Charlie's First Christmas!

This year is Charlie's first Christmas! He actually liked opening presents AND playing with them. Granted, he did like the paper, but he also played with the toys he got. Boy, did he get toys too! What a spoiled little boy! His Grandpas, Grandmas, Aunt, Uncles, and cousins got him lots of new, fun toys to play with. He got books, clothes, trucks, and even a big Tonka truck to push around! It was a great Christmas and I can't wait to see him grow up and enjoy many more Christmases.

In Front of our Christmas Tree with his favorite ornament! (and the loudest one!)

Opening his Tonka truck from Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Sarah

Opening a present from Grandpa and Grandma Gallup

Riding his new truck

Opening one from Grandpa and Grandma VandenBerg--a circus train!

Sitting in his new swing! (he can't use it quite yet...)

With all his cousins

Getting tangled in ribbon...Hilarious!

Last weeks deals!

I went shopping last week monday and hit all the stores! Target, Walgreens, CVS and Meijer. I got a heck of a deal too!

I got:

2 jumbo packs of Huggies

2 tubs of huggies wipes

2 flameless candles

4 coffeemate liquid creamers

1 Brut Deoderant

3 rolls of Reynolds Wrap

(2) 3-packs of Scotch Tape

1 Scotch wrapping paper cutter

2 mini puzzles

4 packs of Energizer batteries

6 bags of Bliss Chocolate

1 bag of Rolos

5 sets of goody hair ties

The book "Twilight" (if I didn't buy this book, I would have saved myself $8.79, but I wanted to try it!)

My out of pocket cost: $13.37 --Not kidding! It would have been $4.05 if I didn't want that book! We all deserve a little extra every once in a while!

Like Father, Like Son

We have a little Steve on our hands! (As if I haven't been told that by EVERYONE who sees Charlie!) He wants to be by Daddy all the time! I caught him "watching" TV next to Steve. I'm not sure if he was really watching or he just wanted to be like daddy.

They are pretty cute though....

Someone call America's Funniest Home Videos! (or social services:-)

I was secretly taping my boys playing together because I think that it is so funny that all Charlie wants to do is pull up on everything! This is what I got...you think we could win $10,000??

Don't worry, Charlie didn't even cry!

Who poops in his sleep?

As Steve went to cover Charlie before going to bed, he noticed an interesting odor. I went in to assess the situation, and discovered Charlie has pooped in his sleep. This is something I will never understand. I thought everything kind of took a rest while you slept, but I guess not. I've never done it, but I guess it can be done. The best part about this story is that I changed his diaper so that he wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night, needing a diaper change. He slept through the whole thing!!! What?? He stirred a bit when I dropped the diaper in the diaper champ, but he just turned his head to the other side and kept sleeping!! I couldn't believe it! But I guess I'll take that instead of waking up and thinking it's play time. I just thought it was a little wierd....

My Thanksgiving

I forgot to blog about my Thanksgiving trip to CVS! How could I forget?? Well, I woke up before either of my boys to head to CVS and get all the free stuff! I arrived at CVS to two other cars of "coupon Moms". How I know this is that we all had lists and paper clips full of coupons! I went directly to the razors because they never have a lot of those! Good thing I did because I am the only one who got the limit of 2. So I ended up spending $4.57 of my own money and receiving $58 in ECB's!! For those who don't know, those blessed ECB's print on the end of your receipt. Well, as you can see, mine was as tall as me. The cashier mentioned to me that she would probably be changing the paper roll a lot that day. I agreed of course! :-)

This is Charlie--All day long!

Here's a glimpse into everyday with Charlie. He pulls himself up all day long! It's better now that he doesn't just fall over and cry. At least now, he just falls onto his butt and goes on to the next thing he is going to pull up on!

Playing

Charlie is SO busy!! He plays with his excersaucer, his jumparoo, his toys, the dog and even the air vent! He is never in the same spot anymore! The only way I can find him is because I can hear him grunting while he tries to pull himself up on things! Here's a few busy poses...

Here's some Christmas fun for all of you and you can do it too!

http://www.elfyourself.jibjab.com/

It was definetly worth the 4 bucks to download! Hilarious, I was laughing so hard I was crying!

Awesome Autumn

On one of the last nice days of fall, before all this cold snow, we took some pics of Charlie in the leaves. All he really wanted to do was eat them. But regardless, they turned out cute!

6 Months

Charlie's six month pictures are here! Click on the link below to see them!

http://www.davinciphotography.net/charlievandenberg-6months/charlievandenberg-6months.htm

He's on the move!!

Charlie is quite the mover now-a-days!! He's pulling himself up on things and crawling all over the place! He just doesn't stop! Gone are the days where I could put him down and come back to him in the same placeAt Grandma G's house

Under the coffee table...Under Grandma's coffee table...he must have a thing for coffee tables...Trying to pull himself up on the coffee table!! I thought he was 7 months, not 10 months!In the rocking chair, playing with daddyHappily crawling in the kitchen

He's growing up way too fast!

How do you "excersaucer"?

Charlie has found a new way to play with his excersauser.

Whatever keeps him happy...

Quick Pic

Here's a snapshot of my little dragon. I can hear him talking in his crib right now, so I just thought I would throw a picture up here and I can blog later!

Gum or Chocolate anyone??

I got to visit Walgreens and CVS this AM cause Steve was home for a while. I had a great time!! There was a great deal on gum at walgreens and I got some shavers(which I don't need!) for free! I'll give them for college care packages or something. I was just looking at my receipt and it says "your total savings: $100.37"! I didn't think I saved that much! I only spent $9.60 on my rebate gift card! Plus I am getting $6.99 back on a rebate for the mascara! So I spent $2.61. Wow, what a trip!

Here's what I bought:

1 Dawn dish soap

1 Almay mascara

10 packs of Schick Quattro Razors

18 packs of Wrigley's gum

2 bags of Dove Chocolate

Here's how I did it.

Dawn soap had a wags cp for .99 ea and there was a MF cp for .20 off(10/12 P&G)

Almay Mascara-no cp, but full rebate

Schick Razor ESC coupon and BOGO MF cp (10-19 ss)

Gum BOGO wags cp and BOGO MF cp, so free!! (10-5 ss)

CVS

Diapers were on sale and there was a great deal on chocolate bars.(Which a REALLY don't need! :-)

Here's what I got: 2 Pampers Jumbo packs (2/$20)

20 Hershey Bars (2/$1)

Here's How I did it:

Pampers: $1.50 off one (x2) from home mailer *if you buy $20, you get $5 ECB

Hershey BOGO (9-7 ss) *if you buy $10, you get $5 ECB

I spent $13.40 on my CVS gift card and got $10 ECB back! So I spent $3.40

CVS

I have a few blog watchers because of my couponing, so I have to post for them too! But I will try to keep it at least equal between my purchases and my family!

Here is my CVS Trip for this week...

I purchased: 4 boxes of Kleenex with Lotion

2 packages of Huggies Diapers

1 Tub of Wipes

2 Colgate Toothpastes

1 bottle of Excedrin

1 Box of Qtips

2 CVS Bar soaps

My total would have been $54.48. Just by using my CVS card, I saved $14.70. With my coupons and ECB's, I saved another $26.39. My total OOP was $14.77 and I earned $15.00 in ECB's for my next trip. So all in all, I made a profit of .23 cents!

Happy Birthday Steve!

Happy Birthday to my hard-working man! Today is Steve's 26th birthday, and he is working hard! Last week while I was at work, he tore out the entire basement and brought it to the landfill! Now he is rebuilding it so we can have a nice big area to hang out. We were talking about doing redoing the basement, and with him being laid off, he has lots of time! So he's working hard at home. Along with taking care of Charlie, he is also cleaning, cooking and remodeling! What a great guy! I can't tell you how much I appreciate him around here!

Seriously though, he is such a great husband and daddy! He loves to help others (as seen in the picture on Sarah and Jason's roof) and to help his family. I am so blessed to be married to him and I can't wait to see what God has in store for him the the coming years!

I LOVE YOU BABE!!

My curious crawler...

Charlie has begun doing a crawl/scoot thing this week! Now we can't just leave him somewhere and come back to him, so we have to be careful. This morning, Steve told me that he had left him on the floor in our room for a minute while he was doing something and came back and he was inches from the power strip to the TV! He put him on the opposite side of the room too! I got a few pictures of him and we don't have a video camera, so this will have to be sufficient!

And he gets his target!! My camera string!

What can you get with $5?

My co-workers are very impressed with my coupon-ing skills! So one of them gave me five dollars and wanted to see how many groceries I could get with it. Well, she picked a bad week to challenge me!! There is a great deal at Meijer that is a huge money maker if you do it right!! You will never believe it, but I filled Charlie's wagon with all the groceries I got for $5! And I haven't even spent it all yet!!!!

This is what I got:

1 Bottle of Apple Juice

1 Gerber Sippy cup

2 containers of Veggie/Fruit Puffs

8 Glade Scented Oil Warmers

22 Boxes of Jello

2 Boxes of Microwave Popcorn

1 Taco Bell Dinner Kit

1 Taco Bell Salsa

10 Bags of Vegetables

Can you believe it??? I still have money left! Amber, I hope you are proud of me.

P.S. Anybody need any Jello??