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.

In the Backyard

The kids love to be out in the back yard and on nice days will spend a good portion of the day out there playing. Right now it is pretty much just dirt but at least it is ours so we can do what we want with it when we have the money and time. We did extend the patio and planted what I refer to as our twigs. Along the fence are now 7 small fruit trees but in time they will grow. Alan's uncle Robert send us a Costco card for Christmas and we wanted to pick something with it for the whole family to enjoy and trees seemed like a great idea. Seems you can find anything at Costco. We purchased three fruit trees an apple, pear, and peach which are now referred to as Roberts trees. The orange tree in the first picture is our G&G tree (Grammy and Grampy, Alan's grandparents) as we purchased it with some money they sent us for Christmas. Lawrence has been a big help and even dug the entire hole for our Tangerine tree all by himself. He has also been helping to water them. In about 2 years we will hopefully have some great fruit to enjoy!


Here is a picture of the girls swinging. The only problem with our swingset is it has just 2 swings so it seems as if someone is always left out and can't wait for their turn to swing again. Laurel's hairdo is courtesy of her sister who styled it for her. She though Azaria did a great job on her crazy hair.

A Trip to the Children's Museum

Lawrence and Azaria had gotten some coupons from school called Papa John's circle of rewards. One of the ones included was free admission the Phoenix Children's Museum. My friend Rachel was kind enough to give us their coupon so all the kids could get in for free..yeah. We had planned on going on Saturday before the tickets expired but Lawrence part way there said he didn't feel well so we turned around. Azaria was so sad we couldn't go that day she stayed out in the Van for about 30 minutes crying and pouting (yes I kept an eye on her while she was out there). Then a friend came along and climbed into the open door of the van to talk to her and she decided playing with her friend would be more fun then hanging out in the van.

Since the tickets were going to expire that Wednesday I took the kids out of school early on Tuesday so we could still go and enjoy some time together. They had so many fun things to do we almost didn't know where to start. First we started with the Whoosh, which is lots of tubes connect together with air flowing through them. You can feed scarves into them or light weight plastic balls and you can change their path to send them up different tubes. Then they shoot out at different spots and fall down the the ground. They even have a smaller concept of this with ping pong balls where the kids made their own configurations. It was great to watch all three of the kids work together to make it work. I got the be the official ping pong ball fetcher so they could keep feeding the machine.

Next we moved to the arts and crafts room where they were lots of choices. You could make snowflakes, play with playdough, make a sking penquin picture, play with playdough, paint, or make dream catchers. We didn't even have time to do them all but Lawrence and Azaria made several dream catchers and decided they would be a neat gift for Dad's birthday since they made them. I finally convinced them we should see what else there was to see. Though I think they would have all been content to spent the whole afternoon in the craft room.


Playing with the sand on the lighted table. They made textures, hills, wrote names and more. They even have beach chairs for the parents to relax in while you watch the kids play.






I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for ICE CREAM!!! The kids got busy pretenting to run their own ice cream stand. I got served with all sorts of colorful treats.









This kids watching as they send balls rolling down a obstacle course making things move while they zig zag back and forth to the bottom.











Lawrence seeing how it feels to drive a motorcycle. I'm not sure I'm ready to see my kids driving yet. Glad we have a few years before that all begins though Lawrence already asks how many years until he can start learning to drive.

I would have had to put way to many pictures in to show everything we did. We enjoyed the book corner, the noodle jungle, the grocery store, and microscopes too. Downstairs Lawrence and I bounced balls back and forth to each other while the girls zoomed around on plasma cars. After all that we headed over to Alan's office which was close by so the kids could see where he works. Laurel had been there before but not the other two. The kids can't wait to go to the Museum again, we had a blast!

Azaria gets her ears pierced

Azaria had asked a while back to get her ears pierced but then didn't bring it up for a while. Then this Christmas she really wanted to get her ears pierced. She asked if I could talk with Daddy and decide if she could get them pierced. She is very responsible and we figured she was ready to help take care of her ears. If she really wanted them pierced we figured she was old enough to make that choice and we would get them done. I of course wanted to make sure it was done right so I did some research on where to get her ears pierced. I didn't want them done with a piercing gun but with a hollow piercing needle. We found a body piercing place not to far from our house that someone recommended. Azaria wanted it to be her special date with just mommy but then decided daddy could come along too. Lawrence and Laurel got to go hang out with some friends which they thought sounded more fun anyways.When we got the the piercing shop Azari got to pick out her new earrings. I liked the small hoops but she wanted some bling so she picked a pair of small sparkly jewel titanium studs. She saw pictures on the wall with belly piercings and we asked if she wanted one of those too...lol She said no way I only want one earring in each ear. Glad I won't have to worry about her wanting more piercings in the near future :) Then they took us back to the piercing room where they explained to us what they were going to do. They measured and marked each ear so the piercings would be accurate. Then removed the sterile needles from the package. Azaria at this point was pretty excited but that quickly changed.






This is right after her ears were pierced and she was not happy that it hurt even though we tried to warn her. After the first side was done she wasn't sure about doing the other but we told her at that point she needed to get them both done.









Don't worry the tears didn't last to long because then we moved on to some fun time just with Mommy and Daddy! We told her she could pick where we went next and she thought Cabela's for some yummy fudge sounded good. We picked raspberry/chocolate, cookies and creme, strawberry, and pecan praline fudge after trying a few free samples.

Azaria also wanted to try the shooting range while we were there and had fun shooting at the targets to make things happen. She even got the teapot to spray a bystander. Here is Alan giving her a little help. After Cabela's it was time for a dinner break at Wendy's. By this time she was quite proud of her new earrings but told Laurel she really should wait a while because it hurts!