My Deal of the Day

A few months ago my cousin invited me to attend a coupon class at her house. Not only was the class fun, but I learned a ton.
So this is the great deal I got today at Albertons

2 boxes of Fruit Loops
2 boxes of Kashi cereal
2 boxes of Capri Sun
2 boxes of Taco shells
2 boxes of Pop Corn
2 Mac and Cheese
2 Gallons of Milk

The total came to $46.15
With all my coupons and other discouts I only paid $1.39
(it would have only been $0.39 but I forgot a coupon)

The Unexpected Is Sometimes The Most Fun

Yesterday our plans for the day included:
1. Maybe stopping by Ashley furniture to see if there were any great deals.
2. Taking Claire to “This Is The Place Heritage Park” because we thought she would really like it.
3. Then going home.

Instead this was our day.
1. At the last minute, we decided to go look at a yard on the Master Gardner Garden Tour. The yard was so amazing that we stayed for almost an hour instead of the ten minutes we thought we would stay.
2. Went to Ashley furniture. Despite the antics of a well-meaning sales woman, we left without purchasing anything.
3. Next stop was Heritage Park. We thought Claire would love the train ride...and she hated it.


Thought she would like going on a pony ride since she loved it last time...and she hated it.

She did like playing in the miniature houses and the teepee.



And she really liked feeding the cow.


After being rained on most of the time and after trying to change Claire’s diaper in a restroom that does not have a diaper changing station while Luke went back to retrieve the newly smashed tin of altoids that Claire had thrown from the train (at least it wasn’t my phone that she had been playing with)...we decided to leave.


4. Now picture in your mind a little kid on a man’s back with his arms wrapped around the man’s neck and legs wrapped around the waist. Now exchange the little kid with a brown dog that is the size of a kid. Now picture the man riding his bike down a busy street in Salt Lake with the dog on his back. The reason you have to picture this in your mind is because the man and his dog were off the bike by the time we got out the camera and drove around the block.
5. Decided to go home instead of doing any more furniture shopping.
6. Got stuck in traffic on 1-80 since it closed, did an illegal u-turn and decided that going furniture shopping sounded a ton better than sitting on the interstate for several hours.
7. Drove down I-15 going 30 MPH because we got stuck in a horrible rain storm.
8. Walked in to Sofa Mart and walked out 10 minutes later with a new sofa and love seat.


9. Claire had decided she had enough of the car seat and since I-80 was still closed, we crashed at my moms for the night. This is after we called everyone we could think of that could help us get into my moms house since she was not there and we didn’t have a key. Just as we were about to give up and leave, the girl in charge of feeding the dog walked out of the house. I guess we should have knocked first before spending ten minutes on the phone.
10. Got Costa Vida take-out, put Claire down for the night, and spent the rest of the night watching movies with Luke.

It turned out to be a great day!!

Daddy's Little Girl

So for the past two weeks, Claire has been going through the "I only want my daddy" phase. At first it kind of hurt my feelings but now I am starting to enjoy it. Claire will wait by the front door for her daddy to get home from work and the second he walks through the door, she forgets I exist. It does make me happy that it is me that she cries out for in the middle of the night.

Last week we bought Luke an early Father’s Day present…a bike so he can go on bike rides with us. Since my mom gave us a bike trailer for Christmas, Claire and I will go on bike rides during the day but we have been wanting Luke to go with us. So on Saturday we loaded up the bikes and the bike trailer and heading into Liberty Park.
Claire had a blast playing in the water, going down the slides, swinging, following a teenage boy around because she wanted his soccer ball, and chasing the ducks while saying “ducks” and getting mad because they were running from her. She definitely wore Luke and I out but we had a blast. It wasn’t until we got home that we realized we forgot to get a picture of Claire in her bike trailer. Oh well!!

She loves her Daddy!


Now that Claire has discovered the big kid slides, I don't think the toddler size slide we have at home will be good enough.


Claire was entertainment for everyone sitting around at the park. She would run towards the water with her mouth wide open and then run out squealing when she got sprayed in the face. Its a good thing we brought extra clothes for her.


Claire and I went down all the slides together that daddy couldn't fit in.

April Birthdays

Here are some pics from Claire's birthday party since I have recieved some comments wondering why I haven't posted anything. Thanks to everyone who came to her party. Claire had lots of fun!!

I think her favorite part was chasing the seagull and playing in the water.

Claire and Ethan playing in the water at Liberty Park.

Claire and her birth mother Melody playing in the water.

Her least favorite part was the unwrapping of presents. Luckily she had some cousins who were more than happy to help.

She didn't dive into her cake like we thought she would but at least I had fun making it for her. We practiced for a month trying to teach Claire how to blow out a candle but she didn't catch on to the concept.

My birthday was a week after Claire's. At the last minute Luke decided to take the day off work which totally made my day. We hung out together all day long just the two of us. We went to a movie, played games at the arcade while waiting for our movie to start, and then went to dinnner at Tucanos Brazillian Grill. Just so you all know, if you sign up for Club Tucanos, you will get a free meal for your birthday. And Luke picked out the cute outfit I am wearing in the picture and another one too. He is the best!!

One Year Old!!

What is Claire doing now that she is one year old...

Claire's favorite thing to do in the house is read books. She loves to be read to and if we aren't reading to her, she will sit on the floor and look at the pictures.

She also loves to be outside. If only one of us is leaving the house, the other person has to distract Claire. She will run to the door the second it opens and will cry and pound on the door when it closes and she is still stuck inside.

Claire just learned a new word...yes. Sometimes she says it perfectly and sometimes is comes out "des". Last week I was driving to Salt Lake to get stuff for her party and I asked her if she wanted a cookie. She looked up and me and said "yes." I was so excited!!

Her favorite "toys" inside the house are the tv remotes, her mommy's hair brushes, and dirty laundry. I have yet to understand why she likes to pull Luke's dirty pants out of the hamper and drag them throughout the entire house. I promise we do buy her real toys to play with.

Sunday's are the Best!!

After we got home from church, took a sunday nap, and Luke got back from doing his home teaching, we decided to go to Claire's Grandma and Grandpa's house to see the new baby ducks and the chicks. She loved them but kept trying to poke them in the eyes. I told her that later this summer Quackers (her duck) and JP (her chick) would chase her around and peck at her little feet to get back at her for poking at their eyes.

The best part of the day was watching Sam, Luke, and Claire play basketball. Claire would go chasing after the ball whenever the boys would lose it. The ball is almost as big as she is.

My Favorite Easter Pics

Happy Easter!!

We just got back from Stansbury Island. It has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. Luckily it didn't start raining until after we got home.

Claire loved playing in the sand with her new sandpail and she loved eating the sand too. I almosted gagged when I saw her drop her sucker in the the sand and put in back in her mouth before anyone could stop her.
But my favorite part was watching Claire hunt for eggs with her daddy during the easter egg hunt. She had figured out earlier in the day that there was candy inside the eggs so during the hunt she kept stopping to try to open up the egg she just found.

Claire and her daddy did pretty good for an 'almost one year old.' She got about ten eggs in her basket.

My brother and some of my cousins climbed the mountain with an old tire just to see if the tire would make it all the way to the bottom of the mountain without getting stopped by a big boulder. I don't have a clue how that tradition started. And of course we came home covered in raw egg from the egg toss. It was a great day!!

Is she walking yet??

Well, it depends on the day. Some days all she will do is walk...everywhere she goes, she has to walk. And then the next day she will only crawl. Today was a walking day until her dad came home and then she was running around the house. She always gets so excited when he gets home.