4 months

Bella turned 4 months yesterday. Today we had her well baby visit. She is 16 lbs 13 oz. 26" long and has a 16" bead. She's in the 95th percentile for height, 85th for weight (she's not as fat as we thought she was!) and only 50th for head.

She can roll over front to back, she smiles and giggles, mostly for her daddy. She LOVES to chew her hands and is a drooling machine. She loves bath time. She's really starting to be a lot of fun. She interacts and loves peek-a-boo.

Here are some pictures that Stefanie took yesterday while she was babysitting. My friend Heather made the booties.

Sleep

Today I'm grateful for sleep. The last two nights Bella has slept 7.5 hours, woke up, ate and went back to sleep for 4 hours! This morning she slept for 8 hours, went back to sleep for 4 hours and then woke up for 45 mins. and went back to sleep for 3 hours!! I never check on her when she's sleeping, mostly because she never sleeps that long, but today I checked on her NUMEROUS times . I was getting very worried about her.

(BTW, this picture is an old one, it was taken 8/6/08)

This week's savings

I did really well this week.

check it out here

New blog

I've started a new blog dedicated to clipping coupons and getting great deals. Check it out here

Big Savings!

I did VERY well at Raley's this week. I got $97.90 worth of stuff for $27.41!! That's a 72% savings! That brings me to a total savings of 63%

I'm so hooked on this. I got all of this stuff (except the cranky baby and the seat she's in). BTW, the look on her face cracks me up!!

She moves!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. You can see some of them here. I can't wait to get one printed to hang in our front room.

Girlfriends

Today I'm grateful for girlfriends. When I was pregnant I was very worried because I didn't know anyone with kids. All my friends were either single, or had grown up kids, no one I knew was in my situation. In April I got an email from Stefanie "Mormon" saying she was my visiting teacher and she would like to come visit. I haven't been active in the church for 4+ years. I decided it wouldn't hurt for her to come over, she would say hi and leave and I would probably never hear from her again, but at least my mom would get off my back about me letting them come over (my mom has called the stake relief society president to make sure they know where I am). Anyway, Stefanie came over with Alyson and much to my surprise I hit it off really well with both of them. (My mom will love this part) I do believe that Stefanie was made my visiting teacher for a reason. They both had little kids and it was nice to at least know someone that had kids. Stefanie invited me to come walking with a group of women from the church around the Lake. I decided to go, because I was 36 weeks pregnant and ready to have a baby and I was hoping it would, at the least help with my energy and maybe even make me have a baby. I started walking and got along with all of them really well. Long story short, they have all become great friends! It's nice to have other women to talk to and get advice from about raising babies.

We've even managed to sneak away for some girl time without kids. Hopefully we can do that again soon! I'm not ready to go back to church, but if I decide to, it will definitely be easier having people there that I already know.

I'm so glad that I've met these great women and that God put them in my life when He did. Love you all!

pears, pears, tomatoes and a nanny

Yesterday, we continued the canning of the summer fruit. We spent all day canning pears. We did 40 bottles of pears and 10 bottles of tomatoes! I have enough pears to last AT LEAST until next summer! Now I just have to figure out how to be even more domestic and do something with them.

Today I'm grateful for a nanny! Since my mom *abandoned* me and decided she needed to go back to UT and didn't want to live with us forever, we have been looking for a nanny. Bella goes to Stefanie "Mormons" house on Tuesdays which is fabulous! But I also work out of my house and schedule phone calls with clients on Thursdays. I didn't want to take her to a babysitter, because I don't really need her out of the house all the time. I also figured if I had a nanny, I could find someone to help me with my office work. Long story longer, I had a friend that was out of work and graciously said she would help me out while she was out of work, but she had a hurt back and couldn't do it anymore, so I had to start looking for someone new. After MANY interviews with people that I either couldn't have a conversation with, because they didn't speak English (let alone be able to do office work in English) or I just didn't feel great about them, I found someone!!! I was walking down the street on Sunday with Bella and I saw my neighbor who has a 9 month old baby and he mentioned me needing a nanny. His nanny was looking for a job on Thursdays. It was perfect. Right there, I asked her to show up today. I figured if she was his nanny, she must be pretty good. He's SUPER anal about his house, his stuff AND he's a cop, so I figured he probably had done all the background checks and she must be clean. She came today and my baby is happy, my work is done AND my house is clean. It was such a relief to come downstairs after working, my baby was sleeping, and my house was clean. I wasn't stressed about hurrying and getting everything done while Bella was sleeping. After talking to her more, I find out she is taking classes to become a tax preparer. I have been looking for someone to work for my company so we can provide tax services! I can't believe how it all worked out. Let's just hope it continues going well.

Hello, My name is Holly and I'm a coupon addict!

I'm hooked already! I can't believe I actually like this! I always thought I would hate it. Yesterday, I went to Walgreens and got $23.54 worth of stuff for $1.74 after rebates!! Then I went to Raley's (our grocery store) and got 10 boxes of GM stuff i.e., Cheerio's, Toaster Strudels, Go-Gurts, for $9! I've saved $61 this week and I have enough cereal to live on for the next 6 months! I'm amazed, because it's all name brand stuff that I wouldn't normally buy because it's too expensive.

Yesterday I was wrong. Today I am grateful for banana bread AND coupons! I went to Target today and got 4 boxes of Kashi Go Lean crunch for only $4! I saved $10.66!! I don't have many coupons yet, so I have only used a couple. I have spent $28 and saved $23! I'm quite excited about it.

I amaze myself!

This having a kid and hanging out with Mormon girls is making me quite domestic! I had some bananas that were going bad, 3 months ago I would have thrown them away. . . today I make banana bread! Can you believe it? I've never made banana bread in my life. I must admit, I actually liked doing it. I put it in little muffin tins and made almost bite size muffins and one loaf of bread. If I would have had nuts or chocolate chips it would have made it better.

The other thing I started doing today was clipping coupons. Stephanie "I wish I had a gall bladder" used to call and tell me all her great deals she would save by shopping with coupons. I never had the desire to do it, because I never had nor wanted a ton of food in my house, well, now I feel like I need food in my house. Plus, with the economy with the way it is right now, we could definitely use the money saved. So today I bought two papers and clipped the coupons. I've got my list and tomorrow I'm headed out to buy a few things. It starts out slow, because I don't have many of the coupons for what's on sale. I'll let you know how it goes. I went to Wal-greens today and saved about $15 and spent $30. Tomorrow I'm hitting Target and Safeway.

Today I'm grateful for banana bread, tomorrow I'll probably be grateful for coupons! :)

Desperate Housewives?

Not desperate, domestic.

For anyone that really knows me, knows that my domestic skills are closer to Susan's than Bree's. If there is something to be burnt, or broken, I do it. Well, I have a couple of friends that are MUCH closer to the Bree side of domesticity, so they are training me, much to Frank's pleasure. Last week not only did I go make hair bows for Bella (okay, really I separated the beads and organized them, and Stefanie made the bows, that's a minute detail), but I also went to Heather's house with Stefanie and they taught me how to can. Okay, you can get up off the floor and start breathing again!

If you see in the picture with the finished product, there are also some fruits and veggies, I also went to the grocery store. Again, breathe deeply and you won't pass out.