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My baby boy is 8!

I can't believe that my 2nd child has turned 8!! I don't feel any older then 21 or so! How did this happen! This last Saturday Logan was baptized, which he was sooo excited about! Everytime he would talk about it he would get a huge grin on his face and say, "It looks fun!"

To get ready for the big day we went shopping for his very own suit! We looked at a few and he choose this one, he called it his, "snazzy suit" he loves it!

On the big day we took Logan shopping at Seagull book so he could choose his very own CTR ring. They had quite a few to choose from and he loves this one, he likes to show it to everyone!

We were part of the stake baptism, but were last so it was still nice and intimate. We were able to have a family testimony meeting while we waited for Eric and Logan to come out. It was a very nice day!

It's a BOY!

So it has been a while since I posted anything, and honestly I am not sure that anyone looks at my blog, but I have some time to kill so I thought I would do a post! We are now 21 weeks pregnant with baby #4 and final! We went in at 18 weeks and found out we are having another boy, bringing our total to 1 unhappy girl and 3 rambunctious boys. I ( and Eden) would have loved to even it out with another girl, but our eternal family evidently has 3 boys and 1 girl, so we are just very happy that he appears to be healthy! He was already 9 oz, which normal is about 7.5oz, so maybe he will be our football player! Now we are just trying to figure out a name! With all 3 of the other kids a name came very quickly and just felt right, but here we are 3 weeks later with no solid name! We have a few that we like, a few Eric likes, and a few I like, they are:

• Jayden
• Jude
• Cole
• McKay
• McKell
• Tate
• Gabrielle

So if you have any suggestions or like one name more then another bring it on! I just want to have a name for this little man!

Oh to be 3 again!

I love to be a mom, especially being a stay at home mom, one of the reasons I do is because you get a front row seat to all the cute and funny things your kids do. my 3 yr old, Jonsas, really loves Iron Man, he loves to watch it, (I edit a bit) and he likes to pretend to be Iron Man. Well the other day he was flying around the house as Iron Man and he came in the room with no shirt on. He also had a paper airlane stuffed down the front of his pants and a stuffed animal hanging on for dear life, it was very cute. Then when he turned around I saw the funny part of his costume, he had stuck a pen right down his bum crack! I am sure to him it seemed a very logical place to put it, it fit just right! I am so glad I did not miss out on this chance to take a black mail picture for when he is older!

Hooked on Savings! My new blog!

I just started a new blog called Hooked on Savings! This is will I will post any deals I find from now on and this will become our family / me page! You are welcome to continue to follow this page and I hope you will follow hooked on savings as well!

Tuesday is My family night!

So I know that Mondays are supposed to be Family night, but for our family we do it on Tuesdays! Why? There are lots of fun family deals around town on Tuesdays! I thought I would list just a few that we like to use!

McDonald's- Kids night!
Every Tuesday McDonald's has kids night from 5-7 pm. During this time you can buy happy meals for 1/2 price! There is a limit of 4 but we only have 3 kids and then I usually get one too and send the extra toy to school for the prize box! My kids love it! Sometimes we will go in to the play area, but I am feel like it is a germ zone, so if the weather is nice we like to go to a park! We have even brought them home and had a picnic at home.

Sonic
This is great one for grown ups! Sonic has "happy hour" on Tuesday after 5:00pm all hamburgers are 1/2 off. so go ahead and treat yourself! We have even gotten the kids Mcd's and then gone to Sonic for our own dinner!

Pizza Hut-
Every Tuesday night Pizza Hut has a themed family night where they will do a fun activity and for every Large pizza you buy you can get 2 one topping personal pan pizzas for the kids! Last time we went we actually got one of the pastas instead of pizza and they still gave us the free personal pizzas

Overland Park Theaters- (in Boise)
This theater has special meaning to me and my hubby....this is where we met! They specialize in family movies at an affordable price. Their prices are great any day but on Tuesdays admission is only $1 and many of the concession items are $1 as well. My kids get so excited when they know we are going to OPC because they get to pick their own treats! (we hardly ever take them to a first run theater let alone buy anything if we go) To check out the OPC show times look here.

Baskin Robbins-
At Baskin Robbins from 6:00 - 10:00 pm you can get a single scoop of your favorite 31 flavor for only $1! Now that is a sweet deal!

These are just a few of the great deals we like to use on Tuesdays! We can have dinner, movie and ice cream afterwards for very little money! I know that times are tough for a lot of people but sometimes it is good to just have a fun night! There are lots of other restaurants that have kids night so don't be afraid to ask...you may just save some money!

Swagbucks earn "bucks" while you search!

I found out about this site on another blog about saving money...it is a search engine powered by google. You earn "bucks " for the searches you perform and then can redeem those bucks on merchandise....the blog I read said she used her bucks for Wii games for her kids. I am planning on saving my bucks to get Christmas gifts for my kids! Check it out here

Couponing sites....how I do it!

So I am having alot of people ask me what sites I am using so I thought I would just make a list with links to them so you can check them out yourself.

• I like to check these sites about once a day or so just to stay on top of the deals, when there are good deals and alot of people know about them stock tends to run out quickly!
• When printing out coupons that require you to enter personal info I dont mind using my actual address....if they want to send me something through the mail great...plus maybe if more people are using the maik system the stamps will stop going up!
• I have a "junk email" set up that I use....I dont want alot of spam! You can set up an email account through gmail
• Many of the sites will let you print out a coupon 2 times each before it stops printing them. The way to get around this is to use multiple computers...i go and use my parents. You can ask around to family and friends to find out who will let you use theirs!
• Also ask family and friends who get the paper if you can have any coupons they are not going to use!

The Sites!

• Pinching you pennies (PYP) is such a great resource! They have forums for most states with info on most of the stores sales, they also have alot of links to coupons. I love this site because they have alot of members who share the deals they find and how to do things...you can also ask questions and get an answer pretty quickly! I live in Idaho but check the Utah forum as well because they have more people sharing tips! To check this site out go here
• Fabulessly frugal is a great blog that my friend has. She also uses PYP but also posts tons of other great finds that i never find on PYP. She has a great network of blogs that you can connect to...I am always finding out about free food coupons from her. She also posts about free rebates from Walgreens and other stores as well as redbox codes. This is a must read!
• Another great site is a thrifty mom. She also shares tips and breaks down the sales go here to check it out!

These are the sites I most often use..I will add more as I find them...I'm still new to all of this! Sign up as a follower of my blog so you dont miss anything! I hope this helps! If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear them!

I am sorry to brag...but I have to! Today I went shopping one last time at Albertsons to take advantage of their killer sale and I went to Kmart who will double your coupons up to $2.00. I spent a total of $15.64 and got
13 Progresso soups
7 cake mixes
1 pack of diapers
1 dove body wash
1 bottle of windex
1 box of shout cloths
1 plesge duster
1 pack of 10 wrigley gum!
If you are not already doing coupons you really need to start! This was only one day of shopping...over this last week using the ALbertsons sale I have bought tons of soup, cereals, fruit snacks and much more and spent very little money! If you want to learn how to do this yourself let me know!

Happy Shopping! Alynn

Deals and Steals!

So I know there are alot of deals out there and I was going to start emailing my family and friends when I find them...but that is alot of work! So I will just post any deals I find here on my blog and they can find them here!

• First of all you have to go www.pennypinchers.com to learn how to do couponing...it is amazing how much money you can save using coupons and sales! Seriously!

Free sandwich from Arbeys!

Print out a coupon for a free Roast Burger from Arbeys with any drink purchase here the great thing is you can print out as many coupons as you need! Great for lunches!

Free sandwich from Quiznos!

If you go here and sign up you will get a coupon for a free sub! My tip would be to open a new email account through gmail or a similar site so that you dont have to deal with any spam!

• Dont forget that K-mart is doubleing coupons this week and they just started accepting internet coupons!
• Check out pinching your pennies for Albertsons new sale that starts tomorrow!

Good luck and have fun saving money!

Albertsons Deals & $5.00 off High School Musical 3

I just wanted to share some great deals I have found today!

Albertsons-
The new flyer came out today for Albertsons deals...these are good from 18-24.
Buy 10 and save $10!
This is one of those deals where the first time through you wont sace big....but the next time you will! you can mix and match over 250 items like general mills cereals, snacks, Betty Crocker mixes, Pillsbury items, Progresso soups.. you can go to http://www.albertsons.com/ for more info..
There is also a deal through General Mills and Nature Valley Granola bars..

NATURE VALLEY GRANOLA BARS Purchase between

• BUY (3) & GET $1.50....
• BUY(4) & GET $2.50....
• BUY (5) OR MORE & GET $3.50 on your next purchase (OYNSOPurchase)

General Mills/Betty Crocker* Fruit Shapes, * Fruit By The Foot * Fruit Gushers * Fruit Roll-Ups * Fruit Roll-Ups Fruit Stickerz

• Buy (3) & get $1.50 OYNSO
• Buy (4) & get $2.50 OYNSO
• Buy (5) or more & get $3.50 OYNSOPurchase between 1/30/09 – 2/22/09

Here is what I did....
I went to the following sites to print off coupons

• BoxTops4Education.com
• Pillsbury.com
• BettyCrocker.com

Then I used these coupons on the things I bought to save money.

I bought

• 4 boxes of cereals
• 2 brownie mixes
• 4 boxes of fruit roll ups

Total before discounts & coupons was $43.98

After my preferred savings deals and coupons my total was $19.77...the best part was the coupons it printed! I got..

• $10.00 of my next purchase
• $2.50 of my next purchase
• a $2.00 coupon for general mills cereals

Now I can go back...print more coupons and do it all again!

Highschool Musical 3!

If your house is anything like mine you have a few fans of Disneys High School Musical. The newest installment was released yesterday and I happened to find this money saving deal on my friends great blog http://fabulesslyfrugal.blogspot.com/ This is a printable coupon that will get you $5.00 off a DVD or $10.0 off of a blueray.I had a hard time getting the coupon to print but found I could using the following link....

http://adisney.go.com/disneyvideos/television/highschoolmusical/couponoffer/?cmp=dmov_dvd_hsm3_url_hsm3offer

I also found that there is a $5.00 rebate through Hillshire Farms..that link is

http://www.gomeat.com/

These are some great deals that I know I will be using! I hope they can help you too. If you want more great money savings tips visit

• http://fabulesslyfrugal.blogspot.com/
• http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/
• http://www.retailmenot.com/

Valentines Weekend....How romantic!

Ah Valentines Day.....spending time with the one you love.....well I do love the people I was with but I was away from the one I love.. Last weekend the kids and I went to Utah for a busy weekend with lots of family!

Friday-
My sweet parents let me and the kids hitch a ride with them to Provo with a quick stop in Draper. We met my brother Rod and his family in Draper to attend the Draper Temple open house. It was a beautiful House of the Lord! It is so fun to see the different temples and to take the kids in so they can see where mom and dad sometimes ( not nearly enough) go. My favorite part of the tour was when we were in the sealing room where they had a couple explaining eternal families and Jonas threw himself on the floor because he wanted to go to his cousin who was on the other side of the room! Such Fun!



Saturday-
On Saturday my sweet nephew Rowen became the newest member of the church! My dad was able to baptize him...so fun! It had been a long time since he had done that.....like since my baptism!




After the baptism we went back to Rods for some delicious pancakes and some fun filled WII time! Rod always talks about being a "yoga master" so we decided he should show us some moves! We were all impressed but wanted to try it ourselves! My brothers girlfriend Tina and I tried the "dancer" pose....its not easy as it looks!





Once we were good and stretched we moved on to WII Hulahoop! Talk about funny! Everone got in on the fun....from my 3 yr old Jonas to my 60 something mom! I got some great videos for blackmail later!



That night....
My husbands family was also in town staying in a "vacation home" so we spent the night with them....all 17 of us! There were people and kids everywhere! When I got there I could not believe my eyes...or ears! They were.....doing Kareoke! Now I had a migrain brewing and was not to excited to spend the evening listening to them singing but after a while....and some good migrain meds...... I found myself singing along and having fun! Even my kids were getting in on the fun.....we even sang "Dancing Queen" together! It was great!



Meanwhile back in Boise and my poor hubby......
Whatever! Eric went to Jackpot for the night with Daniel (our brother inlaw who was also wifeless) He played pennie slots until early in the morning! Such a romantic Valentines Day! Who needs a special day....we celebrate our love ever single day!

Florida Deals

So I have had a few friends ask how we went on our trip while on a budget....I did lots of shopping around! So I wanted to share some of the deals I found.... some I used, some I didn't. Today I am going to cover a little on Disney World.

Disney World Tickets-
Disney world consists of 4 major parks: Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Each park can really take 1 full day each so we got 5 day tickets so we could have a day at each park and 1 flex day to go back to our favorite park ! There are also the water parks to consider (depending on the time of year)! There are lots of ways to get your tickets to the park

• buy direct from http://www.disneyworld.com/
• buy from a broker. There are a lot of different ones out there. Just google Disney world tickets. I used one my brother Rod (a Disney expert) suggested http://www.orlandofuntickets.com/ they had discount tickets and we were able to buy the 4 day tickets with a free upgrade to 5 days!
• wait till you get there...there are booths everywhere!
• This year Disney has a promotion that if you go on your birthday you get in FREE! If you already have tickets (like we did) you can choose from 3 other options like a $75 gift card to be used in the parks (this cannot be used for food) For more info. go to http://disneyparks.disney.go.com
• This is Florida.....there are timeshare resorts every where! Many of them offer tickets as an incentive to sit through a presentation. Remember this will take at least 2 hours of you vacation time, not to mention a high pressure sales pitch, so think seriously about this before you do it!

Disney World Resorts-

Right now Disney has a pretty good deal if you want a package deal. It is buy 4 night package and get 3 nights FREE! Plus, when you travel between 3/1 - 3/9 and 3/17- 3/29, you'll also get a $200 Disney Gift Card. For more info go to http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/

There are different levels of resorts to fit you budget or vacationing style and there are a few advantages to going with a Disney resort as well:

• When you stay at a Disney resort you wont have to worry about waiting for your luggage at the airport, they will pick it up and deliver it to your room for you!
• You can save money on a car rental because they have a shuttle that will pick you up from the airport and take you to your resort and it runs 24 / 7!
• You will save money on Disney parking (which is $12 per day)! Disney are masters of transportation! They have complimentary transportation to all the parks.
• You will also get more time to play during extended theme park hours. Each day one of the parks will open early or stay open late so you get more out of each day!

Planning-

I found the whole planning part to be really over whelming. The parks are huge and I didn't want to miss anything! Again my brother Rod saved me by directing me to some great websites! Here are just a few of them, again google is always your friend to get more info!

• www.mousesavers.com
• www.miceage.com
• www.mouseplanet.com
• www.DisneyWorld.com/moms

Miscellaneous-

• Wear good walking shoes, you will be doing a lot of walking! If you are wearing new shoes or just got new insoles break them in first!
• Having a poncho for some of the rides is a good idea so that you arent stuck in wet clothes all day plus you will be glad you have it if it starts to rain!
• The great thing about all the parks is they will let you take in your own food! Take advantage of this to save some money! We always had fruit leather, granola bars and a water bottle, this way if we were hungry we could grab one of those! We also tried to limit our in park eating to one meal and maybe a snack a day, we would eat breakfast before we went and then had a late dinner after the park was closed!
• Disney also offers a meal plan option when you are booking with them so look into that as well.
• Take dramamine or some other motion sickness remedy before you get there and again during the day if you need it!
• Take advantage of the Guest relations if you have any problems! When my hubby got so sick on a ride we had to leave I went to guest relations to see if we could get a parking refund or something so we wouldnt have to pay it again the next day. They ended up giving me 2 - one day park hopper tickets! That is worth over $150...well over the $12 I went in for!
• Take advantage of the Photo Pass card! As soon as you enter the park look for a photographer in a kacki jacket, ask for a photo pass card. What this does is that every time you see a photographer in any of the parks you give them the card, they take your pictures (I always have them take it with my camera too) and then the pictures are available to view, download and purchase on the website!
• The Fast Pass is great! There are certain rides in every park that have a fast pass machine. You put in your park ticket and it gives you a fast pass that gives you a specific time period to return for the ride. Your wait time will be cut down significantly becasue you are in a seperate line! You can only have 1 fast pass at a time so we liked to check the boards to see what the average waiting time was and when the fast pass return was. Sometimes it wasnt worth burning your fast pass if it was 11:00, your return time wasnt until 4:30 and wait in the line was only 30 min. Go get a fast pass for a different ride and then wait in line!

Well that is all I can think of for today! If you have any questions let me know I and I will do my best at getting an answer for you! Stay tuned for more tips on Hotels, car rentals and more!

Disney World Vacation

For my 31st Birthday Eric and I went to sunny florida for a week and went to Disney World! We were so excited for some fun in the florida sun...to get warm for a while...someone forgot to tell them! We happen to go during the coldest week in almost a decade! We are talking about 30's & 40's! We did have two days of 60's! So what if I didnt get to wear my new cute swim suit..we still had lots of fun! It was the honeymoon we never had!

Day One- Travel, travel, travel!

The first day of our six day trip was literally spent traveling. We left Boise at 8:00 am, flew to St. Paul, MN had a layover, flew to Detroit, MI, had a layover and finally got to Orlando at 12:30 am on my birthday! Note to self..never fly cross country using frequent flyer miles again!

Day Two- Animal Kingdom!

On my birthday we woke upat 8:30 after getting to bed about 3:00am and went to the amazing Animal Kingdom! Right now Disney has a promotion that if you go on your birthday you get in free....if you have your ticket already (which we did) you get a $75 gift card! (great for getting souveniers for the kids you left behind!) You also get a big button that announces to the world that it is your birthday! Believe me everyone is trained to watch for these buttons and you will get a happy birthday wish from everyone! It is great!

In Africa everything looks authentic and they have so many animals in such a "natural" environment! The animal safari in is really neat...you are in a kindof jeep driving in a "wildlife reserve" the animals are right there in front of you!

When you go to Asia you have to go on Mount Everest! It is sooo fun! It was well worth the hour wait! I have to say Disney knows how to do lines! While waiting you walk through a "temple" where you can throw money at idols, ( as if you aren't leaving enough money at Disney!) a Yetti museum and lots of beautiful bamboo!

After the park was closed we had dinner reservations at Bomas, which is in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is an African inspired buffet. We tried lots of new foods...loved the carrot / ginger soup..Yummy! The shredded watermelon salad..yuck! But the desert bar...O' my gosh! DELICIOUS! They also gave me a great birthday plate with yummy chocolate covered cake! The atmosphere was fun, the food was ok...but at $70 for two people this is a glorified chuck o'ramma!

Day Three- The Magic Kingdom!

All I can say is about when you walk through the gates of the Magic kingdom is...its Magical! You walk into mainstreet USA where they have all this great music playing, you look past main street and see Cinderella's castle gleaming in the sun! I seriously wanted to cry I was so happy and I really did feel like a kid again! We had a great day and finished it up with the SpectroMagic Parade and the "wishes" fireworks display!

Day Four- Epcot!

So on Tues. we went to Epcot. It was 40 degrees when we got there, we were wearing long sleeves, jackets, and gloves! First we went on the "spaceship Earth" (its the golf ball) which was cool. Then we went to get our fast pass for test track and then got in line for Mission Space. Now on Mission Space it simmulates what astronauts go through (g-force!) They have 2 ride options: Orange team or Red team, the orange team is the advanced training (and the shorter line) Being big tough thirty somethings we choose orange team. we didnt think anything about all of the warnings about motion sickness we took our dramamine while waiting ( we are getting old and these were like our daily vitamins!) Long story short...I felt great after I threw up...Eric not so much! We had to leave the park for the day!

After sleeping for a few hours Eric was able to get out of bed and we went shopping....for coats! After buying our new coats we went back to Epcot, walked around the World Shocase and ended our night in Paris eating chocolate eclaires, sipping hot chocolate while we watched IllumiNations! How romantic!

Day Five- Epcot....take 2!

We did Epcot again on Wed...we missed a lot on Tues. The World showcase in Epcot is really amazing! When you walk through the different counrties you actually feel like you are there! the buildings and landscaping are beautiful! While we were in Mexico enjoying a Churro this stupid bird came and took the whole thing right out of my hand!

The land and sea exibits are really cool. In Land you can take a ride through the greenhouses. They are doing some amazing things..like a 9 lbs lemon...growing pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers from trees, soil free gardening. It was really interesting...Eric loved it! The highlight of the land exhibit is Soaring!....What an experience! I dont know how they do it (I would love to though) You fly over california...it feels like you are flying....you smell what you are seeing....Its amazing!

Day Seven- Hollywood Studios!

Our last park was Hollywood studios which was Eric's favorite! This has lots of fun rides like Star tours, Aerosmith Rockin Roller Coaster, Beauty and the Beast show, and of coarse the Tower of Terror! It was soooo fun! We had dinner at the Sci-fi Drive in which is really fun. You are "parked" in a convertable car in what looks like a drive in theater. They play old cartoons, news reels, and previews for old sci-fi movies. The food was really good and not to badly priced (for Disney food). We capped off our night and our Disney experience with the Fantasmic! It was a wonderful way to end our trip....it was Magical!

Day Eight- More Travel!

We were able to hit the flee market before leaving town and get some more gifts for the kids! ( who us feel guilty?) Then it was off to the airport...but first get gas in the rental right? We went to a place by the airport, it was like going back in time....to when gas was $3.99 a gallon! Forget that! This time we flew to Cincinati to St. Paul then got home at midnight. After paying the airline $30 to check to bags they lost them for us! When we got to my parents house and tried to start our van it wouldnt start! The best we can figure someone syphened the gas out while we were gone! Welcome back to reality!

So now you have the short (and long) version of our trip! Stay tuned for the little tips I learned for traveling on a budget! THANKS!