Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Extreme Couponing??

I probaby won't qualify for TLC's Extreme Couponing any time soon (I don't have an entire storeroom for unhealthy things that we'll never use anyway), but I think I did a pretty good job today. All things that we will use/needed. Total before sales and coupons...$46.15.

Total spent $14.40. A 68% savings. I'd say I did all right for about 20 minutes of clipping/calculating and shopping! And the lady at the check out was amazed. She actually said. You almost got that for free. Regardless, I had fun! And Karis, well she slept the whole time. There will be a time and place for sharing my saving wisdom, but apparently it wasn't today.

Diapers, Diapers, Diapers!

We were incredibly blessed when Karis arrived by many, many people who wanted to show us their support and bless us with gifts, a good portion of which were diapers. In fact we still haven't purchased a package of diapers except the very first one, which was before there was ever a baby in our house!

The only problem is that most all of the diapers were the same size and well, Karis is a growing girl. I opened what I decided was to be the last package of size one diapers because well, let's just say they aren't holding things like they used to.

Monday morning I went through our stockpile and discovered that we still had a significant amount of size 1s and only two packages of 2s. However I knew from growing out of newborns that you can just return the unopened packages to Walmart and switch them out for the size that you need. So I loaded up K and the diapers and headed to Walmart to fix the problem.


Upon arriving at the customer service desk we hid snag #1. Luvs make identical packages with different barcodes for the different stores. So even though package #1 looked just like package #2, Walmart wouldn't take it? Oh, giant corporations how you annoy me!

I did not lose hope though, because I figured I could just try Target, I mean most people probably shopped at those two stores right?

That was only snag #1. Snag #2 was that apparently I had worn out Walmart's good graces on returns this year. Yeah, who knew you could even wear out their good graces? Never mind that I had only returned a total of like $50 of stuff this year mostly of newborn diapers, I had made the dreaded 3 transactions and my driver's license had been black balled. Sad day. I can no longer take things back to Walmart until 2012. It just might change my shopping methods and I won't impulse buy anything there because I won't have the thought in the back of my head that if I regret it I can just return it. Sad, sad day!

They did "do me a favor" though and allow me to trade exact packages for exact packages in another size. So I traded a few and kept a few to return with Van to use his DL to return those brands that I don't love.

Next stop on the quest to return diapers was Target. They were actually much nicer and allowed me to return all that were from their store (again with the weird barcode thing) for any other pack of diapers of equal value. I left with an even exchange of packages of size 1 for packages of size 2 or 3 (because I don't want to do this again) in the brands that I like and I hadn't spent a dime. Exactly what I was hoping to happen at Walmart. When did Target and Walmart switch places.

Last stop was Babies R Us because I still had another package that wouldn't scan at either Target or Walmart. It was the best of all. I just told them what I needed and they just said. Go get the package that you want. End of story.

So all of that to say that what I had anticipated taking about an hour at the most turned into a whole morning activity, but at the end of the day I traded out a ton of diapers and still have yet to buy any...and shouldn't have to for a long time.

A GIANT thank you to all of our friends who blessed us with the unbelievable gift of not having to buy diapers. We greatly appreciate it!

Father's Day




This will mostly be a post of pictures...


Van and Karis on Father's Day. Karis was asleep, but Van was excited!

K got Van headphones. That's what he asked her for. I wonder if it is so that he can drown out her crying....?






They were both worn out from a weekend on the lake.

Uncle Hunter and Auntie (Natalie) got K a cute bathing suit cover up!



She really was exhausted on Sunday!


The boys went cliff jumping. A great way to celebrate being a new dad, putting yourself in mortal danger! (sarcasm)




She wore her "I Love Daddy shirt" in honor of the day. I think both of their faces portray all of the sun and exhaustion. (Don't worry, K and I spent most of the day in the house since it was so hot!)

Happy First Father's Day Van! You are loved and appreciated!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Lake Time!

For Father's Day my dad asked all of his kids to go to the lake with him. Who were we to deny him that?!! We LOVE the lake and would live there in the summer if we could! We took this opportunity to introduce Karis to "the lake" otherwise known as Lake Norfork.

To ride in the boat she has to wear a life jacket. I can't decide if it looks cute or abusive because it is just so bulky that she can't move, but really she didn't seem to mind it at all.


Check out the little grin as I zip her up. She doesn't realize what's happening!
She took a little nap on the boat, but for most of the time she was awake and alert. There was too much going on that she might miss. She did sleep most of Sunday and Monday, though, to recuperate. She was quite the trooper while we were there. She wasn't fussy and just went with the flow in spite of the lack of naps.
Oh, and the sweet little bathing suit is her European swimsuit, from Adrienne. We love you Ade and we miss you!
Another post coming on Van's first Father's day!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

3 months!

My baby girl is three months old. She is officially not a newborn anymore! How sweet it is to watch her grow. I'm so thankful to be her Mama.

In honor of the big day, we had Katie bring her camera over to take some pictures of our girl. I would say she did a great job.


Please ignore the drool spot on the dress, it is constant in our lives.


Everything goes straight to the mouth.


This one looks like it should have writing on the side...

And my favorite! Isn't she just precious!



An adoption sermon

One thing about me is that I LOVE to listen to sermons. I will listen to a great sermon multiple times. I have listened to this one 3 times now (but that may have been because it took me that many tries to listen to the whole thing).

I would highly suggest it as a great attitude on adoption. so if you have a minute listen to this sermon on adoption from Voddie Baucham.


Monday, June 13, 2011

Changing out clothes


Is this what motherhood is like? This feeling of excitement over each milestone mixed with sadness (for lack of a better word) over how quickly it is going by. I spent the afternoon putting away most of her 0-3 month clothes. She can still wear all of her dresses, but anything with any length on it she just can't wear anymore. Last night while my siblings and their spouses were here (what an amazing blessing to honestly be friends with my sister and brother!) we tried to put her in a 3 month footie thing and she couldn't even stretch out her legs. It makes me want to cry, and I may have just a little bit as I was putting away some of my favorite outfits.

In other news, I have been extremely lazy/selfish about putting her on a nap schedule. Mainly because I don't want to be tied down to her nap schedule, but also because I don't like that she wakes up crying every 15 minutes. I decided that this is the week I am instituting a schedule and I have decided to use the swaddle in order to make this happen. I have mentioned before that the swaddle is an amazing tool in getting her to sleep. Well, I put her down a few minutes after 2:00 and she is still asleep at almost 4:00. She hasn't woken up yet. Now, the true test will be if this good sleep during the day will mess up her night sleep (I'm just not willing to mess with that). But I'm still going to need some ideas to wean her off of the swaddle. In the mean time I just ordered some large swaddle blankets, so we will continue to swaddle and sleep peacefully.

Since you've been so patient. Here is a picture of Kare-bear in one of her fancy outfits this morning.
Have an incredible day!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

A Park Playdate

Since Tasha and kids were in town this week, all of the moms met at the park so that she could see everyone at once instead of carting them all around town.

We couldn't resist a pic of all the baby heads together. Can you believe Karis is the youngest. She is really growing!
R willingly joined. A was having none of it and Isaac definitely wasn't going to lay down. Those big kids with an opinion.
Right before this picture they had somehow grabbed hands, but they let go before I could catch it. It still looks like they are trying to fist bump.
Lisa and L decided to join us after all of the picture taking was done. It is hard to believe that she is only a few months older than Karis.
It was nice to see everyone and just sit at the park for a while. We attracted the attention of a lot of the kids with our blanket full of babies. Memphis girls, we should do it again soon. Tasha, thanks for coming and encouraging us to hang out. Again, I want to reiterate, you are welcome to come back anytime you want!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Meeting friends

Today Karis finally got to meet our sweet friends the Houlihans. Steve and Tasha were some of our closest friends when we first moved to Memphis and got married. They moved to Montana a little over a year ago. We want them to know they can come back whenever they want.

This is Isaac. I asked if he would take a picture with Karis, but he declined. He did offer to take a picture with his sword though. What a boy. I can't believe how big he has gotten!
This is us with Tasha and Ansley. Ansley is almost a month older than Karis. If they lived here Ansley would be Karis's best friend. Hopefully they will still know each other. (Please ignore the fact that I hadn't showered.)
Tonight I finally caved (or did the right thing) and pulled out Karis's 3-6 month clothes. I was trying to ignore that the 3 months were a little small. Look how big she looks. I'm afraid to blink and miss it all!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

A Cute Hat


Today I needed to go to the post office to drop off a batch of completed thank you notes (Look for yours in the mail.), and I decided that the post office is much to close to drive to when it is the only errand that we needed to run. Now I know that it is extremely hot outside and I know that I have a young baby, but sometimes a girl just has to get outside and since Van is out of town, Karis and I are in it together 24 hours a day. Yesterday I stayed inside most of the day, but today I was getting out. So I sunscreened the girl, put her in light airy clothing and a hat and we set out. And I will say she looked adorable.


We (well mainly I made the decision) decided to walk over and visit Sarah and Simon so that they could walk with us, so we walked to their house, the post office and back, which can't be more than half a mile. However, Karis looked beat, but still adorable.
Karis's day ended with a visit to Aunt Katie and Uncle Zach's to see how their house was coming along now that they are settling in. Karis got all ready for bed at their house and Aunt Katie even got to give her her nighttime bottle. Have I mentioned how excited I am that they live so close to us?

Katie probably won't love the picture, but I just can't help but share it.

I think I probably started the post with a certain air of a good story. Sorry, just wanted to share pictures of my girl. Nothing interesting to tell. Maybe tomorrow. Until then...


Tuesday, June 7, 2011

A day in the life of Baby Girl

These are mostly pictures from Wednesday June 1, when I decided to document everything Karis does. I say mostly, because some are from other days, but it is a recreation of that particular day. Here goes:

Her day usually starts with Van feeding and changing her before he goes to work, then he brings her to me and we lay there for a while because well, neither of us seem to be morning people. This is her laying beside me in bed.

Then she sits in her bouncy seat while I take a shower. This sometimes includes music and singing. I took this picture to document how she will contort her head every which way in order to find me in the room when I'm talking to her. She knows who her mama is, and it is wonderful!
After eating again, she gets dressed for the day (not before eating because there is major spit up involved in a feeding, so rather than changing twice, she eats in her jammies), and then has tummy time (which she does not enjoy) or plays on her play mat (which she LOVES). She really likes to stare down the duck! When she starts to get fussy we sometimes read a book, which calms her down.


Sometimes we go visit Simon. On this particular day we did not, but sometimes we do.

On this particular day we had to go and rescue Van at his lunch stop because the car decided not to start. Karis was excited about that! Van was not. (Anyone know of a great vehicle, preferably a truck for an affordable price, we are in the market, as this sort of thing is becoming a regular occurrence.)
It was particularly hot that day, so after changing her diaper and recently spit-up on outfit, I decided to leave her in just a diaper. She was playing while I put away her laundry, and wore herself out, so afternoon nap was taken on the playmat that day.
Sometimes naptime looks more like this because in the afternoon she won't usually fall asleep on her own.

Then Van comes home and we eat dinner. Or on this night, I plant vegetable plants while Karis eats dinner.




Then we watch a little TV, have a bath,

She eats again, we swaddle her, and she goes to sleep. This picture is from a long time ago. We haven't taken a picture of her sleeping in her bed in a long time.
I know what a lot of you are thinking, "you still swaddle her?" The answer is yes. If we swaddle her, she will sleep for 8 or more hours. If we don't swaddle her, she will only sleep for about 45 minutes. I am nervous about when she gets too big to swaddle. Any ideas are welcomed!


And there you have it, a day in the life of Karis. I hope to get better at recording little things about our growing girl!

In an effort to do better


at keeping a record of Baby girl's firsts:

Today she got her first Imagination Library book in the mail. Of course this excites me because if you know me, I LOVE free stuff, and the fact that it is a free BOOK. Does it get any better? If you live in Memphis and have a child under 5, sign them up.