saving money

So I have become a coupon shopper, and I am now a believer. But there are tricks to it.... You don't really save a lot of money if you only have one coupon, and only buy one item.... so the trick is to do the PYP (pinch your pennies) if you have not heard of that, it is when your local newspaper sends you five of every Sundays paper, and that way you get five of every coupon. And the other trick is to save your coupons for the sales. So if you have a coupon for a cereal for 75 cents off, and when it goes on sale for 1.00, you can buy the cereal for 25 cents.... Also a huge helper is you can print your coupons online at the web site at the bottom. (you can only print two coupons per computer, but if you have a couple computers you can print four or more of every coupon)
This all sounds so hard and complicated, but it gets easy once you go a few times and figure it out a little.
The biggest key is this!

Go to grocerysmarts.com then it will ask you for a password and you can use min, it is g84rcm. After you do that it will ask you for your area, and which store you want to see the sales for. (the one I look at the most is Albertsons) then you print of the list, and highlight what you are interested on buying. Also it will tell you what it is on sale for, and also in the right side it will tell you what it will be with a coupon. That lets you know if it is a great deal or not, and after you see that you can buy gushers for 60 cents, you might buy more than you would have before.
There are a ton of tricks about this like if the coupon is for Kix cereal, you don't have to use it for just kix, you can use it for any general mills brand, and the same goes for all the coupons.. It isn't what is on the coupon, it is the brand itself.,
I hope this helps
so go to
grocerysmarts.com and remember the password After you have loged in, you can save it under you favorites, and then you don't have to sign in every time.

What's go'n on....

I have had a lot to do it feels like, and at the same time feel like nothing has gotten done... I hate it when this happens.
I went to my family's house this weekend, and was able to go to my cousin Jaguel's wedding reception, (I can not believe that she is married....) it was a packed house, and was very beautiful. The following day I went to Chris's candy shop!!! (Heidi's Fudge in Rigby) and bought some of the best Carmel apples, Carmel pretzels, and fudge... It was all so good (we love the apple pie Carmel apple)








While I was there I told Chris all about the coupon shopping that I have been doing, and told him how much money I have been saving. He didn't believe me at all, and thought I was full of it, so I took him and my mom and showed them how it is done. My mom spent $200 and saved almost $500. With all the savings we had, we payed 39% for all we got. It was a lot of fun.
I spent 94, and saved almost $200. (If you all want to learn how to do it, I can let you in on my secrets...)
Anyway, on Sunday we went to Chris and Cindy's, and they blessed baby Tessa. They did it at their home, and had a huge crowd show up and it was so much fun to see all our family, and friends, that came. They are done remodeling their home, and it is so beautiful!


Also, Cindy went in for her surgery the other day, and it was not what they thought it was at all. They thought she had a tumor growing on her ovary's, and they were going to go in and remove the tumor and the ovary, and when they went in, they found out that her appendix had burst and attached itself to the ovary.... so I guess there was a lot of infections to clean up, but she was able to keep both her ovary's, and will be well soon!!! Such great news!!!! But so crazy and painful for Cindy. The poor girl has been through so much.

Alexis and her new trick

Alexis is so flexible!!! (as you can see in the video) She has always been able to do a good bridge, and other tricks. Last year she learned how to touch her toes to her head backwards and just kept working on it. She went from her head to her nose to her chin and now she can put her feet around her neck.
She was looking in the Guinness book of records and saw a lady doing the other trick she did in the video and she just said, "I can do that" and she did. She gets better and better every time she does it, and I think she likes all the attention she gets when she shows everyone.
I have not found out if this is going to do anything bad to her back, but it makes mine hurt just watching her do it.

The Weekend

We got a waffle iron for Christmas that rotates and it makes the best waffles in the world!!! They are so fluffy, and thick and yummy!!!! (thanks mom)

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmm
Alexis has been asking for waffles for breakfast lunch, dinner, and snack time!!! She loves them!
This weekend we were in Idaho falls for the baptism of my nephew Tanner Wray Merrill and also for the blessing of my niece Ava Rose Merrill. It was fun to have to days of get together s and hang out with my family. The picture above is my Grandma Merrill and little baby Ava.
Ava was sleeping so deep and so cuddly. I love holding babys when they will snuggle up to you, and she smelt so good. I think I am getting very baby hungry.....
The three little princesses. My girls love playing with little miss Mia. She is so cute, and they all get along so well.
Brytlee eating her dinner, and she is wearing her new Christmas dress that my mom gave her. I LOVE the dress. It is my new favorite!
Baby Tessa (Chris and Cindy's baby) She will be getting blessed next Sunday, so we will get to go and see my family again and get to all hang out. I really enjoy getting together with everyone, and watching all the kids play together. I really think that I have the cutest Nieces and Nephews in the world. They are all so sweet, and such great kids!!!! I love them all so much and wish I could spend more time with them all.

One of the days that we were there we all went to the pool and swam for a few hours and then after we were done Summer babysat all the kids while the Adults all went to dinner and a movie. We saw Yes Man and I really thought it was funny. There was a really bad part in it that made me feel really uncomfortable but besides that I had some realy good laughs.

Christmas

We had such a great Christmas this year! We were able to spend time with friends, and family, and all the people we love! (There was a few people that we missed, but hope to catch up soon)
We were all so spoiled this year. We spent a few days at my parents house and had so much fun with them and all my family members. Then came back home and got all ready for Christmas....
Our family got a wii this year and we have been having so much fun on it together. We also had a lot of fun with Ryan's family on Christmas Eve, and the day of Christmas.
After everything has been opened and all that is over, the things I remember most is who was there, and the fun we had. I love being with our families, and spending the holidays all together. There is nothing better than that.
The day after Christmas I woke up at 2 in the morning with sharp pains and couldn't decide if I should take a trip to the ER or just wait till morning... so I took a few Tylenol and the next morning went to see the doctor and had a bunch of tests and found out I have Appendicitis's. My doctor said that if I could just wait it out, and keep taking Tylenol it may just go away on it is own... so that is what I am doing.... I still have the pain... but do feel a little better. I will update if anything changes.
So that is all we have been up to.... and through all of this.... we forgot to take pictures, and so I am so sad that we have no pictures for our scrapbooks. I can't believe it!!!

funny girls

I have some funny girls! This last week at church Alexis was being so weird.... not like she was grumpy, or something wrong, just doing little things to get on our nerves. So Ryan finally said, "Alexis, what is with you today, why are you acting like this?" And Alexis just looks at him with a straight face and said, " I am just trying to figure out what you are going to do to me"..... Hard to get mad at her when you are trying not to laugh.
Alexis had a performance at the High School Basketball game last night, and while walking into the game, Elizabeth passes this girl that had a Hello Kitty necklace on, and she just reached up and tried to touch it... instead she touched the girls boob, and then kept walking like nothing happened... the girls friends busted out laughing so hard, and the Hello Kitty girl just looked so scared, and really had just been violated... I had to apologize, but it was really funny.

Heidi's Fudge

Great gift idea!!!

My brother Chris has opened his shop in Rigby Idaho!!!! If you have not gone into see it, you need to go asap. It is so so nice. He has put so much work into making the shop look just right, and getting the kitchen to be mmmmmhhh a dream kitchen. He makes all sorts of great candy there, and it is all fresh!!!! They also make yummy carmeled apples!!! They put snickerson them, and also have the apple pie carmeled apples. You can look at the website to see all the great gift boxes you can get to send to in-laws, co-workers, neighbors, or who ever.

Go to www.heidisfudge.com

My Weekend

This weekend Ryan and I went to Twilight together, and we had a good time. I thought way to much in the movie, and talked to Ryan a lot to explain things into detail a little, so I am really wanting to see it again already. I really liked it, but there was some parts that I couldn't help but laugh out loud about. (like when the Dr. walked into the room looking like a ghost... his hair even looked like it had baby powder in it) and when Edward threw Bella on his back and ran up the mountain, (it reminded me of the game on the price of right where the dude goes up the mountain till he falls off). But over all I think they did a good job of sticking to the book. I can not wait to see the next movie that comes out. Now that they have made millions on this movie, I am hoping to see a higher budget movie the next time around.
Did I tell you that Stephanie (the author)s aunt is in my ward???? Yea, I am that cool! I know someone that is family with this huge star!
After the movie, Ryan had to run and help our brother in law Dan do a few things, so I was able to go to the Kohls big sale they had till Midnight. Everything in the store was 60 to 80% off, and then you also got 15% off your total amount. And I saved a extra 20% by getting a kohls card!!!! (after I paid, the lady had someone come up to her and tell her that she wasn't suppose to give both % off at the same time, so I was way lucky) I had a lot of fun shopping for the girls, and a few other people on our list.

Grandpa is a movie star!

If you are interested in info on this movie go to..
www.moneymakingmorons.com

Grandpa Harris is in the movie Money Making Morons, and my girls are in love with it. They laugh so hard and think it is the best movie in the whole world. Brytlee who is almost two now, and will not watch TV at all is probably grandpa's number one fan!!! She was just throwing the biggest fit because she wanted to watch it. She caries the movie case around with her and loves to look at Grandpa's picture on it.
Alexis wants to make a movie of her own acting the same way grandpa did. I think it is a great movie for kids, (Annette's kids have a copy of the movie, and now I guess the whole neighbor hood is quoting lines from it, and Summer has used it as her babysitting movie)
I told Ryan that they act a lot like how me and my high school friends acted....

Breaking the Law

Our Christmas tree! It is finally up!!!! I let the girls help put all the decorations up and they did a great job. Alexis keeps going up to it and fixing little things here and there. She loves to decorate.

The girls have been wanting to put up our tree for a couple weeks.... But Ryan said "No". That didn't stop them from asking over and over and over and OVER again to put it up. So Ryan told them that it was a rule that you could not put up your Christmas tree until Thanksgiving was over. And that put a end to the begging. Later that night we went for a drive and there was a ton of lights on houses and tree's in windows and Elizabeth said, "Why are all these people breaking the law?... They must not believe in Chicken day huh mom"! I don't know why she called it chicken day, but she said it to a few other people after that and it just made me laugh.
Thanksgiving day! Grandpa Merrill giving the kids a safari ride. They were all yelling out what Animals they could see...(zebra, elephant, snake) and Lizzy started to cry because no one would give her the chance to say anything... She was so sad.

I thought this picture was really cute of her dance pose.


My girls love to dress up, and love to dance. I remember a year ago or so when Elizabeth just started to talk good, and she came out and said "Lady's and Gentlemen...." It was so cute. I took a lot of the dress ups to Grandma and Grandpa Harris's house because I got sick of it all over the house all the time and so now they have to find other things to dress up in. (that explains why they are in swim suits in December)