Vegas baby!!

We're back from Vegas and had a GREAT time!!! Celine Dion was AWESOME, SPECTACULAR, AMAZING, ETC!!!!! She's waaaay better live than just listening to her cd which is still pretty great! But she does a whole bunch of extra voice things in the concert that makes it hard for me to sing along too but I think everyone else appreciated that!!!

We stayed one night at MGM to take advantage of their pool. They have 5 pools and a little river that flows around the pools that you can float around in on a tube. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the pool...even got a little sun! We toured down the strip a few times. The girls do soooo good walking everywhere which Chris and I are very greatful for!

I had a great time with my friend Brandi too! Brooklyn took a real liking to her. She actually cried when she had to say good bye to her! It was sweet! And they blew bubbles in their drinks at the restaurant. Brandi made a good point "kids love me, moms hate me!!!" Haha!! We all had a great time together! I don't have too many pictures of our trip as Chris wanted to use the last roll of film in our older camera and I wasn't allowed to take our camera into the concert.

Me and Brandi all ready for the concert!

All of us in front of the volcano at The Mirage!

A little more volcano

This is a little memory lane for the Beatles....the floor changes colour as you can see in the next picture!

Being groovy!!

Alyssa's 7th Birthday Party!!

All I can say is, thank God birthday's come around once a year!! We ended up having 2 parties for Alyssa. Last night my parents came over for "birthday supper" and she opened gifts from the family. Then today after school, she had 8 friends come over. The weather was cold and rainy so there was no pool party like we had originally planned but I still made them all go outside and we played Red Rover and freeze tag! They had a blast! We decorated cakes and opened presents! Now everyone's gone and I get left with a mess to clean up (actually it's not that bad) and packing to do for Vegas. Here are some pictures of her big days!!! Oh and her real birthday isn't til tomorrow! We will be celebrating by driving 4 hours to Vegas!! LOL!!

She got cowboy boots from grandma and grandpa Wootton for her horse riding lessons!

We got her rollerblades!!
Brooklyn realizing not all the presents are for her! She got a watch from grandma and grandpa and thought there should be more! This is a typical reaction from her lately...ugh!

Testing out the blades! Grandma and Grandpa also got her the protective gear!

Blowing out the candle on her Skor cake that I made from scratch!!

Holding up 7 fingers!

Brooklyn "decorating" her cake!

Singing along with her High School Musical microphone!

The upcoming week!

Well a new week is just around the corner and a busy one it will be! I will be busy cleaning houses, our ladies Bible study starts and Alyssa's birthday party will be at the end of the week leading into our trip to Vegas!!

First of all..I cannot believe Alyssa will be 7!!! It still seems like yesterday, I was a young, naive teenager, peeing on a stick while attending Bible School and wondering what turn my life would take. I'll admit, I was sooooo scared when I found out I was pregnant with her. I was 18 when I got pregnant and 19 when I had her. And yes, that was young and no she wasn't planned! I still had so many things I wanted to accomplish before I got married and had kids. But even in the midst of my sin, God had a greater plan for Chris and I. And on September 22 at 8:54 am our lives were changed forever and Alyssa Katie-Lee entered our world!! She has been the hugest blessing in my life. She was and still is my guinea pig!! As I have never been a parent before having her, everyday is a new day with new parenting skills being put to the test! I have made mistakes and have had triumphs. She is such a great big sister and a great daughter. She loves to try new things and is quite adventurous. She is so smart! I see so much of myself and Chris in her (more me though!!). I love that she still needs me to be a part of everything in her life and I know one day that will change but for now, I'm cherishing every moment. So to my girl, I love you and my love for you grows stronger every day!!






Ok...enough with the sappiness!! As some of you may have noticed at the top of my blog, I have a countdown til when I get to go see Celine Dion and my very good friend Brandi!! Brandi comes down from BC with her mom and a bunch of friends once a year and they go to Vegas! I met up with her last year and of course we laughed and reminisced like crazy! We went to school together for almost our whole life and she was one friend I kept in close contact with once I moved from BC to Manitoba and then to Nevada! So of course when she said she was coming down again, I jumped at the chance to meet up with her again and this time we're going to see CELINE DION!!! This is her last year in Vegas and I HAD to take advantage of being so close. So on Sunday, I'm ditching Chris with the girls at the hotel and I'm off to the concert! So excited! We're leaving Saturday morning for Vegas and will be back Tuesday night. We're also hoping that on Saturday night, we can find some cheap ticket and surprise Alyssa with the Tournament of Kings show. We went in April and we all had a great time...especially Alyssa!! But before all the fun, Chris and I both have to work, I have to clean our house and others and have the birthday party that will include eight 7 and 8 year olds :p We're hoping it will be nice that day so they can go swim in the pool in our backyard. Yes, it's still nice down here that we can still swim outdoors!! Hope everyone has a great week :o)

Digital Scrapbooking

So I thought I would try my hand at digital scrapbooking! The pastor's wife, Jennifer has started this and it has peeked my interest! I'm still working out the kinks, like how to get the picture centred properly but here's what I worked on last night!! It was quick, fun and no mess to clean up!!

Fires and Beds!

Time for a little update! I've posted 2 pictures of 2 nights ago here. There was a bit of a storm consisting of thunder and lightening. It has been really dry the past few weeks and forest fires are high. We got a little taste of that when lightening struck a mountain RIGHT BEHIND OUR HOUSE!!! It was about 8:00 pm and I looked out my dining room window and I saw an orange glow! And I knew it was too high up for it to be cars so I got the binoculars and saw flames! So I called 911 and they said they already knew about it so it was just sit and wait. Will it spread and make its way down to the valley? Should I call Chris at work? (of course he was night shift). Should I start packing my scrapbooks and clothes?!?! When Chris got home at 4am, it was still burning but by the time I was up for the morning, it was out!! And it never got really big but it sure freaked me out! We live right on the edge of town so our trailer would have been one of the first ones gone! Thank God it never got any bigger! These pictures were taken from my back porch!

Alyssa is doing great in school. Starting to get busy now with soccer, Brownies, horse back riding lessons and homework. Soccer's only for this month so it won't be chaos the whole year.....I hope!!! Brooklyn has started back at daycare for the mornings to go to preschool! She just finished her second day today and is having a great time! They've been reading the story The Kissing Hand (one of my favourites) and making kissing hand crafts! Yesterday she brought home a little puzzle with her hand print on it and today they made cookies with their hand prints. This was all find and dandy til I picked her up and bumped her arm that was holding the plate with her cookie on it and it fell on the floor :o( Now her reaction was the same of maybe a child that has fallen off a bike!!! She started to WAIL and she wouldn't even let me pick her up! She was very mad at me but I got her calmed down and WW3 was adverted!!!

I have started cleaning houses. It started with my mom offering to pay me $15/hour to clean her house now that she's working full time in the HR at the mine. I couldn't turn that down and she started telling her co-workers! So I just started another one yesterday and will have one more once her house is all unpacked!! A lady who worked at the daycare heard word of this and said she had 2 more houses for me if I wanted. She used to clean them but now works at the daycare so she can't do them anymore. I'm thinking about it but probably won't as I still want to have a bit of a life at home. I'm involved with quite a few things with our church and still like to come and go as I please. So I don't want to be too tied down with house cleaning. The extra money will be nice and something I've earned and if Chris is working I can have Brooklyn with me too! I have already put my extra money to good use with buying new bedding and a new bed! We were in Reno last week and went to price out a new mattress but there was such a good sale on the one we wanted that we couldn't walk away! We bought the "bowling ball" mattresses ( I don't know names, just commercials!!!) and I had earlier bought a new bedding set from Bed Bath and Beyond. It's a chocolate brown velvet comforter with light brown sheets! We slept in it all last night for the first time and it was AWESOME!! Here is a pciture for your enjyoment!

Well I should get off the computer and get to my moms and clean her house!!! That is what I get paid to do! Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

High Fives (thanks Janelle!!)

5 Things that you cannot live without for under $10/each:

• Sugar-free hazelnut frappaccino from Carvers Coffee and Cows (local coffee shop)
• Air Wisp scented oils-fresh linen scent
• Diet Pepsi
• Loreal hair dye #112A
• Lysol Kitchen cleaner

5 of your favourite movies:

• Pretty Woman
• The Notebook
• Wedding Crashers
• The Breakup
• Steele Magnolias

5 +5 = 10 baby names that you love (5 for a girl, and 5 for a boy!) but will not use in the future (maybe you'll give others good ideas!):

• BOYS: Brayden, Connor, Colby, Jackson, Jamie
• GIRLS: Camryn, Dylyn, Jaymes, Grace, Mychaela

5 songs you could listen to over & over & over:

• I'll Be - Edwin McCain
• Amazed - Lonestar
• Lost in this Moment - Big and Rich
• I Need You - Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
• Linger - Cranberries

5 people who have influenced your life in a positive way:

• my mom
• Jennifer Hallenback - pastors wife here in Rnd Mtn.
• Renee Evascevich - voice teacher and Music and Worship Leadership teacher at BBI
• Jennifer (Beilman) Van Linden
• Chelsea Miller

5 items that stay in your purse all the time:

• pen
• check card and/or check book
• monthly calender
• gum
• hand cream

5 moments when you knew everything had changed FOREVER:

• the night Chris walked me home from a party and kissed me good night!!
• when I peed on a stick in a 711 bathroom with Rachelle and Alyson
• when Chris and I said "I Do"
• when Chris accepted the job to move down here
• when I weighed myself for the first time since I had Brooklyn in a weight room at a hotel 3 years after she was born!!! (I've lost 35 pounds since that moment!!!)

5 books you really would like to read (or finish - if you're in the middle of one!):

• I'm not s reader so I don't have any....sad I know!

5 obsessions you have right now:

• Big Brother
• cleaning
• saving money
• losing weight
• Satsuma body wash and body butter from Body Shop

Now share your high fives.....you know you want too :o)