Our Dora Pumpkin is Finished!

Dave has worked for several nights now and our pumpkin is finally finished. I would have given up a long time ago, but Dave wanted to make sure it was just right for Savannah. So after watching the Charlie Brown (and "Stoopy", as Savannah calls Snoopy) special on TV tonight, we had a lighting of the pumpkin ceremony. Just kidding. :) It was a fun night with some family time, a fall candle lit, and a pumpkin aglow!

Super Doubles!!

Thanks to a tip from a fellow coupon clipper, I found out that Kmart is doubling coupons up to $2 this week!!! So, yesterday I took some time and sorted through my mound of coupons and came up with an extensive list of items that I wanted to get today while Savannah was at WEE school. Here's what I ended up with:

• 2 packages Huggies pull ups
• 8 packages of Pampers wipes
• 2 packages of band aids
• 4 cans of Campbell's soup
• Cascade dishwasher detergent tabs
• Wisk laundry detergent
• 2 Juicy juice (big jar and juice boxes)
• Kashi cereal
• 2 boxes of pantyliners
• Reach floss
• Pepcid AC tablets
• Dove shampoo
• Mylicon drops
• Dora toothbrush
• Aquafresh toothpaste
• Soft scrub cleaner
• Ziploc vacuum starter kit
• Cottonelle to go
• Clorox
• Delmonte Freezers
• Scott toilet paper
• Tylenol
• Thomas Orajel toothpaste

All for a grand total of $32.79!! I used 36 coupons and saved a whopping $101.24!

Hot Pajamas

This all started last week when Savannah woke up crying "mama help" in the middle of the night. I ignored it the first time thinking she was having a bad dream, but then an hour later, when she cried out "mama help" again, I went to check on her and found her naked in the crib! Crazy girl!

Well, this is becoming a routine now . . . only now she doesn't cry so I have no idea when she's taking her clothes off. Last night when I went in to check on her before we went to sleep she again was naked. Knowing that she couldn't sleep naked, or with a blanket over her as Dave suggested, I knew I had to get her back in her PJs so she wouldn't freeze during the night. I can't believe it, but I managed to get her back in her footed pajamas without even waking her up! I woke up around 3 and went to check on her again and guess what, she was naked AGAIN! What in the world? These pajamas are hard to get off when she is awake and alert much less asleep. How she's getting out of them without help is beyond me, and even more interesting is that they are more than half way zipped up when I find them in the crib. These pajamas have a snap cover over the zipper to try to prevent this type of activity, but it is not working for us.

This is what I found yet again this morning.

Help! Any advice? We keep our house fairly cool in the winter and she absolutely cannot just sleep in a diaper! She did say this morning that she was hot in her PJs, but my goodness they are the lightest ones available. We sleep in sweats, under a sheet and a blanket and our child can't seem to stay in anything more than a diaper?!

Just because she's so darn cute, here is a picture of her reading the Bible to her friends while I was doing laundry.

Fun Times

This weekend was quite busy! We started on Saturday with a day trip to Burlington for a wedding. Savannah could hardly wait to spend time with Granny, Pawpaw, and Ms. Deborah while we were at the wedding. She kept saying "I go granny's house, I go pawpaw's house" so boy were we excited to finally arrive to my mom's house! We enjoyed some lunch and Savannah had a blast playing with Granny and all of her toys. When it was time to go, she pitched a royal fit crying "I no go bye bye. I stay with Granny." Thankfully, we quickly made it to Pawpaw's house where she could further be entertained. We dropped her off and headed to the wedding. While we were gone she had some quality time with her cousins too.

Crazy cousins!

We stopped by Concord Mills on the way home and finally pulled in the driveway around 8:00 last night! Whew. What a long day! We decided to sleep in this morning (shame, shame on us) and just go to the later service. After church and a quick lunch we headed over to the Graham's house for Roy Austin's first birthday party. The kids had a blast wearing their costumes, eating some delicious food, making pumpkins, jumping in the bounce house, and playing on the swingset. Donna, it was an AWESOME party!

Savannah throwing balls at the pumpkins

Here is Savannah with Baby Kathryn. Aren't they cute?

After the party, our little ladybug crashed for a seriously long nap. We finally woke her up at 5:30 to get ready for dinner. It was a fun weekend, but we are completely exhausted. Dave is still working hard to carve a Dora pumpkin for Savannah . . . it'll hopefully be finished tomorrow night!

Aw Shucks!

Savannah playing in the cabin.

Savannah with Anna Kate in the pumpkin house

Savannah and Jack also in the pumpkin house.

Most of the kids!

Today Savannah and I ventured out with our Sunday school class to the Aw Shucks! corn maze and pumpkin patch. Savannah had a blast riding on the hay ride, playing with the pumpkins, feeding the animals, and playing with all of her friends. Because Dave wasn't with us (he went to the Clemson game) we didn't brave the muddy corn maze, but we still had a swell time. We even ate a picnic lunch. It was quite windy and chilly so by 1:00 we headed home for a nice nap. What a great way to welcome Fall!

And Now . . . A Family of Four

Nope, not another baby, another fish!! Dave and I were talking earlier this week and decided that it might be time to get Savannah a fish. Well it just happens that after our date night at church on Friday they were giving away goldfish so we brought one home for Savannah. She decided on the way home that the fish would be called Dorothy (after Elmo's fish). Savannah fell in love with her new fish and asked to see it first thing this morning after waking up. We knew that we had to go get some fish food so we journeyed to the new Pet Smart this morning to buy Dorothy some food.

After talking to several employees about goldfish we decided that Dorothy would be much happier in our big neighborhood pond where she could grow to be quite large. We then went with our original plan to get another beta. This afternoon Dave and Savannah ventured to the pond to release Dorothy to be with her friends. I'm sure they'll be back often to check on her!

So, here is our new beta fish also named Dorothy. After getting used to calling the goldfish Dorothy, Savannah refuses to call this poor male beta fish anything else . . . so welcome home Dorothy, #2!!

Savannah's First Show

Here we are waiting for the show to start!

She's totally mesmerized!

Several months ago Dave and I decided to take advantage of a buy one get one free ticket offer that my sweet friend Julie e-mailed me. It was for the Disney on Ice show, opening night only. We decided to take Savannah and see how she reacted. After all, if she cried or couldn't make it through the entire show it wouldn't be a big monetary loss.

It was a royal day for our little princess. She got to wear her red sparkley shoes, ride the train (Lynx - Charlotte's light rail), eat at Chick fil A, and then go to the princess show. All day she kept telling everyone we saw that she was going to the princess show. Too cute! We finally arrived uptown and the arena was a bit much for her. She wanted to be held the entire time as the hustle and bustle of people combined with the loud music was quite overwhelming to her. Once we finally got to our seats we had to wait a long time as they had some technical issues. However, once the show started she was completely still, in awe of everything she was seeing. It was priceless to see her be so into the show. . . well until The Lion King part. She got pretty squiggly during that as there were no princesses. We ended up leaving early just because it was sooooo late and she had school today, but overall we all had a fabulous time.

I do have to share the highlight of my night. When Ariel from The Little Mermaid came out, Savannah's first response was "Mommy, the princess have no shirt." Obviously we haven't watched the Little Mermaid. Dave was quick to tell her that at our house princesses do wear shirts! :)

Lowe's Triples

I honestly feel like I just robbed Lowe's Foods! This is my best triple run E.V.E.R. I have to give credit to my smart friend, Kristin, who clued me into the fact that Lowe's accepts the $10 off your order coupons on your subtotal BEFORE other coupons so easily I was able to use 3 of those today. Never the less, I ended up making 2 trips (4 different orders) and spent only $13.87 with a savings of . . . are you ready???? $236.51!!! That's 94.5% savings including milk and produce!

Nonstop Weekend

This weekend has been insane! Here is a glimpse into what we did from Friday to Sunday.

Friday:

• 10am Savannah's Library/Music Class
• Quick trip to Harris Teeter to pick up some necessities
• 12pm Hosted a brunch for neighborhood ladies (See picture above where Savannah decided to eat her lunch early!) As a side note ~ cleaning, cooking, and preparing for a brunch with a toddler right behind you is NOT as easy job!
• Wash china, clean up from brunch
• 3pm Tutor appointment
• 6:30 - 8:30 FedEx class at church

Saturday:

• 6:30am Leave for uptown race ~ a HUGE thank you goes to Jenny for watching Savannah for us so I didn't have to push the jogging stroller again!
• 11am Monogram sale
• Then a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up supplies for our next home project, Savannah's art strip
• Home for lunch and finished project
• 3pm Visited with Elizabeth and Baby Luke uptown at CMC. What a sweet, sweet baby!! I could have stayed hours, but didn't know I was visiting during family nap time. Sorry Elizabeth!
• 5pm Sunday school class cookout ~ Thanks to Dave for making the side dish!

Sunday:

• 8am Church and Teach Sunday School
• Errands, dishes, etc
• 3pm Tutoring appointment

Whew! It has been an exhausting weekend, but it sure has been filled with fun! Hopefully this week will be a little slower and more relaxing too.

Another Consignment Sale

Earlier this week my friend Kristin and I volunteered at the Divine Consign Show in order to be able to shop early tonight. Although this sale is much unlike the Matthews sale that I went to earlier last month, I was hopeful of getting a few nicer items for Savannah. However, the items seemed really worn and overpriced . . . I'm a bargain shopper remember! Anyway, I did end up getting her one cute dress and a very nice winter coat. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but she's actually never even had a winter church coat. In the past we've had one coat worn for all occasions. She'll be adorable in this new coat, which I bought for only $14!!