Stinkin cute!

Amber took Bostyn for a few hours last week and straightened her hair. I didn't get to see it personally, but I think the picture shows well enough how freaking cute she is - and how long her hair is!

Noah went to St. George this weekend

This past weekend, Noah got to travel to St. George with Oma and Opa! He had a great time playing Battleship and jumping on the trampoline with his cousins and seeing the sights. Bostyn missed him terribly. So much so that the first night Noah was gone, Bostyn wouldn't go into her bed until I walked her around the condo to show her that Noah was not hiding anywhere. We had to call Noah and have him tell Bostyn good night. After that, she fell sound asleep. This continued to be a nightly ritual until Noah came home on Sunday. 

We met in Eagle Mountain, at the townhouse that we are under contract on again. We walked through it, showing Wade and Margie what it looked like. Noah had a great time climbing rocks, throwing small rocks into the pile of snow from the plows, and playing trucks at the bottom of the driveway. It was really super cute and made me want a house even more. Bostyn had a bit of a hard time getting down the stairs but I think I will just dress her in scoot-friendly pants until she masters them.

When we got home, Noah was way excited to see all of his toys! He couldn't make up his mind what he wanted to play with and kept bouncing from one toy to the next. I swear in less than an hour Noah had played with half of all of his toys. Him and Bostyn had a fun time just running around chasing each other too. And tonight while Noah was sitting on his potty, Bostyn wouldn't listen to me to "leave brother alone" and she kept giving him hugs and kisses. Let's just hope that they always love each other this much!

Grocery Smarts class rescheduled

As most of you already know, the Grocery Smarts class was canceled from this past Saturday. For some reason, the newspapers put a "freeze" on accepting new orders for newspapers or something like that, so we are pushing it back a few weeks.

The new class scheduled date is:

March 21 @ 12:30 pm

Until then, I suggest just saving packets of coupons in a file folder or a drawer where they won't get riled up (which is what happens if I leave my coupon booklets lying around...)

I highly suggest everyone come and at least learn what it's all about. You can keep track of my grocery shopping trips and the amount of money I save here. Thanks!

Check this out!

I recently started another blog called Frugal Utah.

It's a work in progress and I might change the name to something else, but it's all about finding great deals, free samples, free movies, etc etc etc. If you have anything to add that could help a fellow friend in this day and age, contact me by commenting on frugalutah.blogspot.com and I will post it. Please tell your friends about it too, I hope to make it a great and popular place for people to visit to help them keep their hard-earned cash!

Happy V-day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of our family & friends!

Chris surprised me with a couple of presents, even though he wasn't supposed to get me anything. I got my favorite game in the world for Wii, Cake Mania. I've actually only played it on our old computer since its not available for Macs. But when I saw it for rent at Blockbuster last week, I got a little too excited. Its realy cute that Chris remembered & drove all the way out to Orem to buy it for me, since that's the only place in Utah it could be bought.

I also got Ed Hardy perfume. As soon as Bostyn saw me spray it on myself, she had to have a squirt too.

The kids & I braved the morning snow storm to get a dozen mini cupcakes from the oh-so-cute & oh-so-yummy So Cupcake for Chris but he was nice enough to share with us, especially the ones with cream cheese frosting that he's not a big fan of.


Bostyn and Noah also got their Valentine surprise from Aunt Arn and Uncle Matti:


All in all, it was a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Now he can add "hero" to his resume

Last week Chris and Rob made a delivery for Chris's work. Rob was driving a small flatbed truck, the "bullet" and as they were driving down the freeway behind a locksmith van, Chris noticed that the van swerved off to the right of the road. Chris thought that he had to scrape the side of his van or something, he was that far over from the lanes of the freeway. Chris warned Rob to watch out for the guy. Eventually, the van made his way to the far left lane and the bullet was in the lane to the right of him but back a little ways. Rob was making sure to keep his distance.

Suddenly, the van swerved again, but to the left this time, towards the median of the freeway. The front driver corner of the van smashed into the metal barrier, next to an opening in the medial for cops to turn around. Once the van crashed into the barrier, the rear end of the van turned out into Rob's lane and began to roll across the lanes. Rob was quick to act and immediately slowed down and started changing lanes to right side of the freeway as well. You can see in the pictures below where the van finally stopped and how close the bullet ended up. Chris said that the entire accident was in slow motion and at one point, he saw the driver of the van actually hanging out of his window as the van was rolling over. If it had rolled one more time, the man would've been crushed. Both Chris and Rob got out of the bullet and went over to the man to see if he was okay. They checked oncoming traffic and notice a semi truck was coming towards them in their lane. Rob busted open the locked driver side door and him and Chris got the guy out of the van and off to the side of the road. Luckily, the semi was able to stop in time and Chris and Rob were able to use cones to block off the accident and stop the rest of the traffic. Within a few minutes the ambulance and a fire marshall that happened to be driving by were there to take control of the scene.

Needless to say, that guy sure is lucky to be alive. Apparantly, he dropped his cell phone and took his seat belt off to bend down and grab it. That doesn't explain the swerving he did earlier, and it doesn't explain the accident this guy had last year where he "dropped his phone" again and crashed head on into a tree. While working for the same company. Let's hope he gets his driving priveleges taken away and if anyone sees a locksmith van driving down the road, be wary!

But my man is officially a hero! What if the semi didn't stop in time and ran into the van with the stupid guy in it still?! Chris and Rob never got a thank you, but they got a "you guys did a good job" from one official (I don't remember who). Well, here is my thank you to the bravest guy I know: Thank you for being such a caring and wonderful person who thinks of others before he thinks of himself. You're a good man with a big heart and good intentions and you make the world a better place.

Now, I only wish I had seen the news footage of my husband flexing his muscles and doing dorky poses behind the news reporter from Channel 2 news.


The median the van crashed into:


You can kind of see the distance he rolled:


Here's how the van stopped and you can see how close the bullet is:

long time, no blog...

I haven't been in much of a mood to blog lately. That's my only excuse. I have a few things to talk about now! Where to start...

Noah went to the dentist... clean bill of health!

Valentine's treats

Margie helped Noah make treats to take to his Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow. They made pink rice crispies treats in the shape of a heart. Then they melted chocolate and drizzled it on top. The teacher's each got a little bit of white chocolate on theirs as well. Here is a picture of Noah coloring his tongue with the food coloring, and the treats. And of course, they wouldn't be complete without Lego theme Valentine cards!!! I will make it a point to have Noah wear something red tomorrow as well.

yummy treats...

Last Sunday we had a steak, lobster and crab legs dinner (don't even ask me how much we spent on the food!) at Margie's house. I made a dessert that I found off of bakerella.blogspot.com. She made her's much more fancy than I did (what the crap is ganache?!) but they still turned out really good and were a hit. I know that Margie was asking how they were made, so Margie, this is for you:




Just make your brownie mix. I poured mine into a glass cake pan, then I took the cookie pieces (they are already scored, so they should break off into squares) and I arranged them by 3 in a row into the brownie mix. I baked for 30 minutes (less than what it says on the brownie mix box, and more than it said on the cookie package, use your judgement) and it seemed to be a good amount of time. If you want, you can frost them but they were sweet enough as it was. And I have a major sweet tooth! I suggest making them, maybe for Valentine's day? they are really good. Enjoy!

grocery smarts

Recently I have been lucky enough to be introduced to a whole new way of buying groceries. I went to a class that teaches you how to save hundreds of dollars on groceries by combining sales with coupons. I think at first, to some people, it can sound time consuming and a bit of a hassle. But since I'm already a couponer (when I remember to take them with me...) this was just icing on the cake. Plus, going to the class made me realize how much money we can save on groceries. So much, in fact, that we will be more able to afford a mortgage without stressing about paying it. Canceling the cable will help a lot too... :)

So far, we have only been on 2 small shopping trips using grocery smarts but we have saved around $100. The best one was 4 boxes of cereal & 4 boxes of Quaker instant oatmeal and the total after tax was $8.56. We saved $39.22. I don't remember the details of the 2nd shopping trip, but we got boxes of toaster strudels for .50 each & 4-packs of Activia yogurt for .50 each as well. We got more groceries, but those are the main deals that I remember. We saved just under $70 on that trip! I think that makes it well worth it doing.

I want everyone I know to learn about this as well. So, I am having a Grocery Smarts class at my friend Soraya's house on Saturday February 21 at 12:30 pm. She lives in Daybreak and her house is much more accomodating than my small condo! Everyone is welcome to come, especially those with families & more mouths to feed. Please make sure to rsvp and I will get you the address and directions.

Super Bowl Sunday

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Tonight, we had a small party with Wade, Margie, Trav and my mom and WAY too much food! Chris and I went to the grocery store on Saturday to buy all of our drinks, chips, veggies and dip ingredients. While in line to pay, the man in front of us said, You must be having a Super Bowl party! I said, Guess how many people are going to be there? He guessed 12! It was funny. He didn't even see the mini hamburgers, mini hot dogs, 2 kinds of wings, and Chili's chips and salsa we had. Plus, the queso Margie made. Oh, and the cake and ice cream. It was a good time had by all. Here is a picture of a professionally made cake off of my newest favorite blog, Cake Wrecks in honor of the super bowl champions:

Happy birthdays are in order

This is a special post to Opa Ron, wishing him a very happy birthday! The whole family went up with Aunt Arn and Uncle Matti to Ron's for cake and ice cream. We really enjoyed it and the kids had a good fun time. We already wished Oma Mo a happy birthday on their blog, but we would like to make a special place on here to wish her a happy day as well! We love them both and appreciate everything they do for us.