I looked at my sister's blog and realized it had been over a year since I posted, so I thought I would post something to show that I've updated!

We have one more little one-Nathan Rey. He is as sweet and good as they come. He's the kind of child that makes you want to have more children. (bad idea :) )

Ben is fun and happy and potty trained! Horray! I'll never have another Chick-fil-A experience (a.k.a. the most embarrassing experience in my life)

Hayden loves loves loves technology! :) He'd be on the computer all day if I let him! He and Justin love Taekwondo and playing "Last Airbender" on the trampoline.

Justin is turning into an independent kid. I'm not sure I like it-I want him to stay little. He's very responsible at times and I just love having him around.

I'm doing great-my hips are getting better and better and I love being able to walk through a store. It's a very happy time for me.

Chris is doing fine-he's not so sure about his job stability right now so he's interviewed a lot this year. He had an offer and a lot of good prospects but we finally agreed that now is not quite the time for us to leave here. He stays busy being in the bishopric and I think he's absolutely wonderful.

Shivers has finally gotten rid of his "cone of shame" that he had on for over 5 months. Horray! That was a pain for everyone!

All in all, it's a very happy time in our lives.

Happy Holidays!

Love, the Kollers

TRIPLES WEEK TOTALS!



So, I kind of went all-out for this triples week. It was the longest that my local grocery store has ever run their triple coupon promotion, and I'll tell you-it was the best!

Now don't be afraid when I tell you this next bit-



I went to the grocery store 16 times this week.



-I know-I know, but it's only because they will only let you use 20 tripling coupons per transaction. Now, that's a real pain, but still doable, but very tiring, so I'm done for a while with the "intense coupon" thing. (How long will it last before I'm back? Probably not long...)



So here's the good stuff: My totals:

I spent $104.32

I saved $824.22=

I would have spent without coupons $928.54

I also received coupons for 15 free gallons of milk (about $45.00) plus

Mail in forms for $40 in grocery gift cards

Everybody wants to say Hi!

So what's going on at our house? Well, Springtime is definitely here-we're almost into summer. It's been 70 degrees most days-the kids think that it's warm enough for the pool, but it really needs to stay above 80 for a few days so we can get in the water. Justin is doing really well at Kindergarten, Hayden is great at Preschool and Benjamin is talking up a storm. Chris, Justin and Hayden are all in Karate (Chris and Justin are purple belts and Hayden is yellow) and I'm in a local orchestra. We have managed to schedule out most of our time (is that necessarily a good thing?), but do make it through every week with very few trips to the hospital, so I guess we're doing okay!

Shopping during Triple coupon week

This week has been crazy-amazing for grocery shopping. One of the local grocery stores in my area has been TRIPLING coupon values (-so a .50 coupon becomes $1.50, etc.) and it is Christmas every day this week at the grocery store. I also have a good group of friends that are pretty savvy with Q's and have learned through them how to find the "screamin' deals". As Dave Ramsey says, "You need to make every penny scream-you're pinchin' so hard!" Well, here's to a loud change purse!

The grocery week ends on Tuesday, but I'm not so sure I'll be coming back at the end-given my Blogging track record, so I thought that I'd share how well I've done so far.

Here's the bottom line: I have spent at the store this week (so far) $61.51. I have SAVED $488.25. That's an 88.5% savings. Really.

Here's some of the highlights:

• 24 boxes of cereal, free which when I bought them gave me coupons for


• 7 free gallons of milk-that was great!


• 24 jars of Ragu at .22/jar


• Dole fruit cups (4 pack) for .35/pack


• free rice, free rice and free rice (I haven't gotten all of mine yet)

You know how Dorothy skips down the yellow brick road? That's how I've felt after every trip to the grocery store! I really feel that if you're looking for ways to cut back on your budget, this is where it's at. Those silly little things. Now, it's not always this good-but I average (on a regular week) about 70% savings over retail. My stores double coupons up to .50-.55 regularly. I know that other areas don't double Q's very often, but you can still knock out about 50% with coupons-probably more.

I put in a picture of what I've gotten so far-minus the frozen and refrigerated goods. Before coupons, my weekly budget was $250. Now it's $50, and, with the exception of "Triples week" I rarely if ever go over.

So there you go! I hope you've enjoyed it! It's midnight and the Kollers have all turned into pumpkins and I would like to join them ;)

Until some other time...

Hey there! Thought that I'd never write again? Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! All's well at our house-here's the summary:

• Chris still has his job and is an orange belt in karate
• Wendy is bigtime into coupons and is in an orchestra
• Justin got a Nerf gun and is happy as pie about it and is a purple belt in karate
• Hayden loves his Leapster and is a white belt in karate
• Benjamin didn't care that he got presents he just wants to climb and says, "Hi-yah!" just like his brothers
• Shivers got a ham bone and still is working on it

We're all doing pretty well-busy, as always. Happy Holidays!

Love, the Kollers

Merry Christmas

Hello there! I don't think that we're going to be able to put out a "proper" Christmas card this year, so I thought that I would include what we've done this year here on our blog. Merry Christmas!

I don't know if you heard, but I just had another baby boy. (That makes 3 now :) ) His name is Benjamin Bain Koller, and he was born on September 4th. So I have a 3 month old right now who eats all the time, doesn't sleep more than 3 hours at any one time, and is so adorable I don't even really mind not getting any sleep. He just started smiling a lot and that makes any hard time worth it. Hayden, my 3 year old, won't leave him alone at all and so every time I leave the room, I have to take Hayden with me so that he won't hurt Benjamin by "loving him" too much. Right now I have Benjamin in a swing that is sitting inside a portable crib so that Hayden can't get to him as easily. I hope this phase ends soon... ;)

Justin-my 4 year old- is doing pretty well. He has started to read and we have him in a little preschool near our house. It's a Lutheran church, so sometimes he'll come home with some "different" ways of doing things, and we have to show him how we do them. (Like how to hold your hands when you pray and that we pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ instead of directly "praying to Jesus". ) It's a nice place, though, and I'm really glad we found it. He also hates the fact that we have "quiet time" (a.k.a. my sanity time) every day. He asks me about every 4 minutes, "Is quiet time over, Mommy?" (I'm writing this during quiet time)

My husband Chris works for a stock trading company doing programming. He likes his job, and so do I, but I don't really like the commute. It takes him about 35 minutes with no traffic to get home. But I absolutely love our house and wouldn't move just for the commute-I think. ;)
Hayden, my 3 year old, has started potty training (que the "Psycho" music)-actually, he's pretty good at it. I hope this sticks-I had to train Justin 3 different times. He is so so so exuberant in everything that he does. Many mornings about 3:30 a.m. he comes into our room and in his little tiny voice he says "It's mowing!" (which means, "It's morning") and we have to show him that it's still not light outside and he has to go back to bed. He doesn't like that, so many mornings we will wake up and find that he's snuck back in bed with us and is asleep between us. The little stinker. How'd he manage to do that without waking us up? :)

I am busy coping with 3 little kids as well as trying to do all the other things that "grownups" do. I've got 2 callings-Primary Chorister and Ward Choir Director. They keep my time on Sundays pretty full. I also teach a few music lessons, and host a "Scrapbook Night" for the ward at my house every Wednesday evening. Funny thing about that-I don't even scrapbook. -However, I inherited the name from the last lady that did it and moved. I'm now lobbying for the name to be changed to a "Project night" or something else. Mostly it's just about getting the opportunity to hang out with adults once a week. I had a really hard pregnancy and am currently seeing a bunch of doctors to see if they can find out what's wrong with my hips-I wasn't able to walk at all towards the end of the pregnancy and am just now starting to recover. I"ve had an MRI of my spine, X rays of my hips, and shots and therapy all over the place and am not quite done. Hopefully they'll find all the problems and fix them soon so I can have another baby-we want four total and I'm 35- I really want to be done soon!

Our dog Shivers is still just as crazy as ever-we recently got blinds for our house and so now that he can't look out the window and bark at anything that moves outside, he stands by the door and LISTENS for people so that he can bark at the door. He is one crazy dog. He is so obedient inside the house, but the outside is, apparently, the enemy and must be destroyed! We didn't take him to Troy's house for Thanksgiving in Michigan because Alyssa was bringing her 2 dogs and Troy and Angela have a dog and a cat and we figured 4 dogs and a cat was just too much.

--So there you go! There's our life-we always seem to be busy-which is a good thing. Come down and see us sometime! We'll hook you up with hot boiled ("bolled") peanuts, the beach, a few plantations, and more!

We love all of you and hope that we can see you soon. Think of us-in sunny South Carolina.

Love,
Wendy, Chris, Justin, Hayden, Benjamin, and Shivers


"In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina..." --James Taylor