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!

Happy "Birth" day Max!

My sister Mary had little Max at 12:03 this morning. He is 6 lbs 7 oz, 18.5 inches long and a miracle! When Mary and Spencer when in for the ultrasound at 20 weeks they were very excited to find out the gender of baby #2. Not long into the ultra sound the tech discovered an abnormality. Max has multiple problems with his little heart. Mary set up a blog to help explain and follow Max's progress. There have been multiple doctor appointments, ultra sounds, tests and a lot of tears and worries. There will still be multiple doctor appointments and tests, but many of the tears and worries have been calmed with how wonderful Max has been doing since he was born.

Spencer and Mary with little Max. What proud parents.

Max's initial check up right after birth~ what a beautiful baby.

I love my sister so much and I am so happy for the new addition to her family. I wish we lived closer so I could be around to help out with Morgen and to give this little angel extra hugs and kisses.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

On Christmas we had a lot of rain, mixed with a little bit of snow. But today we have already gotten 6 inches of snow and it is still coming down. Christmas was great, busy, fun, crazy and wonderful! I hope everyone had a great holiday!

PS On the news tonight they did a calculation~ shoveling a normal driveway with 6 inches of snow equals shoveling 2,000 pounds of snow! We are also on a long corner lot, so I also shovel a lot of sidewalk and to top it off I sweep/shovel all the snow off of our trampoline as well! Thanks for the work out Mother Nature!

A picture's worth a thousand words

Okay~ I am feeling way too lazy and busy to spend a lot of time blogging about the rest of our trip to California. So, instead I am just going to post a bunch of pictures that will show our adventures. And just so you don't think I am biased towards my boys~ there will be a lot more pictures of them since the 3 of us stayed in California an extra week. Shayden and Korby had to get back to school and work. Enjoy!

One morning I got up early with my dad and went hiking. It was beautiful watching the sun rise over the mountains. It looks like we are hiking by a lake, but that is actually the cloud cover that hadn't burned off yet.

One day we walked out on the Oceanside pier. There were two pelicans there that were fighting each other. The kids thought it was awesome!

We went down to Balboa Park one day. The science center was free so we got to go in and play/discover. They have a great kids area where Tanner wrote his name all by him self. He was so excited!

Here is my dad and Tanner at Balboa Park looking in the fish pond.

We spent one morning at a cell phone store. There were 8 adults and 3 kids in one small store for 2 hours! At least they had display phones that kept the kids pretty entertained!

At Balboa Park they have a free trolley that drives you all around. The driver was really sweet~ she gave my boys each a hat and let them blow the whistle!

We spent an afternoon at La Jolla Cove. They boys had so much fun playing with their cousin Morgen. The three of them played peek-a-boo for about 10 minutes straight at one point!

Do you think Jackson is trying to tell me something~ stop taking my picture mom!

If you enlarge this picture you will be able to see that all those dark rocks are actually sea lions. It is always so fun to get to see these amazing animals and to watch how completely awkward they are on land!

One of the highlights of the trip was going to the San Diego Temple to be with my sister and her husband as they were sealed. Here is Jackson waiting outside for everyone.

Tanner is a pretty particular eater (and that's an understatement). Here is his Thanksgiving dinner~ green jello with marshmallows! Oh yea, he also ate a roll!

We went on a family hike. The kids were real troopers. It ended up being about 4 miles. I think Jackson walked about 30 steps of the entire thing!

Here is a sweet picture of Jackson from our Pilgrim and Indian photo shoot.

Right off the freeway in Temecula there is a big duck pond. The kids had a great time feeding all the ducks and taking a walk with grandpa.

It is pretty unusual to get a good smiling picture of Tanner. He usually has a much more serious smile. I love this little guy!

My sister Holly loves jewelry and has more than anyone I know. She was getting rid of some of her necklaces that she doesn't wear anymore, so she brought them over to my parents house and we played "Jewelry Store." All the items were spread out on a king size bed (and they covered the entire bed!), my sisters and I got to go through and pick out anything we wanted! It was so much fun and I came home with more jewelry then I owned before I came down to CA! Shayden was in heaven!!!!

Here's a shot from the loft in my parents house. We love their house!!!

Well, that about sums up our trip to CA. Now I can start posting Christmas pictures!!!

Happy Late Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in sunny California. It was wonderful and I have some fun pictures to share. First I will show pictures of my family from Thanksgiving Day. We made Indian and Pilgrim hats and took a picture of each family. It was pretty silly and fun. Enjoy!

My dad and mom

The Lee's

Holly and Fer


Mary, Morgen and Spencer

Katie

Megan and John

I hope everyone else had as much fun with their friends and family over the holidays! How truly blessed we are to have each other!