Girls Getaway

Location: Las Vegas

Visited Venues: Tuscany Suites Pool, Club Lavo @ The Venetian, The Original Pancake House, Zara, Forum Shops, Cheesecake Factory, and Winchells

Girlies: Myself, Natalie and Meagan

Glorious pool we chilled at for about an hour until it started raining. No worries, we had a delicious dinner to be to.

Club Lavo. Famous for their deep fried oreos (which we all agreed afterward we could've each eaten a dozen of and ditched the rest of our food).

Seriously. YUM!

Obligatory posey pictures in front of the waterfall. Notice the fool in the bottom middle picture. Note to selves: when asking a passerby to take your picture, avoid asking the nearest group when they look like D-Bags.

Best picture of the trip. Had to be there.

May not look as appetizing as it was, but the German Pancake at the OPH was unreal. Stuffed myself silly.

Pictures I received from Shaley as she watched Samster while Tadd was at his softball game. I love the bottle time pic!

H&M, Cheesecake Factory, and a surprise run-in with our HS friend, Jackie!

Another obligatory Vegas pic.

We were parched!

After hours of shopping and walking around filthy Vegas. SICK!

I miss Winchell's! Walking in there brought back many memories of Saturday morning doughnuts and OJ as a kid, and the announcement my mom made to us when she found out Lauren was a girl. A box of pink frosted doughnuts with sprinkles!

We had such a good time! We picked up right where we left off from high school, only more mature (slightly), and married with children. It was loads of fun discussing life since we'd last had a few heart to hearts, and life with kid(s)! We can't wait to do this again next year!

Prepare yourselves now, husbands!

Two Weeks...

...from today and my baby turns one.

Time is a cruel thing.

I'm actually hating it right now.

Today especially, I'm having a hard time with the thought of losing my baby to toddlerdom (and please NO ONE tell me I can "just have another". It's not the same).

I know what an incredible and natural thing it is for Samson to be developing and growing, and I'm ever so grateful for it, but the thought of it is making me wax nostalgic, and I'm getting weepy. Go figure.

Mere hours old

PNTBCWYS (Secret Code)

Celina, the queen of internet surfing, found this craft, and one night while her Mr. was at work late we attempted it, and it was a success!

First run bracelet called for the cheapest hex nuts, and a can of gold spray paint. Second run, we definitely sprung for the brass nuts, pullin' out all the stops over here! (I'm a total child, and giggled everytime we said "nuts" without a "hex"prefix. A child.)

Already got the next one started, you know...since we've had one million requests. Celebs even. Provo's B-Money, himself (I'm a total liar).

Mid paint...

Even with a clear coat the gold has begun to wear off, so I'll need to make myself a new third grade friendship bracelet. Celina, you?

Super pissed Blogger deleted Celina's bracelet post, how will we ever remember all the memories!?

Also attempted this one, and failed miserably. Multiple flashbacks of boondoggling in a rainy pavillion at 5th grade camp, and later walking around with half finished boondoggles safety pinned to my jeans. My, we 5th graders were cool.

Baby Vi Vi

Violet girl turned one on May 9th, and Whitney had a little party for her the day before on Mother's Day. Kinda fitting, since Whitney spent last Mother's Day in the hospital with her little newborn flower.

Haley made Violet a violet tutu!

The birthday girl's throne.

Sam totally dug eating at the table with all the adults. Sandwiched between Jon and Whitney. And those fries...all over those babies.

And I have no idea what set him off...

A little discovery toy from Grandma.

You may think that Violet looks so excited over her new swimsuit, but if you enlarge the pic you'll see that she's yawning. She sooo has better things to do.

Like eat her cake!

Violet is such a loving, content, sweet little girl with a darling giggle and such pretty curls! So happy to have her in the family, and I LOVE that Samsy and Violy are so close in age. They'll be such good buddies!

Little Angel

Kris and Kecia are over in Eastern Europe right now meeting their new daughter! We are hoping and praying for a quick court date which will hopefully determine how long until she's back here at home with her family!

You NEED to watch this video of the first time they met Kareen (they've named her Mia Kareen). It is the sweetest thing ever!

We already love her so much already!

Bits of May

I love when his jimjams get too small and they turn into knickers!

Favorite time of the day for the little monster

Um what!? No fear from this kid.

King of the Mountain!

So proud of himself.

Guess who's painting my fingernails?

Aunt Mally watched Sam one day while I was at the salon, and discovered he needed a little UV protection.

Sam crawled around Haley's house minding his own business when we found he had thrown up all over and somehow had smeared it all over his face. While we were taking his picture, we discovered he'd slipped a giant ring on his finger. Too funny!

Outside our pediatrician's office there was the prettiest blossoming tree, that we just had to stop and take a picture.

Nora was blessed the beginning of the month, and she looked so beautiful! I loved her little knit dress! Lindey and Corbin had a waffle bar afterward that was deeelicious!

The Mercer family

My two vested boyfriends. Lovey-love them!

I SO wish I had a picture of this story...

Sam is obsessed with the tub, and lately likes to open up the curtain whether anyone is in it or not (he also loves to spit his binkis in there). The other night after Tadd got home from work and I had left to the salon, he was showering and Sam was busy opening up the curtain and playing with the water. Sam kept reaching for the faucet and eventually tipped over into the tub while the shower was running! I guess he just thought it was so funny! So sad I missed that one!

Remember...

...that one time I fell off the face of the blogging planet?

OK, for like 9 days. But still!

Anyway, happy first Mother's Day to me! I'm so, so, so grateful for this little monster, and so thankful for the mother he has helped me to be.

Before church, on our beautifully groomed lawn.

I mean really, how could I not be so excited to see this giggly little face everyday?

'Lev Months

Little bug turns 11 months today!




Some of the things that he's doing lately that thoroughly entertain us.

.Claps his hands
.Giggles when Tadd burps
.Loves swings
.Loves story time
.Makes a specific face (FotoFace) when he sees the orange light on my camera
.Such a curious little boy
.Pulls himself up on anything and everything, and then bounces and dances
.Has become very vocal, and really enjoys screaming (this, I do not enjoy)
.Repeats "hi" and "hey". We also swear he can say "Addie" and "Lyla" on one occasion
.Is exploring table food more and more, and rarely gags now!
.Is cuddling more with us and will often lay his head on our shoulders. It just melts my heart.
.Loves to "baaa"and "roar"
.Crawls like crazy, and walks while holding our hands
.Starting to recognize more words
.Holds his own bottle but will let us snuggle him while he does

We're basically so enamored by him (I make no apologies), so every little thing he does is of course hilarious and adorable.

I'm freakin' out that I'll have a one year old...no more baby...a toddler, a month from today! We are so blessed to have this little healthy dude, who is growing and developing as he should, and I don't wish for it to be any other way, I just wish there was a way to go back in time and truly enjoy and indulge in the earlier stages of his life.

Lessons learned for next time, right?

Dear iPad,

I need one of you. For this app, and this app alone.

My two favorites? The butter cake, and the iPad cake. I'm so clev.

For the Man I Love

I have an incredibly selfless husband. He never asks for anything, and never complains. He also doesn't mind me buying things for Samson or myself. He also has full trust in me that I know what I'm doing with our finances. It helps that he wants nothing to do with them.

For the first time in my ever-loving life, I won a giveaway! Kalli gave away a $55 gift card to CSN Stores, and I WON IT! Bravo me! And random.org!

Tadd mentioned he wouldn't mind a jogging stroller for his birthday in July (shocker...he always tells me he doesn't want anything) and thus began my research. After much questioning and review-reading, I found that the BOB stroller was the most ideal choice. Too dizamn bad they are so fetchin' expensive. So...I moved on.

I bought a Baby Trend jogging stroller at Burlington (to the whistlin' tune of $70), but something just kept me for opening the box and assembling it. Of course, all the while doing this for Tadd. (Do you know me but at all? I hate running. Get me in shape via yoga, ballet, swimming...nothing high impact. My poor achin' cankles.)

I continued searching on KSL, and then *ding* (lightbulb)! I remembered that fabulous CSN Stores website and my ever-lovin' gift card, and bada-bing-bada-boom...a BOB Revolution stroller for less than I've seen on KSL. Let's just say a brand new BOB stroller within the $200 range is just criminal. And the way my twisted brain works, it's actually $70 less than the listing price since I'm returning the other stroller.

Might I also thank that government organization I've been hearing so much about for our glorious tax return that has made this purchase possible.

Happy early birthday, Taddala!

Instagram-it

My new favorite app.

Gamma Sue's Easter egg hunt, glimmer of sun on a gloomy day, Snickers ice cream bar - yuuuuum

"Doctor, please hurry up and give me my shot", "So...I can have my post-shot sucker", still entertained by the exersaucer

Cox Easter egg hunt, watching "dada" play softball (and currently my favorite photo), Addie-girl and me

Get it you iPhone-ers. Let's follow each other. Message me for my username. I'll overload you with Samson pics, I PROMISE!

Happy May! My baby turns ONE next month. I'm freakin' the freak out!