Emily's First Birthday

Emily is a year old. Already. In big ways I'm happy that we're a year in ~ having two as close together as we did was really really hard there at first. I realize we don't hold any records for babies being born close together, but for us, this is as close as we've gotten and with my extended recovery, there were a lot of challenges at the beginning. These days we're healthy and a year for a 2-ish year old brings a lot of maturity and more understanding to how things work in the world. All good things!

At the same time of course we're sentimental to the time that's gone by, not wishing away too quickly.

When you get to bring home this:
of course there is a specialness to having a new little life at home!

Today she looks like this:
There is so much that is wonderful about being one. Personality starts emerging (she laughs spontaneously and shakes her head no with fervor), language develops (her new word ~ we are SO proud ~ is p-o-o-p), and mobility increases (she is climbing stairs, crawling long distances and cruising the furniture).

We celebrated Emily's birthday with the traditional night-before picture, to celebrate saying good-bye to being 11-months old:

Family and some friends came over that night to help us celebrate. A last minute catastrophic failure of the crown-shaped cake meant a quick run to CostCo... and while it was sad to not have things go just as we'd planned/hoped, we chose to be grateful for things working out alright in the end.

We interrupted Emily's PT to take a picture next to clock on the minute ~ 10:33am ~ she was born. Another tradition!

Later, the table was set and ready to party!

We now have to question the sanity of parents who put FIRE in front of any (and every) one year old...what are any of us thinking?

Thankfully, she was fine ~ the wax from the candle ended up on her fingers, but she didn't get burned.

She was back shortly to enjoy her cake: That's a happy birthday girl!
After doing as much damage to her dive-in cake as she could, she got whisked away to the tub. The smiles continue!

Then it was time for presents! For just a little thing, she sure was spoiled!

A cute and instantly loved Care Bears Penguin from the Mitchell's

Big bucks from Grandma and Grandpa Freeman

A talking purse from Grandma and Grandpa Evans

Outfits from Chris and Jennie

Overall, a good day!

We love you, Emily Dear, and are so glad to have you with us in our family!

Summer Comes To A Close

We've awakened to a crispy-fallness in the air, so posting about summer activities has seemed to take on a new urgency. Today is the day!!

First on my mind today is that in August Melissa got to have lunch with the Mayor of Nampa, Tom Dale.

Melissa was one of two kids chosen ~ the only one from Caldwell. She got to talk with the Mayor about school and her favorite class (Reading). His Assistant, Adam, was also nice.

They had lunch at the 2nd Street Diner. Melissa ordered a grilled cheese. It came with a pickle that she was happy to save and bring home to her dad.

Melissa came home from her cousin's birthday party in August saying that it was "THE BEST PARTY EVER!!". Aunt Jennie knows how to throw a party!! They got to have a fashion show ~ complete with make-up and hair-do's. We're STILL finding glitter in Melissa's hair! :)

Here's Missa with her cousin and another friend.

The City sponsors an event every couple of years where they rent the Zoo and serve dinner to all the city employees. This year we got to see the Zoo's new Africa exhibit, complete with Lions and Zebra and Giraffe's.

Here's a picture of our "pride" of beasts:

Emily is on the move these days, and loves to climb the stairs! She's cruising the furniture, and will let go sometimes if she's interested in something that takes both hands. Our homework is to get her walking while just holding one hand, and she's getting better at that. She isn't "stair certified" yet (meaning she doesn't know how to come back down on her own), but it won't be long...

Gratuitous cruise pic:

We made it to the last Tuesday home game for the Hawks, using the tickets the kids had earned through their summer reading program. The crowd was small, and the Hawks lost pretty miserably, but we had a good time singing and chanting with the rest of the fans.

The field from where we were sitting.

We bought five of these little hackey sacks (the money went to charity) and had the chance, after the game, to throw them out onto a bulls-eye laid on home plate. If one hit the bulls-eye, you had the chance to win half of all the money collected. The person closest to the bulls-eye got a $10 gift certificate to Wendy's restaurant.



We threw, but won not one thing. Oh well!








Emily decided one night not too long ago to DUMP her dinner on her head.... she thought she was pretty funny! (no judging on the Christmas bib ~ it was one of those days for laundry, and we were at the bottom of the drawer)

Kathryn reunited with her soccer team from last season to play in an indoor tournament in August. It was her first time playing indoors ~ the rules are interestingly different! (There are no out-of-bounds, for instance, unless the ball flies up into the net around the arena. You can also throw your arms around, as long as its the part between your shoulder and your elbow.)

Here are some shots of her warming up:

At the beginning of the summer our goal was to MAKE SURE we would all have really good answers for that "What did you do over the summer" question. I think we accomplished that. whew!

NOT About Cruising or Coupons!

We've been home for a little over a month, and I think are adjusting to real life again. Though it's really hard to go out to eat and then have to PAY for your meal when it's through.... we went for seafood recently and realized just how much all we ate on the cruise would have cost if we'd have been paying. yikes!

sorry ~ I know I said this post WASN'T about our cruise....

and, I'm in the middle of a debate with Albertson's Corporate office over a serious coupon issue. More on that to come when it is resolved and they are shown the error or their ways! (this is how sure I'm right about this. Please keep in mind how much I HATE confrontation!)

apologies again for mentioning something I already said was not part of this post...

There have been some wonderful things to take our minds off the cruise (or lack of cruise) these past couple of weeks. I thought I'd share a few.

First off ~ this is what happens when you're two and you're trying to figure out how this getting dressed thing works.... sometimes things don't go on as easily as when someone bigger helps you... the important thing is to remember to SMILE.

My friend had a mother/daughter crop for moms and daughters ages 10 and up. Liz and Kathryn got to come! We had a great time and, between handfulls of M&M's, actually got a few pages done.

Elizabeth attended her FIRST STAKE DANCE on August 16th. She was so excited and came home talking about "Jeremy". She said she didn't think a first dance could have gone any better. Here's to many more to come!

The girls are back in school already. How the summer flew by! We have three at three schools this year ~ Elizabeth is a Freshman at the High School, Kathryn a 6th grader at the Middle School, and Melissa a 5th grader at the Elementary School. Just for grins we did the math to see when we'd be in that "all of our kids are in school all day" club, and it will be when Melissa is a Sophomore! That will be when Emily starts first grade. So, a ways to go yet. But I had a year of an empty house between the time Melissa started first grade to when Nathan was born, so I guess I know what we have to look forward to! I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse...

We discovered on one of our trips out to the church orchard that we (ok, I) had no idea where the end of Ustick was. Maybe it went on forever! So one night when the peaches weren't quite ready for picking, we decided to find out where the road ends. And we found out it does end, but sort of in a curve right into Fish.... now we know!

We want to see where the other end takes us. Having mentioned that to someone though, it was spoiled and we heard it ends at Curtis in Boise. Well, I guess we still have to prove that for ourselves, right??

We are harvesting cucumbers and canning applesauce and peaches. We are running to soccer practice and mutual. Choir starts next week.

The weather is feeling very fall-ish and we are starting to talk about Halloween costumes. And Christmas presents.

Emily has turned one and Kurt has turned...well, a few more than one!

HAPPY EVERYTHING!!

BIG Deals!

We have relieved our pantry shelves of a lot of their contents this morning, finally reaching the point of frustration with the "stuff and stack" method we've been using the last few weeks. The shelves have been filling up, and today is the day we've done some organizing. Hooray!!

Our shelves have been filling thanks to couponing (yes, we're trying to make that word officially a VERB). I started taking pictures, knowing that our organizing would make for a great blog post, but as I did, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the blessings (all right in front of me) couponing has brought. Grateful for those who have taught me how to do this, the means by which to purchase the items and the impact all I've saved has meant to our budget, as well as the products themselves being available on our free-market shelves. So much to be thankful for!!

We've made room in the garage for the things that we'll store a bit and reserved our pantry shelves now for more of our short-term, more immediate-use stuff. Like Kurt's spices. :)


I wish I had an overall total of what I've spent compared to what I've saved. What I do have are individual experiences. I started couponing in the middle of June after a conversation with a friend I work with in YW. She sent me to a website, I found others, and off I went.

I LOVE seeing the total before coupons and the total after coupons be significantly different. I love the sound of catalina's and register rewards printing (and have even admitted to a bit of an addiction to those sounds...). I especially love keeping my money!

So here are a few of my exeriences the past few months. I realized that I don't have pictures of EVERYTHING (that's probably a good thing as I do have pictures of a LOT). The bread I got for 50-cents a loaf has been eaten. Many of the wipes I got for just over $1 have been used (tho you'll see some of them in a minute). We drank the milk that was 39-cents a gallon, and have eaten the cheese that was about $1.50 a pound. The soda we got FREE has also mostly disappeared (whew! that went quick!!). 8 12-packs for free was a nice way to stock up and share!

There are other things that have disappeared to different places around the house ~ diapers are in the changing table, well stocked. I've decided there's no need to pay more than $6 a package. And that is for Huggies and Luvs, not any store's brand. I can still cry when I think of the story of the woman who bought 150+ packages of diapers and paid a little over $14. That's 2-cents for every THREE packages. It took her 55 transactions and 45 minutes, but when you do the rest of the math you discover that she MADE $1500+ in those 45 minutes, if you average a typical package of diapers at $10 each. ah! She has two in diapers, but is now set (based on my own usage calculations) for well over a year for them both. AH! I could cry.

While I haven't had quite that incredible of an experience (yet!), I have felt the giddy leap in my chest when some of these found their way into my basket and then required very little, if any money to pay for them.

We have to start somewhere and what would a blog post be these days without some sort of CRUISE reference???

These travel-sized detergents are PERFECT (ask me how I know) for doing laundry on a big, wonderful boat. I am stocking up for our future trips! Oh, and these were all FREE!!

The Suave and the Johnson's first aid kits were all freebies. The Aveeno and the baby wash are special for the eczema we have on some little people's skin in our house. The Sea Breeze was cheap after I stacked a Walgreen's coupon with a MFR one.

We've had more Hamburger Helper than this, but why would I buy it if we weren't going to eat it? At 98-cents a piece, a doubled 75-cent off of three makes for some happy tummies.

The Chinet was 50-cents.

Don't laugh or shake your head. You know who lives in this house!!

Didn't pay A THING for any of these....

Little bit of Randominity here... The croutons were Buy One Get One Free (BOGO or B1G1F). The Graduates I had a Target coupon and a Manufacturere (MFR) coupon for each. The tissue got thrifty when it was on sale during the back to school season and then using a 50-cent off three brought the price down even more. The girls have all taken their required boxes to school already! We are set for the winter for sure.

My first thrifty wipe experience got me seven containers for just over $1 each at Rite-Aid. The most recent deal had them for 49-cents at Walgreen's with an in-store coupon and a MFR. FORTY-NINE CENTS!!

If only I'd had more coupons or found more on the shelves! With two in diapers here, we use these things!!

Kurt started loading the shelf in the garage while I was taking pictures, so here is a tiny snip of what that is going to look like.

The Velveeta has been a good after-school snack. These are just a few of those I've been able to get on the cheap. Most recently I had an in-store coupon for $1 off of four. Then I stacked that with MRF B1G1F's... Plus I got a $1 Register Reward for every two I bought... this might even have turned into a money maker.

The UnderJams was my first experience with a great Albertson's Clearance Rack find. I had $2 off coupons, and they were marked down to $4.49 (I think?). I saw them later at Target for $13.99 a package. We're not quite to where we need these yet, but they will be there when we're ready!!

Post cereal has been on sale, can you tell?? The Selects were 25-cents a box just the other day. They are normally $4.89 EACH! (who pays that much?!?)

I'm tempted to save this one for last, because it warms my heart and brings a smile to my face and is still one of my favorite transaction experiences. It was the first time I'd used a Catalina to pay for items. With that promotion, all of these were FREE. We ended up getting 50. And before you wonder too long about what we EVER will do with all of that BBQ sauce, well, Christmas is coming!

Seriously, with a family of seven a marinade takes at least a bottle and a half. These will last a while, but will be there when we need them. And if anyone is out on a Sunday afternoon, you know who to call!

Another favorite couponing experience pictured here ~ Listerine has been on sale and the coupons have been plentiful. The Smart Rinse I got most recently was on sale for 2/$8. I had B1g1F coupons plus $1 off coupons. Then when you purchased two you got a $3 RR (Register Reward). Yep, they ended up FREE. The worst I did was pay $2 for 2 of any of the rest of the bottles.

We use Listerine not only for minty fresh breath, but for killing throat googlies when someone's throat is sore. With 5.5 teeth brushers in the family (Nathan is still a work in progress), we will make good use of these. But again, if you're in need, you know where to find us!

I love the trial sized deals! These would have been around 23-cents each. The Body Wash was FREE thanks to a RR.

It's shampoo. It was cheap.

I know I paid between 49 and 74-cents for each of these, thanks to matching sales and coupons.

For the most part, these were free though I know I might have paid 25-cents for as many as three of them.

There are other ways our family has been benefitted by couponing. The awesome couponing community, and all of the bloggies who post the amazing deals for us to find, share special deals that get us things other than groceries.

Walgreen's recently had a week-long promotion of a different photo product free or super cheap each day. One of the days was a FREE 11x14 "poster". All I paid was $1.99 shipping. I ordered Tueday and it was at my house on Friday! I painted the frame black and by Sunday morning had this in the frame. I finally followed through on my desire to get a picture of all of my kids in white, and am so pleased that this special keepsake was also a very thrifty deal!

Another day's special was 8x10 collage prints. These were all FREE and document some of the special events in our family over the past year. Can't wait to frame them or turn them into a nearly-done scrapbook page!

All of this stuff has shown up in my mailbox, totally free to me. Most recently is that bottle of sunscreen on the left, from some schmancy company I hadn't heard of. Who couldn't use a little extra sunscreen??

Finally, here is our beautiful garage shelf, full of our incredible couponing finds.

Can I just share one more thing?? That Wish Bone dressing turned out to be 78-cents just yesterday when I stacked a store coupon with a MFR. Am going back for more a little later!

Couponing has blessed our family as you can see. I encourage anyone who'd like to try it to go for it! It takes some time and there's a little bit of a learning curve, but I consider it a hobby (because I love doing it) and a job (because I can benefit my family), so the time I spend feels worthwhile.

I encourage you to visit: http://athriftymom.com

and/or

www.krazycouponlady.com

and find their "coupons 101" section. A great way to get started!!

Blessings from our home to yours!