I honestly had no idea it has been so long since I posted. Oops.

Pat and I decided that after 5 years of marriage we should take a vacation, just the two of us. Then milk prices went to pot, so we waited a year and headed to Vegas for our 6 year anniversary. We knew Vegas wasn't the warmest spot, but it typically averages in the 50s or 60s in January. Heck, compared with the -12 it is today, that's heavenly. Only thing is, it snowed. In the desert. While we were there. Granted, it melted right away and it was still warmer there than here, but I was really looking forward to shedding my coat for a couple of days.

Despite the cold, we had a great time. Vegas was a nice city to visit, once, but there are other places I would like to see before we go back. We did a lot of wandering around the strip, checking out all the hotels and shops. Here we are at NY NY with the jelly bean statue of liberty.

We also took a day and rented a car to head out to the Hoover Dam. The Dam was impressive, but I was most impressed with the by-pass bridge that was just finished last year. The pictures do not do it justice. It is absolutely massive.
My biggest disappointment was that everything had a fee. It was $7 to park, $8 to get inside the visitor's center, $30 for the tour, $11 for the power plant tour. Really? I guess Nevada is trying to get their half of the bridge paid for.

After the Dam, we headed back to Vegas, drove down the strip, went to the outlet mall, and the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop. The place is tiny, much smaller than it looks on TV.

We also made time to take in a couple of shows. The first night we saw Blue Man Group, which I would definitely see again. The next night we headed to Cirque du Soleil. I don't have a desire to see it again, but it was definitely worth seeing once. Just the fact that the 7 different stages move up and down 9 stories, rotate and tilt beyond vertical is one thing. It's a completely different thing to watch people perform while those stages are moving and tilting. At one point there was a fight seen while the stage was completely vertical. Wow. Click the link and watch the trailer. It really is that impressive.

At any rate, it was a good trip. We got home, got our mud room remodel mostly done, and I started student teaching the following Monday. I'll blog about that later, maybe :)

Christmas Recap

Christmas week was very hectic. My parents came out Wednesday night so they could attend Cole's preschool program the following morning. Cole was less than thrilled to stand next to L~ because, as he claims, she hurts his ears.
Friday morning was church program practice, followed by the real deal that night. The kids did a fantastic job. Our program this year was really neat. It started with the creation and fall of man, the reason for God sending his son, and ended with the crucifixion and Christ's resurrection. It was a simple program but was so much more than Mary, Joseph, and the Baby.

Following the program, we let the kids open a couple of presents. This was Tate's favorite, although his face doesn't show it.
Christmas morning was spent watching Toy Story 3 in their new Christmas jammies.
I hope your Christmas was wonderful and that your New Year will be too.

Puppy+Christmas+Remodel=Insanity

Don't get a puppy at Christmas time. It started off all fine and dandy, but Angus is growing daily. He is much more playful now, which means chewing. He loves shoes, socks, ornaments, anything and everything on the floor. "Angus, NO!" is heard often in our house. He's fun, and Cole loves him, so I guess we're stuck. Anyway, who wouldn't love that face?This week our goal was to get our mudroom remodel completed. Pat ripped out the closet and we got our new cabinets in. It only took us about 3 days, and that's including some plumbing issues and cabinet problems. Turns out our plumber does not believe in shut offs. That should have been an easy fix, but he apparently also does not believe in standard sizes. A nicked pipe and three trips to the hardware store later we got the water problems solved. Then it was time to install the cabinet and new sink. Did you know that kitchen cabinets are deeper than bathroom cabinets. We did not, which led to trimming our stainless steel sink down so it would fit. Then the new cabinet is taller than the last one which meant cutting part of the new counter top off. I was not happy. We very specifically told them we wanted standard height, not counter height, but we didn't have time to wait so it's installed. The next screw up we discovered was that they ordered the wrong size counter for our bench. It's too short. Pat wanted to just trim the edge so it would fit, if they would knock off some of the cost. I said no way. That's their second screw up, they are fixing that one. For crying out loud, we only ordered 4 cabinets and they messed up 2 of them. That's not a good record in my book. It does look nice though, except for the mess...
We need to get a new medicine cabinet, hence the boxes of drugs on the bench. The boys are enjoying the new sink. If you ever need to get a kid to wash his hands more often, put in a new sink.

Christmas recap to come, I promise!