Rub-a-dub-dub!

I went for a walk tonight after dinner and when I got home, Will was walking, quickly to the bathroom with the camera ready. Here is what he was gettin' the camera for:

I personally like this one the best. Look at Seth. Sasha needs a towel to wipe her face off, I think. Last night, while I was at YW's they took a 2 hour bath. They love the tub in our new house. I love it too, but I don't make quite the mess they do when I bathe in it.

My coupon organizer!

My friend, Karly, asked my to post a picture of my coupon binder, so here ya go! I found this at a garage sale for like $1.00 but have seen them at Walgreen's or Walmart. Just get one with pockets and one that zips up so you don't lose anything.

Here is what this baseball card holders look like that I use to organize each section with. Just buy regular old baseball card holders and put a few in each section. I found mine at Shopko.

You need dividers, probably several packs. I divided mine into these sections: baking, canned, treats\snacks, frozen, meats, refridgerated, condiments, side dishes, cereal, beverages, cleaning, laundry, paper products, razors, toothpaste, misc health and beauty (female "stuff", deodorant, medicines, first aid), soaps\lotions, hair products, makeup, and baby.

When I get my inserts from the Sunday papers, I put them in piles like this.

Then I make piles of the same page so I only have to cut each one once. There are 5 of each coupon page in each pile and I just get cuttin'. Then I put them in my binder and I am ready to rock and roll. It may look like it takes a ton of time, but it really doesn't. Maybe 30 minutes if I am taking my time. I usually take my binder to the store with me and have an envelope with the store's name on it so I can keep the coupons I will be handing the checker handy and not be flustered, looking all over for a certain coupon. Any questions? Ok, try it, you'll love all the money you will save and love all the food that fills your house!

Why I love couponing:

*I don't pay more than .50 for name brand cereal. When it goes on sale for $1.00, I bust out all my cereal coupons and get like 20 boxes for dirt cheap.

*I generally pay .75 for my cleaning products. Walgreen's is the best place I've found for buying cleaning products. They put them on sale a lot and do rebates for them, so I stock up there.

*When they put out a "try this for free", I get to try it 5 times since I get 5 Sunday papers and get 5 sets of coupons each week.
*I get free stuff all the time when I see it's on sale and use a coupon. I got Tyson chicken packages free since there were coupons out saving you $2.00 off each pack and I found the ones that were priced $2.00 or less. I wish they'd put that one again. That was so cool.

*I have enough Electrosol dishwasher packs to last me for like a year since they put out a coupon saving you $2.25 and I got some for .09 by getting it on sale for cheap at Target. I traded for more coupons and my friend gave me tons of hers so I totally scored with that deal.

Anyway, I love couponing. I'd love to convert you all to couponing................

Homemade applesauce......

A big fat, "Thank you" to my friend Leah, who let us pick some apples off her parent's tree so I could make some yummy homemade applesauce. They are on a mission to the Philippines, and she had already picked what she wanted. I got 8 Walmart bags FULL of apples. I made applesause and canned them for 8 hours total this weekend! It was fun, actually and the kids really enjoyed using this gadget here to peel and core them.

Then, they wanted to bob for apples, and I told them it was too cold to do it outside. So, they did it inside. Sasha actually went first and got her shirt very wet, so she put her swimming suit on. Seth and Addie thought that was a great idea, so they put theirs on, too. No, I did not put mine on. They are so funny and make a game of everything!

I canned like 30 pints and 10 or so quarts. My hands got so stained by the apples it looked like I hadn't washed them in a really long time. This is what we did this weekend! I love free produce!

She-Hulk

Oh, my goodness, this is funny! Seth likes to watch the cartoon "The Incredible Hulk" and Addie especially likes the episodes with She-Hulk. I bought this wig years ago for a church play thingy, and it has been in the dress-up bin for a long time. She found it and wore it constantly for days, saying she was She-Hulk. It is in need of a good brushing and looks so ratted! She walks around the neighborhood with it on and gets some laughs and some looks from our neighbors. Seth is bugged that she likes to wear it, for some reason, and asks her to please take it off. She refuses, he asks again, and round and round they go. Seth is going to be The Incredible Hulk for Halloween, so don't be surprised if Addie trades in her princess dress for this wig so she can be SHE-HULK .

The Saga of Sick Kids...........

This past week or so has been one long slumber party for us. Seth got sick last Tuesday and I took him to Wee Care at 1am, but it was just a virus. So, he had about 3 nights of sleeping with us since all our kids want to sleep with us when they are sick. Sasha was next to get the bug and she too, had a virus. She has missed a week of school, poor girl, and has also been sleeping in our bed. Sometimes we had Seth and Sasha in bed with us. Sometimes, Momma went on the couch! Addie is the final one to get it and she is mad that she is sick. She walks around the house all day and tells us all, "I don't feel good". As soon as Will comes in the door at night, she rushes right over to tell him "I don't feel good". Then she sniffs and wants him to hold her. It is kinda cute, actually. Our routine is we put the kids to bed and wait for one of them to come into our room, sick with a fever. I usually take them in the living room, get them some medicine, turn a cartoon on, and wait for the medicine to kick in. Then, we shuffle back to our bed and all cram in there to try and get some sleep. I can't believe Will is functioning at work will so many nights of interupted sleep. I can at least try to rest during the day. I think they are all on the mend and hope Sasha can go back to school on Monday. Seth has missed a lot of preschool, too, but he does not seem to care or even notice.

Today, sick kids and all, I hope to go get some free apples with a friend of mine so I can make and can some applesauce. I love free apples or produce of any kind. Wahoo.

Tagged....

Thanks Holly, for the cute idea for today's entry.

10 years ago I was:
1. Just off my mission
2. Attending WSU
3. Working at the Layton IHC as a medical assistant
4. Just about to meet my eternal companion
5. driving a Honda Civic

5 things on my to-do list:
1. Laundry, laundry, laundry
2. Make cupcakes with the kids today.
3. Do my hair and makeup today since it is 11:00am now and here I sit...
4. Pay bills
5. Get some milk

5 snacks I love:
1. Fresh fruit
2. Spinach artichoke dip and crackers
3. Popcorn
4. Doritos
5. Nachos

If I were a millionaire I would:
1. Pay off Will's law school loans
2. Pay off all our bills, house, cars EVERYTHING.
3. Go to Hawaii, or somewhere tropical
4. Donate to some young family that is struggling.
5. Re-invest to keep it growing.

5 places I have lived:
1. Brigham City, Utah
2. San Diego, CA
3. North Ogden, Utah
4. Philippines
5. Coralville, IA

5 jobs I have had:
1. Babysitter
2. Shopko worker
3. Medical Assistant
4. Clothing store manager in a mall in Iowa
5. Mom

Fun, now you play if you read my blog.......

Free medicine at Rite Aid this week!!!!!

Update:
Ok so, don't ever say you are ready for everyone to get sick cuz that is just what will happen. My kiddos were sick all weekend! But, I was prepared!

RUN, DON'T WALK TO RITE AID FOR FREE MEDICINE!
















If I would have paid full price for all of this, I would have spent: $65.68.

But I got it all for free after rebate at Rite Aid. I love Rite Aid rebates! All you do is enter some numbers off your receipt online and they send ya a check! Wahoo. Now we can all get sick. I'm ready.

Snow cones......

So after the kids played in the snow for a bit, Sasha asked me to go and get her a "big bowl". I knew what she was going to do, since she does this every time it snows. She fills a big tupperware bowl with snow, brings it in the house and eats it. Sure enough, she filled her bowl with snow and then asked for the snow cone syrup. I got it for her and a big snow cone party followed. Seth and Addie didn't want to be left out, do you blame them? You have to admit, it is a pretty darn good idea. Those babies are HUGE! No, they didn't all get eaten. They are in my freezer until I decide I need the room and toss them out......when the kids aren't looking, of course.

Umm, it totally snowed last night!!

This is what we woke up to today! SNOW!

It took us awhile to round up all the coats, boots, hats, gloves, and all that since I was not expecting a snow storm this early in the season. All I can say is I am so glad I got all their coats last year on super-dooper clearance and they were ready to rock and roll.

Oh, and you can totally jump on the trampoline in the snow. It is a little different experience but still very fun, apparently.

Will and I had fun playing in the snow this morning before church! Kids bring out the best in us all and make us want to be a kid again, don't they!?

p.s.

I will post the pictures of their tie-dye shirts tomorrow. They turned out really cute! Oh, and I finished Sasha's Dorothy costume! Hooray for me! I'll post that too, probably!

Tie dye, anyone?

I bought a tie dye kit a long time ago and life got busy and I forgot about it. Well, Sasha never forgot about it and has been begging me to make tie dye shirts, so Friday was the day. We made the biggest mess all over the the place and that is why I frantically stripped Seth and Addie down to their underwear so they wouldn't get the die on their clothes. Sheesh. I think this was an outside project. Oh well. My apron that luckily I was wearing got blue die squirted on it and it didn't come out. (S'ok, Seth. It was an accident, right? Right??). Anywhoo, it was fun and the kids had a ball. I really do like doing stuff like this with them. Thank heavens for Clorox Bleach Spray, is all I can say, though.....

"Crazy Hair Day" for Red Ribbon Week

Sasha had "crazy hair day" at school, so we had a good time putting a bunch of hair stuff in her hair! We have sooooo many, bows, barrettes and such that we didn't even make a dent in the "hair stuff" drawer! She looks great, huh!
Here she is with her buddies from school Liberty and Sydnee. We carpool with them now since they both live around the corner from us. Cute girls! Sydnee hopes the red hair spray comes out of her hair, I assured her it would. :)
Liberty, Sasha and Sydnee

(Oh and this is Syndee's house and Addie and Seth LOVE the witch on their porch and sometimes we HAVE to go see it while we are getting our mail. Nobody in our subdivision has a mail box. We have a mail "station" and we use our key to open our mail box. Weird, huh. I don't know why they did it like that. This subdivision has been around for at least 4 years......)

Seriously......

What in the world happened in our playroom today? Conference is what happened! LOL. I came down to take some pictures for another post, and decided to take a couple of shots of this big mess. Will and I kinda let things slide so we could watch Conference and the kids had fun......a lot of fun......where in the world are the couch cushions?!






Allright, enough of that. Off we go to clean up. Now you post your big messy playroom, living room or whatever, K!? Go, go, go! Let's compare messes! I think I will WIN!

Craft update...

Addie's room was lookin' a little sad and neglected so I made some things to sprouse it up a bit. I love how the "A" for Addie turned out.






This green may be too bright......I dunno if I like it or not. I painted\dabbed green tole paint on an old, dorky frame and used my Cricut Machine to make the letters for her name. Hmmmmm.....I hate when I don't LOVE what I make. Can anyone else relate?




My cedar chest is in her room and so I decided to make some pillows out of some pieces of fabric I have laying around. They turned out ok. Her curtains are the same kind of thing: lots of patchwork, different colors, and really cute. So, these pillows work in her room.



Lastly, this was our activity at Young Women's this week. We painted the blocks, sanded them a bit on the edges, rubbed a varnish on them, pounded a nail in the top, put some curly wire on them and glued leaves and berries on and TA-DA. They turned out very cute and the girls had fun.



p.s.
I am still working on Sasha's Dorothy costume for Halloween. I am trying to get the skirt sewn on the bodice and I have unpicked it twice. I am taking a day or so off since I am kinda stuck. But, I will get it done. Have no fear.........

My new favorite room in our house...

Introducing: THE RODGER'S FAMILY FOOD STORAGE ROOM

We hired a guy and his son to come and install shelves in our cold-storage room and we are thrilled with the results! We are really focusing on food storage right now and would like to fill this room up with FOOD and lots of it! Will jokingly says he is going to the "store" when he goes in here to get something! I love this room.

Seth's 1st field trip!

Seth had his first field trip and Addie and I tagged along! We rode the Front Runner to Ogden and went through the train museum there.


Here we are waiting to ride the train.


The sensational 7: His preschool class: Brooke, Thayne, Tyler, Abbie, Alyssa, MacKenzie and Seth. The kids were so excited to ride the train and were screaming "chugga-chugga-choo-choo" over and over and got lots of looks from the people at the station. It was so cute. I was pretty excited, too, I must say.



Thayne, Seth and Abbie riding the train. We went upstairs and checked out the seats up there and made our way back to the main level. We got told to "please sit down" at time or two by the workers. :) We had heard stories of kids getting separated from their moms while trying to get off or on the train, so all us mom's were kinda freaked out and practically screamed "GET OFF, QUICK!" like crazy ladies. But, we made it all and no one got left. Whew!



They had the neatest displays of small trains going through mountains and towns and things and the kids could have stayed there for hours watching the little train go and go. It really was neat. I think they all liked this part the best.



One last pose and then we were done. They all did well at minding and not getting on stuff they weren't supposed to. It was kinda hard to control them all! Addie only hit me once or twice and said "Leave me alone, Mom" a time or two, so it wasn't too bad. (She is such a fiesty little girl! But, you know I love her.)



It was a fun day and we almost didn't make the train we wanted since we all had to go potty and geez it takes 3-4 year-olds a long time to go potty, don't ya know. I really needed to make the 12:08 train so I could pick up Sasha from school since she had early out. All of us moms and his teacher ran as fast as we could with all the kids in tow and we all made the train with a minute or so to spare. It was quite fun.