July and August Family Newsletters

I put these two pages together because they looked funny apart. You can click on it to make it bigger.

A New Camera!

Well, it was a close race between these two cameras:

Kodak M340

Canon Rebel XS


We were very happy with the pictures both cameras took and especially surprised with the quality from the Kodak one considering it sells for around $130! (That's pretty cheap for a decent digital camera these days!) We love how small and light the Kodak one is but a digital SLR has been on my wish list for awhile now...so we went with the Canon Rebel XS. I am so excited to have it to take wonderful pictures of my kids, the neighbor's kids, any kids we may be related to or know, pretty much if you want pictures of your kids, bring them over!

So, good bye to our old trusty, much loved, Kodak Easyshare-One 6 MP Camera! You were a good camera and we took you everywhere we went and have around 7,000 pictures to prove it!

Ah Life...

So the newest thing in our life is we have realized that our very loved camera has stopped working! Life without a working digital camera....how will I survive!?! So wish us luck as we begin our new quest to find a good camera. It seems so overwhelming with so many choices: 10mp or 12mp, point and shoot or SLR, face detection, optical stabilization, 3x optical zoom or 10x optical zoom...then there is the big question $150 or $600 or somewhere in between!?! I'm sure we'll get a new digital camera soon because I don't think we know how to survive without one for long. So stay tuned and we'll let you know which one we picked out!

New Family Pictures

While up in Utah we had new family pictures taken. Thanks goes to Carly Bates for some awesome pictures!

So Many Projects So Little Time...

I LOVE Projects! I just go a bit crazy without having something to work on. At any given time it seems like I have about 10 projects that I'm in the middle of; Robert took the liberty of counting all my "unfinished" projects for me this weekend. But for the record I do finish many of them, here are a few I have finished lately:

* 3 new Ties for Michael and James to wear to Church
* Cute pink shoes for Katelyn
* A new apron for the kids to wear
* 3 Wooden pictures to celebrate a new baby in the Bond/Phillips family...They will look so cute on a light lime green wall don't you think? :)
* And lastly a precious little purple satin dress for Katelyn; the little girl who hates clothes! (We dressed her today and she screamed for about 45 minutes while pulling at her clothes and throwing her self onto the floor!)






Ah, I love my projects! Perhaps soon I'll start my current dream project of painting our great room! *Sigh* But then again maybe I'll just work on something I've already started.

May Family Newsletter


June Family Newsletter

Ahhh...Free Stuff!

I just love Coupon $ense! I love the high that I get when I have tons of stuff and it rings up for nearly nothing! The greatest is when the cashier says, "I don't know how that happened but we owe you money!" Here's a picture of a trip to Bashas, I spent around $1.60 on EVERYTHING and saved about $70!



Here is a recent trip to CVS I paid about $5 for all of it with a savings of $142! And to think that I used to wonder why anyone ever shopped at Walgreens or CVS!



Is anyone else excited about back to school shopping or is it just me? I love the cheap and free deals on school supplies! $.01 packs of pencils, $.59 for colored pencils, $.39 for mechanical pencils, $.50 for markers, free pens, glue, paper, folders...I just get so excited! I hope you find some good deals too and have fun shopping!!

Good (junk) Food!

Mmmmm...Brownies covered in melted marshmallows then topped with a fudge like chocolate frosting! They are so good, you should try them! If you like to freeze stuff to enjoy later like I do these freeze really well.

Brownies:
3/4 C. Butter
1 1/2 C. Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/3 C. Flour (whole wheat works great!)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
3 Tbs Unsweetened Baking Cocoa
3-4 C. Mini Marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 9x13 pan. In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla beat until fluffy. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture. Spread in pan. Cook for about 18 minutes. (It never really seems to be done according to the "toothpick test" until they are way too done.) Sprinkle with marshmallows and return to oven for 2-3 minutes. Spread melted marshmallows around with a knife.

Frosting:
1/4 C. Butter
6 Tbs Milk
1 1/4 C. Sugar
1/2 C. Mini marshmallows
1/2 C. Chocolate Chips

Combine butter, milk and sugar in a pan over medium heat. Stir until it boils, boil for one minute. Remove from heat add marshmallows and chocolate. Quickly stir and spread onto brownies. (Allow brownies and marshmallows to cool before topping with frosting or you'll have a marbled topping instead of layered one.)

Enjoy!