Wild Hair

Avery's hair has been getting longer, finally. Fortunately, it has made it passed the mullet stage, but now, it is in the crazy stage--not long enough (really) for a pony tail, and too long to leave alone. Alas, it has made for some entertaining photos/styles.

The yogurt strike continues . . .

Avery really hates messy hands, even if it is chocolate!

Eating her Yogurt-Banana Muffins (with chocolate chips)

Well, Avery's yogurt strike continues, even with Dora yogurt. In fact, really she is eating next to nothing, very frustrating. I had gobs of strawberry yogurt left in the fridge about to expire and several bananas that, in my humble opinion, we too ripe to eat. So, what to do not to waste food? I searched several different recipes and found one that looked appealing; yogurt banana muffins. The recipe, I tinkered with a bit, using applesauce in place of the oil, using strawberry yogurt instead of vanilla (it was all I had), and using 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white flour. They came out great. It made 48 mini muffins. I divided them up into three bags, freezing two. The second batch I made without alterations except adding in some chocolate chips. Both recipes I added about 3 times the amount of cinnamon. Yum!

Visit from Grandma and Eric

Last weekend Bryan's mom and brother Eric came up to visit for the day. We visited, ate out, and went to the used book store. Eric got Avery a book titled "Jesus goes to the synagogue" and Grandma Burt gave Avery a "Dora goes to the dentist" book. She loved both, but the Dora book especially. One of my favorite things from the day was when Avery laid next to Grandma on the floor and read a her "I Spy" book. She was pointing out all of the pictures to Grandma and it laying like that made her look so big!

Talking with ATTITUDE!

Avery is 20 mos. going on twenty, doesn't she look so old talking on the phone. Bryan took these while I was at work yesterday, and he said she had been doing this for quite a while. She was just walking around talking and jabbering away.

Under $8.00 @ Meijer

Today I went to Meijer planning my cereal/granola bar deal based on the buy 5 get $3.50 catalina for the General Mills granola bars. I did three transactions so I could "roll-over" my catalina coupons. I used several .50/1 coupons that doubled, coupons for a free suave product, and a $1/1 coupon for the wipes. In all, I spent about $7.50. In return I got 10 boxes of granola bars, 7 boxes of various Cheerios, a bottle of suave kid's shampoo, and a container of Pampers wipes. How do you think I did?

Making the best of Avery's yogurt strike

Avery is usually up for yogurt at almost every meal, her favorite being Dora yogurt. She has no idea who Dora is, but she seems to like the texture. Since it was not on sale (and I didn't have a coupon for it) last week, we bought a marked-down Yo Baby yogurt instead. It sounded very promising and parent-approved, organic & made with whole milk, but when we opened the first container, the texture looked disgusting. We gave it to Avery anyway, but she took one lick and made a horrible face. Not one to waste much, I decided to make yogurt pops, combining the rejected yogurt and bananas. I simply put them in a little food processor, took them for a short spin, froze them in Popsicle molds, and voila: Avery's yogurt strike was over! You can tell she didn't enjoy them at all.

Daddy and Avery together forever!

Avery is a daddy's girl at heart. Since they spend all day together while I'm at work, Avery is always hanging on to Bryan and copying his moves. She loves when we lay on the floor and rough-house, but this evening she took a break and used Bryan for a pillow and "nigh-night" buddy. It was really funny, seeing her use his legs as a bed. She just snuggled in using his bum for a pillow!

Meijer Catalina Deal

There is a great catalina deal at Meijer this week.

Nature Valley Granola Bars, Fiber One Bars, and Chex Bars: 2/$4
Buy 3, get $1.50 catalina
Buy 4, get $2.50 catalina
Buy 5 or more, get $3.50 catalina

This deal is really only sweet if you use the following coupons:
.60 off 1 Nature Valley HERE
1.00 off 1 Fiber One bars HERE
.50 off 1 Chex Bars--2/8 sunday coupons

My Meijer doubles coupons so I got 5 boxes, paid $ 5.40 and got back a catalina for $3.50. That makes them .38 cents a box. I plan on going back and rolling this deal over again, and then purchasing Cheerios cereal, also 2/$4, and using the Cheerios .50/1 (doubled) in this weeks Sunday paper, to get some low cost cereal!