Arkansas Wrap Up

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We had a nice time while we were home and as usual, time flew by for us! Maybe these pics will sum up our holidays....



Christmas with the McNairs



Logan (3 and a half) and Jackson (21 months) first cousins and too cute



The 3 little ones. Landen is the youngest he is 16 months I believe. Aunt Janie and Chasity are giving them a hand.

  It is always a fun and exciting time at the McNair's! We had it early this year, and it was so nice to relax and not have to rush around. I love that there are 3 little boy cousins all within 3 years of each other. It has really been something watching them grow (at the speed of light). Jeremy's side has lots of boys, so it will be interesting to see who has the first spoiled rotten little girl!


At Garvan Gardens  

Two years ago, while Jeremy was deployed and I was pregnant with Jackson, I went to Garvan Gardens for the first time with my family. I remember talking about the next time we came here, we would have a baby with us. I tried to imagine what he would look like and how I would be as a mom. I just couldn't imagine it! Words can not describe how much I under estimated the greatness that happened to me on March 20th 2009, and the happiness that he brings us every day! I was so excited to take him to see the lights for the first time! We skipped last year because we ran out of time, naturally....

Brian and Ashley with their hot chocolate



Brian and Grandma

Me and my hungry boy

Looking at the blue lights on the water with Grandpa



 It was really cold, so we didn't make it through the entire place, but we still had fun. Jackson wanted to run all over the place and it isn't that kid friendly at times. Afterwards, we went to one of our favorite places: Buffalo Wild Wings!


Christmas in Sheridan was fun too! Brian actually got about 2 weeks to be home from Nashville, and we got about 2 weeks. We always do Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house and also at the Rec Center with the Davenport side of our family.

He knows what he is doing, and always says "oh wow!" when he opens a present

My family doesn't take much seriously, for example this is Brian and Ashley's entrance Christmas night as we went back to Grandma's to eat.



Mom, Jeremy, and Brian





Playing with Aunt Ash





At the Rec Center pulling Grandma by the hand



Our get together with the Davenport side
 

It was great seeing everyone that night, but we had to cut out early for Andrew's surprise 30th birthday party!



Jana is my best friend and she and Andrew have been in my life for over 10 years now! We couldn't miss the party.



They also invited us over for New Year's Eve and we had a blast singing karaoke!

Brian and Ashley

I didn't get many pictures because my flash died! I'm still learning how to do everything with my camera too, I have a long way to go. 

Eric singing (Jeremy's brother)

Jeremy and Lola



We always have fun while we are home in Sheridan, and we are sad to leave every time. This time was especially hard and I'm not sure why. I think it is because we are so ready to get home and be closer to family and friends. Jackson is growing so fast, plus I miss my friends and family more than ever. It is so nice when you live close! There are nice things about moving around and we really do love where we are right now. It would be perfect if we could move our little area of land to Arkansas (and all the businesses we have grown to love while living in different states).

2010 was a great year for us. It started out rough (robbery in KY), but that led to us moving on post in January. We found out in March that we were moving to Ft Benning, left Kentucky in October, had a month to find a place and now here we are in Alabama! So we moved twice, traded in the car for the mountaineer, celebrated 3 years of marriage, Jackson's first birthday, Jeremy's 30th birthday, and my 27th, just to name a few. We touched down in Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, and Georgia.

We are hoping for a great 2011. I know it is going to be a fast year and trust me we are going to make the best out of where we are at! As soon as we get some warm weather, we are doing some sight seeing!





Subdivision Bandit

That is exactly what I felt like as I rolled out of our driveway tonight headed to Publix. Something about the black toboggan, gloves and scarf made me feel extra sneaky haha! This is probably going to seem strange to a lot of people, but I have developed a hobby/job out of couponing and getting stuff for free (legally and encouraged I promise). About every other day I am coming home with my sacks full of things we need at prices I never knew were possible. It started out as a way to save some money for our family here and there, and turned into a pretty good reserve of toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, pasta, crescent rolls, coffee mate, red potatoes, and cereal, to name a few. Its not that I have THAT much stockpiled, and its not THAT simple to do, but it works for me. I won't bore you with too many details, especially since most of my blog readers are in Arkansas and unfortunately there isn't a Publix, Rite Aid, or CVS there that I know of...but I am hopeful that by the time we move home (IN 17 MONTHS HALLELUJAH!!) that at least one of those stores will open up near me. Anyway the basics of my tricks are:

~~~You may want to skip over this part if it doesn't interest you :)~~~~

*Double coupons (at Publix they double all up to $1, and it seems like Kroger does too?) 

*Buy one get one free sales (most stores you don't have to buy 2 items, you can just buy one at half off
  then use a coupon on it)

*Using a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon  (all stores that I know of will allow one of each per item)
   Ex. Target has Suave Shampoo on sale for .89. They offer a coupon on their website for .75 off any Suave product. There is a coupon in the paper for .75 off a Suave product. Use both coupons ($1.50 total) and you just made .61 cents and got free shampoo.

*Register rewards. Every week at Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid they have products listed that when purchased, you get money towards your next purchase. If you can match coupons in the paper, with store coupons, and get money back I say why not!

  Ex. Crest toothpaste is 2.99 at Rite Aid. This week Crest (through Rite Aid) is giving $2 towards your next purchase when you buy Crest toothpaste. I have a $1 off crest coupon. So 2.99-1.00=1.99 out of pocket for me at first, but with my receipt prints up $2 towards my next purchase.

This is where you really rack up. Now you take that $2 and buy something else with it that has a reward, like Halls cough drops may be on sale for $2 but you get back $2. So you take your $2 that you earned, go put it towards the Halls cough drops (so you pay nothing) and you get another $2 back. This is just an example of course, and you can do much bigger transactions once you get comfortable with the system. Now every week I see what is free, I take my free money (register rewards) and buy what has more rewards, I roll it into the next week and only pay tax. Does this make sense?

*Mail in Rebates. I used to think they were a pain, but when you get something free and can submit for money back on top of free, I do it.


Those are the basics.  It may sound like a lot of trouble, but once you learn how, it is easy. Start small! It took me a week or 2 to get comfortable with how coupons work, but now I can not walk into Wal Mart and throw things in the buggy like I used to. We still buy things we need of course, but I have decreased our grocery bill by about 75% and other things such as toiletries, paper towels, cleaning supplies by 90%. I'm loving it because it also frees up some money for other things we want! Oh and by the way, stores don't mind this at all! They get reimbursed by the manufacturer, so the more the merrier.

So what have I been up to lately in my "spare" time? Now you know! That and taking care of my loves and vertigo. I have been SO dizzy and it isn't getting better so I have to see a doctor before we head to Arkansas. My right ear is in pain so I know that is whats going on and I think I need help!

On to the important stuff!

 Jackson made his first batch of cookies with me this weekend. We are just doing the simple ones until he is old enough to really help in the kitchen, in which case I too will "learn" how to make cookies from scratch. Maybe. Christmas cookies are just so cute so I got the ones with snowmen and Christmas trees, since he has started recognizing them everywhere and saying "snowmam and kreemusth-treeeeeee"

 Chloe isn't too fond of Jackson's entertainment. The boy loves stickers.

They are still buddies though, she follows him everywhere or he chases her.  

We have been spending quite a bit of our days indoors lately since it has gotten colder. I'm loving being with my baby, just hanging out in our pajamas and staying warm.

 Dad got him this tool bench and set for Christmas, so he has been a little handy man this past week.

Tomorrow we are going to the General's house to see Santa!

Now what?

One of Our Fall Pics

Our little buddy



Reading with Nana and Barney

Well we are here, settled, Thanksgiving is behind us and we have a little bit of time before we head HOME for Christmas (which I am so ready to hit the road, I would leave now for Arkansas if I could). It feels funny having a day with "nothing" to do! Amazon made it way too easy for me to Christmas shop today during Jackson's (shorter than ever)nap and I even had the stuff shipped to Mom's so I don't have to haul it from here. Nice! I started getting ready to head to Publix but that never happened. Good intentions I guess. That is fine with me though because we will just go tomorrow when Jeremy can go with us. Every time we grocery shop I wind up telling Jeremy that next time I'm going alone, but when next time rolls around no one wants to stay home so off we go! I assume that I could think better if I went alone :).



Jackson, on the other hand (literally) has wanted Mommy 100% of this day. Usually he will play fine for a little while or at least aggravate Chloe, but not today, not without me by his side. I'm not complaining at all, but it does make things such as laundry, dishes, and dinner a little bit more complicated. I'm wondering if this is a new "thing" or not. He has been so funny, I think I always say that, but it is true. His words are just precious and he can repeat anything you say. Right now he likes saying "Jackson's room" and he loves getting onto Chloe. He will tell her to hush and tell her no. It's cute. He also gently sat on her yesterday with his paci and juice and said go horsey. The look on her face was priceless!

Stats on our boy:

At 20 months he is 34 inches tall and 32 pounds. He is borderline 3T, but mostly 2T is still fitting him fine. Size 9 shoe.

Favorite things to eat are: Cheese, yogurt, broccoli, pizza, chicken nuggets or any other kind of chicken, tractor snacks, spaghetti, cinnamon toast crunch (only a little because it is so sweet).

He drinks plenty of milk and juice.
Counts to 12 and knows chunks of the alphabet.
Sleeps through almost every night for 10-12 hours and has a 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hour nap every day around 2:00.
~~He is kind of a big deal around here, as you can probably tell and always will be!~~

I love our new place, however I would not mind being in Las Vegas or Hawaii or Disneyworld about now. My brother Brian is singing in Las Vegas this week (lucky).  

At the Riverwalk last week with Brian

My great friend Autumn just moved to Hawaii (lucky and warm!) So we are going to Disneyworld. Not right now, but we have decided to go in March. I am so excited! We used to go every year and I haven't been since 2006 so it is very much time for us to go.  Jackson will be tall enough to ride a lot of rides (accompanied) and Jeremy has never been! We decided to make it Jackson's 2nd birthday trip, but I think we will go in early March to avoid the Spring Break rush. Shades of Green is a military resort that has great deals and right now active duty families get a huge discount on park tickets! AND we are less than 400 miles from there. So, I have said this before but this time I mean it! We are going. Will it be stressful and tiring with a 2 year old? At times, but it will so be worth it.

Macy's Parade with Grandpa



So that is what is on my mind. We are ready for the weekend and ready for Christmas break! I am happily back into blogging now. I am so mad at myself for not keeping up. This is like my journal and helps me to document the memories we are making! In my defense we have been crazy busy and covered a lot of territory this past couple of months!

Gearing Up

This week we have been preparing for a new kind of recreation! We have been talking about bicycling for awhile now, but the bikes were not in Kentucky. We finally went to Nashville last weekend to see Brian, and brought the bikes back with us. As you can see Jackson has been working extra hard on getting them ready for us to ride.

Yesterday was our first outing. I think we rode about 6 miles total, with a couple of good size hills! I am feeling it today, but not too bad. We were looking for a good deal on this bike trailer for little man, but we decided to go ahead and get it at Wal Mart yesterday so that we could get started. We have to wear helments when riding on post, so you know we were a funny looking bunch coming down the road!

Jackson actually loved it! he sat the entire time and enjoyed the scenery. In fact, he climbed in himself and tried to buckle himself in, he was ready to roll. I couldn't stop laughing while we were riding because it was too cute. The only thing that would make the ride easier would be a softer seat for my bike, for sure.

By the way, he normally only has his paci at nap and bedtime, but yesterday he found one in his room and was determined to keep it. After we leave Arkansas for Georgia, the fun begins as we try to break the habit!

We have been outside as much as possible lately, enjoying the mild weather! I just love this little outfit that Grandma got him.