Monday, March 19, 2012

ALL ABOUT SADIE

I don't think I have ever really blogged about Sadie's personality. She is the funniest little girl! She is very particular about things and can spend an hour easy stacking and unstacking her princess foam puzzle pieces, coasters, markers (from end to end), kitchen spices, and anything else that can be stacked! She loves "organizing" my recipes and helping me cook also. (If you count dipping her little fingers in the flour and sugar containers repeatedly as helping.) She LOVES to pretend to be a doggy and most of the day manages to be one. A daily request of hers is to, "Carry me like a doggy" which means to wrap her in a blanket and carry her around in our arms. She loves playing with her Daddy, watching Clifford The Big Red Dog, and helping me do laundry and wipe down the wood floors. (Those are her favorite jobs to help with.) When wiping down the floors, she runs back and forth from the bathroom faucet with a VERY wet rag and washes the floor with intense concentration! I keep a towel on hand as the floor turns into a swimming pool every time! :) Her favorite food is baby carrots, ranch, and chocolate milk. She loves her tiny blanky I made her and loves to take it everywhere! Most importantly, she has to have it at bedtime or she will not sleep well! Replacements will not work!!! She loves to hide with Mommy from Daddy when he gets home from work (most of the time in the pantry) and cannot stop herself from telling him where she is prematurely every time! She loves to be outside and go to the park so she can go down the slide. She also loves checking on the daily progress of the tulips that are growing out front and will touch each plant with her little fingers while saying, "Oh! It's so cute!"
I sure love my sweet little Sadie Rae!

She Wants to be a soccer player when she grows up. Yes!!!

Such a cutie!

Loves to paint nails! She tends to get a little messy with mine because 1. She's 2 2. She tends to watch Clifford as she paints so the concentration level decreases dramatically. 3. It is hard to control the amount of polish that ends up on the brush.

Loves fingerprinting!

Loves eating while sitting on the toilet. Mmmm, nothing like cheesy noodles while pooping!

Loves putting makeup on!

Loves playing with her friends!

Reading LOTS of bedtime books! :-)

She loves playing with her daddy. Here is Sadie taking care of her "cute little doggy".

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Family Pictures

My awesome cousin Amy took these sweet family pictures of us in October 2011. I have been wanting a big family picture in our house forever!!! They are so expensive though! I found this neat tutorial the other day on how to make and frame a big print for cheap. Here's the link: http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2012/01/giant-picture-tutorial.html. I am in the process of making it and will post a picture of the finished project as soon as I get everything done! Here are some of my favorite family pictures in the meantime though:

Sunday, November 27, 2011

What I Am Thankful For

Honestly, this year has been one of the hardest years for me in so many ways. It's interesting though, how when things get hard and we go through our variety of trials, we often become more grateful for all the things that go right in our lives. This is the case for me. I feel accutely aware of all the challenges I have faced lately, yet also very aware of how much Heavenly Father has blessed my life.

I am thankful for:
Sadie-To kiss her, to hear her laugh, to teach her new things, to cuddle with her, to have her here with us today. Whenever I am feeling grouchy because she is being a little stinker, I am reminded how blessed Nick and I are to even have her here with us today after her difficult start in life. I love you so much Sadie girl.
Friends-I remember in high school hanging out with people who I liked and had fun with but who weren't people I could really rely on. I look at my life now, and see how Heavenly Father has blessed me by placing the most amazing people all around me. I love who I surround myself with because everyone I know and associate with makes me a better person in one way or another. I am very blessed to be able to say that.
Family- Growing up second oldest in a family of nine definitely had it's challenges for sure, but I am grateful that my parents raised me to have high morals and standards. From a young age I was taught to say no to drugs, cigarettes, drinking, and anything that might take away my agency and cloud my judgement. Because of my parent's wisdom, I was able to avoid bad situations and make good decisions with assurity that I was doing what I was supposed to. (Not to say I didn't make bad decisions because, yes of course, I did. When it came to the important decisions though, I felt I made the right ones.) Thanks Mom and Dad.
Nick- (Who pooped out on me tonight...We were supposed to watch Captain America but he passed out from exhaustion before we even started it. :) ) He is flopped over on the couch next to me right now as I write this. I am grateful for his patience and for his optimistic attitude towards everything and everyone. He is a very kind and funny person and doesn't have a temper in the slightest degree. So grateful for that. He is smart and helps me figure out math/numbers when couponing. (Without him I would probably smash my calculator to smithereens! Ha Ha. Smithereens. Cool word.) He supports me in all of my hobbies and never yells at me when I make us late to church every Sunday. Love you Nick.
My sister Tara- She is my confidant. My shoulder to cry on. The person I call to share a good laugh with. The person I love to tease. :) My best friend. Who would know that after years of her pinning me down and bouncing up and down on my stomach making farts come out, I would feel this way. :) I didn't then...Do now. Love you sis. Thanks for everything.

Oh man, I have so many more things I could go on about. This can be part 1 because it is super duper late and Nick woke up, ready to go to bed.
TO BE CONTINUED...

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Pocatello Half Marathon

This cute little sweetie pie kept Nick and I up all night! We ran on about 3 hrs of sleep! It was aweful!!!
Yay! We hurried and got a picture after the race. We ran with a pacer and each finished with times under 2 hrs. It's amazing what a little energy goo can do for the body!

My sister Kayla met us at the finish line! It has been so fun having her stay with us for a while before she heads to BYU-Idaho for school! Thanks for watching Sadie for us Kayla so we could run!!!

Family self-pic! I think Sadie has a little mascara and lipstick residue still on her face in this picture from her "makeover" Kayla gave her the night before!


I have pictures of when my family came to visit a few weeks ago that I will post soon!

Monday, July 18, 2011

I DID IT!!! IT ACTUALLY WORKS!!!





I just got done couponing tonight and it was actually successful! Usually, as I mentioned in my previous post, I go to the store and almost every (if not all items) I am looking for are cleaned off the shelves! It has been frustrating. BUT, I went tonight with Nick and Sadie and was 100% successful! Here's what I got:




6 cans of beans (diff. varieties)




8 bags of cereal




1 bottle of Worcestershire




1 bottle of ketchup




1 bottle of Oxi-Clean stain treatment




1 gallon of milk (free)




2 boxes macaroni and cheese (free)




$4.00 off my next grocery trip coupon




GRAND TOTAL: $10.09 (this is including my $4 off next puchase)


SAVINGS: I paid 20.6% of the retail price. Purchasing $48.97 worth of products and only paying $10.09...I'LL TAKE THAT ANY DAY!



K now for the cold stinky truth...Couponing is hard because it is very time-consuming; Nick and I clip coupons together Sunday night and put them in my couponing binder. We clip and then we organize according to date. Then we remove any expired coupons from my binder. After this, I have the task of researching where the good deals are and locating the coupons for these deals. I also have to figure out what products I am going to buy in what transactions in order to save the most moolah. Researching the good deals, organizing my purchases/transactions, and then trying to find the products is the hardest part for me so far. I hope that as I become more experienced with it, it won't take as long.



Is it worth it?




I dunno yet.




It felt great to save so much money tonight and to get so many cheap food items for our family.




However, I was stressing out in the store. Nick was just staring at me with a bemused look on his face while I was trying to figure everything out and Sadie was throwing fit after fit.




Conclusion:




1. Don't coupon with kids...it sucks.




2. Couponing is an art I am not sure I can master but I am going to keep working on it for now. I like feeling like I am contributing (financially) by saving our family money.




3. It's an awesome feeling when you actually accomplish it!




4. I will keep you all updated on good deals I get and where I currently stand with couponing as time goes on.




5. But come on...You guys are so excited for me right? :)




Friday, July 8, 2011

Recent Photos

I can never think of creative titles for my posts! And really guys? NO ONE COUPONS? Apparently all the women that do coupon live in Idaho Falls...hence the empty store shelves every week. Ha ha. Anyways, here are some recent pictures I took. I hope you all enjoy! :)


I love all the fingers in her mouth!
I love this picture. You can tell by her face how proud she was of herself "chasing" the ducks around! She absolutely loved it!

Fireworks this year in Idaho Falls were awesome!!! I ALMOST stayed home with Sadie but am so glad I didn't! Turns out she did great and LOVED them! She would yell, "pupel!" when a red one went off and "Gween" when a blue one went off etc. It was such a fun night!


Has anybody else caught their kid licking water off the pavement? It's her new favorite thing I swear. Boy does she get excited when I turn the sprinkler on!!!

Yep, pretty disgustingly cute.

Nick and I ran To Bone and Back June 25th (40 mile relay race) with friends and family! We had so much fun! Above is us with cousin Ashley and her husband Travis and their kids. Thanks for running with us guys!!!

Awww!

Her cheeks have gotten so chubby lately. All that greek yogurt she eats for breakfast I guess! :)


Tuesday, June 28, 2011

COUPON CRAZY!

Okay well not quite yet...I would like to though! I need your guys' advice. Any of you coupon? I mean, not just using the occasional coupon but have ordered 5 Sunday newspapers, put together a coupon binder, know the grocery store's truck schedule, and go to the store at random times of the day in hopes certain items will be in stock? This is me. Am I any good at couponing yet? No. I just started. BUT, I did get a free pack of Dan nino yogurt the other day thanks to coupons (and not to mention wit). :)
Here's my problem. Every time I hear about a free or money making deal, I rush to the store only to find the shelves completely empty!!! Argh!!! So frustrating! So, for those of you who coupon, when is the best time to go stock up on items? I got up and went to Albertsons early Monday morning while Nick and Sadie were still sleeping and STILL could not get the items I was looking for! Any advice? And if you guys have any other advice regarding couponing, I will happily take that as well!
THX!