Haircuts

On Sunday we did family haircuts. I cut hair for Joe, Jared, Emily, and Madison. Of course Sarah helped with Emily and Madison. Joe and Jared just got the same haircut I always give them. For Emily we decided it was time to cut her hair shorter. I didn't realize it was going to get as short as it did though. We kept having to fix it because it wasn't even. So it kept getting shorter and shorter. She has the thickest hair. Sarah did all the finish work because I had finally decided that I was just going to live with it the way it was. I am so glad she helped because it looks very good. We gave Madison bangs and cut it in the back because her hair just keeps growing into a mullet all by itself. I hope that someday the sides will start growing.

Here is a before shot of MadisonHere is an after shot of Madison.

This is the best shot I could find to show how long Emily's hair was. She as helping her Dad make dutch oven cobbler here.Here is her hair after the haircut. She loves it and tells everyone how short her hair is.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks are a way to earn free stuff as you search the web. They use google and ask.com and for every search you do you have the potential of winning swagbucks that can then be redeemed for prizes. I am giving it a try to see how it works. We just signed up today. If you would like to try Swagbucks just click here and I can earn swagbucks too. There are other ways to earn as well such as shopping online and posting a comment on their blog. Check it out.

Another Awesome Shopping Trip!

This last week Albertsons has had awesome shopping deals that I just had to share. I purchased 84 items for a total of $41.98 out of pocket, but I had a $6 Catalina from a previous order so it would have been $47.98 that is approximately 57 cents per item. I saved $210.37 so my order would have been $258.35. I was really happy with how well it went. One thing I didn't know prior to this order is that you have to pay tax on the total before you start giving coupons. Because of this I spent $8.83 in taxes. If they only charged taxes on the total after coupons I would have spent only $35.14 or about $1.98 in taxes.
Here is a list of what I purchased and how much each cost (before taxes of course)

6 Betty Crocker Cake Mixes .25 each
2 Betty Crocker Cookie Mixes .17 each
2 Betty Crocker Frosting .12 each
2 Stickerz fruit roll-ups FREE
4 fruit roll-up snacks FREE
2 Betty crocker brownies .60 each
2 cinnamon toast crunch .95 each
2 Cheerios snack mix .40 each
1 chex mix snack mix .50
2 chex mix snack mix FREE
5 betty crocker warm delights .12 each
5 nature valley granola bars .56 each
1 Pillsbury crescent rolls .65
2 chex mix bars .90 each
2 Macaroni grill dinners 1.50 each
8 Pillsbury grand biscuits FREE
12 progresso soup FREE
8 Pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough 1.00 each
2 Pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough 1.13 each
4 Kellogg's cereal 2.50 each
8 top ramen .15 each
2 gallons milk 1.19 each
84 items
I will post a picture later. The battery on my camera wasn't charged so we had to use our camcorder and we don't have the program installed yet on the computer for it. I know it is a lot of snack stuff, but it will be useful in our food storage and we won't have to buy any of these items for a long time. The Kellogg's cereal was the most expensive, but I did it because if you purchased 4 you got up to $4.50 in milk free.

Half a year

JJ turned 6 months on the 14th. I can't believe that half a year has gone by already. We had his 6 month appointment on Tuesday and he weighs 14 lb 12 oz and is 25 in long. He had lost 1 oz since his 4 month appointment so he gets to go back in next month. He also doesn't want to stand on his legs at all, he won't put any weight on them so the doctor wants to keep an eye on that, but otherwise he is doing great. He is really happy and is starting to sit up. He loves his sisters and laughs when Emily is doing "ballet". He is finally purposefully rolling over from tummy to back and gets really mad at me if I try to put him back on his tummy. He will babble occasionally and likes to look at books. Overall he is a really good baby. We love him so much.

New Bed

Last night we finally got a mattress for the top bunk in Emily and Madison's room. They were both so excited today to sleep in their new bed. Emily is moving to the top bunk and Madison is moving out of the crib onto the bottom bunk. Well, things didn't work out as planned because Madison wouldn't stay in bed so she ended up in the crib. I thought Emily stayed on the top bunk, but when I got back from working out I found her asleep on the bottom bunk. I will have to ask her tomorrow what happened. We knew it would take a couple of nights to get Madison situated. I never thought Emily would look back though.

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day. Joe had to work, so during the day I took the kids shopping and then we came home and cut out cookies and cooked them. They also made candy necklaces again. When Joe got home we got ready to go to our Stake Valentine's Dinner and Dance. We had Lauren Dynes come watch our kids while their Aunt Rachel was on her way from work. While we were gone the kids decorated the cookies we had made earlier. For our dinner they had everyone reserve their seat. They then gave the lists of who was at each table to a hostess that they chose for each table. I was the hostess for our table so I got to decorate the table, bring place settings, and give assignments to each couple for dinner. They had each table provide dinner for their table and they already had a menu set up. I gave each couple the recipe of what to bring and they cooked it and brought it. Everything was delicious. We had Pork Roast, Honey Glazed Carrots, Spinach Salad, Baked Potatoes, Rolls, and Chocolate Eclair Cake. We were stuffed when we were all done. After dinner we all cleaned up our tables and put them away. I was amazed at how fast everything was taken down. Then, they had a live band come and play music for the dance. We stayed for about an hour and had a lot of fun. I haven't danced much since high school. After we left the dance we were going to go shopping, but the store closed at 9 pm and we got there at 5 after. So we decided to go downtown and walk around. We used to do this all the time when we lived downtown, before we had kids. It brought back a lot of fun memories from when we were Newlyweds. Then we came home and watched part of a movie with Rachel and her friend that had come over to watch movies after the kids went to bed.

Coupon Crazy

I must be coupon crazy because today as I was printing a coupon Emily said, "Mom are you printing your coupons? Do we get to go to Albertson's now?" I guess it doesn't hurt to teach her early. :)

Cooking Club

Last night we had cooking club for our Enrichment Activity. I always love cooking club because we get new recipes to try out, they show us how to make them, and we get to taste test them. This month they did it a little different though. We learned about taxes, coupons, and wheat. The coupon part I love because I am really enjoying getting the best deals I can with coupons and anytime someone wants to teach me something a little new or show me the way they do it I am all game. The taxes part I thought was going to be boring, but they actually gave me a lot to think about and talk about with Joe. They told us that if you get back more than you pay in taxes then you need to change the way you claim on your tax returns (something people have been telling us forever, but we really like using it as a savings account of sorts) and you can still take the money that would have gone towards taxes on your paycheck and have it put directly into a savings account. They said that way it would be earning you interest (even thought it might not be much) and not the government. They also talked about what to spend tax returns on. They discussed how important it is to pay off credit card debt, and then with any money left over put it towards a three-month savings. They said after those two things then payoff cars and student loans and if you have anything left after that go ahead and buy a TV or whatever. It is a lot to think about. The last topic was wheat and how good it is for you and they even gave us a few recipes and we got to taste test some things. I guess I will have to stop dragging my feet about the whole wheat thing and start using it more. It just isn't my favorite thing to eat. I am much more partial to the white flour taste of things as opposed to the healthy wheat taste. Overall it was a very informative evening. After Cooking Club I even went with my friend Sally Smith to get some FREE french fries from Jack in the Box. Emily even came with us and thought she was pretty hot stuff because Madison was home in bed.

6th picture

I got tagged on Sarita's blog so here it is.

Here are the rules:
1. Go to your documents/pictures.
2. Go to your 6th file.
3. Go to your 6th picture.
4. Blog about it.
5. Tag 6 people to do the same.
6. So here we go...

This is Emily's 3rd Birthday during her birthday party. She is opening the present from Ben & Sara which she still loves. It was a star shaped box that holds princess earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pretty much anything you need to be a princess. Grandpa, Dad, Jared, part of Sara, part of Benny and part of me can also be seen in the picture.

Now I'm tagging Sally Smith, Kendra Dynes, Sara Mefford, Amanda Mefford, Rachel Mefford, and Amy Calkins.

Our Weekend

Last weekend was packed. Joe had Klondike for scouts. He had a lot of fun. They built snow caves, had a sled race, and ate lots of yummy food. He came home tired from all the fun they had. On Saturday Ben & Sara came over and watched the kids while I went shopping with Rachel. (Thank you Ben & Sara) We went to Albertsons and had an awesome shopping trip (they were doubling coupons this week) and then we went to Dress Barn and Lane Bryant to get a dress for Rachel's dance she had on Saturday night. It was a red, white, and black dance and they were supposed to wear something with all those colors. We got her a black dress with white polka-dots, a black sweater that had silver dots on it, and a bracelet that was red. She looked really cute for her dance. When we got home from shopping I made Catalina chicken (yummy!) and Ben and Sara stayed to eat dinner with us. After dinner Ben, Sara, and I played Skip-Bo while Joe did homework. I think Sara found a new favorite game. We even brought it to my parents house on Sunday and played it again. Overall it was a very fun weekend.

Madison is Talking!

Just this last week Madison has really started to talk a lot. She has been able to say words here and there, but this past week she has started speaking some sentences. Mostly though it is like she has added hundreds of words to her vocabulary. It is so fun to start seeing what she is thinking all the time. Yesterday, we were coming out of the YMCA and she pointed up to the sky in the middle of the day and said MOON! She just kept saying it over and over and was so excited that she had found it when it wasn't dark out, and could tell us what it was. I didn't even know that she knew what the moon was.

My Great Shopping Deals

Yesterday I went shopping at Walgreens and Albertsons. I bought 30 items for $32.32 and I still have a rebate coming for $8.49. Which would make my grand total $23.83 My total savings was $88.36!!!

Here is a picture of everything purchased from both stores.

Here is my Walgreens purchases. I bought $30.94 worth of stuff for $17.84 (I had a $10 rebate from a past purchase and used coupons) They also gave me a Register Reward for $4.50 and another for $2.00. And I have a rebate for a cold sore pen that I bought that is for the full price of $8.49 so it is FREE after rebate.

At Albertsons I purchased $77.79 worth of stuff for $14.48. I was able to use the register rewards I got from Walgreens as well as several coupons.

It was an awesome shopping trip.