New Look for the New Year

So, to start off the new year I decided to go with a new look. Here is a before picture just in case. Korby thought I was a stranger when I walked in the door and Jackson said my hair looks like chocolate. It will take a little getting used to, but I was ready for something different.

Mission accomplished!

Blue Light Special

Two things I wanted to work on in 2009 were building my food storage and saving money. My cousin introduced me to a grocery coupon program called Grocery Smarts and yesterday was my first shopping trip to Albertson's using coupons. I will preface it by saying it took me about 2 hours to prepare, but in the end it was well worth it.

Here is a list of what I got (my receipt was 5 feet long!):

*21 boxes of cereal
*4 bags of cereal
*24 boxes of Rice-a-Roni
*1 box of pancake mix
*1 box of muffin mix
*2 bottles of Pantene shampoo
*2 bottles of Pantene conditioner
*4 cans of Barbasol shaving cream
*2 Crest toothbrushes
*2 tubes of Crest toothpaste
*2 Loreal mascara
*1 Cover girl lip gloss
*1 Cover girl nail polish
*2 bottles of Vitamin E
*1 pineapple
*6 pounds of boneless/skinless chicken breasts (not pictured)
*8 cans of Progresso soup
*6 boxes of Puffs tissue
*2 bottles of liquid Tide
*6 boxes of Betty Crocker brownies
*6 boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix
*10 boxes of Betty Crocker potatoes

That is $400 worth of groceries~ I paid $178 and got $75 gift card to Albertson's. So, basically I bought 110 items worth $400 for $100!!!!!! Needless to say, I think I am off to a good start on my New Year's resolutions!!!! And for obvious reasons, I am pretty confident I will keep this one up! Now, if only I could be this successful with my journal writing.....

Christmas Recap

We had a lot of fun over Christmas. We loved spending time with friends and family. Here are just a couple of things we did:

We spent Christmas Eve with our kids walking around Temple Square looking that the nativities they had set up and admiring the beauty of the temple. We then went home and read the Christmas story before bed. It was a great way to spend the evening~ helping our kids focus on the importance of the meaning of Christmas.

Something I have discovered about my husband~ he REALLY likes to make gingerbread houses. He and the kids (mostly he) spent about 3 hours making this.

Tanner's Joy School group went to a nursing home and they acted out the Nativity story. He got to be a wise man and really liked that he got to hold a present.

Of course, we opened a lot of presents. But our present opening began on Nov 26th and didn't end until Dec 29th. It helped to have it spread out, so the kids didn't get overwhelmed at any one time. They were also able to enjoy their presents a couple at a time!


Jackson got some walkie talkies that he calls "hawkie tawkies." He doesn't have a clue how they work~ but he sure thinks they are cool.

Tanner is in love with Lego's these days and was soooo... excited to get this new set. *Side note~ the kids were getting ready to go swimming when they were opening these presents which is why they are in their bathing suits!

Shayden is in heaven with her i-pod that Santa brought her. It is fun that she still has the complete belief in Santa and was very impressed that Santa had already loaded all of her favorite songs on there, even though she hadn't told him what songs she liked!

The best part of Christmas~ being with my family and seeing my smiling kids! They truly are the best present I could ever ask for!