Is It Naptime Yet

The Smith Center is a new performing Arts building built near Downtown Las Vegas. When we heard about it, we were excited for it to be built since it supported the arts. I was excited because it would be bringing Broadway plays at a more affordable price. I forget when they announced that Wicked would be coming in August 2012, but I was super excited when I found out.

I kept in the back of my mind the knowledge that Wicked would be showing there the Fall of 2012. So last year when I heard a news story that you could buy season tickets for the Broadway series for Spring 2012, and being a season ticket holder would give you precedence in buying tickets for the Fall and Spring 2012-2013 season, when Wicked would be showing, I convinced Jon to buy 2012 season tickets for the Broadway series. (We did not know for sure if we’d be able to get Wicked tickets, it was more a hope.) It was a half season, so it was a nice chunk of change, but doable. Jon being the wonderful husband he is, and a supporter of the arts, agreed. We saw our first play, The Color Purple, on April 7th.

It was a wonderful production, with superb acting and singing. Our seats are the second cheapest in the house, and we were second from the last row on the ground floor, but there is not a bad seat on that floor. It would nice to be closer so I could see more of the facial expressions and details of the costumes, but I’m very pleased with where we’re at and thankful for a husband willing to support the arts and my hobby of musical theater. (It helps that he enjoys it also.)

I am looking forward to seeing all the wonderful shows for the two seasons. We renewed our season tickets after we saw the show and I am so excited that Wicked is a part of the next season! I actually will be seeing it twice, because I’m going a second time with my sisters, minus Carolyn who will be seeing “The Boss” in Chicago. (We’re still seeing if we can change the night to include her.)

Me with the Smith Center Tower behind me. The architecture is really cool. It has a retro 1930’s feeel to it, and is beautiful inside.

Jon and I after seeing The Color Purple. (We did not purposely wear purple. It just happened.)

The next play is Mary Poppins. It’s showing on my 29th birthday and I’ll be taking Lilah with me to see it. 🙂

This video is probably only funny to my girls, and maybe Anna, but this is us as we prepared to cross the creek at Avalanche Lake. If you listen carefully you can hear Eden’s reaction when she decides to put her foot in, at 7 seconds into the video, and my reaction is at the very end, second 58. Kevin is pretty funny too.

Jon and I spent part of our Saturday night watching videos by Rhett & Link. This folk song order at taco bell was one off my favorite and I thought I’d share it with you.

Happy Monday!

Our Easter Baskets and my mom’s sewing machine.

The girls woke up before their mom on Easter morn, so they had to come get me before they inspected their baskets.

I don’t really give the girls candy because they get so much elsewhere. I did put some peanut butter M&M’s in the baskets though.

I’m still sleepy, but I’m ready to eat candy!

Before we left for church I asked Jon to take a few pictures of the girls. Here are a couple of them. They are so loving at times.

After church and a late lunch we had our Easter egg hunt!

The girls waiting outside my room. (Our room has the back door in it.)

Going for the same egg.

The kill.

Lilah couldn’t wait to see what was inside. (money, raisins and craisins.)

Here’s the video of the egg hunt.

Last week Andrea and Brien came to town to see Scot and Fallon. Since they live in Ely and Ely has no large restaurant chains, besides McDonald’s and Subway, which are fast food, they like to go out to eat to at least one of their favorite restaurants. We choose Olive Garden and it was basically those who were at my parents house that came. Carolyn called me while I was driving there so she she came along after work.

I got some cute pictures of the little girls there and some adults and a video of Zarina. I warn you that my finger was over the mic at first so don’t turn the volume up too loud because I uncover it later.

Cute Zarina, even with a mouth full of bread. She was on an all carbs diet.

Eden was all smiles for the camera.

Lilah was bashful for some reason.

I guess she wanted to take the pictures rather than be in them. She took this one of Brien.

Scott and Fallon talking to my parents.

Grumpy grandpa getting a bite of Lilah’s sundae.

Yesterday was an eventful day. It was my only nephew’s baptism. The girls and I went and I was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost. One thing I want to note is that families are in charge of getting the speakers and doing a musical number and if there’s more than one child both families or each family is asked to have someone give a talk etc. If your child is getting baptized the same day as another, try not to make the musical number all about him and if you’re giving a talk, try not to make the talk all about the relative that’s being baptized or your family history. I’m sure my nephew may not have picked up on this, but as an adult that was in the other family, I felt like I was an outsider at my own nephew’s baptism. Make it personal to your experiences yes, but also make it generic for the other child and their family. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

After the baptism my sister did a luncheon to celebrate my niece’s birthday which is coming up. We went to her house and the girls had lots of fun playing and eating cake. After doing this we stopped by my parents to pick up my mom’s sewing machine. Lilah wanted to see Grandpa  even though we had just seen him at Aunt Kristi’s, so he came out and checked her tooth out. Grandpa said it was ready to pull, but I was skeptical since it still seemed attached in the middle. He asked her if she wanted him to get a string and pull it out and Lilah shyly replied no, so he told me to do it once I got home, which I didn’t because it grosses me out.

Well, I guess the fact that Grandpa Harvey said her tooth was ready to come out stayed with Lilah. While in time out last night she pulled her own tooth out! I was a little grossed out but mostly curious about the whole lost tooth thing.

We took some pictures and a video and put it on Lilah’s blog in her own words. Since hers is a private blog I’ll just post the pictures and video here for my own records.

Which leads me to my IOU. While Lilah stood in time out I thought about what money I had on me, she hadn’t yet pulled the tooth out, but I knew it would come out soon and I knew I didn’t have much change or any small bills.  Since we almost solely use our credit card I never have a lot of cash on me or small bills. I wondered what I would do if her tooth did fall out and sadly I knew what I would have to do.

Raid the girls’ piggy bank.

So that’s what this momma did, I took four quarters from Lilah’s own piggy bank and placed them under her pillow last night as she slept. We are kinda encouraging the Tooth Fairy myth, but more in the ‘how do you know it’s not true if you never see who puts the money under your pillow’ sense. Lilah was sad to hear the Tooth Fairy took her tooth, so I said she just does tests and then gives it back to me. I think I’m going to write a little letter and mail it out tomorrow so it will come back in an intriguing way. I don’t know if Lilah does or does not believe in the Tooth Fairy or if she wants to. She says it’s a superstition, thank you Martha Speaks for the vocabulary word, and that fairies aren’t real, but I’m sure the child in her wants to believe in something magical, just as I did at that age.

So my daughter has lost her first tooth and I’ve learned that I need to start having ones and quarters on hand for the next few years.

They grow up too fast.

We made popcorn a week ago to eat while we watched Nature. This is what the girls were doing for the entire three minutes it was popping. I only got the last minute of it.

With getting the girls to bed late on Christmas Eve, and since Eden did not get a nap, they slept in. Lilah was the first girl awake, Eden had come into our bed sometime in the wee hours, but she fell back asleep. Lilah woke up at 7:45 am or so and Jon was about to let her look through her stocking, but I woke up Eden so they looked together.

Jon wanted to open presents right away, I think in previous years we’ve had breakfast first, so the girls immediately started dividing the gifts. Lilah did just fine, but Eden kept looking at the ‘from’ name and putting presents in the wrong piles.

Lilah insisted that Daddy open the present they gave him first. It was too cute. After Jon opened the first present Lilah actually wanted him to open his next one, but he declined and we had the girls begin opening gifts.

Overall they did take turns watching each other open gifts. Then the gifts that were for both of them they opened together.

Eden’s gift from her friend Gracie.

Lilah opening her gift from Eden. (It was skittles and nail polish.)

An activity book for Lilah.

Opening the gift from Santa together. (I give one gift from Santa, and usually it’s that years Pixar.)

Wall-E

Jon wearing the Batman shirt the girls gave him right away. Batman is Jon’s favorite super hero. He’s just a regular guy with really cool gadgets.

Opening my necklace.

Showing off my new DVD.
I attached a video of Eden opening her gift. It was the most eventful video we took, and shortest, and in a way it’s also a good example of how our Christmas was. ( She offers her gift to Lilah at one point.)

A funny thing. I was opening my gift and it happened to be a necklace so Lilah says “Oh, he went to Jared’s.” it was too cute. My necklace is not fancy, just two circles with each of the girl’s names stamped on them. It’s kinda the new mother’s necklace, rather than having birth stones. I saw it on a blog a while back and decided I wanted one and sent Jon a e-mail with specific on-line stores he could get them.

After having our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage and eggs, or in Jon’s and my case fried tofu with veggies, I got dressed and then motivated my family to get ready.

We headed out the door to his parents house a little before noon.

The girl’s in front of the tree with Dara and Jason. Lilah was being silly and Eden was being bashful.

Jason, Jon, Lilah, Grandpa Blake, Eden, Grandma Blake, and Dara.

Dara and Jason waited to open gifts til we were there. The calendars I made for them via Costco were a big hit, they got here on the 24th, definitely cut that close, and Jon’s mom wants one and Jon himself wants one for his office. (I told Jon we should have made his parents one, but were were trying to conserve our money at that point and we had already gotten them something.)

So if anyone else wants a calender of my girls let me know. The first calender has a higher fee of $4 and something for shipping, then it goes down to like $1.50 shipping per each after wards. (I’m some what joking about people wanting a calendar of my girls, but serious at the same time, it costs less to get them all at once rather than see them and decide it’s cute and want one more. Each calendar can also be different, or personalized too, but if you don’t get one this year, you might get one next year. ( I could put wedding pictures for the month you were married or vacation pictures if we visited your family or went somewhere together.))

After spending some time at Jon’s parents we went directly to my parents house per the girls request. I just wanted to take a nap, so as long as I got one I didn’t care. The girls watched Wall-E while I slept and Jon tapped into some one’s insecure wireless network on his Mac.

Eventually some family showed up, while others left and we ate dinner. We stayed rather late this year to make sure we saw Derek, Carolyn’s husband. We wanted to make sure he felt included, or at least loved, since he had to work so late on Christmas, well not that late, but he arrived at the normal time we would have left.

A gift my dad got at a party and gave to Derek. Derek is a huge baseball fan and knows everything about baseball.  I took this picture because Derek was in a goofy mood and was actually smiling. (If you look at Carolyn’s blog he never smiles in pictures. )
After being at my parents for far too long we headed home with two slightly hyper little girls, though Eden was asleep before we even got to the freeway.

It was a Merry Christmas filled with family, fun, food, gifts and definitely silliness.

Christmas Eve Day we finally got over to Jon’s parents house to decorate the tree. Mom had put it up, but since the  girls love decorating we came over to “help” and to have Jon figure out what was wrong with her computer. Since they’ve been sick and we’ve been sick we waited till the 24th, otherwise it would have been done a whole 2 days sooner on Monday.

Needless to say the girls loved decorating the tree, but most of all getting on the step stool to decorate the tree. Lets just say that particular area was not lacking in the ornament department.

That evening we went to my parents for Christmas Eve.  It was just my parents,  Carolyn, and us, so it was a small gathering with way too much food, even if it was appetizer type food and cold cuts with rolls. I think Eden ate half the pineapple that night and Lilah was definitely on the silly side.

We read the story of Christ’s birth in Luke and then the girl’s opened their one gift, purple pajama’s that I had made them.

Lilah was being super silly. This was the first picture I took and I went on to take more, but she was even sillier in those with a wide open mouth and jumping in the air, I’m not sure what she was doing.
At one point in the night Lilah decided to sing Jingle Bells, and Eden followed in suit.

We left around 7:45pm and got home a little after 8 pm. Then we watch the Mormon Tabernacle’s Christmas program on PBS and the girls got to bed at 9.

Jon wrapped what he had gotten the girls and me in our room and I finished wrapping in the living room. We had the gate up at the girl’s door so they would stay in their room. Some days I am so grateful for children that don’t climb and do crazy things.

Jon eventually fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie with me and I finished getting the presents around the tree, it’s too close to the ground to put anything under it and I filled the stockings.

I got finished around 10:30pm,  but I finished the movie and then watched a few things on TV and got to bed at 12:30. Luckily the girls slept in Christmas morning.

He has no will power to stay up late, and this was only at 10:30 pm.

See how only half of the white lights light up. It makes for an interesting picture.

It’s snowing in Las Vegas and actually sticking to the ground. We’re at a pretty low elevation, so I’m impressed it’s staying. (Where as Henderson and where my in-laws live get snow and we don’t.)

Here’s some video of the girls and some pictures I’ve taken. Now that it’s getting dark, and still snowing I won’t be getting any good pictures till the morning. It’s suppose to snow all night too.

Totally weird. It takes longer than normal to get cold this winter and now we’re getting snow!

Our garden.

Our pomegranate tree.

The ground 30 minutes after the girls made tracks in it.

A light.

We tried to build a snow man, but the snow was still pretty thin and I’m a wimp. I hate cold hands and boy does snow make your hands cold.