This Moment ~ Will crawl for ...

Balloons!!

Yes. Monkey loves balloons. Loves them.

It's amazing what a difference motivation makes. ;o)

(And yes, balloons are played with under very careful supervision ...)

Saving $$$

When Peter's inclined to use a fork like this for dinner ...
and Matthew thinks that food is absolutely the best thing next to Mommy and 2-3 servings are definitely appropriate, ...

it's a blessing to be able to use coupons to save significantly on my grocery bill. Especially as we all watch prices continue to creep up. (Actually, I'm not sure "creeping" is the right word for it. Anyway.) SouthernSavers.com continues to be a great help in matching coupons and sales.

However, at this point, grocery savings of 50-60% have thankfully been pretty standard fare for quite a while. What's proving to be very exciting, however, is the savings I've been able to find on diapers via Amazon in recent months. How does $0.09 per diaper for Pampers sound? Shipped to your house for free?? NO coupon clipping necessary??? :o)

If you're in the market for such deals, please read on ...

Amazon has a program called Amazon Mom. You can read more about it on their site, but basically it's a free program for Moms (or Dads) with young kids that provides the free shipping benefits of an Amazon Prime membership with 15% savings on all Baby department purchases. When you combine the 15% Amazon Mom savings with 15% Subscribe & Save savings, it works out to pretty great deals. :o)

I've been ordering Pampers Baby Dry and with that 30% savings alone, I can get 204 diapers shipped to my house for $0.14 each. And I never left the comfort of my home, searched a single ad, or clipped a single coupon. Nice.

However, to make it even better, Amazon has been including coupons for $10 off an Amazon Baby department purchase in popular parenting magazines such as Parents and Babytalk. A subscription to Babytalk is free and I was able to find a good deal on Parents about a month ago. Anyway, with that coupon, my 204 diapers were shipped to my house for just $0.09 a diaper. :o) Even better! :o)

So anyway, life's not about coupons, but it does help to be able to save money on necessary items and saving time while doing that is even better. Since that leaves you more time for the important things like

Puppet Shows

and "reading" books.
(Peter can "read" this one from cover to cover!)

And thus ends my public service announcement. ;o)

(Hoping it will be helpful for some of my friends with little ones!)

Blooming Yellow!

We love daffodils!

They're bright and cheerful and simply shout, "Spring!!!!"
While Monkey snoozed, we claimed a batch for our dining room table shortly after our earliest blooms opened, and I valiently tried for a cute group photo like I captured last year. Didn't work out quite as planned. :o) I got some of this ...

and this ...

Ah well. :o)

We still had tons of fun! :o)

And are rejoicing in the beauty of spring!

This Moment ~ Happy Blessings

What can I say?

I love them to pieces.

Boredom Busters, part 2

(AKA "Jenny's eclectic conglomeration of random pictures from February")

If you happen to be looking for something to do, you might want to try ...

automotive work, reading a book,

bird watching,

a rousing game of Cooties,

taking funny pictures of Daddy's cootie kissing Mommy's cootie,

cuddling with someone in matching jammies,

hanging out in a giant pile of leaves,

mountain sliding,

trimming trees,

new taste sensations,

building a Lego tower,

junior photography,

hiding in the laundry,

challenging your memory, crawling lessons,

making cookies,enjoying the sunshine,

wearing a costume,

supervising tree removal,

or ... if all else fails, ...

taking a nap. PS - If that's not enough ideas, visit part 1 for a few more ... ;o)

Overwhelmed by God's Grace

I had the privilege this evening of hugging my dripping wet daughter as she exited the baptismal waters. Words really just can't express the incredible joy of seeing God's grace working in her life at that moment. We are so thankful for her faith in Christ and her desire to testify of that through baptism.

Two other girls were baptized along with Hannah this evening, and all three girls were so excited ... (albeit a wee bit nervous.) :o) (Two young men were baptized this evening as well.)

Our Pastor needed to accomodate heights ranging from under 4 feet this evening to over 6, so he helped Hannah float from the steps to a cinder block he had placed in the water for her.

We've been privileged to be a part of our church since before we were married, so our Pastor has known Hannah since she was born, making it an extra special blessing now for him to help her testify of her new birth in Christ.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing;

it is the gift of God,

not a result of works,

so that no one may boast.

:::

Ephesians 2:8-9

Thank You, Father God, for your incredible gift of grace in our lives.

This Moment ~ Waiting for Grandma and Grandpa

We are so glad G&G M were able to come down to share in Hannah's baptism with us!

Let there be red ...

A red rose for Hannah ...
Red roses for Mommy ...

Red hair (pre-trimming) for Monkey ...

A red (rather than pinkish) dog house for Toby ...

Red paint (1/3 gallon) for the bugs ...

AND ....

A red shed for all of us!!!

With our able assistants ...

We took advantage of a beautiful, unseasonably warm Saturday and turned our mismatched shed into this:

Black trim paint and a replacement door are coming, but we're definitely rejoicing in the improvement already! :o) (And also encouraged by how much help our growing crew was able to provide!)