It's official!

We are officially home owners! It took a little longer than we thought it would for the loan to finalize, record, and fund. YAY for moving. LOL...I hope you can sense the sarcasm. No, honestly it hasn't been that bad. Especially with AWESOME neighbors that have helped lift and tend the kiddos.

A good deal at Walgreens

Did you think I had dropped off the face of the planet with my deals? The truth is that I honestly haven't needed to shop. I had stock-piled so much, that I haven't shopped much for the last month and a half! CRAZY, but AWESOME.

But, I thought I'd share this good deal. Purex 3-in-1 laundry detergent is on sale BIGI free at Walgreens starting today 6/28 through 7/4. So, if you buy one for 8.99 you will get another one free. BUT...the great deal is if you use 2 coupons from the Sunday paper a few weeks ago ($2.00 off) the deal will go as follows:

Buy two for 8.99
-2.00 coupon
-2.00 coupon
you will end up with two things of detergent for 4.99.
This equals 2.50 each. That's a great deal for laundry detergent. I haven't tried this brand, but I'll try anything for 2.50! Good luck!

To those of you who don't get the Sunday paper, you can also print two coupons from purex.com (but these coupons are only 1.00 off)

Our new house!

We have been busy over the past few weeks finalizing our plans with our new home. I've worried about posting this because the financing process has been CRAZY. We've had a lot of friends go through the entire process and then have their financing fall through. SO, hopefully since we are 7 days away from closing, we are safe to announce the exciting news.

Dan and I are absolutely THRILLED to buy our first house. The home is a bank-owned property, so beware of the "ragged" landscaping at the moment. We can hardly wait to get over there and start pulling weeds and working on getting the lawn "green."

If you know me...I'm sure you know I am DYING to start decorating. :)

We have been pretty MUSHED into our current place and we'll be super pumped to have extra space for visitors. Honestly this is probably one of the most exciting parts of getting this home.

We'll be busy over the next couple of weeks packing/cleaning...yada yada. But, just know that if you are coming into the St. George area, you will soon have a "FREE" place to stay at the Ulrich Hotel!

Even though we are moving "off site" Dan will continue to manage the townhomes, and actually have to drive to work like a "real" job.

What can I say...my baby is adorable!

Is it ok to call her a "baby" when she's 18 months old? Holy cow, she's growing fast. I snatched a few pictures of Londyn today, and I can't get over how cute she is. She is at such a fun stage, and I need to document some of her milestones. She is saying "please" for almost everything. It is so darn cute. She loves "teets" (treats...aka fruit snacks). She hates to have a stinky diaper and will go find the diaper bag and bring it to me when she's done doin' her business. She has started throwing fits if she doesn't get what she wants. (Bummer). She can say "Jesus." She loves to jump, and will jump over and over if you ask her to. She loves to dance to music. She points at everything and says "DAT" (we think it means "that"). Not to be confused with "DAX" who is our neighbor that she LOVES. He's a few months older than her and she lights up when she sees him. She always points at him and says "DAX, DAX!" Love it.

ATTENTION MHS class of 99 Alumni!

I am officially getting PUMPED with a capital P for the reunion. Yes...it has been 10 years...YES...we are OLD!

So, now what do I need you to do? SEND ME PICTURES!!! I need pictures from high school and current photos. E-mail would be great, but you can mail them to me also. My e-mail address is danandbrooke@msn.com. If you wish to mail them, send me an e-mail and I'll send you my address. You will get all your pictures back. I PROMISE.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas.

New Moon Trailer!

Ok, so I just watched the trailer for New Moon, and I honestly got the cold chills! I cannot WAIT for this movie to come out...yes I will be attending the midnight showing.

Don't make fun of me. You love it just as much as I do. Check out the trailer at the link below!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/New-Moon-The-Movie/58168456696?ref=nf

Smokin' Hot Sharpies!

Ok, so a few posts ago I showed you the family photos that my saawweeet friend Liz took of my fam-damily. Well, we did a trade, so I had to show you how smokin' hot she and her family are! It was so fun taking these pictures.

Picture Special Ending.

Just a quick note to remind ya that my photo special ends today (June 1st). Book by today and only pay $30.00 a session (35-45 min). Click HERE for details.

Thank you to those who have booked sessions. I LOVE THIS!! I will be traveling to Millard County soon, so if you are interested visit my photo blog for details.

Quick News

Here's a few things that are going on around here lately:

-Oaklyn was looking out the front window and crying her eyes out because "there are so many drugs out there." I'm guessing they learned about drugs at school. Combine this lesson with overly-tired red-headed syndrome, you get a tantrum about drugs in the world.

-Dan is now in his 30s. :) That officially makes him OLD.

-Londyn's hair fits in piggy tails officially.

-We have decided to hold Connelly back and not send him to kindergarten next year. This has been an extremely hard decision, but we've come to the conclusion that he would do better as the oldest in his class vs. making the deadline by 4 days and being the VERY youngest.

-Jousting on horses still exists. It's actually really fun to watch. Oaklyn had to dance at this medieval festival, and I felt like we were watching Sir Ulrich VonLichtenstein from Guilderland.

-Londyn has decided that tantrums are great...her mom disagrees. Molars are not fun for anyone in the house.

-When the water coming out of your tap is brown, it makes you wonder what you've been drinking for the last year.

-Having a pool across the street absolutely rocks until your kids decide to disobey...then it's just there to taunt you AND them.

-Sending Dan to Boston was one of the most fun things I've ever worked hard to earn. (I earned every penny doing pictures, making tutus...etc). This was his birthday present. He's going to visit his best friend who is at dental school there.

-I'm afraid I have sickness called r-itch...I just redecorated, but I WANT TO DO IT AGAIN! I'm afraid this will NEVER go away. Can I decorate your house?

-On a more serious note, I've had some neat spiritual experiences this week that I'm grateful for.

-My best neighbor friend had her TWINS this week. They are doing great and will be in the NICU for a few weeks.

-I had a nervous breakdown about clutter being in every corner of the house. We are officially CRAMMED into this place.

-I thought I had killed one of my household plants so I stuck it in the corner of the garage until I had time to take the dead plant out and re-plant something else. Come to find out...it's TOTALLY alive. Turns out all it needed was a break from me.

-I'm ready to hop on the motivation train again after I took a short break from my diet. Onward I go.

-My kids officially won't eat anything that I cook. We have good weeks and bad weeks, this one is a bad one.

-I'm so happy SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE is back on.

-I am still two weeks behind on LOST. I have to admit I am in a total crossroads with this show right now. I LOVE/HATE it. I think it's a bad sign when I don't have much of a desire to finish the season with only two episodes left.

-Putting away laundry bites. I like cleaning it...but I do not do well at putting it away.

Well, I know these were all random thoughts! Hope everyone is doing good.

Prom Pictures THANK YOU NATASHA!!

Look at all these 80s outfits! What creative friends we have.

Chris won the 80s trivia and won a Rubix Cube!

Dan won best hair in the male category.

Jocelyn won best hair and makeup in the female category and won a bottle of aqua net hairspray.

The Meiers won the best coordinating couple award! AND Jo won the best 80s outfit overall!

Dan's 30th B-Day Bash Part 1

We had a BLAST at Dan's 30th B-Day bash. Here is a small preview of the event. I'll be uploading a lot more pictures so stay tuned. Don't judge me when you see how CRAZY I am. A few of the highlights were: the balloon arch, the disco ball, the rubix cube cake (thanks Jamie), Dan's mullet, everyone's outfits (more pictures to come), and the classic Nintendo.

Dan was a good sport. In fact, EVERYONE was.

HAPPY 30TH HONEY!

Look how cute my hubby is!! (He is the one on the left). Today is his 30th birthday! What a MILESTONE! I'm trying not to make a big deal out of his birthday. AAAAAHHHHH just kidding. I'm making a HUGE deal out of his birthday. Even bigger than EVER. Stay tuned for details on the shin-dig...etc.

I just wanted to write him a quick note to say Happy Birthday. I hope you know how much you are: loved, admired, appreciated, and thought of.

I love you babe.

It pays to know "people"

Thank you Liz for taking some family photos for us. I'm really excited to "trade" pictures. I have to tell you this funny story about getting them done though. (It was NOT funny at the time though, I was ticked) We pull up to the location in the car, and I cannot find my glasses. I had taken them off to finish my make up. We honestly looked for 15 minutes. I know I had them on my face when we got into the car. BUT, I was stumped. So, as the time went on I got more and more pissed. Ya know, if you can't see like me, losing your glasses is NOT fun. I couldn't help look because I'm so freaking BLIND! So, here we are searching, searching, searching...guess where they were? DA DA DA DAAAAAAA in my pant leg. I had rolled up my pant leg and they had fallen into the cuff. Good times.

Photo Special!

(As always, click on the image to view larger size)

Hey guys, Dan turns 30 this month, so I thought I'd run a special for my photography to earn a little extra cash to spoil him with! Wow, he's getting OLD!!! :)

Visit my photo blog HERE for details.

I also had to share a few shots of my cute little redhead that I took the other day. She was jealous that I was taking pictures of someone else, hence why she looks like an orphan (no hairdo...dirty face...random outfit). But, I thought they turned out DARLING of her because she was actually cooperating. Now, I just need to catch her in that mood when her clothes and face are clean! :)

This weekend was a blast!

My family came down this weekend to go to Brian Regan, and we had such a blast! We are always pumped when our families come down. I LOVE VISITORS! I have honestly been looking forward to this weekend for a REALLY long time! We took them to Pirate Island Pizza and the kids LOVED IT!

I thought I had won 1000 tickets....I CHEERED....I WHOOPED....I LAUGHED....I SMILED....I found out that I was NOT a winner after all. :( Look how close my spin was!!! Literally 1/4 of an inch off. Lol. Funny.


We also took them to the Washington City community center. This place is amazing. Dan and I are lucky enough to be friends with a lot of the employees of this place, and they do such a great job. My niece and nephews were out of control at this place. (And so were the adults, actually!)


THEN...after all that, my cute hubby surprised me with some perfume for Mother's Day. What a fantastic guy, huh. This perfume smells SO good. I actually smelled it in Las Vegas a few months back, and he called my friend to find out what to get me. (GREAT SUGGESTION!)

He also surprised me with another purchase coming soon. A new camera! I'm not sure which one we will end up with, so I'll wait to tell you the details. I am really excited!

Since I use blogging for my journal, I need to write my thoughts down about Mother's Day. This is the first year since I've been a Mom that Mother's Day was a "GREAT" day. I've had good Mother's Days before, but on previous years, I always had this tiny part of me that felt GUILT for all the things I was failing on as a Mom.

Over the past year, so much has changed in our lives. I can't even begin to express the gratitude I have for Dan for how hard he works for our family. I get to stay at home now. We moved to St. George and LOVE it here. I finally feel like we are in the place that Heavenly Father wants us to be. Honestly, I am happier. I'm not so stressed out all the time, and I absolutely love my neighbors and neighborhood.

As a result, I am a better Mom. I am not a perfect Mom, but yesterday, I felt so much love and gratitude for the guidance that led us here. I love my kids and even though I have ALWAYS loved them, I feel like I can show that love a lot more now that I have time to. That may not make sense to you, but I was a stress case when we lived in Cedar City for many reasons. A. I worked full time. B. I was finishing a Master's Degree and C. I was inside a lot. All three of those aspects have changed since we've moved.

Thank you to Dan and the kids for making me feel special. Thank you to my Mom who I got to have "all to myself" yesterday, and thank you to my friends who care about me.