Happy Birthday Skylar

I can't believe that Skylar is 6 years old today! It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital.

Skylar is an amazing kid! We love her so much. Since she is turning 6 I will list six of the things that make her so awesome.
1. She is a wonderful sister to Koko and Holland.
2. She has an amazing spirit. She loves her Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Her testimony is so strong.
3. She is so smart.
4. She has a big heart. She loves everyone!
5. She has a wonderful sense of humor. She is always making me laugh.
6. She is always willing to try new things.

Happy Birthday Skylar!

What are some of the things you love about Skylar? Do you or your kids have a favorite memory of her? Please post and I will share them with her!

How do you save money?

The Christmas season is quickly approaching and of course I am thinking about how much money I will be spending. I am always trying to find the best way to get the most out of my money. I know that this is something a lot of us are doing. I want to know - How do you save money?

I have a routine when I get on my computer of different sites I check. I think most of us do. Many of these sites are websites that offer daily deals, or coupon information. Every once in a while I will mention a great deal to someone and they will ask how I find them. Well, usually it is because I found out about a great site from a friend or family member. Here is a list of all the sites I like to visit.

www.grocerysmarts.com
This is the website I use to do my coupon shopping. It is pretty user friendly and matches the coupons that come in the paper with what deals the stores are offering.

One cheap chick
This is a blog that the SL trib advertises to find great local deals.

She Shops Smart
Similar to one cheap chick. Ladies who want to help others find great deals. Some of these are local deals and some of them are on the internet so they work anywhere.

Utah Deal Diva
Mostly local deals, but some online stuff too!

Woot
Yugster
One Sale A Day
Babysteals
All of these sites offer one sale each day. If you don't check the site everyday you might miss something great!

Slick Deals
A list of deals on the internet, most submitted by other people trying to save money. It updates daily, but you can check out old deals as long as they are still being offered.


These are all the places I look to find great deals. Please share what you do to save money!

Day of Rest?

So yesterday was an eventful day, to say the least.
It started off with 6 crazy kids,
Had a trip to instacare thrown in the middle,
And ended with dinner at Kory's brothers.

Sunday morning I woke up to the sounds of 5 very happy girls and 1 very excited little boy. My sisters girls spent the night Saturday, but they got to my house after my girls had gone to sleep. Once awake there was no stopping them from going totally insane with excitement. They ran all over the house playing. In the meantime I got to stay in bed and "sleep" while my mom made them all breakfast. When I finally did get out of bed, I was up and running trying to get me and the kids ready for church. We don't have church until 1:00, but we had to be an hour early because Kory was being ordained a high priest. I am just glad that we didn't have an earlier church because it was hard enough to get out the door by 11:45.

While we were trying to get the kids in the car Holland fell down the steps from our kitchen into the garage. I didn't see it because I was finishing getting ready, but Kory said that he fell pretty hard. We were running late so we tried to calm him down and then put him in the car and headed for the church. We got there and he was still pretty upset, but it was time for the ordination so I gave him some treats to calm him and down. He was still pretty upset after about an hour so Kory and I decided that it would be best to take him to a doctor. I thought I knew what was wrong, but we wanted to make sure.

After a very crazy trip to instacare we found out that Holland has a broken collar bone (AGAIN! for those that don't remember he broke his clavicle during birth.) and another double ear infection. We are lucky they caught the ear infection because he has not had any signs. They don't usually check the ears at an appointment like this, but because Kory said that Holland hit his head they wanted to do a full check. They can't do much for a collar bone so we just have to watch it for the next few weeks and take him in to his pediatrition in two weeks. They told us to try and have him keep his arm down so they put it in a sling and then wrapped it. It worked pretty well until he figured how to get both of them off today. How do you keep a 17 month old from using his arm?

After Kory finally got home, we had plans to go to his brothers for dinner. I am grateful because the last thing I wanted to do was cook dinner. It was nice to spend time with family and enjoy a good meal. Thanks Kenny and Mandy!

Lets hope for less eventful Sunday's in the future!

Here is Holland with his sling.

From the back. Poor kiddo!

All the Colors of the Rainbow

Yesterday was a great day. We tried to enjoy one of the last nice days this year and we went to Wheeler Farm as soon as kindergarten and preschool ended. We packed a lunch and enjoyed the farm.

Eating Lunch.


Feeding the Geese.


Loving the Tree House!


Can you say CHEESE!
And then my camera battery died so I didn't get to take pictures of any of the animals :( We enjoyed looking at the pigs, cows, goats, sheep, chicken and rabbits. We also got to go on the tractor ride.

When we got home it was time to clean out the garden to get it ready for winter. Skylar and I worked hard to get all the vegetables.

Here are the fruits (or veggies!) of our labor.

I was really proud of our garden this year. This is our third year having a garden and I do NOT have a green thumb. This is the best year we have had and it makes me excited for next year. We have enjoyed tons of zucchini and lots more tomatoes. We have also had some corn and I had lettuce grow also. Hurray for the garden!


Some of our green tomatoes sitting in our window seal to ripen.

A close up.

Holland was done for the day! He came in and fell asleep on my kitchen floor while I was washing all the food. His sisters made sure to add the blanket over the top of him!

Good bye Summer, Hello Fall!

5 Things me and my girls will miss about summer...

• Swimming
• Playing outside
• Sleeping in
  
• Long Days
• Flip Flops

5 Things me and my girls are excited for this fall...

• Leaves changing
• Sweaters
• Baking
  
• Halloween
• Canning Apples

Happy Autumn!

Cake!

For Kortnie's birthday I attempted to decorate her cake. I usually don't try to get too fancy when I make a cake, but I was feeling creative this year I guess. I borrowed a really cute cake pan from my friend (thanks Christina!) and with tips from her made this cake.


Before....


After!



I had to get all the angels. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I might even try and do something creative for Skylar's party this year!


All Kortnie wanted to do for her Birthday was to go to McDonald's for dinner. We kept asking if she wanted to do something else also and she said "I just want McDonald's" I finally talked her into going to see a movie too. So we went and saw "Up" at the dollar movies then went to the new McDonald's by our house. They have a cool part of the playland that is all music. The girls LOVED it.


Here she is with her cake. She ended up not even eating any. She just wanted ice cream - who knew!



Opening presents.


In her new dress up. This morning the girls had to try out the new dress up stuff that Kortnie got. When I went to take a picture, Holland saw the camera and RAN to get into the picture. I just know it will only be a matter of time before his sisters start putting him into their dress-up stuff!


The Princess!

Happy Birthday Kortnie!

Happy Fourth Birthday Kortnie! Getting ready for your birthday breakfast.

It was 4 years ago today that Koko joined our family. I love her so much. I love watching her grow and change and develop her own personality. She is girly, fun, loving and intelligent. Her favorite things include dress-up, dress-up, and dress-up! She also loves being with her sister and brother and any friends she can find. She can be shy and quiet one minute and loud and crazy the next. Her weaknesses include shoes and lipstick.

Happy Birthday Kortnie! We love you and hope you have a great day!

Kortnie has always been our little mischief maker.

Kortnie After her first Birthday Cake!

1 years old!

Maybe not too happy with Santa?

Getting so Big! Almost 2.

You always want to have a purse and a pair of heels! I know you are going to love shopping!

Turning Three!

Faces! Faces! Faces! You are always being a goofball and having fun!

Diva!

Picture day for Sky

Tumbling!

My girls finished up their tumbling classes a couple weeks ago and have now started the fall season of dance classes. They are in different classes this year and I am so glad that I am NOT their teacher this year! Not that I don't love them, but it is hard to teach your own kids (at least in my case). Either way they are loving their new classes.

At the end of class they have "show and tell" time. Here is a little video of each of them.

What Fun Is!

Kory took work off this last Wednesday so that we could go to Lagoon as a family. We decided to leave Holland at home since he is too young to go on many rides. Thanks Grandma Ann for staying with him all day!
It was a perfect day to go to Lagoon. Channel 2 news had 2 for 1 tickets all last week, so we got all four of us in for the price of two! It was a beautiful day, not too hot. And it wasn't too crowded. We had fun taking the girls on all the rides. The only bad part was Kory and I couldn't go on some of our favorite rides because the girls were not tall enough. We had a great day together though.

Skylar was such a big sister and went with Kortnie on all the rides she was scared to go on by herself.


The Train!


Bumper cars!


Then this weekend we went to our ward campout. We got all packed up on Friday morning and then Kory left with the kids. I was meeting him there after I got off work. They had a talent show that night and I was trying to make it in time for the show, but there was a HUGE accident at Parley's Summit and it literally took me 1.5 hours to go 2 miles. I missed the whole show and by the time I got there. I was so sad because the girls did a dance with a bunch of the other primary girls and Kory did a lip sync with some of the Elders quorum that I was told was the hit of the night.
Holland wasn't feeling very well and cried for about two hours after I got there. We finally got him to sleep and I was able to enjoy some time around the campfire before going to bed. Saturday morning the ward had an awesome breakfast for all of us. Then we took the kids on a short hike. The girls spent the next hour our so playing with the rocks in the ampitheatre. Holland just had a fun time eating dirt.


Skylar's Rock City


Kortnie and Friends rock bench


Holland - you can't tell so much in the picture but he is really dirty!

We stayed at the campout until about lunch time then packed up and came home to get cleaned up and head to a pool party and Kory's brothers house. The kids and I had a blast playing in the pool with cousins.

It has been a fun and busy weekend.

Giveaway!

Check out the Dress Up Drawer Link for some awesome giveaways this week!

Life Changing

I just finished an amazing book! It is called Left to Tell - Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, by Immaculee Ilibagiza.

I thought this book was life changing. It is a book I want to read again because I found it so inspiring. I would recommend it to anyone.
I actually listened to an audio version of the book and it was amazing because it is the author telling her story. If you need a good book, like to read, or want to be inspired - READ THIS BOOK! Then tell me how you liked it.

15 months old

We went to the doctor last week for Holland's 15 month check up. The doctor said he was very healthy and developing right on track.

He now weighs 22 lbs and is 30.7 inches tall.

He is a busy little boy and gets into everything! He is so sweet and easy going most of the time. He loves to cuddle and play with his sisters. He loves his little stuffed teddy bear and dog and loves to look at books.

His vocabulary consists of -
Mama
Dada
Ni - ni (night, night)
Uh Oh!

He babbles all the time, and every once in a while it sounds like he is repeating whatever you say.
We love you Holland!

The Zoo

This Saturday we got to go to the zoo for my niece Jessica's birthday. It was a perfect day to be at the zoo. The kids had so much fun seeing all the animals. My favorite part was when Holland saw the monkeys for the first time he got so excited and reached out to grab them, then he started trying to make monkey sounds. It was so cute.

About half way through we stopped at a pavilion and had cupcakes and opened presents.

Manda and Ashlyn made the cutest monkey cupcakes.

Holland enjoying his treat.

Manda also had these cute animal visors that all the kids got.

Kortnie chose a deer.


Skylar chose a horse.


I picked the sea turtle for Holland.


All of the kids in front of the zebras.


The nine day old baby giraffe.

Kortnie really wanted to see the baby elephant, but the mom was still in labor so no luck. Skylar's favorite part was the zebras. We had such a great time and were glad we could be there to celebrate Jessi turning 3!

First Day of School

One week ago on August 4th was Skylar's first day of kindergarten and Kortnie's first day of preschool. My girls are getting so big!

The week before school started I took both the girls out on one-on-one dates so they could pick out an outfit and a back pack. It was fun to take them and spend time alone with both of them, they picked out their outfits all on their own and I think they did a pretty good job.

The day of school Kory took work off so that he could be there for them. We got up early and had breakfast as a family. I let the girls choose what they wanted to have for breakfast and they chose cereal, chocolate milk, and yogurt. Then we got ready for the day.

In their new outfits!

Just before going to the bus.

Waiting at the bus stop.

Getting on the bus for the first time.

After the bus left we quickly loaded in the car and went to meet her at the elementary.

Outside of school.

Waiting in line with some friends from the neighborhood.

Following her teacher to class. She was so excited, she could not wait for the day to get started.

After she went inside it was Koko's turn.

Kortnie could not wait to get to her school. She has been excited to go to preschool for two years now (since Skylar started). Her teacher had name tags for each of the kids so she got to put it on as soon as she got there.

The first thing they do in class everyday is trace their name.

After she wrote her name she immediately found the toys. She was ready for us to leave so that she could get to play time!


Getting off the bus! I asked Skylar what the best part of school was. She told me the best part of school was EVERYTHING. I then asked what the worst part was. She paused for a long time and I told her that if she didn't have a bad part of the day that was okay. She then in a matter of fact tone told Kory and I that the worst part of the day was having to go outside during recess instead of finishing her project! Kory and I just laughed, but we are very glad she enjoyed it. I asked Kortnie the same questions. She told me her favorite part of school was the snack that she got. She liked her teachers and getting to play. She didn't have a worst part.

As a treat for the first day of school we then took the girls to Arctic Circle for lunch and play time. It was a great first day for both of them and the first week was just as good. They are both learning and having fun in their classes.