Successful Couponing Trip

Since I am staying at home with Mac now, I try to save money wherever I can! Several months ago I started using the website www.southernsavers.com to help me organize my grocery store trips. You can make your own grocery lists on the website to help you match sale prices with coupons for the cheapest possible price. On one recent trip I spent $39, but I saved $37! If I had a pantry to store more things I could probably save more by buying multiple sale items, but our lack of storage space only allows me to purchase what we currently need with a little extra here and there. Publix has some great items on sale this week, so Mac and I headed out to the store this morning. The picture below is of my GREAT deals from today! I also bought some meat and fresh vegetables that I didn't have coupons for. Overall, it wasn't my best saving trip, but the items below were super cheap!

Here is a breakdown of the items above:

Total before Sale and Coupons - $18.27

Total Spent - $1.42

Total Saved - $16.85

1 Homestyle Kraft Mac and Cheese - $0.30

1 Box of Instant Oatmeal - $0.49

2 Packages Halls Cough Drops - $0.09

1 YoPlus Yogurt 4 pack - Free

2 Travel First Aid Kits - Free + made $0.06

1 Whole Fruit Sorbet - $0.45

1 Country Crock Butter - $0.15

Couponing has become a game for me to see how much money I can save each time I go to the store! Has anyone else had any successful shopping trips lately?

Family Photos

The week before Mac's birthday we met my old friend, Christie, at a local park so that she could take family photos of us and some one year pictures of Mac. Our day got off to a super rough start. Mac decided to cut a tooth the night before and was awake from about 2-5 am, still woke up at 6:30 and then only took a 30 minute morning nap. Christie's car wouldn't start so we started a little later than planned with a SUPER tired child. Needless to say it was quite a balancing act to try and keep Mac happy! We took several family photos and got a few in of Mac before the meltdown. Christie was so understanding that she let Mac and I come back to her house a couple of weeks later to take some more pictures of just Mac. The pictures below are just a small sampling of what she took, but I am so happy with how they all turned out. Christie did an amazing job!!

A fun family moment:

One of my favorites of Ron and I:

Mac's face just cracks me up in this one!

I just LOVE his blue eyes!

Christmas!

Christmas festivities rounded out our busy December! After we celebrated our anniversary, instead of picking Mac up and going home, we stayed at my parents house to celebrate Christmas. Ron's mom and her boyfriend came over and Christmas week officially began! Mac was somewhat interested in presents, but he probably spent most of his time climbing up and down the stairs with my dad while I opened all of the fabulous things that he received! One present that I think he will really enjoy in the spring and summer is his wagon from Grammy. It even has adult cup holders on the outside! He has already been enjoying his Radio Flyer tricycle from his Papa Joe and Nana.

Checking out the presents at Christmas #1:

This may have been the only present that he actually opened:

Here is where he spent most of his time:

Riding on his new tricycle:

On Wednesday night we loaded up the truck and headed down to Moultrie for Christmas. We enjoyed a relaxing day on Thursday and then drove down to Perry, FL on Friday to spend the afternoon with Ron's stepmom and her family. We really enjoyed getting to spend a afternoon visiting and ate a yummy steak lunch! On Christmas day Mac woke up early so after he finished his breakfast we woke up the rest of the house so we could open presents. Since they don't have any stairs, Mac did show a little more interest in the opening of gifts! He still didn't sit still for too long, but I think he pulled some paper here and there! We spent Christmas afternoon in Quitman, GA with some of Ron's extended family. We hadn't been down there for a holiday in a very long time. After our yummy BBQ lunch Mac and I relaxed and played while Ron and the other men went dove hunting. The rest of the weekend was spent with Mac and I playing while Ron was sick on the sofa and his dad was sick in his bed. I had hoped to be able to use family during the trip to fully recover from my sinus infection, but since I was the least sick of the group my naps were few and far between!

Christmas morning in Moultrie (our family pic wasn't that good and we didn't take very many others!):

All in all we had a great Christmas! It was very nice to come home and get back into our routine. We were so worn out from our crazy December that we have just stayed at home for the past couple of weekends. We still have some gifts to unpack and put away, but I'm sure we will get it all finished soon!

We hope you had a great Christmas also!

5 Years

The week after Mac's birthday Ron and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. It is amazing how fast the time has gone and how much our relationship has changed and grown. With December being such a crazy month we decided to stay local to celebrate. My parents kept Mac overnight for us while Ron and I headed downtown to enjoy some of our favorite places to visit pre-baby. We started off our Atlanta weekend with a trip to Ikea to scout out shelves for our living room turned playroom. We then headed to the Hyatt Buckhead for a quick nap before enjoying a fabulous dinner at Hal's followed by dessert at Cafe Intermezzo. We had all intentions of going to Mass at the Cathedral where we got married, but I started coming down with a cold and we took advantage of sleeping past 6am. We ended our fun weekend with brunch at the Buckhead Diner. It was a great weekend and so nice to get to spend time together!