Couponing

At the beginning of February, I decided that I needed to figure out this whole new couponing "world". I know many of you may do it, and be totally familiar with it, but not me. I had tried a couple times before to get it down, but to be honest, there is alot of "stuff" out there, and it can get really confusing. This is an example of a saving written out on a blog:

Wheat Thins Artisan Cheese Crackers 8oz $2.00
Use BOGO coupon from SS 03/15/09 (expires 5/31/09)
AND STACK
Use $1/1 coupon from SS 03/15/09 (expires 5/31/09)
Final Price: $0.50 each

If you know what this means, you know more than I did when I started.

So, I sat down and read blogs, (there are TONS with so much information on them), I read the stores circulars, and I started clipping coupons. It's amazing how many coupons are out there, and just how many things I was buying at full price, when it just wasn't necessary.

The first time I went to the store, I saved $7. Not great, but hey, that's $7 in my pocket. From there, things have all gone uphill. At Kroger a couple weeks ago, I did pretty well, and it's helping to keep me motivated to do this. Also, seeing our food storage slowly increase has been a big plus too.

So, at Kroger, my initial price for groceries, before the Kroger card, and coupons, was $111. Not too bad, but our goal is $100 a week for groceries. After the card and coupons, I walked out having spent $55. I was so excited! Since then, I've saved even more too.

Kevin looks forward to my call every week, cause I've gotta have someone to gloat to about how much we saved, and of all people, I know he'll truly appreciate it!

The grocery's I was able to get for $55.

My coupon binder, I'm not the most organized person by any stretch of the imagination, but this is one area where I will always know what I have and where to find it.

My receipt. Look at those savings, woo hoo!

The goal now, is to really work on stockpiling, so that we can build up a great food storage. We're getting there slowly, but surely. I'm also amazed at how many things I buy now that I never would buy before cause they were too expensive, It's great to have some new variety in our diets.

Wow, 9 months already!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this age, and this sweet baby girl! There is just something about these little munchkins that melts your heart. Lexie is the happiest baby, and she amazes me all the time. I don't always realize just how happy she is, and then we're out and people will comment about how happy she is, and they're so right! I'm trying to get her to say mama, which she was doing for awhile, but now, whenever I say it, she just laughs at me. It's hilarious! She sleeps through the night most of the time, she's on table foods, which has made her much happier than baby food, (can't say I blame her!), and today, she crawled for the first time, just a little.

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We had her 9 month check-up today, and she was 18lbs, 4oz, which puts her in the 45th percentile. For her height she was 27in,which is also the 45th percentile. I've never had a baby below 50th for anything, and I would have put money on the fact that she was bigger than Peyton. She's also my latest crawler,(who isn't REALLY crawling yet, she just took a few strides today, so it won't be long till she's everywhere.) I know 9 months isn't really late, but the other two were walking at 9.5 and 10 months, so this feels late. Although she has had a bit of a delay considering she fractured her hip and all, so I think she's doing awesome.

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She has brought so much joy into our lives, and her big sisters adore her so much. there are just too many things to love about this little girl, but just to name a few....

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I love her smile and the ease with which she laughs, it doesn't take much to get this girl to giggle.

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I love her little dimples, and the jabbering she does when she's trying to talk to us.

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I love that right now, she's a momma's girl, and that Halli loves to carry her around. Okay, I don't LOVE that Halli carries her around, but I do think it's cute.

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I love that Peyton calls her "Gexie", and that when they're in the stroller together or in a shopping cart together, Lexie will smother Peyton and pull her hair, and Peyton lets her do it.

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I love that she loves to be thrown in the air, and turned upside down. I know, she's already fractured her hip, I promise we're not abusing our children. :) She loves it though, and it's just so fun to make her laugh, how could we not do it?

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Simply put, I adore being her mom, and I'm so grateful that she came to our family. I just wish I could enjoy this age a little longer. We love you Lexie!

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P.S. She was eating dinner in the above photo, hence the messy face. Gotta admit though, it's still dang cute, even with food all over it!

Sea World - Day 2: Bring on the fun!

Our second day at Sea World went a little bit smoother than the first. We came prepared to get wet, which was a very good thing, since the first ride we went on was Journey to Atlantis. Halli and Kevin made their way to the big boat, and she was so excited to go on it. There weren't really any lines, so she was able to go three times in a row, twice with Kevin and once with me.

On their way to the ride, she was so excited!

Look at 'em go! She said the big hill tickled her tummy lots, I don't think she was too sure if she liked it alot. She must have liked it a little bit to keep going though.

After she got off, she came back to stand at the bottom of the drop. That big boat makes a huge splash, and she loved standing in it. Peyton on the other hand wanted nothing to do with it.

Peyton waiting to see daddy and Halli come by on another water ride.

We made it to all the water rides, and Peyton even got to go on a log ride. Of course, after the first drop, she stood up and wanted off the ride, too bad there were more to go. Weird thing is, she went on it again with Kevin, and didn't like it any better the second time around.

See, I'm in a picture! This was the log ride, and Peyton was beyond ready to be done.

We had to make it back to our favorite ride again.

We also headed back to see Shamu. This time the show went beautifully. I was kinda glad they canceled it the first time so we had to come back. I didn't realize just how much we missed that first day. The whales may have been kinda performing, but it was nowhere near as good as the second day. We sat in the splash zone, but after seeing the first section get splashed and seeing just how far it went, I decided that I should take our sleeping Lexie to higher ground. It's a good thing I did, cause the girls got soaked. Peyton did not like that Shamu got water in her mouth, I guess it was open when they got splashed.

Shamu's tail, right after drenching one of the sections.

Look at that! It was so fun to see these amazing animals and all they can do.

We ended the day with a trip to see the Dolphins. It's great there and the kids can all just lay on their tummies, stick their hands out and wait for the dolphins to come by. It's nice and quiet and was a perfect way to end the day.

Trying to touch the dolphins. Lexie was asleep in the stroller until a dolphin jumped and it splashed her. She wasn't too fond of that very rude awakening, that water is freezing.

I love the dolphins, they're so beautiful!

The two little girls, getting in on the action. They both loved watching them.

back at our hotel they have firepits going at night, so after dinner we headed out to roast some smores. The girls thought it was a blast, but this is the only picture that turned out...doesn't she look so dainty?

Sea world had fun passes this year that are the same price as regular tickets, but you can go back as much as you want for the whole year. We definitely look forward to taking the girls back again. The funniest thing is that during our 2.5 hr drive there and back, Lexie did the best! Heck if she can do that again, who knows how many times we'll make the drive!

Sea World - Day 1: Not the Happiest Place on Earth

I'm a little behind in posting, but we've been a little busy, so here goes. We made it to Sea World during the first weekend of Spring Break. Peyton had never been and Halli was beyond excited to go again. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and there really weren't too many people there, so we were already off to a good start. After eating some sandwiches we smuggled in, it was off to the kiddie rollercoasters. So, at Sea World there are only a couple kiddie rollercoasters. Luckily, Halli liked them a little, and Peyton thought they were a blast, but I think they liked the playground the best and stayed there for quite awhile.

Now, you can't go to Sea World and not see shamu. So we headed over to see "Believe", the show put on by the killer whales. Did you know that sometimes the Killer Whales don't do what they're supposed to do? Yeah, they had to CANCEL the show! When does that ever happen? That's when things started to go a little down hill. (But who are we kidding, it's Sea World, how far down can it really go?) Halli was pretty disappointed, so we headed off to find some good rollercoasters. Unfortunately, she was still a little too short for the big ones, and the ones she could go on were water ones, so she wanted to wait till the next day when she was in a swimsuit.

So, the majority of the first day was spent waiting for mommy and daddy to go on the rollercoaster, each by themselves of course, and playing in the kiddie area. Not all bad, but just look at some of these pictures and you can see just how much fun some of it was for the girls.

Waiting to see Shamu, and full of excitment!

After seeing a little bit of the show, Shamu was done and stayed here until it was canceled.

Someone was all tuckered out.

Waiting for Daddy to get done on the roller coaster.

and waiting,

and waiting,

and waiting some more.

Lexie made up her own Roller coaster ride, she was feeling left out!

Looking cute while her sisters play

Woo Hoo, finally a roller coaster!

Having fun! They loved it and there was no line, so they got to go a bunch.

Waiting again. This time for the shuttle to pick us up for the hotel. If you ever think our kiddos are acting weird, you now know where it comes from!

See...Just like dad!

Waiting some more, and having fun while doing it.

Being weird again. Gotta love that guy!

We all had a blast, and after all this, we got to go back again. Stay tuned for day two!

All said and done!

Saturday was our neighborhoods first annual Spring Fling, and if I do say so myself, it was an awesome affair! Kevin and I were contacted to help put it on by our friends in our ward, the Parkers. Since Kevin's a realtor it was some great exposure for him, which is always good.

He ended up doing alot of the brunt work, and I had the fun job of the kids games, always easy and fun to do cause kids aren't usually too picky. Kevin on the other hand had to hit the pavement and went door to door at some of our local businesses to find sponsers, since we had a $0 budget. He didn't tell me a thing, and at one of our first meetings he let us all know that he'd secured THREE bounce houses, at no cost to us. I swear, that boy was born to negotiate cause he's never afraid to ask for just a little bit more. He amazed me at all the hard work he put into this. There were so many people in the neighborhood that stepped up and volunteered to help, it was great to see everyone come together like that. (although I will say, the majority of the volunteers were from the ward, so it seemed a little like a ward party, which is always fun).

We had bounce houses, tons of food, alot of vendors and giveaways, a 5k run, and 1k kids run, (Halli did it, and did awesome!), and lots of kids games, including and easter egg hunt. The easter egg hunt was so much fun and I couldn't believe how many kids showed up to participate, but it wasn't the highlight. No, that would have been the firetruck that Kim got! It was fun for the kids to climb in and see what the inside looked like, but by far, the most fun was when they turned on the hose! It sprayed from the top of the truck and doused the kids! My kids may not have liked it, but all the others did.

All-in-all, it was a huge success, and Kevin talked to a few homeowners during the event that had considered moving because of some slightly undesirable things happening in the neighborhood. But because of this event and what will hopefully become more community involvement, and a safer place to live, they're reconsidering for now. So, now we get to relax and take a breath, and hope our sunburns go away soon!

Halli at the finish line! She did awesome and said she "only walked like three times, and ran like, about 10 or more times."

Crossing the finish line of her first race, she's gonna take after mom! Jana and Clint did such an awesome job with the races, and look at that finish line, love the balloons!

The fun bounce houses, Kevin was really proud of these.

The food, they worked so hard on this, and it turned out great.

The girls in the firetruck. Peyton was so excited to go inside.

Right as we were getting out, they blew the horn. I was in the process of taking the picture already, no I didn't stop to take a picture of her screaming, although I wouldn't put it past me.

Shooting the water in the air, this made Peyton scream even more. Halli didn't even like it, which suprised me.

Kevin was the emcee for the event, this is doing the drawings at the end. I wish I had gotten better pictures, but I was kinda busy running around.

A basketball widow...again

When Kevin and I were first married, and as he was finishing college, we moved to Durango, Colorado so he could pursue his love of basketball. When we were there, I was referred to as "the basketball widow", because of all the time the boys spent traveling.

;

While I have missed watching Kevin play, I have not missed the time apart. Lucky for me, every year at the end of march, I get to experience it all over again. Yup, with the onset of March Madness, there will be nothing else on television, and nothing happening all weekend long....except basketball of course.

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I've known this was how it would be from the time we were dating. Kevin says that I'm the first girl to take priority over basketball for him, of course during march madness that statment may become a little fuzzy. The girls already know this about him as well, they may not understand march madness, but they know without a shadow of a doubt that their daddy LOVES his basketball. (this is his ultimate reason for him so desperately wanting a son...girls ball is just not as exciting according to him, and life would be meaningless without basketball:). Okay, I may be being a little dramatic, but seriously, if they didn't have brackets I may go insane. They're the only thing that gives me any reason to pay attention to any of the games at all, not that I know who I'm picking or if they're any good. So, if anyone is ever bored on the weekend, feel free to give me a call, I'm pretty sure I'll be ready to get out of the house....Bring on the games!

This will be the scene in our house for the next four (or is it five...don't tell kevin I don't know) weekends.

Even though we've had all girls, I think we've bought some sort of basketball toy each time I was pregnant. The girls still love to play with them.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of this cutie, dad's so proud!

Crush

Well, there's this boy...isn't that how it always starts? No, I don't think Halli is the one with the crush, (well, she has one, but we're not talking about Blake here.) No, there's a new boy in town doing his best to win her over. I thought something was up at the beginning of the school year when Halli came home with a little butterfly card. I figured they had made them in school, but it was actually given to her by a boy in her classroom, and he later gave her another on. Kevin and I thought maybe he liked her just a little, and on valentines day, it was confirmed. She came home from school with her pile of valentine notes....and one big box of chocolates, shaped like a heart. I asked her who it was from, and it was him. I asked her if he brought everyone one. Nope, just her and the teacher....hmmm. The week before spring break he gave her a necklace. Not the kind you're thinking of, it was a medal at one time, and he added a wooden cross (we've had a little talk about it.) and a charm from a coach purse. Then yesterday he gave her a drawing...a heart that said Happy Valentines Day.

He's got something going for him. If you know love languages, you'll know what I mean. I believe Halli's is words of affirmation and gifts. She loves to give things to people, especially letters. (Blake is the usual recipient of her notes.) This boy in her class totally speaks her language, and I think they've been playing together more recently, at least I hear his name at home more.

I think its cute. I love asking Halli about him, and I don't think she realizes that he has a crush on her. They talk lots and are good friends, she said that he asks her everyday if they're still friends. This little boy in her class is a cutie and very sweet, I just don't think he realizes that he's fighting an an uphill battle, seeing as how she already knows who she's gonna marry.

Success...kinda, sorta

I was all ready to do this huge post today. You see, Peyton has been potty training. Actually, she's pretty well potty trained, she's fully in underwear, even at night, and rarely has accidents anymore. That is, unless she has to go #2. She just doesn't want to sit on the toilet. She'll tell me she needs to go poopy, and we'll go sit down, and when it doesn't come out immediatly, she wants to get up and be done. This is very irritating. Especially when she gets off the toilet and no more than 2 minutes later, she's squatting and telling me she's not pooping. Then I have to run as fast as possible to try to make it in time....which we rarely do.

asdiar

Well, today after sitting on the potty numerous times, and missing my workout cause I didn't want to take her to the gym and have her poop in her pants, guess what? That's right, all ya gotta do is entice them with a HUGE lollipop, and they'll be more than happy to sit on that potty all day long! She did it! I thought we had conquered something huge! We did a dance, shouted for joy and praised Peyton all morning long. She also got to eat a HUGE lollipop and that made her day. I knew that now that she had done it once, it was all down hill from here. Now she knew that going poop on the toiled wasn't so bad.

asdfei

And then it happened. Again. Usually she only needs to go #2 once a day. Not today. Nope, she pooped in her pants, again. She was standing on the stairs, and I was making dinner and I hear this little voice, grunting out "mom, I poopy". My heart sank. It wasn't over, nope, it was a one time triumph, and guess what? It happend again after that!!! Three times in one day? who does that? Well, we'll get there someday, I know it'll happen, it did with Halli and she had a harder time than Peyton's having.

Get that sucker!

There ain't nothing better than a huge hunk of sugar!

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Oh well, that's a moms life, right? Poop and laundry. I guess I'll just have to accept it. It's a good thing these girlies are so dang cute, or I just might quit.