Christmas

Christmas this year was extra special for our family. It was our first Christmas with our amazing blessing, Lilly.

Santa was good this year, better than I thought he was going to be able to be, infact. Ryan was excited about his gifts, and was very sweet in helping Lilly (read: doing it for her) open her gifts. He is one of the best big brothers I've seen. he loves his baby sister.

I got hubby the playstation move, and both of them new games to go with it.

And Santa brought Ryan his nerf gun he has been asking for. He must have been a good boy this year :-)

He was really excited to get his starwars lightsabers. I mean, really excited.

We were surrounded by awesome family all day. Bobby's dad and step mom came over in the morning to bring the kids even MORE stuff and visit for a while. It was really good to see them.

Next up we went over to grandma's house! Carol and Jon prepared a beautiful and delicious ham. Erika and I helped with the side dishes. we were all stuffed! Good food + family is always awesome.

Later, we went to visit Nana and Dumps. We had a full day this year, that's for sure. There they got even MORE... man, talk about ranking in this year. They SURE did! We spent a nice evening over there and enjoyed the company and laughs.

This Christmas was probably one of my favorites so far. I know, we have many more to go, but it was truly just a wonderful day, spent with the people we love the most.

Christmas Lights

Just before Christmas this year, we went Christmas light hunting! One of my friends had stumbled uppon a house with hundreds of thousands of lights. Not kidding.

They have over 100,000 LED lights. They have a working ferris wheel that is all lit up. They begin putting up lights before Halloween! The couple who do it are older, 68 to be exact. Do you know of anyone of that age that can accomplish this? It's quite amazing.

They have music all corresponding with the lights that blink and dance. It's quite amazing. I'm trying to upload a video but blogger isn't letting me. I'll try to come back and add it later. We will definitely be going back next year!

We went to a few other houses, but none compared to this house!

Cosmopolitain

Bobby recently got a new job doing valet at the Cosmopolitan casino on the strip. We were so excited when he got the news! It was such a huge blessing, as he got to quit working at FedEx finally. That job was back breaking and he hated it. Cars are his thing, so getting to drive an array of different cars every night is right up his alley. It's good to see him enjoy what he is doing and I'm so proud of him. We still have our school open, that isn't impacted at all, so it works well for now.

Just before their big grand opening, they had to do a dry run of all the employee's. The held an event during the weekend where all the employees got to bring one person and enjoy the 'package' that they picked. Every employee picked a 'package'. Each package was different. Some had nights stay in a room, some had valet parking, different resturants were in each packet, and everyone got a different amount of money (play money hehe) to gamble with. Bobby drew a package that gave us $1,000 each to gamble with, and dinner at the best steak house in the world. Not kidding, this steak house STK, is rated #1 steak house in the world right now.

We had reservations at STK and we were both READY. We get there, and low and behold, our reservation was canceled. :-( apparently, they had overbooked. So they randomly canceled people. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement. They told us we could go to any other place for dinner. We settled on a nice burger place. Food = awesome. I had a great burger as did Bobby. Their milkshakes are to die for. Soooo yummy.

After dinner we took a tour of the WHOLE place. Well, Bobby played tour guide, as he had been there every day through every inch of the place for weeks at that point. The pool area is BEAUTIFUL. Absolutely gorgeous. It's on the roof, so you have a view of the strip from up high. I can't find pictures I took of it on my phone. I think those pictures are part of the bunch that I lost with this last restore of my phone :-/. I'm sure you can look online for some pictures of it. There are like 3 different levels of pools. The main pool area is the biggest and they put concerts on out there. Then there is a smaller area but just as beautiful, then you go really upstairs and there is a beautiful pool with jacuzzi's with waterfalls that are gorgeous. I'm sad I don't have my pictures. :-( The third pool is connected to the nightclub. The nightclub is massive! I'm sure the nights they have are fun because there is so much space and lots of room to dance.

After walking EVERYWHERE, Bobby and I went downstairs to gamble. As we were at a Texas Hold Em table, someone walked by and handed us their money vouchers. $10,000 worth! So we cashed them in and went to the high roller area. So fun. We spent about an hour gambling and then gave all our left over money to the people at the craps table we were playing at. We were tired and ready to go home! It was a great night, though. We had so much fun.

Ryan's first soccer season ends

Ryan finished his soccer season at the begining of November. They had a 'field day' the night before his last games. They had bounce houses, food, and soccer games. There were kids in soccer jersies EVERYWHERE! Ryan was running around having a blast. He has made a few new friends from soccer and I think it has been such a positive experience for him.

always making new friends wherever he goes. This was one of the bounce houses the night before at field day


Running in his last game


Ryan's soccer coach giving him his medal


He was really excited that his soccer ball on his trophy twirled.

It was a really positive fun experience for him. I'm so glad he got the chance to do it. He still asks about when he gets to do soccer again! I think he just misses his friends. hehe :-)