Fast forward 2 yrs

Ok, so alot happened in two years. Last time I wrote I had just began to stay home with Joey after working full time since I was like 19. I can happily say that I still stay home with Joey. But we have 2 more! yep! you read that right. September of last year we had twins! I will do another post on that whole experience. But long story short, they were a surprise ( ok more of a shock) but I would not change a thing. 

So in other news, after the twins were born, we realized really quickly that we were going to need more space. So in January of this year we started looking a houses. Again, that is a whole different post, but long story short.. We decided to build a brand new house and it should be complete next month. 

More to come... Especially now that I can write from the app. Now to just find the time in this crazy thing we call life :)

Extreme couponing.... maybe

So now that I am a WAHM (see previous post for explanation on this one) we are trying to save a little money by clipping some coupons. I don't know if you have ever seen the show on TLC, but wow those people save some crazy amounts of money, not to mention get things for FREE! Now I won't be building any stock piles or at any given time have 50 mustards on hand, but I will be saving some money and yes getting some things for FREE. Me and the hubs have been doing some research on the deals and today we had a great one! 
So here's what we got at CVS for $8.35:  2 hawain tropic chapsticks, 2 dove deodorant, 1 Pantene Shampoo, 1 Pantene conditioner, 1 24 pack of Deerpark water  (Retail value: about $30)

1st transaction:  two Hawaiian tropic SPF chap sticks       total spent: $6.40
 BUT, you get 10 Extra Care Bucks when you buy any two Hawaiian tropic products. (to use on your next transaction) So we made $3.60 on this transaction.

2nd transaction: case of 24 Deer Park water, 2 Dove deodorant, 1 Pantene Shampoo, 1 Pantene Conditioner Total spent $1.95  How is that possible you ask? here is the breakdown:

Water was on sale for $3.88, deodorant was 2/$5 and we had a coupon $1/1, Pantene was 2/$6.97 and we had a coupon $3/2.  then we applied the $10 ECB from our previous transaction.

AND we got $2 ECB for buying any two Pantene Products. So we walk away spending $8.35 out of pocket and $2 in ECB !

The best thing about this transaction is this is all stuff we need at the moment and will use. So again... no 50 mustards hanging around for no reason. You can coupon, get good deals, and get stuff for FREE with out being EXTREME. :) 

SAHM

This acronym is part of my world these days. "Stay at Home Mom". That's me! Well I guess technically I am a WAHM "Work at Home Mom". I have been home with Joey for 2 weeks now. I left the corporate world and crazy hours to be able to stay home with my little boy. SO FAR... the best decision we ever made. We have had such trouble finding reliable childcare for Joey since the time he was born. With both of us in retail (having to work weekends, weird hours, etc...) it has be very stressful. So when our last sitter told us she couldn't watch him anymore we knew we had to figure out a permanent solution.

Since I have been doing so well with my MaggieBelles business, it made sense for me to stay at home since I would still be bringing in money. Not to mention doing what I love... creating fun things AND seeing my son grow and learn everyday.

Now it's not all fun and games, there are times when it is tough being at home all the time. Kudos to those moms who have several children and have done this there whole lives. I'm still figuring it out with just 1 right now. But I am enjoying seeing Joey everyday. He learns and does something new all the time and now I am the first one who sees it. I don't have to hear a story or see a picture. They are only little once. And we don't get second chances to see them grow up. And hey maybe now I will be able to catch up on blogging...

Joey's First Birthday

Wow! a whole year! has it really been a year? It seems like it was yesterday. He was so small and helpless and now he is this smart little person. So much happens in a child's first year. They say it's the most we grow in our lifetime. in the first month alone a baby doubles in size. I think.. who can remember. I am glad I kept track of all those firsts in his baby book. They say you have baby brain when you are pregnant, but after that well you have mommy brain.

But Joey's party was a success! We had it at Mom and Dad's house. Yummy food and cake! and sooooooo many toys. well lots of books. That is what we asked for. he really likes books, well flipping the pages at least.

A year in review

Its almost 2011. Doesn't that sound kind of space age like. I mean shouldn't we be flying Jetson cars or something now?

Joey's First Christmas

I remember last Christmas (2009) I was 32 weeks pregnant. huge... miserable...but also waiting with anticipation for my sweet baby to be here. I remember thinking that this time next year I will have toys everywhere and excitement of my little guy. Well fast forward (way to fast) and Joey's first Christmas has come and gone. And I think Santa left every toy he made this year at my house. :)


For Christmas eve we went to Mom's house. It has been a tradition as long as I can remember that on Christmas eve my mom's side of the family has always gotten together. We used to always go to Grandma's house when was little. We always had good food and then opened presents. I remember being so excited to open presents and get home and wait for Santa. It is one of those feelings of anticipation/excitement you don't get to feel that often. For the past few years it has been at mt mom's house. But this year was different. It was the first Christmas without Grandma being there. She passed away in September, but I am sure she was looking down from above watching her children, grandchildren and great grandchild celebrate this holiday. Christmas will always remind me of Grandma. She loved Christmas. When Joey is older I will tell him stories about all of the Christmas Eve's I can remember. And we will creates new memories and traditions so that he will always be able to remember.

On Christmas day we wnt back to Mom's. Christian's mom and sister came up from Florida for the day. And Joey got more toys. I seriously don't know where I am going to put all of this stuff. :) It seems like time just goes by to fast. Especially now. I sometimes wish I could stop time. Just pause in a moment and treasure it for ever. I guess that is why I take so many pictures. I look back at them all the time and remember his little smiles and faces he would make. He is the most amazing gift I will ever get. Better than any Christmas gift could ever be.

Going to see Santa

We attempted to go see Santa Claus at the Mall in Hilton Head last Thursday. You would think that the week before Christmas Santa would be there at 3 pm. WRONG. Apprantly Santa is only available on the weekends from 11am to 6pm. I forget sometimes that we live in such a small town with the biggest joke of a mall there ever was.

So we tried again this week and Santa was there. Joey did really well. He wasn't afraid of Santa at all. He just looked at him and smiled. Although he did look at Santa's glasses a few times with all intentions of taking those things off. :)

So yet another one of Joey's first to add to the list. his first time sitting on Santa's lap. And tomorrow night Santa will visit him for the first time!

Joey's pancakes

Daddy made pancakes for breakfast and made Joey his own special small pancake. Joey was not so sure about these. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. lol :)

Hmmm... what is this?

It's squishy..

trying to pick it up

maybe I can eat it this way?

now what?

yummy

likes the pancakes

I'll just eat the plate instead.

yuuuuum

silly

Oh Christmas Tree

The tree is officially up! It took much longer than it ever has before. That would be because of a little guy name Joey who is capable of crawling and getting into ornaments. And when mommy does not let him get them he is very mad. lol. You can try bribing the child with every toy he has, but with there are tubs of sparkly new things good luck with him not wanting to get into it.

After it was done though and I held him next to the tree and the lights sparkled in his eyes he suddenly had the biggest smile on his face. it is one of those moments that will always be frozen in my memory. It is another one of those firsts that you only get to experience once. Of course there will be many more Christmas trees and he will smile bigger each year, but that first look will remain priceless.

So later this week, we will make sure that daddy gets up the lights on the outside of the house and the rest of the ribbons and I will of take pictures of everything. I am so excited about Christmas this year. I can't wait for Joey to get to experience the fun of all things Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2010

Joey's first turkey dinner

Yum. Yum. Yum. Its was great food and fun as always for Thanksgiving. The turkey and gravy and rice and butter beans and mac and cheese and all of the other goodies were so very good. We went to mom and dad's as usual and our friends Jen and George came with us. Their family is in Ohio and they go home for Christmas, so they stay here in Hilton Head for Thanksgiving. Also joining us were long time friends of the family Sherry and George. Yep. We had 2 George's for dinner. :)

It was Joey's first Thanksgiving. Not that he really understands what "thanksgiving" means. I am certainly thankful for him. He was so much fun to watch as he picked up little pieces of turkey and rice. It was his first time eating this type of turkey. He did ok with it. much of ended up on the floor, which Hercules was happy about. He had his 1st Thanks giving shirt and his turkey bib, so if anything he was adorable!


 We got Joey these really cute first Thanksgiving pajamas. We bought these a year ago on clearance for like $2. He wasn't even born yet. We did the math and figured he would be about 9 months old, so we got the 9 months size. It fit... barely. He wore them last night. I love that the feet say little....turkey. so cute! 

So he is at Mimi's house for the weekend, while mommy and daddy deal with the crazy Black Friday shoppers tomorrow. Should be interesting! As least we get a good nights sleep before dealing with all of the crazies. :)

Keeping up with Joey

It still amazes me that in 9 short months, Joey has gone from this tiny (ok... who am I kidding, he was never exactly tiny) little helpless guy to a rolling over, sitting up, crawling, pulling up, standing on his own guy. He is interested in everything around him. it is so much fun to watch him learn and grow. He figures out toys in no time, pushing buttons and pulling on them. HE IS SO SMART! and fast. I mean you put him down and he is across the room. I'm lucky if he stops for 5 minutes because a toy has caught his attention. The more buttons, noises etc... a toy has the better.

He is so curious about his surroundings and I swear he finds the tiniest pieces of paper or fluff from a dog toy. Tonight he explored into the kitchen and found the end of the splenda packet that I must have dropped this morning when I was making coffee. He points at it with his finger, but if its not picked up quickly by mommy or daddy then its going  straight to the mouth. speaking of mouths. poor kid is teething again. I think #5 with be making its debut soon. which probably means #6 isn't to far behind. We seem to get them in twos.

He had his 9 month checkup last week. He is weighing it about 22lbs and is about 30 inches long. still in that 50-75% range. He is able to eat meats now so we have had fun with that this weekend. He likes chicken, but he isn't so sure about hamburger meat. No food is safe now, because if you have it then he wants its. We were eating popcorn and watching a movie last night and he was reaching for the bowl. "NO" isn't in his vocabulary yet (but we are working on that one).

Turning 30

Yep. that's right. I turned 30 years old today. I still find it hard to believe. I mean 30??? me??? I'm not sure why this is somewhat difficult for me. I know 30 is still young, but wow does time just seem to keep moving faster and faster.

Remember when we were younger and all we wanted was for time to go by quickly. We just wanted to be "older".  I guess is just like everything else in life. you understand it more the older you get. I wish I knew and understood things... ok. well. looked at things the way I do now. Our parents were right. We don't know everything when we are a teenager. lol. But maybe some of my knowledge comes from the fact that I am now myself a parent ( of a crawling, soon to be walking, has 4 teeth, 9 month old). I learn something new everyday. He makes me appreciate everyday and every moment.

If you asked me where I thought I would be when I was 30... I would have said married, with kids. So I am married ( to my best friend and my other half) and I have my little Joey. I would say 30 is good so far. I got pancakes for breakfast and had a lazy day watching movies and hanging out with my two favorite boys! :)

Pumpkins and monkeys and candy... oh my!

October was such a busy month! and boy did it fly by fast! Joey turned 8 months on October 12th. We took some great pictures with the pumpkins we picked at the pumpkin patch at Cahills market in downtown Bluffton. We went with Leah and Alice to go see the pumpkins. they had so much fun together.

Of course to Joey all things are "a drum" so he found the pumpkins extremely fun to beat on.

He is getting stronger and stronger and is doing this kind of army, inch worm, crawl thing. He sure can get to where he wants to go.  And he is pulling up on anything he  can get his hands on. This guy is strong! So string that he now thinks it is funny to pull his bibs off. This is not funny to mommy, because he drools so much he soaking wet after a little while.

We also had Joey's first Halloween. even though he is little and can't eat the candy it was till fun to dress him up in his monkey suit and of course made for some adorable pics! We went to Mimi and Pop Pop's in Savannah and went to a few neighbors houses. He wasn't so sure about the costume but was a good sport about it. Next year he will be walking running around so that should be fun!

My first Halloween... lol!

Joey in his bib that Mimi gave him

time to lower the crib

A little laughter

These days everything is "funny" to Joey. well... anything can make him laugh. and its is such a cute laugh!

We have a tooth!!

So after months of drooling and gumming everything in sight, Joey finally cut his first tooth! It is on his lower right side. and boy has he earned this first one.

I have to say that so far this whole teething thing has been the most difficult thing of parent hood. I know he is only 7 months old and there will be more stressful things to come. I did OK with lack of sleep and "mommy brain" many days. I did OK with going back to work and having to take him to the sitter for the first time. He (I) only cried for a minute for his first shots, but there have been some days I have almost pulled my hair out with these teeth. I just feel so bad for him. And of course I know it could be worse. I have heard some crazy stories. and he is a tough little guy. 

The one next to it is going to break through any time now.  So he will have that cute little smile with only 2 teeth. Although I will say I am going to miss that little gummy grin. :)

Boys and their toys

Since Joey is pretty much sitting up on his own now, he has been using every toy as a drumstick and anything as his drum. It is funny how now that he has a different view (sitting up) he has found new ways to play. everything that we have bought up until now has been some type of dangly thing or a teething toy or a soft book (everything goes to his mouth since he is teething) As we were walking through Target tonight picking up a few needed items, such as dog food, paper towels (and the cutest $3 onesie) I decided to walk down the toy aisle and see what were somethings he might be interested in now that he is sitting up. Oh my... are there a million and 1 things for kids to play with. At this age (6months) everything is a "developmental toy" Ok... so I know he is learning everyday how use his hands and do different things, but how do you choose from all this stuff? I really just wanted something simple, not to big for him to be able to play with while he is learning to sit up (he is still a little wobbly) And then I saw it! something I recognized from when I was a kid. The Fisher Price Brilliant Basics Rock-a-stack. Now I am sure it had a much simpler name back then, like stack of rings or something. lol. So for about $5 we got a fun little thing to bring home. And the rings are soft so Joey can bite them all he wants to. Perfect!

Fast forward... He played with it for a bit and it helps him practice sitting up... BUT what does Joey want to play with and is his new favorite thing you ask???

Yes. there it is. The Huggies wipe box! I think this goes back to his found ability to "drum". lol.

Note to self... do not buy random expensive toys. :)

6 months ago...

My world was changed by this amazing little person that God blessed me with. At 6:45pm on February 12, 2010... Joseph Alberto Arroyo was born.

It is hard to remember what life was like with out him as a part of our world. it seems as if he has just always been a part of our lives. What did we do with all of that "extra time" we used to have. Anyone who is a mom knows what I'm talking about. I mean, I thought I was busy before, but now I know what busy means. When you become a parent you become a more organized person. You learn to do many things at a time and you somehow survive on little sleep sometimes. You some how form superpowers. I have ninja like reflexes. If something is about to drop I somehow have the senses of spiderman and grab it. Watching Sesame Street becomes interesting and making silly faces to make your child laugh is completely normal.

The wonderful thing about all of this... I love every moment. nothing makes me more happy than to hang out with Joey. He amazes me everyday with how smart he is and new things he learns to do. In 6 months he has learned to hold his head up, rolled over, sit up on his own and is trying to crawl. Tell me when else in our lives to we learn so many things in such a short time. Babies are incredible.

So HAPPY 1/2 YEAR BIRTHDAY to my wonderful little boy! I love you!

How many people can make you feel extraordinary?

"A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water log stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if your rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?"


I just finished watching the movie "Marley and Me". I had read the book a few years ago and I cried then. So I knew when I watched the movie tonight there would be tears again. As usual the book is always more in depth and John Grogan is an amazing writer. It was probably easy to turn this into a book because as you read you see the people come to life. For him, since it was his life, he was able to tell his story.

Of course the book is about Marley, their dog, but it is also about family... family and how as you go through life, things change and what you may have thought at some point was important, really doesn't compare to what is important now. How no matter how crazy some of your days (and nights) are, you are still there for each other.

As I watched this movie tonight, sitting next to my husband, with my baby falling asleep in my arms and my 3 dogs at the end of the bed. I thought to myself how lucky I am to be loved by all 5 of them. they are my little family. I remember writing in one of my first blog posts about how my family began with my dogs. any dog lover out there knows what I mean. They are your four legged children. And even though sometimes Lexie, Maggie and Annabelle drive me crazy, I love them so much!

At the end of the movie the oldest child was watching videos of when he was little and how Marley was always a part of birthdays, holidays and all of life's events. I said "We have to start taking more video". With Joey nearing the 6 month mark, I think of all of the moments we have already had. I think I do a pretty good job of taking pictures, but I want more video. There is nothing like looking back at his pictures of when he was a newborn and how much he has changed and grown. He is so smart and amazes me more everyday.

So to answer the question at the beginning... My family makes me feel extraordinary! And my family includes my four legged children. :)

In the picture above- Lexie, Maggie and Annabelle instantly fell in love with Joey when we brought him home. (Feb 2010)

Mmmmmm... Carrots are good!

Today we gave Joey his first official solid food! Ok... well as solid as baby food can be. He had carrots. After a few faces of uncertainty, he actually seemed to enjoy this new experience. I have to say, at least the carrots smelled better than the rice cereal, so I would imagine they had to taste better too. Baby food sure looks alot different then what I remember. It used to be little round glass jars and now it comes in little rectangular plastic containers. The good thing is they are resealable and you can refrigerate them for up to 3 days. Being that we are trying "food" a little bit at a time, Joey will be munching on this one tomorrow also.