Disney Playhouse

I took Kadee and Cole to the Disney Playhouse production that was in town. This was part of Cole's birthday present since every morning he asks to watch Mickey Mouse Playhouse on T.V.We ended up with great seats, got our favorite popcorn and lemonade and enjoyed a great show. Kadence naturally loved the Cinderella number...she is such a little princess.

Cole loved it all! Mickey was a hit but I think his favorite (besides the popcorn that he is hogging :) was the characters from Toy Story. He has recently taken a liking to Woody and Buzz so he enjoyed seeing them in real life!

Today I Am 3!

My little man turned 3 today. Wow, three years already! My little blue-eyed, blonde hair baby is growing into such a handsome little man. I just love him to death! He definitely has given us a run for our money and tried our patience, but one, "I love you Mommy!" is all it takes to make my heart sink! Naturally we started the day off with our breakfast cupcake! What better way to start off your third birthday right?!? We let him open a couple presents from Grandpa and Grandma Neilson in New Mexico. Grandma Barb decided that a three year-old needs three cakes! So she made three from scratch and got pretty creative with them! Cole LOVES baseball so she did the whole baseball theme!After cake it was time for more presents.

I hope he had a great day! There is nothing like seeing this boy happy!

Soc Hop - 2009

I went ahead and signed up for the PTA this year, now that I am not pregnant and Kadee is in first grade, I felt like I could take on one more commitment...what the heck right! Our first big function of the year was the Soc-Hop. A fifties inspired dance for the kids. I am the volunteer coordinator so I was calling my list of parents (about 75 of them) all week to try and get enough helpers to scoop ice cream for the root beer floats and sundae table. It actually was a very cute event and very well attended by the kids and parents. It was great to see all the girls in their poodle skirts and the boys in their jeans and white t-shirts with their hair slicked back. Several of the parents even joined in the fun and dressed-up. I got Kadee a Pink Ladies costume and she looked absolutely adorable. I don't think she got the whole Pink Ladies though, she kept looking at me VERY confused as I tried to explain. I guess it's time to sit her down and make her watch Grease with me. I wonder if she will like it as much as I do?

The kids had an absolute blast and danced their little hearts out. By no means was this the classic boys sit on one side and girls sit on the other and nobody dances. Every kid there was dancing and several of them even took over the stage, including Kadence (it's a blurry picture but she is the one in the pink on the end on the left hand side)

Everybody jamming out to YMCA! We also had a HUGE twister game set up outside that was also a huge hit.

KadeeBug enjoying a root beer float with her friend Morgan.

Nashville, Tennessee - I Could Live In This Town...

I got a fantastic opportunity to travel to Nashville, TN for the first time for work. Flying in I tried taking pictures out the plane because the view was absolutely beautiful! Nothing but rolling hills of green!Right when I landed the rush was on! I caught a shuttle from the airport directly to the hotel, checked in, checked my bags at the bell desk and then caught a shuttle to the Grand Ole Opry! I decided I couldn't miss an opportunity to go to the Opry!I was lucky to get a great seat! What a show! I got to see Justin Moore, Darryl Worley, Little Jimmy Dickens (who I now love!) and Trace Adkins. Justin Moore singing his chart topper, "Small Town"Darryl Worley sang "Have you Forgotten" and brought a very emotional audience to their feet. One thing about Country Music Fans, they are die-hard patriotic people who show no hesitancy to show their pride in their country. There was a U.S. Marine in the audience who had just returned from Iraq, he was introduced and the crowd roared with appreciation for his sacrifice, it was a pretty moving experience."Little" Jimmy Dickens. Okay, the cutest little bugger ever, who comes out all blinged out...naturally I am going to LOVE him! He was hilarious to boot!The final performance was Trace Adkins. What a big teddy bear! I don't usually call guys teddy bears, but this guy is just the definition of a great big one! He sang one of my favorite songs, "You're Gonna Miss This." It was a great opportunity and I was so glad I went. My only regret was that I couldn't take my mom with me. She has always talked about going to the Grand Ole Opry and I know she would have absolutely loved it. If only I was a rich woman, I would have flown her out with me. I hope I get the opportunity to go back and drag her along with me!

I was lucky to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Of course, I am from Vegas so I am used to large hotels but even I was extremely impressed with this hotel. It was breathtakingly beautiful! It was comprised of five different areas, all indoors and all with their own restaurants, shops and entertainment venues. These were some of the beautiful ponds and dancing waterfalls. At night, they were all lit up in different colors with fog, they really were a sight to see.What's a good hotel in Nashville if it doesn't have a Jack Daniels bar?One of the nights I was there I ventured to the Honkey-Tonk District in downtown Nashville. It was as if I had died and gone to heaven. The roads were lined with super cute shops with everything bling you could imagine, BBQ restaurants and little Honky-Tonks filled to the brim with people and loud country music ringing out of each one. I couldn't help but wonder if I wasn't by chance listening to the next ground-breaking country artist on their way up. As I walked up and down (I wanted to make sure I didn't miss a thing!) I noticed one BBQ restaurant (Jack's BBQ) that literally had a line wrapped around the building. On my second go-by, the line had shrunk significantly and was only to the door inside so I figured I better take advantage of the opportunity and boy was I glad I did. I ordered the mix plate so I could sample a little of everything with some good ole southern sweet tea! One word...DELICIOUS!

I had a great time. It definitely is a southern hospitality town with great country music roots. I decided, I definitely could live in this town!

Another New York Giants Fan Welcomes Football Season

Well here are the first official photos of the newest New York Giants fan in the Neilson Family.

Chance Meet Cereal...Cereal Meet Chance

Well Chance turned four months so it was officially time to start rice cereal. He looked terrified at first and it took lots of convincing to get him to swallow the cereal. I could get a little in his mouth but then he would just leave it in there for a minute or two and then out it came! After about a half an hour we got about a tablespoon down the hatch.

Bathtime for Chance

My little man is getting so big. He still loves his baths. I caught some super cute pics of him in and just out of the bath.

The Neilson's Go Camping

We have been given a great opportunity. A friend of a friend needed somewhere to store her camper. She no longer uses it, as a matter of fact it has not been used in the last two years but she refuses to get rid of it. We have ample RV parking. In trade, we are able to use it whenever we like.

We decided to take advantage of it on Labor Day weekend. Since this was the first time, we didn't want to go to far from home so we headed out to Cottonwood Cove which is on Lake Mohave (just south of Lake Mead) and only about 45 minutes from home. Grandma & Grandpa Syrros and Pete, Julie and Cody drove out with us for the day. It was unbelievably hot so we learned our first lesson, do not set up a trailer in the middle of the desert in the middle of the day! Once we got the air conditioning cranked up we all cooled off and then decided to head down to the lake to do some fishing.

We found a great fishing spot but Charlie had to go the long way because the dogs could not go on the beach area of the campground. This required him to walk up a big hill, down a big hill, around the cove and along the shore in the water. By the time they met up with us they were all pretty tired.Brewtus decided to cool off and relax right in the lake!Charlie threw his line in and waited for the big bite!Kadence entertained us by singing and dancing on shore.Cole couldn't wait to throw a line in the water.Daddy gave Cole some fishing advice.And then let him give it a whirl.Uncle Pete waited patiently for the fish to bite.Cody tried a couple different spots but realized what nobody else would admit...there were no fish in this lake!Kadee Bug passed the time playing with the worms, her favorite thing about fishing!I caught the best picture of Kadee...this picture shows her personality like no other! She is so fun loving and a little crazy:)Well after Cody finally convinced us all that there were no fish in this lake, we packed it up and headed back to camp where we had a delicious BBQ meal!Grandma, Grandpa, Pete, Julie and Cody headed back to Vegas and we gave the kids a bath and to bed we went. It is amazing how tired you are at the end of a day camping!

The next morning we woke up early...how come it is so hard to sleep in when you are camping? I whipped up breakfast and mentioned to Charlie that I really loved cooking while camping, I am not sure why the same does not hold true at home.After breakfast was cleaned up we decided to play Uno. I remember many a camping trips when I was a little girl being stuck in the camper because of a rain storm and sometimes in Montana a snow storm and gathering around the table to play this same game.We headed out to the beach at Cottonwood Cove. Charlie, Kadee and Cole all took a dip in the very warm water. The kids got a kick of the huge Carps that would swim right up to them. Chance played it cool on the beach sporting his swimsuit trunks.Mommy and Chance bonded while we watched everyone else splashing around in the lake.After a while at the beach in the hot sun, it became apparent that nap time was approaching. We headed back to the camper and tucked the kiddos in snug as a bug! And boy did they crash!We got a pleasant surprise later that afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa decided to come back out for the day to play with us. After dinner we just sat outside visiting. Cole and Grandma swapped stories.Then it was time for SMORES!!! Unfortunately, because we were in the middle of the dry desert in the middle of summer, no fires were allowed so we had to settle for smores on the BBQ. But does it really matter how smores are made? Cole chowed down on his and his face was soon covered in melted marshmallow. Kadee made her own marshmallow mess!Yep, this has to be one of the best things about camping, you just can't beat smores!

All in all it was a great little get away and we look forward to many more excursions in our borrowed trailer!