Can Someone Knock Some COUPON SENSE Into Me...

I ad match every week now when I make my grocery list, but I keep hearing about something called coupon sense and want to know if there's someone out there in my blogging world who can teach me?????? I think I'm a fast learner...

4 years...

You know you are officially in love and set for life when for your anniversary celebration you watch an episode of the office together, because all of the kids are asleep, and call it good!!! We did at least get to go to bed at the same time for once, so that was a plus!!!!! I just want to remind my husband how much I love him and how proud I am to say he's mine! Here's to a lifetime of anniversaries (and crusises and such for future celebrations!). But for now, I am just estatic that I found you!!!

(sidenote: Happy Anniversary to Tawna and Nathan who we share our day with, and who are on their 15th anniversary cruise as we speak!)

The Baptism of Madison Elizabeth Phelps... from beginning to end!!!

Well, it took 3 posts to get it all in, but here's all of the fantastic memories of Maddie's baptism day! Thanks to all of you who participated on all four sides of her family with talks, prayers, confirmation, witnesses, piano playing, musical numbers, planning, etc., and everyone who came to support her as well!!!! She sure has a lot of people that love her!!!




Maddie stood by the door and handed out her cute programs and greeted all of her family!

Cute invitations...

Inside of her awesome programs...

Outside of her program...

Madison and her Daddy getting ready... I know how excited Dad was to baptize his first little girl! He did such a good job... twice even! Your hair didn't go all the way under because it floated up, so down again you went! Now you and Mom have something more in common... we both got baptized twice, you for your hair and me for my big toe!

Lots of people came...

I mean LOTS... YEAH!!!!

Kevin and Kaitlin sang "Lord Are You There", by Janice Kapp Perry, and did an awesome job! They sound so good together!

In the Font... where I might add Lauren almost joined you because Mommy was nuts and scheduled a baptism during nap time! Lauren always wants to be where Madison is, whether it's the soccer field or the baptismal font apparently. I should have gotten her a sitter!!! When Madison walked into the water fully dressed Lauren said, "that's soooooo weird"! Good Stuff...

Kevin did a wonderful job on the confirmation blessing... and this was "All of the Guys" afterwards! You had Kevin, Grumpy, Opa, Papa Stock, Uncle Jeremy, Uncle Sylar, Uncle Nathan, Uncle RB, Papa Kanaga, Papa Harmon, Bishop Gordon, and a few I don't know but how nice it was for all of these men to participate in your blessing! Daddy put his girl on his knee to complete the picture! VERY CUTE!



Here's Maddie just Baptized...

Maddie and Mommy... I am sure proud of her!

Granny & Maddie... Granny worked so hard for your day to be special. She made you an adorable outfit to be baptized in (so no ugly jumpsuit for you!) and also your pretty dress for afterwards!!! She made a super yummy lunch complete with 3 different desserts to choose from, made the invites and programs like no one else could have, played the piano during, and gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost!!!!! Thanks Granny!!!

The Goodwin Family (minus Emmy who was fast asleep in Jen's arms somewhere)with the newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!!!

Easter 2009...

We had a great Easter Sunday with our family, except we missed Madison of course! The Easter Bunny came and left great stuff and we made it to sacrament (because our 2 oldest kids could not behave themselves in church we came home early and there was some consequence for them)!!!!!! Then we had an easy going afternoon and went over to Granny & Grumpy's house for dinner. Kaitlin and Kevin practiced their song for Maddie's baptism this Saturday and sounded so sweet together!!! Then we came home and watched a movie together (Bedtime Stories... very cute!) and off to bed! The night before we watched The Ten Commandments and Daron complained at first, but loved it. I remember watching it ALL THE TIME when we were little. Good stuff!

I love my family and was glad to spend Easter with so many of them!

BTW... Kaitlin is officially taller than me!!!! NICE! I can't even do her hair anymore unless she's sitting!

Happy Birthday Monkeygirl....

Happy Birthday Maddie!!! We love you soooooo much! I can not believe that you are 8! I am so proud of you everyday and glad that Heavenly Father sent you to us! Here are some of the reasons I love you so much (but not all of the reasons because that would take FOREVER!)...

1. You are such a sweet girl

2. You used to eat chocolate ice cream with me for breakfast!

3. When you were little and I was sad, you would put your arm around me to comfort me

4. I love the "Alex" dance fight skit you do that makes me laugh no matter what

5. You are super smart and great in school

6. You were so cute and worried that you wouldn't "pass" your interview to be baptized, it was cute!

7. You are such a good sister and AWESOME soccer player!

8. You are very helpful indeedy!

9. All of the notes and letters and pictures you do for me and all of us

10. You are such a good looking chick, if I do say so myself!

And, SOOOOOO many other things I could say! I hope that you liked your birthday pancakes with whip cream and strawberries and there'll be mac & cheese and cupcakes for dinner! I can't wait for your baptism day! Great to be 8..... :)

THANKS FOR THE NEW SPRING/SUMMER BACKGROUND GRANNY!!!!! I LOVE IT A LOT! I especially love the surprise backgrounds!!!!! :)

Toes and Fun Together...

Rimmel #615 in "Night Before" aka: Deep Purple... Thanks to Kaitlin we found this little fabulous color on our Friday night shopping trip!!!!




Kaitlin Drying her Toes...



Daron and Lauren Playing Footsie...



Lauren drying her Toes...



All of our Toes... (except Daron even though he begged me to paint his! Absolutely NOT!!!!!

My Favorite Madison...

I always say that to each of my kids... "you're my favorite... and then their name". Because when you have 5 kids you can't have a favorite, but they can ALL be my favorite! Madison is doing great. She is having fun at school and playing with friends. She is getting ready to turn 8 on the 9th and I can't believe it! We are busy planning her baptism and birthday party. She gets to go walking with me on Wednesday nights when Kaitlin is at young Women's and on our walk this week she says, "Mom... a boy in my class went RRRRRRRRRR when I walked by." It was cute. Beofre she left for the weekend on Friday afternoon we were playing a card game and she won!!! That made her day! If you are reading this and talk to Maddie you are obligated NOT TO TELL HER I BLOGGED ABOUT THIS, because it embarrasses her. But, I have to blog for journaling purposes... Sorry Maddie!

I picked her up from school one day a couple weeks ago and we were talking about the pictures that the luch ladies draw on the board in the cafeteria. She said that for spring they draw a bunny or flowers or something, for christmas santa, and for halloween " a witch with like a niplle on her nose!" VERY FUNNY!!! She was so embarrassed though and someday she'll see the humor! I soooooooooooo love her and love it when we get time together! She is such a great girl...

Also, for journaling purposes, since this is my journal...

One day last week she was leaving from school with her Dad and had a particularly bad day so she wrote her feeling in a note and gave it to Kaitlin to give to me when she got home. Kaitlin gave it to me and it was so cute! I remember what it was like to have a bad day at that age!

A Good Read...

I absolutely love the words, "roody head" and "ruend" which translated are "rude head" and "ruined". She is such a sweet heart! More to come on her birthday and baptism.

Kaitlin Under The Big Tree...

kaitlin has really loved hanging out in the front yard under the big trees. She'll go out there to read and play with Lauren and I think to NAP!!! She has been keeping busy with school and hanging out with friends. She just turned in a project that her and her Mom worked on over spring break and did an awesome job. It was a small scale Greek Theatre and a write up about it. She had a Twilight DVD party and only 1 friend could come so I got to watch with my friend too and it was fun. Then we went shopping Friday night for a few things for Maddie for her birthday coming up and kaitlin got some new make-up and earings and church dresses. And yesterday I got to chaperone her friends birthday party at golfland. My friend Terri's daughter is one of Kaitlins good friends and it was her party. So Terri and I got to hang out with them! 6 girls age 11-12 are LOUD!!!!! Anyway, it was a great time and I love spending one on one time with my kids! She's reading Breaking Dawn right now and we love talking about it. We've been trying to go walking at night together also, gotta get better about that!!!

DARON...

Not much going on except playing and stuff! He loves having froends live close by now. He is doing awesome in school and learning his states and capitals. He just earned a skateboard that he's been working towards for a couple of months. The next thing he'll be working towards is a skateboard party with a professional skater and 2-3 friends!!!! Very exciting indeedy! Here he is talking to his Mom and brother and in the other picture he's playing alittle ROCK BAND with new friend, Jack! We love you Daron, keep up the good work!

Learning to Crawl...

Spaghetti Cheeks...

This little girl LOOOOOOOVES food! Regular food, not baby food! This is her frst attempt at eating spaghetti with her own two hands and help from Daddy...

Our New House....

Yep... we have moved once again!!! I have been told that I need to stop saying, "we are NEVER moving again!", so that maybe it will finally come true. This time it was not by choice, really. After moving into our last house, which we loved and were doing a lease purchase on, we found out that the landlord lived accross the street. He came over and introduced himself the day after we moved in and explained that his son and his family also lived next door. No biggy, I mean we are super clean, and treat things nice, so that part didn't worry me. But they came over A LOT that first couple of days. I remember turning to Kevin one day after they left, the 2nd day we were there, and saying, "is this going to be a problem?" Anyway, we meet the neighbors over the next couple of weeks, the closest 2 families living by us were in our ward, and through them and the property manager we come to hear the whole story of this house and this family we are renting from. The Dad and Mom (our landlords) bought all 3 lots and built a house for them and each of their 2 sons families to live in. How wonderful if we could all do that for our kids right? They didn't charge them rent but did expect them to take good care of the homes and property of course. Well, that is putting it lightly because the lanlords standards were MUCH different than his 2 sons (or at least one of them) because the son that lived in our home moved out abruptly while his parents were on a cruise because he couldn't take it anymore. So, the parents (landlords) came home to find their son and his family moved out with no warning. I am fanatical about the house inside, and Kevin does the yard work every Saturday. We were on an acre and had A LOT of property to take care of. He always made sure the front was great and if something else took his time on the weekends (like kids, soccer, time with family heaven forbid!) he'd let the back grass go for a week or two. No big deal, it's just grass! Well, the lanlord would come over and bang on the door and walk into our back yard and such. This is NOT allowed when there is a property manager involved and they warned him on numerous occasions over the year. After I had Emmy we had a microburst hit down in our neighborhood and a guy in my ward was sitting in his truck and watched our RV gate explode fromthe force of the microburst that day. It just shattered. The lanlord came over to take measurements for the new gate the next day or so and was mad that there were chairs and toys strung accross the back yard. He banged on the door and rang the doorbell for 30 minutes, angrily! I had a newborn baby and Lauren at home and was there alone. He looked insane and I was not about to open the door. We called the property manager and she eaid that he did call her also and said the back yard was TRASHED and he thought we were trashing the inside of the house also and was pissed. Well, anyone who knows me, knows that we would never trash a house and I'm a clean freak the majority of the time. And it is absurd that he couldn't understand that the back yard looked like it had some things thrown around from the storm, I mean it was a strong enough storm to destroy the fence, but not throw around a few chairs and toys????!?!? He was not being rational. So, we invited him and the property manager over to see that we were treating the house as if it were our own. The property manager cam but he did not. She agreed that it was kept very nice and took pictures for him and explained some more of what was going on with him. She said that he had major OCD's bout the lawns and that was the nail in the coffin for the son who moved out. He was still mad that his son wasn't there because that's who the house was built for and they were still on the outs. He had always hoped that they would mend their relationship and he'd move back in, etc. etc. etc. Also, the lanlord had been diagnosed with severe kidney problems a few years back and was now having heart trouble recently. So, health was playing a big part in how he was over reacting, etc. We tried to be understanding. I always make an extra loaf of bread each week and for a couple of weeks we took it over to them with a nice note, etc. trying to build a friendly, neighborly relationship. We would stand out front and talk with his wife and Lauren would play with her little dog. The wife even said how nice the house looked and how it looked 10 times better than when her son lived there!!! But, the lanlord kept on us constantly. He came over when just the kids were home and banged and banged and was mad when they wouldn't answer, but they are not supposed to answer of course if we aren't there. He would come over and pull little tiny weeds before as they were barely coming up, and the kids would get home from school and find him in our yard. He stuck his head over the fence on occasion and yelled at our kids for whatever they were doing in the back yard that he didn't agree with. (granted one time Daron and Maddie were throwing little rocks at the basketball backboard and needed to be told not to. However, it is OUR job to do this, and NOT HIS. He should have come and knocked on the front door to tell Kevin or I so that we could handle it.) He opened our back yard gate when all of the kids were playing in the back yard and my nephews were over as well and just stood there and looked at all of the kids for awhile and then shut the gate and left. He should NOT open our gate ever, especially when there's kids back there. He is a stranger for all intents and purposes!!!! And, he called the police on Madison's Dad when he was dropping her off from dinner one night. Ridiculous!!! It was 7pm at night and he idled for about 10 minutes because she was finishing up watching a movie in the truck. So, he called the police because there was a car parked in front of our house. Shane's truck is at our house 2 times per week to pick her up for dinner and every other weekend as well, so give me a break!!! Anyway, it goes on and on and on... and we just couldn't so it anymore!!! I feel bad that he is having so many health problems and maybe he just needed to focus on us more than necessary to avoid thinking about all the stuff going on with that and with the bad feeling over his son. I don't know, but I am glad to be out of there and have been so much happier here!!! Our new lanlord is LDS and a very nice man. We love the new ward and are excited to be in the new neighborhood. The houses are closer together and there are lots of kids. Daron has already made two new friends on our street! We hope to be here for 2-3 years and then we want to buy a house in this area so that the kids stay in the same ward and schools through jr. high and highschool. We need some roots during those years for sure!!! So come visit!!!!!

Birthday Cards...

Thank you Ryker!!!

Thank you Aden!!!

Thank you Jaxon!!!!

You guys made my birthday even more special with your sweett birthday cards!!! I love you guys...

(and thanks Jade!)