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"Emma...meet the race car"

Emma got to meet the race car yesterday. Corey was working on it and he just couldn't wait to show her. Here are some pictures of their experience:

"Emma......here is the race car....."

Daddy let's chat...

 

Big girl on the race car---Corey is so happy!

Getting an "inside" view...

Productive Saturday!

What a great Saturday! Emma slept on and off throughout the day which was good but still time consuming. By the time I would get her to sleep she would sleep for 20 minutes and then be back up again. Then late in the afternoon she snoozed for 3 hours. I was able to get 4 lbs of hamburger browned. I packaged them in air tight containers and threw them in to the freezer. I love doing this for meals throughout the week. I also took out a huge sirloin steak for 2 to defrost it. We will be grilling today in the wonderful weather and then making some potatoes to compliment the steak. In addition, I made racers tacos for us to eat during the Bud Shoot out! Yummy!

I also took out Emma's baby book. We purchased a book that labels all her firsts as well as thoughts we had before she was born and after and just other details on her life. The majority of it focuses on before birth and just weeks after her birthday. Then the other half focuses on things that can come up throughout the first 3 years of life. My sister and I (probably more effort from my sister..she is the creative one) will be making a scrapbook as well but this is just a nice book that holds a bunch of dates and things. I also went through on read my blog days leading up to her birth and a couple weeks after. It was so sweet to read and I am SO happy that I did it!

Hope everyone had a great week-end!

New Resolution?

Yes, its true. I am changing my February resolution to - Get more organized!. You may say, "Um nice work...11 days in to the month." The truth is, I have been working on this since day 1. In addition, I need to get organized before I can just start having these domesticated meals 3x per week. For all you moms and wives out there who work full-time outside the home and make homemade meals every evening- I bow down to you. Now that I have realized it, I don't know how my husband and I have made it through suppertime for the last 4 months. When I was working from home (during the end of my maternity leave) I made meals all the time because it was easy since I was already home-now time is my biggest roadblock. I am organizing all the roles I play in my life: student, wife, and mom. I know I will feel better at the end of the month too. I also need to organize everything for our taxes and clean out a couple closets. I already look forward to it!

Yes, I am loving these challenges so far. It may only be 11 days in to February but I like it!

Superbowl Sunday

My title itself tells you I am days late. Either way..here is our life for the past week...
Last Friday my mom and her main man came up to Cloud. We were going to meet my oldest sister Kari but she had some car troubles, so instead us 5 went out to eat. It was good to see them again. Emma loves seeing her grandma. Saturday we went back to Hutchinson and she got to see her other grandma. Then Sunday we hung around the house. I did homework and then we headed to the Studanski household for the big-game. I didn't really watch much of it and really didn't pay much attention to the commercials either. You could ask me what my favorite commercial was and I wouldn't know one to choose because I don't remember any of them, now ask me what my favorite food was and you will get a whole different answer. I guess you can see where my focus was.
Emma is doing great. I can't wait for her to be able to sit up on her own to be able to play with the other kids. Brooke, my daycare lady, has an 8 mo. old and he just wants to play with her so bad so she has been working with Emma on that as well.

I realized today that it is already the 2nd week of February, so you can imagine how my February resolution is going...........umm...not so well. Last week was wicked bad since I didn't come up with it until mid-week so I already knew I would be carrying this in to March (even though I already have several ideas for March). Monday night I made spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic toast. Now, I was thinking fruits and vegatables were together on the food guide pyramid, obviously I was wrong and should have done research to prepare for this. I have since looked it up and realized there are a whole lot of food guide pyramids out there-I went with an old school one and have now put it on my fridge so I know. Therefore, Monday night we missed the mark. I have added a small "exception" since we don't eat fruit with our meals I have allowed a snack to be included where I will make smoothies or some other fruit gig. So this one isn't going so well..I may have challenged myself a bit too much.

Pictures:

Emma looks sad because she can't play with the fun toys with Jessica Studanski (Jessica is almost 7 months)

Jessica & Emma

Emma looking very tired.

Avery Unger & Emma. Avery is also almost 7 months old. They didn't take pictures too well together.

All about E!

I know 2 posts within minutes yet you haven't heard a peep from me since Jan 17th. My appologies! I am sleepless tonight so I figured I might as well be productive and get some things done!

Emma is getting so big! Corey and I love watching her as she is beginning to figure out the world around her. She is babbling more and starting to giggle more. Mornings are our favorite. She is so happy and smily! She has been reaching for toys probably since my last post where I said she wasn't, then two days later she did. She enjoys sitting in her bouncer now that she knows she can kick her legs and move around and the toys will make noise. She also still likes her play mat where any movement of the toys will set off a kiddy - tune. We also put together her jumper. Her feet don't reach the ground yet so we put a pillow beneath them and she just kind of "hangs out" but toys make noise when she moves so it keeps her content. She has also been spending more time in the bumbo, she likes it but it depends on the day. I want to buy a tray for it to put toys on. Some parents hate noisy toys- we are not there yet (although I am sure we will be). The hand/eye coordination is developing. Last night, after Corey got her from daycare he said she would keep pulling her nuk out of her mouth and then was trying to get it back in there. She doesn't use the nuk often, mainly once she gets sleepy. Otherwise she enjoys sticking multiple fingers or an entire fist in there. She has been sucking her middle and ring finger on left hand but not so often that I think its a habit. If the pointer and middle finger find their way then she chooses those. I think her teeth are moving around because she has a lot of "teething" symptoms.

Emma is sleeping through the night regularly. She seems to wake up when its Corey's night (Thursday-Saturday). She must know that if she cries she can have quality E + Daddy time. He doesn't see the humor since she gets to be with him all day on Fridays while I work (he works 4-10's)

For those of you wondering- we have tried cloth diapers and I like them a lot but am also still playing around with them a bit. If you have tried them before you know what I mean- I am trying to find how many inserts to use and a pattern. I only have a handful. I plan on using them whenever we have her and then continuing to buy disposable for daycare.

Here are a couple pictures:

Play mat time!

Checkin' out the jumper!

The Jan. Res..

Hello again-

Sorry for the absence there is no reason for it! This is a post to let you know I made it to February! It is officially February 3rd and it is my last day of my January resolution. Since I cheated 3x in Jan I carried it over to February.

I loved my resolution and things turned out fantastic!! I will be carrying part of it throughout the year. I have mastered couponing (not to the limits of getting $3,000 of groceries for $100 but close enough).

Last week-end we ran to the grocery store after church. I spent a total of $86 and saved $41. The best part is I only buy things I need/will use. With this couponing stuff I buy more at a time but I actually feel the need to shop less-its a double bonus! I was at Target and used the Cub ad to price match Campbells Chunky Soup and Wheat Thin crackers. I got 10 cans of soup and 2 boxes of crackers for a total of $6! Stellar deal! I spent $6 and saved $16 just on those items. Corey was with this time and was shocked...he is even getting in to this a bit. We decided to put the money towards debt payments (car, house) instead of a vacation. I know vacation is more fun but once we are debt free THAT will be MORE fun!

With your requests, I will be starting a savings blog. There are a ton of them out there, all you have to do is google "ways to save" or "coupons" or anything around those lines. My blog will be better because it will be local. Meaning: you can go to other blogs and they will say things like "Save with Kellogs this week" and it will tell you where to find a manufacture coupon and a store coupon..but the store will be like Hy-Vee foods, which we don't have. My only promise to you is that I will keep it up as long as I am getting hits every day/week. If I don't then I will stop just because it will take a lot of time to update and I don't mind doing it (in the least) but just want to make sure its helpful for others as well. I can't wait to get started but it probably won't happen for another week to two weeks then should be in full swing for my March resolution.

How are your resolutions going? Did you use any savings tips I have given you so far? Have you thought differently about your spending? Comment on this page!