Birthday Girl!

Julia May turned one! We had a wizard of oz/munchkin land party with a yellow brick road, lollipops, glenda wands and lots of munchkins! We had so much fun.

Thanks to my sister Steph, Julia had a darling birthday girl shirt. I LOVE it!

And thanks to my friend Mandy, we had amazing cake pops to eat. They are so fun to make!

We had a lollipop for each munchkin with their picture on it! The kids LOVED these but I learned my lesson! ;)

Michelle did a GREAT job taking pictures, didn't she? I love them!!!

And thanks to Mandy and Michelle for helping me decorate!!! Never could have pulled it off without you!

We had lots of friends, great food (gotta love Costco pizza), and one adorable birthday girl!

The Bargain Hunter in Me

I have a love for shopping, but I have an even bigger love for bargains. When you put the two together I am one REALLY EXCITED shopper! I bought all of this:

Which is:

3 gallons of milk

10 boxes of Honey bunches of Oats

12 boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats

1 box granola bars

2 boxes of nutri grain bars

9 boxes of pop tarts (they have unfrosted ones)

18 eggs

10 yogurts

1 bag of nut clusters

1 frozen pizza (I have to have at least one in my freezer for back up)

8 cans of mandarin oranges

Mckormick mesquite seasoning to grill with

Bananas

And candy to bribe 2 of the 3 kids I had with me!

All for $54.76

I got the cereal all for $1 a box.

the BIG pizza for 2.99.

the milk for 1.38 a gallon...

I got $161.88 worth of groceries for $54 bucks. Obviously this isn't all we buy for the week for groceries but I stock up on cereal when it's this cheap. I hit these big sales 2 times/week or every 2 weeks with the coupons and then I go to Walmart to get the rest of our groceries.

A lot of people have been asking me what I do and how much I save. If you have any questions shoot me an email!

Mrs. Cottontail

Meet Hallie's Bunny Basket.

One of Peter and Mrs. Cottontail's bunnies can come live with you! All you need is:

Milk Jug with top cut off.

Felt.

Ribbon.

Eyes.

Cardboard to cut and cover with felt.

Lots of hot glue.

This was so fun to make! And super easy.

Happy Hunting this weekend!

Leah

Life

I have been reading about gratitude this week and decided to write a simple post about 10 things I am grateful for (in no particular order).

1. That I have so many people in my life that I love... from California to New Jersey.

2. That my husband gets up at 5:00 and goes to the gym so he can show me his guns.

3. That my husband goes to work every day and works his tail off and then comes home and puts the kids to bed while I go jogging.

4. That we have a 5th daughter here. One of my Young Women, Sabrina, is living with us until June and she fits right in. The girls want her to "stay with us forever."

5. That Hallie is so sensitive and cries when anyone else does.

6. That Claire is so attentive and motherly and is Julia's second mom.

7. That Audrey hugs me regularly and says, "You're my best mommy in the whole world."

8. That Julia is a Mommy's girl.

9. That we have a job and a home and so many blessings I can't even list.

10. That my Savior loves me.

Jules the Caterpillar!

Julia is even faster now that it's been a few weeks. She is our little caterpillar and so much fun to have moving around the house. She is our latest crawler. When she was a baby she hated tummy time (all babies do at first but after they are several months old it usually changes). But she continued to hate it.  It wasn't until a friend talked to me that I realized that with her acid reflux it was probably cause her throat was burning. Poor baby. The other reason she wasn't on the floor much was because Jules spits up more than any baby I've seen. And when you combine constant fluid with sweet potatoes and prunes it makes for little time on the floor. The last few months we increased the dosage of her medicine so she has been on a the floor a lot more. 

Here is what the blanket looks like after a few minutes on the floor.

My little baby is going to be one next month! Seriously?

How Many Of You...

..have a snowman like this?

..have snowballs for your snowman as perfectly round as these? (think only of the snow please, this is a family blog.)

..have built your snowman with a level and scraper?

..have seen it snow 4 inches in the last 150 years?

..have built snowmen with your mom that put your other snowman to shame? I mean, look at the symmetry of the facial features on the snowman to the left! It's so amazing you're speechless, aren't you?

..have kids that went outside a thousand times and enjoyed every minute? 

..have kids that threw snowballs at you while eating and munching the yummy white snow?

..got to drink homemade hot chocolate (I improvised with chocolate chips, sugar, milk and marshmallows) in a texas boot mug?

How many of you have children like these?

Man I love them!

StAyCaTiOnS rOcK!

Zeb's parents visited for a few days the last week in February. We were so excited to have them come we wanted to something FUN! Not to mention the fact that we were all needing a little mini vacation. We booked a night at Great Wolf Lodge and had an absolute BLAST! The best part, aside from being together, was seeing the girls experience everything with so much excitement. It was the best ever. This place is seriously AWESOME! They have a cabin inside the hotel room for the kids, an 82,000 sq foot water park inside (82 degrees) filled with slides pools and a lazy river, storytime, crafts, kids club, Cub walks, and more. The girls squealed and screamed everywhere we went. What a great time!

It was so great to see Steve and Cali and spend a few days with them. Thanks for coming!!!