Cousin Ethan has arrived!

Ethan finally made his debut! He was born today at 1:57pm, weighing in at 8lb 5oz and 21in long. He's got a perfect little round head with lots of dark hair. So cute! Brody waited in the waiting room with Poppy while Ethan arrived. He was very excited to meet his cousin! However, I think he might have trouble sharing the attention. Mandy was getting close to the point where she could start pushing so I nursed Brody really quick before I handed him off to Poppy. Well, just as I handed Brody to Mimi to take out to Poppy, he had a MAJOR blowout. I'm talking, poop up to his neck. And Mandy is literally ready to push, the doctor is waiting for us to get out of her way so she can get stuff ready for the delivery and here we are stripping my son down to his birthday suit. And wouldn't you know, I didn't bring an extra outfit with me. So, yeah, this created an issue jussssst as Ethan was ready to make his entrance. So we said Brody must have known this and wanted to turn the attention back to him : ) I'll post pictures soon. My camera is still at the hospital (I came back to Mandy's house to let Brody get a good nap).

We're Back!

Sorry about being MIA lately. Apparently, blogging hasn't quite been on my priority list. Let me catch you up....

Brody is 5 months old now!! Thats almost 6 months, which is 1/2 a YEAR!! haha I know, I'm a bit dramatic. But, seriously, the time is flying by! Brody is soooo much fun! He's really interacting a ton. He grabs for just about everything...toys, people, hair, jewelry, he's not picky. : ) He rolled over from tummy to back (FINALLY!) on Sept. 18th. However, he's only done it a couple more times since then. We're working on rolling over from back to tummy and sitting up. Let's cut him some slack though, people, he's got a lot of weight to move : ) My not so favorite milestone at the moment is teething. He's a slobbery, drooling, chewing fool. Which I don't mind. The congestion, fever, and no more 10-11 hours of sleep at night stinks though. Its just a phase, though, right?

In other news, Brody's cousin Ethan will be entering the world verrrrrry soon. If he doesn't arrive before, he'll be forced out on this coming Thursday. We went to visit Mandy over the weekend and tried to coax Ethan out while we were there but he wasn't budging. : ) We can't wait to meet him!

Here's what happens when you try to get a 2 year old to take a picture with you. Niiiiiiice.

Finally, it is FALL!!! I LOVE fall!!! Tonight Rory and I took Brody out to Fulton Farms to get some pumpkins for our porch. I couldn't resist taking Brody's picture with pumpkins. Isn't he so stinkin cute?!

Jessica Strickland Wannabe

Most of you probably already know that I love, love, LOOOOOVE Jessica Strickland's photography. She did our engagement pics, wedding pics, my niece Belle's pics and will be doing Brody's 1 year pics. Now as much as I wish she could just live in our home and photograph every moment we have with Brody, I know that's just not possible. So what I do is follow Brody around like the papparazzi and pretend that I'm Jessica. : ) I bought a fancy camera and I'm constantly messing with it to try and get some super cool pics. So I was pumped this morning when I took some pics of Brody during some tummy time and caught some sun flare! I don't even know if thats what it is called but I thought the pictures looked neat anyways.


Riiiight before a sneeze...: )

When Brody was younger, his hair had a definite red tint to it. Now its coming in much, much blonder. But he still has this tiny patch of red on the right side of his head. See it sticking up in the picture? Rory calls it his "Red Wing" haha : )

Done with tummy time and ready for a nap

4 Months

I cannot believe that Brody is already 4 MONTHS OLD!! I don't like that the time is going so fast. But Rory and I are having a ton of fun with him now that he's interacting with us more. I took Brody for his 4 month check up yesterday and he is definitely growing like a champ. He weighed 18lb 6oz (96th percentile) and was 26 inches long (90th percentile). Such a big boy! Handsome too. : ) He is smiling a TON now and even gives me some good belly laughs. His best friend is a blue elephant that hangs on his car seat. He goes to bed around 8:30pm every night after his bath and sleeps till between 6 and 7am. Although that sounds great and it really is pretty good for 4 months, Rory and I take turns putting his paci back in a couples times during the night. Here are some pictures that I took today...

Brody & Riley

A couple weekends ago Rory, Brody and I made a trip down to Cincy to visit some friends. Brody got to visit with his Aunt Bethany and meet his Aunt Ashley for the first time! We also got to see our good friends, Jason and Megan....and their dog, Riley. Brody and Riley got along really well, except when Riley kept stealing Brody's monkey! : ) I did a little photo shoot with the two of them to try and get some good pics. This is the best I could do....

Meet Riley...

"Seriously, Brody, when is your mom going to stop with the camera??"

"Never, Riley, never."

Saving Money

As I've already mentioned, couponing is my new hobby. I love saving money! Check out the new blog that my sister put together for me, her and Tish to share our money saving tips.....

www.mommy-cents.blogspot.com

Gettin' my feet wet...

In the coupon market, that is. When I had Brody, I went part time at work. Well, with the census down at work I've been getting cancelled quite a bit. So I've gone from 72 hours/pay period to about 28 hours/pay period. Ouch. So after hearing about all the money that people save from couponing, I decided to give it a try. So today was my first outing. I decided to go for only a few items and see what I could do. I felt like some sort of sneaky thief walking in to CVS, coupons in hand. : ) Here is how my trip went...

Transaction #1

Dawn Dish Soap:
on sale for 0.88 (reg. 1.99) - 0.50 coupon = 0.38

Crest Toothpaste:
on sale for 2.49 (reg. 3.29) - 0.75 coupon= 1.74 + earn 1.50 CVS bucks

Infant Advil:
on sale for 5.79 (reg. 6.29)- 1.00 coupon= 4.79 + earn 5.79 CVS bucks

Covergirl Make-Up:
B1G1 special + B1G1 coupon = FREE

Total Savings= 15.64
Out of Pocket= $9 plus tax

Transaction #2

Pampers:
on sale for 8.88 (reg. 12.49) - 1.50 coupon= 7.38
use 7.29 CVS bucks earned

Total Savings= 12.40
Out of Pocket= 0.09 + tax = 20 cents!!

Now I'm still learning the ropes but I'm loving this whole saving money thing!