Can you guess where we were camping last night??

The REI Grand Opening in Summerlin (Las Vegas) NV!! Last night my friend Carly and I camped out in front of the store because the first 200 customers got a Nalgene bottle with a gift card inside. How cool is that?? So, here are some pictures from last night. Truth be told, Carly was the true die hard behind this whole event. I was mostly coming along for the fun of it - and of course for the nalgene bottle. You just can't beat the adventure, and a night with no kids?? Who would give that up.



The pictures from last night were taken by a security guard. He was really nice. He was inside the store most of the time, but he watched us from the lobby and made sure we were safe all night. I had one of the best night's sleep that I've had in a long time.



The last two pictures on the right are this morning's pictures. I woke up around 6:15 am and this was my view. Around 7 am, one of the supervisor's for this grand opening event pulled up on his bullet bike and took this picture of us. Yes, we were the only two people until around 7:30 am when two more people joined us. I guess you could say we were either die hards, or nut cases, or both. Oh, and my awesome friend Britney cut my hair yesterday too!! I'll show the pictures in another post. I just couldn't stand having my hair get so long and it was really quite blah...so she spiced it up for me and did an AWESOME JOB!!

IF YOU LIVE IN VEGAS, YOU HAVE TO HAVE BRITNEY CUT YOUR HAIR!! Here's her info...

Britney Shepherd
Regis Salon: Fashion Show Mall
3200 S. Las Vegas Blvd
702-733-1400

Oh, and even if you're just visiting Vegas, you should really stop by Fashion Show for a new do or a trim. She's awesome at styling and updos.

Halloween was really busy...

This is how our Halloween Day began... Cooper changed into his Kung Fu outfit, and I helped Katelyn get dressed as a BYU cheerleader. I probably should have dressed her in a riding outfit since she insisted on wearing my old riding hat. Kate also insisted on wearing the empty toilet paper roll on her arm as a cuff. I'm glad that she is content with cardboard because I have no intentions of buying her any jewelry anytime in the near future. The two of them rode around the condo on the red car while I tried to get everything ready for our long day. Cooper kept asking "Mommy, when is it going to be Halloween?" and I kept answering "Cooper, it's Halloween all day today...it's just that we don't trick-or-treat until night time."

We had an outing to Mandalay Bay's' Shark Reef. I don't have any pictures, but I'll post some when I get a copy from my friend. The kids had a blast, even though it was way past their naptime. Coop and Kate were really lucky though. Their friend's father is a pilot. He flies private jets for an incredibly wealthy businessman, so we were able to get a private tour. It was pretty awesome. Coop had a blast, and Katelyn was so amazed at all the buttons. She just wanted to push everything.


The kids conked out in the car on the way home. Kate was REALLY tired. Steph and I ran some errands and rushed home to make good ol' Cincinnati chili for the ward Halloween party. We met up with a friend, Ashley, and she brought her absolutely adorable pumpkin baby!! The kids had a blast and had WAY too much candy. They came home and I let them sit at the table and sort their goodies, then eat for about a half hour, then made them finally go to bed.

(Cadence, Cooper, Katelyn, & Mackenzie)

I hope the rest of you had a good halloween too!

A gymnast in the making...

Yes, this is my Kate. Her new thing at the park is to hang on these rings and swing her legs into a pike position. It's really amazing sometimes when I see her do these things, but I think that I always think she's younger than she is since Cooper is getting so big. Anyway, she had a blast practicing her moves on the rings and hopefully I can teach her to bring her feet up to touch the rings. That would be awesome. Friday night I'll post pictures of Cooper's gymnastics class. I think Kate's going to need some dance lessons or something soon. She's really sharp and after all the time she spends copying Cooper, I think she's ready to follow a dance teacher.

Did you see that?? Is your mouth watering yet?? Saturday at 4:30pm we had "Appreciation Dinner." It's another name for "Thanksgiving Feast," when it's not actually Thanksgiving day. Steph, Tim, Jake and I decided that we're going to do this every 3 months from now on. It's our new tradition. You're probably thinking that we're crazy, but we're not...we just love food. I didn't get the candied sweet potatoes or the apple pie in the picture, but those were soooo good too. I decided that I'm going to make a little recipe book thing for all our Thanksgiving side dishes. Here's the one for our roasted lemon herb chicken. We wanted turkey, but we couldn't find one (and we checked 2 different grocery stores) so we ended up having a chicken, which turned out really good. We also made homemade cornbread, which was also great. Here are the links for 2 of the recipes...

Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread

Roasted Lemon Herb Chicken

Okay, so I FINALLY cut Cooper's amazing hair!! I'm so sad to see it go, but I think I have the same mentality for my kid's hair that I have for my own..."it'll always grow back." Steph and I figured that since pool season was over Cooper could have his short hair back. No need to look like a surfer anymore. We'll grow it back out next spring. Here are before and after pictures...doesn't he look like a totally different kid? I actually cut it even shorter, which I'll take a picture of tomorrow, and after I finished his hair today I asked Jake (again for the nth time) if I could cut his hair. He finally let me!! I'll have to get a picture of Cooper and Jake's haircut together.

I'm seriously so excited though about the haircuts b/c it'll totally save at least $15-$30 a month (and I can cut Jake's hair a little more often than waiting for the haircut coupons in the mail). Jake said I could even get a pair of nice hair shears and a razor to thin out their hair when I cut it. I'll have to learn how to do that. So, I have a new hobby...cutting the boys' hair!

Have you ever felt like...

you just couldn't remember anything? I feel like that lately. If I don't write it down right away it will probably be forgotten. Anyways, here are some pictures of the kids at Gilcrease Orchards last week. It was our special outing for the weekly playgroup we have. I promised I would take them, even though I heard that it was already pretty picked over. The kids had a blast. Cooper and Hailey especially had fun when Cooper found an eggplant. We didn't take the eggplant home, nor did I take a picture (unfortunately...it was soo cute and small). They were so excited to take home a pumpkin and I let them decorate it with markers as soon as we got back.

She was so excited that she had her very own pumpkin.

Cooper, Katelyn, and Mackenzie with their pumpkins.


Hailey, Cooper, and Katelyn on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

This is one of the most amazing gowns I've ever seen...you've got to check this out. I found this blog from Tani's favorite links (or something like that). Check it out though!! If you have a little girl you'll just have to have this dress.

Family Home Evening Activity!

So this is what I've been up to in addition to "kidsphilosophy." Here's the link for the tutorial on making these adorable crate covers. I actually had to make my own pattern for these since they're the mini crates, but I also did one of the regular size crates. I'll take a picture of those when I finish them. I'm making a bunch of different patterns on each one. We'll see how it turns out. I just love how each of these little crates bring a splash of color into the room. I wish I had more time to finish the other ones, but I think it'll be another month before I can get those done. Jake was so cool to take the kids on Thursday morning so that I could finish these babies up. It's really nice that he supports all my creative hobbies, since every year I end up picking a new creative hobby to explore.

Last night we went to the Bellagio to see their new conservatory with Steph, Tim and Mackenzie. It was so cool. They had Ents (which reminded me of the "Lord of the Rings" series), huge pumpkins (fake of course, but they were still cool), and tons of these little habenero chili pepper (or maybe they were thai chilis) plants that were red, yellow, and orange. I didn't realize that they were peppers until I stopped to look at them. Of course Jake noticed right away and he made sure to point out to the kids to refrain from picking and eating these plants. The kids had a blast at seeing all the moving trees and venus fly traps. Cooper was particularly enchanted by the venus fly traps. He'd never seen them before. Everytime we turned around he was staring at them and walking toward them as if he was in a trance. It's a good thing there were 4 of us adults around to keep an eye on him.

Go figure - we finally get a picture of the kids all doing the same thing. It's too bad they weren't all looking at me.

Steph and I were at the park yesterday too...Kenzie can't get enough of the slides. She finally wanted to do a little exploring though and I realized the kids were all on the fake rock wall. Of course I was smart enough to bring my camera (for once) and we got a cute picture of the kids together.

Maya Road is on the TOP of my list...

I just wanted to let everyone know that Maya Road has the best customer service ever!! I had a clear stamp set and two of the stamps were connected. When I tried to take them apart, they both tore a little. I was so bummed, so I emailed them and in less than 12 hours they emailed me back and said they were sending a replacement as soon as I emailed pictures to them. How cool is that? And then not even a week later I have the replacements, plus an extra singleton stamp they included! I LOVE Maya Road!! They have awesome scrapbooking and stamping products. By the way...Basic Grey is amazing too. I had a problem with one of their stamps and they had me mail mine back and replaced the whole set! Customer service is huge to me...so props to them!! If you scrap or stamp, buy Basic Grey and Maya Road. They stand by their product.

All I have from Katelyn's Birthday...

Are two pictures. No, we didn't really do gifts (just a couple), and I made a yellow ice cream cake with cookies & cream ice cream and chocolate ganache frosting, but I forgot to take pictures of the cake before we cut it - she she had a piece of cake with 1 candle in it. It's okay though, she still doesn't know how to blow out candles anyway. Am I lame?? Don't answer that - I already know what you guys think... Anyway, here are the two pictures.
Okay, so maybe she does look a little disappointed in the picture, but she was really happy, I promise.

As I was looking in the folder for this picture, I found another one that I have to post, b ecause it's pretty funny. My Kate has a friend named Katelyn (her mom is my visiting teacher - and she's really the best visiting teacher), but they're about 10 months apart. I'm sure you'll be able to tell in this photo that Kate's friend is a little taller. Guess who's older?? My Kate. She's really quite pygmy-ish, but don't let her fool you. She can hold her own. Kate always gets excited when she sees Katelyn, but it's a little confusing because they never can tell who's talking to who. I guess that happens when you have friends with the same name.



This is what else the kids have been up too - since September. I'm still a month behind. They LOVE to pretend cook, Katelyn loves to take Kenzie on rides (well, not always, but sometimes when she thinks it's cute or when Steph and I put them both on the car together), and this was one of the last pool days that the kids had before I decided Cooper needed a new hangout.

I'll have to do one more post for September - as it was Cooper's 1st day of pre-school and he's been having a blast ever since. I'll post a couple of his firsts, since he just had his 1st day of gymnastics class. The Silver Mesa Recreation Center has some great classes, and the best part about it is that it's affordable and the building is REALLY clean.

Fishing and the Priest Lake Cabin

Okay, I don't know many 4 1/2 yr olds who love fishing more than this guy here. Seriously, he was so excited about this trip that he kept talking about it for weeks before and weeks after. Honestly, he still talks about it. Oh, and that giant to the right of the picture...that's Uncle Landan, (also known as Cooper and Katelyn's personal body guard.) So, Cooper, Katelyn, and I all went to Spokane around September 5th. Yes, it was a long time ago - I'm lame when it comes to posting. We went there because we just sold a house we were renting to massage therapists, and I had to sign the closing documents and get my stuff out of there before the official closing. Thank goodness that Landan was there to help me move stuff...well it was more like he moved the stuff and I was busy sorting through stuff. I'm going to hijack my own post to just mention that if anyone has a brother-in-law as good as mine, you must be lucky, and it's a good thing that I have the only 2 grandchildren in Jake's family 'cause that's the only reason why I'm Landan's favorite. Okay - back to the post. My in-laws decided to take this opportunity with the grandkids to go up to the cabin and take Cooper fishing. The pole you see in the picture was a Christmas gift from Jake's dad 2 years ago and he used it for the first time on this trip. Oh, I guess this was a moose that they saw when they were up at the cabin. Pretty cool, huh. Cooper loves stuff like this. Well, I actually let Cooper go up to the cabin with Jake's dad, Landan, and Nathan. This was a big thing for me, especially since I knew there were guns up there. Jake's mom, Katelyn, and I met up with them on Saturday (which is when I caught the "Twilight" fever.) The kids had so much fun with their uncles...and Uncle Nathan even took each of them on a private canoe ride.




Cooper and Katelyn posing for Grandpa. Cooper practicing his "roping skills."

Grandpa was teaching the kids how to rope on our last day there. They were practicing out in front of the cabin. I'm pretty sure they were having a blast, but I made Cooper leave the rope at the Grandpa's house. I definitely didn't want any rope accidents when I got home. By the way, you don't see any pictures of Jake's mom and I because we were hiding in the cabin, engrossed in the "Twilight" series.

TAGGED!! 7 Facts About Me...

Here's how to play:
1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I'm 30 years old and still scared of the dark. No really, I am. When I was little, my parents use to think it was funny to run up the stairs ahead of my sister and I and turn all the lights off and jump out and scare us as we were running up the stairs to our room. The first thing I do when I'm in someone's house or move into a new place I look for the light switches. If I'm by myself I'll test them all to see which lights they go to so I can move from room to room with at least 1 light on.

2. I'm a "jack-of-all-trades," master of none. I've always been able to do a lot of things and be good at them, but I've never been the best at anything. Unfortunately I think I've got the genetic Chinese ability to copy but not be an original creator.

3. I've got a tiny scar on my forehead from a .44 magnum pistol. Some friends of mine at BYU took me shooting in Payson, UT. We didn't wear any ear muffs and I did fine with the rifles. Apparently, a .22 rifle is way different than a .44 pistol. The pistol was on a towel laid on the hood of an old Ford Tempo, and when I pulled the trigger the noise was so loud it scared me and the pistol kicked right as I let go of it, so my forehead took a huge kick and I dropped the gun on the ground.

4. I have a lot of big ideas that never go very far. Every once in a while I have some crazy idea that I think can be a business, but then I think of all the work that it's going to take and on top of that being a mom, and I get overwhelmed and give up. I know, lame. If you look at the older posts on my blog there are pictures of aprons. I had a little short-lived apron business where I picked these fabrics and design, had them made (when I was in China I had a great seamstress) and then sold them. I think I sold about 28 or so, and these are the ones I still have left. I also make hairbows, baby wrap carriers, and slings...but none have made it to big business. So here I am, the daughter of 2 entrepreneurs and always dreaming of new ideas.

5. I planned on going to law school after I graduated at BYU. Yes, it was my idea to become a lawyer and specialize in family law - hoping to help those women who were wronged in custody battles or to help couples with adoptions. I even took the LSAT, but I knew I'd have to re-take it to get into to the top schools, (I set my sights on UC Berkley). I married Jake though and the LSAT was so unappealing to me that I procrastinated until I had Cooper. Now I'd like to study graphic design when my kids are all in school.

6. When I was pregnant with Cooper, I ate 5 lbs of fuji apples from Buska Farms every week. The farmer's market across the street from us in San Leandro, CA had this stand that had AWESOME fujis. They were so sweet and crispy and just perfectly sized for a snack. On the weekends that I was out of town, I'd have my friend Stephanie May pick some up for me. When I became pregnant with Katelyn, I ordered a box of apples from Buska Farms and he even remembered who I was.

7. When I was 3 months pregnant with Cooper, I went on a week-long white-water rafting trip and swam the "eye of the needle" rapid due to intense family peer pressure. I couldn't say no to my brother-in-law, husband, sister-in-law, and Jake's cousins. I thought I was going to die - I'm not a big water lover outside of the pool, but I made it through the 2 huge rapids and as I attempted to swim towards shore I had to call for someone to pull me in. Thank goodness I had the "golden child..." (Cooper was the first grandson on both sides.)

I tag ....
1. Kim
2. Julie
3. Kim
4. Amy
5. Tamara
6. Stephanie
7. Christy

If you were already tagged before and I missed it, then forget it. For anyone else who would like to do it, it's fun! Please share!

Jackson Hole, Yellowstone Bear World, Yellowstone

Has anyone been to these three places? Well, it's just beautiful up there. I definitely think that everyone should try it. I'm just going to add some pictures really quick - I've got a ton of stuff to do and I need to put pictures of Jake and Tim's triathalon. We're so proud of those two guys - they really did a great job...mostly because we were proud of them for finishing. It's not super easy and you definitely have to be set in following through. There were 2 people who came out of the race right at the beginning of the swim, not even 20 yards out into the 500 m swim. Enough about that though. The first pictures is at Jenny Lake - a little past Jackson Hole. This is Inspiration Point - no, I was not really inspired up there, but it was beautiful. I was freaking out when we hiked up there because there were some really sharp/steep drop offs and I HATE heights. Yes, I know, I stunt, rock climb, etc... but I'm still afraid of heights. It makes me nauseaus.
Family picture - the guys were working hard back in Vegas while we toured the wonders of God's creations. This is a waterfall - don't remember the name, (there were a lot of them all over the place) but it was beautiful and we had to go on a scenic walk to get there. I kept worrying that Cooper was going to slide down the hill and fall into the water - that wouldn't have been good. Apparently he's smarter than I think he is.





Yes, we fed the chipmunks. If you're against that, don't judge me - the kids had a blast and the chipmunks were hungry. Anyway, it was fun and they were cute. I was worried that someone was going to step on them. I'll have to post the Yellowstone and Yellowstone Bear World later. Something is not working quite right with the blogger upload image thing.

Sea World and Newport Beach

Here we are now, a little more than a month later. Lots of stuff has happened - one of them being that my mom and dad came to visit us from China, which is always a treat because they usually stay for a few weeks or a month. This time they not only stayed but we took a road trip that was so much fun...I'll show pictures in a little bit. It's been so crazy, and on top of that my cousin got married, and Jake and Tim completed a triathalon, (they're first). So here are some pictures along with a summary for each...
1. This is how you turn any single child stroller into a double stroller. Cooper has also figured out how to turn it into a triple stroller...he sits on the food tray. This is what happens after a long day at Sea World. Thank goodness my kids are resourceful - Katelyn was lovin' her little basket seat. Yes, that would be Shamu on the right, and we were in the 8th row. No, we didn't get soaked, unfortunately for us we were SOOOO HOT!! But at least I got some good pictures. Does it get any better than this?? I love when my 2 kids love each other, but I guess nothing is ever 100%.

Mom, my sister, and I also went to Newport beach with the kids. Man, did they have a blast, and it was Kenzie's first time in the sand. Katelyn and Cooper were dying to get into the water, but we didn't have our swimsuits, so the kids had to settle for knee deep waves.







We all got down and dirty in the sand building a lake with a bridge. Katelyn kept wanting to spill the water all over the bridge. I think that the best part of the whole trip was just that I actually got to really spend some quality time with Cooper and Katelyn and we weren't interrupted with all the craziness of life.

Note to self & warning to others...

When using Elmer's Glue Spray Adhesive, wear gloves at all times. If you don't wear tight fitting gloves, then beware. You'll need plenty of vegetable oil on hand to remove it off your nails, fingers, palms, etc...

Catching up on life...

So here we are, 2 1/2 months later and I haven't blogged once, but life has been busy, so I feel justified. First of all, just to clarify... I only have 2 kids, Cooper (4 1/2 yrs) and Katelyn (22 months). If you seem some pictures of a 10 yr old Chinese girl, she's been living with us since January and she's now back with her parents. Long story. She may or may not be back in the fall, so this might be the only post with her picture in it. I also haven't been clear enough in these past few posts about the other baby girl. In fact, several of my friends who I haven't seen in a while have emailed me saying "I didn't know you had 3," and of course I was thinking "3? but I only have 2..." until I realized that they're referring to pictures on my blog of my kids and my niece.
She's my niece, Mackenzie...my sister's daughter.
She's 8 months old and 2 inches shorter than Katelyn, and she and Katelyn have been sharing clothes now for a few months. Yes, my daughter is a pygmy. She's still in-between 12-18 month old clothes. I'll have to post a picture sometime this week of the two girls standing next to each other. It's pretty funny. Kate and Kenzie are also the same weight. So, my sister and I have decided that the girls will just share clothes and they'll only need half as many.
Okay, onto what we've been up to lately... In 2 1/2 months Cooper has become quite the swimmer and longboarder. He had an AWESOME wreck on his longboard, or actually it was my longboard. He and Jake went cruising down the trail in Aliante (the master plan community we live in) and as they headed into the tunnel Coop got scared and steered into the tunnel wall to stop. Needless to say, he came out with some roadrash on his face. Yes, he was wearing a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads. Usually he just
steers into the grass and stops, but apparently he didn't make it to the end of the tunnel or this would've been prevented. Oh well, live and learn. This isn't the best picture, but his face looked pretty cool once it scabbed up. Coop has also been practicing his swimming minus the floaties almost everyday. It's nice that our condo has a pool and my sister who's just a few mintues away has a pool too. We just switch back and forth between the two so we don't get bored. Coop's been working on his front flips (from the high side of my sister's pool) and running front flips. We keep trying to teach him how to dive, but it either ends up in a belly flop or a front flip. I think next year we'll do swimming and diving lessons. The pool is about 6 1/2 feet deep and yesterday Cooper jumped in and touched the bottom of the deep end. Talk about satisfaction, he kept telling Jake he couldn't do it and Jake kept telling him to just try, so he did! He was so happy he kept practicing it over and over again. Last week, Jake took the kids to go swimming and we found out some bad news...the condo pool has had some "vandalism" and they've closed it for 2 weeks until they can get an onsite security guard. Bummer, huh. So we've been heading to my sister's pool instead. She has a saltwater pool, so it's more bouyant than the chlorine pools and I can actually swim with Katelyn on my back. Kate is definitely NOT in for the long haul when we swim. She's usually in for about 45 minutes and she's ready to get out. Lately she's been assuming the lifeguard position...this is what she does when she's done swimming, except she's usually wrapped up in a towel. We've been working on having her go underwater and sending her between my sister and I. I finally got her to float by herself, but she's not a huge fan of it. Hopefully we can get her to do some swimming by herself before summer ends. Swimming lessons will probably be in a couple years for her. My friend Carly has been giving me AWESOME tips on how to teach your kids to swim at home, and it's totally worked so far with both the kids.
Onto our other adventure(s)...last night we went to a putting course at Angel Park. It's a really cute place, with sand traps and water traps or whatever you call it in golfing lingo. I'm not a golfer, but it was fun last night. The kids had a blast and guess what?? Yeah, no one had a camera. For some reason, my sister and I can't seem to remember to bring the camera when we go out. At least we had one a few weeks ago when we went to Spring Mountain Ranch. A friend of mine, Kim, invited me to go there with some other moms and their kids when I first moved to Vegas. Bad news for us, they were in the process of moving out shortly after. Her son and Cooper got along pretty well and I'm sure they would've been great friends if he didn't have to move away. Oh well, maybe by some stroke of luck they'll move back. So we went there with my sister Stephanie, her husband Tim, and their daughter Mackenzie. It was a blast! We brought a little picnic with us and the kids just had fun running around learning to throw a football.
I've gotta get going though. Time for church!! I've made it a goal to NOT be late - especially since I need to sit in the side pews to keep my kids cornered from running off!