Couponing

Last fall I happened to catch an episode of Extreme Couponing. I was so intrigued by how these people were able to save so much money on everyday purchases and build a stockpile too. So I started searching the internet for anything I could find on how to coupon. Shortly after that our library was offering a class on couponing so I went to that also. One of the things the lady said during the class is that it takes a while to build up your stockpile. How true that is. I started about six months ago and I'm just barely starting to see a difference. One of the other things she said was that you will still have to pay full price for things for a while. For example, pasta goes on sale so you stock up, but you still need pasta sauce. So the sauce you pay full price for, but when it goes on sale, that's when you stock up. I've tried many different methods to find one that works for me and I'm just starting to get the hang of it.
The pictures below are from my shopping trip last week which was one of my better and larger shopping trips.
I spent $116 out of pocket for $230 worth of product.

It's nothing like what you see on Extreme Couponing, but it a start!

My New Love

If you know me at all, you know that I am not a crafty person. At all! I can't just look at something and be inspired to create something wonderful. But I can take someone else's ideas and make that.
In comes Pinterest.
I love all the creativeness that you can find on there. I have found so many cute craft ideas and many delicious recipes. So I thought I would share a few of the things that I have made. 
Around Halloween I found a pin on how to make your own apothecary jars.
I thought they were so cute and versatile. All you had to do was change out the stuff in the jars to coordinate with the season/holiday. Cheap and easy. Or so I thought! Since we don't have any craft stores around here, I had to wait to make a trip to Orem. Then I was very disappointed that after going to every craft store in Orem, Provo and American Fork, I was not able to find a single thing to make these jars.
Fast forward to December.
I met Brian in Grand Junction one weekend to do a little shopping, and since I made it there before he did, I decided to check out Michael's. Luckily, I happened to find the four bases and two of the four finials. But I was still short two finials, the candlestick holders, and the jars, (I had actually ordered jars online since I couldn't find them in any of the craft stores. But once I received them, I knew that they just wouldn't work for what I had in mind. So I am saving them for another project.) so I pretty much gave up on the idea.
Then last week I came across a craft blog that had used food jars that they already had on hand (such as pickle jars) and she also used glass candlestick holders instead of wooden ones.
That's when I had my ah-ha moment. I had all of the stuff all along! I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of that. It was so simple.
So I went through my fridge and found some jars of food that was expired/expiring and cleaned the jars then I found my old glass candlestick holders and got to work.

And since I can't do just one project at a time, I decided to do a couple other things too!

I pulled down my green shelf that was in the living room and repainted it and replaced the wooden drawer knobs with metal knobs that I found clearanced at Wal-Mart.

It was in need of a makeover!

And for the last project that I was working on, I found free printable subway art like this one here.

That's when I decided to paint all of my old picture frames and put them to good use. I knew I held on to them for some reason! So all I had to do was save the free printables to my computer, then I just ordered prints from Walmart.com since my printer doesn't print very well. Then I had the kids help me paint the frames different colors to coordinate with the pictures.

  

 

 

I love that the apothecary jars and the subway art can so easily be switched out according to the holiday.

I am very happy with how the shelf turned out. I still need to find two more finials and some small letters and ribbon and I think the jars will look more complete. All in all I am pretty satisfied how they turned out. Even if it took me 5 months to get it done!

Better late than never, right?

I guess since its almost the end of February I will finally get around to blogging about Christmas!

We spend every Christmas Eve at my mom's and each year my mom gets all the grandkids an ornament for the tree.



Since we usually don't do too much at my mom's, my sister and I decided to spice things up a little and we had the kids act out the Nativity. They weren't too thrilled as you can tell by the look on Wyatt's face, but it still turned out really cute and maybe it will even help the kids to remember the true meaning of Christmas! 

Abbie (Mary) Sara (Angel Gabriel) Wyatt (Wiseman)

Christmas morning we got up early to see what Santa had left, then we rushed to get ready for church. My mother-in law was speaking in sacrament and we wanted to be there to suprise and support her.

And the kids were really excited to get new comforters for their beds since their old ones were about four years old and they had outgrown them!



Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf

I just love Sara's and Wyatt's costumes this year. And they weren't even planned! I just wish I could have talked Stephanie into dressing up as Grandma. Wouldn't that have been cute?

Stephanie was being a pill and wouldn't even dress up. She even had a costume on to begin with then took it off at the last minute.

 

This year Wyatt has been so excited for Halloween. Every morning for about a week before, he would wake up in the morning and tell me "Happy Early Halloween!"  So it was no surprise when he was all smiles at his program.

Wyatt's School Program

Random Fall Pictures

The kids were supposed to be raking up leaves. Doesn't look like they got too much done!

Fruits of our Labor

Earlier this spring, Brian spent many nights preparing this area that was previously a flower bed and turning it in to a garden area for me. He did such a great job and I love how it turned out.
I had such high hopes for our garden this year because we have always been successful with our gardening in the past. However it soon became apparent that we were only going to have these huge, gorgeous plants and nothing else to show for our hard work. We ended up with only a handful of squash, cucumbers that were bitter and tomatoes that were just starting to ripen just before the first frost.  I purposefully planted several tomato plants so that I could make some salsa and stewed tomatoes. But I had to improvise and ended up buying tomatoes from Bountiful Baskets so that I could work on getting our food storage built back up.

 I ended up only canning 4 out of the 5 boxes after I seen how much it was actually going to make.

In all, I ended up with 34 pints of salsa and 21 quarts plus 12 pints of stewed tomatoes.

Luckily I have a great family who gave me corn from their garden so that I could can corn too.

It sure is a lot of work but is so worth it when we can eat corn this winter that tastes like its fresh from a garden rather than out of a can.

She's 13! Can you believe it?

Last month was Stephanie's 13th birthday! Can you believe we actually have a teenager? Crazy! Stephanie wanted to do something different this year so she decided that she wanted to have a hot dog roast at Remember the Maine.  The weather was perfect and he had a great time visiting with family.

The best part was when the boys caught a water snake and decided to scare all the girls. It was priceless and the girls provided some great entertainment!