Brytlee's Birthday

My Baby is two!...... I am not sure how to feel about that yet.... The last two years have gone buy way, way, way to fast. I feel like she should still be my little baby, but she isn't really a baby anymore.
Brytlee is so much fun. She can be such a stinker some times, but even when she is being her worst.... I can't help but want to just hug her, laugh at her, and just love her. She is such a sweet heart!!!!
Brytlee has really started to grow a ton. She is already in mostly three T clothing, and looks so tall to me. She can talk so well, and can now tell us what happened when someone...(Lizzy) is picking on her.
I have a ton of pictures from Brytlee's birthday party and other great Brytlee moments,


she isn't afraid of posing for the camera!

Brytlee's birthday muffin. She had just woke up and Ryan had made muffins so we had to sing to her and let her know that it was her special day! (that night when we were getting ready to sing at her party, she started to sing to herself so we all joined in)


The birthday cake! I wanted to make a cute cake that wasn't a animal or something like that, but it didn't turn out how I thought it would.... I just wanted it to be a cute stacked cake but the top baked funny, and the littlest one that I was going to put on the top feel and broke..... but it is still cute, and Brytlee enjoyed the frosting and the chocolate....


Brytlee loved opening her presents and her sisters loved helping her. She got some great presents! (spoiled little girl)
Grandma always buys her cute clothes for her birthday... I think I might like that even more than she does right now.....

This is such a cute dress! I love it!
Crazy hair
Dress up

Brytlee has really started wanting to play dress up or just put things all over her head.... I thought this was funny! She just kept taking bows to Ryan to put in her hair

This was a great look for her! PJ's, rubber boots, and a belt around the head! (she put it together all by herself)
She also insisted on this being on her head!

There is so many things that I want to write down so that I never forget how much I love this little girl, and how wonderful she is. I just can't put it all into words, and I don't have the time to write it all.
I do want to write some of my favorite things that Brytlee does....
-The way that she talks is so cute. Her voice is just so little and precious!
-The way she says "Zyes"
-when she laughs because I finally caught on to what she wanted or what she was trying to tell me...
-How whenever I walk in the house she yells, "mommas home"
-she tries to do everything her big sisters do.
-When she dances
-when she plays
-When she wants to cuddle, give me a hug and a kiss, and let me rub her back
-when she gets excited!
-I love everything about Brytlee!!! Happy Birthday

Happy Valentines Day

I had a great Valentines Day this year! I have to get a little mushy about my Valentine.... He is so wonderful. I feel so lucky to have him as a husband. We have been married for almost 9 years now, and the longer we are married the more I see how much we are alike, and the longer we are married, I fall more and more in love with him. I couldn't have asked for a better father for our children, or better best friend. I love you Ryan! Thank you so much for being so wonderful!

pinch your pennies

I had a lot of fun shopping yesterday at wally world! I went while I was waiting for Ryan to do some errands, and I had some time to kill. I went through all my coupons and just grabbed all the things that I would get for free or close to it. When I was done my total came to $178.00, but after coupons I paid....$11.58!!!! It was so cool! I bought a bunch of body wash, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, (herbal essence) razors, shaving cream, mouth wash, makeup, crest white strips, (they were more than $20 themselves) band aids, and a bunch more. I had over 45 items, so I paid less than 25 cents an item!

Snowmen

This whole long cold wet winter we have tried and tried to build a snowman and the snow was never the right kind. Alexis would get so sad when the balls would not get bigger and just kept falling apart. So we had a big snow day this week and got about six inches of really good snowman snow. So to make up for lost time, we had to build a whole family of snowmen.... Alexis made one for Elizabeth, Brytlee, and herself, and I made the mom and dad... (When we put the dad together, it was a little big and it tipped over, so Elizabeth used it for a seat instead) my knee's were killing me, and I had to be all done... So this is our snowmen for the year of 2009! Yea

Family Fun

This weekend was a long weekend for us. Ryan had to fly to Vegas on Wed. for a football clinic, and Alexis was out of school on Wed. for parent teacher conference, so the girls and I went to Idaho Falls to visit my family. It was a lot of fun to go and spend a lot of time with my family. My girls always get so spoiled, and have a great time while we are there.
The first night we were there, we stopped at Annette and Rob's new house to see all the new things that were finished, and while we were there, Alexis, Conner, and Elizabeth had run outside to "get some fresh air" (that is what they said). And then a few minutes latter they came in the house like this..............

So when Alexis walked in she was very calm and acting weird, and I asked "what happened"???!!
And she tells me "Oh, I fell" and then Conner walks in with his lip all bloody, and we ask him "what happened"?!!!!! and he said, "uhhhhh, I fell...."
So then I knew something was weird... they were both really calm, and they were both bleeding in the same place, and they should have been crying... so I asked again and again till I got the right story..
They went outside and started to suck on the ice on the chain, and they both got stuck. So Elizabeth helped them out and pulled them off of the chain. And Alexis didn't just do it one time, she had to try it twice.... It was really funny, sad, and kinda dumb all at the same time. But I think they learned a lesson, and I don't think they will be doing it again. (when I asked Alexis why she lied to me, she said "I was scared that you were going to be mad at me". So we had to have a little talk about telling the truth.
I had a lot of fun at my Family's and already miss them. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family!
I didn't have time to write about my last weekend also.... It was a lot of fun!!! I was able to go with Annette, and Sara, and a few lady's from their ward up to Sara's family's cabin on Bill's Island, with NO KIDS... It was a lot of fun, and sooooooooooo relaxing and we had a lot of fun conversations, played games, and ate great food!!!! Thank you so much Ryan for letting me go, and watching the girls, and Thank you Sara for inviting us all.

Our Girls

I have not been the best on keeping up on our lives and blogging about what we have been doing. So I will try to catch up. I feel like to talk about myself is really boring.... I have nothing really all that interesting going on, I feel like I do the same thing every day, and so I don't know what to say about myself.... I have started to LIKE working out a lot lately, for some reason it has become my out, and just make me feel so good in the morning. (I have not really lost any weight, but I am still working on it) I have become a addict to Mario Cart, and I have to say that I am AWESOME at it.... (not that is anything to be that proud of...but I am) (I can finally beat Ryan at SOMETHING) My house feels like it is never clean, and my laundry just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and same with the list of things to do. I am still so in love with doing my books online with Heritage Makers, and work on keeping my photos up all the time. I am also so in love with my Husband!!!! It is funny how there are just days that I can't get enough of him, and my heart feels like it is going to explode when I am around him. He is such a wonderful dad, and husband and I am so so so so in love with him!!!!
And the most exciting thing in Ryan and my life is our girls! They are so AWESOME. They are the reason I get out of bed in the morning....(seriously.... I have to get Alexis ready for school)
They keep me going even when I just want to crash and take a nap, they mess up the house so I have something to clean, (that is true, but it also sucks) and they make me laugh when I need it the most!
I love my family so much!!!!
here are a few random pictures

Our neighbor Jean had these Tu Tu's made for the girls for Christmas. She is so sweet and we love her. They are so cute, and the girls love them.






Alexis wanted to see what she looked like when she did her cool trick

This is Mickey, Lizzy's cousin. Lizzy loves to play with her and asks to play with her every day... They play so good together
they did their hair all by themselves
bff


Elizabeth thought it would be so much fun to run through the big puddle, but after she about froze I think she changed her mind.

saving money

So I have become a coupon shopper, and I am now a believer. But there are tricks to it.... You don't really save a lot of money if you only have one coupon, and only buy one item.... so the trick is to do the PYP (pinch your pennies) if you have not heard of that, it is when your local newspaper sends you five of every Sundays paper, and that way you get five of every coupon. And the other trick is to save your coupons for the sales. So if you have a coupon for a cereal for 75 cents off, and when it goes on sale for 1.00, you can buy the cereal for 25 cents.... Also a huge helper is you can print your coupons online at the web site at the bottom. (you can only print two coupons per computer, but if you have a couple computers you can print four or more of every coupon)
This all sounds so hard and complicated, but it gets easy once you go a few times and figure it out a little.
The biggest key is this!

Go to grocerysmarts.com then it will ask you for a password and you can use min, it is g84rcm. After you do that it will ask you for your area, and which store you want to see the sales for. (the one I look at the most is Albertsons) then you print of the list, and highlight what you are interested on buying. Also it will tell you what it is on sale for, and also in the right side it will tell you what it will be with a coupon. That lets you know if it is a great deal or not, and after you see that you can buy gushers for 60 cents, you might buy more than you would have before.
There are a ton of tricks about this like if the coupon is for Kix cereal, you don't have to use it for just kix, you can use it for any general mills brand, and the same goes for all the coupons.. It isn't what is on the coupon, it is the brand itself.,
I hope this helps
so go to
grocerysmarts.com and remember the password After you have loged in, you can save it under you favorites, and then you don't have to sign in every time.

What's go'n on....

I have had a lot to do it feels like, and at the same time feel like nothing has gotten done... I hate it when this happens.
I went to my family's house this weekend, and was able to go to my cousin Jaguel's wedding reception, (I can not believe that she is married....) it was a packed house, and was very beautiful. The following day I went to Chris's candy shop!!! (Heidi's Fudge in Rigby) and bought some of the best Carmel apples, Carmel pretzels, and fudge... It was all so good (we love the apple pie Carmel apple)








While I was there I told Chris all about the coupon shopping that I have been doing, and told him how much money I have been saving. He didn't believe me at all, and thought I was full of it, so I took him and my mom and showed them how it is done. My mom spent $200 and saved almost $500. With all the savings we had, we payed 39% for all we got. It was a lot of fun.
I spent 94, and saved almost $200. (If you all want to learn how to do it, I can let you in on my secrets...)
Anyway, on Sunday we went to Chris and Cindy's, and they blessed baby Tessa. They did it at their home, and had a huge crowd show up and it was so much fun to see all our family, and friends, that came. They are done remodeling their home, and it is so beautiful!


Also, Cindy went in for her surgery the other day, and it was not what they thought it was at all. They thought she had a tumor growing on her ovary's, and they were going to go in and remove the tumor and the ovary, and when they went in, they found out that her appendix had burst and attached itself to the ovary.... so I guess there was a lot of infections to clean up, but she was able to keep both her ovary's, and will be well soon!!! Such great news!!!! But so crazy and painful for Cindy. The poor girl has been through so much.

Alexis and her new trick

Alexis is so flexible!!! (as you can see in the video) She has always been able to do a good bridge, and other tricks. Last year she learned how to touch her toes to her head backwards and just kept working on it. She went from her head to her nose to her chin and now she can put her feet around her neck.
She was looking in the Guinness book of records and saw a lady doing the other trick she did in the video and she just said, "I can do that" and she did. She gets better and better every time she does it, and I think she likes all the attention she gets when she shows everyone.
I have not found out if this is going to do anything bad to her back, but it makes mine hurt just watching her do it.

The Weekend

We got a waffle iron for Christmas that rotates and it makes the best waffles in the world!!! They are so fluffy, and thick and yummy!!!! (thanks mom)

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmm
Alexis has been asking for waffles for breakfast lunch, dinner, and snack time!!! She loves them!
This weekend we were in Idaho falls for the baptism of my nephew Tanner Wray Merrill and also for the blessing of my niece Ava Rose Merrill. It was fun to have to days of get together s and hang out with my family. The picture above is my Grandma Merrill and little baby Ava.
Ava was sleeping so deep and so cuddly. I love holding babys when they will snuggle up to you, and she smelt so good. I think I am getting very baby hungry.....
The three little princesses. My girls love playing with little miss Mia. She is so cute, and they all get along so well.
Brytlee eating her dinner, and she is wearing her new Christmas dress that my mom gave her. I LOVE the dress. It is my new favorite!
Baby Tessa (Chris and Cindy's baby) She will be getting blessed next Sunday, so we will get to go and see my family again and get to all hang out. I really enjoy getting together with everyone, and watching all the kids play together. I really think that I have the cutest Nieces and Nephews in the world. They are all so sweet, and such great kids!!!! I love them all so much and wish I could spend more time with them all.

One of the days that we were there we all went to the pool and swam for a few hours and then after we were done Summer babysat all the kids while the Adults all went to dinner and a movie. We saw Yes Man and I really thought it was funny. There was a really bad part in it that made me feel really uncomfortable but besides that I had some realy good laughs.