Can't believe I'm 31

So my birthday came and went. Nothing exciting this year since 31 is not a very exciting age. I did get to eat my weight in steak so that was fun. Now I'm in my 30's and not just 30. I reflected on the past 31 years and thought about life. I can honestly say I couldn't be happier. I have an amazing husband who is still fun to be around after 13 years. He cooks, cleans, changes diapers, plays with the girls, can do their hair when I'm out of town, takes care of me and the girls, and gives me "me" time. He is also still pretty hot for being 30. I have two beautiful daughters who love me and I have a blast with. I have a fun circle of friends who I can act myself around, great parents and siblings, loyal dog, and enough Coach purses for everyday of the week. Okay, so my vice are purses, but other than that I have a wonderful life. Not that I'm bragging, but I am just grateful for everything I have been blessed with. So it's not so bad being 31 when I see all of the blessings I have in my life. So here is to 31- let's just hope it takes me a long time to turn 32.

Brian and the BIG 3-0

Brian turned 30 on New Years Eve. We celebrated his birthday for four days and it was great. We were so fortunate to have our wonderful friends come from Sacramento and San Diego to help celebrate with us. On Brian's actual birthday we went to dinner with some friends and played The Office board game laughing the entire time. Until Kali woke up and decided to regurgitate her dinner on me. So right before ringing in 2009, I was washing out puke in my hair. That was fun. Poor Kali.
Our friends came in the next day and we had 7 house guests. Fortunately, our neighbor's let us use their empty house to sleep some of them. We hung out at the house on Friday night and reminisced the good ole days while watching Spaceballs and Three Amigos. Saturday we went to dinner, hung out in VIP at Cherry Nightclub at Red Rock Casino. We danced till our legs fell off and watched America's Best Dance Crew winners put on a show. The night ended at VIP in Voo Doo Lounge at the Rio. It has an amazing view of the strip from the balcony, but it was very cold so we took pics and went back inside where we did more dancing. Around 3am we decided to call it a night, or morning. Let me tell you, staying up till 4 am is a lot different now then it was in our 20's. It took us a few days to recover from our lack of sleep.
We are very blessed to have our circle of friends who will put their life on hold to come out for major events. Thanks to Mark, Mike, Dave, the Howards, Flewellyns, Virgil & Elise, and Erin & Mike for making the long journey out here to celebrate with us. Also, thanks to the Brownings, Mundts, Smiths, and Harber's for hanging out with us too. We love you all! Enjoy all the photos, there are a lot.

Dinner at Capos

Dave & Christa Flewellyn

Happy Birthday Babe!

MMMMM, cupcakes

Chris & Samantha Howard
Dave & Carol Browning

Virgil & Elise

Hanging out in VIP

The whole gang at dinner

Dancing with my bro and Mike
Erin & Mike

Get down everyone

Brian & Dave (there were lots of Dave's)

Mark, Mike & Karl

Silly people
why so serious fellas?

The Bro's

Outside of Voo Doo Lounge

Hot sessy ladies

Christmas, came and went

We had a very busy Christmas this year. Not only did we go on the Polar Express, we had a Breakfast with Santa at church, spent Christmas Eve with Friends for a wonderful meal, had friends over for Christmas dinner, and then cleaned the mess. The girls had so much fun this year and it was so nice not traveling. Even though we do not have family in Las Vegas, we have made some wonderful friends to spend the holiday's with. The girls were showered with gifts and Brian and I made out pretty good too. We did take time out to explain to the girls that Christmas is not all about the gifts, but service and giving as well. We did our fair share to give and serve when we could to instill the true meaning of Christmas to our children.

Fun in the snow

Since we got more snow a few days after the first dump, we took the kids to the park and went sledding. The park has a grass bowl that slopes down and we all had a blast. Our friends, Brax, Krew & Ryan met us there to try out our new sleds. All Kali wanted to do was eat snow and Kiki just wanted to go down the hill. You can tell we are warm weather people because the girls were ready to go after only an hour of play. We all had fun and like to 1 to 2 day snow a year.

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