Enjoying the last bits of fall...

We went and visited my in-laws this last week. They are home from their mission. It is great to have them back. We didn't have one fun pinata party the whole time they were gone! We had a lot of fun on our visit.

We got to make apple cider. This is always a fun event. The more hands the better, so we all pitch in and help.

Some helpers just eat the apples! At least that is one less we have to squeeze.

Apple cider is so yummy. I think my girls had it for almost every meal the entire time we were there.

We also had a fun time having a picnic up the mountain.

The weird things you find in the woods huh!?! I think this might really creep you out if you came across it in the dark with a flashlight.
And of course, the pinata!

And any visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house wouldn't be complete if M didn't get to pick on Grandpa a little bit.

This was our time....

My hubby and I haven't been on a vacation without the kids for 5 years, and that was just overnight. D had a work conference in Las Vegas for 4 days. We thought it would be the perfect time for a little time to ourselves. My parents came and watched the girls. I am sure the girls drove them crazy, but we sure appreciated them for watching them. They took great care of the girls, and we didn't worry about them having a good time with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma always has fun things planned to do with the kids.

We got to fly there instead of driving, which would have been great if I didn't get so motion sick. Dramamine is now my new friend. I wish I would have had it on the way there! Here we are waiting around the airport.

We got there in the afternoon and got settled into our room. We hadn't really had any lunch, so we found an all-you-can-eat buffet in the hotel and pigged out (I am sooo not kidding!). It was sooooo good. They had lots of different kinds of food....asian, seafood, mexican, bbq, and a super tempting dessert bar. The General Tso's chicken was both of our favorite. Yum. I am drooling even now.

We decided to go see a movie that night to let our food settle. We wanted to call home and say goodnight to the girls, so we bought tickets for a later show and went to call them. We had about an hour and half until the movie, so we decided to look for a grocery store to buy food instead of spending so much $$$ eating out. We looked grocery stores up in the phone book and found one close by. So we walked across the street to find it. It ended up to be just a super pricey convenience store. We thought there was another store close by, so we headed off to find it. A half hour later we came across a Wal-Mart (not what we had been looking for, but they still had groceries). By this time it was dark and only 45 minutes until our movie would start. So we booked it through the store each grabbing what we would need and met back at the check out stand. We each ended up with a couple bags of stuff to haul back. We started walking as fast as we could to get back. We made it back with about 10 minutes to spare before the movie. We figured we walked about 4 miles all together. That is one way to work off your dinner!

We watched Nights in Rodanthe. D said it was a total chic flick. I guess so because I cried. It was good though, and fun to see a movie together. We haven't done that for YEARS!!!

The next day D had conference stuff to do, so I hung out int the hotel room. I ironed all of our clothes, finished a sewing project, watched a little t.v., went to the pool, and just enjoyed a bit of quiet without someone saying, "MOM!" every two minutes. It was nice.

That night we headed to the strip to have some "fun". Well I don't know if we had fun, but we saw lots of smut and garbage. I really hate Las Vegas. It just gives me icky feelings.

We did see some cool things in some of the casinos and hotels. Like this large aquarium:

We wanted to find a little something to bring home to the girls, so we headed to M & M World. And look who we found:
We ended up searching for the cheapest and coolest thing to bring home to the girls. Everything was so expensive there. We got them some fun pens that had water and glitter and M&M's floating in them. We were going to buy them some custom colored M&M's, but they were $12 a pound. We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home and got them a pound and a half for $3.50.

The next day D had conference stuff again, so I hung out around the hotel pampering myself with a pedicure, manicure, and a little tanning time by the pool. That night we headed to the Venetian to see the Blue Man Group. This was definately a highlight of our trip.

We got there early and decided to look around at some of the hotel shops. When we went to find our seats there were already people sitting in them. I guess they had double booked our seats, so they gave us an upgrade to the $60 more per ticket seats for free. We didn't mind. :) The show was great. We didn't want it to end. Every pause in the action made us worry that it was the end, but it wasn't. Even after the end, they came back to have a little more fun. I could have sat there and watched them all night. It was a blast.

We had a great time together. We stayed up late talking every night and just enjoyed the time we could be alone. I love my little girls, but it was sure fun to be away from them for awhile and just remember what it was like to be a couple instead of parents. I can't wait until my hubby's next conference. :)

Clownin' Around...

What a bunch of goofs!!!

More birthday fun....

We were gone on M's birthday so we celebrated it yesterday. The poor girl didn't have a very good birthday anyway because she had the flu (Grandma and Grandpa B didn't have much fun either, since they were the lucky ones that got to clean up after her.....sorry!). She missed school on her birthday. She was disappointed that she didn't get to go and give her class her treats. She has the best teacher! She called on her birthday and had her class sing to her over the phone.

Yesterday for her birthday fun we went to Wal-Mart (I hear it is the party place..he he he). She wanted to get her ears pierced. We gave her the option of getting a new toy, or getting her ears pierced, and she chose the ears.

I think she was a little worried, because she didn't want to climb up onto the special seat where they do it. She picked out some adorable pink flower gem stone earrings. I don't know if you can see them too well in this picture. She is still a little shocked in this picture too.

She has been super good at taking care of them. She is so excited. She has even picked out the earrings that she wants to wear on Thanksgiving when she no longer has to wear her studs.

Afterwards, we took her to the toy department. Grandma and Grandpa R sent her some $$ to pick out something for herself. She got a horse for her Cinderella doll and a play make-up kit. She spent some time that afternoon making up herself and her sisters.

She had a fun time with it, until it was time to wash all of that glitter out of her eyelashes. I think she had a few stray sparkles when we went to church today.

When I was little we always got to pick out what meals we wanted on our birthday. It always made us feel special, so that is something I do with my kids now. M picked caramel apple crepes for breakfast (my small attempt at being IHOP), tomato soup for lunch, and taco salad for dinner. Here are her happy sisters waiting for the party to start.

In keeping with the clown theme from her birthday party, I made her a clown birthday cake.

Then she got to open her last remaining presents, including her new scriptures. She was so excited to take them to church today.

Happy Birthday M.....I still can't believe you are 8!!!!

Party Party Party

Little Miss M is going to have a birthday this Friday. She will be turning 8!!! We can hardly believe it. We threw her a party this last Friday. It was a clown party. Here are the cute invitations:




I painted all the girls faces and gave them clown noses. Here is M:

Here are all her friends that came to the party, and of course they had to make some funny faces:

We decorated clown hats for them to wear:
We played bean bag toss and ring toss. I was too busy keeping track of points to get a picture though.

And of course, we had to open some presents. M's favorite thing, is an adorable purse. It fits all of her presents in it and she has been packing it around the house non-stop since the party.

We also decorated cupcakes to look like clown faces. Check out the creativity!


I don't know what that one is....definately not a clown face, but fun and inventive non-the-less.


It was a fun party. I think M is really looking forward to her real birthday so she can open more presents!

Zoo time....

A few weeks ago we took a trip to the zoo. The kids always love the zoo.



Aren't they cute?

Who knew giraffes had such long purplish tounges!
We always have fun visiting the elephants.
You can't really tell from this picture, but there is a lizard in there flirting with my 5 year old. She would move her finger and the lizard would follow. She said it was her favorite thing at the zoo.
We can never miss the train ride.

This turtle was fun, and suprisingly rather quick for a turtle.

The zebra is always K's favorite thing to see.

The monkeys are my favorite. This one has a little baby. It was sooooo cute. It was funny though because the baby is all white and the mom is mostly black and white.

And we always have to spend a little time with the non-animals.

Dad is D.O.N.E at the zoo.

My new boyfriends...

Here are my new boyfriends....ironically, both of their names are Jack.

They are even better at night.

We are not even going to carve pumpkins this year because these ones are SOOOO cool!