When "little helpers" become useful

I must admit that mommy's "little helper" is actually useful! Justin loves to help me with the dishes. He is my most reliable rinser! He is a little slow but very thorough. He never misses any soap suds. Honest, I let him rinse (with very little help from mom or dad) and he loves it! In fact, when its time to get down he screams.

When its time to wash dishes I say to Justin "Get a short chair." That's a chair from the table. He gets the chair and slides it around to the kitchen sink and climbs on and is ready to start rinsing. I am always amazed at how good of a job he does. Check it out for yourself. (Don't mind that I am in my pj's)

Out to Dinner

Last night we went to Chili's for dinner. I asked Tyler on Thursday if we could go to dinner on Friday and of course he said sure. I was thinking we would get a baby sitter. Tyler wanted to take Justin. It went something like this..."Justin likes to be with us. We have had him at the tender a lot lately. Let's not leave him out. I think we should take him with us."

So all of you moms know that eating out is so much more enjoyable when you don't have to worry about the kids and if they will eat what you get them, will they make a mess, will I be able to eat warm food....you know. So I told Tyler that he would have to sit by Justin and tend to his every need. Tyler was ok with that.

And wouldn't you know it. Justin was an angel. He ate chips and salsa with us, he ate a good amount of his chicken strips and french fries, he didn't spill a thing, I was able to eat warm food and we all had fun.

It was a good date night!

Glasses for me

My eyes have been driving me crazy for several months. I finally broke down and went to the eye doctor. I have an eye infection that causes little bumps (sort of like blisters) on the inside of my eyelids that get real irritated by my contacts. So its glasses for me until I get the bumps cleared up - the doctor said it would be anywhere between 1 and 3 months of glasses. So that trip to the eye doctor was a little pricey considering my glasses were 8 years old, 3 prescriptions ago, and hideous. I had to get new glasses. I actually don't mind wearing them. It is a lot easier to take the glasses on and off my face then it is to put contacts in and out. However, I will definitely go back to contacts when I am allowed.

Our Little Book Worm

Here is Justin and his reading buddy. Every night he stacks his books up on this table and gets his "baby puppy" and we read bedtime stories. He is a book worm! He definately gets that from his dad!

My favorite past time

I just finished a baby blanket for a good friend of mine....shes having a girl! I really liked how it turned out.

This is an up-close picture of the fabric combo. Pink and brown are one of my favorites, especially polka-dots.

My neighbor has been teaching me how to bind the edges like this. It is so much easier than I ever expected. It is actually a little bit adicting. She also is the one who did the machine quilting on this.

I love sewing projects like this. I am always looking for people willing to fund projects...that means you buy the fabric, tell me what you want, and I will make it for you.

The new comfort . . .

Ever since we got rid of Justin's bottle he has to take these two stuffed animals with us everywhere. At first, he only liked the puppy dog but when he got sick and threw up on the puppy I decided that I should dig the horse out of the closet so he could have a clean snuggle. Well, little did I know that he would want both!! So these two things go everywhere with us...nap, bedtime, in the car, out to get the mail, etc. Isn't he cute!!

6 Things That Make Me Happy

Thanks, Kellie, for tagging me and making me think about all those things that make me happy. Sometimes I take these things for granted.

Rules:
Write down six things that make you happy.
Tag six others and let them know you did it.
Tell the person when your entry is complete.

6 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

1. Tyler and Justin (especailly watching them play together)
2. Saving at the Grocery Store....my latest new hobby.
3. A sugar cookie from Dippiddee!
4. The possibility of having another baby (no, this is not an announcement)
5. A good nap
6. Kind words

I tag....
Anyone who wants to do this!!
It is a good opportunity to reflect on all those wonderful things that bring a smile to your face!

Grocery Shopping Lesson #1

Grocery Shopping Lesson #1 - Study the Ad

Ok, so I went to the grocery store this afternoon. I think that this week I learned to study the ad. I looked at the ad over and over until I felt like I had it memorized. I then went to work. I circled all of the items that we like to eat. I then put together a couple of meal ideas with items from the ad. I went through my coupons and wrote right on the ad (next to the ad price) what the coupon was. Then I made my shopping list. The first things on the list were the circled items that had matching coupons. The next thing on my list was the items I would need to complete my meal ideas. Then I looked back at the ad and decided what to buy for food storage. I budgeted $20 this trip for food storage. I got corn, green beans and corn muffin mix.

I think I did alright. My debit was $109.55 and my total savings was $47.85. That is a 30% savings. I was pretty excited when I was driving home and decided that with a little bit of work beforehand I was able to save almost $50... and buy food storage.

I then patted myself on the back when I realized that the $109.55 included diapers, toilet paper, paper towles, baby lotion, and eye drops which totalled about $35. I normally buy these items at Walmart but the Grocery Guru promised that in the long run it will be cheaper to buy the items at the grocery store if you buy them on sale. I don't know that I believe him on that one yet but I am going to give it a shot.

I didn't buy a single thing that wasn't on sale...even the eye drops were on sale!!

I was so excited about getting food storage that I reorganized my food storage shelves when I got home!! Now I am thinking that for my birthday next month I want to get some more shelves!!

My new hobby, I hope!

Ok, so I have a new hobby...well, its going to be my hobby. I am not any good at it yet but I am going to try it. Last week we had the Grocery Guru come to our Relief Society Enrichment Night. It was so much fun. Yesterday I went shopping with the Grocery Guru himself at my very own Smith's Grocery Store. My debit came to $38.74 and my savings were $45.73!! Yeah, I saved more than I spent. It was a 54% savings! Yahoo!!

This is what I bought...

• 8 boxes of General Mills Cereal
• 2 Betty Crocker Brownie Mixes
• 2 Betty Crocker Muffin Mixes
• 1 5 lb bag of potatoes
• 1 head of lettuce
• 2 jars of Ragu sauce
• 2 packages spagetti noodles
• 9 cans Chef Boyardee Pastas (Justin's Favorite)
• 2 packages Betty Crocker Fruit Gushers
• 1 Kroger Salad Dressing
• 4 boxes Tostino's Pizza Rolls
• 1 gallon milk 1%
• 1 box Fat Boy Ice Cream Bars (regularly $3.49, Coupon for $3 off, final price was $0.49/box) Did I mention that I LOVE ice cream?
• 2 bags of Hersey's Valentines Chocolate candies

Yes, all of that for $38.74!! I was so excited. AND everything I purchased we actually do eat at our house. This is how it worked.... We met the Grocery Guru at Smith's. He had the shopping list and the coupons(cut out and paper clipped) for us. In 20 minutes I had all the groceries in my basket, was through the checkout, and was on my way out of the grocery store. I also had Justin with me so I consider this a super effecient trip to the grocery store.

Now, I have always been a coupon girl. In fact, Tyler will sometimes tease me and say that just becuase I have a "good coupon" doesn't mean that I need to buy it. I must admit that I do fall into the "coupon trap" every once in a while. For example, a couple weeks ago I had a coupon for Kix cereal for $0.55 off. The cereal was on sale so I bought it even though we don't like Kix Cereal. BUT I had a "good coupon"...So that is was Tyler teases me about.

Anyway, I am going to learn to make the coupons work for me. The Guru claims that if you shop the ads you will save 40% on your grocery bill and if you shop the ads & use coupons then you can save 70%. Sign me up! I will have to keep you up to date on my coupon/ad shopping.

I plan on sharing everything I learn along the way; but be patient with the learning curve!

Wish me LUCK!

P.S. for anyone out there that uses Enfimil Gentlease, I have a coupon for Buy one get one FREE (Smith's coupon) Please tell me there is someone that can use it...save me from having to through away this "good coupon" or heavens-for-bid I might have to use it. Tyler would really get a good laugh then cause we dont even have a formula drinker. :)

So happy

I am so happy today...one of my best friends got engaged this past weeekend! Hip-Hip-Hooray! I have been waiting for this day to come for a long, long, loooonnnnngggggg time! Congratulations to Rach and Dan!

They grow up so fast

I can't believe how fast Justin is growing up. It is amazing how much a child can learn at this age. Right now, Justin's favorite thing to do is to push a bar stool around to the kitchen sink, climb onto the bar stool and play in the water. He is actually pretty good at "helping" me rinse dishes. He can seriously stand and play at the sink for hours. . . and I mean hours.

Justin's cousin, Austin, gave this skidsteer power-wheels to him right before Christmas. Justin absolutely loves it. It is so much fun having older cousins because the hand-me-downs are so awesome! Justin gets better on this thing each time he gets on. He still needs a little help with the steering because there is a control on each side (you know, one for each hand). Justin loves it when Tyler says "Get your jacket and let's go downstairs." Justin knows that means he gets to get in the skidseer. There you go Grandpa Scott, we are teaching Justin to work already.

oh, and I can't leave out the picture with the precious remote....he wants to be like his dad so bad....he is even sitting in Tyler's spot!!

Language Explosion

Justin officially said his first sentence last week. I asked him to get his highchair so he could have some lunch. He backed up the the kitchen cabinet and looked right at me and said,

"No, Momma"

It was the cutest thing I had heard in forever. Of course it was the cutest thing cause he is my child. I was so excited to tell Tyler about it when he got home from work. However, it is one of those sayings that I am not going to ask Justin to repeat time and again just to show people how cute he actually is. I will wait until he is saying, "Yes, Momma" to do that.

We have officially hit the language explosion.