The Long Weekend Begins!

On Friday night Ian's parents and Grandma Bowles flew in. Their flight was a little delayed so they got here later than we thought. They made it safely though and we stayed up way too late watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Which, by the way, I thought was slow and kind of disappointing. Sorry Canada.

Saturday we had a marathon day. It started with Ian heading off to a long meeting for ward conference. Weston had a primary activity at 10am. Then at 11 we all piled into the Sienna, picked up Weston, and were on our way.
First stop was the Museum of Ancient Life, aka the dinosaur museum. We ran through it pretty quickly. The kids just didn't want to stop anywhere. Oh well. I think the grandparents all thought it was neat. Ian was on the hunt for the gnomes that are discreetly painted throughout the museum. He only found 3 though.

Weston explained all about the "holy mammoth" display to Grandma. It was hilarious.

Next stop was lunch at the Thanksgiving Point deli. It's so yummy and we get a discount with our membership. Can I just say again how amazing our Thanksgiving Point membership is?
The kids were worn out after lunch, but that worked out ok because next we drove the rest of the way down to Provo and they napped. We hit up the BYU Bookstore big time. Ian's parents met at BYU and graduated from there and are big fans. They don't get a lot of opportunities to shop at the bookstore, so they stocked up. We all got new BYU gear too. Ian and I didn't do Valentine's Day gifts for each other, but I got a new BYU sweatshirt and Ian got a pair of BYU basketball shorts. We each got a couple t-shirts too. Grandma and Papa bought Davin a shirt and Weston a hat. He was sooo excited about his BYU hat and wore it the whole rest of the day (and first thing the next morning too).
We changed into our new gear and got ready to head over to the basketball game. We were still a little early, so we killed some time at the Bean Museum. The game was fabulous. We had a great time. BYU killed Air Force, and we had good seats. The kids actually were really good too. Davin got antsy during the second half and we took turns letting him run around out in the hall.
After the game Ian and Grandma waited with Weston to see Cosmo and ring the victory bell. Weston was in BYU heaven. It was really just such a fun day together. We were all pretty exhausted by the end of it, so we drove home, ordered a pizza and went to bed early.

Cookies!!!

Grandma's Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening
2 eggs
1 c. sour cream
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
3 c. flour

Mix ingredients in order. Beat well. Let stand in refrigerator for at least a few hours up to overnight. Use plenty of flour when rolling out dough (there's no such thing as too much flour!). Cut out cookies and place on greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes. I usually do 9-10 minutes otherwise they are doughy in the center. Now some people like doughy cookies, but sugar cookies don't taste good or look pretty when they are under-baked. Let cool completely, then frost and decorate.
PS-I usually double the batch because I only do these once a year. Also be advised that the rolling and baking takes a good 2+ hours.

Powdered Sugar Frosting
2 c. powdered sugar
1 stick butter or margarine softened, but not melted
1 t. vanilla
2-4 T milk

Start with the powdered sugar. Beat with butter and vanilla until smooth. Add milk by tablespoons until you get the desired consistency. Use food coloring to make it any color you want.
Last night I rolled out and baked almost 10 dozen sugar cookies. It took awhile and was quite the mess. It was a little easier this year though because I could do the rolling on the kitchen table instead of the countertop, so I had more space to work with.

This morning Tara, Makenzie, and Jarom came over to help us frost and decorate them all. We had a nice time playing and visiting while decorating all the cookies (and eating some, of course!). If you aren't planning on doing anything festive for Valentine's Day, then I suggest you make these fabulous cookies to eat and share. Such a delicious tradition.
PS-Aren't 4 year olds goofy?

A Little of This

And a little of that. We had such a nice weekend. We didn't really do anything special. It was just nice to be together. Well, I guess we had a "gathering" for the Superbowl on Sunday, but that was the extent of the excitement. On Saturday we cleaned up the house and continued with Project Organize. We did a DI run with all the bags of toys, clothes, and random junk from the garage we had cleared out. And we only came home with one Mr. Incredible action figure. I can handle that.

After going to DI we decided to pop into a couple furniture stores to browse couches. I really want a new one, but we figured if we brought the kids then we were less likely to impulse buy one with our tax return. I know what I want. It's just a matter of spending the money on it. We came home for lunch and naps. I made my improvised dinner (from the last post), then that night Ian and I put the kids to bed early and watched a movie. It was just a nice day.

Sunday was busy. Church was good. We had 24 kids in primary! It was amazing. The most kids we have had on any given Sunday since we have been in the ward was 16. And only two of them were visitors. Pretty fun. After church we had a casual gathering (of us and our bishop and his family) to watch the Superbowl. We had lots of food and enjoyed the game and commercials at our leisure since we just recorded it. It was a good game.

Yesterday I grocery shopped for the first time in almost a month. It felt so good! Here's my 2 week menu. My cousin always posts hers and I like to steal her ideas, so here you go.
Monday- Shoyu chicken stir fry with rice
Tuesday- Basil Tilapia with cheesy veggies and rolls
Wednesday- Tuna Burgers with corn and peaches
Thursday- Russian chicken with rice and green beans
Friday- Pizza or leftovers (in-laws arrive)
Saturday- Eating out/at the BYU Basketball game
Sunday- Spaghetti with browned butter and mizithra with green salad.
Monday- Taco Soup
Tuesday- Taco Soup
Wednesday- Waffles and sausage
Thursday- Honey Lime Enchiladas
Friday- Honey Lime Enchiladas
Saturday- Grilled pork chops with mashed sweet potatoes and salad.
Sunday- Ravioli with salad and garlic toast

Last night we had another fun FHE about missionary work. Then we all wrote letters and drew pictures for a missionary from our ward serving in Brazil. I am loving our Monday nights! The only drawback was that Weston was in charge of treat and he helped me make brownies (his favorite), but then he wouldn't eat his stir fry, so he didn't even get to eat any.

Today we had a fun outing. We went to Target to let Weston spend his birthday gift card. Let me tell you he was excited. I told him all the things he could buy . . . clothes, books, movies, paint with water books, toys, games. He told me before we left that he wanted to buy Davin something too. He was seriously the nicest brother today. He has been great at sharing and he did buy Davin a fun ball at Target. Anyway, it was fun watching him try to decide what to buy. He ended up getting a new Star Wars book about the Clone Wars and a Transformer. He is a happy camper. Thanks GG Bowles!
After we spent an hour shopping at Target we went over to the aquarium. The kids love it and I love that the memberships are so cheap! Davin loves the fishies, but refuses to touch the sting rays or starfish. Weston is ultra brave and always touches the electric eel exhibit that shocks you like what you would feel if you got shocked by an electric eel. I have done it once and it is kind of painful.

This afternoon we have been working on Valentines. We made some homemade ones for family, then put together the Star Wars ones for Weston's class. Weston loved decorating Valentine's for his dad and grandma. We'll see if I can convince him to do a few more for his brother, papa, and great grandma. I am excited about having a nice Valentine's Day dinner on my china. I love any excuse to use my nice dishes.
Tomorrow the great Valentine's Day sugar cookie extravaganza begins. It's such a process to do sugar cookies that I only do them once a year for V-Day, but it's my favorite and I look forward to it. I will bake a double batch of the best sugar cookies ever tomorrow, then on Thursday our friends are coming over to help us frost and decorate them. I'm hoping they will last until Valentine's Day. :)

What is your favorite thing about Valentine's Day?

Dinner

Sometimes I am awesome at menu planning. Sometimes I'm not. I have been doing ok lately, but my next 2 week menu doesn't really start until Monday when I go grocery shopping, so I am limping through the weekend. Last night we had quesadillas and canned corn. Tonight I really had to dig. I started with a box of stuffing in the pantry that had been there for who-knows-how long, then loosely followed the recipe on the back with the stuff I could find in my house. Here's what we used.

1 box stuffing+1 can cream of celery soup+a couple spoonfuls of light sour cream+1/3 bag of frozen corn+1 cooked, cubed chicken breast=DINNER. Done. I hope it tastes decent.

I really can't wait until I grocery shop on Monday. I'm sure my family is excited too.

Growing Up

I can't believe that I am a grown up sometimes. Being a grown-up means budgeting, grocery shopping, clipping coupons, buying cars and making car payments. It means being responsible for what you eat. It means lots of cleaning. It means making sacrifices for the ones you love. It means worrying. It means getting to watch and eat whatever you want at night, but really only wanting to get more sleep. Being a grown up means having a husband, kids, a minivan, and a mortgage. Sounds kind of lame and boring, right? Well, sometimes it feels that way too, but most of the time I look back and I am so grateful for how far I've come and for the people who got me here.

Now it's karma time. And my little ones are growing up. Today we went to Weston's 4 year old check-up. I am just so in love with this kid. He is the best. I'm sure you think your kid is the best too, but you're wrong. I loved watching Weston fearlessly do everything the nurse asked. I watched him make jokes, read a book, breathe hilariously deeply while the doc listened to his back. I constantly get comments from teachers, parents, and strangers about how well-behaved my kids are. I take some of the credit for that, but really they are just good kids. So today being a grown-up also means being extremely proud.

Weston's 4 Year Old Stats:
Height: 38 in. (15th %ile)
Weight: 34 lbs. (25th %ile)

Organizing Bug

I have been bitten by the organizing bug. Monday I worked on organizing my finances. Obviously that is a work in progress, but so far so good. Today I bought some groceries at Smiths. I saved almost $20 and only spent $27. Woohoo!

Anyway, since Weston's birthday I have been wanting/needing to re-organize the toys in our house. Yesterday we started the day at IKEA to get a couple organizing items. We also discovered the cheapest lunch out ever. At the IKEA Bistro (not the upstairs restaurant) we got a combo of 2 hot dogs, chips, and a drink for $2 including tax. We all shared. When we got home we went to work. My goal was to consolidate all the toys into the boys' bedrooms. No toys in the den. No toys in the living room. My hope is that this will make cleaning up at the end of the day easier. Also it will mean that there aren't quite as many things to scatter in every single room. It also required us to get rid of some things, which we needed to do.

I ended up filling 2 trash bags with toys for DI. And another with baby toys we want to keep, but don't currently need out in the house. The boys rooms look great. Here are the areas we re-organized.

Weston's room . . . He got another new set of Mega Blocks for his birthday, so I bought that red mesh basket for his blocks. They fill it almost all the way full. He also got some new dress-ups, so we dedicated the bottom 2 bins of his toy bin shelves to dress up stuff. We took out the little activity table which frees up the room a bit.
I cleared the bottom shelf of the bookcase, then moved all the books to the bottom two shelves. The new blue and green bin from IKEA now holds bigger cars/tractor.
In Davin's room I moved all his books to the top shelf, then fit the rest of his toys into the bins and on the bottom shelves. All his bigger toys fit in the toy box.
As long as I was emptying things out and tidying toys I decided I may as well have an actually clean house, so I went ahead and dusted, vacuumed, and cleaned the bathrooms. It felt so nice to have things cleared out and clean for a little while.

Last night, while I was waiting for Ian to get home from bishopric meeting so we could watch the season premier of Lost, I entered a bunch of blog giveaways. It was kind of fun. If you're interested in entering one . . . my awesome cousin, Tasha, is doing a giveaway on her craft blog. Go check it out!

Finally I just had to share this picture of my goofy boys. I took this today while they were eating lunch. Weston just thinks he's so cool I guess. He told me about how the paint farted today at school. First of all, we don't use the word "fart" at home so I knew he had picked it up at school. Sigh. However, the way he told the story and laughed so hard was just too cute. He's growing up so fast. But for now I will still enjoy being his favorite.
This morning while I got ready for the day I thought of all the back logged cleaning and organizing projects I want to do. Up next . . . tackling the desk drawers and filing cabinet.

Finances. Sigh.

Now that all the birthday madness is over and I am starting to get over my cold I feel the need to be productive and "get my life in order." You know the feeling. Anyway, last night Ian did our taxes in record time and we found out that we were going to be getting a pretty decent tax return. Woohoo! We are still in the stage of our lives where we look forward to tax time.

Anyway, today I decided that we need to have a real budget. We have never had a real one. I mean I keep track of our bills and pay them all on time. We have excellent credit, but it seems like the first thing we have to do when we get any chunk of money is pay off a credit card that has snuck up on us. This is the case with the tax return too. I have read countless articles about money management. I know the tricks, so here goes. I am feeling pretty gung-ho about it because I really am tired of being in the exact same place we were a year ago . . . every year.

Please don't think I'm whining either because, truly, we are so incredibly blessed. We have a great house, a new van, our kids can go to preschool, we keep plenty of food on the table, and we manage to enjoy more than enough other comforts, but we're not real savers. And I kinda want to be.

Things I have done today to be more financially responsible . . .
-Finally set up Davin's college fund.
-Set up recurring transfers into all of our savings accounts each month.
-Wrote out a "budget" including our fixed expenses and how much will be left for flexible expenses.
-Got our FSA account set up for the year (ok, actually Ian gets all the credit for this one).
-Tacked an envelope on my bulletin board to put the month's grocery/household receipts in as they come in so I can keep track of my spending.
-Stocked up on chicken, ground beef, and fish at Sam's Club (this may or may not be financially responsible, but it certainly needed to be done regardless).
-Called the power company and got "equal payment" set up. I have now done this with all of our utilities.

Things I still need to do to be more financially responsible . . .
-Clean out my files and allocate another drawer for additional files.
-Get a shredder.
-Stick to my budget.
-Be vigilant about ONLY putting gas on the credit card.
-Stop buying things I don't need at the grocery store (aka ice cream, chips, pop tarts, etc.).
-Keep up my menu planning.

Finally, I have toyed with the idea of switching to using cash for my flexible expenses like groceries and entertainment. It seems like such a pain, but I'm sure it would help me be more aware of what I'm spending. Have any of you done this? What are your thoughts?

So, wish us luck and keep me posted on any killer grocery/clothing deals or financial management tips you have used.