Vegas Baby!

This fall I had the wonderful opportunity to go with 8 of my friends on an all-girls trip to Vegas! Oh my gosh, it was so much fun!! We left our kids with our husbands and had a 4day weekend of smiles. Instead of giving a detailed description of what we did, I'll give a shortened version of our schedule.
DAY 1: Most of the day was driving, but we did get there in time to check-in to Melissa's timeshare and sit in the hottub.

(L-R: Mindy L. Chrissy, Darcy, Amy, Me, Emily, Melissa, Celeste)
DAY 2: Our first morning we went out to breakfast and then to the Las Vegas temple. It was beautiful! We even got asked if we were sister missionaries :) Every mother in her 30's likes to hear that!

We were at the temple into the afternoon, so we picked up some food and drink and went back to the timeshare to prepare for the evening's events. The night started with dinner at Cabo Wabo (yum!) and very slow service. It was so slow that we had to literally run to our show.

We had tickets to Cirque de Soleil's "O Show"....it was amazing!! We sat right in the front so could see all of the performers faces, feel the water spray, it was so great!

After the show we watched the water show at the Belagio, went through some of the casinos, and just had a BLAST! We were out so late, but it didn't matter because we could actually sleep in :) We acted like teenagers, danced in parking lots, had frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity, sang Beyonce at the top of our lungs, and laughed til our stomachs hurt!

(These people were totally making out in front of everyone and didn't even care! So funny!)

DAY 3: We started the day relaxing at the pool. It was great to soak up some sun! We got ready and ate out at Cheesecake Factory. We went shopping, shopping, and more shopping. After shopping we made a last minute decision to go to another show, so we had to run again! It didn't even compare to the "O Show" but it was fun still. The show was called the "V" variety show. It was a good time and then we just spent some time walking the strip. Darcy, Celeste, Emily and I were still in the mood to "party" so when everyone else went back to go to bed, we stayed out. We found a piano bar where two piano players "duel" against each other playing songs that people request. They were amazing! I couldn't believe their talent! They played everything from Weezer to Pink Floyd...so cool. We closed them down and finally went home to get some rest.

DAY 4: We were exhausted from the crazy weekend so we were a little slap happy on our drive home. Amy had the idea to put our camera on "sports" mode and take pictures of us doing raspberries...so hilarious!! We were laughing so hard!! I only posted MY pictures because I didn't want any of them to be embarrassed :) I'll just embarrass myself!

It was the funnest weekend! I have the greatest friends! Thanks to our husbands for watching our kids so we could enjoy the time together. Great memories! Can't wait to do it again!

The Dares 2010

It was WAY past time to get new family pictures, so my friend (and great photographer) Darcy Case took these wonderful pictures. It was so fun to plan what to wear and where to go. Luckily, Fruita is full of great photo "spots". It was easy and painless now that the girls are getting older....Chad was the hardest one! :) Thanks Darcy for the great pics! They are ALL so good, it was hard to pick which ones to show! Here are some of our favorites:

Bugs

For Halloween this year the girls didn't want to match (well, Carli didn't). Everybody that knows me knows that I LOVE for my girls to match! I had to do some convincing, but I got them to be bugs. They didn't think they matched, but they really did :) Mollie was a ladybug (her favorite), Regan was a bumblebee, and Carli was a butterfly. Actually, Carli was a "midnight" butterfly because that's what you are when you are too big for little kid stuff (atleast that's what she says!) As usual, the costumes were homemade, and it's the easiest Halloween so far. Just LOTS of toule! They weren't original, but they sure were cute!!

Eggs-cellent!

We have Whiting blues and greens as well as two Rhode Island reds (the brown eggs)

(Look at the size of this green egg! It's as big as a duck egg! The one next to it is a typical "large" egg)

Just an update on our cute little chicks:

They aren't cute OR little anymore. They are big ugly chickens (that personally I don't really like) but they are good for one thing....eggs! With our 6 chickens we get between 6 and 7 eggs each day. I'm not sure which chicken it is, but one of them lays 2 a day. The girls still LOVE them and carry them around like babies. Chickens are not very smart, but these ladies are pretty social and get excited when the girls come out to see them. :) They have been fun!

One Sweet 6 year Old

Here she is....one sweet little six year old! Regan had her 6th birthday on October 3rd. Wow! Time flies when you have a sweet girl like Regan. She is so easygoing and easy to please. She loves everything and always has a smile on her face :) Regan loves her friends and her friend Helen has a birthday the day after hers. Helen's mom (Mindy too!) and I decided we would kill two birds with one stone and have a double party (since they have the same friends anyway).

The two birthday girls decided on an "Under the Sea" theme for their party. We found a company that had an "underwater" bounce house and had blue koolaid, sea animal cupcakes, sea animal beads that they strung on necklaces, and face painting by the dads. Mindy even found some sea animal stuffed animals and bubbles to go in our party bags. It was a good idea for a party theme!
Two cute birthday friends, Helen and Regan!

The whole crew (that's a lot of girls!) It was one pretty great party!

For Regan's actual birthday (Sunday) she wanted donuts for breakfast and we opened presents from the family. Since Carli got her iPod when she turned six, Regan couldn't wait until she turned six and SHE could get an iPod. Luckily she reminded us or I would've forgotten! So, her big gift from us was a pink iPod shuffle :) We've heard nothing but her singing Taylor Swift at the top of her lungs since! We sure love our sweet little six year old!! Happy Birthday Monkey!!!

Morning Surprise!

This post is going to be completely out of order. I've been trying to play catch up on the most recent events, but I HAVE to make this post today! We woke up to a happy surprise....SNOW!! Watching the girls this morning has been magical! I can feel their excitement and happiness! Mollie has been "wishing" for snow everyday for a week (I think she associates snow with Christmas) and this morning her wish came true :) In fact, the first words I heard this morning were from her. "Regan! It....is....SNOWING!" This was followed by the sounds of Carli running down the hallway to their room and Regan literally jumping off the top bunk to see! I couldn't help but think of the words to an old Karen Carpenter song (don't make fun of me!) that says "Oh, the first snowfall of the winter

What a joy for a boy (or girl!) to behold.

Under wintery skies of gray

it was snowing all the day,

and it showed no signs of stopping,

Every kid with eyes a-popping,

Will be soon be, belly-whopping

on his knees."

The first thing the girls did was get their snowgear on and go play! It was a great time to be the mom :) Yes, we had to get ready for school, but we didn't care! We caught snowflakes on our tongues, we had a snowball fight, we rolled in it, we made snow angels, we laughed and smiled; It really was magical!! We had 20 minutes until it was time to leave for school so we rushed in and got ready, drank some hot chocolate (with marshmallows of course!) and left early enough to walk in the falling snow. It was a great morning. I've thought about having the girls ride the bus next year instead of me taking them, but then I have days like this where we had time to enjoy BECAUSE they don't ride the bus. I love seeing them enjoying the small moments of life. Like our blog title says, "We remember moments." This was a great moment!!