christmas morning...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, we did. I can't say enough how lucky we are to have each other. Christmas was sooooo fun this year. Abram was so excited with everything, I didn't want it to end... Buzz Lightyear was the major hit!

He had to sleep with him that night...kinda like Ralphy on "The Christmas Story" I love that movie by the way.

christmas shopping...

We have been hot and heavy into Christmas shopping and finding the best deals to put under the tree for Abram this year. We are having so much fun, but trying to keep spending down... Ben found a table top train set at Wal-Mart.com for $35.00. If you know anything about train tables you know they are so over priced.

This is the one we got, it's plastic but durable and it doubles as a table top too! It retails for around $80, we did site to store at Wal-Mart and payed $35. Props to Benny!
I found a water table. I know what you are thinking a water table for Christmas? But he will love it this summer and since it was off season we got it for a awesome price. $15 bucks! I've seen it as high as $65, but usually $40. This was also Wal-mart.com find and $0 for shipping with site to store :)

Of course we have to get him what he really wants...Buzz Lightyear! This will be his big gift and there is really no way to save on this one. We have been looking for months becasue there are so many different models. You know one has the karate chop action, but no talking. One speaks Spanish and dances, like in Toy Story 3. You can spend as cheap as $25 to as expensive as nearly $200! We went for the middle grade, it cost us around $67. But it will be worth it!

halloween...

Abram was a shark this year. The first time we showed him his costume he was scared to death. But he was ok once he saw that was his cute little face inside. He was a turtle last year and had no idea what was going on. This year was a different story. Some of our best friends ever come to our nighborhood and the kids trick or treat together. One house of Abram getting candy in his bucket, and he was ready to hit every house on the block. Sorry to say that we were so busy enjoying the kids that we didn't get many pictures.
I have to admit that I looked long and hard for the perfect costume and for the perfect price...of course there wasn't a perfect price. So, I watched Old Navy's sales and the costumes went on sale for 30% off and then I had a coupon and they let me use it on top of the sale price. I got the shark outfit for around $12.50. Last year I scored the turtle costume at a yard sale for $2.00! Here is my little shark boy and my handsome hubby :)

abram's new ride...

Abram got a new ride. He was given a John Deere tractor that he loved, but it bit the dust.

So, we are suckers and went and got him an upgrade. He has so much fun in it and is fearless behind the wheel! He actually can drive the truck better, I guess because he had to straddle the tractor?

This is really the only pic we have because when he is driving, you can't get him to slow down for the picture. Ben put our dog, Maggie, in the bed of the truck yesterday, and he just laughed and laughed. He thought it was so funny that he was driving Maggie around. I can assure you...Maggie was not laughing. Abram can't say Maggie real good yet, he calls her Daggie. They are slowly becoming buds.

fall fun...

Today we decided to take Abram to Amazing Acres. It is a farm close by and for eight dollars a person (kids under 2 get in free) you can have a lot of fun. Abram loved it, mostly because there were ducks, goats, pigs and cows.



I was so surprised at how many different things he could do. Several slides...



Corn box, which was like a sand box...but corn. How clever.



And a hay ride! Where he got to pick a pumpkin.




They also had several corn mazes for different ages, but we decided to skip those and stayed near the animals, but we know he will love the corn mazes in years to come. We have already decided we will make it a yearly fall tradition.

stress relief...

I have taken a new position at work. I have been traveling up to 6-7 hours some days. It has taken a toll on my energy and my blog too. Even though I like to stay in control, I have been pretty stressed lately. But when I get home and see Abram it helps so much.

Abram, like many kids has always loved water. He usually loves a bath, doesn't like his hair washed but loves to splash. Now tell me, who can be stressed around this big ham...

movies...

We love to watch movies at our house. Ben and I went to the theatre all the time before Abram was born, but now we are Redbox fans. Ben and I watched "Killers" this week, with Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher. I loved it. I really like a movie that has a little suspense, comedy and a little love angle to it. It was perfect. Ben liked it too, but not as much as I did. The movie got horrible reviews, only like two stars, but we have found the less the stars, the more we like it. Movies are a great way for me to relax. Check out of reality for a little while...escape.


Abram is totally in to Wall E right now. It is a Disney movie. So you really can't go wrong there. Ben found it really cheap on Ebay. And turns out he is nuts about that little robot. It is pretty cute. We have been talking like robots for weeks. It's so funny to me how ridicules we act just to get a smile out of Abram. He makes us smile and laugh all the time lately. Like, when we were watching Wall E, there is a part where Wall E shakes the Captain's hand...dirt falls off Wall E into the Captain's hand. The Captain says, "Have Wall E cleaned..." Abram turned to me and said, "Poop" It is so funny to hear him start to verbalize his thoughts. I love, love, love it.

fun at the fair...

Today was Abram's second fair experience. He is still a little too short to ride most of the rides, but we found one that he could ride by himself. We never figured out if he liked it, or if he was a little afraid. He never cried or screamed to get off, but he never really smiled either.



This is how he looked the entire ride, except for when it started, his eyes got much bigger. I have to say it went a lot faster than I thought it would. He also got to ride the carousel. And by now you have all figured out that he loves animals, so the petting zoo was right up his alley.



We had to get a lemonade too. Obviously a post about the fair is not one of my money saving posts. We all know how over priced the fair is, kinda like the movies. Our fair total was 26 dollars. 6 for admission for me and Ben (Abram was free), 10 for the tickets to ride the rides, 5 for the lemonade and 5 for the funnel cake. The only tip I have is to limit yourself on the cash that you take. We took 30, knowing that we didn't have any more cash. Because anyone could have spent 60 no problem. I was floored when Abram ran up to the little duck game, you know where you pick up the plastic duck in the swimming pool covered in algae look at the bottom and you win a prize, 3 dollars!!!! Just for him to pick up one duck! Sorry carney lady, I ain't fallin' for it. Besides, while I distracted the carney lady by asking her how much the game was, Abram picked up at least 4.

speaking of frogs...

Ben usually gets off work about a hour before me everyday. So, he is the one to pick up Abram from daycare most days. While I was still at work this week, I got a text from Ben saying, "Abram loves his new tree frog!" I knew that Abram was loving it and they were having a good time, and then I get home and see the pictures on the camera...



The tree frog was in the HOUSE! Of course it wasn't by the time I got home! Oh, the things that go on when Mama isn't around...

abram and the frog...

Ben found a baby frog in the yard and Abram was delighted. He is really into giving everything a kiss. Well, the frog was no different. My camera was low on battery, but what I did manage to get is pretty cute. At least I think it is...

getting the most out of name brand diapers...

I have to be honest, before Abram was born I vowed to use cheap diapers to save money. Of course we got diapers as baby gifts, thankfully. And I really got to see how wonderful name brand diapers were! They kept him dryer and held up a lot better. I fell in love with Huggies. A lot of my friends like Pampers better, but I am all about the Huggies.

So, I thought if I am going to pay more for better diapers, I am going to try to save on them every way I can. I started by signing up on their mailing list, they send me coupons about every other month. (You can do that online by going to huggies.com) Huggies also gives you a box top on every pack of diapers. Since I don't have school aged children, I clip them and give them to a friend and she gives me Huggies coupons in exchange when she finds them in the paper. Then I googled printable coupons for Huggies diapers and found lots of coupons online. I never buy a pack of diapers with out a coupon. I noticed that every once in a while they would put out a $3 off coupon, which is out of the ordinary. So when I find those, I buy several packs until they expire.

Then I noticed Huggies was advertising a new rewards program and I jumped on it. You can find it at enjoytheriderewards.com, it's awesome. You set up a profile and earn points by watching videos, answering polls and of course by buying their products. I have already won a $25.00 gift card to Disney, which we used on our vaca. And today I won a free pack of diapers! So, that is how I save a little money! And for your viewing pleasure, here is my little man sporting his Peyton Manning jersey and his Huggies diaper (He is about 8 months in this picture:)

painting the kitchen cabinets...

I have never been crazy about our kitchen cabinets. There is nothing wrong with them, just not what I wanted. When we first moved in the hardware that was on them was gold, and I knew I wanted that changed soon, so we bought new hardware and that has satisfied me for a while. These are the cabinets with new hardware, at Abram's 1st birthday party.

Sorry, not the greatest before picture, but you get the idea. Just plain, run of the mill cabinets in any speck house. Well, I knew that I was not going to pay thousands for new cabinets, so I started looking for DIY info on painting them. The young house love blog has a "how to" tab on their site. We did exactly what they recommended, and I am very pleased with the out come. It was a lot of work! Ben was ready to throw out the cabinets by the end of it, but now he agrees that it was worth it. I really have to give him credit, he did 90% of the work. He did an amazing job. Check it out.






I am really pleased with them. It looks so much bigger and open. It looks clean and fresh. Now I get to redecorate it :) Or should I say decorate it...since I didn't like the cabinets before I never could get inspired to do anything with the kitchen, but now I have all kind of ideas. Thank you to my hubby for working his tail off! And thank you Tonya for telling me about young house love. I am addicted. If you are interested in house projects and decorating young house love is a great blog to visit. I have a link on the side of my blog, check it out.

trip to the zoo...

Over the long Fourth of July weekend we went to the Nashville Zoo. We decided at the last minute that it would be a great way to spend the day, even though it was sooo hot!!! Here Abram is checking out the Monkeys. He has heard us say to him a million times, "You see it?" that now he says, "You See?!" to everything. No matter how many times I hear him say it, it always makes me smile. I am sure that at the time of this picture, he was saying to his Dada, "You See?" He loved the Zoo, and Ben and I loved watching him love the zoo. I think one of the things I love most as a parent is seeing everything from his eyes. He notices the smallest details and hears things that I don't even notice any more. Like an airplane flying over or birds singing. He takes it all in, and is so happy from the simplest things. It's awesome. This is one of my favs of the day. Abram and his Dada. Two peas in a pod, for sure. If there is anything Abram loves in this world, it is his Dada...and ducks...and Buzz lightyear...

Stay tuned...we have been painting cabinets!!!

saving money one yard sale at a time...

Last weekend was a bargain weekend. We went to some yard sales and found some GREAT stuff! I have been looking for Abram a play kitchen, but I didn't want to pay $150 for a new one, and the cheapest I could find was $40 for a used one. Ben made me promise not to buy a girly kitchen...it had to be boyish. Well, the first yard sale we went to there it was (cue the angels singing) A brown kitchen! And she only wanted 10 dollars for it! I acted composed and so did Ben, and he asked her if she would take 8, and she took it!!! Then at another yard sale we found a little cash register and food, wait for it...for 50 cents:) Yippee! Here is a picture of the loot! He also got a spider man for $1. Score.

Abram love, love, loves his kitchen. We cleaned everything, of course, and then I found a basket of food at Wal-Mart the next day for $4. He has been cooking everything for me and his Dada. The plastic grapes are very tasty.

Then, we finally decided to hang our TV. It is one of those things that we had been putting off because of the expense. Well, Ben's parents had watched a special on Dateline about how children were pulling TVs on top of them. So, that did it. We had to get it hung ASAP. Ben checked at Wal-Mart for all the goods, longer cords and a mount, for everything it was going to be $250. He tried Essex, an overstock store in town, and found all the stuff for $88 after tax! We were so pleased to have saved over $160, and the TV looks a lot better hung on the wall. All of this was accomplished on a Saturday :)

my first post...

I wanted to start out my first post about my family and what you can expect from me and my blog. I could go on and on about my family, but I will try to keep it short...hopefully.
I am married to my awesome husband Ben. We have been married for 6 years now. We met 8 years ago at a party, and have been inseparable ever since. I was still in college when we got married. I graduated in 2005 and we soon bought our first house. A modest 3 bedroom 2 bath, it is nothing special when other people look at it, but it is our home. We did a lot of cosmetic work upfront. Basic stuff...painted, added ceiling fans and shelves, new shutters, replaced the tile in both bathrooms. You will soon see that Ben is not only a great husband and Dad, but he is a great handyman. He also did new landscaping all around the house. It is a working progress, but he has it looking better every year.
We thought early on in our marriage that we didn't want to have kids, but our minds soon changed. After we had been married about 4 years, we were pregnant, and very happy to be. Ben wanted a boy so bad he could taste it, as many men do. Our ultrasound showed that he had a son indeed. Abram Cole Phillips was born on January 15, 2009. He was about 2 weeks early, but perfect in every way. 6 lbs and 11 ounces, 19 and a quarter inches long. Here he is 18 months later.

Now that you know a little history on my family, I want to share why I have chosen to start this blog. My main reason is to capture my sons life. My pregnancy and the first 18 months of his life have flown by. I am already forgetting so much, and I don't want to forget. The other reason is to share some of our DIY projects and how we save a little money. I have been inspired to be creative.

Well I am going to end my first post. I feel good, we will see if I can keep it up.