Introducing Taten Cache McKinnon

Here's our new little bundle of sweet joy. Can I just tell you that he is the sweetest little thing on the planet! We are enjoying him so much! (Not so much are we enjoying my ginourmous hard boobs! OUCH!) Sorry TMI!

He was born on June 25th, 2009 at 5:49 am weighing 8 lbs 1 oz and he was 20 inches long. He had some breathing troubles at first and had to be rushed back to the nursery and put on some respiratory machines and given steroids but he turned out just fine. We are so thankful to have him in our family. Desi is having the hardest time adjusting to the change. She is not so fond of mommy right now. I think she thought I abandoned her while I was in the hospital. She doesn't want much to do with me but she's coming around and I actually got some snuggles from her today. AnnaBelle is my little helper and wants to know everything about the baby including the "weird thing between his legs." That was an interesting learning experience for the both of us.

I am so grateful for my sweet little family and I am trying to cherish every single minute!

13 more days!

I am really nervous about having a 3rd child! It's freaking me out a little!

Wow! It's been a while!

So yeah....kinda lost track of time. It's just flying by! I know these last few weeks are going to probably drag on and on but the rest of it has flown by. Actually, I have been super busy with Miss Lehi and Miss Utah stuff. Our pageant is in one month tomorrow! Holy crap! We have 8 contestants this year and it's going to be so great! The time may fly by which is a good thing. No use in sitting home....waiting to have a baby! Right after Miss Lehi is Miss Utah so that week will be awesome! Then it's Round-Up and then BAM!!!! Induction day! Hooray! My doctor told me she would induce me as early as the 24th of June but I don't want to miss out on Round-Up. Especially since I'm in charge of 2 events. YIKES! I'm scheduled to be induced on Monday the 29th. This pregnancy has been a dream! It's been so easy. I was more sick in the beginning than with my other 2 but I just feel great right now. Apart from being tired and getting exhausted after not doing much. That's a bummer! Of course I'm anemic but what pregnant lady isn't? My doctor is fantastic! I didn't think I would find another doctor that I liked as much as Dr. Lawrence but it's possible I like Dr. Smith more. She's so wonderful and helpful!

So, I can't believe it but my stupid dog Chaquita is pregnant again. STUPID DOG! The vet says we can't spay her because of her age. Go figure! Isn't having puppies even more of a risk to her? For real! So in about 2 weeks, I get to deal with that again. Good gravy people! I will be finding a new vet as soon as they're born. Even if I have to go to a clinic in an ally to get her parts taken out.

My good friend Edyn is having her baby a week from today! I am so excited for her! She has 3 cute boys and is expecting her first girl. What a fun time! I have such great friends that take such good care of me. Thanks to all of you! (Thanks Traci for always being my venting go to person!) Seriously..........life is so good!

Update

Well, life is good. I don't have much to say but I feel bad that my blog is being neglected so much! I hate this weather. MAKE UP YOUR FREAKING MIND MOTHER NATURE!!!! Seriously...it's cold, then hot, then cold, then freezing! Ugh! Today it's supposed to actually be really nice so we are going to the zoo. My sister is here from Vegas so we are partying it up all week. We went to Ikea yesterday. I got some cute stuff for my future little bundle. This poor little boy has nothing. I cleaned out the changing table and moved Desi's clothes to the closet to make room for his stuff. So far, he has a pair of socks in one drawer. How sad! I am having the hardest time buying for him. I am WAY more picky about my boy stuff. I don't like anything with bears or ducks or dinosaurs or dogs or trains or firetrucks or.....you get the point. Why does everything boy have to have some kind of character on it? Girls are easy, pink, pink, and more pink! Someday I'll do some serious shopping and get the things I need. I think Cyd has enough stuff to last me a while though so we should be good. I've decided that light blue is only allowed for the first 3 months of his life. I am not a baby blue fan. Like I said, I'm so picky!

Well, I need to go charge my camera for our adventure at the zoo today. Hopefully I don't go into labor pushing my double stroller up the rolling hills that are all over the zoo. I'll recruit my mom's help. :) Hooray for Grandmas!

Grocery Smarts 101

Well, I've had a few people ask about how this works. Without going into crazy detail, I thought I would give a beginner lesson. Basically go to the website http://www.grocerysmarts.com/ and put in the password g84ccl. This will help you access the Utah stores. After you enter your password, you can pick your store. I don't usually shop at Albertsons or Smiths but on this program I find some great deals there. You will want to look at the deals that are highlighted with red stars. 4 stars means it's a good deal so if you need it or will use it, go buy it. If it's a 5 star deal, get your butt in your car and buy it! Some of the deals require no coupon so under coupon index it will say N/A. If you get the Sunday paper (which I do. Infact I get 3 for more coupons) then it will tell you what coupon to look for in our coupon packet you recieved ie: Snuggle Créme Liquid Fabric Softener or Dryer Sheet product, any $1/1 (4-12-09) RP-1/18. That tells me the product, what discount I'm getting ($1 off of one), the expiration date (4-12-09), and that it's in the Red Plum packet that was sent on Jan 18th (RP-1/18.) You usually get a Smart Source and Red Plum packet in your Sunday paper. Smart Source is listed as SS. When I get the papers, I take out the coupon packets, write the date on the top in bright marker and put it in a binder for the future when the website tells me I have a coupon in there. The other way to get coupons is by printing them online. They will give you a link, you go there and print your coupons and most of them let you print them twice so you can buy more than one. If you have more servers (like your husband's computer at work) he can print them for you too so you have more. The way the program works is that everything goes on sale in a 4 month period. You don't really save a lot of money by clipping a few coupons and saving a little money off of things that are regular priced. The way you save a lot of money is by buying things on sale and then using a coupon on top of that price. The website tells you when something is a great price.

If you use the all in one button, you can get all the stores in one and get each deal for all of the stores and then take that into Walmart and they will price match. I am not sure if this works on programs like "buy so many items or spend so much money, get money back" though so be careful with that. When you click on a store or the all in one, push start. That will turn the list grey. Then you can click on the deals you want and they will turn white and when you're done, click on shrink and it will shrink your list to only the items you want. It's very handy. Then it will tell you where to get the coupon. That's the basics of it. It takes some practice and some time to work up your coupons, especially if you're getting the paper. It's completely free and the way they keep it that way is that they get a kick back from the paper. If you want to start getting the paper, go through their customer service number. It's cheaper and they get the money for bringing the paper another customer. It costs me $12.30 a month for my 3 papers a week and it's well worth it!

Let me know if you have any questions. I'd be happy to help. I know the program is in Las Vegas and Utah and hopefully will expand to surrounding states. Happy savings!!!

Swiss Days Update

So Cyd and I have been going back and forth about how we feel about the news we got about Swiss Days. A part of me was relieved but another was so incredibly bummed! Cyd decided she was going to contact them and just ask a few questions since we have been in the fair for 4 years. Particularly about being an 'alternate' and what we could expect with that. She called them and left a message just asking for feedback. She got a call from them and they said that they only choose a few alternates and that our chances were very high. They called all of their alternates last year so we are going to plan on it at this point. We will have to re-design our booth a little because we aren't guaranteed a corner booth as an alternate and our booth is made to be a corner booth. Anyway, that's what has been on our minds the last few weeks. One of my friends has been doing Swiss Days for 3 years now and they didn't get in either and were not chosen as alternates so I guess count your blessings that we have a little chance. I also have another friend that applied with her cute jewelry and she didn't get in either. We aren't sure we're going to be taking the squeaky shoes this year so we're going to have to get creative and start thinking of cute new products that we can sell. Any ideas are welcome. :)

Follow Up

I just wanted to do a follow up to my previous post. Today I went to Smiths to take advantage of some good deals they were having. My total was $112. Then she started scanning my coupons and my rebates (buy so much, get so much back) and my total was $40. I bought 6 boxes of name brand cereal, 6 snack pack pudding 12 packs, granola bars, chicken nuggets, and a huge cart load of other things (48 items) and that was my total. I was stoked! Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that it really does work. :)

I also wanted to note that Cyd and I got the Swiss Days letter today and unfortunately we're not going to be participating this year. We were bummed but oh well.....life goes on. We are an alternate though in case someone drops out. It's kind of a blessing because I will have a 3 week old baby when Swiss Days actually happens and I was really worried about that. We have been thinking lately about the future of our little business because of our growing families. I look at this as an answer to prayers. Although it's my favorite time of year and we love it so much, we'll be just fine. Saving all that money today on my groceries has made the blow a little softer though. :)