A great Target find...

Every January Target puts a lot of their baby stuff on clearance to make room for the new designs. It starts out slow, but if you (and everyone else) are patient enough you can find lots of great stuff for 75% off. These happen to be some of my great finds.

Right now, being 36 1/2 weeks pregnant, my very favorite find is my Boppy Total Support Body pillow for $12.48 (that's 75% off the $49.99 price). Knowing how wonderful it is now, I might just pay the $50 for one, but much happier that I got it for under $13.

My friend Melissa, has a giveaway on her bargain blog every month. Again, she is giving a Target Gift Card- but these happen to be my favorite. They are much harder to come across than CVS, Rite Aid or Walgreens, and can be used on much much more in Target. Let's hope I win this month.

If you are new to bargain shopping she does a great job breaking down the deals for beginners! So check out her blog!

Happy Birthday Fun!

A little late, but better than never...

Happy Birthday Abby!

I can't believe it's been SIX years since Abby was born, seems like just yesterday. We have a great weekend where I'm sure Abby did/got everything she wanted to, because it was her birthday. We went out Friday night for some yummy pizza and her free ice cream from Cold Stone- and she got to pick the movie rental.

Saturday was the big day. We only seemed to get pictures of her party. We had her party at Build a Bear and was able to invite 6 friends- that was a tough tough choice for this very friendly girl.

Here are some pictures from the party!

Sadly, the best group picture there is!

Abby and Virginia

Abby and Kennedy

Abby and Max

Abby and Nina

Abby and Nataya- these girls are so silly together!


Abby and Peter- this kid is her 'boyfriend'.
He's such a cutie and so nice, and I really like his parents, but my little girl was holding hands with him- and they write each other love notes. I forsee a troubled future.

Getting so close...

Let's see- I'm almost 36 weeks- WOW! Things are slowly coming together. And I mean slowly. I really want to work in the baby's room, get her crib set up, make curtains, put her clothes away- all that fun stuff- and I can't! Will it still be as fun after the baby is born?

Today I made some headbands to go with all my little clippies I have. Since I don't have a baby to test them on Abby's doll will have to do, although I'm sure the baby's head will be bigger.






And my cute swing we just put together. I told Ernie that this must mean we really are getting a baby. He just rubbed my tummy and said "yes, we are."

Abby is also starting to get really excited. I think it is because everything is BABY around here. And she can really see my belly. She has been so sweet, she'll come up and give the baby hugs and kisses, and talk to her. I still think she'll be in total shock when the baby arrives, heck everyone will. I do hope she handles it good!

And I don't think I posted here yet... But I'm pretty sure (99%) that we have settled on a name- EVA GRACE but we can't decide if we want to call her Grace (our #1 name) or Eva, after Ernie's Grandma Stevens. Ahh, decisions!

We went to the cool cemetery on Friday- Ern took lots of pics- I'll have to post some and tell you GHOST stories too!

Happy 32 weeks!

WOW! WOW! WOW!

I am still in amazement everyday. Today I hit the 32 week mark. I'm really feeling huge (so don't tell me how little I am) and feeling the uncomfortableness of being pregnant. I'm not complaining, just telling you how I feel. The baby still does not have a name- we are fast approaching D-DAY and I'm preparing for a 37 weeker, just in case she wants to take after her big sister and come at 37 weeks. Maybe I'll be a little disappointed if she doesn't, anyway countdown is 5-8 weeks at the max.

Another update is that we will be staying in Cleveland for another year. The Dental School application pool is still very competitive. We had a good chance at getting into Indiana, but sadly Ernie ended up being 3 points away from getting a B in a really hard class (he got a C) and with the applicant pool being so competitive he has to raise his GPA. Seriously- 3 points and the professor wouldn't budge a half an inch to even review his tests. I guess that's just how the ball rolls. Anyway it looks like we'll move across the street to a bigger and cheaper place where our friends Wes and Kristin live right now. We'll sure miss them, but glad to have there place!

.

And just for comparison here is my 26 week picture!

The BIG 3-0!

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Ernie, Happy Birthday to you!

So the day has he has been dreading is finally here. My sweetheart is 30 years old.

Abby is so excited, she has been making plans and decorating the house. We had a small party yesterday with some friends and when he gets home we'll probably go do something fun (we are lame-O's). Anyway if you find a few extra minutes call or email him, he'd love to hear from you!

Another Target Giveaway!

One day I will win! Melissa is having another giveaway on her blog. A $10 giftcard would be nice indeed!

Just a heads up-

Tickets are on sale right now at southwest.com. I'm not sure how long the sale lasts but I know that it is for travel between March 24th and June 24th- so right during the school break or parents coming for graduation- we were able to get my Mom's tickets for $99 each way for when the baby comes and right after the baby is born my sister in law Rosie is getting married- so we found tickets for $99 each way for that (well the one way I paid $109 for a better flight). When you are buying 3 tickets round trip each $$ counts. Last summer I kept looking for amazing sale and it never happened. We paid around $120 per ticket to Las Vegas- so this trip we start out paying $60 less and we are flying directly to SLC.

We are only coming out for a week. It will be crazy busy and full of stuff. So if you want to see us (and your not immediate family) you better make your reservations now. Booking June 10 to June 16 (9th and 17th are travel days)- and the 12th is the wedding!

Coupon Tragedy!

This week at Walgreen's there is a pretty good deal on Huggies diapers. When you buy $25 worth of diapers/wipes you get back $10 Register reward (good on your next purchase). When you combined these with coupons printed from coupons.com (a $5 and $3 coupon- which you could print twice from each computer- and we have 2 computers) and a $1 Walgreens coupon found in a coloring book, you were looking at some pretty cheap diapers.

Well not me, anymore. After I cut out the coupons and was ready to go shopping this morning I found that some water had been spilled on the table, right where my coupons were. I guess it's not a TOTAL TRAGEDY. I was able to print 8 coupons before (they reset the limits, so I had 16 total). So instead of getting 12 packs of diapers and 4 large things of wipes, I'll be getting 4 packs of diapers and 4 large things of wipes.

Just a heads up- CVS has this same deal coming up pretty soon- the week of April 5th. Maybe I'll be able to print some more before then...

Exploring with our new camera

About 4 days before Christmas at a family party our beloved camera took a fatal fall. We replaced her pretty quickly and splurged a little on an SLR camera. Well we haven't done much with the camera because the weather's been miserable and even in the snow the pictures were bright and funny.

Anyway we had some pretty nice weather the weekend and headed out to Abby's favorite place- Shaker Lakes. Ernie is a budding nature photographer and had lots of fun with the camera and the cool super zoom lens that came with it. Here are just a few of the pictures- there was just a small family of ducks and 2 geese. We actually saw 2 of the male ducks fighting for the attention of a female. It was lots of fun.







Also we probably need a cheap camera Abby can use- she was sad she couldn't take pictures with the new camera. So put the word on the street we are long for a decent inexpensive digital camera for Abby (but not a kid camera).

Amazing Friends!

I will be the first to admit I have some pretty amazing and talented friends. I'm so lucky to get to be the recipient of many of their great work. These are some burp clothes that my friend Eva from church fixed up all pretty for me.

So during the Target baby clearance (which I stalked religiously) I found a pack of 12 white cloth diapers marked down 75% (about $4), then a few days later I found a 6 pack of colored diapers also marked 75% off (around $2). Then I made a trade with Eva- she would sew me some and I would give her some. I just got them today and I LOVE them! She did such a great job and I'm going to be styling when my baby spits up. Thank you so much Eva, I hope you got some well deserved rest today too.