When you want something really bad...

Have you ever wanted something REALLY bad? Something you knew you didn't NEED but you still WANTED? We found a beautiful home that we really wanted but didn't exactly need. The home is over 4,100 square feet, has a pool, granite counter tops, dark wood upgraded cabinets, vaulted ceilings, open floor plan, and much more. It was pretty close to what we would pick out if we built a custom home. Why in the world were we looking at a home this big? Get this: it is only $67 square/ft. Killer deal. We almost made an offer but decided to wait and look for something smaller and with a lower asking price. I guess we don't exactly need five bedrooms for just the two of us:)

Now that we've seen this home, nothing compares to it unfortunately. It is hard to find a home in Las Vegas in a great neighborhood that doesn't have ridiculously high HOA fees. Another downside of Las Vegas homes are the lot sizes. TINY. Most homes don't have grass and rather desert landscaping. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever find a home that we like the interior, exterior, neighborhood, lot size, HOA fees, and price. We are really picky so I have a feeling it might be awhile until we find that perfect home. On the upside, it's a great time to buy a home in Las Vegas! It is exciting to be house hunting!

Blue Man Group

Our friends Greg & Mollie had FREE tickets to Blue Man Group and invited us! We had great seats on the first floor towards the front. It is a very random and unique show but lots of fun. My favorite thing about the show is the audience participation and interaction. I liked it when the Blue Men would come into the audience. One of them made eye contact with me from afar and walked right up to me and just stared at me for a few seconds. I thought he was going to call me up on stage! At the very end of the show the whole audience gets toilet papered. Mollie and I grabbed some toilet paper and stuffed it in our purses for souvenirs (hence the toilet paper in the pictures). We thought the show was fun and entertaining but not worth $75+ a ticket (that's what tickets go for)! Definitely worth it for free though!


Horrible picture of me (I was laughing at something) but I had to post it because we are with the blue man! Mollie and I are a pretty big deal.We went to the late show so it wasn't until 12:30 a.m. on a weeknight that we were on our way home from the strip. Greg insisted that we stop at In-N-Out for milkshakes and wear our hats the rest of the way home. Greg and Mollie are hilarious and we've had lots of fun hanging out with them lately. We were tired the next day but it was definitely worth it:)

Clippers

Remember this post when Niel got a $70 dollar haircut? Shortly after that, Niel told me he wanted to buy clippers and have me cut his hair. I thought it sounded fun and like a good idea. Christmas time rolled around and I bought Niel a complete home haircut kit from Costco. After Christmas, Niel kept putting off his much needed haircut. It seemed he was getting cold feet about me cutting his hair. One day he even tried to sneak off to Great Clips but I told him that wasn't an option since we already bought him a nice kit. I reminded Niel that it was his idea for me to cut his hair. Reluctantly, he let me do it. Ok...the truth is I pretty much made him sit in the chair, wear the plastic thing, and let me cut his hair.

I was a first timer at this haircutting business so it was a learning experience for me. It kinda freaked Niel out when I would stop to read the directions and look at the pictures for 'First time hair-cutters'. I couldn't help but laugh the majority of the time while cutting his hair. Niel on the other hand didn't think it was too funny. I thought I did an excellent job, especially for my first haircut. I may have cut it too short behind the ears and made a weird cut on the right side of his head, but besides that it looked great. Niel wasn't too happy though and told me to buzz the whole thing with clippers.

Me: "Are you sure??? No way. I'm not doing that."

Niel: "Just do it, it can't look any worse. Then it will all be the same length"

We continued to go back and forth until finally I gave in

Me: "Just remember I tried to talk you out of this. It looks just fine right now."

(Here is the picture before I took the clippers to his head. It looks pretty good right?)

So I did as he asked and took the clippers to his head. Turns out, he actually liked it once he got used to how short it was. Looks like I will be his permanent stylist now.

Leader of the Pack

Well, I finally have a new church assignment. Prior to receiving my new church assignment I said to Niel, "They better not ask me to be the wolf woman or den woman...or whatever that is called." Obviously, I didn't know anything about Boy Scouts except for the fact that the women who help out had weird names that involved bear names and the sort. So...I was asked to be the Webelos Den Leader for the Cub Scouts program. NNNNOOOO!!! That was my initial reaction. Who wants to work with a bunch of rowdy ten year old boys trying to get scout badges? Do I look like the type? Besides I didn't know ANYTHING about boy scouts.

But, it might not be too bad after all....in fact, I might even enjoy it. My friend Molly was asked to be a joint Webelo Leader with me and I can tell we will have a great time. We've already had two pack meetings and this week we have our first den meeting (see I'm already speaking cub scout). Our first pack meeting I heard lots of the following words: poop, fart, etc. Don't worry, we are going to whip those boys into shape. Just don't count on me EVER being seen wearing the scout uniform:)

Junior High Flashback

We had such a fun time ice skating in Washington that we decided to find an ice rink in Las Vegas. All the desert folk must have had the same idea because the rink was packed. When we first got there it wasn't too bad but an hour or so later it was crammed with hundreds of junior high kids. We felt a little out of place but we still had fun. Our new friends Courtney & Cameron came with us.

Phantom

Niel's family came to visit a few weeks ago. Initially, just his mom and dad were planning on coming but his three sisters and their families ended up visiting also! These are the fun things we did while they visited...

• Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory Friday night
• Homemade breakfast burritos by Aaron
• Shopping at the outlet malls
• Bodies exhibit at the Luxor
  

Then...we went to The Phantom of the Opera

It was amazing. I had seen it before in Seattle but this was Niel's first time. The effects in Las Vegas are awesome...especially when the chandelier comes together in the opening scene. The best thing about the Phantom of the Opera is the music. I think Phantom has the best music of all the Broadway plays. I could see it over and over. If you haven't seen it yet, plan to go see it at least once in your lifetime.

The Whole Clan

After staying two nights in Leavenworth, we headed back to my parents house for a family photo. I'll be honest...I was a little worried about the family photo shoot considering there are twelve grandchildren under the age of ten. Last time we attempted a family photo (my wedding) there were babies screaming, children trying to run away, etc. We were amazed that all of the grandchildren cooperated for the most part. The edited photoshop version is still in process...here is the original.

Jericho: Are you yawning?

Paul: I love that you are doing the 'Stanley' faceBrannen: Did you miss the memo about this being the silly picture?
As soon as we finished the family photo, Niel and I had to say our goodbyes and catch our plane back to Las Vegas. It was a wonderful Christmas vacation. Thanks for making it such a fun and memorable Christmas Mom & Dad!

Sledding

The second day of our stay in Leavenworth, we went sledding at Enchanted Park.

Tyler, Lori, Tiffani, David, Trent & Todd

Me & Trent

Us

Tyler & Trent

Ben

After sledding we warmed up at Gustav's for a yummy lunch. Lunch was followed by a nap, shopping downtown, and games.

Leavenworth

After ice skating, we drove to Leavenworth and checked into our hotel. My whole family was there except for my brother Brent. That made a total of 23 of us! We all stayed in a cozy hotel that is walking distance from downtown (I think our family filled up a quarter of the hotel).

This is the third time our family has gone to Leavenworth during the holidays. I love Leavenworth at Christmas. It is a Bavarian style town with lots of snow, evergreen trees, mountains, beautiful lights, festive shops, boutiques, candy stores, horse carriages, etc.
The first night we got there, we had a pizza party followed by a white elephant gift exchange at our hotel. Niel and I came away with some decent gifts. Niel got a medicine ball (which he uses daily) and I got a tropical calendar (that continually reminds me we need to go on a tropical vacation again). Afterwards we played games. Having a big family is so much fun:)

Ice Skating

On Monday, following Christmas my family packed up their bags and headed to Leavenworth, WA to stay for two nights. On our way to Leavenworth, we stopped in Wenatchee to go ice skating. It was lots of fun. Niel is a really good ice skater so he helps the nieces and nephews around the rink. It is really fun to see them catch on to it.Lori & Trent
Sister-in-law Lindsay and her son Ethan. Turns out that Ethan is a really good ice skater and he loves it! He was amazingly coordinated on the ice, especially for a four year old. I laughed every time I watched him cruise around the rink because he was going pretty fast.
Tiffani & me
Austin Lori, David and Tiffani
Me, Tiffani, and Niel

Little Ben. He was too little to skate this year, but he watched intently the whole time on Grandpa's lap.

Niel and I hadn't been ice skating for about two years. We forgot how much fun it was so we decided we'll find an ice skating rink in Las Vegas.

Christmas 2009

Here are some pictures from Christmas day at my parent's house in Washington. We slept in, saw what Santa brought us, ate food, relaxed, played with toys, and ate more food. I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are the ones I got. There will not be any photos of Niel and I from Christmas since we were both looking pretty shabby.

This is my nephew Ben. He melts me heart, especially when he smiles. Even though this is a poor quality picture, I still had to post it.

Ben, sister-in-law Lindsay, and Ethan

Ethan with his stocking and wearing his Christmas pajamas

Ethan and McKay with the gingerbread house and train I helped them make. Let me tell you...it takes patience making a gingerbread house with a 4 & 5 year old. Somehow I get nominated every year to help the kids with the gingerbread house. That is OK though, I think it is fun.

My mom with some of her grandsons on the couch.

Here is my Dad showing his enthusiasm for receiving Sarah Palin's new book. It was autographed by Sarah Palin herself.

A Christmas Miracle

This year we planned to spend Christmas with my family in Washington. I had been looking forward to it all year especially since all five of my siblings and their families would be there.

Niel was scheduled for a half day at the clinic on the 23rd. Unfortunately, they overbooked his schedule. I got really nervous when he still wasn't home from work ten minutes before we were supposed to leave for the airport. At that point I called him to make sure he was almost home. Niel told me he still had three more patients to see and he still had to dictate all of his notes.

Luckily, Niel left the clinic shortly after and they rescheduled his patients. We were still running half an hour behind schedule since he got home so late. I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to pack everything for both of us and getting our winter clothes out of the storage unit. We dashed off to the Las Vegas airport in a mad rush. Naturally, we hit really bad traffic on our way there. It was our first time flying out of the Las Vegas airport so we didn't know where to go. The automated telephone directions said to take the wrong exit. First we took the wrong exit and then once we got turned around we went the wrong way to long term parking. By the time we parked in long term parking, took the shuttle to the terminal, and walked to our ticket counter (last ticket counter on the opposite end) our plane was scheduled to depart in ten minutes. To make matters worse, my bag was overweight so I had to shuffle everything around. The lady at the ticket counter told us all flights were overbooked to Washington until Christmas morning. She said we could try standby on the next flight which was overbooked and had 10+ people on standby ahead of us.

That is the point when I completely lost it (I had already lost it previously). Full blown breakdown at the ticket counter as I realized spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family in Washington might not happen after all. We decided to take our chances and go on standby on the next couple flights. Our other option was to buy additional tickets through Southwest. We didn't get on the first flight on standby but somehow we managed to get on the next flight to Seattle. There were two open seats on the connecting flight from Seattle to Spokane with thirty minutes in between flights. We were running from one terminal to the next to make our connector flight. We made it to Spokane at midnight and were amazed to see our bags had somehow managed to make it also.

By 3:00 a.m. we were safe and sound in Quincy, Washington. I really felt like it was a Christmas miracle that we made it to my home in Washington after missing our original flight less than 48 hours before Christmas. Here is a happy photo of us at my parent's house taken after we had recovered from the not-so-happy traveling fiasco.

Vegas Bowl

A friend of ours from Utah was going to get us tickets to the Vegas bowl but last minute he wasn't able to make it. We were bummed we wouldn't be able to go. But on game day, Dr. Tingey called Niel after work and said he bought him a ticket on the eighth row and fifty yard line. Niel was stoked.
While Niel was at the game, my friend Paige called to tell me she saw Niel on TV! Yep, that husband of mine was on ESPN:)

Guess who's getting married...

Camille!!!

My long-time buddy from growing up in Washington is getting married to her high school sweetheart of six years! Bryan proposed on Christmas Day:) We went to the Quincy alumni basketball tournament together and then had dinner at Zack's with Niel and Bryan on the 26th. I was so excited he proposed while I was in Washington so that I could see her afterwards! Her ring is blingin' and she is so happy. I can't wait for her big day! Congratulations Camille!

Photo Shoot

While in Utah, we did a photo shoot in Saratoga Springs with some of Niel's family. Niel's sister Michelle is a photographer so she took the pictures.
Niel's sister Michelle, her husband Aaron, and kids: Shannon, AJ, Jaden, & Brianna
Michelle & Aaron

Niel's sister Sonya and boyfriend Jason

Us

Get ready...

For tonight's season premiere of

The Bachelor

I was a little disappointed when I found out Jake was going to be the next Bachelor because I was hoping Kiptyn would be. But, Jake seems like a genuinely nice guy even though he can be a little cheesy and over the top at times. I'm just wondering where the good drama will come from? We will see tonight...are you as excited for the season premiere as I am?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Niel drew this picture for our Christmas card this year. Don't worry, we haven't actually taken up gambling while living here in Las Vegas. Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a great New Year. Something tells me 2010 is going to be a good year.

HO HO HO

Look what Santa brought us this year...

It rocks. Santa is a good man.

Fake or Real?

Real.

Every year we go pick out a real Christmas tree. Our apartment is so small we had to get a little tree in order for it to fit. I thought it was a perfect little Christmas tree though and it smelt great. It was really cold that night in Las Vegas when we went to pick out our tree. We are turning into total pansies when dealing with cold weather. I think it was around 40 degrees and we were shivering (notice my frigid stance in the picture). I remember making fun of the people from CA & AZ at BYU who would complain about it being cold in Utah when it was like 40 or 50 degrees. Now we are turning into one of THOSE people.