Coupons

Well, I've officially entered the world of couponing. I've always been pretty frugal with our money and I've saved coupons for a while now, but I've entered the world of serious couponing. What is that? Well, let me tell you.....

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a coupon class at my friend Shannon's house. Her childhood friend has entered the world of couponing and wanted to share it with her and her friends. My mom was in town, so we both took the night off (Joe and Dad took care of the kids) and went to a coupon class. We had to bring a few items to the "class" - a three ring binder, plastic baseball card sheets (to put in the binder - you can find them at Wal-Mart) and a little coupon "wallet" to travel with your coupons. I picked up my supplies and we were off. The basic concept of couponing is that the stores are on a 12 week cycle of sales, so when the item is at its lowest price, you stockpile for the next 12 weeks. You clip the coupons from the Sunday paper, add coupns to your Kroger card online, and print out online coupons and store them in categories inside your binder. You save them until the item(s) go on sale and then you stockpile. How do you know that it's at its lowest??? There are a couple of sites and many blogs to help you out. Le suggested using www.thegrocerygame.com and you can also use www.couponmom.com. I was a bit skeptic - I could see that I might have 12 weeks of Cheerios in the pantry and nothing for dinner.... I messed around with everything for the past two weeks - saving 37% and 42% - but still struggling with planning meals off of "THE LIST" from the grocery game. Well, this week I just planned my menus like normal and tried to factor in sales and coupons. I was successful - I saved $38.00 today! I was so excited about my success! A whole weeks worth of food for $42.00! I tried to explain it to the kids on the way home (you just have to share these things when you're so excited), but they really didn't get it....

Well, try and visit the grocery game and give it a whirl.... you'd be surprised to see how much money you can save. Amazingly, we have MORE food in our pantry, MORE variety of food in our freezer (ground turkey was $0.99 a pound a couple of weeks ago and whole fryer chickens are on sale right now for $0.69 a pound), and we've been eating very healthy natural foods. I thought that coupons were only for strange items, like Glade Plug-Ins, frozen meals, etc... but I've found great deals on lettuce, grapes, apples, Healthy Choice soups, ground turkey, chickens, diapers, diet coke (a necessity around here), apple juice, etc. It's really stretched me to find new recipes and create new dinners for my family. There's a link to Le's site to the right - The Domestic Chick. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Our little girl is two! WOW - I'm so excited that we're entering "big girl" years with Lauren and I can't wait to watch her grow even more. She is such a sweet little girl and I can tell that she already has a very kind and loving personality.

We celebrated Lauren's birthday on Friday (her real birthday). We had a little family party - just the four of us. I made scrambled eggs and biscuits for dinner (her favorite) and we opened presents before we ate cake. It was such a calm and fun evening. We really enjoyed celebrating our little girl's birth!!! Will's really into picking out presents for other people. He picked out this Dora set for Lauren and it was a huge hit!

Lauren with her balloon from Kaitlyn and Katherine.

Opening presents

What's in here???

She was a little more prepared for these candles and she tried to blow them out. Will helped me with the cake and he chose the candles and put them on....

I took Lauren for her 2 year old check up on Monday and she's a keeper! She weighs 22 pounds 4 ounces (4th percentile) and she's 33 1/2 inches tall (39th percentile). They weighed her and checked her height like a big girl - that caught me by surprise - I thought that was at the 3 year old check-up. She even wore a gown this time around. I guess she's just growing up quickly! She's doing great and we go back again next year.

Tea Party

For Lauren's second birthday, we had a mother-daughter Tea Party! It was so much fun to have a girl party. All of our parties have been with boys - which is great and always a lot of fun - but it was nice to have a calm party with Lauren's little friends! Lauren all dressed up before her party. She has Hop with her (of course).

Hat Decorating! We had a great time decorating hats for the little girls to wear.

More hat decorating!

Lauren playing with Nonnie and Heidi enjoying the Doll House.

The girls enjoying playing together! What fun!


Sophia in her beautiful hat!

Lauren having her hot chocolate and "tea party" treats.

Sweet Heidi in her hat. I think she was enjoying a "blue wand" cookie!

Sweet Sarai enjoying her drink! All the girls looked so cute in their dresses!

Little Miss Abby enjoying her drink.

Grandma and Lauren. My mom was a big help with the party.

Opening presents. Here, Lauren got a little Ladybug Tea Set!

Lauren is not so sure of her "cake" and candles.

After the party, Heidi and Lauren played in the playroom. They are so cute. Lauren was a little more comfortable with her good friend Heidi. They were sitting at the table talking and having some tea - so cute!

Sledding

Joe and Will took advantage of the snow and did a little sledding. I was so happy that my Dad was here to be the photographer! Up the hill...

Big boy - all by himself

Will and Joe together.

Will bringing the sled back up the hill.

Down again - you can see the ice on the tree behind them

WOW - they really went fast!

Will going down on his belly. He sure is a crazy kid!

Grandpa and Grandma

My parents came up at the end of January to spend some time with us... little did they know that we would have an ice storm and we would be stuck in our home for a couple of days. Lexington basically shut down and we enjoyed having Grandpa and Grandma here to play with us! Two native Californians now residing in Florida shoveling my driveway.....

Dad playing one of MANY games of checkers.....

Grandma coloring with Lauren.

Grandpa, Will, Lauren, and Grandma

Happy Birthday Joe!

Joe celebrated his 33rd birthday on January 20th. Happy Birthday to a wonderful husband and daddy. We love you so much!

Christmas in February.....

No, I didn't fall off of the face of the Earth.... I've just been too busy to get the pictures off of my camera. So, here's a little recap of the past couple of months. The kids preparing for Christmas with the coloring books from the Pepper clan.

On "The Polar Express" to see Santa. He really got on our train! WOW!

Will, Lauren, and Heidi looking out the window at Santa. We rode the train to pick him up.

Will had his Christmas performance at school. He enjoyed performing his songs and he remembered all of his little hand motions!! Isn't he cute?

Telling Santa what he wants for Christmas. This year he told Santa to "Surprise me!"

Opening his present from us - a playmobil fire engine!

Lauren opening her high chair for her baby dolls.

Lauren feeding her baby doll.

Making Christmas cookies for Santa.

All hard at work decorating cookies for Santa.

Will asking Nonnie for some cookie decorating advice....

Cookies for Santa!!

Nonnie reading them a bedtime story.

All ready for bed!

Santa came! Lauren got a Mrs. Potato Head!

Connect Four for Will!

All dressed up for Christmas at Papa John and Diddy's House.

Daddy helping Lauren open a present.

Will opening a present.

Nonnie helping Will set up Mouse Trap. He just loves to play games!

Lauren with her My Little Pony.

Lauren changing her doll's diaper.

Will and Lauren's gift from Santa - a new computer that Santa only paid $35.00 for.... Wow - Santa sure knows where to find great deals!

Scott, Jackson, Joe, and Will trying out Joe's new game...

Will hanging out with Rylan a couple of days after Christmas - Just had to put this picture in!

Dress up - My Tinkerbell and Dr. Will

Aunt Len and Uncle Jared came to visit in January - Len knitted scarves for the kids!