Vegas-Day 1

We left for Las Vegas at about 3:30pm on Friday the 16th. We stopped in St. George for dinner and a break for Kylie and arrived at Becky's house at 9:30pm. Dean, Nadine and Andrew were already there and we all talked for an hour and then went to bed.  Becky's room-mate had gone home for the summer so we stayed in her room.  I guess her room-mate sleeps on an air mattress and I don't know how she does it.  The first night, Kylie and I lacked sleep.  Kylie woke up at 3:30am and struggled to go to sleep the rest of the night.  It was tough and I tried bringing the pack n play out to the living room so Scott could get some sleep, but it wouldn't fit through the door.  I'll admit that I was a little grumpy that morning.  Surprisingly though, Kylie and I did pretty well with all our activities that day on such little sleep.

We first headed to go get a picture with the Las Vegas welcome sign.  We parked at the Mandalay Bay hotel and thought the sign would be walking distance.  It was about 100 degrees out so when we found out it wasn't as close as we thought, we decided to drive there.  Before we drove there, we ate brunch at a buffet place inside the hotel.  We weren't too impressed, but it was still fun to go to one.  Kylie had a blast and was squealing a little too loudly.  When we got to the sign, there was a line to take some pictures and Kylie was sleeping so she's not in any of them.

Kylie enjoying herself at brunch.

Kylie is so loved.

Trying to get a jumping picture.

Random elephant outside a hotel.

Our next stop was M&M World.  It was fun to walk through and we got pictures with two characters.  We also watched the 10 minute 3D movie, which was cheesy of course.

Getting my favorite souvenir!

Picture with the characters.

Scott loves peanut m&m's

Oops...

3D Movie!

Kylie enjoyed the movie too.

After M&M world we headed next door to Coca-Cola world.  While there, the coca-cola bear was out and ready to take pictures.  You can take pictures with your own camera and then a professional takes a few pictures that you can purchase later, which of course we did.  We started taking some with Kylie and poor girl was hungry so she was not super happy.  The bear was a riot though!

What is happening to my mommy?!

Can't stop laughing at this one!

We then drove to the Bellagio and walked around the conservatory.  It was really pretty with all the flowers!  The opening session to Scott's conference was that evening at the Mirage hotel so he headed there.  The rest of us watched two fountain shows and then headed back to Becky's because we were tired.

Tuckered out after such a long day.

After Scott's conference, he went out to eat with his co-workers so the rest of us stayed at Becky's the rest of the night.  We got these delicious sandwiches at a place called Capriotti's.  I got the Thanksgiving sandwich which had turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and mayo. Yum. We played a few round of Clue before going to bed.  It was a busy, but fun first day!

9 Months!

It is crazy to think that Kylie will be 1 in only 3 months! While we were in Vegas, I was able to hang out with my friend Brook and her baby who is 4 months.  It was funny to see Kylie talking, moving everywhere and touching everything while Brook's baby was very quiet and still.  I was thinking while watching her that I can't even remember when Kylie used to be like that!  She has always been one who is on the go.

Scott says that she is officially walking now, but I'm not sure I want to admit that yet.  You can't get her to do anything else though.  There is no point in buying toys right now because she is just interested in walking.  I've been looking for a push toy that helps with walking, but haven't found anything for cheap.

Kylie had her 9-month appointment the other day.  She is 17.5 lbs and in the 34% for weight, 26 inches tall and in the 89% for height and in the 24% for head circumference.  She is a tall and skinny girl.  The appointment was really short as we are caught up on shots and the doctor said she is one healthy baby.  It is so reassuring to know that everything is going well with her growth and development.  Kylie was a little shy in showing the doctor how she walks though.

• The other week, we took Kylie to the park down the street and put her in the swing.  She loved it! We took her down the slide a few times and she was okay with that, but I think she enjoyed swinging more.

• It is so nice that Kylie enjoys eating anything (for right now).  She got to try a few new foods at Aunt Becky's the last week.  She loves graham crackers now.  Before picking Scott up from his conference one day, I was making Kylie a bottle and getting her snacks together.  She was sitting on the floor next to me and I wasn't watching her very carefully as I was trying to hurry and put it together.  After finishing, I turned around and saw a handful of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in her mouth and on the floor.  I couldn't help but laugh.

• Kylie can drink through a straw now!  We have been giving her sips of drinks through a straw since she was 6 months and now she can do it on her own.  She enjoys being able to hold the cup and drink on her own.

Taking her 9-month pictures was a hassle again.  I had to put the sticker above her because she would keep pulling it off her chest.  She also wouldn't sit still next to her elephant. I decided to put her in the chair and that worked for a few pictures, but she was done pretty quickly.

"I'm done with this!"

"What are you doing mom?"

"Mom, can we stop now please?"

High Five for Friday

1. Vegas bound! Scott has a nursing conference this weekend in Vegas and Kylie and I are tagging along! Sis-in-law Becky lives there so we'll be staying with her and I'll get to see my friend Brook! It should be fun!

2. Mother's day was this last Sunday on the 11th.  The day turned out fine.  All the women got cheesecake after church and Scott made me a breakfast sandwich.  Later in the evening, we had a dessert party at our place.  I made these peanut butter overload bars that were pretty good.  They were a little undone in the center, but still tasty.

3. While looking for activities to do during the week, I decided to look and see what the local library has to offer.  They have this baby and me story time twice a week.  I've taken Kylie twice and it's fun to see her interact with other babies.  The story time is on hold for now because there are different activities during the summer, so I need to look and see if there's anything else we can do.  Either way, Kylie had fun the two times we went!

Playing with bubbles!

4. The other day, Scott was doing yard work while Kylie and I sat out on the grass watching.  Scott was digging up dirt to make a little flower area on the side of our house and found some worms.  He promptly handed one over to Kylie, who grabbed it without hesitation.  I quickly put her pacifier in so she wouldn't stick it in her mouth.  She had no problem having this giant worm running all over her hands. 

5. We go to church at 9am and sacrament meeting is first.  Kylie usually wakes up between 8:00-8:30am, so she is quite awake when we arrive.  The times we've sat inside the chapel, Kylie just wants to get down and crawl around, so one of us has to take her out the whole time.  We usually just sit out in the foyer for now and let her go crazy.  Then she usually falls asleep halfway through Sunday school and relief society.  For right now, we get to hear what we can and that's just fine.

Happy 28th Birthday to Me!

My birthday turned out wonderful this year!  It was a day full of fun and I loved it.  The morning started out with me having a great work out.  I said that I was burning the calories I was going to eat back later with all the treats and yummy food.  Then I came home, showered, got ready for the day and opened presents from Scott and my dad.  We headed out to this doughnut place called Beyond Glaze in Sugar House.  The doughnuts are super fun and delicious, but if I wouldn't get these on a regular basis as they are pretty sweet!

Roberta sent Kylie a cute dress, but it's for the KU Jayhawks! The thumbs down is just for fun. :)

I got a cookies 'n creme and maple bacon doughnut.

After getting our doughnuts, we headed to the mall to do some shopping where I got a few t-shirts.  Then we went and picked my good friend Elissa up at the trax station and headed to Boondocks for some fun.  I originally wanted to go to the new aquarium, but I guess that it isn't fully complete so people who have gone think it's not worth the money to go until it is fully finished.  The weather was great for doing mini-golf!  It was fun and I totally lost.  Then we did some arcade games and won lots of tickets (mostly by playing deal or no deal) to get some fun prizes, all for Kylie of course.  We had a ticket to do another attraction, but needed to get going to make it to dinner on time.  The tickets don't expire so we'll have to head back another time.

Hole-in-one!

Lots of tickets!

Jumping rope with the tickets.

Such a sleepy girl after all that fun!

We were planning on heading home to meet with my mom and drop Kylie off, but it took a bit to drop Elissa off at the trax station and so we met with my mom at a gas station off the freeway.  She got me a nice pot for flowers for the front porch area.  My mom took Kylie in her car to our house and we headed off to dinner at Tucanos!  It's a Brazilian restaurant where they bring meat around to your table and you get to pick and choose what and how much you want.  There's also a salad buffet and yummy desserts.  You have a little block tower and when it's green side up, the servers will keep coming to your table and when it's red side up, they don't stop by.  We had it green side up for a while as we wanted to see and try everything they had.  Scott enjoyed the brisket and I enjoyed the barbeque chicken.  The pineapple was also incredible! All they do is put brown sugar on the outside, so we are definitely trying that next time we grill.  It's a lot of meat and I needed to get a salad about halfway through for something light to eat.  Despite being super full, Scott wanted to get the chocolate cake for my birthday.  Tucanos does a free birthday meal that you can use anytime during the month of your birthday.  While we were there, I kept hearing the servers singing to quite a few different people.  I was confused as to how that many people could share a birthday with me, but then I realized that it was the last day of the month so people were most likely using their free meal! Haha. Anyway, they made me stand up while they sang to me and we ate about 10 bites of the cake before we needed a to-go box.  The cake was so delicious and definitely worth getting.

We came home, thanked Kyle and Brianna for baby-sitting, put Kylie to bed and watched the movie R.I.P.D. which Scott bought me for my birthday.  He couldn't find much at the store and the movie was pretty bad.  I think we might use it for a white elephant gift in the future.

Cravings cupcakes from Rebecca!

Cinnamon Rolls from Brita!

It was such a great day and I got spoiled with fun gifts and birthday wishes from everyone!

April Goals

Things were up and down this month, but I was still able to complete and do well on some goals.  I've said it before, but I'm proud that I'm even continuing making goals each month.  I feel very accomplished when I do complete goals, but I don't feel defeated when I don't and I'm grateful for that.  I can be too hard on myself sometimes.

My house project was to spring clean.  That is one that I truly have to be motivated to complete and apparently I wasn't this month. I'm going to try again in May and have Scott help make sure I complete it.  With Kylie, I wanted to try out some sensory activities with her.  I tried doing shaving cream in a bag, putting rubber bands on a bread pan to make music and edible finger paint (made out of potato flakes).  Kylie wasn't really interested in anything.  I shouldn't be too surprised that all Kylie wanted to do was eat the finger paint.  With the shaving cream in a bag, maybe I gave it to her at a time where she was interested in something else, but I think she would just chew on the bag no matter when I give it to her.  It does have a fun texture, so I'll have to try again when she's done putting everything into her mouth.  And the rubber bands held her attention for about 1 minute.  This girl would rather crawl around and climb on anything than sit still. 

Scott & I were able to go out to eat and see Captain America: The Winter Soldier while my mom baby-sat.  I enjoy movies and hearing from people with kids and how they never go see movies made me a little sad.  I'm glad my mom is willing to baby-sit so that I'm still able to keep up with the movies I want to see.  Kylie and I went to see Scott play soccer and his team-mates have people who come and watch regularly.  When we showed up and sat by them, they said "Yeah, the cute baby is here!"  Kylie can make anyone happy. :) I didn't complete a craft for the month, but this is one I am honestly okay with not completing.  I really didn't think about it much until the end of the month.  We had our friends over again for dinner the 25th to celebrate my birthday. We didn't actually do much related to my birthday; I just used it as an excuse to have a dinner.  We made yummy honey chicken kabobs, salad, potato chips and mini salted caramel chocolate chip cheesecakes.  We played Bang again and then everyone headed home a little early as they all had early morning activities.  We already planned dinner for May and hopefully it will be nice weather as we're having it at James and Nichole's and they have a pool!

For out of house activities once a week, we were able to do it 3 out of the 5 weeks. I counted our date night as one and we weren't able to do an activity one week as Scott worked a lot.  We went to the Natural History Museum as an activity (pictures on a five for Friday post) and a picnic for a teacher at Wasatch that got fired (for wrongful reasons).  It was so fun to see old friends again and I'm so glad Jodelle thought to invite me.  The other activity was going to Boondocks for my birthday (pictures on that post).

I did pretty well on my meal plans!  I dubbed the first week as healthy week and I cooked healthy meals for 6 days! I made sure to always have a vegetable with dinner and do dinners that were a little lighter in calories.  The second week was crockpot week and I did that for 5 days.  I talked about those two weeks on my most recent recipe update post.  The third week didn't have a meal plan, but I cooked at home 3 days.  The fourth week was clean out the fridge week and I followed that for 5 days.  The last week was another no meal plan week, but I cooked at home for 4 days.

Exercising has become much easier to do and I have my neighbor to thank for that.  I found out from her that another ward does workouts at the church gym Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (with Zumba on Tuesdays sometimes) at 8:30am.  There's about 4-5 people from my ward who attend as well.  The first day I showed up was intense! Everyone had weights and a yoga mat and knew every exercise.  After my first week there, I realized just how out of shape I was, even though I was doing Tae Bo for about two weeks before I went! There is a pregnant lady in the group and she was kicking my butt! The next week, I bought weights and a mat and I am able to almost keep up with everyone. Everyone brings their kids and they run around at the back of the gym.  Scott is able to watch Kylie Monday and Wednesday (because he doesn't work), so I'm still trying to figure out Friday as it starts the same time Kylie wakes up in the morning.  I don't want to wake her up early and she can't feed herself a bottle yet, so working out and feeding her doesn't work out so well.  There's a new teacher every day and they each do their own thing. I pretty much have my own personal trainers for free! I love it so much. 

I have May goals planned and ready to go! Bring it on.

High Five for Friday

1. Kylie is into self feeding now.  She loves being able to pick up the food and put it in her mouth.  It's going to be nice in a few months to make dinner and then give a portion of that to Kylie.  I know she will love it too.

Not too sure about spaghetti.

A fan of Cheerios!

2. On April 14th, there was a lunar eclipse.  It was also special because the moon turned a red/orange color.  I stayed up until about 2:30am to see it and try to get a picture of it.  The picture really didn't turn out as it looks like a blurry orange dot.  The cool thing was that you could see the planet Mars so clear! I might have to admit that seeing Mars was cooler than seeing the eclipse.

Brighter one is the moon and lighter one is Mars.

3. The Salt Lake Comic Con happened April 17-19.  It is a huge event here and very popular.  My brother Aaron loves going and happened to have two free tickets for one night.  He offered it to me and mom to go.  The only time we were able to go was in the evening, about two hours before it closed.  I got a little stressed driving down and finding a parking spot as Kylie was crying because she was hungry. It made going to the comic con less enjoyable and I think it would be fun during the day when there are more activities going on. 

The only picture I took.

After it closed, mom and I walked around City Creek while waiting for the parking garage to empty. I had a gift card to Anthropologie and so we went in there and I bought a cute elephant pot holder.  They had a fun elephant display in the store.

When leaving the parking garage, I couldn't find my parking ticket! I was freaking out and wondering how I was going to be able to leave. I pressed the call button and told the attendant that I lost my ticket. The guy was so nice and didn't make me pay the $20 fee, but I am going to be cautious from now on with those parking tickets!

4. At church on Sunday, we usually end up sitting in the foyer during sacrament meeting. Right now, Kylie needs to crawl around and I do not want her crawling up to the front pews.  This last Sunday, someone else was out there with their baby and Kylie ended up playing with her the rest of the time.  It was so fun to watch her have a buddy to play with.  Kylie also decided to play with everyone but mom during Sunday school.  She is my little social butterfly.

5. I love rocking Kylie to sleep at night and for her naps.  Lately though, I've discovered that she likes to move around a bit before getting comfortable and she can't do that very easily in my arms. I'll get through at least one song and then put her down in her crib.  It's nice that she is learning to put herself to sleep. I don't want her always relying on me to rock her to sleep.  Anyways, sometimes I find her sleeping in a funny or cute position and I finally took a picture of one.

Happy birthday sweetheart

I wanted to surprise my wife by sneaking on to the blog and to wish her a happy birthday.  She is an amazing mother and wife.  She makes my life full of joy and is my best friend. I'm lucky to have found her. I know life isn't always easy but it is always easier with my beautiful wife with me