Our visit to Las Vegas - Part Two: Christmas Day and beyond

Christmas Day Dale's sister Sharon and her son Derrick came over for dinner. Also a couple Mariah and Rob - Roy's sister used to babysit Mariah long long ago. We had a turkey and ham dinner and then birthday cake for all of the December birthdays. Then we opened some more presents!

Lighting the candles for Blaise, Brianni, Ashley, Roy and Derrick

Happy Birthday to us!

Even though I love chocolate cake I chose to have tasty cheesecake instead :)

The whole gang at Olive Garden to celebrate Brianni's birthday.

Rae took this picture - it's pretty typical of what we do in Vegas :)

All of the cousins: Kassandra, Brianni, Catrina, Rae and Blaise
Funny, they are posed in order of age but not purposefully.

We left on New Years Eve and had a great flight home. Blaise fell asleep before takeoff. We decided to get a hotel in Kansas City so we wouldn't have to drive home in the dark (and I thought it would be snowy, but there was absolutely no snow) and so we could do a stop at Target to spend some Christmas gift cards! We didn't do anything special New Years Eve, we were all asleep by 10! The next day we did some shopping and got home around 2 in the afternoon. Anyway, there you have it - our Christmas 2008 Vacation :)

Our trip to Las Vegas - Part One: Christmas Eve

Okay, I'm going to wrap up all this Christmas stuff today! On Tuesday, the 23rd my dad drove us to Needles, CA to meet Roy's mom (Baerbel) there and she drove us the rest of the way to Vegas. Roy's sister and her family were already there so we were met with a lot of chaos! We decided to stay in the guest house so that our kids could go to bed early and Blaise could take naps and no one would have to worry about keeping their voices down. It was lovely to stay out there! We unpacked, got settled, ate dinner and put the kids to bed. The next day (Christmas Eve) we heated up the pool and went swimming!

Getting started

After a few minutes in the pool Blaise decided he liked being in the jacuzzi with Opa better!

Jump!

Rae preferred being with Oma and her cousins in the pool.

I would have spent the entire time in the jacuzzi if I wasn't pregnant, so I hung out on the side letting the warm water spill over :)

Back inside the guest house all showered and clean!

And ready for Christmas Eve festivities!

Having a traditional German dinner - bratwurst and German potato salad.


And then following German tradition of opening all of our presents!

The Perske family posing for a picture
(Roy's sister, husband and three daughters)


In this picture she was saying "four" which is how many presents she had so far.

"Is this whole pile for me?" Oma buys a lot of stuff.

We got a lot of great stuff - thank you Oma and Opa! Later today I'll post about the rest of our visit in Las Vegas. We have 1pm church now and it's pretty weird. The mornings are really really long but once we get home it's just dinner and bedtime, so that's kind of nice. So, expect a lot of posts on Sunday mornings! Oh, and just a quick update, it hardly snowed at all the other night and there's currently no snow on the ground - woo hoo!

Lovely day

We just got back from a glorious place. A place where almost all sibling fighting stops. A place where arguing with mommy almost completely ceases. A place where imaginations grow. What is this magical place? The park! It's sunny and 50 degrees today (with hardly any wind) and there's no snow on the ground, so we were able to go to the park for the first time in a couple of months (except for during vacation). It was so fantastic. I pushed the kids on the swings for about 10 minutes and it was blissfully quiet - the only sound to be heard was quiet voices singing a song about flying at the park. They like to make up songs but they usually argue about who gets to sing their version. But this time they both sang their own little version and ignored each other. It almost brought tears to my eyes. I was SO happy to be outside, in the sunshine, in short sleeves!

It's supposed to snow tonight (like, 100% chance -ugh) and tomorrow the high is supposed to be 26, so I'm glad we took advantage of the warm weather! Actually, I think we are going to head back out and ride bikes and color with chalk on the sidewalk. It's too nice to be inside! (the only reason we came home from the park was because mommy had to pee!!) Anyway, I just wanted to share how happy I am to have warm weather today. If you are lucky enough to live in a place where it's NOT snowing and is above 50 degrees I suggest that you take your kids outside! :)

More pictures

Blaise wore this metal bowl as a hat almost everyday.

Ta-da!

Uncle Bryce tolerated a lot too.

HO HO HO!

Blaise and grandpa-clause

Opening a present from G&G. I wish I could sit like that!

Yay, cars!

Rae didn't much care for grandpa-clause

But she had to sit on his lap to get her present!

Not a very appreciative face! She really did like the dress but it was a
little to big on her and she was starting to get really tired that night.
I need to add a couple of safety pins and then it will fit just fine.

Granny reading the book Rae made for her and grandpa

And now showing it to grandpa

The view from outside

My dad works so hard on the lights every year - and the kids really love them!

Our visit to Blythe

We went to Blythe from the 16th-23th. We had to drive to the airport in Kansas City, MO and the weather was pretty bad. It was snowing the entire way and although it was clear enough to drive it wasn't a very relaxing trip. Then we had to park in the economy parking lot and then drag all of our stuff to the shuttle bus. The snow plows hadn't been in the parking lot yet, so we had to carry the kids to the bus stop and then Roy went back and did about three trips to get all of our bags (we only had four, but when you can't roll them in the snow they are harder to carry!) It was SO cold!

We got to the airport and checked in just fine. Once we were on the plane they told us they had to de-ice it and it would take about 10 minutes. Well, it took more like 25 minutes. Ugh. But the kids were good and the flight went well. Oh, except that Blaise pooped and the airplane didn't have a changing table in the bathroom, so I had to change him on our seat! I felt bad for the people around us but it was stupid Southwest's fault anyway. We were late getting to Phoenix but our flight out of Phoenix was delayed too, so that was fine. Yup, that's right, we had to change plans in Phoenix to get to Ontario. We wanted to fly into Phoenix, but it was cheaper to fly into Ontario, but then we had to change plans in Phoenix anyway! Silly.

Anyway, we got to Ontario and my mom and dad picked us up (they got stuck in LA traffic and it took them longer to drive from LA to Ontario than it did for us to fly from Phx to Ontario!) We headed to my brother Aaron's house for some tasty homemade pizza and then back on the road. It was about 8:30 by now, which is 11:30 MO time, so the kids fell asleep pretty quickly in the car. We stopped in Indio for a "quick" trip to WinC0 (oh I miss that store so much!) and then back on the road. I think we got home around 1am and we woke the kids up so they could see the dog and cat :) They played around for a while and then we all went to bed.

It rained the first day in Blythe but the other days were nice and we just enjoyed hanging out with Granny and Papa and going to the park a few times. It was great to be able to go outside! Rae and Blaise LOVED being in Blythe and LOVE their grandparents! On Sunday night we had a fire in the fireplace and an impromptu visit from my dad dressed up as Santa, which ended with us opening our presents from each other. On Monday night I convinced my parents to have our "Christmas Eve pigout" early. Every year we save all of our Christmas goodies that we get from people and on Christmas Eve we put it all out and eat cookies, candy, beef stick, cheese, crackers, popcorn and whatever else for dinner. It was fantastic. :) Yum, yum, yum.

Tuesday morning my dad drove us to meet my inlaws in Needles (halfway point between Blythe and Las Vegas) I'll post later about our visit to Vegas. Here are some pictures from Blythe:

Making a gingerbread house on the rainy day
As you can see the kids were doing more eating than helping!

The finished product. The frosting was really hard to work with and
I gave up after the first few windows :)

Eating the finished product

Roy's way of eating the gingerbread.

Petting Chica

My parents gave Blaise a stuff Barney for his birthday - he is still in love with it

They traded clothes. Blaise's pants make great capris for Rae!

Hanging out in front of the fire

This was Rae's favorite place to be - perched on grandpa's shoulder!
He tolerated a lot during our visit!

More to come later today - I need to go pay attention to my kids!

Home sweet home

We had a great vacation, but it is always nice to get home and sleep in your own bed and have your own space. And one of the best parts about coming home are two kiddos that are so happy to be done traveling and haven't seen their toys for 2 weeks! No need to pull out the Christmas presents yet, they are happy to play with everything that is already here!

More updates to come.

I did not come to Las Vegas to see snow!

It snowed a little bit today. What. the. heck. It is warmer in Kirksville right now than it is here. What a bunch of hooey! At least here the kids have tons of room to run around and lots of cousins to play with! We tried to swim again this morning but it was windy and cold and the pool wasn't as warm as last time and the jacuzzi wasn't warmed up yet. Then this afternoon it snowed a little bit and we all went out in the driveway and rode bikes and played around. Snow that doesn't actually stick is pretty fun i guess :)

Anyway, Roy uploaded our pictures onto his laptop, so I think I'll start working on a slideshow so I can get them all posted at once. But I'll probably wait till the end of our vacation till I post them so I can get everything in there. I hope ya'll had a great Christmas and I hope you all update your blogs soon so I have something to read!

Merry Christmas Eve

We are in Las Vegas now with Roy's family. Roy's mom is German, so we are doing a big German Christmas Eve tonight, complete with present opening and bratwurst.

They heated up their pool this morning and most of us went swimming. It was so fun! It was cold if you got your head wet and then out of the water, but other than that it was nice and toasty warm! The jacuzzi was warmer than the pool and that was Blaise's favorite place to be. Rae was all over the whole pool. Roy stayed on dry land and took pictures. It was really cold when we got out, but we wrapped towels around us and made a dash to the house. We are actually staying in the "guest house" outside, which is really nice because Blaise can take naps in peace and the kids can go to bed nice and early without everyone else in the house having to keep quiet. The guest house has a kitchenette, table, bed and bathroom. It's like having our own hotel room. :) And Roy can go out there to have a quiet place to work. We are having a great time and are sad to think about going back to cold,cold Missouri :/

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve and Christmas day! I'm going to have SO many pictures to post when we get home!

Family get together

My aunt Pat hosted a party last night with my mom's side of the family. Most of Pat's family was there, and two of my mom's other sisters were there with some of their families. And my mom's parents were there too. It was quite a crowd. :) Rae and Blaise had plenty of little kids to play with and a nice big backyard and beautiful weather to play in. They stayed outside for about 2 hours while the adults hung out inside. I think Rae was jumping on the trampoline for a solid hour! It finally got a little too chilly to be outside around 6 and the kids were ready for bed, so that's when we went home. But the party went on for a few more hours! Pat did a "how well do you know your relatives" game where we each drew a name and had to answer the questions about that person. Luckily I got my grandpa and Roy got my aunt Pat (the only aunt he actually knows fairly well) but some of the people there were meeting each other for the first time, so it was fun to hear their answers. It was a great party and I'm glad I got to see a lot of my cousins! Thanks again Pat!

Friday Roy and I got to go on a date! We went and saw "Yes Man" in the theater (we usually only watch action movies in the theater, but this was our birthday present to each other and since we had free babysitters we thought we might as well - it's an okay movie) and went out to eat a La Casita Dos. Yum! My dad even had a card for a free meal for two that he let us use, so that was nice! While we were gone my parents took the kids on a bus ride the city was doing around town to look at Christmas lights. They had fun and didn't miss us much at all! We'll let the next set of grandparents watch the kids too while we are in Vegas so we can go to the temple. I'm glad our kids are at a good age for being babysat! :)

Today we went to church of course and have been hanging out this afternoon. My dad has been followed around by Rae all day and he's probably wishing he could go back to work! :) We are going to have a fire in the fireplace tonight ( even though it's 60 degrees outside right now! Love it!) which Rae is really excited about. I heard we missed an ice storm in Kirksville - oh darn! I'm going to have a hard time going home because it's even colder now than it was when we left!!!

Anyway, sorry no pictures, I'm just too lazy to transfer them from my camera. I'll probably do a whole post with pictures when we get home! :)

Just chillin'

So, we are in Blythe, just hanging out and happy to be in warmer weather. It rained all day yesterday but today was nice and sunny and 50 degrees. :) We haven't done much. Yesterday we went to Kmart for some shoes for Rae (hers broke in the airport on the way here) and my mom got Blaise a birthday present (that will have to be a seperate post). Today we played outside a little bit and went to the park for a few minutes (the slides were still wet from the rain though) Tonight I get to go to Enrichment with my mom and see all the ladies from the ward. (And get a night away from the kids!) Tomorrow Roy and I get to go on a birthday date. I'm thinking Mexican food and a movie. Hmmm, which mexican resteruant should we go to? La Florida might be closed now, I'll have to go check. You can't get very good mexican food in Kirksville (it's not as bad as you'd think though). Anyway, just a quick update. I want to write a post about the present Blaise got for his birthday, but I'll have to find the cord to my camera to transfer pictures first.

Thanks

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! We are off to California - I'll blog when I have time.

Happy birthday Ashley!

No time to talk about how great you are, blah blah. Gotta make breakfast...
Did you get the weather you wanted?

Our family picture - or...finally a picture of my haircut

If you got a card from me and there wasn't a picture in it, let me know. I got a little distracted while doing the cards and may have left the picture out. And if you didn't get a card from us, I'm sorry. I ran out of cards, pictures and stamps before I was able to send them to everyone on my list. :( Sorry. BTW, I'd like your honest opinion about my bangs. Most days I like them but some days I think they look bad. What do you think? Seriously, you can be honest.

Visit with Santa and Happy Birthday Audra!

If you still believe in Santa you might want to skip this post ;)

Okay, let me just start of this post by explaining that we are not a "Santa believing" family. Before we got married Roy approached me with the opinion that we should not do santa in our house. It was one of our first fights and I was pretty upset about it. But he gave me his reasons and it convinced me. Well, so far it hasn't really been an issue. Last year Rae didn't mention Santa much and we were going to be at my inlaw's house and they do a big celebration Christmas Eve (German tradition) and there isn't a big "let's wake up Christmas morning and see what Santa brought!"

This year, however, we've been telling Rae that Santa is just a character, like Barney, and her presents really come from her family. She agrees that the Santa at Christmas parties is just someone dressed up in a costume, but she still believes there is a real santa out there that has a sleigh, reindeer, goes down chimneys, you have to be asleep before he'll come, all that stuff. I guess she watches a lot of tv and reads a lot of books that put these ideas in her head. It's not like we're going to try to avoid all of those "outside influences" all month long!

So, anyway, we just casually mention that all of that stuff is pretend but we aren't really pushing it because it'll probably just make her believe more. Next year we are doing Christmas alone, so it'll be our chance to really discuss it. But this year we get to enjoy that child-like imagination and excitment about Santa but we know we haven't put it all in her head ourselves. :)

(I totally don't have strong feelings about this subject. It's not like I think all the other parents out there are bad bad parents that 'lie' to their children. I just think Santa is too big of a deal at Christmas and there's no reason for kids to be told that he exists when he doesn't. I want Rae to understand that we give her gifts to show our love for her, not that Santa gives her gifts becasue she was good all year - which is never true!)

ANYWAY, on to the point of the post! Last week there was a math department hoilday party and santa came. Rae was so excited but got so nervous when she sat on his lap. She could hardly make eye contact and wouldn't speak to him. Blaise, on the other hand (who I thought would refuse to get near santa) was so excited and talked to santa and wasn't nervous at all. Of course we forgot our camera but someone took pictures of the kids:




I wish we had our camera to get a video of how cute they both were in their different reactions. They'll have another chance tomorrow at the ward Christmas party so I'll remember the camera this time!

By the way, the math deparment party was great! It was nice and casual and small and there was great food and they even had a couple of students upstairs to entertain the kids. Santa (who was a math professor) had a small present for each kid and when they sat on his lap the department secretary would tell him the child's name and how old they were, so it was all very relaxed and personable. No rushing. We had the chance to talk to a couple that used to live in Solano Park (our old apartment complex) 18 years ago when the husband was doing graduate school! What a small world! Anyway, it was fun.

Today is my sister-in-law Audra's b-day. She's a pretty amazing gal. Hope you have a great birthday Audra!

More of the cute kid

Here's a video of us singing Happy Birthday to Blaise. As you can hear, he was singing along. He got phone calls from Oma and Granny and Papa and when they sang to him he sang right along!





It is "warmer" today and most of the snow has melted, so we actually played outside for a little while! (It sure does help when there is no wind!) Rae got to ride her bike and Blaise got to push around the baby stroller. We colored with chalk on the sidewalk and made shapes in the snow with our sand toys. It was so nice to be outside (even if it was only for 20 minutes) and now the kids are a little less crazy and playing together nicely. I hope it's sunny and not windy again tomorrow! Only 5 more days and we are out of here!