Yesterdays Events

Emmy/Snow White

Yesterday I took Emmy to the ballet to see The Nutcracker. She LOVED it so much. During the intermission Emmy was able to take a picture with one of the snowflake fairies! If I had a scanner I would post the picture on the blog... it is super cute. For the last week I had been playing my Nutcracker CD at the house and Emmy has been practicing her ballet to that music. I also sat down and explained to Emmy the plot of the Nutcracker so she would have a better understanding of the ballet when we went. She was very interested (about the mice especially) and had a bunch of questions for me. She also wanted to know what the dancers would be wearing. And when I was at Blockbuster renting a movie for Erik and I, I saw a Barbie Nutcracker movie so I rented that for the kids to watch. Today I heard Emmy humming one of Tchaikovsky's songs... I'm impressed.

Spencer/Cowboy

Spencer and Daddy had a boys day and went to Floyd Lamb State Park. They had a great time together. Spencer was so excited to tell me all about it as soon as I got home. They fed the ducks and peacocks, went hiking, and found pinecones.

Christmas Pictures

Here are seriously just a few of the pictures Erik took. I would have loved to put a picture of every toy the kids got, but Santa was very generous again this year. Emmy came in our room to wake us up at about 7:30 and told me that she didn't think Santa came because she didn't hear him. So we got Spencer up and went downstairs to check... he did indeed make a stop at our house. So then we ate our Santa pancakes, got the kids dressed, and then opened our gifts. Later we had a yummy dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, rolls, and bread pudding with ice cream. The kids had a great day and really loved everything they got this year.

P.S. Yes, it is a real Coach purse not one from Korea!!!

Merry Christmas!

Well, Spencer ended up catching Emmy's cold... ugh. I wanted to do a fun activity indoors since it's "shivery" outside, so the kids decorated a gingerbread house.

This is the finished product.
Tomorrow we will celebrate Christmas and open gifts in the morning since Erik has to work Christmas day. I'm so excited for the kids to open all their presents!!!

Tired Little Emmy

Emmy has a cold and hasn't been feeling the best lately. Yesterday she didn't nap because she was having a hard time breathing with a stuffy nose. So by 6:00 pm she took a 30 min nap on Mama's lap. Poor baby.

She is starting to feel a bit better today and is napping now, so I know she's on the road to recovery. I just hope Spencer doesn't catch a cold now.

Snowy Days

I guess someone in Las Vegas wished for a white Christmas this year. It wasn't me. I thought I left that nonsense behind when I left Alaska. Apparently not. It snowed two days in a row.

These first two pictures are from the first snow... it melted as soon as it touched the ground.

But on the second day that it snowed, it stuck. Erik used all the snow in our back yard to make the kids a snowman.

They were both very excited to go outside and "poke" him is what they wanted to do.

Spencer was really checking him out.

Two happy kids.

Las Vegas Marathon/Half-Marathon

You'll never see the strip this empty unless you run in the Las Vegas Marathon or Half-Marathon. This is the only event that shuts down the entire strip. They started the race off with a few fireworks; I thought that was kinda neat. I had to leave the house at 3:45 a.m. to get to the race; the race started at 6:05 a.m. Yep, I was tired before I even started running the 13 miles. This was my very first race I've ever ran so I thought I'd start big and do the half-marathon. I think I will do this race every year that we're here; Erik wants to run it with me next year.

There were about 13,000 people running so starting off was a bit slow. I didn't even start moving until about 10 minutes after the race started. I really had to pee starting at mile 2 but I wasn't about to stop and wait 10 minutes to use the port-a-potties; the line was so backed up. They defiantly could have used more. All the guys were peeing in the bushes.

I felt pretty good running until about mile 9 when I could feel a blister forming on my toe and my knee started to ache. I am quite happy with my time since my only goal was to finish the race at a decent time for a 30 year old. My time was 2:21:10. Which means for someone my age I'm in the 90% according to the age-graded results. Next year I'll run for a better time not just to finish the race. And if Erik runs with me we can stop at the 5 1/2 mile point to renew our wedding vows... only in Vegas can people get married during a marathon. About 40 couples got married for the first time or renewed their vows during the race this year. They were even handing out wedding cake to us as we ran by. I didn't see anyone stopping for cake.

Erik was at the finish line and he got this picture of me just before I finished the race. I was very excited to see him. I'm the happy girl in the back wearing pink. Below is a short video Erik took of the race.

Happy 4th Birthday Emily!

Here is the castle cake I made for Emmy's birthday this year. I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. to make it for her (thanks Nana for staying up with me).

When I brought her downstairs in the morning to see the cake she just giggled and said "I like it!"

We had friends over at 10:30 a.m. to celebrate rather than in the afternoon because I had to get to bed early so I could run the half-marathon the next day. We had brunch and made all of our favorite breakfast food. The menu was gingerbread waffles, blueberry and lemon poppy seed muffins, mini quiches, Monterrey jack oven omelets, yogurt with fresh fruit, coffee, OJ, and juice. I wanted to make it all myself but it was impossible, so I did have Nana, Papa, and Erik all help. Everything was so yummy!

Emmy was so excited about blowing out her candles.

Cute little birthday girl

Spencer kept licking his lips the entire time I was cutting the cake; he wanted to eat it as much as Emmy did!

Posing for the camera

Happy girl

Emmy received approximately 40 gifts this year. I know it's out of control; I only bought about 7 myself so I am not to blame for spoiling her. She is very loved by our family is all I can say.

Opening one of her first gifts

I was so proud of Emmy for saying thank you to the people that were there after she opened a gift from them, and she addressed them by name. She is very shy about doing those kinds of things so this really made me smile; and everyone really appreciated it.

Half done... so many gifts so little time.

For dinner that night went out to eat with Nana and Papa at TGI Friday's. Spencer was so silly at the restaurant. He's hiding in this picture; can you find him?