Las Vegas Bowl

This week I was supposed to work 4 12 hour shifts at work which I was not looking forward to mainly because I was going to miss BYU play in the Las Vegas bowl. So on Tuesday at about 4:30 I'm sitting at work and in walks A higher up with tickets to the bowl game that starts in 30 minutes. Well, long story short, I got two tickets to the game and scrambled to change, line up a babysitter (thanks grandpa Frank for watching the kids on such short notice), and fight traffic to get to the game. It was cold and windy but BYU came out swinging and made the night worth it. BYU 44 Oregon State 20, Go Cougars!!!

Family Pictures

A few weeks ago we were able to go and have a few family pictures taken on base.
I am pretty pleased with how they came and the price was right because they were free.
Enjoy!

Mesa, Arizona Temple Lights

On Saturday night we went to see the lights that are put up all around the temple in Mesa. My camera is just a little point and shoot so I didn't even try to take pictures of the lights because it wouldn't do them justice. We did however get a few pictures of the people who went.
The kids loved the lights and the nativity scene. It was a good chance to try and remind Heidi what Christmas is really about. I'm not sure how much sunk in.
I will have to do a better job this year of getting my kids to understand the real reason for Christmas is for remembering the birth of Christ. It is always nice to be together with family for the holidays. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know I did.

Happy Birthday Heidi!

We spent Thanksgiving down in Arizona with Kevin's parents. Heidi is my Thanksgiving baby so while we were down we had a small party for her. We surprised her with dinner at Chuck-E-Cheese with her good friend Aleigha!
Heidi was surprised and had so much fun playing with Aleigha and opening her presents. I can't believe she is already five. She is turning into such a smart, helpful and fun little girl.
Thanks Marci and Mark for bringing Aleigha along to play. Heidi can't wait to see her again!

Our New Dog

We are now dog owners. I don't know what finally made me ready for a dog. I guess it all started out with going down to the shelter.
If you don't want a dog don't go looking for one. My friend Rachel started talking about wanting a dog. So one day last week we decided to load her son and my kids into the car and go look at the shelters.
I really had no intentions of finding one to take home. Long story short I found him and went back later the same night with Kevin and adopted him. We had to wait until the next day to pick him up because he had to be fixed.
That is why he is wearing the cone around his neck. Kevin really wanted a bigger dog, but the kids have been really afraid of big dogs. They have turned out to love Rico.
He is a 7 lb. Chihuahua mix. He is very lovey and wants nothing more to sit on my lap all day. He has decided that Heidi or Kevin will do as well.
He isn't so sure of Ryan, but that could be because Ryan has a tendency to shoot him or push toys in his face. Rico loves to snuggle down under the covers with Heidi at night. Kevin and I don't allow him to sleep in our bed, but he loves to sleep with the kids.
So everybody meet Rico!

Fall Fun

On Saturday we went out in the lovely Vegas fall weather. In the morning we went to a Carnival put on at the Youth Center on base. The kids had fun "fishing" for prizes, cake walking, tossing bean bags and bouncing. I was shocked when they actually made the bean bags in the holes and Kevin was proud of their athletic abilities. After the carnival we ate a yummy lunch at our local Cafe Rio. After that we headed on over the The Farm to pick out a few pumpkins. It was a cute setup and the kids had fun looking at the animals. They actually got to touch a rabbit and walk around with some chickens. We picked out four pumpkins and are very excited to get to carve them. Pictures of that to come when we carve them. We hope everyone is enjoying Halloween as much as we are!

Horsing Around

The other night the kids came out of Ryan's room like this. There is really only a difference in weight of about 5 lbs., even though Heidi is about a foot taller than Ryan. Crazy kids! The ride didn't last very long...

Happy Birthday Ryan!

A few weeks ago we were able to celebrate Ryan's second birthday. It is hard to believe that time has gone by so quickly. We were so glad to have close family and good friends come and celebrate with us. This was also the day before we were leaving for our move so that made it even more important to have everyone there! We swam, ate pizza and had cake and rootbeer floats. What more could you ask for as a two year old little boy? This was Ryan's look after almost every present he opened. Not a smile, just an uneasy look. He got so many wonderful presents he didn't know quite how to take it in!

Testing out the cupcakes.

Heidi and Aleigha having fun at the pool. We sure do miss you Aleigha!

Here is a picture of the two year olds at the party. Ashlyn (Molly's daughter), Ryan and Madison my niece (Stacy's daughter).

This is a picture of all the kids that were at the party. After swimming and all of the goodies they were all pretty tired. I love how Ryan looks white trash in his diaper. I promise I do dress him most of the time!

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came and thank you for all of the amazing presents. We miss everyone now that we are alone in Las Vegas!

That's what you get for waking up in Vegas...

My cord for my camera is still at my in-laws house, or I would be posting pictures of Ryan's birthday party. Why does technology have to be so great that they make a different cord for everything? You would think will all of the electronic devices we have that one cord would be the same, but no that would be too easy. Well that post will just have to wait along with the post about our new house. I was all excited to post. Well at least I got the blog updated to fall...

Birthday Trip.

Well I know this post is extremely late because my birthday was in August... The kids and I along with my in-laws went to San Diego to celebrate a couple family birthdays. My birthday is on 8/20 and my sis-in-laws is on 8/24 so we combined the two celebrations. On Friday night we went to Old Town San Diego. We walked around the little town, through a few shops and had dinner there. We spent all day Saturday and part of Sunday at Sea World. We got two days for the price of one. Ryan loved to watch the marine life swim around. I think his favorite was the Beluga Whale in the Arctic Exhibit. He would have watched them for hours if we would have let him. It was fun to experience something for the first time at the same time my kids were experiencing it for the first time!
Picture with "Shamu". I am standing in it because Ryan was terrified of him!
Riding one of the rides in Sesame Street World. The kids loved the play land.
Ryan pressed against the glass watching the Beluga Whales.
In Old Town San Diego

Pretty in Pink

I couldn't resist. He looks so cute. Kevin will probably be pissed...

Heidi goes to Pre-K

Before school in her cute uniform.
Outside of her classroom.
So excited to be doing puzzles on her first day!

Well anybody who is my Facebook friend knows that these pictures are about two weeks old. Heidi started her Pre-K at the end of July. I was so worried about being able to afford for her to go to preschool, and was so excited to find out that she could go to the local elementary for FREE! She has to wear a uniform. No I don't normally dress her like this. She has been doing really well and now I don't feel so bad that she has to wait an extra year to go to Kindergarten.

Saturday Fun!

Last Saturday we went to the mall. We ate lunch and then let the kids ride the two story carousel at the mall. We also played at the indoor play area. It was a inexpensive way to stay out of the heat!

Fun with Family

Okay I'm not that good at formatting this blog so I will tell you all about our weekend and then I will post the pictures. Two weekends ago my MIL's dad (Papa) came to visit with his wife (g-ma Jean) and youngest bro (Craig). We spent a lot of time hanging out inside since the weather outside was 119. We went to Chuck E. Cheese and also to the zoo early one morning. I didn't get any pictures at the zoo other than of the monkeys. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Muddy Buddies

Last week I was bored so I decided that we would make some Chex Muddy Buddies. The kids loved to lick the bowl when we were done. These are the little things I missed when I was working. We hadn't even gotten dressed yet, but it was time for sugar! Any time is a good time for chocolate.

Crashed!

We have been playing so much over the last weekend and the last few days that Heidi is just worn out! This is what I found today when I went to check on what she was doing. She is asleep in the computer chair in front of the TV in Nana and Pop Pop's room. I only wish she would do this more often! I have a lot of catch up to do on the blog. Hopefully I will get some new blogs posted tonight.

For the 4Th of July Valerie was brave enough to load the children into the car and haul them here to glorious Wichita Falls, TX. Not the most exciting of places to spend the 4Th of July but I was very excited to see her and the kids. It is a long trip to complete in general but with a 4 and 2 year old it probably felt like the miles would never end. I thank Valerie for being so strong and coming to see me.
If you haven't been to Wichita Falls you are not missing much. With a four day weekend and two children to entertain we exhausted all this little town has to offer. Valerie arrived on Thursday evening and we went to dinner and the mall to kill some time. Friday was spent at Cast Away Cove, a small water park here in town. With temperatures in the 100's it was a nice way to spend time together as a family. Heidi and Ryan enjoyed the children's play area with fountains and slides that they could go on by themselves. That also allowed mom and dad to just sit and relax in the sun. Heidi was a bit to quick in the water for Ryan and that would frustrate him but both of our kids love the water. We enjoyed floating the lazy river and paddling through the wave pool. Staying wet was the only way to stay out in the sun and not burn up.
We also went swimming at the pool at the hotel a few times to get the kids out of the room and not spend any money, Mom and Dad did plenty of that over the weekend. We tried to have lazy mornings and just enjoy our time together with out feeling rushed to go somewhere or get something done. I think the earliest we left the room was 11 AM.
For the 4Th of July we ate dinner and started our adventure of finding the Multi-Purpose Events Center or MPEC. At the MPEC they had a sort of expo with booths and 4 or 5 huge bouncy slides and obstacle courses. Of course each one cost money so we let Heidi choose one and watched her navigate the obstacles and slide down this enormous slide at the end. Ryan felt left out and was letting us know all about it. Kids are so fun. We still had a few hours to kill before the fireworks were to start so we wandered around and found a few other things to let the kids have fun. Heidi and Ryan rode on a train made out of plastic 55 gallon drums pulled by a small tractor. Ryan looked as if he was going to fall asleep the entire ride. At this point the wind started to blow and we began to see lighting and hear thunder. In Texas storms come quick so you find cover as soon as you can. Heidi wanted to stay and watch the fireworks so we bought the kids swords that lit up and made sounds to settle them down and began walking to the car to leave. We noticed people sitting on the grass median around the parking lot and decided to spread our blanket and see if the rain would come. The kids had a blast swinging the swords around to get them to make noise. The rain finally came but we were close to our car and ran for cover as soon as we felt rain drops.

We let the kids roam the car listened to the thunder and watched the lightning and rain. It was fun to see others scurrying about trying to get out of the rain. The kids behaved very good for being in the car and doing nothing but listen to the radio and wait for the fireworks. Finally we were rewarded with a fireworks show that the kids enjoyed. It was definitely an adventure Saturday evening.

The rest of the weekend was filled with spending time together as a family, going to church on base Sunday and hoping Monday would not come when I had to be back at my Squadron. It was a very enjoyable visit and I look forward to seeing Valerie and the kids when I graduate in late September.