March Rewind

March 4

Went to my friend Jennifer's house to pick up some candle items and was able to visit with her for awhile. She pulled out this chair for Cael and he sat in it the entire time I was there!

March 5

My friend Laura came out to visit. We had lunch and the boys were able to play together. I love it when she tells me that they can't wait to see Tyler. They play with Nathan, but they are always asking when Tyler is going to come home. We had playgroup at my house the other day and they were trying to follow me out the door to get him at school. They were so excited.

March 11

This is the day I officially became the "crazy coupon lady." It's all my sister in law Jessica's fault for telling me about the Huggies diaper deal. Thank you Jessica. After that I started learning how to get things for free and it's really FUN! It is starting to save me a lot of money!! My other blog http://www.menifeethriftymomsclub.blogspot.com/ is shared with ladies in my ward at church.

March 14

This day was SO packed!! My day started at 4:00 a.m. when I got up to get ready for CUW. (California Utah Women, where I sell my premade scrapbook pages.) I have to leave my house at 5:30 a.m. to get there and go through security and then be set up by 7:30. My mother in law Shelly had come over to watch the boys for the concert so she went with me to Anaheim. Bless her for getting up this early and going with me. I found the greatest little book there for Tyler called "This is Me." I am so excited to pull it out over the Summer Break and work on it with him. It is a journal for little kids with questions about themselves. http://www.thisismyjournal.com/. I think it was $18.00. Could I have put this together for him? Absolutely. Would I have done it? No. I also got my dip. That is what we all go for, to get the dip from the dip lady. And then I hold on to it until it's almost time to go again so that I will always have some :) Last night (April 25) I had some gals over and we pulled out the Parmasaan Bacon. I have never had it before and I think it's my new favorite!! It is from the lady with the little tent type things over her booth for any of you that go.
So home from CUW and directly to Tyler's first baseball game. We got there right as the game was starting. He looked so cute in his baseball uniform. Trent was right on the field with him so he got some great pictures and video.
After the game we headed back out to Irvine for the concert. I cannot remember the last time we went to a concert. It might have been when we saw Rascall Flatts in Spokane 8 years ago. Have we really not seen anyone in that long? I used to love going to concerts.
It was so fun and I can't wait to go back next year. I am wishing that we were at Stage Coach this weekend. Every time this weekend comes around I just hate hearing who all is here because it's just to hard to go to things like that when you have little kids at home. I have a to do list of things when my kids are older. Stage Coach ranks right up there at the top!!

May 17

Happy St. Patricks Day. My brother Timothy and his wife Melissa flew in for a visit. They were here for the next 8 days. He goes by Tim now, but I just cannot call him that. I am sure it annoyed him, but hopefully it was ok. Nathan called him "Timmmmmmy" the whole time. He would just go around the house yelling "Timmmmmmy," if he couldn't find him. It was hilarious. They just wanted to come and get away from the everyday grind of their jobs. I remember what it was like working jobs like they have. We all have had to do it, but I don't want to go back! Timothy is working at Best Buy and Melissa works in an office as a secretary by day and a Sales Associate at Vanity in the mall by night. Oh how I don't miss my Lady Footlocker days!! I did love lifeguarding though. Getting paid to get a tan is not bad!

While they were here we went out to the Lake Elsinore outlet mall. It is not much to talk about. Of course it was dead because of the economy, but it wasn't that great. They were able to go to Sea World with us and Disneyland by themselves. They never got a honeymoon so hopefully their overnighter to Anaheim was fun for them.

March 21

Sea World with Timothy and Melissa. A fun day together. Since we went Nathan is always yelling "Yamu, Yamu!!" (Shamu, Shamu)

March 25
Timmmmmmy and Melissa went home on an "a-pane"

as Nathan likes to remind us EVERY DAY!

March 31

First Thrify Mom's Club Meeting

http://www.menifeethriftymomsclub.blogspot.com/

Guns drawn

Well, there was a little excitement at the Hansen home tonight. At about 6:40 p.m. tonight there was a knock on the front door. I went to open it a little annoyed because we were not expecting anyone and we were eating a late dinner. I looked out the peep hole and there was no one there. So I watched for a minute and a police officer came back up the walkway. I opened the door hesitantly because I have heard on the news of people dressing up like officers and then coming in and robbing homes. I opened the door a little way and he asked me if everything was alright here because they had been dispatched out on an alarm call. I turned to face the kitchen to ask Trent if he had turned off the alarm when it had gone off earlier and he was outside the back door with his arms up being searched by another officer!! Apparantly when I had gone to the front door to answer, the partner had gone around back and was looking in our windows with his gun drawn!! He had motioned Trent outside and told him hands up and I don't know what else he said. Oh, he asked Trent if anyone else was here and he said no. Then when the officer saw Tyler he said I thought you said there wasn't anyone else here. Trent said well yeah, my family is here. The officer told him, that would have been nice to know. So I let the officer at the front door in and his partner came in with Trent and apologized. They said that our silent alarm had been going off for the last 40 minutes. They checked my ID and gave the kids stickers and left. Trent was angry at this point because the guy had drawn his gun on him. I told him that he had to protect himself because they never know what they are walking into. Trent said I was sitting here with my kids eating a taco, it was just some rookie cop. He then said, "Did the guy at the front door draw his gun on you?" I said, well no, I'm just a little girl.

After they left we called the alarm company and they said that they had called at 6:01 p.m. to check on us and when we didn't answer they disbatched police. So we think what happened was that when Trent opened the garage door he had the key fab in his hand. He was carrying a door that he was bringing in for the little space he opened up under the stairs. (More on that later.) He had turned it off and went about his business. He did not enter in our code and turn it off which in turn must have continued to send a distress signal to the company. So 40 minutes later the police showed up. We are glad that they came, but I told Trent, we could have been dead by then!! My ever sensitive husband turned to me and said, "No, they usually would tie you up and ransack the house, you probably wouldn't be dead that fast."

Photos of Cael

We finally made it to Leanne's studio for Cael's "baby" session. Leanne takes photos of the new babies in the ward when they are born. We were a little late since he is now 8 months old, but I am SO glad. I wanted photos of him at this age so it worked out perfect. My favorite is the one with the hat. I am so glad too because I was so worried about keeping him on the sheet and props that I didn't even realize his hair was crazy. I am so frustrated with myself because that's the first thing I usually check. But, for the most part his hair is ok in the ones I love. He was so good, but such a little bugger at the same time. He was so intrigued with the camera that all he would give is this serious look. There were only two smiles during the whole session I think. I just can't get over this one in the crate with the hat. Fabulous job Leanne, we just love your work and your patience!

For more photos of Cael go HERE.

February Rewind

February 1

Super Bowl Weekend. The guys watched the game and the girls had their eyebrows waxed by Shelly (my mother-in-law) who has just become a licensed anesthetician. She did a fabulous job!!

February 9

One more Monday that Trent has off of school. He gets two Monday Presidents Days and this is the one we are not blacked out of Disneyland!!

February 11

Valentine's Day Potluck at Katherine's. This was probably the craziest playgroup I have ever attended. Way to many kids in a small space trying to hand out Valentine's. But, of course the kids loved it!

I had to post this picture of Nathan trying to smile for the camera, it is SO funny!

February 14

This was such a crazy day. It was my birthday and we had no plans because we were going to celebrate when we went out for the Rascall Flatts concert. My plan was to drive out to Disneyland and get my free birthday ticket and upgrade to a pass. About 9 a.m. Trent's dad called and said that they were on their way to Sea World if we wanted to join them. So we got ready and took off in two cars. I headed to Anaheim by myself thinking this would be a quick process. Trent headed to San Diego with the three kids in tow. When I got to Anaheim it was about 1:30 p.m. The ticket line was about an hour long!! I got my ticket upgraded to my pass and by the time I got back out to the parking garage it was 3 p.m. I was told by an unnamed source that it takes 1 hour to get to San Diego from Anaheim. NOT TRUE!! It took 2 hours and 15 minutes on freeways that I am not familiar with. I had not eaten all day so finally I stopped at In and out and ate in my car. Do you know how many pitiful looks you get when you are eating in the car (by yourself in the parking lot, what a loser)? But, I am much more dangerous eating and driving a stick shift than I am talking on the phone and driving. So I took off from there and went past the exit to the freeway I was supposed to get off on. I finally realized it about 10 minutes down the road and turned around. I arrived steaming at 5:30 p.m. at Sea World. They closed that night at 7:30!! I realized at that point that I should have just driven the hour home instead of going to San Diego. However, the kids had SO much fun with Grandpa and Mimi so I guess that's all that matters right? Happy Birthday to me :(

February 15

Trent brought home a cake from Albertsons the night before and we ate if for my birthday! What a guy! He gave me tickets to the Rascall Flatts concert! For Valentine's Day he got me these great placemats and dish towels. Yes, I like dish towels for a present. I am lame, I know.

February 17

Went to the Recipe Club for the first time. Breakfast dishes.

February 18

Watched Lisa Bearnson on QVC.

February 19

Tyler's first baseball practice was today. I was worried about it all day because I was laid up with Mastitis for the 4th time!! Seriously if you have never had this it is so painful and you are SO sick! I kept texting Trent all day asking him if he would be able to come home early and take Tyler. Tyler just kept asking me, "am I going to be able to go to my first day of baseball today?" Sure enough Trent was able to make it and he loved it. He found out that a friend from his school class is on his team.

That night before they got home I had the chills so bad that I had turned the heater on high. I had been lying on the couch in the same position for two hours just trying to get warm. About the time they got home I could not move. I was paralyzed from my elbows to my wrists and from my knees to my toes. I could not tell my hands to move or my fingers to function properly. It was so scary that we were talking about calling an ambulance or going to the ER. It was SO scary. I realize now that it was probably from lying in that same position on my back for so long. But, at the time my fever was 103 and I was not thinking straight because of that. I asked Trent for the first time in 8 years to call someone over to give me a blessing. I have had blessings when I went in to have my children, but never in our marriage for any other illness. Now, any of you who know my husband know that he thinks I have a flair for the dramatic. He left the room and about 10 minutes later he said, so do you really think you need a blessing? He hadn't called anyone yet!! I was so frustrated. I told him in 8 years I have never asked you this and you think I am not serious? So he finally called around to some friends and most were out of town. He got ahold of one of the guys from the ward and he was nice enough to come over. About a half hour after the blessing I was fully functioning and my fever broke. It was the end of a scary situation and a time that I was so grateful to have the priesthood in my home.

February 20

We attended a playgroup at the park for the first time. Fun to meet new friends in the ward.

February 27

Cael is 6 months old!

January Rewind

Wow, I am SO far behind that I need to do some monthly rewinds for my own journaling purposes. Bound to be boring for anyone else:)

January 1

*Spent the weekend in Yuma to celebrate New Year's Day.*

*Nathan knocked out his tooth on the tile to start the year off with a BANG*

We tried to put it back in and eventually it had to be pulled because he had broken the roots.

January 10

*Cael spent 3 days in the hospital. Tested negative for RSV, but had a really bad cold and breathing problems*

January 15

*Tyler has a bad ear infection and is not feeling well*

Nathan was sick this week. (We spent 3 weeks this month with one, two or all three kids sick at a time!)

January 17

Had our friends the Smith's over for a farewell dinner. They moved to Spokane to be closer to their family. Kiersten was aching to get back to Washington since the day she moved here so although we were sad to see them go we are happy for them. We miss our Sunday afternoon crock pot dinner buddies though. We would always call them to come over when we had too much roast after church!

January 19

Martin Luther King Day-one of the Mondays Trent gets off work.

A day at Mulligans play center. Miniature golf, lazer tag, go-carts, games.

January 20

Watched US History being made when President Obama took the oath.

January 28

Took Tyler to the dentist only to hear he has MORE cavities!! We are brushing, flossing and swishing, what is wrong with this kids teeth?

January 30

Went Visiting Teaching to a new gals house. A fun girl who I am becoming friends with. I have never been very good at visiting teaching, but my partner is and she makes it happen. So glad because now we have a new friend. That's the point right?

January 31

Took off to Yuma again for Super Bowl weekend.

Rascal Flatts

Bob That Head Tour

March 14, 2009

My birthday present from my wonderful husband this year was tickets to the Rascal Flatts Bob That Head concert. Country music is one of the few things that we both REALLY love. I say one of the few things because we love movies, 24, a few sporting event and our kids equally the same. But, a lot of things one of us loves and the other often goes along because the other loves it. I am sure most couples can say that. So Rascal Flatts is one of those things that we both thoroughly enjoy. We saw them eight years ago when they were opening up for Jodee Messina in Spokane. They came out individually and each did a monologue. Jay was hilarious and I can't count the number of times that Gary said, "Lord, have mercy," when something was funny. A true southern thing, it was funny to those of us who aren't used to that phrase.

The only downfall this time was that Jessica Simpson opened for them. We looked at each other several times and said, "What is wrong with her??" She has such a beautiful voice, she looked great (she is not big as the media is saying, which is so rude whether she is or isn't, that must have been a terrible side picture and the mom jeans didn't help), but she says the dumbest things. In between her songs she just said things that clarify her being an idiot is NOT an act. It is REAL. She actually stopped songs twice and told her band, "I have to start over," because she forgot the words!! She said, "I do this all the time, it's ok, people make mistakes."

What a great gift, can't wait to see them next year on the "Unstoppable" tour!!

2000
We liked them then...

2009

They've come a long way and were SO much better!

I realize the video is really terrible quality, but it is so fun to have something to share with the kids about where we were last night. I love it that they sang on the Cars soundtrack and the boys can enjoy something with us that we all love. They call this "The Mac song."

Walgreens Trip

$145.00 worth-$51.00 spent

Alright, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on for the month of February, but couldn't let this one pass by because you still have 3 days left to do this.

I had not ventured into the Walgreens sales yet, but today was very exciting. I learned how to "stack" coupons there and finally got some FREE items out of it. I could never figure out how all these savvy coupon people got free stuff. Well, now I know. I will run it down for you. First off if you want to start coupon shopping, you must get the Sunday paper. I was buying it out of the machines for $1.50 each week. There was a man in Albertsons who I signed up with last Saturday for the LA times for the Thursday-Sunday editions. Just to get the Sunday paper!! But, it was $39.00 for the whole year!! And, he gave me a $10 gift card to Albertsons for signing up so it was $29.00 for the year basically!! The other thing you need to know is that Walgreens coupons that I mention are in a pamphlet up front by their weekly ads and are called the Walgreens Easy Saver catalog. There are a ton of coupons in there and some of them go with the weekly sales. You can use as many of these as you want. RR stands for Register Rewards, basically free Walgreens $$ that you get for purchasing certain products.

MC=Manufacturers coupon

BOGO=Buy one Get one Free

WAGS=Walgreens

Here we go:

5 Huggies Diaper packs $10 each Sale-$5.00 coupons from Coupons.com=$25.00

(You can only print 2 Huggies coupons from your computer at coupons.com. Found another place you can print more, not sure what the limit is because I am done http://www.redplum.com/offers/1011414-topdeal.html)

Lightdays 2/$6 (A little higher than Walmart, but when you are saving this much money on other stuff you dont' want to go to Walmart for one item)

Gilette Razor=$8.99-$4 MC plus $4 RR=$.99

Glade Sense and Spray $7.99 sale - $4 WAGS plus BOGO=$4 for 2 (I messed this up, if I would have had the MC from the paper I would have gotten both for FREE)

AJAX=$.79 WAGS ad coupon

Skintimate Shave Gel -$1.99 and $1 RR=$.99

7 Garnier Shampoo, conditioner, gel, etc -These were on sale for $.99 then in the Walgreens Easy saver they had $2 off coupons and I had MC $1 off that I stacked with them, so they were free. All 7 of the Garnier items=FREE

Easter Candy=2/$4

Easter Bunnies-$1.29

Kanka Mouth Medicine $6.99
Batteries-$6.99 (Mail in rebate for $3.99)

So when you add it all up it won't add up for you. This is higher than my $51.00 total. (You have to keep in mind the RR's that I used.)I did 3 transactions. This is because when you spent $25.00 in items listed on the back of the ad, you got $10.00 WAGS RR's. So I did this twice, but never really spent $25.00 because I had $15.00 off in diaper coupons for each transaction. So it's $25.00 before your coupons. The register then spits out your RR's. So I did this twice. Then on my third transaction the total was $33.00 and I used my $26.00 WAGS RR's and spent $7.19. Adding up all my receipts it was $144.00 and I paid $51.00.

I have read that once they are out of stock it's unlikely that they restock before the sale is over. So hopefully when I get these deals from now on I can let you know earlier.

The time in store took about an hour. However, it was my first time in this store using their ads, I had a baby in the bjorn strapped to my chest and a 2 year old in the cart trying to climb in and out. And, my coupon holder opened and spilled all over the floor. That part was a nightmare. So hopefully I can continue to get better so that I can share my experiences.

There are better people out there though and these are the places I got all this great info. (Although it started with my fabulous sister in law Jessica calling me yesterday and explaining the diaper thing to me. Three phone calls later with continued questions I finally got it :)

This girl is fabulous and I haven't had a moment to check out the blogs listed on the right of hers.

http://www.coupongeek.net/

And she shared this site for weekly Walgreens strategies:

http://www.southernsavers.com/2009/03/walgreens-weekly-ad-38-314/

There is actually a section of this page called "working Walgreens." Basically legally stealing from them. There is a weekly deal where you actually make $3!!

I can't wait to get better at this. I am jealous of the girls that get to leave the kids with their parents or hubbies. It will be so much easier without the kids tagging along! Once you get good at this system and comfortable with a store getting these deals can take about 30 minutes. I am comfortable with Albertsons and their deals now and it takes about that even with kids.

By the way, the $.99 Kids Activity Book that I told you about was not available at my store or my friends in Idaho so we missed out on the extra $1 off coupons for the diapers. This only made a $5 difference for me though, it was OK.

Just a note about something I learned-you can't use your RR's for tax. So if you get your bill down to basically free and the rest is tax, you have to pay the tax with $$ not your RR coupons.

Happy Shopping!!