Couponing

Have you noticed that couponing seems to be the newest thing around? Last October, our MOPS group had a guest speaker who talked about Couponing and since then I feel like its been everywhere....there is even a new show on TLC called, "Extreme Couponing." I must admit that I was never a big "couponer" until Presley was born, and even then, I do not use coupons nearly as much as I should. We belong to Groupon, which I love. I also have a coupon organizer that I bought several years ago, but I don't coupon enough to actually use it....and that's about as far as my couponing goes. ;-) I always find that when I go grocery shopping with the intent on using a coupon I either forget the coupon in the car or I find a different brand that is cheaper anyways. When I lived in San Antonio, HEB pretty much ran the show and put all other grocery store chains out of business. There's no Krogers, no Albertsons, no Safeway, etc. Over the holidays I ran to the grocery store to pick up some diapers and I have to say that HEB has become massive! It is bigger than Costco. In Dallas, we have several grocery stores to choose from and they all have their own brand name which are usually significantly cheaper than any other brand...even when using a coupon. Anyhow, a friend of mine is HUGE on couponing and she sent me to the following blogs:
http://moneysavingmom.com/
http://athriftymom.com/
http://www.stretchingabuckblog.com/
http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/
The first 3 are connected and they have some great deals...deals that even generic brands can't beat! I really only follow the first blog and I'm still not a big coupon person (I get tired of signing up for everything) but even I can't pass up a great deal! Thankfully, I have two email accounts...I have an old hotmail account that I use for spam and a gmail account that I use for personal use. I always give my hotmail account when someone, other than a friend, asks me for it.

One Less Dirty Diaper...

Whenever Presley is proud of herself she likes to walk around the house with her chest and tummy puffed out. The picture above shows a very proud little girl pointing to two little stickers that she got this afternoon!! lol. Why, you ask? Well, Ladies and Gents....we just went poo-poo and pee-pee in the potty!! Wahoo!!! After 3 long grueling months of sitting on the potty 3-5 times a day Presley has finally gone to the bathroom in the potty. Thank you Potty Elmo!!! Today, we got a new fridge and a few minutes after the delivery men left I got to work putting all of the food back in. A few minutes later Presley came up to me, with her Elmo in hand, and said "I poo-poos, I poo-poos." It appeared as if she was in the middle of doing her business...if you know what I mean. I said, "no presley, wait, we go poo-poos in the potty and we ran to the bathroom." And just a few minutes later she did her business...twice!! ;-) I can not tell you how excited I was...I screamed, I danced, I clapped, I turned in circles...I did the potty dance. ;-) Presley clapped her hands and said, "yeah" over and over again. First off, let me just say that not having to clean a dirty diaper was SO nice and if that's all we are trained on for the next year is pooing in the potty then I am good with that! AND if this is the only time she goes potty in the pot for the next 4 months then I am ok with that as well. ;-) I am just thrilled with the fact that I had one less dirty diaper and bottom to clean today! ;-)

The Heart of a Child

I love this little girl. Today she has been playing in her room all afternoon. She loves the little kitchen that she got for Christmas from her Nana Burda. She plays with it every day. Presley's Aunt Christy sent her an apron for Christmas. It is really cute and Presley loves to wear it. This afternoon I heard Presley banging around in her kitchen. I grabbed my camera and snuck into her room to see what she was up to. She was busy playing with her beloved Elmo. As I sat and watched her play I couldn't help but tear up a little. She was so precious as she gently stroked Elmo's fur, patted his back, fed him his bottle, and gave him his food. It was the first time I have seen so clearly into the tiny heart of my little girl.

20 Months!

 My sweet girl is growing up!!!!!! and with that comes new milestones and new challenges. Her vocabulary is expanding daily...even more so than before. It seems, just within the past week, she has added 2-3 words daily. She has also been big on learning names this past week. It all started with "PoPo." We prayed for him every morning when he was sick and she just caught on to his name. Then, a few weeks ago Reid came over to play and she caught on to his name. However, the biggest "jump" in remembering names came last week while we were in San Antonio. Presley caught onto names very quickly and started remembering faces. Sara has been trying to get Presley to say her name for months! Finally, while we were in San Antonio she said it! Now anytime she sees a picture of Sara or a picture of anyone with short brown hair she says "Sarrrah." It is quite cute. She also learned to say cousin Ellie's name, but refers to her as "ewwie." I tried to get her to say grandpa, but it came out "pa-pop." I also tried to get her to say Elizabeth, but it's a bit of a long name. I have been pulling out pictures and pointing out different family members, but she is having difficulty with some of the names. She almost has baby Logan's name down. A few days ago, I showed her a little video clip of her cousin Cooper singing in his Christmas program and now she knows who "coopa" is. ;-) tee-hee. The funniest thing is that she calls a banana a "nana" so we will have to do a little transferring of names....kind of like we do with the name "Goose" Ha! She finally calls the puppy by his real name, "Jester"

The BEST thing about all of the name learning is that she has learned the name "Jesus." The wonderful thing about this is that she picked up on his name through a song. One of my piano students, Gretchen, gave Presley her first Bible called, "Baby's First Bible" when she was born. She loves this book and always looks through it. At the end of the book there is a page with children sitting around Jesus and when we get to this page I always sing, "Jesus Loves Me" or "Jesus Loves the Little Children." So, without pounding His name into her head, she still picked up on the love of Jesus in this book. Whenever she wants to read this book she says "Jesus" and runs and gets it. Melts my heart! I always wonder if I am doing a good job teaching and parenting Presley...this is just proof that these little ones pick up on everything!

Presley is also becoming more independent which means that she is also more interested in doing things on her own. She is very interested in the potty....one of the reasons for buying her the Potty Elmo. When she was 17 months old I bought her a potty seat to put on top of the toilet. We have been practicing "just sitting" on the potty for 3 months. Now, she knows how to put the potty on top of the toilet. She also tells me when she has gone "poo-poos" in her diaper. She will also grab her diaper for me and say, "diaper." I have taken the approach of "slow and steady" wins the race. I will spare you of any philosophy I have or any information about the books I have read through. We are basically just introducing "potty time" into her daily routine so that when she turns 2 it's already a part of her day...per aunt Sara's advice. ;-) I read that the hardest time to implement potty training is 24-36 months...the easiest being 18-24 months or 36-48 months. I decided upon the 18-24 months of age.

Eating habits have definitely changed. She now refuses things on a daily basis. She used to always try things, but now she clamps her mouth shut if she is not in the mood to try something new. If I haven't already introduced it to her then it's a real battle....except for when we are at a restaurant. She will eat anything when we are at a restaurant...probably because she knows she has "choices" at home. My bad! Anyhow, one day she will love bananas and the next day she will refuse to eat them. One day she loves spinach and the next- she hates it. We have had 4 battles and each turned out the same...Presley giving in. :-) I have heard that it is "just the age" so I am trying to keep an open mind when I am dealing with her eating habits. One thing I have done is cut out her snacks...and if she does have a snack then she has fruit. I also give her small amounts of a variety of food which seems to help! Today for lunch she had 4 banana bites, 3 raspberries, a cookie cutter sandwich, and half a slice of pumpkin bread. She ate all of it....a big deal since she has refused to eat bananas for the past week! Live and learn, I guess.

All in all she is still a very good little girl, but there are definitely challenging moments. Some days we battle from the moment she wakes up, but the majority of the time she obeys and is very well behaved....I will spare you any details about the challenges. :-)

Christmas Favorites!

The Axtell Clan

Christmas in San Antonio was CRAZY, but so much fun. On Friday, we had family pictures out at the Dominion. It went surprisingly well considering we had 8 little ones to work with. ;-) Christmas Eve, we went over to my Grandma's house and had a Bill Miller's Dinner...to everyone's liking, of course! Then, we opened up all of our gifts. This was the first time we have opened up all of our gifts on Christmas Eve! Our tradition usually holds, we open 1 gift Christmas Eve night and the rest on Christmas Day. It was complete craziness watching everyone open up their gifts at the same time. Complete craziness...just the way I like it! ;-) Ha! I have never seen so many toys in all of my life, but it was great fun! On Christmas Day we had a lovely dinner that Jean prepared ALL.BY.HERSELF! She made everything! Everyone was impressed and it was by far one of the best dinners I have ever had. Woo-Hoo Jean! I am pretty sure that everyone went home with some new recipes in hand to add to their collection at home...the cheese squares being the biggest hit of the night!  On Sunday, we were able to meet Christy and the family out for lunch at Alamo Cafe...Presley's first visit to the cafe! yummmo! Sunday evening we were able to get out for a date night...thanks dad! It was a great Christmas and we were completely exhausted by the time we got home on Monday. Thankfully, we flew and so we got home early Monday morning which left us the entire day to just relax. Presley went to bed at 6:00 and didn't wake up until the next morning at 9:45! Today, we are trying to get back into the routine of things and Presley is trying to get used to playing by herself again :-( Here are a few of my Christmas Favorites...

Miss Cranky Pants

Love this sweet photo

took her a few days, but she finally learned how to do it!

 taking a walk with "pa-pop" and reading her new book

 My most favorite picture EVER! I love everything about it. Reid, just like his dad, is trying to get his point across to his cousin and Presley is taking it all in....she thinks he is so funny.  Sara and I have noticed that all of the younger kids love the next oldest one. For instance...Logan and Reid adore Corbin, Presley adores Reid, and Grant adores Presley. It's very cute. ;-) Originally, I ran into the house to grab my camera because Sara told Reid that Presley was a little scared of being on the swing so Reid put his arm around her with his hand on her lap. It was so cute! By the time I got back with the camera they were both in a very silly mood.

Bath time with the cousins...Presley likes her bath time and she was very cranky taking a bath with her cousins. However, she managed to have a little fun by splashing them! :-) lol

 My sweet Grandma Cose...still young at heart ;-) 

The Many Faces of the Season...

The Captured moments of the season! ;-) Raise your hand if you had similar feelings this Christmas holiday...

All done...dont' let the door hit ya on the way out ;-)

Presley's Fall 2010 Scrapbook!

Below, you will find Presley's Fall scrapbook that I finally finished. Yeah! I had so much fun working on this book! ;-) I designed a few of the pages from scratch, but I would say that 80% of the book is composed of pages that I saw, tweaked, and scraplifted. :-P