I Love a Bargain

As some of you may already know, I love a bargain and I love to clip coupons. Call me crazy, but I love the rush that I get when I look at a grocery receipt and see how much money I have saved. It's exhilirating! This week's shopping trip to Albertson's was especially thrilling to me (I know my life is pathetic). It was so thrilling to me that I wanted to post a picture of my deals. All of these groceries cost me $18.00 total!. The list includes:

10 cans Progresso soup

3 large tubs Country Crock butter

1 12 roll of Charmin

2 Wishbone Ranch dressing

5 Suave lotion

8 Lipton pasta sides

5 cartons Progresso chicken broth

1 Green Giant freezer vegetables w/sauce

1 Betty Crocker cake mix

1 Betty Crocker cookie mis

Thank you Albertson's and Pinching Your Pennies! My food storage has never looked so good and all for so cheap!

Sweet Movie Quotes

As Allen and I watched TV last night, we somehow got started on movie quotes. We began to talk about some of our favorite lines from some classic movies (at least in our opinion). We had so much fun in doing so, that we compiled a list of our top movie quotes. Can you name any of the movies these quotes are from? We would love to hear your favorite quotes as well!

"Oiling and lotioning, lotioning and oiling, I can't take it anymore."

"Hey Pinnochio, where YOU going?"

"I come from a long line of overreactors."

"The machine is still on Moira."

"Bye Buddy. Hope you find your dad."

"Snakes, I hate snakes."

"Never mess with a Sicilian when death is on the line."

"This a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I AM the President. ...."

"My guess is this is the singing bush."

"Besides, we both know I'm training to become a cagefighter."

"Give me what I want and I'll go away."

"How much you want to bet I can throw a pigskin over them mountains."

Weekend in San Diego!

We just got home from a fabulous weekend in San Diego. We decided at the last minute that we needed a quick little get-away. Because we fly free with JetBlue, it makes for really cheap vacations. We spent Sunday and Monday in Sea World and flew home on Tuesday. The weather was warm and perfect as it always is in San Diego. There were no crowds either day and we were able to see all the shows and do everything, at least twice.

Hannah and Porter had a ball in this bounce house. At times, they were the only ones in it, and could pretty much do whatever they wanted.

We had bunk beds in our hotel room, and they thought it was loads of fun to play on them. Up and down the ladder they went. They may have had more fun on the bunk beds then they did in Sea World.

Hannah and Porter hanging out by the pool. They love swimming and made friends with the other kids in the pool and had a great game of shark/dolphin/killer whale going. I think the other kids had been to Sea World also. Apparently marine life was on their mind.

Porter and I on the new Elmo's Flying Fish ride at Sea World. They have recently opened this fun new area in Sea World called Sesame Street's Bay of Play. It has tons of cute play areas and some fun little rides for the kids.

Porter looking for shells on Mission Beach.

The whole family got to meet Elmo and Big Bird. Tate was so enthralled with Elmo that he wouldn't look at the camera. Every picture we have is of Tate either honking Elmo's nose or poking at his eyes. I'm sure Elmo was ready to get rid of us and on to the next family.

What a Night!

Yesterday was Allen's birthday and we celebrated a nice evening together with the kids. He chose pizza and chicken wings from Domino's for dinner and ice cream for dessert. He wrestled with the kids and we watched our favorite videos on YouTube. He said it was a great birthday, until all h-e double hockey sticks broke loose. The kids were in bed, so Allen and I decided to read a little in the D&C, when out of nowhere, Allen jumps out of his chair, practically throwing his scriptures in the air. He said he saw something run across the floor to the side of him, like a big spider. We checked under the other chairs and saw nothing. I thought he was up in the night. Then we decided to look under the couch. Allen lifted the couch and I did the looking. Well, I could see something gray under the couch, but I thought it could be a toy. So I lifted the couch the next time and had Allen look. As I was lifting, he screamed MOUSE, and I dropped the couch and jumped up on the table. We did indeed have a little mouse hiding under our couch. Allen had seen something scurry across the floor and my worst nightmare was now coming true. The little guy didn't seem to want to move from under the couch, so we got into full battle mode. This included calling our hunter neighbor Dax in for reinforcements, grabbing buckets, and a long stick. Dax came over with his air soft pistol and the next thirty minutes consisted of the mouse running from one spot to another in our family room with us screaming and chasing him. His final chase came when he scurried across the kitchen floor with Allen trying to squash him with a stick and Dax shooting him with an air soft gun. He made it safely into the small crevice leading into our dishwasher. That's when we knew the chase had ended. He made it to safety, nestled somewhere inside my dishwasher or the inside of my cupboards. Dax set some peanut butter traps for us and left us alone with the mouse. We blocked off the kitchen with the coffee table and tried to resume our night. We attempted to take our mind off the mouse by watching The Office, but it didn't seem to be all that funny last night. We then tried to go to bed, but neither of us slept very well. We kept dreaming about mice and I was dreading fixing breakfast in that death trap of a kitchen. In the morning, Allen went to check our traps and he then told me the best news of my life. We had caught the mouse in one of Dax's peanut butter traps. He took the bait and was now paying the price for terrorizing us all night. I think I owe Dax a batch of peanut butter cookies. I'm glad our adventure is over for now and I'm sure Allen had a birthday he'll never forget!

The Witch, a Ghost, and Indy!

My parents held their annual Halloween party last weekend. They sure know how to throw a party. This party had everything! There was pumpkin decorating, a pinata, crafts, a treasure hunt, and a spook alley. Hannah decided to be a witch this year. She wants to be a scary witch, but even when she tries to look scary, she just gets cuter. Sorry Hannah, you'll just have to be a cute witch!

Tate hates costumes, so a pillowcase ghost works out well for him. We attempted to spray his hair and paint his face, but he wouldn't sit still long enough to get the complete job done.

Porter makes an awesome Indiana Jones! He's missing his whip and bag in this picture, which top off the costume nicely. We had fun at the DI this year picking out treasures to put in his bag. Indy Jones is always looking for treasures, so that's what Porter wanted. He found a skull, a goblet, a crystal statue, and a tiki at the DI. Thank you DI!

Here are all the grandkids in the leaves. My littlest nephew, Cooper, is laying in the front and is camoflauged in the leaves. He's dressed as Tigger in an orange costume, which blends in perfectly with the leaves.

My brother and his wife made the perfect Napoleon and Deb. It was almost scary how well they pulled that off. Not only were they dressed like them, but they even acted like them. It was hilarious! This picture doesn't show the moon boots though, which was the best part.

Sleeping During Movies

Allen and I thought it would be fun to watch a movie last night after the kids went to bed. We made a trip to the Redbox and neither of us had seen the new Indiana Jones movie so we decided to give it a try. Now I have a real problem staying awake during movies at home. I can't seem to help it, but when the lights go off and the movie starts, I'm gone. I thought I would be able to stay during last night's show, considering the great action found in Indiana Jones. But last night was much the same as all the other nights, I just couldn't make it. I was asleep after the first twenty minutes of the show (sorry Ryan). I don't sleep continually through the whole movie. I wake up every so often to glance a bit of the show, but when I realize how lost I am, I figure I might as well just go back to sleep. As I spoke with Allen after the movie, I apologized for sleeping through yet another movie, and also asked him what happened to Indy at the end. Being a huge Indiana Jones fan, he was very disappointed with the ending. When he told me that the ending involved aliens and a spaceship, I felt no regret in sleeping through the ending. What kind of Indiana Jones movie ends with aliens and a spaceship? Maybe Steven Spielberg and George Lucas became confused with their other movies, but that just doesn't seem right. Anyways, sorry Allen, for sleeping through another movie. I'll try much harder next time!

Corn Maze

We took our annual trip to the corn maze Saturday afternoon. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we couldn't pass up an afternoon in the sunshine. My sister and her family went with us and the kids had an absolute ball (until an injury occured, explanation coming). The corn maze itself was fun, but the funnest part was the big, giant slide. I don't know how many dozens of times the kids went down the slide. Tate was also loving the slide until he decided to turn around at the bottom and try and climb back up. At that moment, the next group of kids was coming down the slide and before we could get to him, they completely plowed him over. He emerged from the pile with a horrible bloody nose. We thought his nose was broken. It was bleeding so bad and had a nice lump across it. To make a long story short, our trip to the corn maze was cut a little short. We took Tate home and he looked terrible. His face was a mess and he was miserable. I expected him to wake up Sunday morning with two black eyes and some bruises, but amazingly enough, he looked great and hasn't had even other troubles. Looking back, it seems like Tate gets hurt quite a bit, but he's definitely not afraid to jump in and try all the things the big kids are doing.