Free stuff.

Free stuff. I love it. I love coupons and getting a great deal on things. I'm even stretching out one of my birthday presents because the company sends me coupons just about every week for something free with any purchase. Buy something cheap (like $1) and get something that is normally $7. Okay!

I love signing up for things and forgetting I did until I get a package in the mail.
I love free samples.
I love free!
I love summer reading programs that we just have to do what we always do (read 20 minutes a day) and get free things for the kids.
Today we turned in our packet of papers for the library reading program and received these. I pulled out the hot pink guitar that Olivia picked out for her birthday last year for Vincent. We are going to have to find him some more boyish instruments!
We also went to McDonald's to use the coupons that we got for reading books a while ago. It was the perfect day to go out for ice cream. It was even better because at some point we picked up a coupon for a free milkshake too, so I handed over three coupons and paid nothing! I got a spoon for Vincent and snagged bites from Olivia's cone that was near dripping stage most of the time it took her to eat it.

Almost packed and ready to leave for Yellowstone Wednesday morning for Andy's reunion with the Ransom side. I hear that it's rainy and there are a lot of mosquitoes. I hope they don't eat us alive. We are camping in a tent too. I hope it's not too rainy! Packing everything, just in case of anything. I didn't pack snow stuff, but just about everything else. Now for the challenge of stuffing it (and the kids) into the car in the morning.....

Progress

Vincent is now binky-free! We dropped the last one somewhere at church on Sunday and lost the other pacifiers somewhere else in the last month or so, so he now goes without. I actually found one right after church but hid it because I knew we were going to take it away soon anyway. He's done just fine without it so far (three naps and one night into it.) YEA! I really didn't want to camp with a pacifier, but I'm hoping he isn't yelling in the car the whole ride either.

He is nearly eighteen months. It was time.

Pioneer Day

Tonight our Stake put on a massive Pioneer Day activity with dinner, games, and more. We ate some yummy pulled pork sandwiches and corn on the cob with salads and dessert galore. The kids played old-time games like "pull the stick", ring toss, "buffalo chip toss" (with fake buffalo chips, bummer!), rock painting, dunking booth (they never show the dunking tank in those old movies about Brigham Young), corn clay dough, washing clothes, making noodle necklaces, and they even had a band and had a pioneer parade (which I didn't know about-that's why we aren't dressed up. That, and I don't have many pioneer clothes hanging around. Maybe we could have all worn a bandanna around our neck or something)
There was a horse-drawn covered wagon, but the line was too long, so we skipped that. We skipped the latter-day motor boat rides too (They didn't actually call them that. I just made that up.)
The pictures speak mostly for themselves. Here they are with descriptions/stories though.

Elizabeth and Olivia driving the pretend covered wagon.Andy and I in the covered wagon.
Oh, we are smiling so big because some sister missionaries are helping Elizabeth stand in the right place to take the picture and Olivia was dancing around making silly faces at us. I wish I had video of her silly dance and faces! Hilarious!
Olivia trying out the cowboy hat someone else brought.Both girls in their borrowed hats. (They go really well with the Mario shirt Elizabeth is wearing....)
They "walked and walked and walked and walked a-n-d walked" for the parade with some friends from our ward.
Olivia and Elizabeth played old-time games, like pull the stick.
Elizabeth pulled Olivia with the stick. That means that she won.
They played with clay, like the pioneers would have. They made little corn dough cakes. I love that Olivia is concentrating so hard that her tongue is out (just like my brothers do.)Elizabeth rolling out the dough.
Andy and Olivia stringing painted noodle beads on strings.
Vincent smiling so I'd take him out.
Elizabeth working on her bracelet.
Vincent wore his special "Ransom" jersey my mom made for all the grandkids (naturally, they don't all say 'Ransom'). I figured that way if he was running around and wandered away (not that we wouldn't watch him, of course, but just in case) they'd be able to know who he was or who to return him too. (We didn't lose him, so we'll never know if this scheme would have worked.)Vincent sporting the necklace Andy made. He didn't like it much, because seconds after I snapped the picture, he destroyed it. It was worth all of Andy's minutes making it, right?
I think we need our very own olden-day laundry set. Elizabeth wanted to do it forever! She kept squeezing all the water out of some old towel. She loved doing this. The washboard was broken. Too bad she couldn't do it too.
Check her out spinning the handle. She's smiling, even doing laundry the hard way!
Olivia got a short try on it. She didn't care quite as much.
We watched a man spin wool fleece into yarn.
Elizabeth played the pulling stick game again right before we left with a girl from our ward who shares her birthday, but is three years older. Elizabeth beat her and the girl got all upset saying, "she's younger than me, and I still lost!". I told her to try again with her hands in the middle and she won one too. She had just lost nine (or so) in a row to one of her brother's friends. I think it bugged her to not be able to beat Elizabeth that first time. Elizabeth's tough!

Tips?

What are your tricks and tips for not spending too much money on food for a camping vacation?
We can't stop at McDonald's for every meal....
Any snack ideas or fun things your kids like to eat while camping?

Lazy days of summer

Finally, swimming lessons have been over for a week and a half and we are just hanging out at home. We have to fix the van this weekend (when Andy will have time), so I haven't been taking the kids anywhere during the day. We've just been hanging out and being lazy. I love being lazy. Reading books. Wiping Vincent's near constant runny nose. Craft with the girls. Finishing cross-stitch projects, cleaning, watching too much PBS and kid movies, playing too much on the computer, eating too many snacks and enjoying the lazy hot summer days inside. Sleeping in too. I really love that part. The kids don't sleep in, but I do. I get up to get them what they need and go back to bed. Obviously this comes with some interruptions, but it's so nice to hang out in pajamas for half the day once in a while. Oh, and I killed my KitchenAid on Saturday after I ground up wheat and made wheat bread. Andy has to open that up to see if he can fix that too. No yummy bread for a little while unless I want to work out my arms more. I'm too lazy for that right now.

Last week, before the van was getting too hot, we ventured out to the mall to use up a little more of a gift card from my birthday with a coupon for a free item there and walked around the mall for a while. The kids played in the little playground and we got a paper from Barnes and Noble for their summer reading program. Pretty much, we just did the cheap stuff. It's nice to do that once in a while.
Kids playing at the mall. They like to drag Vincent around with them.Two days after that, the van was being bad, so I had to beg my mom to take me up to my aunt's Pampered Chef party in Mesa. So, my wonderful mom drove to Richland from Walla Walla (1 hour) to pick us up, then we drove up to Mesa (1 hour) and back (1 hour) and then she ran some errands in Tri-Cities and drove home (1 hour). I have an amazing mom. Oh, the Pampered Chef party was extra fun because it was during lunchtime, so all the kids were invited to play outside with my aunt's younger kids and other cousins and they fed us lunch too. We were going to pick apricots, but they weren't ready yet, so we just went home. I guess I already blogged about this, but here's the picture of the kids waiting for my mom to pick us up.

Watching PBS after naptime. I like that he is so into it, he hardly notices the camera. The chair is there to keep him out of the cabinet. Soon, he'll be strong enough to move the chair. Gotta get some more of the locks since ours broke.
Olivia watching PBS and eating what looks really gross, but tastes really good. At the party in Mesa last week, the consultant for Pampered Chef made a yummy fruit cake in the microwave. I tried to recreate it and then emailed for the recipe. Here's her recipe:

Microwave Fruit Cake
This ends up kind of like a cobbler, but doesn't take as long.

Ingredients:
Yellow Cake Mix
Peach Pie or Apple Pie Filling or what ever flavor you desire
1 1/2 sticks of butter (or margarine)

Instructions:
Place Cake mix in bottom of baker, layer with Pie Filling, 1 1/2 sticks of butter pats. Put lid on and cook in the microwave for 10 minutes. Then stir up and cook 3 more minutes. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.
Don't use butter recipe. Use Yellow cake mix, or Devils food with Cherries
Butter recipe is too buttery and takes longer to cook in microwave
You can try different cake mixes and pie fillings.

It's always nice to have a fast and easy cake recipe.

Elizabeth karate-ing for fun. She's been playing with Keone. Can you tell? We are all so sad they are moving away to a different road in Richland. Same school, not too far away, but we'll have to arrange playdates now. I think he can ride his bike this far though, so that will make things easier.

Thursday Snippets

Here are some snippets of our Thursday. (At least I'll try to make the day short and not ramble too much. I'm working on that...)

Up at 7:00 with Olivia and Vincent.
Ready to go at 8:10. (Mom was supposed to be here at 8:30 to pick all of us up)
8:30-kids ready and waiting at the window.
The girls are waiting at the window watching for Grandma and Olivia's asking Elizabeth "Here yet?" over and over and Elizabeth says, "No" at different octaves over and over. She's more patient than me though. She isn't even asking her to stop.
9am I change Vincent's poopy diaper and notice a message on the answering machine that is my mom saying she'll be here at 9:30 instead because she reread the invite and it doesn't start until 10:30

Keep kids entertained for another 45 minutes until mom actually gets here at 9:45

Put all three carseats in the back of mom's car to go to Aunt Diana's Pampered Chef lunch party. (My van isn't road worthy at the moment... and my mom is great to take us. We really had fun!)

Drive. I cross-stitched and we chatted. The kids were even quiet in the car.

Get there, play, eat, Vincent eats dog food, we leave, sweaty, dirty, and full.

Go down the road and around the corner to my Grandma's house to pick apricots. They aren't ready yet (at least the ones we can reach)

We drive home (with a stop at Winco) and mom helps me with borders for my quilt. Vincent and Olivia fall asleep for part of the trip, while Elizabeth tells us that when we get home, she wants to make three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because she is "starving" (even though we all just ate.)

Rest a few minutes (ie: catch up on emails, blogs, facebook, phone calls, etc.)

Try to make Vincent finish his nap (a no go.)

Visit with Ally from across the street. (Who is moving soon a mile away, so we will have to arrange playdates instead of just notice they are home and send kids over, and vice versa... We are sad about that.)

Olivia throws a giant fit about one of her dress up shoes breaking. She wanted me to get a different one out, but I was visiting and said no (over and over, so I couldn't change-and she kept asking and freaking out.) I took away her other shoe and crown and necklace and bracelet before finally making her do a time out in her room where she fell asleep. She was tired and crabby. (And maybe I was too.)

Make dinner after Andy gets home. BBQ Chicken that took a long time to cook and instant mashed potatoes.

Vincent eats so I can be in the kitchen.

Andy gets a 30 minute phone call from his boss who is on an extreme triatholon with his scouts.

Elizabeth and I eat without them.

Olivia wakes up. Andy eats with her.

I leave for a baby shower. It was for one of the girls I used to teach in MiaMaids at church when Andy and I were first married. Too bad no one was there (at all. It was a new road too. There weren't any cars on their whole culdasac. Weird.) I figured that it was because she was having her baby. But there wasn't a note or anything...

Came home after being gone for 20 minutes.

Update this. Find out that Missy did have her baby firl this afternoon. At least now I can finish the gift...

Time to go and get the kids to bed. I'm SO ready for that!

Bounce house fun!

Dylan turned five on Monday, so his parent's (Doug and Suzie) had a party at their place complete with a gigantic Spiderman bounce house and a pinata (now pinatas may not seem like a big deal to you, but that's only because you are probably over 10 years old and you didn't get to hit your pinata with a policeman night stick.) We had yummy pizza, vegetables (when we were going out the door, my girls both grabbed handfuls of veggies), pop, and of course the ever popular birthday food, birthday cake.
The kids all loved the bounce house and came out of it dripping sweat. They were very worn out at bedtime though.
Dylan loves Transformers lately, so we bought him a book and a t-shirt with Transformers. I think he liked them. We didn't know which action figures he'd get for his birthday or which ones he already had (or even which ones, little or big), so I went the easy way and went with the book and shirt. Less stuff around the house is better, right?
Pictures, yes, of course, I have pictures!Archer stayed in the bounce house for about an hour before I saw him come out. He loved it in there. Archer is Dylan's little brother. Vincent wasn't in there when they were jumping this high. (oh, wait, re-looking at the picture taken right before this one, he was. He survived.)
Elizabeth hitting the pinata. Olivia said, "Hit it harder, Elizabeth!" I love that they cheer each other on.
Olivia kept swinging and missing the pinata. She had really good follow through. When she missed swinging one way, she'd try it from the other side. Yes, that's a real police night stick, made of indestructible African hardwood. Dylan's dad is a policeman. If you cause mischief in Richland, you might get to meet him.
Andy helped Vincent when it was his turn. Guess who wanted to just play with the stick when his turn was over....Elizabeth was Vincent's big helper at the party. She stayed (most of the time, except when Vincent would wander into the house) close behind him to make him go places with her. She was helping him into the bounce house here. She worked really hard to get him up this slide. After I took the picture, I helped her, don't worry. She did do it about 10 times by herself though.Vincent's thoroughly entertained by bigger kids. He loves playing with his big sisters. Sorry some of these are a little blurry. They were just moving too fast, but look at all the fun they're having!
Olivia being silly for me.
Dylan taking a turn on his new bike from his parents. Right after he was done, Elizabeth took over.
Dylan's Transformer cake. Sorry I took the picture upside-down and it didn't work very well.
Dylan had some help from his dad, Doug, with the candles. George, Andy's dad is in the background.
George likes to play with Vincent. Vincent is a real giggler and loves his grandpa.
Brad and Torrie tried out the bounce house when the kids took a break to run around the lawn.

In the Summertime....

...when the weather is high (I always thought it was hot) , you can chase (I thought this was stretch) right up and touch the sky, in the summertime we go fishing or go swimming in the sea....
Dee dee dee dee dee, da da da da da, dee dee dee dee dee, yeah, we're hap-pap-py.
Alright, enough of Mungo Jerry. I love that song though. It's so happy.Olivia, Elizabeth, and Sami at the sprinkler park. Elizabeth was feeling a little silly, I guess.

Last night, Andy's sister, Sara, asked if we wanted to go to a sprinkler park near here for the afternoon so her little girl, Sami, would have some kids to play with (and of course to play and visit and have fun!) We went straight there after swimming lessons with our picnic in tow. Suzie, another sister, was there with her two boys as well.
We had a fun time. We always do. Here are some pictures I took:

Dylan and Elizabeth
Cute Sami. I love her strawberry suit! She liked to come over and tell Sara and I hello and then run back in.Vincent with Aunt Sara. How'd he get a farmer's tan already? Oh, I should mention that he only wore his shorts for ten minutes. He didn't want to get in, so I just changed him back into normal clothes. Naptime, new molars, and water sprayed in the face will do that.
Suzie with Archer. He didn't like the water much either, but he did like the slide, a lot!Elizabeth taking a break to eat her sandwich (very quickly) and then running back to play.

Movie Night!

Girl's Movie Night Out! We are going to see "My Sister's Keeper" at Carmike Cinemas at 7:30 TOMORROW night (Thursday, July 9th). Let me know if you are coming and I'll try to find you there.

Prayer

I love little kid prayers. I love how they say "nourish and strengthen our bodies". I love that they squint through their eyes to ask for help with what comes next. I love that they see prayers answered in their lives and know it will help with their testimony throughout their lives.
Tonight Elizabeth prayed to find her Lego she lost. It always seems to be small and simple things kids think to pray about too. She told Olivia, "Okay, let's say a prayer to find it", while I was watching Jeopardy or something, and so I muted the TV and listened to her sweet prayer. She said her prayer and then hopped right up and said, "Alright, where is it now?" I was a little worried that she wouldn't find it because it was a little clear one, but she found it less than 10 seconds after the prayer. I am always amazed at that. I told her she should say a thank you prayer too and she got right down and did it. I love it! Even more because she came up with the idea on her own.
Last week, Elizabeth's mouth was hurting in the middle of the night and she came out to the family room bawling about it. I tried to calm her down and then I thought that I should have her say a prayer. As soon as she was done, I thought, "Why not give her some pain reliever medicine?" I don't know why I hadn't thought of that on my own, but as soon as I gave it to her, she calmed down and went back to sleep within minutes.
A few weeks ago I called my neighbor across the street, Ally, about something. She was frantically trying to find her wallet that she lost (this is a BIG deal!) the day before. She was retracing her steps and calling places to try to find it, getting a temporary driver's license (who would think of that!?) and went in to get a replacement medical card for her daughter. She was going through all the steps. After she finally took a break and came home, she told me she prayed aloud (for one of the first times in her life) for her to be able to find her wallet. I don't know how much time passed, but she looked outside and saw two tiny dogs running in the street in front of our houses, caught them both, called the number on the tags, and took the dogs to where the owner was (at WinCo because they figured if they just took the dogs home, they'd get out however they got out that time), and then came home to find her wallet in her mailbox. How great is that? While she was serving someone else, someone else served her. She was thinking of others and how she would want someone else to return her dog to her even though she was stressed about her own situation and took all that time (probably a good 40 minutes) to help someone else. I'm learning so much from her.

Prayers are answered in our everyday lives, even if they are about small and simple things. Try it next time you are worried and see prayer work in your own life. Heavenly Father loves and cares about each of us. He knows what worries us. Jesus Christ took all of our burdens upon him with the Atonement. Release your burdens on Him and find peace.

Fourth of July

Of course, we lounged around all weekend relaxing like Elizabeth in this picture. Right? No, you don't believe me? Alright, we really packed as much fun and visits into our weekend as possible. Here's what we really did.
Elizabeth relaxing during a break from running around.

We started out our weekend with fun and games with some old game night friends along with our two regulars. Monica and Nate came to visit Monica's family for the holiday and fit us in Friday night to play games. We played Power Grid. I won. It was very close though and we are all pretty new at it and still working on our strategy. Then we played a trivia game on the Wii and when I played that I lost horribly. It was fun to visit with them and we are always happy to play games. We played until almost 1am even though we had a ward breakfast Saturday morning.
We woke the kids up to go to that at 8am (because all summer they have been waking up at 7:30, but when we need to be somewhere, they don't want to wake up.) I love the ward breakfast. It's one of the best events of the year at church. We really like the chili/chowder cook-off too, but I love breakfast. This year did not disappoint. Our friend, Nathan, came with us all day. Nathan likes to help us with our kids too, like he follows Vincent around to make sure he doesn't fall.
We left the breakfast about 9:30 to go up to Andy's parent's place by Goldendale, WA for lunch. We got there a little after 11am and the kids rode the 4-wheeler with Grandpa George, played paper dolls on the picnic table, wandered around the under construction house, and had a great time. We played until everybody who was coming up arrived and then we ate. There was so much yummy food. The kids love playing with their cousins, which was good, because before too long, we were off again to play with the cousins on my side.

Olivia posing and being silly at the mountain.
Brad and Torrie in the loft of the house at the mountain.

We left the mountain about 3pm to drive back to Richland, get our evening supplies, and go over to Pasco. Three of my brothers with their families had dinner together at 5pm. My brother, Joe, and his wife, Kori, have an awesome backyard play area. They even have a blow up water slide that the kids LOVED! Well, I guess the tiniest kids didn't love it, but they did like the baby pool. The bigger kids (including a couple of my brothers and one sister-in-law) all played in/on/around the water slide, having water fights and playing fun games. We had a delicious dinner and the kids (and Brant, Joe, Tina) all played some more. We had 12 of my parents' 14 grandkids all climbing and playing all over and they all played very nicely. There wasn't much fighting, no running into the road, and I don't remember anyone other than infants crying. Overall, a success.
Olivia loved the water slide.
Until Elizabeth and Colby took her out. Can you find her?
Nope, she still likes it. What good cousins.
And back up for another run at it.
Vincent sharing the baby pool with cousin Sam and Uncle Joe.
Brant guarding, I mean catching, Christopher.
Tina with Caleb and Christopher and Brant behind them. Tina is my brother, Brant's, wife.
Olivia climbing up the wall to go down the slide instead of climbing up the slide.
Look at this chubby kid. He loved the baby pool!
Brant getting Elizabeth back for dumping water on him while Colby and Vincent watch.
Olivia on the swing at Colby's house, er, uh, Joe's house.

We changed the kids into dry clothes to go over to Kori's parent's house that has a better view of the fireworks at about 9pm. The kids played in Kori's preschool room and the men went to get gas in a car and load up on pop and slurpees. By 10pm, the fireworks began. The kids all ohhed and awwed at appropriate times and no one was scared of the noise or bright lights (some bright lights came from my flash on the camera too. =) Even Vincent was "ohhing", just like the big kids. Milton and Christen took their kids to the top of a hill in Kennewick to watch the fireworks, so we just had Joe, Brant, and I and our families over there. I took the leftover "Colby approved" rice crispy treats and we all enjoyed the show. (Colby is allergic to milk products, eggs, and nuts).

Nathan, Andy, Tina holding Caleb, Brant holding Christopher, Joe with Elizabeth, Olivia, and Colby on the steps watching the fireworks.

Home at 11pm and the kids went to bed, are sleeping well, the laundry machine is running the wet clothes through, and I'm doing this, even though I should be sleeping. I'll take a nap after church tomorrow. Busy, busy, fun, fun day. Those days are the best! We are having a fabulous summer so far!