Sadie's Christmas Stocking

Yes, you read that right. :) I just finished it last night. :) She only went one Christmas without a stocking, not too bad, right?




I can only say that I'm glad I have a few years before I need to make another one. :)

Good Deals @ Soap.com

Okay this might seem totally cheesy but I guess I'm willing to post about this particular website because I feel like I got a pretty good deal and wanted to share it with others.

So Soap.com.

I first learned about it after buying diapers at Diapers.com.

At Diapers.com I felt like I got a really good deal too. The first time you buy diapers you get a 30% cash back credit. Which was awesome because the diapers were cheaper than the stores and the cash back credit that i got I used to buy Novalee's birthday presents this year.

Wow, I'm totally off topic.

On Thursday I ordered these things on Soap.com. They have all sorts of household items.

Suavital Fabric Softener Dryer Sheets 80 sheets
Nature Made Mult For Him Vitamins and Minerals 90 ct
(2) Suave Body Lotion 32oz
(2) Suave kids 2 in 1 Shampoo and Conditioner
Reach clean Burst Floss 55 yds
Crest Plus Scope Toothpaste 6.2oz

First time users get $10 for free after buying from diapers.com. Plus orders of $25.00 or more get free shipping.

So I paid $15.39 for all of these products after discounts, free shipping and e coupons.

On Friday afternoon the next day these arrived.


One day later, pretty great, right?

The total price without shipping would have cost $26.14.

I wanted to make sure I got a good deal before posting this so I price compared at Wal-Mart which generally is pretty cheap.

I found everything but the exact lotion.

I found a few similar ones and just guessed they probably would cost $5.00 or so.

With that guess, at Wal-mart all these things would have cost us $28.41 without taxes.

$28.41, and even $26.14 is quite a bit more than the $15.39 I paid.

If you decide to look and buy I have a promo code BRAN3960 that offers 15% off your first order.

But try the codes at this website and see if you can get a better deal.

Also if you want the promo code for diapers.com go to babycenter.com and on the right hand side there is a link for 30% cash back credit. My promo code BRAND3960 offers 15% off. I'm not sure if you can use more than one code but you should try.

That's all. Hopefully this isn't too lame. But since I have no clue how to use coupons I thought these websites were pretty great and wanted to share!

Clean, Not So Clean, Clean

This post is all about Sadie.

I recently tried some headbands on Sadie, Wesley's cousin made for her. She is so cute in them. I just love how fun they are and am so glad they finally fit!





Isn't she so cute? We can't get enough of her. Seriously. :)

She also recently started eating "solid" foods. Currently she loves sweet potatoes and carrots. She has tried green beans, sweet peas, apples, and bananas too but whenever sweet potatoes or carrots are offered she gobbles them up. It's only fitting that Wesley calls her his little Sweet Potato

Green Beans



Check out those rolls!



Carrots.





What is it about babies eating food that is so cute?

I don't know about your kids but mine have the slickest bottoms when they are wet. They just slide all over. And Sadie 90% of the time needs a bath after eating so I thought this would be a good idea.





I think it worked well except she might need a swimmer diaper on, I think the straps were kind of digging in all the wrong places, if you know what I mean. :)

Here are a few more pictures of Sadie.

I love walking into the room and seeing things like this.


And one thing my kids love doing is getting rolled up like a burrito in a blanket. So we thought we would try it with Sadie.

Presenting Burrito Baby.






I didn't think she would like it but I guess I was wrong. :)

What We Did Last Saturday

Last Saturday Wes had plans to go fishing but they fell threw and all of a sudden we found that we had a whole Saturday with nothing to do.

At some point we want to go to the Golden Spike National Monument in Northern Utah but we didn't want to dedicate 4-6 hours for the trip.

So I did a quick search online and found all these cool Church history sites in Utah that you can go to for free! I didn't even think about that but afterwards it seemed like a no brainer.

Anyways with four stops to make we hopped in the car.

Our first stop was going to be the Joseph Smith Memorial Building but on the way we heard on the radio that the building was being used for a wedding show that day so we decided to skip it.

Then we were going to the Brigham Young Memorial which is right there too but first we had to find parking.

As we were walking back to the BY Memorial we saw the Church of Jesus Christ History Museum and decided to stop there.

It was so awesome and as usual I think both Wes and I would love to go sometime by ourselves when we can actually read about the artifacts there. But with kids you are either being pulled by them to move faster or you are chasing after them because they are tired of waiting for you. :)

Here are some photos we took while there.









The COOLEST part was a total surprise to us! There is a part in the history musuem that is kid friendly. It reminded me of the Children's Musuem. Totally cool! The kids loved it and we spent most of our time there.

We danced,
translated the golden plates,
we rode with Nephi to the promised land,
pretended to be DJs,
and gathered and prepared food.

It was great!









Even Sadie seemed to have fun.


We had to strike everything else off our list because as we were heading back to the car it started to snow. :)

Maybe tomorrow we will do some of the other things.

Socially Awkward

This is meant to be light hearted, hence the smiley faces. So please don't worry about me too much after reading this.

Have you ever felt socially awkward? That's pretty much me all the time. :)

I can't figure out why. It's not like I was shut away and never talked to people growing up. I went to a public school, hung out with friends and went out for sports.

So what's the deal.? :)

It is amazing to me how many times I've put my foot in my mouth, shared too much information, gave an entire novel worth of an answer when the person only wanted a simple yes or no, stuttered (seriously who does that?), laughed super loud when no one else was even laughing, and talked incessantly because I was nervous.

I've said
"Thanks" when I should have said "your welcome."

"See you later" when I definitely wasn't going to see them again.

"You too," when someone has told me to enjoy something I just bought

"Have a great day!," when leaving, after someone just told me they weren't feeling well or something bad had just happened in their life.

I say "I'm sorry" when I sneeze. (Wes thinks that is super annoying and reminds me I should say "excuse me.") :)

I have even gone up to people that I haven't seen for ages, excited to see them of course but then after saying, "Hi, it's good to see you," totally forgetting what else I could say and then after a few moments of awkward silence, smiling and walking away. :)

"Love you" used as good bye inappropriately. (Like to strangers). Seriously, it has happened more than I'd like to admit.

I clearly remember a time in college, telling a literature professor(female), "I love you!" At which she was totally shocked and of course completely uncomfortable. I mean how do you respond to that? Or course I didn't mean I LOVED her. I just meant that the class was awesome and that she helped me look at fictional literature in a completely new way. But did I say that, no of course not. Only after walking away did I realize what I had said. Mortified I just kept walking because seriously how do you redeem yourself after that. You don't. :)

What is the deal? Is there a class I can take to be less socially awkward? If so tell me where to sign up. :)

Until then, if we meet and you think to yourself, "That seemed awkward." Don't second guess yourself, it probably was. :)

Moose and Zee

We don't have TV channels so I'm not sure what kind of show this is.

But on Nickjr.com they have these cute little stuffed pillows you can make with your kids of Moose and Zee.

So the other day we made them. They were super easy and lots of fun.

The best part was watching the kids playing with them all day.





If you want to make some too the templates and directions (from Nickjr.com) for Zee are here

And here are the templates for Moose.

I just love the learning computer sites, like Nickjr and Pbskids. It's so great that there are free things the kids can do online that also encourage learning.

All Jared, All Boy

Having a six year old boy is great. Especially when he happens to be a sweetheart, clever and funny.

He is at the stage when he can actually talk to you about interesting things and have a pretty long conversation about important things, like choosing the right, where he will live when he goes to college and of course video games.

He loves video games. We don't actually have a game system at home (thankfully) but he does enjoy the time he gets to play on my phone or the computer.

See.


Six is also interesting because it means you are too cool to have your picture taken most of the time. So I get very few photos of him that aren't him dashing out of the frame.

But here are a few that I either took when he wasn't looking or he begrudgingly let me take.

Did you know he was taking ice skating lessons? He was super excited about the idea of lessons. He thought he could go out there and do tricks the first time on the ice. :) I can't say he did a ton of tricks but he was pretty good. We were amazed at how well he caught onto it.





He did do this a few times too.



He also met a girl there. Here he is thinking I'm taking a picture not filming.

So cute!


On the way home from his last lesson he asked Wes how old he had to be to have a girlfriend. Then he Wes asked him if he wanted a girlfriend and he said sort of. :)

Kind of funny. But I think he's a little embarrassed by it. :)

At the recreation center where the kids take their lessons there is a rock climbing wall. I don't know why but Jared is just plain good at it. Maybe all kids are.



We think you're pretty great Jared. :)

Finger Puppets

So I'm either way behind on this project or super prepared. I'm going to lie to myself and say that I'm the latter.

At Christmas I saw these really cute finger puppets at Deseret book. I didn't even look at the price (so who knows how much I actually saved), I just thought, "I bet I can make those."

So I did.

I bought the felt for .25 each sheet, which is the deal that JoAnns is offering right now.

For $2.00 I made these.





Maybe not as cute as store bought ones but my kids love them and hopefully will enjoy them at Christmas in 11 months. :)

My Goodwill Chair

While in Oregon we bought a chair at the Goodwill Outlet Store for $5.00. There were two of them and I kind of wish I had gotten the second one.

But we only needed one for Sadie's portable high chair so I only got the one.

Isn't it a beauty?



I can't believe a chair in such good condition would make it all the way to the Goodwill Outlet store.

Well after purchasing the chair the first thing I noticed about it was that the fabric smelt strongly like...well like the thing that sits on it.

So I went to Joanns yesterday and bought some fabric (they are currently having their 50% off red tag apparel fabric sale, just so you know).

I got my 20 inches of fabric for about .60 cents.

Here's how it looks now.



Not bad for a .60 cent improvement and my first attempt at reupholstering.