Christmas in Las Vegas

We decided, somewhat last minute, to spend Christmas in Las Vegas this year.  I wasn't very excited about it at first.  I have had two years to spend at home on Christmas.  Growing up we never just stayed home.   There was always somewhere we had to be and it HAD to be on Christmas day.  No other day would do. I didn't realize how bad it stunk to get up, rush through presents so we could have time to get ready and be at a relative's house until I didn't "have" to do it. 

The last two years have been liberating! No one to see, no where to be.  Just wake up, open presents, hang around in our PJ's playing with all our new stuff.  Maybe go to a friends for dinner or have some friends over for dinner. It's awesome.  So when Brady started asking me if we would have the money to visit Vegas for Christmas this year I wasn't very excited.  I really didn't want to give up my peaceful Christmas. But I gave in.  It was a good year to go as my siblings would all be together this year for Christmas so I would get to see all of them. We had the room in the budget if I cut back in other places and, probably most importantly, it was important to Brady that we go.  He rarely asks for us to do things like that and then follow up with me on it so I knew we needed to make it happen. 

So, we drove a total of four days in our van, two to get to Vegas and then two get home, in some of the worst driving conditions we have ever had to drive through. The worst we had to deal with kid wise was Rory getting altitude sickness twice (once on the way there and once on the way back).  I had planned for that possibility though so it wasn't much more than a blip on the radar.  A gross blip but compared to watching other drivers lose control and fishtail into a ditch, seeing Semi trucks jack-knife on an icy road and driving up and then DOWN the mountains through Vail, Colorado while it was snowing on top of more snow and ice...well I can honestly say that barf was a welcome distraction.  My kids were so good on the drive.  Even the 5 month old did extremely well with only a couple of crying jags that lasted only a few minutes each.  I still need to write a thank you note to Fed-Ex.  At one point I was driving through a small blizzard.  I couldn't seen more than 20 feet in any direction.  The snow blowing all over the road made it impossible to see what lane I was in or even where the road ended.  The road "felt" good under my tires (those of you who drive in snow will know what I mean) but visibility was no where near good.  Brady and I discussed just pulling off at the next exit with lodging and calling it a night. I was driving very slow, probably 25 to 35 miles an hour, when I was passed by a Fed-Ex Ground truck.  I could clearly see his red tail lights ahead of me and I told Brady that I was just going to follow the truck.  The truck driver could somehow see and was keeping a stead pace (55ish).  I felt myself relax as I followed his tail lights.  We followed that truck for an hour and a half when the snow let up and the roads became clear and I was able to pick up our pace. I am very thankful for that truck.  

Our trip home was great all in all and a great way to end 2012.  It was wonderful to see so much of our family.  We were planning on staying in our old house while we were there.  Of course once we got to my mom's house Cadence and Rory were begging to stay there with their cousins and I gave in.  My mom and dad were awesome and went and picked up the stuff they had put at our old house (air mattresses and blankets and all that) and we made our beds on the living room floor with the two big girls on the couch.  Beckah's pack'n'play was tucked neatly in the back bedroom with my brother's boys since she needed to go to bed earlier than almost everyone else.  Bless my kids and their ability to sleep.  They did very well despite all the people crammed into my parents house.  And by crammed I mean a total of 18 people (9 adults and 9 children).  It was crazy...and crazy fun if I am being totally honest.  The first morning my niece and nephews woke up early and pretty much stood in a semi-circle around the front of the couch where Cadence was sleeping waiting for her to wake up.  They were whispering things like, "We are going to have so much fun!" "When Cady wakes up we should totally play that one game." "When is Cady going to wake up so we can play??" It's so funny to me that they were all waiting on her to get the fun going.

It's hard to believe how much all the kids have grown.  Kids who were barely talking the last time I saw them are now little giants who almost have more extensive vocabularies than I do. Cadence is the oldest at 6. Avery just turned 5 and has to be the queen of "Why?" Tyson is 4 but looks 10 (seriously that boy is so TALL). My sweet little Rory is 4 going on 14.  Deceptively quiet Aidric is too smart to only be 4. Then there are the little ones. Sweet Liam who is only 2 but he talks so clearly now he seems older. Gage (aka Gah-jay the Destroyer...long story on that one lol) is 23 months now and never stops moving/climbing/getting into trouble. Beckah is 22 months and thinks she is a big girl and should do all the things the big girls do. And sweet little Owen on the end who was darling and cuddly with everyone our entire trip.   My parents house was a mad house on a good day.

It was excellent to see all the siblings, mine and Brady's.  Only one family was missing and we are sad we couldn't see them, but the kids got to Skype with Saylor and Paisley which was awesome.  Thank you technology! I didn't realize how much I missed everyone until I got to see them in person.  I missed our families so much.  Brady and I are so blessed really.   The more I get to know my siblings as adults the more I love and admire them.  They are such amazing people who are raising amazing children and I am so proud to call them my family.

When we were planning our trip I thought we were spending a long time down there but it felt like no time at all.  Because Brady and I both grew up there, both our parents and grandparents are there, all our friends are there, there was so many people we wanted to see.  It wasn't possible to see them all and I am grateful for those who came all the way out to see us once we were there.  I am thankful to my parents and in-laws for letting crash with them and spend quality time with people.  It means so much that so many people miss us as much as we miss them.  And to those of you we didn't get to see I hope we get to see you next time.  

I got to take a lot of pictures of people while we were there.  I was able to shoot a wedding for some family friends (something I only do in unique circumstances as wedding photography isn't really my cup of tea).  It was a beautiful day for a lovely couple and I feel lucky that the timing was right for me to take their pictures.  I was also able to take pictures of my siblings and their families while we were there.  I took so many pictures that I didn't have any memory card space for pictures on Christmas day!  My siblings took some pictures for me though and I am grateful for that. I will post some pictures once I get through editing all of them.  It could take a while!  There were so many!

Christmas day was crazy but good.  We managed to convince all the kids to go to bed in my sister's room so that Santa could come.  And boy did Santa come!  The living room was full to bursting!  We got to see my both my grandmas, a ton of my cousins from both sides and Brady's grandma and cousin's too.  There was even time for me to sneak out with my sisters, sister-in-law and mom to see Les Mis!  The trip was stressful and crazy but in the end I wouldn't take it back even if I could. I was reminded of all my fond memories of traveling to see my cousins in Utah during Christmas break.  Sleeping on the floor or the couch or where ever there was room. Staying up late chatting and laughing about silly things and spending long days playing silly games.  Preparing and eating yummy food with people we love.  I cherish those memories now as an adult when work, families of our own, and distance make getting together so difficult now. I am glad that my kids will have similar memories and that even through the distance they look forward to spending time with their cousins.  

Brady and I have decided that from now on those memories will have to built during the summer though.  Unless we have the money to fly home.  Driving during the winter was just scary and we don't want to do that again.  Ever.  We were very blessed and felt the Lord watching over us, but the risks we took are ones we don't ever want to take again. Not when we can drive risk free in the summer months.  

So that was our Christmas trip in a nutshell.  I hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Years and that 2013 brings wonderful things for everyone!

Christmas 2010

Oh Christmas. I surprised myself this year by getting all my shopping done by December 5th. I know, it was seriously some kind of miracle. So other than the stress of getting everything mailed to family on time, our December was pretty low key. We got to enjoy a quiet Christmas at home this year. I am honestly thinking that this is the only way to go. While I missed the mass of family that we have always seen on or around Christmas, there is something to be said for being at home with no where we "had" to be.

We started with our Christmas Eve tradition of opening one gift. My parents let us do this growing up and I loved it. My girls do too! lol

Rory was super excited to have her "own" barbie. It was her very first one. She slept with it that night. Cadence took off to play with her Rapunzel doll in the Barbie castle she got last Christmas which is why I don't have other pictures of her on Christmas Eve. It was tough to get the kids to go to bed that night. Even though we don't really make a big deal out of Santa they were still super excited for Christmas to come. After three stories they finally chilled out enough to let us tuck them in.

I then stuffed stockings and put out everything else for the next morning. Here is what our living room looked like Christmas Eve...

Grandma Suzi sent these adorable angel ornaments for the girls. Cadence wanted to keep her's "safe" and wouldn't put it on the tree till the next day.

Christmas morning "dawned" nice and cloudy. And by cloudy, I mean at 9 am it was still pretty dark in the house! The girls were up at 8am like normal and the opening chaos began. Here are a few pictures of them making a paper mess...

What the floor looked like at the half way mark. We had to stop and clean up paper and then opening could resume! lol

It was an awesome morning. The girls got so many wonderful gifts! They were super spoiled despite being miles from our family this year. We had waffles and took our time getting ready for the day. We spent the evening at the Bowen's house, where we had an amazing Turkey and Ham dinner. The kids played with some friends and their new toys, watched movies, and Brady and I got to chat, laugh and play one amazingly long, and super hilarious game of Uno with friends. It will definitely go down as one of the best Christmas' I have ever had!

Brady had most of the week off after Christmas and so we had a lazy week. Monday was a rough day for me pregnancy wise. Lots of pressure and discomfort all day. I was prepared to go to the hospital for them to check me when it finally started to go away after dinner. I had a Drs appointment on Wednesday, where they checked me to make sure everything was alright. I was dilated to a one, but still "thick" (or not effacing). All this is perfectly normal considering this is my third baby and I am now entering the home stretch. I have been having braxton hicks often, but everything else has been pretty normal since then.

Our best news is to do with Rory. At my appointment on Wednesday I popped her up on the scale when I was done just to see if any of the dietary changes we have made are working. She was 25.6 pounds!!!! Keep in mind that she gained only 2 pounds between her 1st and 2nd birthdays. On November 12, when she had her scope, she weighed 22.4 pounds. Putting on 3 pounds in almost two months is AMAZING!! I was so excited to see that number on the scale! The changes we have made for Rory have been simple, but a little complicated. She gets a benefiber supplement twice a day. We have switched her to a high fiber/low sugar diet. We are avoiding as many "fake" sugars as possible and sticking with those sugars found in nature. We have seen a pretty big difference in her stools in the last month. Her diarrhea has gone from daily to every few days with solid stools being a much more common occurrence.

We have also taken her off of soy products completely. We noticed after lunch one day that Rory had a rash on her face from the ranch she had with her chicken. I took a look at the ingredients and Soy bean oil was the very first ingredient. She had the reaction a few more times after that and so I decided to take soy out of the equation. This has been pretty difficult. Soy is in SO many things. I have resorted to making almost everything from scratch. It takes much more time, but Rory's stools got even better and she has cut WAY back on how much she eats. At first I was worried about that, but after seeing the change on the scale I feel that we have found our culprit in Rory's health/weight issues.

That is pretty much all that has been happening for us as 2010 comes to an end! We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and a Happy and safe New Year!

Christmas with the Lantz's

Well! I hope that everyone has had a very great Holiday Season so far! Ours has had it's ups and downs, but we have had a blast and we are looking forward to a new year filled with wonderful new experiences!

To start things off, thanks for all the birthday wishes! I had a great day topped with Brady's office Christmas Party at Lowery's (where I had to sing the Fa la la la la's with the Carolers...I think that everyone was pleasantly surprised when I could ACTUALLY sing...lol) and then a stay at the Red Rock Hotel that night. I had so much fun and it was nice to take a real bath with bubbles and such without a time limit!

Here is a picture of Cady in Christmas Dress #3:

Yeah she looks good in everything. I really didn't think the Lord was being literal when in my Patriarchal Blessing he said I would have "beautiful children." Apparently He meant just that. Cadence now has two MORE Christmas dresses to wear that she received as Christmas gifts. Don't worry I will post pictures of those as well. :o)

The Sunday before Christmas we had our Family Christmas Party with Brady's side of the family. We were totally SPOILED. Cady got the worst of the spoiling though. Here are a few pictures of the party.

Among all the loot was a kids size rolling luggage with Cadence's name on it (very handy now that her stuff won't fit in with mine anymore when we travel) a Hokey Poky Elmo (really very funny and even funnier is watching Cady try and do what he does) and a new baby doll complete with changes of clothes, diapers and bottles. She LOVED her new baby and when we asked her what her baby's name was she said "Kennedy like mommy." About made me cry it was so sweet.

Christmas came and at our house Cadence got a play dough play table and a baby play set complete with stroller, swing, diaper bag, play mat and a mini pack'and'play. At my aunts she got two more babies (the girl is in baby heaven) and the two new Christmas dresses. She was so excited to go everyone and see all the presents and then open them. She wasn't just excited for her presents either...she wanted to see what everyone got and exclaim "Oh how cute!" over everything. It was wonderful. All my Sib's where in town and it was great to see everyone. Avery was a huge hit with those family members that hadn't seen her yet (which was just about everyone). Here is a picture of Avery and Megan crashing out after all the present opening. Avery has really porked up. She was 6lbs 1oz at birth and now weights a hefty 10lbs.

After Christmas things have settled down a bit. Whitney and Cord headed home and Ryan, Megan and my mom left to go Camping with my uncles (mom has three brothers) and their families in Texas. Those of us left at the house are trying to get things cleaned up and find homes for all the new stuff. This morning we had another surprise...

We weren't exactly trying, but were weren't NOT trying if that makes any sense. We are so excited and figure that my due date is sometime around September 8th or 9th. Yes I took two tests. That is one less than I took when I got a positive with Cadence. The first one is just so unreal to me that I take two just to make sure. I know. I have issues. :o) But we are very excited. According to the Pencil Test we are having another girl (followed by three boys). If you would like more information on the Pencil Test let me know. I would be happy to explain and even conduct it on all you females out there...so far it hasn't been wrong. :o) So any ideas on girls names (heck we will take boys names too) send them my way. We were fresh out after Cady.

Anyway, hope that everyone has a happy new year!