Chelsea's photography

In Chelsea's photography class they not only shoot the pictures, they get to develop them as well. These are a couple that she has at home that I love. She says she has more in her school portfolio that she'll bring home so I can share them. She has a talented eye for catching beautiful things.

Cord and friends

Cord's babysitter sent me this picture of the boys playing together. Cord has a lot of fun over there, more fun than staying home with old mom. Sometimes I have to drag him out of there kicking and screaming because he doesn't want to leave. That's a good feeling because then you know that he's being taken care of.

Father/ Daughter bonding

Last weekend Mike was fixing the brakes on the van and Chelsea wanted to help. It was a great teaching opportunity. When she was done her hands were greasy but she had a smile on her face. Especially when they took the van for a test drive and they didn't die.

Dance team picture

(they are a little fuzzy but it's the best I could do with my scanner and stupid computer)

Proud parent

"I'm the proud parent of a honor roll student at Coronado High School". As evidenced by the new bumper sticker on my van! :)

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.