Trip to dentist

I finally got around to taking Caden and Halle to the dentist. I've been putting it off for way too long. I thought it was going to be a disaster, but it actually went very well. Caden is obsessed with Dr. Seuss books and when we got to the dentist all of the walls were painted with Dr. Seuss characters. He was so excited and he could name all of them. He loves the book Hop on Pop and the room he was in told that story on the wall. It was perfect. They took X rays of his teeth and I thought he was going to throw up. He has a really bad gag reflex. The X rays didn't turn out very well, but at least he didn't freak out. He was very excited to wear the sun glasses while they cleaned his teeth. I was worried what the dentist was going to say because Caden has a huge gap between his two front teeth, but the dentist said they looked great and he didn't have any cavities. Halle had a fun time too! Luckily they only looked at her teeth because she would've freaked out if they would've done all the other stuff. They were very happy with their Tigger and Piglet toothbrushes and they got to pick a prize from the prize box for being so good. I am so happy we lived through it!

Crock pot recipes

A couple of days ago on Studio 5 they had a lady on that is trying to cook out of a crock pot everyday for a year. She has a blog that she puts her recipes on so I decided to try some. I love cooking out of a crock pot because the end of the day is usually the most stressful because my kids are usually screaming at me. This way dinner is already done at the end of the day and you don't have to heat up your house using the oven. I put a link to her blog on the side of my blog also.
Here's some of the recipes I tried. They turned out really good. The pictures don't make the food look really good, but trust me, they were.

This is Creamy Black Bean Salsa Chicken. She made this on day 125. I put some avocado on it and it made it really good.

This is Italian Bowtie Supper. She made this on day 123. I used penne pasta because that's what I had. It called for mozzarella cheese, but I didn't have any so I made some cheddar cheese alfredo sauce and added it. I love mixing alfredo sauce and tomato sauce.

This is Pineapple Chicken and Sweet Potatoes. She made this on day 72. This was good, but I wouldn't add as much nutmeg as she did because it was kind of strong.

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!