back in the saddle again.....

So this post is more for me than anyone else. I am really trying to be motivated and keep going with my coupons. When I have a good trip to the store it motivates me and something about taking the picture of the loot makes me feel happy. SO! My trip to Albertson's today was a great one! Here is my stash..... 10lb bag of potatoes
one onion
20 Yoplait yogurts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
4 Skippy peanut butters
5 boxes of fruit snacks
2 whole chickens
2 boxes of bisquick
2 1lb bags of parmesan cheese
4 bags of Nature Valley Nut Clusters
1 bag of 18 ct cookies
1 box of big pasta shells
1 jar of honey

For a grand total of........$25.00

It made me happy. This was 1 hour at the grocery store and 4 transactions later but you have to do what you have to do right?

And Josey was having a great time helping me with the cutting the coupons and matching them up at the store. Lilly kinda helped but I think got distracted.... and yes that is my big fat pregnant body underneath her. Just deal with it people.


Here are a couple of funny things my kids have said lately:

Maddy: "You know the church is a place that really warms my heart. I was in the hallway and it was dark and I wasn't even scared!"

Lilly: I was trying to make her put her coat on to go outside and play in the snow the other day. It is a big thick coat. She told me that she didn't want to put it on because it would make her look fat. She said it was too poofy and made her look fat! I couldn't believe it! I assured her it doesn't make her look fat and then she asked me if it made her look like a cutie. I of course told her it would TOTALLY make her look like a cutie and so she was happy to put it on.

By the way she is obsessed with my pregnant belly but keeps asking me question about my "big fat belly". It always makes me feel really good! And she asked me if when the baby comes out if I was still going to have a big fat belly and frankly I wasn't sure how to answer that one!

some of my thoughts....

Thought #1: So I have recommitted to the coupon world again. After taking a good 6 months off after moving and vacations and pregnancy woes and school starting etc. I have decided that I NEED to get organized and motivated again. I am tired of spending way too much at the grocery store for things that I need and my supply is GREATLY diminished. The only upside is that I have really been able to gage my three or six month supply of stuff. I was really surprised at how fast some of my stockpile items were used and how some are still sitting out there. It has given me a better idea of how much of certain products I really need to stock up on. SO! I went today and had a spectacular coupon visit to Albertsons that helped reignite the fire. Hopefully I can stock up as much as possible over the next 6 weeks until this baby decides to pop out. At which time I will probably be taking a minor break again.

Thought #2: Lilly is a sunbeam.....what the heck! Last Sunday Lilly started Sunbeams and it wasn't all bad but it wasn't quite as smooth as it could have been either. Since I lead the music it is virtually impossible for me to take care of her during certain parts of primary. So Dustin had to step in when she started making growling noises at her new teacher. Now she is not one of those kids that is yearning for nursery because for the last few months I haven't been able to get her to go there either. BUT once Dustin came and sat with her she did fine and was quickly volunteering for every opportunity she could to participate. Then daddy had to go to class and I quickly had a little sidekick with me. Luckily she kept quiet and behind me the whole time (as opposed to a couple weeks earlier where someone had to drag her out screeching and crying). I then walked with her to her class and once we got in there and her smart teacher whipped out the bag of toys and snacks and handed her a stuffed puppy and a My Little Pony, she looked at me and said, "BYE MOM!" and I quickly sprinted out of the room. Apparently she did great because I didn't see her for the rest of church and when she came out she had a Sunbeam crown on and a picture she had colored and was all smiles. Hopefully next week will go even better.

Congratulations!!

My brother Jeff and his wife Missy had their third child and their second boy (unheard of for the Rebers) yesterday. Welcome to the family baby Will!

Who is the better driver?

Because Dustin and I always have this "discussion" I thought that maybe some of you female drivers out there also have similar "discussions" with your husbands. So you might find this article gives you a little more ammo in your defense.

Here is a little preview of what this article says:
"Women have a bad reputation for being bad drivers, but in most cases, from a safety point, they are better drivers," says Bob U'Ren, the senior vice president of Quality Planning.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/worse-drivers-males-or-females.aspx

Merry Christmas!

This was the only picture we took before hand. Dustin snapped it while the girls were waiting on the stairs and then came and showed it to them to show them that Santa came. They were very excited. We had a wonderful lazy Christmas. We are getting used to being alone for Christmas and after the last few years of having it that way I think I am finally over feeling depressed during the day. There is something WONDERFUL about not having to get dressed ALL day and just having a total low key day only with your family to explore all the new fun things of Christmas. We literally didn't not get dressed or go out of the house ALL DAY!

Here are the girls on the stairs.

And if you look close you might see another shot of the baby in this one.

And here is some of the aftermath. Lilly refused to get in the picture.

She was too busy playing with her ponies to take a break. This is what she wanted from Santa SO bad. She kept telling me that she wanted ponies that you change hair with. Well Josey got some as well and happen to open hers first. You should have seen the look on Lilly's face. She looked at me and asked me if those were for her. And I had to say those were Josey and then frantically search for the box that was for Lilly.

Lilly lookin' like a "ROCKSTAR". She had her new rockstar skirt on and her rockstar hair and she was in heaven. She has had a bad cold hence the lovely rash right under her nose.

Maddy got the gift she NEVER thought she was going to get, a Nintendo DS. She told me that it was going to have to take her almost a year of allowance to save up for one of these and she was prepared to do it. And so when she opened it she was so excited. It was one of those Christmas moments you hope for on Christmas morning.

And Josey got one too. She was just as excited.

Afterwards I am rethinking it a bit. They have been glued to them for the last 2 days. I am letting it go as it is Christmas and a new toy but I have a feeling we are going to have to set some Nintendo DS boundaries soon.

And that is it for the Christmas pictures this year. It all goes by so fast! After we opened the presents Maddy sat there for a minute and then said, "Well now we have to wait a whole more year until next time." And all I thought was Hallelujiah! And that next year we would have an almost one year old with us! CRAZY!

I didn't get any pictures of the 12th day of Christmas from our grandma and grandpa Moyes. I forgot to pull the camera out on Christmas Eve after all the business of the day. I think I was too tired. But the girls got scripture marking pens and scripture bookmarks. And Dustin and I got a great set up Old Testament study aids. Thank you so much grandma and grandpa!

Stay tuned for a post on what my kids picked out for Dustin and I. They are the BEST gifts ever and I promise that you won't be able to not laugh.

Christmas Eve

So warning these pictures are out of order but I loaded them wrong and don't want to rearrange them all. So here we are heading BACK from the beach. We have tried to start a tradition to head over to the coast on Christmas Eve. We love the coast and it helps to tire out the kids for bedtime. I don't know if it will happen every year because you can never tell the weather. But this year we got lucky again. Here are the girls playing in a little snow at a rest stop we stopped at. Maddy was commenting that we were so lucky because we got to play in the sand and the snow all in one day.

And here we are again after playing at the beach drinking our hot chocolate. I put this picture in here to confirm to everyone that I was in fact present here by the 5 hot chocolate mugs on the table, even if you won't see a picture of me.

Then I think I should put a picture of me right after this one.....

because really I would look like good after that picture.....no?

Heading out after playing at the beach. This is our new ornament for this year.

Here is probably one of the only pictures you are going to see of my pregnant belly. I wanted the baby in the picture with the girls.

It was a GORGEOUS day at the beach. And the girls didn't even need their coats!

This was supposed to say Christmas 2009 and we were going to take a picture next to it. I really am not sure what the girls wrote because I couldn't make anything that made sense out of it.

The girls found a little fish that Josey instantly bonded with. And cried when she decided that maybe it was alive (not sure about that one) and threw it back in the ocean.

Here we are eating lunch at our favorite restaurant on the coast, Mo's. It is such a fun family tradition. We love it!

On the eleventh day of Christmas.....

Our grandma gave to us....

Let me back track a minute. On the tenth day of Christmas grandma gave us a really cute little Christmas box that we were to fill with treats or a gift and give to someone else. I just forgot to ever get a picture. Sorry grandma!

BUT on the eleventh day we got something to add to our emergency preparedness kits. Maddy was a little confused when she opened latex gloves...

But then we explained why they would come in handy and she thought that was a great gift. I think at the new year we will pull everything out and make sure we are good to go in an emergency.

On the ninth day of Christmas.....

Our grandma gave to us....

(we ended up with to 6th nights.......we will get those sent out Liz! And someone probably ended up with out 8th night. But no worries grandma we made some sugar cookies on that night!)

We had a little tree and candy thing to put together to take and give to someone. The girls had a really good time making it and eating it. And then we decided to take it over to some people we don't know all that well. We got there and then realized they weren't home and we left it on the doorstep....but I am realizing that we never talked to them and told them it was from us! There wasn't even a note! That is really funny! They were probably totally confused and a little weirded out now that I think about it! oh well.

piano lessons

My girls love playing the piano. And I love that! I know that when I started taking piano lessons around the age of 9 I was in love! Of course it could have been the cute high school boy teacher that I had coming to my house.....some of you know who I am talking about! But seriously I really really enjoyed playing the piano and couldn't wait for new songs and the next lesson. So it has been fun to watch my girls have the same passion.

So last Friday our piano teacher had to cancel our lesson that day. I told the girls there was no piano when they got home from school and Josey started crying and Maddy was really upset. I was shocked by their reactions! I thought they would be fine just being able to come home on Friday and start their Christmas vacation. So I promised them we would reschedule it for this week. Today I was talking to my friend and she said that today would be a great day to reschedule. So I told her that we would have to do it in the afternoon because we were working on chores this morning. I told her if the girls finished their chores we would be able to come to piano lessons. We both just started laughing! Because really how often is it that you can get your kids to actually do chores, to earn a piano lesson! So I told the girls that I had rescheduled the lesson for this afternoon but if they didn't get their jobs done in time or well that they wouldn't be able to go. They jumped to attention and PROMISED to get them done. I am still laughing about it in my head! It is really funny to me that I have to tell them on a fairly regular basis to STOP practicing the piano because I need them to do other things. I am praying that this love of piano lasts for a while. I know it can change like the wind, but hopefully this is something that they will continue to love and learn.

On the 7th night of Christmas....

Our grandma gave to us......

A night of yummy hot chocolate! The girls enjoyed their delicious hot chocolate before bed. Such a perfect treat this time of year.