Old Navy Amazing Deal!!

From today through November 20th, all Old Navy stores have their clearance on sale for an extra 50% off the lowest marked price. That alone is an amazing opportunity to get some great deals. But to top that off, they had an online printable coupon valid through today for 30% off your entire purchase! Because of this, I just got some amazing deals!!!

Here it is: I purchased 5 women's shirts, 2 little girl shirts, a pair of cute little pink pants, a baby onesie, 3 baby boy shirts, and 3 emery boards. This should have cost me $169.05 at their normal sale prices, but instead I only spent $23.58!! How awesome is that?? Woohoo!! And to top it all off, I received a Mystery Dollars coupon that is good from November 19-21 and is good for either $2, $3, $5, $10, or even $25...the only downfall is that I won't find out how much it is worth until I am checking out....but even $2 is better than nothing, right?? Well, anyways, see the pic below for my amazing $23.58 deal of the day!

Target is giving stuff away!!

I just made a trip to Target where they paid me $2.00 to take 10 4oz Glade Holiday Scent candles off their hands!! How could I say no??

Here is how it worked: The candles are priced at $2.99 each or $2.50 when you buy 2. I bought 10 candles at $2.50 each for a total of $25.00. Then use 5 Buy one get one Glade candle free coupons from the 9/26 Smart Source coupon insert, 1 $3.00 off 3 Glade Holiday collection items coupon from the display at Home Depot, and a $1.50 off 2 Glade candles printed internet coupon (note - not all Targets will allow the money off coupons to be paired with B1G1 coupons). Pay the remaining $8.00. The final bonus is that right now if you buy 5 of these Glade candles they will give you a $5.00 Target gift card. So that means that for buying 10 candles, I got $10.00 in Target gift cards to be used on my next purchase. That give me 10 fabulous winter scented Glade candles with a $2.00 money-maker!! Couldn't have asked for a better deal!!

Thank you Target!

CVS and Walgreens got robbed again!

I got 6 packages of Boogie wipes at Walgreens this past week for a total of $10.14...since those retail there for $3.99 a piece, that is a savings of $13.80 plus tax!! Woohoo!!

Also, took a trip to CVS yesterday and bought 2 packages of Duracell batteries (20 pack of AA and 6 pack of C) each has a normal price of $12.99, and I paid $2.23 plus got $5 Extra Care Bucks back making this purchase a $2.77 money maker! Love it!

Ebates

If you haven't heard of Ebates, let me introduce you. If you go here, you can create an account with Ebates and then you can get paid for your internet shopping. There are over 1,200 stores that you can shop at and receive a percentage back on any purchase you make through Ebates, including but not limited to places like Bath & Body Works, Old Navy, Target, Staples, and the list goes on and on. All you have to do is go here, create your account and then choose any store to shop at from their drop down list of stores. You will automatically get a $5 sign up bonus just for creating your account and then every 3 months they will send out a check for your cash back balance (over $5.01)...I have my first check coming this month for $6.52, but already have 3 larger purchases pending for my Fabuary check...can't wait!! Join Ebates and get paid to shop!!

Is this considered stealing??

So, for those who don't know, I LOVE to coupon! I love finding great deals and getting all kinds of things for practically free.

This past weekend I made trips to both Target and CVS and here are the deals I got.

Target: original total of purchases (before coupons) - $54.07, total amount actually paid - $20.21. This total included $20 worth of clothing for the kids that I didn't have any coupons for. I was pretty excited about this one...and then I went to CVS...

CVS: purchased one package 36 count Huggies diapers, one box of Huggies wipes, 2 bottles of Wisk laundry detergent (36 loads each), and 2 packages of Trident Layers gum; total value $36.54; total cash out of pocket (or should I say change out of pocket) $.55 (yes, that is 55 cents)!!! And to top it off, I got $.99 in Extra Care Bucks to use on my next purchase, so really they paid me $.44 to shop there! I love it when they practically pay me to take merchandise off of their hands!!

Yeah for coupons!!

Jackson Levi Gibbs

Well, about 5 1/2 weeks ago, on August 5th, my scheduled C-section went without a hitch and Jackson Levi was born around 2:30 in the afternoon. He was a whopping 8 lbs 10 oz and was 22 inches long! He was absolutely beautiful! Here are a few pictures.

Mommy and Jackson


Proud Daddy with his boy


Julie LOVES her little brother


Now, 5 weeks later he weighs 10 lbs and is still so handsome!


He is a great baby and a wonderful little cuddler! I love it!

9 Missing Months

Ok, so I am completely aware that I have been a very absent blogger for the last 9 months...but there is a reason!! Not only have things been crazy busy but a month or so after my last blog we found out that we were expecting our second child and have been spending most of our "free time" preparing for that! But before that chaos hits, I wanted to try to get at least one "catch up" blog out there and then I will do my best to keep up with life a little better. So here are the important things that have happened since my last blog.

First, here is the lovely pic of our test showing us that another child was on the way:

And here is the little alien at almost 12 weeks:

A couple of weeks after we found out about our new addition, we took a trip to MI to visit my family over Christmas. (For a little background, this trip should take between 10.5 and 12 hours. We take it in 2 days most of the time ever since Julie was born, it is easier on her and less stressful for us) We left home on Friday, Dec 18th (our 5th wedding anniversary), about 1 hour before what we would find out later was the "storm of the century" started! This turned into the worst trip I have EVER made from VA and MI!! It ended up taking us 3 days (2 of those just to get 3 hours from Lynchburg). On day one we made it about 120 miles and on day 2 we might have made it another 30-40 miles. We were blessed to have a friend of my family who happened to live in WV put up our family on the second night, because without them, we would have spent the night in our minivan, in some parking lot in Beckley, WV. Also, on a side note, my husband deserves a medal for putting up with our 2 year old and his VERY emotional pregnant wife while being stuck in our van in a HORRIBLE snow storm for 3 days! Here are some pics from this blessed trip.

Here is our view outside of our hotel when we went to bed on 12/18 in Lewisburg, WV

Here was the view we woke up to on 12/19

Here is our van in 2 feet of snow the morning of 12/19; with the snow still coming down

Here is Julie in 2 feet of snow at our hotel before we left on 12/19

Here was our view when we got up at our new friends' house on 12/20/2009.


Then for Easter we took another trip to MI since, due to the issues with Julie's pregnancy we didn't want to travel in the Summer...too close to the new baby's due date. This trip was much nicer and quicker than the trip in December. Here are some pics:

Here is Julie in her Easter dress with Nemo.


Julie and her cousins


Julie hunting Easter eggs


Julie getting some good quality Great-Grandma time


Here is a shot of me and my also pregnant sister-in-law...due just over a month after me. (side note, her son and Julie are only 13 days apart in age)


My mom also spent quite a while working on a beautiful quilt for our bed and I was able to bring it home with me after our spring trip and here it is.


Then on tax day, April 15th, we had our ultrasound scheduled to check out the new baby and hopefully find out whether we would be having another beautiful little girl or a rambunctious little boy...and the pictures below tell the whole story:

In case you couldn't tell...he's a boy. In August we are planning to welcome a little boy into our family...Jackson Levi Gibbs!

In spite of how busy we have been, I did take some time to try to plan a date for my amazing husband (little historical fact: my husband is the one that has always planned everything for us from trips to dates to simple little outings and I thought he deserved a special night just for him...after all, he took me to DC for Mother's Day...he deserved an amazing Father's Day gift as well). So after much discussion with some co-workers and friends, I planned a surprise date night on the Friday of Father's Day weekend of Subway (his favorite fast food), a little pottery painting and a drive-in movie. We picked up our dinner to go and took it to All Fired Up, where we each picked out a gift for one of our kids (Stuart for Jackson, and me for Julie) to paint while we talked and ate our dinner. Stuart wasn't too sure of the idea at first, but I think he ended up having a good time. Here is a picture of the final products...I think they turned out great!


When we finished painting, we left there and I directed Stuart one turn at a time to a new drive-in movie theater in Moneta, called the Mayberry Drive-in Theater & Diner and we saw Toy Story 3. It was a fun night and, all-in-all, I think it was a great success for my first date planning attempt.

Since then, we have just been getting ready for Jackson's arrival and the changes that are coming. We are now just 1 week from my scheduled c-section on Aug 5th and are almost ready for him. I had some wonderful friends throw us a nice shower to celebrate Jackson and we got some really great stuff. Here are a couple of the really neat, personalized gifts we got.


And then there is his bed and the wonderful blanket my mom made for Jackson:


And that pretty much catches you up on all the excitement on our lives since my last blog. I have lots more to pass on to you, but I didn't want to overwhelm you with absolutely everything in one blog!