Sharing the wealth

I'd like to start sharing the best deals that I find each week. Not just every deal that comes around, but the ones that I actually take part in and are useful for me and my family, and hopefully for yours as well.

Coupon info you need to know:

Target accepts one Manufacturer coupon AND one Target coupon for the same item. This allows for bigger savings and often times free stuff!

I print coupons from target.com, coupons.com, redplum.com, and smartsource.com. I also keep on eye out for Facebook deals - companies will put up a coupon to print if you "like" their page.

Today I scored Disney's Tangled 4-disc set including a free book for only $15!

How?

I used the $5 off coupon on Disney's site stacked with a $5 off Target coupon that came in the Easter mailer. We don't have a Blue-Ray player (yet) and I have no use for the Blue-Ray 3D disc but Noelle loves the book (sticker page included) and I'll give the Blue-Ray disc to my niece and nephew. Everyone wins :-)

I felt bad for the poor sucker in front of us who paid $24.99 for it! It's so easy to print out a $5 coupon before heading to the store.

I say it aaaaallllll the time...."It's like printing my own money!" (can you name that movie?)

Other great deals this week:

Coupons.com - $2 coupon for Visine drops - I picked up the travel size at Target - Free!

SeeHere.com - Get 24 4x8 cards for only $2.49 shipped! I'm planning on making Easter cards to send out in April. Add the 24 cards to your cart and use the code 25cards at checkout.

Happy Savings!

Comparison Picture

It still amazes me how much Noah looks like Noelle. They have almost identical expressions and very similar facial features. They even have the same dimple on their left cheek. So cute!

Hallelujah!

My sweet baby boy has had the WORST baby acne for about 2 weeks now. This week it even turned into an eczema-like rash. It breaks my heart to look at that poor little face - dry, red and covered with pimples.

Then I discovered California Baby Calendula Cream.

I applied it only to his left cheek - just in case he had a reaction to it - and what do you know, it looked 100 times better in just an hour. So I put it on his entire face and over night his face cleared up!

I highly recommend it for any skin problem you or your little one may have. On the bottle it says: Purpose - For simple 'mystery' rashes and cuts, eczema or wherever intensive repair is needed.

And as a bonus it smells wonderful. Noelle said, "Baby brother smells like flowers."

Baby Items I'm Loving

Noah is now one month old and there are a few items that make my life easier. I have to thank several of my blogger friends for sharing their favorite baby items which have also become some of my favorites.

For instance, MAM pacifiers. I've tried 5 different brands of pacifiers - all of which he spits out immediately - so I bought MAM pacifiers after reading several posts raving them and he took it right away. THANK GOODNESS! Finally peace and quiet in the car. The kid hates being in his car seat. It also works great for nap time and in the middle of the night when he's trying to use me as a pacifier.

For sleeping:

Swaddle blankets

I love the Aden + Anais muslin blankets available at Target and the Halo sleepsack. Noah gives me about 4 hours of sleep when he's swaddled in the Halo. The muslin blankets are perfect for nursing, trips out of the house, and covering his car seat.

Fisher Price Infant to Toddler Rocker

Noah naps in this rocker and even sleeps in it some nights. He's not a fan of laying flat quite yet but we are working on it.

MAM pacifiers

For nursing:

Nipple Shield

The worst pain I've felt in a long long time is the deep crack in my right nipple. It's gotten worst over the past week and a couple of nights ago it became unbearable. I finally bought a nipple shield and the pain went from a 9 to a 3. Noah took to it without any problems.

Lanolin

Helped my cracked nipples greatly in just one day.

Mylicon

My poor gassy little guy does so much better if I give him Mylicon with every feeding.

For bathing:

Baby Luve Frog towel

An absolute MUST! My best friend Kim gave this to Noah and he loves bath time because of it. Sure it's just a towel - but it really works. I've tried to use a hand towel and it just doesn't do the trick. Once Noah is in the bath and the frog is on him he closes his eyes and relaxes. You have to get one. I saw them at Walmart for about $10.

Baby Magic

I love the smell of Baby Magic - it's my little secret. Everyone always says, "He smells so good!"

Cuteness Overload!

My local Parks and Recreation department offers a Tiny Toes class for 3-4 year olds and I couldn't wait to get Noelle enrolled - so I didn't. I called in a favor and got Noelle in the class, along with her cousin Emma. Noelle will be 3 in June, what's a few months?

So last night was their first ballet lesson and it was just too adorable for words. The girls had an absolute blast. We weren't sure if they'd be too timid and not want to participate but they jumped right in and followed along. My sister and I were totally the "newbie moms" with our cameras and video cameras out during the entire class.

At home practicing her moves before class.

Emma on the left, Noelle on the right. My mom got the girls the outfits.

Seriously - how cute are they??!!
Miss Emily helped them out a bit during the class.
Little Brother made it through the entire class without a peep!

Emma checking on mommy and auntie.
When Noelle woke up this morning the first thing she said was, "I want to go to dance class today!"

It Feels Good

It feels great to get back in the kitchen and cook for my family. It's been quite a while since I bought groceries and even longer since I made a decent meal. This morning I had a craving for some good ole fashion comfort food and remembered that I ripped out a page in the February issue of Rachael Ray's magazine with a recipe for Unstuffed Peppers. My mom always made us Stuffed Peppers growing up so I couldn't wait to try THIS RECIPE.

It turned out great. Instead of ground beef - which my mom used - it has delicious Mild Italian Sausage along with mushrooms, onions, green peppers and rice. I mixed white rice with long grain wild rice. Aaron and Noelle also loved it! If you are a fan of Stuffed Peppers I urge you to give this recipe a try. You won't be disappointed :)

Noah's birth announcement

Initially Yours Blue Birth Announcement

Shutterfly has cute birth announcements and cards for Easter.

View the entire collection of cards.

Sisterhood

During my pregnancy I worried how Noelle would react to her new baby brother. We tried to prepare her throughout the 9 months as much as possible by talking to him in my belly, including her when we purchased things for him, decorating his room, saying "When Noah gets here (fill in the blank)," etc.

The first week flew by and Noelle did great. She wasn't very interested in him - probably because he slept 20 hours a day. Aaron was home that week and we had visitors every day who brought her gifts and gave her tons of attention. My mom and dad were also at our house every day helping with Noah and playing with Noelle.

This past week was a bit more challenging but overall pretty great. She threw a few fits when I was nursing him because I couldn't follow her to where she wanted to go and she cried at bed time twice when we denied her request to sleep in our bed (which she never does anyway). I've made a point to devote one of Noah's 2-hour naps to playing with her and teaching her, which is a huge adjustment since all of my day was devoted to her before his arrival. I've also showed her where all of his diapers, wipes, clothes, and bibs are so she can be "Mommy's Big Helper."

A few of my favorite Big Sister moments are: In the morning she covers Noah with her very special blanket to keep him "nice and warm," she often gently touches his head and says "ahhh," and she loves helping mommy give him a bath.

She also enjoys holding him...

Aaron, of course, is over the moon.

And I am so in love.

Deal of the Month!

We took a trip to Target today to check out the Dr. Suess Read Across America event. Noelle and I enjoyed listening to 4 book readings while she munched on popcorn and sipped apple juice. Aaron and Noah took the chance to get Starbucks and have some Father/Son time.

After the book readings we took a stroll around and I found this!

A leftover from the Great Sale Event. I'm a lover of teeth whitening so I was thrilled to find the Professional Effects strips on clearance. This value pack also comes with mouth wash, floss, a toothbrush and toothpaste!

A $60 Value on clearance for $30!

I busted out my coupon booklet and smiled from ear to ear when I found a $10 off Professional Effects coupon. I thought maybe I'd have trouble using it at the register but it went through with no problem. Only $20 bucks!

I have 4 more $10 off coupons (in the 2/27 P&G insert) so I plan on keeping my eye on them next week when they'll most likely go half off. There were more than 10 of them left on the shelf.

If you're not familiar with Crest Professional Effects, the 20 pack of strips alone costs $50.

Have a great week - I hope you find some great deals out there!

Baby Weight Loss

I'm very proud of myself for not gaining a ton of weight this pregnancy. My goal was to not gain more than 30 pounds and the day I went to the hospital I had gained a total of 27 pounds. Not bad. Here's what I looked like 3 hours before delivering...

And 10 days later...

I'm happily back in my pre-pregnancy jeans and a few pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. Nursing is an amazing workout!

Noah's Birth Story

I had an appointment with Dr. T on Monday, the 14th (due date) and I was only dilated 1 cm and about 75% effaced but baby was still very low at +1 station. I mentioned to Dr. T that baby had been less active in the past couple of days and he sent me to the hospital for an NST and biophysical ultrasound. Everything came back perfect so I went home to spend Valentine's Day with Aaron and Noelle.

I went to sleep that night praying and praying that I would go into labor before Thursday - the scheduled induction day. As usual I couldn't sleep and ended up on the couch at 1:40 a.m. I began to feel semi-strong contractions around 3 a.m. and timed them at about 30 minutes apart. They were just annoying enough to keep me awake so I watched a couple of hours of TV and finally started to doze off at 5 a.m.

Just as my eyes closed I felt a strange feeling and jumped up to run to the bathroom. On my way there amniotic fluid started running down my leg. I went to the bathroom and out came my mucus plug along with more amniotic fluid. Woohoo! God is good! I laid back down and soaked through a pad, then another. When Aaron got up to go to work I let him know what happened but I insisted he go to work because I wasn't planning on going to the hospital until my contractions were closer together.

I took a shower and finished getting our bags packed and at 8:30 a.m. I started bleeding. Not long after the contractions went from 10 minutes apart to 5 minutes apart. My parents came over at 9 a.m. and I called Aaron to come home from work.

At 10:30 a.m. we arrived at the hospital and got settled in.

At 11 a.m. my contractions were 3 minutes apart and getting stronger but for some reason they went away. Nothing for almost an hour so Dr. T ordered Pitocin which started working right away and I was contracting every 2 minutes from then on. My sister and Aaron were squeezing my feet with every contraction and at 2:30 p.m. I ordered an epidural.

3:00 p.m. I finally got the epi and was at 5 cm dilated. From 3-4:30 I relaxed with my parents, Aaron and Noelle. Nurse Julie came to check me at 4:40 and I was at 8 cm dilated. She said she'd come back at 5:30 and I'd likely be at 10 cm.

A few minutes after Nurse Julie left the room my forebag broke and Noah came sliding down the birth canal. I told Aaron and my dad to go get a Nurse - I knew Noah was crowning, the pressure was super intense. Nurse Julie came in to take a look and sure enough, he was ready to come out.

They prepped the room and Dr. T came in just before 5 p.m. Because he's such a sweetie, he cancelled his dinner plans and was in his office playing online poker waiting for my call.

Once everything and everyone was in our room I started pushing and about 4 minutes later Noah's head came out - but he had the cord wrapped around his neck twice so I had to give one big push to get him out. And there he was at 5:13 p.m! Perfect and pink with the most adorable little cry. Unfortunately because I had to get him out fast, I tore in the same place as I did with Noelle. :-( Recovery was rough for the first 5 days, but now a week pp, I feel pretty good.

7 pounds, 8 ounces and 20.5 inches long

My mom's expression during the whole process was priceless. I'm so glad she was able to watch the birth of her grandson. Aaron was an amazing coach and supporter. He is my rock.

Watching Noelle meet her brother was a moment I'll never forget. She kept trying to hold his hand and said, "He's my friend." It was so sweet!

Now we are a family of 4!

Noah is here!

Noah John was born on February 15th at 5:13 pm! He was 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 20.5 inches long. I was anxious during my pregnancy to find out what he looks like, and let me tell you, it's like looking at Noelle as a baby. They are nearly identical - he's just a handsome version.

This is the first time in the past 6 days that I've been able to turn on the computer - and even now I should be napping - but I wanted to send this out just in case you were wondering. I started writing his birth story which I'll try to get posted this week.

I haven't had a chance to upload the pictures from my camera but here's a phone picture...

My baby boy!

Hello, Due Date!

Buh-bye, Due Date!

I feel great today. Last week I thought if I made it to the 14th I'd be upset and disappointed but I'm not. I'm just going with it. I've been praying and praying for this baby to come when he's ready, and apparently he's just not ready. I'm having mild contractions every 4-6 minutes but they haven't gotten any stronger since they began last night. So we wait...

There won't be a meal plan this week. I learned last week that my energy level is just too low by the end of the day to keep with the schedule. My mom treated us to dinner a couple of times last week which was, as always, a blessing. For Valentine's Day my amazing husband made me this delicious Surf and Turf dinner and the rest of the week is up in the air. We'll figure it out - even if we're eating PB&Js for dinner.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Lesson Learned

Last night I was hit with, "Oh my goodness, I'm going to have another baby ANY DAY!" After a minor freak out, I looked at Noelle and was overwhelmed with guilt. I've been so distracted with preparing for baby brother that I haven't spent quality alone time with her in a while.

So I made the decision to be entirely present for her today. No cleaning or organizing, no computer or phone calls. Whatever she wanted to do, we did. As usual the day started with, "Mommy, you want to play in my playroom?" We played, danced, learned and laughed.

Then while I attempted to quickly make myself semi-presentable to the world in my bathroom she asked me to paint our toes. I pulled out the nail polish box and let her pick the color...

Electric Blue!

Should be a great conversation starter in the delivery room. :)

After taking pictures of our toes she asked me to take a few pictures of her "happy faces." We practice happy face, sad face, mean face, surprised face, etc in the mirror while I do her hair. It's a great distraction when I want to put in pig tails.

Then we took a walk to the park and had a picnic. It was the most beautiful sunny day.

Me and my princess.

"What would you like to do after lunch?"

"See the puppies!"

So off to the pet store we went. We saw puppies, bunnies, turtles, fish, reptiles, birds, guinea pigs and hamsters. More fun than the zoo!

Then it was nap time. I'm exhausted but it was an amazing day. She is the sweetest little girl.

Lesson learned - Spend more time holding her hand and less time holding my phone.

Milestone!

Noelle is officially completely out of Pull-Ups! She's been potty-trained for almost a year now, but hasn't been able to make it through the night without an accident, so we put a pull-up on her for bed time only. Last week I noticed that she woke up with a dry pull-up a couple of times so I took them away and she's gone an entire week without them and hasn't had a single accident!

I'm so proud of my little girl!

I'm also happy that I don't have to spend $10 a month on pull-ups anymore. Money that will go towards diapers - yay!

What a fun surprise!

I woke up on Friday morning and did my usual routine before Noelle wakes up which includes checking my e-mails, FB, and blog. When I got to my blog I was puzzled by the amount of visitors to my page. What on earth was going on?

I later saw on my blog updates that Natalie over at The Busy Budgeting Mama featured me and Noah's Nursery on her totally awesome blog! How cool is that?

You can check it out HERE.

I sent Natalie an e-mail after I posted the Visitor Favors and Big Sister Kit that I made by following her tutorials. I appreciate when bloggers take the time to tell you how they created something. That's why we share things in the first place - so that others can be inspired.

So thanks again, Natalie, for your blog and the kind comments. :)

Also a big HELLO and WELCOME to any new followers who came from Natalie's blog! I hope you enjoy reading.

The Number Game

Noelle has been working hard at learning numbers 1-10 this month. She has most of them memorized but still has some trouble with 6 and 9, and for some odd reason number 1.

Here are a few games we play every morning during breakfast and throughout the day.

We started off learning numbers 1-4 with a game we call "Number Boxes."

I saw somewhere the idea to put small objects inside boxes to teach counting, so I used what I had around the house - Tiffany boxes and wine corks (which she calls "blocks"). :)

First she mixes the boxes...

Then one by one opens them up and reads what number is on the inside of the box.

If she has trouble with recognizing the number I remind her to count the corks.

Here she is looking at the number

"Number THREE!"

I should add that she's going through a Princess stage. She insists on wearing a Princess crown and dress at. all. times.

Another game is "Butterfly Numbers." I used the strips of card stock left over from the Visitor Favors to write numbers 1-10. I also drew the same number of butterflies in case she needs help recognizing the number.

To make it a little more interesting she then finds the matching number on her phone.

Lastly we play with boring ole home-made flash cards. I mix them up and quiz her on the numbers. I also throw in a different letter each time we play.

I try to remember to make everything we do a teaching opportunity. At the store I ask her to read the price of an item we are going to buy and then put it in our cart. I love teaching my little princess. It's such a thrill when she gets it right!