GIVING THE COUPON THING A GO....

I have come across several blogs and seen several things on how MANY people are using coupons and saving so much money! So when I do my grocery shopping I always make a weekly menu so I know what I need, which if you dont do this you should... To all you fellow friends the menu really helps yet I still seem to go over what I would like to be spending. With this being said I see these blogs on how moms are saving TONS off coupons and I want to know the TRICK!

So I started cutting out coupons today and it may take a little bit to see much of a difference but I am really hoping to see quite a difference. If any of you know of any sites where I can sign up for deals and coupons please let me know.. I know there are some out there that arent worth a hoot but also some really beneficial ones. So I am starting a money savings challange to see how much I can save... take the challange and see how much you can save with coupons!!!

Please send me any links to where I can get coupons and good deals!!! Looking forward to this money savings challange... any tips and advise would help too... Will keep you posted.

Much Love,
Jamie

CHERISH THE MEMORIES... THEY DONT STAY SMALL FOREVER...

I already posted but feel I was a tad negative.. I am a mother, and as hard as it can be at times I should be BLESSED I am a mother.. As crazy as it may sound I should be happy dealing with a 6 yr old with an additude .... God picked us to be parents and we should be nothing but thankful... ON A HAPPIER NOTE...

ALL KENZ WANTED WAS TO SNUGGLE WITH SISSY...

KAYLEIGH MEETING HER BABY SISTER FOR FIRST TIME..

KAYLEIGH MISSED HER SISTER WHILE SHE WAS IN CALI...

SWEET PEA

KAY AND HER BUNNY...



WELCOMING OUR FIRST BABY GIRL.. KAYLEIGH MADISON



KAYLEIGH FALL 2009... 5 YRS

KENZ SUMMER 2010

WELCOMING OUR 2ND BABY GIRL.. MCKENZIE LEA...



FUN IN THER SUN SUMMER 2010.. KENZ 13 MONTHS

 

KAYS FIRST TIME AT THE OCEAN. SUMMER 2010

                                                                  

OUR FIRST EASTER AS A FAM OF 4

4TH OF JULY 2010

SUMMER TIME...SWEET GIRLS

MY WHOLE WORLD.

NEGATIVE ATTENTION...

I ask my self often if it's a phase?.?.. It seems lately my life is filled with yelling, tantrums, disrespect, arguing, and MAJOR acting out. All this from a 6 YEAR OLD! I know it had to of been hard going from being an only child for 5 years to having a sibling. She fell in love with her baby sister and did so well but seems like when Kenz became more mobile and vocal and we laugh at the silly things she does it's like a JEALOUS out break. She seems to act out more for me than her dad.  Her dad gives in easier too. It's so bad I have to walk away and breath and I pray my heart out for patience and this will pass. It only seems to be getting worse. It feels like we are dishing out so much negative attention due to her behavior and I hate it. She argues with me in the morning and I end up in tears after dropping her off. I feel so bad and want the best for her but she doesn't see that. I hate being THAT MOM but I feel like I am mothering THAT KID!! She is an emotinal rollercoaster and I am so scared because her lil sister is watching every lil thing she does and I dont want her thinking it's ok to act this way... I despise yelling because I grew up in a yelling household. I am at a dead end. I know all kids are different but we have tried having time with just Kay, rewarding her for good behavior and work at school which I feel is positive reinforcement but that doesnt seem to do any good either. We do laugh at Kenz and amazed at all the new things she does daily. We did the same with Kay and still do just over different stuff. We comment on her reading , how pretty she is, how much we love her, but we also ask more out of her. To pick up her mess which she argues because Kenz doesnt have to, although we have started working with Kenz and she loves to help pick up ( for now atleast). I am exhausted and dont know what else I can do.... As alot of you know my chiklhood was not the best. My mother was alcholic, We endied up living with my dad and he remarried. I stayed semi intouch with my mom till i was 17-18. She was not a mother and I always wanted to have kids and be a wonderful mother. Be that mother my kids could talk to, respect, love, and bond with. I am doing my damndest to be the best mom I can be but feel since she has never and will never live in a rough house or she always has food and roof over her head, she doesnt understand how hard life can be. We live for these kids.. We provide them with more than the basics and I will admit spoil them.. I just want her to understand her behavior has to stop. I am reaching out to any mommys that maybe can give me a tip or 2 or 3..!! :) Will this phase pass.. I just am at my wits end but still make sure she knows I love her and try to have sit down talks.. She soaks it all up and then like a sponge dries out and starts the acting out again................... Sorry for the BLAH  blog we are just going nutty over here.. I need reasurance that THIS TOO SHALL PASS!!  Thanks for listening to me blab, I just want to get through this and maybe some of you have tips..
Much Love,
Jamie

LOVE THIS PIC

LOOKING BACK....PART 3.. Nov, Dec, and why Christmas and January mean so much to me.....

Ok Ok, I promise this is the last of this on going post. I will for now on blog more frequently... HA... October was a month made of great memories and although Kenz still is too young to remember there will be lots to tell her about. November was a tad on the rocky side. We were thrown some major curve balls but by the GRACE OF GOD and the stregnth of our love we overcame them. So here comes November...
NOVEMBER 2010:
As I mentioned above our November started off rocky but with the grace of god and our love we got through them. Justin had been working VERY long hours and we had really been missing him. He finally realized he needed to make time for his family and set work on the back burner. We took the girls to ITZ and it was nice having fun bein goof balls... Kenz spent majority of the evening climbing the ski ball ramp :)! We had a wonderful time.. We started our Christmas shopping and we had sat aside 2000 in savings which between the family and the girls we put a that away quite quick.. We warned Kay to be on her best because if she was naughty she'd get coal..:).. Santa was bringing Kay some awesome gifts as well as Kenz. I was so ready to celebrate Christmas and watch the priceless grins and giggles.. But first we had a few other things in store for November. My best friends daughter Haylie turned 5 so we had her party to celebrate. Justin's uncle Jimmy came into town for a visit which was so nice. He had recently lost his wife Justin's aunt Debbie in October so it was a blessing to have him and see him smiling and loving the time with the kiddos. Here are some pics from Haylie's b-day and uncle Jimmy's visit

November was a busy month. Kayleigh started Ballet and LOVES it. It is actually a tap/dance class. It goes through May and in May they put on a recital at the Tingley. She had done soccer in the past but I was thrilled when she decided she wanted to do dance.. It's every Saturday and she picked up so quick! The kids were off a whole week this year for Thanksgiving so my sister n law decided to keep our sanity we should do a craft with the kids. She has 3 boys 3,6,7 so we spent a day doing a craft. The kids had fun and the mess was wonderful as well. Im quite SURE Amy was very thankful for her Dyson when all was said and done!! lol...We had Thanksgiving at Justin's aunt's like every year. What a wonderful Thanksgiving it was. A few less family members than usual cause they moved but still very nice. So much to be THANKFUL for this year. As we do every year we all sit around after eating and look at the adds in the paper for gift ideas.. Have good laughs.. The guys always take naps while watching the game and then desert.. It is always such a great day. I feel like that sums up the month of NOVEMBER but to say the least It was a great month regardless of the obsticals we faced at the start of the month.. Here are some pics of ballet, fall break, Thanksgiving!

The craft they made were turkeys.... GLUE was involved so Kenz was a mess and feathers stuck to hands all over... I made her a turkey by suffing her with feathers!!!!

Auntie loves her girls... Love this pic of her and Kenz!... Hope you all had a very BLESSED Thanksgiving..

DECEMBER 2010- RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR JANUARY 2011:

As for December I already blogged about Christmas and what an amazing yr it was.. I will say it again.. This season hit me differently. I finally after all these years felt the true meaning of Christmas.. I did not care about gifts, what made my day was seeing my kids happy, being a happy healthy family of 4.. Christmas day was spent at my in laws and just hanging out and having them as family to spend the day with was great.. Although we spoiled the kids I just hope one day they feel what Christmas is all about CHRISTmas. December was full of great memories. Justin and I spent some MUCH NEEDED quality time together and it was so much fun.. The 8th of December marked our 7th Anniversary. We have never done much for our Anniversary but this year he made sure to we did.. We went to the Melting Pot and it was so quiet and just had a great night. His mom watched the kiddos and we picked them up around 10:00. We did alot of shopping through the month and also preparing for Christmas eve. We took over the tradition that has been long lived at his parents since he was just a wee one. We now will be having Christmas Eve at our house.. Good food, great time with family and the kiddos had a blast. I was thrilled to have everyone at our house. Guess were growing up! After all left we went as a family of 4 and looked at lights.. A week before Christmas we got our first BIG snow for the year.. It was Beautiful.. Short lived but beautiful. We had decorated as we do every year, and Justin did the out side as usual. I love it when my house is all decked out BUT once its all done I am so ready to pack it all up and get my house back to normal.. The kids got their 2 weeks as usual and it actually went by pretty quick. We decorated cookies with the kiddos at my inlaws and holy MESS.... But the kids had a blast. December was full of wonderful memories. I am so thankful each December and Christmas that goes by due to this last Christmas2010 marked 3 years since I had my minor strokes yet we didnt know what was wrong. We thought I had the flu and just severe dizzyness. I couldnt walk, Justin had to carry me I just puked and couldnt turn to even make it in bucket.. I missed Kayleighs 3rd Christmas completly. I couldnt even see and they opened gifts just daddy and Kayleigh.. It was a huge blur. I was out for a week and very very sick. I cant ever get my daughters memories of her 3rd Christmas back and it is heart wrenching. I am so thankful to be healthy after knowing what being so ill is like. I ended up having a full blown stroke In January 08 while my mother n law and I were taking Kayleigh to speech. My mother n law was driving, thank the GOOD LORD and I went blurry started slurring and whole left side went numb. I think it was like the 12th of Jan 3 yrs ago. I spent a week in the step down unit at Pres and didn't even want my daughter to see me cause she was so scared. Justin brought her up one night and she was so startled at seeing me all hooked up... So Dec and Jan are milestones of being healthy and a reminder to cherish each and every moment of our lifes cause you just never know.. I am SO LUCKY I regained everything back. I do have a bit of left facial nerve damage, but you cant tell unless you really look and suffer from loss of sensation in hands. They are pretty much 99%numb I have a rough time with zippers and buttons and small things.. I had to reteach my self how to hold a pen and write. It was so sloppy at first but im just really lucky.. They diagnosed it as Cervical Vasculitis drug induced.. I was on a couple of medications that they had me on and didnt need nor should have been taking in combo of each other. That was one reason I got a tubal due to not being able to take any type of hormone, So we played it safe till we decided I was completely healthy and ready to try for baby #2. So Dec and Jan hit home to me. I am so thankful I recovered and had another baby that was healthy and I am doing so well. So that is a little bit of why I cherish my family so much. My wonderful husband and 2 beautiful kiddos.... 3 years ago I was just released from hospital. Praise God. AND thats another reason I stayed at home and managed my pain and passed my kidney stone with out going to ER. I know whats an emergency and I dont go to ER unless my child is very hurt or sick etc! So with all this being spilled out love and hug your kids.. Life is too short.. realize what the holidays are all about. I cherish each NEW YEAR. I welcome it with open doors and am prepared for what ever it may have in store with me and my family. Hope you all had a BLESSED HOLIDAY and A VERY HAPPY AND SAFE NEW YEAR!!!Im exhausted so I will make a new post with pics from December and January tomorrow.. Love To All, Jamie

LOOKING BACK ... PART 2

So I decided since this blog was going to be extremely long I would break it into 2 parts.. I left you guys with our amazing visit from the Webers! I will continue on with July.
JULY 2010:
So when Kay was in Cali Justin and I decided we would get her a Guinea Pig! I am not a rodent fan but Guinea pigs have more personality and less rodent like. As some of you may know we had a lop eared dwarf bunny that Kay got for Easter 3 or 4 yrs ago. We wanted a female and so the man picked one up and said yep this ones a female! Kay named her Ruby. She was such a sweet heart. I went to pick her up one day and noticed what I thought was a mass and called Justin. While on the phone with him I noticed another on the other side and well it sure wasnt a Ruby more like a RUBERTO!! Yep we had a male.. It made no difference to any of his cause she/he was just as loving.. Well for the bad news........ Right before Kay started Kindergarten her and daddy were out side and I hear Kay in Hysterics. Before even hearing it I had some feeling and started crying... Ruby had had a heat stroke. It was horrible and Kay was devistated.
Well Kay had been asking for another one for years but we were unable to locate a good breeder and I felt we had enough animals for the time being. So next closest thing was a Guinea pig.. We went and picked out one for her. A young female and got all her goods...We suprised Kay when she got home and she was so EXCITED! Well as the next month came along it seemed to me that the Pigs abdomen was getting bigger. I borrowed a book from a good friend and was traumatized at what I had read. It sounded like I had bought a PREGNANT Guinea pig.... YI YI YI...
AUGUST 2010:
The pig continued to get larger and I could feel and see the babies move. We were in for it. Ha only we would buy a PREGNANT pig. We spent the last few weeks of Summer getting Kay all set for first grade. I ofcourse was not at all happy at meet the teacher day. Once again Kay got the one teacher I didnt want her to get. But I wasnt about to put a damper on Kayleigh and went along with the flow. Before we knew it it was the first day of 1st grade!

Kays first day of 1st grade.. Gosh she looks so much older than she did on her first day of kindergarten!! There is also one of Kenz after dropping sissy off. She looked bored and I think went through withdrawls.. Not a whole lot happened in August. Kay started bringing homework home the first week and man to be honost they go from not doing much in Kindy to having to cram TONS into their first year. I mean math homework each night, following journal writing and reading for atleast 30 min. I knew from the start this was the start to a nightly fight.. I was absolutly right. She would rather play then focus on her education and it's kicking my butt bein the mom. Hopefully one day she will understand how important her learning really is.. This is how I feel about kiddos growing up too quick..

I am sure all you moms feel the same! Oh and Kenz got her first big boo boo by climbing on the kitchen table and reaching for the chair and fell along with chair. This was like the first week Kay was back to school. Here she is sitting on sissys bed attempting to work the remote.. :)

Well before I knew it we were closing another chapter in our lifes and moving on to Sept..
SEPTEMBER 2010:
Well the guinea pig continued to grow. I kept waiting for her to pop to no avail. She was HUGE and thats being nice. lol. September, well lets just say we had some very unwanted out of town guest. MY PARENTS. My dad and his joy of a wife Debbie, my stepmom. It was the by far the most god awful visit EVER! I mean those of you that know a lil about my past and my family know the lady is not a nice lady. She thrives off negativity and I dont like to partake in this type of life style. I grew up with it but now that I am approaching my 30's and have a family of my own I finally put my foot down. It left a HUGE DENT in our relationship and to be quite honost life has been much smoother with out having her them holding a weight over my head. So with that being an unfortunate start to Sept we had lots of GOOD TIMES as well. The State Fair which was a blast. We go to the rodeo every year. It's been a tradition since Justin's dad was a wee one.. His grandparents have always bought the same seats and they took Justins dad when he was a boy, Justin's parents took him and his sister when they were young and now we take our kids!! His grandpa passed away in 2001 but his grandma still buys the tickets. It is so amazing to carry on such a tradition and the kids just LOVE it. Last year Kenz was too lil to go so this was her first year. She wasnt too sure at first but was in awwww over the Horses, cows, sheep, bulls, etc.. We had a blast as always and afterward we walked the girls down to the animals and although it was dark you could still see the animals and Kenz loved them... Here is a pic of Kenz rockin it at her first rodeo...

Fall came creeping up on us and I love to decorate the house so by the end of Sept I already had drug my Fall decor out!! OH ANOTHER HUGE STEP IN SEPT 2010 was ....

Well this actually was in August that this happened but yep I finally set my little one free and she went to her own room.. It only took 2 nights and we both have slept TONS better ever since!!!That sums it up for Sept.
OCTOBER 2010:
The weather was oddly warm compared to the past years. October was full of memories made with the girls and I love it. The first graders went on a field trip to McCalls Pumpkin patch! It is about an hour away and parents were not allowed to take the bus with their child so Misty and I car pooled and met the kids there. They did a hay ride, picked out pumpkins, and played.. They had a blast and the weather was beautiful... Here are quite a few pics from the field trip..

Along with McCalls we decided to take the girls to Galloping Grace. It was a pumpkin patch local that had fun things for the kids and Kay got to horse back ride.. This is where we got our big pumpkins...

The girls got boxes from Grandma and Granpa Miller for Halloween so here are some pictures of them opening them.. Also Kenz got her first pig tails that day so I HAVE TO POST THOSE cause she also got her first HAIR CUT later that day as well..

And after all that fun of getting goodies.... FIRST HAIR CUT.. HAD TO RID OF THE MULLET..

It was almost time to carve the pumpkins and time tor trick-or-treating and we had a couple of new arrivals one Sunday afternoon.. Momma pig gave birth to 2 baby pigs..

We were told it was very easy to sex the baby guineas. We THOUGHT for sure we had sexed them correctly and the one we were for sure was a girl um, wasnt and got momma pregnant before we had time to stop it.. So im guilty of inbreeding my guinea pigs.. I feel horrible but what do you do?!!!??
So that was exciting and Kay was all about these guineas. It was time to carve pumpkins and then that Sunday trick or treating time.. Kenz was too lil to do the door to door last year but this year she stayed with the kids and would push peoples doors all the way open and just felt free to walk in their house.. haha..lol.. And she would just sit on doorsteps to eat her candy... Such a Goober.. Here are a few pics of our pumpkins and Halloween. Kay was a 70's flower child and Kenz was a ladybug...

And that was our exciting month of October.. I didnt realize how long this would take me so I am going to stop for the night and will continue with a LOOKING BACK ... PART 3 tomorrow.... Stay tuned!!
Much love to all, Jamie
HERE ARE QUITE A FEW MORE PHOTOS FROM OCTOBER..