Sick Baby and Busy Weekend

I will start with today...my baby is a sick little girl-at times. She is running a fever that is spiking every 4 hours. It hasn't been below 99 today. She doesn't act normal, but will seem OK for periods of time, and then you can tell when the fever goes back up. She wants to be HELD and just looks pitiful! God answered prayers bf they ever went up last night. My mom was spending an extra night with us so she could go to a meeting in LR. Then someone called and asked if she would switch work shifts and come in at 4:30 today instead of 11:00. This worked out perfect for us. Mom stayed with Addison this morning, while I ran to work for a little while. Then I came home, laid down with her, and then took her to the dr only to hear the "it will run its course" spill. I am so thankful that her ears were clear! I was so afraid she had an ear infection. So here is my sick little girl taking her nap today...Even a sick princess wears a tutu!



Now to Sunday. I have seen these kinds of posts and always wondered how they did it. Well I DID IT! Look at what I got for UNDER $4!!! Grant and Addison went with me to Walgreen's and Grant was so impressed!



Now to the weekend events. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER! My mother just celebrated her 60th birthday. On Thursday, Addison and I spent the night with my mom and went to her pretend birthday party. On Friday, Anna and I took her out to eat in Hot Springs and to see Confessions of a Shopaholic-which was surprisingly good! Then on Saturday Grant, Addison and I went to Murfreesboro for Mom's real surprise party. It turned out so well. Anna worked very hard planning everything! My Aunt Susan decorated beautifully and sang a wonderful song. My another aunt, Aunt Karen made a slide show with pictures of mom growing up, me and Anna growing up, and then with Addison and Kane. There were 2 other songs performed. There were so many people there. Family and friends, including my MIL and FIL- thanks for coming!

Here is Nana with her grandchildren

This was Addison's favorite part of the night...the icing covered shoe that was on the cake!

Me and Granny Sue

My mom and dad

Addison and a friend...note Addison's outfit!

This is not what I planned on her wearing, but I woke
her from her nap and was in a hurry to leave. For some

reason, she decided she wanted to wear her tutu. I made the

best of it, and thought she looked pretty cute!

Addison and my cousin Nathan

We did a lot of running around, and my house was a disaster come Monday. It was all worth it, well, Mom is worth it! Thanks for all you do Mom! I love you!

Addison's Prince

"Daddy, I give you a kiss and you can be a prince!"

"Daddy, now you a prince"

What Have I Done?!?

I am very weird about things matching. I think I miss out on some cute looks, because it doesn't exactly "go together." I drive my Mom crazy about this- especially black. If you are wearing black pants, your black shirt really needs to be the same material, but at least the exact same shade of black! Crazy me, huh?! Well I am afraid I have passed this matching craziness on to my child. Let me begin by saying she did not nap today. We made it through bunastics (Add's new word for gymnastics) and she really did good there. I didn't wash her hair tonight and hurried through her bath. I knew we were getting close to a meltdown. I put on her pj bottoms that she wore last night, but I couldn't find the matching shirt anywhere. I grabbed another pj top (this really bothered me, but I didn't want to change the pants and encourage a meltdown-little did I know...) and put it on her. Grant came in there to give her grapes and read a book. Then they went to brush her teeth. THEN IT HAPPENED! She discovered her top didn't match her bottoms. She began screaming "I don't like this shirt" over and over again. Sometimes I would just ignore this behavior, but since it really bothered me, too, I did the best thing I could. WE WENT INTO THE LAUNDRY ROOM AND GOT A CLEAN PAIR OF MATCHING PJS! AHHH Much better. Dreams will be sweeter!
I love my little mini me!

If only Walt Disney knew

Song from bedtime tonight

He's got the whole world, in His hands
He's got the whole world, in His hands
He's got the whole, wide world, in His hands
He's got the whole world in his hands.

He's got Handy Manny, in His hands
He's got Handy Manny, in His hands...

He's got Mickey Mouse, in His hands
He's got Mickey Mouse, in His hands...

He's got Einsteins, in His hands
He's got Einsteins, in His hands...

Breaking the Budget...

One of the new outfits...

The new casual shoe...

Grant and I have set up a budget several times in the past. We usually just stick with it for a month. This is our 5th ? week now on our budget and I am obsessed with it! It is like a game for me! I am now clipping coupons, separating cash into envelopes, planning our meals, and adding as I go at Wal-Mart! The hardest thing has been (NOT) buying clothes for Addison, but I have found ways to manipulate the system- my own system! HA! But budgets can be broken occasionally, right? Like today- Addison and I went to LR. I cashed in some miles on our Discover card and got some Children's Place gift cards. I also had a coupon to Gymboree so we went there, too-had to earn some gymbucks! We then went to Shoe Connection because I wanted to get Addison some Maryjane Keds for spring. They had an awesome sale going on. I REALLY needed new boots. My brown boots were so bad I threw them away, and my black ones are close to visiting the brown ones in the trash! I thought I would get a brown pair at an awesome price of 25 bucks. But I would actually save money if I went ahead and got the black ones, too, instead of paying full price in the fall, right? So I did. Then they have the cutest bows there and at $5 a piece- what a deal! So...I broke the budget a little today. But girls have to have shoes! and bows!

My next plan to break the budget is going to entail me buying a reader for my memory stick so I can post some picts! Addison had so much fun tonight trying on her new clothes for her daddy. We would put on an outfit and she would run into the living room saying, "look daddy, look!" She was too cute! Wish I had of taken some picts!

Do any of you have any pointers or suggestions for budgeting? How do you make it work? I am amazed at how much money I am able to save!

Working 4 Days

I have been bothered by some comments I have received lately. I am probably just a little sensitive (Me sensitive?!?:) ) about the subject but I need to vent- I guess to make myself feel better.
The comments boil down to this- "Oh, working 4 days now, huh? But your in a new house." This makes me feel like we picked the house over me staying home with Addison on the 4th day. Grant and I worked hard to stay within our budget to make sure our house payment stayed where we were comfortable. We achieved this! (Despite my brother-in-law and father-in-law's predictions..HeHeHe!)

We had always planned on me going back to work 4 days before we had another baby. We were not in any hurry for either, but, yes, with building the house a little extra money did come in handy. I was the one that offered to go back 4 days until January to take some pressure off of us. Money pressure is not good for a happy family and we didn't want that stress! So now it is February. I am still working 4 days. We plan on me going back to 3 days, but it has been nice to buy blinds for the house and know we were able to put extra money down on the house and can now build our savings back up. I also hate to go back to 3, and the other therapists I work with have to pick up extra work. AND when we do have another baby, they technically wouldn't have to hold my 3-day a week position while I was on leave. So this leads to the next comment... :)
We will start trying for baby #2 when we are ready. We are not there yet so you don't have to ask:)
My Thursdays aren't bad. I work extra the other days so I can leave early on Thurs and usually pick Addison up after her nap. This works for us now and will probably continue untill baby #2, whenever they may be!
So, thanks for listening...even if it isn't anyone else's business, I feel better.

Heart Makes it a Home

So I don't really remember the saying...A heart makes a house a home, maybe? Well, we have been in the new house for over 2 months now. We are truly enjoying making it a home. We already have made some great memories! However, when I think back to the rent house, I think that we made the best of living there and made it our "home" for almost 7 months. Addison changed so much while we were there! I don't want to forget what all she accomplished during that time...She turned 2! She began putting herself to sleep at night instead of being rocked. She was potty trained. Her speech took off and she began using sentences. She learned her colors and shapes. She began to get interested in dressing up.
If you know me well, you also know we battled the fleas while we lived there! Not a great memory, but still a memory. It was a 3 bedroom house, but one little bathroom. I cleaned the baseboards, but still never got them to look clean! It wasn't a nasty house by any means, and only one family had lived there before us since it had been remodeled. All the cabinets had been redone, new carpet, and new appliances. Still, it took some getting use to, and Grant and I were ready to get out of there!
So, why did I think of this today? I went to Addison's Valentine's Day party at MDO. Grant had to work late, so I just took off the rest of the afternoon to spend it with Addison. (Instead, I am blogging and she is sleeping!) While we were driving home, Addison asked, "Are we going to the rent house, or our house?" We haven't talked about the rent house in a while. I told her we were going to the new house, but we could drive by the rent house and so we did. That was home to Addison for a while. She doesn't remember or ever thought much about the nasty baseboards, the fleas, or the inconvenience of only one bathroom. It makes me happy to know that no matter where we live, or what the circumstances are, we can make a house a home for our family!