NEVER pay full price again!

I did it!!

I haven't paid retail for clothes in at least 8 years! I always searched for the best deal.
Then these last few months I found Swagbucks. I use it as my search engine and earn points for just doing my regular online searches. I can then turn my points into giftcards to Target, Amazon and paypal and sooooo many more. In the last 3 months I have managed to earn $50 to amazon and have enough points for another $50 giftcard! and this is just casually searching. My goal is to have Christmas paid for by Swagbucks!! If you want to do this too- start here. Then use Swagbucks as your homepage instead of Google or Bing. Then to save money on shipping sign up for Amazon Mom- it is free 3 day shipping on your purchases from amazon PLUS you get an extra savings off of plenty of things like diapers (30%), and sooooo much more!!!!!! It saves soo much more money!!

The only thing missing was my grocery savings. Sure I used a coupon here and there, but ever since Grocery stores have started doubling coupons up to $.99 it has changed the way I shop.
My Know it all resource page is most certainly COUPON DIVA's. They take the work out of couponing for you. leaving just the clipping up to you. (There are so many sites that can help you with this- so if you want any more- let me know.) The Coupon Divas take almost every store you can think of and match up coupons to their weekly sales to get you the BEST buy on everything out there, and often times-things for FREE!!!

The picture above is a savings of $48.83 and that is a savings AFTER the already marked down SALE price!!

All of this is just too good to keep to myself, but I will warn you- Saving Money IS Addicting!!!!!

Happenin in Ohio

Okay, so winter is almost over and I cannot wait!! This last weekend we had 75 degree weather- so nice!

I pulled out the sandals and shorts, the kids are loving it. I am not convinced winter won't try to stick its two cents in again before the end of May, but I am hopeful to keep the trend going. It can still rain, just ease up on the cold. that's all I'm saying.

Things are finally getting better for us. We are still blessed with a job, a great house to live in, awesome friends and family, and eachother! I thank our Father in Heaven every day for our many blessings.

In just about a month, our baby will be turning 3. While they normally say the terrible 2's. My kids have always had the terrible 3's. Unfortunatley, she has started a little early with the tantrums and they are ALWAYS in public. Oh joy!
Its hard to believe that our beautiful youngest daughter is growing up so fast.

Here are some recent pictures to keep you busy ...........and it's been a while, so there are a lot. :)

Love you and Miss you All!!

Beating Autism

It's been two years full of doctors, schools, therapy and a lot of advocating, but to hear the words, "your son no longer needs the intervention services for autism" ........

There is nothing more sweet or gratifying.

We did it! We can now say we have a success story.

At the age of 4, Spencer was given the green light to enter Kindergarten next year.

No IEP's, No 504 plan, no Special Education.

Just streamlined in a general education classroom with other children who do not have Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Wow- what a blessing!!

I am so grateful that we had the experiences and the knowledge with Chandler, to see the warning signs in Spencer and get him early intervention. His progress is AMAZING!!

He will probably always live with Sensory Processing Disorder, and his auditory ticks but that's workable. Minimal meltdowns, and you usually know the reason behind them. Sensory related.

Spencer has the greatest conversational skills ever, the best story teller, imaginative little boy. Growing socially, emotionally and academically. Not just taking steps forward, but LEAPS and bounds!

It is so great to sit in a room full of professionals and have them all say, that they can't find a reason to service him as a child with a disability. He is for the most part, a typical 4 year old preschool aged little boy.

His language and speech tends to be beyond his years, but I find that soothing to sit and have little adult conversations with him. Nothing makes him happier and it simply makes my heart smile.

We could not have done this alone.

We did not do this alone.

We will continue to fight for Chandler. To find that sparkle in his eye. To fill the hole in his emotional and social being.
And it will totally be worth it!!

We can now say we have beaten Autism once. Now we are going to do it again!!

snowing, blowing and sick! Blech!

It's super duper icky outside right now. The wind is blowing the snow everywhere, I can hardly see out my windows because there is so much snow sticking to the screens. I shoveled a little walk path outside at one point and if I had to guess, I would say 8 to 10 inches of snow. And it is still snowing.

Meanwhile, from the insides of our humble abode, we are all sick. Strep Throat X FIVE!! That is a lot of Antibiotics to keep track of. And if that wasn't bad enough, Cory is back in the hospital. His staph infection in his leg has now become MRSA and they are having to increase his antibiotic drip to get him to slow down the growth. It's painful, the food is bad, and he is missed by everyone of us. Stuck here. In the house. With Strep.

I feel so helpless.

The people in Ohio are nothing short of AMAZING though. I am stubborn. Slow to accept a lot of help, but their figuring me out-so a HUGE thank you to those amazing people for all of their help!!

So, if you read this - please say a prayer for Cory. We want our daddy back home with us and this is his 3rd hospital stay since we moved here in November. We need all the faith and prayers you are willing to give.

Much Love!

cutest thing ever

I try to be a good example for the kids.
Praying often.
Reading my Scriptures.
Listening to good music.
You know, stuff like that.

Today, I caught Kady "marking" her scriptures.
Sort of like mommy does.
Except I don't use crayons.

Imagine This - It's COLD here in Ohio!

Winter has finally arrived, snow. Feezing temps. Blowing snow. Bitter bitter cold mornings where the bed is so cozy and warm it is hard to get up at the alarm. AMEN to Saturdays and sleeping in. (If the kids will let us)

Things we still need to do here -
First up - SLEDDING. Just not when the snow is blowing- that's just miserable.

So much to do, so little time. Not really on the time, but it was flowing.
Rock and Roll hall of fame. Johnson Farm. Amish Country. Museums, Zoo, Beaches (obviously when the sun decides to play nice again)
I LOVE it here so far.
Time has flown by and the people here are A M A Z I N G!!
I love our home, our ward - It is going to take a lot of convincing to get me to move ever again. Or for a Very Very Very long time. I just finished giving away most of our moving boxes in hopes that it means we are in deed here to stay.

Here's a little about our Ohio home this winter through pictures. This snow isn't bad, this is typical. Wanna come live here? :) Love and miss you all!

Aly and Chandler waiting for the school bus with at least 4 or 5 inches of snow. School would have been closed in Washington - Not here, this was nothing.

Icicle's on our house. These are the baby ones. The big ones can go from roof to foundation- So Crazy!

Cory's car- somewhere under all that snow.

And we enjoy all of this from the inside comfort of our home. There is no better way :)

My little claim to fame, kind of :)

During our short 5 month stay in Wisconsin, we had the privilege of getting to know many wonderful people. I was blessed even more to become friends with a very talented clothing maker, Natalie. She sells her own brand of Japanese inspired clothing called Koolmono. She does AMAZING work and I admired it the entire time we lived there.

She asked me just before we moved if I would be willing to take pictures of her daughter modeling some of the clothing to post on her ETSY store. I of course agreed because I LOVE taking pictures and I will never pass up that opportunity.

When she arrived that beautiful fall morning for pictures, she came with a couple of different outfits and asked if Kady would be willing to model some too.

Kady was delighted to wear them and the pictures were adorable. When we were all done, Natalie payed me with one of her outfits. (A payment, I still believe I got the better deal on.)

Kady wore it for the next three days straight before I was able to get her to wear something else. She now will bring it to me weekly to wear. So adorable, comfortable and colorful! The fabric is stunning and if I HAD paid for it, I still would have gotten the better deal!! AMAZING!

So, now that you know how we met- lets jump forward to this past week when Stephanie Nielson from NieNie Dialogues did one of her blog posts on Homemade Christmas.
Natalie had sent Nie some Christmas PJ's for each of her kids. Nie LOVED them and included them as "...the CUTEST and I mean, cutest! Pj's in history."
The picture that Stephanie used to show the pj's was one that I had taken for Natalie and that is now on Natalie's ETSY store for Koolmono and it was Kady modeling the Christmas PJ's!

My little girl was on NieNie!! I so love it and I am so happy for Natalie and the success that I am sure she will see from this. So my little claim to fame with a picture of my daughter on a well known inspirational blog!

Here are some of the pictures I took for Natalie and her clothes. To see her store, go HERE. To become a fan on Facebook, go HERE.

This is the picture on NieNie

Spencer in a fun, sure to inspire the "inner Ninja" Boys PJ set

I Absolutely LOVED this dress! Kady was at first a little less thrilled

Once she warmed up, she began to like it too.

But she still Liked the PJ's MORE! :)