Just Because

The week before Christmas my husband came home with this surprise for me - just because he loves me:



Wow, I'm still amazed daily that I have won the heart of this godly, loving, caring, kind, very handsome, very funny, amazing man! I love him more than I ever thought I could love anyone. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of marriage and my husband!

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2008

Well, I'm a little behind but here are some pictures from Thanksgiving this year. We hosted my side of the family this year. It was wonderful! I really enjoyed cooking with my mom and having everyone here. Not to mention, it was nice not to do so much traveling! We had everyone here on Thanksgiving and then we traveled the next day to Bowling Green to celebrate with Wes's family. It was a wonderful holiday full of thankfulness for all the Lord has provided to His children.

Noah's Crawling!

Noah started crawling last week, on October 30th to be exact. He was 8 months old and 10 days. He started out with just a few crawls at a time but has gotten much better in only a week's time. Now he easily crawls the length of a room especially if he sees something he wants! He's also started following us around. Today, he followed me from the living room into our bedroom. He's very proud of himself and we are proud of him too! Our little boy is getting so big! Watch his new trick below.

Lil' Punkin Pie

For Noah's first Halloween, we dressed him up as a pumpkin. I found his costume for $6 at Kroger. What I loved about it was that it was called "Lil' Punkin Pie." That is what I've called Noah since he was born - my little Punkin Pie. I thought the costume was appropriate. We dressed him up and let him help us hand out candy to our neighbors. Well, he didn't exactly help us but he had fun watching all of the people pass by. Here are some pictures we took of our little Punkin with the pumpkins.

Walgreens Deal

Well, I've been a little behind in posting but I have to share with you the great deal I recently received at Walgreens. About 3 weeks ago, my wonderful brother reminded me about a special Walgreens coupon ($5 off of a $20 purchase.) At first I didn't think that I could use it until I looked at the sales flyer and some coupons that I had. I headed to the store and this is what I bought:



Purchased:

2 boxes Puffs tissues - $1.78
4oz box Reese's Pieces - $1.00
Oral B toothbrush - $4.49
Gillette Fusion Razor - $8.99
2 Gillette Men's shampoos - $10.00
3 32oz Gatorades - $3.00

Used:

$4/1 Gillette Fusion Razor
$.75/1 Oral B toothbrush
(2) $2/1 Gillette Men's Shampoo
(2) $.25/1 box of Puffs tissues

Total after coupons - $20.01

Once you apply the $5 off $20 purchase, that brings my pre-tax total to $15.01. I'm still not sure how I managed to get my total before the special coupon so close to $20 even! I was amazed.
But, I'm not finished. Some of these items produced rebates or Register Rewards (RR). RR can be used like cash on your next purchase. I earned a $5.00 rebate on the Gillette Shampoo, $4.00 in RR on the Fusion Razor, and $4.50 in RR on the Oral B toothbrush. That is a total of $13.50 in money/rewards back.

So....

My grand total for the purchase above was......$1.51!!!!

I'm so thrilled! This is probably the best I've done in the coupon world so far. The best part is not only did I save us money, but I was able to use the RR to buy supplies for the medical mission trip our church recently took to Cordova, Peru. God is so gracious!

Freedom!

Noah experienced a new freedom today - standing up in the crib! I heard him waking up from his nap and was about to fix a bottle. Then I noticed that he was pretty quiet. I thought that maybe he had fallen back to sleep which he sometimes does. When I looked at the monitor, I was quite shocked. There was my baby boy standing up in his crib holding on to the rails!! He has never done that before. Somehow he pulled himself to a sitting position and then pulled himself up. I really wish I could have seen him do it! I took some video and pictures to capture this historic moment. Here are some of the ones I took. You can tell that he is really checking out his room!







"Look at me - I'm a big boy!"