Las Vegas 2012- Part 2

The morning of the wedding, Daniel took the kids to the park so that I could get ready and they could get some energy out. Addie really loves to swing! It's kind of funny because she used to hate it. She would get so scared and tense up really bad when we would barely push her. Maybe now that she can do it herself it's not as scary? (click on the picture to see it bigger!)

 

 

She must have been in a very candid mood because Daniel got a lot of pictures of her. Johnny, not so much.

 

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The wedding ceremony was outside at a golf course. Very pretty, a little chilly once the sun went down. The reception was inside and was also very pretty. I managed to get a few good shots of the bride and groom.

First dance.

My dad watching his little girl. So cute!

Isn't my grandpa so cute? He's 90 something years old and still going.

Every time I look at this picture I laugh. I took this right before Blake smashed cake in Nicole's face. Everything about it is funny. Nicole pointing and saying "This is a $600 dress, don't do it." Blake's expressions says "I'm doing it." My dad's face in the background cracks me up and the look on my mom's face says, "I hope he doesn't smash that in her face!". Ha! I love it.

 

The kids had a great time dancing. This is me telling mine to calm down and watch for other people. There were getting a little crazy!

My brother and I are rarely in Vegas at the same time. It's always fun to see him. This time he came with his fiance Maygen and her twin girls, Rylee and Bailee. They are 6 years old so Addie had a great time with them. I love snapping photos of him holding my little ones. So sweet!

 

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Saturday was my 30th birthday. I feel like I am officially an adult. No longer in my 20's. We spent the morning hanging out with Dustin and his family. Johnny LOVED playing legos with him. Dustin used to spend hours and hours playing and building things.



 

 

I wish I would have taken a picture of the fort Dustin built before Johnny smashed it. It was quiet big and elaborate. I think this is why I have no desire to build things for him because I know he will destroy it in no time!

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That afternoon we headed down to Fremont Street Experience. If you haven't been to Vegas, this is like the old strip I guess. Older hotels. It used to be really ghetto but they've tried to make it nicer over the years. I really wanted to go on the zip line. Blake works there so we told them we were his family and we all got to go on for free! My mom, sister, and nephew went on it first. It took about 40 minutes for them to go and by the time they got done my kids were starting to get a little crazy. We found a restaurant to eat dinner at. After that Daniel, my sister, nephew and I went on the zip line. It was really fun! Too bad you have to wait so long for such a short ride though.

 

 ***

After the zip line, we got the kids ready for bed then headed out to do some go cart racing with some friends! There were not slow, la-di-da go carts. This was serious, like 20 mph, you have to wear a helmet and gloves go cart racing! I was a little nervous that someone was going to crash in to me and I would go flying across the track. We did two 10 minutes races. The first race I had a bum car. Everyone passed me like 15 times. At one point the car quit completely and an employee had to come start it up again! When they were all laughing at how many times they passed me and how slow I was going I tried to explain that it was the car! They didn't believe me! The second race I got a different car that actually worked and I did twice as many laps! Daniel got stuck with the bum car that I had before so he finally believed me that it was the car not me!

Bum car 16.

We got these silly things to wear under our helmets. Daniel insisted on keeping his because he is certain we are going to do this again sometime!

 

***

One thing that I really wanted for my birthday was a cake from Cold Stone. With the craziness of the wedding then hanging out with my brother, everyone (including me) completely forgot! So on our way home from go cart racing we stopped at Wendy's and got Frostys. It was a great way to spend my 30th!

Las Vegas 2012- Part 1

 On October 26, my little sister got marred in Las Vegas! We went down to Vegas on the 20th to spend some time with everyone before the wedding. I was happy to have Daniel there with us the whole time for a few reasons. One was so that I was not on the plane all alone with 3 small kids! It's also easier to get the kids to bed with both of us there (they tent to be a bit crazier when we are out of town!). Of course it was fun to just spend 10 days together as a family! The kids did really well of the plane. On the way there we had 2 full rows to ourselves so everyone could spread out. I spent most of the flight holding a sleeping baby and reading a book! On the way back the flight was full so I was with all 3 kids for most of the time. Johnny started to loose it at the end but I was happy with how they did!

 

First airplane ride!

 

When we first got there we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Pedersen's house. The kids got to read lots of fun books!

Johnny really wants a skateboard for his birthday. He played on theirs every chance he got. He also fell on his face while doing it and had a nice little scratch on his chin!

***

One of the days we were there we decided it would be fun to take the kids somewhere tourist-y. Daniel's parents had some free admission tickets for the Shark Reef at one of the hotels on the strip. The kids loved it and kept asking to see more!

There was a tank with sting ray and other things that you could touch. Addie and Johnny were pretty happy just watching, neither one wanted to reach in there and touch one.

 

Thumbs up approval.

Of course at the end you had to walk through the gift shop in order to get out of the exhibit. Johnny found lots of things that he wanted to buy. We were trying to find the cheapest toys to let them have but he was insisting on a fishing pole. By this point Dia was tired of being in the baby carrier and I could tell that she needed her diaper changed. When I lifted her out of the carrier I could see her diaper was leaking. Of course I had forgotten to bring any extra diapers with us! We finally gave in to Johnny's request to buy the fishing pole and tried to start heading toward the car as fast as we could. .

We had to stop at a restroom so that one of the kids could go when I heard a splat on the floor. Aaah! Her diaper was oozing out everywhere! We didn't have time to walk around looking for a gift shop in the hotel that sold diapers. We found a family sitting down with a stroller parked near them. I finally got enough courage to go up to them and ask for a diaper. The lady was so nice she gave me 2! Oh, the joys of parenting.

After we got Dia all cleaned up we got in the car and drove down the strip to look at the hotels. Poor Johnny fell asleep shortly after we left the parking garage!

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After a few days we went and stayed at my parents house. I had a few wedding projects that I needed to work on (that I of course forgot to take pictures of!). Addie and Johnny spent a lot of time outside.

Johnny was trying really hard to befriend my parents dog. He scared her when we first got there so after that she wasn't too sure. He kept telling me "Look mom, I am being nice". Maybe one day he will understand how to be calm around pets. :)

It's that time again

With this being Diadora's first Halloween, we had to keep with tradition and stick her in a pumpkin! Daniel thinks I am crazy and mean. I think it's cute, when they cooperate. Since we are heading out of town this weekend and won't be back until right before Halloween we had to hurry and do it this week. Yesterday was a decent day (except for crazy wind!) so we ventured out to the nearby pumpkin patch.

Of course we got there a little later than we wanted to (our car battery decided to die so it had to be replaced!), the lighting was bad and the place was closing for the night. Dia was not a fan of the wind and I did actually feel bad for making her do this.

When we got there we only had about 10 minutes to take pictures and let the kids pick out their pumpkins. This was by far the lamest pumpkin patch trip we've ever done. No looking around, no corn maze or sling shot. We got in and got out. Oh well, next year.

 

So right when we got there I told Daniel just to put the pumpkin down close to where we parked so I could get started. The sun was shining right on her and she was not happy.

I got a couple decent ones...

then she started screaming. Sigh. I thought it was a failed mission!

We decided to let the kids get their pumpkins while I tried to calm Dia down.

Maybe she was mad because her hat was always in her face?

While Daniel was paying I tried to get a couple more shots of her. She lasted for about 30 seconds sitting on the ground. This was not going well for me!

After we got the kids back in the car, I convinced Daniel to get our huge pumpkin back out and try one more time. I don't know if we got her in there in a better position or the sun moved and wasn't bothering her anymore but I finally got some pictures! She must have liked how it tasted because she started sucking on it and we couldn't get her to stop and lift her head up! We even got her to smile for a brief second!

 

Since we were short on time I didn't get the chance to move around to different locations. When we did this with Addie it seemed like she cooperated better and we were able to get a lot more. But considering the circumstances, I'll take what I got!

 

Here are a few more:

And all 3:

My babes

I meant to include this on my last post but I forgot. So here it is. A little side by side comparison of our three kids at about 3 months old. I think Diadora looks a lot like Johnny. And I must say, I am so glad we invested in a nice camera. The pictures of the other kids with our old one are horrible!

 



3 Months

I have to say, we absolutely LOVE this little girl! She has had kind of a rough time these past few weeks, but she is still such a good baby! I think working out messes with my milk supply and that makes her really unhappy, but she is super smiley, talkative and calm. She falls asleep very easily if I just hold her and does really well with all of the noise that goes on over here! I hear Addie and Johnny tell her all the time that they love her too. How could you not love that little face?



 

Moving Day

Moving day finally arrived last Tuesday! Our plans to move in over the weekend fell apart when we realized the house was no where near ready. Plus, I was behind on packing. Daniel's brother and a few guys from the ward came to help us. Daniel started moving stuff over by himself around 1pm and didn't finish for the day until around 10. It was a long day! But they got 90% of our stuff moved and we are slowly trying to settle in to the new house.

 

One of the guys that helped has a trailer he uses for his 4 wheelers. They loaded that thing as full as they could!

We borrowed a truck from my uncle and one of the other guys had his truck, plus our van. We had all the vehicles packed! We always think we don't have too much stuff until you start pulling it all out. Holy cow. I even cleaned and threw away/donated a lot!

On moving day and a few days after there was a lot of movie watching going on.

 

And coloring. :)

Most of the stuff went out in the rec room so my living room was tolerable. I am still trying to decided where I want the furniture to go. I've moved everything around 3 or 4 times and can't get it where I like!

It was so late by the time we got the kids to bed Tuesday night that we just put them on their mattresses on the floor instead of finding and assembling their beds. They stayed there for a few nights and we finally got the beds put together last night! Addie and Dia will be sharing this room (that will eventually be Dia's) and Johnny and the toys will be in the other room (that will eventually be my craft room). Last night Johnny didn't want to sleep by himself so we kept his mattress on the floor in between his sister's beds.

I have to include Izzy. She made the move with us. I feel bad for her because she was super stressed out all day with strangers coming in and out of the house making lots of noise. It doesn't help that 2 months ago her sister ran away and never came back. Now she is in this new house all alone. We are trying to show her lots of extra love!

Here is where most of the stuff that we don't use every day went. All of my crafty stuff is in that bedroom. We are NOT looking forward to going in here to organize!

 

Everyday we empty more and more boxes. The kitchen, master and Dia's room are starting to look organized. We still have lots of work to do! I am really looking forward to finishing the work downstairs so we can start on the upstairs!