Spin & Cycle

Even though we have two babies,

nothing can stop us from living it up on a Friday night in Vegas.
This past Friday after Kirk got home from work
and a quick dinner
we loaded the family up in the car and headed to the local Spin and Cycle
for some clean laundry!
One hour and our families week worth of laundry was done...
I loved getting laundry done so quickly!

Vegas Ghetto Living

 

Our "Classy" Apartment

Luckily we are basically under lockdown and this is the gate we go threw to get to our apartment (not so fun to carry to sleeping girls in from the car from though)

 

 It's green in Vegas!

The swimming pool that looks pretty from far off

 Home Sweet Home

Our Apartment Kirsten's corner of the room

 Audrey's corner of the room

Kirk and my corner of the room

Our snazzy kitchen

Our family closet

Our bathroom

 

The other half of our bathroom

Jealous much?

Las Vegas

Kirk started his job at Tririga on January 11. He is a trainer (training people on Tririga software, as I understand it). He wont' have to travel often since most people are anxious to come to Vegas...yay! He enjoys the job, people he works with, and thinks the company is top notch (they have a foosball table and a free soda fountain...does it get better than that?)

He moved into a cheap studio apartment the day before he started work. In our apartment search we looked only for something cheap, month to month lease, with no deposit. And because he wrote his ssn down wrong he didn't have electricity for 10 days after he moved in. Dark scary apartment, no fridge, with just a lantern. Could be romantic I suppose but I was in Vernal with our daughters trying to see that they were well fed, got their naps, diapers changed, and entertained.

Lucky for us Kirk found us a house the first week he was down here. It's a beautiful 4 bed 3 bath home in the southwest area of Vegas. It is in a gated community with a pool. Yes that 4th bedroom is so that you can come visit...and swim in the pool in March!). So the girls and I made a quick trip down over the civil rights holiday weekend. We fell in love with the house and signed all the papers to make it ours. Move in will be the first of March. Ohhh we can't wait!!!

Last Tuesday, the day Kirk got electricity in his apartment, I officially decided I can't live without him and don't care where I live as long as it is with him. But a huge storm decided to come through the state. And so we waited and waited and waited and finally just woke up and left at 5 in the morning on Sunday.

And now all four of us are living in a small studio apartment. Basically it's beds, clothes, paper plates and bowls and a pink bathtub. It's nice weather so we try to spend most of our day at the park. But our apartment is only a 5 minutes walk from the strip. And lets just say we aren't exactly living in the nicest part of town. Remember cheap noncommittal rent? So we are the only white people at the park. Also I noticed I was the only one who uses English as a first language. Living in the ghetto of Vegas is like a whole new world for me.

Kirsten is fascinated with the city. Every 5 seconds she is pointing up at the sky to a new airplane. She squeals with delight anytime we are outside...lots of squealing going on down here. She is delighted to be around her dad again and spends as much time as possible wrestling him to the ground. I'm not sure if it's because of the time change or if it's just her spunky personality but Kirsten has been getting up every morning at 4:00 am ready to start the day. Not so great for her parents.

Audrey is happy like always. Not taking her naps, for fear that she will miss something, and eating everything she can get her tiny little hands on.

Stay tuned for pictures and Vegas adventure stories!

Sisters

I absolutely love this video...don't you?

Cars

 I know I've mentioned Kirsten's love for her cars before, but since the love has grown I feel like I should expound a little bit about her favorite toys. Simply put her cars have replaced her dolls. She hasn't played with a doll in weeks. Instead it's the cars in the high chair, stroller, and craddle. Her cars continue to get their diapers changed, fed, and bathed. She goes to bed with them each night and won't let us leave the room until we have given them kisses goodnight. The other day my sister Amanda had her bike tools out fixing her bike and Kirsten jumped at the chance to fix her cars a little bit too. Kirsten rarely leaves a room without at least one car. Also she insists on bringing them everywhere. The other day we went to the store. I took Kirsten in with me, leaving the cars in the car, and Kirk came in later with Audrey. When we met back up with Kirk a few minutes later it was the end of the world. Kirsten cried and reached for the front door for the next 5 minutes until Kirk went back out and grabbed her car. Last week we went to Walmart and Mater came in the store with us. He rode on the bottom of the cart facing forward (it looked like he was having a fun ride). We checkout and get out to the car and realize Mater is MIA. 10 minutes later we found Mater underneath one of the shelves in the store. I bought a Cars birthday party pack which came in a cute Cars decorated box. She now carries the box around everywhere. After her nap today she pointed to the desk and asked please I figured she wanted the candy or juice on the desk, but nope it was the box. She loves her cars. When the movie came out four years ago I would have never thought my daughter would be come so obbessed with it. She refuses to watch anything else. Yes I can quote the entire movie, thanks for asking. She is adorable carrying her cars everywhere and I am glad she is so passionate about something.

Solid Foods

Tonight we started Audrey on her first solid foods. Rice cereal...delicious! She actually ate it pretty well and totally loved the spoon as a chew toy.

Older sister was a little jealous of the attention Audrey was getting, mostly jealous of Audrey's snazzy new bumbo chair

 It wasn't long before Audrey had enough

And Kirsten quickly claimed Audrey's seat
 (and the attention Dad was giving to her)

And now claims the seat as her own

4 months

Audrey we love having you a part of our family. I wouldn't trade your cuddly hugs or huge smiles for anything!

We had a Merry Christmas

Santa was really good to us this year! He brought Kirsten a new doll with accompanying accessories. Audrey got new clothes and toys. And our family got a small baby grand piano. Kirsten ran straight to the baby and pulled the high chair over to the piano and sat with one hand on the baby and one hand on the piano. Perfect Christmas. We love the magic our girls brought into the season. 

Christmas Card

It's a little late but here are our end of year 2009 pictures.

Our girls are growing like crazy.
Kirsten is loving living near her grandparents, cousins, and aunts
She still adores the movie Cars and everything Cars related. For Christmas she got some Cars bath toys and she carries them everywhere. She takes them down the slide with her at McDonalds, into Walmart, sledding, they eat with her and she somehow even changes their diapers. She loves to jump (especially in her squeeker shoes) and spin. She adores having her dad around all the time. She is talking more everyday (that is when she decides to).
Audrey is the happiest smiliest baby. She is so close to sitting up on her own. She loves chewing on her fists. She is rolling over occasionally. When she laughs it's like she is so happy that her whole body can't contain and she bursts out in little giggles.
Kirk was offered a job in Las Vegas as a trainer for a facility management consulting company. He starts on January 11th.
We are thrilled to have a job and are excited to start our life in Vegas soon.