My favorite smiling faces

I am so looking forward to the return of these smiling faces. Go away sickness!

Sick

These last couple of weeks we have all been sick with flu. We have been passing it around and to each other. The biggest complaint seems to be the cough. Even I had it and I never get sick. Megan missed a half a day of school last Friday and Jayce is home today. Colton seems to be the sickest and the only one with a fever. He's having a hard time sleeping because of the cough. Thank goodness he seems better today. I thought we were headed to the doctor.

Nothing like bubbles in a bubble bath to brighten sick spirits.

Mormon Rap

My little sis reminded me of this song. I was a freshman at Ricks when it came out. Brings back memories and laughs. Enjoy!

Coupons are everywhere!

Recently, out of necessity, I've really started using coupons and wonder why I didn't start using them earlier. A friend, taught me how to use them not only to get good deals on items that are already on sale but many things are free when you apply the coupons to things that are already on sale. Very cool. Who doesn't like free stuff? I went shopping at Smiths this week after going over their sales add and matching up coupons that I had for many of the items that were on sale. My subtotal was $87 before the coupons. It was fun to see the total go down...down ...down...to $40. I saved $46.95. A whopping 53%! That was a good shopping day. Yesterday, I had to get some things at Walmart. What could have been over $34 ended up only costing me $18 because of the coupons. I got one $3 item for free because I had a coupon for $3 off of that item. Also, the game Monopoly was on sale for $7 and I had a $5 off coupon so I got it for $2! One thing I do is follow several coupon sites that tell me what's on sale at different stores and what coupon to apply and where to find it. You can even search for coupons for items you will be shopping for and print them free. Many even list freebies that are available without coupons. All of the coupon sites I follow talk about saving big and getting many things for free by stacking manufacturers coupons with store coupons at stores like Walgreen's and CVS and using their Register Reward bucks that you earn for buying certain things there. I haven't done that yet but people are saying that is how they stock their hall closet with free stuff. Check out the money savings sites I have listed on right hand side of my blog and you can start saving too.

Spikey!

So what did I do when I was cutting the boys' hair and "oops!...where did those bangs go?"

Spike it up and say that's what I meant to do.

Colton is reading

Every week Jayce brings home books that he is supposed to read at least once a day. They are pretty simple books and easily memorized. Colton likes to listen to Jayce read them. When Jayce was done I asked Colton if he wanted to read it and he did...PERFECTLY! Of course, after he was done reading to me he had to read to Daddy. From the time he could sit up, he would always entertain himself for long periods of time with a stack of books put in front of him. When he was done looking at books on his own, he would bring me a stack to read to him. I'm glad the interest in books hasn't faded. I guess I need to start "really" teaching him to read.

Happy Birthday Blake!

One candle for every decade he's been alive.

Blake loves German Chocolate cake for his birthday but the kid's don't so this year I made half chocolate and half German Chocolate cupcakes. I put them together to make a good attempt at a heart shape. I could have used 2 more cupcakes so had to use a couple brownies I had in the freezer. Can you find them? Of course you can. We love Daddy!

I brought home the birthday balloons from the RS birthday party and recycled them for Blake's party too. Colton tied them onto himself and crawled around with them. He was very glad I brought them home. Blake wanted to go geocaching for his birthday. These geocaches take us places we have never been in Dayton. We took a half a mile dirt road loop by the Dayton water tower to our first cache. On the far side of this canyon was supposed to be another cache but obiously too hard to get to with little kids. Jayce thought we should try. Not this time buddy. The first cache was supposed to be in this boulder pit. It wasn't there. It was fun to climb all the rocks and we were amazed at how big the rock mounds were. We walked a little further up for another cache. We were surrounded by rock piles and boulders. We could easily see highway 50 and Moundhouse from where we stood.

Can you tell where the cache was hidden?

This one had a trackable Ninja Turtle. It's fun to look on-line to find out where different items have been. This turtle was pretty local. It had been in California and Nevada. Another time, we found a trackable coin that had been to Finland and they were trying to get it back to Arizona.

Of course, Colton wants to keep the toy horse he found.

We tend to go on these hikes when a storm is coming in. The walk back to the car was chilly.

When we got home I made pizza pretzels and we ate them while watching a movie at our home theatre made by Megan for Blake's birthday. The pretzels were a hit and easy to make. I got the recipe from here but used home made bread dough and pizza sauce for dipping.

Something Extraordinary Relief Society Birthday Celebration

Recently, I have been called as our ward's "Relief Society Meeting Coordinator" previously know as "Enrichment Leader". The first meeting that I had to coordinate was the Relief Society Birthday. I went with the theme "Something Extraordinary" and after an inspiring lesson on service from one of the sisters in the ward we watched the following video I found on YouTube. After the video, we made 10 children's no-sew fleece blankets for our Healthy Communities Coalition. These are cute and very simple blankets to make. Go here for easy instructions with pictures. Simultaneously, as some were working on the blankets, others were playing a fun get to know you game that another sister thought of. We had to give her a baby picture of us and 3 fun facts about us. The pictures were put on poster board. We had to guess who the babies were based on pictures or facts. The winner won the game "Guess Who". What a fun way to get to know some of the ladies in the ward. Can you guess who that baby is?

We have a talented cake decorator in our ward who made this very pretty and yummy cake for us. To see more of the cakes she has done go here. Can you believe she does this with 3 little ones at home? Well, we had a good turn out and everyone seemed to be having fun.

Cousin Chances Blessing Day

We were able to attend the blessing of Cousin Chance on February 28th. We had dinner at Mom's afterward and a birthday party for Joey too. Chance was so cute in his blessing outfit.

Colton sure likes to give him kisses, even when he's crying.

Cousin Joey turns 3

After Chance's blessing, we went to Mom's for dinner and celebrated Joey's birthday. The cousins get a long well and have fun playing together.

Uh-oh. Colton blew out the candle and Joey is not happy.

Baby Cousin Chance

Cousin Sam and Colton intensely playing the video game.

Joey says "Look at me I'm 3!"

We got Joey a pack of several games that the cousins enjoyed playing.

Poor Uncle Jeremy always gets dog piled on at least once when we get together.

A Couple Days of Spirit Week in February

Pajama Day! The kids were excited to wear their pjs to school.

Career Day...What do you want to be when you grow up that mom can throw together in a few minutes tonight? A hair stylist.

Hair cut anybody?