Strawberry picking.

This morning we headed out with my dear friend Anna to pick some strawberries.  I was extremely excited because this is Leeland's 1st time picking. So exciting to see his reaction to new things, and seeing him get into so many more activities as he is growing up. And after I got home this afternoon and started thinking on it a bit, I'm pretty certain that this was my 1st time actually picking strawberries too. At least I can't recall ever picking before. Sad, huh?
Anywho, other than the fact that it rained yesterday and we got a little muddy, it was pretty perfect.  Leeland got into it, and had fun picking the berries off the vine and collecting them in his little red basket.  And of course the part he really liked was the fruit of his labor, literally. We were trying to take a few photos at the end, and he was munching away at the sweet berries before we headed out.  Of course picking the biggest berries in the box to eat. He's a smart one that kid!

 Now it's on to cleaning, chopping and storing all of these delicious strawberries! I do believe we have some tasty smoothies, and strawberry bread in our future! :)

Leeland is 2!

Over the weekend Leeland turned 2! Holy wow! We celebrated by going to the zoo on Friday (Leeland's 1st time going), and we had a small family birthday party on Saturday. His birthday party was "choo choo" train themed in orange and blue matching this birthday invitation we ordered from Etsy.  Leeland loves all things transportation-- cars, trains, airplanes, helicopters so he really really enjoyed it.  The menu was very NC, we had BBQ, slaw, baked beans, chips, fresh fruit, pasta salad, and of course I made cupcakes for my boy.  Along with some choo choo candy pops that I made with blue and orange candy melts and a candy mold I ordered from Amazon. Here are some photos from the party--

I think he had a blast! He was showered with gifts, enjoyed some really yummy BBQ, and of course lots of sweets with cupcakes and ice cream cones and candy.  You only turn 2 once!

Also, today he had his 2 year check-up at the doctor and he is a healthy growing little boy!  He weighs 26 pounds which puts him in the 25th percentile (up from the 15th percentile at his last appointment), and he is exactly 3 feet tall in the 85th percentile for height. 

Who knew?

Who knew that such a tiny person could take up so much space? We live in a quaint 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment.  We have about 900 square feet to ourselves and I'm pretty sure that calculation includes our balcony and closet spaces... the living space is much less.  We moved to this apartment when we were pregnant with Leeland in the Fall of 2009 from our 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment.  Last year when we found out that we were expecting Hayden, and our lease was up in October, we couldn't afford to even look at upgrading to a 3 bedroom.  Apartment rates are through the roof currently-- I'm told that it's due to the high demand from foreclosures.  Not to mention, with Daniel's schooling and a toddler and me being pregnant, we weren't exactly sure we had the time or energy to even try to move. 

So we were expecting #2, no big deal! And another boy, even better, they could share a room.  We set up the Pack & Play in our room knowing that he would be in our room for at least a few months, and then we would transition him to share a room with Leeland.  Leeland would transition to a "big boy" (twin) bed and Hayden would get the crib.  I cleaned out and organized Leeland's current dresser and closet to contain Hayden's clothes as well, it was going to work out perfect! .... Right?

The walls are closing in around me!!! Literally.  Now that Hayden is here, we pulled the baby swing out of storage, we have a car seat coming in and out of the house, a baby bath tub taking up the counter in the 2nd bathroom, a bouncy chair, we moved the glider from Leeland's room into the living room...... and the list goes on. Oh and please let me add, the Pack & Play in our room next to the bed-- we already had furniture on all four walls, with the Pack & Play added to the mix, I literally have 8 inches to squeeze through to get to our bathroom. Ugh!!

I feel terrible and I feel SO incredibly selfish complaining about our space.  There are so many people who are making do with much smaller spaces and larger families.... and there are so many people that don't even have a space.  But we are out growing this place.  The walls are closing in around us.  Leeland doesn't have room to run and play, I don't have room to breathe.... it just doesn't make any sense that this tiny tiny person could push us out this place.

Happy Easter!

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Happy Easter dear friends from our family to yours!

 

Coupon Update.

Since being a stay at home mom, we've had to cut our budget quite a bit, and in my New Year's resolution post I talk a little bit about being a better couponer, and trimming our grocery budget.  Since the New Year I have been keeping track of how much I'm saving with coupons and my store savings card (VIC card) at each grocery trip.  Here's a little update on what I have saved up to today! 

I will confess that I slacked off a little bit in February and early March with my couponing, we had Hayden, and were all sick for a while.... excuses, excuses. The few random grocery trips we had, it was easier to send Daniel on a quick errand.  Also, to be honest, we didn't do a whole lot of major grocery shopping during that time anyway because very friendly people were bringing us cooked meals every other night.  Gotta LOVE Food Tidings!!

To date, we have saved $147.57 with coupons alone!!!

And we have saved $308.13 with our VIC card!!!

$455.70 saved thus far!!!