December 2011

The girls are growing and changing every day. It can be challenging balancing chores, making meals, doing home preschool, and keeping family and friends informed, among the many other things and activities we have going on. So I'm trying to get better about journaling our experiences and days not only for those of you who don't live close by, but also for our family to fondly look back upon one day. I've got a few pictures of the girls from the last few months (since I last posted) and a few recipes that we really enjoyed.  Our evenings have been rather busy lately with various things, I joined MOPS,  Union County Christian Home Educators (UCCHE) and do a book club at the church once a week, Trevor plays with the worship team at church twice a week, and he has since joined a Men's bible study at the church as well.  There are evenings when the we have sandwiches for dinner, and the girls LOVE it! Anyway, here are a few pictures, and I will post a few new recipes we enjoyed.

Oh yea, and if you are in the La Grande area this weekend stop by the Living Nativity at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the ladies at MOPS have nothing but good things to say about it. Like it's a trip back in time to the Roman census before Christ's birth. I guess they have all kinds of fun stuff like ... Well my friend Jackie tells it much better. From her Facebook page:
The Living Nativity is happening this weekend, Friday and Saturday, Dec 16th – 17th, from 5PM to 8PM at the Seventh Day Adventist School (just off Highway 30 heading out of town towards Union). Come and experience the township of Bethlehem, live animals and the Christmas Story. Free but donations are accepted.

The town of Bethlehem is alive and buzzing with activity. Your kids will learn about everything from candle making, pottery, weaving, ancient coins, carpentry, metal working, etc….We look forward to going every year.

Sounds amazing!

These are some fall pictures that we try to take every year in front of my aunts house. She has these old beautiful shade trees that provide such great fall leaves. It's beautiful!

We picked out our pumpkins at Safeway this year, it was a little kind of strange fall for us and we just didn't find the time to make it to the pumpkin patch this year. Next year for sure!

The girls were invited to a fun Halloween party this year just for kids. We had a fun time dressing up and letting the girls play. So cold, but so cute!

Brookie and Hailey finally got to spend some good quality time with Nana and Papa alone this fall. They had such a good time :)

 Brooke loves dressing up and she loves doing whatever her big sister is doing. They did a ballet video together for a little while. So fun!

For Labor Day we took the opportunity to take some great pictures of the girls in matching outfits. What a beautiful day to end the summer. 

Brooklyn's 1st Birthday party! We had an ice cream social, it was so fun and Brooklyn just LOVED her cake that daddy made. YUM!

Her favorite gift was a baby doll that closes her eyes from Nana and Papa. 

Talk like a pirate day. Arrrgggg! Ye be good, or you'll walk the plank. Shiver me timbers... LOL! We had fun

Our first big snow

Brooklyn likes to write things down.... so she doesn't forget. HA

She really likes this Mickey, just her size

Sisters!

The dog tent, a huge hit in our house

The girls will play for hours in here

Brooklyn discovered that she can crawl on and off of the ottoman yesterday. Such a scary skill

Pillow Pets for $9.99 at Amazon

Amazon has a selection of Pillow Pets for only $9.99!  Included in this selection are theDolphin, the Unicorn, and the Lady Bug.   You can also get the Unicorn with a book for $10.99!   These items ship for Free with Amazon Prime or a $25.00 Super Saver Shipping Order!

Amazon Prime members get FREE 2 Day Shipping on all Amazon.com orders. The membership costs $79 annually but makes sense if you do much online shopping. Or you can also take advantage of free memberships to Amazon Mom and Amazon Student.

Thanks, Krazy Coupon Lady

Tangled DVD only $10.49

Amazon has Tangled on DVD for only $10.49. It ships for Free with Amazon Prime or a $25.00 Super Saver Shipping Order!

Amazon Prime members get FREE 2 Day Shipping on all Amazon.com orders. The membership costs $79 annually but makes sense if you do much online shopping. Or you can also take advantage of free memberships to Amazon Mom and Amazon Student.

Thanks, Krazy Coupon Lady

Free Fries at Burger King!

Today Burger King is giving away fries!  To help introduce everyone to their new fries, today only you can score an order of value-size fries absolutely FREE!  No purchase or coupon necessary.  Limit one per person, per visit.

Thanks,  Krazy Coupon Lady

Summer 2011

What a fun summer we've had so far.  We went on a trip for the 4th of July to the Snake River with our good friends who happen to be Trevor's boss.  We had a small get together for my birthday. Hailey is taking swim classes at the pool. This month we will be celebrating Trevor's 30th Birthday and next month Brooklyn will be turning 1! WOW!  Here are a few pictures of the fun stuff we've been up to.

Couponing to OUR extreme

When I began staying home with Hailey last summer I began to really understand the value of the dollar.  So I began researching ways to cut costs, we lowered our satellite bill, eliminated our house phone, signed a two year contract with our Internet company and purchased our own cable modem which dropped the monthly payment by $10 a month. Then I began researching how to drop our monthly grocery and "other" bill at Wal-Mart. My good friend from high school taught me how to optimize my coupons with the current sales. Then my mother-in-law told me about The Krazy Coupon Lady. That is when the obsession began. I learned how to make my dollar stretch by using her website to save me time. She matches the deals at the local four stores (Wal-Mart, Safeway, Albertson's, and Rite Aid) with currently active coupons, both from the Internet and Sunday newspapers. I was inspired, to say the least. 

So now, as I sit making my grocery list for tomorrow morning, I thought, maybe I should share what I do to save us so much money.  I hear all the time about how stores don't double coupons and it is not possible to save the kind of money that people on the Extreme Couponing show do. That is not true! Last week I shopped at Wal-Mart and Albertson's only and neither store did coupon doubling that week.  I still had a great haul for only $8. 

What do I suggest? Visit http://thekrazycouponlady.com/beginners/ and learn all about how to become a Krazy Coupon Lady. We are so involved that Hailey likes to play with my expired coupons before I mail them to the troops overseas and pay for her pretend groceries with them.  Good girl! She is learning so much so young, and I am happy to show her. What a valuable lesson I can pass on to my child! 

Get yourself several copies of the Sunday paper every Sunday from here on out (excluding holidays, there are no coupons on holidays), buy a 2 or 3 inch binder, and a large selection of baseball card holders, maybe even a portable file holder, and start saving money!  It's a little bit of work, but you will save a LOT of money!  Happy couponing!!! =)