Is it the photographer? Or the subject?

I got Brayden all dressed today and fixed his hair so that I could try to get a good picture or two to use on his birthday invitations. Right now, my days and nights are consumed with thoughts of birthday party decorations and party favors. I got a couple of okay pictures but none that I am convinced is "THE" picture. I have convinced myself if I had a better camera I'd get better pictures! :) Plus, when your subject is a two year old wiggleworm the odds are already stacked against you!

First, I got this....

Then, this...

Next, this...

And finally, this!

He may not be looking right at the camera but it may just have to do! I can't believe my baby boy is already turning TWO! My oh my, how time flies!!

Brayden's "Shishy" Room

Both Jeremy and Brayden are bigtime fishermen. Brayden can't exactly fish on his own yet-- but he just cries and cries if I don't get his Shrek fishing pole out of the closet during the day for him to play with. He loves anything and everything "shish", as he calls them. :) I have been in a major painting mood these past few months and have almost painted every room in our entire house. I finally had to take Brayden's crib set out of his room because he had finally outgrown it and was slowly but surely tearing it apart. I found some small pillows that I asked my grandma to cover to add into Brayden's bed during the day for decoration and it all spiraled downhill from there. :) Two small pillows turned into curtains, pillows, blankets, a bedskirt, a chair, five crib sheets, and from what I hear a quilt is in the works...... all to match his "shishy" room. I told my friend Julia that I would post pictures of how it all turned out so here goes! :)

Sorry these pictures didn't exactly turn out great! Apparently, my camera is trying to punish me for these past few months of no use!! :)

These letters are lime green believe it or not.... They look puke green in the picture! :)

Here are some pictures of Jerm, Brayden, and Uncle Lloyd at the last few fishing tournaments Jeremy has had.....

By the way, that's not their purse in the picture.... it's mine :) Jeremy will appreciate that I cleared that up!

A Small Update (After 4 months of nothing) :)

So, I've been bad. Not one single post in four months! :) Everyone is doing great -- Brayden is going to be turning TWO here in the next two months.. Jerm is working a lot and Brayden and I are just hanging out together and enjoying life. :) We are hoping and waiting for some sort of hurricane or hail storm....(Jeremy is an insurance adjuster). Other than that, I'm sorry I've been such a slacker.... maybe the next post will actually include a picture! I have lost my camera cord and haven't found it yet!!

Julia--- I cleaned up Brayden's room today and I will take a picture soon and post it for you to see!! I haven't forgotten.......yet ;)

Easter Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Easter. My battery was running super low so there was no time for posing. Plus, Brayden was way into putting eggs into his basket!

Save, Save, Save $$ {{Part 2}}

Here we go again! I have been couponing like crazy lately!! :) I'm going to try and link some of my favorite deals that I've seen around..

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New movie Bolt with John Travolta and Miley Cyrus.

$5 Printable Coupon Here

$10 Printable Coupon for Blu-Ray Here

$4 Rebate when you buy a pasta product -- Print Form Here

If you buy the movie right away Target and Walmart both have the movie for $15.99 this week! I bought ours and used the $5 coupon and am mailing in my rebate for $4! After all is said and done, we will have only paid $6.99! That is awesome for a new release movie, especially since we would have bought it for Brayden anyway.

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The best printable coupon sites I have found are :

http://www.afullcup.com/

coupons.smartsource.com

You may have to register (not on smart source!) with your email address but they don't share you information and really don't send out emails either. :)

Go to coupons and select Printable Coupons. The list they have of printables will blow your mind! ;) There you can search for coupons and see if the ones that you need are available. All you need to do is type what you are looking for -- example: diapers, or more specific Huggies Diapers.

Also on their home page they have a blue box on the right hand side that says Target Coupon Generator. There you can print out awesome Target coupons. The best part is, I've noticed, that whatever they have coupons for is already on sale in-store! Plus, if you can find a manufacturer coupon to use in conjunction with the store coupon you can get items free or almost free! :)

For instance, this week at Target they have $1 off a Pledge product. Also, if you go to http://www.pledge.com/savings/2009-1/ they have a printable for $2 off! Combine those together this week at Target you can get Pledge almost free! I got two Pledge items for about 30 cents a piece!

** Make sure anytime you find great coupons, use your browser's back button to print the coupon TWICE** :)

If you really are in search of a certain coupon you can always use google.com BUT sometimes it is harder to find what you are looking for because google will return searches that are expired coupons, etc. It just takes a little more time to find exactly what you are looking for, if that all makes sense!

If anyone knows of any other good deals, feel free to comment!

The Past Week

We spent all of last week down at the coast and it was beautiful for the most part. Later in the week a cold front came in and it got chilly and rainy but other than that we had a great time! Here are a few pictures..

This one is my absolute favorite!!

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So, this week we are back at the coast again. :) We came down on Wednesday night and are heading home later tonight. Brayden and I went out on the boat today and I ALWAYS manage to underestimate the power of the sun. One would think I would have learned my lesson by now since my skin type is see through. :) ( I DID put sunscreen on Brayden though. ) I haven't uploaded the pictures yet from this week, but they are mainly just pictures of fishin', which is not near as cute as the pictures of Brayden frolicking in the water from last week.

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A couple that I have been reading about, The Tipping Family, have lost all of the sextuplets they were expecting. The memorial service was planned for today at 3 pm so be in prayer for them.

Save, Save, Save $$

I have a few different things for today, so be ready. :)

Kohl's department store has an organization called Kohl's Cares for Kids that is just awesome. Here is a little picture talking a little about what they do and what things they are offering this season. Not only do they have neat books and stuffed animals, but 100% of the proceeds are donated to support kids and education! They usually feature four different books with a stuffed animal that goes with each one. Everything is only $5! This season they are featuring Dr.Seuss books and characters. The books especially are a great deal because these books that are now known as "classics" are not cheap at a regular store. I know that I am going to buy my son a stuffed animal or book here and there so why not buy from an organization that is donating everything to a good cause?

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The next thing I've been into lately is coupon clipping! Why not take a little time to save some major cash?! Today I did my first little "outing" with my coupons in hand and I saved $38.56!! I bought everything from milk, diapers, detergent, toddler snacks, and makeup. I bought a little bit of everything! One thing that really hit home for me today was not buying something unless I need it now or in the near future!

A few of the good sales I got were at Walgreens:

1 Gallon Milk for $2.99 -- I usually pay $3.49-.69 at Wal-Mart

Tide Detergent 24 loads for $5.99 (plus they give you a $1 coupon for anything in Walgreens on your next purchase, so basically it was $4.99) -- I checked the price at Wal-Mart and that same one was $7-something!!

Buy one get one free Revlon Cosemetics-- I bought new foundation for $13.99 and got mineral powder ($11.99) for FREE!

At Wal-Mart I had a few smaller coupons here and there that I printed from http://www.coupons.com/ ($3 AND $5 Huggies diaper coupons!!) but I saved another $12.37 on Physicians Formula face brightener! Another blogger who only blogs about deals and coupons http://www.frugalcouponmom.com/ posted a link to Physicians Formula where they have mail in rebates on three of their new items (bronzer, face brightener, and mascara) that make them completely FREE when you mail in your receipt with a very simple form that you can print here.

I just went to http://www.frugalcouponmom.com/ and she has some great, great new things up today.. check her out!

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The last thing I've got for today is about Redbox. When this first came out I thought there was no way that I could rent movies, especially new releases for only $1 (per night). If you rent from Blockbuster new releases are $3.99+tax which is $4.15, if I remember correctly. :) Redbox always has new releases and other movies and it is very easy to do! I have seen Redbox machines at my local McDonald's, Walgreens, and a gas station. To find your nearest Redbox click here. Also, Frugal Coupon Mom puts up a code every Wednesday for a free Redbox rental! So on Wednesdays hop on over to her blog and get your free movie rental!

Hopefully, someone can save something from this post. :) If anyone knows of any deals or coupon websites that they love, feel free to comment and I will post about it for everyone to share!!

The Park

Today we stopped by the park to feed the ducks our bread that needed to be thrown out. Brayden totally loved and it and was much more involved than I thought he would be. He would reach to us to get his own piece of bread to throw and would throw it out into the water for the ducks and geese and wait for our reaction. If it didn't make it into the water he would pick it up and throw it again, too cute! Anyway, here are a few pictures from our day. Isn't that duck in the middle picture just gorgeous? I really don't remember ever seeing a duck so colorful! I'll admit it, I'm a little biased for the more colorful ducks! :)

Water Boy

\/ Look at this little tubs.. he takes after his momma. :)

Today we went out on a friend's boat on the river. We had a great time and plan to maybe go again on Friday. Brayden had fun just pushing buttons on the boat stereo. :) I'm so happy it's been nice outside so now it's finally time to start getting some sun!!

And Then There Were Four....

I know, I know, that was sneaky.. but I'm not pregnant!! We got a new puppy, that's all! Brayden loves crawling into his little dog brother's bed and giving him kisses. He doesn't mind if Striker is asleep, he will get in the bed with him anyway.. :)

Zoo Day

Today Brayden and I went with one of my friends, Karrah, and her little girl, Eva, to the zoo. We got to try out the new wagon and he did pretty good with it. He really wanted to be out more today because he couldn't see the animals too well from the wagon. Anyways, we had a great time but we are ready for Jeremy to come home tomorrow! My birthday is on Tuesday so we are going to meet my dad and stepmom for dinner tomorrow night when he gets here. What a busy weekend!

Enough said.
This was when we first got back in the car...
..and this is about 10 minutes after that... :)

Rodeo Day

Brayden and I went along with Chrystina, our wedding photog, and her little boy Michael to the Rodeo one day this week. We had a lot of fun and got to see all kinds of neat things. Brayden loved the petting zoo! It was really cute. I have never taken Brayden to anything like that before and he sure enjoyed it!
Look at this face.. he totally thought that this big goat was going to run him over.
There was a picture booth for AT&T. They had props. I got carried away. I swear, before he had this getup on he was not standing still. Once I put the hat and other jazz on him he was all excited and clapping. Needless to say this is not the picture my husband was expecting me to show him when I told him look at this cute picture of Brayden!

They had another booth where they would give out free ice cream samples. They were amazing! I even got Brayden one and he loved it. He ate it pretty well on his own but ate the bottom of the cone first which made for a little bit of mess but one happy baby! :)