toothfairy blunder

note-to-self: remind the toothfairy to actually "take" the tooth with her as she leaves and not leave it in the bathroom for one curious (and very excited i might add) little girl to find a week later. this was ash's 1st lost tooth

more gymnastics pics

the girls with ash's friend, naomi.

ellie is the one with the criss-crossed back.

the Paris and Bellagio-mini vacas

thanks to a few visits (work related) -jason lucked out with a couple nice hotel rooms these past 2 weeks. the kids and i enjoyed our mini-vacations just 20 min. away! our hotel room in the Paris ended up being a suite on the 31st floor--2 bedrooms, 3 decked out bathrooms, dining room, family room, etc..(and 5,000$ a night). the kids thought it was a princess room b/c of the jewels that were hanging from the chandelier....(all outdated-as you see in the pic) i told them to enjoy it b/c this was not "normal" for us. best part--jason's contact in the hotel had room service brought up for breakfast! (of course that is the monk in me speaking :)

the 2nd night was at the bellagio-my favorite place. the pool grounds were amazing!! we also checked out the new city center that was just built next door-awesome architecture. there were lots of angles, floors, walls jetting out...just cool looking.

this picture makes me laugh b/c ash wanted her picture taken by this pretty pony--little does she know that she had her picture taken under his huge hiny.

reese can kinda roll

when you've got 2 sisters-who needs to learn to move?

food anyone?

learning to eat is always messy...once she kinda got the hang of it, man, she was enjoying it!

a new coat of paint-well, a couple coats

we recently had the house painted ---and what drama it was! i was tired of the walls and floor being the same color. it was the typical las vegas look and i needed something different.

i had originally picked out silver sage (from restoration hardware) for almost the entire house-minus a few rooms. as soon as it went up (and i mean almost the whole house was done)...i freaked out! we have a lot of big windows and it made the walls look really blue. too much blue. so i called a few people almost in tears not knowing what to do. should i stop them now or wait until it's done to see if it's not as bad? couple hours later...i told them to stop. jason and i bought other paint and that night we stayed up till 1 am repainting certain areas. they came and finished the next day. it all worked out and i love it! we used different shades of grey. (also from restoration-color matched of course at the home depot price:)

more projects

this project was from tara (as always)
frame: 3$goodwill---i painted and stained it
fabric-3$
knobs-4$ home depot
inexpensive, stinking cute, and practical.

our next gymnast-ellie

ellie finally started gymnastics. she had to painfully watch ash every week without being allowed to participate. her little "ghetto booty" looks great in a leotard--and she's actually really good. her favorite is the bars.

jason is "over the hill"

holy cow jason turned 30 on jan. 5th. i never thought we'd reach this point :)

Christmas 09!!

just before we left for Utah (to spend Christmas with my siblings) Ashlyn did the funniest thing. background: growing up, my family never had "stockings." it just never happened. so every year we would get the biggest sock we could find and put it on the fireplace. I've kept that tradition so far with the kids. this year though, ash remembered ahead of time. she had told me she was going to get our stockings....and i just (half into the conversation) said ok. i came down the stairs to find this:

she had picked out socks for everyone in the family and actually put them on the tree. even little reese had a baby sock in the tree. (good luck, Santa)

Utah was great-fun and Freezing-lots of snow and Freezing. did i mention freezing.?
We saw the Reindeer:

Made an 8ft snowbot

here are the kids before the highly anticipated "playing in the snow."here is ellie once we get out there. all the kids ended up cold and crying. it was the thought that counts.Christmas Eve we made our traditional fondue dinnerread the Christmas story....and acted it out-and Thad made the best donkey ever.and finally Christmasour big new year's eve party ended up being lori and jon, linds, and me. we got all dressed up, took pictures, then changed into pj's and ate and make vintage cake stands (thanks tara for the idea)i actually use mine to hold rings and jewelry. pretty cute. fun times. thanks everyone. !

announcing the arrival of Jason's parents (home from their mission in India)

ok, ok, so i take a while to blog now...the thing is-we've had silly computer issues...and it's the last thing on my mind after a long day.

first things first-back to december. Jason's parents arrived home after an 18mo. mission in India. (for our church). they look great and it was great to see them trying to adjust back to "normal" life/food. i may have made Carol sick with porkchops...?

We also blessed Reese in church while Jason's parents were here. She was alert and looking around the whole time :)
of course the Bellagio's conservatory was absolutely beautiful at Christmas time.-the perfect place to take visitors.

notice this snowman-he's entirely made out of flowers (as were all the other characters around)-smells wonderful.

we enjoyed making gingerbread houses-give us a break-we are new to this concept.

and the kids had fun opening Christmas presents/trinkets from India.