The month is gone

I must say, the month of September has flown by! I finally got the hang of my blogging and let it all go this month! We definitely have been busy this month with many play dates, swim time and park time, but due to lack of time and mommy forgetting her camera, not much was posted here. I wouldn't even know where to begin to try to back track now, so we'll move forward in the coming month and try to make more time to blog.

The month of September did bring us lots of activities! We had a great family photo shoot out at Lake Las Vegas. I don't have the prints yet, but will hope to post some soon. Thank you to Aaron Harvey for taking the time and having the patience to coordinate a 2 hour photo session with a 3 year old and an 11 month old! You definitely are a great photographer to get many great shots!

We also spent many Saturdays with a full calendar of birthday parties! As Alyssa gets older, her social calendar definitely stays full! One of her favorite places of course, Chuck E Cheeses. We had a great time that night celebrating our friend Audrie's 5th birthday. I do have some photos from this event that I will post later. Jaden thouroughly enjoyed walking around CEC all night and eating his first slice of pizza! This being a staple in many households, I was actually in disbelief when I realized we hadn't eaten pizza in a very long time! All in all, the kids had a great time. Happy 5th birthday, Audrie!

The next Saturday we spent at an outside BBQ in honor of Jordan's 3rd birthday party! She had a multitude of little swimming pools lined up outside and plenty of toys inside for the kids to play with! Jaden and Alyssa both had fun playing in the water! Alyssa had so much fun playing with all of her friends; Maddie, Sophia, Jordan an Aidan, all at one party! It tends to be more of a challenge taking Jaden to other people's houses now that he can walk, climb and get into everything! You don't realize how childproof your own home is until you take him to someone elses! Up and down the stairs, into the movies, into the cabinets, etc! Makes for a fun but exhausting afternoon! Alyssa is still at the age where she has a hard time with other people opening birthday gifts. Of course, she wants everything they got and doesn't understand why she can't open all the toys and play with them! She wants to help as much as she can to open all of the gifts, as do all of the kids. We ended the afternoon with not one, but 2 big slices of cake and off to home we went. Happy 3rd birthday, Jordan!

We also hosted a small birthday dinner for Uncle Charlie at our house! We dined on some pork char su and rice, bean sprout salad and a delicious lemon cake for dessert! Happy Birthday Uncle Charlie!

September made for a wonderful, fun filled month! Promise to be a better blogger in the time to come!

Pool Day

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera today, as we enjoyed a great day at the MGM Grand pool. We had a great time with Grandma and Papa lounging, playing in the kiddie pool and floating around the lazy river. Alyssa spent a big amount of her time doing cannonballs under the water fall and Jaden loved floating around the river in his boat!

Hopefully Aunt Robyn or Grandma got some pictures! If they did, I'll post them later. Thanks Grandma and Papa for a fun day at the pool!

Strip Fun

Standing underneath the glass roof - lion eating a bone above us!

Today daddy headed out for a game of golf with Uncle William, and the kids and I headed down to the Las Vegas Strip for a little fun!

Driving to the strip was already exciting enough for Alyssa! Of course she loved seeing the "castle hotel" (The Excalibur Hotel), the pyramid hotel (The Luxor), and the hotel with the roller coaster outside (The New York New York). Her favorite was watching the roller coaster go around the hotel. She promptly said, "when I get bigger can I go on that roller coaster?" I said, "sure." She said "that's so cool mom!" She then proceeded to hold her hands up and scream every time the roller coaster went down a drop. We passed a few more attractions, the golden lion outside the MGM Grand and the monorail which went from one end of the strip to another before we parked at the MGM Grand Hotel.

Grandma and Papa were staying a few nights at the MGM so we decided to take advantage of someone staying on the strip. After we checked out the hotel room, we packed up the stroller and walked to the Excalibur Hotel. They have a huge carnival game floor perfect for the kids. Alyssa played a few games, won a few stuffed animals and Jaden relaxed in his stroller. We also made our way to the lion habitat in the MGM. There were 2 lions today, one female and one male with a huge mane! Alyssa enjoyed seeing the lions but was a little scared to be up close. They are housed in a glass habitat and she didn't quite understand that the lions couldn't come through the glass!

After all that walking, we ended our day at Hagen Daaz for a huge sundae! Then, off to home for dinner and early bed!

Alyssa not sure of the lion habitat

The 2 lions sleeping on the overpass

Female lion playing ball

Alyssa standing outside the Excalibur with grandma

Alyssa playing her games

Alyssa, Spongebob and the bear she won

Alyssa and Patrick

Las Vegas Tourists

I must say, we had a very busy holiday the last few days! Friday morning Aunt Robyn and Uncle William arrived from Texas for a little Vegas vacation. We went over to Grandma & Papa's house where we had enough Chinese dinner for 20! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa by the Water for getting dinner so we would be able to spend our evening visiting instead of cooking and cleaning! The kids had a blast goofing around with Aunt Robyn and Uncle William! This was their first time meeting Jaden and they haven't seen Alyssa since her 1st birthday. It was such a treat for them to be able to come see the kiddos.

After dinner, the girls, plus Jaden, went downstairs to give Tebow (Uncle Matt's chinchilla) a bath and to let him run around a bit in his new ball. Jaden, of course, loves balls and with every chance was trying to pick Tebow's ball up (Tebow in tow) and throw it! Alyssa, was also trying to pick him up or kick the ball like soccer! Needless to say, poor Tebow only lasted in his ball for about 10 minutes before he was ready to get back in his cage for a treat!

After some playtime, we had 3 delicious cakes for dessert! Thanks again, grandma and grandpa by the water! Then off to home for bed!