2012 Guide to Groceries

I found this eBook on Pinterest (which I am now obsessed with).  Tony and I have put ourselves on a strict budget, but the groceries always seem to cost more than what we allot every week.  This book shows you how to control your grocery spending.  I'm excited to read it and hopefully it helps us.  Check it out!

Gabby and Daddy

Gabby LOVES playing with Daddy!

Super Gabby!

She LOVES going around on Daddy's shoulders.  And she'll look over her shoulder to make sure you're watching!  I just love these moments :)

Clapping

She claps now!  Not on demand, but when she feels like it she does!

Piggy Face

When I was a kid I made a--what I call--piggy face.  A few weeks ago, our little Gabby started doing one of her own. 

She loves to do it when she eats, even though she likes what she's eating.  Silly girl!

Halloween

I know this is late, but the Saturday before Halloween, we went to our church trunk or treat and chili cook off where Tony made his first chili.  He didn't win, but it was good!  The trunk or treat was a lot of fun.  Tony and I were salt and pepper shakers and Gabby was a package of smarties.  So cute!  Check out these pictures:

 Mommy and Daddy

 Gabby chewing on actual smarties!





My sister in law, Katie and niece Savannah came too! 

 

I just loved her little bum!

Mommy and Daddy with our baby girl! 

The full picture

She chewed on that package of smarties almost the entire night.  It was so cute! 

IT'S ANOTHER GIRL!

I know by now that probably everyone knows we're having another girl.  Sorry these pictures are a month late, but here are the 3 pictures when we found out last month:

The white line in the last picture shows that it's a girl...no tail there! 

We've talked about names, but we still can't agree on one.  Tony calls her Olivia and I call her Chloe.  Neither of us are budging on our names, so we'll see what she actually turns out being!  I hope we can finally agree on a name before she comes!

Spray Paint

In the last post I mentioned I was going to spray paint the changing table and toy box.  I already bought a can of primer and a can of paint.  Since I have to sand the changing table, I figured I would go ahead and paint the toy box to make sure I like the color and the finish before I bought more of the same spray paint.  I was told by several people that spray paint is so easy and so quick and it looks really good, so I was super excited to have the toy box done today.  Ok, this is where I get pretty moody so beware! 

I HATE SPRAY PAINT WITH A PASSION!  The scriptures say that all evil things come from the devil and I am convinced spray paint fits that criteria.  First of all, the primer didn't even cover the entire toy box, so the back is only primed in spots.  Honestly, that doesn't bother me too much because it's the back so it will be against the wall, but it's just the icing on the cake.  It was really drippy so the paint didn't go on evenly in some parts.  The paint didn't go on over some parts where it was primed, so its solid gray in a few small areas.  So after I put the primer on, this is what it looked like:

I was told to use gray primer instead of white so I will know what I have painted and what I haven't.  Made sense to me.  After the primer dried, I put 2 coats of the white paint on and this is what it looked like:

 It didn't even cover the entire toy box all the way around.

I was told and I read that you usually only need a couple coats of spray paint to do the trick...does that look like the case to you??? PLUS the spray paint got all over me.  My hands and arms were covered in it and so were my feet.  I was in the shower for about 45 minutes scrubbing with a brillo pad trying to get it off.  It took 2 good long showers with the brillo pad to get everything off.

 So now I have to go BACK to Home Depot and get regular paint.  I did read that as long as I use the same base of paint that the spray paint is, then I don't need to sand it down to have a clean slate.  To put that clearer in case you have the same problem in the future, if the spray paint is water based, then you need a water based paint.  If the spray paint is oil based, then you need to use oil based paint.  I don't know how accurate that is, so I will definitely ask the paint experts at Home Depot. 

Needless to say I had a very frustrating morning.  I detest spray paint and will never ever ever suggest anyone use it.  Hopefully I will have a much better experience with regular paint.  If I don't, you just might see me on the 6 o'clock news.

Bargain Shopping 101

Last weekend my mom's housing subdivision had a community wide garage sale.  I totally forgot about it, but she asked me if I  wanted to go to a member of our church's house on Thursday night because they were having a sneak peek/presale for all of the members of our church.  I had nothing else to do, so why not?  I'm so glad I did!  I bought:

1.  Changing table $7
2.  Baby gate $2

The changing table is older, nothing fancy, but I don't need anything fancy.  And I told Tony a couple weeks ago that we may need to break down and buy one because it's starting to get harder getting up and down when I change Gabby on the floor.  So for $7, heck yeah! I really don't like the color of it, so I went to Hobby Lobby on Friday and bought some white spray paint and some primer.  That will match one of the colors in Gabby's room, and it's a neutral color so if we have a boy, perfect!!  I'll need to sand it down first, so I went to Home Depot and got some sand paper. 

Then on Friday morning my mom found a contour changing pad for the changing table for only $4!  It's a nice one too.  She told me that the house she bought it from was about to put out all their baby toys, so I might want to go over there soon to look.  I'm so glad I did! 

I bought these toys for Gabby (which she will get at Christmas) and baby carrier for only $20! 

1.  V tech Move & Crawl Ball
2.  Fisher Price Go Baby Go Bat & Wobble Penguin
3.  Infantino Safari Roller
4.  Leap Frog Learn Around Play Ground with Tube Topper
5.  Baby Carrier
Then I went back to the house from Thursday night to get a better look at the toys.  Gabby fell in love with this bed of worms type toy.  There are no music and lights, very simple.  You push a worm down, and another pops up.  Then you push that one down, and another pops up, etc.  I don't know why she loves it so much, but she does and if she hits one enough times, she actually pushes it all the way down!  So I bought that and a grocery bag full of the brightly colored alphabet refrigerator magnets-both for a total of $2!  With all my purchases, I felt like I had hit the jackpot :) THEN...

On Saturday  I went to Canton for the first monday trade days with my friend Beth.  She wanted to get ideas for her wedding, and since I am a bridesmaid, Gabby and I went along.  I honestly wasn't planning on buying anything, but the first "booth" we stopped at I found this toy box for only $10!!!

It's about 3 feet long, by 1 1/2-2 feet wide by about 2 feet deep.  I thought it was a pretty darn good deal for only $10! It isn't finished, so I'll need to go back to Hobby Lobby and use my 40% off coupon this week for more spray paint and primer...no biggie at all!  Between the toy box and the changing table, I'll finally be able to say I'm crafty!  I also bought this Melissa & Doug Shape Sorting Cube for only $10-another Christmas present for Gabs.  If you clicked on the link, you can see I only paid 50% of the retail cost.  You can get it cheaper on Amazon from other sellers, but I still saved money, which I am very happy with. 

So, I bought all that stuff for a grand total of $51!!!

With everything I could price, the retail price of these items equals $202 which means I only paid about 25% of the actual cost and that doesn't include the changing table, bed of worms toy and the toy box.  I think I am becoming quite the bargain shopper!  I'll be working on the changing table and toy box this week so stay tuned for my craftiness!

GABBY'S FIRST TOOTH!

Gabby's FIRST tooth popped through on Tuesday!  We've said she's been teething, but she really hasn't been fussy.  Don't get me wrong, she gets in her moods and she does fuss sometimes, but we've heard that when your baby is teething, life is absolutely miserable, and ours wasn't at all, so when I felt a tooth I was really surprised!  She was chewing on my knuckle on Tuesday, which she usually does, and I felt something sharp and it hurt! I screamed because it surprised me and it startled her (sorry Gabs).  I put my knuckle in her mouth again, thinking it was one of her nails but her hands weren't anywhere near her mouth.  So I felt on her gums and sure enough there was one on her bottom gum!  One of her front ones.  YAY GABBY!  I can tell there is one on the top that is about to pop through too. 


Like I said, she really hasn't been fussy like we were expecting her too, then yesterday, OMG!  I totally jinxed it.  For about an hour she would not stop crying.  And not just crying, screaming crying.  I felt so horrible because there was nothing I could do.  I gave her teething tablets, Tylenol, and even orajel (I know you're not supposed to use that, but I know infant CPR, so if she stops breathing, I know exactly what to do).  I tried rocking her, bouncing her, walking around with her, all her toys, teething rings, ice in a wash cloth, freezing pacifiers, nothing would console her.  I was crying too because I'm the mom--I'm supposed to make everything better and I couldn't.  The Tylenol finally kicked in and she fell asleep after a good long while.  *Sigh* RELIEF! 


I can't believe how fast she is growing up.  She is eating baby food like crazy too.  She LOVES LOVES LOVES carrots and sweet potatoes, which isn't surprising because they're sweeter.  And she pretty much detests peas, but I don't like those either so I don't care.  It's probably time to switch her to stage 2 foods, but I stocked up on the stage 1 when they were on sale so I put a couple teaspoons of rice in the food to thicken it up and she still gobbles it down super fast.


GOOD NEWS!  I found the cord to my camera so here are the pictures of her on the swing...look at my big girl!

Don't you just love that smile?

It still amazes me how much in love with her I am.  I love you Gabby!

Is it a boy or a girl?

I went to the OB about a week and a half ago for my monthly check up.  Tony was a soldier and stayed home with Gabby, which I'm glad he did because I had to wait for an hour and a half to see the doctor and we're usually in and out within 30 minutes.  When I finally got to see the doctor, he asked me how I was feeling.  I told him how I'm still really nauseous and still vomiting.  It stopped at 15 weeks with Gabby, but I'm 16 weeks now and I still have it.  I hope I'm not sick the entire pregnancy.  Anyway, the medications I take for it work off and on.  It's a hit and miss with pretty much every prescription.  So back to the doctor visit-he started to do the Doppler on me to get the baby's heart beat.  I told him I was convinced it was another girl because the pregnancy is almost identical to Gabby's.  He said, "really?  I would guess a boy."  I asked him why and the baby kept kicking during the Doppler so he could never get a steady heart beat.  He would get maybe two or three beats in and then the baby would kick.  So his reasoning is boys are more active than girls, which I've heard that before.  The cool thing is I can already feel the little baby in there.  I couldn't feel Gabby 20 weeks-right after we found out it was a girl.  But apparently with subsequent pregnancies you can usually feel the baby earlier.  It's cool to be able to experience it so soon.  So that's what's new with the new baby.

As for Gabby, she's still growing big.  Her favorite food so far is carrots.  She scarfs those down so fast!  On Labor Day a friend and I took our kids to the park because it was so gorgeous outside.  Gabby went on the swing for the first time and she loved it!  I took pictures, but I can't find the cord to my camera to upload them.  As soon as I find it, I'll post them.  She's so cute! She's scooting every once in a while but nothing consistent, so we're still working on that.  But she's doing wonderfully!

Gabby Update and Sonogram Pictures

Gabby is growing up so fast!  She had her 4 month check up this week.  She's 12.12 pounds and 24.5 inches long.  The doctor said we can start her on foods now (whoops...already been doing that!) She's still only in the 30th percentile for weight, which concerns me a little bit.  The pediatrician said that because Tony and I are both thin, she'll probably always be in a lower percentile, which is fine as long as she's consistently that way.  If she jumps from the 30th to like the 80th percentile, then we'd need to worry.  But as far as it goes, she's healthy and just wonderful!  

The only thing she wasn't really doing on the list at 4 months is rolling over.  She's done it before but not regularly.  I, of course, wanted to make sure she does eveything on the list so this week we've been focusing on tummy time.  She's been doing great-doing tons of push ups and turning around and now, yes, rolling over.  Phew!  She also discovered the jumparoo this week.  We've put her in it before, but she never really caught on to the whole jumping thing.  That all changed this week.  When she realized that when she jumps, the music and lights come on....OMG!  She goes crazy in it now!  It's so funny to see her in it.  She still only stays in it for abount 20 minutes, but hey....I can take a shower in 20 minutes!  I love that she's discovered it.  Now we need to get her to scoot more.  Tony really wants her to start crawling soon-I don't mind if she holds off on that for a while, but I also don't want to hold her back from developing, so I'm taking a zen attitude on it.  If she does it, great (we'll just need to get baby gates), and if she doesn't until she's 9 months, I'm TOTALLY okay with that too. 

Now on to Baby Green.  So we're 3 months along now.  I'm still pretty nauseous.  I hate it.  I really hope that ends soon.  I'm tired a lot, but that's to be expected the first trimester.  We find out what we're having in 2 months, but I think its another girl, but ya never know...Here are the 2 sonogram pictures we have of our new Baby Green!

Baby Food

We decided to feed Gabby her first baby food Friday night.  Well...not her first.  His mom has given her applesauce and carrots before.  So we decided to try carrots ourselves tonight.  I must say I was quite impressed with our little girl.  She ate the whole thing.  I'm glad I thought ahead and took off her clothes because it was a tad on the messy side.

 When it was all said and done, this is what she looked like:





And here's a video of some of it:

Nursery

I FINALLY finished Gabby's nursery!  I really wanted to paint, but our lease is up in September, so I didn't think it was worth the money for only three months.  Here are some pictures of her OWN room!

The picture on the right is the blanket that came with the crib set, but it's way too big for her right now, so I used it as a wall hanging. 

My friend Karin made the letters and gave them to me at the baby shower.  I absolutely LOVE them!

 We found this nightlight at Kirklands on clearance for $5!  I was stoked!

Gabby playing in her crib!

and the diaper stacker                        

I'm sure all of you know by now, but just in case you don't...we're pregnant again!  It was not planned, but we are both very excited for a little one to be joining our family.  According to the blood test I took on Monday, I'm either 5-6 weeks along OR I'm having twins.  Let's hope for the first one!  We go the OB on the 28th to find out for sure.  Stay tuned for more!