Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Santa showed up at our ward Christmas party! Kaitlyn told Santa she wants a Barbie and Michael told him he wants a Ball.

Fisbee the Elf

We had a new friend come to our house this Christmas season. When Michael and Kaitlyn woke up December 1st there was an Elf on the shelf! The elf came with a book nearby that we read together. The kids learned that the elf comes to watch what they're doing at Christmas time and returns to the North Pole each night before Christmas to report to Santa if they've been good or bad. They also learned that each morning after he's been to the North Pole he shows up somewhere different in the house. Michael and Kaitlyn had so much fun finding him when they woke up each morning and Kaitlyn was very careful not to touch him so that his magic wouldn't go away. They decided to name the Elf "Fisbee".

Thanksgiving Day Family Picture

Thanksgiving Weekend Highlights:

*Making apple pies
*Brother Mike came home from Argentina!
*Looked at model homes in Daybreak with mom and sisters
*Birthday pedicure with Natalie
*Going to the movie "Blind Side" with Steve, Natalie, Mike & Jon
*Opening birthday presents on my 31st bday
*Staying at mom & dad's house for 5 days straight!

Mike is Home!!

My "little" brother Mike got home from his mission in Argentina today!! He was supposed to land at 11:30 but his plane was on the ground by 11:00! Natalie and I weren't there when he got off the plane, but we did make it by 11:30. It was kind of funny because when I got home from my mission my plane landed early and none of my family was there so I just wandered around for about 20 minutes by myself.

Mike looks great. He's actually lost over 50 lbs. since he left. I think he was a great missionary and he's always been a great example to me.

Birthday in Las Vegas

Steve's brother, Jim, who lives in South Carolina called Steve Tuesday night to invite us to come to Las Vegas. He was having a work conference there and staying in a nice hotel and said we should come down. I'm not one to make last minute plans, but we thought about it for a couple hours and decided we should go! Wednesday afternoon I dropped the kids off at Steve's parents' house and then picked Steve up from work and then we headed to Las Vegas. We got there Wednesday night and checked into the room at the Palazzo where we met up with Jim. It's definitely the nicest hotel room I've ever stayed in! There were granite countertops, a seperate makeup vanity, a flat screen in the bathroom, 2 beds with another flatscreen, and a living area with a couch and yet a third flatscreen! The drapes were even controlled by a remote! There was a mini fridge filled with all sorts of stuff. Steve was joking that we could have something to "drink" and later we realized that the whole fridge is weight sensitive and computerized so that if you even jiggle anything in there it gets charged to your room! Jim called the front desk to see if there had been any charges and the lady said there had been several! OOPS! Luckily she said as long as we made sure everything was still there we wouldn't be charged.

Thursday we got to sleep in and it was Steve's birthday! We walked through the Wynn Hotel, the Venetian, Treasure Island, and the Bellagio. The Wynn had these huge umbrellas that would move up and down and a big waterfall along with these beautiful real flower arrangements hanging from trees.

At the Bellagio there were 900 pound pumpkins on display along with a talking tree that looked like it should be straight out of Lord of the Rings. There was also a miniature model of the outside of the hotel along with working fountains.

Jim was so nice and sent us to the Bellagio Buffet for lunch for Steve's birthday. There was pretty much everything you could imagine there from salads, soups, and breads, pizza, lamb to ribs, sushi to salmon, and about 20 desserts to choose from. Needless to say we didn't even have to eat dinner that night we were so full!

Jim also got us tickets to the Phantom of the Opera! It was at the Venetian. We were on the 8th row on the floor! The theater was amazing. It was built just for this show and had the "box seats" in the actual theater where the Phantom was supposed to sit along with all the fake life-size spectators. The huge chandelier was in the center of the theater above our heads and even fell down! At one point the Phantom was hanging by his arm from the chandelier over our heads. We also saw a man being hung (which looked real), lightning, fire, fireworks, the boat moving through the mist with huge moving candles everywhere. The actors' voices were amazing! It was a great show!

After the Phantom we went out on the strip to see the Treasure Island show that they do outside, but after waiting over 30 minutes they announced they weren't going to do it because of bad weather! Oh well. Earlier that day we waited for a while to see the Bellagio fountains come on and finally found out that there was a wedding going on so it had been postponed. Oh well, the Phantom of the Opera was WAY cooler!

Friday we got to sleep in again and then we started the drive back home. We stopped in St. George at IN N OUT burger for lunch. As we kept driving and passed through Nephi we saw a big dust cloud across our side of the freeway. We quickly realized a car had crashed and was upside down in the median. There were several cars already stopped. I tried to call 911 but it was busy and I did see several others on their cell phones. We kept driving and we could smell burning rubber when Steve says, "Well there's the problem!" We look over to the other side of the freeway and there is an old brown van going North in the Southbound lanes! He was driving right across from us going at least 60 miles an hour! My heart was beating so fast and I was just looking back thinking I was going to see him hit someone head on. Cars were swirving around him just in time to not get hit. We were flashing the oncoming cars with our headlights to try and get their attention. It was seriously the scariest thing ever! I bet we saw the guy in the van drive the wrong way on the freeway for at least 5 miles. We finally couldn't see him anymore and I hope that he didn't cause another wreck. Our hearts were just pounding forever afterwards.

Photo Shoot

My cute friend Jessica took Michael and Kaitlyn's pictures. Kaitlyn loved every second of posing for the camera. Michael, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with taking pictures. Amazingly, Jessica still got some great shots of the both of them! She did an awesome job and really has an eye for capturing a great photo. Check out her website at http://www.whitedandelionphotography.blogspot.com/

Michael the Tool Man

Last weekend Steve was cleaning out the hot tub and had a little mishap when Kaitlyn dropped a bolt into the pump. Needless to say we're waiting on someone to come fix it--I'm putting that on Kaitlyn's tab to pay me back when she's older!

Michael found the screw driver and knew right what to do with it. He's been outside for probably an hour working on tightening screws. He's taking after his dad on this one!