Transformation of a room

Before the kids and I arrived back from Vegas. 

After arriving back from Vegas. 

No wonder why nobody ever sees my house that clean, I have two little terrors living with us. 

Meeting with an old friend

While in Vegas I got to meet up with a good friend that I knew from Reno. It was so good to see her and her little ones. I hadn't seen Tori since she was a week old and now she's two. Landon let me pick him right up. It was so nice to catch up with Kerstin again. I sure miss seeing her and having her close . She looked so great too! Thanks Kerstin for meeting with us, next time we want to get a few more of us in the same area at the same time!

Kerstin and I. We both aren't used to the Vegas heat anymore because we both wore jeans to a water park =) I really like this picture of Blake and the water. He didn't want to get wet but just wanted to run around. We met at this water park and the kids had a blast, especially Kalli.  Kalli kept wanting to get closer and closer to the water. She loved it so much! 

Viva Las Vegas

The kids and I ventured to Las Vegas this past week by ourselves. Our main purpose in being there was to celebrate my brother and sister's tenth birthday. I was really glad that I went and braved the almost 9 hour drive all by myself. I don't know how often I'll do that again, but I am really glad I got to spend time with my family. 

Here are Ryan and Braeden. I can't believe how big they are. Braeden is super handsome especially with his braces. Ryan is a beautiful girl and they are so fun to be around.  Great grandma and Kalli. Kalli just loved her great grandma. She always had a big smile for her and looked around the room until she could find her. I'm pretty sure great grandma felt the same way about her! Braeden and Ryan opening presents.  A four generation picture. This was on the morning that I left. Kalli thoroughly enjoyed sitting in great grandma's grass watching Blake play. What a cutie. 

Kalli's obsession

Kalli is obsessed with our computer power cords. On a good day we have two different computer power cords in our living room. Kalli will roll herself to one of the cords and play in power cord heaven. If I take them away the screaming begins. We have stopped fighting her on this and have tried tucking them away. That doesn't work, Kalli will always find them. At least we unplug them so she doesn't hurt herself. Right now as I type this, Kalli is thoroughly enjoying her discovery of Joe's work's power cord. Silly girl.

Please don't pay attention to Kalli's very messy mouth. I didn't clean her up after dinner, bad mommy. 

At our wits end

Lately Blake has driven us to our breaking point. Blake has decided that he loves to stay up really late, and by really late, I mean 11 p.m. He has done this for two weeks now and we usually end up battling him each night to get him into bed. We do his bedtime routine at about 9 or 9:30 and it goes well, then Blake decides to get out of his room repeatedly until about 10:30 or 11:00. This past week Joe and I decided to stop fighting it and let him do his thing. Now we turn off all the lights and let Blake roam the halls. Occasionally we tell him to go back in his room and he usually does for a little bit, then he always comes back. Last night he was right outside our door while we were watching TV. It was 10:30 and we realized he was outside our door. I told Blake to go to bed and he said "Ok, good night" and went to bed. Maybe stopping the battles is making bedtime more tolerable for all of us...

I think I just have to come to grips that my son is a night owl and can't fall asleep until really late. I think though that if he is staying up this late at this young of an age, how late will he stay up till when he's a teenager. 

For all the trouble Blake gives us, he better be a dang good teenager!

Saturdays are ours again

Today we officially finished our backyard. Last weekend we put rock in on the sides. Let me tell you that moving 3 cubic yards of rock from your front yard to your backyard is back breaking work. Unfortunately we didn't order enough rock and had to have some more delivered today, so we had another day of moving rock. Not fun! We also put our sod in today and it all looks great. We are happy to have our Saturdays back to us and not installing our yard. 

Joe was meticulous about how the dirt was raked and how nice it needed to look. He is a bit OCD with some stuff, but it's usually the important stuff.  These are our peaches. They are looking so good. They have adopted their peach color. I check these out at least twice a day. I am so in love with them. This is one of the only things that has survived planting.  Joe spreading steer manure onto our dirt. The dirt here is extremely sandy and we needed some nutrients in the ground. It didn't smell horrible, it was supposedly de-oderized, but it didn't smell great either.    The finished product. It instantly makes our backyard much nicer looking but it also seems to have made it look smaller.  Kalli approves. Blake would NEVER have sat on grass, he contorted his body just so he wouldn't touch the grass when he this little. Kalli loved it. She was pulling handfuls up and didn't want to get off. 

Better late than never

With Joe being out of town for the week for work, I got the motivation to get the kid's Easter Baskets finished. I didn't spray paint them right, but they still turned out pretty cute. I also think that I should have made their names smaller, but I am just happy to have them done. Now they will go in the garage till next year, seems like such a waste. Oh well. 

Bows for both my kids

Now that Kalli's hair is getting long enough to actually clip a bow on, I bought her some at the store the other day. I fully intend on making my own after seeing a tutorial on it, but I had to get some to tide me over till then. I think she looks dang cute in them. But I also find it funny that people still ask me how I got them to stay on her head. With her hair, duh!

I am simply in love with this dress. Grey and pink look so cute together! For added humor, Blake loves Kalli's bows. The night we bought them he wanted one in his hair too and it actually stayed there with his new very short hair. He loved them so much he wouldn't let us take it off for bed and actually slept with the bow on. I went in and stole it the next morning before he could find it. Silly boy! But I think hot pink may be his color.