Friday Confessional

I CONFESS...I am super jealous of all my crafty friends. They are so clever with their simple crafts and I can't even begin to try some of their more difficult crafts. I try to pretend I can do things and the more I try the better I actually get. Here's to hoping I'm not craft illiterate for the rest of my life! When you see my seemingly easy crafts, just know it was really hard and I'm usually very proud despite the imperfections because it means that I am trying hard at something that doesn't come naturally to me.

I CONFESS...I might have made a bad decision when I decided that we should make the cupcakes for Kadence's birthday party VS buying them. I thought it would mean more if mom made the cupcakes and it would be a nice little talent to have. After the first attempt at frosting cupcakes I am thinking that I'm not cut out to be a frosting expert. It wasn't terrible, but not quite as good as I would like. I bought a new frosting tip...the right one...and will try again tonight. I'm hoping it goes much better this time and if it doesn't and you happen to see my not so perfect cupcakes....don't judge me, I'm doing my best!

I CONFESS...Staying to a budget is REALLY hard. You don't realize all the little expenses until you go to an all cash budget. We went and got drinks from the gas station and it cost $4. We used to do this almost daily. Lesson learned! It is a treat now not a normal everyday event. (Although Bug Juice will continue to be my girls favorite bribe!)

I CONFESS...I am so very grateful for my step dad. He is the one who helped raise me since my dad has lived out of state since I was little. He and my mom were married when I was 6 years old and he has been with me through many things. He took us camping, hiking and biking. He has shared his love of photography. He has been an amazing handy man and always seemed to find a way to make things work. He has been there through deaths, illnesses, and many other trials. He has been there when I started my own family, and has inspired me to be a better parent. I often refer to him as my dad and love him VERY much! He is such an amazing man and I hope that David is as amazing to our girls throughout their happiness, trials, and adventures. I hope he encourages them to be the best they can and supports them with love when they fall short. Thank you Doug, we love you very much!

Budget Update

Ok, we made it through our first week of our new budget. I think it will take another week to know if it's working well or not. The biggest pro was that each day we were saving about $2.00 in change from using cash vs debit. The girls loved helping save and they knew they were saving for the zoo. Once we saved enough for a membership we would go. They got excited everytime we gave them our change and I'm hoping that by involving them we can teach them to save and be patient when you want something vs getting everything instantly through credit. Another big pro was that we were forced to cook our meals at home. We ate out once...which we have $20 each week set aside for and then we ate out again with money we had saved. All in all that was a HUGE accomplishment for us. One of the problems we immediately ran into was that I spend money helping others. We initially used our $20 MISC on a neighbor who's children needed dinner after dad was brought to the hospital in an ambulance. I needed to go help with a RS dinner so we ordered them pizza. We were ok sacrificing our MISC money, but then there was another neighbor to help. We then decided that like gas and bills, any money spent to help others wouldn't come from our budget. We then replenished our MISC money. We were able to enjoy ourselves and not feel such a tight squeeze, all while cutting back on the spending.

After our trip to Vegas...that we budgeted out with cash...we had a few hundred left over. David asked me if he could have it so he could surprise me with something. After MUCH hesitation, I agreed. I hate spending money on myself at all but that's a lot! He surprised me a few days ago with a new iPod touch. I live on my iPod, and am actually doing this post from it! I had bought my iPod used from ksl and he wanted me to have a new better version. Awesome! I then sold my old one for pretty cheap for what it was, but I just wanted enough to get the invisashield on my new iPod and buy our zoo pass. I misjudged how much the invisashield cost, but we got all but $11 of our zoo pass. At the end of the week, we had enough for the difference for our zoo pass, enough for a trip to McDonalds after the zoo, a punch pass for the train/carousel at the zoo, and two $4 prizes from the zoo gift shop. We still put some money back in the jar and are saving toward a few camping trips.

This next week will be the real test because it's hard for us to avoid eating out, especially on days when David is at school until the evening. This week he has class EVERY night and it's even later than usual. Needless to say, I bet our MISC money AND our shopping money might be going toward take out. :)

Fun Outside!

Here is an honest blog since I haven't done one in a while. My kids watch a lot of TV....A LOT! Our TV is always on from the time my kids wake up to the time they get ready for bed. In fact, 3 hours a day is mandatory. (2 hours for rest time, a half hour when they wake up and a half hour before bed.) The thing is that I don't even feel guilty for it. I see people who restrict their childrens TV watching and kudos to them. I'm sure it is a great thing for their family, but for mine....its TV and lots of it! Now don't get me wrong, my kids don't sit all day watching TV. They play with toys, use their imaginations, help me cook, read books, and go in their rooms to play. In between activities it seems like they stop for a few minutes and watch some TV, then head right into another activity. My kids have great imaginations, can share (although they don't always), and can entertain themselves well. Here is how David and I have decided to gauge if they are addicted: If they get upset when we change the channel or turn the TV off, and if they no longer want to go outside, but would rather stay in and watch TV. As for now we don't see too much wrong with them watching TV, I watched it tons when I was little and I seem to have turned out alright.

Now that the weather is better, the girls are loving the outside play time that they are getting. I can't wait for hikes, camping (although we bring a DVD player) and picnics. It's not that my girls can't stand being away from TV, they just enjoy a few down times watching throughout their day. Here are a few pictures from last night when we had the TV off for hours!

Doesn't Shelby look SO old here?

Kadence wasn't so much in the mood for pictures. She just wanted to play!


Of course, I had to make them kiss!

Vegas Day 2

I forgot to mention on the last post that when we got off the plane and were gathering our strollers and car seats, we noticed that the handle was broken off of one of our strollers. So just realize that we had a one handled stroller throughout our whole trip. :)

On the second day it was time for the girls to meet my dad and step mom. This was the whole reason for the trip actually. My dad was in Vegas for my stepbrothers wedding and so my sisters and I took our families down so the kids could see their grandma and grandpa Gerry. I was a little nervous that the girls wouldn't warm up to them, but they did right away! We met them in the hotel lobby for breakfast and Kadence just chatted away at her Grandma Gerry.

The day before, David and I had decided that we wanted to take the girls to Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef. Rachel and her family, Jeff, Grandma and Grandpa Gerry and us all headed out after breakfast.

Here's our family with Grandma and Grandpa Gerry

The girls LOVE maps and carried around the map of the aquarium the whole time.

Happy little family!

We saw some people cleaning the tanks and one actually stopped to wave!

Had to get Jeff in the crotch of a statue!

The girls got to touch sting rays. Shelby loved this and Kadence wasn't as much a fan. She didn't like having to dangle over the water and was afraid she was going to fall in.

The girls loved playing inside of a ship that had all sorts of fish, turtles and sharks all around.

After the aquarium, we of course stopped at the gift shop. David got a really cool glow in the dark jelly fish. The girls got a few smaller things. We then headed home to get our car so that we could go to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. This was a big debate. Last time we parked in Ceasars Palace, it took FOREVER to get out. David wanted to walk, but I insisted on driving....and of course, I won. :)

The food was great, and we took home 6 pieces of cheesecake. 2 for me, 2 for David, and 2 for Jeff. The girls both ate well and earned themselves some ice cream. They did great in the restaurant considering there weren't any crayons or coloring sheets and I came very unprepared. I didn't take much of anything anywhere because I was afraid of losing it.

We went back to the hotel and leaving the parking garage was much easier this time...I KNEW IT! We changed into our swimming suits and headed to the pool. Amanda and her family had swam and left, but Rachels family and my dad were still there. We didn't swim too long because the plan was to meet in Amandas room for dinner.

Shelby loved swimming without holding onto anything. Kadence let go for a few minutes, but then decided she would rather someone hold her.

After dinner with the family, we decided to head out to Houdini's Magic shop. The last time Jeff was in Vegas it was too busy to even look around and David LOVES the store. Right at the entrance of NYNY there was a giant candy store. We let the girls each pick a candy so they could munch on it while we shopped. They were amazing for how tired they were and on our walk home they were down for the count!

It was a great day full of fun and I'm so glad that the meeting of their Grandma and pa Gerry went so well. Kadence actually was pretty attached to Grandma Gerry throughout the day and enjoyed holding her hand and telling her stories.

My New Budget

David and I are noticing that we are needing to adjust our grocery budget. We used to spend about $100 a week on groceries, and it seems that no matter how hard I try we just can't seem to spend less than $130-$140. I don't know what it is. I try my darndest, but it just doesn't seem to work. I know there are some extreme couponers out there that could feed their family a month with that budget, but I am not that good. :) Since we were already adjusting the budget, I decided to google a little to try and find a good way to do a budget. I came upon one that I think will work for my family over at couponingtodisney.com. I had remembered hearing about the site a long time ago and well....David and I are dying to go back to Disney. Her budget seemed to make the most sense although she spends less on her groceries because she's a great couponer. Here's how it works: Each week you take out your weekly budget in cash. This budget is NOT for gas, bills, or things like clothes. This is how our budget will look:

$140 for Food/Non Food Grocery Items

$20 for Dining Out

$20 Shopping

$20 MISC

The $20 Shopping will most likely be put toward snacks for picnics, and deals online like groupon. If you go over in one area, you suffer in another area...and have less to save. At the end of the week any money not spent (Plus all the change from using cash) goes into a savings jar. So here is a scenario: Spend $130 on groceries, $18 on Dining out, $15 on Shopping, and $18 of MISC and at the end of one week we would have $19 in our savings!!

I am SO excited to try this out and see if we can start saving toward family adventures. First I would love to buy a pass to the zoo, David would like to save for a few camping trips, and then we will start saving for Disneyland. We would love to try and go during Spring Break if we can save fast enough, but most likely it will be next summer.

I think even if we aren't saving money toward anything this budget will save money overall. We tend to buy food for cooking meals and get lazy and get take out. If we are using cash only we are more likely to stay under our budget because we will have no other choice. Every time we vacation I set our money aside and we use cash the whole time. I haven't ever gone over and actually end up saving money usually. It helps cut down on major impulses. Now it's time to start applying that same plan to our everyday expenses. I'm excited to see how it will work and will update in a week or two and let you know how it's going for us!

Memorable Vegas Quotes

So while on our vacation in Vegas a few things were said that just make me laugh and I don't want to forget them.

Kadence and Shelby are obsessed with praying, Jesus, and Heavenly Father. When I say obsessed I really mean it! They are constantly telling me that they miss Jesus or their Heavenly Father and they are just barely getting into praying without help. (Which is funny in itself) While we were walking to the strip one night, Kadence told me..."Mom, I miss Jesus so I'm going to say a prayer." I of course told her "OK" She started off, "Heavenly Father, thank you for our day, thank you for Vegas, help Heavenly Father not miss me and Jesus not miss me, thank you for not making me wear shorty short shorts, name of Jesus Christ Amen." I just about DIED laughing!!! I don't know where she would get that from but it sure did make me laugh!

While walking across the bridge from New York New York to MGM after going to Houdini's magic shop there was a begger who asked if our girls were twins. David told him no to which he replied, "Ya, twins!" I guess the begger knows our girls a little better than we do!

Another time we were walking to the strip, a bus stop drunk who was there every time we passed I think said something funny....to the girls! He looked directly at them and said, "Mortgages are won and lost here." I was confused and thought I for sure heard him wrong because he looked RIGHT at the girls while he said it, but nope David and Jeff both heard the same thing! Man I love Vegas!

Girls Night In

David was going to be out tonight for our friend, Jeff's, bachelor party so I decided to have a little fun night with the girls. I have a nasty cold so I didn't feel up to much. I decided to let the girls pick a movie and a few snacks and have a movie night. We went to get snacks and we got the girls favorite....fruit and yogurt dip. (I use strawberry gogurt because it tastes the same) They love fruit and to get a plate full WITH yogurt dip is a real treat for them. We also got some candy, chips, and drinks. I was SO thrilled when I got my total for all of this...

$4.68!!! I don't coupon and deal hunt all the time, but when I do I really try to make it worth my time. I was super excited and thought $5.68 for a night with the girls is so much cheaper than what I thought we were going to spend! ($1 for the Redbox)

Here's the delicious treat my girls LOVE!

I decided to drag Kadence's mattress into the front room to make it a little different than our usual movie night. The girls were having a hard time waiting to eat their fruit so I could take a quick picture. They have watched Yogi Bear better than I thought they would and I've been able to blog a bit. We miss our daddy, but I sure do love time together with my girls.

Vegas Day 1

When we woke up on the day we were supposed to leave, Kadence had a random cough. Of course! I get worried about when she has a cough so I threw our thermometer and pulse oximeter in our bags and away we went! We were very excited to start off with a short plane ride instead of a loooooong car ride. The girls do pretty good in the car, but David and I start whining around 2 1/2 hours. :) Although I was nervous and getting through security was interesting it seemed well worth it. (Explaining to a 4 yr old why she needs to take her shoes off and walk through a metal detector with her arms up is quite the trick!) Here we are watching them get our plane ready for flight.

Here's the girls and I before the plane left the ground....Notice I still seem happy.

Here's Jeff and David, ready to take off!

Ok, the plane made me extremely nauseous and I was sort of in a panic so once we reached our altitude we had David and Kadence switch seats. I don't know what it is, but just having David near me calms me down quite a bit. I was able to make it through the rest of the flight, and then the landing almost scared me to death. It was more than rough.

We got to the hotel and unloaded our rental car and then headed straight for the strip. I had purchased several restaurant.com gift certificates for different places to eat while we were in Vegas. I thought it would be fun to go out to eat for most of our meals, but why not save money while doing it? We headed off to Gameworks which is a big arcade that also has a place to eat. The girls were excited because they love going to restaurants. The food was pretty crappy, kind of like ChuckECheese. As we were about to leave I put my coat on grabbed the girls hands and we left for the arcade. Not even 3 minutes later I went to call my sister, Rachel, and realized I didn't have my phone. I left it on the table! No biggie, I'm sure it would still be there. NOPE! I'm pretty positive that our waitress took it. She didn't seemed to concerned and just said, "All that was on the table was crayons and napkins." I know it was on the table toward the edge, Jeff saw it there and thought he should grab it, and so did David. We tried to ask if they would check security tapes but they told us that LP and security weren't there. (On a Sunday evening) and they would leave a note and have them check in the morning. We left and I was very upset. It would cost $300 to replace my phone and we just don't have that amount of money right now. We decided to try and continue on with our great night anyways. We headed over to M&M World. I was so excited because the girls LOVE this store. We let them pick their M&M's, David and I picked ours, and then I got some green and pink ones for Kadence's birthday. We also got a few other little things. Then we went and watched the 3D movie upstairs. It kind of scared both girls a little, but they said they really liked it. It was about Red losing his M in Vegas and trying to get it back. I thought it was cute. We ended the night with a trip to Walmart to buy a few things we needed like snacks and drinks. By the end of the day we were all SO tired and ready for bed!

New Dress...New Deal!

Our friends are getting married tomorrow and their colors are black and red. I will be at the luncheon, ceremony, and reception and am nervous that if I'm in pictures what I already have will clash with everyone. I decided that I needed to go buy a new outfit. I set out looking for a fancy dressy shirt to go with some black pants I already have. I am not a fan of dresses...especially if I have to wear them all day. I had a shirt to return to JCPenney's so I started my hunt there. I HATE shopping for myself and it always takes forever to find something that I don't absolutely hate. I had bought the shirt for David with a spend $10 get $10 off coupon that I got in the mail. The shirt ended up being to short and so we returned it for $14 store credit! (I couldn't find the receipt) It didn't seem like anything was going to work and anything that was red seemed to have a pink tone to it. I figured that after 5 more stores we might find something that would work. Then I found a dress! It is black and white and since it scoops down low I got a red tank top to go under it. I really feel comfortable in it and am excited to wear it! The price tags kind of scared me a bit...

I just don't like spending a ton of money on myself. Everything I bought was on sale, and then at the register they took an extra 15% off. After sale, extra % off, and my store credit I only paid $40.65 AFTER tax!! That's a savings of over $71.35. Here is a picture of the dress. I am not feeling good and not in any mood to take a picture, but my sister wanted to see it. :)

Friday Confessional

I CONFESS...I love going on vacation, but I love coming home even more. I love walking in and setting my bags down and it feels like "home". I love knowing that I have everything I might need at my fingertips, knowing how to get places, and knowing that there aren't super crazy taxi drivers. I always clean before we leave so that we can come home to a clean house and I LOVE it. I know that I can come sit on the couch and relax if I wanted. (Even though I get right to putting our suitcase stuff away instead) My girls are well behaved while we are away from home, but they are even better behaved here at home. We all sleep better at home and more sleep means happier family.

I CONFESS...I don't really like flying on airplanes. I hadn't flown since I was 8, and was anxious about the flight. We got on and I thought I was fine until the plane started moving. I immediately got nauseous. I get motion sick just swimming in a pool so this was NOT good. It was a very bumpy ride to the runway, a really crappy take off, a really turbulent ride, and an even worse landing. When we landed it tipped the plane clear to the right and everyone gasped. It was definitely not my idea of fun. I had 10x the anxiety for the flight home, but it actually went much better. I didn't like the take off, but everything else went much better. On the way home the seat belt light actually went off for a little bit so it was much better flying conditions. Despite the better flight, there was a little boy behind me who kept crying "OWIE...OWIE" I felt terrible for him and his very pregnant mom. I then felt worse when he threw up everywhere. I have a sever vomit phobia, but I still did ok and would call it a successful flight home.

I CONFESS...I absolutely love my girls and the way they can make me laugh. They take joy in the littlest things and are so grateful for everything. We went swimming at the pool at our hotel and on the way in Shelby said, "Thank you so much mommy, that was my best adventure in the whole wide world." I get thanked for things like putting a new shirt on them, helping them get dressed, getting them a cup of milk, and feeding them dinner. I seriously think I have the best kids in town! (Sorry to my neighbors who read my blog.)