Fall is Here

With Fall here, Mia can finally wear her cutest sweater sets. The above outfit was purchased for $3 for the entire set: jeans, sweater and hat..(rubber ducky not included).

With Fall comes lots of baking. Luckily, this week is a BIG sale on baking ingredients at Homeland.

Here are some of the good deals that I got this week:
Veg. Oil- 2.50
Philsbury Cake Mix- 87 cents
Evaporated Milk- 79 cents
Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips- 1.50
Brown Sugar-1.50
Whipped Cream/ Half n Half- 99 cents
Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix- 40 cents
Red Onions- 99 cents per lb
Fritos-$2
Heinz 57 Sauce- $2

With the use of handy coupons for the milk, cake mix, chocolate chips, whipped cream, muffin mix, fritos, and heinz sauce, I bought everything for $10. I'm hitting CVS and Walgreens later this afternoon before we take the baby out for a few choice Halloween trick-or-treat stops!

I Have Taught the Toughest Student

I have now taught almost half a dozen "couponing" classes. Yet there is one student who has yet to retain any of the information that I willingly spout, my hubby. I send him to the store for 1 item, and he comes home $40 poorer. Yesterday was a triumphant day in his coupon education. I came home late last night from my Early American Republic seminar and my eyes were so incredibly red from all the coughing (hacking) that I had done for the past few hours. I had almost completely lost my voice (which after all is my best quality!) I get home and ask if we have any cough medicine but due to the fact that I've had a cold for almost 2 weeks and hubby had bronchitis last week, we were out. He, feeling very healed and sweet offered to take pity and drive out to CVS and pick me up some medicine.
He returned with $15 in Extra Bonus Bucks!! He bought over $40 worth of medicine, only spent 12, and got 15 back! I was so proud, I almost didn't need the medicine for the euphoric feeling of finally having my hard work pay off almost healed me. But alas, the coughing did resume, I needed the medicine, and then went into a nice cough syrup induced stupor for a few hours.

Pumpkins & New Teeth

I had such an ideal image of Mia's first real fall. We were going to pick pumpkins then come home and shove her one and take an adorable picture. Things didn't quite go the way I hoped. We drove to the pumpkin patch, it was closed for a death in the family. So my sweet husband went about bought us one because he knew my heart was set on getting Mia a pumpkin. He brings it home and hollows it out. Mia loved sticking her hands in the pumpkin "guts." Then it came time for the picture....
She didn't love it...At All! It made her quite angry. She slapped the pumpkin and told it "no" several times!
After being re-clothed, she sat next to all the rest of the pumpkins and enjoyed putting them in different orders. Notice that they are arranged by sizes....Could she BE more my child?!?

After her bath she crawled around and was very happy. You'd never know that she had a horrid fit earlier in the day. I had to take a picture of the new tooth. She's very fond of biting people now. She gets quite a delight out of our squealing when she chomps down!

Scary Day

So yesterday, I had one of those days no mother ever wants to have. I had to call 911 for Mia. Before I go further, she is perfectly fine now but things were scary for a few hours. Mia and I were playing in our room when she leaped over some pillows and off the bed landing directing on her head. When I picked her up she lost consciousness and stopped breathing. I laid her down, found her pulse and called 911. Within about 10 seconds she started breathing again and came to, but those 10 seconds seemed like an eternity. She then took a fun ride in the ambulance laughing and making faces at all the EMTs and firefighters. Got 3 cat scans b/c she couldn't stop wiggling. Everything came out perfectly fine, just a minor concussion and a poor mother with shattered nervous.

She felt so good today she went shopping with me this afternoon and worked our church's clothing giveaway all morning. She really loved all the extra hugs and attention she's been receiving.

Hiking we will go...

We love to hike. Before Mia was born, the hubby and I would go hiking at least twice a month. We were very lucky to have 2 beautiful canyons within 2 hours driving time as well in West Texas. We've hiked every trail (and some not so much trails that we made into ones) in Palo Duro Canyon and all of the Caprock Canyon State Park Trails. (Brief note- Caprock Canyon was our favorite due to no one really knowing or ever being there--since the biggest city to it is Turkey!) Even when I was pregnant, we hiked. We did not do any difficult trails, but still hiked and kayaked. Since the munchkin's birth most hiking and all kayaking came to a halt. But now that she's older we decided to give it a shot and see how she did.

We decided to try Roman Nose State Park. It's not too far from Norman, gas was well under $3 a gallon last weekend, and the park is totally FREE!


Mia and Dave going up the trail.

To say that Mia loved the hike is such an understatement. She swung her legs and squealed with delight the ENTIRE time. She also saw a few donkeys, one of which the owners let her sit on and she found his coarse hair quite fascinating .

We also decided that since we were going where there was a pretty lake, we would take a few big blankets and have a picnic. It was perfect. I brought one of the many books I had to read for this week with me and read while Mia played with leaves and our water bottles.

We got home and Mia was very tired--but then I saw a package waiting for our arrival---it was her TUTU!
Someday these pictures will be used against her---I see a Senior collage or Wedding slideshow already in the works!!

Winner of the Halloween Costume

Thank you for all the phone calls and comments on Mia's costume. The hippo won overwhelmingly, and I found a lady on ebay who makes custom tutus. With my amazon gift card and my great ebay find, she'll be all dressed up for under $30!

This Costume:

Plus This Tutu--
Plus this Alligator --


Plus This little Girl--
Will = Very Cute!