My life has been crazy busy lately, and here is one of the many reasons why......Coupons!! I have a friend who feeds her family of 8 on $50 a week!! Crazy right?!! She introduced me to the world of coupons! I've heard of these crazy coupon moms before....and was over whelmed by it. Once my friend explained it to me, its really easy. It's actually kind of fun-especially when you're checking out and see how you can get ton's of food for almost free! Now, I'm obsessed! It's so much fun! Before coupons, I was spending $90-110/week at Wal-mart buying all Great Value brands. Now, I'm spending $50-$60/week at Publix on name brand foods and getting twice as much! Literally! I took pictures to show Abe so he could be proud of all my hard work:) Abe and I have actually sat down together the past few weekends and cut coupons together.....ha ha. I guess we're getting nerdy.... oh well.
I'm just starting out, so I will eventually- hopefully get better and better. Also, the idea is to basically store up so much food, that you don't need to go to the store every week. You just go to get the REALLY good deals- almost free deals. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm already obsessed!
The first week I saved $90 and spent $70.
The second week I saved $125 and spent $60.
The third week I saved $120 and spent $50.
I also ventured out to CVS this week. I spent a total of $5 after all the coupons and Extra Cash Bucks. Not bad!
I'm just starting out, so I can do a lot better. But I'm excited for what I have saved so far!
Thought I'd do a little update on "Baby Adderol" as my mom calls her. Lily Kate is one happy happy baby and she's wired. At 9 1/2 months Miss Slobber started walking. She would walk across an entire room by herself. She was doing this for about a week when she was walking at church and fell completely backwards and hit her head pretty hard. That's when she refused to walk anymore. If you tried to let go of her, she would arch back or plant her feet and not move. If you tried to stand her up, she would completely lift her legs up in the air. In the meantime, she would walk around our house using the walls and furniture as props. Finally, now at 10 months, she started walking again! She'll walk back and forth between Abe and I, across a room following me, or she'll let go and walk to a toy etc. Finally I have a mobile baby!
She weighs 21lbs. 97% percentile for height and 78% for weight.
Her drug of choice: a bottle. I've got her down to three 8 oz. bottles a day. But she would definitely take more if I let her. She's very fickle with her food. She'll eat carrots one day and not the next. Frustrating. I usually have to go through three different food choices, before she'll finally eat one.
Does she crawl? No
Does she pull up? Almost...still needs a little help...have you seen the size of her legs?
For some reason, I don't have the most athletic kids. Weird since I've always considered Abe and I as athletic. But they are both talkers. Lily Kate babbles constantly ALL DAY long. And Elle talks and asks why ALL DAY LONG!
Since she hasn't been crawling like most babies, she's had lots of time to work on other important skills: like waving bye bye, she'll put her blankie over her head and play peek-a-boo. She loves to dance and clap. She LOVES to jump!! on anything! She'll scream really loud when she jumps!
She says mama, dada, bye bye, and Hey- in a deep voice while she puts her arm straight out. She resembles Hitler when she says Hey. She loves when people talk to her. When we're at the store, she'll keep saying hey in her deep hitler voice, till someone stops and talks to her. Then she's all smiles and hides her face in my chest.
More importantly:
Does she tan? Yes, a little bit, but nothing like Elle.
Does she have hair? Not much! It's white blonde and has a little tint of strawberry in the sun.
Lily Kate at 9 1/2 months (before church)
In the meantime, she walks using anything as a prop.
Lily Kate refusing to walk after church.
Now at 10 months and one day, I'd say she's officially walking again.
Lily Kate LOVES to jump on the trampoline.
For the Fourth, we sold our Peachtree Road Race tickets and spent the day at Lake Lanier instead. My mom has decorated their boat better than most houses. You might ask, how does she get her decorations to stay in place on a boat that rocks back and forth? HOT GLUE! It's kinda funny. Her lamps don't move, her picture frames stay on the wall, etc. We spent the day at Cocktail Cove and made Elle cover her eyes the whole time. After the craziness at Cocktail Cove, we drove back to the dock, grilled out. That night we drove the boat to a different cove to watch the fireworks on the lake. It was beautiful and relaxing!
My mom and I were cleaning up the dishes after dinner. I asked if she had a garbage disposal. Her reply: "No. We don't. Kelly we're are seriously roughing it when we come to the boat. It's just like camping." As she's saying this, she's turning off the flat screen tv and turning on their suround sound music. It is a rough life.
Abe doing back flips off the top of the boat.
My mom and the girls roughin' in the kitchen.
Abe and Abelina
Elle helping PeePaw drive the boat.
Lily Kate with her cousin Lucy.
Sitting with the Captain.
Elle trying to stand up in "her room."
Elle jumping on the bed in the master bedroom.
....and nothing ever moves. Thank you hot glue!
Charleston is by far one of the prettiest cities I've been to. I love the old oak trees, the beach, and the beautiful homes. We went to Charleston with our friends Mandy and Chad and their little girl Ella. We had so much fun venturing into the city(hottest city in the world!!!), going to the beach, visiting the local resturants, and relaxing at the condo. Thanks Mandy and Chad for a FUN weekend!!!
Who is big and cuddley and would do anything for his girls?
PawPaw!! My dad had two girls, and now has three granddaughters! I have to say, I think my dad secretly loves the fact that he has a bunch of princesses running around. PawPaw is so sweet, cuddley, and goofy with his girls. We just love being around him!!
For Father's Day, we went to his house and had some fun!!
SWEET MOMENT:
This past Thursday I was in a hurry trying to pack so we could go visit Abe in Alabama. It started thundering and raining outside. Elle was getting a little scared of the thunder. She kept running into my room (scared) asking me what the loud booms were. I kept saying, "Oh Elle, you're fine. It's just thunder. The clouds are playing baseball." A few minutes later I went to check on her in her room and saw her praying(on her knees, hands folded). I stopped in my tracks so I could spy on her without her seeing me. Her prayer went like this:
"Dear Hebenly Fader, please help the thunder and rain to go away. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
Then, she jumps up and looks out the window. To her disappointment, it was still raining and thundering.
Then she yells(very frustrated), "Mom!! Hebenly Fader's not listening to me!"
We put our kids in bins and see how far we can push them on the carpet.
Abe let me sleep in on Saturday morning. I came downstairs halfway awake,walked into the kitchen where Abe was feeding Lily Kate. This is what I saw.....
Abe never explained Lily Kate's appearance. Is this normal?
Lily Kate is Little Miss Sunshine. She is ALWAYS smiling and laughing and has brought sunshine into my soul!! She's VERY active but always happy, so it makes her craziness kind of cute! I love my Little Miss Sunshine!!!
Elle's second cousins came to visit. They are the cutest boys I've ever seen and they're ALL boy! By the time they left, Elle (who is extremely girly) was catching catepillars and putting lizards on her head!
Lovin' on a lizard!
Chasing Maggie
catching catepillars
Abe's grandparents came to visit in March. They are the nicest and most thoughtful people you will ever meet! They went sky diving for their 80th birthdays and loved it! Grandma wants to go again this year! They are so funny! I just adore them and hope to be just like them when I grow up:)
