Mr. & Mrs. Claus

It has been a long time since my kids have sat on Santa's lap. In fact I think it was a first for Cassidy, Lindsey and Grant. They are always so terrified of the guy that I have never bothered. Grant was scared, which is why he is on the far end of the couch from him. If Santa hadn't come to our Ward Christmas party I wouldn't have bothered this year either. But since he was there and the picture was free - why not.

Humpty Dumpty

Cassidy's Kindergarten class had a Nursery Rhyme Festival. Each student got to choose their favorite nursery rhyme and dress up like a character in that nursery rhyme. During the festival we went around to the different students and listen to them recite their nursery rhyme. I found it very amusing that Cassidy would choose Humpty Dumpty out of all the nursery rhymes. Of course this would be the hardest one to come up with a costume for. Luckily Cassidy's dad is a great artist and can just draw her a Humpty Dumpty costume. I feel sorry for the other two kids dressed as Humpty Dumpty's.

Cougar Country

Once a year we receive a free night stay at a Marriott hotel through a Marriott Rewards Visa Card. It isn't worth traveling very far to just stay one night, so we like to stay close by and visit all the cool places in Utah. Last year we stayed at Thanksgiving Point and spent a day there playing. This year we headed down to Provo. We stayed at a brand new Marriott that is right behind the Glenwood Apartments where Aaron and I first met.

We took the kids on a nostalgic tour of Provo, visiting all the different places we lived - the Glenwood, the Colony and WyView. They didn't enjoy it nearly as much as we did. We took them out to dinner to the Pizza Factory. (I passed Los Hermanos the next day and I wished we would have gone there!) We went swimming in the pool at the hotel. We went to the Bean Life Science Museum. We went to the bookstore. We toured the library. We went bowling in the basement of the Wilkensen Center. We toured the new addition to the Tanner Building. The kids favorite part was listening to the bells play "All is Well" every hour. I think the mini vacation was a lot more interesting for Aaron and me. It was great to be on campus again. Not that I actually went to BYU, I went to UVSC. I spent a good deal of time on campus for church and then when Aaron was in MBA school we went up there a lot. Ah, the good ol' days!

We are pretty pathetic bowlers. This is even with the bumpers on!

Why pay more?

I love eliminating monthly expenses. About six months ago we got rid of our satellite bill and our phone bill. We now get TV for free and the phone free. All we have to pay for is our high speed Internet connection.

The phone. We disconnected our landline and went for a Voice over IP (Internet) option. When looking into Vonage and other VoIP options we saw an ad at Costco for Ooma. Having never heard of Ooma, we did our research. You have an initial investment of $230 to purchase the equipment, but then there are no montly fees. You have call waiting, instant second line, voicemail, unlimited minutes, unlimited long distance - the works, all for free each month. If you look at the price of unlimited calling on Vonage ($24.99/month) it only takes 7 months to cover the cost of the equipment. We are now at least six months into using Ooma, and I love it. We have never had a problem with it. I will never go back to paying for my home phone.

The TV. We aren't huge TV watchers. When looking at how much we spent on satellite each month it just wasn't worth it for the few times we actually have time to watch TV. (With the DVR, 2nd reciever and the basic package we were paying around $60-$70 a month) We had some initial investments to get to the point we are at. We bought a flat screen TV and a Mac mini. We chose the Mac mini because it was so small (About 6in square by 3 in high). We could have used an existing home computer, but we wanted to have the computer dedicated to the TV. The flat screen TV essentially becomes a giant monitor for the computer.

Online you a can now get full episodes of tons of TV shows. If you use hulu.com you have access to all shows on NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, Food Network, HGTV, some PBS shows and a ton of the old classic shows that we grew up with. The kids have tons of their shows available on different sites, for example, Disney Channel has almost all of their shows available, so the kids get their Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place. We can also watch shows from Playhouse Disney, NickJr, PBS kids, and Sesame Street websites. They don't have every single episode available online. Disney Channel usually puts a new episode on every Monday, but takes one off also, so you have about 5 episodes of each show online at a time. It is definitely enough to keep my kids entertained. We always have the option of using our antenna to get any of the local tv stations. (BTW- if you haven't used an antenna since the switch to digital, you should give it a try. Crystal clear reception, and lots of new digital stations. For example KSL (NBC) has three channels, the regular tv, a US sports channel where you can watch any US sporting team compete, and a weather channel.) The best part of the online TV world is that there is only one 30 second commercial for each commercial break. The down side is that you can't fast forward the commercial and it is usually the same commercial for the entire show. My kids are now used to the new way of watching TV and can operate the computer just fine on their own. Another benefit of the online TV world is that most of the shows are in High Definition so you can utilize the HD features of your TV without paying for it. More and more shows are becoming available all the time.

Other benefits of having a computer attached to your TV:
* We can watch DVD's on the computer so we eliminated our DVD player.
* The LDS church's website has some videos online and they have all of their materials online. For Family Home Evening, we can use the Online Songbook to play the music to sing along to, we use the online Gospel Art pictures to teach our lessons, we use the scriptures on the screen so everyone can see them. We can create PowerPoint documents to give a lesson .
* We have our iTune music there so when we just want to listen to some music - say at clean up time - then it is all available.
* We can hook our electronic keyboard (Piano) up to the computer and using GarageBand (a program on the Mac) they can take piano lessons. (We are still figuring this one out)

It didn't take long to get used to watching TV in a different way. It has definitely been worth it. It is amazing how the Internet is changing the way we do everything.

The cell phone. My latest cost saving find is with my cell phone. Aaron just got an iPhone for his birthday. This caused us to have to drop Verizon and move him to AT&T. There weren't a lot of good options for family plans on AT&T for me, so we did some shopping. When looking into my cell phone usage we found that I use probably 50-75 minutes a month. I used to use my cell phone for all long distance calling, but now that I can do that from my home phone, I don't need the cell phone to do that. I basically only use my cell phone for when I leave the house - which is getting less and less frequent. I don't want to give up my cell phone because I like to have it in case of an emergency. I found the perfect plan for me at T-mobile. It is a pay as you go plan. I pay $100 and I get 1000 minutes and/or text messages and I have one year to use them. There is no contract. I am very excited for my new plan. Of course this won't work for everyone. Most people use their cell phone and text messaging way more that I do. For me though, it is another great find to save money each month.

I'm done with my consumer report for the day. I'm not sure why I chose to write about this. I think it is mainly to document the transition into a new way of doing business. Someday it will be fun to look back at it. I remember when my FHE brother at Ricks was telling us that he just got an email account. We were all sitting around listening carefully as he tried to explain this concept of email. I remember walking away thinking it was the dumbest idea and that no one would ever use it. I remember in college having a DOS Word and Excel class and at the same time I was in the first class offered for WordPerfect using Windows. How great has life been since we got rid of DOS! Times have changed so much in so short amount of time. It will be interesting to see what will be next.

Princess Party

Here are a few pictures of Cassidy's Princess Birthday party. I did this same party for Whitney a few years ago. If it is a hit for one, why reinvent the wheel - right?!

They each got to decorate their own Barbie cake. Which is one of the small, Kelly size Barbie stuck into a mini bundt cake. One of the girls when she saw it said "Eww, that is disgusting putting a Barbie in a cake!" Very funny.Then they all learned how to curtsy like a princess and learned a dance from Bella Dancerella. (For those of you without little girls it is a DVD.) The wands are made by a dowel stick with a hole drilled into it. Spray painted and a ribbon attached.

Cassidy with her birthday crown she got at school.

Cassidy with her flowers from Dad.

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was two of my favorite men's birthday. Lindsey said to me "Hey mom, we are the same, it is my dad's birthday today and it is your dad's birthday today. "

Aaron's brother emailed this card to him, and it made me laugh, which is something I haven't done for awhile, so I am posting it. I wouldn't want all of his brother's hard work to go unnoticed. :) Thanks JD.

Happy Birthday Dad and Dar - I love you both so much!

Happy Halloween

Grant is two this year. We have attempted several costumes for him. He started out as Elmo, but he didn't keep that on for more than two minutes. Then we decided on "Dennis the Menace." He kept the hat and frog in his pocket for a little longer. Someone thought he looked like a construction worker, so for the actually Halloween festivities, I put this tool belt and hard hat on. I think the "Bob the Builder" or "Handy Manny" was our best out of the three. Dennis the Menace just wasn't obvious enough - even though it fit his personality the best :)Whitney was a "Snow Princess." I found this costume on e-bay. Cassidy was a Cheerleader.

Lindsey was a fairy princess.

Tumbling

I have had Whitney is various tumbling classes in the past, but it has been several years since I have attempted it. The girls are constantly begging me to let them take tumbling or dance or something. I have avoided this out of fear. At this point, if I sign one of them up for something, I have to sign all three of them up for something. The thought of running them to various practices throughout the week just doesn't sound like my idea of a good time. (Not to mention the costs involved.) I can barely handle life with four kids, to add lessons to my life makes me want to curl up in a ball and hide. I don't know how moms do it.

I found a community ed tumbling class that was for 4-12 year olds. I decided that since I could put them all in the same class, I could handle it. The girls are having a great time. They love it. I know there are benefits to their self esteem to be able to be good at something. I feel guilty that I don't let them do this more often. Kids today are so over scheduled that they don't have time to be a kid. Where do you draw the line? I am a selfish person. I don't want to spend every Saturday or weekday driving my kids to their games or practices. Is this horrible of me? Enough of my ranting. Here are some cute pictures of my girls at tumbling class. . . .

Cassidy doing a spread somersault (It has a name, I just don't remember it) Whitney doing a hand stand

Whitney doing a back bend

Lindsey is unbelievably flexible!Grant is a trooper. He actually enjoys watching them at practice

Zoo Babies

Last week Aaron was gone all week. We were getting a little stir crazy, so to get out of the house I took my kids to see all the new arrivals at the Hogle Zoo.

Lindsey loves, loves loves Giraffe's so we just had to go see the new baby giraffe.

The baby elephant was adorable!The baby is hidden a little by the pole in the picture.This is the baby alligator. I haven't been into the reptile house for years. It was actually pretty cool inside. I loved the giant tortoises. We've been missing out by skipping it every time.There were also baby tigers, baby monkeys and more that I didn't take pictures of. This was a good year to get a zoo membership. So much fun to see all the little baby animals.

Lake Tahoe / Taylor Creek

Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places. I love it there. I only wish we were there when it was warmer so that we could play in it. We will have to go back again sometime soon.Whitney took this picture of Aaron and me. Pretty good for an 8 year old.

At Lake Tahoe we went to the Taylor Creek Visitor Center. There are two weeks out of every year that is Salmon spawning season. We just happen to be there during those two weeks. Hundreds of these Salmon turn bright red, then swim up this creek from the Lake. They lay their eggs and then die. There will probably never be an opportunity when we can see something like this again. It was way cool. There are two hikes that you can take from the Visitor's Center, one goes along the creek and then ends up in this observatory where you can see under the river. The Salmon don't come up stream this far, but there were a lot of other fish to see there. The other hike takes you out to the Lake.