "bought" because:

The diapers were on sale for 2/$19 and the wipes were on sale 2/$6.

The diapers are normally $11.99 each and wipes are normally $3.99 each.

The stroller is normally $18.79.

I had $15 in Extra Care Bucks and $7.25 in manufacturer coupons.

Total before coupons: $58.75

Total spent: $9.25

*I also got back $1 Extra Care Buck*

Now Giant...

We only needed breakfast and lunch items because we still have a ton of frozen stuff from last week.

The only things I bought without a coupon or not on sale were our lunch meats, milk, and bananas.

I bought: 3 packages of Pop tarts, 1 Yoplait Smoothie, 2 boxes of granola bars, 1 box of Snack Well bars, 2 4-packs of yogurt, 1 1/2 gallon of milk, 1/2 pound of hard salami, 1/2 pound turkey, and 4 bananas.

I had a $10 off coupon from my frozen food shopping from last week, and I had manfacturer coupons for the pop tarts, smoothie, granola bars, snack well bars, and yogurt.

Total before coupons: $43.27

Total spent: $18.46

Overall total before coupons (from both stores): $102.02

Total spent: $27.71

Happy Birthday Great Grandmother!!!

Elizabeth wants to wish her Great Grandmother a very special Happy 80th Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Gramps/ Great Grandmother!

Love,

Abby, Ben, and Elizabeth

Springing forward...

Spring is here!  At least it feels like it is.  Today was 80 degrees and Elizabeth did 2 miles around the neighborhood.  The flowers are blooming, the sky is blue, and I bought new clothes for the warm weather.

So I have to be honest about something.  I am now starting on my new New Year's Resolution.  See, one of my New Year's Resolutions couldn't begin until I had Elizabeth.  I want to get in shape.  After being pregnant for 41 weeks it is so nice to M.O.V.E.!!!!  Now, right now I can only walk but I am a few short weeks away from jogging, kick boxing, yogaing, and lifting weights.  I can hardly wait!

I have also wanted to update my wardrobe.  It is mostly t-shirts and shorts because of my job and I find I have very few "blouses" or nice shirts to wear out to dinner.  (Pari, we still need to go shopping)
I also haven't purchased any new "spring/summer wear" since before our honeymoon and that was almost 3 years ago.

So... how do these random thoughts tie together?  Well, I didn't want to buy new clothes that I wouldn't fit into because I didn't know how soon I would lose the baby weight and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on clothes that would (hopefully) become too big when I lose some weight and get into shape.  Well... baby weight has become a non-issue (however, my stomach has become it's own issue- moms, does it get better???)

So today, Elizabeth and I went shopping at Old Navy for a few spring/summer wardrobe updates.  I had a coupon ($10 off any $50 purchase) and a gift card ($10 from the CVS gift cards back before Christmas).  I also knew that Old Navy was having a great BOGO (buy one, get one free) sale.

Here's what we got:

These tank tops are normally $10 each.

This week they are buy one, get one free.

Plus the $10 off $50 coupon made them $3.99 each.

 (When I find something I like, I buy it in as many colors as possible)

(Plus it's about 100 degrees here during the summer and tank tops are the only acceptable top)

The cardigan is normally $24.94, it was on ssale for $19.50

then another $3.94 off from the spend $50 get $10 off.  I paid $15.56 for the cardigan.

The two tops are normally $16.94 each, they were on sale for $6 each.

(I didn't know the tops were on sale until they rang up)

Each of the onsies were nomally $7.94.

I paid $4 each.

Three of them rang up $5 and the cashier changed it to $4!

Total spent: $78.95

Total saved: $75.20

Sunday Savings

It's back to the coupon business after a few weeks off (I've been told having a baby is a good excuse).  Our grocery store (Giant) is running "Frozen Food Month" and if you spend $15 on frozen food, you get $5 off your next order, you spend $25 on frozen food, you get $10 off your next order, etc...

So I rounded up my coupons, made my grocery list, and checked with all of the specials going on at Giant.  It wasn't my best shopping ever, but it was nice to be back.

What we got...

1 loaf of bread
6 yogurts
2 containers of Breyers ice cream
1 apple sauce
1 body wash
3 bananas
1 bag of salad
2 frozen cakes
1 box of frozen fish
1 box of chicken
1 box of frozen pretzels
1 bag of mozzarella bites
1 bag of frozen vegetables

Original total: $62.80
Total spent: $42.34

* I also received $10 back to spend on my next order *

Happy Birthday Uncle Andy!

Elizabeth told me that she wanted to send her Uncle Andy a special birthday message...

Happy Birthday Uncle Andy!

We love you!

-Elizabeth, Abby & Ben

Favorite things

This afternoon Pari and I went to get our nails done.  I picked a color I have never, ever used before.

Pink sparkles!

Then I got home for dinner and Ben asked me what I wanted.  I perused the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer.  This is what we (Ben) came up with...

I LOVE breakfast for dinner!  Thank you Ben for pancakes and bacon.

Now, it's March and you know what that means...

I was a Girl Scout for 12 years and cannot make it through a year

without 3 boxes of thin mints and 3 boxes of tagalongs.

And my two most favorites in the whole entire world....