Take Your Kids to Work Day

The annual "Take Your Kids to Work Day" was Thursday, April 23 so me and Charlie decided to take Kadence. Unfortunately, Cole is in the midst of his terrible two's and is pretty high maintenance so we figured he would be best off at the babysitter's where he could play outside all day and take a really good nap! We surprised Kadence on Thursday morning and she was soooo excited. She loves going to our work. I remember back in my crazy days I would leave work at 5:30, pick her up and go back to work for a couple hours with her in tow. She loved raiding the vending machine and rearranging all of the pictures I have on my locker! Those days are over as we are on a pretty strict 8 hour day policy!


Dallas brought Chi and Clarice brought Kaitlin so Kadence was in seventh heaven to not only get to go to work with mom and dad but to also have friends there to play with! They had a blast! Our tech agent showed them some really cool toys that we use on the bad guys and one of the officers took them for a ride around the garage in the police car, sirens and all!

The one and only time I better ever see this!


For lunch we all went to Johnny Rockets at Fashion Show for some yummy shakes and burgers! The rest of the day was spent delivering mail around the office and spending time with our AWESOME student aide coloring (which helped mommy and daddy actually get a little work done).

I almost forgot to mention the funniest part of the day (until I was reminded by Clarice). Clarice took Kadence and her daughter Kaitlin around the office to deliver some paperwork. Well apparently while they were in another bay of our office one of the officers picked up a conversation with the girls. He mentioned to them that he had handcuffs, probably thinking this would catch their attention. Well, my daughter quickly responded, "My daddy has handcuffs too!" The officer inquisitively replied, "he does, who does he use them on?" Yeah, you guessed it, she blurted out, "Mommy!" Apparently there was a lot of laughter generated by this comment and I'm sure some good stabs will be taken at Charlie next week when everyone returns to work! I couldn't have scripted it any better if I wanted to! Now for some clarification...one year I was a sheriff for Halloween and had bought a pair of handcuffs to go along with the outfit. Well at Halloween we pulled out the storage crates and the kids found the handcuffs to play with. Charlie of course decided to lock me up (in the middle of the day, in the living room, fully clothed...I don't know the more I try to explain it away the worse it sounds so I will leave it at that! Oh what comes out of the mouths of babes!

Ladybug, Ladybug Fly Away Home...

My sister Julie recently told the kids that she had a lot of visitors in her backyard...ladybugs! Kadence loves these little bugs and will spend hours trying to catch them. So after days of begging, Saturday afternoon we walked over to Auntie's, the kids with their bug kits in tow to see about catching some ladybugs. She was right, she had LOTS of them! The kids had no problem catching at least a dozen to put in their bug cage. A few would fly away and Cole had a blast chasing after them in an attempt to catch them. I told them we could keep the ladybugs overnight but would have to release them in a day or two so they could get back to their families! We had a fun afternoon/evening at Aunt Julie's. It was a beautiful spring day here. In addition to catching ladybugs the kids played with Julie's newest additions to the family, a golden retriever (Cinnamon) and my niece Dani's dog, a brussels griffon (Dahmer).
Charlie and Cole played football...kind of. Cole would get in his "down position" say "hut, hut" and run across the yard. Instead of trying to catch it though he enjoyed his dad trying to hit him with the football (no worries, it was a soft nerf football and Charlie aimed for his bottom!). Every time Charlie missed Cole would do a little "Neener, Neener, Neener" dance!


As day turned into night the kids broke out their flashlights and showed us their "scary faces".

God Speed Abe!

Today was the Mobilization Ceremony of the 1/221 Calvary which our friend and co-worker, Abe, is a part of. Tomorrow his unit will depart at 4:00 am to Indiana where they will prepare for two months prior to heading over to Afghanistan. But today was a day to celebrate them, their families and their friends.

The ceremony was held at Mandalay Bay and was addressed by the Governor as well as representatives from Congress. The heart wrenching part of the ceremony came when the children of the soldiers were asked to come down to the floor to join their fathers. All I could think about at that point was that both would have to go an entire year in each other's absence. How many missed first steps, learning to ride a bike and first dates would be missed by this group. All I can say is God Bless them for what they do! May God watch over them and bring each back safe and sound!

We will miss you Abe but know we look forward to your safe return and will keep you in our thoughts and prayers until then! And most importantly, thank you!

Easter Sunday 2009

Easter morning started out with the kids, Charlie included, coming downstairs to find their Easter baskets the Easter Bunny left for them. Lots of candy and some fun toys including a Lite Brite! Charlie was pleased to get a basket full of fishing goodies! The kids played all morning with their toys and watched Beverly Hills Chihuahau which was left in Kadee's basket.
Later that afternoon Grandpa and Grandma Syrros, Aunt Julie, Uncle Pete, Cody, Dani and Vic all came over for Easter dinner. Before we sat down to dinner the kids searched for Easter eggs in the front yard.
Cole was hilarious, he would run right by the real eggs and wanted nothing to do with them! He was only interested in finding the plastic eggs because he knew they had candy in them! Kadence looked for the bigger plastic eggs because she knew those ones had $$$ in them. My how fast kids learn! The hunt was very successful, we found all eggs without having to leave any out for strangers to find!
After the egg hunt it was time to eat! My parents spoiled us rotten with Honeybaked ham (one of my favorites), turkey, homemaded rolls, bridal salad and my sister made scalloped potatoes. It was delicious. And of course, there is nothing like finishing up a great family meal than with a slice of mom's homemade chocolate cream pie or lemon meringue pie. It really was delicious!
Happy Easter!

Time to Dye the Eggs!

The kids had a blast dyeing Easter Eggs! I took them the night before to pick out which coloring kit they wanted. Cole picked the tie-dye kit and Kadence went with the Sparkle kit. I covered the table in newspaper and let them have at it. I was slightly disappointed though with the dye. It was not the old school tablets that I was used too. Both our kits had liquid dye that took forever to color the eggs. A two year old doesn't have much patience waiting on an egg to turn a darker shade of yellow! Not to mention he just didn't understand why he needed to use that funky wire thing to drop the eggs into the dye. He thought it worked just fine dropping them in...can you say crack! Kadence was meticulous with her eggs, they had to be the right shade of pink and purple and she enjoyed using the crayon to draw designs on the eggs. All in all they made some great looking eggs and I think they had a blast doing it!

Easter Fun

We kept debating where we would take the kids for an Easter Egg hunt and to see the Easter Bunny. We are lucky here in Vegas because there are soooo many choices. Charlie had batting practice in the morning so we decided we would meet at Town Square around noon so Kadee and Cole could participate in the Easter Egg Hunts. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was so packed that the last toddler egg hunt was already closed and we couldn't get Kadee into an egg hunt until 1:30! We thought we would take the kids to the park there to waste time until it was time for Kadee's egg hunt. Wow! There were a lot of kids there! You literally could not stand without someone shoving into you. Finally after about a half hour of letting the kids play I suggested that maybe we should go to The District and settle for their Easter activities. It took a little convincing to get the kids out of their but soon we were on our way.

We got to The District and right away I sighed from relief, it was not nearly as crowded! They didn't have as much going on, carousel rides, face painting and pictures with the Easter Bunny was pretty much it. Unfortunately the line for the Easter Bunny was ridiculously long and me and Charlie took turns standing in line for about an hour. It wasn't so bad though because the kids got a few rides on the carousel while we waited for our photo op!
Charlie had to take off to take the puppies to the vet so me and the kids mosied over to Panera for lunch. Kadee and Cole love the Broccoli and Cheese soup there. After lunch we thought our day needed to be topped off with none other than Ben and Jerry's. After that it was time to head home. Mommy and Cole were in desperate need of a nap. The crowds and lines wore me out.

What to Do, What to Do???

So the boss came in today at about two o'clock and said everyone gets to go home at three o'clock. Gotta love these Federal Fridays. Kadee had been on spring break this week and I really wanted to do something fun with her but was limited because I was trying to save my time off for when Baby #3 comes along. On the way home we started planning a surprise for the kids. We decided that bowling would be fun. We got to the babysitter's and told the kids we had a surprise for them. Then started the 100 questions...where are we going, what are we doing, etc, etc...

As we headed to the SouthPoint Kadee was able to guess where we were headed. "Yeah, Bowling!" she exclaimed. They were so excited. We got up to the bowling alley only to see a sign on the counter, "No Open Bowling till 9:00 pm". Okay, that was out! We were still in the mood to do something so we thought the movies were right around the corner, we could go see Aliens vs. Monsters, we convinced our disappointed kids that this would be fun so we headed over to get our tickets. "Two adults and two children for Aliens vs. Monsters please!" The bill came up to $40. I expressed my shock to the cashier and she informed me there was an extra charge because the movie was in 3-D. Wait a minute...3-D was not going to work with Cole, he can hardly sit still through an entire movie much less wear 3-D glasses the entire time. Okay, strike two! Charlie got a refund and we started getting desperate. We promised the kids something fun and we were striking out big time. I remembered seeing Clarice's blog about their trip to the indoor miniature golf and since we have one right around the corner from the house, I thought Bingo, this should work.

So we headed over and didn't hit a single roadblock! Kadence got the hang of it right away and she even got a hole in one! There were even several witnesses that cheered for her which made her beam. She later asked me if I thought Tiger Woods had ever gotten a hole in one. I informed her that he probably had but hers was pretty special because she doesn't golf as much as he does!
Cole just wanted to pick the ball up and put it right next to the hole so he could hit it in. Mid-way through the round though I think daddy was able to convince him that he couldn't pick the ball up to move it closer to the hole! He actually had some pretty good shots once he got the hang of things.
After golf we dropped Charlie off, he was suffering from a major allergy attack! Me and the kiddos headed to Pei Wei for Crab Wontons and Asian Coconut Curry Shrimp...YUMMY! All in all it urned out to be a fun evening regardless of the roadblocks we hit at the beginning!

The Loss of a Wonderful Lady...

I remember first showing up to the office in Las Vegas, a little shy, a little hesitant, and very nervous. Within a couple of weeks I would be shipped out to Quantico to spend seven weeks in training...all alone. My coworkers reassured me not to worry that another co-worker from the office was already at Quantico and would help show me the ropes. Upon my arrival to Quantico I first met Linda. She had to be the most friendly, outgoing person there. I remember her coming up to me and saying, "you must be Kristi!". I thought to myself, this has got to be Linda, and sure enough I was right.

I have spent ten years knowing Linda. She was always was so friendly and boisterous and always had a hello and how are you doing every time you saw her. When I was pregnant with Kadence, Linda's sister was pregnant with her first child and Linda would often share her sister's stories about the pregnancy with me and boy could I relate. She always had a tendency to make you just feel okay, I think her positive, friendly attitude just rubbed off on you every time you encountered her.

It wasn't until a few weeks ago that we learned that Linda was suffering from cancer and that things had not been going well. For over a year and a half Linda was going for treatments everyday at the Air Force base prior to coming to work. A year and a half and none of us knew. All I could ask myself is how could she hide this from everyone. Obviously her family knew and I think she had a strong support group of friends but why would she hide this from us, her work family who would help her in anyway possible.

In February, Linda got worse and was admitted to the hospital, then to assisted living, then to Hospice and finally home where she could rest in peace surrounded by those who loved her. Her daughter had come into work last week and stated that Linda's cancer had spread from the lymph nodes into her brain and had now reached her spinal fluid. Those close to cancer who were familiar with terminal cancer indicated that unfortunately, Linda did not have much time left here on earth.

Her daughter had invited everyone to an Open House for Linda on April 11. For some reason, I just didn't want to wait to visit her and myself and a coworker, Joe, paid a visit to Linda last Wednesday. I was surprisingly shocked at how well she looked. Her face was slightly bloated and she had obviously lost her hair from her treatments, but she still looked like Linda. She had thrush from all of the medication so she couldn't speak real well and had to whisper but she was in great spirits and was jabbing jokes back and forth with Joe. We spent about an hour with her, learning about the last two years of her life, her struggles and everything she was trying to overcome. When we asked her why she didn't want anyone to know she explained that she just wanted some normalcy in her life. What a courageous woman. When we got up to leave she asked that we please come to the Open House which we reassured her that nothing would keep us away. She insisted that I bring my babies with me, she wanted to see them.

When I got to work this morning my supervisor called me into his office and informed me that Linda had passed away last night. Shock, sadness and disbelief overcame me. All I could say was, "she didn't look ready to go." This was all so sudden, so unexpected and so unbelievable. She left a husband and two beautiful daughters behind. But Linda is in a better place, a place that will suit her well for her smile will surely help light up the skies. We will miss you dearly Linda.

A Busy Birthday Party Kind of Day

Wow, today was busy. We had two birthday parties to attend. First was off to Layla's 1st birthday party at 1:00 pm. Layla is absolutely adorable and had a great 1st birthday party. The theme of the party was bugs, specifically ladybugs. When we went to Phoenix with Layla and her mommy and daddy we realized they had the same nickname for Layla as we do for Kadence...Kadee Bug and Layla Bug. She was decked out in the cutest ladybug dress with a ladybug button.

We left Layla's house a little after three and drove to the other side of town to the Mountain Edge park to attend Malachi's birthday party. His mommy threw him a Superhero party that was too cute. All of the kids were dressed in their favorite superhero costume. Chi was a really cool Batman with muscles and all. Kadence and Cole went as Batgirl and Batman. We were able to use Kadence's old Halloween costume for her and for Cole we used the cape from his old Batman costume and then I bought him a Batman shirt on sale at Target.

We got there just in time for the games. Charlie and Kadence teamed up for the three-legged race and needless to say Charlie's competitive spirit came out. Kadence lost both flip flops in the process but they finished anyway. Then it was time for the orange race where the kiddos had to race back and forth holding an orange under their necks. They all did surprisingly good! The kids had a blast playing with all of their friends on the playground, it is a great park and has a ton too do.

All in all it was a busy day but a day full of fun!

My Little Man is Finally Bigger Than His Backpack!

Over the last year Cole has desperately been trying to wear his backpack. It always seems to outweigh him and he often gives up. This morning he insisted that he had it. He got it on all by himself and looked so darn cute walking out the door with this thing that is half his size hanging on the back of him! He is getting so big!