Rite Aid Deals of the Week

As you've probably figured out by now, we are always looking for a good deal. Brian has taken Rite Aid by storm and he is having so much fun doing it. Brian, Beth, and his mom have been planning out their trip to Rite Aid for several days now. Today, they all went (to different stores in the cities they live in) to get some amazing deals. I have to say it is a little bit crazy, but when you see how much it pays off, I don't know why we didn't do it before!
Here is what Brian got:

• 4 - Colgate Total Advantage Toothpastes
• 8 - Jif Peanut Butters (4 Crunchy, 4 Creamy)
• 10 - Edy's Ice Cream
• 2 - Right Guard Deodorants
• 1 - Johnson's Baby Oil
• 2 - 32oz Gatorade
• 2 - Afrin Nasal Spray
• 2 - Coricidin
• 2 - Oberto Beef Jerky
• 1 - Gillete Pro Glide Razor
• 1 - Chex Mix
• 2 - Chili and Bean Bowls
• 2 - 48 Count Small Dixie Plates
• 3 - Bounty Basic

Regular shelf Rite Aid prices would have totaled: $167.30

Total Cost out of pocket: $4.42

That's a savings of over 97%!!!

Dress Up Fun

After we cleaned up all of the mess and took out the trash, we had to play dress up! Here are just a few pictures...

Super Girl Macie

Ladybug Macie

Snow White Macie

Presents Galore!

We took two presents to Beth's Shower and came home with a car full! How in the world is that possible???? Well, the kids got Christmas presents from several of Brian's family members we hadn't seen yet and Gavin got a few early birthday presents. The madness never ends! As crazy as it is, it is an absolute blessing! The kids both got more outfits and Macie got her Christmas dress for next year! She also got a big storage container with eight new dress up outfits. Brian also got an early birthday gift from his parents...an electric razor! Macie was very overwhelmed with all of the people (plus it was nap time) so she didn't open any of her gifts until we got home. It was fun to look through everything and open the presents at home. THANK YOU TO EVERY ONE WHO SPOILS MY CHILDREN ROTTEN!!!

All of the goodies
The dress up clothes

Macie went to town opening her Little People bus!

Gavin did so well opening his gifts too! In a few short days, he will be opening more gifts for his birthday!

Gavin got the Little People plane

We love Little People stuff!

The best part....eating the paper!

Look at all of those new bracelets!

Beth's Shower

Yesterday, we packed up and went to Sturgis for Beth's baby shower. She is due March 9th and Baby Parker will be here before we know it! Beth and Parker were overwhelmed with lots of guests and even more presents! Macie and I attended the shower. She did a great job and was very well behaved. Everyone was commenting how beautiful she is and how smart. I have to agree! Brian and Gavin made a quick appearance, but spent most of their time with Pops at his house. It was a very brief trip, but a great one!

The cake
I just LOVE this dress on Macie! She got a lot of compliments!

Beth opening the gifts from us. Macie and Gavin got Parker a book and a Baby Einstein toy. We got them a diner mat, batteries, Parent Magazine, crib sheets, snack cups, a shirt, and a bib!

Megan and Gavin

They are three weeks apart in age

Grammie and Macie

A Aunt Addie

Miss Macie is talking ALL OF THE TIME! She is constantly amazing us with things that come out of her mouth! She can sing the ABC's (well her version anyway) and now knows the rhyme "1 2 Buckle My Shoe". I'm most impressed with the fact that she recognizes 8 letters on a regular basis and points them out everywhere...t shirts, books, even signs on the side of the road! Not only does she know some letters, but she knows a word with them. She knows A (Aunt Addie), G (My Bwudda), M (Me), S (Snake), Y, O, P (Baby Pawka), K (Aunt Tatie). We were driving home today, and all of a sudden she screamed...."A Aunt Addie....A Aunt Addie...tu Aunt Addies". I look up and sure enough there are two A's on the sign! She's barely two years old for pete's sake!

She is also always saying "Tant tu" (thank you). It is so sweet because when it is time to eat she will say, "Tant tu Mommy my pate, tant tu Mommy my food". Melt my heart!

This morning on the way to Miss Julie's, Brian and Macie were talking about how I'm a teacher. She said, "I be teacher like Mommy". I followed in my Mom's footsteps, so it wouldn't break my heart if she did the same!

Last Bottle

Wednesday night Gavin had his last bottle at home! He had just enough formula for one more bottle Thursday morning at Miss Julie's. While I am sad that my little guy is growing up, I can honestly say that I'm not sad about him being done with formula. It was a fight most of the time to get him to drink it and it is expensive! He LOVES milk and has made the transition fairly easily. Only a few more days until he's 1...

Winter Hat

I think Gavin's winter hat is the cutest thing! I've been wanting to take a picture of it for a while, and I finally made a point to one morning this week. I'm afraid he will out grow it soon!

SO BIG!!

Now that Gavin can pull up, I wanted to compare Macie and Gavin. She still is quite a bit taller, but it's neat to see them both standing!

Scrapbooking Update

Well, I worked like a crazy person this weekend! I ordered most of the pictures (I missed a few small things) and I've scrapped all the way to 6 months. I can say that is an accomplishment! Now I don't feel like a complete failure as a Mom! I'm well on my way to completing his scrapbook by his first birthday. The way that it's looking, his scrapbook is going to be bigger than Macie's because we have events of the 2 of them. As much as I know I should have kept up with this, it is kind of neat to do it all right before he turns one because I have a chance to look back at the last year. My little guy has grown so much! I get teary eyed thinking about it!

2nd Child Syndrome

I promised that I would make at least 4 scrapbooks for each child: pregnancy, hospital, 1st year, and 1st birthday party. Of course, I kept up with all of Macie's scrapbooks and had the first three done and on display at her first birthday party. I wanted to do the exact same for Gavin. Well, I have his pregnancy, hospital, and only about a month of his 1st year done and his party is a little over 2 weeks away! EEEK!!! I have a lot done for his party (place booked, I made invites and a banner) and I plan to finish up everything for it next weekend. However, I HAVE TO GET HIS SCRAPBOOK DONE!!! I broke down the other night because I couldn't believe I've let so much time pass and I haven't scrapbooked. I love to do it and it just seems there isn't enough time. I finally ordered half of the pictures that I need and wrote up a list of most of the pages I need to do. Thank goodness I keep up with the blog. That is the only way I will be able to go back and remember details of what happened. So in true Abbie fashion, I've created a to do list and plan to get his book finished:

• Friday - edit/order rest of pictures; create a list of pages I want to make
• Saturday/Sunday - make as many pages as I possibly can while hanging out at home with the kids (Thanks to my wonderful husband); hopefully complete the first 6 months.
• Monday-Friday - do one months worth of pages a night
• Saturday - Finish book
• Sunday - wrap up any finishing touches/ plan the rest of his party!

Maybe if I blog about it, I will hold myself accountable and get it done!!!

Success!!

Every day, Macie wakes up from her nap with a dry pull up. However, the 2 times we've tried to lay her down without a pull up on, she has an accident. Because I had another snow day today (booo), I thought it would be a great opportunity to try again. I have three days before she goes back to daycare. I was a little nervous, but worse case scenario, I give her a bath and do a load of laundry! Well...it was a success! She didn't have an accident. Hopefully, she will keep it up and she will only have to wear a pull up at night. Once naps are completely down, we will tackle night. Most nights she is dry all night, so hopefully, it will be just a matter of time!

Pulling Up!!!

Gavin can now pull up to his feet! Holy Cow he's made so much progress in the last 6 weeks! Six short weeks ago, he wouldn't even put his feet down on the ground and today he pulled himself up for the first time by himself! I put the kids down for a nap after lunch. A few minutes later, I heard the kids giggling and I could tell Macie was out of bed. I went in their room to investigate and low and behold Gavin was standing up in his crib. I stood there in shock and a felt myself tearing up. I even asked Macie if she helped him even though I knew there was no way that she did. I ran to get the camera to capture the moment! He was grinning from ear to ear and you could see the pride on his face! I tried to snap a few pics and then Macie had to go to the potty. When I came back in, he had pulled up again so I know that it wasn't just a fluke! The only negative is that he doesn't want to sleep in his crib... now he views it as a jungle gym!

Orange Dinner

I started putting Macie's food on her plate tonight and I realized that everything was orange. She had carrot sticks and an orange. Instead of making a pbj, I decided to give her cheese to go with the orange theme. I even pulled out her Halloween cup to put her milk in! Everything was orange except her plate...I didn't want to dirty up another plate! She ate everything on her plate plus some crackers and a few chips!

Laundry Basket Sledding

Last winter, Macie went laundry basket sledding because she wasn't quite big enough to go sledding outside. When I was doing laundry tonight, I thought that it would be a fun thing to do with both kiddos. Macie and Gavin were both smiling from ear to ear and giggling. Love these moments!!

A Photographer in the Making...

Macie is always wants to hold my camera and take pictures. Tonight, I let her play with it a bit and showed her what button to push to take a picture. She took three pictures and I think she got better each and every time! Aunt Allie would be proud!

Don't mind the finger in front of the lens...

Not too bad!

First Manicure

Daddy gave Macie her first manicure last night! Yes, you read that right, Daddy painted Macie's nails while she was sitting on the potty! She's been asking us to paint her nails for a while now, but we keep putting it off because she bites her nails. She was SOOO excited about it, but of course by morning, she had chewed several of them off! That will be her last manicure for a while!

Christmas in January

Yesterday afternoon, we went to Grandma Wolf's house for Christmas. She fell and broke her hip (well upper femur) and was still recovering at Health South on Christmas. She is home and doing much better so we got together to celebrate. Not everyone was able to make it, but it was still a big group of us. Macie was a bit overwhelmed when we got there, as anyone would be, but she was excited to show off her beautiful dress. I put her in her Christmas dress because she was sick on Christmas Eve and didn't get to wear it for long. Macie got a new Princess book from Grandma Wolf and Gavin got a shake and go car. Both gifts were a hit! Brian got a Budweiser stein to add to his collection and I got a cute Christmas tree decoration.
Besides celebrating Christmas, we also celebrated my Aunt's wedding. She got married on Friday and we are very happy for her! We had a cake and a champagne toast. It was a fun afternoon, but the kids didn't handle it very well. Gavin was super tired because he didn't get his naps in and even cried a bit. Macie had been a pistol all morning and was starting to act up so we actually left before dinner. Gavin conked out immediately in the car and we had to wake him up for dinner. He only stayed awake about an hour before he was ready to go back to bed. Macie was crabby and crying all evening so both kids were in bed and sound asleep before 6:30.
Since we got home so early (by 4), I decided to go ahead and do my freezer cooking. I planned on doing it today, but I'm so glad that I got it done last night. I made chili, potato soup, pasta bakes, southwest roll ups, and mashed potatoes to freeze. I also chopped up romain for salads, an onion for later in the week, and carrots for the kids. It is such a relief to have all of this done! Week night dinners are so much easier if I just have to warm something up versus make it from scratch!

Macie showing Great Grandma Wolf her dress
My two favorite boys!

Macie read Gavin her new book!

New Developments

Big Boy: Gavin's physical therapy is really paying off! He is pulling up to his knees everywhere and has even "walked" on his knees while pushing something across the floor. He is also now going from laying to sitting on his own on a regular basis. As I've said before, it is SO exciting to see him doing all of these things! Lately, Gavin has also wanted us to pick him up and hold him a bit more. Gavin never has been a super cuddly so I take any opportunity to love on him that I can!

Aghh!!: On a not so good note, Macie has been pretty unbearable lately! She cries all of the time, is clingy, and not eating so well. The crazy thing is, she doesn't do this at daycare, only at home. It is really taking a toll on Brian and I. We don't know if she is sick (ear infection or something) or just going through a stage. Whatever it is, we can't take much more of it! Brian and I are trying to be patient and firm, but it is tough!

Stockpile: We are officially building a stockpile of personal care and non perishable items! Brian has made 4 trips to Rite Aid in the last week (way more than will be typical) and we've spent a little more than $7 to get close to $200 of product! We are now stocked up on shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toilet paper, kleenex, cereal, rice, and much more. We are starting the year off to a good start! Our goal is to lower our grocery budget to $100 every two weeks. That would give us $50 more to put towards debt each month. It is challenging and a little bit of work, but it pays off!

Fun with Clayton

This morning, Clayton came over to play for a while so his brother could go to the doctor. The kids had a great time playing! We even had a present for Clayton. His birthday is on Friday and we won't be able to make it to his party this weekend. The shake-n-go Thomas train was a hit! At one point, I noticed that Macie and Clayton were very quiet and I went to check on them. I found them both in Macie's bed talking. It was too cute! Then when I was changing Gavin, I found them in my closet. We had a lot of fun playing with Clayton and I'm so glad that he was able to visit!

Gavin tried the sneak-from-behind plan to steal Clayton's fruit snacks!

I'm glad that the boy Macie had in her bed was her cousin!

Check out this fashion statement! Macie wanted to wear a sweatshirt because Clayton was. She is mid sneeze in this picture!