Oh Bunny, how I love Thee. Let me Count the Ways

I've mentioned before (here) how my Aunt Kathie gave Kali a bunny.  Kali has loved this bunny since that day!!  This Bunny is super soft and fluffy...or I should say WAS! Now, she's been washed every.single.week because Kali insists on chewing on her nose, ears, and hands.  After just 1 week of all that chewing, Bunny stinks! And I mean stinks to high heaven! Any time Kali is sick, she tends to throw up ON Bunny, so then poor Bunny gets washed an extra time.

Before Christmas, I bought another Bunny on Amazon as a "just in case" Bunny.  There was one night about a month ago when Kali was sick and Bunny had to be washed, I got new Bunny out for Kali to sleep with.  However, Kali was NOT having this.  She kept pointing to her laundry basket saying "Bubu" and sobbing.  A few weeks ago, I had a grand idea.  I decided that I'd put new Bunny in our bed and sleep with her.  Then I told Kali that new Bunny was "Mommy's Bunny".  Last week when she got sick and Bunny needed a bath, I was able to get "Mommy's Bunny" out and tell her that I'd let her sleep with "Mommy's Bunny" tonight while Bubu was taking a bath.  And it totally worked!! Score 1 for Mommy.

But there will never be another Bunny to replace the one my Aunt Kathie got her.  Kali would take that thing everywhere with her, if I'd let her.  And there are only a handful of times when Bunny is aloud to leave the house.  I'm terrified of losing Bunny and having to go through that melt down! UGH! I shudder just thinking about that happening!

Here is a short little trip down Kali & Bunny's journey since May 2011 in pictures! :-)
May 2011:

Kali sleeps with Bunny

Securely under her arm!

August 2011:

She cries with Bunny

October 2011:

She opens presents while holding Bunny

(1st Birthday presents)

December 2011:

She brings Bunny while taking Family Pictures

January 2012:

She sleeps with Bunny some more

(and her Nana Blanket)

February 2012:

And she carries her around the house Cheesing!!!

*Please note Bunny's eye and nose in this picture...the nose has been chewed so much it's starting to unravel, and her right eye is black and swollen shut (haha).

This poor Bunny has been through a lot...and she's not even a year old yet.

I can't thank my Aunt Kathie enough for this Bunny! Kali adores it.  I also love Bunny because she helps Kali sleep better! She never liked pacifiers, and never attached to a blanket. But this Bunny is her favorite thing in the whole world!  I'm pretty sure that she's going to have it forever...that is unless she eats her, or chews her to death.  Which is a strong possibility! LOL! :-)

I'm sure that there are going to be more "Kali and Bunny" updates along the way! I'll just have to remember to get more pictures of them together! Kali and her sidekick!

Good Morning Sunshine!!!

GOOD MORNING!!!!!

This is the adorable face that I get to wake up to every morning!

I love it!

Being a HAM during breakfast

Enjoying some KIX cereal.

Cheese!!

CoUpOnS!

It is no surprise that I love couponing.  I have made it a personal goal to save as much money as I can with coupons, without being the crazy coupon lady at the checkout line in the grocery store. I literally have a 3in 3 ring binder full of coupons! (Yes, I know I'm crazy.)  But I plan my trips so that I don't have to bring the whole binder with me (and thus, not look as crazy)!

Some of my favorite couponing sites are Southern Savers and Coupon Divas.  I have signed up for their emails and check their sites religiously before heading out to any grocery store.  The best part, they also have links to Retail store coupons (like Khols, Old Navy, my favorite Carters, etc.), and a coupon database so if you're looking for a specific coupon, you can search for it and it will tell you where it's located.

So far this year, I've saved over $250 by using coupons.  I'm no where near the savings seen on shows like Extreme Couponing because Florida does not Double Coupon which makes me very sad! I could be getting lots of free products if Florida only allowed double coupons. Ah well.  I still save a lot of money. And that's important when you have a baby/toddler!

Of course, I do have a lot of coupons that expire (because again, I'm not one of those crazy coupon ladies that just buys things for the heck of it to "stock pile" in my garage!).  I read online that there are many places that send coupons overseas to the troops.  Families overseas are allowed to use expired coupons for up to 6 months.  I found a company through Facebook that links you to families overseas to send coupons to.  They're called Coupons to the Troops.  I've already linked up once and sent a bunch of coupons, and I have been collecting more for about a month now that I'm about to send over.  I love being able to help other families save money! Especially on household essentials!

So, if you're a couponer like me (or even a mild version), be sure to save those expired coupons! Sign up at Coupon to the Troops and donate those expired coupons to a good cause!  And I'll try and share some more of my great coupon finds for you! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Normally I don't make a huge deal over Valentine's Day.  I think it's just another day for people to buy cards and flowers (which are both over priced!). I'd rather get something the week before or after Valentine's Day - then it has a surprise factor too! 
Anyway, this Valentine's Day TJ is in Orlando for a work convention so it was just me and Kalibug to celebrate. 
I was able to get Kali some Bubble Guppies stuff online, and saved it for Valentine's Day.

Kali's Presents:

Bubble Guppies book and coloring book;

chocolates; and Kung Fu Panda2 dvd

She loves to open boxes and pull things out, so I figured that she would enjoy opening her gift out of a box.  And she did!!!

Book

Investigating her book

Coloring Book!
She really wanted to open the crayons tonight and color

She was way too interested in the presents, that she wouldn't cheese for me.

Kali's Valentine's finger painting

This was done with a toilet paper roll folded.

Thanks Pinterest!!!!!!!

Another Kali master piece!

She did the "flowers" and I painted the lines.

She even did the center dots!

So creative!

My little artist :-)

Kali loved her book (which was her nighttime story), shared the chocolates after dinner, and watched Kung Fu Panda together (mostly, I watched it - but she enjoyed pieces).  It was a great Valentine's Day.  Wish TJ was here to share it with us, but we did get to chat with him before bed.

I got so many hugs and kisses from Kali and got to rock my favoritest little girl to sleep. Great day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope it was fantastic and lovely and full of smooches!!

And then, we went bowling!

**JUNIOR UPDATE: Junior is doing much better!!! He's healing well, and doesn't seem to be as sore as I expected.  We did realize on Wednesday that his tooth was broken.  So I had to take him back into the doctor so that they could check and see if it was a clean break, and see if it would get abscessed or not (we'll of course have to wait that one out...UGH!).  But it seems to be a clean-ish break, so we're just going to have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get swollen or something.  The family seems to be reasonable, and will hopefully just pay the vet bills and be done.  We'll have to wait and see on that one**

Today, we took Kali bowling for the first time.  She had so much fun! :-)
She also had a few other firsts:
First time bowling
First time drinking an Icee
First time eating an ice cream cone

And surprisingly, she went to sleep pretty easily! LOL!!!

Getting ready to start Bowling!!!

Watching her ball go down the lane

Picking out which ball to use

(she always went for the heavy ones!!!!)

CHEESE!

Enjoying her first Icee!

Brain Freeze? HAHA

Photo op with Daddy

Daddy teaching her how to lick the ice cream cone.

She caught on pretty quickly!!!

Giving Daddy the Evil Eye for looking at her ice cream cone!

We had such a great time tonight! Bowling is definitely going to be a favorite activity for Kali.  And for the record...she totally beat me!!  :-)