Valentines Day

For valentines day my dad had asked Rillz to make dinner for the family, my dads 2 brothers, Ray and Spencer, and my great uncle Stan and Margene. Thats 15 people! So we said yes. Rillz and I cooked the food while my parents were at church. We started at 10 A.M. so dinner would be ready at 5. I actually helped a lot more than usual (I will be honest, I get lazy and weave myself out of the kitchen and onto the couch). But this time it wasn't like that. Rillz started the chicken cordon bleu while I made a yummy breakfast for us. Then I made heart shaped brownies just because. And then I made angel food cake for the dessert. Rillz then made some shrimp thingy out of ginormous shrimp and also twice baked potatoes (getting the potatoe out of the skin was stressing me out. I was attempting to help and kept ripping the skin, Yes I was really getting stressed!) Anyways, it was delicious and being with the whole family is the best thing EVER! So happy valentines day to us all! Oh speaking of valentines day, that movie was really cute! Talk about SO many famous stars in one movie!

Just hanging out waiting for dinner

Kristi and Rillz. Kristi has a little tiny baby bump! She is always so skinny that in this stage of pregnancy she just looks my size. She said she just looks fat... thanks Kristi, are you saying I'm fat... haha!

My heart brownies. I just had to decorate them. These are the only ones left by the time I took a picture. And sorry it's so dark.

DINNERS READY....

Twice baked potatoes

The shrimp thingys

Chicken cordon bleu

All the guys on valentines day

I didn't get a picture of the girls because... well I was in it so it's not on my camera. And I forgot a picture of the dessert too. Oh-well

Ok gotta get back to spending my Sunday finishing my two weekend craft projects (which I will blog of course), cutting coupons from the newspaper, taking a nap cuz I have been up since 5:30 A.M., getting my eyes checked and probably picking out glasses, and watching olympics. Yeah, I have to get my eyes checked. I have been getting serious headaches and squinting A LOT more these last couple weeks. Alright peoples, thats all for now.

Where do my coupons come from?

Every sunday most newspapers get coupon inserts. You know, those booklets that you search through only to cut out a couple coupons you think you may use only to forget about them. Well, I get 5 sunday papers only to cut out every single coupon and then organize them and stick them in a binder. When a sale is going on at a store then I use them. I don't get all the product ideas by myself. I cheat and read peoples blogs and then go to the store and get what they get. Over time I started figuring out good deals and sales on my own. I look for clearance prices that I can use coupons on or just a great sale. Check out www.athrifymom.com or www.fabulouslyfrugal.com or www.discountqueens.blogspot.com Those are my favorite 3 website. Go into the couponing 101 section and they tell you how to do it. All these blogs are in the Boise area but mention great sales for stores that are everywhere or free stuff on the internet. Check it out, takes a while to get into it and to stack up all your coupons but it is SO worth it. Oh yeah and you can't be a specific name brand snob. Would I normally ever buy those purex laundry thingys.... No but for that price, Yes! I find myself being able to try new things out that I never would if I had to pay full price. Good luck!

couponing

This week I went couponing and got 4 dreyers ice creams (super yummy flavors) for $3. For full price on these 4 containers it would have been a little over $25.
Yesterday I went to Albertsons again and got 5 packs of trident gum, 4 pouches of tuna, and 5 boxes of purex sheets (these sheets look cool, they have laundry detergent, fabric softener, and static guard all in one sheet. So it goes from washer to dryer without needing to add anything! Have you used them before? Me neither.) anyways... I got all this for $6. Everything was free except for the purex boxes I had to pay $1 each. Full price I would have paid over $45. Wow, spendy!

Well, I feel like crap today and want ice cream for dinner and then I want to go straight to bed. Peace out everyone!

Rillz's Birthday

Happy 31 birthday Rillz!! Haha. He feels so old! Kristi and Jeff (and Gunnar) invited us to go to church with them and then have dinner (which was SO good, thanks Kristi!!). So I decided that I would tell my family to go to Kristis later for dessert and Rillz's birthday to surprise Rillz. He was so happy when he found out that we were celebrating his birthday. He was very appreciative. When present time came Gunnar wanted to do "Heavy heavy hangover" with every present. Gunnar is always so interested in peoples presents, but he is very good about just looking and being excited for that person receiving the gift, never grabby or mean. It's always fun getting together as a family!

Really dad?!? Must you wear that hat? You are in the United States now. It doesn't only look funky but it's also made out of felt. Looks like he is going to beer fest or something. Haha. I love you anyways dad!
Kristi made this banner. So cute! Great job Kristi.

Birthday fun.

We didn't have any candles for the AMAZING cake Heidi made for the party so Jeff goes into the garage and pulls out 2 emergency candles. They were big and made me laugh! Way to save the day in a BIG way Jeff. Haha!

Couponing

With couponing I am always looking for cheap dog treats. Dog treats are so stinkin spendy and I can never find any at a price that I am super happy to pay and want to stock up on. And with 2 dogs, and me who likes to teach them tricks with treats, I go through them at a steady pace. Well tonight I needed to return redbox movies and decided to run into Albertsons to get my free pack of Golden stuffed oreos that I had a coupon for. I paid for them and as Rillz and I were walking out I spotted a cart full of discounted dog treats. As we were looking at them I realized I probably had coupons for some of the brands. I ran to the car to get my coupon binder (yes, an actual binder just full of organized coupons) and to my happy surprise I had plenty of coupons for the brands that were in the cart. Before coupons and discounts I would have spent $39.31 and after the discount and coupons I paid $2.88 ($1.13 of that total was tax). Thats $36 in savings. I got oreos and 12 boxes/packages of dog treats for only $2.88. Thats awesome! Now thats a price I want to pay!! I love surprise finds.

Game night

Me, Rillz, Heidi, Ren, Brent, Noelle, and my mom played pictionary. We had to draw with our opposite hand (because my mom had to) and it made the game even more fun! We did boys vs. girls and the score was so close the whole time. Heidi couldn't think at all when she had to draw with her left hand. It had us cracking up. And Brent could still draw perfect pictures with his left hand. It was great family fun!

It looks like a bunch of little kids are playing this game together.

Brents gangster had us laughing

Bowling with siblings

Rillz and I went bowling with Heidi and Ren and we all convinced Brent that he didn't need to work on the shop... instead he needed to go bowling with us, so he did! It was a lot of fun. The bowling alley was in Caldwell about 5 min. from my parents. Smoking has been illegal for how long now?!? and it smelled like 100 cigarettes had just been smoked at the same time just before we walked in. Gross. Oh-well. It was lots of fun!

CB (C-bass) was Ren... why? I don't know. It's his special bowling name I guess.

H (Hodi) was Heidi, R was Rillz, M was Mindy, and B-REnt was Brent. I got over 100 Points! All luck, no skill!