Jail Bird

We have a routine.

We put Avery bed. 20 minutes later she is up again. She has usually pooped, disassembled her entire bottle (she has figured out how to untwist the top off) and thrown it on the floor.

Sunday night we went to go get her after she had completed her "routine" and she looked like this:
She is a cute little jail bird isn't she??

The boys recent school projects

I haven't posted anything for a while. I have been super busy helping the boys with school projects. Here are pictures of what we have finished:

Miles: California Mission Project
(Miles and I actually visited the mission in San Francisco. We took a bunch of pictures and made collages out of the pictures.)
Miles: Science Fair
Caden: White Flippered Penguin Report
Caden: Dentist office for classroom city

Baseball had already started. Miles practices 4 times a week and Caden 2 to 3 times a week.
I need a break after all these projects. I'm tired!!

Sounds like life to me ...

There is this country song by Darryl Worley called Sounds Like Life To Me. Here are some of the lyrics:

"Sarah’s old car’s about to fall apart
And the washer quit last week
We had to put momma in the nursing home
And the baby’s cutting teeth
I didn’t get much work this week
And I got bills to pay
I said I know this ain’t what you wanna hear
But it’s what I’m gonna say

(Chorus)
Sounds like life to me it ain’t no fantasy
It’s just a common case of everyday reality
Man I know it’s tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me"

I feel like this has been our life the last week. Our water heater quit working last Saturday night. Chris has come over to light the pilot light. Both Tim and I have lit the pilot light. PG&E came out on Tuesday to look at it. The problem is that the pilot light will not stay on. Wednesday we had an appliance guy come out and look at it. After 20 minutes of looking at the water heater (and being an hour and a half late) he said he couldn't fix it and called some of his friends to see if they could come out. So on Thursday we had someone else come to the house. He got the pilot light lit and said everything was fixed. OK... I called him back an hour later and said the pilot light was out again. So he came back and replaced the thermocoupler. (It was dark and rainy outside by the time he came back.) He said it should be good now. But guess what? We still have no hot water. The frustrating part is that the water heater is only a year and half old. The bank paid to have it put in before we bought the house. It has a 6 year warranty but we have NO paperwork on the unit. The water company said that they would replace it if we got the info on where the water heater was purchased and who installed it. So right now we have called our realtor and she has contacted the listing agent who is trying to figure out the info for us. If we don't get any information in the next day or 2 we are going to have to buy a new water heater.

So I took a freezing cold shower this morning. I have taken 3 somewhat warm showers at home. And 2 hot showers at the Ballins. Tim has been taking showers at work or at the gym. We took all the kids over to the Ballins last night for baths.

On top of this Caden has a penguin report due on Tuesday. It is Miles' birthday on Wednesday and Miles' 4th grade Mission report is due on Thursday. What a crazy week!!

This last week has been rough and I've been all emotional. But I guess that's life.

Thanksgiving 2009

We surprised my family and drove out for Thanksgiving. We let Parker in on the secret after we were on the road. It was a surprise because we were already going to Utah for Christmas. We survived the long drive and arrived in Utah about 2:30 am Sunday night/Monday morning.

When we got to Utah there was snow on the ground, so the boys enjoyed it for a few days before it melted.
We spent Thanksgiving day at my Aunt Jody and Uncle Bill's house, with our usual Thanksgiving food. I got to see most of my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and my cousins kids on my Dad's side. I only get to see them once or twice a year. It's always good to see family that I grew up with. Miles and Caden had a great time playing with their cousins. There are boys that are close to their age, so we didn't see them much - they were all running around.

We have a tradition of taking the baby's picture by the pecan pie. We tried it last year and Avery was crying in every picture. So this year turned out better. I also made this pie from scratch -- even the crust!
Sitting at the big kids table!
Miles' Turkey day hair-do: He hadn't had a haircut since August. The longest it has ever been.
My dad, My bro-in-law Bryan and Tim: For some reason I didn't take many pictures that day!

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The next day Tim and I went shopping on Black Friday in American Fork. I was excited because #1 Tim was coming with me. and #2 any presents that we bought could be left at my parents, and not hauled back home. We left at 1:15 am and stood in line for Old Navy. There was a promotion if you bought $20 worth of merchandise you would get Lego Rock Band for free. But they were also passing out wristbands. They ran out of wristbands about 10 people in front of us. So we left. (After standing in the cold for an hour and a half.)

Then we drove over to Kohls. We knew what we were going to get. So I gave Tim his coupons and his list of items to purchase. We stood in the cold for about 20 minutes and then literally ran into the store. Success!! Tim was faster than me and didn't have to stand in line for very long. I stood in line for about 20 minutes. But the things you will do for a $30 microwave!

We were going to get a DS lite for Caden but we went to 2 different stores after Kohls and they were both sold out at 5 am. We did buy a few other items at Wal-Mart. But the lines were insane!! We stood in one line for at least 20 minutes and didn't move. Tim was getting tired so he went and sat in the car. I decided to be brave and try another line, I was able get out of there after another 30 mins or so. We got back at my parents house about 7:30 or so. It all started to blur together....

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That night Suzi, Jeff, Melinda, Dylan, Alyssa, Jana and Anthony came to my parents house to hang out. We pulled out my Mom's Beatles Rock Band Set that I secretly helped her buy. BTW - Jeff is the BEST Rock Band Drummer I have ever seen play.

Alyssa singing and being cute:
Dylan being grumpy:
Jana about 3 weeks before Zoe was born.

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When we got to Utah we realized that the BYU/Utah football game was on Saturday. Tim told my mom that was going to get tickets for the game -- and for FREE. My mom didn't believe that he could pull it off. Tim sent out some text messages to some friends. The next day he had scored 4 free tickets to the game thanks to his brother Jeff and APX. So Tim and the boys went to the game and met up with Suzi, Jana and Anthony. GO COUGARS! (Now Miles says that he wants to go to BYU after going to the game. (YAY!)

Halloween 2009

I am so behind on blogging...

For Halloween we had an
Army Guy: (he was an army guy about 4 years ago, but insisted on being one this year.)
Anakin Skywalker: (That mask freaks me out, too eerily real looking.)
A Kitty:
and Tinkerbell:

We went to dinner at Applebee's that night because if kids were in costume they got a free kids meal. We ended up paying $22.00 for all 6 of us to eat out.
Then we drove back to our neighborhood and did some trick or treating. Miles was done after about 8 houses. So we drove home. Then I took Caden out by himself. There weren't very many kids out trick-or-treating so every house we went to they gave him a handful of candy. So we took a pillowcase full of candy home and hit up more houses.

One bag of loot:

Our *New* favorite YouTube video

Caden's Loose Tooth

We read stories to Caden about the tooth fairy and loosing teeth. Caden's tooth is kind of like the story Andrew's Loose Tooth by Robert Munsch. No matter what - his teeth do not like to easily fall out. His gums like to hold onto his teeth as long as possible. So his top tooth has been loose for about 3 weeks. We kept telling him to wiggle it so it would come out. Even his classmates were telling him to wiggle it so it could fall out.

On Friday it looked like this: (barely hanging there but not wanting to fall out on its own. It was grossing me out a little.)
I told him that he would NOT be going back to school on Monday with that tooth still hanging there. Tim pinned him down in the front room to pull it out.
He was going to use pliers. I told Tim to wait and I would get a wet washcloth to cover the pliers. (Because that is what my dad did to us.) While I was getting the washcloth wet Tim decided just to use his hands and he pulled out the tooth. It came out quickly and easily! But Caden wasn't too happy and cried for a few minutes longer after the tooth came out.
The tooth fairy forgot to come that night. We told Caden it was because he stayed up so late that the tooth fairy had already come and gone from our city. So the next night the tooth fairy came and gave Caden $5 for being a day late. Lucky kid.

The crazy thing is that his permanent tooth is already making a big appearance.

Avery Walking!

This is for all of our Grandma's & Grandpa's who live so far away.

Food, Friends & Fun - across the country

Last week I was able to travel to Oklahoma to hang out with 2 of my best friends. Charlene and Alisa. Alisa grew up in Okie and recently moved back there. Charlene AKA "Chuck" grew up in Utah and recently moved to Nampa, ID. They both had been living in Utah so everytime I was in Utah we got together. We were college roommates and we just "clicked." Since we lived together for a year and a half. We know A LOT about each other, played a lot of pranks and - YES - they were both there when I met Tim and started dating him. Here is a picture of the 3 of us in 1998. (We were a lot skinnier back then!)

Charlene and I flew out to Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday. We stopped at the World's Largest McDonald's and then spent the night at Alisa's home before making our way to Branson, Missouri. Thursday we drove to Branson. We went to the Dixie Stampede show that evening. The food was crazy! We got a biscuit, creamy chicken soup (yummy!), a chicken, a slice of pork, a 1/2 of a potato, corn on the cob, an apple turnover and all the Diet Pepsi I could drink.
Friday we went to the Hollywood Wax Museum. We had TOO MUCH FUN and got some good blackmail pictures (that will NOT be posted.)

We also did a ton of shopping. We went to the Children's Place Outlet, Disney Store Outlet and hit many of the souvenir shops.
We also went to Branson Landing which is a newer area that is alot like the Gateway in Salt Lake City. They have a water show every hour synchronized to music. And they had their Christmas decor out.

We also did a lot of eating. Chuck got a Twinkie dipped in Chocolate! We also ate truffles, fudge, Krispy Kremes and stopped at a Russell Stovers Store on the way home and picked up more Chocolate.
All of our junk food!!
I was tempted to get this LARGE box of chocolates, but just took a picture instead.
We also ate at Fall Creek Restaurant, where they throw you fresh baked rolls across the room. We drove back to Oklahoma on Saturday. Before we left we had to go see Bubba's Drive Thru in Jay, OK. You literally drive your entire car though the store and tell the worker what you would like and they get it for you. You don't even get out of the car!!
Our trip had to sadly come to an end. We had to get back to our families and husbands who took work off and watch our kids so that we could play. We had so much fun talking and being together. I truly had a blast. I love you ladies!

Yogurt anyone?

Avery will eat some for you.

This week: Adventure in Coupons

Growing up my mom taught me about saving money while you shop.

This is what I learned from her:
1. Only buy an item if it is on sale. Especially clothes - and 20% to 30% off is NOT a sale. If it is 50% or 60% off retail than that is a SALE.
2. Purchase items that are on clearance. When I go clothes shopping at Kohl's or Target I always look through the clearance racks first.
3. Use coupons. I have always used coupons when I had them. Especially for diapers. But after this week I didn't know how much I could really be saving.
4. When purchasing toiletry items look at see if the packaging has "more free" in it. Example: The other day at Target the Suave body wash was on sale for $1.50. Some were 12 oz. but some had 50% more free in the package making it a total of 18oz. of body wash for the same $1.50. If you are going to buy the product get more for the same price.
5. Buying the store brand instead of the national brand is just as good. And it is cheaper.

This week I decided to go full force using coupons and see what would happen. There are SO MANY websites/blogs out there of people trying to save money and using coupons and they are sharing their information. And there are websites where you can print coupons. I am truly amazed.

Here are some of my favorite websites:
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/
http://couponingtodisney.blogspot.com/
http://www.savingwithshellie.com/
http://www.morethancents.info/
http://hip2save.blogspot.com/
and April Preston (our inspiration!)

So this week I did some research. And printed out a bunch of coupons. I shopped at Walgreens, RiteAid, Target and CVS. I spent $73.55 at the stores. I saved a total of $119.91. Plus I am getting a coupon for a package of free Huggies diapers in the mail.

So what did I buy using my coupons?
Olives (2 cans)
Deodorant (x2)
Tissues (3 boxes)
Bandaids
Huggies diapers. (5 packages)
Toilet Paper
Purex 3-in-1 (2 packages)
Baby Wipes (4 boxes)
Conditioner
Glade Candles and Refills
Chex mix (x2)
Cinnamon Toast Crunch (x2 - Caden's favorite cereal)
4 large bags of Halloween candy

A few things that I learned.
1. You can "stack" coupons. You can use a manufacturer's coupon plus a "store" coupon for one product. Walgreens, Target, CVS and RiteAid all have store only coupons.
2. If you are buying an item that is Buy one, Get one FREE (BOGO) You can use 2 coupons. One for each item.
3. Stores like RiteAid and CVS have coupons for $5 off a purchase of $25 or more. The $25 total is BEFORE you use any coupons.
4. RiteAid has monthly rebates. Look through the rebates along with your coupons and sale items and you could be getting items for free or even making money back after the rebates. RiteAid also has a new program online. It is called Video Values If you watch videos on their website they will give you a store coupon for that product that you can print out.
5. Target will price match. Bring in the local competitors ad and they will match the price.

My friends this week have been my computer, printer and scissors. I had to run to Fry's to buy another ink cartridge for the printer. (Sadly, I didn't have a coupon for Fry's.)

Tim thinks this is crazy and is calling it "working the system." All I know is that I am hooked on coupons. Or should I say "clipped"?

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What else did I do this week?
Tuesday we made homemade Apple Pies for YW. I will post the recipe on Recipe Queens
Wednesday I volunteered at our schools book fair.
I didn't do much laundry, so I am catching up today.

Welcome Fall

I have really been happy that fall is here. A little bit cooler during the day. I've been reading. Drinking hot chocolate and toast (a little guilty pleasure). I made strawberry freezer jam for the first time ever.

And then today I made these:

And, yes, they tasted delicious too. I decided to put a sturdy fork in them instead of a wimpy popsicle stick. I worked great for eating and it didn't fall off! Tim and I were talking and we have decided that Fall is our favorite season.

Golden Gate Bridge

We took our YW and YM on an outing to the Golden Gate Bridge. I brought Miles along. Why do we live so close to these amazing landmarks, but never go to them. I will tell you that I hate going into San Francisco. There are too many (weird) people, too many cars and not enough parking just for starters. Anyway, the Bridge really is amazing and it was clear that morning and could see across the bay. Miles said he was scared of heights and didn't want to walk on it but I made him go. Miles and I ended up cutting our activity short - we had to drive back home because Tim's kidney stones decided to make an appearance that day. The rest of the youth and leaders stayed for a picnic near the beach.
Miles being afraid of walking on the bridge:
Can you tell he was having a great time?
Then, when we started to walk back he was suddenly not afraid anymore. He kept looking over and spitting and watch his spit slowly twirl down towards the water. I guess that is what 9 year old boys like.
This is my favorite picture.