My Favorite Website to Find Deals!

So I have become quite obsessed with scoring huge deals at the store or online! I love to find the cheapest way to get what my family needs/wants. I have been able to score a lot of free stuff by using my favorite website - freebies2deals.com! I am so obsessed that I even went to her coupon conference last month and loved the information I got. I get so many free samples just by checking this website many times a day. I have also used it to score deals such as: DownEast shirts for only $3.50 at their Tent sale last week, Scrubbing Bubbles Bathroom cleaner for Free at Target this week, etc. etc. If you are looking to find a way to save at the store on groceries or whatever, you have to check out her site!

New family pictures

Finally posting some pictures we took as a family last fall!! Enjoy!

The Family Bed

This is a picture of what I came home to late one night after shopping. Needless to say, I spent the night on the couch.

"Our" Temple

The new Oquirrh Mountain temple was built just up the hill from us. We have watched it being built for about 2 years now. We feel so blessed to have this new temple so close to us. Whenever we would drive by, our kids would comment on it. Marissa was able to participate in a church production called "Come to the Mountain of the Lord." It involved dancing and singing by the youth from all of the stakes within the new temple district. There were thousands of youth involved. It was an awesome experience to witness. Our stake was assigned to do a Latin-American dance. My talented neighbor choreographed the whole dance and patiently taught it to 300 youth. The kids practiced, sometimes several times a week, for two months in order to be ready to perform their 2 1/2 min. dance at the Conference Center downtown with President Monson in attendance. Although it was tough on the kids to practice that much, I think their lives were touched by the experiences they shared. We were able to go downtown to actually watch it and I was brought to tears at the dedication of these youth and the culmination of months of practices. I feel like our youth rededicated their lives to the Lord and to going to the temple by their participation in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We look like we are in pain, but we were looking right into the sun. We really had a great time -promise!!!



A couple of weeks ago, Dave and I had the opportunity to serve in the new temple open-house. I was an usher and Dave worked as security. It was the first time we had been able to see inside the new temple. Although the actual serving during the open house proved to be a hard task (standing for 4 1/2 hours with no breaks and crazy weather) we were happy to have heeded the call to serve. After my shift ended and I was driving to pick up the kids, there was the most gorgeous rainbow I have seen in my life right in the middle of the valley. It was so vibrant that you could actually see all the colors. I was in awe and I called Dave who was still serving to go up and see it. I felt like the Lord was just enhancing the beauty of his home with this reminder from nature.


Last week, we took the kids through the temple and I can honestly say it is the most beautiful temple I have seen (I might be a little biased though.) The thing I loved the most was the open feeling of it. There is natural light in all of the ordinance rooms which is unique. The kids really enjoyed it as well and felt the Spirit there (the yummy cookies at the end helped too.).





Notice the Angel Moroni - he was struck by lightening a few weeks ago and his arm, horn, and face were blackened.

We feel so blessed to have "our" temple so close.

Happy Birthday to my Sweetheart

Dave celebrated his 37th birthday on June 16th. We were able to escape for a little date that night. He is such an amazing man and is a great husband and father. I felt like I failed at making his birthday special this year. It just seemed like our crazy schedule got in the way this year. He works so hard to provide for his family and puts up with a lot from us. His children absolutely love spending time with him and he does a great job at doing just that. He is great at listening to me and helping me get through the daily trials. So Happy Birthday dear!!

Because my 2 brothers and Dave have all their birthdays within a week and it was also Father's Day and my sister's belated birthday, we celebrated all with a dinner and lots of desserts.

Should we build an ark?

On June 10th, we had a torrential downpour of rain. It started out as a lot of rain, but then the hail came down too. At first, Mason and I were just looking out the window thinking "Wow, this is so cool" then I saw my neighbor out making sure the storm drain was clear in front of our houses as the water began rising. Then I began thinking "Uh oh, this can't be good." Our neighborhood has a long history of flooding from these kinds of storms. Years before we bought it, our house was one of the homes severly flooded from such a storm. The city and the previous home owners had since made many improvements and we haven't had hardly any problems. This storm was nothing I had experienced before. The water went halfway up our front yard and left a lot of debris. The hail that bordered the flood still remained as a reminder the next day. Luckily, we only had a small spot flood from one of our window-wells. I am so amazed at the great neighborhood we live in. As soon as it was apparent that this was one of "those storms" we had neighbors out with their shop-vacs, fans, and sump pumps going from one house to the next to make sure everyone was taken care of (even those who were out of town and got severly flooded were taken care of ). How blessed we feel to live among these wonderful people.

It only took minutes for the water level to get this high!

The water is half way up my front lawn.

My neighbor attempting to drive through the "lake". Anytime anyone drove through, waves would come up on our lawn.

After the water drained, this is what was left - a line of hail that looked like snow.

Our little "Real" Soccer Player

Zach finished yet another season of soccer. This year was tough because of the unpredictable weather. Games were canceled or else played in horrible wind storms. It took him a few games to get into his rhythm but once he did, he played so well. He has learned to be a lot more aggressive about going after the ball. His team didn't necessarily win a lot of games but the experiences and the joy on his face was so worth it. He was also happy to once again play with his friend, Colby. Great season Zach!!