Polar Express Train Ride

We traveled to Williams AZ, where we got to take a train to the North Pole. We all got dressed in our jammies and snow boots and were ready for the fun. It was snowing a lot and it was very cold. We had a blast. The girls loved playing in the snow and seeing Santa while he gave them a bell. We sang Christmas songs, had hot coco and cookies, and enjoyed family time. At the end of the day, we were all very tired, but the girls were very hiper from all of the sugar. It took them awhile to calm down and go to sleep. It was a great trip and we look forward to doing it again next year.

mmmm, yummy

Kali w/hot coco

Excited to see Santa

The Fam on the train

Girls playing in the snow

Girls had so much fun

Resting after all of the fun

They are so happy

Blurry Santa shot

My Clark Griswald

Brian loves to decorate for Christmas. He spent 4 days outside setting up the house. After a few hiccups with "not enough power" to hold all the lights. He finally plugged half the house to the neighbor's outlets, part outside and part inside, he finally got it to work. Next year, we need to get more wattage or whatever to the outside outlets. Go Brian! You did a great job!

Let it snow...in Vegas?

The last thing you think you will see is a snow storm in the desert. We woke up this past Monday morning to snow. It was very exciting since it has been 4 years since it snowed here. Luck would have it, we were just packing up to go to the snow to ride the Polar Express train in AZ. We did get to play in the snow and the girls had a blast.

Our park on the way out

Hello snow

Our first glimpse of snow

Happy Turkey Day...mmmm turkey

My parents and two of my siblings (Jacob & Sara) came down for Thanksgiving. I love to cook and love to eat turkey so I was excited to cook a large meal. We all hung out and watched movies, relaxed and I taught Sara how to make bows. The turkey came out beautifully and the dinner was a success. I was so proud I had to take a photo of it. Friday night we all went to Opportunity Village (a non-profit org. that has a Christmas mini carnival) to take in the lights and festivities. There is a mini train ride that we normally go on that was broken half the time. Unfortunately it took us over an hour to ride the 3 minute train. Oh well, we enjoyed the cool night and hot coco. The kids left happy and tired and that is all that matters. Of course I needed to be happy too so we stopped off at In-N-Out and I got myself a burger. Hey, if this is my weekend to eat crappy, I'm going to enjoy it!

Isn't that yummy looking!

Auntie Sara and Kiki having fun

Grandpa, Uncle Jacob and the girls hanging out

Kiki and Uncle Jacob in a snow man

We waited over an hour for this, you better enjoy it!

Hot coco...mmmm

Mommy, Daddy, and the girls in the Santa Hat.

Of all the things I could pass on to my children, why this?

Kali woke up the other morning after coughing all night with very short breaths. As soon as I got her from her bed it hit me, she has asthma. She has had a few breathing problems before but nothing too serious. Kali sounded really bad so I wanted to hurry and take care of this before she got any worse. After dropping Kiki off at school, Brian and I brought Kali in and my fear was confirmed, I gave Kali my asthma. It's not like I did it on purpose, but it still sucks because I know how she feels. Think of trying to take a deep breath but only through a straw, not fun. Anyway, we had to give her two breathing treatments in the doctor's office and each one took about 10 minutes. She screamed the entire time except for the first minute. Poor Kali. She is now used to it and it breathing much better. She actually likes to hold the mask herself, but only while watching Yo Gabba Gabba- I love that show!

Hi Mom, I'm on TV

I had an opportunity to attend a taping of the Ellen Show this past Friday with some friends. It was so awesome. It was held at the Caesars Palace Colosseum where there was over 4,000 people there. My friend, Breque, used her charm and personality to score us upgraded seats in the center, front row! I was so excited to be a few feet away from the stage where we rocked out to Pink and also got to see Bette Midler and a magician, Hans Klok- (I think that was his name). I also got to dance on stage preshow and got a shirt that says "I danced with Ellen." The cool thing is now I can say I danced on the same stage as Celine Dion, Cher, Elton John, and Bette Midler in front of 4K people. I was only able to attend because Breque got the tickets, my friend Jenni watched the girls until Brian got home and then he fed them dinner and took care of them till I got home. I would like to thank you all for your help. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I had a blast! As soon as I get photos from Breque, I will post them. The show airs Monday the 24th, (tomorrow) so set your TiVo or DVR and check it out and try to spot me in the audience. I'm in a black shirt and jeans. So I just watched the show and we were shown on there at least eight times. Hollywood, here I come...haha

Why? Why? Why?

I have finally reached the "Why" stage with Kiki. I thought I would have at least another six months before I have to answer her questions with more than just a one or two word answer.
"Don't jump off the couch."
"Why?"
"Because you will hurt yourself."
"Why?"
"Because you will hit your head and the impact will knock you out."
"Why?"
"Because the there is this little thing called gravity that pulls you to the ground when you jump off things."
"Why?"
"Go ask your father."
"Why?"
"Because I said so."

I love it!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

This Halloween season, if you can call it that, was great. The girls got to wear their costumes at least four times this past month with Halloween parties, school parties, Trunk or Treats and of course, Halloween night. Brian and I also got to dress up our fair share of times. Who knew that when we were getting ready for school in 1985, we would be wearing our wardrobe for Halloween costumes over 20 years later. I actually remember doing my bangs and got just a little excited to rat up my hair again. The girls got enough candy to last until next Halloween and had so much fun eating their hearts desire with chocolate and suckers. I scarfed down my fair share of peanut butter cups and then gave up chocolate for three weeks. I know, I'm crazy. All in all, we had a lot of fun and we even won 1st place in our neighborhood's decorating contest. All the credit goes to Brian, good job babe! Only a few more weeks until the Christmas decorating begins. Go Clark Griswold!

MMMMM, Candy

I think I got a little chocolate on myself

I'm three

I finally did it!

I've been meaning to start a blog for a long time, but I wanted to wait until now to start. Why? Who knows. Maybe it's because I always thought "blog" was a stupid word. Or maybe it's because Brian is downstairs playing Call of Duty on his PS3 with his friends and I can't watch my DVR shows because it's all connected to the same TV. When the kids go down for the night, I want nothing more than sit in front of the TV and watch mindless shows and movies. I'm going and going all day and this is when I have my brain break. Since I am a nice and understanding wife who wants nothing but her husbands happiness, I don't mind him playing so now here we are. I think the main reason I am doing this is because we live so far from our family and our hometown friends, we want them to know what goes on in our daily...or monthly lives. For the first time in my whole life, I am blogging. I hope you enjoy our fun and crazy life. This is The Drennan Crew

Brian and Kristal

We are like any average couple. We met in high school, dated shortly after, went to college in different cities while still committed, graduated college, got engaged, and after eight years of dating, we got married. Now it's been almost 13 years since Brian asked me to our first date, his Junior Prom. Little did I know that I was not only saying, "yes" to Prom, but I was also saying, "yes" to spending the rest of my life with this man...boy...but now man. Okay, so maybe we didn't do things the traditional way, but it works for us. We met in Sacramento, got engaged in San Diego, then moved to Las Vegas where we have been almost five years. We have three beautiful girls. Keira, who is three, Kallissa is a year and a half, and Obi-Wan, our yellow Lab is four. We love to travel and spend time as a family. Our kids are our life and we wouldn't have it any other way. We have been told that Brian and I are perfect for each other. We get along pretty well but we do have our disagreements. Like...um...um...oh, what TV show to watch first or what movie to watch at night. We even argue about who gets to hold the remote so we can fast forward through the commercials. Well we are not perfect, but we learned over the past 13 years that communication is the key to a healthy relationship and we both help each other out to make things easier. We both left our selfish behavior behind us when we got married and had children. This is not a "we are better than everyone" spiel, we just like people to know that you can have your differences and have a healthy relationship at the same time. And trust me, we do have our differences. Although we are both a little geeky. Who else do you know names their female dog a male name just because they love Star Wars?

They make their mama proud!

I enjoy dressing my girls alike, so shoot me.

Kristal's Girl's trip

Oh yeah, I do get to have a pass too. I got to go to Portland, OR with my younger sis, Rachel. Why did we choose Portland? Long story, but we went anyway. We didn't get to see a lot of what Portland had to offer so most of our photos were of us acting goofy. We had no car and we stayed downtown. But this was one great trip. For one, I got to spend quality time with my sister. We enjoyed going shopping and eating our hearts desire in steak at Morton's Steakhouse. We also spent 5 hours at a spa receiving massages, facials, pedicures, and make-up applications. Later that evening we attended a fashion show for Portland's own Fashion Week. What can I say about it, it's Portland. We found ourselves at a club dancing the night away feeling a little out of place because we were the only ones dressed from head to toe. But that didn't bother us because our dance moves were so awesome we had quite a few spectators. Finally, we spent a whole morning in bed eating room service before we had to catch our flights. No one to be responsible for but me, no one to remind to use the potty, (well I did ask Rachel a few times out of habit) it was a nice weekend. But I did miss my family and I must say that I have one amazing husband. I don't know many husbands who will let their wife go away for the weekend and take care of the kids. Brian had fun with the girls and he even did their hair everyday. I am very proud and blessed to have Brian as my husband.

Brian's Seattle Trip

Since I am the one writing this blog, I will tell you my perspective of Brian's "guy trip" to Seattle. He went with his BFF Dave and had fun. The End. Okay, I'll give you a little more. Once upon a time, in a magical city of Las Vegas, there lived a King. This King started a new job ruling over a different specialty from the land of Oncology to the land of Rheumatology. This had been very stressful on the King. One day, the beautiful Queen granted the King a leave of absence to travel the land with his most trusted companion, squire Dave. They chose to travel to the far away land of Seattle, WA. They dined, explored and visited with an old chum, Aaron. After a few days, the King missed his fair Queen and his little princesses and returned home. The King was refreshed from his journey and ready to rule the land of Rheumatology once again. Yeah I know, it's corny, but if Brian wants to, he can tell the story himself.

Slumber Party...sort of

For those of you who know us well, you know we are always very busy. I am a "stay at home" Mom, but I have a hard time staying at home. After a busy couple of weeks, I woke up one morning and just didn't feel like doing anything. I decided to have a slumber party during the day with the girls. We staying in our jammies all day and blew up the mattress in the living room and made a bed to watch movies and just hang out. I made popcorn, hot coco, and the girls helped me make cupcakes. They loved licking the beaters. It was nice taking some time out and just hanging with my girls. We had a great time and I think this will have to become an activity we do more often.

Keira's First (and Second) Day of School

I was not planning on sending Kiki (aka Keira) to preschool this year because she just turned three in the summer and I was going to wait until she was four. For some unknown reason, Kiki started to tell me she wanted to ride a school bus and go to school . After a lot of thought and research for a school, I found one that is perfect for her. Kiki attends a gymnastic/dance school twice a week. She goes to 45 min of gymnastics on Tuesdays and then an hour and a half of learning and 45 min of tap/ballet Thursdays with learning after. Since Kiki has a hard time focusing her attention on one thing for more than a few minutes at a time, this was the best fit. She is a ball of energy that has not napped in over a year and she will keep going all day until she goes to bed. She loves to go to school and is learning a lot. It's also nice that I get to spend more quality time with Kali (aka Kallissa) while Kiki is in school.