Fall Park Day

Tyler & Jaden just like best friends

We had such a great day at the park today! It's been a few weeks since we've had a "day" at the park! It was either too hot to play or too windy the last week. Today was perfect....sunny, no wind and clear skies. Alyssa had a blast playing with Cole! And, for once, Jaden had his very own playmate. He's usually running around with Alyssa and her friends, but today, he enjoyed Tyler's company. And as usual, it was so nice to have some mommy time with Pam and Gena!

We brought a nice picnic lunch to share and then play, play, played! I thought that the parks and recreation people turned off the water features October 1st, but I was wrong. Alyssa thought it would be fun to play with the on/off pole, and sure enough, the water came on! Their faces were in total excitement as all the fountains and poles starting squirting! Of course, I didn't come prepared today, seeing as it is the middle of October. No towels, no extra clothes! Oh well, a short ride home in panties never hurt anyone!

Thanks Pam, Cole, Gena and Tyler for such a great day at the park!

Yay! The water's on!

Tyler & Jaden exploring

Alyssa & Cole telling each other about all the toys they
have at their own houses to play with!

Alyssa & Jaden love the water!

Jaden playing in the water

Tyler having fun in the water

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!

Kids Video's

Alyssa doing her cannonball!




Alyssa trying out Nanny's new exercise video!

Cousins, cousins and more cousins

Jaden and Abby playing

Today we had a great day playing in the pool with Andy's cousin Jill from Boston. Alyssa and Jaden had such a good time playing with cousins Andrew and Abby. We were only able to see them for one day so we decided to take the kids and spend the day at the pool! Alyssa spent the almost the whole 5 hours doing cannonballs while Jaden spent his time playing with Abby.

Alyssa worn out from cannonballing ~ taking a short nap, poolside

Alyssa and Andrew

Water Park Fun

More water park fun! Now that Jaden can walk, he has a blast running through the water park near our house. There's a covered park and within the same play area, there is a big water area! Great place to cool off and have a good time!

Hmmmm.......I wonder if water will come up out of the drain??

Maddie & Sophia

Master Walker

Jaden is 10 months old!

All I have to say for this week is 'Jaden's Walking!' I can't believe my baby boy is walking at 10 months! I'm excited that he is able to get around better and play with Alyssa, but it's quite sad to see my baby walking so early! Why do they have to grow up so soon?

He loves to take everything out of the kitchen cabinets, turn the volume up and down on the TV, chase Alyssa around, bang things on the tile to make noise, pull Alyssa's hair and go up the stairs repeatedly!

He now has 4 teeth! 2 on top, 2 on bottom! Boy was it difficult to get that last top one to come in! Many sleepless nights with that one! I remember with Alyssa, too, the first 4 were the hardest for her, too! Hopefully the rest will be a breeze!

Jaden eats all table food now! He starts spitting and blowing bubbles the minute he sees a container of baby food! He loves fruit (bananas, pears, blueberries), veggies (peas, green beans, squash), waffles, sausage, turkey, rice cakes, yogurt, yogurt drops, crackers and cheese. Just to name a few of his favorites! He pretty much likes to eat anything we eat, also! He's pretty much mastered the sippy cup now, so that's a major improvement!

He is babbling a bunch the only real word we can make out is "mamamamamamama!" I love it!

Outside play day

Jaden driving his car

Today, I was on call again for work! We haven't been very busy and we are a bit overstaffed, so it was my turn to not work again! Instead of sitting around the house all day waiting for the phone to ring, I decided to make the most of a sunny day with the kiddos. First, we met Andy near his work for lunch. We went to In and Out burger, or as Alyssa says "The milkshake store." We had a great lunch with Andy, then it was off to Nanny's house for the afternoon. The kids played at her house for a while and Alyssa had a blast trying out Nanny's new exercise stepper. She was so cute following the videos and doing the routines! She's never 'exercised' before, but she was a pro! After that playing around, we went down the street to Karen & Ed's house to swim in their pool for a while. The whole 3 hours we were there, Alyssa was in and out doing cannonballs. Her goal was to do 1 million cannonballs! By her terms, she met that goal when it was time to go home! Jaden spent a little while in the pool, but mainly he was content to play in his pack n play the whole time. After an exhausting few hours in the 100 degree heat, we went back to Nanny & Opa's house for dinner. I don't know how, but the kids rode bikes/cars and played outside until dinner was ready. All in all, my goal of a busy outside play day went well! Everyone had such a great time!

Alyssa "cannonball"

Alyssa exercising

So funny! Jaden, "what are you doing?"

Alyssa riding her bike

Cookie Time

Had fun today baking chocolate chip, cherry, walnut cookies with Alyssa! She's such a big help in the kitchen now and absolutely loves it!

The finished project!

Mmmmm yummy!

Picture Time

Today I braced myself for what I thought would be an exhausting day getting professional pictures taken! We haven't taken any studio pictures since Jaden was born and he pretty much just laid there for those! At that time Alyssa wasn't very cooperative or keen on the idea of posing for pictures. She literally started crying or having a tantrum the minute she saw the camera. Because I wasn't sure how they would be, I decided to have my mother in law come with for reinforcements. I got the kids bathed, dressed and ready to go and we headed out to JCPenney. This is also the first time I've used their studio, so I wasn't sure how they would be with kids, either.

I was so proud and actually in shock at how well Alyssa listened to the photographer. She smiled and posed and was such a good girl! Jaden, who is an extremely active 9 month old wanted to explore. He wasn't too interested in sitting still for pictures, but we were still able to catch a few good shots. He would be smiling and laughing and the minute she brought the camera out, he just froze. I think he was just so fascinated with the big black camera!

After we were done with pictures, we headed to lunch with Nanny and then back to the studio to view our pictures. They turned out so good! Of course it takes 2 weeks for them to come in, and I'm so excited to see them printed out. Here are few small prints, but I'll be sure to post more when they come in.

Love this!

Alyssa's 3 year old collage

Jaden's 9 month old collage

Mama's Solo Weekend

This weekend Andy decided to take the 2 kids down to California for 1 overnight. My parents were going to my sister's house to bring the girls home, and at the same time they decided to stay and celebrate Brayden's 4th birthday. Because it's only a 2 hour drive, Andy thought it would be fun for Alyssa to go down, see the new house and have a fun birthday party with the cousins.

On the contrary, this meant mama would have Friday night and all day Saturday to herself! I was thrilled, but also knew I had a few things I wanted to get done while they were gone. I decided to go ahead and go grocery shopping Friday night. It was nice to do this without kids in the cart, asking for stuff, Jaden taking things of the shelf, etc. It was actually peaceful and I was able to browse, something I rarely get to do these days. I got some take out on the way home and enjoyed a quiet Friday night. Caught up on some "mom" shows ~ thanks to HGTV and Food Network!

Saturday, I slept in a bit, cooked myself a nice breakfast and headed off to Kohl's to spend a gift card that I had received for my birthday. I came back home, mopped the floors and it was time to get ready for a girl's night out. Jo Ann bought Alan Jackson concert tickets for the 3 of us to go for my birthday gift. Michelle, Jo Ann and I headed to the "M Resort & Casino" for dinner and the show. We ate at Marinelli's Italian restaurant. It was delicious, and the best part of all was enjoying a great dinner and adult girl conversation! Then we headed out to the pool, which was where the concert was set up. We had 6th row seats for Alan Jackson! It was such a great show. Towards the end of the show we boogied our way up to the stage, danced a bit and then waited for some souvenirs. Michelle was lucky enough to catch a guitar pick and then I was the luckiest to get the play list off the stage! I was so excited!

After a great night out, we headed back home. Andy and the kids were back from California by the time I got home. Kids were fast asleep and I headed off to bed!

The girls with the playlist

Jo Ann and Michelle

So close to Alan