Two More

Okay, two more cute pictures.

Who can resist a big round baby with two Bugs Bunny bandaids?

And here is Noah's new favorite thing. A Taggie Blanket. He loves it, and snuggles with it before every nap and before bed. :) So cute.

Love that little guy.

The Good and the Bad

The Good:

Noah went to his 4 month appointment yesterday. 16 pounds, 15 ounces. 25 inches. Big and sturdy...the doctor thought he looked great. He was scoring on 5 month milestones, and the doctor was very pleased. She said we could start feeding him rice cereal. Truthfully, I'm going to drag my feet on that one (because I don't have to admit that my baby is growing, and because feeding is so easy now!). Really a rather uneventful appointment...2 shots, which went really smoothly, he didn't even act sore or grouchy. What a sweet little boy we have! I love this fella!
The Bad:

Over the past month, Rio has started doing some weird things. We didn't really put them all together till about a week ago. Seems obvious now, looking back, but we were a little slow on that one. Rio started having some minor seizures, a little twitching, which seems to be getting more frequent, and lasting longer. The vet was very kind to watch our minute long video of a seizure. She prescribed phenobarbital to control the seizures, but the seizures are probably the effects of something very more serious, and probably neurological. We love Rio, and it is hard to see him having seizures, but at this time he seems to be comfortable and still have a good quality of life.

Rio is quite the interesting dog. He is VERY full of life (tearing around the back yard, jumping our 6 foot fence, constantly stalking and nipping at Riley). He is also a little crazy. He sleeps with his tongue out, prefers to stare at his food bowl rather than eat it, and likes to sleep under a blanket, head and all.

The next few weeks, months, years might be difficult for us (and him), and we will keep you updated. I'm feeling stressed about the situation, however I have a feeling Rio will outlive all of us!!!

Fun Sunday

Jeremy spent the night in Birmingham with his brother Chris, so Noah and I had the house to ourselves. We did a lot of playing, reading and snuggling. Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early and went couponing (that went really well, and I got the last 2 Schick razors there...which I love, and they were free). Noah took a nap while I completed day 4 of the 30 day shred (still miserable, though considerably less miserable). Noah went to the church nursery today for the first time! He did great, and he got the award for the "best belly laugh", says the lady taking care of him. It was actually really nice to leave him in the nursery...I didn't have to worry about him making noise or fussing during church. We came home, and Noah and I both took a 2 hour nap, which was just awesome. Noah had a super happy day, and I really enjoyed spending the day with my little man.

Tomorrow is not going to be a happy day since he is getting his 4 month shots. Boo. I hate that for him, so hopefully everything will go smooth.

Happy Sunday to you!

12 Facts

Day 2 of Jullian Michaels 30 Day Shred

Fact 1. I am out of shape.

Fact 2. It has been about a year since I really worked out hard.

Fact 3. Yesterday, I thought I was going to die.

Fact 4. I didn't, and woke up feeling worse than I did when I was working on Fact 3.

Fact 5. I'm going to Olive Garden for Dinner.

Fact 6. I'm going to eat the Never Ending Pasta Bowl until I pop.

Fact 7. Every muscle in my body hurts, even muscles I didn't know I had.

Fact 8. Jumping jacks were the easy part of this dvd. How sad is that?

Fact 9. Walgreens has a deal on M&M. 4 bags for $2 after coupons. I'm seriously considering doing the deal again. To give the M&Ms away of course.

Fact 10. Noah is almost 4 months old. I still have 4 baby pounds to lose.

Fact 11. Not really a fact, but a question. Why is our baby's room upstairs? 15 steps up, 15 steps down. Moan.

Fact 12. 30 Day Shred is the longest 25 minutes ever. Seriously. And 7 of the minutes are warm up/cool down. Rough.

Olive Garden, here I come. Hold some angel hair for me. That is my favorite. And I would like 2 chocolate mints!

Jeans

I'm a HUGE fan of Huggies Jeans Diapers. :) They are so stinkin cute, I don't even want to put Noah's cute behind in them unless he can wear them out! No sleeping in these thing!

PS- yes that is a little back roll...this little man is growing big and strong...and developing quite the personality. It is so crazy...I just want to ask him "who are you?!?!?" So neat to watch him become a little boy. :)

4 month appointment on Monday...Excited to get his behind on the scale and get some more questions answered. Dreading 4 month shots! I had a grouchy boy for 3 days last time!

Filthy

This dog was filthy. He got dirty the other day when he rolled in a sand pit. We didn't have time to wash him, so we kind of toweled him off and wet to bed. Thank goodness, because this is how he looked less than 24 hours later. Would I be a bad dog-parent if I said we still didn't have time to wash him that night either? :)

Don't worry, he is clean now, but his bath water sure was filthy!!!

I have to keep my eye on him when he goes outside because he keeps trying to roll!
Ahhh...life with dogs!

Confession

Okay, so I thought I hit my couponing high last week with the Gain deal. But only three days later, I saw a preview for this deal, and my brain started spinning again. I love getting good deals on diapers...we know we are going to use them (we have to send diapers and wipes to the daycare every month too), so it is nice to have hem ready and waiting when you need them.

So my diaper stash has been growing since I was 4 months pregnant, and I have not been sorry for couponing diapers even once.

So now it is time to fess up to my diaper stash, which is stowed away in a closet in the office. Several different kinds and several different sizes. Would it scare you if I admitted that my wipe stash is not even included in this picture?

:-) thanks for allowing for my confession. I feel much better now. :-)

Dried up and Crusty

Noah and I were sitting out on the patio. It was so nice that I had to 1. bust out a pair of long pants for Noah and 2. squeeze a newborn hat onto his round head. As we sat out there, I noticed that the dogs were in a disagreement over something. It was just a small one, so Noah and I got up to check it out. Turns out that they were fighting over a dried up crusty frog. Sick.

I used my trusty grilling spatula (aka swimming-pool-frog-rescuer) to take the frog away and throw it over the fence.

As I was taking care of this, I thought to myself...if someone had told me that I would be here...with a baby on one hip and a dried up crusty frog on the end of a spatula in the other hand, I never would have believed them.

But it is true...and I love it.

PS- don't eat off the grill at our house. ;)

Week with Grammy

Noah had an exciting week with Grammy!

Here is the summary in pictures! :)

Thanks for coming to visit! We loved it!

Mother Load

Tonight I hit the mother load at Walgreens. I had my little weekly shopping list put together, but planned to spend a lazy Sunday at home with my boys and Jeremy's mom. Around 5:30 an AWESOME deal came up on one of the blogs I follow, and I immediately loaded up my coupons and Jeremy's mom and I rushed off to Walgreens. I had to drive carefully because I was so excited. Anyway, I spent only $11 out of pocket (and $7 in register rewards). I got:

4 boxes 30 load Gain

2 32 load liquid Gain

4 bags of 216 count wipes

6 bags chex mix

9 Tasters Choice instant coffee (YUM)

1 bag of almond joy bites (YUM YUM YUM)

1 airwick air frenshner

2 tubes of toothpaste.

I should have enough laundry detergent to last a LONG time!!! I got suck a good couponing high, it totally washed away the fact that I missed taking a nap 2 days in a row. Who needs a nap when you can hit the mother load in Gain detergent!?!?!

Thumb Sucker

I'm probably the only one who thinks this is cute. I realize that. :) But still, it is hard to resist finding my boy adorable. I'm going to regret this one day.

But for today...my baby found his thumb. And I loved every second of it.

Jalapenos Galore

We have jalapenos and peppers galore. I picked about 60 or so, and there was still at least that many left! I gave some to a neighbor, Jeremy brought some to work, and we have eaten so many. :)

Thought I would line them up and take a little picture...
What a great year for our garden!

Help Wanted

Does anyone know the name of the dried up crusty ball of lotion that sticks to the outside of a pump-style lotion bottle. You know that nasty little ball that develops if you have not used lotion in a few days? The little ball that you try to avoid.

If you do, please inform us. I know there has to be a name for it, and if not, it certainly needs one. I have tried to google it, but "dried" and "lotion" keep coming up with results related to dry skin, not the crusty ball that I am referring to.

Please let us know if you have any info on this.

ADDENDUM: I have since discovered that this is called a "lotion booger". :) Rest happy tonight knowing what it is called!

Paper Coterie

I'm so excited about this.

I read on one of the couponing blogs about a $40 credit to Paper Coterie. Several of the items are around $40, so it was a great opportunity to try out a new company and get a fun free product.

I've been wanting a place to store Noah's hospital items (like his bands, little hat, etc). I'm not much of a scrapbooker, so I saw this memory book on the Paper Coterie website, and I thought it was perfect. You can totally customize it with pictures, colors, designs...everything. It was $38. After my $40 credit I paid about $9 for shipping. It came in the mail today, which was super quick considering I just ordered it. I LOVE IT!!! It is so perfect. It fits all of his hospital stuff, and it is just manly enough. :)

I'm so impressed with this company...I will definitely be ordering from them again!

Jewelry Box

I've had this jewelry box since I was a little girl. It had a music box, and a little ballerina that spun in circles when the box opened. It had my name engraved on a little plate on the back. But it was in bad shape. It had survived several moves, probably a few tosses off the dresser, and lots and lots of opening/closing. It was time for a new, big girl jewelry box, but I just couldn't bear to get rid of this old thing.

So for my birthday (slightly delayed due to our new addition to the family), Jeremy crafted this new box. He took my old ballerina and music box out, and positioned them perfectly into this new box that we bought on the internet. He put that name plate on it too...right above the mirror. The music box works and everything! It took some hard work, and a little crafty-ness, but I am so excited about my "big girl" jewelry box. It has some special memories for me, but is still very adult looking at the same time!

New Laugh

Here's a new video of my boy. He just learned how to laugh, and it is just the cutest thing!!!

Don't feel obligated to watch...I know videos of other people's kids are not always the most interesting thing. :)

Mary Poppins

Someone at work showed me this link, and I just thought it was adorable. Can't post pictures of it on my blog, so you will have to check out this link to see a wonderfully creative mother with adorable pictures!!!

Mary Poppins is my favorite!

Enjoy the 3 day weekend! :) Happy Labor Day!