My Good Walgreens Deal

I just have to say that I do use coupons but honestly I'm not really very good at it yet. I want to do so much better and get the items for free but practice makes perfect right.

First a little background: I went to Walgreen's 2 weeks ago to do their Kellogg deal where you buy a certain amount of Kellogg products and you get a $5 Register Reward (RR). There were some great coupons that came out in that weeks paper so I went and bought my cereal, Rice Crispy Treats, Pop tarts, Yogos fruit snacks, and Nutrigrain bars and ended up with $30 worth of RR that expired yesterday.

So my dilemma was: What do I buy to use up the RR and also be cheap enough that I don't use too much money to pay for it? For those who don't know you need to purchase one item for each coupon/RR you have. Well looking through their add I saw that Pampers diapers were on sale for $9.49 for a Jumbo pack and there are coupons out there for $1.50 off of 1 Jumbo pack. I had 3 coupons for that.

Anyway I bought 1 pack newborn diapers, 2 packs of size 3 diapers , 1 Pert Plus shampoo, 3 candy bars, and 3 packs of college ruled filler paper. I spent a total of $2.18 Out of Pocket (OOP) and used 3 $1.50 pampers coupons, 1 in store coupon for the paper making it .39 each, another in store coupon for the candy bars also making it .39 each, and 6 $5 RR. Oh and the shampoo is free after rebate this month so I will get back $3.79 meaning that I made a profit from this deal :) Matt even told me that I did a good job after trying to convince me not to go and just let my RR expire.

Hensley Happenings

Well I forgot to mention that my birthday was on July 31. I turned the big 30 :( (sniff sniff). I enjoyed my party with my niece and nephews. I was watching them that week while their parents were at girls camp. I am now 21 weeks pregnant and I convinced Matt to take another belly shot for me and he did much better this time. Plus this is my last week of being a full-time SAHM. Next week school starts again but like I mentioned before it is only 1 class and 1 lab.

Matt is working hard both at home and at work. He finally finished the bookcase for Levi's room and has been doing various projects around the house. One of the ones I hope he gets to soon is some shelves in the small storage type room downstairs so I can put my food storage in there.

Levi is doing good. He had his 12 month Well Child Checkup and we found out that he his now 19 lbs 12 oz and 29.5 in. So he has gained a total of 11 lbs in his first year. Oh well I know he eats like he needs to fill up both legs. I tried a few months ago to only give him his binky for naps and bedtime but it didn't work with the move and everything so he has it still but at least it isn't clipped to him anymore. This means that he can and does throw it out of the crib when he doesn't want to be in there anymore. Plus he is super attached to this little yellow blanket and it goes everywhere with him (I do leave it in the car if we are going to the store because I don't want to lose it). I have 2 little blankets that he could use but he attached himself to the yellow one.

Party Time!

The birthday party for Levi turned out great. Levi was way overdue for a nap but he enjoyed the pool, kids, food, kids, cake, kids - did I mention that he had fun with the other kids :) He loves playing with his friends. We sort of had a theme for his party - Cars (Disney). The adults visited while the kids played in the swimming pool and Matt was in charge of the BBQ. Thanks Jenny and Becky for helping Levi at the pool I really appreciated it.

Pictures:

A Year in the Life of Levi

Levi

My dearest Levi,

Today you are a year old. I remember like it was yesterday when you were put into my arms with a scowl on your face like usual. You were so little and yet, you weren't so small at 8lbs 12oz. I hope that you know that you are loved by both your parents. I can't even begin to tell you how much I wanted a child for so many years and I was wondering if I'd ever get the chance to be a mother but here you are and you are so special to me.

This year has had its ups and downs like many other mothers struggling to get used to caring for another person all the time. I remember walking the halls of our apartment at night worried that your crying would wake up the college kids living in the apartments above us. I remember the scowl you gave everyone and then the beautiful smile that you gave your aunt when you met her for the first time while we were in the temple being sealed.

I was so happy when you reached your milestones and I was so sad when you were sick - even though you weren't sick very often. I almost cried when you got your shots and I felt terrible leaving you with someone while I went to school. I missed seeing everything you did while I was gone. However, because I left you with someone you got used to being around other kids and you love playing with your friends.

I watched you playing yesterday thinking that it was the last day that you would still be 11 months old and remembering that a year ago I was in the hospital waiting for my body to start working so that I could finally hold you in my arms. I'm a little sad to see you growing up and turning a year old already but I can't keep you little forever. I love you so much son!

Your loving Mother

Good News

Well as most of you know I'm pregnant again (I think I mentioned it in another post). I had my ultrasound on July 17 and we found out that we are having a girl! Now we will have one of each. I'm very excited. We decided on the name Reah Lynn - Reah after my great-grandma P. However the ultrasound gave me the new due date of Dec 24 instead of Dec 12. I just hope that she comes sometime between finals (week of the 13th) and Christmas. Yes I'm going to school for another semester and repeating the 1st 1/2 of Anatomy and Physiology.

Matt has taken 1 belly shot of me this pregnancy (I think I was around 16 weeks when he took the picture). I'm being silly and comparing it to how I looked last year when I was waiting for my Levi to finally show up. For those of you who don't know - I was 1 week late with Levi and was induced but that took a long time too (another story).

Pregnant with Levi 39 weeks along:

Pregnant with Reah 16 weeks along:

Levi's Happenings

I missed the 11 month mark for Levi and now in less than a week he will be a year old already (sniff sniff). Anyway he loves eating especially spaghetti, (and trying to feed himself) playing the piano or keyboard, playing with his toys and splashing in the swimming pool or the bathtub. I always end up soaking after giving Levi a bath :) He now has 6 teeth 3 on top and 3 on bottom.

Levi can cruise along furniture and he will walk while holding either Matt's or my hands and he will walk with his push toy. He now says "uh-oh" and he has said what sounds like "hi da" when Matt walked into the room and it sounds like he says "yeah" all the time too so maybe it is really the word and not just a sound.

Last week I didn't hear Levi for a while so I went to check on him and found him just coming out of the bathroom with my razor in hand and trailing some toilet paper. I immediately took the razor away so he grabbed the tp and kept pulling. He had a nice little wad unrolled before I broke it off.

He loves to climb on things and then stand up but he falls down a lot and has little bruises on his head like most boys do. His favorite is to climb up the 3 steps between the family room and the living room - its getting down the stairs that he falls or goes head first with a hand out in front of him. Actually just this weekend he decided to try something different for the stairs he sat at the top put his foot out turned himself around after some trying and got down the stairs that way. Yay for all his improvements.

One more story, Levi learned to clap his hands this past month and the sign for "more" is similar to clapping. He got into the plants and I caught him doing it. He turned around with a big smile on his face and signed "more". I tried so hard to not smile right then.

Sorry for the long wait

Man I get so behind on keeping this blog up. I promise that it will get updated soon. I have lots to catch up on so it might be a few posts long but when Levi goes down for his nap this afternoon I'll try to post something more. I really haven't forgotten those of you who read my blog.