FREE photo album from HOORRAY

So I tried out the Free photo album that HOORRAY is offering. I got the 34.95 album for free. Just enter THANKUALBUM and FREESHIP in the promotion code. You will have to enter one at a time. You might also have to enter in your billing and address information 2x even though they are the same. I'm not sure how long the promotion lasts, but my guess is it is through January 1. You should give it a try. Just be prepared to spend a bit of time. It took me about 4 hours to complete my album with pictures and text. You can change the layout and colors on the right hand side. Just go to www.hoorray.com

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Hannah was a shepherd for her school program.

 

Santa's Personal Visit
Santa (Grandpa Lovejoy) made a visit on Sunday. The girls were very excited to see him, but wouldn't normally be interested in visiting with a stranger Santa. Madison wasn't quite so sure who the jolly man was.

 

 

 

Nuts

I don't seem to have much luck with nuts- One of Peter's classmates in dental school often came to our house for dinner in Ohio. Once I forgot that he had a nut allergy and I made something with nuts, I think they were muffins, but now I can't remember. He went home a little itchy that night. My dad is the same way, so I really am sympathetic to nut allergies, but since I have none of my own I often forget. Just yesterday I fed a peanut M&M to a child at church who had a nut allergy and I even had been told he had allergies to them. Thank heavens it was not life threatening.

The new suggestion is to not give peanuts/peanut butter to your child until they are 2. Katie gave Madison a great head start in that department by giving her a Reese's peanut butter cup when she was 5 months old. I tried to keep peanut butter away from her until she was one, but I gave up after that. She loves peanut butter sandwiches. Today she cried for about 2 hours. Whenever I can't figure out what is wrong with my little ones I always blame it on teeth, which maybe she is getting a few new ones. Nothing would pacify her until I gave her a big spoon of peanut butter. It did the trick! Personally I am a big fan of peanut butter. I think I ate more peanut butter sandwiches when I was pregnant with Katie than I had my entire life. I usually ate 2 or 3 before noon. It was the only way to keep from feeling super sick.

So, if you ever leave your kids with me or we invite you over for treats or dinner and anyone is allergic to something, remind me every time. I won't be offended.

Thin Mint Cookies

Yesterday we made homemade thin mint cookies. They remind me of the girlscout cookies. You just take Ritz crackers-or the cheaper store brand version and dip them in melted bark chocolate that has a few drops of mint extract (It is not an exact science. You'll just have to taste it.) One year I tried to get fancy and drizzle some white chocolate in stripes over it. I thought it was way too much work. This year we tried sprinkles on top, but we needed different sprinkles-ours were too see through. These are definitely a favorite.

We also made peanut butter balls but all of them were eaten before I took a picture. I have some of the balls that are not dipped in chocolate yet, so I'll take a picture when we get around to dipping them. Here is the recipe for those. What a great way to use some of those Rice Krispies we are stocked up on.

RICE KRISPIES PEANUT BUTTER BALLS 
2 c. peanut butter
1 stick butter, melted
1 (1 lb.) powdered sugar
3 c. Rice Krispies
1 lb. chocolate, melted (suggested Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate bits)
Mix first 4 ingredients; roll into balls; dip into chocolate.

We had a great morning before church today. Everyone was very cooperative. Hannah even picked out her own Matching Outfit. Yeahh!!!

Today

Today we made one of our favorite treats that we traditionally only make around the holidays because they are sooooo good, you can eat soooo many, and then feel soooo sick.
Just unwrap Rolo candy and place on top of a twisted pretzel. Place in 200 degree oven for a couple of minutes until chocolates are soft, but not totally melted. Then place a pecan on top and smash the rolo slightly. YUM YUM and soooo easy

CANDYBREAD HOUSES
So that is Hannah's name for Gingerbread Houses, which she got to make at school today. Here she is with her good friend, Allie from school.


SAFEWAY CEREAL for $.29-$.50

Until Tuesday Safeway is having a deal on Kellogg's cereal. When you buy 5 you get $5 off your purchase. If you combine it with recent coupons from the paper (I believe there were 4 coupons in one paper for $1 off plus you can print 2 coupons out from the Kellogg's website-print one and then press the back button on your web browser.
The cheapest are the cornflakes that will be $.29 and then up $.50 for mini wheats, rice krispies, etc. I actually managed to get my hands on 25 coupons for the cereal, so we stockpiled 25 boxes of cereal for $12.50. Sweet Deal! You'll have to ask me if we have any left in a couple of weeks.

Santa's Sweeties

Here are a few pictures of Santa's sweeties that live in our house. I couldn't believe that the girls would actually put on dresses for the Church Christmas party, but it was Hannah's idea.

Happy Thanksgiving

We went to Peter's parent's house for Thanksgiving and Katie and Hannah wanted to stay the night. So this is the project that I worked on while they were gone. I was trying to copy something I saw on the Pottery Barn website. You can check it out here- http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/am450/index.cfm
I misplaced one of my boards so for now this will have to do.

I hate sickness

So we've been pretty non-existent from everywhere lately. It seems like someone has a fever, yucky nose, pink eye or needs a handful of trips to the bathroom each hour quite often for the past week. But we are hoping that we are on the mend. I was loving Colorado and how my kids seemed to be able to get better all on their own without a trip to the doctor. Well, we managed to not have to go to the doctor thanks to some eye drops from a friend and we are hoping to enjoy more friends and outings for the holiday break. My goal for my kids this week is for only one of them to wake me up one time in the middle of the night. One night this week I think I slept an hour-not in one session either. I have had less sleep than I do when I have an infant.

Chucky Kong Pie

Chucky Kong was Peter's least favorite missionary food. It was a little bit of everything and I mean everything a family could find to put in a dish for dinner-it was not limited to meat, bread, dairy, vegetables, fruit.
Well I made my own Chucky Kong Pot pie tonight and it turned out great-It must have been good because there was none left and Peter didn't use BBQ sauce on it.

Here is the recipe-all the ingredients were leftovers

2 pork chops cooked with season salt and cut into small pieces
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 can corn
1/4 cup beans
1 can veg-all mixed vegetables
1 1/2 cups cooked white rice
1 pie shell(cooked)
1/2 cup red pepper chopped(only in half-the girls don't like them)
cheese

Mix all ingredients together and put in pie shell. Top with cheese and cook at 350 until hot.

I've been tagged. Seven things about me

1)I'm a good friend. At least I like to think that I am. I can keep in touch from far distances. I'll do something even if it is an inconvenience for me, because I truly love my friends and hope they love me back. NOTE: I don't remember birthdays or any date for that matter (I missed my own anniversary one year). So if you want me to remember your birthday, you have to remind me the day before.

2)I love to workout. I have to exercise at least 5 times a week or I start to go crazy.

3)In my dreams I could go to an icecream shop and try a sample of all of the flavors and then decide which flavor I want in a cone (not a bowl). I'm just a bit indecisive.

4)I'm predictable-very much a creature of habit.

5)I thrifty or I try to be

6)My favorite sound is the laugh of my kids and husband.

7)I am very blessed-I have a great family, excellent health, and no pressing worries beyond those of the normal day grind.

I tag Emily Hansen, Whitney Heap, Jennifer Kendall (whenver you get around to it)

Crockpot Tinfoil Dinner

I was trying to throw something together for dinner tonight. I had a few things in my fridge that I needed to clean out and this is what I came up with. I was a little worried it was going to be a flop, but it tasted great I don't love frozen beans, but in the crockpot they turned out nice. The meal reminded me of a tinfoil dinner.

Crockpot Tinfoil dinner

1 lb ground beef cooked
5 small potatoes washed and cut up (skins on)
1 package Lipton beefy onion soup mix
1 lb package baby carrots cut up
1 cup celery cut up
1/2 bag frozen beans
salt (I like lots of salt)

Taco Bell-Free Taco

Taco Bell is giving away free tacos today from 2-6. For more details check out their website
http://www.tacobell.com/stealabasestealataco/

Giveaway

So many blogs have free giveaways and I was thinking about what I could give away on my blog and I've come up with it...
I'm giving away an hour of cupboard cleanout in your home. Here's the deal: I'll let Madison come to your house for one hour and I guarantee every cupboard you want emptied will be. So anyone whose interested, let me know. This morning at 6am Madison emptied our cereal cupboard and dumped Raisin Bran all over the carpet. She did help clean up (eat) all of the Raisins. She left the flakes for me. It's all yours for one hour this week!!!!

Making Money at Walgreens (Deals 10/26-11/01)

So I have been following a few other blogs and trying to figure out how I can go to Walgreens and not spend a penny. Well, today I finally did it-at least I will have after I get all of my rebates back. I actually will have made $6.15 and I even bought 2 things of sidewalk chalk for my girls with no rebate. Yeah!!!!

So if you clip coupons here are a few deals you can find there...

Loreal age Perfect Moisturizer Procal 19.99-free after Easy Saver rebate (ESR) and $2 walgreens coupon (RP 10/05)
Almay One Coat Mascara 6.99-free after ESR + $1 Almay coupon (10/12 SS)
Thera flu Warming Medicine 6.49-free after mail in rebate and $2 coupon
Listerine sale 5.49-buy2 and get 5.50 RR (register rewards) +2 (.75 coupons)
Puffs tissue .99 in store coupon (limit 2) plus 2 (9/28 PG) coupons .25 They expire 10/31!!!
Sidewalk Chalk 2(1.00)=2.00

I used $8 in RR (Register rewards) from a previous trip
Total OOP: 34.01

Rebates: 29.67 ESR+5.50 RR+4.99theraflu rebate-OOP=
PROFIT 6.15

Who ya gonna call?

GHOSTBUSTERS!

This weekend we went to Coffin Races in Manitou Springs. Carrying on the tradition of a woman who was carried up the mountain to be buried, many businesses and other groups built coffins and raced a woman inside up the hill. My favorite coffin was a hollowed out log, pushed by some dwarves. I didn't manage to get a picture of that one. There were tons of people, but we had a fun time and saw all kinds of interesting people. Hannah commented on all the different colors of hair we saw.

We also stopped at a park nearby to let the girls play. It reminded me of the All Children's Playground my mom would take us to as kids.

Dad's Nite

Hannah had dad's night at school this week. They carved pumpkins, ate icecream and gave their dad's a picture. Hannah's picture said "I'm batty over dad because he runs with me". She had a great time and talked about it every day.

Best Deals in Colorado this week

Albertsons
Powerade-buy 10 get 5 free. This makes them .53 cents each
Hansen's Apple Juice .99c limit 2
Bananas .39c/lb

Walmart
Bell Peppers .50c
red grapes $1/lb
Red/bartlett pears $1/lb
Butter 1.99

ALL YOU magazine

The freebieblogger.com is giving away a 2 year subscription to ALL YOU magazine-filled with tons of coupons.

Winter is coming

We have had a few cold days, but they seem to be interspersed with some really nice days that make me love Colorado. I captured a few pictures of Madi while we were playing outside. She is a full time walker now.

Silent Sleeper

I few months ago I posted a picture of Katie falling asleep sitting up on the couch during a time out. Well it happened again, just a little differently. I gave her a snack to eat and when I came back in the kitchen she had fallen asleep next to her nectarine. This is a first. My kids love to eat and when it comes to food they will give up most anything for it. I guess she was tired.

Saving Money-free doll giveaway

I have gotten into couponing lately and I'm still trying to stash up a store of coupons to use in the future, so anyone out there I see before your coupons expire, you can pass them on to me. One of the sites I frequent is
http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com
She is doing a giveaway for a doll this week, so if you're interested, try it out.

My favorite things that happened today

In no particular order...
1)I gave the girls icecream after dinner, each in a cone of course with sprinkles on top. I never liked sprinkles but they sure make most kid's day. After handing Madison her cone, she would giggle every few seconds. It was the sweetest thing. She probably had 1 Tbsp of icecream in the top of the cone. She'd put her fingers inside and then put it up to her mouth, covering her nose so that she had a chocolate ring around her face. Her little giggle made me smile.
2) My great friend Jonelle called today to tell me the gender of their upcoming twins-a boy and a girl. Congratulations Cripe Family
3) Our computer is functioning. Last night we thought it would be making its way to the dumpster, but through the help of a neighbor it is working great. I wish I were more technically savvy.
4) All of the girls behaved amazingly the entire afternoon and evening (Maybe it had something to do with the icecream.)
5) My house almost looks clean (minus all of the laundry that needs to be put away) Hannah cleaned up all of the toys today.
6) I had a great visit with one of my neighbors.
7) My lettuce didn't freeze last night because I remembered to cover it up with a sheet.
8) Hannah told Katie, "That is an adult job, like for a 4 year old or something" I'm going to try and use that one next time I need some help.
9) I'm grateful for all of my freedoms, for my family, my home and all of my blessings. To support marriage and Proposition 8 visit http://www.preservingmarriage.org/

Helen Hunt Falls

Thanks to Grandma Rose for making a visit to our house. We all had a great time. One day we went on a few hikes, including one up above Helen Hunt Falls.

Madison's first birthday

So here is finally a picture we took of Madison's first birthday.

I also thought it would be fun to post what each of the girls looked like at their first birthday.

Top: Madison
Below:Katie & Hannah

Update

So I needed to update. We are doing well. Peter had this afternoon off so we went to Manitou Springs and walked around (a little family celebration we pretended was for Madison's birthday which is today. We just needed a little family time away from home). The girls thought it was great. It is a tourist trap full of trinkety stores and the girls had a great time seeing different sales on the sidewalks. I failed to take the camera so no pictures (sorry grandma! You'll get your fill of us next week.) We felt like we went on a trip, even though we were only gone for about 2 1/2 hours and were less than 30 minutes from home. We topped it off with some icecream from Sam's club. It has to be the coldest icecream I have ever eaten. I gave Madison a taste and she got the worst look on her face and almost started to cry. She never cries when we feed her ice cream. I'll try and post a picture of her tomorrow. She is tons of fun. She loves being outside. She can walk, not really great and she doesn't prefer that mode of transportation right now. Crawling is just too fast. She is really speedy. She throws fits when she doesn't get what she wants. She likes to hit your face when you hold her. She gives kisses, claps, and likes to imitate her sisters when they scream.

Activity Day

I'm help with the activity days for the 10-11 year old girls at church. Today we talked about modesty and made modest dresses out of newspaper and duct tape. The girls came along with me and we made a dress for Hannah. She wore it home and sat so still and quiet for about 15 minutes so she wouldn't rip the dress. Maybe we should do this more often!

A good Start

Hannah started preschool last week. Today she told me, "You picked a great preschool mom". She loves every minute there and only wishes that she could stay all day. It usually takes an hour from the time she gets home to realize that there is only mom and Katie to play with.

Katie also has had a great start to potty training. I can't believe how lucky I am. We started potty training on Friday and she hasn't had any accidents for the past 2 days. She won't go to the bathroom on a big toilet, but luckily our church and YMCA have small toilets for kids. I think I need to install one in my house.

The girls having a great time together.

A good Reminder

This week our FHE focused on Prayer:what we say when we pray, how we pray, all the things we can pray for. We read a story about a little girl in the friend who was frightened and decided to pray. We talked about how we can pray if we are sad or happy. Later in the week, Madison was sad and I was trying to console her. Katie walked right up to her and said, "It's ok Madi, Jesus will help you." I'm so glad that I have the gospel to teach my children.
In preparation for a talk I have to give tomorrow I was reading through some of the talks from April's conference. Elder L. Tom Perry said, "I believe that if we could create in our minds a clear and true picture of eternal life, we would start behaving differently. We would not need to be prodded to do the many things involved with enduring to the end, like doing our home teaching or visiting teaching, attending our meetings, going to the temple, living moral lives, saying our prayers, or reading the scriptures. We would want to do all these things and more because we realize they will prepare us to go somewhere we yearn to go." Sometimes I have to be prodded. I think if my scriptures looked to me like my messy house did, maybe I would read them more often!

I want to be a vampire

So I've been reading the latest book in the Twilight series: Breaking Dawn and I've decided that I want to be a vampire. According to Stephenie Meyer's account of vampires, they don't need to sleep and my list just doesn't end of things that I could be doing instead of sleeping. Today I was able to attend a Super Saturday for our ward. It was a lot of fun to get to know a few people a little better. While I was gone Peter headed to his parents with the girls so that they could have fun with their cousins and so he could work on a project he is designing to get his office more organized. I'll try to include pictures of it later. They ended up staying at grandma's longer than planned and I had 3 hours of time at home to get what I wished was tons of stuff done. While I did do all of the laundry (at least the washing and drying part), I mopped the bathrooms, organized FHE for the week, and updated our budget, there are still a million more things I need to get done. I'm trying to Treasure the doing a little bit more and the getting done a little less.

Seeing Friends

While we were in Utah, we were able to see some old friends. It was great to see Garrett, Leah and Dani Gross; the Maner family, the Pyne family, Whitney Heap and her boys and Kristy Heaton and her kids. I wasn't great about getting pictures, but I managed to get 2. Thanks to everyone for making some time for us to see you!
Top: Brynn Bottom: Shayla, Cole, Katie, Hannah, Madison, Cooper
Heatons, We wish you the best of luck in Texas! Come visit us in Colorado.

Whitney and boys, Kim and girls-Although my girls had never met Whitney's boys, they had a great time playing while we got to visit.

Road Trip

In all of living have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed not just endured.-Gordon B. Hinckley

The girls and I set out on a trip to Utah this morning. I was prepared to endure about a 10 hour trip alone with the girls. I wasn't even sure how I was going to use the restroom without another adult with me (I should have thought to bring a stroller for Madison, but it was just another thing to pack.) We started out early and left Grandma Lovejoy's in Denver at about 6:30. Sadly, I was the first to have to use the restroom, so after winding down the mountain about an hour we stopped at a gas station where I hoped they had a clean restroom. As I opened the van door, Hannah threw up the bag of cheesy sunchips she had chosen for her breakfast. I was almost ready to turn around and go back home. It would only be about an hour and a half back to Peter's parents and then I could make the 1 hour trip home whenever I wanted. After watching Hannah, Katie threw up the same breakfast. I wasn't sure I could make it all the way to Utah with that smell in the car. I decided to push on since it seemed like the windy roads, the quick change in altitude and the fact that the girls were watching a movie was the culprit of the first less than pleasant event of the trip. Hannah's excitement for the trip quickly faded and every 15 minutes she asked if we were almost there. She started to cry and say she wanted her dad. My prayer out loud while I was driving seemd to help a little and a few funny songs on a cd changed her gloomy spirits for a while. We stopped at a McDonalds playland for about an hour and then all the girls fell asleep for the following hour. Then we stopped at a park in Price, UT and made it to my Aunt Sherries around 5. It wasn't a bad trip since I was going it alone and we really wanted to support Grandma while she graduates this week! The girls had a great time playing with our cousin's dogs and swimming in the pool this evening. They really were angels once their feet hit the ground. The saddest part is that I don't think they will ever remember the trip, at least I don't have any memories at their age and I'll have noone to reminisce about the drive with.

Our Yard is Finished!

We ar emissing the street tree, but other than that, the yard is done. A week after it was completed, it started to rain a lot, so we are having some issues that need to be fixed in the back-so envision it without the tarp. My attempt at a very late garden. The lettuce seems to be doing the best, we'll see if anything else grows. Next year will be better.

Finding some Consistency

We are enjoying life in Colorado and trying to get to know more people. In an effort to get some consistency in my life (I'm a creature of habit) I started exercising every morning before anyone in the house wakes up. I got a job at 24 hour Fitness and right now I'm just subbing classes there until they open a class for me. I also got a job at the YMCA where I will be teaching 1 class 2 mornings a week. On Mon/Wed/Fri I run with a neighbor,Michelle, or I try. The elevation here has me feeling like such a wimp. I get breathless really easy and I feel like I run at a tortiose pace. Michelle is really fast and she usually ends up leaving me at some point in the run. Lucky for me she injured one of her legs so she has slowed her 7 minute mile pace to almost 8. She asks me at least one time every morning if I can run a little faster. For most people running with someone like her just wouldn't be fun, but she is one of the first friends I have made here and I figure maybe I'll get a little faster if I run with her. Michelle took me on a hike up the Incline (it is the initial climb up to Pike's peak). It is 1 mile almost straight up. I think it is a 60% incline, then we ran a 4 mile trail down. The next 2 days my quads were dying. I felt like I had done lunges all the way up the mountain. The view was beautiful and next time I'll take a picture.

Peter's Passion

I noticed that Peter's notoriety on our blog is pretty nonexistent, so I thought I'd give everyone a glimpse into Peter's life right now. He is loving his job and I will spare you pictures of that. When he is not working, he is daydreaming about what our yard is going to look like when it is finished. The day the rocks were dropped off at our home, Peter called 5 times to ask how the yard was coming and to ask if I had seen the huge rocks that had been dropped off. I honestly couldn't tell much of a difference in the yard the first day. He is in love with the Rocks, which is a good thing because we have a lot of them in the yard. (Colorado is a desert and xeriscaping is a great way to conserve water. I couldn't give up grass completely, so at least 1/3 of the yard will have grass for the kids to play on.)

Originally we had planned on doing most of the work of installing our yard. Then we looked into it a little more and found out we would have to get a permit just to install a sprinkler system. (We were perfectly happy to put sprinklers on the lawn, but our HOA requires an installed system. Now we understand why that doesn't fly here. The people who don't have sprinkler systems don't water and their yards turn to dirt and weeds). After speaking with a landscaping company, it turned out the labor was the cheaper part of the landscaping. While Peter thought it would be really fulfilling to do the yard himself, I thought the few hours we had him home would be worth the price. We have had 5 guys working on the yard for 10 hours of the day for the past week and they will probably have about one more day of work left. Needless to say, I'm glad we paid for the work to be done. Otherwise we would probably not have a yard for at least another year.

We have spent a lot of time visiting stores to find plants to put in the yard. The plant part is something we wanted to do ourselves. We hit the plant season perfectly. Most stores are discounting their perrenials now so we have gotten most of our plants for 2 or 3 dollars. While I'd like to think I will get some say in the layout of the plants, I've pretty much given up hope on that. Peter's converted me to tall grasses. I used to hate them. They reminded me of these grasses we had when I was growing up. I thought they were ugly and they would cut your hands if you ran your fingers on them. Peter has a good eye for things like this and I am sure our yard is going to look great. I love that he has found a hobby to keep him busy and happy when he is not working. We'll post some pictures when our yard is finished. Right now we are waiting for the sod certificate that was suppose to be in the papers when we closed on our house.

Look at the size of that Rock!

Trouble

I came home from the grocery store the other day to find Katie and Hannah in a time out on the couch because they had been fighting. Our kids are not the type to fall asleep just anywhere, so I was surprised to see that Katie had actually fallen asleep.

Despite the girls ability to fight constantly, they can be pretty good friends for about an hour of the day.

Today Hannah and I made a pie together to share with some of our family. After taking the pie out of the oven I went upstairs to give Madison a bath. When I came back down, Katie had something in her mouth. I asked her what she was eating and then I looked on the counter. The beautiful pie was just within the reach of her little hand. Katie is notorious for doing things like this. We talked about always asking Mom if she wanted something. She just looked at me and stared. Later in the day she kept telling Hannah, "we always ask mom if we want someping".

A different kind of Tag

Memory Lane...the tag that gets everyone involved
I got this from my friend Laura's blog. I thought it would be fun! I hope you will play along. Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Garden of the Gods

Mike (Kim's brother) is an avid rock climber and has all of the equipment, so we headed to Garden of the God's for an afternoon of climbing and hiking. It has been a few years since I have gone rock climbing and my last climb was a little scary. I wasn't sure I was going to make it.