Smilin' Girls

Since I took a bunch of fun pictures when Savannah was little, I thought I needed to take some of Charlotte. She is 11 weeks in these pictures.

However since my nice camera is broken at the moment I had to use our digital. It is a nice digital but doesn't give me the effects I want. Also for some reason when I go to the black and white mode the shutter speed is not as fast. Oh well I like them anyway. I didn't get around to taking these when she was a couple weeks old like Savannah was, but we are doing our best with having an extra helper that gets mad that she cannot be in the picture as well. Charlotte is a wiggle worm too, so that didn't help in keeping the pictures blurry from the constant moving about.

Charlotte loves her mobile in her bed. I have never seen a baby so happy to get in bed. The minute she sees the mobile she gets so excited. Savannah and I were getting her to smile for us. Then I think a little jealousy kicked in cause Savannah told me to stop taking pictures of Charlotte and to take some of her. She has a really pretty smile when she doesn't say 'cheeeeessseee'.

Mesa Temple

On Saturday we went down to the temple. Since I am still nursing Charlotte we had to bring the baby sitter with us. We also went with some friends, so she picked up the babysitter and brought her along. We were in Scottsdale in the morning getting my awful haircut fixed a bit. While we were on the grounds, I was overwhelmed by the smell of flowers. Normally I would think that alyssum would smell awful, but mixed with the petunias made it smell like Spring. The tulips and daffodils were poking out of the ground, oh it was such a nice day. They were practicing for the Easter pageant on the front lawn, so listening in was a real treat. Savannah enjoyed trying to catch some oranges, lemons and grapefruit from the trees. She was hoping one would fall, then one of the nice sister missionaries told us we were welcome to pick them. She also liked showing everyone the strawberries and that there was one that was big and almost red. Savannah had a great time with the babysitter on the grounds. Chad went in to do a session since Justin was unable to come because of work. So when Preeti got there we went to do anishatories (I proabably totally spelled that wrong). That is only the second time I have done it since my own. It is nice to do that every once in a while to remember all the blessings I received when I did my own endowments. All in all it was a beautiful day, and Savannah even got a little sun on her cheeks. Savannah's favorite part was going to the Dairy Queen right next door and getting a little treat.

Just me and the girls

Tonight was book club for one of our Enrichment focus groups. I didn’t read the book but Chad as going to be at the Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts and so I thought I would go and be supportive. It was great. The ladies cracked me up with them giving me a synopsis of the book Twilight. They basically told me chapter by chapter what happened so that I wouldn’t be lost. But since they were telling me all about it, that is all they did. They didn’t get much discussing in about the book. It does sound really good. I do want to read it, I just had too much going on. Well on the way home, I figured I was already half-way to Walgreens so I might as well get more free make-up. I asked Savannah if she had fun at the Book Club. She says, “Well yes, but those ladies talk a lot.” She made me laugh. When we had first got there she went upstairs to play with the hostesses boys. I asked her what they were doing up there. She told me they were watching Peter Pan. I said, “Oh did you have fun?” She said “Yes, we were watching Peter Pan. Then Tinkerbell came out of the TV and was flying around. She came over to talk to me but I couldn’t hear her because she is small so I couldn’t hear her little voice. Then Peter Pan came out and he gave her something so that she could talk louder.” I asked her what Tinkerbell said. She said, “Tinkerbell told me that I could dress up Semanee (her friend) in a pink dress. I like that dress, she looks very cute in it.” Then she proceeded to tell me that Tinkerbell was flying outside the car and going to follow us home. And Tinkerbell is going to live with us and sleep in her room with her. When we stopped at Walgreens, and we got out, I told her to wait on the yellow line while I got Charlotte out. She then says, “Wait here Tinkerbell. I will hold your hand. You have to stay on the yellow line so you can be safe.” She has such an imagination.

How I did it ~ Coupons

Okay so since a few of you asked how I got all the stuff for free, I will let ya know. It does take a bit of time and research. Plus it is really addicting. I know Stephanie and I feel like its a game. It is mainly pairing up store coupons with manufacture coupons and having the item on sale. CVS is great!! But for those of you in Utah, sorry CVS is not there yet. Anyway, I first found it while on babycenter.com while I was pregnant. There is an LDS board that all the people on there are some way or other related to the LDS church (one member families, investigators, etc). Anyway, there is a thread called 'Deals & Steals'. It is updated every week and the ladies give heads up on what things are on sale and where to go. Here is the link to the board I go to.
Babycenter
Also there is another blog that is MoneySavingMom and she gives lots of heads up too on deals.

To give you an example of what deals are out there right now.
Target does store coupons that you can print out. There is no limit on how many you can print. On the Target website they only list the current week coupons even though the ones from past weeks are still good and not expired. So you can print them off at afullcup It is also nice to print from here because it puts 5 on a page rather than one. So saves paper.
Target deals - currently there is a coupon for $.50 off of 2 Market Pantry cheese. Well they sell their string cheese for $.24, buy 2 = Free.
Target also clearances out a bunch of items all the time, so check the endcaps then you can add in a coupon and get things free or for pennies. Back in January a coupon came out for $2.25 off Electrasol dishwasher soap. Target had it on sale for $2.66, so I got it for $.41. You can also buy coupons online so I bought 20 more for $.10 a piece, so I have about a 2 yr supply of dishwasher soap, for under $10.
Walgreens - they have the Easy Saver coupons. There are a little booklet located right by the weekly ads. There are all sorts of store coupons in there.

Places that you can print off coupons online.
Target coupons - Target coupons - unlimited printing
The rest you can only print 2 per computer.
coupons.com
Boodle
Smartsource - This one you may need to print through firefox, I have to.
To buy coupons online:
Couponclippers
Couponmaster
But one good place is to get the Sunday paper and clip coupons. I click almost everything, even if it is something I probably wouldn't buy. But if it came on sale and combined with things I could get it for free, might as well. Many grocery stores double coupons too, up to $1.00.
Anyway, there is my deals in a nut shell. It is so great to save money. We hardly spend any money on groceries anymore, other than milk, veggies and such. It has really helped to build up my food storage. Oh how I miss my basement to be able to store things. My bookshelves in my office have been taken over with food. Hope you enjoy the 'thrill' of saving money like I have.

Inside the imagination of Savannah

It is Sunday and since we have church at 8am, that Sunday nap is a must. Savannah and I took a nap in my bed while Chad and Charlotte were downstairs. When we woke up I decided that we needed to make dinner. Since I was really hungry we had breakfast for dinner, plus it sounded really good too. While I was making the pancakes, Savannah said she had to go to work. She asked if she could wear her velvet beret to work. I said sure. She told me she has to look nice for work. She is wearing her regular clothes but has on a red velvet beret, a brown velvet jacket that goes with one of her church dresses and her red sparkle ‘Dorothy’ shoes. I told it was time for dinner and she was sad because she said she had to go to work. After dinner was done, she was very good and put her dishes in the sink, then said “Okay I have to go to work now.” She went over to the swing and gave Charlotte a kiss on the forehead and said, “See you later honey. Be a good girl.” She got on her tricycle and proceeded to go around and around the kitchen island on her way to work. Chad and I asked her where she worked. She said, “I don’t know.” So then we asked, “Who do you work for?” She says, “Aflac.” We both chuckled. But it gets better. She goes in the playroom gets her toy laptop and sits at her little table. She opens it up and hits all the buttons on it. Then gets her play phone and starts calling people. Listening to her conversation just cracks me up. She says, “I don’t know. I will have to call you back later.” Then she calls Daddy since we call him while he is at work. Daddy is watching the All-Star game so he didn’t hear that she is trying to call him. So I say “Hello Savannah …” She says, “No I have to talk to Daddy. That is who you call when you’re at work.” Oh the imagination of a three year old.

Memories ~ Chad

It was February 1986, sitting at the Thurber home watching the NBA All-Stars slam-dunk competition in Dallas, where Spud Webb, at 5'4" won the competition. We couldn't believe it!!

As Chad and I were watching highlights from past All-Star weekends, Chad mentioned his memories from that particular one. Many great memories from the Thurber household. It is funny how one little name or a song, can bring back a flood of memories. I know we all have great ones. Many from Chad are hanging out at the Thurber Farm, watching sports, playing video games and playing with M.A.S.K. (Now Brad and Jer are the memories coming back with that one?)

Great times...

My Couponing Obsession

Last October, I found an online board of LDS women who are coupon fanatics. They were getting 'oodles of stuff for pennies or free. So I lurked on their board for a while before I got up the guts to go try it myself. So the last week in October I jumped in. I got 20 sets of L'Oreal Vive shampoo/conditioner absolutely free. I couldn't believe it. Then I got 20 bags of pretzels for free. I didn't realize the little ole Sunday paper could have so much money in it. So I thought I would share a few pictures of my stash. I estimate that I have probably spent $150 on everything I have. Some stuff I didn't take a picture of because I have to store things in odd locations. So all the liquid dish soap, femine products, laundry products I didn't picture, but I have gotten them all for free or for under a buck. Sorry for the hoard of pictures but I am so proud of my little stash.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Savannah has been looking forward to Valentine's Day since New Years got over. She always wants to know which holiday is next. And she makes sure we have decorations up in the house for it. We bought her valentines for her little friends about 2 weeks ago and she has been chomping at the bit to give them out. Well the day finally arrives and she wakes up at 7:30am, a little cranky and whiney. Turns out she caught our cold/flu bug. She had a bit of a fever this morning, but with the help of Tylenol it has gone down. But she said, "I'm sick so I can't do my valentines huh Mom? Cause I don't want to get my friends sick." I feel so bad. I hope she will be feeling a little better later on, so we can do deliver them. Maybe we will have to do it tomorrow though. But she may say she is all of the sudden feeling better this afternoon when I tell her what we had planned. Since we didn't get a babysitter, and because I am still being gernsy the cow, we decided to make this a family Valentines. We were planning on taking them to see Enchanted, then just grabbing some take out from Chili's since we haven't used our gift card from Christmas yet. Savannah loves that movie, so I hope come 4 o'clock she feels a bit better. We hope you all have a fantastic Valentines and know we love you.

St. George

Well we went on a little trip the other weekend to get away from all the commotion that was going on in Phoenix; Super Bowl, FBR, parties for both, yadda-yadda. So we headed up to St. George for the weekend, and also to celebrate my Father-in-laws 67th birthday. Growing up I thought that was old and you would be on your death bed. But considering my grandparents either were on their deathbed or already gone I can see why I thought that. But he is still young and full of life. (as are all the others in their 60s I know). We rented a car through our neighbor and got his great employee discount, and were off. Charlotte and Savannah were such great travelers, and we made it in pretty good time.

We got to hang out with Kevin/Lisa and crew. And see Dave/Gentry's new house. We also got to meet Sharon, who is very nice and compliments Larry very well. We wish them the best of luck in their dating, and I am so glad I am not having to date anyone anymore.

Marianne and Michael came down to St. George to check out Michael's grandparents condo that got smashed in by a semi truck. We met up with them for a little Bubble Tea, and so they could meet Charlotte. It was fun to spent a little bit of time with them. We really need to live closer to more family.

The Wright clan went out to see the play Man of La Mancha and then went out to Red Lobster for a late dinner. I think the staff had wished they had told us they were closed already, because I think we were by far louder than a bunch of teenagers. Dad almost got scolded by the hostess for seeing how far he could 'frizbee' throw his coaster. The boys were about to follow suit but decided against it. We had lots of laughs while revisiting the past and old memories.

Sunday was freezing (we are big whimps now that we live in AZ). St George got about 2 inches of snow. Savannah was SO excited. She has been wanting to build a snowman for so long. When she saw it snowing, she kept bugging Kevin for a carrot for the snowmans nose and buttons for his eyes. So I got nominated by all the kids to come outside and build them a snowman. Savannah lastest long enough to watch us build the snowman, then she was cold and wanted to go inside. I agreed with her, since I didn't have gloves and only had on a sweatshirt and levis. I didn't miss much of the 'Big Game' while I was outside frockling in the snow, since the winter storm caused the satelite to go out. So while we all sat through the boring first half, we didn't get to see any of the 2nd good half because of weather. But we were in good company so we were okay with that.

Once all the snow melted and we had now acquired colds from the weather we headed back home on Monday. All was well with the trip until........I see the horrid red and blue lights in my mirror just outside of Kingman. So much for a radar detector. Doesn't do much good when the cop is behind you he is just keeping up speed with you. I should have pulled on the tears, which isn't too hard being post-partum, or even because I had made road-kill out of a cute little bunny only 15 miles back. But I held it together and got the ticket. He was a nice kid and lowered my 14 over ticket to 10 over. I also found out that in the state of AZ that 11 miles over is considered a criminal ticket, so I am Oh so grateful for him lowering it. That was our latest adventure. Tune in next time. ....

Here we go....

Well since everyone else is doing it, figured I better jump on in. I guess it saves me time from writing emails to everyone. But it is nice to get those every now and again. I love to hear from new and old friends. It is the old friends, the fab five, who really gave me the push to do this. It is hard being away from family and the friends you were raised with, but we have managed to make more friends and have good times too. So I thought we would jump on the Bloggin bandwagon so everyone can see what we are up to. Feel free to jump in and comment, love to hear from you.