Coupons & CVS

If you know me, you know I love my coupons. I used to only save a few dollars here and there, but last year I started to get pretty good at coupons. Now, I love it!

I went to CVS last night and built up my "stockpile" on a few items.

2 Lysol toilet cleaners. Now, if you are, or ever have, potty trained a toddler, you know that this is more of a "must have" item then ever before.

-$1/2 Lysol toilet cleaner from Sunday paper

2 containers of Lysol wipes. I love them for quick clean-up at the house and Jim loves them for his cop car (or "ca caa" as Davis calls it).

-$1/2 Lysol wipes from Sunday paper

3 20-count boxes of Finish dishwater detergent. Enough for about 5 months!

-$2.25 off Finish 20-count (x2)

2 bottles of shampoo & 2 bottles of conditioner.

-$3/2 Pantene items (x2)

1 small thing of wipes b/c I needed it for my diaper bag.

-$10 ECB that I had to start with

$42 and change before coupons

$18 and change after

Savings of 57%

However, I also made $13 ECB out of this deal so it really cost $5.00. Sah-weet!

LOVES ME SOME CVS!!

Blog...or lack thereof...

Well, we can all agree that I took a break. Things were to crazy and to time consuming between two small kids, a part-time job, keeping up with the house and the other likes of a very busy mom. So, here I am....and I want a second chance! :)

Can you even believe it is already 2011? How did that happen? 2010 flew by!

THE GOOD:

*Davis turned one and we celebrated with a carnival party!!

*Macie turned three and we celebrated with a few days at Downtown Disney.

*We became Aunt Deana, Uncle Jim AND Macie and Davis became cousins!

*Deana ran two marathons; Chicago in October (4:08) and Jacksonville in December (3:58).

THE BAD:

*Jim's mom passed away in July. :( It's been a difficult adjustment.

Do you have any New Year's Resolutions? I have a few....

*I would like to join a bible study this year.

*I would like to become more coupon-wise.

*I would like to get faster and possibly PR in a marathon later this year.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2011! Let's share it together!!

My little guy is growing up :'(

Davis is getting so big. It is making me sad. Can't he just stay little and warm and yummy forever? Please? Pretty, pretty please?

He is crawling all over the place, he stands up on everything and now he has two teeth. You can see one of them sticking out in this picture....

Isn't he adorable all bundled up in his little sweater? He looks like a little boy!

Davis is finally big enough to take a bath with his big sister now. No more baby bath tub! I love watching his little bare tushie swim around the tub and Macie loves to pretend like she is washing him. They have fun splashing around together and it warms my heart! Oh, how I love these two...

Fun with the Posse Family!

It is always fun when Traci, Tom and Luke visit Tampa! Tom had plans to go to the Bucs game, and Traci and I had a fun time hanging out with the kids. Macie and Luke had a great time playing together - Macie still asks me about her cousin Luke every single day!

Traci, Tom and Luke came over to hang out on Friday night. Here is the best picture I could get of them. It's almost impossible to get a good picture of a 2.5-year-old and 3.5-year-old...but I think it's totally cute!

Me, Macie and Davis met up with Traci and Luke at International Plaza on Saturday. We had fun at the play area, had lunch and then walked around. Macie and Luke turned Bakers shoe store into a track & field event. They ran circles around the store while we tried on shoes. Thankfully we were the only ones in there. It was really special when Macie ran behind the counter and cranked the music that was playing in the store...my little party girl! :) Traci and I thought it was really funny!

Happy New Year...

Happy New Year!!! Jim and I actually went out this year, and we have not been out for New Year's Eve since December 2006. We had an AWESOME time. We joined seven other couples at Ocean Prime for dinner and drinks to ring in the new year. We had a private room and it was a fabulous time! Here are some pictures of us before we left for the night....

Macie enjoyed our party favors the next day..

But Davis was to busy standing up and looking for a toy to really care about party favors!

Poor Jim had to work 6am-11pm on New Years Day but we still managed to have fun and stay out way to late! :)

Scrub and dub dub...

After a long Christmas Day full of fun, excitement, eating and running around, it was time to wind down. I put Moo in the tub to play and scrub-up for the night. After her bath, we usually brush her teeth. Tonight she wanted to do it herself. So, she sat IN the sink and brushed her teeth. Brush...well, mainly just suck on the toothbrush but she got an "A" for effort.

Since you never really know just how well a two-year-old brushes their teeth, and since Santa fed her more sweets than necessary, I decided to brush them too. Moo was convinced she did a great job. In order to allow me to brush her teeth, I had to have a tickle match with her! Moo's teeth are officially clean!

And during all of this, Davis was peacefully dreaming of Santa....

Merry Christmas!!

Well, after a six month lapse in my blog, I am just going to start from here rather than try to catch up on six months worth! However, I promise to be diligent about it from here on out.

Merry Christmas from The Arthur's! It was such a fun day and a day that we really looked forward to since Macie was so excited about it. It was a also a neat day since we celebrated it as a complete family of four.

We took the kids to see Santa last week. Jim and I expected one of the kids to be melting, but to our surprise, it was just the opposite. Davis was so amazed by Santa's beard that he would stare at it and giggle. Meanwhile, Jim and I were jumping around like maniacs trying to get his attention. Macie was staring at us with the "what the heck are you two clowns doing" expression. And that was that. :)

Christmas morning was awesome. We put the gifts out the night before after the kids went to sleep. When Macie woke up she was just staring at the tree.

Then she started pulling all the gifts out and piling them up. I started shopping for her a few months ago, and I guess I got a little carried away. :) Spoiled Moo! Once Jim's mom and sister arrived, the festivities began!

Even little Davis was excited about presents!! He was crawling all over them. Literally!

Macie received some great presents including the Leap Frog Tag Junior and three books, singing Tyrone and Pablo characters from the Backyardigans, coloring books, stickers, playdough, a vacuum cleaner and cleaning cart, books, bath toys, a play computer (aka. pooter) and many other things, which have escaped me at the moment! Davis was happy with his little teething toys and clothes.

Mommy also made out very well. Santa brought me a very cute necklace with our kids names engraved. I love it! I also got a Pottery Barn gift card, which is nice since we are about to order a few pieces for our house in the next few weeks.

Once the gifts were opened, Macie and Davis played and played for the rest of the day. We even had a hard time getting Macie to eat because she would not stay still long enough. However, both kids took great naps and even went to bed early! That is what Santa does to little kids! He wears them out!! :)