Frugal Fun

My post today is part of Jen's Frugal Fashionista fashion show. Now, I don't' claim to be a "fashionista" by any means but I look forward to her weekly posts on the subject. Since I am not quite back to my pre-pregnancy sizes yet I hate spending much on clothes that I hope won't fit for long plus we are trying to cut back a little. I've had some great luck garage saleing and visiting a great little consignment shop. Here are just a few of my favs!




First up SHOES! A girl can never have enough! An enigma for my sweet husband.



Red Rocketdog flats: $1 at my cousin's garage sale

Brown heels: $8 at Castaways Consignment (great place to check out if you haven't)

Brown Banana Republic flats: $8 at Castaways. I happen to know that these sweeties retailed for $50. My dear sister-in-law has these same shoes and I love them every time she wears them. I couldn't hide my excitement when I found them!

All these shoes are in great, barely worn condition. I know some girls get grossed out at the thought of buying second hand (or should I say foot) shoes but for me my love for shoes and thriftiness wins every time.



Second, another love, purses!




Both of these were garage sale finds! They are super cute and super functional because they are HUGE!! Which is great since I can easily carry my stuff and a few baby essentials for times when I don't need the whole diaper bag.


Stay tuned for other Frugal Fun posts to see what else I've found. If you have great finds too head over to Jen's and join the fashion show! If you don't, then be on the look out this garage sale season!

Are You Sick of Pictures of Ella Yet?

Too bad!

Our internet was down over the weekend so It's nice to be back! We had a nice Father's Day weekend. We hosted both of our families this year. (Missed you Kev) On Saturday, Kirk's family was here and we filled up the kiddy pool since both Derek and Ella act like they have gills. I thought I had pictures but I must have just looked through the camera and not actually snapped any. Sunday, my family came over and we had a nice relaxing evening. Shout out to Kirk: You are such an amazing daddy!! I hope you enjoyed your first Father's Day even though it didn't really go as planned. We love you so much.


And now for the star of the show...





Our little bookworm! She LOVES and I mean loves to sit and turn pages of books. She'll do it forever. It does make it hard to read them to her since she'd rather turn them. Please disregard that she doesn't match, Kirk dressed her and I can't believe he picked something pink!

Sleeping Beauty. She is wearing an outfit of mine when I was a baby.

She has been army crawling for a long time now and yesterday finally graduated to all fours. She is getting all over the house now and will come looking for you if you leave her sight. She is also crawling into tight spaces and between and under things. This is where she was yesterday, under the end table lookin' mighty proud of herself.

On Father's Day we broke out the tunnel for the first time. She loved crawling in it, so did Kirk! :)

Ella is also showing more and more independence. We can see her strong will growing stronger. Which means that in the future there will be many posts on this topic. (Ugh!) She already throws a fit if you take something away from her and by fit I mean laying on the floor crying, kicking, arching her back, and flailing her arms!

Not so funny story from today... I took Ella for a walk in the park today. I know it was hot but she loves being outside and we went to the lower park where it's all trees. Half way through she decided she wasn't having fun anymore and started screaming... loud! Now we don't really see many people back there but still. The only way she would be quite was if I held her. I didn't know what to do. Strap her back in and let her scream all the way home or risk a heart attack trying to carry her and push a stroller up some big hills. (You know the ones, Megs!) I chose to strap her in. After meeting several people on the trails giving me sympathetic looks I called Kirk to come get us. Thankfully he was home and could come to our rescue. Your the best, Babe!

A Little of This and That

Ella had her 9 month check up today. She now weighs 17 lbs 3 oz and is 27 in long. She is still a little peanut, only in the 25 percentile. I was so proud of her today. She had to get just one shot to get caught up and she only wimpered for a second!! She's a tough lil gal.


Here are a few shots from the last few weeks.





Some major bedhead going on. It kinda reminds me of a "Something About Mary" do.



Reading magazines. She layed there and turned the pages for 20 minutes and never ripped or ate them.

I leave her alone with the laundry for a second and she tips over the basket and climbs right in.

She's thinkin she's pretty cool.

GLEN OAK ZOO

Saturday we took Ella and our nephew to the zoo. They just opened their new Africa exhibit and it was fun to see. Kirk and I love being with our little nephew and it was fun seeing him so fascinated by the animals. Thanks, D & T, for letting us borrow him!

9 Months

Ella is 9 months old today. I can't believe my little Hugsy is so old! The past 9 months have gone so fast. She is such a happy baby. She continues to army crawl but sure gets where she wants to go. She is also show clear signs of being a climber. I have a feeling that she will go from crawling to running! I don't mind though, I am just glad for a happy healthy baby girl. You can see in the picture how curly her hair is getting. I am not ashamed to admit that I put mousse in it pretty often. Hey, I am a hair stylist! Ella is such a good eater, which has been such a blessing after how bad of a nurser she was. She will eat almost anything and is so over baby food! She wants to do it all herself. She also learned to say Mama!! Oh, the sweetest sound ever!

The Cutest Berry In The Patch

Ella and I went with my Mom to pick strawberries yesterday. It was such a beautiful day and Elle was such a trooper. She really loved the hayrack ride out to the patch and was facinated by the tractor. Grandpa H is going to love that!


For the record, she isn't really eating them she just happened to stick her hand in her mouth when I snapped the picture.


Have a happy weekend!

JUMParoo

Ella loves her Jumparoo now. We borrowed one a few months ago and she has never really showed any interest in it. Last week I found one for $7 on a garage sale and now she LOVES it. I guess she just wanted her own.

Don't you love how her hair flies all over when she jumps!

I Thought I'd Be Better Than This

I apologize for not blogging much. I really thought I'd do better than this but I'm having a hard time coming up with posts. Here are a few shots from the past week.



Tuckered out from visiting Uncle Dave, Aunt Tara, and Cousin Lena at the hospital.







Eating Cheerios with Daddy. She gets really excited when she sees the box come out!

Ella and Keesha love to look at each other. It was so cute, Ella was jabbering away and pointing at her. I can only imagine what she was telling the poor dog.

I love how they both are smiling at me.