Happy Birthday Tara!

Yesterday was our good friend Tara's Birthday. Shawna (another friend of ours), all the kids, and I were able to take her out to lunch to one of her favorite places, Don Antonio's. We picked up a dragonfly balloon, some flowers, and a cake for her before. I snuck them in and had the waitress bring them out after we were done eating. The waitress was so nice and patient, especially with as many kids as we had. Surprisingly though, they were all pretty well-behaved, until the end when their "15 minute window" ran out. Hee, hee, that is what Dustin calls it. It is the little window of time that you have when your kids are actually good, when that window is up, it is time to go. We did have a lot of fun, and we hope that Tara did too. Happy Birthday Tara!

This is the canvas collage that I made Tara for her Birthday.

Toxic Audio

On Saturday my good friend Tara invited me to go to the show Toxic Audio with her. Toxic Audio is a group that does everything completely acapella. They are absolutely incredible. They sing, and do all the background music, and sound effects only with their voices. It was awesome, I was so happy to go. It was a really nice break for me. I appreciate Dustin watching the kids while we went. I was able to purchase a CD and have them all sign it. All of the members of the group were so fun and friendly. Going to that show makes me want to go to more! I loved it! Hopefully I will get to take advantage of a few more while I still live here.

Swimming Fun!

Last week we went swimming at the Yellowstone pool with our friends Tara Reynolds, Aimee Cooper, and Kollen Marchant, and all their kids. It is always so nice to be able to cool down at the pool. Thank heavens Tara lives in the Yellowstone community and let's us use her pool key! Thanks Tara!

Forecast: Sunny, Hot, and Tornado?

Headline:

Tornado Strikes Las Vegas Girls Bedroom

A rare phenomenon occurred today as a tornado struck a house in Las Vegas, causing damage to only one room. The room belongs to little, almost four year old, Samantha Veenendaal. Authorities are adamant that this occurrence is rare, but worry that it could happen again. They believe that there is a mysterious force present in the room that invites disasters to occur, such as the tornado that struck today. The family is, of course, concerned about the problem, and would welcome any advice on how to prevent such traumatic events from happening again. One suggestion: Blow up the room and everything in it.

Raingutter Regatta

Last night Dillon and I stayed up very late making his boat for the Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta. Dillon named his boat "The Dinosaur Traveler", but we didn't have enough room to put the whole title on the sail, so it got shortened to "DINO". For me not knowing anything at all about making a boat, I think it turned out pretty good. It was done in true woman style though. In combination with Dillon's dinosaur stickers, we put glitter around the sides, and used some of my scrapbook sticker letters for the name on the sail. Then, in all my brilliance, :) I modge podged the whole thing so that all the stickers and glitter would stay on... pretty ingenius I think. It must have looked okay, because I over heard one of the boys saying that Dillons boat was the "COOLEST". I was laughing out loud when I heard that. Dillon ended up winning one of the two races that he participated in and received a blue ribbon.

It seems like lately I have had more opportunities to work with Dillon one on one, and I have to say that I have really enjoyed it. Dillon is a great kid, and is so smart, and imaginative. I am so glad that he has the opportunity to be involved with Cub Scouts. It is fun to watch him smile and be so happy when he is at his activities.

We had been told to have the kids wear their swimming suits, because they were going to be able to play in the pop-up fountain at the park. When we got there everyone was dissapointed because it was blocked off and not working for some reason, but the sprinklers ended up coming on and saving the evening. The kids had so much fun running through them, and getting soaking wet. Samantha liked it except for the part where she had grass stuck to her feet, then she had to have a little OCD freak out moment. I swear she is OCD, seriously!

This was definitely an evening full of activities. After the Regatta, the kids all got to go Ice Blocking! I think they all had the most fun doing this. I even tried it a couple of times. I can't say that I had ever been ice blocking before. The kids' little behinds were freezing, so I ended up folding up a towel and putting it on the block of ice. It seemed to help, so much, that they didn't want to stop. I think they could have slid down that hill all night. I think I will get some friends together and do it again. What a great way to cool off in this awful HEAT!

We really did have a great time tonight. I love it when my kids are laughing, smiling, and having so much fun. It makes me happy when they are happy. :)

My Beautiful Kids

I took this picture before church yesterday and thought it was so cute. I love my kids!

Happy Birthday Dustin!

Saturday was Dustin's 34th Birthday. He doesn't really like Birthdays, and probably would have been happy if we would have just let it pass by, but we of course did not. In the morning the kids gave him his gifts. He got some new clothes, the Book Of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants on CD, and some Church History DVD's. I know he liked the DVD's because he watched them on and off all weekend long. That evening we went to Lucille's Barbeque for dinner, and then went to see Journey To The Center Of The Earth in 3-D. Our friend Tara's husband was out of town, so we were happy to have her join us. The movie was great, especially because it was 3-D. I about jumped out of my seat a couple of times.
We hope you had a good Birthday Dustin! We Love You!

Field Trip

Last Friday I had the opportunity to be a chaperone on Dillon's school field trip. We went to the Exploration Park that is right here in Mountain's Edge where we live, and then we traveled to the Natural History Museum. It ended up being really enjoyable for me. The kids were all so cute and excited. Riding the school bus brought back lots of memories for me! I forgot how cramped those things were. It really was a lot of fun, I learned a lot of interesting stuff from the tour of the museum.

My favorite part about the whole trip was being able to spend some one on one time with Dillon, something that does not happen very often.

She Does Hair....

I have been trying out new hair styles on the girls off of a blog called http://www.shedoeshair.blogspot.com/ . I actually had my friend Kollen and my sister-in-law Shalise tell me about this site. I thought these two turned out so cute, I just had to take pics and share.

The Great 4th Of July Adventure!

It all started when Dustin's family decided to come to Vegas for the 4th. We wanted to do something different and Dustin came up with the idea of going to Laughlin to watch the fireworks over the river. We toyed around with the idea for months but never ended up deciding for sure until the week before. Of course all of the hotels in Laughlin were booked, so me being the great researcher that I am :), found us a motel in a little place called Searchlight, NV. On our way to Laughlin we decided to stop in Searchlight and check the motel out. Can I just tell you, that when we pulled in to that place I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants. First we drove through the dumpiest trailer park I have ever seen, and then we came to the beautiful arch entrance of the "Kay Motel" or "K" as it says on the archway. After I stopped laughing, I proceeded to go and talk to the guy in the office, to ask him if we could check out the rooms. Let's just say that they were a little on the old and decrepit side. In our room, part of the carpet was being held down with duct tape, and the sink in the bathroom was really wobbly, when you turned on the water it felt like the whole sink was going to fall off. Over all, I would say that the rooms were fairly clean, except for maybe the cockroach my brother-in-law found on the floor. lol

Where's The Pool?

So, after checking out the rooms we journeyed first to Bullhead City, AZ to eat lunch at the Black Bear Diner. I had purchased a certificate off of one of my favorite websites, restaurant.com. We try out a lot of new restaurants, because we can eat for cheap. Black Bear Diner ended up being a really great place. The food was yummy and the portions were HUGE! After eating our food, we all decided to have dessert. Dustin and I got a brownie sundae thing to share and talk about HUGE again! It was giant... but boy, was it good! After we had all thoroughly gorged ourselves, we went outside and took pictures of the kids with the cute carved bear statues.

Our next stop was the Riverside Casino were we went to the Auto Show that they have there. I really enjoyed looking at all of the old cars. I have never seen so many. Dillon had fun looking at them and reading the histories.

After the Auto Show Exhibit we went out to the dock and looked at the water. I went to check on possibly taking a boat ride, but they were all booked. So, instead, Shalise, Gloria, the kids, and I took the little taxi boat across the river and back. It goes back and forth all day, taking passengers across. I'm glad that we at least did that because the kids really had fun doing it. The water is the prettiest greenish/ blue color... I thought it was so beautiful.

We then had another few hours to burn before the fireworks, so we headed over to the mall. I was laughing and excited at the same time when I realized that The Family Dollar store was part of the mall! Shalise, and Gloria, and I spent a while in there shopping. I love that place! You can get the best deals. I got the kids some clothes and I got a bunch of flowers to make hair things for the girls. After we were done shopping we went and found the guys, and decided to go to the movie. There was a movie theatre in the mall. We saw "Iron Man", I thought it was a great movie. Robert Downey Jr. was really good in it. Finally, by the time it was over, it was almost time for the fireworks. We went back to the Riverside Casino, and I was able to find a space for us to watch them along the boardwalk. Trent ended up not being able to see, so Dan and Gloria took him out to the parking lot to watch them. From what I hear, he was screaming because he loved them so much. I'm glad that he was able to see them. We ended the day with a trip to In n Out Burger and then headed to our humble motel, where we all got some much needed rest.
The next day everyone was pretty anxious to get out of there. I think Gloria was up and ready at the crack of dawn. Hee, hee. But, seeing how they didn't even want Trent to crawl on the floor, I can understand.
When we got back to our house, we rested and hung out for a while and then Gloria, Shalise, and I went shopping. We hit the dollar store, Kohls, and Albertson's. We told the kids that when we got back we would take them swimming. They, of course, were ready to go as soon as we walked in the door. So, we got in our suits and went to the Yellowstone pool. Thanks, Tara, for letting us use your key! It ended up being really fun and refreshing. The kids and Trent had a blast, I think it really cooled everyone off. I think the Utahn's were suffering just a little bit from the heat... ha, ha, ha!

After swimming, we came home and had a big dinner. I had been cooking ribs all day in the crock-pot. We had cheesy potatoes, corn, potato salad, and Gloria's yummy homemade salsa. I also made this really yummy, addictive jello/pretzel salad stuff. Oh, my gosh, it is so good, I could just eat it, and eat it, and eat it..... oh, sorry, got a little side tracked there. :) Here is the recipe-
Pretzel Salad:

1cup crushed pretzels
1cup sugar
1 stick margarine or butter

Mix and bake 7 minutes at 350 degrees on a cookie sheet. Let cool then break into small pieces.

While the pretzel mixture is baking:

Mix together 8 oz. softened cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and 12 oz. cool whip. I blended this with my beaters. Then add one large can of crushed pineapple.
Add the pretzel pieces to the mixture, and ENJOY! SO YUMMY!!!!

On Sunday, we had kind of a lazy morning. I think everyone was pretty worn out from the previous 2 days. Shalise and I made flower clips for our girl's hair. They turned out darling. Shawn and Shalise and the girls had to leave to go back that day, so we decided to go somewhere fun before they left. We decided to head to In-n-Out, (Yes, again) for lunch. (It is Gloria's favorite place, and she had not been able to eat there Friday night cause she gets sick if she eats that late at night). It was extremely busy there as usual, but luckily we found a nice place outside, in the shade to eat (not that shade makes a difference in this kind of heat...). After eating we went to the Bellagio Conservatory, and then watched the fountain outside. I thought it was a lot of fun, I had never been there before. The garden was beautiful, I could totally go there and make my kid's pose for pictures forever.

Shawn, Shalise, Danica, and Bryhn left after we were done at the Bellagio. It is always hard to say goodbye, especially for the kids. They always cry and then it makes me want to cry.

The next day, I woke up and Dan was not here. Gloria told me he had gone to Lowe's to get a new dish disposal for us. Ours had been broken the whole time they were there. The sink kept getting backed up the whole time, and it was pretty gross. I am so glad that it is fixed now, I don't know how people function without one of those! Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness, Dan. I appreciate it so much! After Jeremy installed the disposal, they were ready to leave. I expected Samantha to cry and throw fits because Nana was leaving, but she actually did okay. Samantha is very attached to Gloria, and is always glued to her hip the whole time she is here or we are there. I was glad that she did better with the goodbyes this time. It really was sad that night after they left though, Dillon was crying before bed, because he was missing everyone already. I can say that even though the Laughlin part of the weekend definitely was an adventure.... I think it is a memory that none of us will be forgetting any time soon. In my opinion, it doesn't matter what you do, (or where you stay), as long as you are with the ones you love. Thanks for the great weekend guys!