All my groceries from my new found love of "couponing"

So a very good friend of mine turned me onto the wonders of coupons and saving a ton on my groceries. I've been trying it now for almost 2 weeks and absolutely LOVE it! I check a couple of blogs daily on new deals around the stores and also print out coupons on websites. I don't subscribe to the papers yet, but that is my next step. Apparently, you get 4 or 5 subscriptions and combine all the coupons and can get like 50-60% off of everything. So far I've been doing that with just my coupons and ads. The trick is see what's on sale and use the coupons for those items and see if any of the stores have their own coupons as well. What you see on the table is what I did today at Target. I got all of this for only $23, when it should have cost me $61. I found out through one of the blogs(hip2save.blogspot.com) that Target matches other stores ads and so I used Walgreens' ad and clipped Target coupons, and printed off manufacturer's coupons(coupons.com)and saved a bundle. Today I got:

8 boxes of general mills cereal

3 boxes of nature valley granola bars

4 big bags of chex mix

2 8pk go-gurt

2 8 ct. poptarts

2 kellogg's fruit snacks

2 boxes of gerber baby rice cereal

2 pk bounty paper towels

The cereal alone without all the coupons and ad-matching would have cost me $24. So, to say the least I'm very proud of myself and it is like a contest for myself to see just how much I can save. Last night I received an email about a deal with restaurants.com to purchase a 12 month dinner club plan for only $12. That's a 90% savings. We get a $25 gift certificate to use at any participating restaurant once a month, and for choosing the plan we received one $50 gift cert. for free. So I spent $12 for dinner cert. that total $350. My best find yet. So far these past two weeks I have spent only $208(we had to buy diapers and wipes, which I also got a deal on)and I have saved $167. I LOVE this couponing! This is really helping us out a lot since my kids are growing and they are eating us out of house and home, not to mention a newborn going through diapers like crazy. Sorry for the long post, but I was so excited about today's deals I got, I just had to share. Ta ta for now.

Happy, Fun, Labor Day Outing!

So here is what we did on our Labor Day, we decided to hike up to donut falls. Well we didn't go all the way up, because the rocks in the water were slippery and it was too hard with all the kids, but we did get up to the falls and the kids enjoyed the hike.
Noah did NOT like the backpack, but Logan did and enjoyed the view from the top. Everyone else did very well on the hike. We had a couple of spills due to their over excitement and running on the trails, but other than that the views were gorgeous. Great weather, great surroundings, and great fun were had by all.
A little waterfall on the river that the kids just loved looking at on the bridge.

The kids playing peek-a-boo in the trees.

Logan, excited we were on our way back to the car to get some water and food! It took a little longer than expected, but it was still a good hike. The weather was just perfect, and it was nice to get out of the house. This month the kids are off-track, so much fun will be had by all! Tune in for our next adventure!

Kaleigh is getting Baptized!

So, it's official, we have another child who has turned eight and is getting baptized. We decided to do a little photo shoot before the big day. She was so excited and struck a pose in every shot.
This is right in front of the Jordan River Temple. I just love the flowers here.

Strike a pose! She does this very well.

She wanted one last one by the fountain. She really gets a kick out of photo shoots. She's so cooperative and always ready to pose. We held her baptism yesterday afternoon and all morning she kept asking how much longer. She was so excited to be getting baptized. She counted down the days all this week. It was a great milestone for her and we are very proud of her and her choice to get baptized. She is a wonderful daughter and sister. She brings joy and love into our lives everyday. I take great pride in calling her my daughter. She is our little trickster and clown. She can get the best of even adults, but that's just our little Kaleigh. Not so little anymore, but always a joyful girl! We'll post pictures of her wonderful day at a later time. My wonderful MIL took them for us and we got lots of great ones. We missed family that couldn't be here, but we were thinking of you.

Fundraising for a good cause!

In memory of our son, Christian, we are taking part in a fundraiser for Candlelighters. In October we as a family are giving back and participating in their Walk of Hope. This walk will give money to Rocky Mountain Candlelighters for Childhood Cancer. We are hoping as a family to at least raise $400.00. We were taken care of in the hospital through this group and we still are even after losing our son. Please consider making a donation. Check out our family fundraising page at www.active.com/donate/walkofhope/Christian. This is for a great cause, and they are in need of money to continue helping families who are fighting to keep their children alive and well. We thank you for anything you can give and I'm sure if Christian were here he would thank you too.

Happy 8th Birthday Kaleigh Brianne

Kaleigh Brianne joined our family on August 23, 2001. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was only 18 inches long. She was and still is our smallest baby ever. To most people she is average, but for our babies she was tiny.

Our darling little Kaleigh always had a smile and would strike a pose. By the way she still does even today. She may be little, but she has a lot of spunk!

This was our first big family trip all by ourselves and Kaleigh had a blast. She's our thrill seeker and wanted to go on Thunder Mountain, but she was too short. She cried the whole time that I was gone with Alexis and Christian on it, until she got to meet Jesse from Toy Story 2. She was the only one who got to meet her.

Here's our cute little spunky girl at her b-day party last year. This year we just had a nice quiet family dinner on her birthday.

Here's her first year at Softball. She had a blast on our team. I coached her and

Alexis last fall and we all enjoyed it.

This sums Kaleigh up. She's a cute girl who just adores to pose for pictures. She's been doing it since she could crawl. Who knows, maybe she'll model some day.

She just loves the camera anytime it comes out.

We love our little Kaleigh and can't wait to see her get baptized in a couple of weeks. She makes us laugh everyday and she is quite the spunky child. We love you and Happy Birthday miss Kaleigh.

When a child dies

So, it's been a hard month for our family. Really, all our months are hard, but some are harder than others and this would be one of them. It's been 6 years since Christian was first diagnosed with Neuroblastoma and 4 1/2 years since he passed away. It isn't getting any easier for us, in fact it seems to be getting worse. The kids are older and asking more questions and feeling the weight of the reality of it all. They cry, get mad, and then cry some more with the unfairness they feel of it all. They want him back and don't understand why he can't come back. Even the ones that came after him. Logan sees pictures of him and says my brother back. Poor kid.
This past month Laney began kindergarten, something her brother never got the chance to. It's significant to us, because she was born 2 months after he first got sick so it's difficult to see her growing up and doing things he didn't. Kaleigh will also be turning 8 tomorrow and getting baptized in 2 weeks which is hard because it's out of order. Her brother should have been before she reached this milestone. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my kids and their milestones and events, but they also hit a sore part with us. We are constantly reminded of Christian's abscence and it hurts like hell. People don't understand this and think well we've had plenty of time to grieve so get over it. Harder said than done. It's hard to get up in the morning without him and hard to go to sleep for fear of nightmares full of guilt and pain. We are doing the best we can, but apparently its not enough for some. We get pushed and lectured to get over it, be there for your kids, get over the anger with God, do your church duties and be happy you live a charmed life now. It's extremly frustrating and irritating to have people doing this, especially when it is family. Eric and I are doing our best with the awful hand we have been dealt with. We are there for our kids and try our hardest to do our church duties and deal with our internal issues with the anger we feel. We have had a very hard marriage from the get go and its amazing we have not only survived it all, but we have grown closer and stronger. We constantly get comments on how to live and be grateful we have a great life. I want to yell at all of these people to just shut up and butt out of our life, you don't know how it is day to day. You don't know about half the crap we live with and have lived with in the past. We are grateful for what we have and our wonderful, beautiful 7 children, but we also deeply and sadly miss our eldest son. It is not easy, but we are doing our best. So please, if you have a comment or lecture about us not doing all that we are suppose to be doing-please keep it to yourself! I know harsh, but its getting tiresome and making us angry. Sorry for the long post, but its been an awful day today.

Photo Shoot with the little ones

So here goes with a whole bunch of photos. I love to take pictures and I adore my children, when I combine the two I'm in pure heaven. Being a stay at home mom is the best and busiest time of my life so I want to capture the moments as best I can. I thought I would share a day in my life with you and bring a smile to your face. These little ones have pure happiness in their eyes and make me laugh all the time.


Noah just loving the tunnel fun.

Logan rolling in the tunnel over and over.

Laney just hanging out.

Logan and Bella. Wow, that's a big 3 year old and long 2 month old!

Taking a chill.

Starting to wave. Oh, how cute!

Gotta love that smile!

This is just part of the photo shoot of Bella, more to come later. I just love this little baby. I will post some of the older girls too. I love to just take pictures of my kiddies. They are so photogenic and happy kids. How could life get any fuller.