This 'N' That

This has been a very busy autumn for us. I have hundreds of pictures, but no time to really edit or search through them at the moment, unfortunately. So... without further ado, here are a few pics from the Pumpkin Patch and several more from a wildlife preserve we went to on our trip to Green Bay, WI. :)

  Yes, of course they love each other!

Apple Cider Slushie. :)

Anxious to start feeding some ducks.

AWWW, cute Daddy/Daughter moment.

Gorgeous, :)

Feeding the geese.

Feeding the ducks.

They had such a fun time with this, it was adorable. Wish they had a place like this around here!

My Girl. So pretty :)

My other girl. So in love with life.

Dr. B putting together the crib for our new little guy. I was SO excited to get this so we could have it put together and in the corner of our bedroom. I love seeing it in there!

Now... to pick out some bedding. Ive been searching online and in stores for weeks. Looking for hours and hours online. Its so hard to pick the 'right' one. With my two girls, we didn't have enough money for me to get to pick out things like a crib or bedding. Our first crib that both kids used was one my husband's Aunt Patty gave to us, which was AWESOME and worked well. However, its a drop-rail crib so its no longer safe to use. So... I picked this one out. Anyways, I've never gotten to pick things like this out before, and we are about 99.9% sure this will be our last child, so this is the first and last time I will get to pick out crib bedding, so I am kind of over-obsessing about it. I can't help it :)

Speaking of crib bedding, time to go surf the web and see if i can narrow it down some more.
Any and all suggestions are welcome ;)

26 Weeks

26 Weeks

Starting to really look, and feel, pregnant.

Below I have loaded some pictures that i have taken on my phone, but just now got around to putting on my computer. In no particular order...  

These pictures were taken on a trip we took last weekend to visit my sister in law and her husband in Green Bay, WI. This is Lake Michigan. :) It was so gorgeous. 

Sophia getting into the Halloween spirit, emptying our pumpkin of its goo and seeds. We baked the seeds, and the girls ate every last one, then daddy carved us a really scary jack-o-lantern!

At our family fall fun party, decorating a pumpkin with the other kids.

My little Bears fans!!

Miss Sophia's Kindergarten picture...

Sophia cheering at the High School Cheer Clinic... her first (and she says her last also)

And of course... we have some silly gooner faces

:)

The Couponing World

So, I am friends with several people on various social networking sites, and something I’ve recently been keeping tabs on is the people who are into ‘extreme couponing.’ I have never really wanted to take the time to clip coupons from the Sunday paper just to save .30 cents….. however, people have found a lot of ways to save WAY more than just that, nowadays. Its pretty cool. A lady in front of me at Save-A-Lot last week saved about 15$ just by handing the cashier 4 coupons at the end.

Anyway, today I was talking to a lady, lets call her JB (hello if you are reading this!!) and she showed me THIS picture…

Using various coupons she was able to get ALL THIS for only $5.50. I mean, come on…. Look at all that stuff! That is absolutely CRAZY! I let this picture she showed me, along with some info marinate…. and I decided to just try gathering some coupons and see what happened.

Lets just say I have a lot to learn. But, I was still pleased

This was my purchase, all of which only cost me about $45.00. (Now, bear in mind that the Keurig coffee packets 7.99, milk 3.49, Nutter Butter Cookies 2-something, and the garlic toast 2.79 were NOT on sale, and I did not have coupons for these… so that jacked up the price a little. Also Some of these items were just on sale this week, plus I had coupons for them and some I just had a coupon for. Overall, I was happy… I saved around $27, which was about half of my purchase price.

Basically, this is what I learned. I don't really want to put the time in to be an “extreme couponer’ , because I don't really want to spend all my evenings and weekends searching, clipping and printing coupons or get in a fight with the cashier over how many I can use at one time. I don't want to become obsessed with it, basically. BUT do think I will keep an out out for more coupons, and before I make a trip to the store maybe I will check out coupons.com or some of the other coupon sites. It really felt nice to save so much money on stuff that I would have bought anyway!

Check out this site: www.coupons.com

So there you have it… Im not an EXTREME COUPONER, more like a MEDIOCRE COUPONER. ;)

Oh Boy!

This past Thursday we went to the hospital to get our 2nd ultrasound for baby #3, for measurements and to also determine the sex of the baby if we wanted to know….which of course we DID! I am pleased to announce…. no THRILLED to announce that after having 2 sweet princess girls, we will be having a baby BOY next February!

There you have it. :) So, obviously we are starting anew with this venture. We have pink, we have purple… but nothing blue! Also, I found out our crib no longer meets safety standards, so we are getting a new crib. I have selected this one….

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Child-of-Mine-Jamestown-4-in-1-Convertible-Crib-Chestnut/15118692

I picked this crib out about 3 months ago, we like it because it turns into a toddler bed with a guardrail and then becomes a bed frame for a full size bed. So, pretty much if we take care of it, this will be the only bed he ever needs, since we already have an extra full size mattress. BUT if it DOES get destroyed, I wont cry too hard because its not a $600 dollar crib, its only $200. (Which is still a lot of money for a cheap-skate like me!)

I have been feeling the beginnings of all kids of flip-flops and kicks from my little fella. :) Gets more exciting every single day. The girls cant wait to meet their little brother, either. They talk to him and make sure he gets kisses and hugs already.

The girls have their cousin over today for some play time…

Brandon has been busy with work, of course, and gearing up for hunting season. Sophia still loves Kindergarten, she is making lots of new friends and learning so much more each day. I can remember when I was just starting to feel her little movements in my tummy, and now she is doing math and reading small phrases. CRAYZAY!!! Me and Miss Bella have been busy working and cleaning and doing errands… whatever the day brings. She is my little helper bug.

Im off to finish some Saturday morning cleaning, check on the roast in the crock pot, and make sure the girls aren't setting any fires. :)

LOVE this fall weather…. :) L O V E

August Update

Since I have been most unfaithful to my blogging lately, I haven’t had the chance to blog about some important news for our family. We are expecting baby #3 in February of next year.

I can definitely say that of my 3 pregnancies, this was the hardest one initially. I was VERY tired the first 12-13 weeks. Im not talking a little sleepy either, because with a 5 year old and a 3 year old, helping out (now only occasionally) my husbands business, and a household to run…. I am ALWAYS a ‘little sleepy.’ I am talking about being so exhausted I felt like I had been roofied. As a mom to young, active children… this was obviously not convenient. However, I made it through that and now we are 16 weeks into this pregnancy. Mostly, I feel great. I do have some aches and pains, but overall I am feeling good these days. I have gain approx 4.5 lbs. so far, which is good. Neither too little nor too much. The girls are very excited, although since Bella is only 3 I don’t think she truly understand about the baby. Sophia, however, understands and is very excited. She loves to talk to the baby and talk about when we will get to hold the baby, etc. In less than two weeks, we will find out whether we are having another girl or a boy!

The girls still love driving around in their little ‘Stanger’ just like the last couple summers. We also take short walks when its not too hot and check on our garden. Its almost time to start planning our trip to the Pumpkin Patch and Apple Orchard. :) Something I look forward to all year long.

Time to end this post…. I just told Bella ‘No’ to s omething and now she is wailing about how I have ‘hurt her heart.’ I better go mend it. :)

Summer comes to a close….

Yesterday, for the first time ever…. I sent a child to school. Not preschool or Sunday school, regular every day school. Sophia had her first 1/2 day of Kindergarten yesterday, first full day today. Its a combination between exciting, anxiety inducing, and depressing. I have found that housework is an excellent distraction, thankfully. And with a 3 year old still at home, I still don’t lack for child companionship.

However, for the first time in 5 years since i brought home that beautiful baby home from thehospital, her every day routine has consisted of being with me all day long. So, yes, I miss her dearly and I think about her all the time. Bella misses her too, since its not too often her and big sister are separated. She is coping pretty well though, she just doesn’t like dropping Sophia off in the morning. That seems to be the worst time, and I honestly think its mostly that she doesn’t think its fair Sophia gets to go and she doesn’t.

So, that’s pretty much the news for this week. School, school…. and school. :)

Happy Back to School everyone.