We Need Your...

HELP! I've never been the best at saving money thus I've not been a frugal spender. I keep hearing about couponing (I don't get the newspaper and my "coupon printer" hasn't worked). I hear about buying in bulk, but I'm not sure what to buy. Should I buy food storage and then eat it?
Lately I've been rethinking everything like instead of buying canned Manwich sloppy joe, I found a dry Western Family mix for .50 cents and a can of tomato paste for .69 cents. I usually shop at Costco, Walmart, or the neighboor hood grocery Harmons next door. Costco is cheap for milk, eggs, diapers, wipes, formula, and bread. Walmart pretty much everything else. Harmons will have case sales (not totally sure what those are) and pretty good 2 for $1 or 10 for $10 (but gatoraide is no longer a necessity). Baby food is so expensive it kills me, suggestions on how to make your own? I think we would have saved alot more money when we had income if I had thought about my purchases more. I guess I'm a natural impulse buyer which now forces me to steer clear of ANY type of shop.
So I'm asking no pleading for your ideas and advice. What do you do when you start to count pennies? I've been avoiding this post but I'm sure you all know. I really hate what's happening with the economy. You think yeah that sucks and that your own family will be just fine and then it hits you. You're screwed and what do you do? No one is hiring, how does a family survive? Whoa sorry this is turning into a journal entry. Anyway your ideas are wanted please leave a comment maybe something you've tried?

9 Month Stats

Maddie will be officially 10 months tomorrow. But I finally got her to her 9 mo. follow up visit. She had to be tested for lead (wasn't optional for us), anemia, and had a hib. vaccination to catch up on. The best part of the visit was the stats, its always so much fun to see how much she's grown.
Head- 17.8in 75%
Height- 28.11in 54%
Weight- 18.32lbs 29%
So pretty much she's got a round little melon on her shoulders and still pretty small in stature(but has seemed solid lately). I had to include this picture, it was a bad one but I loved her face.

Go Fish!

We told her to give the fishy kisses, I think she would have.

The product of my fishing skills from last Friday at Jon's summer company picnic at a fishing farm.
After a hour of fishing at the fish farm and almost giving up I caught one, we were hysterical. I snagged it by the fin.
Maddie loves water, even dirty poopy water.

Jon had no luck tried three different ponds.
Oh we had lots of fish food too.

Priest Lake (just when you thought I was done)

Thank you mom for sending me the pictures and Charee for getting me the CD.

Left-Right: Macey, Amy, Madelyn, Hailey, Lilly

The WHOLE family together at last.

My new swim suit yay for Hapari.com.

We've got to get one of these, she LOVED it. Water was freezing too.

At home, taken on "the deck" she loved this car, guess we'll have to go to Grandma Walker's more often.

Maddie and Macey were so funny. Macey kept trying to give Maddie "loves" and would wrap her arms tightly around her.

Priest Lake/ Moses Lake

Priest Lake sweater I bought from the Tamarak, Jon and I also got Priest Lake shirts that were actually really trendy looking. I'm hoping she can wear this next year.

I could not stop this child from eating sand and bark. She loved it and ate it in fist fulls.

She got mad at me when I pushed the sand out of her hand and away from her face.

Macey is so funny, she did not like being too close to the water.

I wish I would have gotten a picture of Lilly with her sunglasses, she was such a little diva. She kept telling us "baby crying, baby crying" when Maddie was fussing.

I ran up the hill to fetch my camera to catch this picture, Grandpa was a good baby sitter.
This is small for a reason, not a good picture of me but I will post some good family pictures when Charee emails them to me, she's got the good ones taken with a MUCH nicer camera.

Poor Pheobee, Maddie kept grabbing at her because she was so excited to have some her own size. Pheobee is 4 months older than Maddie. I think Pheobee's mom is like 5 months older than me, funny I never realized that before.

Taken at the Roylance POND! It looked really fun but I only stayed an hour because once I got home I was deathly ill with the most infectious flu I've ever had before in my life. Jon and I were BOTH sick as dogs. Maddie was sick for alittle while too.

Maddie learned to eat lots of things like fish crackers, whole cheerios, sand, and GRASS. She got one stuck in her throat and threw up all over my towel.

WHAT A TRIP! Fun but not so fun when we were puking. We miss home already, not sure that they miss us though. Sorry to everyone that caught our bug.
I can't wait for these family pictures. We've never taken any before.

CHEESE!

I've been told that I have the happiest baby people have ever seen. I corrected them I don't know I think she's the cheesiest baby I ever seen. Whichever it is I sure love her. Sorry about the video you'll have to kink your neck to the left. She's been walking more and more each day in this thing. She actually was upset just this morning and almost ran across the room and ran into me with this. Thanks Kelly for letting us borrow the walker.
Maddie is now officially 9 MONTHS. She has been getting closer and closer to crawling she'll get into position by herself and take steps with her hands then sprawls out and army crawls. We've just been doing the same o same o around here. Both been working and working out. I'll have to post a picture sometime later when I can find a good before and after. I've notice so many physical differences in the last month or so. Jon's got a new workout buddy and is excited to try some new techniques.
GOING HOME THIS WEEK AND I'M SOOOO EXCITED. Priest Lake ID here we come!

My Little Noise Maker