Grocery Savings

One of my favorite things to do (partially out of necessity, and partially because I just enjoy it) is trying to save as much as possible on groceries. I know I have a few friends that read my blog that ask me how I do it, and of course everyone knows that my favorite site in pinchingyourpennies.com. However, for those of you that usually comment on my grocery savings posts, I wanted to let you know about 2 new awesome blogs I have discovered about grocery savings. The first one is www.grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com The owner of this blog, Gayle, feeds her family of 5 on $60 a week on average and in California no less! She has some great tips on menu planning and also some great recipes.
The second one is www.5dollardinners.com This lady makes all of her family's dinners for $5 or less and some of them look awesome! Check 'em out!

Fun-Filled Easter Weekend 2009!!

We had quite the event filled Easter weekend. Midway through the week, my sister Jen came down to visit from Logan. On Thursday we took our kids to Chuck E. Cheese (Sydnee's new favorite thing to do). They had a blast eating pizza and playing games. Friday Sloan & I took the kids, yes, all the kids including the twins to the Hannah Montana movie. Sydnee loves Hannah Montana and we actually enjoyed the movie too, it was pretty good.
Saturday I took Sydnee to the Orem Rec Center easter egg hunt. This has been our tradition the past 3 years since we moved to Utah County. After that, we met up at IHOP with all of my extended family for Grandpa Scott's birthday breakfast, then finally we headed back to the grandparents house for ANOTHER egg hunt. WHEW! It was crazy, but a lot of fun.



Aubers @ Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Scott's house Kilers @ Grandma's house-look at those eyelashes!

7 of the 10 grandkids after the easter egg hunt at Grandma & Grandpa's house. (Kader was asleep and the twins were in the house away from the cold, brrrrr!) L to R : Summer, Harley, Sydnee, Crew, Stockton, Cameron & Callie.

Sydnee at the Orem Rec Center easter egg hunt, it was freezing and even raining a bit, but she still had tons of fun!

The Twinners with Chuck E.!

Sydnee playing air hockey at Chuck E. Cheese with a friend she made there

I took the twins for their 6-month doctor visit last week and they are doing great! It's hard to believe that less than 6 months ago they were lying in an isolette in the NICU. They're getting so big and strong. Kilee (left) continues to be the smaller of the two. She is in the 18th percentile for weight and 27th percentile for height. Aubree is up to 33rd percentile for weight and 46th percentile for height. Such cuties!

Good Deals Thursday

One of my favorite ways to save money is getting free groceries by transferring a prescription. Smith's has a deal right now where you can get $25 loaded onto your Fresh Values card for transferring a prescription, no coupon needed. By doing this along with buying sale items, combined with some coupons, and buying some discounted meat, I got what is pictured here for $4.68. Smith's has a Quaker sale this week. If you buy 4 items you get $4 off, making them $1.49 each, combine that with coupons and it makes for some sweet deals.
Here's what I got:
2 boxes Cap'n Crunch
4 boxes Life cereal
1 Gallon milk
1 Gallon Tampico citrus punch
1/2 gallon Kroger orange juice
1 small box pumpkin choc. chip cookies
2.45 lbs bananas
1.26 lbs grapes
1 block Kraft cheese
4 Kroger yogurts
1 Kroger ice cream
1 can Kroger refrigerator biscuits
2 boxes Quaker granola bars
4 lbs ground beef
On top of all this I also got a 5 cents off fuel rewards!
not to shabby for $4.68
It's not hard to transfer a prescription, the pharmacy does all the work. It's a great way to save some $$$$$$$!!

The Life of a Mother

I find that being the mother of 3 kids under the age of 3 really difficult sometimes. I often wonder why for me personally, it seems so hard sometimes. There are many others that have a lot more children than I have and they cheerfully go about life, taking care of their kids, keeping a house, serving in the church, and they do it with a smile on their face. For example, a favorite website of mine that I visit frequently has all types of mothers, there's one that just had twins. They were her 7th and 8th, not 2nd and 3rd like me. Another fellow twin mom I know has 4 kids and has a husband that has to work a lot of hours and is hardly ever home. I have an incredibly helpful, supportive husband who willingly changes poopy diapers and can get the babies to go to sleep better than I can, yet I still feel like I want to pull my hair out half the time.
I have a book that I got from my Dad a couple of Christmases ago called "Blessed are the Children". It is full of pictures and quotes about children and occasionally I pull it out to read my favorite quotes to remind me that someday, if my kids don't turn out too screwed up, this will all be worth it. Here's a few of my favorites:

"Our children are not going to be just "our children"-they are going to be other people's husbands and wives and the parents of our grandchilren" -Mary Steichen Calderone

"We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today"-Stacia Tauscher

"A child is an angel dependent on man" -Joseph Marie De Maistre

"Love your children. Cherish them. They are so precious. They are very, very important. They are the future. You need more than your own wisdom in rearing them. You need the help of the Lord........Pray for that help and follow the inspiration which you receive." -Gordon B. Hinckley

"Nothing you do for a child is ever wasted" -Garrison Keillor

My Treasures...............................

These pics are for you Daddy!! one of each of your girls

Sydnee

Kylee

Aubree

We Love you Daddy!!!