Pictures of the week

Just random pics that were my favorite this week:

Chelsea has started to like the guitar, maybe because they are finally doing real songs in class. She decided that she wants to pursue it next year and signed up for intermediate guitar.

The dance team traveled to a rival school to preform during the basketball game. They were chilling out and being silly before they went into the gym. They are having a good year and did their dance really well.

We were getting drinks at a gas station and saw this really cool bike. I happened to have the camera in the car (big surprise). I told Mason to sneak a picture. The owner saw us snap the pic and said "Hey do you want to take a picture on the bike?". So Cool. Daddy was jealous.

Mason loves playing the wii with his friend Langdon. Its finally the weekend (no homework!!!) so they are upstairs chilling out.

Here's my little snuggle bug after his bath, getting cozy in my bed watching a little Diego before going to bed.

Cord came home from his babysitter and it looks like they had a fun day making cars. He is so lucky to have fun friends to play with while mom is sleeping.

Dinner with friends

Brenda kept talking about driving down with her husband, Colby, to have dinner with us. I couldn't believe that they would drive down just for dinner, but we welcomed the opportunity to go out with some friends. Because of all of our crazy schedules, we had to plan this 2 months in advance and then I requested this weekend off to make it happen. They brought their kids down with them and let them hang out at our house. Mason was in heaven to have someone to play wii with and Brianna enjoyed spending some time with Megan. We went to Bucca di Beppo, an Italian place that Mike and I hadn't been to before. The food was really good but the company was even better. Mike made the comment that it was good we were having such a good time talking so that we didn't notice how lowsy the service was. We didn't mind being there for hours, time seemed to fly quickly. I did feel bad as they left the house after midnight knowing that they had two hours to drive with tired kids. We truly appreciate the effort they made to spend the evening with us. I hope there will be more nights out. There are a lot of places to explore here in Vegas. And maybe after the end of July Mike will even be able to come up to St. George with me and we can go out on their "turf".

The places we go

I've been thinking for a while that I wanted to document (with pictures) all the places that we go regularly. Just for posterity's sake I guess. Now that my blog is private, I don't have to worry about wierdos stalking out my kids....or maybe I should recheck my invite list (haha)

Home sweet Home! At the end of the day we all find our way here. I can't believe we have been here almost a year. We moved in the first of March 2009. I guess if we have survived a year then we'll be OK here for as long as we need to be here.


Here is the hospital that I work at: St. Rose Dominican - San Martin campus. It's a 111 bed non-for profit hosptial. Our ICU is 24 beds, split into an east and west side. It's a pretty new hospital, I believe it opened up Nov of 2006. I love being surrounded by new equipment :) I've met some very nice people there and some excellent nurses. They have taught me a lot about taking care of open heart patients. I don't care how long you have been a nurse, there is always more to learn. I like this night picture because this is how I get to see the hospital. It's dark when I get there and it's dark when I leave.


Here's where daddy spends most of his time. At UNLV's law school. He is in his last semester, WOW. I wonder if we could scrape the desks from the library and find his DNA left there from his blood, sweat, and tears (well maybe not tears because he doesn't cry - ever). He studies hard and does well. We were intersted to learn that outside of BYU, UNLV has the largest population of LDS students. Hmmmmmm

Mike is working part time at a law office downtown. Most of the law offices are converted from the old homes there.

He is doing an internship with a business court judge for school credit. He is usually on the top floor of this building in the right hand corner.


Here is Chelsea's high school - Coronado

She ends her day down the street at seminary. It's actually attached to the end of a chapel so it has the same look and feel as our church.

Brianna's school - Bob Miller Middle School

Mason's school - Niel C. Twitchell Elementary


Brianna goes to dance two days a week at the Fern Adair Conservatory. She dances on Mon and Wed for 3 hours (that's after an hour practice with the dance team at school) She does Ballet for 1.5 hours then starts Jazz for the rest of the time. She loves her studio and teachers. She hopes to try out for their preformance team next year.

Thursdays are piano days for Chelsea. It's about 15 min away so I usually sit in the car and read during her 30 min lesson. She didn't want to be in the picture so she is slumping - this is not her piano playing posture.

The house of her piano teacher.


We don't go here for anything....yet. It's a really cool building downtown by Mike's work. It still being built - but it's the "Brain Institue". They will be doing research there on mental illness or diseases of the brain. So after I go crazy Mike can go here and have them study me to see if they can fix me. I love how the outside represents the twisted mind.

Worth the money

We bought these shoes about a year and a half ago. I think we got our money's worth out of them. The insides are wearing thin and I've had to restitch one of the straps twice. At least we know Brianna is getting some good use out of them. However, it's definately time for new shoes!

Random pics of Chelsea and friends

Chelsea is growing into quite the indpendent young woman. She is at the age where it's not fun or cool to hang out with your family. As a result, she sometimes gets left out of the things that I'm blogging. I know how important it is to hang out with your friends and want to support that for her, but I also want her to know how much I love her and I'm so glad she is a part of our family. Sometimes I find out more about what she is doing by her posts on facebook. But I especially love seeing the fun pictures of her and her friends that pop up there. She still enjoys playing with the pictures and editing them which enhances the fun. I love that she is becoming a beautiful, strong young lady with so many wonderful talents. She is doing well in school and is on the Honor Roll!!! She does this all on her own. She is self motivated and knows how important good grades are. We are so lucky she is in our family.



She wanted to have turquoise highlights and I didn't object. I found some dye that would wash out after a couple months and we spent one saturday dyeing and re-dyeing her hair. It wasn't nearly as bold as she wanted and didn't last long. A girl in her class told her that next time we need to do the blond highlights first and then put the color over that. We'll have to try that next time.





Katie and Chelsea are almost inseparable. They met in seminary and she doesn't live to far from us. They love to hang out together and their favorite past-time is attending movies. We love having Katie in our home and it's good to hear them laughing together about the drama that can go on in High School. We are glad Chelsea has a BFF but unfortunately Katie is planning on moving this summer. They are enjoying the good times while they can.


She doesn't like this last one but I grabbed it off facebook before it could be deleted. I think it captures that "girls just want to have fun" attitude or that silliness that you can be around your friends.

18 Years and counting

Happy 18th Anniversary baby! That really makes us sound old. Having met in high school means that we have known each other a really long time (add 4 years to the 18). But what freaks me out more is when we realize that Chelsea is almost the age I was when I first met Michael. I was a sophomore and almost ready to date. He had to wait a few months for me to turn 16 to ask me out. I remember that I thought I was so mature, but now I look at girls that age and think "what was I thinking???" But anyway, we have had 18 great years together with many ups and downs like anyone else. I'm so grateful that he has put up with me for so many years. He will forever be my knight in shining armor!


To celebrate our anniversary, we went out to dinner. We ventured out and tried a new Italian place that is just up the street. It was very nice even though my dinner meant it when it said "spicy"! I just loved the quiet time together. Then we rented a movie from Redbox, (Beyond a Reasonable Doubt) and took it back home. The movie was completely lame which was probably why it didn't make it to the theaters. We ended up making fun of the acting most of the night and the corny 70's type music. Good thing it only cost $1.00.

Happy Valentines Day

Like most holidays, I ended up working all weekend. Not a big deal on Valentines though, we usually don't do anything for this holiday. Mainly because our Anniversary is the following day. When I got home from work today i saw a beautiful card made by my thoughtful son on the table. I took and and placed it by my bedside table. When I woke up, I immediately noticed that my Valentine was gone and I was not happy about it. I walked into the bathroom and noticed the card placed by these beautiful spring flowers. So happy :) Mason told me that daddy was tired and fell asleep saturday night before he could put the flowers with the card, so they had to do it while I was sleeping sunday morning. All was forgiven. Apparently I was not the only one to get flowers though, Chelsea and Brianna also have flowers in their room as their valentine present from their daddy. Aren't we special?

Speech eval

We have recognized for a while that Cord is not speaking as well as kids his age. He sure babbles all day long, we just have no idea what he is saying. I know that he knows what he is trying to tell us because he'll say the same thing over and over. For the most part we can communicate by guessing and having him say yes or no, but often he gets frustrated and just screams. I can only imagine how it would be to not be able to tell someone what you need. I started writing down all the words that he can say but then got confused because sometimes he'll say something like "glick" which I know means "milk" but no one else would, so would that qualify as a "word"? I finally decided that it did. Here's the few words that we can understand:

Momma, Daddy, NO, yes, ow-ouch, off, on, bye, car, cheese, night, I DO IT, show, shoes, juice, milk, church, sissy, snack, eyes, you, some, gum, bubble, ball, gym, star, Diego, stop, go, outside, park, duck, goose, peek-a-boo, snow, trash, please, thank you, excuse me, fish, kitty, woof woof, choo-choo, hat, school, roll, hot, eggs, and "my spot".

That's only 50 words for a 3 year old. Most 3 year olds are talking in complete sentences by now and you can't shut them up. We have been in the process of getting help and are now in "the system" which can be a frustrating ride. We started with a referral for speech therapy from our doctor, only to be told that the speech clinic he referred us to is not covered by insurance unless there has been an acute reason that speech is lost (like a stroke, etc). We were then referred to the school district's "child find" system. I called them and was told that in 4-6 weeks someone would call me to make an appointment. We finally heard from them but the only times they do evaluations are after school - my busiest time of the day. We finally got in but ended up being 20 min late because I had to pick up brianna from her preformance at a game, run her to dance, and then go back to the school for the speech eval. That evaluation took about 2 hours as he rotated through all the stations that test not only speech, but general development and health. From that we were told that we needed to come back for a more extensive speech eval and had a referral for a hearing evaluation. I called to schedule the hearing test only to be told that they were in the process of moving and not doing any testing right now. I have to call back the 2nd week of March just to schedule the test. I'm pretty sure that Cord will be in Kindergarten before we even get any work done. It's just frustrating having to jump through their hoops and have it take FOREVER to get anything done. But what other options do we have?

Secret Admirer

Mason is off track for two weeks, missing yet another holiday. But this time they had their class valentine party last friday. We got a great idea for the girls. Mason was in the store one day and saw something he thought the girls would like and wanted to give it to them for valentines. Today he made a cute heart and wrote on it "Happy Valentines day, love your secret admirer". Then we took the gifts to the girls school to be delivered. The idea was to make them think (or their friends think) that a secret love had given them a gift but knew once they was the handwriting on the heart they would know who it was from. First we went to the high school. The secretary informed us that Chelsea was at lunch and we should simply call her and give it to her ourselves - kind of ruins the surprise but what are we going to do. So we texted her and met her. Mason handed her the bag and said, "someone left this at our front door for you". :) She didn't buy it and was excited about the gift. Then we dropped Brianna's off at the middle school. I'm guessing she'll be mad at us because she'll have to carry it around her last few classes. I guess it's the thought that counts.

Go Bobcats!

We continue to enjoy attending the basketball games at the middle school to watch Brianna dance. She has 1-2 games a week. Last night they preformed at the high school half time. I took this pic of Brianna and her dance instructors. Today they had a game at the middle school. It's always a struggle to take Cord. He likes to watch the basketball game for about 5 minutes, cheering and everything. But then he's more interested in running up and down the bleachers or finding other ways to get in trouble. Today he was playing with the school mascot - the bobcat. He was good enough to take a picture with us.

Oh no she didn't.....

Brianna came home and was telling me about a poster she had to do that was due tomorrow. She also said that one girl had already turned in her poster. The teacher was showing it in class and talking about how great it was. Then the teacher dared the class to see if anyone could do better. With the gauntlet thrown down in the area that resembles scrapbooking I grabbed Brianna and we headed to Michael's for supplies. We then spent a couple hours creating her dinosaur poster. I'm anxious to see what the teacher says about that! Maybe I was a little too competitive but to be honest - I didn't do all the project. Brianna actually had the ideas and put most of it together.

Twins?

I am always amazed when looking at past pictures. I knew that Cord looked alot like Mason, but here's a pic when Mason was 3 along with Cord now. What do you think? They could be twins.....separated by only 8 years.

Pine Valley snow

We really missed playing in the snow and decided it had been over a month since we had made a visit to St. George. About 30 min from st. george is Pine Valley Mountain who had gotten a lot of snow lately. I pitched my idea to grandma and grandpa and got all the cousins involved in my weekend plans. We had to try and find some winter gear for the kids because we don't needs hats and gloves here. Plus Cord didn't have a warm coat that fit him so we made a quick trip to a 2nd hand store and bought one for $7.00. Chelsea didn't think it was such a fun idea and opted to stay in Vegas so she could have the house to herself or hang out with daddy.

Grandpa was able to track down some tubes (not as easy as you think - he got a tire store to sell him some new ones) and he got the 4-wheelers ready. We thought it would be fun to tie some tubes behind the 4-wheelers and let grandpa drag the kids around. On saturday afternoon we headed up to find snow. To bad all the streets had been plowed so we couldn't use the 4 wheelers but we found some good tubing hills by the resevoir. The snow was so deep that it almost went up to my knee in some places. Brianna was a good sister and took Cord down the hill multiple times. It was fun to listen to him laugh all the way down the hill - every time. Mason also had a good time until he went down a big jump, landed hard, and got the wind knocked out of him. It was fun to run into Angela and her family there having fun as well. They even shared a sled with us. We played for a couple of hours until all the kids were wet and cold and two of our tubes were popped. Then I pulled the fixings for hot chocolate out of my trunk for them to warm up on the way home. Right when we were leaving it started to snow. It was a great afternoon. Just wish we had built a snowman though, and I should have gone down the hill at least once. I was too busy looking after Cord and taking pictures.

It was fun to be in it for a little while, but we were quickly reminded how nice it was not to live in the stuff (sorry to my friends in Mass.) It was a great family outing.














That evening Brianna headed off to spend time with her friend, Sasha and the rest of headed to the movies. I've been dying to see "Chipmunks 2" (j/k) but it was playing at the $2.00 theater and it was something the kids would enjoy. Not to bad, prob worth the money to rent it at Redbox for $1.00.

We headed home sunday morning to get back for church. Funny side note: We were listening to the Glee soundtrack there and back. One song "Sweet Caroline" quickly became one of our favorites because Cord would pipe in with his "Ba, Ba, Baaaa" at just the right time. So funny!