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.

Tombstone Party

We were excited to win one of the Tombstone Parties from houseparty.com in October. We received a fun party kit with lots of fun items and coupons.

(I can't find the picture I took of the kit so I borrowed one from houseparty.com.)

We asked the kids to dress up. Here are a few of them. I really wish I had got them all together for a group picture!


Mr. Clean, Pippy Long Stocking, and baby duck.

Playing the madlibs game.

Aaron's amazing garlic bread.Cute witch's hats.


We put together little gift bags for the kids to take home after the party.

Andrew and his preschool teacher at Alta High. He is loving it. Each Senior in the program is assigned to one preschooler. We were so lucky to get Amberly. She just moved into our neighborhood and she is wonderful.

Coupons and Giveaways

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on here. I've been having too much fun saving money and entering contests. Here are some of the deals I've found this past week:

Rite Aid today: out of pocket= $3.60 (Sorry for the background mess - I had one of the kids take the picture). I can't find the exact site that showed me how to do this one, but here's another site that breaks it down for you if you are interested: cuckoo for coupon deals. I wish I could remember where I first saw the deal described. It was a lot clearer than that post.


Walgreen's last week: out of pocket=$1.00


Kohl's last week: out of pocket= $2.36 (Christmas gifts for the girls)

I've also entered and won a few contests lately. One of the blogs I follow and enter contests on is Mrs. Nespy's Frugal World. She had a great back to school giveaway event. I won three of the prizes. There are still a few giveaways left on her blog and she told me she's doing it again in November for the holidays. Here's what I won:


A wii remote soap (I can't wait for this one to arrive. It's going to be a Christmas gift for Addison) from Digital Soaps. (These pictures are from her blog).

A set of cleaning supplies from Conserve.


And a $10 credit to Dodeline Design etsy store. I chose this cute set of thank you notes (picture from her store).

Anyway, take a look at her site if you want to try your luck. :) I even helped my mom enter a few contests online and she won a cool science kit for the grandkids.

If you are interested in winning books, you can check out Hachette Books Giveaway page. You can look through the titles of the books they are promoting (if you click on the title it tells you what the book is about) and go to each blog listed under the title for a chance to win it. I think the Achoo! and Glamour of Grammar books look great.

I promise the next post will be more about what the family is up to and less about coupons and giveaways.