Boys Monthly Letters

The boys have posted their January letters to their blogs. You just need to click on the links to the right -->

Dates with Dad

Dave is great with the boys. They definitely need some 1 on 1 time with Dave so he spent his Saturday taking the boys on dates. This morning he took Brandon down to the Dinosaur Museum (Museum of Ancient Life) in Lehi which of course was like heaven on earth for Brando. Then this evening he took Eric over to Gardner Village to feed the ducks and get a treat from the sweet shop. Brandon came home so happy and Eric was so excited all day for it to be his turn to go on a "Business Trip" with dad. :)

Draper Temple

Dave & I were able to take Brandon to the new Draper Temple open house tonight. Thanks to Grandma Chris for watching Eric & Kyle for us. It was really nice to go on a "date" with Brandon and we had a wonderful time seeing the new temple. Needless to say it was BEAUTIFUL. Brandon really enjoyed having his own pamphlet and finding the pictures and notes about each room we entered. It was a very nice thing to be able to take him to.

Weekly Deals

So I know that Dave thinks I am a bit nuts about this whole being frugal and finding good deals thing but I really enjoy it. It's really fun to figure out how to feed your family and stock your food storage for next to nothing. Here are some great deals I got this week:

I got all this for less then $20 at Walgreens.

And I had a great trip to Target where I got all this for $16 (It would've been $13 except the checker missed a couple of my coupons and I didn't notice until after).

Snowmobiling with the Guys

Dave just got back from a weekend at the cabin with his brothers. They rented snowmobiles and took advantage of the long holiday weekend and played. Dave had a good time and enjoyed the time with his brothers. We are glad he had such a good time and are glad to have him back home again.

Frugal Freak

I have often thought that I needed to do better about shopping for deals, especially on groceries. My mom was FANTASTIC at this and I just haven't been. I always thought, "Oh I can't be running around to multiple stores with kids." Well, I have changed my thinking on this and am learning how to be a "Frugal Freak". I really am not as expert at this as I want to be (and will be eventually). Credit has to go to my WONDERFUL sister-in-law Alisa who started down this same path a couple months ago. She has been teaching me and helping me figure out how to play the coupon game. Last week was my first real experience with this and it was a success. I took advantage of Albertson's deals, rebates and coupons and ended up getting $153 worth of groceries for $52 which I know to the expert couponer is not as good as they are used to but I was really proud of my first attempt. Today I got 10 boxes of General Mills cereal at Kmart for $10. And the boys and I also made a trip into Walgreens which was a success. I won't break down all the deals that I get but this one was good and I will share.

I got:

3 Twelve Packs of Pepsi products

3 bags of Doritos

1 bag of Tostitos

2 things of Excedrin

3 deodorants

1 baby oragel

8 tubes of Colgate Toothpaste

With store deals, coupons and rebates I ended up getting all this for free and making about $2 back. Yeah!!

Here is how I did it if you are interested:

3 12 pks of Pepsi products $9
3 Bags of Doritos $10.50
1 Bag of Tostitos $3
Total $22.50
Then I got back a $10RR
Final cost $12.50!
Plus I get $15 in coupons from Pepsi/Frito-Lay!
So this really cost me nothing and I made $2.50.

Orajel Baby $6.49
$6.49 Manufacturer Rebate
$1 coupon from 1/11 Sunday Paper
Final price FREE plus a $1 moneymaker!

8 Colgate Total Toothpaste - buy one at $2.79 get one free with in ad coupon
Plus I used eight $1.50 off coupons printed from the internet.

Final price eight for FREE, plus $0.84 moneymaker!
Plus I can submit for the FREE Colgate travel bag with samples & coupons!

Excedrin buy one at $6.99 get one free
Use two $2 coupons
Final price 2/$2.99!

January Date

Thanks again to Ryan & Alisa for the best Christmas present ever. Dave & I had such a nice "anniversary" date. We had dinner at The Roof, overlooking the Salt Lake Temple and it was FANTASTIC, of course! Then we were able to walk around Temple Square, the visitors center and the JSMB. It was really nice! Thanks you guys!

Insights from Children

Our kids sometimes surprise us with the things they say. They are very insightful at times. At dinner tonight Dave & I were discussing what we were going to do on our Anniversary date coming up this weekend (hopefully this time it will happen). Dave made reservations at The Roof for dinner which is so nice. But he was concerned about leaving Kyle for the length of time it would take to do to a nice dinner and the temple and suggested we do the nice dinner this time and the temple next month. We were trying to decide what to do and Brandon said "I know what you guys can do to setttle this problem." We asked him what it was and he said "You should do the more important thing ... the temple." I was so proud of him for both his problem solving skills as well as the fact that he in his 6 year old way, knew that the temple was more important then anything else. He really is a special boy and he really tries to be a peace maker in our home and help everyone to be happy.

Just a short time later, the boys were petitioning Dave to play Monster with them which entails him chasing them around in circles through the living room, dining room and kitchen. Dave was a little tired and not overly excited about playing Monster and so I suggested we play Uno and have some ice cream. Eric said ok to Uno but Brandon still had his heart set on Monster. Then Eric said "I know, we can play Monster and then after that, we can play Uno." Again, what good problem solving skills, especially for a 3 year old who generally just throws a fit hoping to get his way. When Dave finally agreed to play Monster, Brandon quickly cleared his dinner dishes and said "Playing with your kids is way more important then ice cream anyway!"

I love my boys!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Dave & I have been married for 9 wonderful years. Life can be hard at times but we have been very blessed and I am very grateful to have such a wonderful husband. Since our anniversary fell on a Sunday this year we had planned to go out on Saturday night to celebrate. We were going to go to the Salt Lake Temple where we were married and then to dinner. Ryan & Alisa were going to come over and watch the boys for us. It was going to be very nice. But ... Brandon woke up with a nasty cold Saturday morning and Dave & I, who had both already had our turn with the family stomach flu a week or so before, both got round two with that. So instead of celebrating our Anniversary we got to spend the weekend with the stomach flu and a sick Brando. Maybe we can try again next weekend. :) I guess what really matters is that we have had nine great years together and look forward to many more!

Happy New Year!

We were so happy to have the Sintay's staying with us the last week of the year. We rung in the New Year with them and Ryan, Alisa & Collin. The kids had fun scarfing down pizza and doing fireworks in the backyard. Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!