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!

Hold On Tight!

For Valentine's Day this year I wanted to get the kids something they could really use instead of more candy and another stuffed animal that would just end up collecting dust. So the procrastinator that I am hit Target on Friday night after the kiddos went to bed. I think I walked all of the aisles twice until something really cool caught my eye...a tree swing! Yep, that would be perfect for them.

I came home and wrapped it up and let them open it first thing Valentine's Day morning. Kadence was soooo excited that she couldn't stop asking her Daddy to put it up. That afternoon, Charlie climbed up the ladder and tied it up to the tree. The kids love it! Kadee has totally gotten the hang of it and will run and jump on and has even tried standing on it a time or two. Cole-man is hilarious to watch on it. He holds on for dear life and eventually loses his balance and falls off one side only to beg to get back on. This little do-hickey provided us with hours of free entertainment this weekend. I am glad I was able to find something fun and practical!

Kadee's School Snack

Kadence has been asking me for the last couple weeks to buy circle crackers, spaghetti sauce and white cheese so she could make us her secret snack she learned in school. This last week I finally remembered and after school she suggested she make it for us. She placed the crackers on the pan, spooned some spaghetti sauce on each and covered each one with white cheese, otherwise known as mozzarella. We put them in the oven for a couple minutes and then voila! They were so easy to make and very yummy. Good job Kadee Bug!

Homeade Valentine's Day Card

Kadence made me and Charlie the cutest Valentine's Day card in school. She was so excited to give it to us I think mainly because she made it herself. I love homemade cards and gifts, if only I had time to make them!

Hers was super cute. She informed me and Charlie that the silver Hershey Kisses were for Charlie and the red were for me because my favorite color is red.

Valentine's Day Cards

Kadee made out her own Valentine's Day cards...27 of them for her class. She decided to give the kids High School Musical cards attached to a packet of Fun Dip (you know the packets of colored sugar you eat with a stick made out of pure sugar...yeah her classmates mommy's and daddy's are going to LOVE us!)

Valentine's Brownies

I stayed home with Cole on Thursday, we found out he had severe Bronchitis and a double ear infection...lovely and lots of fun :) I was starting to get a sore throat and wasn't feeling all that great either. We took Kadee to school and picked her up at the end of the day where I was given a wonderful report from her teacher. Kadence has recently has some problems socializing in class and not paying attention to the teacher. We have had several long conversations with her and the teacher thanked me very much for our efforts because whatever we were doing was working. What a relief. On top of that, she has been given a list of words to learn every week. On Thursdays, the teacher tests each kid and those who have learned their words get to move on. This week she struggled a little bit so I thought she might have a hard time with her test, but she didn't she passed with flying colors.

I thought she deserved some quality mommy and me time so I put Cole down for a nap (that's a whole other story...for two hours he laid in his bed with the occasional "MOMMY!" screamed at the top of his lungs! I wasn't going to cave in, he needed his sleep. I kept peeking in on him to make sure he was okay and on my last peek saw that he pulled his TV/DVD combo into his bed and pulled out the DVD player that is on the side of the TV! No more DVD's for Cole!)

Anyways, me and Kadee decided we would bake brownies...yum. We spent the afternoon chatting it up, mixing brownies which Kadence did all by herself and just enjoying time together. We had a blast and best of all got to have some delicious brownies to top off our afternoon.