Viva Las Vegas!

 Last month we went on a trip- just Ben and I- for the weekend to Las Vegas to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We hired a fantastic babysitter who is waiting to go on a mission for our church to stay with the kids. This is the first time since August of 2009 we have been without the kids. I wasn't nervous to leave them, but Oh... it was a lot of work to get ready to leave. I made freezer meals, organized their outfits, arranged play dates to give the sitter a break, coordinated car pools, made emergency lists and notes of our schedules... and of course cleaned the house from top to bottom to prepare. It was well worth it. The kids had a blast with the sitter and she reported that Afton cried only once the entire time we were gone and the boys were great. She asked us how we had such great kids... which made me give a big sigh on relief that they were on good behavior while we were gone.  Anyway, our trip was great.

We decided we didn't want to stay on the Strip, so we booked a resort in Summerlin, which is west Las Vegas,  at Red Rock Canyon Resort. It was a great place to stay. 

Saturday we went to Hoover Dam... I highly recommend the full tour. It was so awesome! I don't have an engineering brain and I was amazed at what they could do in 1935 when they made the dam. 

One of the most amazing things to me was that the hydro powered turbines that they put in have not been replaced and are still working, they only have updated the electrical system to connect it to the power grid. We took the full tour and got to see the turbines, go in the tunnels that they put inside the structure of the dam for workers and for maintenance and it was just really cool to be in the middle of the dam. 

Here is the only picture that we have of us together for the weekend. We are at a vent in one of the tunnels to allow air flow through the dam. 

 This is a picture of the dam from the vent that I took with my camera sticking out of the vent. 

The turbines on the Nevada side... sorry, boring pictures.

 This is a view from the highway that was built across the canyon to bypass the dam. There is a sidewalk along the highway. It was kind of freaky being that high in between a rail and a cement wall with a huge drop off  on one side and zooming cars on the other. The shadow in the picture is a shadow of the highway bridge.

 After our tour, we went to the Strip. I've been there before and Ben lived in Vegas for a year, so we already had low expectations for our experience there.  We went to the botanical gardens at the Bellagio, I remember them being a lot bigger, they had a display for the Chinese New Year, saw a fountain show, walked for a while hoping to find something worth our time to look at.... and then decided  an hour of our lives was enough time to waste there so we headed back to the hotel. There was a movie theatre at the resort, so we decided to see the movie Lincoln. We walked in the theater and a girl yelled, "Hey Mona! Ben!" I froze and thought, 'Who in the world knows us here?" She came up to us and started talking.  It was dark, my brain is going a million miles an hour and I'm not quite sure when in the conversation I realized who it was, but I tried to not act completely clueless and carry on the conversation.  The movie was starting and we decided we would meet up for dinner after the show. We sat in our seats Ben said, 'What's her name?" So I was glad that I wasn't the only one who was totally caught off guard. It was our friend Janae who we knew in Austin before we got married. She married while we were there and then moved to Colorado. We haven't seen her since or kept in good contact. What a small world. What are the chances of us being  in Vegas, the same weekend at the same theatre?  Anyway, we went to the Cheesecake factory afterwards and it was such a fun treat to be with old friends. I should have taken a picture with them, but we were both using our cameras and phones to show each other pictures of our kids. It made me smile. Here we both were a having weekend away from the kiddos and our kids were the topic of conversation most of the time. We laughed as it was almost midnight and we both admitted that our usual bedtime was before 10 p.m. It's great to be in good company.

On Sunday we went to church with Ben's aunt, Mary Ann, who lives in Henderson. We then had lunch with her and her daughter. It was another treat, and again, we should have taken a picture, but she was looking through our camera of pictures of the kids and wanted all the updates. 

Monday morning we went to Red Rock Canyon. I had planned on going hiking, but the weather was cold. It was in the 20's... which was a bummer of our trip. Vegas was in a cold snap and by the next weekend was fore casted to be in the 60's again, but while we were there  it was cold. Anyway, we drove in the canyon  and stopped and looked at the sights. It was Okay, being from Utah, I've seen amazing canyons and natural structures, but this was pretty cool to see anyway. 

We then went shopping at the outlets and flew home. When we walked in the house, our kids greeted us with shooting toy guns. Maybe they didn't think the weekend was as great as we did, although I know they had a blast with the baby sitter and asked for her over and over to come again. 

We have been married eight years and it is amazing to me how time has flown. We laugh that we are on kid number four, parents with responsibilities, have a real job, a house and yard to maintain and everything else that real adults have to do.  It is fun to reminisce about our single days where we could do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted to but we wouldn't trade our lives for anything. I know I said this last year, but I have often thought about this piece of advice that I received from my Seminary teacher in high school. He said that you should never marry someone just because you are in love with them. I thought it was very odd when I heard it, but the longer I am married, the more I understand it. A good marriage is based on so much more than love. It is honestly, trust, respect, admiration, consideration, patience, forgiveness, thoughtfulness, doing something for someone that you don't want to do but you know it will help them or make them happy. It is worrying about someone else and what they are going through. It is being best friends. It is teamwork with a common goal to become more together than you would or ever could do on your own. In our experience, it is always worth it and the benefits far outweigh any cost or personal inconvenience.  Love is a byproduct of the experiences we share together, the good and the hard ones. Happy eighth anniversary to us and looking forward to forever more!

Yep, we pretty much look exactly the same as we did eight years ago. :) 

Happy January! And lots of random thoughts

I used to hate January- I thought of it as pure boredom after so many fun activities during the holidays-- especially in Wisconsin when it is super cold, super gray and super depressing. 

The last few years, January has been such a joy. I welcome the slower pace, taking time to plan out the year, making New Year's Resolutions and just enjoying being home.

This January we actually had snow and it was cold, which was a great motivator to stay in and get organized. I wish I were like all those people on Pinterest, who take before and after pictures of their organization projects, but I didn't.  I have recommitted myself to my Home Organization System and it is going really well. Our house has been clean the majority of the time, which I consider a HUGE success! I have some good little helpers that I have found are more motivated to help tidy up a few times a day than one long time at the end of the day. We've either turned a new leaf or had a lucky month, I'll take either one. 

I took the time while we were sick to read the book, The Entitlement Trap,  By Linda and Richard Eyre. I have read several of their parenting books, and this one is a great synopsis of a few of them, with more details on some of the systems that have worked in their family. It was a great book to get some creative juices flowing for our family goals for the year. We have also made a list of couples that we know that we are taking out to dinner to pick their brains about parenting. I am excited for this and hope they have great secrets to share. 

One of my goals is to  put more effort into our family nights. Bridger has decided that he would like to do the same, so each Monday he has planned his own lesson and activity along with mine. It makes for a little longer of a family night, but we all enjoy he creativity and enthusiasm. One Tuesday morning Bridger said to me, " I can't wait til next Monday! My lesson is so awesome I can't stop thinking about it!"

We moved Sissy out of her crib and into a "Big Girl bed" which is really just a twin mattress on the floor. She has done well with the transition and likes to sleep, and even more, to jump on her new bed. She has gone potty on the toilet a few times and I am debating whether or not to start potty training....

We were looking through a photo album and I saw a picture of me a few hours before I gave birth to Carter.  I looked in the mirror later that day and saw the same image, but instead of being hours away from giving birth, I am still 9 weeks away. I think the elasticity of my skin will be stretched beyond it's maximum capacity this time and never recoil back. Uugghhh.... But while I am on the topic of pregnancy, I am feeling quite well despite the normal can't bend over normally and my hips hurt. They told me at my last visit that I was anemic. This is the first pregnancy I haven't felt that way, and the first time I have been. With Afton and Carter I could seriously nap for 2 hours a day... and often did and still went to bed before 10 p.m.  I think it's another sign it's a boy.  He is very active and reminds me of Bridger in utero. I thought for a few days of  what a surprise it would be if Moose was really a girl... but then saw my doctor and listened to his heart rate.
 Yep. Boy.

We went on a date last weekend. Bridger came in my bathroom just as I finished getting ready to go. He looked at me and gasps. He says, "Mom! You look so cute!"  (apparently a rare occasion) And then he says, "You look as cute as a Rodeo Queen!"  (not the look I was going for.. and just FYI- I only wear cowgirl clothes to rodeos.. although I guess that is not completely true.. there is one pair of wrangler jeans I can still fit into so I wear them....but you would never know they are wranglers....) and just for the record I was wearing black skinny pants, a zebra striped shirt, pink scarf and gray boots... Maybe a rodeo queen is the top of his compliment list.... or at least I hope.

PROJECTS! I am so excited for our projects this year... I have finished a few super cute crafts, Ben is currently working on redoing our master closet... all the shelves etc to maximize space and we have lots of fun things planned that I hope all come to be. It makes me giddy thinking about it!! Stay tuned :)

I am reading the Old Testament and want to finish it this year. I haven't attempted this in a really, really long time. I've made it through Genesis... it's interesting...  that's all I can say. ( and that it makes me love reading the Book of Mormon even more... it is SO much better! Is that mean to say?)


And, that is all. Hope you had a Happy January.

Christmas 2012

I wish I could say that our Christmas was super fun, but the Christmas vacation started with Carter being sick and it progressed through all of us over the next 10 days except Sissy. On Christmas Eve, Ben took Carter out to run an errand thinking he was feeling better and was carrying him in the house when he barfed right down Ben's back. There is a reason that Ben is a doctor and not a nurse. He doesn't handle cleaning up body fluids well, or having them splashed on him. Anyway, Christmas morning Carter made me burst out laughing with his answer to my question "How are you feeling?" He said, "No barfing. No diarrhea. And no disease!" That didn't last long though. Luckily we made it through opening presents  without any body fluids being expelled. So, that part was great. 

Christmas morning: 

 I love our new stockings!

 Capri Suns were in the stockings and a big hit for everyone. 

 Bridger and Carter both got these noise making rifles- which they loved. 

Thanks, Santa. 

 New sleds and snow gear. 

 Sissy got her first baby doll. She has turned into a great little Mommy for her baby. 

 Cowboy shirt

 A set of spurs

 To go with Carter's new cowboy boots. Now he is really in style. 

 Ring pops... the other big hit from the stockings

 No snow, so they went sledding down the stairs

 Sissy's new apron. She loves to help cook. 

 Shopping cart for Sis. 

She ran around the house all week pushing her baby in the cart 

Other presents: play dough, new church clothes, ice skating lessons, family night basketball game, puzzles, lots of books, monster truck, more Legos, Sissy got a microphone that plays music and records voices. I got a Bosch mixer -Wahoo! We were very blessed and had a good Christmas. 

Our Christmas miracle was that Bridger didn't end up in the hospital. He got sick the day after Christmas and had it the worse of all of us. I would give him a teaspoon of water and he would throw up two cups. He couldn't keep anything down for over 40 hours. He was so dehydrated and started complaining of back pain and couldn't walk and I was sure he was getting a kidney infection of some sort... or a myriad of other conditions. I just kept thinking that he needed an IV, but knew it would be impossible to find a vein. So, as last resort, I gave him some of my Zofran crushed up in a spoonful of applesauce and thankfully it settled his stomach so he could get some fluids in him. He ended up losing 8 pounds during his five day illness which is a lot considering he was only 44 pounds to start with. We are happy we all made it through alive, and so happy when the New Year came and we could leave the house again.