Las Vegas!

We went to Vegas for a small family vacation. I know that's not the greatest place to bring two young kids, but we got a really good deal on a hotel. We stayed in St. George on the way down. We thought the kids would have a lot of fun swimming, boy was I wrong. It was really nice weather up until the time that we got into the swimming pool and then this black cloud formed right on top of us and rained. Perfect timing huh?! The kids weren't very fond of the pool. They really liked the wading pool that was like 2 feet deep. They are wimps! I realized when I was looking through the pictures I took that I'm not very good at taking pictures and I usually forget to take pictures of things that I should. Here's some of the random pictures that I did take..

This is our attempt at taking a family picture at the condo in St. George..


Every time we told Caden that we were going to St. George he thought we were saying that we were going to "see" George. When we got there he kept asking us when we were going to see George because he wanted to show him his books and movies. I don't think he ever caught onto what we were saying. He was very confused.
Here's Caden by the palm tree outside our condo.


Here's Halle by the aquarium at The Silverton in Vegas. You can't really see the fish. Caden was so excited to see the fish because he remembered seeing them the last time we went to Vegas. When we got there he had a complete melt down because we wouldn't let him play the "games" aka slot machines. He wasn't very happy after that.
Here's Caden on the shuttle from the hotel to the strip. I think that was his favorite part of the trip.
Halle on the shuttle..
Lucas and Caden by the Mirage
Me and Caden by the Mirage
Caden loved the boats
Here's Caden at the Paris Buffet. The kids decided to have melt downs everytime we sat down to eat. I can't wait until they are out of the melt down stage. I don't think that ever ends.
Lucas at Buffet

Halle was very tired.
Here's Caden waiting for the the M&M movie to start. He loved it!
We went to Circus Circus to see the free circus acts they have. We got there right as one of them was starting so it was standing room only. Halle and I got stuck by the Fortune Teller man game (if you've seen the movie Big you know what I'm talking about) Every time the man started talking Halle would freak out. I didn't get to see alot of the show so I didn't take any pictures. This is the only picture we got there. Caden really likes to "pretend" to play the arcade games. Hopefully he never figures out that you need money to play.
Our trip was alot of fun. We can't wait for Disneyland in November!

Pictures and Doctor Visits Pt. 2

Halle got to go to the doctor for her 18 month appointment. She does not like the doctor very much. She freaked out the whole time and then she was happy when he finally left. She actually said "bye bye" when he walked out the door. I like our doctor a lot. He is very patient and good with kids. Halle has turned into a little peanut. She eats a lot, but she doesn't gain any weight.

Here's her stats:
Weight: 21 lbs 13.5 oz. 14th percentile
Height 30 inches 9th percentile
Head circumference 50 cm 99th percentile (she still has a big head)

Her 18 month pictures turned out really cute!

Pictures and Doctor Visits Pt. 1

Caden got to go to the Doctor for his 3 year check up. I was very impressed with how he acted this time. It shows me that he his growing up. He was very polite and he did everything that the Doctor and nurse asked him to. I took Halle and him at the same time and he was very concerned for Halle. She was crying a lot and he kept telling the Doctor, "I don't think Halle likes that very much." The Doctor assured him that everything was ok. He is such a nice big brother.

Here's his stats:
Weight: 34.6 pounds 77th percentile
Height: 38.5 inches 74th percentile
BMI: 16.41 63rd percentile

His 3 year old pictures turned out very cute. He was very cooperative this time and he actually smiled.

Happy Birthday!

Caden turned 3 years old and Halle turned 18 months old a couple of days ago. I guess Caden thinks that everyday should be his birthday because everyday he asks me if he's turning 4 today. Not yet! I let him open one of his presents when he woke up and he was very excited. It was a shirt and I've never seen a kid that happy about clothes. Every 5 minutes he would come up to me and give me a hug and tell me that's exactly what he wanted. I should've just stopped there, it would've saved me a lot of money. He was very disappointed when he woke up and all the decorations weren't up. I assured him that we would put them up for the party. Here's some pictures from his fun party...

The Birthday Boy!

He loved all of his presents!



Halle especially liked all of the balloons.


Luckily my mom is really good at decorating cakes. She's amazing!

Happy 5 Year Anniversary

Actually our anniversary is tomorrow, but I didn't know if I would have time to post tomorrow.
I can't believe it has been 5 years! The time has just flown by! I just wanted to reminisce about the fun memories that we have had together...

We definitely can't forget about our awesome trip to Europe. Maybe we'll have enough money so we can go back for our 50th anniversary. (We can always hope)




We had a lot of fun learning how to be independent when we lived in Oregon.


The birth of Caden was also a big milestone in our marriage.

Buying our new house was very scary, but it has been very rewarding.

The birth of Halle was also an added blessing to our family.

Thank you Lucas for all of the great memories of our first 5 years. I can't wait for many more memories to come! I love you!

Potty Prize

Caden earned a trip to the zoo from completing his potty chart and we've been waiting for a Friday with good weather to go. I kept thinking that Friday would be a better day to go than Saturday because all the kids would be in school. I was wrong. I think every elementary class in the city was there that day for a field trip. I kept thinking to myself that at least it was good weather. We were excited that my family and Heidi and her kids could come with us too!
We started out at the playground, of course. Caden was very good with the rings. Maybe he'll be a gymnast some day.

There was definitely an evolution with the slide going on. Caden refused to go down any slide because he was too scared. He is very moody. Finally he saw Halle do it so he thought he would give it a try.


He started out small with the little slide...

Then he progressed to the bigger slide...

And then he was finally brave enough to try the huge slide. He didn't want to leave after that.

Then it was off to see the elephants..

Halle was very excited, can't you tell?!


Mason was a very happy baby. He loves to smile!

Kylee was brave enough to ride the Rhino. (Caden, of course, wasn't.)

Here's me and all my sisters by the Rhino.

Caden and Kylee found a bench to rest on.

Halle decided to join them.

Here's us by the giraffes.

I guess Caden likes tigers better than rhinos because he was very excited to get on this one.

I really don't like the building with the small animals and the birds and reptiles because it's so stinky and hot, but that's usually the part that the kids love. I think they like it so much because they can see the animals up close. I decided to suffer through it for them.
Halle really liked the meerkats. Every time they would run by she would scream and say "Kitty!".
It was very cute!


This is Heidi and Mason and Kylee. Since Eric couldn't be there we found the animal that closely resembles him for the picture. j/k

Caden loves the ball fountain. He kept talking about it for the rest of the day. Whenever I would ask him what he liked about the zoo he would say the ball and the cows and pigs. (even though we didn't see any cows and pigs)

Halle was pretty hesitant and first, but she eventually dove in.

And then everyone was tired so our fun day at the zoo had to come to an end.