Friday, August 31, 2012

18 weeks



Pregnancy: 18 weeks

Weight Gain: +1 lbs

How big is baby?: Head to rump, baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces.

Sleep: Can't get enough. I wish Morgan felt the same way.

Gender: Another boy :)

Names: We've decided we won't be sharing the name until the little guy is born. We also have yet to decide on a name...

Feeling: Pretty good except atrocious sciatica pain yesterday. It was better when I woke up today so he must have moved to a more comfortable position. Thank God.
Movement: Yep! It can be felt on the outside too. It's so reassuring to feel him randomly through out the day.
Belly: A little bigger, I think?

Next Appointment: Anatomy scan 9/12 (can't wait to see the little guy again!) and OB Appt 9/13.

xoxo,
Ashley

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Saving Money - 8 tips and tricks

Recently, we've been trying to be more conscious about how we spend our money and I've actually collected quite a few tips, both big and small, to save money that I thought I'd share.

1. Set a budget: This is huge. Sitting down and figuring out how much money you have coming in each month and then how much is going out is really an eye opening experience. Doing this made me realize that we were spending money unnecessarily in a LOT of places. I created a chart with all of our monthly expenses and then made two columns one for the amount budgeted each month for a category (groceries, cell, cable, gas, rent, insurance, etc.) and then another blank column to write in how much we actually spend, the date we paid the bill, and a confirmation number if we paid it online. I handed this over to Frank to use because for some odd reason, unlike me, the man gets a kick out of paying the bills.

2. Figure out where you can make cuts to maximize savings: There are some expenses that are fixed that you just can't do much about (rent/mortgage, car payment, school loans etc.), but there are a lot of areas that you can cut back on such as phone, cable, and groceries. Evaluate what's important to you and what you can live without.

3. Consider ditching cable: We cancelled our cable and opted for an antenna instead. We bought this Mohu antenna for $37 and with it we are getting all the network channels clear as day in HD (CBS, NBC, ABC). We also kept our Netflix ($9/month) and Hulu plus ($8/month) which we are able to watch on our TV by streaming through our Playstation. So, we are saving $60/month on cable and aren't even missing it thanks to buying the antenna (which is just a one time cost) and keeping Netflix and Hulu plus which only cost us $17/month!

4. Ditch the traditional cell phone plan with contract: As our cell phone contract was nearing it's end, we started looking at our different options. I began researching pre-paid/no contract plans when I realized that a lot of them started at just $30 a line per month with no hidden fees (something that really drove our monthly bill up)! Before making the switch, I decided to check out our last monthly cell phone bill to see how much of our plan we were actually using. We had unlimited everything, but we were only using 40 (!!) minutes a month, around 300-400 texts, and hardly any data thanks to our old crappy phones. We were giving the cell phone company money for what we weren't even using! Nearly $160/month to be exact. We began researching different plans and realized that Virgin mobile was the plan that best suited our needs and seemed to offer the most bang for our buck. We are paying $35/month per line for unlimited texting, unlimited web/data, and 300 minutes. We also decided, what the heck since we're saving so much we might as well buy the insurance (for $5 month per line), so our new monthly cell phone bill is $80! That's a savings of of 50% or $80!

5. Meal plan: Your grocery bill is a huge, HUGE way you can save money each month. Before I started meal planning and grocery shopping for 2 weeks at a time we were making a lot of frequent trips to the store for a couple of items here and there. When you go to the grocery store more often, you spend more. I mean, who goes to the store for milk and actually leaves with just the milk? Nope you end up filling your basket with a couple more impulse buys. Also, when you meal plan you will spend less on eating out. If you have all the ingredients for a pre-planned meal, it's a lot harder to decide to just go out for dinner because you don't feel like figuring out what to make or "there's nothing to eat in the house". Another way, I've found to leave myself without excuses is to plan a lot of crock pot meals. How hard is it to throw a bunch of ingredients in a crock pot and forget about them until you're ready to eat? I'm not sure how much we were spending before, but I know it was a LOT. Now we are spending on average $150/every 2 weeks on groceries. I make a meal plan the day before pay day, go shopping on pay day, and then that's it until the next pay day (other than a run to the store to pick up milk and bread at least 1 more time). Need inspiration for making your meal plan? I always start with Pinterest.

6. Coupon: I'm VERY new to this one. My last grocery trip was the first time I used coupons and I saved $14. Not huge, but I thought it was a good start. The key with coupons, is to only use them if it's something you normally would buy, otherwise you really aren't saving yourself any money. You can also get hardcore and plan your meal plan around what you have coupons for, but I haven't gotten around to doing that just yet. A few sites I have used for coupons are: SmartSource, redplum, coupons. com, Coupon Network, and Cool Savings. Also, did you know that Target has TONS of printable coupons on their website? When buying something online, always do a google search to see if you can find a coupon code for the website you're making your purchase from. RetailMeNot is a good place to find those.

 7. Shop your pantry: After I make out my meal plan, I make my grocery list.Then, before we leave to go to the store I go through my cabinets/freezer/fridge and cross anything off my list that we already have on hand (usually it's canned goods like veggies and beans, or pasta and meat). It sounds like common sense, but I used to always go grocery shopping without a plan, and then upon returning home and putting my groceries away realize I already had one or more of something I just bought.

8. Shop discount stores: When we go shopping we go to Aldi first and try to check as many things off our list from that store as possible before moving on to Walmart and Target where we do the remainder of our shopping. I haven't actually compared prices side by side, but I know there is a pretty big difference between their prices and the other mainstream stores.

Hope this can be of help to someone looking to save more too!

And because no post is complete with out a photo or two:

Morgan enjoying one of Grandma B's awesome breakfasts
 

xoxo,
Ashley


Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Life with Morgan


The other day I had one of those "omghe'snevergoingotbethislittleagain" moments that hit me every so often. So in the hopes of preserving a little piece of what life is like with Morgan right now, I wanted to share 8 things about him that I don't want to ever forget.



1. The way he excitedly calls flies "bees".

2. How obsessed he is with the "boat" song {aka Little Big Town's, Pontoon}, and how we have to play it over and over and over again on youtube.



3. How he shouts "airpane, airpane" every time he sees {or thinks he hears} an airplane.

4. Or, how he shouts airplane or something else when there isn't one in site. It goes a little something like this:
Morgan: Airpane!! Airpane!!
Momma: I don't see an airplane, do you see an airplane?
Morgan: No. 
Just testing us, little man?



5. The way he will randomly walk around sometimes with just one little hand shoved into a pocket. *I melt*

6. How he has gotten even more attached to his paci lately. We've been cutting him off slowly by "accidentally" forgetting it at home or in the car when we go out. The other day we were shopping in Kohl's and he started pointing to the diaper bag, saying "ci, ci" {aka paci}:
Morgan: Ci, Ci!! Ciiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!
Momma: We don't have your paci we left it at home. You're a big boy, you don't need it anyways, do you? 
Morgan: Ci!!!
Momma: We left it at home, Morgan.
Morgan: Go home??
The boy cracked me up! He wanted to go all the way home to fetch that little sucker. Is there some kind of support group out there for paci addicts? I mean really?



7. How seriously obsessed he is with feet, especially my feet. Can toddlers have foot fetishes? It's super weird. He get's any and all of his weirdness from his daddy, in case you were wondering.



8. The way he lifts up my shirt and kisses the baby. Or waves at my belly and says "Hi baby" :)
 

What a cute/sweet/funny little stinker I have :)
xoxo,
Ashley




Friday, August 17, 2012

It's a...


.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
So the verdict is in and it seems that I'm going to be...
...a boy mom again!



What does this mean for me?

It means...
that I'm forever outnumbered,
that the surfaces in my house will always be sticky,
that my floors will be covered with matchbox cars, baseball gloves, and stinky boy clothes,
that "farts" will forever incite laughter in my house,
and that I'll never have control of the TV again on Sundays during football season.

It means that my heart will forever belong to three boys,
that I may not be going wedding dress shopping, but I will be the one dancing with the groom at the weddings,
that things like worms, bugs, and dinosaurs will strangely become cool to me,
and that I'm blessed with the task of raising two boys to grow up to be two handsome, respectful, and loving men.

Even though we went into the ultrasound appointment hoping for a girl, I couldn't have been happier to leave knowing I was growing another baby boy in there.

xoxo,
Ashley

Thursday, August 16, 2012

16 weeks



Pregnancy: 16 weeks

Weight Gain: +2 lbs

How big is baby?: Baby's the size of an avocado, or three to five ounces and four to five inches in length.

Sleep: Last night was my first bad night of sleep, I was awake for 2 hours in the middle of the night and had the hardest time falling back to sleep.

Gender: We'll find out tomorrow!!!! I'm really feeling like it's a boy even though we're hoping for a girl. I keep saying I'll probably fall off the table if they actually tell us it's a girl - that's how convinced I am it's a boy.

Names: Have the girl name picked. Undecided on the boy name.

Feeling: I've been pretty tired lately, but I think that has more to do with life than pregnancy right now. {i.e. life with a toddler}
 
Movement: Yep! I started feeling this little one move around for sure at 14 weeks 2 days. I have only felt 2 kicks though, it's mostly just that swimming/rolling around feeling.
 
Belly: Not too much change between 14 and 16 weeks I don't think.

Next Appointment: Gender Reveal Tomorrow!
 
xoxo,
Ashley

Monday, August 6, 2012

Noah's Ark

Saturday, me and my mom took Morgan to Noah's Ark waterpark in the Wisconsin Dells. We all had so much fun, especially Morgan. He enjoyed every single minute of the wave pool, lazy river, and the slides in the kiddy areas. Unfortunately, or day was cut short by a little rain and lightening, but it was still a great day for the books and one I won't forget.












I can't wait to do it all over again next summer!

xoxo,
Ashley

Thursday, August 2, 2012

14 weeks



 Pregnancy: 14 weeks

Weight Gain: +1 this morning

How big is baby?: Baby's the size of a lemon or 3.4 inches and 1.5 ounces, he/she has almost doubled in weight since last week and keeps on growing.

Sleep: I still cannot get enough. I was lucky to be able to sleep in a lot over the past week and a half while Frank was on vacation, but now he's back to work so I'm at the mercy of Morgan's sleep schedule. The past few days he's let momma sleep in till 7:30am - what a sweetie!

Gender: We'll find out August 18th! {You can bet there's a countdown going on around here}



Names: We haven't discussed it lately. Like I said, our girl's name is picked out. We'll start thinking seriously about boy names if that is what we find out we're having on the 18th {!!!}

Feeling: I think I'm starting to feel the relief that 2nd trimester brings {knock on wood}, but still fatigued easily.
Movement: I'm not sure. Every once in awhile I'll feel something, but nothing I'm positive about. I can't wait until I feel undeniable baby movements and kicks!
Belly: It's gotten noticeably bigger to me this past week. Pants that fit me a week ago are tighter now.{12 week comparison shot here}

Next Appointment: OB: Aug 9th and Elective gender reveal ultrasound: Aug 18th!!

xoxo,
Ashley