Scrubbing Bubbles Review

I was happy to join a program called SheSpeaks that allows you to try out new products and then review them online. The first product they sent me to review was the new Scrubbing Bubbles® One-Step Toilet Bowl Cleaner.


The kids were so excited when they saw it. My 10 and 12 year old both wanted to have it in the bathrooms they are assigned to clean. I decided to put it in our bathroom so I could see how it works. My kids set it up in less than a minute and before I had even read the instructions.

The product works great and I will most likely be picking one up for each of my bathrooms. I haven't priced it at the store yet, but I'm watching for coupons on it.

Kid's Pictures

Last month I was excited to win a photography session from Smile A Day Giveaways' blog. The photo shoot was with Kim of Corrigan Photography. Kim was so nice to work with. We decided to meet at the Amphitheater in American Fork and it is a beautiful spot for pictures. I took Anna and Andrew for pictures since the other kids had recently had their pictures taken and updated on our wall. Here are a few of the amazing pictures Kim took. (I know I'm probably biased, but I thought they turned out great!)


This bunny was kind enough to stop and pose for a picture.


This one is probably my favorite photo ever of Andrew. Thanks Kim!

Washington D.C.

We recently had the opportunity to take Jenna and Addison to D.C. with us. Bret had meetings most of the time, but the kids and I were able to see and do quite a bit. We walked around most of monuments, took a trolley tour, got a personal tour of the capitol (if you are going to D. C., email your senator for a tour. It's part of their job to help constituents when visiting D.C.). An intern from Senator Hatch's office took just the three of us on a personal tour. It was great and we didn't have to stand in any of the long lines.





A and J in front of the White House. This guard was every bit as ornery as he looks.



Standing in the very center of the capitol and D.C.

Girls in Braces

Here are some pictures of the girls in their new braces. Jenna is thrilled to have braces, Sarah isn't. We got Sarah the clear ones since she is starting high school this year. Sarah just needs one year in them, but Jenna will have them for two years. We chose an orthodontist close to our home and the girls can actually walk to appointments after school. (That may be my favorite part of the whole thing).



Jenna is starting with just four brackets on front.



Sarah got the full set.


Sarah with braces. The clear ones are awesome!

Book Review: LOVE FOOD & LIVE WELL

I was excited when I was asked to review "LOVE FOOD & LIVE WELL". I was intrigued by the idea of being able to eat foods you enjoy and still be healthy. I really dislike diets that focus on deprivation.

The author of this book, Chantel Hobbs, lost 200 pounds and has kept if off for years. She has two previous books out ("The Never Say Diet" and "The One-Day Way") and in September of this year she's coming out with another book, "Walk Strong, Look Up". In "LOVE FOOD & LIVE WELL" she shares some advice that has helped her not only change what she looks like, but how she feels about herself and food.

Chantel has an 80/20 rule that she discusses in the book. She suggests that 20% of the time you splurge on foods you love (like birthday cake and other celebration foods). The other 80% of the time you choose foods that will deliver maximum fuel to your body. I love the idea of focusing on foods that will help your body be healthy and give you energy. It seems to me that anytime you try to avoid foods, you end up eating more of the foods that are off limits. This idea of finding the best fuel for your body helps you focus on positive changes.

Chantel educates the reader about calories, basal metabolic rate, carbs, protein and fat. After discussing foods and nutrition she moves on to discuss the importance of exercise and interval training. The book has a few recipes and great exercise information and pictures of how to correctly do the exercises.

I really enjoyed Chantel's writing style. She's very down to earth and knows what she's talking about. Her stories through out the book were engaging. She talks about a conversation she had at the gym with an attractive, thin woman. The woman told her she ate a piece of chocolate a day. Chantel was surprised and asked how she had the will power to only eat one and not the whole bag. The lady seemed surprised by the question and responded that if she ate them all there wouldn't be any for tomorrow. That idea of moderation and not deprivation is the theme of this book.

You can find this book at amazon for $13.59 or check it out at your local library.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Way too long...

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted anything. Here are some fun pictures my brother Jeff took while he was in town.




Jeff told us to act silly for this one. Bret lost his balance and really did fall backwards. I was impressed my brother was able to get the shot.


We didn't get around to getting pictures of the youngest two. I guess they'll get to go first next time. My brother definitely has an eye for photography. These were all taken in my parent's backyard when we were together for a picnic. Like for Jenna's picture, he just had her stand close to the house. I would have never thought of that.

Great Deals

Smith's is having a great sale this week. I got the 20 items in the first picture for $-0.82. The cashier didn't know what to do about the negative number and told me I'd have to take a coupon back. I threw in a pack of gum and ended up paying $0.21 for the groceries. Here's a link so that you too can get 16 boxes of pasta for free. :) If you click on the Smith's link on the right of her blog you will see more information about the sale.



This set totaled $15.29. There was also a danimals yogurt drink 6 pack, but the kids love those and have already had them.

This and that...

Andrew and I went to the Living Aquarium this week. His favorite thing there are the jelly fishes. Here's a clip of them. We also liked the penguins, but he started climbing up on something he shouldn't have been on, so I had to stop recording and get him down.




Yesterday I asked Andrew to put his breakfast things away (milk to the fridge, cereal back, bowl in the sink. Andrew said, "You're not the boss of me." I told him that since I was his mom that made me the boss. He said, "No, Jesus is the boss." I had to agree with him on that one.


I was excited to learn that I won the chance to host a Singer sewing machine house party. The party kit arrived in the mail today and we had a fun time unloading it and looking at everything. They sent enough kits for 14 people, so let me know if you want to come. :)

The kit has two different patterns, 3 things of thread, fabric, project instructions and a few other things for each person who comes. I get to bring a singer sewing machine home for a week so that everyone can try it out. Sounds fun.

Book Review: The 60 Minute Money Workout

I was sent The 60 Minute Money Workout to review from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing this past month. The author, Ellie Kay, is a financial expert on Good Money (ABC news), CNBC, CNN, and Fox News.

Here is the summary from the back of the book:

"You can revolutionize your finances in only sixty minutes! Looking for long-term economic stability and not common quick-fix schemes? Now a nationally recognized financial expert and best-selling author, Ellie shares her one-hour-a-week program that has made it possible to take care of her family and do it all debt-free! With entertaining anecdotes, easy-to-follow charts, and practical advice, The 60-Minute Money Workout is both fun and feasible. You’ll be able to:

> Get out of debt and save for your kids’ college
> Have meaningful and debt-free vacations
> Pay cash for your cars
> Make a difference in the world by giving generously
> Find financial peace with your spouse
> Be content with your current circumstances
> Latch onto hope for your financial future

In just one hour a week, you’ll be financially stronger and smarter. Revolutionize your quality of life with the Workout and you’ll never look back!"

This book has taken me a while to review, but I enjoyed reading it. I agree with a lot of the information in the book. I like how she explains that spending one hour a week discussing your finances and making plans can make a difference in your financial life. There are 12 sections in the book that detail how to go about discussing subjects and planning for the future.

Bret and I followed the discussion guidelines for creating a spending plan (budget). It was very helpful to sit down and discuss a budget together. I think it's important for both of us to know what's going on with our finances. Our discussion led us to go and get Quicken and figure out how to make it work for us (we'd bought the Quicken 2008 a few years ago and didn't realize it's only good for 3 years - after that they stop allowing you to download information from the credit cards and banks).

I like the information in this book and the idea of meeting together weekly to discuss the finances. I didn't love the whole work out analogy for the hour meeting (warm up- prep for your money workout, strength training- set financial goals, cardio burn- put goals into action, heart rate- measure financial performance, and cool down- reward yourself).

The author has a great website with a tool center including many different calculators and planning tools. I think this book is a great one to check out from the library and peruse. I'm not sure I would recommend owning it, most of the information in it were things I already knew.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Poor Frosty...

At the end of the previous post I showed the cute snowman Anna and Andrew had made. Once the sun came out it didn't take long until Frosty was melted.

Birthday and Snow

Bret had a birthday on Saturday. We held a little surprise party for him with our family. I tried to do something special for him since it was his 40th. I did a pretty good job keeping it a secret until the very end. I hadn't finished working out how to have him away from the house so the guests could arrive. He decided to go out and work in the front yard about the time people started arriving. We had a nice dinner and then he opened gifts. My brother, Jake, asked to go first since his gift was ALIVE! No he hadn't checked with me to see if I was ok with raising chickens. Bret had mentioned a few times that he'd like chickens and every time he brought it up I said absolutely not! We're now the proud parents of 6 baby chicks.


Anna drew a picture for the chicks to look at.

The kids love these baby chicks.


Anna and Andrew decided to make a snowman today. It was so cute, but melted within hours. Tomorrow it's going to be in the 60's so I imagine that will be the end of frosty.

IHMS Basketball

Sarah decided she wanted to play basketball this year for the 9th grade team at her middle school. She'd never played before, but went to all the open gym practices, tried out for the team and made it. Her team practiced M-F for two hours a day from November until last week. There are 8 middle schools in our school district and they all advance to the final tournament. Going into the tournament, Sarah's team was in 6th place. They ended up playing great and winning some painfully close games. They finished with second place for the season.


One of the girl's dads is a professional photographer (Kevin Lunt Photography) and did a full photo shoot for each of the girls. He then gave them each a disc with all the pictures on it. So generous!

Lioness Arising Book Review

I recently received the book Lioness Arising, Wake Up and Change Your World by Lisa Bevere to review. This book appealed to me with the imagery it evoked when I read the summary.

"The lioness rises from her slumber, a magnificent image of strength, passion, and beauty. Her mere presence commands the landscape, protects her young, and empowers the lion. In groups, lionesses become a creative and strategic force to be reckoned with, acting as one to change the world around them."

Here are links to the first chapter and how to find the book on Amazon.com.

I've never read a book like this (Christian motivational) and I found I had a hard time with it. The first three chapters moved pretty slowly and it seemed very disjointed to me. I did like the fourth chapter where the author shared a personal story about her desire to get in shape. She talks about hiring a physical trainer and not realizing how weak she was until she met with him and he tested her strength. She uses that story to talk about how women must be strong in all areas of their lives.

I also liked the eighth chapter, "Lionesses Are Strategic". In this chapter she talks a lot about the characteristics of lionesses in the wilderness (protecting each other's children, working together to hunt, etc.). I found those insights very interesting.

Other than those two chapters, I had a very difficult time with the book. I didn't like the author calling me (or the reader) "lovely ones" in the text. I didn't care for some of the analogies like lionesses groom each other or the one about lionesses smelling their children. (Although, the author had a great point that she kissed her children goodnight each night and she could smell if her sons had been up to something they shouldn't have been - alcohol, etc.).

I would give this book 2 out of 5 stars and probably not recommend it to a friend unless they liked information about lionesses or enjoyed Christian motivational books.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Little Star book review

I was recently asked by WaterBrook Publishing if I wanted to "Blog for Books". I said sure. I get to choose a book that they will send to me, read it and then write a review on it. The first book I chose was Little Star since it was Christmas time.


The book starts out with a little boy asking his father which star in the sky is the Christmas star. The father then tells him the Christmas story from the point of view of the stars. Little Star is sad because the other stars ignore him, but on the night of Jesus' birth, he shines the brightest.

Here is a video clip about the book.

I love the illustrations in this book. They are cute and fun at the beginning when telling about the stars, and then elegant when showing scenes from Christ's birth. I really enjoyed reading this book to my kids until I got to the end. The author writes that Little Star burned so brightly that he burned himself out that night. The picture of the little gray burned out star is so sad and I couldn't get past the fact that I don't believe the star only shined for one night. The wise men had to follow the star for months to get to the baby Jesus. This is probably not a big deal to most people, but it really bugged me. The author does end the book on a happy note with the star being remembered each time it's placed at the top of a Christmas tree.

Overall I'd give this book 3 out of 5 stars. I absolutely love the illustrations, but I wish the book ended differently.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.