Weighed Down

I forgot I had uploaded these pictures a while ago waiting for time to post an explanation. So here goes. I was in my bedroom and they boys were supposed to be keeping an eye on Mackenzie. I come out and she is screaming. It wasn't a scream of pain it was a scream of frustration. This is what I found:

The foot of her pajamas was so full of sand she couldn't walk. Hilarious!

Happy (Belated) Easter!

Yes, a little untraditional (no pastels) but I liked the denim! (Not to mention the dress worked for our Brice Family pictures, which I will share later).

Decorating the Easter Eggs

Mackenzie likes to be just like her brothers (and they like her to be the same, too)...hence the shirtless little girl.

The hidden Easter Baskets.

The "Special" package from Uncle Hobie and Aunt Bre.

Getting ready for Church. Hilarious! She did this all by herself.

Snuggling with Daddy after a busy morning (just after church).

The ham bone that Mackenzie kept stealing from the dog. Gross!

Deals to Meals

I have tried out this website the last few weeks and have really liked it. The basic concept is they find all the sales...compare them to Wal-mart and Costco and tell you where to shop each week (similar to "grocery smarts") to get the best deals. But they take it two steps further... first, they incooperate food storage and second, they give you recipes to use all the food that you purchased on sale.

They are letting you try it out for a week or two free and then it is $4.95 a month. I am beginning to think its worth it. I actually like cooking but I really HATE coming up with a menu, ideas of what to make. This does it for me and supposedly makes it cheaper. The first week I did it I shopped at Albertson's. Virtually everything I bought was on sale. When they handed me the receipt they told me I had saved $96.34. Whoah! Now, I did spend about $150 but I got a ton of food.

My only problem is that I still had stuff to get at Walmart and Sam's Club, the stuff that wasn't on sale at Albertson's, to fill in the menu and the food storage for that week. That was more money than I spend in two weeks. They post the deals every week. I don't cook a full-on meal EVERY night so seven days of menu items lasts close to two weeks. That just meant that I didn't go shopping for the deals the next week but I still have all the menu ideas. And in fact, I had a lot of the things to make those meals already.

Anyway, I have really liked being able to try out new things. So far we have liked everything, some more than others. My kids, well Dane and sometimes Mackenzie, have even liked the food too (Brice doesn't like anything!).

If you are interested, email me: tiffyj@byu.net and I will forward you the emails.

Coordination

I have a couple of friends who have been very...hmmmm...shall we say, "supportive" of my new bracelet "business". One of my favorites has been my friend Ricci. She lives in Texas and emailed me pictures of four dresses that she has for her daughter for summer. She wanted a bracelet to match EACH dress. This was sooooo much fun! I found matching beads and came up with different combinations and patterns. I loved making each bracelet different. I even learned how to make a double stranded bracelet...by mistake. Stupid me! I guess I didn't end up reading the description well enough...I thought I was ordering a whole strand of little pink hearts. Instead I received one large heart. It was on sale and they wouldn't take it back. Argh! It matched the dress so I wanted to use it anyway but it looked funny on one small string of beads. See below for my creative solution. I hope it isn't too big for her hand :0)

Patriotic...my new favorite bracelet. I made one for Mackenzie too!

I also, thanks to a wonderful Mother-in-law, now have cute little jewelry bags to put the bracelets in when I give them to people.

So great! Thanks everyone for your support!