REMEMBER: You are NEVER too old to have a Teddy Bear!!

A couple weeks ago Jimmy and I were trying to decide what to do with our night. He brought up going to Build-A-Bear. I was all for the idea but once I told him I was OK with it, he replied with "well, we don't have to...it's up to you."

That made me feel like he brought it up as a joke and didn't want to and I didn't want him spending money on something that he wasn't excited for...

We didn't go that night but about a week later I brought it up telling him I really wanted one! He got this cute smile on his face and said "if it will make you happy, let's go." :)

The whole way out to the mall he kept asking me if adults normally went to make bears. I kept telling him that age didn't matter when it came to bears! It was all about the meaning of them!

We got to Build-A-Bear and started on our bears. The lady filling them with stuffing was great! She could tell that Jimmy was trying to be "Mr. tough guy" and not have fun with the whole bear thing. She made him do some funny stuff with the heart that you place in the bear and made sure he got the most out of it. By the end he was having fun. We "cleaned" our bears and picked out accessories. We printed their "birth certificates", picked up their cub condos and checked out. I wont tell you anything else because Jimmy will get mad. haha



This is my bear! He is wearing cute little camo shorts and aviator glasses with a nice bouquet of flowers in his hand :) He stays on my bed 24/7 as my little friend.



*The lady at Build-A-Bear told us that she had a 100 year old man(she said she even asked him for his ID because she did not believe him!) come in with his 6 generations of "kids" to build bears. He told her he had gone his whole life without a teddy bear and didnt want them to go through life the same way. He said to remember that a teddy bear is the greatest friend anyone could have, they listen with a smile and they dont talk back. He reminded her to always remember that you are NEVER too old to have a teddy bear close by!

When Jimmy and I started dating his birthday was a common topic of conversation because it was coming up. He shares a birthday with his dad and has never felt like he has had a birthday that was just about him! I decided this year to make that change by doing something special.

I tried to get a bunch of people our age to hang out and have fun that weekend since I was going to be house sitting for a family friend. It was a great idea and I was so excited to do it as a surprise! Well despite all of my efforts, people had summer vacations and what not already planned. He kept telling me not to worry about doing anything, that he hated surprises and that he didn't want anything for his birthday. Him telling me this just made me want to do something special, EVEN MORE!

I decided to invite my sisters, his sisters and his best friend Hunter and his wife. Along the way it turned in to both families getting together for a surprise BBQ the day after his birthday...I was very nervous because this was a big deal! I prepared all day by buying the needed food and gifts and preparing the house and food. When it was time for everyone to come over I was evern more nervous than before. I left to pick Jimmy up while his family arrived.

We walked in the house to a room full of his family and my family talking and laughing amoungst themselves.

I had asked Courtney to make a cake as her part of it all and she gladly accepted. It was a beautiful chocolate cake just for Jimmy! She even went the extra mile and made a fruity cake for those who arent big fans of chocolate.

We sang Happy Birthday and watched as the Birthday Boy blew out ALL 22 candles :)

Despite all my nervousness, the night went great! We had plenty of food for everyone and we all enjoyed each other's company. Some stories were swapped that maybe Jimmy and I were not really prepared for but it was all still VERY fun!!!!

Rockband or no rockband?

When Jimmy and I first started dating it was made very clear that he was NOT a fan of video games...especially ROCK BAND! He claimed he had played it before at a friend's house and HATED it.
(Two years ago my family got rock band for Christmas and played EVERY chance we could get. We were die-hard fans! Before you knew it we had played every song on the disc...and the expansion disk...over and over again. )
Needless to say, I was distraught by this news and was determined to change it!

In July we were at his mom's birthday dinner and his sister Katie mentioned that her and her husband were pretty much obsessed with the game. When she found out that I was also a fan, she told me that we needed to come out to her house and have a rockband party!! I was all in for that, but Jimmy was not.

A couple weeks later we made the trip out to Katie's house, making a stop at Cabelas on the way. We talked about what we thought we would be doing with Katie and Chad and jokingly Jimmy said he didn't care because he would just play with his "toys" from Cabelas while we played Rockband. We walked into the house and low and behold rockband was set up and ready to go!

We ate dinner and quickly began playing. Jimmy was such a good sport and got through the night playing his little heart out on the guitar! lol

The week went by and not a lot was said about Rockband. On Friday night he called to tell me he was on his way back to his shop and was closing up and going home. He nonchalantly asked me how much Rockband was at Walmart for the Wii. I laughed and told him I would find out and questioned his concern. He calmly told me that he decided he liked the game and was thinking about buying it to play at home cause if he is "ever going to be as good as Chad, he needed to practice!" haha

I found a great deal for it at Walmart and told him he could even use my mom's discount to buy it. He kept telling me he was still thinking about it.

He got home from work, showered, picked me up and we headed to Chipotle for dinner. The whole time he was having me find a store that had any in stock. We called store after store in the Mesa area with no luck! Finally I called my mom's store and asked the associate to tell me what store was showing any inventory for ROCKBAND 2 for the Wii. He kindly searched the data base and told me the ONLY store showing any was the one in Apache Junction. We quickly called the store and had them put one on hold. We made the trek out to Signal Butte and Apache Trail. We quickly made our way to electronics and purchased the game for $10 LESS than the ticketed price(thanks mom!!)

As we walked out to the car, box in hand, I looked back at Jimmy and laughed because he looked like a child on Christmas morning!!!
We made it back to his house with enough time to unload the box, set it up and play a few songs before it was time to call it a night.

It is now a constant joke that 8 days ago(and counting), he HATED the game and now he can't get enough of it!! We took it over to my sister's house on Saturday night and played for 3 hours and then played at my house AND his house on Sunday night! lol oh how easily things change :)

Sew Simply Sweet

Last weekend Jimmy and I made a trip out to Surprise to visit his sister Katie and her family. While I was out there visiting with them she started telling me about an online boutique that she was starting up with her sister in law in Utah. She showed us a couple of the dresses she had on there and I fell in love with them! She makes them herself and sells them at a very reasonable cost.

Talking to her more about it I offered to post a blog to help lead traffic to her blog through my followers and friends.


It's a pretty new thing that she is starting and new things keep being added. If you have questions about anything you see on it, feel free to leave a comment here and I will get an answer for you OR just leave a comment on her page and she will be more than happy to get back to you herself.


Like I said, I fell in love with these little dresses, dolls and sunday bag goodies and I hope you do too!!!


The link to her page is on my friends list under "sew simply sweet" OR just click here to be taken directly there :)


Hope you enjoy...and leave your feedback as a comment here so I know that this helped Katie out...thanks guys!

"Take me out to the ball game..."

A couple weeks ago Jimmy and I joined his YSA group in his ward to a Diamondback's game. At first I was worried because I didn't know any of them and anyone that knows me, knows that I am very shy and do not do well in those situations lol.

We met at the leader's home and caravaned over to the light rail station to head into Phoenix. The light rail has been running for most of the year and I had yet to ride it so I was excited for that. We got our tickets and headed to the train. We all talked and laughed the whole way there...about half an hour...and divvied up the tickets.

Jimmy and I got our own row within the ticket range because some people didn't make it. He was excited for this because a few of the people that were there he didnt really want to sit next to for 3 hours.

On the way into the park they were giving out free Diamondbacks visors. Jimmy and I had stopped and picked up a D-backs shirt for me and a hat for him, so these were kind of pointless but we took them anyway as our little souvenior from the night :)

We got to the park and headed in to where our seats were....allllllll the way to the top. $5 seats are netter than nothin right ? haha They played against the Pittsburg Pirates, which honestly meant nothing to me lol but it was something to do and it ended being a fun night.

The d-backs won that night...7 to something haha...can you tell i am not the world's biggest sports fan?? ;)

Jimmy works for a company that has season tickets, four rows behind home plate so i told him that the next game we go to MUST be in those seats...then maybe we might be able to SEE the game lol

The whole experience was fun and worth it, i met a lot of new people that had heard all about me ;)

You never realize how much has happened until you look back...

On March 9th 2009, I was talking to a friend of mine that was leaving for boot camp.We were talking about where we thought life would be in 6 months when he would be back. I told him I would probably be doing the same old thing: school, work, school, work. He chuckled and said

"Bre, I would put money on you being married, or at least engaged BEFORE I come home".

I laughed at this because I could not see myself doing anything but what I had been doing for the last 6 weeks. It was like my world was changing and I was standing in the dark...afraid to look ahead of me.

He left and life went on. A few weeks later someone came back in to my life that I had missed! We have been friends since my junior year of high school. We went to the winter formal dance my senior year together and have been in contact on and off since then. He was always the guy at school that I could trust. The one I could talk to for hours and hours and never get bored! During those four years it seemed like every time our friendship started showing signs of becoming anything else, it would be gone. Nobody physically went anywhere, nobody was mad, it was just gone...we would both get busy with life and not talk for a while. This was the norm, it happened time and time again. It was confusing to me and quite disheartening because it made me feel like he was just talking to me out of boredom...not cause he cared. Right when I would get to the point that I was OK with not having him be a part of my life...he would come back! It was like a sick joke in my mind! lol

This time it was Easter morning. I was sitting in my living room with my mom when my phone went off. The text said simply, "Happy Easter". The only thought I had was "Oh man, here we go again". This is how it happened, we would talk, I would get attached and excited and two weeks later, BAM it was gone. The time passed, soon enough it was almost a month later and it was still going good. We talked all day everyday and by the end of the month we decided to hang out cause we needed to "catch up". We hung out EVERYDAY after that and on May 22nd decided to make it official...I know so Jr. High but so exciting at the same time! lol

On June 13th, he came with me to my nephew's birthday party to meet my family. Everyone was going to be there! Anyone that knows my dad knows that he can come across as intimidating and scary...to say the least so as you can imagine, I was very nervous to bring a boy to meet daddy. Things went great, my dad kept his distance and was on his best behavior! We laughed and talked with my friends and family. He was VERY nervous but in the end decided it wasn't too bad. Since then we have hung out with each of my sisters/brother in laws a few times. He has yet to sit down and actually talk with my dad, but in my opinion that can wait ;)

He is the kind of guy that HATES being the center of attention and involving his family in his personal life...says it "gives them more to make fun of". I had been dying to meet his family and he knew this. I had met his parents when we went to the dance and his mind that was fine. Not to me! lol They found out about us from a ward member and insisted that I come over. He kept putting it off and putting it off until his dad sat him down and said "Jimmy, she is coming over tomorrow after dinner to meet the family, and that's final!" haha I don't know if those were his exact words but that's how he made it sound when he told me. I will admit I was scared. I had talked it up that it would be no big deal and I was ready for anything but when the moment actually came and it was real, I was nervous to say the least! What would they think of me? Would they think I was good enough? Would I fit in? Would they think I was a brat because I don't talk? Too many questions were going through my mind. He picked me up from my family dinner and we got in the car. Half way down the street he said, "ok do you wanna hear to rules now, or later?" THERE ARE RULES?! oh great I could feel my palms sweating and my heart pounding! He went over his "rules" and assured me that they would love me, that I had nothing to worry about! yeah right buddy, your not the one they have been talking about without knowing for the last month! We walked in to the house to find his family playing a game at the table, all smiles when they saw us enter the room. It was nice, we sat down and joined the game. We laughed and talked. They asked me about me and told me about all of them. Before we knew it we had been there for 2 hours and it was time for his parents to head to bed and for his sister to take her kids home for bed. They warmly thanked me for coming over and told me that I was welcome anytime.

Jimmy and I left his house and headed to mine. He jokingly looked at his phone and said "any minute now I should be hearing from ALL of them!"...but nothing all night! The next day he sent them a text asking them what they thought, telling them that the silence was worrying him. His sister Julie quickly responded saying, "calm down, we loved her and we need her to be part of the fam!" He told me this and my heart stopped! I was so worried that that would not be the response and was SO relieved and excited when it was. She also said that we needed to double with her and her husband to get to know me better. The last thing he would tell me that she said was that I was "the sister she has always wanted but never had". I almost cried because this is favorite sister and her opinion matters most to him. The rest of their conversation was "confidential" lol. Later that night his mom told him that she thought I was perfect and she loved how I knew what I wanted to do with my life and was working toward it. His dad said he was quiet that night but the next time it was fair game because he knows I can handle it now. His younger sister said that she believes he has GREAT taste in girls and his brother in law said he agreed with his wife in the fact that I fit in TOO well, it was like I had been there all along!!!

I felt SO much better about it all and I can't wait to hang out with them again and meet the other half of the family!

Yesterday, July 1st, made two months! It doesnt seem like it has been that long but it's been a TON of fun!

Looking back and still being able to hear the words,

"Bre, I would put money on you being married, or at least engaged BEFORE I come home".

I just laugh because, SERIOUSLY! who'da thunk!? It's so unreal how you never know where your life will be in 4 months...ideas change, people change, thoughts change, and feelings change. I wouldn't trade it for the world and I am SO happy.

Who knows, maybe my friend was right, I honestly can tell you I will NOT be married by September but there is a HUGE possibility that I could be engaged by September 10th when that friend returns to Mesa...we will see...we will see! ;)

Camping We Will Go!

For the past couple of years my grandpa has been trying to get the whole Arizona family to go on a camping trip with them. The first year my mom was in the hospital and the second year we got rained out so this year we all made it a point to clear our calenders and go!

It was planned for the first weekend in June. We would all head up on Friday, meet my grandparents up there and then leave on Sunday afternoon in time to rest up for work on Monday.

I rode up with Kindra, Vaughn, Macie and Renzo. It was a hot day in Mesa, running around gathering up the last minute supplies and games. As soon as Vaughn was home we loaded the truck with our gear and the kids, piled ourselves in and hit the dusty trail. We were staying in a designated camp site just few miles south of Heber, Az. Little Ren slept the whole way up while Macie asked me over and over if we were there yet. I kept my eye on my phone watching the signal fade in and out as I tried to keep a "very important" conversation going. Kindra sat in the front with Vaughn filing her nails...she "never gets a minute to sit and take care of her" haha, while Vaughn talked to us about...idk what and got us safetly to our destination.

We arrived at the camp site about two hours later and were greeted by my dad in the parking area. He walked us to the camp ground and told us to heat up our food. We gave hugs, reminised and ate our hamburgers. Moments later little Renzo decided to...lose his lunch :( We decided it had to be the windy road, he was too little and just not used to it.

The night went on like normal, we sat around the camp fire enjoying our family and the cool cool weather.

Jade and I sitting next to the fire warming up her cold fingers!! She is such a cutie!!

This is Jade. There was a branch on the tree in our site that was just perfect for a little person to sit on. After Vaughn put Jade up there ALL of the kids wanted a turn. None were brave enough to let go of Vaughn's arm and just hold the tree like Jade was. lol

Kindra, Vaughn, Courtney and Randy were not staying at the site, but at a condo in Show Low. As soon as Macie figured out the plan, she was very distrot! She wanted to CAMP! She had brought her sleeping bag and her flashlight and wanted to camp!! lol Kindra asked if I would mind letting her stay with me in the trailor at least the one night so she would be happier. Of course I didn't have a problem with it, a sleepover with my neice always sounded like a fun plan :). It was about 8 o'clock when they left and the little girls were all in Grandma and Grandpa's camper watching a movie when Macie came out and ASKED if she could go to bed...I was pretty tired from the long day of preperation and the drive up so I was all game! We went into the trailer, changed into our jammies and got situated in the top bed of the camper. She was laying next to the window and seriously stayed awake for almost 4 hours looking at and talking to the moon, it was so cute...but enough was enough and finally I told her to be quiet and go to sleep!

Sleeping next to the window, it was hard for me to sleep once the sun was up. In the woods, this is about 5:30 AM! Not my cup of tea to wake up that early...especially when nobody else in the camp site is awake. Finally at about 7 I decided to give it up and get up. My dad heard me and got up with me. I didn't want to leave Macie asleep in the camper alone so we talked for a bit until the camp woke up and it was time for breakfast. Macie was so excited to get in her coat and hat to camp some more!

Here she is eating some bread right after waking up...waiting for mom and dad to get there to make breakfast!

They arrived a few minutes later all ready to eat! Kindra lagged behind...she wasnt feeling very good, her and ren :(

They sat away from the crowd the whole day watching the games and breathing in the fresh air.
Around the camp they had set up little games that we could all play and then a bucket with games for the littler ones.

Here is Courtney watching a bean bag toss tournament in progress :)

Here is mom in her "flash dance" outfit. We made fun of her because she was wearing flood pants, her jacket and an 80's sweat band. She even went as far as to do the dance from the movie...you know the one lol

A little bit after lunch Randy decided he wanted to go ride the "rhino". Yeah I didn't know what that was either! Its this:

It's like a quad, but for four people instead of one or two. It belong's to Randy's dad and he was SO excited to bring it to show everyone how cool he was ;)

We were told the first night that we wouldn't be able to drive it in the camp site but there was an area down the highway a little ways that was free ground. Randy, Scott, Lex and I piled in the Bronco and took it out for a ride. Randy started out driving and then gave each of us a turn behind the wheel

I don't think I have ever seen Alexia as scared as she was in this thing. It was priceless!

After about an hour we headed back to camp to help with dinner. DUTCH OVEN ROAST!!! YUM!

I wish I could tell you that the rest of the trip was as much fun! That night...the last night...everyone that rode in the car with Ren was up all night sick! Not just a headache or heartburn, but SICK! It started at our camp with me and within an hour Macie had joined in the...fun. In the morning while I was laying sore and scared to smell, drink or eat ANYTHING we found out that Kindra and Vaughn had been up all night too. WOW way to end a family camp out eh?? My dad's joke was "hey aren't you excited to do it again next year?" haha not if it's gonna be like that!

All in all it was a nice trip. It was good to spend time away from the hustle bustle of life and just enjoy our family. Next year let's just all pray it doesn't take the same turns :)

P.S. I don't think I will EVER eat roast from a dutch oven again...sad