Shopping with Pocket Change!

How would you like to get over $50 worth of groceries for under $10?? Well, that's what I did this week! And I can't hide my excitement! :) It's SO FUN to go into the grocery store and have the total come out to pennies. This week 2 of my totals came to $.04 and $.01! Almost $15 worth of groceries for a nickel! Side story here....when my total came to $1.04 and I gave the cashier a $1.00 coupon she just looked at me with a mean look and said, "I don't think you can use this because then you wouldn't be paying anything. I don't think it's allowed." Hahaha!!! I told her that "yes it is allowed and paying nothing was the whole point." Of course the manager approved it---I don't think they were thrilled. But I sure was!! :)

***If you are local: LAST day to do this awesome deal! Go to Hen House and there is a list of items that if you buy 5 they will take $5 off of your order. PLUS, they will donate $2 to Breast Cancer research. A few of these items are on sale for $.99 this week. If you buy the $.99 items your order will cost you a penny!! You can do this once a day. I will have done it 3 times. Wish I would have done it every day this week!

Anyway, I have recently started "couponing" and am really excited about all the $$ I'm saving our family!! A friend of mine hosted a couponing class where we learned the art of saving lots of cash! :) I always thought I did a pretty good job shopping the deals and going to EVERY grocery store in town to get the best prices. Ha! But I never did much with coupons and rebates....or CVS extra bucks. I've saved a lot more in just the last couple of weeks!

I'm not going to go into every detail on couponing and CVS extra bucks. There are great websites that will explain all of that. If you are interested: becentsable.net and samssecrets.com. The last website is mostly for those of you who are local because of the grocery ads. But her posts on CVS and Walgreens would work around the country. Basically, buying the Sunday paper and matching up coupons with store deals has saved me lots. It does take time....but I'm a "stay at home mom" 3 out of 5 weekdays. I have the time while Lucy is napping or playing to sit down and clip coupons and find the deals! And I have time in the afternoons to go to 5 different stores to pick the best items. 

Shopping with a list for each store is key. Don't buy anything that isn't on the list! And I don't take my hubby with me. He always adds to the cart....cookies, chips, coke, etc!! :) I am easily able to keep my grocery budget to $50 a week this way. 

I had never done CVS extra bucks before. I tried it out this week and got $30 worth of stuff for $10. Usually you can do better at CVS. But it was good for my first try! :) I am looking forward to the day I will get free diapers at CVS!! Woo hoo!

I won't bore you all with any more details. If you want more info, let me know! I just wanted to share my excitement in saving $$! I feel like we can have a fun family day or enjoy a little something "extra" because of all I'm saving on groceries and toiletries. It's awesome! 

Here's the list of items I bought this week for under $10!

--6 Totinos Party Pizzas

--7 Green Giant boxed frozen veggies

--1 Yoplait Smoothie Mix

--5 (yes, 5!!) boxes of cereal. And one was a large box!

--1/2 gallon of Bluebell Ice Cream (usually super expensive....but oh so yummy!)

--2 Pillsbury crescent roll tubes

--1 Pillsbury cinnamon roll tube

--6 Yoplait yogurts

--1 Gain dish soap

Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch

Let me start out by saying that I LOVE fall! It is definitely my favorite season. I love everything about it. I love the crisp cooler weather, getting out my warm sweaters, pumpkins and the pumpkin patch, apples, cider (and cider doughnuts!), pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin concretes from Sheridan's (for those of you unfamiliar with this....they take a whole piece of pumpkin pie and mix it with vanilla custard. AMAZING.), leaves changing, corn mazes....and the list goes on!

I have been so excited to take Lucy to the pumpkin patch! This has been one of my favorite fall traditions since I was little. Last year I remember talking with Carey on the way about how excited we were to bring our baby girl to the patch this year! Back then I looked like I was trying to smuggle an extra large pumpkin out of the patch. :) 

I can't believe how fast time flies. Here we are.....bringing our Lucy Lu to the pumpkin patch. 

We had so much fun! 

I made a new orange bow just for the occasion. 

Lucy was very excited about going. :)

Here's Lucy with Carey....ready to start our search for the perfect pumpkins. 

Lucy loved looking at all of the pumpkins! She was a great help.....

Hmm, what are these??? 

Can I take one home?

Mommy and her pumpkin. :) 

I love these two. One of my favorite pictures ever.

After Carey and I found some pretty awesome pumpkins that look great with our decor :) we let Lucy choose a little pumpkin for herself. We set out 3 little pumpkins in front of her. She looked at all of them for a second then squealed and grabbed the one she wanted. It was so cute! 

Lucy's pumpkin is sitting on our fireplace. She still goes over and holds it. :)

Mom, can I please keep it?

We love fall!!

The pumpkin patch is so fun!!!

I love her hands in this picture. 

So many pumpkins....so little time!

We had a wonderful time as a family. I can't wait to go again next fall! 

I just love this little girl! Pretty sure she was the cutest pumpkin in the patch!

My Little Sunshine :)

It's been a while since my last Lucy update---so here's what my girlie has been up to this month! It seems like a lot! But that's what I get for waiting a while between posts.

As much as I would like to stop time and keep Lucy a little baby forever, it's not working. In just a week she'll be 10 months old! Which means her 1st birthday is only 2 months away! I am a little sad that she will never be teeny tiny again. She is becoming more independent every day. But this stage is super fun. Her little (actually her BIG) personality is shining through more each day and she never ceases to just crack me up! 

Lucy always wants to be standing now. She pulls herself up on everything! It doesn't matter what it is. A wall, a couch, a table, a chair, a person. She even tries to "pull up" on short things which leaves her stuck in a bent over position. :) She has started "cruising" as she's standing up--moving from one side of the coffee table to the other. Walking is not far away! I don't think I'm ready for this. :) 

Her little brain is constantly at work too! She loves to point at things and waits for me to tell her what they are. She discovered our fish the other day and now asks to see "thshh, thshh." She really likes to watch him swim around. She's talking a lot more! She says "hi" very well now and "thank you" which sounds like "cheech ooh." And she has added to her animal sound repertoire. Lucy just loves animals! If you ask her she can make the sounds of the tiger, elephant, puppy, monkey, cow and lizard (which is sticking out your tongue back and forth). I will have to add the video of this soon.....but I'm having technical difficulties getting my video camera to upload it's info! 

Lucy has started to "share" things. She will offer me her binky or soggy food. Mmm. :) Sometimes she will offer you food and just as she's about to put in in your mouth, she will yank it away and eat it herself. Then she will laugh like, "ha, I gotcha." We did not teach her this! Like I said, HUGE personality. (As you will see from the pictures below.) She's also started shaking her head yes or no. It's nice to be able to ask her a question and she can answer! Not so nice when I'm trying to feed her veggies and she shuts her mouth and shakes her head no. She even likes veggies. I think she just enjoys saying no. Great. :)

Lucy loves playing. Balls are a new favorite toy. Mr. Potato head parts are fun too. We like to be silly.

Lucy also loves Momo's puppy, TJ. She says his name...."Jee Jay." She is getting to be more brave around him. He's still a little scary, but she'll go over to pet him now. She always has to keep her eye on him!

Other favorite activities are playing the piano and Daddy's guitar. Future musician? I hope!

I love this girlie so much and I am so thankful God have her to us! I never get tired of squeezing her and kissing her and snuggling her! She's my little sunshine. :) 

Lucy and Tigers and Polar Bears...Oh My!

Labor day weekend= zoo weekend for the Wilson's. We took Lucy to a local petting zoo/farmstead and the Kansas City zoo. We had tons of fun. Lucy is getting to the age where she LOVES the animals. We have animal flash cards at home which are some of her favorite things to "play" with. We look through them and I make the animal noises. She loves it. And she has started making some of the noises too. 

She's best at the cow. :) Here's a video showing off her "mooing" skills.

Anyway, we took Lucy to the zoo at the beginning of the summer and she wasn't too excited about it. She liked the walk but I don't think she really understood that we were there to see animals. :) What a difference 3 months can make! This time she was so into the animals! It was fun for me to see her recognize certain ones from her flash cards. 

I just love watching her little face light up.

Saturday we went to Deanna Rose Farmstead. 

Lucy loved the farm animals. Obviously the cows were one of the highlights of our trip.

Lucy mooed at them. So proud of my smart girl! 

Here's mommy and Lucy mooing at the cow. 

It was a beautiful day and we loved walking around the gardens.

I can't get enough of this sweet baby girl!

I think there are many more trips to Deanna Rose in our future. :)

Here's Lucy and Daddy checking out the cows.

On Labor Day my parents took us all to the Kansas City Zoo. It was another beautiful day and we had such a great time! Highlight of our trip was seeing the newest addition to the zoo: Nikita the Polar Bear! 

He is definitely the coolest thing at the zoo. I could have watched him all day! 

Lucy was really interested in him too. She watched him swim in the water and do flips for everyone watching. 

Her eyes got so big every time she saw him. I can't wait to take her back!

We have to wear our zebra bow when we go to the zoo. :) 

She's so goofy.

Tigers are super cool and very intriguing---as you can see by Lucy's face. 

I think she recognized the elephants from her flash cards. 

She laughed at the noises we were making at least. 

Walking the KC Zoo makes you thirsty.

Anyway, here we are on the Kangaroo rock. 

We always took our picture here when we were kids. 

So there you have it. Lucy and Tigers and Polar Bears.....oh my. :)

Sweet Friendship

God has so graciously blessed me with such wonderful friends! When I was about 13 or 14 my parents prayed for godly friends to come into my life. He sent many friends over my high school years, but two very special ones--Lauren and Christine. Over the many years and miles that have separated us, we've always remained close. I love these girls so much and I am so thankful for them! 

We've been through a lot together. We had high school sleepovers and ice cream parties. Then Lauren and I kept Christine sane and gave her some much needed breaks during dental hygiene school. :) We all encouraged each other and shared memories when we would come back on break during college. Lauren and I both lived in Greenville, SC after we got married. We shared weekly Starbucks dates on her lunch hour. I miss those! Now she lives in Indiana. Christine and I both live in Kansas City now and get together as often as we can. It's always fun when Lauren comes back to visit and we can spend time together again!

Here we are Christmas of '07.....

We've enjoyed the excitement of being in each others weddings.....

Here we are at mine.....

And Lauren's....

And Christine's....(Disclaimer--I was 7 months pregnant in Christine's wedding if I seem a little large in these photos.) =)

Every time we're all together we try to get a picture! Here we are in August '09. Lucy's in there too. :) 

Recently we've all enjoyed becoming Mommies!

April '10--Lauren and Emmy, Me and Lucy

3 babies in 1 year! It's exciting to be entering into this new stage of life with my best friends! 

Aunt Tali meeting baby Cade:

Aunt Tali meeting baby Emmy:

Lucy meeting Emmy:

Lucy meeting Cade:

The 3 babies all together!

This precious picture is of all of us with our sweet babies! I love these girls and am so thankful for the children God has given us. I can't wait for the years of friendship and memories ahead!

Tali and Lucy (9 months), Lauren and Emmy (2 months), Christine and Cade (10 days).