Hunter Collin Mitchell

Hunter is here! He was born at 2:37 this afternoon, weighing 7lbs, 4 oz., and was 21 in. long. All are doing well. Dad sent me a few pictures of Hunter and the new family that I'm passing along to everyone. I told Andy on the way home that I do not envy them the sleepless night they will be having tonight. I can still remember ours, and truly appreciate the sleep that I now get.

Because these pictures were emailed to me, I am unable to get them bigger than this size. Maybe if you try to click on them, you may be able to enlarge them, but I'm not sure.

Monday's CVS

Great day at CVS on Monday. Most of their school supplies have been free after Extra Bucks the last few weeks. Some of it we won't use, but last year we were able to put together come backpacks to give to kids that couldn't afford school supplies, so most of the school supplies will be for that. I have Extra Bucks to use from the previous weeks, so I'm not out any money when I buy those. Next week they are having tons of Extra Bucks sales, so it would be a good time to start to build up the Extra Bucks.

I thought I'd give a breakdown of what I bought yesterday with the coupons that I used.

Cokes 4/$13 - got 3 EB
post-its $.99 - got .99 EB
erasers $.99 - got .99 EB
Herbal Essence shampoo $ 2.99 - got 1 EB
Herbal Essence hairspray $ 2.99
3 cereal cups $ .99 each
deodorant $1.99
pens $ .99 - got .99 EB
2 Neutrogena eye shandows $9.99 each
toothpaste $2.88 - got 2 EB
toilet paper $5.49
take-a-long containers $.99 - clearance from $3.99
M and M's $.88

Coupons used:
$1 off Herbal Essences
BOGO free Herbal Essences
$1 off Cheerios
$1 off Honey Nut Cheerios
$1 off toothpaste
$3 off Neutrogena (the store sale was BOGO free, so $6 came off one. Got both for $3.99)
$3 off Neutrogena
$1.50 CVS coupon for deodorant
$.75 deodorant coupons
$1.00 off toilet paper
$21 of Extra Bucks
$10 off a $50 purchase from CVS

Total paid for everything: $.43
Saved: around $80.00
Extra Bucks left: $6

The Wedding

Riley was one of the flower girls at my nephew's wedding over the weekend. The wedding was in the Armstrong Browning Library on the Baylor campus and was beautiful. We still had the silk petals from our wedding, so Riley had been practicing all last week walking up and down the hallway and dropping her petal, while Ruthie followed and tried to eat them. We were afraid she would get nervous and not walk out, but she did very well. She and her cousin, Mckenley, wore matching dresses, shoes, and their Mimi made some pretty rose clips for their hair. All in all, for a 3 and 2 1/2 year old, the girls were great!

One That Will Always Haunt Her!

Andy gave Riley a headband and wrist band that he got at the last football camp. Riley has been wearing them all around the house, out if we would let her. She hasn't quite figured out the head band and puts it on to where it pushes her hair up into a big puff on her head. Going cross-eyed was her idea when I asked her to smile. This might be one of those pictures we give for the senior year slide show. She may regret this one.

Every time I look at this picture I can't stop laughing.

Monday was a big shopping day for us. Target had Sobe Waters 10 for $10, get a $5 gift card back. I had 4 BOGO free coupons, so I got all 10 for $6, with a $5 card back. I like these, and they are probably better than Dr. Pepper. Kellog's has a great refund out. The Fuel for School refund is on the Kellogg's home page. Register and it will come up and you can print it. All you have to do is purchase 10 products on the list, mail in the reciept, and get a $10 refund. Our total spent on Monday was about $24.00, but we will get $10 of that back from the refund. Plus it is all food we eat. School supplies were basically free at CVS this week. The pens were .99, get .99 Extra Bucks back, so that all evened out. Our next problem, we are running out of room in our pantry!

Ruthie's Sneaky Snack

Riley left her Oreos out on the table on Saturday. Guess who found and finished them. Looks like she enjoyed them.

Cow Appreciation Day!

Yesterday at Chick-fil-A was Cow Appreciation Day, and if you dressed as a cow from head to toe, you got any free combo. Of course we took advantage of the free food. For Andy to get dressed up as anything, much less a cow, is an amazing feat. He grudgingly put on his nose in the car as we were about to get out saying there would be no one in there over the age of 5 that looked as ridiculous as us, until we looked two cars over and saw another family taping their noses and ears on. They rang a cowbell as anyone dressed up entered, so we did not go unnoticed (as Andy had hoped), but we did blend right in with the rest of the crowd.

Monday's Shopping Trip

Probably my best day ever. We went to the CVS #1 first and bought our things, then met Becca at CVS #2 to help her. She's wanting to get in on these bargains, too. After work, and without the girls, we went to Walgreens and Target. I usually don't do all three stores in one day, but without the girls, I get it in, since it's so much easier. Total that we spent on Monday, $9.66. Total that we saved, $123.77. I told Andy it almost feels like stealing when our $25.00 Target purchases went down to $4.00 after coupons. Missing from the picture is a package of donuts for Riley's breakfast and a box of cereal that Dad wanted to try.

Rain!

It finally rained today! We have been needing and praying for rain for a long time now. The last time it rained was 3 weeks ago when we were out of town, and we missed out on any rain last week. Last month we had to refill part of our pool and water new grass after we dug up much of our yard during the septic system disaster, so the rain was such a blessing after a $90 water bill for June.

Riley heard the rain and wanted to wear her rain outfit. I had forgotten the raincoat that Andrea passed to Riley, but Riley remembered it and paired it with her new rain boots. She had the whole outfit ready to go out the door to Pepaw's house this morning.

Look what I know

Since Valentine's Day Riley has enjoyed making cards for people. She made a card on Friday for her friend, Mabry, and brought it over for me to check out. She surprised me by writing her own name. Since it was a card for Mabry, she wouldn't let me keep it, so I had to take a picture of it.

Pool Party!

Our pool is finally up and running. Andy was home for a few days two weeks ago, and being the wonderful husband he is, worked on the pool. It is vacuumed, chlorinated, not leaking and ready to go. This was our first time to get in as a family, and the girls loved it. Riley is much more comfortable in the water this year, and Andy was even teaching her how to kick and float. Ruthie just splashes, and loves the water hitting her, something Riley hated. She may be a water baby. It is so nice having this in the backyard where we can go cool down in the 100 degree heat.

Our Trip to the Beach

A few weeks ago, Andy had a football camp in Beaumont that we were all able to attend. Friday was a free day for us, so I did the unthinkable and took both girls to Moody Gardens and then the beach. Needless to say I was exhausted by the time we got home. Riley had been asking to see the beach for awhile, and since we wouldn't be that close again this summer, I wanted to take her. Trip was going okay until we got to the beach. Walking across the steaming hot sand while carrying all the bags, Ruthie and dragging a screaming Riley caused a pretty good commotion. We stayed for an hour, then I had to carry both girls and bags back up to the seawall. Covered in sand because we had no place to rinse off, we waited an hour for the ferry. Riley was so tired she didn't want to get back out and feed the seagulls. Although it was fun, I don't know if I will do this by myself again!

DEALS GALORE!

I am caught up on my deals post now. These are the last two for now, but I'm sure they'll be more. Okay, the picture with the Thermacare wraps was a total of $1.86, saving $37.20. The second was even better. Last Monday I visited CVS, Target, and Walgreens. We had some time to kill, otherwise I would not take both girls three places all in one day to 'bargain' shop, as Riley called it. We got everything for a total of $7.79, saving $76.04. I sure wish I had known how to do this a long time ago.

Search with SwagBucks

What is Swag Bucks?

Basically it’s a site that allows you to earn great prizes such as iPhones, iPods, concert tickets, gift cards, and more just for using them to search the Internet. For example, an Amazon.com egift card is only 45 Swag Bucks!

Why not get paid for something you’re already doing anyhow? And don’t worry about the quality of the searches – Swag Bucks is powered by Google. Plus, they often offer special Swag Codes for additional points as well, so it’s not hard to rack up enough points to redeem often!

How do I sign up?

Sign up through the icon on the side of my blog and help me earn! If you sign up through the icon on the side of the blog you will be listed as my "friend", and I earn when you earn. Set up your own referral, and you earn when your friends earn. You can really grow some points through these referrals.

They gift you 3 Swagbucks when you sign up, but look around for other codes that will give you more at sign-up.

Tips for maximizing your Swag Bucks earnings:

• Download one of the Swag Bucks browser plugins to earn for the searches you normally do.
• Follow @SwagBucks on Twitter for updates on new Swag Codes. (enter these in the left-hand column on your Swag Bucks account page)
• Read the Swag Bucks blog for updates on new features as well as info on Swag Codes.
• Shop through Swag Bucks to earn SB on purchases.