Five on Friday

It is Friday!  It's early but it is Friday, anyone else have a long week?  I have- it seems to be harder when the hubs has several late home days in a row and its just me with a teething one year old in the evening.  Fridays around here means "FIVE ON FRIDAY" with about 260 other bloggers out there (last week's number was 264)!  It has expanded my reading list ten fold and I can't wait to discover more of your blogs out there.
 
Here is my five on Friday:
 
One:    The last of the Grant's 1st birthday at home photos have been uploaded and the year is officially over since next week I won't have a 12 month old anymore ...I have 40 variations of this at home cake smashing session photo but here are my favorites:

 
 
Two:   Vacation planning is in the air!  My sister Chrystal purchased a house next to her Naval base on Whidbey Island, WA!  It's about 1.5 hours north of Seattle and she will be back from deployment the beginning of September!!  She has only seen Grant twice at 2 months and 7 months so it will be a blast to go to her.  This will be Grant's first plane ride and our first time packing an extra around on vacation.  Any tips or travel must haves for a one year old are welcome and very much needed!
 
Three:   Buy, Buy, Baby.  It's a store that is related to Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  It opened a year ago in Des Moines and I am hooked.  The aren't everywhere but they are online.  What I love about this store is that they take Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupons and gift cards (hello, $140 left from our wedding) AND competitors coupons and ad matches.  They discount items like Bed, Bath, and Beyond does too!  I got an Aden and Anais changing pad cover for $4 since it had a smudge on it (which came off at home with a wash cloth!)  They sell baby food and lots of organic choices too.  Here is my secret.  You need to go the first week or two of the month when they discount all of the expiring next month food by 50% or more.  I once got 14 packs of Mum-Mums for $17!  We had two months to use them and gave some to daycare too.  This week I got organic crackers and puffs that expire Sept 28th and 30th; Grant will have them long gone by then.
 

Four:    I took the plunge and ordered some hair ties that claim "No Dents or Damage to Hair."  I debated for a while whether $12 for six hair ties would be worth it.  Since the hot weather is here, I get annoyed when I spend the time to have my hair down but need to pull it back for a bit but the hair band ruins your hair style to put it back down.  I have used these TwistBands several times now and I love them.  I got the six pack with the pink, silver, navy, black/white stripes, white w/grey dots, and one with anchors (to send to my sister in the Navy.)   They work great when I have my hair down and Grant wants carried- he is a big hair puller at this point and putting these ties in my hair for a bit doesn't leave a big dent.   They have a three pack for $6 and some headbands too.  You can find them at thetwistband.comand I would definitely purchase them again. 

 

Five:     Moving out the baby stuff. . .I spent three hours in Grant's room organizing, rotating clothes, and putting away some of the baby items.  I had most of his smaller clothes in various sized diaper boxes but I have moved them into space saver vacuum bags.  I was able to put five boxes into two vacuum bags and separated them into two categories.  One bag contained all of the baby boy items while the other had all the unisex, holiday, and Iowa Hawkeye clothes.  When Grant gets someone to lone his clothes too whether its a boy or a girl (I am thinking boy or girl cousin at this point), we will be ready!

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Holland