I love a night out

I had a great time Saturday night as it was MNO otherwise known as mother's night out. The kids were happy to stay home and have a fun night watching Bolt (thanks Heather for bringing it over) and eating pizza with Alan. This gathering was some local moms from my online mom's group which I've been frequenting since I was expecting Lawrence over nine years ago. I have made some wonderful friends both local and across the country. My friend Barb who was raised Jewish and grew up in New York was really craving some Jewish food with passover being soon. I'd never had Jewish food but am always up for something new so agreed that is what we should do. We met at a Jewish Deli called Chompies. I even got my baby fix while I was there holding Chelsea's daughter Alea who is almost 3 months old and such a cutie. Nursing babies are welcome to mno just the bigger kids get to stay home. We just ordered a bunch of things off the menu and cut and shared it so we could try a variety of things. The waiter was great about bringing some extra bowls and plates to accommodate us. There was so much food, a basket of different breads, sweet pickles, matzo ball soup, and knish. Then the motown sandwich which is pastrami on rye with coleslaw dressing had me a little worried as I don't particularly like rye but is was really delicious. I even tried a new soda called Dr. Browns Black Cherry. We finished off with Cheese and Blueberry Blintzes with yummy sides to top them with. All the while we laughed and talked and just had a nice relaxing time. After wards we walked through the bakery section and thought about taking home a black and white cookie or some other treats but we were all to stuffed. Next time we will have to save more room for Dessert. It is always a great time to renew ourselves and enjoy our friendships.

Having Girls is so much fun

Saturday the girls and I headed out early to pickup Lawrence after his cub scout white tanks hike. We thought we could see if there were any garage sales on the way as you never know what you might find. Both the girls are always up for a garage sale or two and Azaria who loves to sleep will wake up early on Saturdays if she knows I'm going out. Azaria saw some purses at one garage sale and really wanted one. I tried to gear her towards a smaller cute one but she wanted the bigger purse. I figured it was her money she was spending so let her pick the one she wanted. She also got some friendship bracelets that were new in the package for a grand total of $1.25 for both. At another garage sale we found a fisher price kids camera for $1.00 and figured for that price we would give it a shot. Then Alan calls me and oops he forgot to tell me that Christy offered to drop Lawrence off at the house...thanks Christy. We decided we should headed back home so Lawrence wouldn't come home and find no one there. The camera just needed some battery acid cleaned off the connectors and some new batteries and it was ready to go. The kids had a blast taking pictures of each other. Laurel even managed to drop the camera and as the ads claim it didn't hurt it at all. The picture quality isn't the best but since we only paid $1.00 I'm not too picky. These are two shots Lawrence took of his sisters.

















Sunday the girls and I decided to do a fun craft project. We made a safety pin bracelet. We did just a mix of crazy beads and colors on each safety pin. The girls actually did most of the them all by themselves. I was in charge of using the elastic cording to string them together though. It takes quite a few safety pins for each bracelet and I of course only had enough safety pins for once bracelet so the girls have to share until I remember to pick up more this week. The girls had to model the bracelet for photos. Can you tell my girls don't mind having their pictures taken?





































Later Azaria wanted to style my hair. I think there is nothing more relaxing then someone softly brushing and styling your hair. I get the spa treatment for free though of course I wouldn't normally wear these styles out. Once I did forget and wore a special style that had toilet paper flowers bobby pinned into my hair out. I kept wondering why everyone at Albertsons was looking at me when I ran out late to grab some milk. While she did my hair Laurel sat in my lap and I brushed and massaged her head. While Azaria was brushing my hair she asks if I give her new purse to her. She wanted the friendship bracelets out of it since she didn't have rubber bands so those would work just as well. I admit she did get my hair very smooth and my pony tail wasn't going anywhere. I think I had about 5-6 friendship bracelets tied around my hair. Other then the neon colored bracelets my hair looked nice enough to wear out though of course the joy of Sunday nights in spending time home with no where to go.

Now of course I had to look and see what else a seven year old would put in her own purse and laughed at all the bag had collected in one day. Here is her new purse with added decorative sticker and list of what was inside

*pair of scissor
*a pen
*some pink paper and a few cut into shape of hearts with love notes written for mom and dad..melts my heart
*webkinz stuffed plush
*big lip smackers lipgloss
*friendship bracelets
*Hello Kitty wallet which I think has more cash then I have right now thanks to her b-day money she is saving for something really good she says
* one sheet of glitter stickers
*about 20 bandaids
*sunglasses
*comb

A year ago we said goodbye

It was last year the evening of March 20th Dallin was born and we said goodbye. The last year seems to have gone so slowly and to be honest has been the hardest year I've had thus far in my life. When January rolled around I told Alan 2009 was going to be a better year for sure. I pulled out my ultrasound pictures last week and the pictures we took after he was born and had a little cry. I admit I still miss him terribly. How excited I was for another child in our home and even a boy so Lawrence would finally have the little brother he always asked for. I never got to nurse you, change your diaper, or hear you cry but even if I had done any of those I would have still wanted even more time with you. As times go on though the pain of losing you will lessen but I will never forget you Dallin or your brother Everett. You are always in my heart and I long for the day I will be reunited with our Savior and all my family that has gone on before me including you. I love you.

You have to love coupons

Okay well sometimes coupons can drive me crazy and I don't want to deal with them but they really are worth it when I take the time. It is helping to build my food storage and I can get some fun treats I normally wouldn't spend the money on. My kids know mom won't buy something if it isn't on sale or better yet on sale plus a coupon. They will pick through the coupons to show me what things they want me to buy. The last few weeks there have been so many things to stock up on. Today I had more fun couponing picking up a few fun things for the freezer on days I don't want to cook . I picked up 2 Kashi pizzas and 6 entrees that after coupons were $9.92. Then for buying $25 worth (before coupons) I got a coupon for $10.00 of my next shopping trip so I basically got paid .08 to take these all home. Alan likes to tease me and calls it my legal stealing since I get to take things out of the store without paying. My favorite coupon site is pinchingyourpennies.com to help match up the coupons to the ads. Plus they have it set up so you get a deal on multiple papers each week. I get six papers each week which I know seems like a lot but it really pays for itself. Plus a few weeks ago when each paper had a bag to bring in for a free Chipotle burrito we were glad to have six for sure that week.

I can't believe Azaria is now Seven!

Azaria had a wonderful birthday. The Friday before her birthday she had her first friend party. We had a lot of fun planning it and getting everything ready. She and nine of her friends had a great time eating pizza, making beaded bracelets and making their own soap. She thought it was the best party ever and loved all the cards her friends made and the gifts they gave her too. She even got to switch her earrings for the first time with a pair she got at her party.

On her birthday she wanted to wear her pants the Grandma Faerber made her. Though you can't see it I also was requested to make her something special for her hair so we turned some Happy Birthday fabric into a scrunchie for her. That night we had her favorite meal beef stroganoff as a family. Then she got to open her gifts from us which she had the hardest time waiting all day to finally get to open. She was surprised by many of her gifts and Lawrence and Laurel wanted to help check them all out. They especially all thought the i-dog dance was really funny.

Our new photo collage wall

Our front room wall was rather bare and in need of something so it didn't look so empty. I had the 3 large pictures of the kids already but didn't want them to look like they were just floating on the wall when I hung them. My mom mentioned that Courtney had a really cute arrangement of photos in her front room and something similar would look nice on my wall. Courtney was nice enough to send me a picture of her wall for inspiration, thanks Courtney! Then my personal shopper otherwise known as mom helped to find a lot of the special elements for the wall. She found the C on clearance at Dillards and the metal vine and a few frames at HomeGoods. She let me have the large photo of me on the left that was hanging at her house. Then we hit Ross together to find many of the smaller frames to fill out the arrangement. Ross by the way has really great prices on frames if you ever need of some. Then this last Thursday mom came out to help me arrange and hang the pictures. Alan also got to help a lot in the hanging pictures department while we directed. I'm really happy with it. I just need 2 small frames or decoration for the bottom row of frames to complete it and of course I need to get pictures printed to fill all my empty frames.

Our Yummy Creations!

When Laurel and I were at the store we lucked out and got some organic whipping cream marked down to 79 cents. I picked some up as I couldn't leave a deal like that behind. At first I was thinking of making some ice cream but decided it would be fun for the kids to make their own butter. I remembered doing it as a kid and thinking it was pretty neat. After finishing planting and watering the trees we came inside and I poured some into a jar and we all took turns shaking while we watched a show. It was funny how Laurel wanted to make sure we took our turns in order. Unfortunately I filled the jar a bit to full so as it started to get thicker there wasn't enough room to shake it very well. I put our almost butter into a dish and finished it with the hand mixer. We poured the buttermilk off and had our very own delicious butter. It really is better then the store bought butter. We needed something to put it on though as butter on it's own isn't so great so we took the buttermilk and cooked waffles for dinner. Of course how better to top off our waffles made with organic buttermilk and organic butter then with high fructose Aunt Jemima syrup of course...lol At least it was the lower sugar version.