7 months old!

7 months old :) My teeny tiny precious princess is 1 month closer to her birthday! Eva is still one of the happiest girls ever, she's so playful and curious! We love going to story time at the library (mainly to stare at the other babies), still love going shopping with mommy, still love big brother Ethan and we still love daddy!

We are also teething - we have the 2 bottom teeth coming in :) Eva's handled teething like a champ - might've been a little cranky, but it has not bothered her sleep one bit!

Weight - 14.8 pounds, I question the accuracy of this since this is over a 1lb weight gain in the past month, which seems a little excessive to me
Height - I don't think she's grown much taller since last month (24 inches)
Clothes - we are exclusively in 6 month clothes now, but the 3 month sleepers still fit.
Diapers - smallest setting for cloth diapers still. We spent a week in disposeables when we were clearing up a diaper rash this past week
Sleep - still sleeping like a champ :) She takes 2 or 3 (usually 3) 1-2 hour naps a day, one in the morning, one early afternoon and one evening. Thank goodness the evening nap doesn't affect her night time sleep!
Eating - we have not found a food Eva doesn't like! We've worked our way through a bunch of fruits and vegetables and she's loved them all. She also likes little bits of table food. Eva has also started eating puffs and Cheerios - she's getting quite good at picking up her snacks and shoving them in her mouth!
Likes - shoving things in her mouth, playing peekaboo, singing, being outside, smiling at the library ladies, stacking cups, wagon rides (same as last month, didn't change anything!)
Dislikes - having toys taken away, not being fed fast enough :P
New tricks - we've started a little bit of backwards scooting, and a few forward slumps, so hopefully crawling will happen soon! We also have sloppy open mouth kisses. And if you get your face a little close, she's liable to pinch/squeeze/poke you!

And who can resist pictures :) I apologize if you've already seen some of these on facebook, but they are too cute not to share again!

Pigtails :)

Sitting in highchairs at restaurants

Showing off the toofers!

Sitting in shopping carts!

Walking lessons :)

The middle 2 fingers are the tastiest

Monthly sibling shot - Ethan's kisses are the best!

Monthly picture :)

What's this crinkly stuff?

I think it's a snack!

Ethan lately!

There have been so many Eva posts lately that I thought it'd be nice to do an Ethan only post with lots of pictures of my handsome little man. He has the sweetest smile ever and is such a good boy!

Here are some of the fun things Ethan's been up to since his 3rd birthday...

Writing his name! His handwriting has improved a lot since this picture was taken!

1st day of preschool - he even wrote his name on his art project :)

Sitting in a booster seat in the car! Or passing out in the booster seat on the way to Grandma's :)

Enjoying chocolate milk at Barnes and Noble

Arts and crafts at Lowe's

Silly boy with his "antlers"

Arts and crafts at the library - he drew an apple for the owl to eat :)

Dominick Deals!

One of my favorite blogs is myfrugaladventures.com - the girl who does the blog has all sorts of great deal ideas, which help me, along with many other people, save money. Some of my bargains are from her blog, others are entirely my own :)

One of my favorite things about her blog is that she'll tell you what transactions will trigger catalinas (the coupons that print out at the register), which can help you save extra money.

This week was a very good week for deals at Dominick's (parent company Safeway). I have their store card, and you can sign up online for their Just 4 U program to get exclusive coupons, deals and prices!

This trip was split into 2 transactions.

Transaction #1
-10 9oz tubs of Oscar Mayer lunchmeat at $5.29 each 

• Used the store card to bring the price to $3.99 each
• Used a Just 4 U deal to bring the price down even more to $2.49 each
• Used a Just 4 U coupon to bring the price down to $1.38 each

-Total after tax: $14.04
-This generated a $10 catalina to roll into the next transaction!

Transaction #2
-3 Herbal Essences shampoos at $3.49 each

• Used the store card to bring the price down to $2.99 each
• Used a Just 4 U coupon to bring the price down to $2.49 each
• Used 1 $3/2 Herbal Essences coupon and 1 Get any Herbal Essences product free coupon (good for up to $2.99) to bring the price for 3 shampoos down to $1.48

-2 20oz Jennie-O ground turkeys at $6.49 each

• Used the store card to get a Buy One Get One Free deal to bring the price down to $6.49 for 2

-Gevalia coffee at $8.99 each

• Used the store card to bring the price down to $7.99
• Used 1 $2 coupon to bring the price down to $5.99

-1 sour cream at $2.49 each

• Used the store card to bring the price down to $1.99

-Total after coupons, tax and $10 catalina from the first transaction: $6.80

Total out of pocket: $20.84

These sale prices are good through Wednesday, 9/5, so go visit your local Safeway store if you need lunchmeat!

Cheap Crackers

Bargain time :)

Today's bargain was found at Jewel-Osco (parent company Albertson's for those of you not in the Chicago area). 

Selected varieties of Nabisco crackers (Wheat Thins, Triscuits,etc) were on sale for $2.84 a box (not a great price) with a store coupon that dropped the price to $1.37 a box (good for 3 boxes), a far better deal. Of course, to make this deal an even better deal, there were manufacturer coupons to stack with the store coupon!

-3 boxes of Wheat Thins at $1.37 each
-1 box of Triscuits at $2.84

• Used 1 Buy Two Get 1 Free (up to $2.50 value) coupon and 1 $1 coupon from the Nabisco Facebook page

-Total after coupons and tax: $3.57, really good price for 4 boxes of crackers.

This deal is good through Wednesday, 9/5, so if you like Triscuits or Wheat Thins, go and pick up a few boxes! I recommend the Sundried Tomato and Basil flavor!

6 months old!

Half a year. 6 months. That is how old our Eva is now! She is such a happy, even tempered girl - this makes everyone happy. She has gotten very playful and interactive in the past month - when she plays peekaboo, she'll pull down your hand! Also, her favorite game is to knock down her stacking cups - Ethan loves to help out with this one!

Weight - 13lb, 11oz (9%)
Height - 24 in (0% - Eva is off the charts short!)
Clothes - we are FINALLY starting to grow out of some of the 3 month outfits, but they still fit okay. Eva has been wearing her 6 month wardrobe though because it's so cute, and I'm set on it getting some use!
Diapers - smallest setting for cloth diapers still. We used a size 2 disposeable a month ago when we came out from a birthday party and the diapers were blown all over the yard and had to be rewashed.
Sleep - hooray for sleeping through the night! Eva sleeps 9 pm'ish to 6 am'ish. We still don't have an established nap schedule - I'd say about 3 mini naps a day? It really depends on her mood. We are napping in the crib though!
Eating - we started solids! So far we've had rice cereal, banana, peaches, plums, strawberries, prunes, avocado, watermelon, cantaloupe, salmon, beans and I'm sure I'm leaving a few things out here! Eva is also still nursing 6 times a day :)
Likes - shoving things in her mouth, playing peekaboo, singing, being outside, smiling at the library ladies, stacking cups, wagon rides
Dislikes - being ignored
New tricks - going from sitting to her tummy, using her arms to pivot, "walking" when you hold her hands, standing while holding on to furniture, playing with toys

I don't think crawling will happen too soon - I say that because this girl loves to roll! Set her down and she's off to explore!

I think this upcoming month we'll work on not using the pacifier - right now, we only use it sometimes at night and sometimes if we go out in public.

Please enjoy the pictures.

Ethan feeding Eva some rice cereal

Wagon ride!

Shoving things in mouth

Smiley :)

6 months old already!

Monthly sibling picture :)

Puppy love - this is Annie, our neighbors' dog

Parties, parties everywhere!

August is a super busy time for birthdays on the Barber side of the family - we have Cameron (our nephew) on the 6th, Ethan on the 12th, Chris on the 17th and Grandma Barber on the 25th.

This year was a little extra hectic with celebrating Liam's first birthday  (Liam is our friends Zaianne and Tom's sweet little boy) and Eva's 6 month birthday on the 19th as well!

Our first weekend in August started out with 2 parties - Liam's first birthday party on the 4th and Cameron's 2nd birthday on the 5th. We then had a week off before being hit with a triple birthday party for Chris, Ethan and Eva! Somehow we managed to survive all of this partying :)

All of the birthday boys and the half birthday girl received lots of nice gifts and were able to celebrate with friends and family!

Please enjoy the pictures.

Young love - Eva and Liam

Ethan teaching Liam how to play!

Cousin love

More cousin love

Eva in her conductor's hat and Grandpa Barber

So many choices

6 month old princess with Aunt Jen (yes there are 2 Jennifer Barbers in the family!)

Thomas cupcakes - please excuse the melting buttercream frosting!

Watch out, Ethan!

Eva and Grandpa Kuo

Ethan loves Molly

Ethan - 3 years!

My firstborn is 3! Well, he turned 3 exactly 3 weeks ago, so this is just a quick recap.

In the past year, the most exciting thing that happened was becoming a big brother! Ethan loves Eva, and Eva loves him back :) There has been surprisingly little sibling rivalry. We have been completely done potty training (both during the day and at night) since shortly after Eva was born. He is also sleeping in his own bed at night, although he likes to come in to mommy and daddy's room for a snuggle in the morning.

Ethan is all done with daycare now - the past year he had been going 2 days a week, and going to my parents the other 3 days. Now that he's 3, he'll be starting preschool! He is very excited about going to "big boy school" and I'm sure he'll do well. I will miss all the little arts and crafts projects that he brings home, but at least we still have Home Depot and Lowe's arts and crafts to go to!

Ethan is still super skinny - the little guy only weighs 29 pounds! He wears anything from 18 month to 2T clothes. He does love eating all sorts of things - his favorites are any sort of fruit, anything that can be dipped in ketchup and quinoa (yes, a little strange for a 3 year old!). He loves helping me in the kitchen by getting the appropriate appliance out of the cabinets, retrieving various ingredients and levelling flour.

I can't wait to see what this next year will bring!

Sibling love

Riding the mechanical horse at Meijer

Arts and Crafts at Lowe's

Birthday boy at 5:23pm

Birthday cake - Ethan insisted on pink frosting with blue and green sprinkles