Our family is growing!

Jeremy and I are expecting another baby! I had my first appointment today and everything looked great. I'm due mid-March so I'm about 7 1/2 weeks right now. We hadn't planned to have babies 17 months apart, but we're definitely excited. Judging by the way Clara responds to her new little cousin, Zion, I think she'll be thrilled to have a baby brother or sister!

I'm definitely not feeling well right now so we've kicked into survival mode, which means I probably won't be blogging a whole lot for the next several weeks. I'm praying the Lord allows this yuckiness to pass quickly, but I know it's for a good cause.

Thanks for your prayers for our new little bean!

Weekly Shopping

Have you noticed I've strayed a bit from the weekly $45 grocery budget recently? I've decided maybe I can vary my weekly budget to stock up on great deals, as long as I still stay within the monthly budget. So today I went to Rainbow and only spent $15.59. It was double coupon day so I scored some awesome deals. Both packs of shredded cheese and both frozen yogurt parfaits were FREE! The baby wash was $.50 and the shaving cream was $.59. I love double coupon day! I spent $15.59 and saved $23.06.

Baby Zion!

My sister (Brook) and her husband just got back home with their new baby, Zion Christopher! We got to see him last night at a little celebration dinner at my parents' house. He is the sweetest sweetie you ever did see!

Nana will take as many grandkids as she can get!

Cousins meeting each other. Clara doesn't really understand "gentle" but she did quite well with Zion, as if maybe she could sense the need to be gentle with him.

Don't you just want to eat him up?

Menu Plan Monday

Here's our menu for the week...

Monday
Dinner at my parents to welcome our new nephew, Zion! (Pictures coming soon)

Tuesday
Pita pizzas, salad

Wednesday
Church picnic

Thursday
Breaded shrimp, baked potatoes, frozen veggies

Friday
Pasta w/meat sauce, green beans

Saturday
BLT sandwiches, tomato soup

Sunday
Egg bake, fruit, toast

We also have some cherries that we need to do something with this week so if you know any good recipes, let me know!

Six-month pics

Clara is over eight months old now, but back in May my sister took some six-month pictures for us. There were so many good ones, but these are some of my favorites.

Put me back on the blanket! I don't like the grass!

Mommy makes it better!

Okay, maybe the grass isn't so bad after all.

Oh, yes it is! The grass is bad! The grass is bad!

Weekly Shopping

Yesterday I got out and did our shopping for the week. I spent $77.33 and saved $48.03 (according to my receipts...I'm assuming they're correct). Items that were free: two scrub sponges, one pork loin, one Velveeta Shells & Cheese cup, one DiGiornio flatbread melt. The Kashi items were also a great deal at Target...$5.24 for two boxes of cereal and two boxes of cereal bars. The Cheerios were $1.26 each after sales and coupons.

And I bought Clara her first box of teething biscuits. She thoroughly enjoyed chomping on that and making a mess of herself. She thought she was big stuff I think!

Menu Plan Monday

I've been slacking on my meal planning and shopping posts the last couple weeks. My mom thought maybe I'm pregnant again, but I'm not. I've just been slacking on my blog.

So here it is...our meal plan for the week.

Monday
Baked spaghetti, salad, homemade french bread

Tuesday
Omelets, toast, mango

Wednesday
Church picnic

Thursday
Delicious Pork & Noodles, frozen veggies

Friday
Golden Potato Soup, homemade biscuits, salad

Saturday
BBQ Pork sandwiches, potato chips, fruit

Sunday
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup

I'd love to do some baking this week...granola cereal, banada bread, and maybe some other things, but I'm not sure if it will happen or not since it's supposed to be a warm week and I really dislike running our noisy air conditioner. We'll see.

Growing up fast!

Clara is working hard at learning to crawl, but she hasn't quite figured it out yet. She's also incredibly interested right now in things that aren't her toys. I'm anticipating needing to teach her what is okay to get into and what isn't when she learns to crawl, but it feels like a big job that I don't want to think about yet. She was very happy the other night when Jeremy let her sit by the coffee table and pull out the newspaper and some magazine clippings. It was cute, but it hit home the reality that pretty soon she will be able to access things like this all by herself!