Vegas Vacation

So thanks to the wonderful economy this year, a real vacation is out for our family. So we decided to take a Vegas Vacation. We went down to the strip, where I haven't been in years! Showed the kids all the exciting hotels and did all the free stuff the strip has to offer. Well, not all of it, but we went to the Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio, we saw the lions sleeping at the MGM, went to M&M world and paid way too much for colored M&M's and ended up at Coca-Cola. The last time I went to Coca-Cola world, they had a long line of fountains with sodas from around the world. It was great, but since that was probably 11 years ago, they figured that giving away all the soda for free probably wasn't cost effective. So now you have to buy it! It wasn't bad though, $7 for two trays of 16 different sodas. We sat at a table and Michael had the list of where each soda was from and then we passed them around and took sips. The kids had fun, Michael was a great MC and the sodas weren't that bad. With the exception of one from Italy and one that Michael didn't tell me what is was and just let me drink it, because it was a watermelon soda and he thought that would be funny since I don't like watermelon! Despite the heat and the traffic, it was a pretty fun day. And we really felt like we were tourists! And what trip to Vegas would be complete without a stop at Macayo's for dinner. Still a pretty cheap place to eat and we couldn't drive down Tropicana without stopping.

Zak at Coca-Cola World

Soda from around the world

Matthew and Jeffrey found Sonic

Matthew looking cool by the Nascar

Olivia doing her best "Vanna"

Classic Olivia

Jeffrey showing us the frog

Jewelry Lady

So I am now officially a Premier Designs Jeweler! I started my jewelry business a week ago and had a great show! Premier Design is a great company with a great product. Plus I don't have to make or cook anything! The jewelry is great and the people are even greater! I would love to get my business started with a bang! So if anyone is interested in hosting a party, open house, or catalog show, just leave me a comment and I'll find ya! I promise not to be obnoxious about it but I just want to introduce as many people to Premier! Plus, who doesn't love to play with jewelry???

Piano lessons anyone?

Just wanted to get the word out that I'm teaching piano lessons again. Let me know if you are interested or know anyone who might be. Thanks!

The Newest Mrs. Cecil

Saturday, May 16th, my baby brother Tyler got married! I know! He married a cute girl named Kinzee. I forgot my camera at the temple and the luncheon, but did manage a couple cute pics at the reception. The sealing was beautiful and it was so great to be in the temple with my parents and all my siblings. The reception was in Natalie's backyard and it was pretty warm until the sun went down. All the grandkids looked so cute and they all just ran around and played in their cute clothes. Jeffrey stayed close to the chocolate fountain and had about a thousand strawberries. Zak didn't wander far from the food table where there was plenty of crackers and grapes. Olivia was mesmerized by Kinzee in her beautiful dress. It is hard to believe that my baby brother is married. Poor mom and dad are all alone.

All the girls, Brynlee, Olivia, Attison, Sydney and Decatur


Zak entertaining himself with a slinky

Me and my boys!

Zaky enjoying the food table!

Sleepy Little Bunny

We had a great Easter weekend in St. George. We got there on Saturday and spent the day with Cameron on his 7th birthday. We took all the kids to Jumping Jacks and I realized that I am way too old and out of shape to jump with the kids! I am so sore today after trying to carry Zaky all the way up the high slide. (He loved it by the way!) But I thought I was going to die! Anyway, we had a great day and went to church Sunday morning to hear my awesome father-in-law give an amazing talk on the Atonement. My wonderful mother-in-law Diane, who always outdoes herself on holidays had a yummy dinner. Unfortunately, dinner was the same time as Zaky's nap. Poor Zak couldn't decide if he was more hungry or sleepy. So enjoy the video because I finally figured out that I can take video on my camera!

Sorry Katie

This post is for Katie, who is the only one who commented on being sick of my previous post over a month ago! Well, Katie, I guess I'll get everyone else up to speed. I do have a good excuse for not blogging as much. I went back to work at the end of January for the first time inn 3 1/2 years. I feel very fortunate to have been able to get a job with the state of the economy lately. I'm working about 25 hours a week but starting in April I'll be working 32. I am working for an OB/Gyn office again which is my favorite. So needless to say, keeping up with work and the kids has been quite a challenge. But I do like my job. It's a great place to work and it's nice to talk to adults for a change! I do miss being with my kids during the day, but it's been working out well so far.

Michael is still working on the City Center Project. Again, another blessing that he is working on one of the only large projects that haven't been shut down. He's doing well and will hopefully journey out by the end of the year! Yeah! He's also been a great help with me going back to work and has been so supportive.

Matthew is doing well in school, as always, and has started soccer again. I love spring soccer because the weather is so nice! He's playing on a new league with a new coach so it's been interesting. He is playing defense and got chosen to be captain the first game of the season. He is glad to be playing again and I'm glad to be watching him again!

Livvy is still dancing and loving every minute of it. The next couple of months have quite a few performances and recitals so I should have some more pics to post. She has also developed an interest in tumbling so we're going to try to do that over the summer. She is doing well in school and we only have a little drama every day so I think I can handle that.

Jeffrey is very nearly potty trained! It's been a long time comin' but he's doing really well. He likes going to the sitters and thinks he's going to school because he gets to take a backpack. He is excited to be old enough to start playing soccer in the fall! They get so big so fast!

Finally to Zak. He is 15 months going on 5! He loves to play with the big kids and is a climber. His favorite place is to sit on the dinner table or to climb on the computer desk which he is doing at this very minute so it's taking me forever to type this post! But he has such a fun personality and is such a cute boy!

Hopefully soon I will post more pics but I wanted to catch everyone up. I do spent a lot of time on Facebook (sorry I know) so you can catch up with us there too!

Martha Stewart

Many of you who know me know that I was in the bathroom when they handed out craftiness and decorating sense. But we found an awesome sofa and it has thrown me into decorator mode. Michael is wondering what has gotten into me. I even bought new towels and am decorating bathrooms! I've never done that! So I absolutely love my sofa and my poor children are getting sick of "No Jumping!", "Get that Pop-Tart off the sofa!" and on and on. But from someone whose majority of furniture came from others, its exciting to have something new! You'll all have to come over and sit on my new sofa!

Slow Tag

I'm finally getting around to the tag that I got from Alisha. I'm spending more time Facebooking than blogging. Anyway her tag was to #1- go to your pictures, #2 - pick the 4th folder and #3 - pick the 4th picture and tell about it. So here goes...

I was hoping to get a picture that no one had seen yet, but this is what came up. It had been forever since we had a family picture and this is the first professional picture with all of my kids. My friend Sarah Goodsell took this picture in the desert behind her house. We hiked a little ways and found these cool rocks. It was cold and overcast but we had an hour window between the rain and the overcast clouds ended up making great light. Anyway, these are my four children and I loved the way Zak was holding on to his big brother. I think this picture really captures each of my children's different personalities!

So now I get to tag 4 people: Natalie, Michelle, Cami, and Deana

Conflicted

I may be a late bloomer but I am now addicted to Facebook. I've been finding so many people there and have been having a blast re-connecting with my youth. So Facebook has been taking me away from blogging. I apologize to my Facebook/Blogging friends as you may see some of the same pics. Anyhoooo...

My kids were on track break since Christmas and just went back to school this week. It was a long 5 weeks! But we did take the opportunity to go out and visit my 92 year old Grandma Cecil. I am so glad I was able to get some good pictures of her with my kids. They are so fortunate to be able to know their great-grandma. Even though she has a hard time with some things, she remembered all my kids names. Considering she has so many great-grandchildren, that is a feat! She has lived a wonderful life, the majority of it on her own. My great-grandfather Cecil passed away when my dad was a teenager so she raised 3 boys on her own, she lived on her own until recently and I have always admired her independence. She now relies heavily on a caretaker, but can still get around and has a good memory. I am so grateful for her and her life and her example and love that my kids have had the chance to know her.




A little update: I started working part-time this week for an OB/Gyn on the other side of town. It's been good to get out of the house and do something I love for a little bit, but the downside is that I've been exhausted! Hopefully I'll get used to this new schedule and it won't take my time away from the hobbies I have grown to love! Oh, and my kids too :)

Flash Way Back

Thank you to my sister-in-law Jordon who tagged me in her flashback post. I'm a heckuva lot older than Jordon so my flash-back took a little longer since I had to scan in pictures. Digital wasn't invented back in the 80's. Also, I should apologize ahead of time to Katie, Alisha, Kristen, and Natalie who are also included in the flashback. Hope I'm not embarrassing you too much! So let's take a stroll WAY down memory lane....(Sorry about the scans) These pictures are in no particular order.Me and Alisha waiting for the bus to Burkholder Jr. High. If I remember right, it was 8th grade Valentines Day and we were showing our true Valentines day colors by wearing black. We thought we were pretty cool. Love the bangs!
Back in the good old days the YW/YM got to take trips. This was our ward trip to Disneyland. We are all in line for the Matterhorn. I'm not sure exactly when this is, maybe Katie or Alisha will have a better memory.


Graduation from Basic High School in 1992. Good times, good times...


This is a slumber party at Alisha's house I'm guessing 7th or 8th grade. I can only tell from the big bangs and perm.
I had to include this one just cuz it's so funny. This is Michael (my husband) and my sister Natalie at Homecoming 1991. I won't go into details to protect the innocent.


In the winter of 1990 the Clark County School District began girls soccer. My brothers all played so I figured I'd give it a shot. I wasn't very good and I warmed the bench an awful lot. Our coach was the boys football coach and I thought he was too mean to be coaching a bunch of girls. So needless to say that was my first and last season. I'd much rather be on the sidelines cheering than on the soccer field.



I must say that me and my kids had a good time dragging out old pictures. Olivia keeps asking about what I was like when I was younger and so I got to tell her some fun stories. I am so glad that I still keep in touch with some of the people in the pics. It makes me feel not so old! I'm not going to be mean and tag anyone, but, whoever can dig up the best old pics, I dare ya!

New Year, New Pics

While Michael and I went out for New Years, Matthew, his cousin Dallin, Olivia, and Jeffrey had their own party. They watched movies, ate lots of candy, popcorn, and soda, and stayed up past midnight. They also got poppers and those little firecrackers and went outside at midnight to let them off. Michael and I got back around 11 and went to bed, too tired to stay up. But not the kids, they partied till well after midnight. A bunch of party animals!

This is a bunch of empty Coke bottles, candy wrappers etc. etc.

This is just a cute picture I caught of Matthew and Zakary. They were watching a movie and Zak just crashed on Matty's lap. What a good big brother.

Zakary's new favorite place. Everytime the fridge gets open, he runs and tries to sit down inside the fridge before it gets shut. He sits there and smiles and laughs like that is the best seat in the house. Actually, it probably is.