Chelsea turns 7

On March 24th Chelsea turned 7 years old. Since we weren't doing parties this year I told her she could have some friends over this week. It was going to be 3 on her birthday but it ended up being 1 per day which probably worked out better. On her actual birthday, after I brought in treats to her class (peanut butter cookies with reese's on top) we brought home Layklynn to play. She was able to stay for Chelsea's chocolate peanut butter and vanilla ice cream cake and presents.Chelsea loved her new DSi but said it was equal to the Barbie and a Mermaid tail movie she also got (um . . . huge price difference. maybe I should have just bought the movie!!)
Chelsea is our middle child who we just love. She has the cutest giggle, loves to play games and seems to win a lot, tells me she loves me often, plays really well with her sisters and loves school including reading! We are so glad she's a member of our family.

Stupid DOG!

He's not really STUPID . . . and we do love him . . . but seriously he ran away 2 Saturday's in a row and was gone until Monday afternoon both times. We didn't have a tag on him other than the vet tag so the people who found him (luckily different ones each time) had to wait until Monday to call the vet to find the owners (us). Both families that found him said they thought he was a great, well behaved dog and the kids were hoping that they wouldn't find the owners! We are sure he must have followed a jogger out of our neighborhood (he loves to run with people and we're not joggers). Then they proceeded to just ditch him in their neighborhoods. So after picking him up yesterday I went to a pet store and finally bought him a proper dog tag with our current name and information on it so if this habit continues we'll be able to get him back easier and sooner.

I'm not sure why Max even leaves (although once I was inside, the other we were gone for the afternoon). He loves our new house. You can find him here (below) or coming back dripping from swimming in the pond. He's caught different birds (no geese yet) and bunnies and who knows what else. Some might think he's skinny but really I think he's just super lean and muscular from all the running around he does around here.
So hopefully next Saturday we don't have a repeat performance of him jogging off with some stranger or we might start to think he doesn't love us. (Although at the moment I think this dog loves me best- he always comes right up to me to be pet - not so with Cameron.)

Allergic . . .

Last night Mia informed me that she was "allergic" to the DS.

I was like "what?"

She kept saying it "I'm allergic to it."

Finally, Chelsea rescued me and told me I think she means "She's ADDICTED!"

That cleared things up.

Since Chelsea has been home for 2 straight days sick from school they have been playing them a lot together - downloading and playing Super Marios and Mario kart against each other.

I knew Mia was truely addicted this morning because as soon as she got up she started to play against Chelsea who was already deemed "still sick." While they were supposed to be eating their nutritious breakfast (cinnamon pop tarts) Mia proceeded to pee her pants while trying to play Mario kart - her second accident since we moved (that one was forgivable) but other than that she hasn't had one in like a year!! I took the DS's away for the rest of the morning!

I can't find my camera charger and my battery is totally shot other wise I would have put a picture of the girls playing. Instead we get a picture of an addicted cat playing DS. :)

Deer

Hopefully you don't get sick of all my nature pictures that I'm taking outside of my house. But this was an amazing sight to see while we were getting ready for church on Sunday. Cameron was getting ready in the bathroom and somehow spotted the herd outside. Everyone who was already up went outside for a look. We've seen as many as 7 deer together but never 15!! And they were all in the lake near where the pond trickles in drinking on this beautiful, sunny morning. I snapped a few photos and then they seemed to notice me with my camera trying to get the best shot and slowly wandered back into the sagebrush toward the pond. In case you haven't noticed yet, we have loved living here! We'd love to have visitors enjoy our view with us (and get in the lake when it's warm) so come on over!

Vegas . . . again!

The reason for our trip was to surprise Cameron's brother Bret (who lives in St. George) for his 50th birthday. Jane wanted all the boys to come down and surprise him. After her accident where she broke her hip (4 weeks ago) she decided to tell him that Cameron and I were coming down with her to help her on the plane, etc. and we'd stay at my parents. But little did Bret know that actually 5 of his 6 brothers would be arriving also for the big surprise! Cameron and I kind of messed up since we got split up on the drive over (some of us rode Harleys) and we (along with Jeff, Kerry and Bonnie) went straight to his house (I knew how to get there). He was very surprised to see us and even more surprised at the restaurant to see everyone else who came. We had an excellent dinner at Red Dog (although we had a very overwhelmed waitress dealing with our large group) . The place served great bbq and everything else homemade and Cameron and I thought it was the kind of place that deserved to be on the Food Network show "Diners, drive-ins and Dives."

Bret with Eric and Corbin (in the back)

Afterwards, Cameron and I stayed at my parents house and stayed up visiting with them. Rain kept us there in the morning so my Dad was able to beat Cameron at pool for a while. Then when it started to clear we went to lunch with them and Kerry, Bonnie, Kellen and Jordan (nephews) at Players.

Then the 6 of us took of for our drive back to Vegas via the Valley of Fire. I'd never been through there and it was beautiful despite the colder weather.

The Harley guys - Cameron, Kerry, Kellen & Jordan

Lots of cool red, rock formations to see all around.

Kellen thinks he's such a stud!

We managed to beat the rain out of there and didn't get hit although it looked like it was coming!

The next day we headed down to Lake Mead with Kerry and Bonnie.

They had been to Vegas many times but had never ventured down this way or to Hoover Dam. Although we'd already been twice in the past 14 months we were happy to ride with them. (I might have been less than happy about it during the ride when we were getting blasted by wind!)
Then we once again we took Route 66 (Kerry and Bonnie had never been on it ether) so we took it to Oatman and back. Fun and beautiful but less enjoyable than our other trips. (Didn't help that I had a horrible cold this trip.)

When we got back to Vegas they treated us to dinner at Texas de Brazil which was a new experience for me - having waiters bring around huge skewers of meat and slicing you off the kinds that you want. Finished off with a great piece of cheesecake with a fudge layer and topped with tons of caramel! This whole trip really was based around eating some great food and riding Harley's. I think Cameron and I each gained 3 pounds (luckily I can just blame mine on being pregnant).
This was the view outside our hotel room at the Vdara. It is the Bellagio lake fountain show (I guess that's what it's called). It's the first time I've really got to watch it since usually we have just driven by when it's happening. I took a picture of our room (we stayed at Vdara 3 nights) but it was not a good picture and unusable but it was an awesome, quiet 5 star hotel that just opened and it doesn't have a casino in it (it's connected to the the Bellagio and Aria both which do) so it was nice not to have a smoky and loud lobby area.

We arrived home to happy kids who had been very well cared for by the babysitter. Mia decided to be extra clingy yesterday but who could blame her! She spent the long weekend playing with Mason over at Kip and Gigi's house.

Eagle

So we are loving our new neighborhood and have discovered another benefit to living on the lake surrounded by nature . . . bald eagles. Soon after we moved in our bishop told us that usually in February bald eagles can been seen fishing through the breaks in the ice on the lake. A few weeks ago I came home from church early with Mia and discovered just that. A bald eagle sat on the ice in the middle of the lake for probably 30 minutes while I watched it (on and off) taking pictures and looking through the binoculars (which now have been permanently in our kitchen window). Later after everyone else came home we saw it come by and land on the ice a few more times and one time just fly by. One other day I saw it down here but since then I've regulary seen 2 bald eagles farther down the lake when I drive the girls to school. I can't believe I thought it was so cool to see bald eagles in Alaska and now I get to see them in my backyard!

Announcement!

Today I am 13 weeks and 3 days pregnant with our 5th child! Since I didn't know my exact date they let me have an ultrasound to find out for sure. I was 2 days off and they moved up my date to August 22, 2010.

For those who have a hard time finding heads or tails on an ultrasound - The babies head is on the left (profile) and then the body is on the right. You can't really see the legs in this picture but the hand is by the face.
This one the head is on the left (below the word legs) and you can see the legs are curled up and crossed in front. Definitely not letting us peek at the gender today! Jane came with me to the ultrasound along with Chelsea who was home -sort of sick.

So that's the announcement! It's going to be a long, hot summer for this pregnant mama.