Picnic with Daddy!

John works not too far from a little park so we met up with him for lunch this week! It was beautiful outside and a great chance for both of my men to get some sunshine!

Couponing

I have had many people ask how I was able to quit my good paying job to be able to stay home with Gatlin. I want to share as much as possible with people, because I remember thinking I would never be able to afford to stay home. I had some great friends that were encouraging me to really evaluate our lifestyle and see where we could trim any extra. One way we have saved $100-$200 a month is with couponing. 

Honestly, the idea of couponing had never crossed my mind until about a year ago. I started hearing more and more of my Facebook friends talking about how they had saved 60% or more on their grocery bills. I had always been of the school of thought that grocery shopping was more or less a free for all. If it sounded good, looked good, and would fit into the cart, you bought it. Then when you ran out of room in the basket you paid and went home. I had never planned a meal, made a list, or clipped a coupon in my entire life. I am still fairly new to couponing, but I seem to be catching on quickly.

As of now here is what I do.

1. I purchase 3 copies of the Sunday paper (well... purchase 2 and steal my parent's copy)
2. I get coupons from family that don't use them. 
3. I clip all coupons that I might possibly use and file them into my notebook. 
4. I go to coupons.com, redplum.com, smartsource.com, and couponnetwork.com. Here I print as many as will let me (usually 2 of each) from both my laptop and desktop. 
5. Then I get the sale ads for Walgreens, Homeland, and Walmart. (You can sign up to receive the Homeland ad in the mail a few days before their new sales start) I match the coupons that I have with what is on sale.  If I don't have time to coupon match myself I go to Moneysavingqueen.com and just go off of their matchups.
6. I only buy what I need! Say it with me now, "I will save money, not hoard!!!" I only allow myself to have a certain amount of "extras" in stock. For instance, I will only have 5 extra deodorants, 4 packages of paper towels, and 3 tubes of toothpaste at any given time. I do not want my house overrun with stuff! 
7. Occasionally, I will purchase coupons from couponsthingsbydede.com if I am running low on a certain item and really need to stock up. Or if it is a sale I cannot resist. 

Routinely I am saving 30-50% on my grocery bill. I know could save more, but I try to limit the amount of processed food that comes into our house, and it is difficult to save on fresh food. That is one of my goals for next Spring: Gardening... eek! 


Any advise or suggestions would gladly be accepted!

We went park-ing

Since it has been so weirdly beautiful around here, some other moms and I took the little ones to the park! 

Mrs. Eden and Nora flew a kite.

 

Gatlin was content with watching them fly a kite. 

 
 Mrs. Ally and Larkin came too! Larkin was a bit obsessed with the swings!

 

Sweet Hannah kept running laps around the playground while her mom Mrs. Maggie chased her around!

 

 Gatlin and Cordie were so sweet to share their toys with one another.

I can't say that I am minding this weather! We have had the windows open everyday and getting outside as much as possible! My only concern is if it is already this warm, what does summer hold for us??? Eek. At least I won't be 9 months pregnant... but Gatlin's poor Aunt Sissy will be! 

Pi day!

Since John and I both have math degrees, it is only fitting that we would celebrate Pi Day! Also, because no one wants to celebrate anything by calculating circumferences, we got these pies! 

Yummo!

7.5 Month Randoms

  

Gatlin and I are enjoying our days together. We have been very blessed to have our good buddy and cousin Lincoln spend the days with us as well. Although they seem a little bored with me in this picture, we do have lots of fun together!

 

Gatlin, being the good big cousin that he is, loves to read to Lincoln.

 
 

And he loves to give baby Lincoln lots of lovin!

 

Gatlin is also standing.

 

And sitting too! 

 

Also debuting this month were two little teeth! With all the fussing these little boogers caused, I think the whole family was glad to see them.

 

Gatlin is eating two meals a day. I have been making his food and freezing a month's worth at a time. He eats squash, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, avocados, bananas, apple sauce, plums, quinoa, and yogurt. He's a little eating machine! He can also hold his own sippie cup. He still has 4 feedings of breast milk a day.

Bath time is one of our favorite times. He would splash and play all night if I would let him!

Gatlin has been battling croup this last week. It is rough on this little guy. He slept more at 8 weeks than he is right now. We go to sleep and then a coughing attack comes and wakes up the whole house, and we repeat until dawn.

 

I am so blessed that I get to spend my days with this little man. I have not regretted quitting my job a single day. Thank you Jesus for making this dream a reality.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

 

This year I was so excited for Gatlin's first Christmas! I wanted to bottle up every minute of the season and just film/photograph every detail! It just had to be perfect. You don't get to redo a first Christmas! Ha!

Christmas Eve morning John's siblings and dad came over to our house for Christmas brunch. I have to say I hope this tradition sticks! I loved it! We weren't rushed to be anywhere else and we go to enjoy each other!

There were three very cute babies!

 

Gatlin was a little tired after opening all the presents!

Before we went to the Candlelight Service at our church, we baked some cookies for the sweet nurses that we had the week before at Muskogee Community Hospital. They were so good to us and we wanted to let them know how much we appreciated them. (We saved a few for Santa ;) ) 

Getting good family pictures is hard! ha! 

After Candlelight we went to my grandparents house to see my dad's side of the family. Then it was time to come home and get ready for Santa! We debated back and forth on whether we would tell Gatlin about Santa. We decided that we would first tell Gatlin about Jesus' birth and explain that Santa brings presents to celebrate His birth. But also that mom and dad give gifts to celebrate Jesus' birthday too! We tried to get Gatlin's reindeer jammies on but the little monkey has a little bit of a bigger head (his dad's fault!) we had to laugh because he is just so darn cute!

Then we read the Christmas story from Luke followed by the Night before Christmas as narrated by Pappy.  

Christmas morning I mad a very "nutritious" breakfast and we opened presents just the 3 of us. 

Then we went to my parent's house in our pajamas and opened presents with them.

Doesn't Gat make a pretty girl?!?

I love the fact that both sides of my family (mom's and dad's sides plus John's dad) come over to my parent's house for Christmas day lunch. I am blessed to have them all together in one place. After we ate lunch and rested for a few hours we went to John's sister Shannon's house for Christmas with Mike and Linda. We also got a family picture with the ENTIRE family!!!  

Papa Mike and Mia got Gatlin the cutest rocking horse that moves and neighs! (Never mind it is for ages 3 and up! ha!) Gatlin liked it until Mia insisted that the cousins share the new toy.  

I just love this picture!!! This is MY horse Kyle!!! I can only imagine how crazy it will be when Gatlin, Lincoln, and Kyle are all sharing toys! 

It was a wonderful Christmas. We are truly blessed for our family. We often complain that we have so many places to be during a short period, but even with a 4 month old it was a blessing to have to many places that we get to go!

Excuses

I have no excuses for not blogging.... but I haven't been blogging because.... being a stay at home mom is so much more work than I had anticipated! Don't get me wrong, I love love love my new job, I just had very high expectations of what I would be able to accomplish while I was home! John had to sit me down and have a little pep talk with me, and I quote, "I don't expect you to re-shingle the roof while I am at work!" Somehow my little big man takes more work that I had remembered from maternity leave!

I finally feel like we are getting into a good flow of things now though. Gatlin had to spend 4 nights in the hospital the week before Christmas and that totally ruined any sense of a schedule that we had working for us. It took a good 2 weeks to establish, that yes, we have to take naps, and yes we have to sleep alone in our own crib.

I also feel like I clean the kitchen no less than 3 times a day.... I am not sure how or why it works that way, but nonetheless I feel like I am constantly cleaning my kitchen! Have I ever mentioned that I am a very gold, type-A, analytical person? Especially when it comes to cleaning!!! I have to clean my house in a certain order. Kitchen, then living room, then the hall bath, nursery, office, then master bath and bathroom. I am not sure why I can't clean out of this order, but I just can't! So needless to say our office and master bedroom and bath remain a disaster!!! I think I may try reversing the order for a while, but then I couldn't stand it if my kitchen and living room weren't clean... So probably won't happen.

In other news. In a few weeks we will have another sweet baby during the day. Our sweet nephew Lincoln will be spending his days with Gatlin and me. I am very excited for when the boys are big enough to actually "play" together. I am not going to lie. I am a little nervous about having two babies, but I think after a few weeks we will get into a good routine! I also know that I would rather him be with me than anyone else (besides his mom!), so I am glad to be able to offer this to Caitlin and Cameron.

Our days are filled with lots of cuddles and laughter and I am such a blessed mom and wife!