Thanksgiving

Taeya and her fanclub

On Thanksgiving, our little family was very blessed to be able to spend the day with our Pastor's family. They have a large family of 10 and also had 2 other guests. We had a wonderful time fellowshiping, eating, and playing games. Their three youngest girls are Taeya's biggest fans. I have many pictures of the girls playing with Taeya and entertaining her. Taeya loves these girls and even when she was grumpy from lack of sleep, she would go to their arms. I appreciate this family so much and their love for our family...especially Taeya.

Dina reading to Taeya

Playing with Bethy and Annie

Dinner prep

Proud and walking

Thankful

I am so very thankful to be a wife and a mother. I love my husband and my daughter so very much and I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with them. Last Thanksgiving, I was excited about becoming a mother and meeting my precious little one (and feeling very large and tired). This Thanksgiving, I am blessed to be able to celebrate with my little 11 month old girl.

This happy girl wore her "Grandpa Rules" shirt in honor of her Pop-pop Karl's birthday. It was awhile ago but I never managed to post the pictures. Here she's trying to say, "Happy Birthday Pop-pop!" (Her chin's usually that shiny these days due to the waterfall pouring from her little mouth. Unless of course, she's managed to get close enough to wipe it on my shirt).

Taeya already had her first driving lesson. She did pretty well although she's a bit short to reach the petals.

Do I look "in control" or what??

Waving to her faithful fans.

What Happens...

This is what happens when you have a tiny, peanut baby girl who is 10 1/2 months old wearing 3/6 month pants. Yes, I said these pants are supposed to fit 3/6 month olds!!!Hey, at least she's learning how to undress herself already! hahaha I have found that these pants stay up a bit better if she's wearing a onsie rather than a shirt that doesn't tuck into the pants.

This is what happens when my baby girl feeds herself lasagna. She definitely enjoyed it and I had the forethought to take her clothes off before she ate it. Now she's just wondering why she's in the tub without any water. Isn't she just soooo cute??!?! Can you believe she'll be 11 months old tomorrow!!! (Wednesday?)

What Happens...

This is what happens when Mommy has been very sick since last night and is feeling dehydrated.

Note:
The intent look on Taeya's face as she watches her Praise Baby DVD.
The bowl on the couch for Mommy to use.
The blanket on the couch that is now being used by Mommy to attempt to relax as she watches her sweet 11 mo old.

Naptime, come quickly.

Grocery Bill Update

Well, I've been using Couponmom.com for a couple weeks now. Thanks Michaela for recommending it. It has helped me SO MUCH with my grocery shopping. In the past few trips I have made I have SAVED: 59%, 44%, 39%, & 53% of my bill. I am finding it so easy to use and am able to get the best deal between my local grocery store and Wal-Mart because I can see many of the comparison prices between stores. Because I've had questions about how I know how much I'm saving, I can only tell how much I save when I go to the grocery store because it prints it on my receipt. Wal-Mart doesn't list my savings other than the actual coupons of course.

One of blogs I've been reading mentioned that the mom only buys meat under $2.00/lb. I was wondering if I could do that as well. Although I don't think I'll say that I won't buy anything over that price, that is the price I have been aiming for. Since waiting for the deals, I've found boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.88/lb and chicken thighs on sale for $0.99/lb. I also got a turkey for $7.00...that breaks down to $0.64 cents/lb! Oh, and I found sausage for $1.50/lb. So, I've been successful so far. I've yet to find steak for my goal price but I'm still looking for at least a good sale.

I'm amazed at how many things I buy on a regular basis that I can find coupons for. I don't buy a huge amount of premade foods like store bought cookies, chips, cookie dough, pie crusts etc. It always seemed like those were the items I could find tons of coupons for and I didn't think there would be many that I'd use. However, I'm finding coupons for yeast (I bake a lot), sugar, mayonnaise, yogurt, cleaning products, and so much more! Between that and looking to buy items I need that are also on sale, it's really helped me cut down on my grocery bill.

Have any of my readers been working on cutting their grocery costs? If so, how's it going? Any tips, advice, suggestions?

My Sweet Baby

I'm realizing that I need to call Taeya my baby as much as I can because soon she won't be a baby any longer. She is growing SO much each and every day. She's now 10 1/2 months and she's waving, saying "dada", crusing, crawling, standing up in her crib, following me around, "reading" books to herself, picking up the little flaps in some of her baby books. Where is the time going? She's such a joy to be around and such an incredibly sweet girl. She cruised on over to Puma and tried to pet her. Puma would have none of it but enjoyed staying just out of arms reach. Puma curled up when she realized Taeya couldn't reach her.

I just love this little girl. Look at those precious tiny hands and feet.

Mesmerized by the world outside. She loves looking out the window.

Taeya was reading one of my favorite books from my childhood. I found it at a thrift store and of course bought it for my little girl.

I love this profile picture. If you look closely, you can see a drop of drool resting on her little lip

Big Blue Eyes

Check out Taeya's little crossed legs. She still loves her jump-up. I had to raise it higher today because she's gotten taller and heavier the past few weeks. In this picture, she's working on trying to get to the items on top of the bookshelf.

I love to jump!!!

Although her nose has nearly stopped running, her mouth sure hasn't. The kids' a drooling machine! and a cute one at that.

My Little Monkey

My sweet little Taeya enjoying her banana.

Taeya smiles like this at many of the people who smile at her in public. She likes grinning at people.

Taeya is now full-on crawling and definitely getting into trouble. She's so sweet the majority of the time but she's definitely got a bit of a temper. It'll be interesting to see how she further develops her little personality in the coming weeks and years, Lordwilling.

Taeya's new favorite thing is standing and holding onto gates, tables, Mommy, basically anything that will support her. As she's in about the 3rd percentile for weight and her head's in the 50th percentile, she's a bit top heavy and tends to tumble semi-frequently. Not fun to watch but the stage of life we're in.

The wave. She won't wave all the time, just when she wants something or when she chooses to say hi.

Coupon Sites

Not too much going on around here. I've not been taking very many pictures lately. I cut up, cooked and pureed our pumpkin and baked some chocolate chip pumpkin bread. Yum.

In regards to the money saving post from a few days ago, I've been doing some coupon research and I'm excited about finding some methods that might work for me. Michaela recommended www.couponmom.com and I've found some methods of couponing that I'm looking forward to trying. I like their advice because it doesn't involve cutting all the coupons out each week and then hoping to use them. Check it out to see how it works. I'm impressed. Read their free little booklet on their website entitled "Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half." It's got some good advice. Also check out the "Grocery Deals by State" link on the left sidebar a few from the top.

I've also been reading a few good blogs about how to meal plan, shop for sales and use coupons. It'll take some time to get it to work and to figure out how to plan properly but I'm excited to try it. I'm looking forward to saving more money on my grocery bill as I plan my meals around good deals at the grocery store. Did you see the news story saying that the cost of groceries are supposed to increase by 7-9% in the coming months? With that in mind, I'm hoping to cut my grocery bill quite a bit by investing a little time and effort into my planning and shopping.

You might also want to check out shortcuts.com for electronic coupons...no clipping and remembering to use them!
If you're signed up for upromise.com (A free site that allows you to save money for college as you shop and use your credit card) They have also begun using electronic coupons.
A site I haven't had a lot of time to check out but it looks promising is Money Saving Mom.
Printable coupons can be found here at Shop At Home.

Need glasses? Check out this site! Zenni Optical I read about this on someone's blog. She and her husband both bought glasses there and were very happy with the quality they received.

And just because I have such an adorable little girl, I thought I'd post a few pics of her munching on graham crackers and sitting in her little chair. Today, I was grocery shopping and Taeya was so charming. She chatted with and grinned at many people. She's such a fun little baby and is changing daily.

Sick Baby

Last night Taeya threw up every 10-20 minutes for about 3 hours. In between getting sick, she was either really snugly with mama or pretty happy and playing with her toys. I hate seeing my little girl not feeling well. Thankfully, today, she didn't get sick at all although she still wasn't herself as she was crying a lot and very clingy. Right now she's sleeping. Between being sick and the time change, her schedule is all messed up.

Here are a few pictures of her snuggling and playing last night. She wasn't wearing a shirt because of how frequently she was getting sick.

Daddy did a great job helping throughout the evening. He cleaned up the messes and was a huge help. Thanks dearest!

Tinkerbell & Fall Cleaning

Here's my little Tinkerbell as I laid her down for a nap. She's almost always happy when it's bedtime/naptime.

So excited for another naptime.

Mmmmm...this is tasty.

I can't roll this ball Mom.

I dressed my baby up as Tinkerbell this week. She looked so precious and had fun playing with the fringes on the outfit. She pooped a few times while wearing the outfit so then I nicknamed her Stinkerbell. She helped her Daddy and I serve hot dogs at our churches annual Pumpkin Patch party last night.

This afternoon I decided it was time to put away the summer clothes and weed out clothes that Taeya's outgrown. I pulled everything out of her closets and drawers and this is what I found. (I puchased a few outfits for Taeya before she was born at Thrift stores but almost all of these clothes were given to Taeya by friends and family. THIS is why I keep telling the Grandma's not to buy Taeya more clothes!)

The clothes I started with. The clothes being put away.Taeya's closet now.

Taeya "helped" me make these yesterday. They're very yummy.