The Help

I saw this movie in theaters not too long ago and wanted to read the book. My friend Teresa Hendrix lent it to me. I would highly recommend this book. It made me angry. It made me sad. It made me happy. It made me laugh. You will probably experience the same range of emotions that I had if you read this book. It is the story of several black maids living in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960's, and the white girl who was willing to write it all down. This is a must!

The Ordinary Princess

I borrowed this book from my friend Alisha Jaynes, a fellow book lover. She read this book when she was in 6th grade and recently found a newer print of it. She lent it to me to read several months ago, but I just now got to it.

It is a children's literature piece by M.M. Kaye. I loved it! It is the story of the 7th daughter in a royal family. On the day of her christening, she is given the gift of being completely ordinary. I won't spoil the end, but let's just say that everything works out!

It was a quick read (just a few hours) but it was well worth the pile of dishes in my sink and the loads of laundry on my couch. I think the word "sweet" is overused, but in the most sincere meaning of the word, this book was sweet. I would highly recommend reading this book to your little girl!

Ava, Look At The Camera And Smile!

Texas

Two weekends ago, we got to visit my family in Texas. It was a brief trip, but we enjoyed every second of it! On the Saturday of our trip, my parents took us out to eat at Red Lobster and we played at Towne East Mall in Mesquite. My dad thought it was pretty cute that Ava can now feed herself puffs! And my mom had on a big piece of jewelry that Ava loved!

 You know you are in Texas when 25% of men wear Cowboy hats! My mom was so excited to hold Ava! :)

 My mom let Ava play at the lobster tank. Ava is a squirmer, so my mom had to work hard to keep up with her! 

My family at Red Lobster. I think this may be one of the only pictures of me on this blog! I am usually behind the camera!

We had such a refreshing time visiting my family. I am sad to say that these are the only photos I got! We were so busy catching up that I did not have time to take more! Maybe next time!

The Straw

Freebie

I follow http://www.southernsavers.com. A few months ago, I saw a post on her blog about mailing off for a free Huggies onesie. Well, I am cheapo and sent off for it. It has been almost 12 weeks, but I finally got it!! Woo-Hoo!! It might be just one free onesie, but I will take it!

Hmmm...

I saw this at a Cracker Barrel recently. I tried to look in the back to see if there was a casket, but all I could see was a plethora of floral arrangements. 

Ava at 10 months

I am fully aware that Ava will be 11 months old on November 13th. Today is October 31st- Halloween. I am way off! Better late than never, I guess!

• Ava is still cruising around furniture. I would not be surprised at all if she let go of the ottoman today and started walking, but she is still hesitant, which means that she is not ready. We work on it every day just to see if it will be the day that she lets go and takes off. So far it hasn't been, but we will continue to check! Her cruising has gotten quicker. She may skip walking and start running! Wouldn't that be fun!
• She babbles all the time!
• She knows about 5 words: Dada, Momma, Nonna, Neh-Neh (no no), and Bybyby. She learned bybyby about a month ago, but has since left if alone so that she can perfect Dada. She seems to learn words and then go back and perfect some before she revisits others. For example: she will occasionally say "dada." But recently she has worked on shortening it down to "daddd" "daddd" "daddd" Next week, she will probably leave "daddd" alone and find another one to work on. It comes in cycles.
• She can clap her hands. She doesn't do it very often because she doesn't want to sit still long enough to play patty cake. She prefers to be constantly moving (just like her daddy) That's okay with me! Her personality is completely opposite of mine, which is refreshing. I would love her any way that she came, but it is fun to see how much of her daddy she has in her.
• She loves to rock back and forth to music. To me, this is the most amazing thing so far. Rocking back and forth to music reflects advanced brain functions (No, I am not trying to say that my baby is a genius or that she is any better than anyone else's child) Rocking back and forth to a beat, means that her brain can identify a pattern. Not only that, it means that she is able to predict the moment when the beat will happen again, hence the continuous rocking. Brain development is so amazing to me!
• Ava still sleeps about 12 hours at night.
• She still takes two 2 hour naps per day (except Sundays and Tuesdays which mess up her daily schedule a bit)
• She has 6 teeth
• She can make up games. For example: The other day Ava sat behind our living room curtains and hid her face from me. She would then peek out at me and smile really big. I did not teach her that, she came up with it on her own.
• She is pretty cooperative with other children. When we go to story time on Tuesdays, she will usually want to play with the other children. Sometimes, she will try to steal their toys and I have to tell her, "no." But, for the most part, she plays well with others.
• She is also very content to play by herself. She does it all day every day at home. I do sit down and play with her occasionally, but she likes to pull her toys out of her toy bag and play by herself.
• She doesn't really struggle with separation anxiety. There may come a point in the near future when she does, but she handles separation very well for now. On Sunday mornings, I put her in her seat in Bible class and she transitions to Mrs. Cindy, Mrs. Janiece, and Mrs. Ephie being in charge. I quietly leave the room and she does her thing!

I know I have missed a thing or two (or three) but I think this is the gist. Here are some random 10 month pictures:

Fall Festival 2011

Last night, our church hosted our annual Fall Festival. Jeremy and I were in charge of the cake walk (which was very hard because we are both trying to be good) and Ava got passed around to friends while Mommy and Daddy worked.

We are lazy parents and waited until the last minute to buy her costume. We went to Target the night before the festival and picked up one of everything on the baby costume aisle and put it together for a complete costume smorgasbord look. :) One of my friends laughed and said, "I really thought that since you are a planner you would have planned her costume a year in advance." I laughed. NOPE!! Not this year! I did feel bad because it was her first Halloween and I wanted to have a really creative costume for her, but I guess I was a little too picky about all the options that I saw. Luckily, a friend from church gave us a lion costume for a two year old. Ava couldn't wear it this year, but there will be absolutely no thought about what she will be next year!

So...what was Ava for Halloween? Well, we like to think  of her as a Kitty Cat Fairy Princess.

 The wand was her favorite part! I really should give all the credit to Jeremy for picking out her costume. He picked out all the stuff while I stood on an aisle of Target and talked with my friend Maggie, her husband Nathan, and their little girl Avery. We bumped into each other while they were creating their baby registry for Baby Eli.

 Ava played on the Cake Walk before anyone arrived. She was the cutest (and only) Kitty Cat Fairy Princess at the Fall Festival!

Catch a glimpse of the kitty cat ears, crown, AND wings! By this time, the wand was gone!

 Avery was a purple crayon (a costume that won her the Best Costume title in her division, 2nd year in a row!)

 Luke was a SCARY pumpkin! I asked him to smile for the picture, but he wanted to make his pumpkin face! Too cute!

 The Frankenstein Toss has been through the ringer! It still serves its purpose, though!

 Gabby and Mykinzy play the fishing game.

 Cason is a Southern Belle.

 Talon plays the Bean Bag Toss.

 Avery and Ava had a blast in the miniature bounce house!

 The wand and headband are both gone.

 Nathan (Avery's dad) said that Avery was a used crayon at this point (no hat) :)

 I see where the headband went!

 Avery and Ava gave each other a hug when it was all over! It was very sweet and Ava didn't even pull Avery's hair or anything! We are proud parents! 

When Ava arches her back and becomes dead weight, it is time to go home!!

Toiletries & Coupons & CVS (Oh, My!)

Tonight after our little dinner date, we stopped at CVS for a few toiletry items that we were running dangerously low on. I needed deodorant and shower gel, and Jeremy needed more deodorant/anti-persperant. I had no coupons because I did not buy a newspaper this morning, so I knew that we were about to dish out some dough. CVS is more expensive than Wal-Mart and I am not cheap. I like my $8 Oil of Olay body wash. Yes, we could have drove the extra three miles to Wal-Mart, but I absolutely despise shopping there! I hate waiting in the stupid lines, I can't stand hearing people scream profanities at their children, and Wal-Mart's coupon policy stinks!

Jeremy reluctantly handed over the debit card and reminded me to only get what I needed. He waited in the car with Ava and I went inside to face the bill. I scanned my Extra Care card and was DELIGHTED to get a $1 off of Irish Springs Deodorant/Anti-Persperant! Yay! That was a start! I scanned this weeks add and was pretty happy to see that my body wash was on sale for $6 (instead of $8) AND I could get $2 ECB back with its purchase! I looked even further in the add to see that Lady Speed Stick was on sale 2/$5.50 with $4 ECB!! YAY! I had gone into CVS with NO coupons and somehow managed to make it work for us!!

Here is what I did:

 I scanned my card and got my print-out of coupons. I was able to use the $1 off of deodorant, but not the $5 off of $20 facial products. I did not take my camera into the store with me, so I did not get a picture of the coupon. :)

 I checked the add and found Lady Speed Stick on sale

 and Oil of Olay was on sale

 I bought 2 deodorants for $5.50 (a savings of $1.48 in itself)

 I paid $6 total BUT I got back $4 for my purchases!

 I then did another transaction for my $8 body wash.

 It was on sale for $6 (a savings of $1.99) I then used my $4 ECB from my previous purchase to reduce this to $2.54! AND I still got back $2 ECB for this purchase!

 My third and final transaction was for Jeremy's deodorant.

It was full price ($3.89), but I had the $1 off coupon that I paired with the $2 ECB! The cost of this deodorant was $1.24!!

On this trip, I was expecting to pay around $17 with tax included. I had no coupons, no add, and no idea what was on sale. This only took about 10 minutes to figure out, and I saved $10.48. I spent a total of $9.78. If I had bought a newspaper this morning, I probably could have found coupons for the body wash and my deodorant. I could have saved even more! I was super excited about these purchases and my savings (which equalled more than I spent!)

When Mom Hands You A Lemon, Make Lemonade! (Or A Big Mess)

Ruby Tuesday is one of our favorite restaurants in Northport. I hate the smell when I walk in, but the Chicken Fresco is my go to item on the menu! I love it and cannot do without it! Jeremy always orders the ribs with sweet potato fries and broccoli. We use our $10 off coupon every time we go and feel a lot less guilty about eating out when we have perfectly good food at home!

Tonight was a guilty pleasure night. We had our 5th Sunday services at church (which means that we have services, eat lunch together, and have another service) so we were free for the entire evening! The sirloin and lobster was a departure for me, as was the blondie for Jeremy, but we were needing a pick-me-up after several rough weeks. We brought Ava's food from home (homemade carrots, bananas, & oatmeal) and had a great time imagining what we would be doing if we were in Disney World. 

I always order my water without a lemon, but the waitress ALWAYS forgets!! This time it came in handy as Ava has found a new favorite food: