Day 250

Luke's favorite movie: Phantom of the Opera. He's awful quiet tonight so I look to see what he's doing and he's cutting up his skeleton costume's mask to turn it into a phantom mask!!! Little does the guy know I got him about 24 phantom masks that he can decorate himself for Christmas. Last night, as we were decorating the tree he bent down to Lilly and says really quiet "You are my angel, my angel of muuuuusicccc." Then he starts singing the song. It was hilarious. So anyways, here he is...my own personal Phantom of the Opera.

Days 248 and 249

Just before the older kids left...gathered 'round our Thanksgiving Tree.

Decorating for Christmas!!!!

Days 244 245 246 247

Reading to my gaggle of little kids...

The whole family at the Malad Gorge in Idaho.

At Chuck E Cheese!!!

Thanksgiving Dinner at my BIL's house. It was quite the packed house! The 10 of us, their family of 11, and another couple! I was thankful there was enough food! ;)

Day 243

Here are a few of our kids having fun in the afternoon SUN! I'm not fond of the processing - but it was a quick play in Picasa.

PS They broke the picnic table. Good for us we have a spare!

Days 239, 240, 241, 242

238 - candy making activity for church (that's not me - it's my friend Brandi)

No pic day 240

Day 241 - hubby's kids came into town (this is the peace, love and rock n' roll child - but I wouldn't want her any other way)


Day 242 - Lilly before church

Day 238

We went to the Museum of Idaho today for their "World of the Pharaohs" exhibit that is on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. It was AMAZING!!!!!!! All sorts of artifacts - even a mummified kitten! CRAZY! The boys really enjoyed it and asked lots of good questions - they especially liked learning about all of the Gods. Here they are in front of the museum walking like an Egyptian. LOL

Day 237

The new bed!!!!! He didn't sleep in it much last night. He usually sleeps through the night no problem. Hopefully he'll do better tonight. *fingers crossed!*

Day 236

I put this on my family blog, too...but here's a video shot with my Nikon D90 today of my daughter walking. That counts as a picture, right? It was taken with my camera!

Enjoy!

Day 235

Focal length: 58mm
1/500s
f/5.0
ISO 200

Another lovely day in Idaho! I had a babywearing meeting this morning at the most adorable shops in town (we mostly just window shopped) and then I gave a bow making lesson at my church for our craft day and then we went into "town" to feed the ducks and do some shopping. We were going to get Carson his big boy bed (he's 4, it's about time he was out of a toddler bed...but he does love his "little tiny bed") but we - nor the stores - had nothing to tie it onto the car with. So, that will have to wait until Monday.

Day 234

Here's yesterday's picture. I took it last night after I scrubbed & cleaned my WHOLE HOUSE. Top to bottom. Even organized the play room. Can you even tell today? Nope. Looks just like the tornado hit it...aka "normal". My sweet husband tried helping. He cleaned out our extra room...the one I'm afraid to even go into because there's so much "stuff" in there. He hung up a picture of my ancestor's in the closet. I haven't laughed that hard in ages. Maybe that'll be my POD tomorrow. After he did that, he worked in our greenhouse. It's really lovely in there. And, that's where the POD came from. The new planter box he made yesterday.

Day 233

My birthday presents came today!!!! I got a new tripod (my old one was OLD and a bear), a polarizer (but will need to be changed out for one that fits my camera) and a SPEED LIGHT! YAY!!!!! Here's my first try with the speed light. PLEASE give me suggestions/hints on how to use this thing. I was bouncing it off the ceiling. Did it work? It's a huge improvement off of the shadow cast by my lens with the on-board flash, but still. What can I do to make it better?

Day 232

Fun day with my birthday celebrations spilling over. We went to "town" and had ice cream at Leatherby's then drove around for a bit (taking a few pics along the way at sunset). Good times!

Day 231

This picture was screaming POD (picture of the day). From the looks of it I was forcing him to eat the salad, but really it's his favorite. I ordered it and he was CHOWING it. In other news...yesterday was...MY 30TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I spent the entire morning in bed. Breakfast & movie in bed then to "town" with my family to spend the day shopping, feeding the ducks and eating out! I'm so happy to finally be an adult!

Day 229 & 230

Nothin'. Why didn't I pick up the camera? There's no excuse. Dag GUM!

Day 228

A portrait of self (and shadow) taken by my sweet husband. Here I am combining much of what I do...Babywearing (I'm the Idaho Chapter President of the International Babywearing Association), standing at the PTO (I'm on the board) Family Picnic, having a picture taken so I can edit it (aspiring photog), with my foster kids (we are licensed foster parents) nearby (whom are one of many the reasons I am a member of the Children's Mental Health Council here). I am a woman of many hats. ha ha ha

Day 227

Whew! Getting a deal is tiring. Here's the big freezer, stocked and organized (NOT clean). I'll be adding another 60 bags of (FREE) veggies on Monday. I really hope I can fit it in. I'm about ready to buy another big freezer to fill with the awesome deals I've been getting! My little freezer is shoved full, too. I organized it thusly: Little freezer holds ice cream, open bags of veggies, frozen waffles, frozen bread dough, most of our juice concentrates, cookie dough, frozen go-gurts and a few other odds and ends. The big freezer has frozen meals, bulk veggies, the leftovers of the 1/2 cow we bought last spring, the leftovers of the fish my husband caught in Alaska 2 trips ago, chicken, bacon, etc, OJ containers, butter, loaves of bread, baking goods (small bags of flour, flax seed, wheat, gluten, etc), whip cream and other odds and ends.

Here are the details to get a deal...again. Email me if it doesn't make sense and I'll explain it better. Search your ads. Albertson's is having a great deal right now. Spend $30 on select items and get $15 back in register coupons (to use on your next transaction). So, you get the items (such as chex cereal, Knorr side dishes, Progresso soup, ALL laundry detergent, Macaroni Grill boxed dinners, Pillsbury frozen dough, etc - check the ad) and sort them into $30 transactions. Have the cashier ring them up in $30 transactions and then when you get the 3 $5 coupons off after you pay, use them on the next transaction. BESIDES doing that, bring coupons in with you. Newspaper coupons and online coupons. The $30 counts before you use coupons. So you won't be spending $30 on each transaction because you'll be using your coupons to get more of a discount. Albies also allows you to use other store's ads on your groceries, so I took in the Fred Meyer ad for $10/10 Oj/Milk 1/2 gallons and got OJ. So, now we have 10 containers of OJ in our freezer. It's not easy, it takes a lot of preparation and organization. But man is it worth it! We are building our food storage for less than what we usually spend on our monthly budget. My email address is brittany . lueck at gmail . com if you have any questions. Have fun saving money! I'm going to take a nap.

Day 226

Here's yesterday's picture. We went to run errands in Idaho Falls (spent $70 - including 30# chicken, saved $190) and stopped to feed the ducks at the falls. I didn't have my camera on me (felt like I was missing a limb!) so my husband's camera phone had to do. It's the first time Lilly has seen ducks and she LOVED it. It was so cute the way she'd laugh and babble at them and throw the crackers at them (although I caught her sneaking bites of the stale, nasty things and had to dig it out of her mouth). We're hoping to be able to do this again before the winter sets in at least once more!

Day 225

Shopping day! Well, I went a bit over budget but that's alright. I'll do even better next month. I spent $199 and saved over $300. Here are a few of the things I got: upwards of 15 boxes of cereal, salad, organic carrots, 2 gallons milk, 1 gallon organic milk, side dishes, snacks, produce, yogurt, cookie dough, muffin & cookie mix, boxed dinners (I forget exactly, but more than 20), shampoo, conditioner, body wash, baggies, flavored rice mixes, laundry detergent and much, much more. Tomorrow I'm going back for: 2-3 containers of Purex laundry detergent, 15# chicken, 2 lotions, 4 cans snack nuts, 5 1/2 gallons of OJ, 1 loaf of french bread & 60 bags of frozen veggies (yes, 60...about a year's worth for us, maybe not quite a year's worth) all for about $7. WOOT!

How can you do it? Get an awesome friend like Kimber to show you the ropes like she did me. LOL j/k But seriously, thanks Kimber. You rock. Look at your store's weekly ad (I use Alberston's) and gather coupons that match those advertised specials. Newspaper, Ebay, online. Then, use them together as well as be aware (through the ad/customer service people) of the promotions going on. For example, today it was spend $30 (BEFORE coupons) on certain items (which were many) and get $15 in coupons to use on your next transaction. So, I had many transactions and utilized the coupons on the next one. Doing this requires a LOT of time and organization but it's MONEY! (aka - WORTH IT)

Day 224

I vow to do better posting pics as I take them. LOL Here are a couple of cloth diapers I'm selling. Well, the butterfly one sold super fast so I just have the other one left. I'm going to miss the yellow one and almost hope it doesn't sell, it's so CUTE!

Day 223

Well, darn it! I forgot to post again. Here's the pic I took though! My sweet husband makes the YUMMIEST Rosemary french bread. I love it! The boys think it's funny because it has "weeds" in it. We love to have it along side soup, pasta, deluxe scrambled eggs (toasted), and use it with chicken salad sandwiches. LOVE IT!

Day 222

Whoops! Forgot to take a pic yesterday, so here's one I just snapped of what I was GOING to do. Coupon clipping. Sunday ritual. Love saving money!!!! My goal for groceries and other things for the month = $150 for our family of 5 (growing by 3 kids for Thanksgiving). This includes EVERYTHING except bills & gas. YAY!

Day 221

Busy work day today! Lawrence & Luke cleaned out the garage, dug up the garden, mowed the lawn (last time this season) and built this awesome greenhouse! Then, he organized the garage and magically fit everything back in. Carson, Lilly & I thoroughly cleaned and organized both kid's rooms, conqured Laundry Mountain, rearranged furniture and ran a couple of errands. As long as we're upstairs or in the garage our house feels great. ha ha ha ha Next week we'll keep going with it all!