Audrey's Birthday

We had a little party for Audrey's fourth birthday. We played Hullabaloo, pin the tail on the donkey, made Fruit Loop necklaces, had lunch, went on a treasure hunt, opened presents, and had cake and ice cream. Whew! All that with seven 3-4 year olds. It was fun. And I loved how a lot of the parents seemed happy to be dropping their kids off for a couple hours and a little rejuvenated when they came back to pick them up.

I Knew There Would Be Bulbs

We inherited some pretty fantastic landscaping when we bought this house. So all winter long (and it's been a loooong winter!) I've been wondering what would come up in the spring. I was so thrilled last week when I was cleaning out my flower beds and found green sprouting up all over the place! Hopefully I can get my square foot garden built this weekend and I can plant my cool-weather crops!

Carolyn's Birthday

To celebrate Carolyn's ninth birthday, we took a mini-vacation to Washington, D.C. It ended up being perfect because school got cancelled over a tiny bit of snow and Greg got the day off work because he was there until 10:00 the night before and had already finished his 40 hours for the week. So that morning we all went to Jump on It with our playgroup friends and had a great time. We headed down to D.C. in the afternoon and battled some pretty heavy traffic. We stayed at a hotel that had an indoor pool and...an elevator! Woohoo! I love how easy it is to thrill little kids. I always get a kick out of wrapping a towel around a kid that is wearing water wings...
The next day we did some sightseeing. We started out at the Air and Space Museum, where we made sure to find the Einstein bobble heads from Night at the Museum. Next we headed over to the Natural History Museum. The kids loved seeing the dinosaur bones and stuffed animals (not the cute, cuddly kind). After a quick spin through the American History museum where we saw the Star-Spangled Banner and the first ladies' dresses, we took the long hike to the Lincoln Memorial. The kids were troopers with all the walking we did. And so was Greg since he had a kid on his shoulders almost the entire time!

Modest is Hottest

I thought I'd share this idea for any current or future activity day leaders. This is the only activity I've done so far that I would put in the "really successful" category--meaning not once did I have any girls hiding under tables or jumping around on chairs.

We talked about modesty and dressing appropriately for different occasions. Then they designed outfits for different occasions by cutting out fabric and gluing it to paper dolls that I drew. The fabric came from my sewing scraps and old stained and hole-y clothes. I couldn't believe how much fun they had doing this and it was so fun for me to see the outfits they made. Some even made shoes to go with their outfits. Too cute.

This is the sample I made. The girls' were much more creative.

Twin Blizzards

It snowed and snowed and snowed. Then a few days later it snowed and snowed and snowed some more. We got about four feet total. It was pretty amazing, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I don't think there's anything I like better than being snowed in at home with my whole family there. There was a lot of yummy food...
(Why does being snowed in always make me want to eat?)

Lots of Wii playing...Greg must think he's the luckiest guy ever because the kids always ask him if they can watch him play the Wii.

Lots of crafting...
And lots and lots and lots of shoveling...

My Latest and Greatest Money Saving Secret

Well, I guess it's not going to be a secret anymore. Here it is: coupon codes. You know how when you buy something online and there's that spot for a coupon code and you think, dang, I really wish I had one of those? All you have to do is a google search for one. For example, the other day I ordered two items from deseretbook.com. I googled "deseret book coupon code" and there they were. I found more than one for 25% off an item and guess what, I was able to use two different codes and get 25% off both of my items.

But wait, there's more. Do you ever rent movies from Redbox? Who doesn't, right? No one wants to pay $4 or however much it is at Blockbuster. Well you can get Redbox movies free! Google "redbox codes" and you will find codes for free rentals. I've done it twice now in the last week. Just make sure you look it up not long before you go rent your movie so the code will be current. It might not work if you find a code and then a few days later try to use it. Go ahead and try it, you'll thank me.

While we're on the subject of google-ing to save money, next time you go to Chuck E Cheese search for "chuck e cheese coupon." Skip over the ones from the chuck e cheese website and click on the next one down. There you will find one for buy 40 tokens get 60 free. That's $10 for 100 tokens. There's no food included, like there are on most of their coupons, but we never eat there anyway since their pizza tastes like cardboard. $10 for over an hour of entertainment for 4 kids sounds like a good deal to me.

December Highlights

We kicked off the Christmas season by finding the perfect tree (actually this was in November). We went over a river and through the woods to an awesome tree farm in the most beautiful, picturesque setting. There were Christmas trees as far as the eyes could see. It was cold but it was a beautiful sunny Saturday, unlike the following couple of Saturdays. We were glad we got our tree early. We saw Santa, had a wagon ride up to the trees, and had pit beef sandwiches (that was Carolyn's favorite part). To top it all off, we had a coupon for our tree. Leave it to me to buy a Christmas tree with a coupon. :)


Audrey's preschool had their annual Christmas show. It really should have been called The Audrey Show. She was the only one who did any singing or dancing. And may I say, she was AWESOME. She is going to be famous someday.


We had a blizzard. Almost two feet of snow. The big girls loved it. Emma was not a fan. I was so sore from all the shoveling. I used a kid shovel while Greg used the big shovel. We now have two big shovels.


Greg's parents and his brother's family spent four days with us for Christmas. We scaled back a little this year with the presents but I don't think the kids really noticed. We had a fun Christmas morning.