Christmas 2010

We spent this past Christmas at home in Vegas. Kirk had 3 of the 5 days off work both the week of Christmas and New Years. We loved having him around so much. He was so patient with me and the girls and a huge help with cleaning and cooking. We mostly just relaxed and spent time together as a family as you can see in this picture of the girls "taking a nap" on dad.

We went to Bass Pro Shop on the 23rd and wrote letters Santa.You can tell from the letters that the girls took the task of writing Santa very seriously

 Christmas Eve we went to the strip to see the Beligio gardens. To say it was crowded is an enormous understatement. The gardens were amazing and it was fun to see the water show "dance" to Christmas music (Kirsten kept saying "water dance" through the show).

 The girls were super excited to be on the strip and not the least bit overwhelmed by all the people. Kirsten picked out her own fancy dress for Christmas Eve. Pretty cute.

 Our cute family Christmas Eve 2010 in the Beligio lobby.

 We walked over to the new Cosmopolitan. It was pretty amazing. In this picture the girls(and Ariel) are lounging next to the outdoor pool overlooking the strip about 4 stories up.

 The third floor had a game area with a pool table and board games. If it wasn't so crowded we would have spent a good amount of time there. The hotel had a very modern vintage feel. Like these chairs, for example. They even had the perfect place for Ariel to sit.

 We came home and made our Christmas Eve dinner. Ham, twice baked potatoes, rolls, green salad, and sparkling cider. I'm just gonna say Kirk and I can cook a very yummy yummy meal!

 The girls loved that we ate by candlelight. It was totally fun.

 After dinner we decorated our gingerbread village. The girls were very precise when it came to putting the candy on the house.

 

 Sampling the decorations was definitely encouraged.

 We were pretty proud of our results.

 Then we bathed the girls and headed back downstairs to read the nativity story (from a kid friendly book) and for them to open their new pjs. They got their very first night gowns and were thrilled to have disney princess's on them. We then spent the next 45 minutes dancing around the house to Christmas music. It was a ton of fun. Audrey's was a couple sizes too big so she kept tripping on it all night long and would burst into giggles every time. It was so adorable. By the end of the night she went back to her hop along crawl she mastered so well.

  The girls each opened a book too.

 

 Santa came!The girls must have been very good!

I

I have the cutest video of the girls walking into the room but I can't get it to upload, bummer.
Audrey got a little people doll house. And a vacuum (she is terrified of our vacuum so Santa thought maybe if he brought her one she wouldn't be so scared). She looked at the dollhouse then spent the next hour pushing around the vacuum!

Kirsten loved the little people princess castle Santa brought her and carried her princess around with her the entire next day.

 Santa also brought Kirsten this beautiful dress. She loves to twirl in it.

 Audrey was very grateful Santa thought to leave a lollipop in her stocking.

The car was defintely the biggest hit. The girls had a blast driving in it all day. It isn't quite big enough for both girls to ride together but that didn't stop them from doing it anyway. Someone was always hanging halfway out of the car because they couldn't stand the thoughts of only letting one girl use it at a time.

 

I got Kirk and iphone for Christmas. I wanted to surprise him but it didn't quite work out that way and we got phones a week or so before Christmas. Iphones are by far the coolest most fun things we have ever owned. We practically don't even need our computers anymore. Kirk also bought me a painting I love and a back pack to carry the kiddos in when we go hiking. 

 

 After a day full of video chatting and leftovers we rented some movies and watched them on our big screen, the projector. The girls thought a movie night was a pretty cool thing and spent most of the movie standing next to the screen pointing at it.

Merry Christmas!

Saturday was also fun

Saturday morning we showed off Vegas December weather and had breakfast outside on the new patio.

Then we went to the Ethel M Chocolate factory to take a tour, see the cactus farm covered in lights, and sit on Santa's lap. Except we went at 2:00 in the afternoon which meant lights and Santa? Not so much. That of course didn't stop us from taking pictures.

PIGTAILS!

Brett was so good to carry the girls around everywhere. As far as I know he was only peed on once :)

So we drove over to the Hoover Dam to see the new bridge. We were totally totally impressed. with the nice walkway we took the opportunity to walk from Nevada to Arizona.

Ok, seeing Kirsten in this picture literally gives me a heart attack. Like literally

Impressed?

Hoover Dam

So it was a bit windy on top of the bridge

We made it to Arizona!

The view of the bridge from the dam

We made it back to the lights and were pretty impressed with how good cactus can make Christmas look.

We waited in line for 20 minutes to see Santa. Kirsten was all prepared to ask for a "poopy dress" (she call Rapunzel poopy, don't ask me why). But she wouldn't even get close enough to him to get candy. So a group picture is our reward for our efforts.

So Friday was fun

My brother Brett and his cute wife came and visited us this past weekend . Friday Kirk was able to get off work early and we went finally went and saw Tangled. Kirsten was in heaven! She kept pointing up to Rapunzel saying "Kirsten" and pointing to the Flinn (the prince) saying "Daddy". Even Audrey sat contentedly on Jess's lap for 20 minutes. I snuck a couple photos:

Later that night we sent the girls over to our good friends house for a sleepover. Aren't they cute with their backpacks ready to go? They had a blast sleeping over at Adam's house.

We, perhaps, had a bit more fun because all four of us got to see BLUE MAN GROUP for the first time. It was so much fun and we totally enjoyed every single second. We got seats in the poncho section, four rows back, where we literally had to wear poncho's to protect ourselves from the interactive show. I laughed until I cried and we all enjoyed the music/entertainment provided.

One of the best parts was sleeping in the next morning because the girls were over at Tom and Layne's waking them up at 6:00. Now that's what I call weekend fun :)

15 months!

Hi Everyone!

It’s Audrey. Have you noticed my mom doesn’t do monthly updates about me anymore? Pretty ridiculous if you ask me because I am as cute as ever! I am 15 months old already. I know, I’m getting up there quickly. I’m already dreaming of the day I can go out on my own. But since I hate carseats my wagon is my only option and Kirsten can only pull it so far, I’ll be living with my parents a while yet. I don’t think my mom has even told you that I am talking now, oh ya I totally am! My favorite word is still Adam (Ada) since he is still my favorite person. I kiss him all the time, even on demand so if you want to see it just say the word. I also say juice (uice), this (uice), hot, eye (while pointing to my eye mind you), nose (uice), shoes (uice), sock (ocs), done(un)(while doing with sign), Please(eze but mostly I do the sign), shhh (while holding my finger to my lips when I see someone sleeping), bye (I like to say that in my deep voice), hi (ha), da da, ma ma, and uhh which is my universal thing for anything I want. I say uhh to my mom then she points to it and I shake my head yes or no. This process works great, I highly recommend it.

I love shoes. I wear them all the time. Literally. All. The. Time. To bed, in the bathtub, everywhere! I apologize if you saw me without shoes this summer, my mom was dressing me back then...

I'm a complete sucker for my red sippy cup. See how cute it is? I bet you would have a hard time being without it to. I also really love to wear my coat. Which is a problem seeing as we live in Vegas, I just don't get the chance as much as I would like. Sometimes my parents literally have to hide it from me while I'm not looking. I don't like it but they do what they have to do.

I also like to rub my belly button. Some people like binky's, twirling their hair, blankies, or sucking their thumbs. I'm a sucker for rubbing my belly button. My mom thinks it's quirky but I pull it off well. 

Anyway I'm a pretty fantastic and just thought you should know :)

Love, Audrey

 

My mom thinks my curls are the cutest ever