Wow-sorry to post 2 videos of my kids today, but this was too funny not to share. This is my 3yo "playing mom"

Can you tell I have been going through ads today? Yeah...now to post the deals...

Just wanted to take a minute to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope you are all well and are able to spend whatever holiday you celebrate with those you love! I am gratefully spending the day with my kids and husband!

Well, here I am in Chicago...

Wes is at his conference and Chicago is living up to its name...it is a WINDY city today!

So, I am chilling inside for a bit and thought I would write a quick post or two. What to know something really funny? Look:

Ignore the mess, but notice that they gave us 2 double beds rather than the King size bed we were supposed to have...funny...they say they will move us to a King room today. Here's to hoping they really will!

This is an updated repost from last year about how I do a Beckee's Deals Family Thanksgiving! Just wanted to post it before I post the Thanksgiving price Match post later today or tomorrow morning!
I have to admit something...I am NOT a frugal Thanksgiving cook. I, in fact, go a bit crazy for Thanksgiving, even when I am just cooking for my family of 7 (2 adults, 4 kids ages 3-8 and a baby that will eat very very little). But, over the last 2 years, while I have been cooking for our family and friends on a budget, I have tried to cut down a bit. Just so you know where I am coming from, let me tell you that in the past, I have taken my mom's Thanksgiving menu and made it all plus a few additions I have added along the years (keep in mind ALL items are made from scratch including the cranberry sauce). So, (prepare for overload and shock) here is my mom's menu Plus my additions (I will denote those with *):

• Turkey
• Mashed Potatoes
• Sage "American" Stuffing/dressing
• "Greek" Dressing
• Cranberry Dressing
• Cranberry sauce
• Orange-Cranberry Relish/Sauce
• Gravy
• XiaXia's Rolls
• Yams/Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows
• Ambrosia
• Jello Salad
• Olive/Pickle/cheese appetizer tray
• Cheese Ball with crackers
• Hot Apple Cider
• Christmas Pudding
• Cranberry Cookies
• Pies-1-2 Pumpkin, the whatever else I feel up to making (Apple, Cherry, cream pies, mince meat)
• Pecan Pie*
• Ham/pickle/cream cheese roll ups*
• Green Bean Casserole*

Ok-I realize that for a family of 7 this is a bit crazy, but I feel like it is not much of a holiday if I am missing anything. However, I am realistic, so I have cut it down a bit, and there are a few things I no longer do from scratch.  So here is the menu as I have streamlined it over the years and which items I no longer make from scratch.  Also, some of the items I make throughout the weeks before and after instead of all on one day (like the desserts).  (Highlit items I still make. Bolded means I have cut it from the menu, and I will put comments next the the items):

• Turkey
• Mashed Potatoes
• Sage "American" Stuffing/dressing (I actually no longer make this from scratch though-we found that our little family likes Stove Top just as well and it is far easier!!)
• "Greek" Dressing (I actually LOVE this, but it is the hardest/most time consuming thing on the menu and I found I am usually the only one to eat it, so I cut it out-it also has expensive ingredients that are not as easy to find here in Omaha as they were to find growing up in Utah).
• Cranberry Dressing (I just cut down to 1 dressing)
• Cranberry sauce ( I just like the one with Orange better so I only make one)
• Orange-Cranberry Relish/Sauce
• Gravy
• XiaXia's Rolls (Admitedly I do not always do these from my XiaXia's recipe/from scratch. Sometimes I opt for pillsbury ones or premade to save time, but I always regret it!)
• Yams/Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows
• Ambrosia (Yes I realize this is both Bolded and highlit-It remains on my menu, but sometimes I don't get to it or have room in the fridge, so it is an iffy one)
• Jello Salad (As with the Ambrosia, this one is one I often end up skipping, and when I do make it, I rarely make the full Jello salad recipe-often it ends up being just jello made by the kids, and that is perfect for our family!)
• Olive/Pickle/cheese appetizer tray (This one really depends on sale prices. I like to have it for people to snack on all day while we cook, but if these items do not go on a great sale leading up to the holiday, they are cut out!)
• Cheese Ball with crackers
• Christmas Pudding (I save this for Christmas if I make it at all-my family is not big fans)
• Cranberry Cookies  (I always make these but usually not right on Thanksgiving-it is part of the Thanksgiving week treats though)
• Pies-1-2 Pumpkin, then whatever else I feel up to making (Apple, Cherry, cream pies, mince meat)
• Pecan Pie*
• Ham/pickle/cream cheese roll ups*
• Green Bean Casserole*

I owe you all a big fat apology and explanation. Last week was complicated and I knew it would be. I knew I would be unlikely to be able to post, but I could not explain because one of the big complicated things I had going on was a surprise. A surprise for a lovely young lady that reads my blog!
Let me explain. This is my youngest sister Melanie:

She is about to leave on an 18 month religious mission for our church. Before she leaves, she wanted to go to Disneyland with our baby brother. In fact they have been saving up for this. Well, my dad decided we should surprise her and have myself and my sister Andrea show up at Disneyland. As it turned out, due to work schedules and stuff, I was only able to go for one day-Friday.

So, I boarded a plane with my baby boy on Thursday evening at 7 pm, and after a layover I arrived at LAX at about midnight (that's 2 am in my time zone). I took a Super Shuttle to my hotel in Anaheim and arrived there about 1:20am (3:20 my time). I tried to get the baby to sleep so we would be well rested when they family arrived at like 8am. It did not work.

I managed to surprise my brother and sister. Check out this ultra blurry picture of their surprise as they saw me and baby E:

We spent a very cold and rainy and gloomy day at DL and California Adventures. We left a bit early since we were all soaked to the bone and cold and I had to feed my baby (who was already at the hotel with my parents). I rested and took care of baby for about 2 hours before we had to turn around and head to LAX again for me to return, I got took the red eye which left LAX at 12:45am (LA time-2:45am my time) and had a layover then finally arrived home at 10:30 am. Phew-it was a fast and furious trip!

In spite of the tight time restraints and the gloomy weather, I had a great time and was glad to get to spend the day with my family. Sadly my sister Andrea and I were unable to go the same day out there so she arrived in LA as I arrived back home on Saturday morning. They had a blast the rest of the weekend though I hear (with great weather). Here are some of my fun pictures from my day away:




Thanks for sticking with me and continuing to read my blog. I have a lot to catch up on!

I just wanted to apologize for not getting the grocery deals up. I was already a day behind and as I was typing it up yesterday, this happened:
I am refraining from posting the bloody pictures here (they are on FB though) but that is my 3YO daughters forehead you can see there...

So, I am now going to finish that post and get it up here today! Sorry and thanks for your patience!

I am trying to be a better kid (or old lady as it may be). I want to do things better-have a cleaner home, write a better blog, help my kids to be the best they can be in school and sports, lose all the "baby weight" I have put on over the years...Boy am I failing.

Often my husband has said that he wants to be able to do his very best at what he is doing all the time, but with medical school, a family, and church responsibilities, he felt like he was only barely passing at everything. I know how he feels right now...Today has brought with it it's own challenges...But the big picture things are the ones I am trying to focus in on and get motivated to do...

Here are the goals I made for the next few weeks and how I am doing:

1-Get my house CLEANED UP before we go to Disney World...it is messier than ever and I have a long way to go...we DID get lots of laundry caught up, the messiest room (the girls bedroom) MOSTLY done, and the kitchen is pretty good...now on to the other billion things around here.

2-Work out and lose this weight-make it a priority-so I bought a family YMCA membership and have been going 3+ times a week. I am doing OK on this one, but it is not getting any easier to work out or to go...sigh...(I am losing some weight though)

3-Get some freezer meals made for us and for my sister in law who will have her baby in the next week...not even started

4-Get some great deals up on this blog each day...with all else going on it has not been everyday-I am sure you noticed.

5-Help my kids transition into school. Well, after day 2 where one kids barfed all over the class and another had a fight, it was uphill from there. We still have some adjusting to do, but at least my Kindergartner doesn't cry each time he gets on the bus in the morning anymore...that's somethin' right?!

6-Prepare and pack for DW-um...no, not done...

Maybe getting this all in writing and posted will make me more accountable...let's hope so because with a 5 month old on his 5th (or 6th?) ear infection and my lack of sleep, I feel unmotivated to do anything today...anyone else feeling that same lack of motivation?

Wow-Am I really a "Real HouseMom of Douglas County"? It appears I am...I am just not totally sure what that really means...I do think it means that after the first round of competition/games on Saturday I will need to have you all go on and vote for me...if I compete...here is my issue:
I AM a real HouseMom, and as it turns out, I have 3 kids currently playing sports, and guess what? 2 of them have conflicting games at 9:30 am. So, even with Wes off work, I am not sure how we work this and have me competing from 10-noon across town...sigh...

I am sure if I do compete though you it will be hilarious to watch me try to do the things they are having the HouseMoms do. The Village Pointe website says:

The Real HouseMoms of Douglas County is a fun, fresh contest for all moms to enter! Women from around the city will compete in selected areas such as:
- Grocery Shopping/Meal Planning
- Scheduling
- Carpooling
- School Lunch-Making
- Laundry
- Youth Sports Knowledge

Um...Laundry, really-wow-I hope they don't stop by the house and see the 8 clean, dry, unfolded loads in my living room (actually I folded one this morning so we are down to 7 now...)

I am sure this will be fun, but seriously, based on these categories, I am doubting my ability to win this thing...

This message brought to you by the random thoughts of Beckee...

Have you noticed the posts have been a bit sparse lately? Have you wondered what was going on? I wish I could give you a responsible answer like that I have been doing lots of great charity work in a third world country, or that I have been working on a big project that will blow you all away...but the truth is that a giant mouse has taken over my life, or more accurately, my brain!
My husband and I use pretty much all his vacation time to go see our families in Utah because we love them and miss them and want to see them. Also, when we visit them, it is not too expensive because they feed and shelter us while we are there. What this means though is that we have not taken a real family vacation really ever. You know the kind of vaca I mean-the kind where we pick a destination and I act like a grown up and start finding the best deals to make it happen. The kind where we plan and pick out a perfect place and make it a dream vacation that all 7 of our family members will enjoy, and were we do not rely on the kindness of our families to support us while there...

Can I back up a bit and tell you something about me...I am a Disney FREAK! We went to Disneyland often when I was growing up and I loved it. I had never been to Disney World though. When my husband chose a destination to take me for our honeymoon, I was delighted to hear we were going to Orlando, assuming it meant we were going to DW. He had no intentions of going there, but when he realized my excitement over Disney, he arranged to have one of the days at DW. I chose the park (Magic Kingdom as it was most like Disneyland). We went for a day and I loved it.

That was my only time at DW.

In April of 2008 I wrote a bucket list of what I want to do before I die. Number 25 was travel a lot, and number 42 was Go to Disney World with my whole family. This is a two part goal-I want to take my family I live with (me, Wes, the kids), and I would also like to have my whole family (mom, dad, sibs, their spouses and kids...) go someday.

This May was my 10th anniversary. Wes was working so we had a small celebration at home watching a movie while the kids slept. Wes wanted to do something big. So he is doing it, a few months later...

My birthday is coming up, and for my birthday, Wes took the week off and we are taking our 5 kids to DISNEY WORLD!! Since I found out and the planning commenced, I have thought of nothing but Disney...somehow we managed to get the kids started in school and in fall sports, but all I want to do is read about the WORLD and plan out the events of the trip...I may be obsessed, or addicted to Disney...I am not sure, but I am for sure excited and wanted to share with all of you my excitement!

Have you been to Disney World? Tell me something about it-your best tips or maybe your favorite ride? What are the MUST SEE shows and the MUST RIDE rides for a family there for the first time? Share your Disney fun with me and help my excitement build!! I promise I will blog still and eventually I will fold all that laundry over there...

So here is a question for readers. What is your best advice for trying to save money and be frugal while getting your house ready to sell?! Anyone? Just starting to wonder how people do this!

I apologize for me weekend absence, but I was doing this:


It may not look like much to you, but I wish I had a before shot of the garage-it was an embarassing disaster. So, it is done and today I am moving on to the kitchen and the basement. But before I do that, I want to make sure to post a few things on here!

I don't like a lot of sweets and in fact rarely like cake or ice cream. But I have a weakness-I am a sucker for a fancy well made cupcake, and I have been known to scout out expensive, trendy, yummy cupcake spots all over the country. I have been known to pay $3-$6 for a single cupcake...it is not frugal but it is SO good.
I made a decision yesterday and chose to try to make my very first homemade, from scratch cupcakes of my life. I did not expect the high quality of the Fancy shops on the first try, but I hoped to get the flavors I wanted and maybe a recipe I could improve in the future.

I prepared by reading a LOT of recipes online for cupcakes and frosting as I could not find exactly what I wanted. So, I knew I was going to have to wing it a little-yes I said wing it for my first try at from scratch cupcakes.

I wanted to make a chocolate (fresh) raspberry cupcake with a nutella (chocolate hazelnut) cream cheese frosting. I combined recipes and researched and did all I could do. I went and got the ingredient and Guess what? I did it! I made my cupcakes. See:


They were met by mixed reviews from the kids (2 liked them, 2 did not):


But I liked them:

They were not perfect and could probably use some tweaking on the recipe, but they stopped me from going and spending $40 on a dozen. AND now in the future I feel more confident that I can make a good cupcake at home-I am sure I will get better as I practice more...who knows maybe someday you will see me on Cupcake Wars (haha).

Quick personbal update:

Baby has a double ear infection (which explains his general grumpiness). The poor guy is miserable, so I am nursing him and trying to get the grocery list up, some deals up and a couple reviews/giveaways done for you!

There is even a Seventh Generation diapers review that baby helped me with that should post today...

Lots to tell you about today, but have a baby with a fever so we are heading to the dr right now. Hopefully it will be quick, then I can get back home and posting. Not only do I have a winner to pay, and this weeks grocery deals, but there are some other great deals I have seen this morning already as well asa fewer new reviews and giveaways i have to post. Please stay tuned and u wil post as I can. In fact, if those phone continues to get service at the dr. office, I werk try to post while I an waiting there.

Hello Momaha.com readers! Welcome to my blog! I am glad you stopped by! I love to write about all kinds of deals and great products here on this blog and I share my deal seeking adventures with you. I am always ont he look out for fun freebies, great deals, and new products to try our, review and give away!

In fact right now I am hosting a giveaway for a GREAT mouth guard for kids. It ends tonight and is a fantastic product. As of this morning there are only 9 entries on the giveaway, so your odds are great to win. Please go read the review and enter to win a kids Protech Dent Mouth Guard for a child.

For those loyal readers that do not know what I am talking about, I am the guest blogger on Momaha.com today! You can see my post on their website here.

Wowsa! What a week...As you can tell, I have been absent from the blog (and from home) for about 3 weeks. I intended to be out of town for about 2 weeks, but apparently someone upstairs had a different plan for me. 
I left for Utah to visit my family on June 1 right after the kids got out of school. My plan was to drive (with my mom's help-thanks mom) to Utah and visit with the kids until my husband flew out the evening of the 7th. We were then leaving the 8th to drive to Scottsdale Arizona to check out the new digs (we are moving there next year at this time). We were staying there until the 10th when we were going to drive over to Lake Powell for half the day then move on to the Ranch in Southern Utah with my husband's family. We were staying there until Tuesday the 14th, then back to Salt Lake where Wes had a flight home on the 15th. I then planned to leave Friday the 17th and drive to Cheyenne, WY, then continue on to Omaha on the 18th so we would be home with Wes for Father's Day on the 19th.
All went as planned all the way through Wesley's flight home. Shortly after he landed for his lay over in Denver, my van broke down and overheated majorly in Salt Lake. I had it towed to the place Wes has brought cars to since he started driving. My van was old and we had driven it into the ground and I had a bad feeling about this...(It is a 2000 Chevrolet Venture).
The next morning the call from the shop came, and it was bad news...lots of major things wrong, and let just say it boiled down to this...my van was dead and NOT worth fixing. So, here I was stuck in Utah with no way home, which begs the question of what to do, and how to afford to do it!

So, I askyou this...how does one stay frugal and get the best deal in a crunch? I NEEDED to get home, but how? Let me tell you what I did (and I will preface it by saying I am sure I could have saved more money than I did, but I think I did pretty well all things considered).

My biggest tip for staying frugal is this: Take the time to do your homework-SOOO worth it! I realized quickly that nothing I had going on at home needed to be done emergent-ly, so I took a day to do some homework. I researched my options-flying home with the kids, renting a van to go home or buying a new van in Utah and driving home. After a few quick internet searches and some phone calls, I knew I needed to just figure out how to accomplish the third option: Buy a new van.

So, the work began...researching new and used vans of all makes and models and looking to see what I could find. I did not know how to get financed when the money maker of the family was in a different state...Thank goodness my husband's brother-in-law works for a bank in Utah and was able to tell me what I needed to do to most easily make this work (thank you Cody). Also, in my research I realized that for my needs and my current financial situation, I needed to find a reliable used van.
After a day of research, I set to work last Friday getting preapproved for a loan, and looking for the available, reliable used van of my dreams. I am sorry to those readers that are not religious, but I need to tell you that here is where I believe prayers were answered and a miracle occurred in my life. On Thursday as I was researching, I searched for Used vans in the area over and over and found nothing that I thought I could afford that would be reliable. So, I prayed...a lot...all night and I asked to find a reliable van for less than $10,000 that was going to last for at least 3 years. I had a whole list of things that this van would ideally have-I wanted a Honda Odyssey if possible. I wanted lots of features that I thought I would NEVER find that I had in my dead van-like an entertainment system, like power doors, like a CD player. Nothing remotely like this was anywhere online that I could find on Thursday.

I learned on Friday that my husband's best friend owns a Used car dealership in Salt Lake and headed over there on Friday morning thinking this would be the answer to my prayers. I was wrong-they had no minivans. So, I went back to work and did another internet search. HERE IS THE MIRACLE: The first search I did popped up with a van that had everything I asked for (except a bit more mileage that I wanted). EVERYTHING else and more was included with this van-it was a 2002 Honda Odyssey with a few minor cosmetic issues (cracking leather on the arm of the drivers seat, and a tiny ding in the side that looks like another car door dinged it when it opened-tiny). And  it was well within the range of money I wanted to pay! AND it runs like a beauty AND (amazingly enough) comes with a warranty from the dealership-not factory, but dealership for an additional 100,000 miles of 5 years (whichever comes first)...WHAT?!

To make an already too long story shorter, I will just skip some details of that day and tell you I bought this van! JOY! It took until Sunday morning for my insurance to kick in and I still had to deal with the broken van and get it off the mechanics loton Saturday, so I planned to leave on Sunday. My dad helped me get the dead van back to his house where it will sit until I get it donated (donating and taking the tax deductions was a better deal than the trade in value for us). That was a stressful 15 minutes getting it home as it died and died more...There were other stresses-I had to go buy 3 of those skinnier booster seats to make them fit easier in the new van, and had to buy a 5 point harness car seat for my 3 year old since her car seat was built in to the other van.
So, I thought the nightmare was over and I would at last be returning home. Sunday morning my sister-in-law and I set out with the kids to go home. Not too far from my parents house, my daughter's seat belt broke-YES broke. So, we returned to Salt Lake where there were people that love us to help us figure out this next part of the saga. My dad looked at the seat belt and fixed it, but we wanted to get a replacement to make sure it would not come out again like in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming or something. Stefanie (my sister-in-law) had her friend who does collision repair for a living check it out as well. We all came to the same conclusion that it seems ok but I should probably get it replaced to be safe. Remember though, this is Utah on a Sunday so nothing was open.

So, I went to church, heard my mom give an excellent lesson on families, then tried to relax for the day since there was nothing to do about the van until Monday. My aunt was having a short birthday party for her daughter and asked me to take the kids up to it. I decided to go, and while there, my other aunt who owns a Honda, told me that Honda has a lifetime guarantee on safety features (read seat belts) even if you are not the first owner! WHAT?! REALLY?! Yes, I found out Monday morning that it is true (Thanks Kris).
Monday I took the van to the dealer and they fixed the seat belt (for free) and we were finally able to leave for home around noon Monday. We (Stefanie and I witht he kids-thanks Stefanie) drove to Cheyenne and stayed overnight at the Little America (it was the best deal) and I splurged on room service (at that point I did not want to take the kids out of the room again until we were driving home the next morning-not frugal, but it was fantastically good food and a relaxing thing for me after all the stress).

Tuesday morning (yesterday), we got in the van to get home and made it a mere 2 miles before the throwing up began...I won't go into that, but let me say, it was a lot longer drive home that anticipated with more stops that we wanted to make...let me tell you this though...no throw up got in the new van-we managed to keep it in buckets and on the side of the road (sorry I-80).

So, here I am at home...with a new van that I am loving...(pictures coming soon)...As far a frugality goes, I did OK (well except the room service). I did not but a car out of my means to pay off, and I feel I got a good deal. I probably could have talked the dealer down on the price a bit, but the stress of it all made it not worth the possibility of losing the van...Here is my question to all of you---do you manage to stay frugal in an emergency/crunch? If so, how in the world do you do it? Give me some tips and tricks to share!

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you are likely aware of how picky I am with naming my children. I have crazy rules about how unique they must be. (To read all about the details of my rules, see the post here.)

Basically, all of my kids have one "unique" name (as defined by my rules for naming my kids). They also each have a family name. I shared with you the stress I was having in trying to choose a name for my new baby. I always have the hardest time with finding a unique boy name that is not too weird. And lets be honest, I am apparently not good at coming up with the best unique names anyway. I tend to chose names that seem unique or at least lesser used only to find that the names are actually on the list of the top 1000 SSA names or they are listed as more popular on other baby naming sites like babynametrain.com. I told you my favorite boy name was Sawyer, and it is 202 on the most popular list-seriously go look and see.

So, with this new baby (who BTW is a month old already!) I was struggling naming him. My husband and I discussed baby's name a lot. However, at some point my husband told me that I was going to name this child because he did not want to hear forever that he named all the kids. But as I mentioned, I do not pick unique as well as I thought I would. I tend to pick "gaining popularity" type names instead. Wes however is awesome at choosing unique names. So, he is the one that comes up with the names. I just basically have to chose the one I like.

This time, I had to make the final decision. My favorite name, as usual, fell into the "gaining popularity" category (Sawyer), and the other 3 names we liked that I was choosing between were Rockwell, Everest, & Kanell. Please don't mock my choices-I am sensitive.

In the end I went with Everest. It was not listed on ssa's list, but I was surprised to find it was listed on babynametrain.com. My other kids names are not ever even listed, but Everest was listed. I really think it must be because of Mt Everest that it is listed at all though. If you go look, Everest is listed as "not ranked" and "rare".

In the end, I am happy with the choice I made. As a friend noted to Wes, Mt Everest is the highest mountain peak in the world, and surely our little Everest will also rise to the highest heights! We gave him a lot to live up to, but what a grand name it is!! Our friend said she was sure he would live up to his name. Here's to hoping! Doesn't he look like an Everest to you?

I think so, but that's just me!

It was a big day for Armour as well as his (and dad's) modeling shoot magazine came out. Could not let the day pass without including that as well! Here's a pic of the cover and the inside pics:


Didn't it turn out cute!!

I got all spruced up early yesterday morning to go in to the hospital: 

And by early afternoon, he had arrived!





Everest Spencer was born at 1:34 pm on 3/29/11. He was 8 lb 12.1 oz and 22 inches long! All went well and baby and I are recovering at the hospital happily!!