Fun Weekend

Did you know it's the year of the Ox?



Friday night Betsey and the girls came down from Hurricane to play. Betsey and I got to go out with no kids. We went and saw Bride Wars... super cute movie. Sat. we hit the strip. We walked into the lobby at MGM and it was all set up for a show for the Chinese New Year. It was so awesome! They had the pretty lion costumes and 2 people were underneath each one dancing. It was amazing! We took the kids to M&M World to see the movie and then on the Coke store. We ordered the drinks from around the world (there are 16). It had been a while since I had those, it was fun to taste them all again. Benj and Ava came down and met us for dinner. There is this burger place in NYNY called Broadway Burger that Benj LOVES, lol. Thanks Betsey, Mikayla and Morgan for coming down! We had fun!

Little Dancer

Today was Ava's second dance class. She is finally in a class with girls her own age (or close to). I was worried she would freak out last week when we took her for the first time. But she got her ballet shoes on and got right in there with the group to start warm ups. I just asked her what her favorite dance is and she said, "the baby doll dance." This is one in tap shoes and they hold a doll and do a dance to the song My Girl. Sooooooooo cute!

Benj's New Toy

It's not as glamorous as Benj wishes, but after Christmas he went and picked himself up a scroll saw. I'm sure he would have rather picked himself up a DIRT BIKE or something instead. But he's been playing around with it a lot and making some cool stuff. Such a crafty craftsman that Benj. :)

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to everyone!! I'm so excited for a new year to start fresh with new things and resolutions. We spent our New Year's Eve with our awesome friends, the Larkin's. They came over and we had so much fun just hanging out. I'm pretty sure the guys had fun racing each other in Mario Kart too. ;)
Every New Year's day we go hiking. We went up to Red Rock, but hiked outside of the park. It was a gorgeous sunny day, probably about 60 degrees. The girls had so much fun climbing all the cool rocks, they seriously didn't want to leave! So hope everyone's holiday(s) were great and our family wishes you all health and happiness in 2009!!

Christmas

Christmas 2008 was a blast! My parents came down for the whole week and we all had so much fun. My mom and I spent the few days before making lists, shopping, and baking in preparation for our Christmas Eve snack fest (we just make a ton of fun snack foods/sweets to eat on Christmas Eve) and Christmas day dinner.

On Christmas Eve we just hung out and ate, watched movies, and ate some more. There were also Wii tournaments, ha! The girls get to open one present... pajamas! And this year my mom got them all matching ones, even cousin Abigail. They looked so cute in them, but Ava did not want to pose... it was bedtime! We always read the book I Believe in Santa Claus and the story of Jesus' birth from the Bible.

Christmas morning the girls let us sleep in till about 8 o'clock. :) We opened gifts and had a lazy morning. We had a fantastic prime rib dinner with lots of yummy side dishes and of course, dessert.

Ava asked Santa for a Barbie and she got a big one!

Lexi had asked Santa for a guitar... daddy has been helping her learn to play.

Can you see Romeo in the mess? He kind of got buried, but was quite content chewing on his new bone. :)

Ava got a Sleeping Beauty dress... she hated to take it off!

Ava combing her mermaid Barbie's hair.

Yep, Santa ate most of his cookies, fudge, and milk!!

After dinner, the nerf wars began! My dad had gotten all the boys (and himself) nerf guns to have a big brawl. It was like they were kids again and Bret, Chad, Benj, my dad, and Lexi- who had teamed up with Natalia started shooting at each other. My mom and I were sitting on the couch and had to hold up the nearest packages in front of our faces... bullets were flying everywhere!

I was on my way to the bathroom when I got taken hostage by Bret!
RUDE! I was just an innocent bystander, lol!

Poor Romeo... he didn't like those reindeer antlers on, but he looked so cute! :)


The day after Christmas me, my mom, and Natalia got to go shopping- with no kids! Then we met the guys/kids for real Chinese food in Chinatown. It was super crazy down there because there was some merchandise show going on. But once we got in to eat, it was delicious!
Thanks mom and dad for a great week!! We had so much fun and we miss you already. I'm so grateful for our family/friends and the chance to celebrate our Savior's birth.

Happy Anniversary

Today is Benj's and mine Anniversary... 8 years! I can't believe how time has flown. We really don't exchange gifts or anything since it's so close to Christmas. But Benj brought me home the most delectable cupcakes from Mad Hatter Cupcakes. These are the best cupcakes, they just melt in your mouth. These are the flavors he picked: Chocolate/peppermint; eggnog/cream cheese; and my fav strawberry/lemonade. Yummy!!!

Anyway, we got to go out tonight, thanks to my bro and sis-in-law for babysitting. We went and saw Blue Man Group and then out to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. The show was... different, but it was good. And the restaraunt...mmmmm, delicious as always.

Don't mind me for being a tad sappy here: I'm so grateful to be married to such a wonderful man... he puts up with a lot from me. ;) I'm still so in love 8 years later... Happy Anniversary babe!

The Gingerbread Man

Yay! Lexi's kindergarten class got to do their play today at school. They did the Gingerbread Man and it was soooooooooo CUTE!! Lexi played the grandma and she did such a great job with her singing part!!