"Yippy I'm Three!"

Time to wake up March 4, 2009:

Mom: "Good morning birthday girl."
Ariana: "Mommy is today my birthday?"
Mom: "Yes, happy birthday!"
Ariana: "Am I three now?"
Mom: "Yes."
Ariana: "YIPPY, I'm three!!"

Ariana has been so excited to turn three. On her birth day this year she finally learned how to hold up the correct number of fingers for how old she is. For the last year whenever anyone would ask her how hold she was she would say, "I'm two" and hold up all five fingers. For her birthday she had a little lunch party. Her guest list was soo cute. She invited two neighbor friends because they were both "two just like me" (Issac had his birthday on March 2 two days before her so now he's three too) She also invited Savannah, our close friend that Ariana has been around since she was 4 months old and is the same age as Alexis. This was the best party for me because it was simple and easy.

Ariana picked the menu: chicken nuggets, strawberries and apple slices with apple juice to drink. All she was really concerned about was having her friends over for cupcakes (that had to have rainbow cake mix and rainbow chip frosting). They ate, played in the sand box,

danced with balloons,

decorated bags with stickers,

sang happy birthday and ate cupcakes, (Issac helped Airana blow out the candles but I'm pretty sure she didn't notice. She wasn't blowing hard enough anyways),

(this is how she ate her cupcake)

and opened presents.




Simple and fun. Once Daddy got home we took the girls to build-a-bear because for their birthdays they both got $5 gift certificates from the store. Alexis and Ariana had so much fun and ended up picking out the same new dress for their animals.

Happy Birthday Little One, We Love YOU!!

Three things about Ariana that...

Three things about Ariana that:

Are silly:
1. She says a lot of words that begin with S in a strange way like: Sleepy is "skeepy" Slide is "skide"
2. She loves to run around in just her panties. Her panties must be on because she always needs something to cover her "tushy bum" as she says. However while she is only in panties maybe 95% of the day she somehow still tries on 6 different outfits each day.
3. She burps almost every time she takes a drink.

Are the same:
1. She still sucks her third and forth finger
2. She still loves her two special silky baby blankies that she now calls, "pooh bears" and "my bunny blankie"
3. She still refuses to try using the pedals on her tri-cycle. "My feet go fast"

Are different:
1. She will actually talk to people (and quite a lot, she just talks and talks and talks until she is done and then she walks off. Phone conversations with her are hilarious)
2. She knows how to push every one's buttons especially her sister!
3. She knows a lot of the alphabet, is starting to color in the lines, knows that there are three A's in her name and how to write an A.

I love:
1. She climbs in bed with me every morning and stays with me until I wake up no matter if Alexis or Justin are already up. (she just lays there by me and if she starts to get really hungry she'll try to help me wake up by saying "I want my breakfast now Mommy" but won't leave unless I go with her no matter how long it takes)
2. Every night she blows me kisses and says "I love you too"
3. She has the biggest imagination and the funniest stories to tell and she will tell them to ANYONE. (Belle got to hear about her potty accidents, lots of people get to hear about her boo-boos etc. For Thanksgiving she was thankful for a "big monster with sticks" and for Christmas all she wanted was a "big monster")

I want her to learn this year:
1. To listen the first time we tell her something (I think this might be on the list for years)
2. To get on and off the potty herself even with a puffy dress on.
3. How to write her name (because she wants to learn how and she has just learned how to write an A all by her self)

she has taught me...
1. Its fun to run around and jump on and over everything!
2. Its ok for her to be so tiny because I can still hold and cuddle her without it breaking my back.
3. What you were like as a child WILL come back to haunt you. Mom I'm so sorry that you had to ask me what car door I wanted to get out of when I was three! You were right that I'd get to do it too!!!

I love you so much little one. My world and our family just wouldn't be the same without you.

Ariana's Favorite...

Ariana's Favorites:
Color: "Pink and Purple." I don't believe this. I think she is just coping her sister. Why? Because she wants everything to be green! For her party all she wanted was green streamers, her favorite thing to wear is green, she only wants the green cup and plate etc. So ya right "pink and purple", but that's what she says; )
Animal: "A big giraffe and a small giraffe" that's what she likes to see at the Wild Animal park in San Diego
Clothes to wear: "Alexis' green shirt with sparkles"
Toy: "my Mini and my babies....... AND my blankies."
Cartoon: "Pooh Bear"
Movie: "Thumbelina"
Game: "my fishy game" this is the game where the fish spin around opening and closing their mouths and you try to catch them with the fishing rod.
Princess: "Cinderella and Snow White" umm... I think Arielle or Belle would have been in the place of Snow White because Belle was her buddy at Disney Land and her Arielle dress is her second favorite thing to wear. (oh and guess what, that dress is mainly blue and green! pink and purple? again ya right!)
Food: "I like cantalope! I want some cantalope!!" this little girl could eat a whole cantalope by her self for dinner and be perfectly content. Good thing Alexis HATES cantalope or we would have big fights when ever I buy it!

What's your favorite thing to do with:
Daddy: "I like to find stuff that's missing with my Daddy." (???)
Mommy: "playing games outside like pic-nic."
Alexis: "I like playing pic-nic"

Who are your friends?... Daddy, Mommy, Alexis, Issac, Rylee, Amanda, Aspen, Bella and Savannah (if you didn't make the list don't worry she was just really done with answering questions at this point. I'm sure she likes you too, she loves everyone now)

Horray!

I've posted a lot recently about Grocery Smarts. I love it so much I decided to look into becoming an instructor and today I just got the news that I can begin teaching classes on my own! I'm really excited about being able to teach others about this amazing FREE program and offer people who are not yet receiving the news paper amazing deals on 6 month Sunday subscriptions so you can get all the coupons possible! I made a new blog too lv saving made simple (sorry so many posts are on this I just REALLY love Grocery Smarts)

p.s.- I'm offering some great incentives for hosting a class right now (just for booking a class you will receive a fun prize, if 8 new people attend you will receive a $20 gift card to Smith's or Albertson's, if 12 people attend you and a friend will get to have a shopping trip planned with me AND be invited to an Advanced couponing class, if 15 or more attend you will recieve an additional gift card to either Smith's or Albertsons)

Disney Land 2009

We decided when Alexis was about to turn three to make it a tradition to take our girls to Disney Land for their third birthday. Why? Because if we take them before they turn three they are still free and actually might remember some of their first trip. This year Ariana is turning three and Disney is doing a special offer for anyone to get in for free on their actual birthday. My birthday is in January so we decided to go a couple months early so that we only had to pay admission for Alexis and Justin. It was a fast trip but so much fun! Here are the pictures that tell all about our trip.

Just getting out of the car. Mommy is so happy that even though the park has already been open for an hour and half we are parked close. Yeah here we come Disney Land!

Just inside the gates after giving them our tickets. The girls really liked my sparkly birthday ticket. Ariana is all covered up because it sprinkled on us right as we came in the gate. Fortunately it never really rained all day.

The CASTLE!!!! (I love Alexis pose)

Ariana insisted that her first ride be the carousel.

Next of course is Dumbo! I'm surprised Ariana was so brave with that bar because the one at the carousel ride just before this smacked her in the head really hard and she didn't stop crying until she got on her horse. Daddy got the "magic feather"

I was shocked Justin got on this ride. When we took Alexis in 2007 we didn't do this ride and Alexis has never let it go that she didn't get to ride in a tea cup. Justin insists that the tea cups make him sick and he would never ride them again so I had to take a picture when he actually got on the ride with us. Doesn't he look sooo excited ; )

Why are we so excited? Because it's our turn to meet the princesses (round 1)

Meeting the princesses was fun and the girls reacted way differently than I thought they would. Ariana ran up to everyone and as you can see here with Ariel just wanted to touch, talk and be with them. We were litteraly pushing Alexis up to everyone and then she would barely look at them. Poor thing. She gets more shy every day it seems.

This picture just cracks me up.

I didn't think the girls would be so thrilled to see Jasmin but they loved it. Ariana was upset that Aladin wasn't there and wouldn't let it go that she hadn't seen Aladin until we watched Fantasmic at night and she saw Aladin on the big ferry boat.

The boat driver was so nice to let Alexis ride up by her. I think she enjoyed the fact that she got to but the second picture is what her face looked like for most the ride.

Alexis still LOVES star wars so of course a HUGE highlight of the day was riding Star Tours and going to the Jedi Training academy. I think Alexis could have seriously just ridden Star Tours all day and been the happiest girl alive! Can you guess that Ariana really didn't care. She's to short to ride on Star Tours and didn't care if she had a light saber but she did enjoy when Darth Vader appeared at training camp. Alexis was to shy to be one of the kids jumping up and down to join the trainees and so she didn't get picked. Once she realized that if she had been picked she could have fought Darth Vader and worn a Jedi cape she was sad she didn't raise her hand. Oh well maybe next time.

Princesses Round 2: When we were leaving after our first princess meeting Belle and Mulan came out to replace a two of the princesses. Alexis and Ariana were both upset that they didn't get to talk to Belle and concerned that they hadn't seen Cinderella yet. So when we gave them the choice to stand in line to meet Tinker Belle or more princesses they both wanted more princesses. We saw Aura again and Ariana true to form went right up and started talking to her. In the first picture she is showing her Cinderella on her shirt.

This picture makes me laugh for a strange reason. Right as we said good bye to Sleeping Beauty Ariel came out and replaced her. The girls were so excited to see Cinderella but Cinderella was slightly craby and I can see it in her eyes in this picture. Ariel was suppose to replace her not Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella was upset and as soon as we took our pictures she got someone over to complain. I'm glad Ariel made the mistake because if we had just missed Cinderella I think we would have had huge temper tantrums right there. Sorry Cinderella, Thanks for the picture.

This is the best story of the whole trip! Our last princess to meet was BELLE! As soon as Ariana turned and looked at her she sprinted over to her and gave her a monster hug (first picture) She and Belle than proceeded to have a lengthy heart to heart talk. What did they talk about? Oh the usual yes that's my big sister and guess what I peed in my bed! No I am not kidding. Ariana told Belle all about a potty accident she had a few nights earlier. Belle was very kind and said she was still learning and that it was ok while I am just laughing. Wow was she a GREAT sport. We took a final picture with Belle and Ariana refused to turn and faced the camera because all she wanted to do was keep hugging Belle. Thank you so much Belle you really made my baby's day (sorry about the potty talk)!

Happy Times in Toon Town. Ariana loved Mini and her house. Her favorite part was the birthday cake in the oven that rises up and falls down.

I just like this picture. I think it is sweet. We were waiting in line for autotopia and they just looked too cute to not take a picture of.

We promised the girls all day long they could have a cotton candy so finally after dinner we bought one.

Ariana was still upset that she hadn't seen Mickey, Snow White or Aladin (what is with Aladin?) And so when Alexis decided that she wanted to ride Splash Mt again instead of watching Fantasmic I took Ariana to the show and Alexis rode splash Mt with Daddy. Ariana LOVED the show. She got to see everyone she had missed all day plus a few more she hadn't even remembered she hadn't seen. I made her show me her excited face again when it was over so I could take this picture. This is really what she looked like when she got really excited (which was for most of the show) She still talks about the show with Mickey all the time especially the part about the dragon and fire.

The day is over and to end it all we let each girl pick something from the disney shop. I knew when we walked into the park and I saw the baby Minnie's that Ariana would pick that. Alexis took her time and after examining everything in the store finally decided on a heart box of princess rings. She wears one every day and has the ring holder stuck to her wall by her bed.

We got lost twice trying to find our car on the way out and Ariana totally zoncked out on the way. We had a great trip and I'm completely ready to go do it again : ) (shh... I am planning a surprise trip for Alexis birthday! : ))

You're Invited

I have been working on a new post from our Disney Land trip but since I am trying to use this blog as a way to extend my journal the post has a lot of pictures and captions and is taking longer than normal for me to put together. Anyways in the mean time since I know you'd all love to come see me ; ) I am hosting a grocery smarts class taught by Becky Bunting next Wednesday (February 18) at 7 pm. Becky is the one who helped me figure out the free website I've been using to save money shopping and I am still using it and loving all the savings. The class only takes about an hour and even if you have been to a grocery smarts class before you are welcome to come because Becky is awesome and might have a new tip or trick for you to learn. Let me know if you would like to come (or just showing up Wednesday night is fine too) I promise I will post a family update soon.

3 weeks, $500 saved, pantry and freezer are full

I am still enjoying grocery smarts so much that after 3 weeks of shopping using the system I love to look in my pantry because it is fuller than ever and so is my freezer. (my laundry room is also stocked!) Our grocery budget was fairly low before I tried grocery smarts. (We spend between $350-$450 a month) I'd shop sales, could recognize good deals and refused to pay normal retail especially if the price was ridiculously high. This month I am going to have spent our normal budget but the difference in how full my pantry and freezer are is amazing. I know it is kind of silly but I wish I had a "before" picture. These are my after pictures and they really still don't do it justice. Justin is teasing me that my saving money is going to make us have to buy a freezer for the garage. (Eventually maybe if I can find a good deal on that too!) : ) Becky Bunting is going to be teaching a class about using Grocery Smarts February 4 in the evening. It is free and once you know what is going on it really is very simple and non-time consuming (unless you get obsessed like me and browse every add and look for every new coupon you can.)