So much happening!

I know, you all have been waiting patiently for a new blog post, well here it is and I'm going to try to get in as much as possible.
We've had a busy first three months.
In January, I celebrated my 31st birthday. We had a lot of fun as I went to two baby showers (Jen and Wendy) and then Ruel, Christina and I went to Evan's first birthday party.
February brought us to Valentine's Day and the decision to put our house on the market. Additionally my mom and dad retired! Both had retirement parties hosted by their companies. Oh, and the little other thing of them moving from Orlando to reside in Melbourne full-time. It's no wonder there was no time for a blog update!
March, oh March. It started off really well. Ruel and I had the opportunity to go to the Michael Buble concert. We had great seats and the show was excellent. Turns out it was his first concert of the tour. Orlando was the innagural location for the crazy love tour!

But then things got a little more difficult. We got an offer on the house and had a home inspection followed by an appraisal. The inspection was fairly clean and the buyer wanted to proceed, but the hitch came in the appraisal of the house, which was far lower than the contract price. So low that we could not go forward. We felt that the appraisal was unfair and our wonderful realtor did everything she could to make things right, but the buyer eventually backed out of the deal. So we had to start over with the process, putting the house back on the market and hoping for another buyer to be interested enough to put in an offer. Christina then came down with her first case of Strep Throat. No fun in an infant. She also gets asthma when she's sick, so it's exhausting for everyone with breathing treatments, antibiotics and late night doctor visits.
On March 21, we were able to attend Olivia's first birthday party and Christina had fun playing with all the other kids. Thanks to Michelle who threw a wonderful party and gave me some great ideas for Christina's upcoming first birthday!

I'm glad to see April come in actually. I'm praying for some good news on the house and a healthy baby girl.
I can't possibly cover all of the last three months, but I hope I've covered a little.
Oh, and we got a new DSLR, so I have a ton of pictures to post from that. I'll try to do that this weekend.
Kaycee

New Year's Resolutions and "We Love Bath Time!"

Along with everyone else, I've made my New Year's resolutions. Be more active, exercise a little more (Wii Fit!) etc. But the next one may seem a little odd. I resolve to go to the grocery stores only once a month! In between I will get veggies from the farmer's markets and milk from places like CVS and Walgreens.

Strange I know, but I have finally realized that I have no self-control in the grocery store and fall prey to those sales every time, even if I already have the items on hand. "It's such a good deal," "I had a coupon for that," have been my mantras, which wasn't a bad thing, except I had been going way too often and now our shelves overflow with food that needs to be eaten!

So between Ruel and I, we will come up with meals using ingredients we have available, supplementing with fresh fruits and veggies. I am proclaiming now that I will not shop for groceries again until at least 2/9/10 or later. It would be interesting to see how long I could really go...

But let me tell you about my couponing. I save a lot of money on basic staples, if only I could stick to just those items...I'll share some tips.
1) If you have a coupon for something that you always use, hold onto it and see if you can wait for a sale, otherwise, make sure to use it, don't let it expire even if you don't need the item right away, it's a savings! Especially true for baby items like diapers and baby wash. If you are worried that the tot will outgrow a size first,get the next size up!
2) Use baseball card holders to display your coupons in a 3 ring binder and organize the way your grocery store is laid out.
3) If the store will allow it, combine manufacturer coupons with store coupons. Make sure to check and see if your store will take competitor coupons (Publix will here in the south)
4) If you see a BOGO (Buy one get one free) remember that if you have a coupon that allows you to get X cents off when you get two, you are saving!

When I go once a month this year, I will have all of my coupons ready and probably shop Wal-Mart for utility stuff (paper goods, cleaning, non-perishable), shop Publix for those that I have coupons to combine, and then Winn Dixie for their meat section BOGO's. Today, I was able to get 2 boxes of Huggies diapers for the price of one, along with a host of other deals.

Now to Christina.
She's doing so well and has not been sick for almost a month now (knock on wood). Not quite sleeping through the night yet, but the time she gets up is creeping later and later. We went from 2:30 to 3:30 and this morning it was 4:30. I'm holding onto the hope that 12 hours straight is around the corner. She still goes down around 6:30 though, so it's going to mean early mornings!
Her hair is starting to fill in and is now just starting to grow over her ears. We don't think it's going to be raven black like Ruel's, but aren't sure yet what to expect.
Christina absolutely loves bath time. She has ever since the day she was born. I think it's because I really enjoy baths myself. At Christmas we bought her a small inflatable tub that looks like a giant rubber ducky. This transitioned her from the cradle type tub. She loves being able to kick the water and slap her hands down. I think we could leave her in the water all night! She just contentedly plays.
On January 21, she will be 6 months old. She continues to eat like a fiend and we are talking about when to introduce that 3rd meal (lunch). It's hard to get in dinner some nights because we pick her up aroun 5:00 and by the time we feed her at 5:30/6:00 she's getting really tired and can be fussy some days.
Life has reached a new normal here and Ruel and I love it. Christina is a shining light in our lives and each day there are new joys to behold.
We hope everyone is well and staying warm in this very cold winter.

Love, Kaycee

Christina's First Christmas!

What a wonderful holiday season. Christina was spoiled rotten by friends and family alike! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at my mom and dad's house and then had Christmas night at our home. On Christmas Eve morning Ruel spent some time on the phone talking to his family in the Philippines. It was nice to get to talk with them, we can't wait until they arrive in 2010!


We did make it to Epcot for our traditional Candlelight afternoon, but the park was packed (weekend before Christmas, not sure what we expected) and it was a bit cold, so we just strolled around, had some food and then headed home. Next year we are going to do the dinner package for sure!

I love this picture...I've received a lot of Christmas bears through the years (one each year from my dad) and I had this one from sometime in the past 5 years. Just for fun, I laid it down next to Christina one afternoon and it was hilarious for her to see a stuffed toy as big as she was! We had a lot of fun with that. Now dad (aka Grandpa) is giving Christina Christmas bears for her to start her collection. I mark the tags of each with the year and who gave it to her. Hopefully, when she's older she'll be able to look back with lots of fond memories.