Fun at the Lake!

Every summer, my family gets together for a weekend to relax, enjoy each other's company, eat yummy food, and celebrate "summer holidays". It ends up looking like Christmas in July! ("McCarthy Summer holidays" = birthdays & special days like Mother's/Father's Day that fall between January and October -- my family doesn't so much worry about the specific day but the celebration of the special occasion)

My older brother, Greg, and his wife, Angela, have a lake house on Lake Greenwood, so we have moved our summer get together to this little slice of heaven the last two summers. What fun we had, and it's a shame the weekend flew by so quickly! Greg and Angela are the most gracious of hosts, and we enjoy sitting and visiting with family members that we just don't get to see very often. It's fun to watch the kids play with each other while the adults commiserate.

We had lots of fun riding on the boat, playing in the water, tubing, riding the jet ski, and just relaxing in the water. Madeline loved her first boat ride. However, she was not a huge fan of the life vest, but once the wind was in her hair, she got over the stuffy life vest.

We have wonderful cooks in our family, so we always have delicious meals! Madeline enjoyed some tasty bites of junk food that she's never had before. She's a huge fan! She really enjoys Popsicles. Uncle Greg so kindly assisted her in eating it!

Some of us enjoyed the view, the breeze, the dock, and a good chair for some serious relaxation! Aunt Kim's, Uncle Pat's, or Grandma's lap also provided much relaxation for Madeline.

Cousins snuggled in the glider. Madeline's cousin, Drew, is so very sweet to her. He played with her, and he provided much entertainment for Madeline while he ran around the yard.

What an enjoyable weekend with the family! We already can't wait until next summer's adventures!

Madeline is 11 Months Old!

Our sweet girl is 11 months old, and boy, is she taking the world by storm with her happy little self! Madeline pulls up on everything, cruises from place to place while holding onto something, and "crab crawls" all around the house. She is BUSY -- as you can tell from this month's photo shoot! She's all over the place. However, she has yet to take those first steps all by herself. She has gotten more daring and will let go of whatever she has her hands on to stand by herself, and her balance is pretty good. Recently, she has started to let go of whatever it is that she's holding onto and will clap as if to say, "Look at me!!" She is super curious to know everything about everything. She loves being outside, the stairs, opening and closing cabinet doors, pulling the Tupperware out of the bin, and pulling all her books out of the basket. While Madeline is a busy bee, she is very content to sit on the floor and play. She still likes her "quiet alone time" (just like her Mama who used to escape to the playroom and play Barbies for hours on end). She loves music and has quite a little set of dance moves when the mood strikes her. The ladies at the gym still adore Madeline to pieces, and they have started to sing, "Shake your booty. Shake your booty." to Madeline. Miss Dance Machine really turns on the dance moves! Not exactly what I want Madeline repeating, but her "booty dance" is pretty hilarious.

Madeline doesn't say any distinguishable words besides Dada & Mama, but she doesn't yet call us those words. She most definitely knows we are important to her, but she's not ever directly addressed us using Dada or Mama. However, she talks constantly, and when she is "reading" one of her books, she definitely has a story to tell as she flips through the pages. Her Daddy coming home from work is still a highlight of her day. There is nothing cuter than Eric walking through that door, and Madeline screeching and clapping with delight at the sight of her Daddy. It's loud but cute.

Madeline continues to be a great eater, but she flat out resists being spoon fed. Period. No more oatmeal, baby food, or even one of us feeding her finger foods. She's Miss Independent at mealtime. I'll tackle self feeding with a spoon at the end of the summer when we're not traveling so much. (I want to get all of our deposits back.) Her current favorites are Cheerios, goldfish, Nilla wafers, hot dogs, anything with cheese, mac-n-cheese, waffles, green beans, grapes, and peas. She recently tasted a dill pickle, and she seemed to really like it. We thought for sure she'd crinkle her nose up and give us a good funny face with a pickle bite.

Naps are always going to be a challenge when it comes to Madeline because she LOVES to play in her bed even though she's exhausted and has nothing to play with. I have actually watched her collapse in exhaustion only to watch her pull herself back up in a last ditch effort to stay awake. I attribute this to her great imagination and her ability to be content to play alone. :) However, sleep always wins out. So, she continues to take a morning and afternoon nap each day with the length varying by the day. There are times that she doesn't take a morning nap if I have things to do, but it proves to make our afternoons a bit rocky as she gets overly tired. I don't think she is 100% ready to drop the morning nap yet based on the times that I've skipped it. Although, I am ready for her to drop it, so we can have our entire morning free all the time. Her bedtime is typically between 6:30-7:30 PM depending on what we are doing and her mood.

Her little personality is still so sweet natured, happy, and outgoing. She loves people, especially other children, and animals. Madeline will blow kisses at any given moment, wave hello/bye-bye, and LOVES it when strangers talk to her. She just squeals with delight in response to their comments. With summertime brings BBQs and gatherings with friends, so we've just packed her up and taken her with us. Madeline has definitely proved that she can hang at a party & go to bed in her pack-n-play just as if she were at our home. The more we've done it, the better she seems with it, so we are pleased that she can be a go with the flow kind of gal. I know I appreciate her laid back quality when we're toting her here and there. However, she certainly can have an attitude when she's not allowed to touch something, something is taken from her, or if she's overly tired. These little tantrums are few and far between, but she can throw one with the best of them. Over the top drama seems to take over her little 20 lb. body during these tantrums. Perhaps this is foreshadowing to those teenager years! :) Madeline has quickly learned what not to touch around the house...now she will look over at me if she thinks she is not allowed to touch something before she touches. Now I usually just have to use my "teacher voice" and say "No ma'am.", and she stops.

Madeline Grace, your Daddy and I are thankful each and everyday that we've been chosen to be your parents. We cherish you and try to remember all of your moments as they seem to go by far too quickly. We love you to pieces, and while we don't like to wish time away, we look forward to each and every new day with you. You fill our days with happiness with your silly dances, your sweet smile, and your big kisses.

The Ultimate Grocery Game Challenge

Our family is spending a week at Fripp Island with another family the first of August. In light of my new found thriftiness (with the help of the grocery game & southernsavers.com -- thanks Anne Wimberly!), I have been put to the challenge to purchase our groceries for the week at rock bottom prices! We got together with the other couple to "plan" our meals and grocery needs. Over the next 3 weeks, I plan to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE!

I typed up our list and keep it handy when the grocery ads come out. So far, I have purchased: three 12 packs of Coca cola products, 24 bottled waters, 2 packs of bacon, French's mustard, 2 bottles of Ken's dressing, Folgers coffee, 2 jars of pickles, Knorr vegetable soup mix, 2 bottles of Mr. Stubbs marinade, Muellers macaroni noodles, four pizza crusts, Reynolds foil, Dawn dish soap, Electrasol dishwasher tablets, two 80 count jars of Lysol wipes, laundry detergent, and trash bags. I paid $57 for all of this. I think that's a pretty good start. I'm especially proud of my Electrasol dishwasher tablets (box of 42) -- the original price was $6, and I paid ONE DOLLAR!

MOM! Catch Me If You Can!

Yesterday, I heard Eric pull up in the driveway and open the garage door, so I went out to greet him. I left Madeline sitting in the foyer playing with some toys on the floor. When I came back in after a quick, I mean quick, hello to my honey, Madeline had discovered the stairs and was already on the second step. Hence the reason I made it a quick hello...these days you just never know where she'll be after a quick look the other way. She had never noticed the steps before, but I guess she heard her Daddy's voice & crab crawled her way towards the back door. Along the way, she discovered this gold mine! Great...

So, with Mommy's supervision, we climbed the steps, and she LOVED every second of it. She sat up on the flat part looking most pleased with herself.

Oh, so much fun stuff to play with in here! Daddy's office has LOTS of papers to crinkle, rip, and scatter all over the floor! Needless to say, she was a bit peeved with me when I promptly picked her up and brought her back downstairs. Unfortunately, Daddy's office is not a playroom.


First thing this morning --

This is the scene in our house now! When she figures out that the ottoman rolls, I guess we'll break down and get some sort of gate. For now, this is working! Don't get me wrong, she spent most of the morning here trying to figure out how to get around this obstacle to her new favorite place. It won't be long...this little tot is determined and persistant. :)

A BIG, SCARY Animal Has Gotten into Our House!!!!

Yesterday, Madeline and I got home from the gym & ate lunch as usual, and she took an afternoon nap. I'm sure I allowed the back door to slip open at some point in the day, but I'm sure that I just re-shut it tightly without thinking a thing about it.

Fast forward to the evening about 6:30 PM --- Eric gets home from his day (which was a horrible Monday complete with a flat tire and all), and I had just bathed Madeline. We were going to sit and visit for a bit before Madeline went to bed. We kept hearing this unusual noise, and it was in the house very close to where we were sitting! The noise was similar to what a cricket would make but much louder. Therefore, I equated loudness and size of the beast to go hand in hand --- louder = bigger. The noise was starting to freak us out a bit as it seemed to continue, so I exclaimed that SOMETHING had gotten into our house when I let the back door open. Of course, my wild imagination led me to believe that this wild something was going to eat us alive, so I panicked. My usually calm husband got the flashlight and determined that the wild beast was under our chair and a half in the living room. He then armed himself with his flip flop and hornet/wasp spray. (Seriously?!) Eric uses that foamy hornet/wasp spray to kill anything that could possibly run from him! Madeline and I proceed to perch ourselves on the kitchen table...I was ready to hit the deck and cover Madeline with my entire body! Eric was armed and dangerous with his flip flop and spray ready to kill or at the very least stunt the beast until...
We figured out that the large, wild, angry, beast was Madeline's toy key chain that seemed to have a short in it. The keys were making the chirping noise all on their own. (I washed all of Madeline's toys on Sunday afternoon, so I must've gotten water into this little toy and caused a short.)

Needless to say, we felt pretty silly about the whole episode, but it gave us a good laugh. I hope you are laughing too, and this isn't one of those "You had to be there." moments.

Savings Update

Several posts back, I talked about the grocery game and my excitement to save money. Well, I am happy to report that YES! I am saving money at the grocery store. I've not had a savings like some other serious grocery gamers have had (getting 50 bucks worth of groceries for like $2), but I am doing well. I've cut our grocery bill down by half at least, and I am stockpiling which makes meal planning so much easier. For example, last week I got $36 worth of groceries for $13.06. I'm pleased with that amount of savings. I did get a bottle of Kraft BBQ sauce for TEN CENTS! YAY me! My thrifty mom was so proud. :)

I've made some rookie grocery game mistakes, but I've learned from them. I definitely recommend printing off the grocery game list to have that as a reference in the store while shopping. I invested in a little coupon organizer thing (it's pink!), and that has made a big difference in keeping up with my coupons both for planning and keeping them straight in the store while shopping and dealing with Madeline lunging at everyone and everything.

I have found that our biggest reasons for not saving money in the grocery store is twofold -- Eric and I are faithful coffee drinkers, but we are also creamer snobs. We don't do regular milk, powdered creamer, or regular 'ol store brand half-n-half. Unfortunately, we love the flavored coffee creamers that don't go on sale nor have coupons very much. Eric and I are also beer drinkers, and we are definitely beer snobs! Beer jacks up the grocery bill anyways, so the fact that we buy the $7 or $8 per six pack beer doesn't help our savings. Oh well...some splurges are okay. ;)

But, all in all, I am saving us money on all other things, have a great stockpile, and have been so much better about planning our meals in advance so as to not make those "quickie grocery stops" that really increase the grocery bill. We'll know for sure how well I have done when we look at the monthly bills on the spreadsheet that my sweet, thrifty husband uses to keep track of our monthly budget and spending. Hopefully, I'll be back reporting a hefty savings!

Happy Fourth of July!

Our holiday weekend was a bit modified...we had plans to celebrate with my brother and his family, but Madeline & her immune system had other plans. She had a fever, fluid in her ears, runny nose coupled with a horrendous cough, nasty diapers, and a few other ailments. Even though we had to take a raincheck for my brother's invite and stay home, we had a lovely weekend together getting Madeline back on track! We did some things around the house that we would otherwise put off for another weekend -- washing the cars, cutting the grass, & watering plants. We played at the kitchen door A LOT & enjoyed some time on the deck to cure some cabin fever. Eric so kindly stayed home with Madeline on Sunday while I was able to go shopping ALL BY MYSELF. What a treat!


I am happy to report that all of Madeline's ailments seemed to have gone away as of Sunday except for this horrific cough. I wish she could just cough up a big loogie, & I know she'd feel so much better! Gross, I know! Slowly, but surely, she is getting her appetite back. In celebration of Madeline feeling much better, she sported her Fourth of July outfit on Monday since she was feeling up to being festive & getting out of the house.

Our First Beach Vacation as a Family of Three!

Last weekend, we loaded up the car and headed to the beach! We had an absolute blast, and we have a water baby on our hands for sure! Madeline enjoyed the sun, the sand, the ocean, the pool...EVERYTHING!

We spent some time at the pool...

Madeline was one tuckered out little lady, and she took a great nap on the beach! Eric and I took advantage of the quiet napping baby, and we were able to do one of our favorite things to do on the beach~take a nice long walk and talk!

We enjoyed our beach time~playing on the blanket in the shade and playing in the water...

A good time was had by all, and we cannot wait for our week long beach trip in August!

We're Here...

I have a few posts to update --- our trip to the beach (Madeline's FIRST!), my grocery game update (I'm saving money!), and upcoming Fourth of July festivities. However, our laptop with all the great pictures is a little under the weather along with everyone else in our household. Eric has a sinus infection of some sorts, Madeline is cutting at least 4 teeth right now, and I have the beginnings of some sort of head cold thing that I just don't have time to deal with at the moment.

Poor Madeline. She has her two front, top teeth, a canine, and a back tooth coming in all at once, and her teething symptoms are pretty awful right now. The amount of drool she is producing makes me feel like she might become dehydrated at any given moment, and her appetite is not good. The runny nose (thank goodness it's clear) is draining down her throat so badly when she sleeps she coughs off and on all night or through the nap. She coughed so much last night that she gagged and barfed at 4:30 AM -- thank goodness for the crib sheet saver thingy! However, she got into to it big time, so she required a bath and a hair washing. It was pretty stinky and nasty. Her diaper explosions are just out of control -- the night before I was doing laundry and bathing my sweet girl at 4:00 AM. Again, terribly stinky and nasty. Her diaper situation has cleared up but has left her with a raging diaper rash that takes her breath away & practically makes her levitate off the changing table when I wipe her. I think/hope this is all teething related because she has no temp (I took it the "official way" -- ick.), and when all these awful things are not happening, she's my happy, sweet girl drooling and gnawing away on her icy sticks and frozen washcloths in between pulling up on EVERYTHING. Certainly if she were "sick", her disposition would be completely off in some fashion. I hope.

So, we ARE here, and I hope to report that the household (laptop included) is feeling better and rested very soon! :)