Happy Half Birthday!

Mason climbed into bed with Brennan.
Cousin Blake and Brennan

Brennan turned six months old yesterday. He is such a strong boy! He is crawling all over the place and exploring everything! He can go from sitting to crawling and then back to sitting with ease. He weighed in at 17 lbs. 13 ozs today. Mason is dealing with the crawling as best as possible. The fight over toys has begun; although Brennan gladly gives in at this point!

Loving Coupons!

In the last few months I have developed a new hobby. When the prices went up at the grocery store and gas station, I started clipping coupons. I have always been a coupon user but now I take it very seriously. I have saved us a lot of money and I get so excited when I find a bargain! I have to credit my friend Dana for getting me so motivated to save money. Dana has a blog that she updates regularly with the best deals at several stores www.frugalinvirginia.com . Up until yesterday, I had only doing my big bargain shopping at CVS drugstore. I branched out this week as two grocery stores in Charlottesville had some great deals! Harris Teeter is honoring triple coupons up to .99 cents… awesome! Kroger has a great discount given on select items when you buy ten. I was so excited yesterday about my savings that I actually took a picture of the products from each store!

Harris Teeter: paid $41.58, saved $71.63
Kroger: paid $34.98, saved $67.77

So, we are stocked on groceries for awhile! I just wanted to share my great savings with you all to motivate you as well!

Scarecrows

Brennan passed out before trick or treating began.

Mason loved carving the pumpkin. He didn't like touching the insides though!

Mason and Brennan were scarecrows for Halloween. We had a full day of trick or treating. During the day I took the boys to a shopping center were they had activities for children. That was a good practice run for Mason! After naps, we headed to the other Chiovaro’s house for dinner. We had a Halloween themed dinner: Witches fingers (mozzarella sticks), mummy dogs, night crawlers and eyeballs (spaghetti and meatballs), purple people eater punch and eyeball jelly (jello jigglers). It was a lot of fun! We then went trick or treating around Rick and Cathy’s neighborhood. Mason got the idea very quickly and was eager to open the candy. He has become very independent and wanted to walk by himself down the dark roads and steep stairs. He tells me “no, I got it” or “by myself”.

Other news, Brennan loves food! He eats a variety of fruits and veggies now. He has also tried a pretzel rod and graham cracker. He gets very frustrated if other people are eating and he doesn’t have anything. Brennan is close to crawling. He scoots backwards very well and in fact can go backwards across a room. He can get up on all fours and move his knees forward. He has not quite figured out his arms yet, thank goodness! Brennan loves Mason! He thinks his big brother is very funny. Mason also enjoys Brennan and often says “Bren watch this” and then performs some stunt. Brennan is a joy and a very happy boy!