Season of Giving

My awesome sister is at it again! She owns her own photography business called Cheapshots! and this month she is giving away a free photo shoot to a family in need. She picked the family already, but is now enlisting everyone who can, to help them even more. Their story is very touching and I can't wait for them to have a new family picture this year! You can read their story here. My sister is asking for any kind of donations for the family to make their Christmas an even better one this year. I am going to make sure they have a framed family picture for Christmas. It is one thing to get pictures taken and another to actually print and display them! I hope anyone who reads this that can help them will. They seem like such a nice family that deserves it!

She's One!

Well, Larry is on the last week of a six week break from rotations and in that time we have played a ton! We've been lots of places, and done lots of fun things in the last six weeks, but I can't possibly post about it all even though I want to. I get overwhelmed just thinking about it! I may do it eventually, but in the meantime one important event that happened in the last couple weeks that I don't want to forget, was that our baby turned 1! Wow, already 1! Kamry is such a sweet baby...here are a few recent pictures of her. She never really got into the cake eating idea, she only put one finger in. It was still fun to watch her though.

A little about Kamry:

-She is so sweet, and usually very pleasant and mellow, unless she isn't feeling well.

-She loves to tease....especially with her headbands. She looks right at me, grabs the headband behind her head and rips it off and then shoots me a mischevious smile because she knows it gets a reaction out of me. I have given up on her wearing them lately :)

-She isn't walking yet, but she is so close. Whenever we try to get her to walk between us, she makes her legs turn to rubber and bounces. Once again, she knows she is teasing us and loves it!

-She LOVES her pink fleece blanket and smashes her face into it and gives it loves when it has been a while since she has had it.

-She loves playing with Nate and all his toys. She loves to drive cars with him and even makes the noises too.

-She loves to be outside and likes to point at the door and tell us "go". She makes a mad dash for the door if its open too.

-Some of her new words are bye dad, hi dad, wow, tickle, and good and she makes the animals noises for lions, elephants, and of course dinosaurs!

-She tickles her own feet or belly and says "ticko, ticko, ticko" really fast. It is so cute! She also likes to tickle us too.

-One of her favorite things is wrestling on the bed with Nate. She ducks her head between her legs and tries to do a "minja turtle flip" (as Nate calls it). She'll do it over and over again if we keeps flipping her legs over for her. (I can't help but include a picture of it!)

-She loves popsicles, but insists she holds the whole thing by herself. Even if its the wrong end :)

-Even though she loves all Nate's cars and superheroes, she is starting to like more girly things. We got her a couple bead necklaces for her birthday and she wore them every day for about a week straight. Whenever she found them she would immediately put them on and smile like she knew they were pretty. She is also starting to like dolls a little more. She has one that makes noise when you put the bottle to its mouth, and I catch her feeding it all the time now.

Kamry and her pretty necklaces

She has been so fun to watch as she grows and learns. We sure love having her in our family! We love you Kamry Lou!!

5 Years Already?!?

August 6th was our 5 year anniversary. We can't believe it has been 5 years since we were married! It's so crazy how much life changes in that short amount of time too!

Back then...

And now! The first 5 have been so fun...and we look forward to the next 5 to see what they bring!

Feeling Crafty

I've wanted to make Kamry some sort of name-craft for quite a while now and I finally felt crafty last week and went for it. I was partly inclined to do it last week because Nate was at my parent's house for the week and wasn't home to be in the middle of my mess. Thanks Mom and Dad for playing with him all week-he loved it. And he keeps begging to go back! So, while Nate was busy doing this....I was busy making this in my spare moments that Kamry was sleeping or playing. I was happy how it turned out, I thought it was cute. The letters have black glitter on them, but it's hard to tell in the pictures. They really are alot cuter in person. Now, my next project is a flower-rag quilt in the same color scheme to match for when she has a twin bed. It may take me a while, but I already have the pattern and I'm excited!

First Surgery

Our sweet little Kamry had her first surgery last week. She's had 5 ear infections in the last couple months, so we opted to have tubes placed in her ears to help them drain better. The surgery was so fast, it only took about 15 minutes. The doctor said she had quite a bit of mucus behind her ear drums that he was able to get out. Good thing we had it done! He said it should help her hear even better too. Kamry was a little cranky the rest of the day after the surgery, but has been as pleasant and as happy as can be since then. Here she is at the hospital in her little gown. Once she had it on, everyone kept calling her a boy, even after they knew her name. They would say "This is Kamry? Tell me his birthday". It was pretty funny.

A nurse gave her this little bear, and I snapped this picture right before she threw it on the floor. She hasn't been much of a stuffed animal girl. She prefers Nate's superheroes!She loved playing on the bed and shaking it too. We are so grateful everything went well and that she is feeling better! We love you Kamry!!

Birthday Bash

We've had a busy July so far, but a super fun one for sure! This last weekend was Nate's cousin Will's birthday bash. We stayed the night at their house and went swimming for his birthday. They went horse riding too, but the pictures are on Larry's phone, bummer. Maybe I can post those later. Needless to say, but we all had a great time!

July 4th Weekend

On the fourth we took a family camping trip to Grassy Lake. It was a blast and Nate couldn't get enough of all the fun things about camping. Throwing sticks in the fire, playing in the raft, fishing, eating watermelon, playing with his cousin Will, etc, etc, etc.

Our sweet boys, above, went on a nature walk with Grandma and Grandpa and picked us some wild flowers. They hid them behind their backs when they gave them to us...it was so cute!

Nate and Kamry had their first taste of garden fresh peas and LOVED them!

When it was time to go, we really didn't want the fun to end, so we stayed in Manti for the night.

Nate loved being able to jump on the motel bed...here he is in action!

We even got to watch fireworks on the 4th, although we hadn't planned to. And even better, they were right by the Manti temple. We sat on a blanket a block away from the temple to watch the fireworks. It was so neat to have the temple on the right all lit up and the fireworks on the left-awesome!
What a fun weekend!

What Are Sisters Good For?

Nate thinks sisters are good for drawing on! He got such a kick out of drawing on Kamry with tub crayons the other day that I couldn't help but laugh and then take some pictures! Now I know they come off the tub and skin easily!

Just looking at it this picture still makes me laugh!

Fun Trip

I know, I know, another blog about coupons...but today was a fun trip to Albertsons! This is what I came away with: 2 Boxes Frosted Mini Wheats (the big boxes!)

2 Boxes Apple Jacks (the big boxes!)

1 Box Raisin Bran (the big box!)

1 Box Raisin Bran Extra

1 Sara Lee Whole Wheat Bread

2 Marie Callendar Pasta Al Dente Entrees

3 Healthy Choice All Natural Entrees

4 Jimmy Dean Sausage

4 Packages Ball Park Beef Franks

2 David Sunflower Seeds

1 Wesson Canola Oil

1 Reddi Whip

2 Cans Manwich for sloppy joes

4 Cans Chef Boyardee Pasta

1 Dreyers Ice Cream

1 Dibs Ice Cream

1 Dreyers Fruit Bars

1 Skinny Cow Chocolate Truffle Bars

1 Snack Pack Pudding

1 Sara Lee Cherry Cheesecake

Plus two coupons: $1/1 Ball Park lite Franks, and $1/2 Ball Park Franks!

Now....guess how much I spent? $39.82!! And I saved $115.05 which is a whopping 74% savings!! My favorite deals (after coupons of course) were the sunflower seeds which were $.10 a piece, the Reddi Whip which was $.20 and the Chef Boyardee Pasta which was $.35 a can!! SWEET!!!

Fishin' Buddies

A little over a week ago (I know, I'm a blog slacker lately) Larry finished his second year of Pharmacy school-yay! He wanted a relaxing break from school stress before he started his rotations so he took Nate camping and fishing with Grandpa. Nate had so much fun sleeping in a tent, even though it was in the backyard, and fishing too. It was all he could talk about for days after they got back! He still asks to sleep in a tent all the time too! Here are some highlights in pictures....

Becoming Coupon Savvy

Here is my latest sweet shopping trip....guess how much I spent? My brother said he thought I spent about $35. I actually saved $33.17 and spent only $11.69!! I love this coupon stuff. I am actually starting to feel like I get the hang of it more, but I still have lots to learn! (I know I bought a lot of chocolate cereal, but it's Larry's favorite and that's all that was left at Albertsons when I could make it to the store, plus it doesn't expire until next year!)

I want to learn how to get diapers cheaper. I swear we go through them like mad! I got a pretty good deal on them at Walgreens last week though. I spent $9.61 and got two packages of diapers and toothpaste. Not bad, but I'm hoping I can do better!

New Spring Pictures

My sister at CheapShots took some awesome spring pictures of my kids for me. Look how cute they turned out...I LOVE THEM!!! You can see more of her work by clicking here too. She does such a great job!! Thanks Christy!!

Oh, she does a FREE PHOTO SHOOT on her blog every month too and anyone can enter to win! What could be better than free photos of your cute little families?

Smokin' Deal

Larry says I'm becoming obsessed with coupons, but I just think it's fun to save money. I have been trying to use coupons more to save $ on groceries. Here's what I got last week at Albertsons after sales and coupons....all for $49.11. What a smokin' deal! My receipts said I saved over $100 too!!

Easter & Birthday Fun

We had such a great Easter this year! My birthday was also on Easter so it was a double holiday for me! We spent the weekend with Larry's family and had so much fun being together with everyone for a few days. Now that everyone has two kids each (all 3 or under), it makes for a very full house, lots and lots of fun, and also some crazy nights. It was a little crazy the first night, it seemed like a chain reaction...one baby would wake up and cry and it would set the rest of them off. Once we got them all to sleep it was nice, but it took awhile! We enjoyed being together and having fun with all the cousins. Nate had so much fun playing with everyone that he got really mad when it was time to go. He told me he wanted to stay "and sleep lots of nights and then you come get me, k mom!?!" It didn't quite work that way, but I'm glad he had so much fun he wanted to stay longer. 1

This is him all packed up and ready to go. He like to take his own backpack with his things in it.

The gang coloring Easter eggs at Gandma's.
Nate loved it. I couldnt quite get him to figure out that dropping the eggs in made them break though :)

Easter basket goodies.

Nate was really excited about his "M&M guy".

And Kamry liked to dump everything out over and over again. She also had her first taste of york peppermint patties and loved them. She cried when I took it away to clean her up. I guess she has a sweet tooth like her mom already!

Kamry in her new Easter dress from Grandma & Grandpa. All the girls got matching ones, but I didn't get a picture of all of them together. She looks so precious. Thanks for the new dress Grandma & Grandpa!When the weather warmed up we got to play a little baseball with Nate. He loves baseball alot. He usually begs us to play it in the house at home, but he can hit it hard enough he knocks pictures off the wall now. It's nice to be able to go outside and play!
Swing batter batter!

The kids had fun on a little Easter egg hunt at Grandma Hazel's too. I think they were just excited to open all the eggs and eat the candy!

There was just enough wind to fly kites too.

Grandpa Larry wanted a longer kite string so he hooked his to a fishing pole. It worked really good!

Then Grandma Jody and Will took over...that's the way to fly a kite if you ask me!

And lastly, Larry got me a new pair of Silver jeans for my birthday and they are so cute! He also made me my favorite cake, german chocolate with coconut pecan frosting, and got me some strawberry milkshake oreos. All so yummy! Thanks babe for making my birthday great!!

(For some reason I can't get this picture to turn the right way when it posts, oh well)