George and Catrina's Visit

My brother, George, and his girlfriend now fiance, Catrina, came to visit this past weekend. For a while now I have been trying to plan with George how was going to propose and he decided that he was going to do it while he was here in Vegas. Thanks to my previous post asking for suggestions George thought it would be perfect and unique to propose with Catrina standing in both Nevada and Arizona over the state line on Hoover Dam, so they could say they got engage in two states at the same time. Thursday night I drove out to Hoover Dam to "check out the scene" for George. I've never been out there before so that was neat even though I ended up not turning around in one of the look outs and had to drive for awhile in Arizona.

Catrina standing in Arizona and Nevada

Aren't they soo cute and happy?

We had a great time together this weekend and I think Catrina will fit well into our family. While they were here we had a pizza night that during the middle of it George got to talk to my parents and tell them that he was engaged and getting married October 25. He was very nervous and stressed about what they would say but it all ended up ok.

George on the phone with my parents

Our pizza party while George got to talk on the phone : )

Alexis had fun taking some pictures too!

***ANNOCEMENTS***

Its said by some that bad things come in three well I think good things come in three too right now. I have three exciting announcements:

1) My brother is getting married!! I got to meet his totally cute girlfriend, Catrina, this weekend that now gets to be my new sister-in-law Oct 25. Thanks to everyone who helped with ideas for how George could propose. He decided that proposing in two states was really cool so thanks Karen for the suggestion. As soon as they send me the picture I will post it with this announcement this is a picture of the ring set though.

2) Ariana is wearing panties!! HORRAY!!!!! Potty training this time has been SO EASY. She is still getting the hang of pooping in the potty but she holds it really well and normally waits until she is in a pull up or diaper which means she can wear panties without me having to worry to much about a big mess. I'm so proud of you Ariana!!! Also fun news for Ariana is Miss Lori (our dance teacher) said that Ariana can start dance this week even though she is only 2 1/2 and you are suppose to be 3 to start. What a great reward for being a big girl.

READY FOR THE LAST ONE?
3) We are starting a new biggest losser contest!! My friend Jenny has decided to organize another round of motivating weight loss. Anyone is welcome to join. It starts Monday September 22 and to get in is $20. You can loose weight how ever you like, you weigh in on your own scale each Monday and the person with the biggest percentage of weight loss at the end of the competition wins all the money. Even though I lost the competition during the summer it was the best $20 I've ever spent on getting healthy. If you didn't see my post on the results from the summer I lost 9.14% last time! I think I might start a blog for anyone to publish on for support who would like to join. Just let me know if you are in. I totally am especially since Catrina (my brother's finace) asked me to be a bride's maid in the wedding in 6 weeks.

Enjoying our Last Days of Summer

I am normally the person who is ready for summer to be over but I am actually sad this year that it has ended. We have had such a great summer filled with fun outings and vacations. August especially has been so much fun being filled with family and travel. I love teaching preschool but have been really stressed with trying to get everything together for the start of this preschool year. These pictures are from the last week of August and Labor Day weekend. I'm glad I had these last few days of summer to be with my girls and family. I think we really did make the best summer possible this year!

One More Trip to the Water Park

Aren't they just so cute together? I love that Alexis will hold Ariana's hand and they had so much fun playing ring around the rosies together this day.
Labor Day Weekend Trip to Utah

Everyone had fun playing rock band and Ariana LOVED the drums!

I did it! I've been growing my hair for a long time to donate to Locks of Love and I finally got it cut. I donated just over 10 inches. My curls are all natural too in the after picture with Alexis. I know they kind of look like I took a curly iron to my hair but all it took to get my hair like this was some curl moose and twisting it slightly around my finger while it was wet and whala Nancy has ringlet hair!

Please I need Comments!

Ok, here's the deal my brother is coming in this Friday specifically for me to meet his girl friend soon to be fiance. He wants to propose while he is here and since he is not familiar with Las Vegas wants me to help him pick where he does. My brother, George, is very casual and wants to do it on something as simple as a walk. Where do I send him? The best in the area I am at is this hill, which I love walking because of the city/mountain views and because it is so quiet but the landscape is well... Las Vegas. Any other ideas would be sooooo appreciated so please leave comments!! (I have also told him that I can set up a little table or leave flowers at the top of the hill but so far that is the best I've come up with)
p.s.-If you know my parents please don't tell them because my brother wants to surprise them after he proposes.

Sad news Bounce U is closed...

I was going to take my girls and Rylee to Bounce U today. I got the feeling this morning that I should call because they were closed. I pushed that aside and off we went. Well not only was Bounced U closed for today it has gone out of Business! I'm soo sad and so are my girls. We love Bounce U, it was such a great place to get out of the heat and burn off all that energy. To help not make the day a total let down the girls and I decided that going to McDonald's instead would be ok. They ended up having a great time and by the end there was not one word about Bounce U. (I'm still sad though)

Family Night

I've been saying since I started my biggest loser competition that when it was over I was going to treat my self to a night at Red Robin (my favorite place to go eat) Because I got sick right as the competition ended I delayed going because I wasn't going to pay for a night I couldn't really enjoy. Monday I decided it was time so for family night we took the whole family out to Red Robin.

My girls love the coloring menus.

Ariana kept asking for drinks of Justin's Blue Berry drink and every time she took a sip she would get the funniest look because the drink has a little bit of a sour taste. I tried to catch it several times and this was the closest I got.

Alexis loves taking pictures so she asked to take one of us.

This was hilarious to me. When Alexis was full she said, "I need box for the rest of my food." As you can see from the picture she had a tiny piece of chicken left and 4 carrot sticks. Yep you need a box Alexis ; )

After dinner we surprised the girls with a trip to build a bear. I had a small gift card and so we let the girls play in the store and pick out one small thing for their animals.

Alexis picked a bag of new bows for her Hello Kitty and Ariana picked out a purple polka dot shirt for her bear. It was a fun night for everyone.

3 Weeks of Fun

Yes we have been gone for a long time! We left for Utah on August 1 and got home two weeks latter. Our trip was great and it has been so nice to have a break for a few weeks. The drive up to Utah took us longer than normal and by the time we reached Cedar Hills Alexis was on her third set of panties and shorts. If you haven't guessed why she had TWO accidents in the car! I've never had a problem like this happen driving long distance before. I also got to experience the joy of our first bathroom break on the side of the road in the dirt. Ya, lets not do that again! Those two accidents were just the beginning for her though as she proceeded to have several over the next week because she wasn't taking the time to stop and go potty. Oh well. We did have a great time, so much so that we are going back over labor day weekend. Bellow are some highlights from the last three weeks of our lives.

BOUNCE U

Before we left on our trip I took the girls to Bounce U. Ariana is really into to jumping on anything so Bounce U is great for her now. Alexis favorite is still the giant slide and what would Bounce U be with out a favorite friend? I'm so glad that Alexis has Savannah as one of her "best friends" As close as 4 year old friends can be to sisters is what these two are. It has been so hard for Alexis whenever Savannah has been out of town or we where and she couldn't see her buddy.

THE MOVIES

Alexis has never been to a movie in a theater before so I decided that I would take her and her cousin Ryan to a movie at the dollar theater in Sandy. When my sister-in-law, Kelly, and I were pregnant with these two cuties our due dates were 2 days apart. Kelly got induced a week early and I went over my date by three days so Alexis and Ryan are 12 days apart in age. Aren't they so cute with their enormous bag of pop corn and movie tickets!?! We saw Horton Hears a Who. It was so much fun!

THE DINOSAUR MUSEUM


I have wanted to take the girls to the dinosaur museum in Thanks Giving Point for a while but I hadn't heard great things about it to justify the price. Well apparently every Tuesday in August all the museums at Thanks Giving Point cost $2 to enter so me and two of my sister-in-laws loaded up the kids and off we went. Ok I don't know what we were thinking because you yell cheap in Utah and watch out for the stampede. The lines were huge and inside was extremely crowded. The museum was much better than I thought it would be and Alexis LOVED it. I felt bad for her that I brought her when it was so crowded because I wasn't very patient and both girls had melt downs in the sand box area. (the big kids kept taking all the sand and toys) Ariana also was freaking out because she couldn't get the wet sand off her hands. One of their absolute favorite parts was walking through the dark tunnel that made it feel like you are walking in space with the stars. I think we walked that tunnel at least 6 times (maybe more). Can you tell Ariana was tired by the end?

THE POOL

My sister-in-law Kristin has a fabulous swimming pool that we used several times during our vacation. Ariana hates floaties except for her yellow ring and the green one you see her wearing in the picture. That green floatie is awesome because it has the armbands, the section across the middle and it snaps in the back. If she was to fall in with that on she'd roll right onto her back. Sadly that floatie wasn't Ariana's it was her cousin Austin's so she could only wear it when he wasn't at the pool. It was purchased at wal-mart during the beginning of swim season so if anyone ever sees it in the store let me know! : )

THE CANYON


The last night we where in Utah we all decided to go up to American Fork Canyon. We brought sandwiches, drinks, watermelon and of course stuff to roast marshmellows. We all had a great time. Alexis followed her cousins everywhere but when the two boys who are her age decided to start sliding in the dirt she poked the dirt with her finger brushed her hands off stood back and just watched them get filthy. The bathroom was just a glorified outhouse and of course Alexis had to pee twice and not being a boy who has the luxry of being able to go anywhere we had to use the stinky house. I didn't want her bum to touch the seat so I just kind of held her over it but the first time I didn't aim well and she peed all over my feet and down her leg. Opps! Overall though a great ending to our trip.

THE HAIR CUT

Alexis has been begging for her hair to be cut short for months. I've been dragging my feet because I love long hair on little girls and I like to let me sister-in-law cut our hair. (she's really good) We ended up taking just over 8 inches off her hair. I don't have a good after picture because of course my camera ran out of batteries and I haven't replaced them since this night. I am still in shock at how short it is but Alexis loves it and it did turn out pretty cute.












BIGGEST LOSER
While in Utah I was able to visit with lots of old friends. It was great seeing them all. I am horrible at picking up the phone or writing so it is really nice when I get to see friends in person and catch up. One of my dear friends is Jenny who got me into the Biggest Loser contest. We both worked really hard and did great! I visited her the Monday before our last weigh-in and her husband told her to purposely get fattening food for lunch since it really was down to me or her by the end. To bad Jeremy that when you invite someone over for lunch you eat the same food as them ; ) The final weigh-in was on Monday August 11 and the Saturday before I started my period, total bummer because you naturally weigh more during your period, and Sunday I started getting sick. I did manage to still have a 2.5lb loss that week so I was happy about that. The results... I lost 9.14% and Jenny lost 9.41% Didn't we do great? (sorry I am slightly proud of myself that I was able to stick with it) That was the best $20 I have ever spent on weight loss. Now I just need to get going again but being sick and trying to return to normal life after vacation has totally thrown me off.