Morning Walk

This weekend has been one of the best we've had in awhile. We really needed a couple days of catching up on family time with no distractions, no plans, no anything! We've really gotten that yesterday and today. As much as we love all our friends, it's been so nice just seeing our own little family the last 24 hours. Jason and Gavin have really bonded and caught up on missed time from the busy work week last week. This morning we had breakfast together and then went out for a stroll around the neighborhood. We took LT so he could swim in the pond and get out some energy. He had a great time.

Gavin and Jas on our neighborhood pier. Gavin was excited because LT had just jumped in the water to fetch a stick!

Our happy boy

(His shirt says "I'm proud my daddy is in the army")

Gavin and mommy (I'm trying to get a little suntan going, but it's not working too well!)

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL!

You know you have a trained child when he falls asleep at 11am on the dot almost every morning, no matter where he is or what he's doing! 11am hit, and he was falling over asleep in his car. I had to carry him the rest of the way home, as he kept hitting his head on the steering wheel!! It's a good thing this car has a seat belt.

Friday at Forsyth

Have I mentioned how much we love living in Savannah? It's so beautiful here... I can't get over the trees! The weather is perfect here this weekend, so we are taking full advantage of it and spending as much time outside as possible. Friday we headed to Forsyth Park in downtown Savannah for a workout. Jason wanted to try out the new jogger as well. We drove down and parked right by the park, and got ready for a jog. We did 3 laps around the park (I think thats about 3 miles??). Jason is in MUCH better shape then me and he kicked my butt. It was a challenge keeping up with him, but in the end I'm glad I did. It was good preparation for the 5k I'm running next weekend to support breast cancer research. Several of us ranger wives are participating. We ordered pink shirts that say "Rangers Wives Love Ta-Ta's"!!
After our workout we stopped at the park so Gavin could swing. We didn't stay long, as many kids kept asking Jason to pick them up and push them in the swings. It was a little uncomfortable. We wonder where their parents were !?!?

Next we stopped at the fountain. Gavin could watch the water all day.

Attempt at a family shot... Gavin wanted to give mommy loves!

Early Friday morning I put a roast/veggies in the crock pot. We were starving by the time we arrived back home, and it was ready just in time. We put Gavin down for a nap and enjoyed our dinner, and then took a nap ourselves!

Sandgnats Season Opener

4-9-2009

Gavin is ready for his 1st baseball game: The Savannah Sandgnats season opener! He looks like such a big boy in his new tennis shoes.

Colton, Gavin, and Max... Gavin was not too happy to be in the middle! (But don't they look soooo cute in their baseball attire?)

He was much happier back in the arms of mommy.

Jason and some guys from work

Waiting for the fireworks to start

Gavin couldn't take his eyes off the show once it began. He was tired and they were pretty loud, so he did shed a few tears in the middle. Though they scared him, he wouldn't take his eyes off of them!

ATTENTION MOMS!!!

... if you have a child that can sit up unassisted, you NEED this! It's awesome! Found this at Toys R Us last night on sale for $29.99 (regular $49.99) but they were out of the red. They had plenty of pink in stock though! So, I came home and price shopped online. I couldn't find a better deal, so I took my Toys R Us ad to Walmart today and they price matched it for me. Take the Toys R Us ad to Walmart before midnight on Saturday to get one of your own at this price! The box says it's for ages 18-36 months, but as long as your child can sit alone I think its just fine. I took LT for a walk and pushed Gavin in his car today - we went up and down bumps and had no problems. Gavin laughed and bounced up and down the whole time. The front hood opens and has space for storage. Also, the horn beeps. This will be great for walking to the pool this summer!! I think I have an extra Toys R Us ad if anyone in the Savannah area needs one by Saturday!

Two Teeth

I finally captured a picture of my little man's 2 teeth! His first one (lower left) popped through on March 14th and the second one (lower right) was was about two weeks later.
Gavin has started to "low crawl" all around his crib, room, etc. whenever you put him down. I can't believe how mobile he is! He has figured out how to get from a sitting position to laying on his stomach to crawl. ONCE he went from laying on his stomach to sitting up. I think that was a fluke, cause that takes talent! He likes to crawl to the side of his crib and pull the bumper down to look out. He also will scoot in his room to his dresser or the glider (pictured above) and will reach up high trying to pull himself up. He hasn't figured it out yet, but it won't be long.
Here is a picture of how he sleeps these days: hands under his belly and his butt straight in the air! These are 18 mos Carter's pajamas he has on. He skipped over the size 6-9 mos clothes and went straight into 12 mos stuff. In pajamas we stick with 18 months though because they fit better. The legs are long, but he'll grow into them. He's such a BIG boy!

Gavin's favorite song right now is "Little Bunny Foo Foo" - he cracks up when you say "Bop him on the head" every time... we probably sang that song 5 times in a row this morning and he just laughed and laughed. I'd make a video if it wasn't for my terrible singing skills!!!

Spring Cleaning

Gavin had blueberries for the first time this morning - I mixed a small amount in with his cereal. He LOVES them! Can you tell by his face??? They make a mess!

Jason has been working long hours the last 2 weeks. Gavin loved getting some playtime this morning before Jason had to go in. LT was jealous!!!

I've started some spring cleaning this morning while Gavin naps. Wednesdays I try to get Gavin's room cleaned and his laundry done, so I'm bleaching his toys today too!

My silver was also in NEED of being polished... we are going to a Easter Gathering this weekend and I wanted to take food on a platter we received for our wedding, so that inspired me to get to polishing!

Here's the AFTER photo... looking much better. Now I need to decide what sides I'm gonna make to take this weekend. Thanks to the Davis family for inviting us over Sunday!

Exhausted

My little buddy fell asleep in the front of a shopping cart today at the Commissary. It was so sweet. He just layed his head down and went to sleep with no fussing. He was exhausted! This morning we had a play group at 10... so he missed his 11am nap. Thanks so Melissa for hosting this week - breakfast was good!

Tonight a few of us went to the gym and did a yoga class. It was a lot of fun, but hard for us to concentrate (we all have kids between ages 3 1/2 months and 6 1/2 months) and the childcare room was connected to the yoga room. We could hear every little peep they made and it was so hard to resist going in to help every few minutes. Gavin did start crying pretty hard once so I went in an calmed him. Since our yoga was interrupted, we went to the basketball court and ran "gassers" for a little while to get our heart rates up. All our boys were ready to go home when we finished those! I hope to make it back to the gym tomorrow or maybe run again. The childcare hours aren't the best and Jason is working really long hours this week (he still isn't home and it's midnight), so I'll have to come up with something tomorrow!

I made Gavin a batch of organic cinnamon applesauce tonight after he went to bed. It was so hard not to eat it when I finished. I think he'll like that for dessert tomorrow night!

I'm off to do dishes and head to bed. Sweet dreams!

New Jogging Stroller!

Jason showed up Saturady morning with an awesome surprise for me - a new jogging stroller! I've been complaining to him so much about how badly I need to work out and want to get back into running, etc. I'm so thankful for my new jogger! It's awesome. It has a "Music on the Go" feature. You plug your Ipod into it, and it has speakers! That way I can hear music AND Gavin at the same time while I'm running. It's great. I took it to post today and did 3.8 miles in it. LOVE IT! Today was very windy, which was a challenge for me, but I did it. Gavin took himself a nice nap. Thanks babe!

Pictures from Starla

Happy early birthday to Starla! Jeff had this painting done and sent it to her. (I'm a little jealous! haha) Also, congrats to Lindsey's fiance, Josh! He graduated Airforce Basic Training and is now off to Tech School in Mississippi. Josh graduated Honor Grad - we are so proud of him!

Our Busy Weekend

Saturday we went to a company party... there was tons of good food. Round one was burgers on the grill, round two was Low Country Boil. We were stuffed by the time we got back home.

Teaching Gavin how to play, all he wanted to do was eat the ping pong ball
Melissa and I with the boys!




Sunday we went to a shooting range - I was talked into shooting a couple of the guns. I had NO idea what I was doing! It was raining the whole time, so the gnats were horrible!

Setting up the targets

Jason helping me out with the first gun Do I look like a pro?

He's the real pro!

Family, Day 4: BEACH!

I have more to post later, but heres a few to preview!

Family, Day 3

Today we were taken over by constant rain again. Since we couldn't head to the beach, we decided to head to the Oglethorpe mall. Fortunately, we found Build-A-Bear and kept the kids busy with that for awhile! Nana paid for a "Scruffy Dog" for Gavin (thanks!). For $3 extra dollars, we were able to record Jason's voice and put it in the dog so Gavin will always have a "lovey" to sleep with when daddy is away. Until April 19th, you can get your coupon HERE for $5 off your purchase at Build-A-Bear: This is a great idea for all you military people out there! I think it'll come in handy having a stuffed animal with daddy's voice while Jason is away training or deployed in the future.

Kaylee and Gavin are ready for the mall!
So excited about Build-A-Bear!

Here we are stuffing Gavin's animal

Gavin meets "Vinnie" (We needed a local name for him, so why not name him after our favorite local pizza place!?!)

Cleaning Vinnie up to take him home

Family, Day 2

Gavin recruited the twins to watch out the window with him this morning... after so much rain, they enjoyed finding worms (or snakes, as Reagan called them)!
Bad weather quickly canceled our beach plans... we headed to the mall for SoftPlay instead.

When we arrived back home, there was a special Easter box at the door. One of the Easter bunny's helpers (Gammy) mailed it for Gavin. Thanks so much for all the goodies, Gammy, Pop, and Auntie Lou Lou!

Mmmm... we headed out for mexican for dinner. Kaylee snapped a picture as Jason told me a story. Kaylee said we were so cute sitting talking together. She said I have a different smile and a sparkle in my eyes when he's around. That made my night! I sure do have a special man and hope he knows he lights up my life. I pray Kaylee will have the same relationship with a man one day in her future!

When we got home we watched Planet Earth and pretended to be the animals. Reagan was a riot as he acted like a frog, elephant, killer whale, etc. I think he will be getting the Planet Earth DVD Series as a birthday gift this summer! He exhausted himself for sure... Ella enjoyed playing "mommy" with Gavin's swing - we were cracking up when we noticed Reagan had fallen asleep while rocking himself. I'm heading to bed myself, hoping for better weather tomorrow!

73.2% SAVED!!

We headed out for a day of shopping/couponing today... and I'd say we did pretty good! I bought $127.54 worth of product for $34.18! That's 73.2% savings on items we regularly use. Below are the deals we found:

**2 FREE Glade Soy Candles: On sale for $5.99 each at Walgreens - I had a $4 off and $2 off coupon for each

**Striped Gymboree Sweater (I got size 18-24 months so he can wear it next winter): Original price tag says $32.50 - I got it for $3.99

**Rugby shirt (also for next winter): Original price tag says $22.50 - I paid $3.99

**Colgate toothpaste: valued at $2.79 - I paid $0.62 after coupons

**Cheetos: On sale at Target for $1.29, I had 7 $1 off coupons... so $0.29 each!

**Reynolds Wrap: Regularly $1.69, only paid $0.99 each with coupons

**Softsoap: Buy 1 get one free

**Chapstick: Free with store rewards

**Seventh Generation Baby Wipes: Regularly priced $3.99, $1.99 after coupons

**Kelloggs Drink Mix: My free samples came in the mail today!

**Aveeno body wash with free trial sized lotion: Regularly priced at $3.99, on clearance (found on the endcaps at Target in the baby section) for $2.54. Gavin tends to break out when I use Johnson's products on him, so I get excited when I find a good deal on any Aveeno product!!! I found him Aveeno sunscreen for this summer too... not a huge savings, but I did get it for $3 off, making it $6.99. We're prepared for the beach!

I think that covers everything.

I've been trying to pay close attention to prices when I grocery shop lately and use coupons where I can and buy generic when its available... Monday I saved $24 with coupons on my groceries. NOT BAD! When my total was only $99 at the grocery store, I was pretty impressed. Saving this much on everyday items has allowed me to buy Gavin mostly organic produce/cereal without spending any extra money each month.

Want to know where you can find great coupons as well? Buy your local Sunday paper for local ads/coupons and click on the blogs I have listed in the column on the right to get you started in the right direction.