Swim Lessons

Axton got to take a 2nd round of swim lessons in August too. This time he was on his own, no mommy! It was so much better, the first wasn't too bad but this one was heavenly. He was so excited to go and see the other kids and just much better behaved, thank heavens!

My Turn

Learning to float on his back.

Making new friends.

Learning how to kick with a board.


Learning to swim on his back with the board

The hardest part about the swim lessons was that they were in the middle of open swim time so there were tons of kids playing in kid zone and he would get so mad when we wouldn't let him go down the water slide. So at the end of the first week we stayed until it closed so he got to play afterwards for a few hours and then the next week to finish of the swim lessons the kids got to go play for a few mintues. Here is Axton enjoying the slides, he is fearless when it comes to this stuff and just takes off.



What a splash!


I'm excited to see how he does next year!

Projects

This summer has been crazy busy for us, hence the lack of posts and major catching up to do. We were gone at least half of the summer and just finished our last trip. Hopefully we'll only leave 1-2 more times for the rest of the year. But I'll just start with the oldest pictures on our camera and work our way through them over the next few days, or weeks!

In August I was really tired of the set up in our toy room. When we moved in their were some extra bathroom cabinets in the garage so me trying to be thrifty kept them and moved them into the toy room. Biggest problem, they didn't hold much because of the lack of space and shelves, 2 of the 6 drawers didn't open, and 1 more drawer was missing the bottom of it, so unusable too. Plus it collected a bunch of random stuff on the counter. Then when we bought the new couch our old ones got put in the toy room until we got rid of them, so there was very little space left. We cleared it all out and I asked Greg to build shelves on either side of the entrance so the toys would be hidden from the view of the living room. He doubted me at first but I think he was very impressed with how it looks. We painted them dark brown to match our living room and still need to add baseboards so that they flow with the walls. They are so much sturdier than anything we could have bought and in the end, were cheaper too!







Don't mind all of the clowns. I have collected them since I was little and finally after 5+ years was able to get them out of the boxes and find them a somewhat permanent home. I am afraid when the toy room gets converted to an office, many years down the road, that most of them will have to go bye-bye since I'm just not that into them, and they creep out the guests!

The other project for the toyroom, we did a week later and Greg refuses to build anything else for a while, was a table for Axton. You see the train tables and stuff that cost over $200 and I just couldn't do it. Plus we bought Axton this little town set 2 years ago that the base is a puzzle. So we built the table to it's measurements, about 4 1/2 x 5 feet. It's pretty big, and only cost us $50 to make! Once again this thing is sturdy! Axton loves it and we have since bought a couple of chairs from IKEA to go with it.




I love the toyroom, if only we could keep it clean now!

Digital Scrapbooking

I have decided to go all digital with scrapbooking. So far I love it. It hasn't saved me a whole lot of time but I love being able to see the finished product and easily change anything I don't like. Plus I don't have to worry about storage and organization or getting everything out just to put it back away.

I have found some amazing sites for free digital downloads including all of the contributors to the Blog Train Blog. These are some amazing people and I am so glad they share their talent with me so I can use their creations. This is 2 of the layouts using various contributors from this train that is called Summer Surprises.




I have a long way to go with learning about Photoshop Elements but thanks to the internet and my sister in law who taught me a few tricks, I think I am making some good progress. Feel free to let me know any tips you might know since I really do only know the basics!

Oklahoma

After leaving the Hartmans on Friday, Greg flew home to relax for the weekend and go back to work, while Axton and I went to see my dad and stepmom in Oklahoma. Axton had only met them once when we was one so we went back Friday-Tuesday. For me this was more about recuoping from the previous week :) and so I didn't take very many pictures.

They have 3 indoor kittens and Axton was in heaven. Unfortunately for him 2 of the 3 had injuries so he could really only play with the one. He was obsessed. He did very well with them for it being his first time around kittens. He was always wanting to hold them and would get so upset if they ran away from him.



We also got to go help feed the horses, although I didn't even get a picture of them. He was far more interested in the pig and tractor. He was pretty mad at me when I told him he couldn't go for a ride on the tractor.



They had also gotten him a slip-n-slide. He has only been on one once before and that was a year ago. He really enjoyed playing on it even though he didn't quite get the hang of running and sliding. It was mostly running and slipping for him. But he had fun none the less.





Thanks for having us Dad and Julie. It was good to see you guys again, we wish you lived closer.

Goodbye Hartmans

On Friday we had to say goodbye to the Hartmans after a wonderful week of vacationing with them.

Us with Larry and Carla


Us with Tiffany, Viliamu, Mika, Sinalei, Tavita, and Sosefina. Hopefully I spelled them all correctly!


Most of the gang: Somner, Elizabeth, Us, Isaac, Carla, Larry, Tiffany, Viliamu, Mika, Sinalei, Tavita, Sosefina, Christopher, Rylee (baby), Jana, and Haylee.


The peacock we saw by the road when we were leaving the resort.


The drive back to the airport was a nightmare. We left thinking we'd end up sitting at the airport for a few hours, but no. We ended up in so much traffic at noon that we barely had time to catch our breath before boarding the plane. It was fun though to drive through DC and were both surprised when we realized we were right by the Washington Monument.


We also drove by the Pentagon. We were surprised to see all of the airplanes that come into land and how close they normally fly to the monument and pentagon.


We assume The House, meant the white house since we were exiting off on Pennsylvania Ave.


Some day it would be fun to go do the touristy stuff in DC but we'll have to wait at least 2 more years before we go back, we seem to be making that a tradition! We had so much fun with the Hartmans though and are so glad that they invited us. I have only met them a handful of times but instantly I felt like they were family and this trip was no different. I kept telling Axton to go find his cousins and if he wanted to see G-ma and G-pa! Thank you for everything, we hope you enjoyed having us as much as we enjoyed being there! We miss you.

Do Couponsense, I'm telling you!!

TUESDAY: What will $45 get you at the grocery store? It got me 12 boxes of cereal, 6 boxes of poptarts (don't care too much for but when you are out of time and they're free why not?), 2 boxes of fruit snacks, 1 bag of grapes, 2 milks, 8 powerades, 3 paper towels, 18 yogurts, 3 deodorants, 2 bags of BIC pens, 2-12 count toilet paper, 6 boxes of 100 cal snacks, 2 boxes of nutri-grain bars, and 2 boxes of crackers. And they declined about $5 in coupons too (the boxes were .4 oz off the coupon size, go figure!). $183 is what my grand total would have been, minus coupons and the store promos, I paid $45. That's a 75% savings!

SATURDAY: Gotta love Safeway! Just yesterday Greg was telling me he REALLY wanted fruit rollups and other junk food since we only get it when it's on a really good sale. Well his wish was my command! As luck would have it Safeway is running a sale right now! I got 2 boxes of gushers, 6 boxes of fruit roll-ups, 2 bags of granola nut clusters, 2 boxes of fiber one granola bars, and 4 boxes of nature valley sweet and salty granola bars (my favorite). Total cost $52.82, my out of pocket cost $0.93!!! AND I got $7 for my next shopping trip. They paid ME $6 to take 16 boxes of stuff, probably because they know it's not healthy for us :) but I'll take it cause who doesn't love junk food now and then?

I can't imagine my life without couponsense!! I'm a lifer. As well as getting all of the unhealthy food it has helped us get good food too believe it or not! It tells me the best price for produce so I usually spend about $10-$15 every 2 weeks to buy all of the fruits and veggies we need and want. Plus I know now how much I am willing to spend for all of my meat and never buy it unless it's at that price. I also don't pay hardly anything for our personal items like shampoo, razors, toothpaste, etc. Paper towels I get for $0.19 or under, dishwasher soap usually for $.50 (20 tabs) or under, my "high efficiency" clothes detergent I pay $1 or less (32 load), I get my fabric softener for $.50 or less and these are name brands I am getting like Tide, Snuggle, Bounty, etc.

My totals for a year of couponsense:
Total: $8297
Store deals: $4224
COUPONS: $2038
Rebates: $150 (or so, I'm bad at putting those in)
Balance: $1989
A 76% savings. I know that the numbers aren't completely accurate because looking at our own budget I know I spent about another $600-$700 on food over the year, but that also includes us eating out which I don't account for. I lost some reciepts here and there so I didn't imput them, so worse case scenario I saved 70% instead, including us eating out.

Why wouldn't you do couponsense? If you want to sign up please let me know and I'll have my instructor contact you. She is amazing. Couponsense works in Utah, Idaho and California too! The first month is only $4 and if you don't like it you don't have to keep doing it, it's month to month. I know I am blessed to live in an area with 4 differet grocery stores within 2 miles of me but you can make it work fairly well with only 2. It's at least worth a shot. Good luck!

More vacation pics

At the resort they have a lake with..... ducks, surprises surprise. So some of us went to feed them The one duck would come up and eat the bread out of the kids' hands. Axton would attempt it and then chicken out at the last second and drop the bread in the water instead.





Wouldn't be a complete vacation if Greg wasn't there to make some kind of face in a picture.


Tiffany, Viliamu (the baby), Carla and me sitting on the bench relaxing while Larry and Greg handle all of the kids, now that's a vacation!


Greg, Isaac, Larry, Axton, Sinalei, Tavita, and Sosefina posing while at the lake.


The resort also did a pinada for the kids 8 and under at the park. They only got to hit it two times a piece which was ok. Axton did really well at taking his turn and being patient while the other kids got theres, I was pleasantly surprised.




Notice the only adult in the picture and he's right in the center of the action! We'll claim that he was trying to insure that Axton and Sosefina got a couple of pieces of candy although I'm sure everyone else sees right through that!


Finally more parents helping their kids so we don't look like the hogs! And Axton got in on some of the action too instead of hiding out behind everyone.