To Coupon or not to Coupon?

So I have been reading a lot of blogs lately that have to do with couponing (is this even a word?) and how much you can save on your groceries. I am just wondering if anyone has experience with this and if it is even worth it to get into???? I have absolutely no idea how to get started and have only used a handful of coupons in my life. It would be great to save on groceries now that Kent is just going to school full time. Any advice?

Deegan Michael Dance

I just wanted to take a minute and journal about our new addition! This is mainly for me so that I have something to look back on.
The morning of the 25th of August,I started having contractions about 12:30a.m. and decided to start timing them when my water broke at about 1 am. So I got up and called the hospital to let them know I would be coming in in a few hours and called my mom. She was so great to come and help the kids get to school. Luckily school for my brother and sister didn't start until the next day so it worked out perfect for my mom to come. So after I called her I took a shower, tidied up the house and got the kids lunches ready. Then I picked up the fourth Twilight book that I just had started reading and read for the next couple of hours while I waited for my mom to come. She got here at about 5 am and we talked for about an hour before Kent and I decided to finally go to the hospital. I was debating on going in because I was not having any contractions. We went in because it had been 5 hours since my water broke. So we got to the hospital and after we got checked in and they checked me (I was dilated to a four)they had me walk around and sit on the birthing ball. Nothing. So Kent slept and I continued to read Twlight (man those books suck you in) while we waited for my contractions to pick up. Finally at noon they checked me again and I was still at a four so they decided to start me on pit. By 3 p.m I was dilated to a 7 and all thoughts of natural childbirth had gone out the window. So I got my epidural (what was I thinking waiting so long!) and I had Deegan at 3:30p.m! The cord was wrapped around his neck which they think is why it took so long to get me going and caused him some stress during labor. He was a little purple for a minute, but pinked up nicely! My nurse-midwife did a great job. I have never been so pain free after having a baby. We are so blessed to have this little guy in our lives and don't know what we would do with out him!

Deegan

We had our baby! I will write about it soon.

First Day of School!

So our first day of school turned out very different than we had planned. About a week and a half before school started I got a call from a charter school that I had applied the kids for and they said that they had an opening for Kindergarten. I wasn't sure what to do, but when they told me it was all day Kindergarten, I was hooked! I asked if they had any openings for 2nd grade and if we could get Chandler in and luckily they did. So with not much time to spare, we registered the kids for yet another school. I was glad that they would be starting a new school anyway this year, so I didn't have to convince Chandler to go somewhere his friends are not. We were also lucky because a girl in my ward got her kids in this year also and she has a 2nd grader and a Kindergartner. Now I have someone to car pool with.

This school also has a uniform policy which is something that I had not planned on. Luckily I had not bought many school clothes yet, so we did a lot of last minute shopping, searching for uniforms. I am still not sure that it is my favorite thing, but the kids don't seem to mind. I am impressed with the school so far and if it goes well, then we will keep them there as long as we live here.
We got to start a couple of days earlier than the other schools around. Here is some pictures of their first day!

August

I can't believe how August has flown by! The above picture is how I started out the month. I had my 10 year high school reunion. I can't believe it has been so long. I really didn't want to go, but couldn't come up with a good enough excuse to stay home. I ended up having a good time and seeing some friends that I haven't seen in years. I wish that more of the goup that I ran around with could have come, but it was fun to see those that I did!

The rest of the month has been busy with another session of swimming lessons and then getting ready for school. Along with all of this I have pretty much gotten everything ready for the baby. I just hope that he doesn't like it too much in there and decides to go full term. I am too use to having pre-term babies. I will go crazy if I have 3 more weeks!

July

July started out nice and slow for us. I decided to take the first couple of weeks off from any extra activities and just enjoy summer. Then we started our first round of swimming lessons. The kids did great and had a lot of fun.


Along with visits from friends and family we also took the kids to Lava Hot Springs. We had a blast. We went on a Tuesday, so it was not crowded and during the week they have their $20 family pass. Our friends, the Willis Family met us there. I hope we make it a tradition for every summer.




Of course we always have a couple of trips to Cress Creek during the summer!

June

Here is what we have been up to so far this summer.

I hate how summer's fly by so fast!

Having T-Ball two times a day, twice a week really took up a lot of our June!