Pay it Forward!

I've been blog stalking a great new blog recently. Isn't it amazing how you can stalk a friend's blog and click on a link to one of the blogs they stalk and all of a sudden you come across an amazing blog! Then you start stalking that blog and it's like you're BFF with this person that you don't know!

So anywho, this is like a feel-good, feel-God blog. There's a lot of junk on the internet, but this is a wholesome, down-to-earth blog. No phony bologna! She shares a lot of personal life experiences. It's nice to know that other people go through some of the same things! Plus she's a new Mom and she adds a quote from the Bible in almost all her posts.

One of the more recent post was called "Thoughtful Thursday." She challenges herself to do something thoughtful for someone each week, and last week, it was to pay it forward!

I decided to take the challenge. A few months ago, the Enfamil coupon fairy left me some amazing coupons at Kroger. I was SOOOO grateful! Baby formula and baby food are so expensive compared to real people food. Recently, I started getting some Enfamil catalina coupons at Kroger, but for the wrong type of formula. Ryne uses the regular Enfamil and the coupons I get are for babies with a milk protein allergy. Nutramigen (the Enfamil for protein allergies) is a lot more expensive than any other type of formula - it cost twice as much! So Sunday, I left my Nutramigen coupons on top of one of the cans at Kroger. I went back today and they were gone. So hopefully someone else got a wonderful surprise and hopefully they will pay it forward.

Check out Say Grace and Pay it Forward!

Wipe Out...

...for CVS that is! As you all have probably figured out by now, I love a good deal! I especially love good deals on baby items! Let's face it - babies are expensive!

I heard through the couponing grapevine that CVS had a hidden deal on Huggies 184 count baby wipes. Normally they retail for $7.99. Right now CVS has the Huggies 72 count tubs of wipes on sale for 2 for $5. Apparently, someone at CVS (assuming CVS corporate) made a boo boo and the 184 count refill bags are ringing up 2 for $5 as well! Woohoo! I drove to 3 stores before I finally found a store that had any left in stock, and they only had 2 left. So I bought those two. Then I drove to another CVS and bought 4 more.

You may think I'm crazy for driving to 5 CVS stores to get 6 packs of wipes, but lets compare: for $2.50 I could have bought 72 wipes, but got 184 instead. I can also justify my driving time and gas because I have a few friends having babies soon, so a nice bag of wipes will be perfect to throw in with their gift!

Now here's the even crazier part. There was a lady that reported buying 24 packs of the 184 count wipes. She had manufacturer coupons and CVS store coupons for Huggies wipes, ECBs (which are like CVS money), some other CVS coupons and a CVS gift card. She spent $0.30 out of pocket for 24 packs of wipes. That's basically getting $191.76 (retail value) worth of wipes for 30 cents! She must really need some wipes!

Check out Southern Savers for more great deals!

Big Chopper and Boogie Cakes

I completely forgot to mention this in Ryne's 7-month update. He is cutting his first tooth and we call it Big Chopper! He started cutting it a few weeks ago, and Big Chopper has wasted no time. Ryne likes to bite my finger whenever I brush his teeth, and Big Chopper is sharp! I've been trying to get a picture of Big Chopper for weeks with no such luck. If I can get Ryne to open his mouth, he usually sticks his tongue out! I managed to get one picture with no tongue in it, but there was a terrible glare - probably from all the drool!

Also, Ryne frequently has what we call boogie cakes! I thought Adam came up with the name but apparently I did! Anyway, since Ryne is eating solid food now, he tends to get it all over his face, especially around his mouth and nose. I always wipe his face with a wet cloth or baby wipe, but it never fails that I miss a few spots around his nose. When oatmeal, applesauce, peas, or whatever he eats dries around his nose, it looks like...well, a boogie cake!

Stay tuned for a picture of the elusive Big Chopper!

Wrestling an Alligator!

Ryne will be 7 months old on Sunday! It's hard to believe! He has recently reached a few more milestones. He is sitting up on his own - even though he does fall over some. He is not crawling yet, but he is mobile. He gets up on all fours and rocks, so we know crawling is right around the corner. However, right now he pushes himself backwards. It's amazing how he can get anywhere he wants to go!

Ryne's favorite place to hang out is next to the TV, Wii and Play Station! Adam and I decided we needed to baby-proof the TV area, with the rest of the house soon to follow. Our TV sits on the floor with the speakers on the bottom, and the Wii and PS3 have always been on either side of the TV on the floor as well. I suggested buying some kind of media console to store the Wii and PS3, but Adam decided to buy a new TV, and we are still searching for a console! Boys and their toys!

Anywho, with Ryne's new-found mobility, he has become more difficult to control while changing diapers! He can flip over in record time, so that makes it difficult to put a diaper on when he is doing a Downward Facing Dog yoga move! As soon as I put a new clean diaper under him, he rolls over. If I roll him back onto his back, he rolls over again, just as I reach to pull the diaper up! It's like trying to wrestle an alligator!

6 Month Update

Ryne is now 6 months old (well more like 6 1/2 months old). He has started eating solid foods - fruits and veggies! So far he is a solid food champ! He prefers oatmeal, applesauce, squash and sweet potatoes, but he will eat just about any of the 1st foods!

Also, Ryne had been VERY cranky the past few weeks, waking up several times a night (not that that is all that unusual for him), and trying to eat anything he could get his hands on. A few days ago I finally caught a glimpse of the inside of his mouth and he is cutting his first tooth! Thank goodness for Infants Tylenol! I don't know how I'd get through the day or night without it! Ryne is actually sleeping almost the entire night (thanks to the side effect of Tylenol)!

Ryne has also become mobile! He's not quite crawling, but he does get around the floor pretty well. He hasn't put together the leg motions with the arm motions yet. He more or less drags himself with dead legs or moves his legs and feet but keeps his head down, like an ostrich! Amazingly, he has managed to get into everything already! He's already a handful. I can't imagine what life is going to be like when he can actually crawl or (shudder the thought) walk!

First time trying veggies! Not a fan of green beans at first!

Trying to feed himself already!

Big Orange Mustache! Sweet Potatoes - yum!

Sitting in Dadda's old highchair

All Jumped Out!

Cracking the Catalina Couponing Code at Kroger!

Say that ten times fast! Anyway, I started couponing a while back, but ever since the baby came, I haven't been able to dedicate much time to it. I still cut coupons out of the Sunday paper, and will hunt down baby coupons when I have time, but I don't have the time to hunt down and print a coupon for almost every item we use! I was fortunate enough to get a visit from the Enfamil Coupon Fairy at Kroger back in December, but my luck started to run dry shortly after. As some of you may know, I made a late night run to Kroger to get some Enfamil formula (as a supplement) for Ryne. Adam's mom had given me a catalina coupon (the ones that print at the register) for $5 off Enfamil powder to use at Kroger, hence my late night run to Kroger and not Walmart. While at Kroger I noticed that a very nice person left a handful of Enfamil catalina coupons stuck between two cans of ready to feed formula. I couldn't resist, and was very grateful! So I bought a can of powder with Jo Ann's coupon and two cans of Ready to Feed (per coupon restrictions) with one of the new-found coupons! Then at check out, another powder formula coupon printed! So I went in with one coupon and walked out with 6 new ones (Yatzee!)! Then the next day I got 2 Enfamil coupons from the company in the mail! Like I said, the Enfamil Coupon Fairy visited!

So, obviously I've been buying formula at Kroger for the past month, and not receiving any new coupons. It just didn't make sense. I had decided that I was going to use all the coupons and then start going back to Walmart until Kroger got their act together! I figure since we live so close to both, I can play them off each other! A few days ago, Jo Ann brought us 2 more Enfamil powder catalina coupons for Kroger and I still wondered why I wasn't getting any. Jo Ann said she hadn't been buying formula there, so that struck me as odd. When I used the last of my Kroger catalina coupons, a Gerber 1st foods catalina coupon printed, which I was glad to have because the baby is now eating veggies. I used the first Gerber coupon and did not receive another one. So the next time I went to Kroger I bought a different brand of baby food, and lo and behold, a Gerber coupon printed!

So today I went back to Kroger because I needed more baby food and wipes. We typically use Gerber brand food products and we use Pampers wipes because they work better in the wipes warmer than Huggies. I took the Gerber coupon and a Huggies coupon because I didn't have a Pampers coupons and put my theory to the test! I bought 3 Gerber foods (per coupon restrictions), 1 jar of the competitor's brand (we are testing out bananas in the morning!), and I bought a pack of Huggies wipes. So guess what printed out at the register - 2 Gerber food coupons printed and 1 pampers wipes coupon printed! From what I can deduce, if you buy the most expensive/popular brand (i.e. Gerber, Pampers, Enfamil) they will occasionally give you a coupon for that brand. If you buy the competitor's/less expensive brand, they will print you a coupon for the most expensive/popular brand! I bet if I had bought Similac formula, an Enfamil coupon would have printed! So now I know how to get what I want at Kroger, even if it takes sacrificing my favorite brand from time to time!

As you can see, I enjoy celebrating the small victories, and one day, when Ryne is through with formula and baby food I will pay it forward and leave my coupons for another parent!

Jumperoo!

Ryne has been trying to jump in his exersaucer lately, so we decided it was time to bring out the jumperoo! Enjoy Ryne's movie debut!