Girl Bonding...

Every year we go out on Black Friday to find all the deals for Christmas. We usually get up around 5am and would go to Marshall. The problem is....Marshall really only has Shopko, WalMart and Kmart. So this year we decided to drive and an hour and half to Sioux Falls to hit the Mall, Target, Best Buy and Kohls. All of which are 5 minutes from my house up in the cities! ;-)

I thought we all did pretty well for getting up at 3:30A.M. and out the door by 4am. In fact we were getting calls from cousins and friends by 4:30A.M.! I have almost all of my shopping done. I just have a couple of odds and ends to wrap up! We got back around 6P.M. and Spencer had Turkey Dumpling Soup and an awesome Taco Soup waiting for us! Most of the kids were still in their pajamas but they had a blast with the dads and Grandpa while we got to do some girl bonding! We ate at an amazing restaurant, Granite City Grill, for lunch (thanks again, Mom) and made some time for girl talk in between the mad dash of getting the great deals! Although I was begging everyone to let me go to bed by 7P.M., I made it until 9P.M. and this has become one of my favorite days of the year!

Thanksgiving Day at the KOCHS...

It is always so nice to be able to spend time with my Grandma. I truly treasure the time that I have left with her! I really feel like each day is a gift and I am so grateful for the time I still have to make memories with her.

Thanksgiving Morning. They played Wii games and hung out in their pjs until lunch time.

Karsyn, Korin and Courtney. Korin and Courtney are Steve and Lori's two oldest daughters.

The clean up!

We had 2 pies and Carmel Rice Krispie Bars for dessert.

Benjy wants you to know that they are REALLY good!

After The Kansas Kochs (Steve and Lori) left for the Franks, and The Iowa Kochs (Spencer and Emily) left for Krugers....Kaydree finally sat down to snuggle with Grandpa. After a minute she crashed out!

When Kaydree was born my dad's scar from his bypass was still healing, so it was always nice and warm and she spent the first month of her life sleeping on his chest. She still loves to crash out on Grandpa's belly and it looks like she is about to let out a little drool on it!

We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and know that we miss all of you that are away from us today!

Christmas Cookies With Audrey

The other day when I was still in my Funk... which I am feeling out of now... thank goodness! ugh...Audrey called and asked if she could come make some Sugar Cookies with us. I told her she was taking a risk baking cookies with me...but she decided to take the plunge!

My poor girls are so deprived when it comes to making cookie cut outs. The process is overwhelming to me. Thanks to Debbie Lou and Andrea last year and Audrey this year...my girls get to enjoy this experience!

Kaydree kept trying to stake a claim on one of the heart cookies while Audrey was making the frosting, so she told Audrey, "I am going to touch it, so that way it has to be mine!" Huh?!?

Audrey brought cookie dough and a great frosting recipe with Karo syrup. The frosting has a glossy tint to it and it tastes soooooo yummy!

At this point I was trying to explain my cookie anxiety, however I feel like I may, might, maybe have started to get this cookie thing down, thanks to some friends and family helping me out on this one! (lovely picture, I can't believe I am putting it on the internet for everyone to see!)

Before pictures
The frosting and decorating crew. We told Kaydree to go and change out of her shirt and so she came out looking like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, "Big Girl....Little Shirt." She took one of Karsyn's shirts and it was tiny and very funny looking on her!
You gotta love how 4 year olds decorate...lots and lots of sprinkles and frosting.
Benjy made this kind of angry, winking at you type of snowman...with a tie? He sent it home for Tyler (Audrey's husband) and I am sure Tyler was very thankful for it?!? ;-)
Of course... can you guess who decorated these cookies? Me? uh huh, right! Audrey makes it look so easy and so pretty. I would almost hate to eat them, too bad they taste so good!

Emotions?

When I was in College I had this poster or one similar to it hanging on my wall and I would look at the different moods and get a chuckle. I love that we can feel so many different emotions and it can vary from day to day and from experience to experience.

What I like is that these little emot-i-cons is that they remind me of little balls. When I am down, I don't like to be there for very long so I try to bounce out of it very quickly. I am grateful that I have learned over the years to find and do the things that bring me peace and happiness. I am so thankful for those (nouns) people, places and things and also for those (verbs) actions such as, praying, working out, taking baths and naps ;-) that make me who I am!

The Last two days I have been kind of in a Funk...I really don't know to explain it other than I feel very introspective?! I feel peaceful, yet tired, yet kind of exhausted, yet peaceful (again), happy and calm. As Christmas approaches I find a desire to just slow down as my life tries to speed up on me! I absolutely love the peacefulness that comes with this time of year. Does that make any sense to anyone?

This is one of my favorite books that teaches us that it is Okay and normal to feel different emotions...

You can see that our copy is very used and cherished!

Here are some of my favorite pages. I feel like a bear in hibernation on my Sunday naps!

(And on days I crave chocolate...;-) you're right Andie)

I think of the gray days when it is raining or snowing...

Most days I feel like this busy buzzy bee!

In the mornings when we are running late and Kaydree is about to miss the bus... I feel like I am having a black day and during P.M.S. time. Sorry, but it's true, but I am constantly working on it, in order to have less of these types of days or even moments!
When Benjy is working and the girls are at school I have purple moments...I'm sad, I groan, I drag my tail...I walk alone.

(some people asked me yesterday if I was sad?, nope..just cool and quiet.)

A mixed up day...when everything goes a muck...
What I love most about this book is the ending page...it all turns out all right, you see and I go back to being ME!

Benjy just informed me that he almost threw this book away on his Saturday cleaning ritual, can you believe that? We got this book when Kaydree was a baby!

My Own Review Page.

Benjy and I both loved this movie. I read some reviews and most of the negative reviews came from people who hadn't read the books....OH PLEASE ARE YOU SERIOUS! How dare you review this movie when you didn't even read the book! So I am conducting my own review page on my blog. Please leave a review if you have seen it! Actually I only want the posititve ones...;-)
Thank you Stephenie Meyer for having such talent and sharing with us!

The Best Time of The Year.

This movie was made in 1964 and yet it is still one of our favorites. As a child, I didn't realize how mean even Santa was in the beginning of this film. Wow...

Ahhh.... I love all of the Charlie Brown cartoons.

When Kaydree stayed home sick on Wednesday, we plugged in the Christmas Tree, piled up the blankets and pillows and watched some of our Favorite Christmas Movies. While searching for the Grinch, we came across the Book and Movie, The Best Christmas Pagent Ever. I loved reading this as a child and now Kaydree and I have started reading it together to Karsyn. Benjy has agreed to listen but he wouldn't read from it... party pooper! So tonight for Family Fun Night we are all going to put on our pajama's and curl up by the Christmas Tree and watch it! I am so excited.The Grinch is still one of my favorites too. Just the animated one though! Poor little Max. Karsyn loves for me to read this book to her. I love being able to compare these awesome books to the movies.

And for all of you Twilight fans.... today is the day! We aren't going until tomorrow since last night we had our DATE NIGHT at Red Robin and then we went to the TEMPLE.

(Thank you Judy for watching our girls)

I love these date nights...dinner and the temple.

We come home feeling so refreshed! Date nights really do help you feel closer as a couple and going to the temple always increases my desire beyond measure to want to be together forever! Even when I think it isn't possible to feel loved anymore then I already do... going to the temple increases my ability to love and feel loved. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father and for his temple and the agency he has given me to be able to make and keep sacred covenants.

Desperate to go to School...

Do you know why Kaydree would be wanting...

She went to bed with a stomach ache, so I spread out blankets all over the floor, just in case! I am a believer that it is easier to wash blankets then it is to scrub chunks up off of carpet! An hour after she went to bed I woke up to the sound of a waterfall sound with chunks hitting the floor. I said to Benjy, "She is throwing up and she didn't make it to the trash can!" As I was folding up the blankets to throw them in the washing machine, Benjy sprayed the house down with Lysol and Kaydree took a shower. She went on to throw up again around 1 A. M. and started running a fever.

She woke up at 7 this morning hopping around telling me, "I'm good, I'm good to go to school."

History: I volunteer in Kaydree's classroom on Wednesdays and last week her teacher asked me to sub in there this Wednesday for the whole day and get paid! However... due to Rainbow having their double coupon days and Wednesday being MY FUN DAY WITH Karsyn AND...Double Coupon Day...Rock on... I told her it wouldn't work for the whole day.

So Kaydree was determined to get to school for a different substitute teacher!

I said, "Kaydree, you can't go to school and take the chance of throwing up in front of your friends or passing it on to them."

She said, "It's all good, I won't eat breakfast and lunch and if I throw up, I'll make it to the trash can and then all the other kids get to go outside."

I was telling Andrea this story and her perspective: Kaydree would get to be the hero for the day... getting everyone else out of class~~~~~~!

Now you know why Kaydree was so desperate to go to school.... AND NO I DIDN'T SEND HER! Maybe it was a Mother's intuition on why I turned her teacher down last week to sub today?????

QUESTION IS..... WHO WILL BE NEXT?????

Before and After...

Our lovely blue/gray/faded to white in some areas...siding!

We had a hard time picking out a color. Benjy really wanted a green or sage green, yet we couldn't find the right color green.

We really love the colors together especially with the white corners. We are glad that they are finally done!

Is There Anything Wrong with...

brownies for breakfast? We made the best brownies last night. They were so good. I am working today at Champlin High School, so Benjy got the girls up and ready. I asked him what did Karsyn eat for breakfast. He said, "Brownies, that is what she wanted." As I was about to say something I asked, "What did Kaydree have for breakfast?" He again responded, "Brownies, that is what she wanted too.." I was about to suggest that this is not the healthiest breakfast to hold them off until lunch, when I remembered our previous conversation about the cookies they had one time when I was gone, for breakfast. Benjy's response that time was, "Well they have eggs and flour and stuff in them and how are they any different then pop tarts?" He got me there!
But, then again, guess what I had for breakfast this morning while the rest of my family was still sleeping?????? ;-0
I love chocolate and they were soooo good and they had 3 eggs in them!

Remember All of this? The Winner is...

All of this (25 items) for $19.82
The winner is Serena with her bid being... $23.17 Choose your scent!

I had a total savings of $110.68

A little background on how to do this... must use coupons. Then Target does promotions where if you buy 4 of a product or 3 of a product you get a $5 gift card. So with the glade coupons there were some buy one get one free and also they were on sale. Then there was the automatic spray thing, Regularly $11.99 on sale for $5.99 and right on the box there was a $4.00 instantly off coupon. So we got them for $1.99.

Right now the Pledge promotion is still going on. Buy 3 get a $5.00 gift card. On line there were $2-3 off coupons off each pledge item, (probably still is) so you basically get them free or all three for a dollar or two depending on which pledge product you buy.

Crazy.. so watch the target promotions if you are near one and start cutting, organizing and using your coupons! ;-)

The Halloween stuff was 90% off. So the costumes were 99 cents and my work out shirt was 50 cents.

Was it worth it? Benjy doesn't think so...but then again... he isn't the one shopping for a bargain! ;-)

Coupon Secrets

I have to disclose some information that allows me to save the money that I do.

Fact #1: I live within 15 miles of 5 Targets. One of them being known as the CLEARANCE Target. The Andover Target usually clearances things first and has a lot of 75% off clearance racks at any given time.

Fact #2: I have 4 major grocery stores within 8 miles of my house that I can watch the ad's each week and go and find the best deals.

Fact #3: Rainbow does double coupon day every Wednesday. Granted only 5, however I make sure they are always a dollar and that the item is already on a great sale.

Have to #1: Get the Sunday paper and cut all of the coupons.

Need to#1: Organize them in a binder with protective sheet covers and alphabetize them. (Andrea's idea and it works great!)

Need to#2: Ask your friends, "Hey where are you shopping this week? Did you see any great deals I may have missed?" Andrea and JoDell are my deal seekers. If I miss something, they are usually right there on it!

Need to#3: Surf the web. I am amazed at all of the coupons out there: just google the coupons that you are looking for. Two of my most used sites:

http://freebies4mom.blogspot.com/

http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13101&zid=pt82&nid=10&bid=081110051106jestehyi

Caution#1: Be careful not to buy stuff you don't USE...notice I didn't say NEED. If you buy it when it is on sale and you USE it or will USE it....great. What has happened numerous times is that if I have it in my Food Storage, I very rarely buy anything full price.

Now you are about to see my very first "learn how to really do the coupon deals" taught to me by JoDell.

Yes...I bought a lot of smelly stuff, with the Holidays coming up and teacher gifts and visiting teaching little gifts, it is stuff I will use.

Game#1: The person to guess what I paid for all of this stuff to the closest penny, will recieve a little glade candle from me! (Sorry JoDell you know too much...you don't get to guess! ;-) Besides, you already have enough smelly stuff too!LOL

I was completely out of dusting items.

Each Scented Oil Candle was on sale for $5.59 Refills: on sale for $2.50 Glade wisp, battery opperated, flamless candles. On sale for $5.99 and refills on sale $2.50 6 Glade little candles in glass votive: on sale 2 for $5.oo Little thing that goes off every so often you see them in restrooms: reg $11.99 on sale for $5.99

Nice little Halloween shrit I will use as work out shirt for me. Charlee's costume for next year. Costumes for Kaydree and Karsyn's Webkinz. They are so into dressing them up! I can't wait to tell you tomorrow what it all came to. A little hint: It is under $75. Just how much? Find out tomorrow!