Saturday, January 17, 2009

The New Nephew

Carter was born on January 15, 2008 at 12:40am. He weighed 7lbs 4ozs and was 20 1/2 inches. Congrats to Shannon and Craig!

Updates...

Well, I did it. I updated the blog. I've been adding stuff all day. It's still not everything I wanted to put, but I got a lot. It's not in order at all, but it's an update, haha. I'll try not to go another two months before I update again...

9 Month Check Up

Oliver had his 9 month check up at the end of December. He did great, as usual. He weighed 18 lbs 10 ozs and is 30 inches tall. He's at the 90% for height and about 30% for weight. Still tall and skinny.

He's got such a funny personality. It's pretty obvious he belongs to me and Spencer. At home, he's wild and loud. He screams and yells all day and is all over the house. But, if somebody he doesn't know come over or we take him to somebody's house, he gets all quiet and shy. It's so funny. I know I was like that when I was little, and I think Spencer was too. It's crazy how much your kid can be like you even this early. My mom used to always tell him she hopes I get a kid that acts just like me. Lucky me =]

Playing In The Cupboards

Oliver's favorite thing to do had been playing in the cupboards and drawers, ripping out everything possible. Then, one day when I wasn't watching him closely enough (yes, I know, bad idea), he ripped out a glass pan and it broke all over the kitchen floor and scared the crap out of the poor little dude. Now, there's cabinet lock things on all the cupboards and drawers that he can reach. He was not happy about that at all. He still tries to stick his hand into the inch and a half space that the drawers pull open and get whatever he can out. He's too curious...

Christmas

Oliver's first Christmas was lots of fun. I took him to see Santa. As you can see, he didn't have very much fun with that. Haha.

We had a box wrapped in Christmas paper that he had been "driving" around the house for a couple of days. I stuck him in it and put him under the tree. Amazingly, he smiled and I got a pretty cute picture out of it.

Diane bought Trevor and Oliver matching Santa outfits (which we never did get their pictures together in...)


We got up early on Christmas morning and headed to Steve and Diane's house to open presents there with everybody. We came home and Oliver took a well needed nap before finally opening his presents from Santa Claus. He got so much stuff! Santa may have gone a little overboard. But I'm really glad he has new things to entertain him and keep him busy for longer than two minutes.

Keep Those Babies Rear Facing...

Since the little man is in a convertable car seat now, I've done a lot of research on rear facing vs forward facing car seats. The car seat I have can rear face up to 35 lbs and I fully intend to do keep it rear facing that long. I found this video that compares front facing and rear facing head on collisions and it has a lot of information in it, too. Definitely worth watching....


More Coupons...

The last two weeks at Albertson's, they've had great sales. Last week was General Mills/Proctor & Gamble and this week was the Big Breakfast Sale.

Here's the damage done last week (original non-sale price in parenthesis):

6 boxes Total Whole Grain cereal ($4.49 ea.)
3 boxes Multi Grain Cheerios ($4.29 ea.)
3 boxes Kellog's Raisin Bran ($3.49 ea.)
3 boxes Fiber One Toaster Pastries ($2.99 ea.)
10 (4-packs) of Yoplait Yogurt ($2.99 ea.)

18 boxes of Tuna/Chicken/Hamburger Helper ($2.69 ea.)
4 boxes Toaster Strudel ($3.39 ea.)
5 boxes Jolly Time Popcorn ($2.99 ea.)

2 40oz boxes Bisquick baking mix ($4.19 ea.)
3 jars Jif Peanut Butter ($3.29 ea.)
3 jars Smuckers Grape Jelly ($2.99 ea.)
3 loaves Sara Lee bread ($2.99 ea.)
4 bags Malt O Meal Cereal ($3.59 ea.)
2 gallons of milk ($2.19 ea.)
2 tubes of L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara ($8.19 ea.)


After 4 separate transactions and 2 hours at the store....
GRAND TOTAL = $25.68!

I was lucky that last week you could double your coupons (which I had tons of) and combined that with an awesome sale.

This week didn't take nearly as much planning, but I got great stuff:

10 boxes Quaker Oatmeal ($4.59 ea.)
3 boxes Fiber One Shredded Wheat ($5.29 ea.)
1 box Banana Nut Cheerios ($4.99 ea.)
2 boxes Cinnamon Life Cereal ($4.29 ea.)

1 loaf French Bread ($1.69 ea.)
8 cans Progresso Soup ($2.79 ea.)
9 cans Campbell's Tomato Soup ($0.99 ea.)
4 cans Campbell's Spaghettio's ($1.49 ea.)

4 packs Dannon Yogurt ($3.49 ea.)
2 gallons of milk ($2.19 ea.)
1 box Jolly Time Popcorn ($2.99 ea.)
3 Gerber Graduates Pasta Dinners ($1.39 ea.)
2 Gerber Graduates Veggie Puffs ($2.25 ea.)
2 Hershey's Dark Chocolate bars ($0.79 ea.)


After 2 separate transactions and less than an hour....
GRAND TOTAL = $13.18!

The only part that sucks about doing this whole couponing thing is that it takes a lot of time, planning and patience. But it's worth it. The only two "tricks" I really have are that I buy multiple copies of the local newspaper (it has the same coupons as Sunday papers, but is only 50 cents) and use PinchingYourPennies.com. And I try to have fun with it.

Now, on to more important things...

Tagged Again - 4th and 4th

TAG!!!
4th and 4th

1. Go to your picture files on your computer
2. Go to the 4th folder
3. Go to the 4th picture in the 4th folder
4. Post it and tell what you remember about that picture.

Here's mine:



This was my first ultrasound. Little Olie and his chubby cheeks waving to mom and dad. We didn't know he was a boy yet for sure(it says 22W1D, but that's WAY off, I was more like 12 weeks), but we knew it was a boy. In a weird way, I miss being pregnant. It was fun for the most part being pregnant at the same time as everybody and their dog =] The only part that wasn't fun was the one weekend where Spencer says I had the worst "crazy pregnant lady" day ever. Haha.