Gettin' back on the horse...

Isn't that what you're supposed to do when you fall off?  I've definitely fallen off the blog "horse" and intend to get back on!  I have so many things that happen each day that I want to remember...things that Caleb says, faces Morgan makes...I've already forgotten so many things.  I don't want to forget any more!


So.... Here it goes!


Today I took Caleb and Morgan to the Maple Leaf Festival parade.  Caleb (and Morgan) haven't ever been to a parade, but it's full of the things he loves, so I knew he would get a real kick out of it!  He LOVED the motorcycles, fire trucks, tractors, but when daddy asked what he saw, he said "horses!"  Then daddy asked, "What else did you see?" and Caleb responded "Horses!"  He loved seeing horses up close!  


I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the candy that people were throwing, as well!  I kept asking him to say "please", which he would do, but then they wouldn't throw any candy his way!  He was so disappointed, but I just told him "Maybe next time!"  That was sufficient for him, and he got more candy than he needed!  We had such a good time together.  I thought that taking the kids to a parade by myself might be more than I wanted to deal with, but they were great!  I'm so glad I took them... it was a beautiful day!


While we were waiting (an hour!) for the parade to start, some older boys next to us were trying to blow on grass blades and make them whistle.  Not to miss out on any fun, Caleb wanted to try it too!  He didn't really understand what they were doing, so instead, he ended up picking up handfuls of dry, brown grass and blowing on them!  He had such a puzzled look on his face as he tried to figure out why their grass was making noise, but his wasn't!  Such a sweet (and funny!!) boy! :-)

5x7 Folded Card

So Shutterfly gave me 10 free cards...I'm really working on thinking ahead, so I created these "thank you" cards for Morgan's 1st birthday!  They really turned out cute!  I've been so happy with Shutterfly's products.  I recently created an ABC book for Caleb's 2nd birthday, and it was perfect!  Yeah for Shutterfly! :-)

My one and only Black Friday Deal.... but it was a good one!!

The mere thought of taking Caleb out at 4 or 5 in the morning for his first Black Friday made me cringe! As crazy as I am about finding a great deal, I simply couldn't bear the thought of taking him out. He probably would have been fine, but I didn't want to take a chance! Not to mention, we didn't get home from Emporia until 12:30, so he would have been very grumpy...

BUT.... as I was looking through the grocery ads for this weekend, I stumbled upon a deal that I simply could not overlook! I have been keeping a nice stash of diaper coupons, just waiting for the perfect sale to come along. Today, it did and I have no more diaper coupons left!! So here's how my deal went.... Hy-Vee had Huggie's diapers for $5.99 per package (10-50 count). I didn't want to drive all the way to Hy-Vee, so I went to Walmart, where I found that these packages of diapers normally cost $8.93. So, I price matched the diapers to $5.99, then used the coupons that I had. I used 4 $3 off coupons and 13 $2 off coupons... I ended up purchasing 17 packages of diapers.

Walmart price- $8.93 x 17= $151.83
Hy-Vee price-$5.99 x 17=$101.83
Value of 17 coupons-$38.... so $101.83-$38=$63.83 for 17 packages of diapers...
Which comes to $3.75 per package!! WOW!!!!



As I was standing and looking at the diapers, I was contemplating how many packages I should buy... A woman and her husband came up to get diapers and I explained to them the deal and gave them some coupons, then I gave some coupons to the assistant manager who had to come over and approve my excessive price matching!

Even as I write this post, I wonder if I should have purchased more?? Unfortunately the Hy-Vee ad is only good for Friday, so this deal won't work tomorrow...

Anywhoo...that's my 2009 Black Friday deal! I think it was worth it. I didn't have to wait in any lines or get up entirely too early in the morning! In fact, I didn't go to Walmart until 7:30 pm, and it was pretty quiet!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I'm thankful for diapers that should last me through the next few months!

P.S. A special thanks to my mom who printed out over 20 $2/1 Huggies coupons!! :-) It really paid off! I love you!

6 weeks...

Time has absolutely flown by! Caleb is 6 weeks old today!! I went to a breast feeding support group and weighed him and he weighs 11 lbs. 14 oz.! Last week he weighed 10 lbs. 13 oz... so he's growing quickly! He's totally out-grown his newborn stuff and most of his 0-3 and 3 month stuff...we've moved on to 3-6 month outfits and they are a little big, but not too much! Here are some 6 week pictures... Enjoy! :-)

I'm getting tired!...

I'm sleepin'...

Great-Grandma and I are best buds....

A four generation picture...

A whirlwind...1 month and 1 week later!

I feel awful! I never intended for a month and a week to go by without introducing our little boy!! Thankfully, most of you are mothers too and understand what a new mother goes through...I never had any idea of the amount of work and time that I would be spending taking care of our new little guy... without further delay:

Jeff and I are excited and proud to welcome

Caleb Andrew Widener

to the family!
Born: Sept. 9, 2009 (9-9-09)

Weight: 8 lbs. 7.5 oz.

Length: 19 1/2 inches

Time: 12:41 pm

C-section babies sure are pretty, aren't they!? :-)

Week 1: I'm so thankful that Jeff took this first week at home off from work. I would never have made it without him! When Caleb left the hospital his weight was down to 7 lbs. 11 oz., so I was pumping and we were feeding him with a tube and a syringe while he was breastfeeding. It worked very well, because when we went to our 1 week appt. he was back to 8 lbs. 2 oz. and we quit tube feeding. I know Jeff is thankful that we were able to quit tube feeding because it was a two person job at each feeding and he was getting worn out! Here are some pictures of Caleb at 1 week...

Week 2: This week my mom and my grandma came and spent the week with Caleb and me. The house got a major cleaning and my grandma spent some precious time with Caleb. They took morning and afternoon naps together as she snuggled with him. Jeff went back to work and life started to resemble something of normal... Caleb started to get the hang of breastfeeding, but we started giving him a bottle of breastmilk during the night, just so I knew how much he was eating and to make sure that he had enough to eat. Also, this helped me get a little more sleep...he seemed to eat better from the bottle than from me! Week 2 pictures of Caleb...

Week 3: This week was our first week by ourselves! I was pretty nervous, but it went well! On Monday, we ventured to Sam's Club to get a few things and since things went so well at Sam's, we stopped at Walmart too! On Tuesday, we slept most of the day! I think we did too much and wore ourselves out! Here are a couple of week 3 pictures...

4 days to go! (and 39 week pics)

So some of you have wondered why I got scheduled for a C-section on Wed., so I thought I'd let ya know...

First, I have gestational diabetes, which can cause baby to be pretty large. At our last sonogram (about 2 1/2 weeks ago) baby was measuring 7 1/2 pounds. Since babies tend to grow at about 1/2 pound per week, baby is theoretically at 8 1/2 pounds right now. If we wait for my due date, we're potentially looking at a 9-9 1/2 pounder... not my idea of a good time!

Second, I've been checked the last three weeks and baby has not moved down at all. Baby is still very high and I'm just at a 1. Because of the diabetes, my dr. won't let me go over my due date, so we had to make some decisions. The plan is this... I'm going to my regular appt. on Tues. and Dr. will check me again. If things are the same as they are now and there has not been significant changes, then we will have the c-section as scheduled on Wed. at noon... if I have changed a lot, then we can cancel the c-section and do an induction instead. I'm very comfortable with both of these options and am really just ready to hold my little one!

Anyway, I hope this helps explain it a little bit...I still have until Wed. to go into labor on my own, which would be fantastic! Today was my last day at work, which works out well, since Mon. is Labor Day... Here are a couple of pictures of me at almost 39 weeks (mostly so I can remember what I looked like!)...

34 1/2 week sonogram pictures and 2 NEW deals!! (One new deal added...)

I'm gonna try to keep it short and sweet! I had a sonogram on Tuesday to see how big baby is at this point. I'm 34 1/2 weeks, but baby was measuring 36 1/2 weeks and about 6 lbs. 8 oz!! I understand, though, that the sonogram machines can be off, so that's what I'm hoping for! My doctor did say that baby is growing very quickly and is large, so I'll have either a non-stress test or a sonogram each week until baby is born. Here are some pictures! Enjoy!! P.S. Jeff guesses that I'll go about another 3 weeks! I LOVE his optimism! :-)

Side profile of baby's face with LOTS of hair!!

Look really carefully... can you see lips, nose and chin??

Little baby feet!!

NEW DEALS!!!!

I did a couple of deals yesterday at Target and Office Max that just made my day!!! I'm so excited to share them!

This was at Office Max... before coupons, sales, and deals, my total came to just over $35... I PAID 99 CENTS!!! The Expo markers were B1G1 for 1 cent and I had coupons to stack with them... the Sharpies were 1 cent each with a coupon.... and I received a $10 reward card in the mail just for signing up for a MaxPerks card for teachers!! Very cool!

Here is my Target deal for the week!! I bought...

10 packages of Sharpie Highlighters

2 packages of stickers

2 Healthy Choice meals

2 packages of Poptarts

1 clear nail polish

1 L'Oreal kids shampoo

Before coupons my total came to around $30....after coupons, I spent $4.27!!! Whew... I'm heading to Walgreens this morning to see what I can find!! We'll see how it goes!!

UPDATE: Walgreens shopping trip!

I ran to Walgreens this morning... total before coupons and such: $42 and some change... Here's what I got!

1 bottle Dawn dish soap

4 bottles Pert Plus shampoo

2 cans Pringles

2 tubes Crest

2 Oral B toothbrushes

2 72ct. Huggies wipes

3 Sure Men's AP/Deo

1 L'Oreal lipstick

1 bottle aspirin

Total after coupons and RR's: $16, plus I got a $5 RR, so really only $11!! WooHoo!!

Now it's naptime! :-)