SUMMER LOVIN

This summer has been so crazy, and I am so sad that it is almost over. I just turned 26, Parker is about to turn 4 and Ryder is turning 2. We are talking about building a house, Parker is about to start school four days a week, we are putting him in tumbling, and I'm not to excited about going back to school in the fall. I had no idea how hard just taking two classes with two kids would be, I just want to graduate one day!! I am still babysitting 3 days a week. I babysit a three year old and a 5 month old and next month I get a newborn.
Let me update you alittle about the fam. Skylar has been putting in long long long hours at work so I can stay home, Ryder is such a good little man, don't get me wrong he does his fair share of fighting with Parker and getting into everything but he is such a good boy. Parker, Parker, Parker, he is getting so big. He talks to me like he is sixteen I'm sure you can imagine all the things he says. He was invited to attend a gifted and talented school but I had to turn them down because of the tuition cost. He has his good days and bad days..more bad then good but he is working really hard. This summer he learned that if he takes a knife to the tramp he has to pay for a new tramp out of his account, you wouldn't think a four year old would know or care much about that but he was really upset for a long time after I took him to the bank and withdrew the money..he LOVES money and he wants it all in his account and doesn't want anyone to touch it, or so he tells me.
So instead of a mountain of pictures I have put together a slide show of summer 09 so far...enjoy!! :)

Saving $Mucho Dinero$!

Okay Amy and Mer and anyone else that wants to hear about my fun day grocery shopping :)
So last Friday (Skylar has been working really late the past little while putting a sound system in his dads new semi so Friday night was the only night I could go to the store without the boys) I went to Lee's and Albertsons to do the grocery shopping and to try out the new tricks I learned at Amy's (Amy is on my blog list check out her shopping trip) party a few weeks ago. I had so much fun! really I didn't think I would but I did. So here it goes...
I bought 63 Items all together from both stores, we have not been grocery, grocery shopping in awhile if you know what I mean so since both stores were having great sales and I had all these coupons that matched the sales I thought I might as well get everything that I needed for the next couple of weeks...
I got 2LBS fresh turkey from the deli, two bags of sugar, two roast, two things of stake and lots more stuff. I also took advantage of the stuff that was on big time sale and got lots of it to add to my food storage and be able to shop from my pantry. So grand total...drum roll please....before coupons my total between both stores came to $178.00. Still not to bad considering all the things that I got. Grand total out of pocket $108.00!! I saved $70.00!! I was so excited, I know that I'm going to get better as I learn more tricks. I took the receipts home to Skylar, thinking I was going to get a typical guy reaction, but he was so excited too! He could not believe it, he asked how much money it was costing me to be apart of this whole saving money thing, he didn't understand that all it was, was buying the newspaper. My goal is to spend $200on groceries and and the thigs that we need a month. So for a family of four that is $50 a week. I got pretty close to my goal since I bought for the next two weeks so we wouldn't have to go shopping on Easter weekend.

So here is a pic of everything I got
Minus the two bags of sugar I forgot to put in the picture


Click on the pic to enlarge it. Notice the two items of makeup that both normally cost $10 each. The only things that I got that I normally wouldn't get are the microwave dinners, since Skylar has been working late like til 2 in the morning I am always tempted to just get kid meals for dinner for the boys, box dinners are not much healthier but it does save money so I thought I would just make them on the nights that Sky is working late which hopefully won't be for to much longer. So last Saturday we were down in Logan again doing some banking stuff and I had purposely made everyone eat before we left. Every time we go to Logan on the weekends we go out to eat, so since we are trying to save money and stop going out to eat so much, we all ate before we left, we ended up spending all day in Logan and everyone was getting hungry so Skylar insisted we go out to eat. I had to be strong! I told him that home was just a few minutes away and there was really no point in trying to save all this money with grocery shopping if we are just spending it on more food by going out to eat, he was a little upset cause he was hungry but when we got home I cooked stake and potatoes and he was much happier :)

LOTS OF PICTURES :)

Last week in Parkers pre-school class they were learning about opposites. So everyone dressed in opposites for fun. For most kids this would be fun, for Parker however it took awhile for him to come around to the idea of leaving the house like this. When he saw himself in the mirror he almost died. He is one of those kids that likes his hair done a certain way and doesn't want anything messing it up, he also didn't like the idea of his clothes and shoes not matching! On Saturday it was warm enough for the boys to go for a ride. I was scared of the idea of letting Parker take Ryder for a ride, but since we control how fast he can go and we can kill the gas wherever they go, I let him do it. They both had lots of fun. So not only has Ryder learned how to climb out of his crib(this took him almost ten months longer to master then Parker, so that was nice)but he can get out of his buster and have a little fun on the table. We took the boys to The Living Plant Aquarium in Sandy a couple weekends ago, they didn't have as much fun as we had hoped but they both were pretty tired so we might try again on a better day. Of all the cool things to see and do, and even the sharks..the boys loved Nemo the best! Ryder Loved the the stingrays, you are able to touch them and Parker thought it was awesome! Just looking at this makes me sick! they have a cool boat "ride" and Ryder thought he was pretty cool. Not as cool as Parker though.

Parker was really excited to touch the snake!

Dillon is still fighting to live!!!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/slc09/kblackburn
Hey guys go checkout this website it is for my little brother Dillon, who is about to turn 24 and was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia on June 4Th, 2008.

Random

I was just going through some things around the house this week and found some pictures of Parker when he was 16 months old. Ryder turned 16 months on the 10Th of this month, just thought I'd compare the two of them...


Parker's hair was just as curly as Ryders, it just would go flat on top and stay curly on the bottom throughout the day. Skylar and I both have really curly hair, I think that it looks cute on most people, just not a fan of it on myself.

On Saturday I threw Skylar's sister, my sister in law, a baby shower. They had been trying for 3.5 years to get pregnant, and she is due at the end of March. She is having a boy and they are naming him Kayson Lance Parkinson.

there was a lot if people that came, and she got a lot of nice stuff!! Makes me so baby hungry...not for the baby, more for the baby stuff! ;)


Sometimes I get in these moods where I'm feeling crafty, so I made some diaper cakes for the shower, 60 diapers in each cake.

I had enough stuff to make two of them...so I did! this one has baby things all over it, like wash clothes an outfit, a bottle, and lots of other stuff.
I also made them a slideshow for the baby shower and put it on youtube..just for fun :)

LOTS GOING ON!!

So ever since spring semester started I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off! I am only taking two classes and I feel so overwhelmed, it seems like on-line classes have so much more work then just going to campus. I am so glad my counselor talked me out of taking a third class!! I also watch a little girl three times a week and I'm planning a baby shower...doesn't seem to bad right?...wrong!! Parker continues to get in trouble at school, even the principle is at a loss with this kid. Ryder has been really sick for the past few weeks and whines at everything, his new favorite word is ow, so every time he starts to whine or cry or throw a fit all he says is ow over and over. I do believe I had more patience before I had children. Sky has been trying to pressure me to cut Ryders hair so he doesn't look like a baby so much, I think it's so cute and he is a baby he is only 16 months old! I did cut his bangs so they wouldn't be in his eyes anymore. So this past week I went to my uncles funeral and it was one of the coolest funerals I've ever been to (is that weird to say?) it was just our family and some very close friends, it wasn't a traditional LDS funeral, he was cremated and we just all got together in the funeral home and talked about growing up and we laughed the whole time. Then all of my dads brothers got up and said some really nice things about my uncle. I didn't know my uncle very well in fact I had only met him twice in my life, he was very private and liked being alone, he however decided to get close with the family just before he died, isn't that how is always is? none of my dads brothers are active member of the church so when my dad got up and bore his testimony to his brothers and their families is was so awesome, I cried like a little baby! At the grave side my uncle and his wife preformed a Navaho ceremony with a feather and smoke and we all got in line and were purified/cleansed. This uncle was adopted when he was a baby and is full Navaho, I thought it was awesome.


Ryder before

Ryder After

Skylars 24th birthday!