$$$ Any Ideas? $$$

I've really started to try and find the best deals on groceries. I've started looking at pinchingyourpennies.com, which is a website where you can type in your ZIP code, and they tell you what's on sale and where. I also get coupons every once in a while in the mail. Does anyone have any other ideas on how to save money while grocery shopping?

I looked in the ads yesterday, and there is a place in Provo called Buy Low Market. They have "Produce Wednesday's" and "Meat Friday's." They have amazing deals. 5 lbs. of oranges for $1.00, 3 lbs. of apples for $1.00, etc. I just bought 4 boxes of Chex for $3.92. At Macey's I just bought shampoo and conditioner for $.63.

I am welcome to any ideas and suggestions!!! Thanks!

Genius

Um....Payton just counted to 8. By herself.

:(

I had a REALLY bad day today. Payton must have been able to tell, because she did her darndest to make me laugh. She has this blow-up cylinder toy that she hardly plays with. Well, today was the day to start. She laid it on the ground, backed up, ran towards it, rolling over the top and crashing on the other side. While she did this, she said "WEEEEEEEE" in a loud, high pitched voice. It was really funny.

I also found these pictures on my SD card that made me smile. This is what Payton looks like when we tell her to say "Cheese" for a picture.

Also, one of her favorite things to do is brush her teeth. She likes to brush her own and also likes to hold on to our toothbrushes and "Hep" us brush ours. Then, she bends over the sink and spits.

The Polar Express

Payton and I went to Barnes and Noble for The Polar Express story time tonight. She sat on the bench, listening to the story for about .02 seconds, then got up, got this Curious George stuffed animal, and started pulling books off the shelves. At one point, she climbed up on the stage behind the "elf" that was reading the story.

The kids made paper snowflakes as their tickets, so they could board the train.

Then, we took a ride on the Polar Express around Barnes and Noble.

The train brought us to the cafe to get some hot chocolate and a sugar cookie.

Then we went to the North Pole to meet Santa. Payton looked from afar, and was a little unsure about this strange, hairy man in a red suit.

She got brave enough to go up to him to get her bell.

She finally let me put her in the chair next to Santa. She looked at him, then immediately put her arms up to me so that I would pick her up. Maybe next time Santa.

Payton didn't pay attention much, or really know what was going on, but she had fun wandering around the book store, following the other kids, and enjoying a treat.

I Have A LOT To Catch Up On

I changed the background on my blog, and I just noticed how creepy Santa is on the right side. You'll just have to ignore him until Christmas is over when I change my background again.

Okay. I'm going to start from oldest event to the most current.

5 Year Anniversary

Scott and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on November 13th. I sent Scott on a little scavenger hunt around the house to find his gifts the night before our actual anniversary. He surprised me the next morning with a dozen roses, a vinyl sign and a beautiful sapphire and white gold necklace. (Sapphire's my birth stone.) We headed up to Ogden so that Scott's mom could babysit Payton, and we went out to see the movie Couples Retreat and ate at the Outback Steakhouse. We stayed the night at the Ben Lomond Hotel, which is an old historic hotel that is supposedly haunted. Do any of you remember our lovely stay in Seaside, Oregon, where the fire alarms went off in the middle of the night?? Well, this happened to us again. At about 4:00 a.m., the fire alarm went off in the hotel. I just about jumped out of my skin. We had to wait outside for about an hour while the firemen and policemen searched the hotel. Apparently some stupid guys were partying on the 8th floor (our floor), and decided to take the fire extinguisher and spray it all over one of the elevators, which set the alarms off. We found out they also trashed their room, and had a lovely $1500 charge put on their credit card. Smooth move, guys.

My dumb camera has been working on and off, so I had to take some pictures on a disposable camera, and I don't have them on a cd yet, so this is the only picture from our anniversary that I can put on here.

Georgia 2009

Payton and I went out to Georgia the day after my anniversary. Boone and Nicole (my brother and sister-in-law), were flying to Colorado, so I went to GA to babysit my niece and nephews while they were gone. I LOVED watching those kiddos, but all that work reminded me why I don't want triplets the next time I give birth.

Payton was a little unsure of her new surroundings at first, but after a while, she really warmed up to her cousins. Every night before the kiddos went to bed, we played "chase" around the living room and kitchen. This is Keaton chasing Payton.

Payton LOVED their cats, but the feeling was not mutual. Payton wanted to hug and kiss the cats, but as soon as she got close, the cats would hiss and run away from her.

Cute little Branik and Payton playing in the toy room.

Now, earlier I said that Payton warmed up to the kiddos really quick, but it took her a minute longer for Boone and Nicole. By the end of the trip, she was not as shy. I will remind her that you intend to spoil her with candy the next time we see you! :)

Look at Stinker's scowl. She really did love reading books and playing with Boone, but the look on her face sure doesn't show it.

Rylan was a big helper. She loved helping take care of Payton.

Keaton helped out by giving Payton a drink from her sippie cup.

The cutie patooties wanted me to take a silly face picture.

We went on bike rides, watched Rylan in a Thanksgiving play, colored and played. We had a great time in Georgia. Unfortunately it wasn't long enough. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see you again!!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving up in Ogden with Scott's family. Scott made a yummy layered pumpkin dessert and I made a green bean casserole to go along with the Turkey, taters, and the other traditional Thanksgiving food.

I tried out pigtails on Payton for the first time and they turned out so cute!

Waiting in the kitchen for the festivities to begin!

Here's Payton's Great Grandma Roberta, Grandma Royan and cousins Braydon, Ashlee, Ellie and Xander watching a movie before dinner.

All night, Ashlee, Hannah, and Payton played Ring Around the Rosie, jumped, and chased each other around. Payton was in Heaven with all the attention.

Scott and I did a little bit of Black Friday shopping, then we finally went and saw New Moon. I thought it was WAY better than the first movie. Not to mention it had quite a bit of eye candy! :)


Christmas Decorations

On Saturday, we put away our fall decorations and got out the Christmas decor. Our apartment doesn't have many places to put decorations, not to mention that someone in the house likes to rip everything apart and put it in her mouth. (I'm not talking about me.)

So, we hung up our stockings with the hopes that we won't end up with a lump of coal. We also put up a few wreaths and snowmen.

Random Weirdness

Our apartment has a wonderful view of the mountains. Unfortunately, in between us and the mountains is the beautiful freeway. Tonight we were sitting down to dinner, and I noticed 5 cop cars on the side of the on-ramp with their lights flashing. All of them were out of their cars, looking around. I then noticed two elk or buffalo right next to the barricade on the on-ramp. The cops were trying to keep the animals from running into the freeway. One of the elk jumped over the barricade and started running and I never saw what happened to it. The other one made a mad dash for the freeway, but a cop jumped into his car and forced him back to the side of the road. The cops looked hilarious waving their arms, screaming, and chasing the elk. It got dark so I don't know how this story ends. What a weird night!

More Words

Payton copies EVERYTHING we say. Her new phrases are "Good Girl" and "Good Job." She talks so much and knows how to communicate what she wants. We have a drawer in the kitchen that is filled with sippie cups, plastic bowls and lids. She always goes over to the drawer, picks up a bowl, brings it to us and says "cereal." She likes us to fill up her bowl so that she can have a snack while she watches her cartoons. She can also point out almost every letter in the alphabet.

Sometimes, when she knows she's not supposed to be doing something, we say "Payton" firmly, or tell her "No." She knows she's in trouble, so as soon as we say her name, she walks up to us and says "hug" or puckers her lips for a kiss to try and get out of being in trouble!

I'm Heading Off To Georgia

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....

Halloween Recap

We had a very busy, fun Halloween day. We are trying to start some new traditions for our family, so we tried them out.

I found this cute pumpkin shirt and striped pumpkin socks at Target in the dollar bins for Payton. Scott was just getting home from his shift at work on Halloween morning, and I had made pumpkin spice pancakes for us for breakfast. They were so good. All I did was make pancake mix like I normally would and I added pumpkin pie mix to it. Yum!

Later in the morning, we made caramel apples...like the ones they make at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Payton wanted to "help" unwrap the caramels. It's good we double checked the pan before we melted the caramel, other wise there would have been a lot of melted plastic too.

We had a variety of toppings to choose from. Crushed Butterfinger and Snickers, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and nuts.

We cut up an apple into slices for Payton so that she could make her own. Here she is dipping the apple into the caramel.....

...dipping it into some toppings...

...and eating it right away.

Here is our finished product. We didn't let the caramel cool long enough before putting on our toppings, so everything slid down to the bottom of the apple. Okay, so they don't really look like Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory's apples, okay, not at all, but they still tasted great!
After the apples, we decorated our pumpkins. We weren't in a carvey (is that even a word??) mood this year, so we just bought Mr. Potato Head type faces and decorated them with that.

Payton with her finished product.

Me and my pumpkin.

And a beautiful picture of Scott and his long lost twin.

Payton wanted to be lined up with all the pumpkins.

Our cute little pumpkin family. Awwwww.

Payton even had some time to fit in some Halloween coloring. By coloring, I mean, coloring the page for about .02 seconds, then either trying to eat the crayon, or throw it.

After that, we ate homemade broccoli cheese soup in bread bowls, then we headed out to trick or treat. It was pretty cold out, so we had to put Payton in sweatpants and a jacket.

Payton talks non-stop all day long, and will mimic every word you say. But for some reason, she refused to say trick-or-treat. She called her plastic pumpkin bucket a "buck" and every time we went up to someones door, she would hold up the pumpkin and say "buck!!!"

She loves knocking on doors by herself. Every house we went to let Payton pick out her own piece of candy. After she got her candy, she told them she wanted more. We told her she could only have one piece, so she waved to the person and said "by-eee."

Towards the end of the night, Payton's legs were getting a little bit tired. We didn't make it to that many houses. We were originally going to go trick-or-treating in our little neighborhood, but no one was outside. So, we went to a really nice neighborhood just down the street. When we were walking from one house to another, Payton would pause, take a piece of candy out of her "buck," look at it for a second then say "Awwwww." Then she would put it back and we would be on our way.

Of course when we got home, she wanted to play with all her candy. She took it out of her bucket, then put it back in, then took it out again, etc.

Halloween was a little more exciting this year than last year, because Payton knew what was going on a little better.

Thanksgiving here we come!!!!!!!!!!