May...where has it gone?

I have SOOOOOO much going on in my life right now, and I really need to get it down in writing, but I have had a hard time sitting down and doing it.

As of today, I am 2 days away from being 36 weeks into my pregnancy. I have my c-section scheduled for June 18th, which leaves me 3 1/2 weeks before our new little baby joins our family.

These are the things I was wanting to get done before the baby comes.

1. finish the basement
2. get new couches for our living room upstairs
3. get new carpet for the basement as well as the living and dining rooms on the main level.
4. Clean out my stamp/craft/junk/guest room and move it all down to the basement.
5. Paint the old stamp room pink.
6. Move Avery into her new pink room.
7. Get Logan a new dresser and nighstand so I can give his dressers to the baby.
8. Set up the baby's room (currently Avery's room)
9. Pull out all the baby boy clothes from Logan to see what can stay, and what can go, and what I might still need to get.
10. Make a bunch of freezer meals to stock my freezer to make cooking meals less of a chore.
11. Pick out tile for the basement (for the entry from the outside)

These are the things I have gotten done:

1. ordered couches. They are supposed to arrive a week AFTER the baby.
2. basement mostly finished, but discovered a leak from the front of our house, so our carpet installation has been put on hold.
3. picked out carpet and need to order and set a date for installation.
4. made 4 freezer pizzas
5. Chose the tile...but still need to buy it and install it.

That's all folks! I am going crazy! I had Logan's birthday and birthday party that were my priorities last week, so now that that is over, I can get cracking on cleaning out my stamp room and making some freezer meals.

The best part of all this, is that right after we had painted the newly drywalled basement wall, we discovered some water coming in. After much investigating, we realized the water was coming in from behiind the stonework on the front of our house. Tony pulled all the stone off, and we have some MAJOR wood rot going on. It is not a simple, easy job to fix apparently, cause a few of the guys we had come out to give us estimates said it was beyond what they are capable of doing. We have received two estimates and are waiting on one more. I can't wait any more though. It HAS to get fixed! Until that leak is repaired, we can't finish the basement. My plans for moving my craft stuff have had to change slightly. I now need Tony to clear out space in the storage closet he built so I can just move my stuff into it for now. My goal is to get that room cleared out this week, so I can get Avery's room painted after Memorial Day and move her in. Then I can at least get the baby's room set up and ready, and feel like I will be ready for the baby to come, regardless of the basement and other issues.

The hard part to all this is that sometimes it hurts to walk (thank you lower back pains and pelvic joints or whatever the prob is)which makes it hard to be efficiently productive. Not to mention that my feet are starting to look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, and the need/desire to prop them up comes every so often. If I can get my kids to really help pick things up that they scatter all over the floor, that would be a great help. I just can't bend down to pick things up very well at all. I need one of those trash picker upper thingy's. Or as Logan calls it, a "grab-nabber".

I will try to be better at documenting this wonderful journey over the next few weeks, and hopefully get back in the habit so I can continue blogging about baby when he arrives. Speaking of...we also need to decide on a name for this little guy.ANy suggestions? And serious ones please. Not Sirius (Black), or Jacob (Black) or Jack (Black), or other things like that. I don't have time for funny anymore...no offense!

Easter Egg Hunt and Potluck

So, here I am ...3 weeks later. I finally got the pictures off my camera, so I can blog about our fun Easter tradition. Whenever I play hostess, I tend to not get very many pictures taken, so this is the best I've got! No adults!

.


We have a pretty large backyard with lots of trees. I know that a lot of parks and places like that host Easter Egg Hunts for the public, but I just hate the thought of the crowds, and the possibility that my kids would only get a few eggs, or none at all due to more aggressive kids. I really wanted them to have a chance to have an egg hunt, so I decided to host our very own egg hunt with some friends. We started this 3 years ago, right after we moved here, and plan to keep on hosting for years to come. It's been fun! We have a potluck lunch, and then the kids run wild while the adults visit.I look forward to it now.

I was worried this year about the weather, since we have had such a LONG winter this year. But, it turned out to be a beautiful day! Nice and sunny, a bit on the chilly side, but nothing a sweater didn't fix. It was great!




We had the biggest turn-out yet this year. We had 7 families, totalling 16 adults and 16 kids.We started taking a picture of all the kids after they found the eggs.Here is this year's group! The boys were outnumbered 11-5!



We can't wait for next year!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! I will post some pictures soon of our 3rd Annual Easter Egg Hunt and Potluck, and other fun stuff about our week-end.

I just had to document something funny that Avery said a minute ago. Logan got a package of squirt guns in his Easter basket, and we told the kids they could go outside to play with them between conference sessions. When handing Avery her gun, I asked her some questions about who and what is ok to shoot.

Me: Avery, do we shoot Logan?
Avery: No
Me: Do we shoot mommy and daddy?
Avery: No
Me: Do we shoot Macey? (the cat)
Avery: No
Me: What do we shoot?
Avery: Bad guys

Tony and I were busting up! Ha ha ha! We love that girl!

Spring Break 2010

For spring break this year, I was really wanting to go away somewhere. But I knew that was not going to happen, so I went to plan B. I decided to try and plan something fun to do every day. I knew I would go CRAZY if I stayed cooped up in the house with my kids, listening to them whining and crying and fighting, and being disobedient, etc. They always tend to be better behaved and more pleasant to be around when we go somewhere. So, I made our itinerary.

Thursday March 11:

We went to storytime at the library. It was the first time I was able to take Avery into the 3-6 year old storytime, so that was exciting. In the past I have just taken Logan in to the younger stortyime with Avery and it worked out well too. I could have left the kids in storytime by themselves and gone and found my own books with some peace and quiet in the meantime, but I wasn't sure how Avery would do if I wasn't there, so I stayed in the back to watch. She did fine, so now I know for the future!

Friday March 12:

We didn't do much today, but I did have to go to the store, and then after we went to PetCO to look at the pets. The kids had a great time chasing a bird around it's cage, looking at fish, ferrets, hamsters, gerbils, rats, and cats. They got to put little toys in the cages with the cats to play with them, and they loved it!

Monday March 15:

We went and met Tony at work and ate lunch with him in the cafeteria. The kids loved going to daddy's work, and I think Tony enjoyed showing off his cute kidlets to his co-workers. The kids had pizza and chocolate milk. Of course they loved it!

Tuesday March 16:

Today we went to Paradise Park. Some of our friends went with us, and we had a great time. The kids painted their faces, played in the ball pit, played at the water table, played in the little city, made cookies, a St. Patrick's Day craft, and listened to a story. We also had lunch there, and played outside for a few minutes...it was COLD! Needless to say we were tuckered out and completely exhaisted when we got home!






Wednesday March 17:

St. Patrick's Day! We met some friends at the local cupcake shop. Avery chose a vanilla cupcake with green buttercream frosting. Logan chose a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting. I tried the S'mores cupcake, chocolate cake with a marshmallow frosting and graham cracker crumbs sprinkled on top. It was yummy! After the cupcake shop we hung out at our friend's house, and the kids watched Ponyo. Another fun day!



Thursday March 18:

This day the weather was finally looking a bit closer to Spring weather, so it was the perfect day to go to the ZOO. We went with some more friends, and had a perfect day. It was sunny, and about 62 degrees. We saw kangaroos, and monkeys, and tigers, and rode the train, and the carousel, played on the playground, ate lunch, saw blue frogs and limurs and otters, and played with friends. I am not sure who was more exhaused when we got home, but I think mom won.




I didn't get any pictures with the animals, but I figured these monkeys were good enough! Sometimes I feel like they belong in a zoo!

Friday March 19:

Tony took work off this day so we could all go to the Shatto Dairy. This dairy is over an hour drive from our house, but they sell their milk locally at many grocery stores, including the cupcake shop we went to on Wednesday! It was pretty crowded, since it was spring break. They divided our tour group into 4 smaller groups, but even then there were probably about 50 people in our group.



We started off the tour in the bottling room, learning about how they bottle the milk. They use glass bottles so the flavor isn't affected by plastic or paper cartons.




We then went into another room where the owner told us a little bit more about the dairy and what they do, answered questions, and then we got some samples. We got to try some root beer milk (yum! tasted like a melty root beer float!) and some chocolate milk. He told us that their chocolate milk placed in the top 3 best chocolate milks in the world, at the World Milk Expo, or something like that. They were able to take some chocolate milk to Pres. George W. Bush, and now have a picture of Pres. Bush holding his glass of Shatto Chocolate Milk. It was awesome. The picture, and the milk! We also got to try 4 different kinds of cheese. I love samples! Yum!

While we were standing around waiting for the group to gather before the owner started his little schpiel?, there were some 11 year old boys standing near us, up at the front closest to Leroy Shatto. He asked one of the boys how old he was. The boy answered 11. Then Mr. Shatto, nodded his head and then said " You know, when I was your age I was 12." Tony and I were busting up laughing, and the look on the boys face was priceless. He was so confused! Granted, so was I, but it was still hilarious. What exactly does that mean????

After that, we got to go in the barn and see some brand new baby calves, and Logan even got to milk a cow. He was so excited! Avery of course wanted nothing to do with it!





Then we went into the actual milking room, and watched how they milk the cows, and learned all about that process. Overall, it was a very interesting time. I am glad we went.

After the dairy, we met our friends at Chick-fil-a for lunch, and let the kids play on the playground. Once again, when we got home I was worn out! What a great way to end our spring break week!

Happy Birthday Princess Avery!

We have kind of started an un-official family rule in our house about having birthday parties every other year, starting at age 2. When Logan turned 2, we had a party for him (no gifts) and invited our graduate school friends and their kidlets who were all close to the same age. We had his party in our backyard. We knew we were going to be moving away 4 months later, so we thought of it as a last hurrah. Since we had a party for Logan at 2, we had to have one for Avery at 2 as well. Last year was her Pinkalicious birthday party, so this year was just a family party. Since we don't have any family close, it was just the four of us to celebrate. Avery kept saying she wanted a purple party, with purple cupcakes and hot chocolate to drink. So that's what we did! The night before her birthday, I put a purple plastic tablecloth with Tinkerbell on the table. We had a bouquet of 3 balloons, two purple latex balloons, and one mylar balloon...with tinkerbell of course. Then we had matching tinkerbell plates and napkins and party blowers. I gave Avery a birthday outfit that was all purple as well. She was so excited to see her "purple party" when she came downstairs that morning! It was so cute! She got to open her birthday present from Logan that morning before Logan went to school. Her latest book obsession has been "Ladybug Girl". Logan got her a second one called "Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy". She loved it! And the two of them switch back and forth playing "Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy" and "Sharkboy and Lavagirl". Dont' ask. When Tony got home from work, she opened the rest of her presents. She got a pair of "ugg-like" boots and a kit with toy hairbrush, curling iron, hairdryer, flatiron, lipstick, perfume bottle and curlers. I also gave her some headbands, so she was having a great time "fixing" her hair. She got a pretty church dress from Grandma and Grandpa Bowden, and a cooking set and apron from Grandma and Grandpa Black. The apron was an Aunt Jody original and is so stinkin cute! She loved it, and had to put it on immediately and "make" stuff. After she opened gifts, we went to "Red Robinhood" for dinner. I think it's so cute that she called Red Robin, Red Robinhood! We came home, sang Happy Birthday and had purple cupcakes, then went straight to bed! I think she had a great birthday! I can't believe she is already 3, and such a big girl!

Valentine's Day!

Ok, I am kind of bummed, cause I didn't take any pictures of our Valentine's Day! I was soooo exhausted after spending Saturday getting things ready and running errands, etc. that yesterday I didn't even think about taking a picture until the kids weren't dressed in their Valentine's Sunday clothes, and our dinner was half eaten. And even then, I was too tired to get out the camera. Maybe I will get a picture today of our pretty table with the Lovely flowers my husband and Logan gave to Avery and I!

Anyway, I feel like in the past I haven't been able to do for my family what I want on fun little holidays like this. I don't know if I just don't plan ahead well, or I am too lazy, or what, but this year I decided I couldn't let the day go by without doing something to show my family I love them. This is what I did for them!

I put together little treat bags for the kids. I bought a Valentine's gift bag at the store for each child, and put a $1 heart shaped box of chocolates from Wal-mart in each of them. I also included a box of conversation hearts, a few starbust candies, and some non candy treats. I got Avery a red beaded necklace with a red rhinestone heart pendant, and a pair of Valentine's socks. I got Logan a little notebook, and a book about Dolphins, whales and sharks. All these things i got from the $1 spot at Target. I made them a little Valentine card as well, and was so proud that Logan was able to read his all by himself!

For breakfast, I made a super yummy recipe for muffins. I was a little nervous when I took them out of the pan the night before and tasted a piece that had fallen off. There were cranberries in them and it was so sour! I was worried they wouldn't be good at all, so I made a glaze from powdered sugar, milk and vanilla and drizzled it over the top. They ended up sooo delicious! I am afraid that between Tony and I, we have eaten them all gone already, and it has only been two days!

Cranberry Cream Cheese Muffins

1 cup butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, dusted with 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped **(we left these out per Tony's request. I would like them with pecans, so maybe next time!)

1.Preheat oven to 350*F (175*C). Line muffin pan with paper liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2.In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

3.In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the butter mixture gradually. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups.

4.Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let muffins stand on a cooling rack for about three minutes before removing from the pans.

This recipe made 23 muffins for me.

**Like I said, I made a glaze and drizzled it over the top of the muffins. I left the muffins uncovered on a platter overnight so they would be available for Tony to easily grab for breakfast before he left for his early morning Sunday meetings. I had a few muffins that wouldn't fit on the plate, so I just put them in a ziplock bag...without glaze. I have to say, I loved the texture of the ones I left out! They got a little crispy on the outside, but were still soft in the inside. They reminded me of the texture of old-fashioned glazed donuts. Yum!

For dinner, I made Crockpot Cranberry Chicken, wild rice, and roasted broccoli. I totally have to rely on the crockpot for Sunday dinner these days, as I am WAY too tired to think about preparing a meal when I get home from church!

Crockpot Cranberry Chicken

4 to 6 boneless chicken breast halves, skin removed
1 can whole cranberry sauce
2/3 cup chili sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 package dry onion soup mix

Place chicken breasts in the slow cooker/Crock Pot. Combine remaining ingredients; add to the slow cooker/Crock Pot, coating chicken well. Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours.
Serves 4 to 6.
** I used 5 frozen chicken breasts, and cooked them for exactly 6 hours on low and they were perfect!


I also made a jello recipe I got from the back of the recent Family Fun magazine.


Ingredients
1 (14-ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk
3 (3-ounce) packages of red flavored gelatin
2 (1/4-ounce) envelopes of unflavored gelatin

Instructions
Dissolve one package of flavored gelatin in 3/4 cup boiling water. Add 3/4 cup cold water, then pour the mixture into a 9- by 13-inch glass pan and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Stir together 1/2 cup boiling water and the condensed milk. In a separate bowl, dissolve all the unflavored gelatin in ½ cup cold water for 1 to 2 minutes. Thoroughly mix in 3/4 cup boiling water, then combine this mixture with the milk and let it cool. Add half the mixture to the pan of red gelatin, pouring it over a spatula to slow the stream, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Continue alternating layers — gelatin mix, the remaining milk mix, the final gelatin mix — chilling each for 20 to 30 minutes to set it. Create individual servings with a heart-shaped biscuit or cookie cutter.

These were super cute, and really tasty! I might even make a green version for St. Patrick's day and cut them out with shamrocks!

To top of our meal, I made chocolate lava cakes. I got the recipe from www.ourbestbites.com They were yummy, but SUPER rich! We topped ours with whipped cream, but I think I would prefer vanilla ice cream. And maybe next time we will share one, cause I almost couldn't finish mine!

Individual Molten Lava Cakes

4 T real butter
1/3 C sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 C flour
1/4 t salt
8 oz bittersweet chocolate*, melted
*8 ounces is about 1 1/3 C of bittersweet chocolate chips. Make the 1/3 cup a little over-full and you should be good (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Additional Ingredients:
powdered sugar for dusting
sweetened whipped cream for serving
butter and sugar for preparing pans

You can either bake these in a muffin pan, in ramekins, or even oven-proof
mugs. If you use a muffin tin you'll get 6 cakes and depending on the size of the ramekins you'll get 4-6.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To prepare pans, use your fingers (or the butter wrapper) to rub butter in the muffin tins or ramekins. Sprinkle in some granulated sugar to coat the entire inner surface and tap out any extra discard.

In a bowl with a mixer beat the 4 T butter and 1/3 C sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour and salt and slowly add it into the butter mixture just until combined. Stir in melted chocolate by hand, just until combined. Don't over mix.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups or ramekins and then place them on a baking sheet. (If using ramekins you'll want them not quite 3/4 full)
Bake just until tops of cakes no longer jiggle when pan is lightly shaken, about 8-10 min for a muffin pan, and 10-12 for ramekins. Remove from oven and let stand 10 min.

You can serve them one of two ways. Obviously if you're using a muffin pan you'll need to invert the cakes and place them on serving plates. They should pop right out after you run a sharp knife around the edge. You're the cook, do what you want! Dust with powdered sugar and serve with a dallop of sweetened whipped cream.

After dinner, we sat around the table and played Go Fish and Old Maid. The kids LOVE playing these games, and can do a great job playing by themselves. Tony built Logan a card holder...a piece of wood with slots in it so he can put his cards in it. Then he doesn't have to worry about trying to hold all his cards in his little hand. It works great and he loves it! Anyway, we had a great time as a family!

I WISH I had taken pictures, so I am sorry this post is boring without any. Logan is home from school today, and we are planning on going to the library. If I don't get sucked into the books I am picking up today (I have two on hold! "The Book Thief" by Marcus Zusak, and "The Swan Thieves" by Elizabeth Kostova. She wrote "The Historian" which I LOVED, so I am anxious to see what this next book is like!) I will update some more about Christmas and Avery's birthday. I will not let myself get so far behind this year on my blog!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Christmas Newsletter 2009

Merry Christmas Everyone! I realize some of you will be starting to receive our Christmas card, which directed you to our blog to hear about what's new with us! And I haven't even posted anything interesting for a LONG time! So here is our Christmas Newsletter, that had I been more on the ball, I would have had typed up and included with the cards I sent out!




The first item of business...our Christmas Card picture. No, Santa and Mrs. Clause are NOT Tony and I. Just had to clear that up! Ha ha! We took the kids to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa, and Mrs. Clause happened to be there as well. It was a good thing, cause Avery didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, but she had no problem with Mrs. Clause. This was the first year that neither of my kids were scared of Santa, so I had a good picture to use!

Let's start at the beginning of 2009.

January

Tony turned 34.

I was released from my church calling as Relief Society Enrichment Leader (aka...the social committee for the women at church...ha ha!)and was called to teach the Valiant 10 class in primary (9 and 10 year olds sunday school class).

February

Avery turned 2! We celebrated with a Pinkalicious birthday party, complete with tiaras and pink cupcakes.




May

I turned 32.
Logan turned 5!His favorite present was his pet beta fish named Nemo, and his new big boy bike!




Logan also graduated from pre-school.


Logan played Micro Soccer for the second time. This time was more successful than in the Fall, but we still have a long way to go! We took a break from soccer this Fall
(2009) but might try it again in the Spring.




We said good-bye to our best friends here in Kansas who moved back to Utah. It was sad to see them go, but we keep in touch, and have opportunities to see them when we go to Utah to visit.




Tony was released as an early morning Seminary teacher after teaching for two years. He was called as Elder's Quorum President instead. Not sure which is the more difficult job!

June

Tony and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We spent a week-end in Durango, CO while Tony's sister Suzie watched our kids. We had a nice time. That was the first time we had been away from our kids overnight!

We met up with Tony's family on Blanding.

We camped.



We saw a bear!




We helped out Tony's family with the round-up.(Well, Tony helped out, we just hung out and watched.)



We went to San Diego and went to Legoland!



July

The kids and I spent time in San Diego visiting my parents while Tony went back home to work. We had so much fun!

Logan went fishing with Grandpa!



We went swimming!



But best of all, we played with Grandma and Grandpa!





Tony flew back out to help drive us home. We stopped in Enoch (Cedar City, UT) to visit Uncle Jeff and our cousins and had a fun time visiting them!



August

Now back home in Kansas, I was released as the Valiant 10 teacher, and called to be the Primary Music Leader. This is definitely a fun, but challenging experience for me!

Logan started Kindergarten!He loves going to school and learning so much! I can't believe how big he is getting. Time goes so fast.



Tony also started school this month. He was given the opportunity to be an adjunct professor at UMKC (University of Missouri Kansas City). He taught a power plant design class once a week, on Tuesday evenings. He has enjoyed being Dr./Professor Black this semester!

September

Tony's parents came back from their mission to Africa! We got to drive back to Blanding for their homecoming and big African party! Tony's parents brought everyone back African clothes, so we all dressed up and had a fun time!



October

We got the exciting news that our family will be growing! We are expecting our third child in June 2010! Logan and Avery are super excited to have a new baby brother or sister. Avery says she is having a baby sister, and Logan says he is having a baby brother, so I hope someone isn't too disappointed when they don't get what they want!I have been way more sick this time around than I ever was with either Logan or Avery.

Halloween this year wasn't quite like normal. We all started coming down with the flu Halloween week-end, and spent a rather miserable end of Ocober, beginning of November. Glad that is over with!

November

This month was a busy one! We had the privilege of having Great Grandma Avery come stay with us for a week. She is my grandma, my mom's mom, and the only great grandparent still living. My kids had a good time getting to know Great Grandma Avery. I never lived close to my grandma, so this was probably the most time I have ever spent with her one on one like this. I was not feeling very well while she was here, and didn't even take any pictures.

Thanksgiving brought us more company. Tony's parents came to visit and spend the holiday with us. We loved having them here so we weren't all alone. And I appreciated having Mom around to help out since I woke up Thanksgiving morning really feeling terrible.

Tony's dad helped him get some electrical work done in the basement, so now we have lots of lighs and outlets! We are anxious to get the basement finished, and hope to have it done before the baby is born!

December

We will be enjoying Christmas alone again this year, but we are looking forward to the time together. Merry Christmas everyone, and Have a Happy New Year!

Hello there!

Wow! Did I forget I had a blog, or what? What a slacker I have been! I knew it had been a while, but I didn't realize it had been over 2 months! I have many pictures still on my camera that I need to get on my computer, and then I can hopefully post something interesting.

In the meantime, let me share with you a very simple, easy recipe that has saved mealtime on many occasions. If you need a simple, no brainer meal that your family will love,this is it.

The history of this meal is fun. we were invited over to dinner at our friends The Kimbers before we moved from Indiana. They fed us this meal. They called it "Japanese Haystacks" because the husband served his mission in Japan, and this was something he and his companions made. It isn't Japanese at all, which is funny. We have renamed it "Kimber Haystacks". Are you ready for it? Super easy. Tasty. But not gourmet or fancy in any way shape or form.

Kimber Haystacks

Layer the following ingredients in individual bowls or plates:

Rice
Taco meat
cheese
lettuce
diced tomatoes
sliced olives
salsa, if desired
crushed up Doritos (has to be Doritos, not plain tortilla chips)
ranch dressing (you must use ranch...it is what makes it, I promise)

Mix up and eat.

Sorry, I have no pictures. I am sure you can picture it yourself. Now go try it. I promise you will like it!

More, family oriented posts coming soon!

More groceries and deals!

My latest coupon shopping trip was another learning experience. I only went to Wal-Mart. Since they match prices, I just took the store ads with me and made sure to let the cashier know what the prices were so she could change them as she rang them up. I still used coupons as well. It was much better than driving around to multiple stores. Again, the receipt doesn't print off the savings, so I have to figure it out myself. Here we go!

I spent a total of $83.43(76.31 before tax)
About half of this cost was on items that were not on sale or did not use coupons.
The items purchased at regular price were:

1 (27 ct.) pack of diapers
1 gallon apple juice
1 qt. Pennzoil motor oil
1 nail polish remover
1 razor
1 pint whipping cream
1 6 oz. carton plain yogurt
1 box stouffer's whale crackers
1 green bell pepper
3 sweet onions
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash
bananas
3 lbs. apples
16 oz. coleslaw mix
2 cans beef broth
1 28 0z. can crushed tomatoes
2 cans Hunt's spaghetti sauce
1 can coconut milk



This totalled $38.56 before tax.

The items using price matching and coupons were:

8 cans Spaghettio's
10 cans Del Monte fruit (peaches, pears and fruit cocktail)
6 cans Progresso soup
5 boxes Pop Tarts ( I am hooked on these!)
3 bags Nestle Toll House chocolate chips
3 boxes cereal (2 Lucky Charms, 1 Cookie Crisp)
4 (4 pks.) Snack Pack pudding cups
2 tubes Arm& Hammer toothpaste
2 Old Spice deoderant



This total came to $37.75 before tax.

This is what I figured out I saved.

Before price matching/sales and coupons, the second list of items would have totalled:
$68.32 pre-tax.

After price matching/sales the total was:
$52.85
savings of $15.47

After coupons:
$37.92
savings of $14.93
total savings of $30.40

I am really having fun with this! I get excited everytime I come home from the store and put my groceries away. I love seeing my pantry growing! It is so satisfying. this has definitely changed my way of shopping and meal planning. I don't stress over what to have for dinner, cause I know I have lots of options to choose froom, and can make a variety of things with what I have on hand. I used to make my menus for the week, then shop for what I needed. I was never able to stock up on anything, and now I can. It's awesome.

My next post will not be about groceries, I promise!

Coupon Shopping Trip #2

So, today I was at it again. I only went to two stores today. I went to Hen House again, and then Hy-Vee. I didn't go there last week. This was the fruit of my efforts.


The only items not pictured are the rotisserie chicken, and the case of bottled water.

Hen House: spent $21.62 saved $18.52.

7 items did not have coupons, but they were on sale.

Here is what I purchased.

4 cans of tomato sauce (no coupons)
2 pkgs. Jell-O
4 bottles Hunt's Ketchup
2 pkgs.Kraft marshmallows (no coupons)
2 4 lb.bags C&H sugar
3 jars Mt. Olive pickles (chips, spears and baby dills)
2 boxes Betty Crocker Supreme Brownie Mix
1 box Kool-Aid Singles
1 24 pack bottled water

Hy-Vee: spent $37.07

The receipt didn't print out my savings like other stores do, so I am not sure what I really saved with the coupons and sales amounts together. I figured out I saved around $17 using coupons, but not sure the difference between the sales price and reg. price, so I probably saved more.

I bought several more items here not using coupons again, but all items were on sale.

1 Dozen Large eggs -no coupons
1 Blue bonnet margarine spread- no coupon
1 10 lb. bag flour- no coupon
1 jar yeast- no coupon
1 pkg. hot dog buns- no coupon
1 box plastic wrap- no coupon
1 box kitchen trash bags0 no coupon
1 rotisserie chicken- no coupon
1 10 pack Capri-Sun
2 boxes Cap'n Crunch
1 box Life
2 12 ct. boxes Quaker granola bars
2 18 oz. containers Quaker oats
2 boxes Pop-Tarts
4 pkgs. Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs
2 8 oz. pkgs. Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese

I didn't buy any produce, as we still have some from last week that we need to eat up. I think next week's shopping I need to focus on some household items. Let's hope there are some good sales!

Here are some blogs hereand here by the same girl.I like to look at her displays of groceries and her great deals. For some reason it is really fun to arrange your groceries and take pictures of them! I don't know why!

Lumberjack T

(Here is a picture of the tree line that I took back in October 2007)

So, some of you may know that our backyard has a nice line of hedge-apple trees running right through the middle.It gets so shady in the summer, that grass won't grow in one spot, as the sun doesn't get through. Since it rains quite a bit here, we tend to get a nice big mud puddle in that bare spot...especially since our sump pump drains right there as well. While we love the shade, and how it makes our home stay cooler in the summer, there are just too many trees! The kids rarely play in the backyard, since it is either too muddy, too many bugs( chiggers, spiders, ticks, all that yucky stuff), or hazardous from either hedge-apples falling from the trees, or the mysterious golf balls that end up in our yard from the home across the field behind us, that uses their yard as a driving range. Not to mention Tony and Logan saw a snake back there a few weeks ago. Ewww! My dream for the yard is to have a nice tree free patch of lawn, and a nice patio, so we can actually enjoy the backyard. After all, it is one of the things we loved when we bought the house...not so much now that we have to live with it!

This summer Tony decided he would tackle the tree issue himself. He borrowed a chainsaw from his brother Andy, and while I was in California, he went to town. So far he has chopped down 10 trees.That might sound like a lot, but there are still about 23 trees left! We aren't planning on removing all of them, but there are still several we want to do away with.


(Here is a view from our deck. You can tell that the trees have been thinned out from the above picture!)

The other day, Tony needed to climb up into one of the trees to try to get the top half of a tree that was stuck in the other trees and wouldn't come down.It made me very nervous that he was up so high with no harness. Can you find "Waldo?"



Here are some more pictures of the tree mess! I am bummed I didn't get a picture of the HUGE pile of trees that we had to put out by the road when he was done!It took up about half the cul-de-sac!




(The tree on the far left is the one Tony was up in...seriously almost at the top! He is in it in this picture, but I cannot find him.)