Yesterday was my baking day. As I'm so lucky that I am able to stay home with my kids, I guess you could say I try to improve my domestic skills i.e. cooking, baking, etc. I've never been great at baking bread but recently decided to try it again. Yesterday I baked this loaf of whole wheat bread and was pretty excited about how well it turned out. This recipe I got off of everdayfoodstorage.net which is a great site for recipes and how to videos.

Several of my friends have been getting into the couponing thing, and a few weeks ago I saw how it could become addicting. I took advantage of a sale on cereal combined it with some coupons I found online and bought six boxes for .12 and received a $5 off my next purchase. So since this was such a great deal I stocked up and bought a whole ton of cereal. So I bought 36 boxes (yeah alot I know) spent $5.60 out of pocket and recieved a total of 8 $5 off my next purchase. SCORE!!! I have to say I'm not the best couponer and that has been my best deal yet.

My new hobby

So the last 2 months I have been taking a quilting class. I have always wanted to learn and never had the time. But I decided now was as good a time as ever. So here is a picture of what I've accomplished so far.

Our Easter Weekend

For Easter weekend we went to the county fair. Blake was hoping to would be more like the Southeast Idaho fair but he was sadly disappointed. And to top it off it rained on us all day long. So we walked around in the mud and saw and the exhibits, ate fair food, and watched a few animal shows and then called it a day. The kids stilll had alot of fun but I know Blake was not impressed so I doubt we'll go next year.


On Easter the kids had to search for their baskets and then were so excited to go play with their new sand toys. Lucky for us the weather was much nicer. Its on holidays that we really miss being close to our family but we are blessed to have wonderful friends. We had dinner with some friends and had a potluck. Much easier than making dinner all myself and more relaxing. Then we waited until dark to do an Easter egg hunt and used flash lights. It was alot more fun!!

Phoenix

Okay first of all a little explaination. We bought Kierstyn a camera for her birthday and she was soooooo excited. Then we opened it up and found out it didn't work and after calling around I couldn't find another store that had another one in stock. So we took a little side trip to Scottsdale to get the replacement. And she was so happy. She probably took a hundred pictures of just the hotel room. But she really had a great time of taking pictures of all the animals at the zoo.

Here are the kids at the zoo. We had a great time and saw all the animals this year. The kids rode the camel again this year but were big enough to go by themselves.

We also had a great time at the swimming pool. The hotel had a wave pool and a lazy river so we spent the day out in the sun and did get a little sun burn, too! Ben especially likes crawling up on his dad's back and floating in the water. Another great trip to Phoenix!

Kierstyn's Birthday

This last week was Kierstyn's birthday. We had a very busy week of celebrating too! My parents came last Sunday and stayed until Friday. On Monday we went shopping at the outlet stores. Not all that fun for the kids but we found some pretty good deals. Tuesday we went to what my kids call the cowboy park and had a picnic. The weather was so nice and I think I even got a little sunburn. We also stopped at the Bass Pro Shop. Wednesday we went to an open gym and then I got sick that day which kind of ruining our plans, but we still had cake and ice cream. Thursday we went out to dinner and then went mini golfing. What a week but it wasn't over yet. Blake's parents came on Friday and we went swimming on Saturday. It wasn't as warm as Friday but still pretty nice. We also went to watch some horses. Sunday was more relaxing though just staying at home. It has been a busy week and not we're just trying to get back to normal. Here's just a few pictures from the week.


Kierstyn had a cake just like this last year but she wanted the same one only pink this year. It was pretty yummy!




She's starting to figure out money so is now excited to receive it as a gift.




She saw this umbrella in the store and carried it around and was so sad when I wouldn't buy it for her. Lucky for her Grandma decided to get it for her birthday. She loves it and has been carrying it around the house everyday this week.



Here's the cheese!



This is where we went mini golfing. It's indoors and all glow in the dark so it was kind of cool. Blake of couse won but not by much.



Kierstyn actually turned out to be a pretty good little golfer!

Battle scars

Here's my little guy and his big gash. It's hard to tell how big the scar will be but hopefully not too bad. He's tough though and tells me it doesn't hurt.

My Horrible, Rotten, Not So Very Good Weekend

Okay so it wasn't completely horrible but just one of those times that anything that could go wrong seems to. On Saturday, I came home from my jog to find out that blowout diapers do still happen at 3 years old. And the more disgusting and harder to clean up they are. On top of the messy little boy and his pajamas he was laying on the carpet at the time and therefore we had a messy carpet as well. So we spent the good portion of the afternoon cleaning the carpets. I do have to say a big thanks to Blake for doing most of the work.

On Sunday amid many other minor problems and irritations we had a great adventure of spending the evening in the emergency room. Ben took a nasty spill and needed stitches in his chin. And of course it had to happen after all the urgent care centers are closed. So we waited for 4 hours in the ER before we were able to get him stitched up. And what a brave little boy, it was much harder I think for mom and dad to watch. 8 stitches- a pretty good gash!

So all my good intentions for the weekend were just that good intentions and boy I could sure use a good laugh right now!!!