Good Deals!

Wow 2 posts in one week! Many of you have been wondering through facebook how to get some of the deals I've been getting in stores through coupons!  I can't take all of the credit because I use thekrazycouponlady.com a lot to find a lot of my deals (actually most of them!)
I wanted to share with you my trip this week and how I got the deals so maybe you all can get the hang of it too!

Safeway Shopping Trip:

Red Baron Pizza Singles:
Regular 2 for $7.00
On Sale 2 for $6.00
I had 2 $1.00 of coupons which made them $2.00 each

Kraft Cheese Singles:
Regular $3.99
coupon for 75 cents off one and my safeway doubles it making it $1.50 off
=$2.50

Mini Wheats Fruit in the Middle Cereal:
Regular $2.99 each                                        
coupon for 70 cents off each and my safeway doubles it making it $1.40 off
=$1.59 each

Target Shopping Trip:


Skittles:  .99 cents each
coupon for .50 cents off 1
coupon for $1.00 off 2
 =.25 each

Airwick:  regular 7.00
$4.00 off coupon
=$3.00

Powerade:  .89 each
Buy one get one free coupon
=.44 each

Trident Layers Gum
regular $1.29 each
Buy one Get one Free coupon
$1.00 off coupon
= .14 cents each

Herbal Essence:
$2.80 each
$1.00 off two coupon
= $2.30 each


Walgreens:


U by Kotex liners
regular 2 for $7.00
$1.00 off each coupon
bought 4 and paid $10.00
received $6.00 walgreen reward back
= $1.00 each

Colgate Max Fresh Tooth paste:
regular $2.99
$1.00 off coupon
paid $1.99 each
received $3.00 walgreen reward back
Tooth paste was free and still have $1.00 walgreen reward! MONEY MAKER!!!

CVS:
Crest Mouth Rinse:
regular $3.49
$1.00 off coupon
paid $2.49 each
received $2.50 cvs rewards
=FREE

Snickers egg:
regular 2/$1.00
$1.00 off 2 coupon
= FREE

Coupons and Crafts

Blogging is not my strong suite.  Not at all.  But I will keep trying and see what I can do :-).  We are now in the waiting stage of the pregnancy.  Our bags are by the door, car seat is in the car, nursery is ready, and directions to the hospital are on the fridge! Since we are all prepared (we hope) for baby Colston to enter the world I have had some time to do fun little projects around the house! The first thing I have started to get into over the past month is couponing.  I had always used coupons here and there but never understood what you can really do with coupons! As in using a store and manufacturer coupon to get something for free! I wont bore you with the details in this post (maybe another one) but I am actually becoming a little addicted to finding deals where I can get things for free or next to nothing! I have decided that I wont put tons of effort into getting things for cheap unless we are going to use it.  For example I'm not going to put effort into clipping coupons for denture cleaner because we wont use this for a very long time hopefully.  This past week I saved $70.00 off my grocery bill and on top of that got a bunch of free things!

This is some of the free things I got this past week! Awesome right?  The shout wipes were completely free and the tape was completely free! I paid about 20 cents for the chocolate, about 50 cents for both shaving creams, about 50 cents for the tooth brushes (originally 3.99 a piece!) and about 30 cents for the tooth paste! I'm amazed! 

The other thing that has been keeping me busy is little projects around the house and I thought I would share some of them with you :-)

This is an insulated casserole carrier I sewed for a friend :-) 

This is a fun tote bag I made for myself with a purple liner! I'm really excited to put this one to use! 

I made a baby tag blanket for a friends baby girl :-) 

So we haven't posted any pictures of our new house yet because its still in need of some tlc and I'd rather show you it after we do those little projects! I figured I would show you a little project we did the other day though.  Both of our bathrooms are a little outdated (this one isn't as bad as the other one).  They are both still functional but very much stuck in the 70's.  since we can't yank out this vanity we figured we would give it some tlc.  I still want to add some art work to this bathroom, maybe some beach pictures to go with the blue counters?  

Here is the before shot

Here is the after shot...ahh much better! 

I know this was a quick little post but I figured a small update is better then no update at all.  I have a post I want to write on what we have been studying in church so possibly there will be another post tomorrow but don't bet your life on it :-) Till next time! 

So much to write about...

I decided that it has been too long since my last blog update (1 month) and that this morning was the perfect morning to update.  As I went to type in a title of what I wanted to write about I realized there is so much to write about, so much to be thankful for, so much that we have learned that I couldn't just choose one.  So if you are a trooper and want to read all of this go you! if not I totally understand!
I guess I'll start from my last blog post.  The beginning of february we headed to New York to spend a short weekend with family.  Our families were planning a baby shower so I guess that was a good reason to go up! :-)  Have you ever felt so blessed that you can't even put into words how grateful you are?  This is how I felt after the baby shower.  The weather was not the greatest that day but there were still so many family and friends that came out to show their love and support which was enough for me but on top of that they brought so many gifts for our little boy! This baby boy isn't even born yet and he is the most blessed child in the world! A close friend of ours (Chrissy Morgan) was very willing to capture special moments on camera at the baby shower and even before the shower her and I had a maternity photo shoot and those are pictures I will cherish forever.  Thank you so much Chrissy.


                                              Here are just a few pictures from the baby shower :-)

After the weekend was over and the Packers won the superbowl we headed back to northern virginia.  The next week was busy packing! Many of you may say packing?  Didn't you just move six months ago?  Yes we did just move six months ago and only had a six month lease at our old apartment and with a baby on the way we were running out of space.  We found a wonderful single family home only about 5 minutes away from our old apartment and it has so much more space then the last place did! We are so grateful that God showed us this place and made it available to us.  The next weekend my parents (aka Reed moving company) drove down to help us move.  We were able to take everything to the new house in only 2 trips! It went much smoother then we had anticipated and that was truly from God.  I am so blessed to have parents that love me! They have been there every moment we have needed them and were more than willing to come help us move even with out being asked! My mom even had had surgery 2 weeks prior but was still willing to come do what she was able to, amazing woman!

The next week consisted of unpacking and getting things put away as much as possible because that thursday through sunday two of Andrew's sisters and niece and nephew came down for a visit.  We showed them National Harbor, went to Fredericksburg, and did A LOT of shopping!  It was really nice to be able to just hang out with them and show them our some what every day life.

Since they left we have had a week of relaxation and re cooperating from our busy month of February.  I feel like every weekend in February was filled with something and at the beginning of the month I was some what dreading being so busy but not that I look back on it I am so thankful for everything that we got to do! We are so blessed! Have I said that enough?  We are so blessed! God has given us everything we could possibly need and more and we take it for granted all the time! Step back and count your blessings! WE ARE SO BLESSED!  As I look ahead to march (which as of last week was blank and had nothing going on but now is filling up fast) I need to remember that no matter how busy we might get or how many things I need to do to prepare for this little one we are so blessed to be able to do all of these things and live life the way we do.  I know this post has been long enough already so I am going to end it here soon but I want you to all know I have a few more blog posts I want to put up in the next week so keep checking back for updates.  Now that your all updated on what has been going on in our lives now I can share about other things! :-) Remember as you go about your day today to step back and count your blessings, realized how blessed we all are.

Baby Bump Cake!

I am helping throw a baby shower for a friend tomorrow and I volunteered to make the cake! I have been itching to try a baby bump cake so this was my chance and I thought I would document the steps to share with you the process.  It actually went a lot smoother then I thought it would and I am very happy with the results!  

First comes forming the cake! This is what it looked like before I 'dirty' frosted the cake.

Second comes the dirty frosting, I will tell you that I just used canned frosting (AHHH) and you can just slap it on don't worry about making it look pretty.

Then it was fondant time.  I use a marshmallow fondant recipe and am actually pretty happy with how easy it is to work with. 

With my left over fondant I then colored it blue and brown and made polka dots and a ribbon for the 'shirt' of the cake.  I got really frustrated with the bow on the cake and it isn't as pretty as I would like it to be but it will do! Here is the finished product!!! 

I am also in charge of doing the favors and I found a cute idea of doing baby onesie cookies.  I'm pretty happy with how they came out and hopefully everyone at the shower will be to! :-)

Dad, Da Da, Father, Daddy

Here are some updated baby bump photos! Baby Boy Francis is moving around lots and we are able to watch him squirm on the outside of my belly which is so much fun!

24 weeks and 4 days

26 weeks and 2 days

This past week or 2 Andrew and I have been trying to make a decision on whether we should get a bigger apartment or just stick it out with the one we have.  There were so many moments (and still are) in our search where we would pick up the phone and call our dads and moms to see what their advice was.  We would share with them our frustrations of things going wrong in our current apartment and we would share with them the excitement we have about possibly moving.  Every time something big happens in our lives or we are not sure about something we (Andrew and I) tend to call on our parents for advice and help.  As we keep getting closer and closer to the due date of our baby boy I think about how this baby boy is going to be so dependent on us and look to us to solve his problems and give him advice through out his whole entire life.  I can't wait until I hear our son calling out for his Daddy's help.  Two weeks ago in church we discussed prayer.  I was really hit by the thought of God being our Father.  We should be so close to our Father in Heaven that our relationship is just like our relationship with our Earthly Father except God will always pick up the phone when we need Him.  Having the type of relationship with God as we do with our Dad's is so important.  So many times we make prayer such a big deal (which it should be) and we put all these fancy words in our prayers.  Why don't we come to God just like we come to our dads.  Why isn't God the first one we call on when we have a decision to make, something exciting happening, or something bad happening?  Sometimes God is the first one we call on but so many times we turn to calling our parents, our spouse, or our best friend.  When we pray it strengthens our relationship with our Father and that is the most important thing in our life.  Talking to God through out the day shouldn't be only when we have a tragedy happening but should be all the time.  Talk to him while you wash the dishes, go for a walk, make the bed, or are in the shower.  God doesn't care we are or what we say all He cares about is that were spending time with Him.  When a person prays they become awake to the fact that we cannot live daily life without our Father.  Isn't it amazing that we have a constant phone line totally open for us to talk to God, and we don't even have to pay a cell phone bill every month or worry if we have enough minutes! Why don't we use it more often?!  I have been challenged to go through my daily life in prayer.  Every moment of the day we need to be open to telling God everything, whether it be that were frusturated because dinner doesn't taste good or because were thankful for a friend who sent a note in the mail.  God doesn't care what silly things we tell Him all He cares about is that relationship with us! Prayer isn't an obligation but an invitation to an awesome relationship with God!

A New Year and New Beginnings

I have finally figured out that blogging is not one of my strengths.  As you can tell I don't post as often as I would like to or probably should.  I hope that you will all forgive me for this. :-) Over the past month we have had the excitement of holidays, family visiting, relaxing, and preparing more for our baby boy's arrival.

 There aren't to many things to update everyone on but I'll start with the biggest thing in our life right now...the baby!!! :-)  Baby Boy is moving around a lot and Andrew and others finally were able to feel him kick on the outside.  It is so much fun to share with Andrew the joy of being able to feel our little boy kicking around.  He is growing a lot and it shows in my belly.  We can't wait to start putting his room together and preparing for him more and more.  After Thanksgiving we were able to go to different stores and register for him and it was a lot of fun (for me at least) to pick out stuff for our little boy.

This picture is 21 weeks 

This picture is 23 weeks and 2 days

We were blessed to be able to be in NY for Christmas and spend time with family but before we went home my parents and niece Lily took a mini trip down to spend some time down here with us! They arrived the Saturday before Christmas and were able to come to church with us on Sunday.  We braved the cold weather that afternoon and walked around D.C and saw some of the monuments.  On Monday I had a check up Dr. appt. and was able to bring my mom along so she could hear her grandson's heartbeat.  I am so glad that my mom and I are so close and that I can share with her the joys of her growing grandson.  While my parents were in town I took them to a small indoor water park and Lily loved playing in the water and swimming there. We also were able to enjoy a light show put on by a local park in the area.  My parents were heading back to NY on tuesday and I had decided to ride with them and then Andrew drove up when he got off work on Wednesday.  Since I went up a day early I was able to watch my little brother play basketball as a Senior, where has the time gone.  

Lily loved going down the small slide! 

Did I mention our landlord bought a horse? His name is Gunner! 

Festival of Lights

Christmas came and went way to fast but I am so glad that we were close enough to Ny to be able to spend time with our families.  I especially can't wait until next year when we have a little one to Celebrate Christmas with.  I can just imagine bringing him out of his room and him having big eyes at all the Christmas lights.  He will still be young but being able to enjoy Christmas as a family of three next year, in a place we can call home is so exciting to me.  While home for Christmas we hosted and Ugly Sweater Christmas Party, attended two family Christmas Eve Parties, and had two Christmas' on Christmas Day.  We weren't going to leave NY until Sunday afternoon but the forecast of bad weather made us decide to leave Christmas night.  The weather wasn't bad on Sunday but we were glad we left because both Andrew and I ended up with a stomach bug that would not have been fun to deal with in a car ride.  We are so blessed and so thankful for all the gifts that we received over Christmas.  Andrew and I discussed a lot the weeks before Christmas how the true meaning of Christmas should be our central focus not just at Christmas but all year long.  We have been so encouraged by the messages preached at church on how the Christmas Story still can be related to us today in so many different ways.  I'm hoping (no promises) to put up a post about everything we have been learning in church lately.  

Francis Family Christmas

Reed Family Christmas

As we look forward to the New Year there are so many things I am looking forward to.  I am so excited to meet our little boy in April and see what things God has prepared for our little family.  God has been so good to us this past year.  The other night at bible study I was reminded that even though we may think nothing exciting is happening in our lives at the moment God is still working.  Having 'normal' lives every day is a gift from God and we should be thankful for that.  Most of the time we thank God when things are going great and exciting things are happening but what about the days that we wake up and are able to breathe and make it through a day.  As I look forward to the new year there are some resolutions I hope to achieve.  

-I want to be a more loving and gracious wife and soon to be mother

-I want to be a better steward of the money God has given us

-I want to spend more time in God's word and learning more about everything He has done for me

-I want to have a child :-)

-I want to keep up to date on my blog more, not just updating everyone on life but sharing thoughts, lessons learned, and be able to encourage others. 

I almost forgot to put in a little bit of bragging! I think I have full bragging rights to this one! I have the most amazing husband ever! :-D Andrew has been working at his job for 5 months now and a week ago he found out that he had been nominated for NOC Engineer of the year! He had to go into work and answer a bunch of questions in front of a board of managers and to his surprise he won! He has worked so hard to learn his job in such a short period of time and deserves every bit of this award! :-) Can you tell I'm proud?!  

Thankful for blue things and worship

The past few weeks have not been super busy so I am not sure why I haven't updated the blog in a few weeks.  Here we are now and there is a lot to update everyone on! I think I'll work backwards to update everyone starting with our trip to NY/PA this past weekend for thanksgiving.  Andrew had to work the day before Thanksgiving so kind of last minute we decided to leave wednesday night after he got out of work (11pm) and drive through the night.  We made it to NY/PA in record time and I think were going to travel this way every time from now on!  We woke up Thanksgiving morning to SNOW, which was very exciting for us since we haven't seen snow in virginia yet and haven't seen snow in general in about 2 years since being in Hawaii.  

We had an amazing time being home with family and celebrating Thanksgiving.  We truly have a lot to be thankful for this year! We spent thanksgiving morning relaxing with the Reed Family, ate dinner with the Francis Family later in the day, and then back to the Reed's for dessert! We were able to see all of our extended family and catch up with everyone. 

On Friday morning (black friday) I didn't take advantage of any of the sales at stores but instead took advantage of being able o get together with some close friends for breakfast.  I think it is starting to become a tradition to have breakfast together over thanksgiving break.  We were also able to go out to eat with our friends Collin and River on Friday night!  It was so good to catch up with each of them and of course eat some yummy food too! 

The rest of Thanksgiving weekend was spent doing exactly what you see below! RELAXING! It was so needed and we were very grateful to be able to go to NY/PA and just chill.  On Sunday we were able to worship with both of our families at church and then spend the afternoon playing games, decorating the Christmas tree, and eating more food with the Reed side of the family. We then headed back to Virginia later Sunday and again, thankfully, hit no traffic!

Baby update! 20 weeks today! We are half way through the pregnancy (40 weeks)! The past month of pregnancy has been awesome! I have been feeling great and love being pregnant.  Last week we headed to the dr office for a very important ultrasound.  The Dr would be taking the baby's measurements, checking its heart, and of course telling us what the baby's gender is! The technician was mean and saved the best part for last haha and as soon as she rolled over our little baby's bum bum she said "I don't think I even need to tell you what that is!"  ITS A BOY!!!! The tears immediately started rolling and she has to stop to get me tissues.  We are so excited to be having a little boy and couldn't wait to get to Ny/Pa for thanksgiving to tell all of our family! 

The belly picture below was taken at 19 weeks 5 days, this little boy is growing lots!

Before we headed to NY/PA we had to think of a clever way to tell all of our family.  We decided to make cupcakes and fill the center with blue icing so that when they bit in they would discover what the baby's gender was.  

Everyone in our families are so excited that we will be having a baby boy! It will be the first grandson/nephew on the Reed side which will be a lot of fun! 

Our little boy is making his presence known more and more by moving lots inside of me.  Andrew can't feel it yet on the outside but he is definitely in there.  We are thinking of little boy names all the time now but will be keeping the name (and ideas) under wraps until this little one is born in April.  At the ultrasound our little boy weighed 9 oz give or take and is still measuring due April 20th.  We are starting to prepare for his arrival already and are very thankful for friends and family who are handing over all their boy clothes to make his wardrobe! 

I love his little foot!

I believe it was in my last post that I mentioned how Andrew and I have been searching for a home church.  I shared our frustration and asked for prayers.  Thank you so much if you did pray because we believe we have found a church to call home.  A friend suggested checking out the Acts 29 network of churches so we did! Acts 29 network is a church planting network that plants churches all over the country and soon the world! Acts 29 was started off of Mars Hill Church in Seattle WA which we have listened to their sermons many times! We searched for churches in our area through the Acts 29 network and found one in Arlington.  We checked it out and were truly blessed.  Andrew and I both got in the car and looked at  each other and said "yea?"  "yea."  There was no doubt about it! The church is a fairly new church plant (7 months) and is renting a space in an arts center until they get their own facility.  We were so blessed to see so many young couples and families in the church.  The preaching and worship was exactly what we needed to be fed by God's word.  The church has community groups (bible studies) through out the week so we are excited to head back to church this week and get signed up for a community group!  We are so excited to get involved in the growing of the church and to get involved with the fellowship there.  Thank you so much for your prayers in this whole process and we will definitely keep you all updated on our involvement and what we learn there!  

God has truly blessed our little family this past year and we have so much to be thankful for.  Someone mentioned the other day that we shouldn't just be thankful for 'stuff' but be thankful for all God has done for us and for what He is going to do for us.