Great Post on How To Dress Your Kids at Gymboree for Free!

Money Saving mom had an excellent guest post on how one mom dresses her three kids at Gymboree for free! Go here to see the post: http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2009/03/guest-post-how-i-dress-my-children-for-free.html

What I learned from this post

• Like everything it takes planning and hard work
• What she does is she buys her kids clothes when they are marked down at Gymboree 80 percent. So she tries to buy her clothes like this: pants and dresses for $6.99-9.99, shirts for $3.99, and shoes for $4.99. Usually these good sales only happen at the end of the season so she buys the next size up for her kids during this time. If I was buying for Jackson now, I would try to buy size 4 since he is mainly in 3t right now. What is so good is that once they get into toddler sizes they are usually in that size for a good year.
  
• She also tries to only buy her clothes when Gymboree is having their "buck" deals. During this time, when you buy $50 worth of clothes their you get bucks for $25 off your next purchase and if you buy $100 worth of clothes you get $50 off your next purchase. You can make multiple purchase here so you do not have to make a trip back to Gymboree.
• Then she sells all her clothes that she got at Gymboree on ebay. She even has her own store at: http://stores.ebay.com/Lake-Michigan-Treasures
• She recommends selling your item at 50% off of what you paid for it to start off when people are bidding. You can also have buy it now options for what you paid for the item.
• Here is my problem with ebay. I have sold a couple things and I also pay way too much in shipping when I try to ship the item because I want to be able to track the item. The shipping process always confuses me! Do you have the same problem or any suggestions when it comes to mailing your item through ebay? If I could figure out how to only pay$ 2.99 out of pocket when shipping my items, I would sell more stuff.
• What do you think? Do you think you could be successful in this and end up not paying anything for your Gymboree clothes at the end of the year?
  

Other money saving tips that have been working for me recently:

• I have only been going to the grocery store every 2 weeks. I spent $120 dollars after using all my coupons at Kroger. I have also been drinking Kroger brand drinks which have been great and now Kroger mails me coupons all the time. They have new generic diapers and wipes that have been great and I have gotten for $2 and $3 out of pocket. I do spend about $40 out of pocket at CVS every month as well using their extrabuck program.
  
• I have also been doing Dream Dinners and saving money on going out to eat. They email me when they are trying to get rid of the dinners and recently all of their meals have were $10 each for 3 servings and you could buy as few meals as you wanted. I spent anywhere from $60-$120 a month on Dream Dinners (some months I have so many meals left over I do not buy Dream Dinners). I usually eat the leftover for lunch the next day and Charlie is great at cooking these meals as well.
  
• We cook Monday night, Thursday night, and Saturday night. We go to Chick Fil A on Tuesday nights because Jackson eats free, Wednesday night is church supper. Friday night we actually go out to eat somewhere (hopefully somewhere where there is no waitress), and Sunday night we usually eat Sonic because it is so late with AWANA.
• I have found the best price for Enfamil Powder Formula at Babies R US. I have also bought coupons for Enfamil formula through ebay and saved a lot of money recently. They are discontinuing my type of formula which really stressed me out, but we are trying to stock up and when she turns 6 months old we will be buying the generic Enfamil (sensitive) at Target. We will gradually change her over 2 ozs at a time. Buy 6 months, her stomach will not be very sensitive at all.
  
• Having a plan has helped me budget so much better. Monday night I also take Jackson to the gym for the 6:45 pm combat class. We rest all Monday from the craziness of Sunday and then after dinner we are ready to go somewhere. We also try to go to the gym Friday and Saturday morning.
  

Movie Monday

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We are currently giving her otameal cereal once a day and she is loving it. I cannot believe we are already feeding her and she is not even 4 months old yet. Things are a lot different with the second child!

Happy 30th Birthday to the Love of My Life!

Charlie was real surprised last night at his birthday party at the church. I would not tell him what we were doing on his birthday so he thought something was up on Thursday night. Wednesday night never crossed his mind, and Wednesday night was all Anne Marie's idea. I have a lot more pictures but they are all with children, and I do not feel comfortable posting them without their parents knowledge/permission. All the kids were able to attend since they were at their Wednesday night programs (there was probably 150 people there). Mark did a great job of stalling Charlie after his Bible study...Charlie was so surprised!

Here is a little part of the homemade card I wrote him:

"Thank you for dying to yourself these last nine years that I have known you and going the extra mile to put your family before everything. We love you more and more every day that passes.

I am so proud of you and your boldness for Christ this year, and for help leading children to make the most important decision of their lives. I really am the most proud of you this year for your focus on preaching the Gospel and helping others learn and grow in Him without being distracted with anything. You are a wonderful husband, friend, and father. You set a great example. We love you with God’s love that cannot be measured.

I am so proud of where you are at 30 years old. You are mature man who is always growing and learning. You are great example of an instrument in the redeemer’s hand. You are a wonderful pastor to the 200 plus people in the children’s ministry. You are an excellent husband and father of two. I know our Heavenly Father is also very proud of where you are at 30 years old and how you boldly teach God’s Word weekly to children and their parents."

Charlie also has a post about his birthday here :http://charlie-wallace.blogspot.com/

How to Start Solid Foods with Your Baby

Boy, am I glad I blogged with Jackson. I had totally forgotten how to introduce solid foods with a baby. Every baby is different, but Abigail has been eating 32 ozs of formula daily and still has not seemed satisfied (32 ozs of milk is the max a baby can have and 24 ozs should be the minimum) She is a very hungry girl and was smacking her lips when we ate so Monday I tried oatmeal cereal with her (about 2 weeks before she turns 4 months old). I know it is going to take her a couple of weeks to figure out how to swallow. However, she did real well and opened her mouth wide and I think she might have even swallowed a little bit of it. Here are my suggestions when starting solid foods:

• If your baby struggles with constipation at all get the oatmeal version of rice cereal. Abigail struggles with it every now and then but nothing like Jackson. So, we choose to do the oatmeal cereal with her as well
• mix it with 2-4 tablespoons of formula and 1 tablespoon of cereal (that way he does not get choked)
• Also, offer the cereal during normal feeding time after they have eaten about half of the bottle or a little more than half way through the bottle. I have found if you introduce it before the have gotten at least some of their milk, they will be real upset about it.
  
• Before you start fruits or vegetables offer you baby Rice Cereal or Oatmeal Cereal (if they struggle with constipation) for 2 weeks three times a day. Baby Wise recommends this but the doctor says you do not have to do it. It takes a while for them to figure out how to swallow. At first, they will only take half of the fruit or vegetable (make sure you buy 1st food not 2nd or 3rd).
• Eventually Baby Wise II says:

  Breakfast (8am): cereal and fruits----Lunch (12pm) Vegetables and fruits----- Dinner (4pm) cereal, vegetables and fruits-----then one last bottle at 8pm. That would be my perfect schedule in a perfect world----haha!

With Abigail I am going to offer her cereal 1 or 2 times a day at least until she turns 4 months old. You are really suppose to wait to your baby is 4 months old to start food and definitely by 6 months old. If your baby seems satisfied by your milk then there is no rush. However, if your baby struggles with constipation, I would recommend starting right around 4 months old at least just with the cereal. We will probably not start the squash and pears for another month or so, but I will keep you updated.

I do not recommend putting cereal in a baby's bottle because they cannot tell they are full until it is too late. This could cause severe stomach aches (a screaming baby), vomiting, or your baby being overweight. I know different doctors have different opinions about this though.

Let me know if you have any more advice on starting solid foods. I am always learning!

Pictures from Abigail's First Trip to Spartanburg

We had the best time in Spartanburg last weekend! Charlie turns 30 this Thursday so we went ahead and started celebrating his birthday while we were there. I was so glad that Virginia (my good friend since 8th grade) got to meet Abigail and that we were able to see her while we were there. A couple of pictures where taken when we got home with Abigail...but she is holding a book Grand and Gigi got her. We are so blessed that my parents take Jackson one weekend a month. Now, that dad is retired it is even easier for them and they can come spend quality time with me when they drop him off. Jackson had the best time with them Saturday and Sunday night (we just stayed Thursday and Friday night). They took him to the golf course and he loved it. I have the best parents!

It was such an easy trip with our van!

Movie Monday

Mondays I usually put up a picture or video so today's post is entitled "Movie Monday." We were all by ourselves Saturday night with Abigail while my parents kept Jackson for 2 nights, and we went to Baker Brothers for the first time. Abigail thinks her daddy is the funniest person ever. You do not have to teach girls to flirt, it is with them from the moment they are born. If Charlie is in the room, and I am holding her, she will almost break her neck to see him. She is definitely daddy's girl!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Strike a Pose

She is so funny! She is changing in her looks everyday. I think she is looking more like Charlie now. I weighed her myself the other day and she was 13.8. She is really ready for food (eating 32 ozs daily which is the max), and I think we might start her on some otameal cereal this week. I put a spoon in her mouth yesterday and she opened wide and did not tongue thrust it out. I will keep you updated!

She made her first trip to Spartanburg this weekend and we had a great time! Now we can finally go since we have a van...God is so good!

How to Prevent Your Babies from Getting Sick

Many people ask me if I am nervous leaving Abigail in the church nursery as much as I do. I teach 4th grade girls Sunday School, AWANA, and GA's so I do drop her off a good bit. I do get nervous dropping her off just because of all the sicknesses, but I drop her off to invest in eternity. Now, that I know how bad it is for a baby to be sick I probably worry more. In my opinion, for the first 3 months (or until they start crawling around) they have a less likely change of getting sick. They change babies on a difference table than the other little ones, so as long as the person who is holding her the whole time in the room is not sick, they should be ok. However, you baby is going to get sick, and use it for a time to glorify God and pray to Him (also I would recommend planning to get out of the house once your husband gets home so you have at least some sort of break). He is allowing the sickness for a reason. God works all things out for good for those who love Him.

"we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
Romans 5:2-5 (ESV)

Our suffering has a purpose. What hope God gives us through His Word and through His Son, and His Spirit!

Here are my tips to Prevent Your Baby from getting Sick:

1. First and foremost, pray pray and pray some more. Sometimes when my babies are just started to be sick and congested, I lay hands on them and pray in Jesus name that He will heal them.
2. Be crazy about hand sanitizer and washing hands. I currently have Vicks Early Defense foaming hand sanitizer that promised to fight germs for 3 hours. I make Jackson put it on his hands before he goes into a childcare situation and right when he gets out. I am way obsessed with hand sanitizer for both me and him after Jackson got sick 7 fun filled times last winter. One time I even put it on Abigail's hands but would not recommend doing that till they start crawling around.
3. For babies spray Lysol before putting them down on any surface to change their diaper. I actually carry Lysol spray in my diaper bag.
4. Try to give them a bath at night when they have been in daycare situations if at all possible.
   
5. When your baby starts to have congestion in his nose, start blowing his nose out with saline solution at least in the morning and before they go to bed. I actually did this a couple of weeks ago when they both probably had a virus and the congestion just went away for the first time ever without turning into an infection.
6. Make sure your babies are getting enough rest. If you see your babies are starting to get sick plan for extra times for rest. Children need at least 10 hours of straight sleep and most only get 8 and suffer with extreme exhaustion which makes them more likely to catch illnesses.
7. Make sure your little one is on a daily vitamin. Jackson still on polyvisol vitamin drops and Abigail will be getting on them as soon as she can.
   

What about you, do you have any more tips on how to prevent your baby from getting sick?

Happier

Jackson is so much happier since he had the surgery!

• He can eat so much faster and better. Yesterday at the doctor he weighed 29.6 pounds and before the surgery he weighed 28.4 pounds
• One the most exciting new event is that Jackson can say the colors of his bouncing balls. Sunday at church he wanted to show all his teachers how he could say green, blue (he says blue real well), pink, yellow, and orange (orange is hardly recognizable though). He carried these balls around all day on Sunday and would say the colors to whoever would listen. I, of course, got teary eyed and so did one of my good friend.
• He has never said the word "yellow-" your tongue has to move a good bit to get that word out.
  
• He has gotten far less spankings since the surgery and is not nearly as frustrated (this might be in part that I have his days now planned out).
  
• However, some days he still resorts back to "gaga" for everything and his tongue is still weak. We are doing intense physical therapy on his tongue every day now. The surgery is not an instant fix (which I knew), but boy has it helped things and we saw some pretty immediate results.
• Jackson has also had some intestinal issues that we had to see the doctor about yesterday. Without going into too much gross detail, he has not had normal bowel movements for the last two months. He is actually going to have to be on miralax for the week and these intestinal issues have caused some crazy breakdowns recently. He just might always struggle with constipation since he has since he was 8 months old. So he might be on straight Pear Juice for a while only with miralax every other day.
  
• I was trying to get a picture of his tongue and frenulum here in these pictures. They left some skin between his front two teeth for a specific reason and the doctor will explain why tomorrow. In the first picture, his tongue is moving more than it ever has. He loves bath time, and would stay in there for hours if we would let him!
  

Someone Else Who is Really Enjoying My Baby Girl

is Sandie. Aunt Sandie is my mom's sister and she is like my second mom. She has three boys and always wanted a little girl. God gave her the desire of her heart through her oldest son Wade. Wade lives in the same town and Sandie and has one child who is a girl named Rylie. Rylie is the daughter Sandie never had and she sees her all the time. Sandie is a great example of how God gives us the desire of our hearts in His glorious plan, sometimes not through our own plan. Sandie is a great instrument in the redeemers hands. She loves Jackson and Abigail as if they were her grand babies. She came one day recently to help keep Abigail when Jackson was having all those doctors appointments about his surgery (Abigail was 2 months here). Sandie's love language is gift giving and she has gotten Abigail the cutest bow shoes and bows. Me, my mom and Sandie are all crazy about bows! Abigail is such a blessing to my entire family in so many different ways.

PS-People keep asking me if I will ever call Abigail "Abby." I really like Abby as a nickname and want to wait to see what she wants to go by. Right now she is a calm little baby so she just seems more like a Abigail for now. This time I wanted to make sure I liked the nickname that went with my baby's name. I love the name Jackson and it was also Charlie's grandfather's name, but I do not like the nickname "Jack" for Jackson for many crazy reasons although Charlie likes "Jack" as a nickname.

Some people also keep asking me if I am scared having Abigail in the church nursery all the time with her being so young, so I will hopefully blog about that topic later this week.

Princess

Here is our princess. Love her cheeks. I also love her dresses and bows! She is still doing really well.

Update on Jackson after His Surgery/One Year Toddler's Bible?

The speech therapist came Tuesday and here is an update on where we are:

• She was very happy with his tongue movement from top to bottom but side to side is still not really moving near as far as she wants it to, so that is where using the Z-vib will help. I will be interested to see how weak his tongue is now after the surgery (before it was 90-95 percent weak which is a big reason why we decided to do the surgery)
  
• She agrees with me that his top lip frenulum being attached affected his speech as well because there was limited movement with his top lip for labial words. She says your checks, lips, tongue is all connected with speech and I am so glad we had both his top lip frenulum clipped as well as his tongue frenulum
• Just in case you are wondering what she does the hour that she is here goes like this:

1. She gets shaving cream on his hands and tries to stimulate a part of the brain that is usually not stimulates...this somehow helps with the part of the brain that deals with speech. He hates it usually and then she tries to get him to wash the ducky with the shaving scream
2. While still strapped in the high chair she uses the z-vib on his mouth going all on the outside of his checks and then especially on the inside side of his checks to get his tongue to move far from side to side.
3. Next, she moves to the floor to play usually using bubbles. She tries to get him to blow the bubbles and say combo words and sounds. Last time she tried to get my stubborn little boy to say "my turn." I was in the hallway listening to all of it because right now I am a distraction in the room. He said "my turn" and tear came running down my face. I am so glad see could not see me crying. I have never heard him say a "t" sound! I was so happy. He only said it one time though...haha
4. Finally she uses flash cards and ask him what he sees and tries to get him to say the animal or whatever it is correctly

If your child is struggle with speech, you can do most of this at home with your baby. I would highly recommend flash cards with pictures on it. It is a great time of learner for your toddler. Also, I would highly recommend Baby Babble DVD's. They have taught him how to make all kind of sounds, and Baby Babble 2 teaches a hundred words with the first sounds that a baby can say "p, b and m." I only let Jackson listen to educational dvd's in the car so he has seen these dvd's along with Signing Time dvd's a lot.

Jackson also has been making the "f" sound ever since he had the surgery which I have never hear him make. Overall, my speech therapist was very happy with his movement of his tongue and lips and really thinks that he can now say most all of the first words a child gets. Now comes the hard part, breaking Jackson of his bad speech patterns. A lot of times, I think he just does not want to say the word even though I know he can. Please pray that God give Jackson a desire to now talk and that God will show Jackson that he is now able to make the sounds he could not make before the surgery.

His eating is so much better as well! Also, now when he gets upset and cries real hard his tongue moves to the top of his mouth which it has never done (praise the Lord Abigail's tongue moves to the top of her mouth because short frenulum is hereditary).

Daily, we are using the Z-vib in the high chair while his favorite show is on to distract him. Also, I am now reading The One Year Children's Bible to Jackson before he goes down for a nap. It does pictures for most stories. It is probably way to advance for him but it is a short little summary of a major Bible story every day. He was trying to read my One Year Bible with me one day and so I got him the best one year Bible out there for little ones that I could find. Another new invention: The One Year Toddler's Bible. I know how to read to toddlers now, so today we studied about Balam and his donkey and there was actually a picture of the donkey and he said donkey for me and I explained how God spoke through the donkey after I was done reading. Do you know of a One Year Toddler's Bible or One Year Preschool Bible? What is your favorite Bible that you read to your little one? We have ordered a new Bible to read to him before her goes to bed called "My Very First Bible" for toddlers and I will let you know how I like it.

Thanks again for loving and praying for Jackson!

At Last

We have a minivan. I have wanted one since Jackson was born, but have not really "needed" one utill recently. My Honda is a '96 and Charlie's Ford Explorer is a '97 but has only two doors. Now, having two children, when we go somewhere I have no room to even put my feet down with all our bags. I had no idea how we would even go see my parents in Spartanburg with our car situation. In the last couple of weeks, Charlie's brakes have been giving out and he was about to put money in it to fix a car that is not worth a whole lot and a car that we know we are going to try to trade in this year. This last week we started working on our taxes and could not believe how much we are getting back for various reasons . . . one being that we had a baby last year.

To make a long story long, we have been looking for a minivan very actively the last couple of weeks. Charlie test drove many minivans and we just could not buy a car we just really were not that thrilled with. My dream car has been a Honda Odyssey but I just did not think it was in our price range, and it was not until we got this huge tax return that it was. So, I called Honda Cars of Columbia and they had my dream car - a Silver Honda Odyssey 06 with leather interior and everything that I wanted it to have. This is the car I have been looking everywhere for. We were able to put a lot of money down and our monthly payment is lower than I ever dreamed possible (not much more money than it was to pay off our king size bed one year). We have a 4 year bumper to bumper warranty since it does have a good amount of miles on it and we will have it paid off in 5 years. The only difference in this car and a new model is the miles it has on it. It only had one owner and no wrecks. This is my dream car and God just continues to bless us and rain down funds to us literally out of the sky to meet our needs and more.

If you are looking to buy a car, I heard on the news that now is the best time in the history of cars being made to buy a car. I have heard of some of my friends talking dealers down $10-$15,000 off new cars. I think it is best to buy from a dealer because you can negotiate like I did and get a great loan and interest rate from them. We just really are happy with Honda cars because they last so long. Charlie will be driving my 96 Honda Accord just to work and back hopefully for another 4-5 years and we hope to have this mini van for 10-15 years. I never want to give up this car! Also, my Honda Accord has had no major problems in the 13 years I have had it.

We are so excited and have waited for two and half years for this car! Now with one click of a button, doors open and we get our babies in the car. My back does not break and it will be so easy now to go places with two babies by myself. God is so faithful!

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:1, ESV).

Don't You Just Want to Eat Her Up?

We are really enjoying our baby girl and love kissing her little round cheeks. I cannot believe she is already 3 months old. The other day she squealed at my mom and laughed at Charlie. She is getting even easier to raise every day which I did not think was possible. The first 3 months are usually pretty rough since babies' stomachs are so sensitive during that time. The other night she slept from 10:45pm to 8 am in her crib which was amazing. She loves to eat and we will be trying cereal right when she turns 4 months old. She is such a joy to our family and we thank God for giving her to us every day.

Prayers Were Answered, the Surgery Went Great! God gets all the Glory!

I really was hopeful that I was going to be able to update yall yesterday, but we are in the process of buying a used car and that all happened yesterday as well.

Here is a run down:

• At first Jackson was not calm but shaky, and so we laid hands on him and prayed in Jesus name that he would be calm
• After we prayed, he got real calm. Praying in Jesus name with authority is so powerful! We were able to semi trick him and walked behind him like we were going back there with him and I do not think he realized we were not with him till they had started the gas. All they ended up having to give him was gas to sedate him...prayers were answered again.
• The doctor said that both his top lip frenulum and his bottom tongue frenulum were really tight (I think she said tighter than she thought) so he ended up having 10 stitches and prescription for Tylenol with codeine. Wow, and to think we had one doctor say this was not even necessary. She originally told me it would be 2 or 3 stitches up top and then under his tongue and only Tylenol would be needed for him.
  
• The only real problem was once the numbing medicine wore off he could not suck his pacifier because of the top frenulum being clipped. He also had no interest in drinking and I think he only had 4 ozs of juice yesterday max and I thought he might be getting dehydrated. He did eat scrambled eggs and yogurt. He was pretty upset the first 3 hours after surgery, until I could get the codeine in him.
  
• The only time I got real emotional was when he was eating his yogurt. He ate it so fast and his tongue moved side to side like it was suppose to and he did not do any of the tongue thrusting craziness. I just feel so bad for him, he has been through so much in his short life, and I just get so upset when I think about all the opposition he has had, even opposition in doing this surgery
• He had great tongue movement now and we are so happy. His top lip is still pretty swollen, so he is having hard time saying his labial words, so we will probably not know about his speech until the swelling goes completely down. However, I will say now his tongue moves when he speaks, so that is a huge improvement.
• Jackson is doing great today and he is acting like he never even had surgery. We are so blessed and thank you for praying.
  

Pray Pray Pray for Jackson and his Surgery tomorrow morning at 7:45 am. Thank you so much!

Just pray that God gives Jackson a supernatural calm spirit. Also, you can pray that his mama has a supernatural calm spirit.

We have to be at Palmetto Surgery Center at 7:45 am and the whole process will probably take 2 hours but only about 30 minutes in surgery. This is an outpatient facility. It would be really no big deal if Jackson just had to get one frenulum clipped, but two frenulum's being clipped might be a little harder recovery.

I am not really as worried about the recovery, but very concerned when the take him away from me...he might totally go crazy (hopefully they will give him some meds to calm him down, since he is a very sweet but dramatic little boy).

I will try to update on how it went here on the blog tomorrow.

I guess there might not be any more strange pictures of Jackson with his tongue doing crazy things like in this picture above.

A New Invention?

Here is the scene:

It is Sunday morning freezing and raining after church. I have to get both babies out of the car and Abigail is crying uncontrollably for her bottle and it is past time for her to eat. I get her out and start feeding her and now it is time to get Jackson out of the car. He is watching Baby Babble 2 in the car and is not in a hurry to get out of the car. It is too cold in the garage to bring Abigail out and try to feed her and get Jackson out of the car. After Abigail downed 2 ozs, and I go to get Jackson out. Recently, getting Jackson out of the car has been quite an event. He loves to get out by himself and just stand bouncing up and down inside the car. It takes at least 2 minutes for him to get out of the car. Once in the garage, he wants to explore. Well, he was taking forever to get out of the car, and Abigail was crying inside sitting in her bumbo seat the hardest she has ever cried. I thought she might hyperventilate. I hurry Jackson inside and he insist on closing the car door slowly, and his thumb got caught in the car door.

So now both babies are crying uncontrollably, and all I can think is if only I had a contraption that could help hold up Abigail's bottle for her while she was sitting in the bumbo sit. I put pillows under the bottle once she started sucking on the bottle and was able to get ice on Jackson's thumb. I know I would not need this product for long, but do you know of an invention that holds the bottle up for babies? If not, I am inventing one!

Ps- I am so thankful that Jackson will help me feed Abigail now...when he feels like it.

Also, we had to switch to Dr. Brown's bottles because the Playtex bottles slow flow nipples just came out to fast for her when she sucked real hard. I really like these bottles.

Top Three Reasons Why I Buy All My Babies Clothes at Children's Place

Believe it or not, I am not a big shopper. I love to shop when I really need something, but just looking at clothes seems like a waste of my precious time. I started buying Jackson's pj's at Children's Place when he was a baby because they had zip up Pj's that were cute... 3 for $25. Zip up Pj's are so easy and wonderful! Now, that Jackson is going to be working on potty training I probably will not buy his Pj's there anymore...sad. However, we found some cute 2 piece PJ's at Target for Jackson at a good price.

Right before Abigail was born, I went out to the Children's Place out at the Sandhill Mall. They had matching Christmas outfits for both Abigail and Jackson. I was so excited! Also, this particular store is right by Portrait Innovations where I am going to take my babies to get there pictures done (Abigail's 3 month pictures) for $9.95! I think the store at Sandhill has more matching outfits than the store at Harbison.

Anyway, last Friday I went out to Children's Place at Harbison to get Abigail 3 zip up pj's 3-6 months for $25. I had a 10 percent coupon that the mailed me because they now have a rewards program (a card like a supermarket card).

Well, they had the cutest spring clothes ever and I went crazy. I knew Jackson needed an "Easter" outfit and Abigail needed white tights and some white shoes. I started to take stuff back and she asked me if I buy most of my babies clothes there and I said "yes" and she said that if I opened Children's Place credit card I would always get 10 percent off and then could get the additional 10 percent off with the perks program. Therefore, I would always be getting 20 percent off my purchase. To avoid finance charges (20 percent which is crazy) you just pay for your charges right after you put your charges on the card. Therefore, I opened a card with them and paid my payment right then right after I put it on the card. For every dollar I put on the credit card I earn 1 point. If I earn 200 points, I get another 10 percent off coupon mailed to me. However, I am very disciplined about this and if we do not have the money in the budget, I will not buy the clothes. I just want to get as much of a discount as I can for the clothes I buy for my babies. This is where I disagree with David Ramsey about not having credit cards. For example, one of my friends puts all her purchase on a Disney Credit Card and then pays it right off and now will have enough points to stay at Disney for free. However, you have to be disciplined and not buy things you do not have money for.

My goal this year is not to spend more than $500 on my children's clothes this year. In reality, that is a lot for clothes they will never be able to wear again. Where do you buy your children's clothes? How much a year do you spend on your children's clothes every year? Do you have any recommendation on where to buy your children clothes for cheap? I go to consignment stores a good bit and Marshall's.

I spent $120 on all these clothes here at Children's Place and saved $30. I will be having my babies pictures taken in these clothes which makes the clothes even more valuable (I have seen some children outfits go for$100 for one outfit at high end price children's store... I think that is crazy).

Here are my top 3 reasons why I love Children's Place:
1. The clothes are exactly what I am looking for and have matching outfits for girls/boys
2. Their zip up pj's are perfect and always 3 for $25
3. Their new rewards program makes it so the buyer is always getting at least 10 percent off (also you can fill out surveys online and get up to 30 percent off your entire purchase...this survey will be printed at the end of your receipt).

Go here to check out their clothes: http://www.childrensplace.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Home?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001...on second thought maybe you should not take a look....ha ha.