another shutterfly post

Sorry for the five people who read our blog, but I am doing another shameless attempt for you to buy things from shutterfly. It honestly is really great. I love this website. I currently finished our Disneyworld photo book which took me a couple hours to complete and it was such a fun time. I was able to relive memories that Joe and I did while being on our honeymoon. I really enjoyed a new avenue or scrapbooking which i hadn't tried before. I scanned in a lot of our maps, buttons, etc from our honeymoon and now i am looking forward to seeing them in book form. I am also planning on working on another book for james to celebrate his first birthday. We took a ton of pictures of him devouring a cookie monster cupcake and you best be sure that we will put those in the book.

additionally, i have completed my first greeting card order. I am so excited to get those in and let me know for the family if you want me to send you our cards. I was able to get a good deal on cards and they turned out beautiful. I think they are suppose to come to the house tomorrow. I even downloaded a free photoshop program so I could make the photos look their best.

Anyway, happy holidays and take pictures. You never know when you will be able to turn them into a book. Look at these sites for inspiration!

·         holiday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

·         Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

·         wall calendar to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars

·         Hanukkah to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/hanukkah-cards

·         upload pictures to http://www.shutterfly.com/upload-pictures

·         personalized mug to http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mugs

·         Choose your own card/invitation and URL from our Cards & Stationery page

Shutterfly

Shutterfly is perhaps my favorite site on the internet. I just got 15 cards and made our honeymoon photobook.

Here is a link that would give you guys more information about my cards and I am sure the website;

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNGbJuzcsWTlA

My hobby

So I have two hobbies; scrapbooking and saving money. Last time I talked about my wedding album so this time it is to brag about my money savingness (I just made that a word.) In the course of two weeks, I have accumulated a lot of free things and have accumulated a lot of cheap, name brand products.

So James and Pebbles are just shocked at this deal. We got 5 boxes of cereal (all name brand cereal) for 2.35. which is 47 cents a box. I had several manufacturers coupons and 1 store coupon. This is a great promotion that is ending tonight at Albertsons. I then got 4 blocks of Kraft cheese and 1 package of Kraft Shredded Italian cheese for 4.00. What is pretty funny is I actually made 2.00 off of this promotion. So yesterday I went to Target and saw they had Kraft chese 2.00 for a block or bag so I used two 1.00 coupons and got them each for a 1.50. However, I realized that the Kraft Feeding America Promotion is still going on and I was able to print out another coupon using Jezika's printer and I got a Kraft cheese coupon from Target.com/coupons. So I took back the cheese that I had bought on Monday and expected to get $6.00 back because that is what I paid for it. However, the clerk wanted to give 8.00 since it was 8.00 for 4 blocks of cheese. However, I told the clerk that I had previously used coupons and that I should only gt 6.00 back. So she talked to the manager and because I was honest, I got an additional 2 dollars. I used that 2 dollars towards my Toys For Tots Fund. 

I got all of this stuff for 3.69. I got 2 free candles that was on clearance with a buy one get one free and a 1.50 off two candles.  Then, I got two candles and two sprays for 3.69 this week at Safeway. The promotion does end tonight. All of the dish detergent I got free from combining store deals, store coupons, and manufacturer computer.  I also got free Bio True contact solution from online. Also, I forgot to post this in the picture, but I got a bottle of Advil for free too using a coupon.

So I have had a great time saving money. I really find it fun looking for great deals for it be online deals or samples or even cutting coupons to make money on products. I also have found a lot of blessings in being honest. If I am undercharged, I always go back to the store. In all of my shopping endeavors, the store managers never ask for that money back. I one time got Tide Stain Reliever Packets for 1.49 (usually 8.99) because a clerk had incorrectly keyed in a coupon. I caught the mistake immediately and went to customer service and they thanked for my honesty and told me that I didn't need to pay the additional money (which was about 5 dollars.) Honesty pays!

I see on a lot of couponing blogs that some people even try to use expired coupons in order to get more money. I don't understand why people would purposely do that. I mean if you accidently try to use an expired coupon (which I almost did today) that is one thing. I caught it and just looked online for ten minutes for another Cimmanon Toast Crunch coupon.

Anyway, this is my hobby and I love it. Hopefully I will have enough time to continue couponing when I go back to school full time.

Its almost November

I can't believe that is almost November and that James will be a year old. I can't imagine how much time flies. Here are a couple things that just came to be recently.

I have just recently created our wedding album. Three years and no album. I really enjoyed doing it and I can't believe how much life can change in three years. Joe and I have been sealed in the temple and we are parents. That is possibly the biggest change in our life. James has brought so much joy and excitement in our lives. We never expected to be parents while we were in college and it has brought a lot of interesting conversations and what a professor called "a teachable moment." Maybe it isn't a good idea to bring him to school to study because he is the cutest distraction on the planet.

This brings me to another point; James is almost a year old. We recently were visited by the NICP nurse which is quite the controversial figure in our household. She sees him as a nine month old because that is why James should have been and for a nine month old he is off the charts in greatness. However, when you ask her how he is doing for an 11 month old, we are greeted with "yeah hes doing fine." So apparently our little boy doesn't clap and hasn't quite learned how to walk yet but let me tell you what he can do.
1. He can stand up on his own and appear to be dancing. He can also stand up in his crib when he is not happy and tries to motion you to pull him out of his crib.
2. James loves cheese and he gets it all over the place.
3. James can crawl around like his diaper is on fire. He is amazing at crawling around and getting to every place where I don't want him to go.
4. James like yogurt and cake. He doesn't get cake all that much.
5. James' laughs are contagious and always makes me and Joe smile.
6. James is an explorer. I wish I could know what he is thinking.
7. James loves the mornings and loves talk radio.
8. James grosses his legs when he sleeps. He is comfortable that way.
9. James does not like grocery shopping but then again neither does his daddy.
10. James looks adorable in just about anything>
11. James likes cats. It would be nice if cats liked him.
12. James is resilient despite a rough start.

I watched videos from him in the NICU and I have fallen in love with my little man all over again. I can't wait for Joe to come home from his field trip in San Diego because I want him to see all those videos that we took. Next week is the Trunk or Treat so it will be his first Halloween. He is going to be a flying monkey in training.

As we approach the holidays, I am looking forward to Black Friday Shopping, James' take on thanksgiving dinner, decorating for Christmas, Winterhaven, Zoolights, and the Mesa Temple Lights. Of course we will both have finals but I am sure we can celebrate around them.

Then after Christmas, we are going to Virginia.

Despite having a busy life, we have a great life.

Heading to Utah today

The busier we get, the more I realize how crazy our lives are becoming. Is it not enough to be two students? Is it not enough to have an accident prone asthmatic baby? (Yes, if you are reading this and are in special education, the politically correct term is a baby that has asthma and is accident prone. I get it)  The answer is simply nope! I think I should take pictures of all the luggage James requires to just travel overnight let alone to Utah. I have started class again and I am excited about being a student. Sure, I just found out that I have to take another class to graduate but at least I will attain that piece of paper that says I have been in college for 5 and 1/2 years. (thanks College of Education for not telling me until now! Really appreciate it!)

Joe has applied for a couple of scholarships which would be awesome if he would win. Joe will finish in May with his mining engineering degree and then will go off to field camp until mid-June.. Field camp is around 3000 bucks so I figure we should do some tv advertisements for Joe. It could go like this; "for only $15 a day, you can send this poor college student to field camp..." I think it might work. Joe could be frowning caring unsharpened pencils and used textbooks.

I have great money saving tips for everyone who wants to save money. I am addicted to Amazon and if you are a student, you qualify for Amazon Student which gives you free two day shipping through Amazon Prime for a year. Just make sure you cancel your subscription right before it is set to expire.

Diapers are super cheap on Amazon; I am getting 204 Luvs diapers for 25.12 with free shipping. They also have Huggies, Pampers, and all those tree loving, hippie friendly, biodegradable diapers.The hippie diapers are pretty good. I got some on sale on Black Friday and contrary to its name, it doesn't biodegrade on the babies' butt.

You can trade in your textbooks and get Amazon gift cards. Its awesome if you shop there a lot and if you can tell by this post, I should work in the advertising department for Amazon.

FreeCouponing.com gives you a lot of helpful info about saving the most money and getting samples. I think Sam for putting it on her facebook because I am hooked.

I better start getting packed for Utah. We will be meeting up Dad and Maria at some point tomorrow and then we will see the Petersen family for Grandpa's 90th birthday.

Addicted to Craig's List

I can't believe how addicting Craig's List. We have sold so much stuff this weekend through Craig's List. We have also a very nice newer bed from the Smith's. And we got James an exesauer and walker. I am pretty impressed with myself. Now if my mom can just find a job.

Two days and counting

Last night we went to Movies on the Square and saw "Over the Hedge." James was really good and slept through some of the movie only to wake up and want to party. He was up until midnight because he was in such a good movie. We are trying to pack everything up and get a move on to Tucson. Even though we will miss Flagstaff, I think everyone is looking forward to returning to our friends.