Ouch!

This is what happens when you jam your finger while playing basketball!

This picture does not do it justice!

Last night Sara came in from playing basketball to tell us that she hurt her finger. We looked at it and said that she probably just jammed it. As the night went on she just kept complaining about it hurting. It just looked a little red and swollen. Well, when it was time to put the kids to bed she finally says "Mom, look at my finger!" so I take a better look at it and by then it had started turning black and blue. So the next morning we took her to Urgent Care thinking that it was broken. They did x-rays but they said it didn't look broken but that they would have the radiologist take a look and let us know for sure. (Still haven't been able to get ahold of anyone to get any answers!) So they wrapped up her finger and sent us on our way.

Don't you think that's overkill for a jammed finger?

Pinewood Derby

Today was the Pinewood Derby for Wyatt's Pack. He has been so excited about it. All week all I've heard from his "I hope I win, I hope I win". I explained to him that there was going to be several other boys there and that their cars were going to be just as good as his.

His Transformer car

The Competition

And the race is on

Look at those faces!

He's getting pretty excited now!

And the winner is...

Check out that happy face!

Vocabulary Parade

Yesterday was the vocabulary parade at school.

Wyatt wasn't too picky about his word. We knew he had a hat and a lasso, so lasso was what he settled on.

Sara's class was challenged to come up with a word that they weren't familiar with or that was uncommon. Valedictorian was the word Sara finally chose. I thought that it fit her perfectly because she always tries so hard to have good grades. When she has a test, she stays up late to study, then she is usually up extra early to get in a little more study time. I am so proud of her and how hard she applies herself.

Sara's letters

These letters were so cute I just had to share them.
Sara had an assignment for school where she had to write a letter to someone. She chose to write it to me. She wrote the letters from her perspective as well as from my perspective.
I did not edit. I left punctuation and spelling how she had it. You should be able to click on the letter to see a larger picture of it so you can read her letters.

Dear Mom,

I thought I need something to play with, a laptop, or IPad2, but the thing I want most is a grand piano. A house is not a house without a piano and our house does not have a piano. An IPad 2 and laptop are thing people buy because their great but they are not that great with it, there worse. Therefore, I still want a grand piano, even thou it is a 1,000 dollars. Please think about it.

Your hopful daughter,

Sara

Dear Sara,
I think it is a good idea that you want a piano, but are you really ready for this? I know that you are responsible, but maybe not ready for this. Why not dance? It's something you've done before. Why not gymnastics? It's something you wanted to do before.
Love your,
Mother




Dear Mom,
I'm really ready for this.I know that I am responsible. I did not choose dance because it can be boring. I didn't choose gymnastics because it can hurt you. Please reconsider.
Love your understandable daughter,
Sara

Dear Sara,
There is more to life than to play on a piano all day long. think about all that you are missing. You could be playing with your dog that you begged for. You could be hanging out with your friends or hanging out with family. Making money for college. Please think about it.
Sincerely your loving mother,
Kristy

Dear Mom,
I know that I am missing a lot in life. I will pay for the books and leasons and cleaning supplies and the piano its self. Plus most of my friends have a piano. It is my dream to have a grand piano. Please don't break my dream.
Love your worried daughter,
Sara

Dear Sara,
I'm glad that you will pay for the stuff. How will you get the money? Instead of that how about something else? Me and your father talked about it and got you something else. Please don't be mad at us for not getting you the piano.
Love your mother,
Kristy

Dear Mom,
I'm not mad at you I'm happy. Thank you so much for the baby duckling. Oh and can you help me find a name for her? Oh and how old is she? P.S. I don't really want the piano anymore.
Love,
Sara

Dear Sara,
I'm glad you arent mad at me. I thought about some names how about Bubble or Flower? She is 2 weeks old and strong. P.S. the piano was only 500 hundred dollars the duckling was only 30 dollars. I'm glad you don't want the piano anymore.
Love your mother,
Kristy

Dear Mom,
Thanks for the information. I like the name bubble. Thank mom.
Your happy daughter,
Sara

What's really funny about the whole thing is that Sara really does want a piano. That was one of the things she asked for, for Christmas.

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!