Vegas and Of Course Pics of the Kids Too

Last weekend (the one b/f the one we just had) Joe and I enjoyed some time away from the kids in Vegas!! It was great to get away! I love my kids to pieces, but it's nice at times to have a break:). We both just wanted to get away to relax and enjoy some good dinners without kids:). We left Friday afternoon and got back late Monday night--we had a direct flight from GR to Vegas which works great for short trips. And for the most part Joe left work behind, well, at least on Saturday and Sunday:). We owe a HUGE THANK YOU to Em and Mike and my dad and Joyce for helping take care of the kids. Grampy and Gigi had Gibson about the whole time and Layla part of the time and Em and Mike had Layla for most of it (too confusing to try to explain the schedule:D). Thanks also to Joe's parents for watching Elvis:).

We stayed at Paris...

They gave us a bigger than normal room which was nice--it had a little desk room, a large entry and a big bathroom that you can't see...

We had beautiful weather! It was 90 degrees and clear skies Fri, Sat and Sun and a little cooler and slightly cloudy on Monday when we left. We spent some time by the pool Sat and Sun...

Enjoying dinner out the night we got there...

Yes, it's 90 degrees and I'm wearing jeans:)...this was the evening when we got there. I'm standing in the new City Center area. It's crazy how much changes in Vegas every time we're there. When we went a few years ago they had just cleared the land for this new area and then last time (a year ago February) they were in the contruction process and now a lot of it is complete, but they still have a lot to finish yet too. It's huge!!

Another view of just some of the buildings in the City Center (more high end stores, a casino, a hotel, and condos)...

Us on the strip...it's hard to remember to get pics of the two of us when we're just with the two of us!

It was very busy as usual for this time of year and saw many interesting people as usual:). We saw lots of people illegally selling water bottles on the street. We wouldn't have known that was illegal exept that we took a bus to one of the outlet malls Sunday morning and the bus pass patrol guy was telling interesting stories one of which was about how it's illegal to sell water. They often sell it on bridges and places like that where police officers don't often pass by. It was kind of interesting taking the bus. On the way to the mall we were sitting by a local that was pretty much acting like a tour guide. It was interesting to see the "backside" of Vegas. The outlet mall that we went to (there are 2 of them close to the strip) was only a few miles off the strip, but once you're off the strip Vegas looks quite different! Oh, and the Miss USA Pageant took place on Sunday at Planet Hollywood so we saw some of those girls around the night before.

Joe relaxin' at the sitting area at Cesars by Seredipity's...

Blurry, but I had someone take this b/c we had our pic taken on this same bench when we went there in college. I thought about posting the other pic for a comparison, but I don't really feel like looking for it and I'm pretty sure neither of us look real great on it:). I can picture the orange sweater I was wearing on the pic and I don't like wearing orange:)...

We ate SO much!!! We had 3 big meals each day plus snacks:). Saturday night we were still full at dinner time from our lunch at the Cheesecake Factory so we decided to not eat, but then at midnight we were both starving so we were going to quick go to a food court and grab something small but then passed the Rainforest Cafe and decided to just eat there...so much for a small meal!

Waiting for the fountains at the Bellagio...

The fountain show...

When it got to be about 10pm Vegas time Friday night, we were beat since it was 1am our time and traveling always just makes you tired! So we went to bed around 10 and were therefore wide awake bright and early:). I called at 6:30 to check in on the kids and Mike said I was crazy being up that time while on vacation:). We were all ready and out the door by 7:30, but Margaritaville didn't open until 8! I'm not used to getting to places b/f they open in the morning. It's so quick only getting myself ready and not 2 little ones! :)

Waiting for Margaritaville to open...

Eating breakfast a different morning at one of the restaurants at Paris...

Trying out Layla's sunglasses:)...

He's getting close to rolling over. He's done it a few times from tummy to back, but I think it's only when I set him up more on his arms so I don't really count that as his first official roll:)...He's just such a happy little guy that he's pretty content just laying on his belly and doesn't really try too much to roll over or when he does he gets stuck on all his rolls:)...

First bath together...they both needed a bath the other night so we thought we'd just put them in together...

Layla had been sitting nice on Gavin's lap for the picture, but they of course decided to fall backwards right as I took the pic...

Gibs loves sticking his tongue out:)...

Enjoying lining up her Little People...

Gibs enjoyed his first outdoor swinging experience, well, sort of, he wasn't mad about it, but he also wasn't super happy about it either.

Not too sure what to think...

They both look so excited here:)...

Sunday we had Joe's family over for a late Mother's Day celebration. Layla enjoyed playing outside with everyone after lunch. Unfortunately Auntie Rachael was sick so now Layla is:(. Hopefully she feels better by the weekend! She normally just catches colds for a few days and then feels better so hopefully that's the case again.

Hanging out by her picnic table with Grandma (Mee-maw as Layla says) and Grandpa (Bapa)...

The whole fam (minus me and Gibs)...it was HOT so we didn't last outside too long!!

Layla likes to read to her little bro and he loves listening to her. He's getting to be so loud with all his noises! She likes to copy his squeals so I often have to remind her to not be so loud and explain that Gibson doesn't understand "indoor voice" yet:).

Catching Up...4 Months/Tulip Time/Birthday Party...

It's been awhile since I've blogged so I've got a lot of catching up to do!

Last week we had a garage sale at my dad and Joyce's house. We sold a lot of our own stuff (by "we" I mean Em and me) and a lot of my mom's stuff. It went good and we made a decent amount of money considering we hardly had any "big money" items.

Here's Gibson enjoying some relaxing time with Gigi while setting up for the garage sale...

Then last Saturday we celebrated Jonathan's second birthday with a party with our friends at Lindsey and Darrell's. Hard to believe he's 2 already! That means that in less than a month Layla will be 2!

Birthday Boy blowing out his candles...

His cute construction theme cupcakes and brownies...

All the kids at the party...Jonathan (who you can only see the top of his head--poor Birthday Boy!), Alden (standing), Ava (not so happy about the picture--sitting on the floor), Layla, Gibson (ready for bed in his jammies), Ella, Mason, Kali, Madison and Rex...

Random pic of Joe with the kids...

Gibson looking tough with Dad...

And this week we spent quite a bit of time downtown with the kids, however, we didn't get that many pictures. We took some pics Tuesday night and a few during the day on Wednesday, but that was about it. Joe was sick on Thursday so I didn't feel like heading into town with the kids by myself so Em's niece just danced with her and then last night was cold and rainy so the kids just stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa.

Gibson was excited about going to his first Tulip Time:). He has Gavin's old shirt on here b/c I hadn't quite finished his:). Gavin's Auntie Becky was nice enough to make Gibson's costume for him (Em and I just helped with some of the simple stuff)! It turned out great!!

Layla, Gibson and Gavin Tuesday night before we danced...

Poor Gibson kept slipping further down:)...

Em and I with the kids (too bad Elv decided to run after something as Joe took the pic--he even had a plaid bandana on:D)...

I didn't even get a pic with Gibson's hat or wooden shoes on (he was borrowing them from Gavin)...I couldn't find his hat that night--it had slid to the bottom of my diaper bag...

Layla had fun dancing with us at the end of the dance...

Too bad you can hardly see Layla in these pics! My hat had slid back on my head that night so after we got done dancing the inspector came up and talked to me. They are so much pickier with costume inspection now than they were in high school! She said that if I was in high school she would have kicked me (and therefore my group) off the street because my hat was falling off--it didn't even fall off! I understand them wanting us to not look sloppy, but seriously, do they need to kick you off the street for that?? You'd think a talking to would be enough!

Good thing they aren't picky about kids' costumes or Gavin would have gotten kicked off the street for wearing his hat to the side:)...

We street scrubbed on Wednesday and then stayed to watch the parade. Gavin and Layla were both pretty sleepy looking during the street scrubbing but came to life once the parade started (they are both a bit shy). Layla loved waving hi to all the people in the parade and dancing to band music.

Waiting for the street scrubbing to begin with Gavin's cousin Ellie...

Gavin took his Cabbage Patch Simon along so Becky (and her girls) were nice enough to let Layla take their American Girl doll along for Layla to hold. Layla enjoyed cuddly with her during the parade and nodded off a few times during the end of the parade route.

Grampy and Gigi came to watch the parade too!

Gibson was a good boy and slept the whole parade. He woke up just as the parade was ending as it was time to sleep...

It was a fun week and I'm glad that I danced again this year. I'm also glad that I didn't plan on going to the parade today as it is cold and really windy!! Joe did have a rough day one of the days this week. He had not been feeling well, but had to run out to quick get something and while he was out a mini van pulled out right infront of him. He couldn't stop on time so he ended up being able to avoid hitting the mini, but then ended up going in the ditch. Thankfully his truck was okay--and obviously I'm very thankful that he was okay and that he didn't hit the van! It was at a pretty busy intersection and yet only one person stopped to ask if he was okay!! The mini van didn't even stop! And then to make things even worse, when we were driving to Tulip Time that night an SUV stopped abrubtly infront of us (b/c the car infront of him stopped suddenly) and we rear-ended it!! Thankfully the SUV was totally fine--we hit his hitch. The Focus however now has a lovely whole in the grill. But again, I'm thankful we were all okay and I'm really thankful that our insurance company didn't need to find out about another accident:). I swear we have hardly ever been in any accidents, but our poor kids have now been in 2 already this year! Layla cried when we hit the SUV, but Gibson just remained sleeping:).

Oh, and speaking of cars, we FINALLY found a new one! It's only taken us since January:). It was actually one we had looked at about a month ago and it seemed to fit what we were looking for perfectly, however, they then decided that they didn't want to sell it since they couldn't find anything that they liked. Well, we then found a couple after that that we liked okay, but that didn't seem quite right (too much money/not that good of condition/etc). Then right when we were about to give up and just settle for something since I'm sick of driving the kids around in the Focus and Joe is spending lots of money driving his truck to work everyday, those people called us back and said that they had found a van that they liked and wondered if we were still interested in their Tahoe. We were and now it's ours!

This was from a couple of weeks ago when I was baby-sitting Gavin. Him and Layla were enjoying watching Mickey with no pants on during snack time:). Whenever we hear the song that talks about "dancing with no pants on" we think of Layla. As long as she does that at age 2 and not when she's any older, that's okay:). She has started to really love watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse lately. She even asks for Mickey more than Elmo now:). Our cable company installed some sort of box now on our tv for free so we get more channels (we just have basic cable) and we get On Demand so that is how she is now able to watch Mickey. I too have been enjoying the extra channels and the On Demand--that's why we've never wanted expanded cable--too many channels makes me want to just watch more tv!

And our little guy turned 4 months on April 30!! I know I say this every month, but seriously I can't believe how quickly the time is going! He's at such a great age--he's very content and easy to take out--for the most part he always still just stays in his carrier, he can't move yet, he just drinks a bottle 4 times a day (8 oz each) and he sleeps great at night. It is fun to watch him grow and learn new things. His typical schedule is eating at 7:30am, napping for like an hour, eating at 11:30am, napping for a couple of hours, eating at 3:30, napping for like an hour, and then having his last bottle at 7:30pm and going to bed around 8/8:30.

I think they have the same little grin:)...