Resurrection!

So I haven't looked at my garden since those horrible caterpillars ate it, but I just happen to go by today and I found the tomato plant and pepper plant growing leaves. The tomato plant even had a tomato!! YAY!! All is not lost! It's not the prettiest thing ever but hey it's still alive. Hopefully those visitors don't return.

Rolling Over!

I sent out a very short video of Treyson rolling over a week ago. Well Treyson has mastered rolling over and is doing it often now. Here is a better video of him rolling over. He is still working on rolling from back to tummy but he is SO close!

Zonked out!

So the other day I was at the table sewing my Dorothy costume for Halloween and Treyson was bouncing in his play jumparoo thingy. Anyways, after a while he started getting fussy so I was going to finish the part I was working on before getting him out. Then he stopped making noise. When I got up to get him out, I found him like this (watch video).

SO FUNNY!!! He was so dead asleep! I guess he pooped himself out with so much fun. Poor Baby!

COUPON EXTREMENESS!!!!

So the posts I have done before on my couponing madness is NOTHING compared to this weeks find!!! So before you look at the pictures and such...you CANNOT judge me! Yes, I do coupons and yes I buy things in bulk when it is on sell but it doesn't mean I need to go to CA -Coupon Anonymous (directed to my brother Paul). Lol all jokes aside, I was super excited about this deal, I came home on a coupon HIGH! Mark was all bugged eyed as I kept bringing more and more bags in. My poor husband has to deal with me. He doesn't share the same excitement but he sure is happy about the savings. 

My first trip- I bought a lot of other items that weren't free but dirt cheap and stocked up as well. 

So here is the break down of how much things costs for the things above. A little further down I will tell you how much I spent and how much I saved! Some was with coupons and some without coupons was still an amazing deal.

Betty Crocker=BC
Price is for how much it is each!

8-BC Deluxe Brownie Mix............$1.13 (with coupons)
6-BC Cake Mix..........$0.25
2-Bugles..............$0.75 (with coupons)
10-Chex Mix Party Bags................$0.75 (with coupons)
15-Hamburger/Chicken/Tuna Helper...........................$0.25 (with coupons- $0.50 without)
3-Totinos Frozen Pizza.............................$0.25
12-Pillsbury Toaster Strudel..............................$0.75 (with coupons - $1.00 without)
2- Pillsbury Ready to Bake Cookies....................$1.00 (with coupons-$1.50 without)
5 Old El Paso Taco Shells...............................FREE (actually I got $0.60 back with coupons)
7 GM Cereal...............................$1.00 (with coupons- $1.50 without)

Cost...............$36.65
Retail Value..........$154.61
Savings...........$117.96

So if thought that was good, wait for the next one! So you are probably wondering why these prices are so low and how I get things FREE. Well it doesn't show in the ad that they are FREE, that would be dumb! Everyone will get it then. It requires skill and my favorite website grocerysmarts.com to help out. So the ad had BC and other items on a certain page that said if you buy 5 participating items then you get $5 back (printed on a coupon when you check out). Does that make sense? So for example the taco shells were actually $1.00 but if you buy 5 taco shells then it's $5.00 but because you bought 5, you get $5.00 to use on the next purchase so really it's FREE! Get it? Another example is BC cake mix, the price was $1.25, you buy five the price is $6.25 but since you buy 5 then you get $5 back and so you only spent $1.25 which is $.025 each!

So my first visit I wanted to get more of the FREE items but I guess other coupon extremers cleaned the shelves out because there was none left. So I decided to go in the morning while Mark was home to see if the shelves were restocked with the items I didn't get the first time. So below is my second trip. All the following items were FREE. I paid nothing for this next shopping trip, actually I made $2.00 because I had coupons with some of it.

My second visit- ALL of this was free, actually I they gave me $2 because of coupons!!!! PROFIT!!

6 BC Roasted Garlic Mash Potatoes...........FREE
5 Old El paso Taco Shells............FREE
5 BC Grilled Cheese Macaroni and Cheese............FREE
5 BC Cheese Pizza Mac and Cheese............FREE
20 BC Mac and Cheese..................FREE
5 BC Scalloped Potatoes...................FREE
8 BC Loaded Mash Potatoes.................FREE
12 BC Julienne Potatoes.................FREE(used coupons for 10 items and got $0.25 for each of my 5 coupons)
9 BC Cheesy Hashbrown Potatoes........FREE
5 BC Au Gratin Potatoes...................FREE
2 BC Parmesan and Asiago Potatoes.............FREE
3 BC Creamy Butter Mash Potatoes...........FREE

Total: -$2.00 (I got $2)
Retail: $121.25
Savings: $123.25

Impressed yet??? I was so excited about that one! So I would have stocked up more but I didn't have room in my cart for more and I kind of felt like I was stealing!! Also wanted to give others a chance to get some too. But lets just say that I almost cleared the shelves. So during the day as I was beaming in a job well done, I was thinking that I could totally shop for my family since Paul is coming down this week and he can take it to them. Hey...why not share? So I e-mailed them and they gave me their orders. Some of the items were cleared out when I went but I tried my best. So here is the third visit I did for my family. This one wasn't all FREE because they wanted to take advantage of the super cheap cake mixes and hamburger helpers. The only catch for me doing this for them was that they couldn't EVER make fun of me for couponing! I am such a nice sister :)

3rd visit- Helping out the Family

 3 BC Au Gratin Potatoes.............FREE
2 Parmesan and Asiago Potatoes..............FREE

6 BC Julienne Potatoes................FREE

25 BC Cake Mixes....................$0.25

14 Hamburger Helpers................$0.50

Total: $7.25 (spent the $2 I got from the second trip)

Retail: $90.97

Savings: $81.72

Have I made you into a believer in coupons? Well, don't think that every week is like this because it's not. The key to couponing is not to buy things just because you have coupons, use your coupons when the stuff is already on sale and it's okay if you don't ever use a coupon (more will always come). So yes, I have embraced couponing and I am learning new strategies often. Oh and yes.....I am the crazy coupon lady that now gets 5 Sunday papers that I don't read but just use for the coupons!! I will let you know when another awesome sale like this is on again. Fall is known for baking goods, can't wait to stock up!

Total items I got: 205

Total I spent: $43.90

Total Retail Value: $366.83

Total Savings: $322.93

My Great Finds!

 So a couple of weeks I was like a kid in a candy shop! I went to a consignment sale called "As They Grow" and to our neighborhood garage sale. I went crazy....but good crazy, I found some great buys. Anyways wanted to share what I got. It is probably good that they don't have garage sales all the time here, I would be broke!

So here is what I got at the garage sales. I got the castle slide
 for $10, the jumparoo $15, Double stroller $30, the floor
 mat $10 (yes that is Treyson on it lol), lot more in the pic though.

So that big pile of clothes on the couch on the first picture is some of these clothes. I went to a ladies house and she told me it was 25 cents each and so I started digging in her huge bin of clothes for cute clothes. Then after a while she said....you can have the whole bin if you want for $10. They range from 18 months to 3T! I was like OH YEAH!!! Basically got 73 articles of clothing for about 13 cents each. Some weren't as cute but beggars can't be choosers! 

So I bought this at the consignment sale a few days before the garage sale. I paid $50 and I thought I had a great deal until I found the other one at the garage sale for $30. So yep...I have two!!! Don't worry I am not keeping it, I am just selling this one. Let me know if you are interested!

5 Months!

 

So I saw on Pinterest to do the lipstick idea. When I finished
 kissing him, Treyson was very confused. Not sure if it was because
 I was kissing him all over or that mommy looked
different because she was wearing lipstick. LOL

So the photographer that took his photos when he was a month old, also did these. She felt bad that she booked another person soon after us and we didn't have much time and we didn't get any of the hat shoot in. Anyways, she decided to give us a free session later on. She did a great job once again. The owl hat was made by a member from my mission. She is so talented! Super cute too. Hope you enjoy!

BYU for his Daddy (Thanks Uncle Paul for the Hat)

Treyson's New Buddy

We started Treyson on a bedtime routine, which is great! I feed him, put on his pajamas, read him a story and then kiss him goodnight and put him to bed. I am SO happy that he is falling asleep on his own instead of having to rock him to sleep. Anyways, we have had two stuffed animals that have been in his crib since he was born. Not sure who gave them to him (sorry, but if it was you, let me know). Anyways, I was playing with him and grabbed one of the stuffed animals, the monkey, and Treyson instantly loved it. If you push his tummy they Monkey sings a song and the cheeks blink red. Anyways, Treyson snuggles his new buddy every night and sometimes during nap time. I am not sure if he is giving the monkey kisses or mauling his the monkeys face every time I give it to him but its cute. He snuggles him until he falls asleep and the monkey ends up usually laying on top of him. So Cute!

My 2nd Attempt at a Garden

This was 3 months ago, Jayden
 and I found our first caterpillar
 but we took it off and didn't find
one since the army took over.

Jayden helped me pick my very first tomato!!!

So last year I wanted to grow a garden, so I planted cucumber seeds and surprisingly they were growing really well and the plant was green and big. That is....until dead summer hit! On the seed package it said to put them in direct sun, so I did. When it hit 110 degrees, lets just say my poor cucumbers died instantly no matter how much water I gave it. Anyways, being heart broken about it, I was determined to try again this year and even went all out in getting a garden box, several plants etc. I planted peppers (red and green), Squash, Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Strawberries. This time I didn't put them in direct sun and they stayed alive despite the heat. I was so excited. I also got some strawberries and some tomatoes (even though they looked like cherry tomatoes). I felt better about this whole garden thing even though it didn't produce much. The tomato and strawberry plants are the only ones that gave me anything even though the other plants looked alive and healthy. Well, a few weeks ago I went out to water the garden and I was devastated to find half the leaves of my tomato plant GONE!!! The other plants were also just sticks. I had no idea in a matter of days what had happened to it...until I found the culprits....Caterpillars! They were everywhere! There must have been 20 of them. I have no idea where they came from. In a matter of two days they managed to eat my whole garden and leave (I have no idea where they went). Anyways, I was heartbroken! Maybe better luck next year :)

After 2 days! Cleaned me out.

The day I discovered them!

Culprit! One of Many.