Happy Halloween

We had a fun and long-lasting Halloween this year. Tuesday we carved our pumpkins and ate the roasted seeds--yum! True to past years Paul had to take a bite of the pumpkin as well. Wednesday was Paul's preschool party and then the ward chili cook-off and trunk or treat. Sam was confused at first and just wanted to eat his candy instead of put it in his bag. He was a good sport and even kept his hat on his head. Today we went to the Children's Museum with friends, paid a visit to Great Grandma and Grandpa, had hot dogs at the neighbor's and went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. This was the first year we've done real trick-or-treating and it was so fun! Paul's little friend Hunter came with us and they ran to every house. Sam spent half the time eating in the stroller, but he didn't want to get left out of the action too much. The weather was perfect. It was warm and breezy at first and then turned colder and started to rain just as we were finishing up. It added to the spooky night.
Since I believe any holiday isn't complete without festive food (plus it's a tricky way of trying to get my kids to fill up on dinner instead of candy) we had orange tomato soup with bat grilled cheese sandwiches. We also made some cute scarecrow cupcakes for Paul's party.
Happy Halloween!

Deal or No Deal?

I used to always just shop at Walmart (or Winco in Oregon) since they always had the lowest prices, right? Well, maybe. I've recently started doing a program called Grocery Smarts (if you live in Utah go to grocerysmarts.com and enter passport "g84csg") which lists all the stores sales plus where to get coupons for great deals. It's been fun and now I'm paying more attention to sales and getting 4 newpapers worth of coupons every week. I got free deodorant, toothpaste and eggs so far. I got 10 boxes of Quaker Instant Oatmeal for $5. I never pay more than $2/lb. for meat or $1.25 for a box of cereal. So I'm getting some good deals. But it also comes at a cost. I usually go to 2-3 stores in a week and figuring out my list and coupons takes some time. The most frustrating is when the store is out of something or I don't read the coupon right. But I'm finally staying close to my $100 a week budget (for household items and diapers too) and building up food storage (slowly).
Sometimes deals aren't always deals. The website lists stars to help you find the best deals, but once I stocked up on some frozen peas for $1, only to go Walmart and find the regular price was $.96. Bummer. Today I tried get a deal on pull-ups only to find the packs on sale that I had coupons for had about half the normal amount I buy. So it wasn't the deal I thought it was, but maybe I got better quality. We'll see.
Anyway, here's a few tips I learned that anyone can use to try to save a few bucks at the grocery store:
1. Look at the beer displays for rebate coupons and deals on meat or pizza (some states, like Utah, don't require a beer purchase).
2. To get the best deals, use store sales (Albertson's has great ones) plus coupons.
3. When something's a great deal, stock up!
4. Buy the "Quick Sale" or Manager's Special meats.
5. Browse the ads anyway--Walmart does price matching.
6. Riteaid has a rebate program and you can get deals and free items too.

Wee Witches

We went to Gardner village last weekend to hunt for witches and take a pony ride. The boys had lots of fun. Paul loved searching for witches, but was wary of getting too close. His favorite was the "bad driver" witch that crashed into the side of a building. Proof that he's a 3-year-old boy. Sam liked getting in and out of the stroller on his own and running away. Proof that he's nearing 2.
We also hosted a Halloween cookie playgroup for a few kids in the ward last week to kick off our Halloween season. We also visited a pumpkin patch (which was a sad disappointment especially compared to our past trips to Lakeview Farms--we miss Oregon!) Upcoming events include a puppet show at the library, Paul's preschool party, trunk-or-treat, and of course Buzz and Woody trick-or-treating, so stay tuned...

Random

Since I've gotten this similar tag a couple times, I'm going to try a Halloween twist.
8 Random Things About Me:
1. I was once a box of nerds for Halloween. It was awesome, but hard to move around.
2. I made Paul's 1st Halloween costume--a dog which Sam wore as well.
3. Usually, Jeremy and I dress up too. We like to match.
4. I used to hide my Halloween candy in random places in my room when I was a kid.
5. I will admit that I eat my kids' candy and then throw a lot of it away.
6. Halloween is not my favorite holiday, by a long shot, but it is more fun with kids.
7. I hate scary movies.
8. Autumn is my favorite season. (Hey, I was running out of stuff.)
I added some pictures from Halloween's past.

Photoshoot

We took the boys up to the temple quarry (which is only 5 minutes from our house, how awesome) to try to get some pictures. Paul sat right down and posed perfectly. Sam was not cooperative. He was frustrated that he couldn't keep up with his brother climbing on all the rocks. They look so grown up in these pictures. If you look close you can see the boogers under Sam's nose and the scratches on his forehead--he's such a boy.

I Can!

So I know I've been horrible at blogging lately. I have no great excuses, except that I've been trying to be more selective with how I use my time. We have taken up a few new hobbies too--like canning--at Jeremy's suggestion and indoor rock climbing--so impressive. We've been trying to savor the perfect Utah fall weather before the dreaded winter sets in. Seriously, fall has always been my favorite season and the weather here has been perfect. We took a trip up to Silver Lake and although it was a little cold and rainy, the colors in the mountains were gorgeous.
Back to the canning. I grew up canning with my mother and grandmother, but this was the first time going solo. It was very satisfying. We got 16 quarts of peaches (from the trees in the backyard) and 10 of tomatoes (also from the backyard). Now I just don't want to use them; they look so pretty.