Jordan's 2nd Birthday

Well, my baby is TWO!! Little JT is quite the two year these days too...he's talking so much and is REALLY testing mom and dad with his screams!!! (wink) He's really good at his pursed lips pout too, it's actually kinda funny. I do it back to him and he says "Stop Mommy, STOP!" Tonight we were reading the scriptures as a family and he decided it was "MY tourn" so he copied me word for word as we read a verse in Jacob. (It was one of my favorite mommy moments). Justin has just started doing this about 4 months ago and I guess Jordan decided he wanted in on that action too!!

So here's some highlights from Jordan's 2nd birthday:

THE CAKE! Choo Choo Jordan is 2!!! (This was a looooong night!)

THE PRESENTS!

Grandma Capell made a PUPPET SHOW!!--- this is probably one of the cutest things I have ever seen!! You put two pressure rods through the top and middle and it hangs in a doorway! SO CUTE!! I have a feeling this will get a LOT of love over the years!!!

BLOWING OUT THE CANDLES

Jordan was good at this year. Two is such a fun birthday! Jordan totally knew it was his special day. WE love this kid!

One of his favorite toys-ninga guys! Who woulda thought?

And, I couldn't resist one of the proud parents! (make-up woulda been a good idea today, not sure WHAT I was thinking!!!)

Oh yeah, then later that night right before bed we decided to have a little family photo shoot in our kitchen...on the table!!!




Justin thought he was so funny with all his faces. He LOVED seeing what he looked like after the picture took.

FREE MONEY!!

I just have to let you know about Swagbucks! Some of you might have noticed a button on my sidebar that says, "You should totally do this"--well, you SHOULD! And I'll tell you why...because it's SO easy to earn FREE money doing just regular searches online. Basically, I don't use google anymore to search, I use Swagbucks and GET PAID for searching!!!

So, Here's More about it...

Swagbucks is a site that lets you earn Swagbucks (points) by literally just searching the web… something we do on a daily basis anyways! They also have an excellent referral program! If you refer someone over to Swagbucks and they earn a Swagbuck, you will earn a Swagbuck too–up to 100 Swagbucks! So you could potentially earn 100 Swagbucks from each friend you refer! Plus, once you accumulate enough Swagbucks, you can cash them in for various rewards, including Amazon.com gift cards! Yay!

How do you get started?

• Go Here and register on Swagbucks by creating an account. (It's super easy)
  

• You will get 3 Swagbucks just for signing up!
• After registering, you can immediately start searching for anything you want on the web just by using the Swagbucks search engine!
• Periodically, while searching, you may see a pop up that says you’ve won anywhere from 1 to 10 or more in Swagbucks. From what I’ve heard, the best time to search is in the morning or the evening.
• A tip is to download the toolbar, then you can get anyone who searches on your computer on board. Jeff wasn't really in to it at first (we really love google) but now that he's seen the rewards, he's all about it!!
  
• Another way to earn Swagbucks, is by entering the Swagcode that is released almost everyday. This is a special code that you can enter in the swagcode box and you will instantly earn Swagbucks without having to search for them! How do you get this special code? Go to the Swagbucks homepage, click on “Ways to Earn” in the top left, then click on “Special Offers” and then click on the “No Obligation Offers” blue box on the right. Once you get to this page, it will state this:

Welcome to Swag Bucks Special Offers. Sign up for the free money-saving offers you like,
feel free to skip the rest, and find a special swag code reward at the end.

Skip ALL the offers by clicking the skip button or the See Next Offer button beneath the advertisement. Finally after about 7 pages you’ll be awarded with a Swagcode! Enter the code in the box provided on the homepage to see how much you’ve earned.

• After you’ve earned enough points, you can click on the upper tab labeled “Prizes”. Scroll down and under the categories section on the left hand side you should see “Gifts and Rewards”–click there. Now you can start scrolling through all the gift cards they have available. The Amazon.com gift card is by far my favorite reward! You can score a $5 Amazon.com gift card with just 45 Swagbucks, so literally in a month (possibly less) you could earn a $5 Amazon.com gift card!

I’ve heard from other friends that they were able to pay for all of their Christmas presents last year by using Swagbucks! Can you believe that? They had earned so many Amazon.com gift cards, that the gift cards covered the full cost of their purchases! I've already earned $15 in Amazon gift cards and $5 to Alice.com and I just barely started really doing it.

Anyways, just thought some of you might really benefit from some FREE MONEY!! I mean, who wouldn't???

Oh my gosh! I did it!!!

We FINALLY got a camera with video and now I can show my far away friends my boys in REAL LIFE! (Well, as close as you can get right??) So here is my first official BLOG VIDEO!! WAHOOO !!

Anyways, so Jeff took the car today so I decided to get creative with the boys...here's what we did today!



Then Jordan decided he wanted to go peepee in the potty and took all his clothes off---

That of course led to this:



And then this:




Then we took some pictures and the boys were so fun during this "shoot" lol!!! These are also Jordan's first "official" silly faces!! He copies EVERYTHING Justin does!!

I guess it's just the simple things

...that make you smile! Like two boys actually PLAYING NICE TOGETHER without screaming or teasing! (sigh) So NICE!






We've had a good month, Jordan is turning 2 next Saturday! I can hardly believe my baby is almost two. So much has happened in two years. We've moved twice already in Jordan's short life, but they seem to be pretty comfortable where we are and we think we'll stick around here for a while ;0) Speaking of our new place, for those of you who wanted to come but might never get around to it, I thought I'd post some pictures of our place:

(I took these pictures right before our open house, there's the food for the party)

That's basically downstairs: to the left of that recliner is a hall with a bunch of doors. One is the laundry room, one is a bedroom and bathroom, one is a hall closet, one is a small open room that we put our food storage in. At the end of the hall is our garage. Upstairs is four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a hall linen closet. That big open space above the fireplace is supposed to be for our big flat screen tv...riiiiiiight. Maybe someday! Maybe we'll get a new TV when we get cable. For now, our rabbit ears get the best reception right by the window, so that's where the TV will be for a while!!

So the offer still stands if you'd like to come visit!!

For YOU Lil Bro!!!

Here's the boys on Christmas Sunday. Justin threw a FIT when I tried to get him to wear the vest...he INSITED on a tie. So luckily we had a cute little red one from Jeff and Britt's wedding!!

Justin's preschool (which I got SO lucky to find) did a Nativity Christmas Play and he was none other than a SHEEP!! The perfect part for my animal obsessed child! He said his part so well.
"BAAAAAAAA!"

Of course family night had to be making a gingerbread house! The boys LOVED this way more than I thought they would...actually so did Jeff. :0)

This Christmas was way more fun than last year. Well, having a house of very own with a fireplace MIGHT have had a little to do with it, but aside from our physical surroundings, JUSTIN was SO enthralled with everything Santa. He really caught on to it this year and was mostly excited about Santa's Reindeer. So carrots were a must and they insisted they get their green trees to be healthy and strong and while were at it, why not the rest of the veggies we had on hand! Cookies of course with a cup full of milk for good Ol' Saint Nick.

Then we opened the traditional jammies and slippers! Buzz Lightyear PJ's and Spiderman Slippers! (the only ones I could find day after Thanksgiving at Walmart for 3 bucks!)

Sports pillows made with love from Grandma Capell--THEY LOVE THEM!

Grandma Stacy got her traditional calendar. Kari started this one year and now it's a must have every year. We love Christmas!!

Oh yeah, and did I say that Christmas Day was spent at MY HOUSE THIS YEAR!?! For the first time since Jeff and I have been married we didn't travel on Christmas eve at 10:00pm from Modesto to Camino (2 hrs). It was so great to be at our house and get to wake up here Christmas morning and stay here for the day! THANK YOU to my family for driving to come and be with us!! I haven't felt so much Joy in a long time. It was perfect.

While we were waiting for the roast to cook, we watched Christmas Vacation (a family favorite) and here's dad, just picture him saying, "I'm get you something, (click) REEEAL NIIICE"--and they apron was worn for me. Dad's such a sport!! I think he looks great!

Zach got a Razor rip rider?? And you can like spin out in it...it's pretty sweet. Here's grandma trying it out. Kari, you should post the video of grandma!! It was great.

And there you have it!! Wish you were here with us Biffrey, but we're so glad you're in good hands with Tami and Mike!! LOVE YOU!!

Christmas Season!

I LOVE the Christmas Season...really, who doesn't??

Well, to start off this post, I first have to say that you know how my last post was about another "dumb" giveaway?? Well, I WON SOMETHING!!

• Jesus is the Gift Snowflake Collection – 16″ Oval Platter (Reg: $24.99 Sale: $19.99)
• Jesus is the Gift Snowflake Collection – Teapot (Reg: $19.99 Sale: $14.99)
• Jesus is the Gift Snowflake Collection – Mugs (2) (Reg: $9.99 Sale: $4.99)
• Jesus is the Gift Snowflake – Apron (Reg: $19.99 Sale: $15.99)
• Jesus is the Gift Snowflake Collection – Child’s Apron (Reg: $12.99 Sale: $10.39)
• Jesus is the Gift Snowflake Collection – Set of 2 Tea Towels (Reg: $14.99 Sale: $11.99)
• Jesus is the Gift Snowflake Collection – Oven Mitt and Potholder (Reg: $9.99 Sale: $7.99)

Besides great giveaways that I somehow get lucky with, we've been having a lot of fun as a family lately. Our new home is in Riverbank and it's a cute little town that reminds me a lot of Placerville. (my hometown) It has a cute little downtown and everyone comes out for the activities the city puts on. We went to the Christmas parade this past Saturday and it was really cute!



The motorcycles and all the dancing horses (not pictured) were highlights...

And of course THIS GUY...

was a hit!

Then that night was our ward Christmas Party and the activities comm. did an AMAZING JOB! There were different rooms set up all over the building with different activities like a service room, an ornament making room, a cookie decorating room, a santa room....

And then they did dinner just for adults and parents with little kids first and then the teenagers could come in after. It was so nice!! The primary did a little program...
and Justin actually sang the song and knew the words!! It was one of my prouder moments and we were bummed we didn't bring the video camera!! Jordan got his star moment when they invited the nursery kids up to a song with bells.

Look, his mouth is open, he's actually singing!! (click on the picture to make it bigger.)

(It might have had something to do with the fact that I told him if he sings really well for us, Santa will remember everything he told him he wanted!!) Shhhhhhh!

And my friend Kristin showed me how to make this wreath!!



And we decorated the house!!

Christmas Giveaway

I love Christmas time because it means lots of great deal and free stuff!! Last year, I won $100 GC to Burlington and a couple of other free things through giveaways. I'm entering some this year again, fingers crossed and thought some of you might be interested! So, go here and enter!

Some motivation

So I haven't posted a coupon deal in a long time because well, I stopped doing it while we were in "limbo". HOWEVER, now that we're back to ourselves again, I have taken it up and LOVE this little hobby of mine. It's seriously a rush for me. So all of this:

For $1.25!!!

7 Ocean Spray Cranberry juices
6 Glade sprays (that I actually submitted for an extra $5 rebate!!) (So a $3.75 money maker!)
6 boxes of Kleenex
1 Free Walgreens first aid kit

...and those orange things are toddler wipes that you can get for free with a target coupon. I got a lot, you can too!!!
Plus at Target right now you can get the DVD/Blu-ray combo of the movie Up! paired with the DVD Monsters Inc. for 14 bucks total!! I scored that last night for Christmas presents for the kiddos!
Some other deals that are not pictured that I got in the past few days:
Free Almay mascara
Free Almay foundation
2 Free Bic Solei razor refill cartridges
.50 Honey Bunches of Oats
4 free Campbells soups
4 free Quaker Quick Oats
.80 5lb sugar
$1 Chex...(think Muddy Buddies...mmmm!)
In all honesty, I've made money doing quite a few of these deals with getting back Walgreens Register Rewards.
I've mentioned this blog before, but if you get a hang of the coupon lingo (which I could help you with) you can seriously get AMAZING deals on stuff you are already buying! It's hip2save.blogspot.com Right now is a really great time to check out her site because she posts lots of deals on toys that you may be buying but she's found coupons or something for them to make them cheaper!! EXAMPLE: Free games at Toys R Us...or super cheap if you don't want to do all the rebates etc. Good luck!

**************************************************************************************

I also just wanted to remind all of my friends out there how special our MEN are! I've been kinda a drag lately to Jeff and I've been really self-centered about what I want and need Jeff to do for me and the boys ON TOP of all that he does all day to bring home the bacon...

So tonight for dinner I decided to do something a little more special so he could see how much I appreciate him. Before kids I was really good at surprsing Jeff with stuff like this to show my appreciation, but since the boys...not so much. I have good intentions!! So today I decided to bust out the bubbly, crystal and candles and write Jeff a note to let him know how much I appreciate him for going to work day in and out to support our family. It was really nothing fancy, but it was different than our last min. table setting and it made dinner really fun! Justin LOVED helping me set the table and was so excited to surprise daddy with the candles!!

OPEN HOUSE!

THAT'S RIGHT!! PARTY AT MY HOUSE!!!

Jeff and I would love to have you all come over for an Open House PARTAE! Well, let's just say it'll be more like a "Munch and Mingle" because it's on
Sunday November 15th from 4pm to 8pm (or whenever you want to leave...shoot, you could stay the night if you want!! Jeff has Monday OFF!! We'll be heatin' up the BBQ with good food and great company. We know it's a little drive, but from our old place in Sac to here, we could make it in an hour and 15 min flat. (Jeff drives 73, don't tell Paul Paddon!!) Anyways, seriously, if you read this blog that means that we like each other and you need to come and visit us!! So leave me a comment if you're coming so we can plan for food 'n stuff!! Call me for directions 916-267-8994 or email sheilacapell@hotmail.com
Can't wait to see ya!!

The costumes