Mom's Birthday

For my mom's birthday last week I took her out to eat at Olive Garden. I hadn't been there in 5 years and boy have I been missing out.

I got the never ending pasta bowl with salad and breadsticks and I was so full when we left. My favorite is the creamy parmesan portobello, super yummy!

After dinner we went to see Eat Pray Love. I thought is was okay. I guess it wasn't what I expected and it was too long. I love Julia Roberts but this definitely wasn't one of her best. Mom loved it though, so that's what matters.

Happy Birthday Mom! I am so thankful for the friendship we have. I am so thankful to have you as my Mom and I am thankful for everything you do for us. I hope you had a wonderful time!

Tub Time

I got Haylee some Elmo bath color tablets. She loves to swim in colored water.

She pretends she is Ariel swimming in the sea, of course. Why do I like them? They were FREE! I love me some coupons :)

Mommy of 2

So how am I doing? Well, wonderful. I truly believe the 2nd time around is way better. No stressing, and just enjoying life. I wanted to post about some things so I can remember them later on.

First off, postpartum hair loss sucks! At the rate I'm going, I'll be bald by Halloween. I had this issue after I had Haylee too but I don't remember it being so bad. I got a haircut last week hoping to make my hair feel thicker. I guess it worked a little. The salon sold me a 3 step treatment that is really suppose to work so we will see. That's about the only negative right now.

I've lost all my baby weight except 5 pounds. Those will stick around for awhile I'm sure. I always have my babies in the summer so I have to wait 6 months to get out and walk because it's too darn hot.

I'm addicted to peach juice. I go through 3-4 cartons a week. Yummy.

I have yet to leave the house with both kids by myself. I usually take Haylee with me, but going alone is even better. It amazing how much I can get done when I'm not getting getting kiddos in and out of the car.

I've become a money savin' mama! I am addicted to getting great deals and now I dread going to Wal-mart and paying full price because I'm gotten so much stuff for free or super cheap. I'm determined to have a lower grocery budget but I'm not sure I'll get it as low as a couple of the blogs I read. One lady gives herself $25 a week and one gives herself $100 a YEAR. It's amazing. My hope is to become more conservative with money by following these money saving tips.

When I die my husband will be a rich man. I finally got life insurance. I put it off all these years because I didn't want to get my blood taken. What a stupid reason. I figured, I've had 2 babies so needles shouldn't scare me anymore.

I love not having braces anymore. Now I just need to get my wisdom teeth pulled!

I love my little girls so much. They mean the world to me.

Firewomen

We took Haylee and Hannah to a fundraiser the fireman were having. They had fun sitting in the fire trucks,

spraying the fire hose,

and getting free hot dogs, chips, drinks, coloring books, Dalmatian puppies, fireman hats and all sorts of goodies.

We love the free family fun. Now if only it wasn't 120 degrees outside, we could have stayed longer.

4 Months

Today Lil' Miss Natalee is 4 Months Old!

She weighs 15 lbs. 7 oz. (90%)

and is 24.75 inches (75%)

Things to remember-

*Wearing size 2 diapers.
*Wearing 3 month clothes.
*Sleeping great! She sleeps swaddled, in her crib for 10-11 hours at night. Nap times vary each day. She'll take at least one 2-3 hour nap (sometimes 2) and then the rest of her naps vary from 40-90 minutes. Still unpredictable! It still seems like she sleeps a lot to me. She is usually only awake 1 1/2-2 hours between naps. In the evening she'll usually last at least 2 hours before bed time. I rock her for a couple minutes but I put her to bed awake and sometimes she'll cry a little, but mostly she'll go right to sleep.
*She still does the hokey pokey at night. I go in there in the morning and she is always turned around, has her arms (and sometimes legs) out of her swaddle, and a huge smile on her face.
*Nurses great still, just wish I had more milk to give :( Usually after every feeding I still have to give her 4 oz of formula. My milk supply is seriously dwindling but anything is better than nothing I guess. I won't give up!
*She's a very happy baby. She smiles and "talks" a lot. I love when we have a conversation and she makes all sorts of sounds.

*She is ticklish. When we find her tickle spot she just belly laughs and it's so adorable.
*She usually only cries when she's hungry or tired.
*Has big, BLUE eyes! Yay, I don't know why, but I'm so happy that both girls have different colored eyes.
*Has lost a lot of the hair she was born with.
*She is lifting her head up great when I put her on her tummy. She has always had a lot of strength lifting her head and she has strong little legs too. She loves to stand.
*She loves to watch Haylee. She just wishes Haylee was a little more quiet and gentle with her. Haylee seems to be getting better.
*Loves to chew her hands.
*Got her ears pierced August 14th.
*Only cried for 30 seconds when she got her shots today!!!!! Yay!

Oh Natalee, I love you so much. You are such a happy, content little girl. I enjoy each and every day with you and I love to watch you change each day. Just please don't grow up too fast!

Speaking of growing up, Natalee ate rice cereal today! More on that to come :)

Here are Haylee & Natalee's 4 month comparison pictures. I don't think they look alike at all. Maybe it's because Haylee had so much hair.

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today I found out I was pregnant.

And now my baby is almost 4 months old.

It seems like so long ago. 

To think it took months of trying and then an infertility drug to get pregnant is crazy.

I'm enjoying each day with Natalee. I think the 2nd time around is so much better because I don't stress about every little thing. I've been through it all before and now I can just sit back, relax, and enjoy my sweet little girl who is definitely growing way too fast. After we had her I said "I'm done. 2 is enough" but now I'm not so sure. Natalee is such a good baby. Always happy and such a good sleeper. Now if I could just get Haylee to behave better everything would be perfect around here.

I feel so blessed to have 2 healthy, beautiful little girls.

Lil Miss Blue Eyes

I absolutely loves these big blue eyes!

Sleeping Buddy

For the past 3 nights Haylee has wanted her door open and the gate off when she goes to bed. Every night when I go to check on her (before I go to bed) her bed is empty. When I walk in my room...

I find her sleeping right next to Josh, every time! I wake him up and say, "do you realize Haylee is attached to you?" and every time he says something different. "She said her bed was uncomfortable," or "she was tucking me in," or last night was "she was afraid of the storm." I guess Josh tells her to go back in her room but then he falls asleep before she does. When Josh lays down, he's out. And usually sound asleep. I hate to disrupt this adorable cuddle time,

but I don't think Josh could really sleep like this all night. So I pick her up and put her back in bed, and she goes right to sleep.

Fry's Mega Event= Mega Savings

Fry's Trip #1

73 items = $43.22

Got back $3.50 in Catalinas

Saved $174.17 (80%)

Free or Nearly Free items I bought-

*Sunny D~ Free plus .50 MM (Money Maker)

*Pillsbury Sweet Moments~ Free

*Cereal~ .48 each (I bought 10 boxes!)

*Nature Valley Nut Clusters~ Free

*Chex Mix~ Free plus .23 MM on each bag

*Gardettos~ Free plus .23 MM

*Powerade 8 pk~ .99

*Mentos~ Free

*Revlon Emery Boards~ Free

Fry's Trip #2

46 items= $12.46

Got back $2.00 in Catalinas

Saved $115.08 (90%)

Best Bargain Trip So Far!!!

Free or Nearly Free items I bought-

*Cereal~ .48 each (I bought 10 more boxes!)

*Nature Valley Nut Clusters~ Free

*Chex Mix~ Free plus .23 MM on each bag

*Gardettos~ Free plus .23 MM on each bag

*Mentos~ Free

*Progresso Soup~ 6 Free plus .50 MM

*Right Guard Deodorant~ 3 Free, 1 for .50

*Suave Deodorant~ 2 Free

*Elmo Bath Fizz~ .09 each

*Dial Hand Soap~ Free

*Shamrock Milk~ 2 Free

It is just amazing to me the deals that are out there. I can't believe the money I have wasted on buying groceries and not using coupons. I highly recommend checking out Cents'Able Shoppin! because she'll show you how to get the great deals I got and more! I am now a Frugal Mama who joined the coupon world!

Haylee Happenings

Where do I start.....

Haylee is a goofball. She learned to cross her eyes and now she does it all the time. Kinda creepy.

She is doing better with Natalee. Now that Natalee will talk to her, Haylee likes her a little more I think. There are still jealousy issues and Haylee will still come up and poke and prod at her. It's very sad and Haylee gets sent to timeout which doesn't seem to faze her. Haylee loves to help me out when it comes to sister though. She'll happily get me a burp cloth or turn a light off for me. I love that she's a very good helper, just wish she was a little nicer to sister.

I love that Haylee is honest. When I hear Natalee scream and I ask her what she did, she'll say, "I pinched her." Even though she knows she'll get in trouble, she in honest. Not sure how long that will last.

Just the other week, she realized she can play when its nap time. I heard her making noise and I went in there to find her naked putting on her "Ariel outfit" (more on that later). It scared the crap out of her and she started crying. I told her that when it's nap time she needs to lay down and go to sleep and she can play when she gets up. It has been working ever since. Whew!

About Ariel. Well, for the last couple of weeks she has been obsessed with The Little Mermaid. She'd watch it on repeat all day long if I let her. She pretends she's Ariel by wearing a swimsuit top and her underwear. She always wants me and Natalee to "watch her swim" and run around. She says I'm Flounder and sister is crabby (Sebastian). I'm surprised she didn't say I'm the crabby! For Halloween she is going to be Ariel and Natalee is going to be either Flounder or Sebastian. Depends on which costume I can fine.

I now believe that the TERRIBLE 3's are waaaaayyyyy worse than the TERRIBLE 2's. Haylee is just out of control sometimes. She'll scream and holler and whine about the stupidest stuff. I'm always telling Natalee she better not act like her sister when she gets older. When Natalee falls asleep in the car she'll start yelling to wake her up. I try not to ever tell her to be quiet because sisters sleeping because then she's loud on purpose. I don't know how I'll survive this year!

Haylee has a bedtime routine that she has to follow to a T. She gets her pj's on, brushes her teeth, gets a drink of water, puts chap stick on, and goes potty. Then if she's been good (hardly ever) Josh will read her a book. If not, he just cuddles. (I feed Natalee and put her in bed at the same time). Then she has to have her light on in the closet with the door cracked, fan on, no toys or books out and gate up. Oh, and a kleenex. If you fail to follow the routine or leave something out, she'll let you know! If there is something out of the ordinary in her room she'll open the door and throw it over the gate. She started becoming silly with things being in her room when we took the side off the crib and made it a big girl bed way back when. At nap time she has started letting me leave the gate off and then she just comes downstairs when she wakes up.

Haylee can be the sweetest little girl when she wants to be. I love her so much. She always makes us laugh, and is really into pretending. She loves to play waiter, take our order and bring us food. I can't wait till she is 4 and my little Princess returns for good. A girl can hope anyway!

Kohl's Stock Up

Remember last year around this same time when I hit the clearance at Kohl's? Well guess what? I did it again! I must have been to Kohl's half a dozen times in the last couple weeks. They really know how to get you. First we went with just 15% off right when they brought all the clearance out. Then, a couple days later I get a 30% off so I went a few more times. Then I got $10 off coupons to use with the 30% off so of course I had to go again. I was hooked!

(This was my 30% off trip)

I got Haylee some clothes for next summer along with some swimsuits and shoes. Natalee got a few new shirts and matching ones also to go with Haylee. I am loving the fact I can dress the girls the same. I bought 5 winter shirts that match too! The joy of having 2 little girls :)

I think I'm about done with Kohl's now. I feel I've bought just about everything they had that was a good deal. Obviously Josh did too. He has more shirts than me!

Bling Bling

We took Natalee to get her ears pierced Saturday.

She didn't like it too much. Poor little girl.

She recovered quite quickly and I must say she looks even more adorable with her ears pierced.

Of course I can never get a picture straight on with both earrings because her cheeks are too chubby!

She's such a sweet little girl.

Happy Birthday

Today my Dad would have been 57.

So we sent him up some balloons to wish him a very wonderful Birthday.

I wish he was here to celebrate with us. But at least he has his mom with him this year.

Happy Birthday Dad. I love you so very much and I miss you each and every day.

Sedona

My mom, niece (Sam), me and the girls took a little vacation to Sedona last weekend. The weather was absolutely beautiful. In fact, a little too chilly to even go swimming in the evening. On the way up we stopped at the outlets in Anthem, scored a few deals, then headed to Sedona. This time around the drive was uneventful (unlike Vegas) so we got there in a timely matter.

Natalee still hates road trips thanks to our 10 hour drive to Vegas. She can't sleep very well in her car seat so she cries because she is tired. Poor girl has cried every time we've put her in her seat the last couple of days because she hates it! So we checked in, unpacked, then went to the pool.

It was kinda too cold to swim, so we went and got some dinner then went in the jacuzzi tub in the room and had a blast. 

Monday, we went to the coffee pot for breakfast (a must have in Sedona) and Natalee and Haylee talked to each other while we waited for our food.

(Haylee with her lizard friend outside the Coffee Pot)

Then we were off to the Trout Farm where I fed Natalee,

Haylee fed hundreds of trout,

and we all had a wonderful time.

Again, beautiful weather in the 70's. After we left there, we drove around while the girls napped, then we went to an area by the creek to try to get some pictures.

I couldn't get both girls to look at the camera to save my life, so this will have to do.

Later that afternoon we went back to the room so Grandma and Natalee could take naps, and me and Sam took Haylee swimming. We had fun. Haylee was saying the funniest things. She told Sam if she jumped in she'd give her a present. Sam said, "what kind of present?" and Haylee said, "a puppy." Then she said she couldn't get into the pool because she was a mermaid. She's so silly.

That evening we walked around town, ate dinner, and took pictures of Haylee by funny statues.

And of course, the Pink Jeep. Famous in Sedona.

That night we ate our yummy caramel, nut, chocolate apple...

and then we were off to bed.

Some of us were exhausted.

Sedona is fun, but only for a day or two. Then we run out of fun things to do.

But it was a nice getaway.