When it's cold outside...

The girls ask to go to Blast Off almost daily.  They love it there.  The weather has been pretty unpleasant so we have been going there quite often.  $2 for 2 hours of play...done and done.  I love this last picture because you can just see them playing house.  Kenzie is cooking and Brooklyn is on the phone.  So, as you can tell...I am playing catch up on all of my pictures.  I still have pictures from April to post.  So, I am dedicating some time to catching up on life.  I almost feel like I am frozen and don't want to take pictures because I feel so behind on my blog.  So, here goes.  I will try and post dates, but if I don't, these pics happened sometime between April and now.  Enjoy!

Entertainment...

I will say, they do have a lot of fun together...They can find the most random things to entertain each other with.  This particular time they were singing to each other and playing with the instruments.  They kept changing spots in the plastic container and were giggling like crazy.  I love that my girls love each other and love playing together. 

What sound does a lion make?

What sound does a lion make?

I asked the kids to show me what a tigers face looked like...


Last week I had the priviledge of watching one of my good friend's kids.  She is moving...I'm not too happy with that one.  She is one of those people that I can see myself always staying in contact with because she is just great.  So, I decided to go to the zoo with 5 kids under the age of 5.  They are very well behaved so having them join us at the zoo was really a no big deal.  It was a lot of fun! 

Tom's Day

Brooklyn took this picture.  She told me to give Dad a kiss on the cheek because it was Father's Day.  I don't argue with a 3 year old and I don't argue when it comes to kissing my hubby.  She said she wanted to get the fire in the picture...I think she got it.  :) 

There was a marshmallow on fire!

For Father's Day this year we started the day off with all of Tom's favorites for breakfast.  We had blender whole wheat pancakes, turkey sausage and eggs.  (I am trying to help Tom eat healthier so I modified a few of his favorites...he didn't even notice the difference!)  The girls got him a tie with a picture of them on it so he wore that to church.  After church we started a fire in our new pit that Tom built (1st time we used it!), made foil dinners and roasted marshmallows.  We all had a lot of fun.  It makes me excited for summer!  Happy Father's Day Tom!  We love you and appreciate all you do for our family.  You are an excellent Dad, husband, supporter, example and friend.  The girls adore you and can't wait to see you each day.  In fact, when they wake up in the morning the first thing they ask me is "Where's Dad?".  Thanks for being such a great Dad and an active part in their lives.  We love you.

Future Beautician

The girls LOVE to do my hair.  Brooklyn loves to curl it and comb it whereas Kenzie likes to comb and put bows in it.  I bet they wish I had longer hair.  I actually fell asleep towards the end of the pictures.  When I woke up I didn't even know that she put a bunch of bows in my hair.  I'm sure Tom helped.:)

A new hobby...

 This is one of the receipts.  Crazy that I got all of the above items for just the tax. 

I have always tried to be a frugal person.  I was raised that way.  Well, about 2 months ago I started couponing.  Couponing brought frugality to a whole another level.  I got all of the above items for $5.66 and that includes tax.  What started this hobby (obsession)?  Well, I was talking to my Mom on the phone and she mentioned that she and my sister, Heather had started doing it and that she was making a binder for all of us that were interested in doing it.  So, I went to Boise and saw my sister in action doing couponing plus my Mom hooked me up with the binder.  I was ready!  After that I started getting 5 Sunday newspapers to maximize my coupons.  I really was only a couple dollars more than the regular 1 Sunday paper.  If you consider doing this, it really does take a couple of weeks to build up your coupons so that you start getting free stuff or really cheap stuff.  Here is the list of stuff I got this week: (The free stuff were because of Albertsons coupon where you can double any coupon.  These come out probably every other week.  I get other free stuff by watching sales and clearance items.)

14 bottles of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce:  Free 
1 bottle of soft scrub: $1
6 bags of life savers: $.15 each
6 Weber seasonings: Free
2 Welch's juice: free
2 Pantene shampoo:  $.14 each
2 olives: $.50 each
18 count tampons: $.50
Multi vitamin: Free
1 10 count Oxyclean: $1.00
TOTAL:  $5.66

Crazy huh?!  Well, if any of you are interested in checking out some of the websites that I use they are hip2save.com, fabulesslyfrugal.com, thriftymom.com, couponqueen.com.  I just clip my coupons on Sunday then go to these websites and they tell me what is free and where.  It's really that easy.  Well...almost.  Doing everything (clipping, organizing the coupons, checking the websites, figuring out a game plan and shopping) takes me probably 4 hours a week.  BUT, I have consistently saved about $60-$100 a week.  PLUS, I am building my food storage very economically, my girls get stuff they normally wouldn't get, I get stuff that I would normally buy anyway for free or very inexpensive, and it is a fun hobby.  I think it is worth it.  Loving this new hobby.