As February comes to a close...

Looking back on the month of February, we have had a very busy/hectic month.
We have:
- had family return home (MeMe we love you and are so grateful for your visit and all your help!)
- had family visit from "up north" (Mark, Rachel, and AJ)
-celebrated my birthday
-attended/participated in my little sister's 13th Birthday/Sleep over/ Mall Scavenger Hunt (Selah's B-day, I know I can't believe she is a teen now either)
-done a lot of work on the house (both inside and outside, mainly just cosmetic things)
-found ways to become more frugal (I will explain later)
-made a vow to stay home more this spring than we have the entire time since Addison was born

We stay on the "go" constantly! Addison is such a WONDERFUL baby. There is NO WAY we would be able to do half the things we do if she wasn't. For example, last Saturday we drove from my sister's birthday celebration in Fort Payne to Montgomery in one trip. She slept the entire time! She is awesome! We take her EVERYWHERE with us. I think that is they way that it should be. I don't feel like we should be going any place that she can't go, if we do, what does that say about us? Don't get me wrong, it is nice to have "Grown-Up" time but we are so completely wrapped up in our little princess that we couldn't imagine doing anything without her.
Since Addie has been born, she has:
-been in "big church" since she was 3 weeks old
-seen 2 movies ("Marley and Me" and "Bride Wars")
-been to almost every restaurant in Alabaster and several in Shelby and DeKalb County (including Mizu, the Japanese Steakhouse. She LOVES the fire when they cook in front of you at the hibachi grills)
-been to a Samford Football game (Appalachian State when she was a month old)
I'm sure there will be plenty more to add to this list in the near future.

Oh yeah, did I mention she is OBSESSED with Miss Z? We now have 3 Miss Zs. We have one that stays in the bed, one in the car and one downstairs to play with. She LOVES her!

Addison thoroughly enjoyed being part of a "big girl" birthday party. She even wrote on the card she gave Aunt Selah herself, ok she had a little help from mommy)

She didn't want to miss anything. She was the center of attention. She even helped blow out the candles on the awesome zebra cookie cake she had for her birthday (Ok, so I am biased because I made it. HaHa). She even got to have a small taste of the icing. She LOVED it. I'm guessing it tastes better than the soy formula and bland baby food she is used to.

So back to the being frugal... I have been convinced to begin "couponing" by a very dear friend of mine. I was very reluctant at first. I was AMAZED after the first week at the amount of savings in just one week. I now have a routine down. On Sundays, I go to Walgreen's and get a Birmingham News (they are only $1.50 there) and go home and catalog the coupons and sales papers that are relevant to our needs. Wednesday the new grocery sales papers come out and I make my list of items to "stock up" on. Why not stock up when you get great deals, many for dirt cheap with stacking sales and coupons. Friday is usually my errand running day. I generally knock all of these out. My errands include several stops at various grocery and drug stores depending on the best deals. Addison is my deal-hunting buddy. She does great getting in and out of the car so many times, especially today with the bad weather. We were halfway through our list of errands when the "bottom fell out". Over the month, I have spent about $250 and saved at least $225. If you are interested in couponing or just love great deals, I have added links to my favorite blogs where I find a lot of my deals each week.

Well, that is February in a nut shell. I hope you guys have a wonderful March!