Coke Cake

So here's a new dessert I tried and all the kids loved it. Maybe it's because I only buy soda twice a year. It's on the rich side. We used caffeine-free coca-cola. :) You should be able to just click on the picture to see it pop-up to the larger size.

Again, sorry no picture of the actual cake. It was so fantastic there wasn't a chance I was going to stop and grab my camera. Never get between me and chocolate! :) Isn't it a cute way to scrapbook your recipes though? I got the recipe from http://www.kevinandamanda.com/ This is J's favorite recipe now.

Stretch your Dollar

Here are my notes from our Enrichment class we did on saving money: (I added a few ideas of my own as well)

Subscribe to up to 4 Sunday newspapers so you can get multiple coupons. If you live in Utah, I have a neighbor who can offer you a discounted price on this AND you get a visa gift card you can use anywhere if you do more than 2 papers. The more papers you buy, the greater your gift card amount. I like to keep my coupons organized in a binder with baseball card holders. In the front I also have my Best Prices Sheet which I made by going to a few stores and writing down the prices of items I normally buy. Now I know where to buy what for the best deal and when the ads come out, I know if it's really a sale or not. Great sites that tell you where and when to use these coupons in conjuction with grocery store sales are:

http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/ They have a Utah forum with Screaming Deals.
http://www.grocerysmarts.com/ use code: g84clh You can find printable coupons here as well
http://www.utahcityguide.com/new/guru/index.asp for Utah’s Grocery Guru’s weekly deals

*Did you know you can stack store and manufacturer coupons on one item?
At Kohl’s you can also stack their “15% off” with “$10 off any $20 purchase” coupons which recently came out in the mail. (They expired now but do this a couple times a year - we go to the clearance section at the end of season and with the coupons, it almost feels like stealing: $2 for a tee or $6 for a jacket, then use the coupon... you get the idea)

Walmart will price match other stores advertised prices. Great if you only want to go to one store. I do this almost every time I go to this store. Half of the items are usually the same price or a better deal. It helps to be organized when you go to checkout.

Catalinas are coupons that print out at the register. You can use them on your next shopping trip.

For free/almost free Prescriptions consider using the gift cards for transferring prescriptions. These are found in Target ads, Smiths, as well as other stores.

Beer companies are offering amazing rebates on various items. Some end up being totally free. And the best part is you don’t have to buy the beer! You can find these on posters on end caps of the grocery store aisles or in the beer section. They are on tear pads. Most of them are located at Smiths or Albertsons. They come and go but summer and holiday seasons are a great time to look for them.

Clothing: ShopKo and Sears have a Kid-Tough Guarantee on their store brand of kids clothing. If they wear out, just take them back and get the same size item. Sometimes you have to save the receipt so be sure to check out the details at each store. Great for boys who wear out the knees in the pants and even better if you have more than one of the same gender child. ie: 11 year old wears out the size 10 pants, go back and get them exchanged and now your 8 year old has new pants! Consignment or Thrift stores are also a great place to get a good deal on gently used clothing. Also, it's a great way to recycle. Whenever we travel down to Arizona, I try to stop at the shops down there. $2 for shirts, $5 for shorts/pants. Garage sales are even better and you can usually barter down the prices. Our neighborhood does an annual garage sale every June so everyone waits till then and it is packed! A realtor does the advertising for us in the paper and offers a pod afterwards that you can fill with your leftover stuff which is then donated to Deseret Industries.

For a great deal on fresh, local food think about joining the Community Food Co-op. In Utah, you order before the middle of the month and get your fresh local food the last Saturday of every month. It helps a great cause. Google it to find out more. You have the option of picking up your food at a location closer to you if you join a team.

Entertainment: At the library, you can place holds on new books and movies and watch them for FREE. If you can't wait that long, try the $ theatre. Ours just changed their day to Wednesdays. Another free way to watch movies is to go to http://www.insideredbox.com/. They used to have weekly Monday codes for a free movie but during the summer they will be changing to monthly. Entertainment books are great for buy one, get one free offers.
Boondocks offers $12 Tuesdays in the summer. Some local attractions offer free days thanks to ZAP (Zoo, Arts, Parks tax). If you plan on going somewhere frequently (like the Children's Museum or Zoo) it might be worth your money to get a yearly membership. Better yet, tell the grandparents it would make a great gift for Christmas/Birthday gift!

With all the money you save, you can maybe even go to Paris! That's what my neighbor is doing! I think I'll buy more scrapbook supplies (with a coupon of course)!

Free Kids Meal Days

Sorry, I've been busy with couponing and finding other ways to save money. All I can say is, I love beer rebates! You don't even have to buy beer! In the past 2 1/2 months I've gotten back over $200. Love it! I recently put together an updated list of where kids eat free/cheap in our area. Search it out if you don't live in Mormonland. Each city has different days.

Fuddruckers- Mondays after 4pm $1 kids meal per adult meal

Joe’s Crabshack- Mondays kids eat for 99 cents. Two per paying adult

IHOP- Tuesdays after 4pm 2 kids eat free per paying adult

Mayan- Tuesdays 1 free kids meal per paying adult. Great shows!

Fazoli’s- Tuesdays 5-8pm kids eat for only 99 cents

Denny’s- Tuesdays after 4pm 2 kids eat free per paying adult

Chick-Fil-A- Wednesdays 5-8pm 1 free kids meal per adult combo purchased. They also get a ticket for free ice cream and they have activities for kids to do. *Remember to ask for a stamp card and earn your way towards more free kids meals!

Carl’s Jr.- Wednesday nights 1 free kids meal with purchase of a combo meal

Second Piano Recital

So the kiddos had another piano recital - hence the reason we hung around for Easter instead of heading down to Moab for Easter Jeep Safari week.

I tried but can't find the cord to upload the video I took. During J's performance N made a move to go out the Emergency Exit door so it was a little jumpy. They all graduated to the next level of piano books. And of course, J has already played ALL the songs in his new book... in one day.

Other than that life has been busy with my calling and I re-painted our living room, kitchen and family room in one week. The trim & doors look so much better in a semi-gloss ultra white. I love it! I had my neighbor help me finish it up since I had a craft night for some church women. We made birthday and baptism explosion boxes. I love the store Pebbles in my Pocket! They have some cute ideas for Young Women as well. http://www.pebblesinmypocket.com/ Check them out!

P.S. I finished the Book of Mormon challenge - Six Weeks Closer to Christ. It was so much fun marking up my new scriptures and it's become a wonderful habit for me to carry them around and read whenever I have a free moment. This book changed my life and every time I read it I get new insights. It has brought more peace into our home and I am thankful for that. Now I'm starting the Old Testament and am going to try to read about 13 pages a day.

Happy Easter!

We made some yummy Easter Breakfast rolls this morning and they were so easy. This would be great for a FHE lesson on the Resurrection!

1 package Rhodes Texas size rolls, thawed
1 package large marshmallows
1/4 cup melted butter
6 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Flatten each roll and place marshmallow in center of roll and wrap the dough around, sealing the seams really well. Brush top with butter then sprinkle on some cinnamon sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet. Put in warm oven to rise for 1 hour with shallow pan of HOT water underneath. After one hour, remove the water pan, turn on your oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 15 minutes. Just like Christ's tomb on Easter Sunday, these rolls will be empty inside!

Makes 24 servings. We usually only do a 1/2 recipe, then use the rest for dinner rolls that night.
*I would've included a picture but they were so yummy - we ate them all! :) Z says this is his favorite recipe now.

Scouts and Biking

So much has happened this past week that I'm starting to forget it all:

Our oldest graduated from Cub Scouts and had his Arrow of Light ceremony. We're so proud of him. We worked really hard to get all those activity patches and pins. He loves Boy Scouts now that one of his friends came in.

My daughter learned how to ride her bike! She had seen her friend outside learning to ride her bike with her dad so she grabbed my husband and told him she wanted to learn how to ride her bike... right now. So out they went and we got lots of pictures of the two of them trying. Troy said she kept leaning against him - it didn't matter which side he ran along. So the next day she sees our boys out riding their bikes and so she asks Daddy if he'll come help her. "Not right now" since he was a little tired from yesterday's learning experience. So about 10 minutes later I went outside to get something from the car and I glance down the street to check on all of them and she's at the end of the street just riding along all by herself! So I ran inside, told Troy and grabbed my camera. Z had coached her through it and it was all just so amazing.

And now I can't remember the rest... lol I just know... Life is good.

Great deal on Humanitarian Kits

We've done Humanitarian Kits before for church. Spent lots of time looking for the best prices and had to shop at several different places to get the best deals on each item. This year as a family we plan to do a couple different kinds of kits for Family Home Evening since a few weeks ago I took the kids and toured the Humanitarian Center downtown and I almost cried when I heard about how babies are being sent home from the hospital wrapped in only newspaper, that children can't attend school if they don't have their own supplies, and that because people lack basic hygiene items in disaster circumstances illness spreads too quickly.

So I was very excited when I saw that White Elegance has kits that you can buy, assemble and then deliver back to their store or a Bishop's storehouse - all for less than wholesale. I can't come close to their prices! So I thought I would share: http://whiteelegance.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=29

It takes about 2 weeks (sometimes less if they already have it in stock) till they ship you the kits, or you can pick them up from their store and save yourself S&H. You can order just a few for FHE or large orders for church service activities. I'm so excited! This means we can do more kits and help more people. Check it out and do some good!

Hygiene Kits $4.91
Newborn Kits $9.11

School Kits $7.08

Food Storage Challenge update

I should have chosen a shorter month not to shop for food... like February. I never, ever thought I would crave salad. Last week, my neighbor, who knew about my challenge, was so sweet and brought over a head of lettuce and a tomato. I ate them w/o dressing! Tasted so yummy. That satisifed me for a few days.

Saturday we went to the temple and drove with our neighbors and the wife asked my husband, "So Troy, how are you liking Food Storage Month?" He didn't even know what she was talking about. I explained what I had been doing and he said he hadn't even noticed! Wa-ha-ha. Of course, he goes out to eat for lunch every day and honestly, he's not so good at noticing changes. Still love him though. :)

Then today I started CRAVING salad again. That and crunchy cucumbers, carrots (which we had just run out of) and what I wouldn't give for a fresh crisp gala apple... Guess it didn't help that I was watching Twilight. So I thought, "why am I doing this again?" I KNOW I have enough to survive but do I have to deprive myself? No. So I decided to jump into April early. Too bad I don't have an indoor garden. I bought some fruit trees and plan to start another square foot garden this summer. I think I'll try the challenge again in the middle of the summer. It was making me nervous having a fridge that was only 1/4 full. I learned I have a bit of OCD when it comes to having things stocked.

I love Costco... *sigh* So what food do you think you wouldn't be able to live without?

Good Goal

Recently our Relief Society Presidency gave out personalized letters that invited every sister to come closer to Christ by reading the Book of Mormon in just six short weeks. I've never read the Book of Mormon that fast before and I have to say that this first week has been a challenge. Things come up and I'm sure Satan is trying very hard to discourage us from finishing together. Don't worry - I won't let him do that to me, I'm too stubborn. LOL I know that only good can come from this.

I'm up for the challenge, are YOU? You can choose to read a certain number of pages or a certain number of chapters each day. There are many sites online that offer calculators and on http://www.hinckleychallenge.com/ you can get a little blog tracker for fun.

Only good can come from reading the Book of Mormon. You can do it! If you're hesitant, ask yourself "why?" Sure you might have to give up watching your favorite show every night. But what good is that TV show in your life... seriously. It's always good to evaluate your priorities every now and then. LMK if you're up for a good challenge and we can have a cyber party when we finish! :)

"Don't you wonder what would happen if we treated our Book of Mormon like we treat our cell phones?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we spent an hour or more using it every day?
What if we used it to receive messages from the "text"?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we used it as we traveled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?
Oh, and a few more things- Unlike our cell phones, one Plan fits all.
Unlimited usage.
No roaming charges.
You always have reception.
No weak signals AND we dont ever have to worry about our Book of Mormon being disconnected, because our Savior already paid the bill!" --Author Unknown

72 hour kits

N's excited because it's that's time of year again! I love listening to General Conference. That weekend we break open our 72 hour kits and gobble them up. We also assemble our new ones. I've been doing this for several years now and found that I like to put in things that require NO cooking and NO preparation. My kids won't eat MREs and the lemon butter squares would get boring after one day. Here's what we plan on putting in our kits:

6 people in our family times 3 days = 18 of everything except 32 granola bars and 180 candy

Breakfasts we have a breakfast bar and OJ packet.
Lunches we have beef jerky, 2 granola bars and fruit punch packet.
Snacks we have fruit leather or fruit snacks.
Dinners we have a small V8, protein bar (don't worry, I know the Twisted bars in my picture were recalled. We won't eat them) and grape juice packet. You could do a hot cocoa but then you'd need hot water. We have buddy burners in our backpacks but prefer not to use them.
Treats we have hard candy and gum wrapped in foil so the minty fresh smell doesn't spread to all your food. AND it keeps your gum fresh and soft. We kept ours a year one time and it was still soft


When shopping remember to check expiration dates!!!! It only needs to last 6 months (till the next General Conference). It would be a good idea to put in a prepaid phone card as well as some quarters. This all fits in a gallon size freezer bag. Don't forget to include a meal plan paper in there so they know when to eat what.

Breakfast: Breakfast bar, orange juice packet
Lunch: Beef Jerky, fruit punch packet, 2 granola bars
Snacks: Fruit leather/snacks
Dinner: V8, protein bar, juice or hot cocoa packet
Treats: 3 hard candy and 1 stick of gum

Put any leftover food in your car. This is great if you're stuck in traffic or the kids say "But I'm starving Mom!" We also keep a 2 liter bottle of water in our car as well as TP and trash bags. Extra outfit, diapers and wipes are under our baby's seat. Just in case...