Alright I guess it is time for me to post again. We have had a lot of things going on in the last month or so since I posted.
We have been down with the Swine flu for the past two months! Kayla always seems to be the first to get it and then it successfully never fails to find its way to Blake and then to Elizabeth and then to Jared and then to ME! It was nice having a few weeks off and back to our normal selves and the thought of actually getting sick again does not even enter into my mind but all of the sudden I am called from the school nurse to let me know Kayla has a fever and to come pick her up. Seriously? Not again, hopefully she will be the only one to get sick this time, yeah right. So anyways another two weeks of sickness and we are all starting to feel better again. If we get it for a third time next month I might just have to think about home schooling. J/K

Jared built us a square foot garden in our backyard this month (if you could call it that). He built two huge raised beds on the side of our house plus he made four mounds for Watermelon, Zucchini, and Yellow Squash and 3 rows for Corn. So it isn't really a square foot garden but a nice sized garden that has raised beds. We bought starts for tomatoes, herbs, and bell peppers. From seeds we are growing peas, beans, radishes, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, corn, squash, jalapeno, and watermelon. The peas, lettuce, and radishes have already started to sprout, which is just super exciting. Our only advice, don't buy your seeds online! The place we ordered from took their own dandy time sending us our seeds, over a month! Plus we still haven't received everything we ordered! We wont be doing that ever again.

The Dutton Grandparents come down once a month to have family home evening with us which the kids always look forward to. In February it snowed a ton in Flagstaff so being the thoughtful Grandma she is Grandma Dutton had Laurie and Grandpa pack as much snow as they could into 3 water coolers. What a treat for our little ones. The kids had a great time having a snowball fight in our front yard. After the snowball fight they made a snowman. We had neighbors driving by and getting out of their cars to take a pictures of our snowman. It is not everyday you see a snowman in Mesa.

I slowed down on couponing over the Holidays but I am back baby. I didn't miss it for those few months but I am loving it now. It is probably good to take a break from things every once in awhile. I am back to getting great deals and am even going to be teaching a Relief Society enrichment night next month about how to get started. I also just signed up for Goodreads online after so many people have been telling me to get on. I am a little nervous about sharing some of the books I like to read, they can be a little violent (I really like war books) but am excited to find out what other people read to expand my horizons. I also have been going on walks in the morning with one of my neighbors, which is so nice right now with the weather.

This past weekend my brother got married. Yeah the one I blogged about a few post down that just got home from his mission in December. He didn't waste any time. :) We are all very excited for him though, Danica is pretty awesome and will make a fun aunt. It was nice having the whole family in town. It was kind of funny though on the day of the wedding my mom, sister, and I went shopping for wedding dresses. A little birdie says there is going to be another wedding in the future like June 5th future.

Oh one finally thing that I think is funny that happened the other day. Jared and I borrowed the CD, Your Baby Can Read. Anyways you are supposed to have you baby watch it twice a day for a month. So we have tried for about 5 days or so and sit down and watch it with Blake, he doesn't really like it but will sit through most of it. Well anyways the other night we are watching it and he decides he is done and goes and turns off the TV, so I just turn it right back on. Blake in turn goes back to the TV not only turns it off but opens up the DVD player, takes out the DVD and throws it on the floor. OK Blake I get it we are done. That's my boy. Oh and he is doing great on his potty training, except for diapers at night he is fully trained. He hasn't had an accident in a few days. Yay!

Hope all is well and I probably wont post for another month, because lets face it I am a little lazy when it comes to blogging.

Elk hunt

If you want to read about Jared's elk hunt, he wrote up a great post on his blog. Just go to Jaredsgarage.blogspot.com

What?

So the last few weeks we have been rushing out the door to get to school on time. I know we should just wake up earlier but I just don't want to! This morning was no different, I rushed to the car with Blake in my arms and buckled him in. I heard Kayla get in and shut the door so off we went. I got to the first stop sign and checked right and left and right, wait a minute something is not right. Where is Elizabeth? I was in such a hurry I forgot Elizabeth. Ha ha I laughed all the way home and when I opened the garage there she was looking at me stunned that I would forget her. I think I am losing my mind.

Welcome Home Claaaaaark

UPDATED ON THE BOTTOM OF POST!!!!!

My youngest brother Clark returned home from serving a mission in South Korea yesterday and we were all very excited to see him! My mom couldn't even wait twenty seconds for him to pass the TSA check point and rushed to him. She got yelled at by the TSA agent but luckily she was not arrested or body searched for any terrorism weapons.

We met Jared at Bass Pro and drove together to the airport. The arrival board kept on posting the plane was going to be 15 minutes early and I was nervous we might miss his arrival but luckily we got there a few minutes before he did. Apparently when Blake saw Grandma run to Clark he thought he should also. Clark being gone for two years had no idea who that little kid was, took him a minute to figure it out.

I should do a blog post on everything Blake has broken this year, his most recent was are beloved camera! So of course we had to hurry and rush our next camera purchase since Jared was due to leave on his hunt the next day(next blog post to come if Jared ever gets to it). Well anyways long story short our new camera stinks! All of the pictures I took of Clark in the airport were blurry and unrecognizable so I made him take a few snap shots for me in front of my Grandma Harris's house. That's her in the background I guess she wanted to be in the picture too?.?

Well we are glad you are home and are all anxious to see what happens with your girlfriend/fiance? Danica. You know we have flower girl dresses already right? :) Update!!!! Clark popped the question the night I wrote this blog, they are now officially engaged and planning on a wedding in February. Congratulations guys. :)

Blake

Looking at these pictures I took today of Blake I can't believe at how old he looks. He is growing up so fast. Grandma Harris bought him this cute new outfit for church and I thought I would take his picture and post it up for her to see . He loves taking pictures, he always wants to see every picture I take right after the flash goes off. He was even saying "cheese" for me. :)




Jared has been in an electronic phase and has been programming a microchip to read the temperatures of the meats he is smoking in his smoker. Anyways long story short he has been looking into different robots for fun and has made Blake obsessed with robots. Jared bought him the yellow robot in the picture, so he would stop playing with the more expensive one he bought the other day.
Blake loves to play with it and will say in a robot voice, " I am a robot". The robot runs out of batteries fairly quickly since Blake never turns it off. Anyways to get Blake to try to use the toilet yesterday we kept bribing him with candy and he wouldn't even try, well Jared said, " I will put batteries in your robot if you go poo on the toilet." Blake quickly ran to his toilet and a few minutes later squeezed out a tiny poo. I know kinda gross but super exciting, I guess we know his weakness now. He even sat through all of Sacrament meeting today because he had his robot and when he was getting a little loud making his robot noises Jared helped him put Robot to "sleep" and they covered him with a book. My boys are just too cute. :)

Target trip

I just got home from a very successful Target shopping trip with just a few little hiccups. Target is pain to use coupons at but after a few calls to the managers the cashier was able to punch through ten of my coupons that weren't registering!
Anyways I got
10 glade candle tins
10 glade candle refills (Christmas presents for church people and teachers)
6 Wii games (Christmas presents for hubby and kids)
6 bags of Halloween candy ( I am putting it up high in my closet, hopefully it will last until next year).

Total was $53! I saved $134.77, plus for buying the Glade candles I got back $20 in Target Gift Cards!

I love coupons!

Pics for the Grandmas

This Halloween we kept it low key. Since I feel like I am always trying to save money with all of my coupon shopping I decided we weren't going to be buying costumes this year. Elizabeth went as hunter using things we already had.




Blake went as Bob the Builder. I had got the hat and tool belt online earlier this year when it was on clearance. I thought it was cuter than anything I saw at the store anyways. I don't know what is up with Blake and this funny smile but he does it a lot.

Kayla wanted to be a vampire nurse this year. Luckily Angie had this nurse outfit already and I never ended up getting the vampire teeth :( So she had to go just as a nurse.

On Halloween we always visit My Grandma Harris (Mimi) and My Grandpa Booth. This is a picture of my Grandma and my nephew Wesley (Rich and Liz new little man). Isn't he such a cute froggy?
After visiting my grandparents and my aunt Gail we headed home and sat outside and passed out candy with my Uncle Mike. We didn't do much trick or treating this year. We had the ward Trunk or Treat Friday night and all the non chocolate candy we got from there I handed out to the kids that came to our house. :) Yay no half eaten suckers on my carpet this year!

Happy Halloween!