My "baby" is 2!

My little lady had a birthday yesterday so I decided to take her outside in a attempt to get an official birthday picture. Did you know that 2 year olds are active?!? I have more blurry photos than anything else because she didn't want to sit still for me. BUT I did manage to snap this little gem of her looking up at my into the breeze. It shows off her crazy wild curls and sweet face perfectly. So, I had to scrap it, of course.

The page can be seen with credits here.

Tomorrow we are having her birthday party here at the house which will be mostly family. So, today I will be cooking and cleaning to get ready.

Walgreens & CVS Deals

I just thought I would post how I did saving money at Walgreens and CVS last week.

WALGREENS
I didn't do quite at well as I did the time before, but I bought a lot more, including diapers which are a high dollar item even with a deal.

$163.10 Total before any savings

-5.65 WAG coupons (from Walgreen's weekly ad)
-16.50 Register Rebates earned from last visit
-24.72 MFG coupons
-44.20 WAG sales

$72.03 Total (that I paid) 56% Savings
-4.00 RR earned this visit
-25.97 ESR (Easy Saver Rebates earned)
-2.60 Bonus 10% rebate for putting on gift card

$39.46

TOTAL SAVINGS
$123.64
(76% savings)

CVS

$93.41 Total before sales

-17.11 CVS sales
-24.99 ECB (Extra Care Bucks) from previous visit
-14.79 MFG Coupons

$36.52 Total (that I paid) 61% Savings

-11.99 ECB earned

$24.53

TOTAL SAVINGS
$68.88
(74% Savings)

Baby Got Book

Our family was at a wedding reception a couple of weeks ago, when the DJ decided to play "Baby Got Back." You know what song I mean, right? It the "I like big butts" song. The only people out dancing were the 6 and under set and we somehow thought it was just plain wrong that our little ones were jamming and having so much fun to that song.

It's a shame the DJ didn't have a copy of this song instead. It is a hoot and far more appropriate.

Clean!

Last week I posted an embarrassing photo of my very messy hallway. I vowed before all y'all that I would have it clean and post a new photo within a week (which was last Monday). Now, I know that I am posting this late, but I did have it clean in time. I had guests over Sunday and the can testify that my hall was clean and clear. It has been a hectic week and I had trouble finding the time to take a photo and post it. But here it is...Ta Da...my hallway.

In case you forgot what I was up against here is the "before" photo:

I can't tell you how good it feels to have my hall back! I don't think it is realistic to try and tackle any big cleaning projects this week with how much I have on my plate right now. But I have been trying to do just a little each day. Even the little bits add up.

1st Dentist Visit

I had to take my littlest one to the dentist today. About a month ago I noticed that one of her teeth was turning gray. I can only assume that she bumped it. I called our pediatric dentist and they thought he should take a look at her. So, Rachel has the honor of being the youngest member of the family to go to the dentist.

Her tooth is in good shape, but it is discolored enough that the dentist thinks she has about a 50% chance it will "die" and need to be removed. We see him in a couple of months again and need to watch it.

Rachel's strong-willed personality reared its ugly head and she was NOT cooperative about having someone poke around her mouth. It took 2 nurses and me to hold her while the dentist checked what he needed to. Thank goodness, it didn't even phase him a bit when she kicked and screamed and he was very fast. A princess sticker and a Dora toothbrush seemed to make it all better. You can see her in this scrapbook page showing the toothbrush off to her brother. Her big sister, Abi, is quite jealous and demanded to know when she would get HER Dora toothbrush.

Credits for the page and the journaling can be found here.

Walgreens Deals

I have heard from many people that you can get some sweet bargains at Walgreens, but had been totally confused as to how their deals work. I was convinced, though, that I had to give it a try after reading a bit on Deal Seeking Mom's blog.

Originally, as I said, I was a bit confused as to how the Walgreens deals work because there are several types.
There are:

• Sales - weekly deals
• Walgreens coupons that come in their sale flyer. These can be used along with a manufacturer's coupon to stack the savings.
• Register Rebates (RR). Usually you buy so many particular items to earn a certain amount. These print out with your receipt and can be used like cash on your next Walgreen's purchase.
• Easy Saver Rebates (ESR) - These are rebates on specific items each month that Walgreens sponsors. You can claim these by mail or even online. If you take the option of getting your rebates on a Walgreens gift card, they give you an extra 10%. Each month there are several free after rebate items.

After discovering that Walgreens had a $10 off a purchase of $40 coupon that was good last Friday and Saturday, I thought it was time to get my feet wet and give the Walgreens deal shopping a try. I felt like a total novice, but armed with advice from the Deal Seeking Mom and my coupons, I set out.
I purchased a handful of items:

• Dimetap
• Shout
• Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber
• Revlon Nail Polish
• Chemistry Conditioner
• Crest Pro Health Mouthwash
• Crest Pro Health Toothpaste
• Walgreens Acid Control Tablets

Here's the breakdown:

Retail price total $58.80

Total after Walgreens sales: 52.10

Manufacturers coupons -10.25

Walgreens $10 off $40 -10.00

Total after coupons $31.85

RR earned -16.50

ESR to be earned -23.56

Extra 10% earned by putting this on a gift card -2.36

NET GAIN 10.57

Isn't that awesome! I am thinking that I am loving Walgreens. There were several ESR free after rebate deals that they were out of. I am hoping that Walgreens will get them in before the end of the month when the rebate period ends. I can't wait to see what kind of deals that I can get this week!

Just Released

This brand new CD put out by our friend, Doug Hood, has just been officially unveiled. More info about the CD can be found at this website.
Does that little girl on the cover look familiar? She should - that's my daughter, Abi. I was honored that Doug asked me to create the graphics for his CD once again. (I helped him out on his first album several years ago.) As I brainstormed ideas for the cover art, this photo came to mind. It seemed to be a perfect fit and Doug agreed.

I just received my copy of the CD and it is so fun to see the finished product! Be sure to check it out at the website. You can even listen to clips of the songs. Enjoy!

Happy International Chocolate Day

Did you realize that there even was an "International Chocolate Day"?


I was searching around the web trying to find the history behind this special holiday and discovered that there are a whole bunch of chocolate related holidays.
Here is a list from Extreme Chocolate:



May 12th: National Nutty Fudge Day

• May 15th: National Chocolate Chip Day



• June 16th: Fudge Day (in fact, all of June is considered the official "candy month")

July 7th: Chocolate Day

• July 28th: National Milk Chocolate Day


• August 10th: S'mores Day



• Sept. 13th: International Chocolate Day -- that's right, a worldwide celebration



• Sept. 22nd: National White Chocolate Day



• Oct. 28th: National Chocolate Day (How is this different from chocolate day on July 7th? Beats me! Celebrate them both anyway, though).



• Nov. 7th: National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day (yes, you read that right).



• Dec. 16th: National Chocolate Covered Anything Day



• Dec. 28th: National Chocolate Day (again)



• Dec. 29th: National Chocolate Day (again)

How fun! I am all for celebrating chocolate. The curious thing is that I cannot find any information on the origins of International Chocolate Day. I am not about to worry too much about such details when a holiday about chocolate is concerned.


So enjoy your chocolate, just make sure it is an international variety!





In honor of the day, I am giving away a freebie! This will have special appeal to all of you scrapbookers out there, but it has some really fun chocolate graphics that anyone would love for their creative projects. The little chocolate thoughts never fail to make me smile!



You can download the freebie Chocolate kit here.

I'm a Gallery Stand Out!

Just had to share...the Abigail page I posted yesterday was chosen as a Gallery Stand Out at DigiShopTalk. There are so many layouts posted at this site that most do not get much attention or many views. So, it is really cool when somebody takes the time to call attention to one and show it off.

The Eyes Have It

Even though I have plenty of other things to do, I got hit pretty hard with the scrappin' bug and took a little time out to create this page.

I discovered this photo sitting on my hard drive. My daughter, Elizabeth, took it a week or so ago. I loved what she captured in my 4 year old's eyes. I decided to colorize and tint it for this page. That is the actual color of Abi's eyes; I just erased the tinting there. That is also how I did the cheeks and the slight color in the dress. Credits for the scrapbook page can be found here, if you are interested.