Photo Freebies and Gifts to Grow Points

Sorry for the lack of posts lately - we went to Germany for a week and then we came back and Jake has tonsilitus (sp?). The trip was amazing though - we visited our family (which really was awesome), went to Neuschwanstein Castle (pictured), and ate all day and night. :) Can't ask for a better vacation!

On to the important stuff:

Pampers Gifts to Grow Points
2BeginEarning50  (50 pts)
GiftstoGrow4Mom (50 pts)
10ptsfreecode4u (10 pts)
giftstogrowbonus (20 pts)

Also, some awesome photo deals right now:

- Thru Friday you can order a free Walgreens 8x10 collage - pick up in store and you don't even pay shipping - order online at walgreens.com. Code: 8x10TREAT

- Thru Nov. 30, get 75 free prints at snapfish. Code: IStock75

- Get two sets of 4x8 photocards at snapfish (must order them seperately) - think Christmas cards here... codes: Babymail and Babies. Must use by Oct. 31.

Happy Thursday. Hoping for a better night with no 105 temperatures...

Diaper Deals

Jake has been getting closer and closer to walking! He's up to 4-5 steps at once. Only a matter of time now... we are both excited and scared!!

Amazon.com has coupons for certain Pampers Diapers. When you sign up for subscribe and save (which you can unsubscribe before your next shipment) you save 30% (limited time only) and you can stack it with a 20% off coupon from Parents August and September issues (orange coupon in the magazine - postcard size). I just got 108 night time diapers for only $16!

August is World Breastfeeding Month and BabiesRUs is offering great deals on Breastfeeding items. I'm not breastfeeding anymore, but here were a few of my favorite items when I did!!

1. Medela Milk Freezing Storage Set - who wants to wash containers to pump into continuously? With these you have 12 containers to go through... and you can attach a nipple directly to them if you want. $14.99 usually - only $11.99.
2. Sensible Lines Milk Trays - freeze an ounce of milk in each little ice-cube-like tray, then put in a freezer bag and only use defrost as much as you need, when you need it! The guessing game of how much to put in the freezer bags was always frustrating for me (although I did both). $22 on Amazon, $18.39 at BabiesRUs now.
3. Nursing covers - nice if you are breastfeeding in public a lot, although a blanket would work too. $15.99 and really cute designs.

And I would always suggest to have an extra set of pump parts (valves and breast Shields) so you don't have to wash between each pumping! Try to borrow a pump, but if you can't I'd suggest looking in consignment shops for lightly used pumps or keep an eye out for good deals!

Baby Food Friday

Today was an interesting day. We had our appt with the neurologist - which I'm just planning to ignore until I get a second opinion from my new pediatrician next Friday...

But, on a much better note, I tried my hand at making my own baby food today. I've made avocado twice before successfully - although today's batch had to get thrown out. Very strange, but avocado looked fine when I scooped it out but turned black while I was pureeing it...

But I made sweet potato, pear and green beans today - all for the first time. I must say, I'm not sure that the pears were worth it - but the rest certainly were. Two sweet potatoes made a ton of food (at least 12 servings) and they were so easy I was able to puree them in my magic bullet. The green beans were a bit more difficult! I tried the food processor first (no luck), then the blender (this only works if you use a lot of green beans - can't do a small portion). But it worked out great in the end!! The pear was super easy too (just steam and throw in the magic bullet) but one pear only made 2 servings (one jar of baby food). Considering the organic pear cost me $0.88 - and the jars of Earth's Best baby food only cost me $0.33 on sale (actually less because I used a coupon). But pears are on the EWG's dirty dozen list so you really should use organic - so I'll probably be making only a limited amount of this food...

For those of you who are interested in making your own food too, here are a few resources:

My favorite Web site for info, recipes and more - www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Looking for something to store your food: try babycubes, or freeze them in ice cube trays (which are 1 oz for ea cube) and put them in plastic bags.

I also love the Nuby Storage containers - you can freeze and microwave them. I also use them for sending cereal to the babysitters!

Hoping it snows tonight!! Fingers crossed :)

I forgot a few...

I forgot a few baby clubs in my last post. See below for a few more:

• Pampers- they'll send you a free diaper and put you on the mailing list for great coupons.


• Luvs - they occassionally send coupons and samples.


• Huggies - sign up and get a free sample and make sure to sign up for the Huggies network for more coupons in the mail.

In other news, I tried feeding Jacob formula from a spoon - just to see how he would do. He did so well he was slurping the milk off the spoon!! So cute! Check out one of his pics from the maternity photographer - what a babe!

Babies, Babies, Babies...

This post is in honor of Baby Mia who was born yesterday (Thanksgiving) at 10p.m. She is 8 lbs, 15 oz, 22 inches, a full head of hair and as beautiful as it gets! Congrats to Elizabeth & Manny!! It seems everyone is having babies right now - I can think of 10 friends that are expecting!! So here are a few things that I wished I would've known about before I had baby Jake. :)

1. Stocking up on diapers - Most people who know me saw the insane amount of diapers that I stocked up on. I would wait till diapers were on sale and then use coupons. I paid on average $7-$8 per jumbo pack - and I had a TON of them. I bought in every size and brand (in case of allergies, etc), but only got one or two of the newborns in case I had a big baby. Here's a GREAT resource if you want to buy diapers ahead - http://www.babycheapskate.com/ (do a search for the article "using growth charts to predict diaper needs")

2. Baby Clothes - I had them all sorted in the closet from newborn, 0-3 mos, 3-6 mos, etc. What I didn't realize is that some brands are smaller than others. So when I moved Jake up to the 3-6 mos clothes several of them were WAY too small. Now I hold the clothes up to each other and sort them in order of actual size rather than what their labels claim.

3. Sign up for the baby programs EARLY! I'll try to post a list of the various baby programs you can sign up for by end of the weekend, just a few to mention www.gerber.com/register, https://similac.com/signup-similac, and www.publix.com/babyclub. Sign up as early as you can for these clubs. For some it takes a while to get the coupons. The Publix Baby Club coupons didn't get to me until Jake was already 3 mos old - and I signed up when I was like 7 mos preggo! The others, like Similac and Gerber/Nestle will send you coupons while you are pregnant too - that you can use when you see great deals (some times you can get the ready made formula for next-to-nothing when you use those coupons) then you can have a few kinds on hand to try out on baby when he/she's born.



Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! Ours was great! We had my cousins, mom & bro visiting as well as Stephen and Jimmy's mom & her husband. It was lots of fun! Jimmy deep fried the turkey - and caught it on fire - but it turned out delic anyways!!

Also, just an update on my Black Friday shopping experience. It ended about as quickly as it began! I couldn't go to any of the really good sales (Walmart/Target/etc) because Jimmy had to be at work from 5 am - noon, which is when most of them occurred. So instead I decided to try out the ToysRUs/BabiesRUs experience - as they had a few items I was interested in. I was SOOO naive in the whole ordeal. They opened at midnight, so at 12:15 I pull into the parking lot. The entire shopping center was packed with cars. So I'm looking around - no TJ Maxx is closed, no HH Gregg is closed, all the other stores looked closed. But then I realize there is a HUGE line outside of Ross. So I think to myself, "WOW Ross must have some great deals tomorrow..." NO actually the line for ToysRUS was just that long. It went about 10 stores down... They were at max capacity and would only let in as many people as had just left. So after about 30 minutes, I decided that no deal was worth that wait... Next time, if there is a deal I REALLY want, I'll be prepared (chair, coffee, etc). On a side note though, I went back at 4 pm today and still got all the deals I wanted (even the ones that ended at 1 pm rang up as the discounted prices). So I still feel like it was a success - and a definite eye opener!!