Experiment

Today is day 8 of my silly little experiment- and so far it seems to be working! The past 6 nights when I put Jonathan to bed, I've been telling Jonathan he can sleep in if he wants to. (Obviously it's more for my benefit than his!) And he slept in each day till at least 8 am! (This is a boy who LOVES to wake up at 6-7 am.) Last night was day 7, and I forgot about my experiment. I had Nathan take him up to bed, so he wasn't told he could sleep in. And he didn't. So, I told him tonight he could sleep in tomorrow. I am hoping he does, because I love to sleep in, and those days (besides this last week) have been very few and far between! :)

(And I know this is a silly thing to track... but I am SOOO not a morning person, so anything helps!)

Couponing

So I have been very serious about couponing since the middle of February. I can't believe I haven't done it earlier! (Well besides the fact that I didn't know how, till I read a few blogs.) I have been able to save a LOAD of money in just the month and a half I've been doing it. From what I've learned, its all about "stockpiling" the stuff you know you will need and have to buy anyways, but doing it when there are sales, coupons and/or catalinas available to save the most amount of money.

A few weeks ago, I bought enough cereal for my family to last awhile (months!), and bought some for my sister, brother and parents too! I think the total I ended up buying was 70 boxes, and got them all for $4 (cost of buying coupons on ebay) -.05 cents. How did I do that you ask? I used A LOT of coupons, combined with doubles (at Albertsons), and a catalina to boot! I spent 3.95 for the first transaction (5 boxes of cereal per transaction), then got a $4 catalina back, which I just kept rolling till I got the amount of cereal I wanted, and ended up with a $4 catalina back to spend on something else I needed (hence the -.05 I wrote earlier. I ended up with .05 cents more than I spent!)

Another sale I just did was at walgreens. I would never ever buy dove products without coupons or a sale- the brand is just too expensive. But this last week the store had a GREAT sale. Buy shampoo or conditioner for $4, then get $4 back to spend on your next shopping trip! So basically the shampoo/conditioner is free! Plus, if you have coupons and use them, your spending less out of pocket! (I paid $2-2.75 for the shampoo and conditioner I got, and received $4 back on each. The only difficulty with the sale is that you have to have the ability/time/patience to do a bunch of transactions. After I realized how much I'm saving, I definitely have the patience to get back in line for more transactions! Oh and the body wash was 2/$12 and when you spend 12 dollars you get $4 back, so with coupons it makes for a great deal. I'll write down all that I bought at Walgreens, and you tell me if it was a great deal or not! (I don't think I bought one item without a coupon!)
2 dove shampoos
2 dove conditioners
4 dove body wash
1 deodorant
24 pack of bottled water
After all coupons and adding back the catalinas that I received I spent a total of: $2.83. For all of it!

So now I will stop bragging (haha) and just let you know, from time to time I will mention a few things I saved on, and I hope I can show you how easy it is to save money, especially where you might not think you can! (Geesh I sure sound like I'm selling something huh?) Anyways, now its getting late, and I need to sleep! Tomorrow Jonathan and I are going to a birthday party for a friend of ours (Isaac, he's turning 2!).  Today Jonathan and I bought him some hot wheel cars, Jonathan picked them out. But even though I explained (over and over!) that these were for another boy, he still bawled when I started wrapping them tonight. I am sure that Jonathan will be glad to "help" his little friend play with the cars at the party!  Ok, now I'm really stopping. And hoping to get to bed before midnight for once! :)

Stairs

Today I found out just how well Jonathan could walk up the stairs. Usually when we go upstairs, he holds the banister, and I walk behind him just in case he falls. Today he had his play phone, and he was holding it with both hands. I thought he'd let go with one hand to grab the banister, but he didn't. He just started walking up those stairs, not holding on to anything! And he climbed the stairs the whole way like that. Its just crazy how big he's getting, and see all the things he's able to do now!

Rachel came and got him this morning and hung out with him in Salem for a bit. I came in later to pick him up. I don't know why I haven't gotten Rachel to do this earlier! It was so nice actually having a bit of daytime to myself for once! He had fun too; she took him to get hot chocolate, then to the park/carousel, walked around for a bit and shopped. I think it was good for Rachel too, sometimes when I'm around he just wants me, but without me there she had a lot more quality time with him.

Whoa!

So.... I lied, apparently I didn't keep this updated... I can't believe the last post was dated last October! But, instead of boring you with 5 months worth of old news, I will just update you quickly.

Jonathan turned 2 years old in December, and he is talking A LOT! It is so fun to just watch him. He gets excited about the littlest things, and a lot of the time he is the happiest kid I have ever seen! He absolutely loves going to the beach, always wants to go see his "papas" and "Chull". He's nervous around Matt, but he's fine as long as he can keep an eye on him! I'm sure by the time harvest comes around, Jonathan will want to be on that combine riding with him. :) He also really loves church. He's bonded with quite a few people there and is always excited to go see them.

He is learning a lot about where he lives, and about different animals too. I got him some flash cards with wild animals on them; we go thru them and he can tell me what a bunch of them are. One of his favorite animals is the manatee, don't ask me why! But he also knows bobcat, snake, mouse (actually kangaroo rat, but I'm letting that slide lol), deer, skunk, wolf, otter, chipmunk, whale, alligator, beaver, bear, blue marlin, and cougar! (And those are just from the flashcards, there are many other animals that he knows that aren't included in the flashcards!) I go through a lot of things with Jonathan and I think its just amazing how much he learns, and just how much it sinks in so that he remembers it. He is such a smart kid! Not to brag or anything ;)

Jonathan got his hair cut about 2 weeks ago; it was getting so long and unmanageable lol. But I took him to the barber, and told him not to give him a buzz cut, and guess what he got? A buzz cut! I was not very happy, but his hair will grow out, which I'm waiting for haha... then we'll just go somewhere else... or I'll try my hand at cutting it!

Ok, I will TRY(!!!) to keep this updated more often! :) The picture below is not the most current one, it was taken in early January when we went to the beach with Kathy (Nathans mom). It is however the most current one on my computer!

The almost perfect fall day :)

Today was a great day (minus one thing). It was a perfect fall morning, a little foggy, a little chilly, but not too cold. Jonathan and I met up with our friends Elizabeth and her son Isaac and went to the pumpkin patch. They had so much fun! They were able to go on a hayride, pick out a pumpkin, go to the apple orchard and pick out an apple, go through the corn maze and play on a bunch of stacked hay bales. After that we went over to the little petting zoo, Jonathan petted a sheep, and Isaac got liked by a baby cow. Jonathan danced in front of the cage of chickens, saying chicken, chicken, chicken! And Isaac laughed at the pigs snorting around. :) Then, after washing hands, we all went over and received a cider doughnut and some apple cider. They were both SO yummy!!!! If you haven't been to EZ Orchards, go! I will need to go back I think, they have a market too where you can buy what they make. Its great. Jonathan and Isaac really loved their food too. After that we went home, all the way looking at all the colored leaves falling alongside the road. What a great fall day! Then in the afternoon, my mom asked if we wanted to go with her into Dallas. So we went and ran a few errands, and then went and got some ice cream. Jonathan ABSOLUTELY LOVES CHOCOLATE! And I'm saying that in all caps, because it was very VERY evident lol. After each bite, he'd close his eyes, smile, then dance around in his seat before he'd say, "More!" And you could tell exactly when the sugar hit his system. :) He ran around Dairy Queen for awhile laughing, and then we went to the park and let him run there, and play on his favorite piece of playground equipment, the slide. He had so much fun today!!!!-IF it hadn't been for one incident. I still feel sick about it. He dirtied his diaper, so I was changing it in the car, when I was done, I let him out (there was no one around at all) and he went over and looked in the drivers window where my mom was sitting. I was cleaning everything up, wasn't paying attention and closed the door, not realizing his fingers were where the hinges of the car door was. So I smashed his fingers! Luckily my mom was there, because I think I would have absolutely freaked out. But she said his fingers would be okay. So we went to Rite-Aid to get one of those cold packs that you break and can use immediately. Except they didn't have any of those. But the pharmacist was SO nice and gave me a cold pack from their freezer free of charge. (By the way, where can you get those ice packs I was looking for? Anyone know?) Now he's napping, and I'm hoping that when he wakes up he'll forget about what happened to his fingers and we can have a perfect evening to this almost perfect day :)

Still here!

Wow, its been a long time since I've blogged. :) Too long! And I'm not going to write much here, except to tell you that Jonathan has been growing and VERY active, laughing and learning lots! He is growing up so fast!

I will soon be able to write more, now that Nathan will be going back to school (starting tomorrow) and I will have the computer back ;)

Also. If anyone has tips on what things are fun to do with a two year old (more places to go than things to do at home) let me know! Now that he's getting older, I want to try to get more of a project/event schedule together for him. Hopefully you understand what I'm getting at. Anyways, thanks for reading my blog, I will definitely be continuing it!

Mud Puddles...

Today we were all outside, enjoying a little of the cooler (and wet) weather. I was helping my sister load up her car, so Nathan decided to walk out to the shop with my dad and Jonathan. After a few minutes of helping my sister, I look out towards the shop and see Jonathan by himself standing right in front of the shop, facing it. I assume that Nathan and my dad are inside, so I think nothing of Jonathan being by himself. And then I see him start to stomp. And I was wondering, why is he stomping like that? And its a little too far away to really see what he's doing. So I decided to walk over there. And then I saw... a little boy, playing in a mud puddle, stomping around and LOVING it. I was a little irritated, because I had put his "going to town" shoes on him... which are now his "outside play" shoes. :) But it was really funny to watch. His pants, at least halfway up him were covered with mud and water. His jacket was splattered and so was his face a little. And you really can't tell what color his shoes started out to be! Here is a pic of Jonathan my sister took after he played in the mud puddle. And holding one of his favorite toys in the world. A spray bottle lol.