February

Our camera broke.

A few weekends ago we took the chance to explore the strip and after Kirk snapped this picture of Kirsten and I the camera fell on the ground and hasn't worked since.

 

 Bummer deal. We are missing out on so many cute pictures of the girls. Lucky for you, since I can't share pictures you get a detailed description of what we have been up to lately. (This is especially for you Amanda, yes you have to read the whole thing)Audrey's personality is blossoming daily. Every day she surprises us by acting more like a person and less like a baby. Her favorite thing is torturing her older sister. The other day I stopped by Subway to grab a sandwich before heading to meet Kirk for lunch. I was standing in line before I noticed the glorious color of yellow on my clothes, the same color of yellow that was seeping through Audreys pants. Simotantiously I smelled Kirsten, (did I not say it always happens at the same time?) But that is all besides the point. I loaded the girls back into the car and handed Kirsten a bag of cheetos to tie her over until we got to the park. Halfway there Kirsten started whining and continued to whine until we got to the park and saw Audrey with the biggest grin on her face, proudly clutching Kirsten's bag of cheetos. Oh has it ever begun! After this little incident Kirsten promptly started saying "no no no" Kirk and I only hear no when she doesn't want to eat something or when we tell her to go throw her binky into the trash. But Audrey? Ya, Audrey hears "no no no" at least 50 times a day. Her leg almost touches Kirsten and it's "no no no" She touches a McQueen car and "no no no" She looks at Kirsten's sippy cup or reaches for something Kirsten played with in the past week and it's "no no no" Naturally, since Audrey is the younger sibling, she doesn't listen for one second. She promptly grabs anything she is not told to and does it with a huge smile on her face. I would feel sorry for myself with the foreshadowing of years to come if I didn't find it so funny.

We spend just about every afternoon at the park. My girls definitely love the swings the most and think it's an extra special treat when they get to ride in the same swing, back to back. Kirsten has become incredibly brave. There isn't anything she won't try to climb up, no matter now high or how much I cringe when she does. Her absolute favorite thing? Climbing up the slides and sliding down the stairs. You don't have to think she's hilarious, she's already very confident in that. Kirk and her love to run down the pigeons. We are taking a break from learning the names of animals as she has deemed every animal a "puppy". I just keep reminding myself that someday she will know the names of all those animals and everything won't be a cute little puppy anymore. And of course we spend most of our day staring at the sky pointing out airplanes to each other. It may very well be Audrey's first word since it is the most talked about thing in our family. (Also the only thing that saves us from tantrums in public)

We take every chance we get to drive by our house. Only a couple more weeks. We are scheduled to close on March 15. I'm trying my very best not to count down the days in case it gets pushed back or something (but for the record it's 22 days).

For Valentines Day we went to the drive in. We figured it would be the perfect way to catch a romantic movie. Girls asleep, Kirk and I cuddled up in the front seat making out the entire time. Except the girls didn't fall asleep. Unless you count the drive home. It was incredibly romantic what with trying to nurse the crying baby and toddler pushing all the buttons. Kirk brought home flowers from work for me though. Gerber Daisy's, my absolute favorite. Here I'll include a picture I got before the mental breakdown of our camera.

 

I bought him a card. He found it a couple days after the fact, without a handwritten love message. Sad. Holidays will be better when we are in our house, mark my word.

We spend $10 a week at the laundry mat. I find that ridiculous since we have a washer & dryer not being used in St George, alas. But the worst part is today I realized I've been using fabric softener as soap. No wonder our clothes aren't as clean.

Now I'm just telling you useless information. I'm taking that as my Que to go to bed.

Come visit us!

Ok I found some camera phone pictures of the girls for you

RSV

My poor girls were diagnosed with RSV last week. They have been sick pretty much since we moved down to Vegas. I hesitated taking them to the doctor because I had heard so many stories of doctors saying there was nothing they could do and just to use a humidifier and vicks...both of which we were already doing. But when Audrey started coughing so hard she started puking I took the advice of my oldest sister Kristy and called around to find a doctor. This was the most frustrating part for me because most of the doctors wouldn't see us because we were new patients and their "new patient" wait was 2 weeks out. Even though I had a very sick baby they wouldn't see us! I was so upset and bawling and frustrated. But finally I found a doctor by our new home in a brand new office. His hair and clothes were a little strange but he was really good and gave me treatment plans and medicine. He even did a quick check on Kirsten even though the appointment was only for Audrey and didn't charge me. So the girls are on antibiotics, a breathing treatment, and a nasal spray in addition to all the other usual treatment. I'm very grateful our insurance started right away, covered prescriptions, and for a doctor who not only saw us but helped us find a cure for my sick babies. We aren't 100% better yet, but are feeling much better.

Five Months!

My Audrey Cakes is 5 months old (around here she is affectionately called "cakers"). Isn't she adorable? Everything is really so much better with her around (even waking up every 20 minutes all night long is worth it). She rolling, so close to sitting on her own, taking things out of our hands, and eating anything we will put in her cute little mouth. I love watching her discover the world and learn to control her little body. Love you Cakers!

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?