Utah State Fair Part 2

More pictures of the fair day.Noah and my dad picking his veggie out of the garden.
Kaleigh stroking her horse, Lucky.
Laney riding her tractor.

Logan just loving his tractor ride.

Kaleigh giving Noah a ride on the tractor.

Logan getting his pepper out of the garden.

Kaleigh planting her seed in the garden.

Logan wanting to pick his 2nd apple from the orchard and Eric putting it back.

Posing after getting her corn to go feed the cow.

Utah State Fair

Okay, so we decided to go to the fair and let me tell you, fun was had by all. The kids have never been and yesterday for opening day they ran a special of $2 admission for everyone. We took advantage and my dad joined us. When I was little we always tried to go to the fair, so I wanted to take my bunch and see what they thought. Here's how much fun they had. WARNING: many pictures follow!We started off with the 50 ft. slide and they let us go on it twice for the price of one time. Eric took Noah once and I took him the other time.

They all screamed in glee!

Alexis and Logan hauled down the slide.
We then went and saw a shark show for Kaleigh. It was a tank with nurse sharks and lemon sharks. A guy dived in and danced with the sharks, kissed them, and played the banjo using the shark as the banjo. They had this cage on exhibit for the kids to get into and they just loved it.
Ah, yes Kaleigh is at home with her sharks.

We then went to this hands on activity for the kids called the Little hands on the farm. It was really neat. It showed the kids how stuff gets to the grocery store from the farm. Here it starts with them getting corn to take to feed the cows.

After they put the corn in the feed trough, they get to milk the cow, which they all had a blast doing. Logan thought it was cool and he enjoyed the wet part of it.

The girls all had a turn at it too, even the older ones thought it was pretty cool.

They then got to pick apples out of the orchard and then got seeds to plant in the soil. On the other side they picked out their veggie they grew and placed it in their baskets. They went on to ride the tractor and take their baskets full of their harvests to the sheep area. They combed the sheep and got a piece of wool. They ended in an area where they returned all the harvested items( the grocery) and recieved a dollar to purchase something in their market. The kids got chips, rice krispie treats, and some chose fruit snacks. It was a really cute activity.

After we ate lunch we looked at the livestock. We saw piggies, cows, goats, lambs, chickens, and ducks. We got to see the farmers prepping their animals to be judged. It was cool seeing the animals get ready. We saw a sheep getting shaved, and a cow getting washed and trimmed. We then passed an area where you could ride a pony. Now the kids went bonkers wanting to ride and Eric was a little apprehensive, but my dad paid for the four older kids to ride and they had a blast. Kaleigh loved her horse, Lucky.

We thought for sure Logan would freak out the minute he got on his horse, but he didn't. He had this smile on his face the whole time. Even the oldest child liked the riding time. At first she looked a little timid, but she warmed up to it and got a kick out of it when her horse started "talking".

We ended the day with a couple of rides. The older girls got to choose a fast, high-moving ride which they loved. We really need to take just these two to Lagoon. They'd have a blast.

Laney and Logan chose a helicopter ride. Throughout the whole ride Laney kept flying higher and higher. Logan couldn't quite figure it out, but he enjoyed it a lot.

He picked this green one, because it matches his eyes. They're green you know. He's such a funny kid.

This was a big pumpkin spider sculpture that the girls spotted on our way out. They wanted to take a funny picture with it. Alexis is such a card.

Well fun was had by all and after 4 hours of fun the kids were beat so we made our way home. My dad decided to treat all us hot people to a cool frozen fruit drink, which was much liked by all. We ended our fair day with a yummy fair dinner. I made funnel cakes with powdered sugar and raspberry jam for dipping, bacon, and fruit. The kids all liked it and said they can't wait to go back next year. So much fun was had we will definately be going back next year!

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.