Chuck-E-Cheese

Brooklyn had a wonderful birthday! She got to open a present before she went to school. She goes fishing with my uncle Ric and she has wanted her own fishing pole- so she got a pink Barbie one and is as happy as can be with it. She decided that she wanted Zhu Zhu pets- (I was so glad that she didn't see them at Christmastime) and got some of them. They are actually quite cute and her and Gracie love watching them run around their house. She had asked grandma Maynard to make her a dress a couple months ago and she got that and a necklace from grandma and grandpa. She is absolutely loving the pink scooter she got from grandma and pops. She scored big time in the present department this year- thank you everyone for spoiling my child :). After having Brett's birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese, that is where Brooklyn decided she wanted to go for hers. Tuesday after school we all loaded up and headed down to Layton to celebrate. We had a GREAT time. I am really impressed with the place. Brooklyn is such a lucky girl to have so many people love her. She has quite the entourage- we were glad that Keith and Shawna joined us adding another kid. When we go places it is quite funny because there were 17 adults, 4 kids, and 2 babies. The adult to kid ratio is slightly off balance. We all added our tickets together and at the end of the night she was able to get 2 High School Musical dolls with them. It was fun bringing the inner child out and playing games and trying so hard to earn as many tickets as we could. I think Sean played this football game for at least 1 hour straight and it was actually probably longer, but he scored big time on the tickets. It was a good time. I am so happy that Brooklyn was able to have a great 6th birthday!

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!!

Today is Miss Brooklyn's 6th Birthday!! I cannot believe that 6 years ago, my life changed forever when this little girl was placed in my arms! I was telling my mom today that I can remember every little detail about my pregnancy and Brooklyn's birth like it was yesterday. Brooklyn has brought so much joy and happiness into our lives. She is such a great big sister and cousin. She is so full of energy and loves to do anything outside. She has a very tender heart-especially for animals (she get this from her dad). She still loves all things pink and still loves Troy and High School Musical. It has be so fun to watch her start school this year and see how well she is doing. She loves to read and can sound out pretty much any word she sees. Sean and I love her so much and cannot imagine our lives without her. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!!!

This picture was taken today. Her first picture being 6!

Baby Animal Days

We made our yearly trip to Baby Animal Days. The gals LOVED it!! It was a little windy, but the the sun was shining and we even got our faces a little color. Brooklyn loved touching every animal while Gracie was content just watching from outside the gate. She loved looking at all the animals she just didn't want to touch them. Although, she did finally touch the bunny when Brooklyn was holding it. It was Brooklyn's Spring Break and we just ended up staying home. We had a couple trips to Donald's (McDonald's is the kids new favorite place- I try not to think of all the germs) with Grandma, Nat, Garrett, and Abby and we ate at the new Rumbi- delish! To end everyone's spring break I got to have my bottom 2 wisdom teeth taken out. YUCK!! I am still trying to get over it and not getting better as fast I would like. I am so blessed to have such awesome family close by that took care of me and the gals. Thanks Sean, mom and dad, Nat and Derk, and Chels!! I really don't know what we would have done without you!

I LOVED this picture!! I hope these 2 cuties always stay close and enjoy each other as much as I enjoy my sister!

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