Christmas part I: Vegas

 We started out our Christmas vacation at Justin's brother's house in Las Vegas. We flew out of New Orleans so that we could fly on Southwest. It was a much better deal considering that you can take 2 free bags per ticket. And since we were taking four of us, plus our Christmas presents, we knew we were going to need as many bags as possible. When Ryan met us at the airport, he looked at all of our luggage and just laughed. It looked like we were moving in! Jack had been getting a fever off and on for a couple days, so we spent some time relaxing and getting over our bugs. As soon as we were up and running, we went and saw the Magical Forest. It was full of Christmas lights, rides, food, hot chocolate, and the favorite... a train ride through the forest.

 While we were waiting in line, Elvis was there playing his guitar and singing. Only in Vegas do you get to be entertained by Elvis at Christmas! He came right up to Jack and I said, "Smile Jack!" ...this is what I got. Haha! He did not want a picture with Elvis.

 Do you love that Jack's wolf got to come with us?

 Riding the train!!

 I have no pictures of Stephanie from our whole time in Vegas. She must have been taking all the pictures....sneaky Steph!

 The carrousel was another favorite.

 We were all smiles.....

 ...until we had to get off.

 It was a very cold night!

 These three played non stop.

 We made gingerbread houses.

 And played with this little cutie pie, Sadie. Jack calls her the Sadie bug. She is the best baby on the planet!

We left and went to Utah for a while before coming back to Las Vegas. When we got back, we took the kids bowling, which is always a hit in our family. Jack and Anderson tied with 73 points using the ramp. Not too bad!!

Ryan and Stephanie were excellent hosts, but as always, I am sure they were ready to have their house back and their normal life. Now it's their turn to come and see us. :) ...right?

The Dental Crew

 We hosted a Christmas party for the dental residents. We had a hot chocolate bar, played some Christmas minute to win it games, at yummy food, and stayed up chatting until 1:45am! It was a great time. The girls have fun chatting about random things, while the guys talk about dentistry. I'm not sure why, but that topic always comes up! I end up tuning them out instead of pretending that I know what a pulpotomy is.

I saw these cute photo props on Pinterest and Carrie was nice enough to make them for the party. One less thing on my to-do list. 

 Carrie and Eric Winterton                           Jon and Dorsey Willison

 Laura and Rad Robbins                               Riley and Krista Adams

 

Riley Adams and Evan Roberts                      Emily and Jacob Sladky

Evan's wife is in dental school in Texas so I always feel so bad that he doesn't get to be with her very often. I was happy that he came to kick off the holidays.

Me and Angela Cook 

(the only girl resident, having to put up with all the guys!)

I'm not sure how we lucked out, but we have such a great group of residents! Everyone is so fun to be around and it has really helped with our move out here.

Happy Holidays!

 The holidays are in full swing around here! It has been non stop craziness since Thanksgiving, and it will be until the day we fly out. But even with the hustle and bustle, I am trying hard to stop every once in a while and just enjoy the excitement of Christmas. I feel bad for my boys because I  have been so busy with making gifts, Christmas cards, attending/hosting parties, preschool, primary, etc, etc. I have been trying to be more productive at nights, hoping to accomplish everything without completely ignoring them during the day. Of course that means that I am going to bed super late! It will be nice when we finally get on the airplane and all of these projects will be behind me and I can just enjoy the rest of the season along with the boys. Anyways, I thought the boys looked extra cute on Sunday and we snapped a couple pictures in front of our tree.

May your holidays be less busy than mine!!

Thanksgiving 2011

 We were extremely lucky this Thanksgiving to have the Mecham's drive from Florida to be here with us. We had such a wonderful dinner. It was hands down one of the yummiest Thanksgiving dinners that I have had. Probably in my top three. :) The turkey turned out great, homemade rolls, homemade stuffing (best ever!!), and lots of other yummy things. It makes all the hard work worth it. We also had a couple of girls, who live on base and couldn't go home to their families, eat with us as well. 

 I had fun making the napkin rings and getting everything ready for our table. I used the same tutorial as one of the flowers on my fall wreath that I did. I also printed my place cards from the same site.

 I caught Jack and Jackson playing with their Leapsters under the blanket.

 We went and took a walk on the Ocean Springs bridge. We were hoping to see some dolphins, but didn't have any luck. We did see a great sunset though!

 We got some guest passes to a local gym/family center that has an awesome indoor pool area. It was endless entertainment for the kids...and the dads. They went down the big water slide until they were sick.

 Anderson went down this water slide over, and over and over, almost the whole time we were there. It made it easy to keep an eye on him!

 Jack found some flippers that he thought he would try out. :)

 We took them to the Shed for some real Mississippi food and entertainment. Justin and I have been watching a bunch of food documentaries lately (I know, we're geeks) and after seeing those and thinking about the food we were eating, it just didn't taste as good as the first time we ate here. I guess you go there for the experience.

 The boys spent the whole time dancing and playing the air guitar.

 The inside has a ton of one dollar bills stuck to the ceiling with a fork. I was curious how much money is really on that ceiling.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. 

Justin graduated from dental school, we spent the summer with family, we were able to visit my parents on their mission for the third time, we have a nice home, Justin has a great job and is learning lots, our kids are healthy and happy, we got a new nephew, and we have great friends who are willing to drive 7 hours to eat a turkey dinner with us! I really love this time of year and the chance it gives us to look at what we have been blessed with. I also love Thanksgiving because it is the official kick off of the Holiday season! Christmas parties, hot chocolate (even though it's 70 degrees outside), shopping, decorations, and this year...Las vegas! We are going to Justin's brother's house on the 17th and then driving up to his sister's house in Utah for Christmas. We haven't been with family on Christmas for the past couple years, so we are excited! Less than two weeks!!

Happy Holidays everyone!