Circus Circus Adventures

One of my best friends, Tanya came into town for the weekend. I was so excited because it always great to spend time with someone you have known for so long and are so close to. People joke all the time and say, do you guys do everything the same, especially when it comes to kids. We both had girls first then were blessed with our handsome boys and are now both pregnant again with boys. It will be great because when we get together our kiddos will always have a buddy to play with! We are also very lucky that we get to see each other as often as we do. Luckily her hubby's family lives out here in Vegas and my hubby's family still lives in Albuquerque so we get to meet up every time we head out to visit our families.

We decided to meet up Saturday morning at Circus Circus. We met Tanya and her kiddos along with some of their cousins. We had a blast. The kids loved all of the rides and we made sure they went on them several times to make sure we got our money's worth :) We had a great time catching up and watching the kids run from one ride to another, their eyes filled with so much excitement!

We topped of the adventure by letting the girl's get hair wraps in their hair. They were so excited to pick out their colors of thread and their beads.

Our Sinful Sundae!

On our way home from work on Friday night we were debating about where we would eat dinner. I pulled out my coupon book and noticed a coupon for Sammy's Woodfired Pizza. We hadn't been there in ages so we though what the heck. It was a beautiful night so we sat out on the patio and enjoyed a yummy dinner. The best part of the whole night was our dessert. We ordered the "Messy Sundae" and let me just clarify that "messy" is an understatement. It was absolutely delicious and we all fought for the last bite.

Abe's Last Day

March 13, 2009 was Abe's last day at work. He is off to Afghanistan to serve us all proud! He will be in all of our hearts and prayers and we look forward to seeing him back at work in a year from now! We will miss you Abe!

My 34th Birthday!

On March 6, I turned 34 years old! I had a wonderful birthday. My parents came and picked up Kadence and came back with the most beautiful flowers, a bouquet of Stargazer Lillies. These are my favorite flowers and I couldn't remember having any since my wedding in 2000. It was such a wonderful surprise!

Charlie's parents came in for the weekend and we had a wonderful visit. On Friday night our old neighbors who we miss very much, Peter and Dolly stopped by to bring me some beautiful flowers. We enjoyed some yummy pizza (which we typically have every Friday night) and had a good time catching up.
On Saturday night we decided to celebrate my b-day. Barb Neilson brought a delicious brisket from Abq and we cooked it up along with lots of other delicious food. My parents, Julie, Pete and the kids also came over to celebrate. It was a wonderful night topped off with a Dulce De Leche Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory that my parents brought, it was DELICIOUS!

Spring Projects

We have several projects around the house that have been hanging around all winter. Now that the weather has been beautiful we decided to get out and tackle them. First off was the garage. Our cars do not fit in our garage so Charlie kind of converted it into his man room. However, after the holidays it typically gets cluttered with decorations that need to go back to storage along with about a hundred other things! Charlie worked on the garage while me and the kids did some painting projects. The kids easel which is a chalk board on one side and a dry-erase on the other was in much need of a paint job. The kids took black sharpie markers and scribbled all over them. So we got some chalkboard paint and white dry erase paint and fixed them up good as new. I decided it would be fun to repaint the kids table with the white dry erase as well that way it would be easy to clean any scribbles that missed the paper. I love signs with sayings and wooden letters that say something or another. I had purchased letters at JoAnn's a while ago that spell out, "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" to hang in my bedroom so I painted those while we were at it. All in all we got a lot done and the kids had a blast putting their painting skills to test.

A Goodbye Get-Together for a Good Man!

Abe is one of my and Charlie's co-worker's. I have had the pleasure of working with him for quite a while and Charlie met him when he started almost two years ago. Charlie and Abe went to Quantico together in January/February 2008 where they attended an almost month long training. They were roomates and came back with some great stories. Unfortunately, Abe is leaving us for approximately a year. He is with the Nevada National Guard and will be deployed to Afghanistan this spring. We will miss him dearly and will keep him close in our prayers!

We had a get-together for the office to wish him farewell. Poor guy was sick as a dog that night as he had just returned from some pretty brutal training that I think wore him out! But he hung in there with the best of him and we all made sure he knew how honored we are to know him, how proud we are of what he is doing and most of all how forward we look to seeing him back in a year.

Papa Turns 70!

This year my dad turned 70! It is almost hard to believe, he doesn't seem any older. My Aunt Karleen (dad's sister) and Uncle Gary came down for the week from Red Deer, Canada. My aunt made one of my dad's favorite dishes, Greek Chicken and Spaghetti. My grandfather used to make this although I was too young to remember. It was absolutely delicious! We ate dinner at my sister's house and topped the evening off with some yummy cake (chocolate with white mountain icing) and chocolate cream pie! It was a wonderful night filled with good company, good food and most of all a good man. I love my dad very much and am looking forward to at least 20 more birthdays with him!

A Little Adventure

The weather here in Vegas has been gorgeous lately and we have been getting the bug to just get out of town and go fishing. Charlie spoke with some buddies at work who gave him some advice about a great fishing spot not far from Vegas. We figured what the heck, let's go check it out.

That morning Charlie had football practice so me and the kids tagged along and played in the park while Charlie conducted practice. After that we went to the District for lunch and to visit my sister who was volunteering at the "Mutts on Main Street". She volunteers for the Golden Retriever rescue club and they had a booth there to display some beautiful Goldie's available for adoption. The kids had a blast visiting with all the super cute puppies. From there we were off to our fishing destination, Temple Bar which is part of Lake Mead. About an hour out of town we finally got there only to be severely disappointed! There was no shore fishing allowed or even accessible from here! Oops!

Well we weren't going to let that stop us! Charlie was determined to get his pole in the water even if it was only for the last fifteen minutes of daylight! We turned around and headed over to Willow Beach. I love this place and have ever since we moved here. We always pass it on the highway out of town heading to Albuquerque or Phoenix and it always catches my eyes. From way above on the highway it looks like this little oasis tucked in between the high mountains that surround Lake Mead.


We got down to Willow Beach with about an hour of daylight to spare so we got our poles in the water and just sat back and relaxed.

The kids had a blast feeding the ducks, although it took some stern explaining to Cole that he may not throw rocks at the ducks! I think he just liked the idea that he was capable of making them all fly away just by splashing the rocks in the water.

I caught some great pics of the kids that day so it all was worth it!

On the way home I snapped this photo of Kadeebug and realized that if I had to imagine what an angel looks like, this is pretty close.

Our Favorite Treat!

Every once in a while I am lucky enough to cut out of work early for a Doctor's appointment. It is not really the doctor appointment I look forward to, it is getting to pick up the kiddos a little earlier than usual and taking them for a yummy treat. Our choices vary depending on what we feel like, the weather, etc... But I think we have narrowed down our favorite to Dairy Queen...chocolate dipped cones.

I remember my parents taking me to Dairy Queen and this being my favorite selection as a little girl and now I am lucky to share one of my favorites with my little ones!

YUMMY!

For Valentine's Day this year we decided our present would be a night out to dinner at one of our favorite places...The Melting Pot. My sister ever so graciously watched Kadee and Cole for us and on Sunday night we made our way over to the restaurant.

If you have never been to the Melting Pot I highly recommend it. It is so yummy and actually very relaxing, even though you do most of the cooking yourself. We always order the "Big Night Out", one because it usually is a Big Night Out for us and two because it seems to be the biggest bang for the buck. I was even pretty excited because we waited to go on Sunday we were able to use our $20 coupon from the Entertainment Book...what a deal.

Anyways, back to the best part...the food! It starts out with cheese fondue. This time we picked the Spinach and Artichoke fondue which was out of this world. They served it with cold veggies, apples and a variety of bread for our dunking pleasure. After that we each got to pick a salad which was pretty darn good also. Then came the main course...Lobster Tail, Filet Mignon, Pork, Chicken, Shrimp, Salmon and Spinach and Cheese Ravioli. They bring out a big side of veggies to cook in the pot as well as several delicious sauces to use on the different meats. It was DELICIOUS!
Then my absolute favorite part of the meal...dessert! We chose the SMORES chocolate fondue which was chocolate, marshmallow cream and graham crackers. They served cheesecake, brownies, pound cake, rice crispy treats, bananas, strawberries, graham crackers and my ultimate favorite marshmallows dipped in chocolate cookie crumbs and graham crackers.

It was a delicious meal but the best part was being able to spend some quality time with my honey! He is a keeper and I love him to death! We had a great night and talked and talked and talked the entire night about everything and anything. Happy Valentine's Day Charlie, I had a fantastic time!