Easter Weekend

We had a fantastic Easter weekend. We started our weekend off by having a "surprise" party on Friday for my little brother at Chuck-E-Cheese. I might add that he turned 26. As long as I can remember he has said on his birthday that he wanted to have his party at Chuck-E-Cheese. So the party was planned and he had no idea. It was so funny because last Sunday in the coupons was a page for Chuck-E-Cheese and he tore it out and put it on my parents fridge with a note that said, "Happy Birthday Brett." Which made the surprise even better. It was actually a lot of fun. More fun than I think anyone thought it would be. Chels had got Brett a birthday package that included, a balloon, a crown, and a medallion put on by Chuck-E himself. The kids of course had a blast and Brooklyn has decided she wants to have her birthday there too. So I guess we will be going back. On Saturday, we headed out to Sean's grandparents in Stone. We had a great lunch, dyed eggs, and had a fantastic egg hunt in the snow. Sunday we listened to conference and had a YUMMY dinner at my parents. I also got an infection in my botton wisdom tooth and get to get them out on Friday. Wish me luck! Wasn't it wonderful having conference on Easter Weekend. To hear the Prophet and the rest of the Bretheren and other speakers testify of Jesus Christ on Easter was pretty amazing!

Brooklyn can't get enough of her new little cousin Emma (neither can I)

Websites I have learned about...

Some of you that are reading this have received a couple emails from me about these Websites. I thought I would explain them here and let those of you that I don't have email addresses for- hear about it. I mentioned on my Jazz game post that I had attended a coupon conference. At this conference and on the website freebies2deals.com I learned about these sites.

The first one is called SwagBucks. On this site you earn points by surfing the web. So instead of using Google to look things up online you go through SwagBucks and earn points. They have basically combined Google and Ask.com. You don't earn points every time you search but I would say more than half of the time you will. You can download their toolbar to help make earning points faster. There are also other ways of earning points such as donating old cell phones, referring friends, and searching their site.

The next one is called EBates. On this site you earn a percentage of money back by shopping through them- check out the site to see what stores are on there and what percentage you can get back. You get a $5 credit just for signing up. On this site you actually get a check- not points like the other sites. If you are someone who does a lot of shopping online this is a great site- you might as well be getting money back, right? On this site, you can also get some great coupon codes to apply to your order.

MyPoints will give you points for taking short surveys, clicking on a link in an email, and shopping at your favorite stores! You can redeem your points for gift cards and other cool prizes. The best part about MyPoints is you don't have to buy anything to get points!! I created an email account just to use at these places. With MyPoints I get about 2-3 emails a day for "special offers" I just click on the link look at the offer and then close it. It takes probably 3 minutes. I haven't bought anything and in the 7 weeks I have been using MyPoints, I have earned 845 points. You can also earn points by taking surverys, playing games, and other ways.

Little Miss Brooklyn does not go to bed very good and every night I sit in her door and do these things while she is going to sleep. If you search the web or buy things on line you might as well be getting something back-don't you think? I am pretty new to these sites, but if you have any questions let me know. Also, if you know of any other sites like these, please let me know! :)

Easter Dresses

Since Easter is this Sunday and it also happens to be General Conference, the gals got all dolled up in their Easter dresses on Sunday. I am biased- but I think they both looked so cute. They both loved their dresses. Gracie would pick both sides of hers and say "cute" over and over again. And anyone that looked at her she would do the same. We ran out of time before church to take picutes and after they were not in the mood. So here are a couple of my favorites. (i think i will try again in 2 weeks)

This one shows what we were dealing with- Brooklyn posing and Gracie hiding

This was the best one of both of them

What would a photo shoot be without Brooklyn's signature pose?

Cute Girl

Grace would not look at the camera- at this point she was 3 hours past nap time- the joys of church with a toddler that needs a nap!!

Go Jazz Go!

Several months ago, I found out about a website called http://www.freebies2deals.com/. You should really check it out! The girl that does it is named Melea and she posts different freebies and great "deals" that you can get. She did a Coupon Conference on saturday that I went to. It was great- I learned a lot and am going to start working on adding to my food storage by getting things for free or paying very little for them. She did drawings throughout the whole thing- the first drawing she did was one number away from my sister's number- darn. I NEVER win anything so when it came time for the last and big drawing, which was 12th row tickets to the Jazz game (that night) behind the Jazz bench, I knew I wouldn't win. So she is really mixing the tickets up and pulls out the ticket and reads, "Zero, Seven" (at this point I start to get a little excited because my number is 072) then she says, "Two" I was SOOOO excited. So this is the craziness of my day. I woke up at 7 AM which I might add is early for me. Nat picked me up at about 7:40 and we headed for Salt Lake. We did a little shopping and made it to the conference at 11. The thing got over at 1. At this point, I am frantically trying to get ahold of Sean (he had a parents conference at work and was supposed to work that night) to see if there was any chance of him getting off work- which he was able to do. Nat and I rush home and go to Newton for an 80th Birthday party of my dear neighbor Donna that lived right next door to me my whole life. We made arrangements for the gals- thanks a ton mom and dad they loved McDonald's and thanks Paula! Then back to Salt Lake Sean and I headed. As I mentioned the seats were on the 12th row right behind the Jazz bench- and Jerry Sloan's wife was sitting in the row right in front of us! It was a CRAZY day for me- but lots of fun! The Jazz even won the game- they were playing New Orleans and beat them by about 30! I was exhausted by the time we got home! Thanks for picking my number Melea and for the great conference- she is doing another one in May!

I had to get this picture for Brooklyn- she loves the Jazz Bear

For all the female fans

Disney on Ice

Last friday, me, my mom, my aunt Paula, and cousins Jan, Marlee, and Marijka took the gals to Disney on Ice. They have the cutest little Tinkerbell costumes and decided that they wanted to dress up as her since Tinkerbell and the Fairies were part of the show. We had a great time and the gals LOVED it. I wasn't sure how Gracie would do- there was about 10 minutes that she lost her attention, but luckily my cousin Jan let her unload her purse. Thanks Jan! Right before the show started there was a cute area that had some of the princess dresses on display and Cinderella and Tiana were both there. I think the gals were in heaven. Gracie loved it so much I couldn't even get a picture of her looking at me. My gals LOVE all things Mickey so they were thrilled when Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy started the show off. Gracie would get quite concerned when they would go away and then was thrilled when they came back. I think it was more fun for all us to watch them than to actually watch the show.

Just Chillin'! Gracie is at the stage right now when she CANNOT stand the sun in her eyes- she will get so mad if it get in them. Luckily, grandma had 2 pairs of sunglasses that they were able to put on so we didn't have any meltdowns.

Brooklyn was loving watching Cinderella and Tiana.

I love this picture because you can see that Brooklyn is waving crazily to Cinderella.

This is what the majority of the pictures I got look like. I would have Gracie's attention for a second and by the time the camera took the picture she had moved on. They looked so cute all dressed up.

Of course we had to get a picture of Mickey and Minnie.

I am a little slow at getting things posted from the past couple of weeks. On the 2nd of March, for Dr. Seuss' birthday, Brooklyn's school could dress up as their favorite character from a book. There is a cute little series called "Fancy Nancy" and of course that is who Brooklyn wanted to be. She picked out what she was going to wear and we got her all "fancied" up. She looked so darling. When I was trying to take her picture she kept posing- she was really feeling the character.

Brooklyn also made arrangements with uncle Derk to go on a horse ride and ride the 3-wheeler. We went out on Saturday the 6th and had a BLAST!! It was way way way muddy but we had fun- mud and all. Nat and I got dinner ready and Brooklyn sat down to eat and said her throat hurt really bad and she went and laid down. By the time we left Nat's she was running a fever and not feeling well at all. Sunday she didn't feel good and so after an awful night I took her into the doctor monday morning and sure enough she has Strep Throat. She has not been feeling well at all or sleeping very well. Poor thing! Bring on Spring!!!

All fancied up

Sean and his gals playing in the box

Gracie was having so much fun- I love this picture of her yelling "CHEESE"

I was trying to get a picture of her in her boots. My parents had found these boots on clearance and got them to have at their house. However, Gracie will not take them off. First thing in the morning she wants the boots and everywhere we go she wants the boots.

Gracie wasn't loving the horse

Brooklyn and Garrett couldn't get enough of Airplane the horse

Brooklyn was very serious about her horseriding

I think she could have rode the 3-Wheeler all day

Thanks Uncle Derk for a fun day!!!!!

Advise

We are approaching a new transition in our home. Moving Gracie from her crib to a bed. I am DREADING this!! Brooklyn did not transition from crib to bed at all and to this day she ends up in our bed every night. Gracie is such a great sleeper and I don't want to lose that. She hasn't discovered that she can get out of her crib and I am going to keep her in there until she does. But- I want to know what has worked for you. Her and Brooklyn are also going to be sharing a room. Please give me your input!