Cody and His Drawers

No, not THOSE drawers!!!  Sheesh, what kind of blog do you think this is?!

Cody's dresser drawers!  He makes a beeline to any kind of dresser, shelving, desk, etc and must open up all the drawers to discover what's inside.  Today he was checking out what was in his very own dresser.  Here are a couple cute pictures and a video from his findings.

(This is what I found after I had left him alone for about 9.2 seconds.)

(What a goon!)

(He never used to ham it up for the camera.)

So, yeah, Cody thinks he is P.R.E.T.T.Y funny!!  At the end he tries to stand up and almost topples me over.  Here's the vid.

Target Deals 3/24

I had some extra energy tonight, (was it the Flintstones vitamins I started taking again, or the McDonalds sugar-free vanilla latte I had at 4:30pm?  Hmmm.  Gee, I have to think about that one!) so I ran to Target after Cody was in bed.  This worked out great!  I didn't have the guilt of leaving my little one after not seeing him all day while I was at work, and got to enjoy the quiet and quite empty store.  I prefer to do my Target/grocery shopping first thing on weekend mornings, i.e. 8AM, although it's very hard for me to get there at that time these days.

Anyway, I got some good deals at Target tonight so thought I would share.  I had a few other things on my list (from reading deal blogs/websites) but my Target (Rogers) didn't carry them.

* 1 Pledge multi-purpose spray $3.74 less $2.00 mftg coupon less $1.00 Target coupon = 74¢

* 2 pkg Cheetos snacks $1.29 less $1.00 Target coupon = 29¢ each

* 2 bags Green Giant russet potatoes $1.99 on sale - $1.00 Target coupon = 99¢ each

* 4 Market Pantry cream of chicken soup 79¢ each - 50¢/2 Target coupon = 54¢ each (these seemed to have gone up in price from the last time I bought them)

* 3 Artisian sandwich bread mini-loafs 99¢ each - $1.00 Target coupon = FREE (these look great for work sandwiches!

* 1 Folgers coffee $6 on sale - $1.00 Target coupon - 25¢ mftg coupon = $4.75 for a large container (I heart coffee.)

* 2 pkgs Laura's lean ground beef (92/8) $2.99/lb on sale - $1 mftg coupon = $1.99/lb

* Diet Dr Pepper - free after coupon -- but they didn't take it off ... GRRRR $1.59 wasted

Those were the highlights (and one lowlight) of my shopping adventures for this evening. 

Are You Out There?

Okay, peoples, there are more than just my mom and a small handful of others that read this blog, so....who are you??  Just this week there was 21 NEW and unique people that visited here!  I don't have the blog set up as searchable under Google, etc., I rarely post the blog address anywhere and I don't have it linked under Blogger's directory.  So....who are you??  Please--I just want to know who's reading this!  Is that so much for a girl to ask?

So, please, if you would, take a second and post a comment to my page.  It's super easy, just click on the "__ Comments" link underneath this post.  It would make me SO-OOO happy!!  I am thinking about setting up only authorized users to be able to view the blog for privacy reasons, so if you want to keep reading, please comment so I know who you are!

Thanks so much!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

We didn't really do anything special to celebrate, but we did put Cody in his favorite green shirt.  Really, he does have other shirts, but we tend to photograph him quite a bit when he's wearing this shirt!

He was having fun earlier today hanging on the railing by the stairs.  Oh, and he is getting to be QUITE the little expert on climbing up the stairs as well as sliding back down on his belly.  Apparently that's ALL he wanted to do at Cari's house today!!  Little stinker!  We have to watch him like a hawk at all times.  Thank Gordon we have the baby gates installed here now.

He had 100% whole milk today at daycare and did great at drinking it ~ wooohoo!!!  Maybe the days of no formula are in our near future after all!  We have been mixing it 1/2 and 1/2 lately as he has been spitting it out.  Soooo frustrating.  But, I'm not complaining.  He eats absolutely everything that we give him!  I know this may change, so I'm enjoying it while we can.  He had cottage cheese at daycare today and could not get enough of it!  Tonight, he had chicken taco meat, soft taco shell, American cheese, squash and J-E-L-L-----O!  Yummers!!

Tonight we had fun doing a "video chat" with Grandma and Grandpa Hart tonight.  They got to see and hear Cody and Gordon on the computer screen LIVE!  Now they just have to get a camera of their own so Cody can see them back!  We'll have to get the other set of grandparents hooked up, too.

Hope you had a fun St Patrick's day and didn't drink too many green beers!  :-)

Not much to say...

Not too much going on in our neck of the woods.  I had the day off today (Monday), so I enjoyed spending some extra quality time with the little one.  I am grateful, but I don't really like having Mondays off from work...it is nice to have the long weekend, but by Monday I'm exhausted from the weekend of all the household chores & 24/7 baby duty, that sometimes it's a nice break to go back to work.  I really don't know how stay-at-home moms do it...but they also don't have to pack a week full of housework and whatnot into two days.  I wonder what it would be like to stay home full time, but I think that I have the best of both worlds right now with working part-time (4 days a week).  I know my company may like me to be full-time, and some days I consider it because we might be able to make some adjustments in other areas of our household, but for now, our setup is working pretty good for us.  

Cody has been taking really awesome naps lately, which is good for my to-do list!  He's been taking a 2 hour nap in both the morning and afternoon.  I know we are really lucky!  He goes to bed around 8:00pm and gets up around 6:00-6:30 am so we can get him to daycare by about 7:30.  I do love naptime so.  I'm a morning person...errrrr....once I get up....so I don't feel too motivated at night after he goes to bed (which makes Monday-Friday tough) but at least I can get emails answered, tv shows on the DVR watched, and blogs read (you know...important stuff).

Gordon and I took Cody for a stroller ride after work today for the second day in a row.  It's been gorgeous here!  I think it hit close to 60 today, which felt h.e.a.v.e.n.l.y   We walked to the park and were going to let Cody swing, but the baby swings were above a huge LAKE of water!!  I wish I would have had my camera to take a picture!  It was quite humorous.  We'll have to try a different park by our house another day.

Well, the DVR is calling my name with "Big Bang Theory"!  Talk to you later, blog!

More good deals

Okay, I think I am going a bit overboard here....wayyy too much time spent on calculating prices and deals, but at least we should be set for awhile in a few areas of our household buying!

Target deals today:

* Pampers diapers - Jumbo Pack $9.00 on sale less $2.00 Target coupon less $1.00 mftg coupon = $6.00

 

* Huggies wipes $5.99 less $1.50 Target coupon less $5.00 mftg coupon = (0.51) profit

* Johnson Buddies soaps $0.97 less $1.00 mftg coupon = (0.03) profit (I bought two and will be buying more as there are loads of coupons out there!  Will save for when Cody is bigger.  Soap doesn't go bad, right?!)

* Johnson's Baby Powder $2.19 less $1.00 mftg coupon = $1.19 (for my hubby LOL)

* Market Pantry soup $0.54 each less $0.50 off 2 Target coupon = $0.29 each

* Beef Chuck steak $2.67 less $2 Target coupon = $0.67 for "glorified hamburger" as my dh said.  Oh well! 

* Motts Applesauce $1.69 less $1 Target coupon less $0.55 mftg coupon = $0.14 each (got two at this price and one at the 0.69 price; still a deal!)

* Raspberries & strawberries $5.00 total

-- Saved $20.37 per receipt; out of pocket spent $15.49

Cub Foods deals:

* Did the Heinz promotion where you spent $20 and got $7 back in coupon to be used next grocery trip (on anything) - got ketchup for $2 each, OreIda fries for $3 each, Bagel Bites for $1.50 each (after mftg coupon), pasta sauce for $2.00 each (after mftg coupon)

* Did the Dove pomotion where you spent $15 and got back $5 in coupon for next time.  Had mftg coupons for all items plus I love Dove products so this was a win-win!

* Found 3 packages of "almost expired" chicken breast (Bake It Easy and seasoned varieties) for $0.99/package.  Woohoo!!  Even had a coupon for $1 off so one was totally free.  Wish they were more.  Straight into the freezer they went (they had sell by date of tomorrow and next day) which they would have anyway.

* Free bakery bread with coupon in recent mailer

* I did buy other normal grocery items too....

I used a $2.50, $5.00 and $10.00 off purchase coupons that I got on a previous shopping trip...along with a $30 gift card I got with a new prescription (that was only $7 after insurance paid).  

Total paid out of pocket = $34.82 less $12 coupons to use next trip = net total $22.82.  Receipt said I saved $36.49 or 37%.

Woohoo!

I think I need to chill out a bit now.  Too much time spent on this stuff and my shelves are getting full!  We should be set for toothpaste, hair care, soup, ketchup etc for the spring and summer!

HOpefully I will get back to posting about Cody ~ the main reason for this blog!  But, I hope you enjoyed my shopping adventures anyway.

Walgreens Trip #2

I made my second trip to Walgreens for more deal seeking today!  I am pretty gosh darn proud of myself, if I do say so!

Here's what I got.  Not a large list, but I had a whole 10 minutes to shop before getting the little guy from daycare.

* 4 bottles Coffeemate Creamer Buy One at $2.49, Get one Free less two $1.50/coupons = 75 cents each

* Colgate Toothpaste $3.49 less $2.50 instant coupon less $1 mftg coupon = $0.01 profit

* Had to buy a chocolate (darn!) for 59 cents to get my total high enough

* Used $2 Register Reward off the total

Grand Total Spent out of pocket = 84 cents

Woohoo :)

Here's the proof!

Btw, Nancy?  You're a total crab-apple!!!

Birth Announcement

I meant to post this on Cody's birthday, but too much going on around here.

This makes me sniffle happy and sad tears at the same time.

Cody David Annette and Gordon have chosen the name Cody David for their beautiful new son born at the Birth Center of Buffalo Hospital.  Weight:  7 pounds and 2 ounces Length:  20 1/2 inches Time:      2:50 pm Date:       Monday, March 3, 2008 Delivered by: Teresa Albert, MD Baby's doctor: Kristina Loken, M.D. Origin of the name Cody... English, Old English - A cushion. March 3, 2008 - a day to remember The Weather The sun rose over Buffalo at 6:49 am and set at 6:06 pm Buffalo high: 19° F Buffalo low: 7° F The nation's weather extremes were 88° recorded at Harlingen, Texas and -38° at Arctic Village, Alaska In the financial world The Dow Jones closed at 12258.90 Minnesota's Minimum Wage was $6.15 . . . and the prices of some big and little ticket items were Loaf of Bread:$ 1.98 Gallon of Milk: $ 3.05 First Class Stamp: $0.41 Average New Home: $211,000.00 New Car: $21,750.00 Populations: Buffalo: 12,500 U.S. Population: 304,131,447 In the world of entertainment this week The top grossing movie was: "10,000 B.C." Cody David shares his birthday with these other interesting people 1831 - George Pullman - American inventor and industrialist who improved the pleasure of travelling by his creation and production of the Pullman railroad sleeping car. 1847 - Alexander Graham Bell - American teacher, inventor and entrepreneur most recognized as the inventor of the telephone and founder of Bell Telephone Company. 1962 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee - One of the greatest athletes of all time. Olympic gold medallist, world record holder in the heptathlon and the first athlete to win multi-event medals in three Olympics. There have been some other notable events on this day in history 1791 - Congress passed a resolution ordering the creation of the first U.S. Mint. 1845 - Florida became the 27th state admitted to the Union. 1931 - "The Star-Spangled Banner", written some 117 years earlier by Francis Scott Key, officially became the national anthem of the United States. 1969 - America's program to land man on the moon continued as the second manned lunar orbiter, Apollo 9, was launched. Happy Birthday Cody David  from your friends at Buffalo Hospital

Walgreens

I did my first Walgreens "deal" today!  I've been wanting to get into the Walgreens/CVS couponing/rebating world for awhile now, and today I finally made the first step!

I don't have a fancy post like the other bloggers out there nor did I take a photo of all the goods (I am amazed at how much time some people take to photograph & blog about their deals...I'm mostly envious, really!), but wanted to share my little joys!

• * 3 bottles of Fructis shampoo/conditioner - $2.99 each less $2 instant coupon less $1 mftg coupon = ($0.01) X 3 (they paid me to take them out of the store)
  
• * 2 Right Guard Deodorant - $2.99 each less $2.00 "Walgreens Register Rewards"*** less $1/2 mftg coupon=$0.49 each [These were on my normal shopping list so woo-hoo.]
• * 2 Colgate toothpaste - $3.49 each less $2.50 instant coupon less $1 mftg coupon = ($0.01)x3 (they paid me again)
• * 1 Axe Shampoo - $5.99 less $5.99 online rebate=free
• * 3 Huggies jumbo pack diapers - $10 each less $10.00 Register Rewards - $3 mftg coupon = $11.00 for 3 packs

*** These are coupons that spit out after your order that you can use on a future purchase.

Woohoo!  I'm just starting out but I was pretty thrilled!

I'm also planning to do another rebate where I will get $0.75 back for each diaper pack, so more money in my pocket.   Yes!

I also went to Target where I got 2 large packs of Huggies wipes for about 98 cents each after $5 mftg coupon.  I also bought a 2 pound steak for a whopping $0.34 and a nice 3 # angus beef roast for about $3.50 using a couple of SuperTarget coupons.

I think I only missed giving one coupon (for wipes at Target) but that was pretty good considering I dragged my little one out at naptime (scandalous!) to go shopping!  He was a good sport through it all.  

I really can see where this could be a full time job figuring out the deals!

It is sure fun though.

Spaghetti!!

For supper on Cody's birthday, we treated him with spaghetti made by Daddy!  He loooooved it!  I'm not sure if it was because of the taste or how fun it was to make a mess of it.

Standing!!

Over the past couple of weeks, Cody has really been working on his standing abilities!  He's been pulling up on everything and is getting better & faster at it.  Look out, world!

And the past couple of days, he has started cruising on the couch, bookshelf, end table, etc.  I don't know how soon walking comes after this, but it can't be too far behind.  Uh oh!  I'm excited for him though.  What new discoveries he will be making!

Cody's 2nd Birthday Party!

Cody is a very lucky little boy, because he got not only one, but two birthday parties!!  He celebrated at daycare on his actual birthday, with all of his friends.  He got to have another treat - homemade cupcakes made by Mom with some help from Grandma!  We sent our camera with him that day, and Miss Cari was kind enough to take some photos for us to see after we got home. 

Hehe!  He was up in the afternoon a little bit later than normal, so after the festivities, he was wiped OUT!  I must say, what a cutie pie.

 

Happy 1st Birthday, Cody David!

We celebrated Cody's birthday (March 3rd) on Saturday, February 28th with friends and family.  We hosted a small party at our house and I hope a good time was had by all!  To join in the celebrations was Grandma and Grandpa Anderson, Uncle Al & Aunt Joann, Godparents Natasha & Brian (soon to be married!), Careen & John, Cari, and Colleen & Ben & Jordan.  We were supposed to have a few more guests, but the winter illnesses going around forced them to stay home. 

We started out the party by opening gifts...Cody was more enthralled with the cards than anything else!  He got loads of nice gifts and we feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends that are so thoughtful.  I wish I could post pictures of all the gifts he received!

As the party was going, guest enjoyed looking at a slideshow of photos from Cody's 1st year.  Gordon put together a really cool thing using our Apple TV where various pictures were shown on our TV throughout the party.  We got several comments on it.  Thanks honey for doing this!!

I hope you enjoy some of these photos from Cody's big day.

(He didn't think much of the party hat - it lasted about .4 seconds.)

(Ooh, a card!)

(The Jack-In-The-Box was a huge hit!)

(Handmade & Embroidered Quilt from G'ma A.)

After the presents were opened, we had a meal consisting of pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, Super Salad, fresh fruit, veggies & dip, chips, pickles and the like.  After the meal was complete, we brought out the cakes!  We presented Cody with his smash cake (which I got free by purchasing his cake at Coborn's), and everyone sang Happy Birthday to Cody which he enjoyed a lot.  He was very polite in eating his cake nicely, tasting mostly the frosting for the first couple minutes.  He did get down and dirty eventually and as you can see, thoroughly enjoyed it!  What a mess!  Afterwards, right into the bathtub he went - thanks Daddy!!

(So, THIS is frosting!)

(Mmmm!!  I like it!!)

(Getting messier!)

(Oh boy.)

(I'm done!!)

After getting all spic & span, Cody had fun playing with Aunt Joann who made him laugh and laugh.  She showed him how fun it was to get chased around, too.  

Boy, he fell asleep easy that night!

Thanks again to everyone who came to the party & made it such a wonderful day!  I still can't believe our little boy is ONE!