8 months and his first snow

So I have noticed that Jaxon has been more cuddly lately and clingy.  We took him to the nursery for our small group time and for the first time he cried when we left him.
Thankfully up until this past month we haven't had to take him to the doctor, he's been a pretty healthy baby.  A snotty nose a couple times but nothing major.  On the 13th of January, he started to get a little snotty again, this time it lasted a week.  During naptime or when he would wake up in the mornings, I noticed some spit up or his sheet was wet, like he had extra drool or snot that made it wet.  This happened once a day for like a week.  I was thinking maybe he choked on his mucus and it caused him to spit up.  He never really acted sick and didn't have a fever.  Thankfully I took him to the doctor on January 18 just to be on the safe side and he had a mild ear infection and gave him some medicine. They weighed him and he was 18lbs.

I really enjoy my time with him, especially when he is clingy and cuddly and just wants to put his head on my shoulder.  I think he is going through a growth spurt, his nap schedule has been different lately.  He gets tired for his afternoon nap sooner.  He nurses 4-5 times a day, with yogurt/applesauce in the morning and 6 ice cubes of food for dinner.  He is definitely a growing boy.  He really wants to crawl on all fours but hasn't quite figured it out.  I guess you can call it an army crawl.  He will lay on his tummy and rock from side to side and scoot and reach for a toy that we have laid in front of him to get.  He is really growing and we are having so much fun with him.

Jaxon's first snow came on January 18 with about 3-4 inches.  Thankfully school was cancelled for Brian and we were able to be home together.  We bundled Jaxon up and took him outside.  Once one shoe and one mitten came off and he touch the snow he didn't really like it.  We watched Brian build a snowman and he was fine being outside as long as we held him and he didn't have to sit in the snow.

Trying to Save Money

So I guess its been about a month since I last updated.  I am sitting in Panera updating for a few reasons. I'm a stay at home mom and we are trying to save money.  I'll share with you a few things that we have done or haven't done.

1. Coupons can be great. I've not been very good at clipping coupons-there haven't been many coupons we can use anyways because we like to buy alot of fresh produce and we buy some stuff at Costco. But I know alot of people that can save alot of money by using their coupons, I dont' know how they do it.  I even took a class on it.But haven't mastered it.

2. We find really good deals at an international market and Aldis on our produce

3. I know we are like dinosaurs for 2 reasons- we don't have cable and we don't have a smart phone.
I'm not being critical/judgmental for the people that do have them, it just doesn't work for our family.  We have an antenna to get the local channels plus we don't watch that much TV.  We actually get a better signal using our antenna.  We have found there isn't much on worth watching anyways.  We dont' have smart phones- Brian has a computer at work and we have an ipad with cellular service.  So we can take it anywhere we need to go. We just didn't want to spend the money and didn't want the distraction to be hooked to our phones/internet all the time.

4. The fact that we moved right outside the city and it takes a little bit longer to get to places, makes me not want to go shopping alot, especially having to bring Jaxon with me, sometimes it just takes longer to go places.

5. We use cloth diapers- which is not that bad- just 2 extra loads of laundry per week. I've actually enjoyed it. Some people think I'm crazy.  But it works for us especially since I am at home.

6. Making my own baby food. Its easy and soo much cheaper and doesn't have the extra chemicals and preservatives.  I steam or bake the vegetables and use my food processor to puree them and then put in ice cube trays and freeze.  Then when I am ready to feed Jaxon I just pop it in the microwave.  Bananas, pears, avocados- I just mash them up.  Apples I have made my own applesauce-thanks to a friend who showed me how to do it.

7. We dont' have Wifi at our house and we have a celluar data plan with our Ipad which means we know we have a limit of data per month and we can take our ipad where ever we go.  Its a little inconvenient but thats why I use Panera that has free Wifi and I'm not tempted to stay on it for a long time while I'm at home.

8.We try not to eat out as much.  Some months we dont' stick to our budget, but we try to anyways.

9. We love Redbox- so when we are in the mood for a movie- we just pay a little over $1

10. We have a budget that Brian has designed in Excel- similar to Dave Ramsey's budget and we try to stick to spending a certain amount of money for certain categories (vacation, grocery, gas, restaurant, entertainment). The budget has kept us on track and we know what we are spending and know what we are saving.  So if I am tempted to buy something for myself or go grab a yummy milkshake from Chick Fil A that I don't really need it keeps me accountable because then I will have to turn the receipt to the hubby.  He doesn't mind that I buy things, but it keeps me from spending too much.

So thats what we do to save money.  It works for us and it may not work for others. Its so worth it to stay home with our little guy.

December continued

We spent Christmas Day with Brian's family.  We visited with family nearby and Jaxon got to meet more of his cousins and his Great Aunt and Uncle for the first time. He also saw his great grandma who stays in the nursing home.  We had breakfast with the family.  Then that evening we had Brian's parents and his 2 aunts over for dinner.

Brian and I love to cook and try new things.  We found these 2 recipes online and Brian helped me assemble them for appetizers for Christmas dinner.

Cheese Christmas Tree 

Veggie Wreath

We hosted New Years at our new house.  We love hosting and enjoyed having our friends over.  On New Years Eve we had dinner since our friends that came over have little ones around Jaxon's age.  We knew we couldn't watch the ball drop together.  So we grilled out and had a bonfire.  Then Brian and I watched the ball drop together.

Outside by the fire

Andrea and Jaxon's buddy, Parker

Santa twins- sitting in Jaxon's new chair

 My friend Meredith, visiting from the west coast

Uncle Eric

A year in review.....
Our first child, Jaxon was born and we decided that I would stay at home with him and not work
Many of our friends had babies and now Jaxon and I have friends to hang out with
Brian and I bought a house together
Celebrated our 3 year anniversary

So many blessings and thankful for what God has already done in our lives and in our marriage.
Looking forward to 2013....I wonder what God has in store.

Our busy December

We've had a crazy busy month- We dedicated Jaxon at church, we closed on our new house, moved in, visited family in South Carolina for early Christmas, lots of unpacking, and being with family in our new house for Jaxon's first Christmas.

December 7 was an exciting day for us.  We closed on our new house, that we both finally own.  That weekend family was coming into town for Jaxon's dedication, so Brian decided we would put them to work and move in.  We didn't have enough room at the townhouse to have family over for lunch after church on Sunday, so we had it at the new house, but wasn't expecting it to be full of boxes.   Looking back I think it was a good idea after all to have the help.  It just made for a busy stressful weekend.

at the attorney's office with our wonderful real estate agent, Dena

We had way too much stuff- a uhaul full plus cars taking stuff over to the new house.  SO thankful for family and friends to help us move.  I don't know how we fit it all in the townhouse.

We dedicated Jaxon at church on December 9.  Our church does not baptize babies, but encourages parents to dedicate them to the church and to The Lord.  We chose 1 Samuel 1:28 "For his whole life he will be given to the Lord."   That is our prayer for Jaxon.  We promised that we would raise Jaxon and teach him to love and honor God.  The church promises to support us and to help teach him.

Our wonderful Pastor praying over our son

yummy cake from Maxi B

We had lots of friends and family to celebrate with us....
my parents, my sister, brother in law, and niece
Brian's parents
Brian's aunt Susan
my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Rob
my cousin Ally and her boyfriend Cameron
Carol and Roger- friends
Kristen and Tina- friends
Tim and Eric- friends
friends from our small group and friends from our Sunday school class
our real estate agent, Dena
other friends from church

 my parents and the grandkids

Brian's parents in front of our new house

Enjoyed lunch at our new home with our family. We love to host and have friends/family over.
We had a week to settle in before traveling to see my mom's family in South Carolina. We all surprised my grandparents.  We had a quick but fun weekend with all the cousins, aunts & uncles, grandparents, my sister, brother in law, niece, and my parents. My grandparents enjoyed watching their great grand children run around.

 all the great grand kids (Jaxon, Cole, Maddie Grace, and James)

 Papa and Jaxon

the whole clan in South Carolina together for Christmas 

Grandmama and Papa with their great grandkids

Jaxon continues to bring us joy and excitement as we watch him grow everyday.  He is sitting with us at the table and eats in his high chair.  He has been enjoying carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, squash, green beans, and avocado.  In the morning he enjoys bananas and applesauce.  He can hold his bottle all by himself and loves his sippy cup with water.  He still doesn't have any teeth and is not crawling, but I know it won't be long.  Not rushing it at all.

Happy 7 months!!

Mimmie and Pop Pop gave him a new toy for Christmas, its a farm toy, it sings and talks and plays music.  It can keep him entertained for a while.  His other grandparents gave him an interactive table that he can stand up to.  His cousins gave him a musical cube that plays different musical instruments that he loves.  His cousin, aunt, and uncle gave him a dump truck, a smaller one to play with and a larger one that he can ride on.  The smaller one has legos in it.  He loves to dump them out and then put them in his mouth.  Everything goes in his mouth now.  He reaches and wants to grab everything.  His favorite is to grab Brian's beard.  He still says da da all the time and squeals.  Still waiting for him to say ma ma.  He loves taking baths.  He has been sitting up independently ever since Thanksgiving.

To Be Continued.....