Barlow Family Vacation 2011

In my slightly biased opinion, Northern Minnesota is one of the most beautiful and relaxing places on earth. In the Land of 10,000 lakes, peacefulness is all around...On the water, in the starry sky and in the wooded forests that are so abundant. And that is exactly where we got to spend a few wonderful days last week with our Barlow Family.

We started the weekend with a couple of days at Jon's parents' house in Hudson, Wisconsin. We met Tony, Ingrid, Elias and Espen there and spent a couple of days hanging out, catching up, eating good food, exercising a little, going to church and playing with a motorcycle.

My ever-s0-talented sister-in-law, Ingrid, spoke at a quilter's guild on Saturday morning so she had her huge trunk full of many of her quilts and other projects. Did I mention that she is extremely talented?!? She let Kylie model these adorable leg warmers that she knitted.

While Ingrid was speaking, Jon and I also got to enjoy some of our favorite activities...Running and sleeping. I took a leisurely run around Hudson while Jon slept in! That same afternoon, Jon, Tony (Jon's brother) and Doug (Jon's dad) spent a couple of hours trying to get the old motorcycle running. Apparently it was a task that required attaching the motorcycle to the back of the tractor while also pushing it from behind at the same time. For your entertainment, I snuck a few pics! :)

On Sunday, after yoga, we headed up to Cragun's Resort in Brainerd. While there we ate at some delicious restaurants including Zorbaz Pizza (Every letter "s" in the place was replaced with a letter "z"--It drove Jon nutz!), Poncho and Lefty's Mexican Restaurant, Grizzly's Grill N' Saloon, and Jake's City Grille. All of them were super scrumptious and are highly recommended!

Tony and Ingrid

Me and Jon

We also spent time golfing, fishing, pontooning, swimming and shopping. Tony, Ingrid, Jon and I golfed at Cragun's Legacy Courses...It was amusing to say the least. We all played moderately poorly, with the exception of a few good shots. Jon actually drove onto the green on a par 4 from about 280 yards....That was the shot of the day. He then 3 putted for a par! :) Clearly he needs a little work on his short game. My best hole of the day was a bogie on a par 4. Otherwise, we were well over par on most of the holes...But it was fun and that's what counts, right?! (I'm only saying that because I didn't win!)

Jon's first catch of the day! It was a monster! :)

Kylie met all the safety standards, but she hated her life jacket!

Our nephew, Elias, knew all the hot spots for finding fish. :)

My handsome husband letting another monster go...

In my opinion, Grandpa Barlow let Kylie get a little too close to those nasty fish...

He finally caught a nice large mouth bass!

That same afternoon, we spent about 4 hours on a pontoon. We mostly fished AND the fish were biting! I think Jon and Tony lost count, but Doug caught 40. According to Tony, however, it doesn't really count when you catch perch, bluegills and sunnies, especially when they are smaller than 3 inches! No matter what, it was a blast! Jon did manage to catch the only bass of the day!

The following day, the ladies spent some time shopping while the boys babysat. We went to one of Ingrid's favorite quilt shops, Country Fabrics and Quilting, and it was amazing! I bought some really cute fabrics that I am really excited to make into quilts! We also stopped at a fun consignment shop and a store called Christmas Point, which had some great furniture, purses, clothes and home decor...I could have spent lots of hours and dollars there.

This is the walleye that became our supper!

Later that evening, the boys did some night fishing and Jon caught a nice walleye! It was actually big enough to keep and eat! I fried it up on Thursday when we got back from our trip...It was tasty!

Other than missing Greg (Jon's younger brother who is in grad school in Virginia), the trip was fantastic! I hope we can make it back there someday!

Kylie is 10 months!

How has another month gone by so quickly?! It's hard to believe that the Bean will be 1 in less than 2 months. These past 10 months have, without question, been the fastest 10 months of my life.

I'm a few days late on this post because we were up north in Brainerd, MN for our almost annual Barlow Family Vacation....It was very fun and eventful, but more on that in another post!

Anyway, Kylie is starting to move and "talk" like crazy. She still does not crawl, but she rolls and rolls and rolls. She also does a modified army crawl in which she sticks her butt in the air with straight legs and pushes off her toes. This propels her forward about an inch or two, but she seems happy with that distance. :) She is also constantly babbling...She says a few consonant sounds such as "da," "ba," and "la." She says those sounds in many different combinations with some screeches and sputters as well. She does some different mouth shapes and movements too. It definitely sounds and looks like she is trying to tell an elaborate story. It's really cute! She still isn't a fan of sitting up. She can do it, and she will do it if forced. But the first chance she gets, she lays down and rolls around. Overall, with the exception of a couple of late night crying bouts, she is still pretty content and happy.

As I said above, Kylie's main dislike right now is practicing sitting up. She is such a little stinker in that she silently rebels against me...She is like her daddy in that way! :) When I am near her, she will sit and sit and sit, but the second I move away, she lays down on the ground.

As far as Kylie's milestones this month, she now has almost 6 teeth....4 on the bottom and 2 on the top. The 2 on the top are not the middle two, though. They are actually the 2 side teeth. To me she looks like a little vampire...Good thing vampires are trendy right now! :) She is wearing size 3 diapers, size 3 shoes and 12-18 month clothes...I actually put her in a 9 month onesie today, and it totally does not fit anymore. As I said, her main mode of transportation is rolling. She can sit for as long as she wants. She can get up on all fours, but prefers toes and hands (like a camel push-up) versus knees and hands. She has started mimicking a little bit...She claps and wiggles her body when she sees us do those things first. I especially love the wiggling! She takes a 1 hour nap in the morning, and 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon and then sleeps 11-12 hours through the night. She eats 4 times per day at 8am, 12pm, 4pm, and 7:30pm. At each feeding she takes 6-8 ounces of formula (we finally ran out of breastmilk on September 7th). At 8am, she eats cereal and fruit. At 12pm, she eats a meat and a veggie. At 4pm, she eats a meat, fruit and veggie. And at 7:30pm, she just has her bottle. She still eats mostly mush (baby food), but we are working on some more normal, solid foods like bananas and bread. But she seriously has the most sensitive gag reflex I have ever seen. She gags on any new texture...It's strange. I hope she gets over that soon!

Happy 10 months, Kylie Girl!

Oxbow Park!

Always happy to be at the zoo!

According to the local weather man, Randy Brock, the weather is about to turn fall-like. So a few of us felt like it was important to spend this last beautiful, summer-like day doing something outside. That is why Rebecca and Ella, Kristen and Halle, and Kylie and I made the trek to Oxbow Park today. It was the perfect day to leisurely walk around, admire the Minnesota animals, and have a picnic lunch. We saw wolves, foxes, otters, badgers, owls, eagles, buffalo, turkeys and more. The little girls had fun looking around and the big girls had fun socializing! It was a great way to spend the day!

Kylie and I checking out the farm animals.

The 3 girls: Kylie, Halle and Ellasen.

Buffalo

YAY! Badger!

Otters!

Our Frugal Life.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are attempting to live a more frugal life since I am staying at home with Kylie. A few people have asked me how it is going, so I thought I would share...

Overall, we have been spending less money and sticking to our budget as best as we can. Although the frugal life is a bit more stressful, I like the challenge of staying under a certain dollar amount at the grocery store or when we go out to eat. In order to stay within our ideal budget, we have made 4 major changes from when I was working:

1. We disconnected our cable. This saves about $50-$60/month.

2. We exercise at home rather than at a club. This saves about $30-$80/month.

3. We each have a monthly "allowance" for fun activities. Once that is gone, it's gone. This saves about $200-$300/month.

4. We have a monthly grocery budget. Since June, I have actually cut our grocery budget in half. This includes big ticket items such as diapers, formula and dog food. This saves about $300-$400/month.

The grocery shopping has been tricky, but I have finally gotten it down to a science. The most important parts to this are taking the time to plan ahead, cut coupons and be a disciplined shopper. Here's how I do it:

1. I go grocery shopping approximately every 10 days or 3 times/month. The day before I go, I spend about 30 minutes planning.

2. I make a meal plan for 7-10 days based on what I already have in my pantry/fridge, what is on sale, and the coupons I have. For example, if pasta is on sale and I already have meatballs, I would do spaghetti and meatballs for a meal.

3. I often use the ingredient search on All Recipes to come up with meals...It is a lifesaver!

4. To keep it simple, I have a pretty similar breakfast each morning, and then either soup and salad or a sandwich and salad for lunch. So the only meals I really have to plan for are the 7-10 suppers.

5. I usually end up making 5-6 different suppers. For the other meals, we will eat leftovers or a frozen meal for one supper, go out to dinner or order in for one meal, and make one easy meal such as frozen pizza...That covers the 7-10 days.

6. After I have a meal plan and a grocery list based on those meals and other needs (i.e. toilet paper, toothpaste, diapers, dog food, etc...), I look for coupons. I have a folder full of coupons, as well as a few internet resources (listed on the bottom of this post) that I use to find coupons. I use only coupons for items that I already have on my grocery list...I never add an item to my grocery list because I found a coupon for it.

I carry my coupon folder with me at all times in case of an unexpected store stop! :)

7. I try to stack coupons as much as I can. This means using a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon on the same item. Sometimes if you get really lucky, you can even stack those with a sale. I find sales by checking a couple of blogs (also listed at the bottom of the post). Couponing saves me $15-$30/shopping trip or $45-$90/month!
8. I try to avoid depending on brand names too much. I have started to buy Target Brand (Up & Up) for almost everything. It is way cheaper, tastes the same to me and there are better coupons out there for those items. Of course, I will always buy Diet Coke and Lean Cuisine...It's okay to be brand dependent sometimes, right!?!

9. Lastly, I always go to the grocery store with a certain dollar amount in mind...Some people even take cash so they don't go over budget, but I do okay with the debit card. As I shop, I add the prices together so I know how I am doing. If I go over my budget, I make myself put unnecessary items back...Added Bonus: This has also helped us eliminate snacks and junk food!

That's it!

I'm always looking for other ways to cut costs and be more frugal. If you have any other frugality ideas, please send them my way...

Coupon Resources:

1. Target - http://coupons.target.com/

2. Smart Source - http://smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=5S2ZUA6PWPEPO

3. Coupons.com - http://www.coupons.com/couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=14602&zid=yf73&nid=10&bid=0912190954833327bd521713

4. Weekend edition of the Rochester Post Bulletin--$1.50 at most gas stations

Blogs (At the bottom of our blog on the blog roll):

1. Money Saving Mom

2. A Little Simplicity

Labor Day Weekend!

We MN Barlows have had a busy September thus far, and Labor Day Weekend was no exception. We started out the weekend with TWO college football parties. First, we went to Brandon and Kristen's to watch the beginning of the Oregon vs. LSU game. They are Oregon Ducks fans, and they were all decked out in green and yellow. Kristen is so creative...She had lots of different snacks and appetizers, and they were all green and yellow--including a Snicker Salad that was dyed yellow! :) Then we headed over to Tim and Rebecca's house to watch the Georgia game. Reba is equally as creative as Kristen, and had many different snacks decorated in red and black. Both parties were a blast...Gotta' love football season!

Halle was supporting the Ducks and Kylie was supporting the Badgers!

Although the Badgers played on Thursday night, we couldn't resist wearing our red and white Badger gear! I don't think I'll ever be able to cheer for another team! :)

Sunday we had TWO birthday parties to attend! We celebrated my Grandpa Don's 77th birthday in the afternoon at my parent's house. It was the first time in a looooong time (probably 8ish years) that my mom's ENTIRE side of the family was together. And we have really expanded since the last time we were all together. Most of the cousins have spouses or serious significant others and there are now 4 toddlers/babies and a 5th one on the way! It was so awesome to have the whole family together!

Grandpa Don, Kylie and Me

My immediate family.
Back: Brady (Mia's BF), Rochelle (John's GF), Dad (Jimmie-John), and Jon
Front: Mia (Sis), John (Bro), Emmit (Nephew), Mom (Susan), Me, Kylie

The entire DeYoung Fam

Sunday evening we headed over to Annabelle's 1st birthday party! It was the coolest 1st birthday party that I have ever been to, not that I have attended many. The theme was Annabelle's Sweet Shoppe, and her mama went all out! There was a candy bar, cupcakes, a candy cake, cake-pops, soda in bottles, and much more! It was super cute and fun!

We spent Monday morning finishing up the final landscaping project at our house...The back corner of our backyard. We made a little hosta garden! We had previously shoveled out all the rock---worst job ever--so we just had to lay the pavers, plant the hostas, and mulch. It turned out great!

Before.

After.

Monday evening we hosted a Labor Day grill out at our house, complete with hamburgers, hotdogs, brats, pasta salad, chips, and lots of desserts! We enjoyed the company and the food! It was a fun way to close out the last official weekend of summer!

Happy Fall!!